That is a very interesting question and I trust that if I did a study on the subject I would get as many negative answers as yes. Telling your audience a ‘fish story’ may seem harmless, but even a small white lie can cause others to question your credibility. And having your credibility on the public speaking circuit called into question is a surefire way to end a speaking career.
While little white lies can increase the quality of your story or anecdote or your sales statistics or any number of pieces of data you may be providing, the problem with lying, no matter how small or uneventful it may seem at the moment, is that it can turn the tables against you in the long run. All it takes is one other person to find out the truth and you can ruin your future, whether it’s public speaking, writing, or any job or career.
Part of the public speaking lying syndrome is using other people’s material without giving credit to the writer or speaker of those words or ideas. That is known as plagiarism. When I first came back to the United States, I was teaching public speaking at the college level and the book we used looked at how then-Senator Joseph Biden had plagiarized speeches early in his career and had also been convicted of plagiarism as a student. of law. at Syracuse University.
Plagiarism is stealing. Failing to attribute rightful ownership to someone else’s words and treating those words as your own is a form of lying. To this day, I don’t trust anything Biden says because, in his opinion, he thinks what he did was irrelevant. When a school can fail you or expel you for plagiarism, it is not a small thing, it is serious, it is a form of lying.
When speaking in public, it is important to remember that you and your words are being judged. Your audience can be as few as 4 people or as large as 400. Regardless of the number of listeners, they rely on your credibility and honesty when you inform them or try to persuade them to your way of thinking. Lying, however insignificant it may seem, is not the way to demonstrate your ideas, your opinions or your success.
They say that honesty is the best policy, and when speaking in public, the truth speaks volumes. If your product, idea or service is as good, as good or as superior to any other, let the success of your product speak for itself without telling ‘fish tales’.