CLNC

This morning I looked into my closet and couldn’t figure out what to wear to work. (We have a pretty casual dress code in my office so I could have tossed on my flip-flops and a track suit but I’d worn that yesterday.) I confess, I like to have nice clothes and a decent closet.

You see, when I was young my mom always sewed my clothes while I coveted store-bought dresses. If it wasn’t hand-made, it was handed-down from my older sister. To add insult to injury, my twin brother got the store-bought clothes for obvious reasons – no son of an Italian father could wear his sister’s clothes (no matter how butch she was). I always envied him for that privilege. Wearing “vintage” clothing from my older sister drove the desire to create the abundant, but not ostentatious, closet I have today.

After all, I tell my legal nurse consulting students they need to dress professionally to make the right impression. So should I.

So standing there in front of my closet, why wasn’t I seeing one thing to wear? Easy! It’s because I was looking at it in the same way I’d looked at it every day leading up to this morning. I was looking at the same clothes from the same point of view.

Suddenly it hit me, instead of having nothing to wear, I was standing in front of a cornucopia of clothing (all neatly cleaned, pressed and hung). Instead of putting on one outfit, I simply needed to change the blouse, switch the skirt for pants, pull different earrings, shoes and purse and I had a whole new outfit! There were infinite possibilities with my imagination (and mis-matching plaids) as the only limitations.

Do you look at your legal nurse consulting business each day with new or the same eyes? Are you so used to looking at it one way that you can’t see the limitless possibilities and opportunities waiting for you?

I recently challenged my executive team to look at a situation in a new way. The results were surprising. Each came back with a new, surprising and different solution – much better than I had even hoped for. That’s because they applied new eyes to an old situation.

Are you still looking at the same old CLNC^® business closet and not seeing anything new? Are you still looking in that closet and not seeing the opportunities?

Is there a CLNC^® service you haven’t offered yet? One that’s in your scope of ability, but that might just require you to flex your agility (or get off the couch)? Have you contacted your attorney-clients to see if there’s something new you can do for them beyond what you offer today?

It’s time to throw open the door to your CLNC^® closet and start looking at your business with new eyes.  I can’t wait to hear what stunning new outfits you come up with.

I’ll be mixin’ and matchin’.

Success Is Inside!

P.S. Comment and share how you look at your legal nurse consulting business with new eyes.

The original Impressionists were considered radicals in their day as they departed from what was considered the “old-school” of artists. Time after time, impressionist painters would submit their work to juried art shows but their paintings would be rejected in favor of lesser artists who painted in the “approved” style of the times.

In order to exhibit their own works, these revolutionary artists rejected the establishment and formed their own society of painters – the Société Anonyme Coopérative des Artistes Peintres, Sculpteurs, Graveurs (Cooperative and Anonymous Association of Painters, Sculptors, and Engravers). Their first show was met with a firestorm of criticism and the term “Impressionist” was given to their artistic style as a derogatory term. The artists chose to adopt this derogatory term “Impressionist” and proceeded to make art history.

The “Impressionist” school captured the scenes they were painting without the strictures placed upon painters by the “Realism” school that was dominant at the time. They focused, or unfocused, on a new way of painting light into scenes of everyday life, rejecting the minute details of realism. When you look at an Impressionist painting up close, there is no detail – there are only short thick strokes and unmixed colors. When you stand back from the painting you see, with a realism not present in the “Realist” paintings, the diffused sunlight on a haystack, people strolling down a boulevard or partying on a Sunday afternoon in a park. The works come alive from a distance.

When an attorney-client is presenting a case to a jury, too many details can bog it down, distracting the jury and leading them down rabbit trails. Your job as a CLNC^® consultant is to help the attorney present the picture with the broad strokes and bold colors needed to show the case in its best light. Sure the underlying details will need to be there to back up your opinions and the attorney-client’s case, but sometimes it’s best to present an Impressionist view of a case to an attorney-client and then to the jury before breaking it down to the details.

They say you never get a second chance to make a first impression. What sort of Impressionist impression are you making on your attorney-clients?

Success Is Inside!

