NEWS FLASH
Vickie Speaks Out on Healthcare Career Options
The news magazine for businesswomen, Women's Enterprise, recently profiled Vickie as one of the women at the forefront of new opportunities in the dynamic, changing field of healthcare. In the article, "Expanding Health-Care Career Horizons," Vickie says that, "Nursing taught me great respect for appreciating that what feels hard today will feel easy tomorrow. I find I have my most dramatic days and best results when I start with the more difficult things. When you delay making important decisions, they often get made for you."
According to the article, "As both the healthcare system and the legal system become more complex, Milazzo's firm trains nurses to provide medical expertise to attorneys on health-related cases." Vickie encourages nurses to develop core competencies that can help them make the transition to business. She reminds readers, "The ones who make their career dreams come true are the nurses who put action to their dreams. A vision without action is nothing more than an hallucination."
Be sure you have the tools you need to put your career dreams into action. Contact the success coaches at Medical-Legal Consulting Institute today, toll-free at 1-800-880-0944.
I was recently stuck on a curb in Ho Chi Minh City, Vietnam (everyone there still calls it Saigon). My objective, a restaurant where my husband and my lunch awaited me, stood on the opposite side of the street. I could see the food, smell it and, if you know me, you'll realize I had built up quite an appetite.
Stranded in the Chaos
The only barrier between me and my lunch was crossing the street. Now, this sounds like a simple task, but at noon in Saigon my objective might as well have been the far side of the moon. The road was crammed with motor scooters (called "motos"), bicycles, motorcycles, cyclos (pedaled rickshaws), cars, trucks and buses. The fewer wheels a contraption had, the more passengers it seemed to carry. I saw a family of 5 riding a Honda scooter — sans helmets, of course.
Even the center lines contributed to the confusion. Rather than dividing the traffic into two lanes, each moving in opposite directions, in Saigon the yellow markers apparently serve only to indicate that you are on a paved road. People passed, stopped, turned around and crisscrossed the center lines with utter abandon.
Traffic flowed both ways in the same lane, more traffic merged from the side streets, and people pushed their motos off the curbs into the flow at odd angles. At any given moment traffic bore down on me from as many as 6-8 directions, front, back, sides and all angles — everywhere, it seemed, except from above. To me it was a scene of incredible chaos with no order.
The traffic lights compounded my problem. In Saigon they serve only an advisory purpose. Even when the light turned red, traffic continued to flow, as drivers blatantly ignored the red light! The lanes of traffic impatiently waiting at the green light would edge forward into the traffic that was ignoring the red light. At some point traffic trying to move with the green light would build up enough momentum (and vehicles) to stop the traffic running the red light. Traffic would then flow correctly until the light changed, and the whole process started again.
Dancing through the Chaos
Under this onslaught the flashing green "walk" sign over the crosswalk taunted me from the far side of the street. I was ready to look for something to eat (and a place to sit) on my side of the street when an older Vietnamese gentleman took my arm.
In English he kindly said, "Crossing the street is not a problem, but a dance." With that we stepped off the curb and entered the maelstrom together.
My heart pounded as we walked slowly across the street. Instead of greeting us with blaring horns, irate shouts and screeching brakes, the drivers saw us and adjusted to us. As long as we made no sudden movements (like diving for the curb or running screaming from the street), we were fine. I felt like we were swimming through a school of fish. The tempest flowed smoothly around us, and before I knew it we were across.
I thanked my benefactor and went on to lunch. Later that day I taught the same technique to my husband and friends — at one point crossing a busy boulevard with an entourage of 8 people strung out like a Broadway chorus line.
Later I thought about how the traffic in Saigon is a metaphor for business. There is a sort of graceful chaos, everyone going in their own direction, some traveling with traffic, some across it and some against it. Buses and trucks barrel through the streets, stopping for no one. Certainly collisions and accidents happen — but for the most part the system works. People reach their destinations and life goes on. And the best way to survive is not to struggle against the flow, but to approach it like a dance.
Invitation to the Dance
Do you dance through your own life, career and business and the surrounding chaos? Or do you struggle against it, exhausting yourself, causing collisions with others and keeping yourself from reaching your chosen destination?
On any given day, each of us must adapt to life and pass through it gracefully. Occasionally things are going well, then out of the blue a big truck bears down on us, forcing us to stop or change directions. How we deal with such routine chaos determines whether we prosper or fail.
In my own office I have 17 employees, each traveling in different directions but all basically headed for the same destination. I cannot interfere with their travels but must move gracefully through them. In my business, students, vendors, other businesses, obstacles and competitors often appear in the road in front of me. I have many choices: collide with them head on, turn down a side street, take a detour, avoid them altogether or simply flow with them. How well I adjust my dance to this chaos controls my future success.
