Preparedness doesn’t have to mean bunkers, fear, or extreme gear—and on this episode of Ready Radio, John Rush and Bill Anderson explain why.
The conversation reframes preparedness as lifestyle design—practical steps that help real people handle everyday challenges, seasonal weather, power outages, medical emergencies, and unexpected disruptions. From snow shovels and toolkits to power banks, medical readiness, and training, the focus is on gifts and solutions that fit how people actually live.
The show walks through how to assess someone’s real needs, their skill level, and their lifestyle before buying anything—whether they’re beginners, intermediate planners, or highly prepared already. Listeners also
SPEAKER 08 :
This is Ready Radio, preparing you to be ready for anything.
SPEAKER 05 :
Now, here’s your survival guide for Ready Radio, John Rush. And it’s that time, Ready Radio, KLZ 560. Thanks for joining us today. Appreciate it on a cloudy, you know, after the snowstorm Friday. Bill Anderson joining me now. Bill, welcome. How are you, sir?
SPEAKER 09 :
I’m doing well. How are you today, John?
SPEAKER 05 :
I am good. Is there an uptick in electrical calls with all of the snow?
SPEAKER 09 :
No. It’s also great timing with the season. You know, people are starting to focus on Christmas, and sometimes, you know, it kind of shifts. You know, one big thing that people may not realize, not only the electrical side, but on the HVAC side, is CR 231161. Okay. So 23, whenever you look at a, you know, a house bill or whatever it may be, the 23 is the year that it was put in. So this was put in. but it becomes effective in 26 as of January 1st. And what this CR 23-1151 says is that every new furnace being installed in the state of Colorado from January 1st to 26th and on is has to be low emission slash no emission. Low NOx, right. And so, yeah, so whenever, you know, you start talking about more efficiency, of course, the price is going to go up.
SPEAKER 10 :
Yep.
SPEAKER 09 :
And now we’ve got to look at, you know, hey, do we have to, you know, refab your ductwork? You’re exhausting because the 80%, the 92%, all that stuff is becoming null and void. Right. And so, you know, if anybody out there that has a furnace that they’ve been thinking about, I know it’s not the best time of year, but you might want to get that in before January 1st. Otherwise, you’re going to be held to that new standard. And with that comes a bigger price tag.
SPEAKER 05 :
Yeah, in some cases, maybe even getting with your HVAC guy and, you know, putting a deposit on one, doing whatever you need. I mean, in other words, get a hold of one and get that going now versus later, if that’s something you know you need to get done in the next, say, 12 months or so.
SPEAKER 09 :
Well, it has to be installed before January 1st. You can’t just buy it? So, no, it has to because you’ve got to pull the permit. And so you could probably grandfather the permit from when the date of the permit was pulled and install a little bit later. But they’re going to look at the installation point. So usually it’s the point of the permit. I’ve had some permits that have gone through a code cycle because now, again, on the electrical side, we’re rolling into 26. So 26 is the new NEC code cycle. So we’ll be seeing one. Those rules will probably come later. Into effect in June is usually when the state of Colorado adopts them. But if any permits be pulled before that date, then you’re still under the old code, if you will. But any permits pulled after that date, they’re going to be held to that new requirement.
SPEAKER 05 :
Gotcha. Okay, so question I guess I have for you, not to get way off track because we can, you know, come back to this even at a later date. What’s in warehouses right now? Does all that inventory then just go bad? Do they send it back? How do those guys deal with things if that’s the case?
