“Trust doesn’t come with a refill. Once it’s gone, you probably won’t get it back, and if you do, it will never be the same & that’s a fact”

⁃            Daniel Griesel

We all have our horror stories about someone losing our trust. Or maybe we were the ones that caused someone to no longer trust us. It could be that relationship that you probably wasn’t ready for. It could be someone who you thought would pay you back, but never got around to it. It could even be a friend that you told a big secret to, but they couldn’t keep their mouth shut. But what about lies? We’ve all lied right? You know the saying “A little white lie never hurt anybody?” False… you already knew that was false.. but for Public Speakers.. that’s a BIG FALSE. Lying to your audience should be an obvious no-no, but there have been speakers who have done it before. Blame it on whatever you choose, but we’ll call it pure laziness. Not to mention who wants all of their hard work to be jeopardized. You deserve more and your audience deserves more too.

Lying to your audience is very easy to do because most speakers think that they won’t get caught. Just like the little kid who sneaks downstairs in the wee hours of the morning to get a cookie out of the cookie jar. The reality is that the world is at one’s fingertips. Meaning if something sounds fishy, or your credentials don’t add up, anyone can easily find out. Information is easily accessible. This is especially true for speakers who present material filled with facts (in other words, things that can easily be googled). If you lie over and over again, imagine how hard it is to remember your lies. Yes, you are telling a falsehood, but each time you are talking it has to be consistent. You’d have to disguise the lie someway, somehow. Maybe you told a lie to get an opportunity and you didn’t get caught. But once the lights shine bright  and there are hundreds of eyes staring out you, will that lie hold up? You’d be setting yourself on the fast track to failure.

Let’s jump back to that trust word. Just for a few. Imagine constantly losing the trust of each audience you talk to. You work for months to create and update your talks, but there are some instances where you took shortcuts in the truth department. People talk and word spreads fast. People talk and word spreads fast. PEOPLE TALK AND WORD SPREADS FAST! Do you get my point? But also because people can see through the fake. Or they become on high alert when it’s suspected. Now, some speakers can make honest mistakes in the moment. Maybe they recall something the wrong way. Or maybe they recite well known historical context falsely, but from a good place. But even when you make an honest mistake, your audience will become wary of you. And you don’t want that to build up to a point where people don’t believe anything you say, because when it gets to that point, your reputation is ruined.

Have you ever heard of the phrase “Your reputation precedes you.” It’s the most direct way of saying word has spread about you.. possibly do to the work that you put in.. and the person you’ve come in contact with knows all about it. That could be good or it can be bad. But the key to remember with that statement is that people have already formed their pre-judgments or impressions about you or what you do. It’s already hard making a name for yourself, so think how much harder it would be if your reputation is stained by you lying. What took you years to gain can be lost in a matter of minutes. It may feel like you can get away with it in the moment, but people eventually notice. And your card will eventually be pulled. If you didn’t hear anything else over the last couple of minutes, I’m challenging you to do what’s right. We can take it beyond Public Speaking and apply to any field. It may be easy to settle for shortcuts and stretch the truth, but in the long run you would ultimately be hurting yourself.

Make your next presentation, your best presentation!

Sincerely,

Julian A. Leonard
(Founder of The JLeonard Group LLC)

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