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A Special Thank You to Russell Cellular Team Members Everywhere!
Russell Cellular cares for its employees year-round and especially today – National Employee Appreciation Day 2026.
“Care for every person.” This approach to life and business is our philosophy and behavior based on the Golden Rule. It’s been the keystone of Russell Cellular, from its storied founding by Jeff and Kym Russell, through three-plus decades of impressive growth under innovative leadership. Caring makes all the difference, to our customers, our employees, and to families and communities benefiting across the country.
Even before the Customer Experience is discussed during on-boarding, Russell Cellular promises, and delivers, an Employee Experience meant to bring out their best by offering the best:
Team (to work with fellow professionals in places where RC’s values are lived)
Russell Cellular’s guiding principle of “care for every person” is a true benefit to employees. The company shows trust in individuals’ potential. Care is taken to invest in each person’s career development, with hands-on experience with personalized training to maximize potential, and unrivaled opportunities for advancement within the company.
All employees have access to helpful personal services through a generous third-party Employee Assistance Program, for legal advice, budgeting help, mental health counseling, and much more. Through RC Cares, the philanthropic and charitable causes the company supports often include direct financial assistance to team members facing unfortunate or emergency situations. Caring makes all the difference.
Because “The best wireless experience to every customer, every time” is Russell Cellular’s singular mission, it emphasizes “care for every person” in employee training on day one. It isn’t just a business strategy; it’s an attitude that everyone can win if we care enough to help.
Employees adopting a caring attitude often find their kindness and support reciprocated by their teammates and rewarded by repeat customers. That’s a “win” for everyone!
So today, we celebrate the heart of our company. The people who make everything possible. Our incredible employees! Your dedication, creativity, and commitment to our customers and our communities shape who we are and who we strive to be. Thank you for showing up, supporting one another, and bringing your best every day.
These four words pass through people’s minds more than we probably could ever imagine. How could I make a difference? Let me explain. You’re scrolling through social media and comes upon a post about a family that just lost everything in a house fire. You’re moved by the situation but then you think, “someone will help them”. You walk into a store and see that location is raising support for a young child that is battling cancer. You listen to the employee share about how the child is needing treatments and the family needs help with expenses to travel back and forth. Same thing; You’re moved by the situation but then think, “someone will help them”. I would say if we are all honest, we have all thought this at some point in our life.
Now let me first say I’m not “coming down on” anyone. I’ve been there. I have been the person thinking these four words. I have been the one that saw the need, was moved by the need, and then absolutely knew in the moment I was supposed to do what I could to help meet that need only to walk away thinking “someone will help them”. Let me also say with 100% certainty that we can’t meet every need. There’s no way any one person has the time or the resources to be able to invest in every single situation. I get that!
Ask yourself this question: Am I doing what I CAN to make a difference when I CAN? And really, this can be broken down into two questions. What CAN I do? When CAN I do it?
What CAN I do to make a difference?
So many times I think people base this answer on how others are helping in a situation. For example, you hear of someone who gave a family $1,000 to help them after they lost everything in a house fire. You are moved by their situation and honestly would love to help but you think “well, I can’t give that much so can I really make a difference?” To a family that’s lost everything, $1,000 is a lot of help. But so is $20, $10, or even $5. Or maybe it’s cooking a meal to take to take away the stress of wondering how or when the next meal might come. Or maybe it’s simply stopping by to check on this family, letting them know they are not alone. What I CAN do will never be about what someone else does!
When CAN I do it?
The simple answer to this question…when you feel led to. Again, no one can meet every need. That’s unrealistic to say the least. But we all know that feeling. That feeling in our heart that says “I need to help” or “I have to do something”. And I can promise you that when you get this feeling, you will have what you need to be able to help the way that you can. Maybe that will be in the form of a big check. Or it’s just rounding your change up to the nearest dollar to give to a fundraiser. Maybe you’re in the drive thru line for your lunch and you decide to pay for the person behind you. Or maybe it’s simply giving your time to someone who just needs YOU to notice, to listen, and to care.
Every day at Russell Cellular, our RC Cares team challenges our company to look for the needs around them and then do what we CAN, when we CAN to help meet those needs. I always ask our team members to make sure and look with their eyes AND their heart. With our eyes we can see the need and together with our heart we do what we CAN to help meet that need.
