Jul 9, 2024
The Internet has evolved greatly in the last decade. With fast one-gigabyte speeds paired with accessible fiber internet, we can connect better. Alongside that, Verizon Home Internet now provides a range of solutions to meet any possible need. But exactly how does it work?
How Verizon Home Internet Works
Verizon Home Internet provides internet access to your entire home. By placing the modem next to a window or an external facing wall, it will pull service from a nearby 5G tower. One might think that by using this method, data speed will slow down during congested service usage periods. However, Verizon has maintained a reliable connection through various tests.
All the Perks
Internet pricing starts at just $50/month for the standard package and $60/month for the plus package. A benefit of the Plus package is unlimited cloud storage with Verizon. So, if you do not necessarily need extra storage, the standard package will do just fine. Yet, these prices are just for Home Internet by itself. If you are a Verizon customer, you can bundle your Home Internet and the prices would be cut in half.
Additionally, Verizon offers a 2-year price lock for the standard plan and a 3-year price lock for the plus plan. Remember, this also has no data contracts, caps, or hidden fees (equipment is included). Another advantage is a 30-day satisfaction guarantee, so you can safely try it out, and if you are not happy with the results, you can cancel the plan without any cancellation fee. An additional benefit is that if you’re currently tied to a contract with another internet service provider, Verizon will cover up to $500 in cancelation fees from your other provider.
Is Verizon Internet Available for me?
There is an easy way to check that availability here. If Verizon 5G is unavailable in your area, there are other options, such as LTE and Fios.
Overall, Verizon Home Internet creates a new and reliable way to connect, while staying at an affordable price when compared to providers. Even if you are not a Verizon customer, you can get access. Check out more details of Verizon Home Internet. Or visit our blog to learn more of the latest tech news!
Jul 1, 2024
I remember one of my first days. Picture it: my debut as a management consultant in the heart of Washington, DC. The room buzzed with anticipation as fifty-plus industry leaders gathered on the first day of the two-day management development workshop. I was part of a two-consultant facilitation team, a senior consultant and newbie consultant. I was the latter and tasked to deliver the easiest chapter. It was a chapter on discipline. I stepped up front in the hotel conference room; suit pressed, support team in the back, notes and projector ready, all eyes of the audience on me.
I froze.
What seemed like an eternity was only about 15 seconds. All the practicing and getting ready seemed to vanish in an instant. I remember the senior consultant’s face. He wasn’t mad or upset. He just smiled and nodded. I quickly glanced away and caught a woman’s face at the front, and she seemed to signal with her expression, “You’ve got this.” And then, my words kicked in – slowly and awkwardly. As the next 15 seconds passed, I hit my stride.
That began my growth journey as a sales, management and leadership consultant. In a way, I learned as much as all the owners, managers and leaders in that one 30-minute chapter review. Since then, I have delivered thousands of workshops and speeches. One constant thread in all of them, I kept learning and I keep growing.
“To me, a leader is someone who holds her- or himself accountable for finding potential in people and processes.” – Brene Brown
Unveiling Growth: The Power of Intentional Growth
In our journey through both professional and personal realms, I’ve come to realize that intentional learning is akin to the air we breathe—essential for our growth and development. To constantly and consistently seek understanding through a variety of ongoing sources. To develop oneself in some type of growth routine. Maybe it’s a daily, weekly or monthly commitment to always be learning something. Maybe it’s plugging into resources like books, videos, websites, seminars, classes, etc. Striving to learn on purpose, for purpose.
Embracing Uncertainty: Moments of Intentional Learning
I have also found that growth can come out of very unexpected places. Maybe we didn’t plan for a thing to happen; it does, and we improvise and do the best we can. Take something as unforeseen as COVID. That season not only challenged the status quo and “normal” ways to do things, it also provoked adaptation and the “new normal” – writing new proverbial chapters on what to do as we go. I believe we can inevitably learn a great deal about who we are and who we are becoming in seasons of uncertainty, adversity and desperation. Let’s be real, there are some things that can only learned in disruption and hardship.
Regardless of the when or how in our inflection point, change is inevitable. Learning is our choice. And owning that choice becomes a stimulant for growth.
Navigating Change: Lessons in Intentional Growth
- Firstly, from day one to now, what have you learned about yourself?
- Secondly, what specific moments have contributed to your growth?
- Moreover, what have your successes and failures taught you?
- Additionally, what makes up your ongoing development routine?
- And finally, if you have a team, and I asked them to describe your mindset about growth, what would they say?
So, as you go through your own journey, consider the milestones that have shaped you, the lessons learned from both success and failure. While change may be inevitable, it is our commitment to learning that propels us forward on the path of continuous improvement.