In the turmoil of your own business each choice you make affects your outcome. You can adjust to the chaos and deal with it gracefully, or you can allow it to stop you or force you into costly detours. The choices are yours.
In Saigon I chose to cross the street thanks to my new-found guide and enjoyed the reward of a wonderful lunch. Then I plunged back into the chaos, now wise enough to guide others on the journey. Every day in my business I face the traffic, dance with it to the best of my ability and hope to enjoy continued success. You can do the same thing if you cultivate the grace to flow with chaos.
Got to dance — the chaos is calling!
Vickie L. Milazzo, RN, MSN, JD
BEST PRACTICES FOR BUSINESS DEVELOPMENT
A Mentor Can Make All the Difference in Your Success
by Evie Baron-Hernandez
The most successful people attribute part of their good fortune to working with a mentor. Even entrepreneurial masterminds like Carnegie and Rockefeller had mentors. You, too, can accelerate your success by developing a relationship with a mentor.
A Mentor Can Help You Avoid Dead Ends
The main advantage of having a mentor is that she can evaluate your plans before you act on them. Often, your mentor can immediately spot what you might be doing wrong. This relieves you from having to learn the hard way. The advice you receive on how to improve your business will save you from wasting a lot of time, energy and money.
What you do with this advice will make all the difference in the world. Although you may admire your mentor for her success, you have to put her advice into action or you may never match her level of success. Chances are, you'll become, at best, ordinary at what you do, rather than extraordinary like your mentor. What's more, if you ignore her input, you are not living up to your end of the mentoring relationship.
Once your mentor offers advice, the ball is in your court. Make the most of her expertise and know-how. Take her advice and turn it into action steps in your professional development plan.
A Mentor May See the Simple Solution You've Missed
Sometimes your mentor will see a simple solution to a seemingly insurmountable problem. For example, one LNC struggled with difficulty in selling her services for six months before finally asking for advice. She did not feel she could promote her LNC services confidently since she had never actually worked up a real case. This challenge was holding her back from achieving the success she desired. When she finally got up the courage to call for help, I quickly realized this barrier was only a perception, not a reality. Many nurses who have completed our CLNC® Certification Program do quite well on their first case despite their lack of previous LNC experience.
This nurse identified her problem and asked a mentor for help. The hard part was now behind her. I suggested that she work up a sample case to build her confidence and eliminate the barrier. She took my advice to get the experience that would make her feel comfortable promoting her service. But just think how many cases she could have handled in the six months she wasted contemplating this barrier. Never hesitate to consult your mentor.
How to Choose the Right Mentor
When choosing a mentor, here are some guidelines for finding the best one for you:
Choose a mentor who has the skills and knowledge you seek. Make sure she is a good role model for you in every way, especially as an entrepreneur. I often hear of nurses taking advice from LNCs who have not yet achieved significant success in their field. Don't waste your time. Only a successful LNC can advise you on the true potential of your knowledge and skills and can help you win your share of the market.
Your mentor should share your work ethic and value system. If your mentor advises you to do something unethical or something you feel is based on poor judgement, you haven't found the right mentor. Model only after those you wish to become.
If possible, find a mentor you can observe in action. Some of my best insights have come from observing my mentor. For example, my mentor and I recently attended a speakers' convention. Even though she has been successful for 20 years, she networked as if she was just starting her business and seeking new clients. Her business is truly her passion, and she still shares that passion every chance she gets. The lesson I learned was that networking never stops for an entrepreneur, regardless of how successful she becomes. Also, no one can network for your business like you can. I would not have learned so much without observing my mentor firsthand. Watching her day-to-day activities as she keeps her company on the right track has also taught me a lot. It is inspiring to witness that kind of success up close. There are certain things you cannot learn any other way.
A Mentor Keeps You Going When You'd Rather Stop
One of the best things about having a mentor is that she can give you direction when you feel lost. She may be able to envision your next step when you can't. A good mentor will always challenge you to move to the next level, even if it seems painful or downright impossible. Whenever I wonder if I'm willing to make the necessary sacrifices to achieve my goals, my mentor is there to help me make the right decision instead of letting me take the easy way out.
A mentor can offer guidance in many aspects of building your LNC business. For instance, the mentors at the Medical-Legal Consulting Institute, Inc. are here to help you formulate a marketing brochure, critique your first report or help you with your first attorney-client interview. We offer this type of mentoring to all our students and CLNC®s. I strongly advise you to take advantage of this service.
Evie Baron-Hernandez has more than 14 years' experience in sales and customer service. Throughout her career, she has coached hundreds of entrepreneurs on sales and marketing techniques. Evie is the CLNC® marketing mentor at MLCI.