Sometimes silence really is golden. Any negotiating coach will tell you that in a situation where one party to a negotiation makes an offer or statement and a period of silence sets in, the first party to talk or break that silence loses the point. Silence can be uncomfortable when you are talking to attorneys about your legal nurse consulting services, so how do you pull that off?

Let’s say you quote your legal nurse consulting fee and the attorney says “that’s expensive.” Pause, take a deep breath and visualize (without smiling) that attorney in the hospital wearing a hospital gown with his backside showing. For all you know he’s just thinking and processing out loud. 10 seconds, 20 seconds, a minute…your silence is a demonstration of your confidence in your status as a Certified Legal Nurse Consultant. Soon the attorney will get uncomfortable enough to break the silence and accept your fee (which is quite reasonable) or negotiate further.

Success Is Inside!

Vickie,

I am reviewing records on a case and I am summarizing them into a written chronological report for my attorney-client. I have received multiple records from different facilities and I noticed that some of the facilities’ records are duplicates of records I received from other facilities. Do I still include them in my report even though they are repeats?

Tracy Z., RN, CLNC

Hi Tracy,

First establish that the records are truly duplicate records. In your chronology, list only the original source document one time.

e.g. Martin Hope Hospital p. 35

e.g. Dr. James p. 14

Unless the duplicate record has relevance (e.g. the provider states they were not aware of something when they had records containing that information), I would suggest attaching all the duplicate records as a separate section labeled “duplicate records from other facilities and providers.” Confirm with your attorney-client that this approach works for her.

Success Is Inside!

Vickie

Every computer has cookies. Some come from the Internet and are auto-stored on your hard drive in your web browser. Others are stored in your keyboard – they’re the detritus of all those years of Oreos^® you’ve munched on while hunched over your computer. What’s a Certified Legal Nurse Consultant to do other than start a carb-free diet?

The solution is simple and fat-free! Hit the hardware or electronics store and buy yourself a can of compressed air. Then at least once a month (or more if you’re an inveterate snacker) use that sucker to blow the crumbs out of the keyboard and onto the carpet (where they can be nicely vacuumed up). You may have to practice tilting your keyboard into different positions in order to blow everything out but it’s worth it and less painful than quitting snacking.

While we’re on the subject, how many of you keep your PC on the floor (laptop users don’t answer that)? You might ask yourself, “When was the last time I cleaned my PC’s case?” Be honest. If it’s been a while (or never), grab a flashlight, pull out your desk chair and crawl under the desk and inspect the case. Chances are you’ll discover more dust bunnies around the case and in the air vents and USB ports than there are under your bed. I’ve seen computers where the owner couldn’t find a front USB port because it was so clogged. You need your USB ports for your CLNC^® business and moving files between your office and attorney-clients’ offices. Clogged vents lead to overheating which will shorten the life of your PC.

Here’s what to do. Turn off the computer. Unplug all the connections, cables, power supplies, etc. (make note of where they go so you can put it back together). Pull the PC out from under the desk and get after those dust bunnies with your vacuum. Then, use the vacuum to clear the vents and USB ports. Next, using a slightly damp (NOT wet, duh!) anti-static cloth, clean off the outside of the PC case.

Next, if you dare, open the thumb-screws and take the PC case’s cover off. Look inside the PC (it’s cool), grab your trusty can of compressed air and carefully blow the dust out of the PC. Your hard drive is sealed up pretty tight, but if any dust or particulate matter gets in there, it will cause a world of hurt (and lost data) so keep it clean. I don’t recommend sticking the vacuum inside the case (you don’t want to suck any connections loose). The canned air is sufficient. Keep a slight distance away and don’t blow right up against anything (it’s not an ear – it’s a PC).

After you’ve blown out all the debris, put the case cover back on the PC and tighten the thumbscrews. Make sure the underdesk space is clean. Reconnect your cables and fire that sucker back up. You won’t notice any performance changes but you can sure feel good about yourself for cleaning up your act and your PC.

Keep on techin’,

Tom

Vickie,

One of my attorney-clients is willing to provide a letter of recommendation but he wants me to write it, then he will edit and sign. What do I include?