How Russell Cellular has made a difference:
Recently, District Sales Manager Monica Turner and her team learned of Kye Hyatt. Kye is a young boy who was recently diagnosed with a brain tumor and is having to undergo multiple surgeries and treatments. Added travel and medical expenses were adding up and Kye and his family needed help. They didn’t ask for it in any way, Monica and her team simply saw a need and decided to do what they could to help meet that need raising over $3,200 to support this family.
At about the same time, District Sales Manager Jason Foster and his team learned of a need of the students of Clifford Nowlin Middle School in Independence, MO. There were kids that needed coats to help stay warm. So Jason and his team raised almost $1500 to purchase coats for these students.
Both Monica and Jason’s teams saw a need and they decided to do what they could do to help meet those needs. Not because they were asked to. Not for any type of recognition. They chose to do this simply to make a difference in someone’s life…and so they did!
So the next time you see someone in need, instead of just thinking “someone will help them”, ask yourself this question. Am I doing what I CAN to make a difference when I CAN? If you will answer it in the right way, lives WILL be changed…one of which will be yours! #careforeveryperson
On April 13, 2023, just before 7:00pm CST, Russell Cellular hit $1,000,000 raised through our RC Cares program. One million dollars! That seems crazy for me to just say those words. Don’t get me wrong, it’s a milestone I knew we could and would hit eventually. I actually set a goal of reaching that mark in 5 years. We started that journey in July of 2018 selling RC Cares Products, taking donations from customers and actually donating to both projects and our Employee Emergency Fund ourselves and with over 2 months to spare here we are celebrating reaching this goal.
Russell Cellular Cares
The heart of Russell Cellular has always been to give back, to our RC family, to our customers and the many communities we serve all across this country. Not for sales, not for recognition, but just to simply make a difference in people’s lives. Jeff and Kym Russell have made this a staple since beginning this journey almost 30 years ago. In fact, before I started my journey working for the RC Family, the Russell Family was investing in outreach projects my wife and I were leading in our hometown of Ava, Missouri. One in particular was the school supply project we helped start several years ago. Everyone knows how expensive school supplies can be, especially for parents that have multiple children in school. My wife Lacey had it on her heart to help so we launched a supply drive to help elementary kids and their families in our community. The very first year we approached Jeff Russell about helping us. He donated $500 and we thought that was the most amazing thing. That first year, between Russell Cellular and our church, we provided school supplies for 50 kids. For the next 11 years RC was always our largest investor, donating thousands of dollars over that time and what started as RC and one church providing supplies for 50 kids turned into RC leading over 50 businesses and individuals supplying school supplies to thousands of students from multiple schools in southwest Missouri year after year.
Projects From the Heart
This is just one example and trust me when I say I could share so many more. This is the heart of our company because this is the heart of our owners and our leaders. And again, we don’t have to do any of this…We get to! Since July of 2018 we have hosted over 1600 Russell Cellular Cares outreach projects that have impacted thousands of lives by providing both financial support through the money we raised as well as showing the heart of Russell Cellular by caring for and supporting those in need. We have invested in students and teachers and school districts, active military and veterans. We’ve been able to support families going through tragedy, individuals battling serious illness and local organizations trying to better their community. We have helped build homes through Habitat for Humanity, helped provided Christmas for kids and families through Toys for Tots and volunteered our time in countless locations across our country. During this we have supported 498 RC Team Members through our Employee Emergency Fund giving, helping team members who have lost their homes to fires and natural disasters, team members who have battled cancer and faced emergency medical situations, team members who have lost immediate family members, and helped the families of our RC team members who passed away during this time.
Inspiring Those Around Us
Now please know, I don’t say of this to say, “look at what we’ve done”. We don’t do any of this for recognition. I say all of this to both inspire and challenge you. People can be difference makers if they truly want to. And that doesn’t always depend on how much money you raise or the number of zeros on a check. Yes, we raised $1,000,000. Yes, that’s an amazing thing. And while yes, we did have some bigger projects during that time that raised a lot of money, the majority of that amount came from a few hundred dollars here and a few hundred dollars there. It came from $1 donations from our customers, as well as team members donating $2 a month to our Employee Emergency Fund. See, more times than not, it’s not about the money at all. Yes, it helps no doubt, but the most important thing will always be that someone took the time to notice a need and then made a commitment to do whatever they could to help meet that need. Maybe that does involve a financial donation. Maybe it involves donating your time. And maybe it just involves you being present in someone’s life that needs you to just simply be there.
