Thread by @rainbennett

Yesterday I made a mistake... publicly.

On a Live talk show I host every week, featuring doctors of a rare cancer, I take questions from the audience and moderate a discussion about the disease.

(a thread, 1/ )

I read the questions as they come in and the experts answer them for the audience.

I'm not an expert in this disease, but I know a bit from my work the past 10 years. But when I read the questions, I just read what's on the page.

2/

One came up about and I read it verbatim, like Ron Burgundy in Anchorman:

"What are you thoughts on Y90 therapy for metastatic live tumors?" I asked.

"LIVER tumors." she said confidently.

3/

Now, I give myself a SLIGHT break because it's easy to hear the whole sentence from her perspective and recognize that it didn't make sense. But me reading one word at a time, I totally missed it.

Still I was embarrassed. That was an easy one.

4/

I could've blushed and show my embarrassment or even gotten visibly shaken by it.

But instead, I laughed it off and said, "See? That's why you're the expert!" or something cheesy like that. It got a big laugh, but more importantly it kept the focus on HER as the star.

5/

And this, I've learned, is how we must position ourselves when we truly aim to serve our audience.

Lose the ego. Make them the star.

6/6