SPEAKER 09 :
Well, that’s an interesting thing. So we use a couple different suppliers. We use Geary Pacific, and we use Johnstone as our main suppliers. And both of our in-sales sales guys that we talk to, those are our representatives. You know the deal on that. They have no idea. They don’t even know what the pricing structure of these new furnaces are. And it’s like a couple different. weeks away. We’re like, you guys realize this is, they’re like, yeah, we have no information. So everybody’s in the dark. It’s kind of like the, the new, um, the gun legislation where, you know, next year you’re going to have to have a permit if you want to want to buy a certain type of rifle. And I’ve talked to several sheriffs and they have no idea. I said, what is this going to look like? What’s the requirements? And they’re like, we have no idea. And I’m like, well, you guys understand, you know, both, uh, the two counties that I spoke with one with Albert and one with Douglas, uh, They’re just hoping that it gets reversed and it doesn’t go into effect because nobody knows. In fact, I just talked to two Douglas County sheriffs yesterday. They are signing up for my gun class, by the way. So interesting. They can’t issue their their own deputies. within this department because it could be conflict of interest, so they have to take a class outside. And so even deputies and things are coming to me for their gun training. Selfish plug there, but I thought that was kind of neat. But these guys have no idea what it’s going to look like. Nobody has any information. So we pass laws, but then we’re quick to push the button, but then we have no idea how this stuff’s going to actually be implemented. That’s the problem. They get everybody emotionally hooked on a vote. and nobody ever thinks how it’s actually going to work.
SPEAKER 05 :
No, they don’t understand the aftermath, and I’ve said for years the reason for that, Bill, is the majority of lawmakers, A, have never written a payroll check. They have no idea how the real world works. In a lot of cases, these are career politicians that have never even been in the real world, period. In other words, they’ve never had a real job. Sorry, being in politics is not a real job. I’ll argue that one until the until the cows come home. The reality is, no, it is not. And the reality of all of that, Bill, is the fact of what you just said. They have no clue the repercussions of the laws they enact.
SPEAKER 09 :
Right. It’s an act of public service. That, you know, hey, if you’re a wealthy, successful guy, maybe you take a time out of your career and go serve for a time. And then once it’s over, you turn it over to the next guy. It should not be a career path, as you say. Because these days, when they make it a career path, John, now they’re held to their legislators or whoever’s donating the money. And so now they are what, in the church world, we call a hireling. And a pastor that’s a hireling is not a good pastor because he’s going to preach sermons. They’re going to get people into his church and keep people in his church, and then he’s going to rub elbows with the wealthy people to keep money coming in, and they’ve lost context of what it’s all about. So that’s what they have done as well.
SPEAKER 05 :
All right, shifting gears, let’s get into what we wanted to talk about, which is Christmas is just around the corner. For some of you that are out there, it’s coming really fast, depending upon what you might do family-wise and what your traditions are and so on. Reality is we have got exactly three weekends— before Christmas, meaning if you’re going to do some shopping or things like that, I would highly suggest that you do this sooner than later. Most people, Bill, are going to want to be done by probably the weekend of the 20th, 21st. You might be able to still get an order in of something on the 22nd or 23rd, but it’s going to get really dicey. Point being is you’ve got basically two weeks. I mean, yeah, three weekends, but two full weeks to get your shopping done. And our point today was, okay, And I want to put air quotes around the word prepper because preparedness can mean all sorts of things, including what we just talked about a moment ago when it comes to even things like HVAC and things like that, Bill. I mean, we talk about a lot of different things on this program. It isn’t all just, you know, quote-unquote end-of-the-world scenarios. We talk about all sorts of things. So that person that you may be buying something for, they, you know, may or may not consider themselves a prepper, but you want them to be prepared. They like being prepared, so… Bill, I guess first things first, how do we determine, let’s kind of get into the whole, you know, who is this person? What are we trying to buy? And I think the thing that we’re trying to help people out on, and I did this last week on both Saturday shows or the week before Thanksgiving, I should say, on both shows, is, you know, there’s always that hard person to buy in your life. I happen to be one of those, and I know that. So we’re going to give folks some ideas on what they can buy, those particular individuals.
SPEAKER 09 :
Yeah, and one thing, John, is to just kind of comment on what you spoke about, how we talk about many different things. And there’s a guy that I listen to, his name is Jack Spirico, and he has called it lifestyle design, and I really like that.
SPEAKER 05 :
I like that, yeah.