Brayden’s Fight
When I think about the $1,000,000 we raised, honestly, I don’t think about the money. I think about the faces of those we raised it for. I think about the families that were impacted. Like young Brayden in the picture below. Brayden is in the fight for his life, battling a rare form of stomach cancer. District Sales Manager, Audrianna Ediger and Regional Director, Krissa Shewey rallied their region to support Brayden and his family on his journey. Yes, they raised over $3,000 for his family and that is amazing! But more than that, they noticed. They noticed Brayden was in a fight and they decided to fight with him. They decided to do what they could to help Brayden with his need and that is worth far more than any check ever will be.
Sometime today or at least in the very near future you will be faced with an opportunity. Someone you know or come in contact with will have a need. The question is what will you do to help meet that need? As Audrianna said, “Together, through one small act of kindness at a time, we can change the world.” I’d say we all believe that to be true. But it’s when we put that belief into action that real differences are made. Give it a try! I can promise you lives will be changed in the process…one of which will be yours!
“Investing only in yourself gives you the opportunity to change one person. Investing in others at the same time gives you the opportunity to change ‘your’ world.”
This was a quote I came up with several years ago. It has become a staple in how I try to live daily. To break it down, it’s about investing in my life while at the same time investing in others. One problem I found several years ago was that just choosing to invest in one or the other, was leaving so many opportunities on the table. Not only become a better person, but also help someone else do the same.
For example, I unapologetically invest in my own life. Whether it’s learning, growing, or simply shutting down and getting away, I intend to become a better leader, a better husband, a better father, and a better friend. Honestly just a better person. When I do this successfully, then my goal to change in a positive way is met. If I only choose to invest in myself all the time, then I miss an even greater opportunity to help others as well.
Coin Toss
Flip the coin. If spend all my time investing in other people, I might see lives changed around me, but eventually I will begin to suffer. Which will ultimately lead to no investments being made at all. Let’s be honest, we live in a time where the message of “I” and “me” have escalated above the message of “we”. Now trust me, I work hard at becoming a better version of “me” and you should too! But when we choose to invest only in ourselves, what have done to help create a better world around us?
Russell Cellular Leaders
We have some great leaders at Russell Cellular and we spend much of our time and resources providing opportunities for them to invest in themselves, growing not only as leaders but also as individuals. It’s vital and it’s essential. At the same time we spend our energy and resources making sure that those same leaders are investing in others, caring for every person, for the sole purpose of making a difference our world. One of many examples comes from Regional Director Kevin Ropell’s team. Every single day his leaders are investing in themselves as individuals to become better in every way they can. Whether it’s training, role plays, or simply conversations amongst themselves. They are doing what it takes to become a better “me”.
Investment
That investment has paid off, leading them to become the #1 region in our company last year. At the same time, every single day this same group of “me’s” chooses to be “we” and invest in others around them. Since July of 2018 Kevin’s team has raised over $135,000 to support community outreach projects nationwide. They have helped build homes, worked with Toys for Tots, and helped small families who are dealing with emergency and tragic situations. As well as fellow RC team members facing life-altering situations of their own. In the picture below, they recently chose to support families through the Springfield Ronald McDonald House. Raising over $10,000 to provide emergency lodging and care for families who have children facing incredibly serious medical situations. Choosing to change their world by investing in themselves and investing in others at the same time.
Today, I believe you will be given the opportunity to invest in yourself. To change your life for the better in whatever way you choose. Make the most of it because you are worth it! I also believe you will be given the opportunity to invest in others at the same time. Make the most of it because others are worth it! Do both simultaneously and “your” world will change which means lives will be changed…one of which will be yours!
“Little things can make the biggest difference in people’s lives.” I’ve said this for years and seen the truth of this statement lived out more times than I can count. It’s because of those occurrences that I am the way I am today.
Outreach in Nicaragua
The photos below are from one of many outreach trips I’ve have had the honor of taking to the country of Nicaragua.
We were working in a village in the mountains outside of Matagalpa. The little boy in the first picture saw that I had a phone and came up to me. He wanted me to take a picture with him. This led to other kids running up from all over the village and wanting their pictures taken too. As you can see from the smiles in the second picture, they were very excited. Something as simple as taking a picture from a cell phone made a difference in their life that day.
