AuthenticityPR, Johnson City, TN (2026)

08/17/2026

Oh, WNBA.

Bless your hearts.

Your league is in one heck of a juicy right now.

Instead of being known as the NBA equivalent for women (WNBA does stand for Women’s National Basketball Association), where women have the opportunity to showcase their talents on the professional level, lately your reputation and is about something completely different.

Instead, the news has repeatedly reported on in*******al conflicts between your players and more recently your trans-athlete .

NBA Players Test WNBA’s Inclusion Policy

Having two former NBA players state they identify as women so they can enter your 2027 draft has added a lot of fuel to this firestorm.

“I’m officially declaring myself a WNBA prospect,” said Enes Kanter Freedom, a 6’ 10” 250-pound center who played 11 seasons in the NBA.

This announcement was followed by former NBA player Royce White (6′ 8″ 270 pounds), who sai), “I’m transgender. I’m a woman. I identify as sometimes identifying as a woman for purpose of basketball, professional basketball, so I’ll be declaring for the WNBA draft in 2027 as well.”

He continued, “I think I’d be unstoppable. But I’m a team-first guy. I’m a pass-first kind of player. I do the little things. I led my team in all five major stat categories at Iowa State University, so I do a little bit of everything. I’ll do whatever the coach needs me to do. I’ll do whatever the girls need me to do… I think it’s only fair.”

NBA players, on average, are almost 6” taller and about 46 pounds heavier than WNBA players.

Anybody concerned with the of WNBA players?

WNBA’s Statement

The league has issued the following statement: “We embrace justice, equity, diversity, and inclusion. Those are the values that unite this Union and allow it to protect women’s sports while creating transformational change. Hate, abuse, and demonization of any person or group of people, including transgender people, only fuel fear, division, and harm. We will continue to have hard conversations. But we will not be used as political pawns.”

On player eligibility, the league’s collective bargaining agreement (CBA), which sets rules on such matters as player salary caps, revenue sharing, benefits and overall league operations, states: “Only players who are women are eligible to play in the WNBA.”

How Far Can Inclusion Go??

If I understand their policy correctly, it apparently means if anyone identifies as a woman, then they can play.

I don’t fully grasp the scope of the WNBA’s inclusion policy — so bear with me while I think out loud.

Does that mean if a 2×2’ square block of concrete identifies as a basketball, then the WNBA has to use it?

Or if fans declare they’re invisible, they should be able to walk into any arena and attend a game for free because the ticket takers can’t see them?

All You Need is LOVE

Before I go any further, let me be 100% clear on my belief that we should judge not and one another. People are free to make whatever choices they want.

And that includes allowing others to agree or disagree with the choices others make, but to do so in a respectful and civil manner.

But choices do have consequences.

One of the choices I make in my blog and social media posts is to not enter the debate on such topics as or social justice causes. It’s just not worth it.

I’d rather find common ground and ways we can lift each other. The consequences are I’ve never received any hate mail.

If your values don’t align with mine, fine. We can part ways and still be respectful of each other.

Bye-Bye PRSA

For example, when my values became clearly misaligned with my professional trade organization, the Public Relations Society of America, I finally decided not to renew my membership dues starting in 2025 — after being a member for 23 years.

That was a very difficult decision for me because I love the members of my local chapter and enjoyed serving in leadership roles, but I can no longer be a board member as a non-PRSA member.

One PR professor, who also left PRSA for reasons similar to mine, reported on LinkedIn about a PRSA memo that says the organization has experienced half a dozen “consecutive years” of “membership declines” and related “revenue shortfalls.”

Consequences of choices, you can’t avoid them.

I even had a couple conversations with the PRSA chair before my ultimate departure, advocating for my personal values to be part of their so-called policy. They weren’t going to have any part of that. It was clearly a one-way street.

So, in a sense, I took my ball and went home.

WNBA: A Fascinating PR Case Study

Which brings us back to this professional women’s basketball league.

Solely from the perspective, the WNBA is a fascinating case study.

Getting as much as they’ve garnered is impressive. Businesses would die to receive this much free publicity.