SPEAKER 09 :
Because all of these things fit our lifestyle, whether it’s, work or, you know, places of worship or political, it all fits into our lifestyle. And we want to design such a lifestyle that is ready for the what-ifs, right? So just to kind of tail in on that. But yeah, you know, that word prepper, I had a conversation yesterday with somebody actually, and she threw her hands up and she says, oh yeah, those people are air quote preppers. And so just based on the way she said it and with her air quotes there, I can tell her perspective or, you know, um, her view of, of the preppers and, you know, shows like doomsday prepper and stuff, which any reality TV and 99% of what you see on social media is, is not real life. It’s there for engagement, which is in turn for advertising dollars. Right. So, you need to really be careful with what you listen to and what you watch and all that. You know, those are really bad examples. We can watch them and maybe get ideas, sure, but those are bad ideas. But they label with what we try to do in lifestyle design in the prepper, and it’s just now we’re the crazy folk, right? So we want to rename that, especially if we’re talking to people who may have that stereotype in mind of, oh, you’re a prepper, you’re one of those people And it’s not prepping gear, but it’s everyday life gear. So we can start right there. And with that new term, everyday life gear, by the way, now we can start to look at that person and go, okay, how does this person live? What does their life look like? and then answer the question, okay, what items can help them will be useful in their everyday life, things that help with convenience, safety, travel, car, home improvement, peace of mind, outdoor camping, whatever it may be, right? You put the shoe on the foot that it fits. So we kind of start there and go, okay, I’m looking for person X, a gift for person X, and go, okay, okay, I’m not going to call it a proper thing or this, but I’m going to look for an item that might help the lifestyle that they already live. And that’s a great perspective that we in turn, John, can turn back on us too when we start doing our checklists of the things we need and go, hey, what fits my current lifestyle? Because no matter what happens… We hope to maintain that same, at least somewhat level. It’s going to come down a notch, obviously, but we want to maintain that same type of lifestyle if whatever happens, happens, right? You look at the Amish during the pandemic there. Those guys didn’t skip a beat because they’re like, well, whatever happened out there in the world doesn’t matter because it doesn’t affect our everyday life, right? And that’s kind of the same mindset we want to have. So we want to focus on their lifestyle and maybe not the proper angle. Or do they have a big car commute? Okay, well, then let’s look at… Let’s get some stuff in the car that might help them for safety gear. Are they parents? You know, okay, well, what kind of can help them? Maybe first aid or something that you would call family safety items. Are they avid hunters or outdoors? Well, now you can get a little more into that proper world, if you will, with fire starters and water filters and everything. Things like that. Are they a homeowner or even a renter really can fall into this category because if you lose power, hey, power banks, everybody kind of falls into that category. So I would kind of start there, John.
SPEAKER 05 :
Okay, so first thing, and I think it’s even in our notes and some of what you sent me this morning, is first thing to do is let’s ask, what do they really need? In other words, as we’re going to get into knowing who these people are and so on, but what do they actually need? And like you said, ask about or think about their life, not necessarily – their gear in other words have you ever been around somebody where hey they should have had x and they didn’t or you know what type of situations do these people face a lot are these people traveling are they you know over the road truckers do they travel for work a lot are they on an airplane a lot bill i mean there’s so many different scenarios that we can get into and i think the first thing to look at is what is it they actually do and how do we help them be more prepared in what they’re doing in their daily lives
SPEAKER 09 :
Exactly. Like I give you another example. I was over at one of my daughter’s house yesterday and you know, they hadn’t shoveled their walk. And I was like, what’s the deal with your walk? How come you haven’t shoveled it? Well, we don’t have a decent shovel. Guess what? Right. There you go. Check the box for me. Right. And it goes back to when we were kids and you know, we hated getting the sweaters and the useful things. We wanted the cool toys and gadgets, but that doesn’t really help anybody if you have that mindset. They’re going to be way more thankful for that useful tool that they didn’t think of but you thought of for them and you equipped them with that at that time versus 99% of the stuff that is bought ends up at
SPEAKER 05 :
the goodwill anyway right you know no that’s a great point so again for those of you that are listening first thing to do you know first things first that’s always a little saying that i have first things first who is the person you know and by the way you’re more than uh in fact it probably would help to have a notepad piece of paper whatever bill and just start writing some of this stuff out you know who is this person you know who are they in your life by the way uh What’s your budget? That’s one thing we haven’t really talked about. It wasn’t even in our notes. But what’s your budget? For some people, that might be $25. For some people, it might be $2,500. For some people, Bill, that are really wealthy, it might be $25,000. At the end of the day, I have no idea what somebody’s budget is for what they’re buying this particular person in their life, but I think it is important to… you know, establish a budget. How much money are you going to spend? Are you a family where, you know, you spend a hundred bucks on each other, which no offense, a hundred bucks doesn’t go as far anymore, but you know, what’s your budget? How do you do this and establish that? Then start going through what you and I just talked about. And okay, what can we for that particular budget? What then fits into this particular category of individual and what they need on a daily basis? For example, your snow shovel, which in most cases you can buy for 30 bucks or less.
