May 19, 2026
As a District Sales Manager, Muhammad brings a leadership perspective shaped by his own journey through Russell Cellular – from new hire to leader. His experience reflects the impact of strong onboarding, supportive leadership, and a culture built on growth. He shares these reflections in his own words:
Looking back, I remember well what it was like to be new at Russell Cellular – but now, as a District Sales Manager, I can clearly see how impactful that experience truly was.
From day one, my onboarding felt both supportive and structured. The leadership team made sure I had the resources, guidance, and training needed to succeed, but what stood out most was the collaborative environment – everyone genuinely wants to help each other improve and win together.
One of the reasons I was drawn to RC was its reputation for growth and its family-like culture, where hard work doesn’t go unnoticed. That became real for me almost immediately. Building relationships early on helped me learn quickly, ask better questions, and develop trust with the people around me.
Now, in my role as a leader, I try to create that same experience for others.
If I could give one piece of advice to new hires, it would be this: be coachable. Ask questions, take feedback seriously, and focus on building strong habits early. Most importantly, stay aligned with our mission – delivering the best wireless experience to every customer, every time.
If you stay consistent, keep a positive attitude, and take care of your customers, the results will follow.
#Verizon #5G #LTE #Fiber #RussellCellular #BetterTogether #Perspective
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May 12, 2026
Russell Cellular Regional Director Nick Nuñez writes:
As a leader, I’ve been fortunate to see firsthand the kind of impact we can make when we lead with purpose.
That mindset really took shape for me in 2025 when I was a District Sales Manager. For six months, our district ranked #1 in RC Cares sales – not because of a number we were chasing, but because we focused on causes that were personal to our team.
One of those causes is especially close to me – dog rescue. I’ve always loved dogs (I have seven of my own – 13 if you count fosters), and I was able to rally my district around supporting a local foster program. Together, we raised over $6,000 through RC Cares.
That effort turned into something even bigger. Not long after, I drove 41 rescue dogs to Canada in a van that had been repaired using RC Cares funds – helping them reach their forever homes. It was a 60-hour journey from Friday morning to Sunday evening, with just one stop to shower – but it’s something I’ll never forget.
We also supported causes closer to home. When a team member’s mother was diagnosed with a rare form of cancer and could no longer work during treatment, our district came together to raise more than $3,400 to support their family.
Moments like these are why RC Cares matters. It’s not just about raising money – it’s about creating real impact for people and communities we care about.
A lot of that inspiration comes from leaders like (RC Cares Director) Ron Wallace and (Regional Director of Sales) Jeremy Willams. They lead with generosity and heart, and they’ve helped shape how I approach giving back – making it personal, meaningful, and something our teams can truly rally behind.
#Verizon #5G #LTE #Fiber #RussellCellular #BetterTogether #RCCares #Purpose
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May 1, 2026
Turning Hard Tasks Into Growth
I offered this in a conversation with someone I am mentoring. They were lamenting about the difficulty of doing this specific task. As they shared their process, they seemed stuck in only one way to do it, and they couldn’t get past a mental wall they had created in getting it done.
Their focus struck me as misdirected. They seemed to place all their focus on the task. The task seemed to be their tripping point each day. It was hard. It just seemed impossible to do.
Ok, I get it: a task can be hard to do. Until it isn’t. We eventually figure it out. Another thing, two people can look at and engage in the same task. For one, it’s hard. For the other, it’s easy. Same task. What’s the difference?
It’s NOT Rocket Science.
I have used this idiom before, and it especially strikes a nerve with team members who may struggle with specific tasks. The meaning of the saying is obvious. It defines a task or concept as simple, easy to understand, and not complex. It is used to reassure us that this requires little specialized knowledge, often implying that a task should be easy to complete.
Easy is relative, though, isn’t it? Whatever the job or industry, all tasks come with their own brand of easy and hard. So, our response in qualifying what we get to do will always be subjective, personal, and dependent on experience, perspective, and circumstance.
Maybe our challenge is engaging others, asking a question or two, or closing the sale. Why? Why is this particular task hard? Or why is it hard for me and not for someone else? Or what’s the root cause underneath my saying this, feeling it, or realizing whatever the adjective is what it is?
