Dear Uncle Russ: I feel "lost" without a script. What are some of the best things I can say that will create a conversation conducive to exploring prospects? R. Porter - Minneapolis, MN

Dear "R":

One way to look at the solution here is to ask yourself: "What would somebody I would want as a prospect be listening for?"

The more you can be interested in who someone is and less interested in getting the right question out, the better off you are. Here are some of my "go-to" questions and responses. Don't worry. You'll always know exactly when to say them:

Tell me about you...?

Could you please say more about that?

What is your opinion of.....?

The original prospectors were looking for gold and the signs that would lead them to it.

The big difference here is we are listening for the "gold." Start digging!

Dear Uncle Russ, I feel uncomfortable with public speaking, selling, and recruiting. Can I still have success with network marketing and what do I do about my fears? Natalie Bowles - Altoona, PA 

Dear Natalie,

One of the most memorable lines ever spoken on not letting irrational fears control our lives and outcomes came from our 32nd President, Franklin Delano Roosevelt: "We have nothing to fear, but fear itself!"

Fear is a thief. It steals enthusiasm, authenticity, and confidence, and replaces them with doubt and insecurity. Fear keeps us from being present and making a contribution. It's also a ghost. It's not real. Fear is as phony and weak as the boogeyman, once we realize he's not "true."

Years ago, doing a public presentation of a memorized script, I forgot my lines. After a few attempts to restart by repeating the last sentence, I panicked. I fled the stage. Fortunately, one of my coaches and mentors stopped me halfway down the aisle. He whispered in my ear: "They don't KNOW that it's a script! Just make something up!" I went back up and stared out at the blank faces of the audience. I blurted out apologetically:

"I forgot the script!"

Everyone laughed...including me. Then, the strangest thing happened. I remembered the script and completed it, flawlessly. So here's my advice. The way to confront and make fear disappear is to notice it. Speak it. "OUT" it!

Say to a prospect that you have an agenda, instead of hiding it.

Let them know you want to tell them something but you are concerned about what they might think. Tell an audience you forgot where you were. If you do this, you will find, as I did, that fear is our own construct and when we acknowledge it to others, we get what we seek the most; empathy, appreciation, and of course, forgiveness.

Dear Uncle Russ, Think And Grow Rich seems to be the most famous book in network marketing personal development circles. What other books would you recommend, Russ, that rank among the very best in terms of their impact on you, personally? Gordon Jones - Roanoke, VA

Dear Gordon,

One of the great gifts of this incredible profession of network marketing for me has been being put on a path of personal growth and development.

Some forty years ago, a man named Paul J. Meyer created a company called Success Motivation Institute, a franchise operation based in Waco, Texas and their business was the distribution of books and tapes on all aspects of personal growth; Mindset; Goal Setting; Inspiration; Classic books; etc.

A whole new world of what was possible for me to achieve was opened up. Since that time I have been blessed not only to meet and listen LIVE to some of those on the cassettes like Zig Ziglar and Rev. Robert Schuller but to meet and even rarely share a stage with those who came after in the genre, such as Les Brown, Tom Hopkins, and even the great Jim Rohn.

What is amazing to me is that to a person, all were influenced by many of the same artists, authors, and mentors as I. Many of the same works were cited repeatedly as being "defining" in terms of career success. It is impossible for me to cite just one work so for your edification, I will name, by category, several of my favorites, but highly recommend any and ALL!

How To Win Friends and Influence People by Dale Carnegie

Timeless and easy to read. If more people read and practiced the wisdom in these pages, the world would change for the better....forever.

How I Raised Myself From Failure To Success In Selling by Frank Bettger

The amazing story of a struggling, introverted, insurance salesman during the Great Depression.

Frank spends his few hundred dollar savings - a FORTUNE at the time - to enroll in a Dale Carnegie course that changes his life and him into one of the greatest insurance salesmen of that or any other era; A treasure.

The Power of the Mind

Tie: The Magic of Believing by Claude Bristol

      The Magic of Thinking Big by David Schwartz

I must confess, I've never read either one....but in the day of audio cassettes, I listened to these two favorites in my travels, again, and again and had them both practically memorized. I believe audiobook versions are still available today, on Amazon. If not, I know the books are. You decide.

Illusions - The Adventures of a Reluctant Messiah 

By Richard Bach. Illusions is possibly one of my top five favorite BOOKS of all time - with or without its life lessons. It is a story of the limitations and paradigms that hold us back in life and the power of taking responsibility for our own success and happiness.

Man's Search For Meaning - Viktor E. Frankl

My senior year in college, this short book was assigned reading for a course in Existentialism by the same name. It remains one of the most impactful and profoundly moving books I've ever read. It is the chronicle of a Psychologist who was an Auschwitz inmate and death camp survivor during WWII. Frankl describes his psychotherapeutic methodologies as involving "identifying a purpose in life to feel positively about and then immersing the imagination in that possible outcome."

Love, Uncle Russ