Joy Manipulated
I think it’s safe to say that most of us aren’t impacted in this same way by a picture from a phone. I mean, buy us a new car, a new boat, or drop $100 in a birthday card and we might get excited and smile for the camera. But just a simple picture…not sure we would run all the way across our “village” for a quick snapshot.
We live in a world that has manipulated what we think it takes to bring us joy and make a difference in our lives. Because of that, it has changed the way we invest in others. It’s almost like if we can’t do something “big” then is it worth doing anything at all? I can promise you that this way of thinking causes us to miss so many opportunities to truly make a difference in “our” world.
Local Outreach
For the second year in a row, our home office team came together to provide small gifts and personalized cards for residents of local nursing homes for Valentine’s Day. Warm, fuzzy socks and simple Valentine’s Day cards were delivered by my team members Brittany Russell and Gavin Goss to residents here in the Springfield, MO community. For some, this may seem like a small and rather insignificant gesture. Although to the residents the fact that they were being thought of and celebrated on a day, where to be honest most wouldn’t, brought smiles to faces—where maybe one hadn’t been in quite some time. It didn’t cost a lot of money. There wasn’t any hoopla surrounding the event itself. It was simply taking the time to share our hearts in a way that made a difference in their day.
I don’t share either story above in a way that says, “look at me or look at what we’ve done”. I’m as humble a person as you’ll find and need no recognition for anything. I share both of these stories to encourage and inspire you. Pictures, socks, cards, encouraging messages, smiles, or just your time. The little things will make the biggest differences when they are given directly from your heart. And in the process, lives will be changed…one of which will be yours!
For the last 25 plus years I have spent most of my time investing in others. Whether that’s involved one on one care, helping people with relationship issues, working alongside others on outreach projects, or serving and investing in others, it is just a huge part of my life. I can honestly say that I start every day with a purpose of not only looking for the needs of others that I might encounter, but also committed to doing what I can, when given the opportunity to make a difference in a need. I also spend much of my day inspiring others to do the same thing.
Dictionary definition of the word Inspire.
Committed to Recognizing Needs
At Russell Cellular, the RC Cares mission is to make sure we are committed to recognizing the needs around us. Then doing what we can to help meet those needs, for the sole purpose of making a positive impact in someone’s life. Sometimes that involves raising financial support and sometimes it’s about raising awareness to a specific cause or need. Sometimes that has involved getting out into our communities and serving with our hands and feet. While sometimes it just involves stopping long enough to listen to team member share their current struggle. The biggest part of this all isn’t so much how we respond to the need, it’s the fact that we simply chose to respond and did what we could to help in the moment. It’s important and it matters more than we could ever know.
Person holding hands out with make a change note.
Lesson Learned
At the same time, there is something we have to be careful of when a life of serving others becomes the life we choose to live. I have learned this over the many years of this being my life, and usually, learned the hard way. This lesson is something that I also echo to not only our teams here at Russell Cellular but also to the many others I get the humble honor of leading and teaching every week. That lesson…make sure while you are taking care of others, you are also taking care of yourself. It’s easy to get so caught up in the awesomeness of investing in others that we lose sight of the fact that we can wear down in the process, losing our focus. We might still see the needs around us, but we are so tired we just don’t do anything about them.
5 Year Accomplishments
At Russell Cellular, over the past 5 years, our teams have been a part of over 1,000 outreach projects and have raised nearly one million dollars to support those projects. We have logged thousands of volunteer hours helping build and remodel homes. Served at community events like American Heart Association Heart Walks, blood drives, and school functions. We have served at homeless shelters, outreach centers, 5k runs, and even the St. Jude Marathon. We have spent time with crying team members, hurting customers, and even the random stranger that we just “happened” to run into. All this while working our normal jobs, taking care of our families, and honestly sometimes just trying to make it ourselves. As awesome as all this is, if we lose ourselves in the process, we will begin to lose the impact we are making as well.
A line of runners racing during a 5K race.
A Challenge for You
Something tells me you can relate. If you can, then this challenge is for you. Keep your heart and your eyes open for the needs around you. Do what you can to help meet those needs. Serve and give all you can for the sole purpose of making a difference in someone’s life. And in the process, never forget to invest in one of the most important people in your life…YOU! There will be times you need to rest. Times you need to disconnect, and times you just need to get away to spend a moment for YOU. Recharge, regroup, and then reconnect. You will be better because you did. I can promise you; lives will be changed in the process…one of which will be yours!
