Connie Schultz, a Pulitzer Prize-winning journalist, says the first time she heard the introduction, she laughed. She couldn't quite believe it. She was at a political gathering for her husband, Sherrod Brown, who was running for the Senate. The party chairman of the area stood up and introduced them in a booming voice: "Congressman Sherrod Brown - and his lovely wife."

Schultz was shocked by the cliché, but it happened nearly 100 more times over the next 10 months. Later when another county chairman introduced her as "Sherrod's lovely wife, Candy," she says she'd become so familiar with this "standard" way of introducing her that she ignored the fact he had gotten her name wrong as well. "I gave him points for originality and moved on," she says in her book ... And His Lovely Wife.

At some point, you will likely introduce people to one another and it's important to get three things right:

The names

The pronunciations of the names

The job titles of the individuals

Small errors at this stage can spur resentment or hurt feelings and set a bad tone for the future. Bear in mind that for many people, names and titles are the placeholders of their identity. Get those wrong and you've just taken something quite precious away from them.

Goran Jovanovic

YOUR World Class Realty Team

Direct: 954-243-7570

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