Everyone Should Be a "Prepper" at this Point

Whether you freelance or you work a "stable" 9 to 5 job, I think everyone should have some degree of preparedness. Not zombie apocalypse or absolute worst case scenarios, but, as a starting point, could you float along with no assistance for 2 to 3 weeks?

Key topics:

✔️ When you freelance, you give up the illusion of three-hots-and-a-cot. If you want a day off, you have to pay for it on your own.
✔️ If the warhawks decide we're going to war, we're going to war. 
✔️ Even in the absence of a hot war, could you make it through a natural disaster or a power outage?
✔️ "Amid growing global instability"
✔️ Yes, we've always had conflicts and uncertainty. This is true. Is that your excuse for not prepping?

Links:

https://www.buzzsprout.com/1125110/13445451

https://www.buzzsprout.com/1125110/10851581

https://nypost.com/2022/06/19/uk-army-chief-britain-must-prepare-to-fight-amid-ukraine-war/

https://www.gloucestershirelive.co.uk/news/cheltenham-news/raf-fairford-air-force-b-8822027


Links where I can be found: https://causeyconsultingllc.com/2023/01/30/updates-housekeeping/

Need more? Email me: https://causeyconsultingllc.com/contact-causey/ 

Transcript

Welcome to the Causey Consulting Podcast. You can find us online anytime at CauseyConsultingLLC.com. And now, here's your host, Sara Causey.

