Why do you have a "chicken list?” Because you fear you don't communicate easily or well.

A "chicken list” is a list of prospects that you're scared of calling. Often people think they will call their "chicken list” after they get successful. But, they need these people in their MLM business to create the success.

This is a "Catch 22.”

The phrase "Catch 22” is from a novel by Joseph Heller, written in 1961, where a pilot who was afraid to fight in World War II feigned insanity. But the doctor he was feigning insanity to said that if he were truly insane then he wouldn't mind endangering his life by going into the war. On the other hand, if he were sane, then he would be capable of following orders to fight the war. Thus the phrase "catch-22” came to mean, "a situation that trips one up no matter which way one turns."

So, you need the people on your chicken list to create the success that you feel you need in order to contact your chicken list. How do you get around this catch-22?

Typically, your fear is based on you feeling the people on the list are somehow above yourself because of their status. But if you were to examine this more closely you would discover that it's not that the people on your chicken list are any better than you, it's that you don't have confidence in your ability to communicate easily.

If you knew you could communicate easily and effectively without making any mistakes, you could…and would…call anyone without hesitation. You would have confidence. You would have certainty. And there's NOTHING more rewarding than having that feeling.

Communicate means: a. To convey information about; make known. b. To reveal clearly.

Easily means: a. Free from worry, anxiety, trouble, or pain. b. Requiring or exhibiting little effort.

In the ongoing study of "How you say it,” the fifth communication quality is to communicate easily - no tension, strain, fakeness, sounding rehearsed, stuttering or hesitating.

Let's take up each one of these issues:

Tension & Strain (The usage definition for tension and strain were very similar so they are combined here.)

a. To be subjected to great stress. b. A great or excessive pressure, demand, or stress on one's body, mind, or resources.

Tension and strain (while communicating) are stress that is created by the mental activity of feeling unprepared or that you will sound "stupid” to others.

If you've ever been asked to suddenly speak in public you know what this mental activity feels like. It creates a very uncomfortable feeling. It's a feeling of "being on the spot” and not knowing what to say. It is often the reason someone's voice "squeaks and quivers” while talking. Tension and strain communicates uncertainty to the prospect or "new to the subject” and unprofessional.

The solution to tension and strain is familiarizing yourself with all situations that can come up on a call when talking to prospects. This is the main reason I put live calls in "Professional Inviter” - so listeners could hear me talking with prospects live and know and become familiar with what prospects say on the phone.

Also know what you're going to ask the prospect to do - invite for product or invite for business, send to a website or get on a conference call, etc. If you are very clear about what you're going to do and say, you will greatly reduce tension and strain.

Fakeness a. To represent falsely; pretend to. b. To fabricate.

People sound fake when they use a lot of fluff words like: awesome, incredible, unbelievable, fabulous, wonderful, special, state-of-the-art, etc.

These types of adjectives demonstrate a clear bias on your part. I'm not suggesting you be a boring communicator - by all means, be excited. But you don't have to use fluff or puff words to describe your excitement as they normally indicate a cover-up of real content.

Sounding rehearsed a. One that is not authentic or genuine.

Rehearsing what you're going to say is NOT WRONG. However, if you talk with a prospect before you've rehearsed enough - you will sound rehearsed; which IS UNPROFESSIONAL.

If you've received a phone call from a telemarketer and you could tell he was reading from a script, it probably didn't sound very genuine and as soon as you detected that he was reading from a script, you wanted off the phone. That's what you want to avoid causing your prospect to feel about you.

Stuttering and hesitating a. If you hesitate, you do not speak or act for a short time, usually because you are uncertain, embarrassed, or worried about what you are going to say or do.

Stuttering and hesitating loops us back to the first issue I discussed above which is Tension and Strain. See, it is the fear of saying or doing something the prospect won't agree with that causes us to hesitate and stutter. So the solution for stuttering and hesitating is similar to the solution for tension and strain- be very familiar with all the situations that can come up on your invite call.

I don't know if you've realized the simplicity of this yet, but your willingness to talk to your "chicken list” or lack thereof is based on your ability to communicate easily. And to communicate easily, you need to become familiar with all aspects of your MLM business and company.

I adore and respect you :),

Tim Sales