SPEAKER 09 :
Right, right. Yeah, and I have a really nice one. I wouldn’t say it’s nice. It’s just not your average shovel. It’s got two wheels on it, and it’s got a blade like you would put on a truck, like a plow, and you push it. And it works just like, you know, it’s a manual plow, if you will, that would go on a truck, but you push it. And, you know, my kids come over to my house and they’ve used that to help me out. And they’re like, man, that’s the greatest thing ever. That’s just the greatest tool. And so guess what? Check that. Now, here’s another thing that I started doing. And I don’t know why it’s taken me so long to do this, but started carrying around a little pocket notebook with me. And, you know, people can do it on their phones, however you need to do it. I find that when I put stuff in my phones, notes on my phones, it gets lost in giga world. You know, I never really look back at it, but something tangible just happens. helps me process a little bit more, you know, and when I’m meeting somebody for the first time, or I’m going to a house, let’s say for a job and something stands out, you know, maybe they’ve got a dog and the dog’s name is Fido or something, you know, I’m going to go out of that initial meeting with him and I’m going to make little notes of that. Right. And so now let’s say I want to send a a Christmas gift. And this is just an example, by the way. I’m going to send a Christmas gift to that customer that I had. And so I whip out my notepad and I go, oh, they had a dog named Fido. And so because of that information that I wrote down, I can’t remember this stuff anymore, John. I meet too many people. I go to many places. Right. So I wrote that down and go, oh, hey, I could send them, you know, even a little letter or an email or a text or something that says, hey, how’s Fido doing? You know, or something like that. And you’ve made that personal connection. The point is, is when we when we’re thinking about the gift to circle back to this, we’ve put thought into it. And we didn’t buy something just for the sake of buying something, but we bought them knowing who they are, knowing what their lifestyle is, seeing a missing piece, and then we are the solution that gave them the piece. And maybe, John, they don’t even realize that that piece was missing. And then you can come in and go, hey, you know, this is really useful. I’ve used this in my life, and I thought it would be good for you, too, or something like that. We make that connection. Right. you know, go back and have a notebook, you know, I mean, I don’t know if you need a notebook to write down, hey, your kid needs a show shovel, you know, that may be a little extreme, but you get my point, right, John?
SPEAKER 05 :
Oh, absolutely, and I think you’re, and for a lot of people that can be done in numerous ways, you can click a quick picture, you can take notes, you can have a notepad with you, I mean, everybody’s got their own little system of how they do that, and it’s really the point, Bill, is have a system whereby you can identify these things and And I tend to make mental notes, although there’s times, Bill, where it’s like, you know, I know that this is me. And again, I’m different, but everybody knows that. But I’m one of those to where if I see something where it’s like, man, you know what? It’s July, but this would be a great Christmas gift. Guess what? I buy in July. I don’t really care what month it is. If I think it’s something that down the road. this particular person might need, back to our point that we’re talking about, reality is, okay, if I know that’s something that person would need and I see it, and especially if it’s something where it’s a really good deal, maybe it’s a prime day, maybe it’s some sale you’ve run across, maybe you’re out and about at a farmer’s market or whatever the case may be, and you’re just like, man, that would make a really good gift for so-and-so, well, buy it. Be done with it at that point. Now you’re just, chalk one off the list for that particular year, if you would.
