AuthenticityPR

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!

What expertise do you possess?

Share it!

Last week I shared my recent experience as an teaching at Milligan University in Elizabethton, Tenn.

This week I’ll walk you through, step-by-step, how you can land an adjunct position.

10 Steps to Land an Adjunct Professor Position

Thinking about becoming an ? Here’s what you need to do:

Decide if you can balance adjunct teaching with your real job. Unless you’re retired, it can be tricky juggling both. Scheduling your time will be crucial. If you have clients, let them know what hours you’re not available. I found juggling a part-time job teaching with my firm’s client load extremely challenging at times, but in the end, it was all worth it.

Earn at least a master’s degree. Generally, a master’s degree is the baseline requirement at most accredited colleges and universities. The regional accreditation standards (the ones that matter most) typically require adjuncts teaching undergraduate courses to hold a master’s degree, ideally in the subject they’re teaching. If the master’s is in a different field, most institutions want to see at least 18 graduate credit hours in the discipline you’d be teaching.

Exceptions exist, but they’re not common. The most frequent one is the “exceptional practitioner” carve-out — where someone with significant, demonstrable professional expertise in a field can teach without a graduate degree. Think a nationally recognized journalist teaching media writing, or a prominent attorney teaching a law-adjacent course. The professional credentials essentially substitute for the academic ones.

Community colleges tend to have a bit more flexibility than four-year institutions. And some specialized or vocational programs have their own standards that differ from traditional academic departments.

For and specifically, the APR (Accredited in Public Relations) credential and agency experience carry additional gravitas in making the practitioner case. But most institutions would still prefer the degree on paper, even if they’d make an exception for the right candidate.

Bottom line: master’s degree is the rule. Exceptional practice is the exception — and it usually requires someone at the institution going to bat for you.

Create a curriculum vitae. A curriculum vitae, or CV for short, is an academic résumé. Where a standard résumé is typically one or two pages focused on work history and skills, a CV is a comprehensive document that can run several pages and covers your full academic and professional record: degrees, teaching experience, publications, research, presentations, awards, certifications, and professional affiliations.

For a teaching position, especially at the college level, a CV is the standard application document because institutions want the full picture. They’re not just hiring someone to do a job; they’re bringing someone into an academic community. The CV signals that you take that seriously. It shows your credentials, your subject matter depth, and your track record in the classroom or lecture hall.

For an adjunct position specifically, the bar is a bit lower than for a tenure-track role, but a CV is still expected. It establishes your credibility as a practitioner and demonstrates that you have the real-world expertise to teach the subject — which is a bonus for a department and their students.

In summary, a CV differs from a résumé by emphasizing your teaching-related experiences and education.

Identify nearby universities and colleges (for in-class). Search online for all the universities within a reasonable driving distance.

Decide between online or in-class. I’ve looked at online adjunct teaching positions, but to me there’s nothing like the in-person experience — especially when just starting out. But there’s certainly something to be said for the convenience of teaching online (less travel, dress professionally from the waist up, etc.).

Identify universities and colleges offering online classes. If online sounds more appealing to you, or if you want to do that in addition to in-person, then conduct online research for these. I just searched for “adjunct faculty positions” on Facebook and a number of opportunities appeared. Try to find the positions that look like the best match (and best paying).

Identify which classes you’re qualified to teach. If there aren’t any classes that are an exact match to your expertise or training, there are usually classes closely related to your expertise. For example, if there isn’t a public relations class for me to teach, I could also easily teach a journalism or marketing communications course.

Find the right contact and apply. In my case, a professor moving onto another position connected me to the department head at Milligan University. My next adjunct gig at ETSU was secured by contacting the dean of the media and communication department.

Contacts and connections matter. That was how my wife Leticia landed an adjunct teaching position this fall. She was recruited. She’s remained involved in the Communication and Storytelling Studies Department where she earned her master’s — keeping in touch with professors, attending workshops and events, etc.

If hired, sit in on the class(es) you’ll be or might be teaching. That shows you’re going the extra mile to understand the class and what’s expected. I’m even auditing a course this summer to prepare for teaching it this fall.

Once you start teaching, make the most of it. Seek feedback, strive to improve, be willing to make changes during the course — providing they improve the learning experience for your students.

There you go. Follow those 10 steps and you can land your first adjunct teaching position.

The 3 Big Takeaways

✅ Sharing your expertise as an is a great way to give back.

✅ If you don’t have a master’s degree, get one before you venture into teaching.

✅ Have fun doing it. Most students find practitioners teaching a course a nice change of pace.

Have questions about landing an adjunct position? Do ask!

Stay authentic, especially as you share your expertise through , , , , and .