Kerri, RN, CLNC

Hi Kerri,

Congratulations! Letters of recommendation are one of the most impactful components of a legal nurse consultant’s promotional package. When an attorney first asked me to write my own letter I felt uncomfortable. How could I blow my own horn? You may be hesitant too, but go ahead – blow your own horn.

Include comments the attorney made when gushing over your work product, and especially comments regarding:

• The CLNC^® services you provided for his cases.
• How you made a huge impact on the outcome of a case.
• Your report style and its easy-to-understand format.
• Your knowledge of nursing and healthcare issues.
• Your professionalism and ability to beat deadlines.

Here’s a future tip: Capture all glowing comments and get written permission to use them as testimonials. Then place them strategically throughout your CLNC^® marketing materials.

Success Is Inside!

Vickie

My heartfelt gratitude and appreciation to all the Certified Legal Nurse Consultants who attended our successful 2009 NACLNC^® Conference in San Antonio. Our sell-out gathering was a spectacular event, and I hope you had as much fun as I did. It was great to see and talk with all of you again.

I’m sure you’ve already started to “Move Like a Maverick” for more breakaway success in your CLNC^® practice. Here are just a few tips to get you started as you execute the new unconventional strategies that only CLNC^® mavericks know.

1. Decide on one new CLNC^® service you will provide to every attorney-client. Offer to provide that new service the first time for a discounted rate to get them hooked.
2. Reconnect with your attorney-clients by sending a note to let them know you’ve attended this conference for additional education and to renew your CLNC^® Certification. Remind them that this is your way to better serve them and their clients.
3. Send a news release to your community newspaper announcing your completion of this advanced Certified Legal Nurse Consultant training and renewal of your CLNC^® Certification.
4. Commit now to review your 2009 NACLNC^® Conference textbook and all the meaningful notes you took. Listen to the audio recordings of the conference once a week, once a month and once a year after the conference. Repetition helps you integrate and implement the principles and strategies successfully. With each review, you will hear the information in a new way because you’ll be more experienced. Each time you listen, you’ll generate even better ideas. After each review create three new action steps to propel your CLNC^® business to the next level.
5. Continue your success: mark your calendar and sign up now for the 2010 NACLNC^® Conference where you’ll Take the Stage for Legendary CLNC^® Success in Nashville, Tennessee.

We’ll be posting the 2009 Conference photo gallery on “Vickie’s Blog” soon so be sure to check back.

Success Is Inside!

P.S. Please post your comments and share your favorite personal experience at the NACLNC^® Conference.

Welcome all Certified Legal Nurse Consultants who have stormed San Antonio for the 2009 NACLNC^® Conference. I hope you’re as excited as I am about our keynote speaker, Stedman Graham.

Since our Conference theme is Move Like a Maverick for Breakaway CLNC^® Success here are some tips that will help you maneuver through the Conference like a maverick.

