Decade of Preparedness: Celebrating 100 Episodes

A decade of emergency preparedness wisdom culminates in this landmark 100th episode that reflects on how much has changed—and how much remains the same—in the world of personal safety and disaster readiness.

The preparedness landscape has transformed dramatically since we began. What started with people carrying a few granola bars in backpacks has evolved into comprehensive 30-day self-sufficiency planning. Both seniors and young people now embrace preparedness not as a hobby but as a necessary lifestyle. Meanwhile, the fundamental truth remains unchanged: you are your own first responder until help arrives.

As climate disasters increase in both frequency and severity, emergency resources continue to stretch thinner. The woods that once seemed like evacuation sanctuaries have become dangerous tinderboxes. Communities devastated by disasters take years—not weeks—to rebuild. These realities demand we shift our thinking from "if" an emergency happens to "when" it occurs.

The digital transformation of our world has created new vulnerabilities few consider until it's too late. When internet infrastructure fails during disasters, our digital financial systems become instantly useless. Gas pumps won't operate, stores can't process cards, and communication channels disappear. Having cash reserves and alternative communication methods isn't paranoia—it's practical planning for inevitable disruptions.

Situational awareness remains our greatest protection, while honest assessment of our physical capabilities ensures our plans remain viable as we age or face injuries. Regular training builds the muscle memory needed for crisis response, while routine maintenance of supplies prevents disappointment when emergencies strike. The question isn't whether you'll face an emergency—it's whether you'll be prepared when you do.

Join us for specialized training in concealed carry, home defense, and non-ballistic self-defense. Share this podcast to help others develop the skills and mindset needed for self-reliance during challenging times. Together, we'll continue building a community of prepared, confident individuals ready to face whatever the next decade brings.

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Chapters

• 0:00 100 Episodes and a Decade Later
• 2:30 The Shift from "If" to "When"
• 6:06 Situational Awareness in Modern Times
• 10:32 Preparing for Internet Outages
• 15:26 Reviewing and Renewing Your Preps
• 18:56 Training: The Essential Preparedness Component
• 22:30 Available Training and Final Thoughts