Even though it’s not necessarily showing the positive side of the WNBA, awareness of the WNBA has certainly skyrocketed.

I suspect it’s caused more people to tune into their games.

I’m currently auditing a media and communication class at ETSU this summer called “Media and You” because I’ll be teaching it this fall.

Our textbook is “Media Literacy” by W. James Potter. In the chapter about news, it says there are seven criteria journalists use as guidelines to help them decide what should be covered daily as news. They are , significance, proximity, prominence, , , and deviance.

The WNBA’s team has been absolutely brilliant in flawlessly delivering on nearly all seven criteria (whether intentional or not):

1. Timeliness – This news is happening now. Check.
2. Significance – This refers to the magnitude of the consequences of an event. Check that box.
3. Proximity – How close is this event to the news audience? The WNBA has teams in 15 cities, but games are accessible to anyone via cable TV or streaming services.
4. Prominence – How well-known are the people and institutions in this event? Many know of the league, and awareness of players’ names is growing quickly — especially the stars.
5. Conflict – This is through the roof. Next?
6. Human interest – How strongly does the WNBA’s crisis appeal to human emotions? Pretty stinkin’ high.
7. Deviance – How much is this event out of the ordinary? Well, put it this way — nobody 30 years ago could have ever imagined we’d one day be debating on how to define a woman.

So, maybe we don’t have to debate what’s right or wrong, true or false. Maybe all we should be doing is stand in awe at the brilliance of the WNBA .

The 3 Big Takeaways

1. Is negative as valuable as positive media coverage? If it substantially increases awareness of your organization and you don’t lose money, then the answer is probably yes.
2. Is your truly inclusive, or is it more accurately described as “selective inclusion?” Something to think about.
3. Want to have your organization in the news? Know the seven criteria reporters use to determine .

What are your thoughts on the WNBA? Do share!

Stay authentic — and fair to all!

08/11/2026

Summer is ending soon (sorry to break the bad news).

Did all the vacations and time off from work re-energize you?

Or do you feel in a bit of a rut?

Maybe this week’s message will be therapeutic for you.

From the late 1970s through the early 1980s, there was a collection of newspaper ads from a long defunct company called United Technologies Corporation (UTC) that appeared in the Wall Street Journal.

If you’re curious, UTC merged with the Raytheon Company in April 2020 to form Raytheon Technologies, which was later renamed RTX Corporation.

Each one of UTC’s ads was an absolute classic.

I stumbled upon one more than 40 years ago.

It was inspiring to me then, and it’s still inspiring to me today.

How to Get Out of Your Rut

Here’s the copy from one of the UTC ads. It’s titled, “Get Out of That Rut.”

Oscar Wilde said,

“Consistency is

the last refuge of

the unimaginative.”

So stop getting up

at 6:05.

Get up at 5:06.

Walk a mile at dawn.

Find a new way

to drive to work.

Switch chores with

your spouse

next Saturday.

Buy a wok.

Study wildflowers.

Stay up alone all night.

Read to the blind.

Start counting

brown-eyed blondes

or blonds.

Subscribe to an

out-of-town paper.

Canoe at midnight.

Don’t write to your

congressman,

take a whole scout

troop to see him.

Learn to speak

Italian.

Teach some kid

the thing you do best.

Listen to two hours of

uninterrupted Mozart.

Take up aerobic dancing.

Leap out of that rut.

Savor life.

Remember, we only

pass this way once.

10 Tips for More Productive Meetings

Now that you’re out of your rut (hopefully), you should be ready to make your upcoming meetings more productive.