Want to learn more perspectives about growth and leadership? Visit our podcast or visit one of our locations.
Jun 17, 2024
Artificial Intelligence has evolved greatly in recent years. It has become a tool adopted by many and used for making long processes more efficient. However, where line drawn?
“It’s going to be interesting to see how society deals with artificial intelligence, but it will definitely be cool.” – Jeff Hawkins
Understanding the Artificial Benefits
There is no doubt that artificial intelligence has many benefits. Its main focus is aimed to streamline human intelligence. In business, it can help with smart decision-making. It can be used to analyze upcoming trends, forecast growth, and predict future outcomes. For example, if someone purchased basketball shoes, AI might look for other items the individual might be likely to need. Maybe it will market them athletic wear, or a basketball hoop. Or even when a campaign is being drafted for a new product, they might fall into the audience of people being advertised to. This results in more personalized ads that have better reach with more quality results.
However, this is just the tip of the iceberg when it comes to the benefits of artificial intelligence. There are many more benefits such as automation, medical progression, improved customer experiences, data analysis, performing repetitive tasks, and minimizing errors.
Artificial Intelligence in the Office
Around 16% of employed Americans maintain office-type jobs. This is roughly 27 million people. With some AI software being free and easily accessible (such as Chat GPT), many of these individuals utilize this software. This software can take information, such as data, and provide quick insight and recommendations. Or it can be used to review papers, projects, and PowerPoints for errors; thus, making presentations more concise and error-free. Artificial Intelligence can also assist with longer tasks such as compiling data into an Excel document and accomplish it in seconds. However, it is still important to double-check the work completed, which brings me to the next topic.
Artificial Intelligence: Issues of Ease of Access.
While artificial intelligence becomes used more, at what point does it start to pose problems in everyday life? At what point do we start talking to AI instead of people? Our individuality becomes automated, and people begin to rely on AI software to talk or make decisions for them. When does your personality get overshadowed by AI? Overreliance on AI systems may lead to a loss of creativity, critical thinking skills, and humane intuition. Understanding the balance of AI assistance is important to preserve cognitive abilities.
Personal or Automated
Have you ever read a paper, email, or some sort of social media post, where things just feel too ‘perfect and polished’? Do you know how to tell if you are talking to a robot or a person? In some instances, it is very easy to tell, so much that it is already implied that you are talking to an automated system. Just like for larger businesses using AI responses for customer solutions. First, the AI asks simple questions to help direct you to the right person and streamline your problems to find solutions faster.
However, at what point is using AI the wrong idea? Many college and high school professors know the challenges of AI writing programs. Many students who do not want to write an essay, just ask AI to do it for them. Modern-day AI scanners (Quillbot) can easily detect when something is written by a robot. So typically, students will learn the hard way when they turn in an essay written by AI.
Sometimes it is not always easy to tell when someone is using AI. They attempt to calibrate it in a certain way, so it is less noticeable. However, when becoming too reliant on AI, one becomes too lenient with it, therefore making it obvious. Here are some key points to look for when you suspect someone has written you something with AI.
What to look for
- Style & Tone: Emails/Essays can be overly formal or structured unnaturally.
- Repetition: AI will repeat the same thing several times within a phrase.
- Insight: While AI writing can be accurate but feel very generic.
- Over Polished: AI tries to maintain grammatically correct writing that lacks errors people make.
- Irrelevant: Topics might shift to sentences that are slightly off-topic.
- Generic: The writing could feel like it is padded with meaningless information.
- Lack of Human Touch: AI text can feel very bland thus, feeling very impersonal and detached.
- Predictable: Writing by artificial intelligence might feel like it is coming from a template.
- Inconsistent: AI can easily make factual errors with names of people, places, or events.
- Cultureless & Humorless: AI often lacks cultural references and humor.
At the end of the day, AI is a beneficial tool to streamline day-to-day tasks. As long as it is not overused in the wrong ways, we should be able to maintain our individuality and creativity. Talking to real people is always better than talking to a robot. If you are using AI to talk to others, it can feel very impersonal, as AI writing has a very cold feel to it.
Want to learn more about the latest tech news? Visit our blog!
Jun 10, 2024
Phones have come a long way in the last decade. Along with that, more notifications fill the air. It can feel like everyone is trying to get our attention. However, it is nice to be able to step away from all the notifications and take a mental break. That is where having a silent phone can come into play, mainly focusing on the iPhone 15.
Silent Features
Having a phone constantly make noise is not only a bother to you, but it can disturb those around you. It may not necessarily be your phone begging for your attention, but the apps you use all of the time. Social apps, games, and more need you to be using them. Do they not understand that you need a break once in a while, or in some cases, all the time? With the iPhone’s silent feature, you can easily turn off all of the unnecessary noises. Just the click of a button and you are noise free. However, there are different steps you can take to completely achieve peace and quiet.
