Telling Someone You’re Lost Is As Easy As Two Taps

Being in a dangerous or uncomfortable situation is a frightening experience. With adrenaline pumping through your veins and the fight-or- flight response kicking in, it’s critical to make the right decision at the right time to keep yourself safe. If you’re lost and you can feel yourself start to panic, take a deep breath and calmly pull out your phone or Apple Watch.
With Virtual Halo, your personal safety app, installed on these devices telling someone you’re lost and need help is as easy as two quick taps on the screen. Here’s how it works:

Check-In To Let Them Know You’re OK

If you’ve gone off the grid or you’re simply traveling away from home, Virtual Halo lets you send a quick, simple message to your preset list of emergency contacts that lets them know you’re okay. You can even opt to send your location for an extra sense of safety and security. In 2018 this feature is expanding to allow you to automatically check in with your contacts throughout the day, with the option to immediately notify them with your last known location if you do not respond.

Send an Instant SOS If You’re Not

On the other hand, if you are not okay and find that you’ve lost your way, sending an SOS is as easy as tap-tap on the screen of your phone or Apple Watch. Virtual Halo comes equipped with a panic button that will send an instant SOS notification to your emergency contacts that lets them know you’re in danger. This comes in handy when you’re lost, because it sends GPS coordinates of your last known location with the SOS so they can send help directly to you.

Go Adventuring with Confidence

Before your next adventure begins, be sure to plan ahead and download Virtual Halo to your devices. Having an Apple Watch on your wrist with the app ready to go is a quick and efficient way to send an SOS if you do happen to get lost. It’s an intuitive personal safety app designed with you in mind, so you can go adventuring confidently, and get help if you need it.

The Digital Karate For Your Personal Safety

You’re an adventure-seeker. You love the thrill of travel and you’re brimming with passion - passion for life, and passion for living. But with adventure often comes risk, no matter how big or small, so it’s important to keep yourself safe and secure.

One of the most efficient ways to keep yourself safe is with Virtual Halo, the digital karate for yourpersonal safety. Here’s how this easy-to- use app is keeping you and your loved ones safe, from the youngest adventurer to the most established traveler:

Virtual Halo is Reactive OR Pro-Active

With Virtual Halo on your side, you’re encouraged to experience the joy of life with peace of mind knowing you have access to help when you need it. The app is designed to stay in the background without giving anyone access to your personal information or location unless you want them to have it. But if you do need to ask for help, it’s as simple as a button click to send a push notification to an emergency contact of your choice.

It’s Simple and Efficient

With four different options, you can let your contact know how you are anytime, anywhere.

• SOS is a panic button. Use it to send an SOS notification along with your location to your emergency contacts to let them know you’re in danger.
• Check-in allows you to let your contacts know you’re safe.
• Going Out is a proactive alert. If you haven’t checked in after a preset activity and time, Virtual Halo will automatically send a message to your contacts along with your last known geographic location.
• I’m OK checks in on you throughout the day. If you’re not OK, or you don’t respond, Virtual Halo alerts your contacts and sends them your last known location. (Feature coming in 2018)

Personal Safety with a Kick

Next time you’re our adventuring, make sure you bring your cell phone with Virtual Halo downloaded, installed and ready to go. Strap on your Apple Watch for even quicker access to our safety app when you need it. It’s like having a digital karate master always by your side.

Keeping Your Real Estate Team Safe Is Easier Than You Think

Being on your own can be both exciting, and scary. This is especially true for real estate agents that are consistently meeting new home buyers and traveling to homes alone. How can you be sure that your real estate team is safe while they’re out doing what they do best? Follow these tips to keep them safe:

Keep a Schedule

Have each member of your team keep a schedule that shows open houses and meetings with home buyers in a collaborative calendar they can share with you and others. Make sure they include start and end times, details of whom they are meeting with and the address they will be at. This is a quick and simple way for you to keep tabs on your real estate team not only for business purposes, but for their safety. If anything were to happen, you would have an idea of where they were, when and who they may have been with.

Download the Virtual Halo App

Virtual Halo can really make a difference when it comes to keeping your real estate team safe – with no extra work for you or them. Simply have each member of the team download the app to their iPhone and they will have access to help quickly and easily if anything were to happen while they’re on the job. Virtual Halo provides personal security in the form of both alerts and monitoring and gives each member of your team complete control of their privacy. This allows them to decide what information is given out, but also grants them access to help when they need it. They’ll also be able to send quick check-ins while visiting homes or meeting with clients to let you, or loved ones, know they’re safe.

Keeping Your Team Safe

With modern technology, it’s easier than ever before to help keep your team safe. You know they’ll be using their iPhone and bringing them with them on location, so using an online calendar and downloading an app are both efficient ways to take advantage of this technology.