My advice would be to start with some curiosity – ask why. Before we make it “rocket science”, let’s figure out if we are really unpacking the science of rocketry or merely doing whatever it is consistently and with purpose.
Easy Things Should Be Easy, and Hard Things Should Be Possible.
Let’s be real, the goal is to make hard or difficult tasks easier and to find the best and most efficient ways to make that happen. However, sometimes we choose easy or easier because we want to avoid the hard or difficult stuff. Call it the path of least resistance. Why choose that?
Well, it can be a couple of things. It can be psychological and behavioral tendencies to prioritize comfort, simplicity, and no pushback over labor-intensive, high-risk alternatives. We may want to minimize physical or mental exertion. Sometimes it’s our hardwiring. Our brain favors known, repetitive behaviors over the mental effort of decision-making and overcoming challenges when things get hard. And face it, sometimes we just get lazy, and easy trumps hard.
Imagine a wall. An obstacle that can trip us up. A thing to overcome and keeps us from our mission of getting to the other side. We can go over it, around it, or even through it. Or we could take the easy way out…turn around and walk away. The thing is, the other side is our mission. It will require intentional effort. Therefore, hard will be our pathway to achievement. With pain comes gain.
Bottom line, if easy is easy…fine, let it be so. If what we have is hard and it needs to be hard, don’t choose the comfortable path. Choosing this path can lead to wasted potential, mediocrity, and avoiding necessary personal growth. Acknowledge the task as hard, accept the challenge, and resolve to overcome the extra effort and do the next right thing.
Remember, Simple Doesn’t Mean Easy.
Essentially, this suggests a task or concept can be straightforward, clear, and uncomplicated to understand, yet still require immense effort, discipline, or even flexibility to execute. The challenge seems to lie between the simplicity of understanding and ease of execution. It still begs the question, what makes tasks perceived as ‘hard’ easy or at least easier?
Case in point: I have been with team members who shy away from doing specific tasks as part of their selling routine. Why? They say it’s hard. I wonder is the task too hard or the fear too great? Is it doubt? Is it that they’re uncomfortable to make happen? Because it doesn’t appear to be the task itself. It seems like it is more a skillset-thing. Maybe even a mindset-thing. Either way, the task doesn’t change.
Well, to be fair, yes, tasks can go through change. Maybe they alter due to new or better efficiencies or pivot in direction and focus. Even though it’s still an expectation, the next step is how we get it done. The change we bring into the next step is about the choice we make in how we engage our ability and attitude – our approach.
And that was my challenge and encouragement to the team members. First, find a different “why” – you may need to reframe the question and change your attitude about the answer. Next, take it apart. Break it down into smaller tasks or steps. Rearrange them if needed. Then, study what’s in front of you. Seek to better understand and learn from different perspectives, like asking someone else about their approach. And then, put it back together and engage in it one thing at a time. With a dedicated focus, we’ll find the task doesn’t change its being-ness, we change our doing-ness.
Today, the main thing is to keep it simple. Yes, things can and will be hard to do. BUT, when we invest in them and improve our skillset and mindset to do them, with time and commitment, they become easier. The task AND our ability to do it.
If you’re looking to move from simple to easy, and easy to easier, consider the following questions.
- Define easy, or hard, or any other adjective that comes to mind.
- Where and when does it typically show up in your day-to-day?
- Is this task part of our routine or something we’ve never done before?
- What have you done to better understand and become knowledgeable about it?
- What’s the real issue – the task or our attitude about the task?
#Verizon #5G #LTE #Fiber #RussellCellular #BetterTogether #LeadershipMatters
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Apr 17, 2026
Regional Director of Sales Bill Funcheon has a proven track record of success in his first six months with Russell Cellular. In January, Verizon’s Atlantic North market recognized his team, among other RC teams in the market, as the January agent of the month.
Bill knows success comes from within. He begins each workday the previous night by looking over assessments of his team’s performance, which helps him decide which store he will visit the following morning.
There is a variety in Bill’s field work, from conflict mediation to showering deserving stores with praise to hiring new District Sales Managers. Bill’s self-motivation is what propels him through the day, and RC encourages this, helping him grow after he left a different company. “Self-motivation is being a part of a company like RC,” he says. “The history, the family ownership, the family mindset – when I chose what my next job was going to be back in September, that was super important to me.”