1. Start Day 1 off with some fun. Don’t miss out on Texas-style mariachis at 7:00am on Thursday followed by my opening Move Like a Maverick for Breakaway CLNC^® Success.
2. Turn off your cell phone, pager, chiming watch and any other stress-producer you’ve brought with you. This is not only a courtesy to your fellow CLNC^® peers, but also a courtesy to yourself, honoring all you’ve invested to be here.
3. Limit checking your email and voicemail or calling home to just once a day.
4. Be open to all the new recommendations so you can achieve bold CLNC^® success with your legal nurse consulting business.
5. Meet and get to know two new CLNC^® consultants at each break and reception. Eat lunch and dinner each day with three CLNC^® consultants you don’t know. Sell your expertise to each other. You are each other’s best resources for future CLNC^® subcontractors and experts.
6. Practice positive masterminding. Connect with two other CLNC^® consultants and mastermind together at the end of the day. Each of you will process and apply information differently. Focus only on positive ideas for your CLNC^® business. By coming together, you’ll take home new strategies you wouldn’t think of alone.
7. Remember to sign up for your professional photo session while at the Conference to add to your legal nurse consulting website.
8. Don’t miss a session. Go in positively knowing that a single idea can increase your profitability 1%, 5%, even 10% and more.
9. At each session, write down at least one action step you will take to grow your CLNC^® business.
10. Commit to learn one thing from each speaker. While every presentation is packed with useful information for you, the key is being in the right mindset to grab the ideas when they come your way. I once attended a seminar where only 5% of the information was interesting and fresh. But the ideas I got from that 5% added to the growth of my company by as much as 10%. Because I was committed to learning, my mind was ready when the “good stuff” was presented.
11. Take the information presented and create your own new ideas. My goal when I sit in on a session is to come up with ideas that are even better than any I get from the speaker. This mindset will help you achieve a unique CLNC^® business – not a look-alike imitation of someone else’s.
12. Take it easy. If you allow yourself to get frustrated about anything – an airport delay or the person sitting next to you – you’re the only one who will suffer. Stay loose. If you aren’t happy with the person sitting next to you, sit next to someone else in the next session or get up and move. Stay upbeat and attract positive energy.
13. Exercise daily – even for only 20 minutes. Get outside the hotel and renew yourself. Take a brisk walk around the block. Visualize your CLNC^® experience as you indulge in a massage or relax in a hot tub. Treat yourself to a fun memory – buy a Texas souvenir.
14. Remember to put on your comfortable CLNC^®Wear so everyone in San Antonio will know you are a Certified Legal Nurse Consultant.

Check back on March 16, 2009, when you can read my tips in Plan Your Moves After the 2009 NACLNC^® Conference.

Success Is Inside!

P.S. The quickest and easiest way to find me is at the Vickie Milazzo Institute exhibit.

P.P.S. Please comment and let me know how you’re enjoying our Conference.

I’m celebrating my birthday today and want to thank all of you who sent the fantastic cards, emails and presents. Your generous thoughts, prayers and messages mean so much to me. (Whoever sent the 2005 Chateau Petrus Pomeral… you really shouldn’t have.) Also, I would love to share what Tom has planned for this evening, but this blog is rated G. Suffice it to say, “What happens in Texas, stays in Texas.”

Each day I strive to wake up a new and different person and on my birthday I like to think I’ve become a lot more than just a year older.

Whoever says you can’t defy gravity as you get older has merely lost sight of who they are and stopped dreaming. I’m not one to be content riding the surface of life. I like to go all in – which my Italian heritage certainly trained me for.

Every year at the NACLNC^® Annual Conference I walk down the aisle and up to the stage to sing our CLNC^® national anthem with a ballroom full of excited and exciting CLNC^® consultants. To some (especially the introverts in the audience), I probably look foolish. And that’s one of my favorite strategies for NOT aging – daring to look foolish, but not too foolish (no karaoke for me).

In 1982 I started my legal nurse consulting business and pioneered the profession because I didn’t want to be shackled by someone else’s boundaries; especially those defined by hospital administrators and doctors. I didn’t want to stay the line. To succeed, I had to be willing to appear foolish along the way and sometimes do things that appeared foolish to other, shall we say “less imaginative,” types. As Sri Sri Ravi Shankar so eloquently wrote: “A fool is somebody who does something very unique, which is not accepted by others. What is wrong with being a fool? What is wrong with standing alone, apart from the crowd? Let the crowd act however it wants. I stand apart from that. I act my way.”

If you are never foolish in your life at least some of the time, you miss your life and the joy in it.

When your birthday comes around I wish for you the gift of defying gravity. Refuse to accept the limits that others define for you – both in your personal life and your legal nurse consulting business.

You CAN have all you’ve ever wanted, if only you dare to occasionally appear foolish to those who steadfastly stay the line. Give yourself the gift of acting and maybe looking foolish. After all, it’s your birthday – they make those silly hats for a reason – to foolishly have loads of fun.

Wherever you are on your birthday, I hope you hear my “Happy Birthday” greeting and this, my birthday message to you.

Happy Birthday whatever day yours is!

Success Is Inside!