Transcript

SPEAKER_00: 0:00

Can you believe it's been a decade already? 100 episodes? Great Googly Moogly. Well have we got stuff to talk about? Come on in and let's get started. Well, everybody, I'm Bill Bateman, uh part of the team here, Refuse to be a Victim Personal Protection Training, and as I mentioned, this is our 100th episode. I've been doing this program for 10 years. That's a decade. Oh my gosh. A lot has happened, and interestingly enough, a lot has stayed the same. When we first began, there were very few people actually prepping. They did have a few granola bars and a bug in a backpack, but not really getting into it in any serious capacity. Now we're finding that both seniors, who have an incredibly high percentage of participation, and young people are becoming preppers. And backpacks or bug out bags initially were the thing then. Now, preparedness, being ready for up to 30 days of self-sufficiency in a serious emergency is now the gold standard. And this program is going to continue as it has. We're going to be reaching out to new people because there's 60% of you out there who can get learned up. And uh we're also going to take some new tones. We're going to change some of the way we are addressing things, some of the things we're thinking about. The primary reason we're doing this is there is a continuing reduction in the amount of help that's going to arrive in the event of a problem. This is for a lot of different reasons, and that's another series of podcasts if you want to go there. But the bottom line, you are your own first responder until the help that's available can get to you. We've been saying this for a long time, and we're seeing it more and more. The storms are increasing, the fires are increasing in scope and intensity, uh flooding, all those type of things. Things are happening, and they're happening not only more often, but they are more severe in nature. That means what help and what resources we have are going to be stretched even thinner. So you are your own first responder. We need to go back to the self-sufficiency we had. A lot of people on both sides of the political spectrum want to turn the clock back. Well, I don't care about your political beliefs, thank you very much. I do care that you're going to be prepared to care for yourself, your family, and your loved ones in the event of a serious problem. And with less and less resources, the responsibility is on us. I've looked at some earlier literature from about 10, 12 years ago, and in an emergency, everybody's just going to run off to the woods. We've talked about this before, and with climate change, you're not going to be running off to the woods right now. The woods are a tinderbox. You don't want to even smoke a cigarette out there or operate a mechanical device without a spark arrestor on it. It's dangerous. Hundreds of people running out to the woods, it's just not going to work. One other thing to consider, uh, having been through the Talent Fire, the technically the Alameda fire, but it burned up Talent and Phoenix, uh, the town is not going to be the same town it was. It's going to be different for a long time, and there won't be any quick fixes. We're still several years out from the fire, and we're still waiting for some things to happen. These changes are up to you. We have allowed people to think, first of all, this won't happen to me. We have allowed our situational awareness to go away completely, and we keep trying the same thing, hoping for a different result. That's the definition of insanity. Situational awareness means being alert to the problems and not having the this won't happen to me attitude. This is common. Oh well it's happening in Connecticut, but it's certainly not going to happen here. Yeah, actually it will. Why wouldn't it happen here? You need to take these things seriously, ladies and gentlemen. I look at you as a family, and if you're listening to this program, especially if you've been with me for a while, uh I urge you to go out and get a couple of new people. First I want to say thank you, by the way, to give to do anything for a decade in this day and age is really a privilege, and thank you very much. I appreciate you letting me come into your head, uh, to your car, your home, wherever you listen to me, and I appreciate those who have shared this program. Taking things seriously is important because of how quickly things happen. It's two to three seconds maximum for an average assault or an attack. If somebody's going to jump you, it's going to be two to three seconds. And it's going to be even less than that in the case of a car crash or an accident or a fall. Boom, you're on the ground. It's just that quick. And it's not falling, it's not getting attacked, it's how you deal with it. How are you prepared for it? Self-defense is not a hobby. Prepping is not a hobby. This is something you're going to start seeing on the website. It's not a hobby. This is a lifestyle. This is serious enough that it will impact the way you live if you take it seriously. Now that doesn't mean you fill the house with so much stuff. You can't find things in an emergency. It's not throwing a credit card or a wad of cash at a problem and thinking you're going to be ready. It's not being paranoid or fearful. It's being aware of what's going on around you. And so many people aren't. I watch people still, and I'm going to be railing about this until it stops happening, but people wandering through into the crosswalk with the cell phone in their hand doing a text message. Great, googly mogly. People really talk about a two to three second change in your life. That'll definitely do it. You need to be aware of what's going on not only is that smoke? Is that water leaking? But what are these guys doing in our park? I live in a mobile home community and I'd take our dog for a walk, usually fairly late, and I happen to see a van pull in. Look like Scooby-Doo and the crew were pulling in. We got nobody lives in this park drives that van, that's for certain. It's being watchful, not paranoid. And it's making good decisions, not running up and trying to front a bunch of people looking to the party, but reporting that problem and getting it handled properly and quickly. And being prepared if it went beyond that. We need to change our