Momentum: Your Greatest LNC Advantage—or Your Biggest Mistake

I just finished reading a novel about momentum, by John Grisham, called The Confession. An African American football player is accused of killing a white cheerleader in Texas, and he is wrongly convicted and sentenced to death.

With less than a week to go before the execution date, the real killer approaches a minister and asks him to drive him to Texas so that the killer can confess and save the young man. Can the minister and killer stop the momentum building up to the execution?

Although Grisham’s 2010 book is a novel, it could easily be about one of the hundreds of wrongly convicted death row prisoners.

Momentum can be a wonderful thing.

When your legal nurse consulting business is moving forward, tasks seem easier.

You finish reports more quickly.
Your marketing becomes a habit instead of a chore.
You return calls promptly, send invoices on time, and follow up with prospective clients before they forget your name.
One accomplishment leads naturally to another.

Momentum has a way of making success feel almost effortless.

But momentum has another side.

If you’re headed in the wrong direction, momentum can carry you farther away from your goals before you realize you’ve made a wrong turn.

The challenge isn’t simply creating momentum. It’s creating momentum in the right direction.

The Good Side of Momentum

Every experienced legal nurse consultant has had days when everything clicked.

You completed a chronology ahead of schedule.
An attorney complimented your analysis in your report.
You asked for and received a testimonial.
You posted on LinkedIn, and saw lots of engagement.
You reached out to a former client and got 2 cases.

Before the day ended, another attorney contacted you about a new case.

None of those events happened by accident.

Action produces confidence and that encourages more action. Soon you develop a rhythm that keeps your business moving forward.

Momentum also reduces the amount of mental energy needed to begin a task. Instead of debating whether to market your services, you simply do it because it has become part of your routine.

That’s one reason successful LNCs often appear disciplined. What you’re seeing is the result of repeated actions that have become habits.

The Dangerous Side of Momentum

Now let’s look at the opposite situation.

Suppose you’ve accepted every case that comes your way because you’re afraid to say no.

At first, that feels productive.

Your calendar is full.
Your inbox is overflowing.
You’re busy every day.

From the outside, it looks as though your business is thriving.

But look more closely.

You’re spending hours on low-paying cases.
You are spending more time researching unfamiliar areas of medical care, and aware that you cannot bill for your learning curve.
You aren’t marketing or sending out invoices because you’re “too busy.”
Your reports are rushed and incomplete.
You’re missing opportunities to work with better clients because you don’t have room in your schedule.

That’s momentum, too.

Unfortunately, it’s carrying you toward burnout instead of growth.

Being busy is not the same as making progress.

Ask Yourself an Important Question

Every few weeks, stop and ask yourself:

If I continue exactly as I am today for the next six months, where will I end up?

That simple question can reveal problems before they become habits.

Perhaps you’ve been accepting projects outside your area of expertise, and you should be subcontracting those.
Perhaps you’ve delayed raising your fees even though you’ve gotten more experience.
Perhaps you’ve spent months improving your website while avoiding direct outreach to attorneys.

Momentum has a way of making today’s decisions become tomorrow’s routine, both positive and negative.

That’s why regular course corrections matter.

Small Changes Create Big Results

One of the interesting things about momentum is that it doesn’t require dramatic changes.

A pilot flying across the country doesn’t constantly make sharp turns. Tiny adjustments keep the airplane on course.

Your consulting business works much the same way. You thrive when you

Put a weekly marketing block on your calendar and actually do something during that time.
Make one follow-up call each day.
Review your financial reports every month.
Learn one new skill every quarter.
Improve one section of your report template.

These may seem like minor actions, but repeated consistently, they change the direction of your business.

If you have not read James Clear’s book, Atomic Habits, you should. His central premise is that tiny improvements, repeated consistently, produce remarkable habits over time.

Over time, those small adjustments separate thriving LNCs from those who feel stuck.

Know When to Slow Down

There’s another lesson about momentum that often gets overlooked.

Sometimes the smartest decision is to slow down.

One of the critical questions in John Grisham’s book was whether the people with the power to delay the execution would act in time.

When you’re facing an unfamiliar type of case, don’t rush simply because you’ve been working quickly all week.
When a potential client raises concerns about unrealistic deadlines or questionable expectations, don’t let the excitement of getting another case cloud your judgment.
When your workload becomes overwhelming, stepping back for a few hours may prevent mistakes that take days to correct or harm your relationship with your client.

Momentum should never replace thoughtful decision-making.

Speed without direction is simply faster movement away from your destination.

Build Momentum That Serves Your Goals

Think about the LNCs you admire. Chances are they didn’t become successful because they occasionally worked very hard. They became successful because they consistently worked on the right activities.

They built strong relationships with attorneys.
They improved their report-writing skills.
They developed effective business systems.
They learned from their mistakes (as well as those of others).
They refined their marketing, discarding what did not work and doing more of the strategies that did.

Over time, those actions reinforced one another until success became much more predictable. That is momentum working in their favor.

The Bottom Line

Momentum is powerful, but it is neutral. It doesn’t know whether you’re moving toward success or away from it. That’s your responsibility.

Take a close look at the habits you’ve built, the clients you’re attracting, and the activities filling your calendar.

If they support the business you want to build, keep going.
If they don’t, make the correction now.
A small change in direction today can produce dramatically different results a year from now.

Build momentum with purpose and let it carry you where you truly want to go.

Join us for our 14^th LNC Success Online Conference from Sept 9-11 and discover how to handle the business emergencies that may disrupt your momentum. I’ll cover several in detail so that you won’t have to learn these lessons the hard way.

Pat Iyer is president of The Pat Iyer Group, which develops resources to assist LNCs in obtaining more clients, making more money, and achieving their dreams.

Have you heard the most recent podcasts on Legal Nurse Podcast? The show is in its 10th year, putting it in the top 1% of all podcasts for its longevity. Watch our podcast on YouTube at http://LNC.tips/YouTube.

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Pat’s related websites include the podcasts broadcast at podcast.legalnursebusiness.com, and writing tips supplied at http://patiyer.com.