Basic Planning for a Hurricane

Step One - Create A Communications Plan
This can be done way in advance and always in place for when disaster strikes, not for just when hurricanes occur. Designate primary and secondary meeting points, discuss which social media posts you're going to post to to find one another if you become separated. Memorize each others mobile phone numbers. Designated a common family member of friend well removed from the geographic area that you can relay information through. Use a personal protection app like Virtual Halo so you can check in with each other and transmit your exact location (basic services are free). Keep your mobile phones charged and have spare battery chargers fully charged at all times.

Unlike tornadoes, Hurricane's give a little notice so potentially affected residents can take a little action to achieve maximum safety. Below are a group of tools recommended for you to use when preparing for a hurricane. Be safe out there... and good luck!

Everyone needs to be prepared for the unexpected. Your friends and family may not be together when disaster strikes. How will you find each other? Will you know if your children or parents are safe? You may have to evacuate or be confined to your home. What will you do if water, gas, electricity or phone services are shut off?

Step Two - Develop a Family Emergency Plan
This will include what to do during what type of disaster and should have provisions for when you're home and when you're traveling. Ready.gov had made planning a snap, visit their site here. Immediate steps to take include:

• How will I receive my warnings?

• What is my shelter plan?

• What is my evacuation route?

• What are the dietary needs of my household?

  • Get any provisions including batteries and flashlights that will be needed.

• What planning do you need to make for your pet(s)?

Step Three - Constantly Review the FEMA Evacuation Guidelines
And follow all directions given by local and state governments. Access FEMA Evacuation Guidelines here. 

When waiting out a storm, be careful, the danger may not be over yet when everything looks clear. Be alert for tornadoes - they are often spawned by hurricanes. Also, during the "eye" of the storm, it may seem like the storm is over, but it's not. Once the eye passes, the winds will pickup quickly and change directly back into hurricane force.

After the storm, wait until your area is declared safe by emergency management personnel before returning home. And remember, recovering from a natural disaster is often a gradual process. Good luck and be safe!

RESOURCES

• FEMA - Are You Ready? Guide

• National Weather Service Weather Safety

• Be a Force of Nature with NOAA's Weather-Ready Nation

• NWS Storm-Ready Sites & Communities

• Occupational Safety & Health Administration (OSHA)

• Ready.gov Kids

• American Red Cross

• In-Depth Guide to Financial Preparedness

Why You Should Always Let Someone Know Where You Are

Have you ever gotten lost?

It’s never a fun feeling. It happens to even the best outdoors people. And scientists now think that when we’re lost we do really walk in circles.

While it may not have been for a very long amount of time, most of us can remember getting temporarily turned around at some point. And if you do remember, you can likely recall the fear as well. But that fear shouldn’t deter anyone from enjoying adventure activities.

Venturing out hiking or camping, travelling across the country or foreign countries. It’s fun and a wonderful experience, but obviously it comes with risks. In such a mobile world, it’s critical to let people know where you are. Why? Because you never know what could happen. And it’s important to have a backup plan in case something happens.And it’s also something good so your loved ones don’t worry about you when you’re out enjoying the world.

Here are a few tips for letting people know where you are:

Tip #1. Expect the Unexpected

You never truly know what is going to happen when you’re on an adventure. You can plan and plan and most times things will be fine. But it only takes one time for things to go haywire. It’s critically important that you expect, or at least plan, for the unexpected. A great way to be prepared in the event of an emergency is to let someone know where you are.

Whether you are on a road trip across the country, hiking or camping in the woods, or simply running out to the store, let someone know your planned route. You might think that your plans will change. You can let the person know, but still give them a basic itinerary. The more information they have the more they can assist if you get lost.

Tip #2. Provide A Basic Time Frame

While you’re out, try to give someone a time frame to expect you back. It doesn’t have to be exact. Within a day or so. This way, if you haven’t contacted them or made it home when you said you would, they can be on the lookout for you. If your plans change just let your person know by checking-in. Just a quick message to let them know you’re doing fine. This way, if they can’t reach you, they’ll have an idea of what’s going on. Then, if something does happen, they know to react.

Tip #3. Stop & Assess

A very common scenario when you get that dreaded feeling of being lost is to move frantically. It’s natural to want to quickly get back on track. To feel at ease again. You want to avoid this tendency.

The best course of action is to STOP.

Stop. Think. Observe. Plan.

Give yourself time to take a breath and to figure out where you’ve been. How long you’ve been walking. Odds are pretty good that with a clear mind and a little rest that you can find your way back to your trail.

Tip #4. Take Advantage of Modern Technology

With everything going on in life, it can be difficult to remember to update someone at all times. Thankfully, our phones are a simple way to take care of that for us. With convenient, simple apps like Virtual Halo, you can send a quick check in to let them know you’re fine, or send an SOS if you aren’t.

With Virtual Halo, you have an app that puts your safety first and makes it easy to let someone know how you’re doing and if you need help. This quick alert is critical in an emergency situation to keep you and loved ones safe.

Exploring and adventuring are amazing aspects of life. It’s great to get away from the business of the city and all the modern technology. But you can unplug and still have the nice safety net that technology provides. You can still get away from it all, but it’s good to have a backup plan so that when something does happen you can quickly get back on track and work on your next adventure.