Hello, Hello, and thanks for tuning in. In today's episode, I want to talk about preparation. In some respects, this could be a sort of Redux to the episode I published on August 24, titled you're on your own. That was when I had reached my saturation point with the Saturday broadcasts. I felt like I've done what I can do. If someone is still not awake, they think that the great resignation is going to go on forever. They don't believe we're in an economic downturn, they think it's foolish to have a job loss Survival Plan, or an RTO survival plan. There's nothing I can do for them. I've done more than my fair share, as a concerned citizen, putting my hand in the air can't do any more. I'm tapped out. I've had a few frequent tuners that have written to me saying that they missed the Saturday broadcast, which I do understand. And they were curious to know, are we on the precipice of world war three? once things started happening in the Middle East? That was a very scary thing, and still is a very scary thing. What do I think about it? The short answer there is, I don't know. I have no idea. If we're on the brink of world war three. We're in the opening volley of it, and we just don't know it yet. I certainly hope not. I've said on the broadcast more than a few times, I think you have to keep your head on a swivel. You have to be ready for anything. And you can't rule out the possibility of some type of hot kinetic warfare. I hope not, I pray not. I've also talked on the air before about Michael Aquino's book mind war, about how wars of the future we're not going to be on a battlefield with the blood and the guts and the gore, but would be warfare of a mental and emotional and psychological variety. I don't know what to think. I really don't. I just don't trust mainstream media news sources to give me an accurate picture of what would be going on in the theater of war. And it doesn't matter to me which side that you're talking about. I just don't trust the mainstream media to give me an accurate picture period. I don't know, in the absence of being there, boots on the ground, so to speak, and seeing things for myself. I don't know. I thought back to an article that I read in the Saturday broadcast number four, which was published on June 25, of 2022. And it was this article of warning that was published in the New York Post. And it's about how the UK army chief said that Britain needed to prepare to fight. I'll drop a link to it again so that you can check it out. This was of course, about Russia and the Ukraine. But he said, There is now a burning imperative to forge an army capable of fighting alongside our allies and defeating Russia in battle. We are the generation that must prepare the army to fight in Europe once again. Knock on wood? I hope not. But we just don't know what how does this situation that's going on in the Middle East change the picture of what's happening with Russia and Ukraine or does it? It seems to me that the more conflicts that we have, the more areas where there's some active declaration of war between two countries or between organizations and another government. It just ups the ante. It just increases the risks of people in other nations getting pulled into the conflict. There was an article that was published, I think, on the 12th of October and then subsequently updated on the 14th of October and could be even more so by the time this broadcast is published. But it's in the Gloucestershire live.co.uk website, and the headline is RAF Fairford, two more US Air Force b one b bombers land in Gloucestershire. In the article we read heavy bomber jets from the US Air Force have begun a deployment to RAF Fairford amid growing global instability. A pair b one B's crossed the Atlantic and headed to go Oster shear on Thursday, October 12, after taking part in a special mission, and to more join them on Saturday, October 14, and quote, I mean, this information is available, if we care to look for it. And as the news source says, amid growing global instability, I think if nothing else, the more conflicts that we see occurring, the more it just increases the likelihood. I've also warned before that if the war hawks say, we're going to war, we're going to war period, they don't have any compunction about sending your children to battle. They don't. If I had a child that was prime draft age right now, would I be nervous? You bet I would be? Absolutely. I would be losing sleep and worrying about it every night. And that's only natural. But like, man, the more of these conflicts and and the Sturm on drawing that's going on, seemingly everywhere. It's scary. And regardless of what you think, whether it's like, all of this is propaganda, none of it is even happening. I'm gonna say, again, if the war hawks decide we're going to war with somebody somewhere, anybody, we're doing it, and they're not above fabricating evidence, we should know that by now. They're not above saying, Well, this country did this, or these individuals, I'm not even gonna say the T word on the air. But these individuals came from this nation over here. And so then we've got to go to war with them. If, if you've lived long enough, you've seen this crap happen over and over again. So if they say we're going to war, we're going to war. The best prediction I can give you at this point is if you're a shareholder in oil companies, and or any kind of defense contractor weapons manufacturers, you're probably gonna see your stock go up. Because that always happens. Somebody always gets rich, off of these forays don't they? always seems to be the case. So the bottom line is, I don't know. Are we careening into World War Three? Or are we being slowly breadcrumbed into it? I don't know. I hope not. I pray not. But the bottom line is, I have no idea. I was originally going to record an episode and title it something along the lines of freelancers must be preppers. period, full stop. But the more I thought about it, and in reading responses from people saying, Hey, we missed the Saturday broadcast. And we're just wondering now that there's conflict in the Middle East, what do you think's going on? I would amend that, to really say, I think everybody should be a prepper. At this point, not just freelancers. The onus is on you more. So when you own and operate your own business, or you run a full time freelancing desk, if you've said goodbye to the stability, and I'm using big major massive air quotes here, that stability, you weren't going to have a full time permanent Wink, wink, nine to five job. And you're out on your own, even more so. Because you're not getting three hots and a cot. You don't get the bi weekly salary and the employer covered benefits. And somebody else, by and large, telling you what to do every day, you're going to have to figure all of those things out for yourself. If you want to take a week long vacation and you want it to be a paid vacation, you have to pay yourself, you have to take that money out of your own savings account, and dole it out to yourself responsibly. It doesn't come along from an employer. Same thing with a sick day, you're like, Man, I'm beyond, I'm not going to be able to handle it today. You're gonna have to pay yourself and take care of yourself. So even more, when you freelance when you own and operate your own business, I think it's smart to be a prepper but it's getting to where it doesn't even matter nine to five job or not. You You had better be willing and able to look out for yourself and your own family. This is just my opinion, and it could be wrong. I don't give you advice. I don't tell you what to do. I sit here and I opine for your entertainment only. We were hanging out and the topic came up. i My response would be you know, I think it would be smart to have two to three weeks minimum two, three weeks minimum of some food put back some drinkable water.