He chooses to instill these same values in his team. “Folks see potential in you, and they think you can do more; they want you to do more,” he says. “You want to be in an environment where, constructively, you can be challenged and you can grow. All those are true here at Russell.”
#Verizon #5G #LTE #Fiber #RussellCellular #BetterTogether #CareerHere #WTGBill
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Mar 2, 2023
I see you.
This is one of those lines from a movie that sticks. It’s from the James Cameron 2009 sci-fi film, Avatar. Simply said, this movie has many layers of allegory. One hidden in plain sight is that its indigenous inhabitants, the Na’vi, have a saying, “I see you”. It’s more than just the physical seeing-ness. It’s deeper. A sign of respect, and conveys that the one sharing the greeting values the one receiving it.
I have seen a version of this in the workplace. One of my peers uses the phrase, “I appreciate you”. When I first experienced her using this, I have to say, I heard it and lifted an eyebrow. It sounded a little cheesy. And then I saw her face, and how she delivered it. She offered it with absolute regard, respect, intention, and wholeheartedness. It floored me. What a tremendous way to share value with the people we work with. Every day I do my best to use it the same way as my peer: to genuinely share appreciation for others.
Employers need to see their employees. They need to appreciate the value they bring to the health and well-being of the organization and the day-to-day performance. And the employees need to do the same. We are not higher or lower; at least, we shouldn’t be. Instead, we are alongside one another. We need to see and appreciate each other and lift up the value we provide both ways.
This series has been a follow-up to the series that came before it. The Great Realization series elevated the employee’s point of view and looked at the job along the path of the employee’s life cycle. The Why People Stay series was the perspective of the employer and what leadership can do to engage and invest in making the employee experience matter.
At this point, the two perspectives converge. The job, and how each of them has influence. Here are five places where convergence matters.
1. Cause
Purpose should never be one-sided. The argument may be that it’s up to the organization to establish the mission of the business. I contend when the mission is fully shared, and everyone has a stake in the value proposition, that’s when performance takes off. I have always said if the goal identifies profitability as the only measurable, then the business suffers. The job has to have purpose, and every team member has to feel like they are contributing to the greater good. Beyond the business and into the communities they serve, the teams must feel like they are all striving to somehow make a difference. This isn’t anti-capitalism, or that paying attention to the bottom line is bad. Profit is still a goal. Just not the only goal.
2. Clarity
One of the most effective ways to ensure people are thriving in their job is to ensure that the expectations given are clearly defined and communicated. Ever been told to do something and not told how, or maybe even more importantly, why? How’d the success go? How successful was the business when everyone tried their best to figure it out inconsistently as they worked through the day? The simple approach here…when something needs to be done…state clearly, what, why, especially how, and to what extent. If I’m the leader, what’s the gap? If I’m the team member, same question.
3. Coaching
Feedback, insight, advice, and correction are all gifts. And when there is a defined and regular time when all leaders and team members can talk about the job, people get better. Relationships get better, and that impacts the business. If I know I get to talk regularly about what’s happening, why, and how, then we move forward together toward success, and control is elevated. Even if the conversations are about failure, as well as success and keeping things real, then I feel like I’m growing with others. Not just trying to do my best, isolated, and on an island doing my own thing.
4. Connection
What are the ways we all come together? Is it team meetings? Is it the platform where everyone communicates? How are we plugging everyone into the flow and direction of the organization? Live streams, summits, virtual platforms, collaboration sessions, and team-building opportunities? Leaders and team members thrive when they get to connect. It’s not just the information or nature of the business, it’s the power of community. Peer-to-peer engagement makes everyone better.
5. Culture
The bottom line, everything flows downstream from culture. Belief, especially collective belief, is a fuel for organizational health and well-being. It stimulates drive, innovation, ownership, empowerment, and a sense of belonging. We are all walking the same path together doing what we do in our jobs, or we’re in silos doing our own thing. Call it family. Call it being part of a clan or tribe. Are we better together or just doing the best we can, as we can, separately?
The constant will always be the job. Selling the product. Managing the inventory. Taking care of the billing and cash receivables. Ensuring the technology is working. Each job with a specific function. It’s the variables, though, that make the job worth doing or can make it feel like a day-to-day grind. All the things put into place to support the leaders guiding it and the team members getting it done. It’s the value we place on it being done, and being seen as valuable doing it.