Here are 10 do-and-don’t guidelines to follow to make your meetings more productive AND creative:

1. Forget the “best” way – Don’t hunt for the one right answer. Look for 100 ways instead, and let the good ideas surface on their own.
2. Hold your ideas loosely – Don’t let your idea own you. Listen actively to what others say, even when it stings a little.
3. Build, don’t bulldoze – Don’t waste energy criticizing or rejecting. Build on what’s there, or move on to the next idea.
4. Speak up early – Don’t be afraid to say the unpopular thing. Every idea worth having began as a minority of one.
5. Come ready – Don’t walk in unprepared. Come with a clear definition of the problem you’re trying to solve.**
6. Don’t quit at the first dead end – Try another approach, or re-analyze the problem before you write it off.
7. Get to the point – Don’t be longwinded or apologetic. Say what you mean and move the discussion forward.**
8. Talk to the issue, not your neighbor – Don’t have a side conversation. Talk to the issue, out loud, where the group can hear it.
9. Chase the idea after the idea – Don’t dismiss something because it isn’t practical yet. Think about what new ideas it can lead to.
10. Let go of old wins – Don’t let past successes limit your outlook. Remember every success was once a new idea, too.

3 Big Takeaways

1. Break out of the norm, it’s boring there.
2. When you break out of the norm, you’re more attention-getting.
3. Set the example on how to make your meetings more creative.

What are some creativity guidelines you follow to leave the hum drum life behind? Do share!

Stay authentic — and creative.

08/04/2026

Are you one of those who automatically think wrote something if you see an em-dash?

Well, you need to stop this knee-jerk reaction.

Now.

Let me demonstrate why.

I’m sitting in front of my iMac at this very moment — and I can 100% assure you that the em-dash I just inserted was done live by me at this very moment.

The New AI Definition

I can also assure you I’m AI.

Except in this case, AI stands for .

No artificial ingredients, ahem, intelligence, added to this week’s message.

The Value of the Em-Dash

I’ve been a fan of the em-dash ever since I was trained at writing copy in the late '80s.

It’s a great punctuation mark that keeps a reader’s eyes moving along in your , wanting to read more.

Ellipses do the same…

…and I’m sure if you check the DNA heritage of these two punctuation marks, you’ll find them closely related.

Periods. On the other hand. Bring the reader to a complete. Full. STOP.

Then, you can only hope your copy is compelling enough that they’ll move on.

Sidenote: In (Associated Press style), you place a space before and after the em-dash.

Writers Fighting for the Em-Dash

I recently noticed a LinkedIn post by a strategic brand marketing leader named Sarah titled, "Reclaiming the Em Dash."

She writes: "Recruiters, editors, and reviewers increasingly associate it with machine-generated content. What a shame. Because the em dash was once a darling of human expression—used by writers like Emily Dickinson, the queen of the em dash, to signal emotion, breath, and interruption. It translated writing into rhythm. Into speech. Into something deeply human."

Well stated, Sarah.

Other writers have posts coming to the rescue of the em-dash.

The PR Plan to Save the Em-Dash

It’s as if the em-dash has become the COVID of copy. (OK, maybe that’s a bit of a stretch — except it feels as if no one wants to be anywhere near it any longer.)

The em-dash has received an undeserved bad rap, all thanks to AI’s overuse of it. (That’s why your prompt needs to include: "Do NOT place em-dashes in every single paragraph. Use em-dashes judiciously.")

If the em-dash were to hire me as a consultant to restore its reputation, here’s what I would do…

First, I’d establish a new organization: The Society for the Preservation of Em-Dashes.

Through this organization and its members, it would:

• Proclaim July 2 a global em-dash holiday.
• Establish the National Museum of Em-Dash.
• Secure a celebrity endorsement (hello, Eminem-dash 😄).
• Create em-dash swag.
• Conduct a worldwide media tour.
• Make em-dashes a sports team mascot.

I have other ideas (like an em-dash Halloween costume), but I’ll stop there for now.

Thank goodness AI hasn’t messed up the en-dash’s reputation.

The 3 Big Takeaways

• Stop having an "AI wrote this!" knee-jerk reaction whenever you see an em-dash in copy.
• Use your to strategically and fearlessly use em-dashes in your .
• Consider supporting the PR plan to restore the em-dash’s reputation.

Have I changed your feelings about em-dash usage? Are you willing to join the cause to save its reputation? Do share!

Stay authentic — and dashing in your writing!