And to know that, even if we're not talking about some sort of warfare, what if you get snowed in what if There's a blizzard or a bad ice storm, what if the grid goes down for a period of time? You just can't leave the house? Or post tornado post hurricane? Tropical storms? Are you prepared for whatever events are likely to happen? Where you live? Do you have two to three weeks of food and drinkable water put back? And that includes not only the people living in the household, but if you have pets, do you have adequate provisions made for them? Again, if it were me, or we were just hanging out somewhere having a pint talking about this, that that would be my question. When do you have your basics covered first? Because I know a lot of people get hung up on gold and silver and precious metals, and you need a hedge against inflation. What if the dollar collapses? What if we get into hyperinflation and a loaf of bread costs 30 bucks all of a sudden, Look, I get it, you're not going to be eating precious metals, the most important thing to you is going to be that root chakra basic survival stuff. Do we have food? Do we have water? Do we have shelter? Do we have some means of cleaning ourselves? Do we have clothing? Do we have a way to toilet? The very basic things would be incredibly important to you. In that scenario? Again, even not talking about warfare, not talking about what if there's a declaration of martial law? What if the grid goes down? What if we get attacked by somebody or we get attacked weren't going by somebody you know how that goes. And we had to stay in the house for a period of time? What if there's another and there's a lockdown? And we're told, stay that F in your house for two weeks to flatten the curve? Or we're going to arrest you? Tons of what ifs that exist? Do you have those basic things food, water shelter lined up where you can hunker down and make it for two weeks after that, I would say do you have enough to make it for an entire month? Before I would get in again, this is just me to be emphatically clear. Before I would get into precious metals and silver and gold and boom sticks and all of that I would really want to make sure that I had my basics covered. Because in the event of a blizzard, you might not be looking for a broomstick or a piece of silver, you might just be looking for food or drinkable water. If you can't get out, your pets may be needing to eat and drink as well. If you can't get out and replenish your supplies, and the Amazon trucks and the UPS trucks and all of that are not going to be able to come save you either. I feel like just the basic survival things are going to be important. Now from a freelancing slash business owner perspective, these things also become important because if you have a dry spell, or a lien time, or unemployment, if we're talking about someone that has a nine to five job, if you suddenly get a pink slip and you weren't expecting it, having those provisions put back can help you bridge the gap. They can help to make up the difference. Even if you're able to go to a food pantry and get a few sacks of groceries. That way, if you already have some things put back maybe you have a deep freeze or you got room enough in your regular freezer, maybe you have a really good selection of canned goods, or some pasta or some rice and beans, those things can help you get by. I have heard many stories of people that have been unemployed, but they prepped ahead of time. And so it didn't, it didn't have as big of an impact on their bottom line. They didn't have to completely raid their savings account, they were able to use what they already had on the shelf to help feed the family until they could find another job. So it's not always about zombie apocalypse world war three nuclear warfare it's not it's not always about the most extreme scenario, it could be something as simple as getting snowed in or the area gets hit by a tornado or hurricane an earthquake or tropical storm, wildfires etc. And then all of a sudden you're in a major oshit moment and you need to be able to act quickly. But really if we are thinking about warfare, we are thinking about foreign threats then it becomes even more mission critical I would say because you may not have 24 hours to get prepared for something you may get very little notice. I know these things are scary to think about and I know I know believe me some man Splinter will send me an email about How wrong this is and how it's oh, this is all just a conspiracy theory. And this is crazy and it's fear mongering, I get it. Wow. My goal is not to fear monger. My goal, especially for those of us who freelance own and operate our own businesses, just to say, Man, you better keep your head on a swivel and be ready. You have to take care of yourself, you're not getting that provision given to you by an employer, you're gonna have to be able to carry your own benefits, you're gonna have to be able to be your own banking institution, to some degree, you have to be able to pay yourself if you want to take time off. The market is crazy right now and not in a good way the job market is in my opinion, negative crazy. Another thing that that prompted me to sit and record this episode, I have been getting more and more of the Can I just pick your brain? No, you cannot not for free. If you want to pay for an hour of my consulting time, you absolutely can. But no, I'm not going to do the 25th Hey, hey, old buddy, old pal, can I have 15 to 20 minutes to just pick your brain I'm thinking about starting my own business. I'm thinking about being a freelancer, I want to DIY staffing agency. And I just want to pick your brain now. 15 To 20 minutes is not enough time to have any kind of effective business conversation where you're thinking of going out on your own. And my time is valuable, and so is the other person's. If you're just giving your time away, the other person is not going to take it as seriously as if they paid to be there. They're more likely to suit up, show up and be ready with their questions. If you have them pay for an hour of your time. There I'm getting more and more of those. I'm unhappy where I'm at, I feel trapped. I don't know what to do. I'm not making any money. The job market stinks. But our boss wants us to lie to everybody and say it's good because that's by and large, just what you do and staffing, right. It's like real estate agents. Very rarely, if ever, are you going to find a real estate agents that will be like, yeah, the housing market is flat out in the dumper. Know, they get on TV with all of their twaddle? Well,  marry the house date the rate, I know that the interest rates are high. And I know you know when the devil called out there, but there are still houses that are selling. And so right now sellers just need to be more sensitive to buyers because buyers have a bit more control. And they really want that turnkey house where you know people are still buying people are still selling and that's what they'll do. And it's the same thing with staffing agencies.

