From Panic to Preparedness: Strengthening Your Prepper Mindset

Mental preparedness is just as crucial as physical preparedness when facing emergencies. This episode explores how to develop the right mindset for handling crisis situations effectively, with real-world examples from Keith's law enforcement experience.

• Shout out to the Local Prepper podcast and YouTube channel where Keith recently appeared ( https://www.youtube.com/live/_oOzsKkqBJ4?feature=shared)
• Reminder about Augason Farms affiliate program with discount code "podcast prep" for 10% off
• Mental fitness is essential for preppers to handle high-stress emergency situations
• Developing scenario-based plans for different emergencies helps prepare your mind
• Keith shares a compelling story about how mental planning helped him during a bank robbery response
• The importance of maintaining calm leadership during crises even when internally stressed
• Tips for involving family, friends, and prepper groups in mental preparation exercises
• Recommendation to watch the developing tropical storm if you're on the East Coast
• Suggestion to give everyone tasks during emergencies to maintain order and purpose

Thanks for listening to the Common Sense Practical Prepper podcast. Be safe out there, take care of one another, and until next time.

Augason Farms
Support the podcast. Click on my affiliate link and use coupon code PODCASTPREP for 10% discount!

Disclaimer: This post contains affiliate links. If you make a purchase, I may receive a commission at no extra cost to you.

Chapters

• 0:00 Podcast Introduction
• 1:42 The Importance of Mental Fitness
• 3:25 Planning for Crisis Scenarios
• 4:39 Real-life Police Experience
• 8:16 Leadership During Emergencies
• 10:56 Episode Closing

Transcript

Speaker 1: 0:00

The only thing we have to fear is fear itself. The National Weather Service has issued a severe thunderstorm warning. Welcome to the Common Sense Practical Prepper Podcast, where prepping doesn't have to be complicated or expensive. Coming to you from a well-defended, off-grid compound high in the mountains, coming to you from his Florida room in Richmond, virginia Neither off-grid nor well-defended, unless you count as chickens and cats, here is your host, keith hey everybody, welcome back to the Common Sense Practical Prepper Podcast.

Speaker 2: 0:50

This is Keith, august the 10th 2025. Before I get started this evening, I want to give a shout out to the Local Prepper. You can find the Local Prepper on the X and on the YouTubes by searching that name the Local Prepper. Earlier this week I was on his podcast and I had a fantastic time. We talked about several different things in the chat. There was a little Q&A as we went along. So show the local prepper some love, check him out on the YouTubes, give him a follow, check out his podcast, his gear review, and then check him out on X as well. Again, as a quick reminder, I am part of the affiliate program with Augustin Farms and there'll be a link, an affiliate link, in the show description and when you go to checkout, if you use podcast prep, you get an extra 10% taken off of your order.

Speaker 2: 1:40

Okay, I want to talk about a few things. I've talked several times about situational awareness and I want to take it a little. I want to take it a step further. It is very important to have the proper mental mindset when it comes to prepping to be, I want to say, physically fit and then mentally fit as well. I don't go out and run every day, I don't do half marathons my knees and my back are trashed, but I do what I can. However, you can sit at home and become mentally fit. You can do mental exercises. You can talk about scenarios with yourself, family, your friends, your little group, whomever you have, and it's very important to do that. So why does this matter? Because in a crisis situation, whether it's a blackout, a flood, a hurricane, zombie apocalypse, when it comes to high stress situations, these really mess with your head. Fear kicks in, stress piles up and then suddenly you're not the calm, cool, collected prepper you thought you were.

Speaker 2: 2:50

We all think and it's a very good practice to get into that, given a situation that you are going to act accordingly. You're going to act according to your training. You're going to act accordingly to the preparations that you've made. If you say to yourself a hurricane hits and we lose power for three days, we're going to do this Seven days. We're going to implement this 12 to 14 days. All right, we're getting kind of deep. We're going to have to implement X, y and Z. You should all have a plan. I know you hear it a million times from all the podcasters have a plan. Well, it's true, you need to have a plan. So take the time just to sit down and think about what you would do, given a particular situation.

Speaker 2: 3:46

On the news earlier today and there is a tropical storm kicking itself around off the coast of Africa, where all the hurricanes from the Atlantic come. It's way, way, way too early to even guess where it's going to go, if it's going to just peter out and turn into nothing, or it's going to grow into something a lot larger. And then the big question is where it makes landfall. So check out the Weather Channel or whatever app and over the next several days, especially if you're on the east coast of the United States, mexico, gulf of Mexico well, mexico shouldn't have to worry too much about this one. Even the Gulf of Mexico, the east coast, from the Keys, bermuda, the Bahamas, all the way up to the northeast Just have a peek at the weather every couple days and then, as it gets closer, just go ahead and put yourself in the mindset of how you're going to handle this in the event it grows into a major hurricane and in the event it makes landfall.