Notifications No More
How many apps are on your phone? With all of those apps, come endless notifications. However, a quick trip to the notification settings can solve this. It may seem like a lot of work, but going through each individual app and setting up notification preferences will save you in the long run. Only allowing apps like iMessage, Facetime, Phone App, and Reminders to send you alerts. Limiting notifications to these 4 apps will allow you to live an undisturbed lifestyle. Every time you open your phone up to unlock it, you will not have to see alerts about how someone updated their timeline on Facebook.
Silent Alerts
Say you like the idea of turning off all your notifications, but maybe that is not applicable to your lifestyle. You need to have noises for things like calls or texts. Activating the vibration feature might help you out. It may not be easily found at first, but under sounds, checking “None” will activate the vibration notification and you can change the vibration type under haptics. You can turn it on “Quick”, so it is just a short vibration to let you know someone sent a text. Of course, everyone’s preferences are different so select the feature best for you.
Please Do Not Disturb
We have all heard something similar to, turning off electronics one hour before bed helps us sleep better. With the iPhone’s “Focus” feature, we can achieve this in a different way. Getting rid of unwanted notifications during portions of the day. Within this feature you can set up different times of the day whether it be for work or sleep, to not be disturbed. In addition, it can be customized in a way to only allow certain people to be able to contact you. Like certain family or friends that might need to contact you in case of an emergency. However, strategically enabling your “Focus” time will help you stay focused on the people around you, the work you are doing, or winding down for the day.
Overall, notifications can affect each of us in different ways. Maybe, you do not know how they are affecting you until they are gone. Give the Silent Phone Test a trial run and see how it treats you. Or if you are interested in learning more phone tips, visit our blog. In addition, if you do not already have an iPhone and wish to take advantage of these features, visit one of our locations and see what phone and plan works best for you!
Jun 3, 2024
A journey implies there are options as to what path to take. I have not found one formula to navigate growth that fits all situations. It depends on the context of the situation, and always involves making a choice. Moreover, with all the uncertainty that comes with it, we need to adapt as we grow forth.
The destination implies something different; that there is only one destination. Which would indicate only one way to get there. Being fixated on one destination can hinder our creativity and limit what can be achieved.
“Be patient with yourself. You are growing stronger every day. The weight of the world will become lighter . . . and you will begin to shine brighter. Don’t give up.” —Robert Tew
Navigating Growth’s Diverse Journey
To navigate growth is a challenge. The challenge is when we are given a goal or objective, like “To provide the best wireless experience to every customer, every time”, or “Care for every person”, or “Be the best version of yourself”; how do we respond? Are we fixated on the outcome or are we open to the possibilities in the moment?
Let us be real, each new day is a new opportunity to achieve. I contend no one wakes up wanting to fail. For most of us, we start our day with varying degrees of hope, optimism and a desire to do the best we can. We have initiatives to own, and problems to solve. Even with clarity within our organization, there are no guarantees of the outcome. We win some, make mistakes, learn lessons, adjust, and still keep trying. Growth, like life, will always have varying degrees of success and failure. We figure it out as we go, and each moment is the next step in our journey.
Insights Gained from Navigating Growth
If we believe only in the destination, it can limit our overall experience. We may rigidly follow one path with blinders on and miss all the little moments along the way. In a state of impatience when things are not going our way, we may find ourselves putting a square peg into a round hole. All of this makes up what is known as a fixed mindset.
On the other hand, when we understand that journeys can be flexible, we might encounter new experiences, learn valuable lessons, or even surpass expectations. Having an open mindset expands our opportunities, deepens our understanding, and broadens our possibilities. We may even build confidence by becoming adaptable as we grow forward. This is known as a growth mindset.
When you and I stand at the crossroads, we will think about our choice. Will we strain to see as far as we can, imaging the destination, and the way to get there? Or will we look down at our feet, and take a step forward, curious and excited about a new journey to take?
Embracing the Fluidity of Growth
Questions to take away and consider:
- Firstly, how do you navigate growth in your professional and personal life?
- Secondly, does growth happen to you, or do you embrace and engage in the opportunities to grow?
- Additionally, do you see growth as an outcome or a never-ending experience of ‘decide-do-learn-keep doing-keep learning’?
- Ultimately, how do you measure growth?
In the realm of growth, embracing the journey over fixating on the destination fosters a mindset of exploration, adaptation, and continual learning, revealing not just what we achieve, but who we become along the way. Want to learn more perspectives about growth and leadership? Visit our podcast or visit one of our locations.