Even though I grew up in New Orleans, I love Texas, where I’ve lived since my college days. I agree with native Texans who say you never have to leave the state to experience what all the other states can offer put together. So, for the students and Certified Legal Nurse Consultants coming to the 2009 NACLNC^® Conference on the San Antonio Riverwalk, March 12-13, 2009, here are just 15 fun ways for you to enjoy your Texas-sized weekend.

1. Stroll the Riverwalk. Almost 2½ miles of footpaths, shade, restaurants, secret gardens and shopping. It’s magical in the evening when the trees are lit up, and your mouth waters from the delicious aromas coming from the fantastic array of restaurants.
2. Have tacos for breakfast. It’s the Texas way to start your day. Spice it up with some chorizo (Mexican sausage). Margaritas are optional.
3. Remember the Alamo! Yes you can’t go to San Antonio without a visit. Make sure you see Davy Crockett’s buckskin vest (bring your own coonskin cap).
4. Visit the Menger Hotel. Have a drink in the bar where Teddy Roosevelt recruited cowboys, cattle rustlers and Texas Rangers to form the Rough Riders he later led to fame in the famous charge up San Juan Hill. Take a wander around the hotel while you’re there – you may see a ghost (even before that drink).
5. Do your souvenir shopping at Market Square. You’ll find all the marimbas, maracas, piñatas, sombreros and coonskin caps you can carry as you walk these fun, pedestrian-only streets.
6. Take a meal at Mi Tierra Cafe y Panaderia. A San Antonio landmark, at least for tourists. It’s a great place to eat your first baby goat (cabrito – a Mexican delicacy). If someone’s already gotten your goat, then go to the panaderia (bakery) for some terrific Mexican-style pastries – a great choice any time of day!
7. Visit the world-famous Buckhorn Saloon and Museum. Proudly serving beer since 1881, it’s also home to the Hall of Texas History Wax Museum. Speaking of horny, it has over 1,200 trophy mounts from more than 500 species and “Old Tex,” the world’s largest mounted longhorn with horns that span eight feet, nine inches.
8. If you have a car, take a potty break at the Toilet-Seat Museum. It’s just ten minutes north of the city and I don’t think I need to say any more.
9. Military nurses might want to visit the Army Medical Department Museum at Fort Sam Houston (just one of four military bases in the San Antone area).
10. Eat a moveable feast by arranging for dinner on any of the barges that float up and down the San Antonio River – it’ll be a night to remember.
11. Think your spouse has big feet? Then go see the world’s largest pair of cowboy boots at the North Star Mall near the airport. At almost 40-feet tall and 20-feet long they’re even bigger than my husband’s feet.
12. Beat the heat with a root beer at Schilo’s Deli that is served in a frosted mug with a frothy head. Schilo’s has been a local destination since 1917. My favorite reason to go there – your second mug is free!
13. Ride to the top of the Tower of the Americas and look out over the beautiful Texas Hill Country – you can even wave to your ground-hugging CLNC^® friends far below.
14. Take a walking tour of San Antonio’s first neighborhood. La Villita is now a thriving art community that stands as a monument to San Antonio’s past.
15. Send your family to Six Flags Fiesta Texas for the day. They can feel like Superman on the Krypton Coaster, beat the heat in the water park or just hang out in the kiddie park. Whatever the age of your children – 5-55, they’ll love it!

Before you set out on your maverick tour of San Antonio, remember to come prepared to keep the pace at the 2009 NACLNC^® Conference.

• Come relaxed and ready to discover new ideas. The NACLNC^® Conference is much more fun when you’re rested, and you’ll learn so much more if you leave your stress behind.

• Pack energy bars, raw nuts and other healthy snacks to maintain your energy. The “Betcha Can’t” margaritas wear off quickly.

• Bring plenty of business cards to swap out with the 1,000 new CLNC^® friends you’ll meet.

• Go online and print the NACLNC^® Conference textbook sessions you plan on attending.

Have a great trip and check back on March 11, 2009 to read my tips on how to Master New Unconventional Strategies During the 2009 NACLNC^® Conference.

Success Is Inside!

P.S. Comment on your favorite fun things to do in San Antonio.