Speaker 2: 4:39

If you live in the Midwest, what are you going to do if there is a blackout? If you're on the West Coast, california, what are you going to do if there is an earthquake and power is out for three to five days and with that potentially comes a slight supply chain disruption? Okay, so just think about that. Folks in the EU, folks in Australia, south America, wherever you happen to be listening to me, just put yourself in that mindset. Just take a few minutes. You can sit down and what I do? I sit in my little comfy chair. I turn the lights out nice and dark, nice and quiet and I just think about what I would do as a former police officer, as a retired police officer. I've said it before, I did that as part of my training when I had a few minutes.

Speaker 2: 5:32

When I was on the road, I would pull over, got my paperwork done and I would sit there and say to myself what would I do if the 7-Eleven, three blocks down the road was robbed and I'm not sure if you've heard the podcast or not, but there was a bank that was robbed several years ago when I was still a police officer. Working the road, the address came out of where the suspect vehicle was registered to. A witness got the license plate of the bad guys when they jumped in the getaway car and headed wherever. The address was about five to seven minutes from me, but it was out of my beat, in a different radio zone. So I said to myself, what would I do if I started driving towards the house on the registration, and what would I do if I ran into that vehicle going the opposite direction, in particular on a very narrow bridge that went over into the area where the neighborhood was? I said to myself, what would I do if we crossed paths at the top of this very narrow bridge? Not if I saw them at a stoplight, or they were three, you know three cars ahead of me, or they were at the you know at a four-way stop, or I saw them turn into a mall or something to that effect. I literally told myself what I would do. And again, I kid you not, folks, like I've said before, I headed towards the address on the registration and when I crested the top of that narrow bridge, I came face to face with the getaway car full of bad guys. I kid you not, it really happened and it's just one of those freaky things that once the adrenaline wore off, a couple hours later, after we made the arrest. It just was. It was surreal. So that was an instance where I can tell you 100% that planning, even something I whipped up on the fly, worked.

Speaker 2: 7:28

Now, what would have happened if I just started driving and I ran into them, ran across them? I have no idea, because that wasn't the scenario done. If Well, that's a hypothetical. All I can tell you is this particular situation worked out very well in my particular situation. Plan a scenario, work your brain, because what's the old saying? An ounce of prevention is worth a pound of cure. So, if you've got a few minutes, if you're taking inventory on your pantry whether you do an inventory every month, every week, every quarter, every six months, every change of the seasons, whatever it happens to be, take a minute and sit down. If you live alone or you have a significant other, boyfriend, girlfriend, whomever, just sit down and talk to them. Hey Linda, this is what we're going to do. If, or? Hey Linda, what do you think is the best approach? If X, y and Z happened, believe me, it is going to be well worth your time to either discuss that in your head amongst yourself, or bring your friends, your partner, your group, your family, whomever, to bring them into the conversation, because everybody has a role when something happens.

Speaker 2: 8:52

Let's say, this hurricane really kicks up, turns into a cat five and it makes landfall Virginia beach, the outer banks and then Richmond is just going to get hammered. All right, I'm going to get up with my friends and I'm going to you know those who prepare. We're just going to have a conversation. Hey, if you get hammered in Virginia beach and you're without power, you've got a place to stay. And vice versa. Hey, what are your preps look like? Are you good on water? Are you good on food? Have you rotated your canned corn? Have conversations and if your friends need assistance, be that person to be able to help them through this. All right, folks, that was just something I wanted to get off my chest.

Speaker 2: 9:38

A quick little reminder when it comes to mental preparedness is just as good as physical preparedness. The bunker full of stuff is not going to do you any good if you're not in the right frame of mind. When you're faced with a stressful situation, you need to be able to be calm and you need to be able to act accordingly, because running around like a chicken with your head cut off is the worst thing that can happen. If you're the leader of the family, the matriarch, the patriarch, whatever, and folks look to you as a leader, you need to exude calmness, leadership, even though in the back of your mind you might be ready just to flip out. You have to remain calm because, as the leader, if you're not calm, nobody else is going to be calm.

Speaker 2: 10:33

Okay, they're looking at you for guidance. Oh, keith, what should we do? How about this? Can I get that? Give everybody something to do, keep everybody busy and always have a plan. All right, folks, as usual. Thank you so much for listening. Be safe out there, take care of one another and until next time.

Speaker 1: 10:56

Thanks for listening to the Common Sense Practical Prepper podcast. Be sure to subscribe so you don't miss an episode While you're at it. Help spread the word by leaving a rating and review.