07/30/2026

When I saw a newspaper headline about customers purportedly getting "explosive diarrhea" from eating at this chain, I thought it would make for an excellent blog post about how it's really bad for your restaurant to be mentioned in the same sentence with those words (regardless of whether or not it’s true).

It would have also included my commentary on how Taco Bell’s official company statement from its team did little to defuse this crisis (it was very self-serving and hit 0% on the "we’re sorry" meter).

But Leticia strongly encouraged me to find something else to write about this week. So, scratch any mention of that topic this week.

Email Hacked

Then I thought I would write about my business email being hacked last week. The hacker not only emailed hundreds of my contacts a project request bid, but also set up an away-on-vacation auto-responder — as well as flooded my inbox with countless subscription notifications to various websites, newsletters, etc.

If you received such an email stating it was from me, it wasn’t. And don’t click on any links. Just delete it.

But that didn’t sound like a very intriguing topic since email accounts get hacked all the time. Suffice it to say it’s important to assure you have set up on ALL your logins.

# # # How Delta Dealt Us a Raw Deal

Instead, this week I’ll share my bad (or ) experience with .

My oldest granddaughter and I just returned from our annual , this year held in northwest Arkansas.

The July 20 weather had caused widespread delays for many flights, including ours. Our flight was so delayed that we were going to miss our connecting flight in Atlanta by several hours.

So my daughter rebooked us on a 5:11 p.m. flight to Minneapolis. It would give us over an hour to catch the connecting flight to Cincinnati.

Not only was our departing flight delayed an hour, but the connecting flight also left five minutes early.

Now, how much sense does that make? We already had a tight connection.

The Race to the Gate

Even though Delta’s system had automatically rebooked us on the first flight out the next morning, my 7-year-old granddaughter and I ran all the way to our next gate with our carry-ons.

It must have been a mile away.

She never stopped. She really wanted to be reunited with her parents after being away for a week.

I was impressed, and it took all the endurance I had to keep up with her. I was slowed up a bit when my computer bag had become partially unzipped, and I had to stop and gather several items that had fallen out.

We were hopeful we could still make the flight.

When we arrived at the gate we saw our plane on the tarmac, but there were no attendants at the gate, and the door to the jet bridge was closed.

And the jet bridge was pulled away from the plane.

It was just heartbreaking to see her looking out that window, processing what was happening.

Like a good , I assured her it would all work out.

The Delta Dis-service Desk

Our next stop was the service desk. I waited about 30 minutes before I was helped.

It was now about 10 p.m.

I was told that since the delay was weather-related, Delta would not take care of overnight accommodations or meals, but that we could submit receipts later via the website and they’ll likely reimburse us.

That meant we’d have to wake up about 4:30 a.m. to make it back to the airport on time.

After grabbing a quick bite to eat, we hopped on a shuttle to a nearby hotel, slept about five hours. We had to wake up at 4:30 to return to the airport.

My One Question for Delta

Maybe I don’t know enough about how the airline industry operates, but why couldn’t Delta hold our connecting flight for 15 minutes?

If you can delay a flight because of weather, certainly you can do likewise for passengers needing to catch a connecting flight — especially if it’s the last one of the night.

I don’t get it.

Luggage Over Passengers?

Even though my one checked suitcase was tagged , I was told I could pick it up at the Delta luggage office.

At the office, I was told it may take an hour for it to be retrieved.

But then, upon further research, I was told it actually made it on the connecting flight.

That was surprising.

Does that mean had we taped a tag to our foreheads, we could have made our connecting flight as well?

How in the world does luggage get preferential treatment over passengers?

I can’t figure that one out.

All I can say is it’s a good thing no was served on the flight. 😄

The 3 Big Takeaways

• People should be prioritized before objects.
• Don’t even get me started on how much food costs at airports.
• When flying, always pack in your carry-on the essentials you’ll need for one day.

I bet you have airline stories. Do share!

Stay authentic… and on time!

07/28/2026

“A wealth of information creates a poverty of attention.”

Nobel laureate Herbert Simon uttered that prophetic line in 1971.

That should be tattooed on every ’s forearm.

He said it decades before smartphones, , campaigns, YouTube, etc.

