Manual writer

My wife says I'm an introverted extrovert. She also says that I'm fine talking with people as long as they can't interrupt me. So, that makes me a good performer.
Normally, I just go along with these notions of hers but today I'm having to really think about it.
Yesterday, I had an opportunity to reach out to some folks who could really contribute some great stuff to my job. I had stage fright. I could barely speak and my voice came out trembling and weak. I repeated my inane three sentences over and over. I just about fainted.
And they just sat there staring at me.
Here I was asking them to help me do my job and they were already feeling that the company hung them out over a croc pit. I should have used that, I should have told them that cooperation between them and us could make a better world. Suddenly, I have the sound of children's voices trilling out the tune "It's a Small World" and I can hear the hysterical laughter starting in the back of my head.
Hopefully, the people who train our users will feel that their feedback to the team that writes the manuals will be worth their time and effort.