New Orleans

Ownership is a funny thing. We all like to own things: a house, a car, an iPad2^®, a legal nurse consulting business or simply a garden. Then we learn that there’s some responsibility that comes with that ownership. Stand up and look out the window. You probably don’t have to look far down your street to notice that some people are better homeowners than others.

There are some things we’ll probably never own (like that private jet I want) but one thing we all own equally is time. That’s right, we all get the same 24 hours every day and the only difference between us is how we regard our time and what we do with it. Time is one of our greatest possessions.

And just as I care about my home, I care about my time and, more importantly, care for my time. How about you? Maybe it’s time to step back and objectively observe yourself for a day or even a week. Are you a good steward of your time or do you squander it away?

For the record, I love to play as much as I love to work. I started a business to have a life, not to give up my life, and fortunately my New Orleans upbringing helps me to remember to do just that – to play on a regular basis.

Whether it’s work or play, it’s your time and what you do with it is your choice. I’m just sayin’…

Success Is Inside!

P.S. Comment and share the good and bad things you do with your time.

I just spent the Fourth of July weekend with one of my best high school friends, Missy from New Orleans. We especially bonded when we attended an all boys high school together to take a physics class and made the Times-Picayune newspaper for being the first and only girls in the city of New Orleans to ever attend an all boys school. Over the years we have shared laughs and tears and an incredible friendship that has stood the test of time.

One of my cousins sent me a funny email about the difference between friends and Louisiana friends and since I’m not yet into work mode today after such a festive weekend I thought I’d share it. Of course, I’ve added my own humor to it. Enjoy a good laugh and hope you had a fun Fourth of July .

I love all my friends, best friends, blog friends and Facebook friends. Even better than having a friend is being a friend.

Have a great week and if you’re not going to spend at least one day this weekend with a good friend, call one and tell him or her how much they mean to you.

Success Is Inside!

Five years ago yesterday, Hurricane Katrina forever changed the lives of so many people I know – family, friends and strangers. We often forget it affected people not just in New Orleans but throughout the Gulf Coast region and will do so for years to come.

We never know what life will throw at us and how we react to it is entirely up to us. Like many New Orleanians, my family suffered from varying degrees of flood damage. One of my best friends left the city for good and another lost everything due to flooding that nearly reached her attic. They’ve all recovered and are doing better than ever – they all still have that “New Orleans Spirit” wherever they are.

After Katrina struck, I was lucky enough to be in a position to give financial support to my family and friends. One of my best friends who lost everything, asked me to help her family instead of her. I was in awe of her generosity toward her family when she herself was in need.

In the years since Katrina, my best friend purchased another house in a neighborhood close to where her original home stood. She didn’t recover much from her home, only some cookware (the metal survived the immersion), a quilt (that was lying on her mattress when it floated to the ceiling) and some Christmas ornaments (stored in the attic). All her photos and family mementos were lost.

Despite the loss, I never heard her complain about her situation. She moved forward, staying in the same area, rebuilding her life and keeping her “New Orleans Spirit.” Anytime she’d visit me in Houston, we’d go shopping as she rebuilt her home. One piece at a time, she would buy a lamp, outfit or other item. I would joke with her that her car looked like a homeless person’s packed with all the treasures she’d picked up while traveling between New Orleans, Baton Rouge, Dallas and Houston and she’d joke back, “Vickie, I am homeless.”

Throughout her own rebuilding, she helped and supported her family including cousins while they rebuilt their homes and lives. Although her story is just one of many, her selflessness stays with me today. She was, and is a model to me of how to deal with difficult situations.

Ask yourself if you lost everything, could you rebuild your home, family and legal nurse consulting career with my friend’s “New Orleans Spirit?” My hat is off to all those who have and who are still working to do so. I only hope I would be as strong.

Success Is Inside!

Here at the CLNC^® Certification Program in Philadelphia one of the students asked me, “Where do you get the energy to teach six straight days? Do you just wake up like that?” I had to chuckle before I answered. That’s because I don’t pop out of bed like a piece of toast. Tom jokes that he has to “shuck the oyster” each morning (being from New Orleans I like the simile) to get me out from under the covers (I have been known to burrow with the best of them). But, once I’m up, I’m a woman on fire and I burn white-hot until the end of the day.

I often say, “We are what we eat.” You can’t feed a thoroughbred horse potato chips and then ask him to win the Preakness. But there’s more to energy than food.

After two cups of healthy green tea interspersed with that bowl of Fage Greek yogurt mixed with ground flax seed, it’s off to the gym three times a week for a butt-kicking workout (usually it’s my butt that gets kicked) to lift some free weights (dumb bells and barbells) to build bone density as well as muscle mass. I mix in some aerobic exercise or a brisk walk to keep my heart healthy alternated with some yoga (to stretch myself literally and figuratively) and you’ve got my morning regimen. I know some of you are already tired after reading this, but this is a look into what I do, before I start my day. I know that I cover a lot of ground between 4:00am and 8:30am, and I have to. My workday starts early and it ends when it ends, whenever that may be. If I don’t work out at the beginning of the day, chances are I won’t get to at the end of the day.

