5 Promises

In 1982 nurses weren’t starting businesses in droves. And the term legal nurse consultant didn’t yet exist. What possibly made me think I could do something no other nurse had done before? That’s Promise 5 – believing as a nurse I really could do anything. Believing you can do it is 90 percent of the win.

I still remember vividly my first interview with an attorney. I was sitting in the attorney’s office to promote my brand new legal nurse consulting business. He was sitting behind a big desk and I was so nervous my legs were shaking and I worried that if I had to stand suddenly I might faint. What got me through that first interview was remembering who I was – a registered nurse.

I thought if that attorney was in a hospital gown with his backside showing I would have no problem introducing myself and inserting a Foley catheter. During my 27 years of owning Vickie Milazzo Institute, I always remember I’m an RN whenever I hesitate to go for what I want.

We Are Nurses and We Can Do Anything!^® How many of you handle emergencies as easily as making the bed? How many of you make split second decisions that are the difference between life and death for your patients? And how many of you do so in the middle of the night when there are no doctors to be found (and even if they were – they’d just get in your way)? If we can do all that, for sure we can do something as straightforward as talk to an attorney and analyze a medical record.

Any time you’re not grabbing the opportunity, tell yourself, “I am a nurse and I can do anything!” Believe and you will achieve all that you desire for your CLNC^® business.

Promise big and promise now!

Success Is Inside!

P.S. Comment and share what you will do to believe you can achieve it.

All great athletes and performers practice every day. Even after they achieve a level of success, they continue to practice and take instruction from their coaches, learning new ways to reach higher levels. They are lifetime students.

Success breeds success. Becoming a legal nurse consulting success student for life is about practicing being successful. What’s hard today is easy tomorrow – with practice.

A woman who started her CLNC^® business after completing Vickie Milazzo Institute’s CLNC^® Certification Program told me, “I think I can do this.” A few weeks later, when the demands of the business world had her spinning in circles, she called and told me, “No way I can do this.” We talked through some of the strategies she had learned in class, and she kept taking action steps. When she accomplished her first big business goal, she called me again. This time she said, “I know I can do this.”

It is a myth to think you can launch a successful legal nurse consulting business or succeed in any life goal without learning. The most successful Certified Legal Nurse Consultants respect the complexity of consulting with attorneys on medical-related cases and become students for life.

I’ve owned my own legal nurse consulting business for almost three decades, and I still learn every day – from my CLNC^® students, staff members, favorite writers, speakers and business experts. No matter what the subject, there is always more to learn.

There are two ways you can learn:

• The hard way – through trial and error, making lots of mistakes. We’re going to do some of that anyway, but this is a slow, expensive path to success.

• The easier way – through the experience of others who have already successfully overcome the problems and discovered the answers. This is the quick and sure path to success. Just about any problem you will encounter, the right mentor has already successfully managed.

As a committed lifetime student, I choose to listen and learn from mentors who are far more successful than I am. I attribute much of my success to choosing my mentors wisely.

Commit now to being a legal nurse consulting success student for life and to learning not only from your own mistakes and accomplishments but also from successful mentors. When you do so, “I think I can” becomes “I know I can,” squelching any thoughts of “No way I can.”

Success Is Inside!

P.S. Comment and share how being a legal nurse consulting success student has helped you launch or grow your CLNC^® business.

When I decided to start my own business as a legal nurse consultant in 1982 I had a full time nursing job at the hospital, plus I was having to work a part-time job to pay my mortgage. How could I possibly realize my dream of starting a business? Through Promise 3. No matter how tired I was at the end of the day I would take at least one action step a day toward my legal nurse consulting business.

Let’s face it, dreams and visions are great, but without action they are nothing more than hallucinations. Without action, visions scud away and dissolve like clouds. While my belief in pioneering this new profession never wavered my belief alone wasn’t enough. I needed to take action every day.

When a national news anchor from CNN asked me how I got to where I am today in light of my humble beginnings, I was hoping to say something profound. But the truth was I did it one step at a time.

Like anyone trying to accomplish any whopping big goal, I had to tackle it in small workable chunks – talk to that first attorney, get my first medical-related case and build my first attorney-client relationship.