I know this because I've been in the belly of the beast before more than once you're encouraged to tell people job market is in good shape, there's still jobs out there. If you're talking to candidates, there are still jobs out there. Don't worry too much. There are jobs to be had. Now you might have to compete a little bit harder for them. But there are still jobs. And then on the client side, there are still great candidates out there, you cannot play games, you cannot mess around with them or they will go somewhere else. Even if none of that's true, you're still supposed to say that you're supposed to tow the line and give these people the marketing bullshit that you're told by your boss to give them. So I'm getting these RFPs and RFQs with people i Hey, hey, can we get on the phone, because the market sucks. I'm not making any placements, my boss keeps telling me to tell other people that we're doing great and things are wonderful. But I'm thinking about going out on my own because I can't make any flipping money at this agency. That's not a good sign. I'm also getting RFPs and RFQs from people looking for reverse recruiters, resume writers people to polish up their LinkedIn people who think that there's going to be some magic key word they can put on the resume or on their LinkedIn profile. And they're suddenly just going to start to get constant, you know, slaps upside the head by recruiters and companies looking to come after them. I hate to break it to you. But that's not very realistic. People just don't want to admit to themselves that the market has changed. It's not that the market is changing. The market has changed. I've warned you and warned you and warned you and warned you the great resignation was over with from white collar work and has been for quite some time. This hippity hopping across the market. If you're still thinking you're going to do that. Good luck. I hope it works out for you. I don't think it will. But I mean, hey, I could be wrong. Maybe Maybe people are doing these things. Because the job market is not great. It's not churning and burning. I don't think we have any lower than 4% unemployment rate. Give me a freaking break. People are out there. They're desperate. They don't really know what to do. And they haven't prepared adequately. It's like man, I wish that these people had been reading my blogs. I wish they had been tuned into the podcast literally years ago. I've been doing it for so long. Now I can say that years ago. I wish that bare minimum They had been with me when I started doing the Saturday broadcast last year, it might have really saved them some heartaches and some headaches if they had this, like, No, I don't, I don't have any interest in sitting, trapped at my desk and going out and applying for jobs on somebody else's behalf. That's really of no interest to me. And I feel like we're, yeah, I gotta be careful here. But it's like, I feel like we're at a point. I've said before that I think this economic downturn will separate out people who paid attention from people who didn't. And I feel like these people who don't want to have any self sufficiency, they don't seem to want to do anything for themselves. They want everybody else to do things for them. Man, I don't know if they're gonna make it. I really don't. Which leads me back to the point I'm trying to make. I think everybody should be a prepper at this point. I do. Now that doesn't mean am I saying the hyperbolic stuff go build an underground bunker and hoard things and be like Chicken Little and scream that the sky is falling every five minutes? No, no, no, no. I'm really talking more about emergency preparedness. Just like the things I've mentioned, earthquakes, hurricanes, tornadoes, a blizzard, floods, wildfires, whatever the conditions are like in your area, would you be able to weather that storm, no pun intended? Or would you be prepared for a job loss? Do you have a job loss survival plan? Do you have an RTO survival plan? Or are you still looking for hot air and hopium out in the media that every company is going to reverse? Its RTO edicts and everybody in white collar work will just be at home from now on. long pause there so you can audit yourself. I believe in is so important to stay aware, not paranoid, not scared to death, but just aware. And to be at that place. I'm thinking of a sting lyric at the steel point of destruction at the center of the fury. If you can be in the center of all of this chaos, and say I've done what I can do, were as prepared as I can afford to be. And that's all I can do at this point. That's all you can do. I don't have Bill Gates, Jeff Bezos ready to go buy an underground bunker. Stockpile it with enough to replenish my family through the next Noah's Ark event. No, I don't have anything like that. I have to just do the best that I can for myself and my family and call it good. You do sleep a bit better at night when you're in that place. Hey, we've done what we can do. And that's it. That's a wrap. I don't think that that is relegated to freelancers and small business owners. I think regardless, you need to have your head on a swivel. And you need to be thinking about all the different possibilities that could play out here. Which does, unfortunately, I'm sad to say, include the possibility of hot kinetic warfare. It could involve us going into a company on false