videoconferencing

Everyone knows that a chain is only as strong as its weakest link. Every Certified Legal Nurse Consultant knows at least one CLNC^® consultant, if not more. If you’ve attended one of our CLNC^® 6-Day Certification Seminars, you’ve made lifelong CLNC^® friends. When you attend the NACLNC^® Annual Conference, you reconnect with CLNC^® consultants from all over the country. But all too often you only do it for those short periods of time. Not everyone capitalizes on their connections to make a strong chain or develop a mini-network.

In this information/communication-driven world of Facebook^®, Twitter^®, Skype^® and the Internet, the only thing holding you back is the lack of a plan. Given the myriad ways we can communicate these days there is nothing, and I mean nothing, stopping any Certified Legal Nurse Consultant from setting up their own CLNC^® Connection Chain (or “CCC” for short).

Set up your CCC in 5 easy steps:

1. Use Darwinian Selection. From your certified, but not certifiable, colleagues pick 5-8 other CLNC^® consultants you respect, who have different specialties than your own and who are in different parts of the country. This is Link 1 in your CCC.
2. Facebook’em Danno. Next, set up your own private group on Facebook and send an invite to each of the Certified Legal Nurse Consultants you’ve identified and ask them to join your group. You now have the second link in your CCC, a place where you and the CLNC^® members of your group can communicate freely and network with each other that doesn’t require any special skill. Remember to set your privacy settings to keep others from seeing your group’s discussions. CCC Link 2 is complete.
3. Get Yourself a Glam-Cam. Your next step is to go out and spend less than $60 and buy a USB web cam with embedded microphone for your computer (unless you’re lucky enough to have an Apple^® laptop or iMac with one built in). Install the camera. (Tom installed mine and claims it’s so simple even a caveman can do it.) Then sign up for the free version of Skype. This will allow you to have weekly video conferences in pairs or in groups with your CCC members. It’s much more fun than telephone conferences and much more rewarding in terms of retying the connections with the other CCCers. You can also use this to check in with your hi-tech attorney-clients. Link 3 checked off.
4. Tweet Like a Tweety-Bird. Join Twitter but be sure to protect your “tweets.” Protecting your tweets allows only those Twitter members you specifically approve to see your tweets. You can still follow Ashton Kutcher, but your tweets will only be seen by those you approve to view them. Use the initiation function of Twitter to send email invitations to your list of CLNC^® colleagues. If you have a texting plan for your smart phone, turn on the mobile tweets function of Twitter and select only those people in your group to update you via cell phone. You can read the rest of the twitterers using Tweetdeck or on Twitter. This way you’ll get texts of important updates from your CCC. Use Twitter to schedule your Skype calls, update your CCC on new attorney-clients or just to tell them what you’re doing. Link 4 in place.
5. Meet Up to Keep Up. When you attend the NACLNC^® Annual Conference, plan on flying in at least two days early to brainstorm with your CCC members. You’ll want to meet before the conference to get your face-to-face time in with your CCC members. Focus on learning from your group and grab new ideas for your legal nurse consulting business so you can rock back and enjoy the conference. Link 5 done and your CLNC^® Connection Chain is ready to pay off big!

Now put your CLNC^® Connection Chain to use. Set accountable and measurable objectives, and share them with your CLNC^® chain members. When you complete an objective, send out a tweet. Schedule at least two Skype calls a month so that everyone can update each other on the steps they’ve taken towards their accountable objectives. Research shows that being accountable to others for the action steps in your strategic plan help you implement them. Celebrate each others’ successes and brainstorm over what went well and what didn’t. This is your private brain trust, exclusive board of directors and personal planning committee – make use of them!

A CLNC^® Connection Chain is a great way to make sure your legal nurse consulting business succeeds. Here’s my challenge to Certified Legal Nurse Consultants – set up your own CCC and put it to the test for 60 days. I’ll be waiting to hear from you when you share with all of us how your CCC has helped your legal nurse consulting business.

Success Is Inside!

Congratulations to Stephanie Crawford, RN, BSN, CLNC for successfully using videoconferencing with her attorney-clients. She shared with me, “Even though I have a fondness for settling down with my records, a mug of coffee and wearing sweatpants… I wore my black suit for my first videoconference. It was a milestone accomplishment to step up to the big league lawyers and meet this attorney via webcam.”

Here are some tips for doing your own legal nurse consulting videoconferences with attorney-clients.

• First of all, to videoconference successfully, you’ll need to have a webcam. Make sure the webcam you use has a high-quality picture with a good microphone built-in. Prices are pretty low so this might be a good time to buy a new webcam. If you’re stuck on using an older, microphone-less webcam, you can purchase a separate microphone. Avoid the headset/boom-mike look unless you really want to look like a telephone operator or someone from NASA. Many Apple laptops come with a built-in camera and microphone so you won’t need to buy any additional gear to start videoconferencing.
• Be sure your hardware – that means your computer, Internet connection and especially your webcam – are all in working condition. Then check that the volume and picture settings are correct. My personal webcam has a motion detector that can track movements in a limited area (people on the other end of the videoconference said the constant motion made them queasy). It will also move to pick up anyone who walks into view of the webcam. I find this to be distracting and have disabled it. Now the picture is stable.
• Be sure that both you and the attorney(s) are using compatible software. Skype is an easy to use, and free, program that allows videoconferencing over just about any Internet connection. It’s fairly intuitive when it comes to setting up and connecting with other Skype users. There are other programs out there that you can research using Google.
• Dress professionally and be dressed from head-to-toe. One of Tom’s treasured Dilbert cartoons shows an unshaven, unshowered Dilbert videoconferencing while wearing a bathrobe. He’s holding a Dilbert finger-puppet in front of the camera. In reality you can’t predict whether you’ll be standing up, retrieving a legal nurse consulting document or doing something else that may expose more of you to the videoconference than you expected. You don’t want to forget and accidentally show your attorney-client that you’ve got on Sponge Bob pajama bottoms under your suit jacket. You may walk through the webcam’s range too so dump the fuzzy pink slippers (they’re a fire hazard anyway). The newer webcams can pick up and broadcast an amazing amount of detail with complete clarity so check your teeth for broccoli before you fire up the conference.
• Clear your background and clean up your legal nurse consulting office. Whatever is shown in the background of your webcam’s picture reinforces your image as a professional. You may need to temporarily move your computer to a different room and even shuffle some furniture around.
• Cut down on possible distractions. Move your cell phone and land-line telephone handsets to another room (to avoid ringing) and consider putting a sign on your doorbell asking visitors to knock. If you have your email program running in the background be sure to silence any sounds that indicate the arrival of new email.
• Send any visuals in advance. If you’re going to be showing exhibits, demonstrative evidence or your CLNC^® work product to the attorney, remember that these may be difficult to see over a webcam. Consider sending them before hand in .pdf format (so your attorney-client can easily open them without worrying about document format compatibilities).
• Prepare a list of bullet-points or write out a script you wish to follow during the videoconference. Keep it handy and even consider posting it behind your webcam so that you can see it without looking away from the camera.
• Address the webcam, not the picture of the attorney on your screen, otherwise you’ll appear to be looking down.
• Practice videoconferencing with other Certified Legal Nurse Consultants and ask for their feedback before you take it to the big time with your attorney-clients. You may need to learn to sit up straight, address the camera directly and avoid unnecessary movements. Think of it as good training for your first expert witness experience.

Finally, remember to have fun. Be yourself and let your personality come through. Videoconferencing can add another dimension to your legal nurse consulting business if you let it and, if you’re prepared and ready for it.

Success Is Inside!