I lacked business savvy, but with each small step I gained both knowledge and momentum. Sometimes I barreled through with enthusiasm, other times I barely had the energy to inch forward, but the accumulated effect of all those steps brought me to where I am today. What I learned in the process and what still applies today is that it is less important what I do and more important that I do something.

Successful Certified Legal Nurse Consultants love the action as much as the dream. By taking action every day you develop the habit and discipline to make your vision a reality. When you focus not just on the idea but on making it happen, you stay in motion, not just dreaming your passions but living them.

Make this third promise now, that you will take at least one action step every day for the next 30 days on the big thing that will bring you closer to launching or growing your CLNC^® business. Once you are hooked on the natural high of action, taking giant leaps comes easy.

Success Is Inside!

P.S. Comment and share the action step you will make today to launch or grow your CLNC^® business.

Legal nurse consulting may not be for you, but if you decide it is, then you owe it to yourself to go for it or reject it outright. Don’t leave the dream dangling with that one day someday I’ll get around to it attitude.

If you want to become a Certified Legal Nurse Consultant, don’t wait for conditions to be perfect – won’t happen. When I was working in the hospital, I knew many nurses who had dreams, but they didn’t go for their dreams. I went to a lot of retirement parties for those nurses. And you know what they got: a glass of watery punch and a piece of white cake. And the punch wasn’t even spiked with anything interesting.

Dreams can make a person miserable. Going for your dreams is what makes us authentically happy. To paraphrase Yoda, “There is no try. There is either do or not do.” Own up to your passions, then step out and grab hold of them with both hands.

Despite a fear of cliff-hanging heights, I stepped out of an airplane at 14,000 feet to skydive. I was terrified. Once out of the plane’s cabin I couldn’t step back in. I was truly committed, even if not by choice, and the exhilaration I felt later at overcoming that lifelong fear proved to be a catalyst for future accomplishments.

Most of us stay in the safe cabin of everyday life. We never step out into the audacious dreams that smolder and spark inside us. What would your life look like if you didn’t have the choice of that safe cabin? If your only option was to grab that dream and jump into it? To go all the way once you made the jump?

It’s perfectly okay to admit that a commitment is not right for you and to reject it outright.

What’s not okay is to hold back and put less than everything into a commitment that is your passion. If you want something, like a new career in legal nurse consulting, go for it all the way and go for it now. When you do, you’ll wake up every day to a life and career you love.

Success Is Inside!

P.S. Comment and share what you will do to go all the way in your legal nurse consulting business.

We all know when we discover something we feel passionate about. We feel amazingly energetic. Desire is energy. Have you ever experienced a time when desire overcame all physical, emotional and intellectual barriers? Like a child waking up on Christmas morning, you spring alert full speed ahead. Why can’t we experience that passion – that vitality and energy – not only on Christmas but every day? Believe me, you can. When you wake up every day to a life and career that are your heart and soul, a life and career you’re passionate about, you experience maximum joy.

One of my passions was ignited in me when I was eight years old. For hours each day I taught an imaginary class. I was so absorbed with my class that my dad would come in and break it up to encourage me to play outside with my real friends. To this day I have no idea what I was teaching, but I was darned passionate about it.

At eight years old teaching was play. At 28, I turned that passion for teaching into a business, and I’ve been playing ever since. When I left my hospital job as an RN to start my legal nurse consulting business, I promised myself I would work only my passions. That decision proved more important than I realized. Along the way I’ve been tempted by many flattering and interesting offers, the most tempting of which was joining a powerful law firm as a partner my first year out of law school. But I always stop and listen to my heart. When we live and work our passions, we take an uncompromising approach. It means being honest with yourself and others about what you value.

As The New York Times reported, I “crossed nursing with the law and created a new profession” when I started teaching other nurses how to become legal nurse consultants. That’s the kind of BIG Thing that can happen when you commit to Promise 1, to living and working a passionate life.

Commit to Promise 1 right now and you’ll discover the passions that will propel you to a totally fulfilled future.

Success Is Inside!