WAY before your customers started fielding thousands of messages daily.

The Brain: A Supercomputer

Here’s the irony — your customers aren’t working with limited hardware.

Each approximately four-pound brain runs on roughly 100 billion neurons, wired together by more than 500 trillion connections, all humming away 24/7 processing sight, sound, touch, taste and smell simultaneously.

It’s been referred to as the most sophisticated piece of equipment on the planet, and it’s sitting right there between their ears doing an unbelievable amount of work every second of every day.

Automaticity: The Communicator’s Obstacle

So why does it feel like it’s so challenging to get your message to land?

Because this supercomputer figured out a survival trick a long time ago.

It’s called automaticity.

Did you know automaticity is one of your top competitors? It may be a more serious competitor than those with a similar product or service.

Faced with too much information to consciously process, the brain routes almost everything to autopilot by filtering, ignoring, and then deciding in advance what’s worth noticing before you’re even aware a decision has been made.

It’s not laziness. It’s protection.

And it means the average message — yours included — never stands a chance of reaching conscious thought at all (i.e., getting the customer’s attention).

If the brain decides it’s just more , it’s deemed not worth noticing. Read this blog post on noise.

However, if your message is communicated in such a way to make it more attention-getting, engaging, and persuasive, it’s far less likely to be ignored.

And that, my friends, is the benefit of working with a professional trained at taking your message from noise to noticeable.

Let’s take a look at the tsunami of messages you’re competing with in modern times — all hoping to get noticed.

10 Mind-Boggling Demands On Customers’ Attention

Do you know how saturated our culture is with media messages?

I bet it’s far more than you may realize.

Here are just 10 mind-boggling demands on your customers’ attention:

• Hollywood – Hollywood film studios produce more than 700 hours of feature films annually. This adds to its base of more than 100,000 hours of films previously released. (Source: *Media Literacy*, 10th edition, by W. James Potter, SAGE Publications)

• TV Stations – Commercial television stations generate about 48 million hours of video messages annually worldwide. (Source: *Media Literacy*, 10th edition, by W. James Potter, SAGE Publications)

• Radio Stations – Radio stations transmit 65.5 million hours of original programming annually. (Source: *Media Literacy*, 10th edition, by W. James Potter, SAGE Publications)

• Books – UNESCO estimates roughly 2.2 million new book titles are published worldwide each year — more than 6,000 a day.

• Websites – There are now more than 1.4 billion websites worldwide, though only about 15% are active. Each of these websites has the potential to deliver an unlimited amount of information.

• YouTube – Part of the website explosion is video platforms like YouTube. Users upload more than 500 new hours of video every minute daily — 720,000 hours a day. Fun fact: If you wanted to view every video uploaded to YouTube, it would take you an entire year of viewing (but only if you multitasked by watching 20 screens at a time).

• Internet – There are now more than 5.5 billion internet users worldwide, and they send more than 251 million emails every minute — over 360 billion a day.

• Texting – More than 23 billion texts are sent daily worldwide.

• Instagram – During any given minute, users now post roughly 695,000 stories, up from 277,777 in 2018.

• Digital Info – The world created, captured, copied and consumed about 181 zettabytes of data in 2025 — nearly three times as much as in 2020.

According to the textbook *Media Literacy*:

> “Not only are we already saturated with media messages, the number of messages available from the media continues to grow. More information has been generated since you were born than the sum total of all information throughout all recorded history up until the time of your birth...”

The 3 Big Takeaways

✔️ Automaticity makes it difficult for your message to land.

✔️ The demand on one’s attention is increasing exponentially, making it harder than ever to get your message noticed.

✔️ If you’re not a trained , consider hiring one.

How do you handle the daily bombardment of messages? Do share!

Stay authentic — as you work to be noticed amidst the barrage of daily messages!

07/16/2026

Usually we think of as having to do with a job interview.

I previously wrote about job interview elevator speeches way back in this April 2021 blog post.

But you also need an elevator speech, or pitch, for your business.