a company going into a country on false pretenses to make some company rich, we saw that you were alive during Bush Cheney saw that all that stuff can happen again. We don't ever want to be naive lover, oh, we would never have another 2018 We would never just never happen. Sure. Of course. Of course not. Do you have two to three weeks of food and water? Do you have a job loss survival plan in the event of a blizzard, a tornado etc? Do you know that you could survive that? Do you have some some provisions made for yourself and your family? Or are you out here assuming that corporate America or the state will take care of you? Again, long pause there on purpose. So you can think about these things. We are living in uncertain times. And I very much agree with people who say yeah, but wait a minute. We've always lived in uncertain times. Of course, that's the nature of life itself. Yeah, absolutely. anybody listening to this broadcast right now, whether you are an older person that's part of the greater generation or you're part of a young person that's part of Gen Z. It doesn't matter. We're talking about somebody that's 105 or somebody that's 25. If you're listening to this, you have been through economic turmoil, bad economic times, political arguing, warfare or conflict going on somewhere. We've all lived through this. Of course, we're in uncertain times. I get it. What you have people who say well We've always lived in uncertain times, and we've always made it the human race has always survived. So I shouldn't prep. Hey, if that's the way you feel about it, that's the way you feel about it. Maybe that is the best decision for you, I have no idea. I don't think that's the best decision for me. And my family. I also don't think that's a decision, I would recommend to like a personal friend. If one of my best friends and I were sitting around talking, I wouldn't be like, Well, hey, man, it's just whatever we've always lived in uncertain times. So just don't do anything to pay to provide to make provisions just screw it yellow and FOMO. And it's whatever. And I see those people. And I, I'm always like, some of these folks, they would never make it. People that are, oh, I'm just unhappy at work. Can I pick your brain for 15 minutes and find out how to be a business owner kind of these are some of the same people who max out their credit cards every summer, and we got to take the kids to Disney. And then in the fall, we're going to go away just the two of us and we're going to rent an Airbnb. And it's just like, Oh, my God. You're not built for this. You're not freaking built for this. No way. No way. When when you decide to freelance and own and operate your own business, unless you want to get on the fast track to a bankruptcy, you can't be going around maxing out credit cards, and FOMO and Yolo and keeping up with the Joneses. That is a very risky way to live. See, that makes me uncomfortable. I wouldn't want to live that way. But I see these people Oh, just have 15 minutes of your time. Well, I can't give up the Starbucks every day and I when we want to go and rent our Airbnb ease and then we have to go skiing in Aspen. And then we have to we have to we have to do all these yuppies. And it's like, I don't recommend that you do this. First of all, no, you can't pick my brain free of charge and have to pay for a consulting hour. And secondly, let's just don't, because if you're addicted to taking the kids to Disney, you're addicted to getting your nails done and going to Starbucks. And the idea of maybe sacrificing for a period of time till your business gets going is unappealing to you? Then don't freaking do it. I mean, you can't see me I'm struggling. I look like the shrug emoji. It's like, Come on, man. Use some common sense, folks, please. So I get it. We do live in uncertain times. There's warfare, there's conflicts, I don't feel like that absolves anybody from having their basics taken care of. And you can use any excuse you want to deplete your savings account, you can use any excuse you want to I got a treat myself. Like the what I was talking about with dieticians recommending sugar and cakes and candies and pies and things. If you really want somebody to tell you hashtag treat yourself, you're going to find somebody to tell you that. If it resonates with you and your gut and your spirit in your mind to have somebody say, you know, I think that maybe everybody should be a prepper at this point. Whether you freelance you're self employed, you don't always know where your next check is coming from. I think people should just overall be prepared and be ready to take care of themselves to be ready to have more of a our family unit is on our own. Maybe we have mutual assistance from other people. Maybe we don't, but we're going to survive this. If that resonates with you, that's great. If it doesn't do you do what you do, do whatever you think is right in the situation. Just my opinion and I could be wrong. But I'm standing by my thesis that I think at this point Freelancer nine to five or whatever your situation is. Having some emergency preparedness in place is a smart smart move. Stay safe, stay sane, and I will see you in the next episode.

Thanks for tuning in. If you enjoyed this episode, please take a quick second to subscribe to this podcast and share it with your friends. We'll see you next time.