As I embarked on my new career as a Certified Legal Nurse Consultant, I received a case from an attorney and I wanted to do the best job ever. So I reviewed the records over and over until I knew those records like the back of my hand.
To paraphrase Seth Godin, there’s only one thing you have to do to be “remarkable” and that’s actually, “to be remarkable.” He has also suggested that a critic, referred to as a troll, can interfere with your remarkability. My concept of a troll is just the opposite – a troll is a pretender selling nothing more than pretense.
Like most women, I’m a sucker for a gift with purchase (GWP) at a makeup counter. I never met a GWP offer I could refuse, so I try to steer clear of the mall when I know they’re being offered. Tom’s been shopping with me so many times that if I forget to ask for my GWP, he’ll often pipe in before we close the transaction with “is there a gift with that?”
The other day Tom and I went to purchase a new mattress. We thought it was time for a change and that a rainy afternoon was a good time to start looking. We’d already done our homework so we knew what we wanted. The first store we went into, the sole salesperson reluctantly left his seat at the counter only after we struggled in from the rain, shook off and folded our umbrellas. It was still two hours before closing according to the sign on the door, so I wondered if he figured we weren’t serious shoppers, although who else would be out in a hard rain? He answered our questions, let us roam about the store unattended and didn’t really try to sell us anything.
The other day I was reading an article that asked whether we spent too much time in our heads. The author took the position that by over-rationalizing we actually talk ourselves out of things we really want and into things that we don’t. This reminded me of a story told by one of the Certified Legal Nurse Consultants about how much time and effort he spent setting up his CLNC business, creating the perfect logo, the perfect home office and the perfect conditions for getting started. He was convinced that until he was perfectly ready he wouldn’t have a perfect chance, so he found himself accomplishing nothing more than moving the tchlotskis around on his desk to the perfect position. He knew in his heart he was ready but that wasn’t enough – because his head wasn’t ready.
The day before Thanksgiving is the perfect time for all Certified Legal Nurse Consultants to contemplate all that we appreciate about each and every attorney-client and what they mean to our CLNC businesses. Plus, it’s time to start thinking about holiday gifts for your attorney-clients. I asked the CLNC Pros to share some of their favorites, along with some gift-giving strategies for their legal nurse consulting businesses. Check out Larry’s strategy – giving gifts any day of the year. I hope you all have a Thanksgiving filled with love and gratitude.
Tom, my twin brother Vince and I were walking through the mall the other day with no particular destination on our minds. It was just one of those evenings when you just troll the mall because it’s there. Since we didn’t have a goal or focus I found myself taking in the shops from a different perspective. Normally, I’m what Tom refers to as a F&F shopper – fire and forget. I’m a laser-like focused shopper, entering the mall at a fast pace, making my purchases and coming back out just as fast, paying no attention to the in-between.
Get to the point quickly. Email is not a replacement for face-to-face communications and it’s not the place for long messages. You shouldn’t be sending the equivalent of a comprehensive legal nurse consulting report in the body of an email. Remember, a lot of attorneys read their email on their BlackBerries and don’t want to be scrolling and scrolling. If you need to send a large report or document, simply attach it to your email in Word or PDF format and put an executive summary in the email body. Break your email into short, succinct paragraphs. If your email has a point, and it should, get to it quickly without a lot of rambling. Attorneys like matter-of-fact, straight forward communications. That’s another reason to edit your email before you send it.
Check the “To:” line before you send and don’t hit “Reply to All” unless you know who “all” really is. This is a great way to send an email to the wrong people (perhaps even the opposing side). If you use the “auto-fill” feature for addresses it will fill in the email addresses as you start typing. If you have any attorney-clients with similar names, you need to be extra careful.
I get a lot of email. Too much email some might say. My inbox starts filling up well before LegalNurse.com opens, with internal business I had no idea how much email employees could generate, correspondence from vendors, email from students and Certified Legal Nurse Consultants who need mentoring and who just want to say hello and share their CLNC success. Fortunately, I am blessed to be the recipient of professional emails 99% of the time. But the other 1% is what I want to talk about in this blog.
*The opinions and statements made by Vickie Milazzo, the founder of Medical-Legal Consulting Institute, Inc. are based on her experiences and expertise, should not be applied beyond the specific context provided, and do not guaranty or project actual results. Vickie Milazzo is no longer involved in the operations or management of the business, but is involved as an independent education consultant.
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