focus from if to when. Somebody was talking about when the internet goes down, and I said, Don't you mean if? He said, No, stop and think about it. It's going to be a when. Because in the event of an earthquake or a big fire or a problem, repeaters and cell towers are going to start coming down. Infrastructure, buildings, re relay centers are going to start being disabled. I know that I've seen my internet service here in my home, and I pay for the high-end T1 level lines as fast as I can get, and I'm still clicking on an icon and getting the little spinning wheel. And I'm doing that more and more lately. Now I've had a lot of excuses and a lot of explanations, none of them which make a whole lot of sense. But who cares if the internet goes down? Well, you do. Because while you were sleeping, while you were watching uh Dancing with the Stars, your money, stores, gas stations, communication all moved to digital, electronic. I don't know anybody who still has an analog landline, a regular old-fashioned telephone. And I haven't seen a phone booth in ten years. So when the internet goes down, and I've actually experienced this, I lived in Humboldt for a time and worked at Humboldt State University, and I was in the grocery store one night and the lights kind of flickered and things got weird, and cashiers announced over the PA that the internet was down and they couldn't take debit cards. Cash or local check only. I happened to have cash with me and making a small purchase, but there were a lot of people who were in a bad situation. Then I went to the gas station and realized I wasn't going to get any gasoline because the pumps all ran on debit cards. If you don't have cash, you're in trouble. So part of your preparation, part of the changing your focus from if to when, do you have cash with you? I carry some cash, a small amount, in a lockbox in my car. It's the same box I lock up my firearm when I go someplace it's not permitted, like the courthouse. I am ready and I've changed my focus from not if something's going to happen, but when it's going to happen. When I'm out driving and I get a flat tire, that's why I carry a good spare and the necessary tools. If I'm out driving and I get stuck overnight in the snow. If I'm going up to, let's say, Diamond Lake, and it is sketchy or cold weather, I'm going to make certain I have the things I need with me, that I can survive 24 hours if I'm stuck in a snow drift somewhere. See, the call towers are going to go down. You can text more likely than you can make a phone call. But satellite communication more and more is the one thing you're going to need to depend on. And we'll be talking about that in the weeks to come. We're also going to continue to do something that I've done for years, and that's look at the change of seasons. I'm going to look at new items, I'm going to look at renewing things. I'm going to look at bad ideas. People are trying to convince you to buy this, to buy that. I'm going to look at some positive changes that have happened. We've had solar power batteries, batteries that can be a solar generator, let's just call it that. And I've noticed that they've were huge. I've got one in my living room that I was testing out. It weighs 75 pounds. That's pretty good size to lug around. They're now down to something about the size of your lunchbox. And you can still recharge your phone and get some good things done with it. Some light, some things like that. So let's look at some steps we can take as the seasons change. And I change the batteries in my smoke detectors when the time changes because it's a big deal, everybody's aware of it, and it's easy to remember. I'm also making sure I'm reviewing, renewing, and replacing the things I have in my car and the things we have in our home. For example, I have fresh water stored at my home. It will last up to an hour a year, but I like to every six months use the water on the shrubbery, don't pour it down the drain, uh pour it on the trees, pour it on the grass, clean out your containers, make sure they are clean and sanitary, that they haven't developed any yuh inside it, and then refill those water containers. I have six five-gallon containers. Now we've talked about uh renewing and reviewing before, and I brought this up and got some very positive feedback. Consider, ladies and gentlemen, that in ten years, I'm ten years older, I've had some amazing things happen to me, not all of them good, but some of them absolutely awe-inspiring. And I can no longer, I will admit to you in public, that uh five gallons of water, that's about fifty pounds. And I can move it around the house, but as far as slapping that up and moving it around like I could ten years ago, can't do it. Can't do it. Because of my back, because of my arms, because of some issues and injuries, not because of not working out. I'm still in the gym twice a week, but just the body changes. You need to be honest with yourself and make those admissions, not in public, not like I'm doing, but put those uh images in your head. We had a situation here, the water was turned off in the park for a couple days for maintenance. We had to use our backup water so we could flush the toilets. We have a system that we can, I can still move that five-gallon container of water around, and we can pour it into a smaller container and utilize it for what needs to be done. These are the things that you should be working on if you're a long-term prepper, and if you're a new prepper, keep these things in mind because you may not turn 76 or 77 years old in the course of your prep, but you could easily fall and break your arm. I think one of the highest rated programs I've done recently is what if you have a broken wing? Because in our stories, in our nar narratives, we're always the one who's going to do this, who's going to do that. We're the one lifting the uh the debris out of the way and all of that. And if you've broken your arm or sprained your back, or you're having chest pains, or you're you can't breathe because of the dust and some toxic gunk in the air, uh now you're the one who's going to need to be able to still interact. But you've got a broken wing, you've got a problem. You need to think that through in advance. It's not easy to think about, it's not fun to think about, and it is