It’s imperative that you can talk confidently, clearly and passionately about your business in less than a minute — especially in a meeting.

Over the years, I’ve been to countless business networking meetings. Typically, everyone gets a turn to introduce themselves and their business to the others.

The No. 1 mistake I hear over and over again is being way too me-centered.
Here’s a hypothetical example:

I’m John Boring with Sleep Consultants. We’ve been in business for 25 years and we help people sleep better. Our staff is trained to… [more details on why the company is so great. And then the ending is typically…] Again, my name is John Boring, Sleep Consultants.

Brag, brag, brag (see the me-centered bolded words). AND boring, boring, boring.
It’s a fundamental / principle that people care more about what you can do for them instead of who you are.

Just like with any product or service, you need to sell what it (your business) does, not is.

That being said, here’s the current business elevator pitch I use in networking meetings:

There are about 170,000 words in the English language. It’s absolutely crucial you know which ones to choose when telling others about your business.

Here’s why:

Anytime you communicate, whether it’s via the written or spoken word, the recipients of your message will do one of two things:

they’ll either tune in because it’s interesting…

or they’ll tune OUT because they’ll quickly classify it as NOISE.

I’m Jeff Pizzino, Chief Authentic Officer at AuthenticityPR. And I have the perfect antidote for NOISE. You see, I’ve been blessed with the superpower to tell your story with clarity, impact and authenticity.

I’m looking to connect with fast-growth, scalable, innovative businesses — or those with annual revenues of at least a million dollars — that want their internal and external and other promotions to be more attention-getting, engaging and persuasive.

Your press releases, website copy, founder’s story, newsletters, brochures, business cards, job postings, and more will all TELL IT, so you can SELL IT — which is the key from going from NOISE… to NOTICEABLE.

Learn more about what we can do for you at: AuthenticityPR.com
I don’t hit the me-centered stuff until I’m well into my pitch.

But more important than that, look at my intro. It’s different, and it’ll likely stand out from all the other elevator speeches in the room.

The mere fact that it’s different will make it attention-getting, noticeable, and memorable.

I’m not saying I have the best business elevator pitch in the world, but it currently works for me. At the same time, I’m always thinking of ways to tweak and improve it, as well as adapting it to my audience.

In addition to the words, your ability to deliver your business elevator speech with passion, well-timed pauses, and great eye contact will all play an important role in its effectiveness. (In fact, maybe we’ll have Leticia address that next week.)

The 3 Big Takeaways
✔️ Want to grow your business? Write a you-centered business .
✔️ Make the beginning attention-getting, different from everyone else’s pitch.
✔️ Practice it until it sounds natural, not memorized.

Need help with your business elevator speech? Want your current one critiqued? Schedule a time to chat with me here.

Stay authentic… and noticeable!

07/07/2026

Do you love your neighbor?

We’re supposed to. After all, it’s one of the two great commandments.

But what if your neighbor has bad (whether it’s intentional or not)?

Does that grant you an exception to not love them?

For example, are they noisy and wake you up while you’re trying to sleep?

Are they nosy and pry into your private doings?

Do they have an obnoxious pet?

The Birth of Blog Topics

Before I start sharing thoughts about my neighbors’ I’ve observed over the years, I’d like to share the origin of my blog topics.

It’s really as simple as an idea popping into my head.

As I was thinking the other evening about what to write about this week while constructing an elaborate salad in my kitchen, out of the blue the idea of writing about a neighbor’s PR came to mind.

I was going to write about why you should mine your competitors’ media coverage for media contacts, but I’ll save that for another week.

My hope is someone finds whatever I end up writing about interesting.

A fellow PR pro from the Little Rock, Arkansas area did. She noticed my Authentically Yours newsletter posts on and started following me. She messaged me and said, “I find your content interesting. I’m over programming for PRSA Arkansas, would love to see if your availability aligns.”

How thoughtful. In fact, since posting the agency’s newsletter on LinkedIn, I’ve noticed some fairly high impression numbers.

It seems like my commentary posts (which sometimes sound like rants) are more popular than straight / tips.

