A mortifying event where student staff got drunk was manageable because it was for an internal university audience. The speaker notes if it had been for an external client, the consequences would have been "absolutely horrific." This highlights how the audience for a mistake defines its ultimate impact.

After completely fixing a critical booking error with no negative impact, an event manager informed her director that everything was handled without disclosing the near-disaster. This tactic of managing up protected her reputation and avoided creating unnecessary stress for leadership.

One of the most effective ways to boost online engagement is to make a deliberate, correctable error. The podcast notes that misspelling "Clawd bot" led to a flood of comments from users eager to correct them, demonstrating that the internet's need to be right is a powerful growth hack.

The 'Pratfall Effect' suggests showing a flaw can make a person or brand more appealing. However, this has a major caveat: it only works from a position of strength. A competent brand like Guinness can highlight its slow pour time as a virtue. An incompetent brand admitting a flaw simply confirms its incompetence, making the situation worse.

An agency accidentally set a lifetime ad budget as the daily spend. By transparently owning the mistake, they discovered the campaign was a huge success. The client was so pleased with the results they happily paid the overage, turning a potential disaster into a relationship-building win.

When a client offers harsh, fundamental criticism during a pitch, the best response is not to defend the work but to acknowledge the miss. One CEO won a pitch by immediately conceding the point and offering to re-pitch, demonstrating humility and confidence.

Instead of viewing missteps as failures, Petrie sees them as essential learning opportunities. For example, a marketing event that didn't drive bottom-funnel traffic isn't a mistake, but a valuable lesson that establishes a benchmark for improvement next year.

A spelling mistake of "software" on a large event stand went unnoticed by thousands. This demonstrates that in high-stimulus environments like trade shows, people's brains often auto-correct familiar words, making them blind to otherwise obvious errors that fall within their expectations.

Corporate fear of social media backlash is largely unfounded. Negative attention cycles are short, and brands can neutralize issues by quickly acknowledging them and moving on. The risk of inaction is therefore greater than the risk of making a mistake.