I haven’t always eaten healthy. New Orleans is known for fried foods, French bread, celebrating funerals with donuts and putting condensed milk and Hershey’s chocolate on our snowballs. In short, I’m lucky to have survived my childhood without being larger than a size 2 (just kidding). I had to learn to eat healthy on my own. It wasn’t something that was taught, much less encouraged.

So, I understand that for some of you it may be hard to figure out how to exercise, how to eat healthy and how to accomplish this as you juggle work, children, your spouse and other obligations. But here’s my point, you can make those excuses into a crutch that supports your bad habits or you can use them as a reason to turn your family into something better.

Trust me, having dietary issues can easily be compounded by family. My sister has two sons and a husband who won’t eat anything green (except Jello). One of my godchildren thinks a complete meal comes with a toy in the box. If my husband Tom planned the meals we’d be eating a whole lot more cheeseburgers than we do.

Someone has to be responsible for your nutrition and guess what – that’s you. If you want to have the energy to run your CLNC^® business, your family and your life, you’re going to have to make some changes. Start with the simple ones. Pack a lunch instead of eating from the cafeteria or meal machine at work (it’s all fat, salt and sugar). Snack on celery instead of those darn tasty potato chips.

Take a little time each evening to prepare a meal for dinner and prep some stuff for the next day while you’re at it. One of my friends involves her daughters in cleaning and bagging the veggies for snacks. Freeze your healthy leftovers for later in the week.

It’s not hard to make time to take care of yourself and your family once you get into the habit and it’ll only get easier. But like the journey of a thousand miles that begins with a single step, the healthy life begins with a single action. Make one healthy promise to yourself today and then keep it. Once you’ve mastered that, make and take the next one. Set some rewards for milestones to make it fun and before you know it you’ll have the energy and the inclination to seize your own day, and make time for all that marketing to attorneys you’ve been putting off. Enjoy watching your legal nurse consulting business soar.

Success Is Inside!

Saturday night I attended the 2009 Pink Tie Gala, and was honored with the Hope Award for Ambassadorship as a corporate sponsor for the 2008 Komen Houston Race for the Cure^®.

Judge Ed Emmett, Vickie Milazzo, Marjorie Landry

Over 27 years certifying legal nurse consultants and operating a woman-owned business, I’ve been graced with many honors and awards. This one is very personal and special to me because of my Mom.

My Mom, Marise

Many of the women I mentor won’t “go for it” because of their fears. One thing that helps me go for it is perspective. My mom, Marise, gave me that. She came from Tickfaw, a small town in Tangipahoa Parish, Louisiana, and she always dreamed of traveling. She read books that took her to the Eiffel Tower, Big Ben, the Sistine Chapel and she planned on visiting all of them. Then she met Sal, my dad, and they married and lived in the big city – New Orleans.

My Mom and Dad, Marise and Sal

During those early, struggling years she still dreamed but often said, “When we have enough money, we’ll travel.” But then she had three children, and she said, “When the kids are grown and out of the house, then we’ll travel.”

My Family – I’m the shy one sitting on Mom’s lap

Finally, the kids were out of the house – and my mom died – at age 48 from breast cancer. Her travel dreams never came true.

Are you waiting to live your dreams? And if yes, what are you waiting for? When you get enough money? When you lose enough weight? When your business is perfect? When your spouse is perfect? Don’t wait. My mom’s death taught me that the time is now. When I’m afraid to take a risk, which is quite often, I honor my mom by asking myself, “What’s the worst thing that can happen?” The perspective of knowing it’s not cancer or death helps me to do the thing I fear.

It’s perfectly okay to admit that a commitment is not right for you and to reject it outright. After all, this is your life, not someone else’s.

What’s not okay is to hold back and put less than everything into a commitment that is your passion. If you want something, go for it all the way and go for it now. When you do, you’ll wake up every day to a life and a legal nurse consulting business you love. This is the message I’ve been sharing for 27 years with Certified Legal Nurse Consultants and women everywhere.

All of you know my business mission is to certify legal nurse consultants as not just the best, but the only, solution for attorneys who litigate medical-related cases. My personal mission is to see deaths from breast cancer eradicated in my lifetime. To this end I actively sponsor Susan G. Komen and support their mission to do the same. Each year an Institute team has walked (and occasionally run) the Race for the Cure^®. I’ve sponsored booths, donated time, money and my book Inside Every Woman: Using the 10 Strengths You Didn’t Know You Had to Get the Career and Life You Want Now – all of it for my mother and other women who needlessly lose their lives, body parts and confidence to breast cancer.

Mom, over the years I have felt you watching out for me. Often you were laughing and smiling. I felt your tears mingle with mine. And yes, I’m ashamed to say, I’ve felt the occasional frown of disapproval.

Saturday night was for you. Thank you for the beautiful legacy you give to my life and taught me to share with others.

Success Is Inside!