life-changing. It is that important. So review what you've got, renew what you have, look at batteries, look at expiration dates. Some of those granola bars, uh, they may last forever, but not completely. Uh maybe some of that stuff has been dried out, maybe mice or bugs got it. I had a package of one of those meals that you just add water to, dehydrated. It got poked by something in the trunk and it was all over. So I had to clean it up so I didn't attract bugs. I wanted to make sure I had replaced it, and I wanted to make sure it was in date. So look at the things you've got. And in your car, I have, when we have talked about this, we'll talk about it again for the new people, a get home bag. If I, as I mentioned, if I'm going up to Diamond Lake and I get stuck in a snow drift somewhere, what am I going to do for 24 hours, 12 hours? Gets pretty cold up there, folks. How are you going to stay warm? What are you going to eat? What are you doing going to drink? How can you signal for help? What if you have to build a fire? When we're talking about things like renewing, reviewing, and replacing, the other key thing is training. Because this is not a hobby, this is a lifestyle, this is important, and just as you do normal maintenance on your firearms, just like you do on your furnace, your car, or your motorcycle or your bicycle, regularly scheduled maintenance is important as is regular training. Regular practice helps build muscle memory, helps build clarity of thought and purpose, and when you're dealing with something like personal defense, you should be training monthly. I train monthly. I think it's important to do that because you will help highlight areas that need to be refreshed, areas that need to be worked on. You decide found out that the arthritis in one hand is getting bad and you've developed a shake. The time to find that out is not in the middle of a problem. The time to find that out is on the range in an enclosed and controlled environment, so you know how to deal with it, and if you don't know how to deal with it, let's get you to somebody who can help you. Training is important for your first aid skills. That's why you recertify your CPR regularly. That's why our first responders, our EMS, they train regularly, and it's the basics from rolling and unrolling the hose, from setting up a situation. What are you going to grab when you get out of the ambulance? What are you taking with you? Assessing the situation, all of those things we need to practice. I need to practice, and you need to practice. So this is the season. Weather is changing, it's not going to be 105 degrees every day. We're going to have a little rain here, they promise us, and that's good. Temperatures are changing, situations are changing, we will probably see some snow this winter. Be prepared for it. Not only with what you have in your car and what you have in your home, so when you're on the road or when you're stuck in the house because the power's out, you're ready there. But if you have to deal with an emergency, and remember, you are your own first responder. You are going to need to be able to help your friends and your family, your loved ones especially, as long as it takes for help to get there. And bear in mind that can be up to 30 days. So with that said, I'm going to point you to the website as far as training. There are a lot of good classes on there, and I would be remiss if I didn't let you know. We have specialized training available. I mentioned the same classes almost regularly. We have our concealed carry, which is our most popular, which combines live fire exercise in addition to classroom work. You do need to be able to control your firearm safely to be an effective concealed carrier. We have the shotgun class, and I call it that, it's home defense shotgun. That is infinitely practical, especially when we talk about things like overpenetration. If you've got your AR and a 556 and you light that up in a mobile home park, you're going to go through five or six coaches. That's a lot of overpenetration. Let's talk shotguns for home and personal defense. We go everywhere from basic shooter all the way up to advanced tactical shooting and all the stops in between. Well, personal defense is a very serious subject, and we have a non-ballistic, a no-gun self-defense class. It started out in our women's program and is matured and developed with a lot of good input to using your body and things around you to deal with attacks, with assaults, with dangerous situations. So let's step back, let's take a deep breath, and let's look. It's not a question of when, it's a question of if. Don't think it's not going to happen here, don't think it's not going to happen to you, and don't think there's going to be a lot of help available because, as we're seeing, help is starting to dwindle because of the increased need and the decreased availability. So hop onto the website. We have a lot going on in October, November, and December as far as training. The schedule is up. If you have something you'd like to look at, like for a house of worship, or if you're a group of realtors who are kind of a little spooked with going out as it's getting later and darker on calls. If you'd like specialized classes, those are available. Call us and let us know what you need because we have the talent, the expertise, and the experience to meet those needs for you. Well, ten years. I don't feel older. Okay. It's been a decade. Let's start the next ten years and move in the new direction. Taking things more seriously. New directions, new tone, and new listeners. If you could share this podcast, I'd appreciate it. If you could subscribe, the more subscribers we have, the more we can do on YouTube, and the more people we reach, the more that are going to be in a good position when bad things happen. That's all for this week. There'll be more coming. Again, summer is over. I'm going to go back to my more frequent posting. I took a month off. I was hoping, quite honestly, to do a big video uh episode on this, but there's just so darn much going on. I haven't got time. So thank you for listening. Thank you for sticking with us. It's been a first of all what I hope is going to be another 10 year run of helping you help yourself and help your neighbors. Be safe. We'll see you soon.