Regardless, simply saying something weekly online or in a weekly emailed newsletter can be a great way to raise awareness of what you offer — and even land speaking opportunities.

Neighborly "Observations"

We currently live in a one-road neighborhood that curves up a hill. We’ve lived in Eastern Tennessee for seven years and have been blessed with awesome neighbors.

It’s a quiet neighborhood surrounded by farms and fields. As a bonus, when we purchased our home, we also bought the empty lot next to us at the end of the street.

We have an elderly woman who moved in across the street a couple years ago. She’s super sweet. When Hurricane Helene knocked out our Wi-Fi, she let me sit on her back porch and use hers for a couple business meetings.

When she sees me walking around barefoot, she tells me to put shoes on so I don’t get pollution on my feet. (First time I’ve ever heard that.)

Neighbors genuinely concerned for your well-being = great . On top of it all, when her son and his family visit, the two-year-old will run over to me and give me a hug. We’ve since become great friends with this family.

Sharing Shredded Plastic is Bad PR

The neighbor who lived in that house previously was also very kind. And wow, did she ever have a beautiful Southern accent. Before she sold her house, she commissioned me to build a closet in her basement. (Yes, I’ve learned how to do a little remodeling over the years.) All great .

However, she inadvertently earned a bit of bad PR after she moved.

As she was cleaning out her home, she gave us numerous bags of shredded paper to add to our compost. One day we discovered it also included shredded plastic. Plastic doesn’t compost. I’m sure someone unbeknown to her had shredded plastic along with paper. That was quite the project to meticulously sort through our compost and pick out the tiny pieces of shredded plastic.

Some of the compost had already been added to our garden, and we’re still picking out shredded plastic there when we notice it.

The Watchful Eye, But Noisy Truck, Neighbor

We have the best next-door neighbors! They keep an eye on our home while we’re away, and even when we’re in town. If anything looks suspicious, I immediately receive a text.

Once he reported a woman sitting at our back porch table. (It was my sister-in-law.)

Or strangers were mowing our lawn. (Friends from church because I was out of town.)

Another time it was late, and he saw a car he didn’t recognize pull into our driveway. (It was only me in a newly acquired car.)

Even a bunny eating from our garden doesn’t go unnoticed.

Unfortunately, our bedroom is right next to his driveway, and we often get awoken when he fires up his truck to leave for work at 5 a.m. every workday. Well, nobody’s perfect.

More Examples of Neighbors’ Bad PR

Here’s a rapid-fire list of my memories of neighbors we’ve had over the years and where we lived:

Provo, Utah – Our next-door neighbor used to sit on his balcony just outside our bedroom window to smoke. Then he’d start hacking like crazy and wake us up. And there was another neighbor with a couple mean geese that chased our kindergartener on the way to the bus stop.

West Jordan, Utah – We had a small house on a small lot with one of the stupidest designs ever. One side of the home was a zero property line, meaning the side of our house was the exact edge of our lot. Well, as if that wasn’t stupid enough, our utilities were also on that side, meaning we had to go through our neighbor’s gate to access them. One day, our neighbor bought a puppy (do you see where this is going?). It promptly chewed through our Internet cables and knocked out our Wi-Fi — while I was at home working.

Vista, Calif. – Our neighbor’s backyard was literally a junkyard. A horrible eyesore. Rats and other creatures lived among the junk. He also didn’t trim his trees, and one of his trees was hanging over into our yard by at least 6 feet. One day I decided enough was enough, and I started cutting it back. When he noticed what I was doing, he came outside and asked, “Hey, what are you doing??” I explained I wanted his tree off my property. Fortunately, common sense prevailed and he started helping.

This discussion begs the question: How much of how we treat our neighbors spills over to how we treat our co-workers?

The 3 Big Takeaways

• Good neighbors are conscientious.

• Bad neighbors are not.

• Be mindful of what you do or say at your home, and how it might affect your neighbors — and influence how you treat your co-workers.

Do you have examples of your neighbors’ PR, whether it be good or bad? Do share!

Stay authentic — and a good, -conscious neighbor!

AuthenticityPR

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