Why People Stay and the Great Realization are saying the same thing, albeit from two different perspectives. The job is important, but it’s not the main thing. It’s how we apply meaning to what we do and how we do it…as a leader and as a team member. And the greatest part of the journey, whether it’s getting an employee to stick around or realizing what’s important in our career, is ultimately how we get closer to figuring out who we are and who we are becoming.
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Feb 14, 2023
Visualize the Future
After so much has gone into establishing our job and all of the efforts along the way in our employee life cycle, we do reach a place where we start to see something take shape in our future steps. Maybe it’s a snapshot into the future about how we plan to grow into the organization. Maybe it’s feeling like, “Now that I know what I know, I am ready to take a step into a new direction, doing something completely different.” Or maybe, the future looks like exactly where you are, developing your influence, and investing in the job culture and the people around you. If and when you realize it’s not a job, but start envisioning it as a career path, you start to treat the job a little differently.
Let’s go back a bit. Have you ever been asked, “Where do you see yourself in five years?” I have never been a fan of that question. Not about its intention; I understand that. It’s more so about how hard it is to answer. We live in an immediate gratification current scene, and seeing what we may want to be doing in one year, let alone five, can seem daunting.
If we have started the job, fully engaged in it, and leveraged to grow ourselves in our position, it stands to reason our confidence in the future elevates. And when that elevates, so does our ability to see, even a little bit more clearly, what we see ourselves doing. This job, maybe another job, creating a new job, tapping into our passion, being entrepreneurial, or encouraging others in their path…it’s all possible.
Asking the Question
Two types of questions; internal and external. One that challenges what we need to do next or what we want to evolve in ourselves and the job. In a way, it’s unpacking the five-year question of where we are. The next is the one we ask our boss about how they see us evolving. This might be a tough question to ask; either there’s nothing obvious or maybe you don’t want to seem pushy or ungrateful. It’s about growth and pushing your capabilities…they need to know your interest and drive.
Crafting Your Brand
How do you see yourself and how do you want to be seen? When time, tenure, and confidence elevate, I contend, this is when you start to stretch. You need to stretch and begin defining who you are, who you are becoming, and what gifts and value propositions you offer. Personally speaking, after doing the consulting and facilitation thing for a while, I began to see my niche. I began to craft the best things and greatest attributes I could offer others focused on that. Turned “I can deliver anything and everything you want” into “I deliver this and will provide value here”. I branded my strengths.
Mentoring Others
I believe the true test of competency and confidence is when it is seen by others, and they ask, “How would you handle this?” Or “I’d like to pick your brain about how you have done ‘x’…tell me about your story.” I also believe there is time in your job when it’s time to develop others; either out of necessity (succession planning for the next-gen) or out of a heart to help others and lift them up (servant leadership, even if you’re not a leader by title). Either way, our future may be about others so they also can begin to envision the future.
Taking a Small Step
We’ve tagged taking risks in an earlier share. Well, that is also a prominent aspect of envisioning forward. To see yourself doing something – maybe something untried, unexpected, or unbelievable, and then taking a small step of action to start doing it. Maybe it’s something you are passionate about, and then aligning it with your job. Or maybe it’s taking some research of interest and applying it to your day-to-day. It could be presenting a case study to expand what you do. Just to see what happens next.
Painful Realization
The reality is, we may very well come to the belief and understanding that it’s time to move on. While yes, the impression is, if we do all these things in the employee life cycle, we will become one with our current job, that is not always the case. We may conclude, it is time to move on to the next chapter of our professional journey. And, by the way, it may not be such a bad thing for all parties, just a necessary one.
You know, I wasn’t sure what to call this episode. What comes after leveraging and expanding our job? Then a colleague shared a word: envision. The definition…to imagine a future possibility. To visualize or expect something to happen, appear, etc. in a particular way. Envisioning the job, more specifically, seeing the future seemed to make sense.
Five years seems like such a long time. And yet, think about the last two years, and all that has happened. What might we have said about our job before COVID and all the ripples it created? Is it conceivable that all of that changed our trajectory and did it force us to realize what we really wanted and why? I am not sure if my five-year vision for the future changed, but how I engage in it has. At least, that’s how I see it.
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