SPEAKER 09 :
Yeah, exactly. And, uh, you know, on that same note, right, maybe there’s an opportunity where it’s like buy one, get one free. And so you buy one and it’s sitting on the shelf. I mean, I have several things, uh, just because of the, my decision and my lifestyle of several things where I have bought in multiples of the same thing for whatever reason, lost them or, you know, you buy something once and then it goes out and then you try to buy it again and it’s no longer available. You know, I mean, I’ve shopped at Costco way too many times. I’ve learned if it’s at Costco and you see it, you buy it now because when you go back, it’s gone. Correct. It’s a promotional item that you won’t get. Correct. There was a time where Walmart had a particular set of shoes that I really liked really cheap, and I think I have like 10 pair of them or something.
SPEAKER 05 :
I’ve done the same thing. If it’s something that I know that I like and there may be a season for when you can even buy that particular item, could be a jacket, could be a pair of shoes, could be anything, Bill. I don’t care. It could be a knife. I mean, I don’t know, whatever it happens to be, but it’s something that you really like. You get used to it. It’s something that you kind of even now – It’s incorporated into your life. Well, yeah, if I have an opportunity to have a little bit of, you know, backstock, I guess you could say everybody knows I have this problem called Foro, fear of running out. So if it’s something where I know I’m going to have that indefinitely, Bill, yeah, I’ll buy an extra one or two of those and basically have some inventory of said item.
SPEAKER 09 :
Right. And here’s another thing with that. So now we’re going through the summer. Like you said, our example was June or July or whatever. And maybe you’re with somebody and you pull out that item and they go, wow, what’s that? That’s really neat. Man, I wish I should have one of those. Well, guess what? They do. That’s right.
SPEAKER 05 :
Make that note of that. And again, in that particular case, don’t even make a mental note. Make a physical note that, yeah, this is something that I know I can give to so-and-so this Christmas, and it’s a great gift. And in a lot of cases, I mentioned budget a moment ago, but really, and I say that, Bill, because a lot of folks, yes, are very budget conscious and in a lot of cases should be. Really, though, and I mean this sincerely, it really does come down to it’s the thought that really counts at the end of the day. It’s not the price of the item. It’s the item itself and the fact that you spent time picking that out for said individual. And nothing wrong with cash or checks or gift cards, and I’m not denouncing those at all. But I think people do look a little differently at, hey, they thought enough of me that they knew me well enough to know that this is something that I like, need, and enjoy, and they bought me that for Christmas. Yeah.
SPEAKER 09 :
Right, and that goes back to that notebook, and really what we’re practicing here is the art of observation, and we’re listening to people, and we’re becoming more interested in them, and then we can get to the next thing, you know, discerning or assessing what level of preparedness they’re at, and then being the solution for them, because to me, I You know, I look back, me and my family members have this discussion often because sometimes they’re like, oh, I remember my grandma and we played sour cherries or cherry ladder or whatever the game was. over and over again. And it’s like, don’t you want to have those memories with your, you know, grandchildren, your grandchildren think and remember you. And I’m, I’m like, no, honestly, no, I don’t. I want my grandkids to look at me and go, my granddad taught me something. And I have a life now that is designed on the lessons that he taught me. And I’m thankful for it. I mean, the other times of, of playing games and stuff that that’s, that’s, you know, that speaks for itself, but I don’t want my kids to go, man, granddad was fun. I want kids to go, man, I really learned a lot from him, and he had an impact on my life, right? He changed the legacy of our family.
SPEAKER 05 :
Great point. Great point. All right. Great stopping point. We’ll come right back. Those of you listening, if you’ve got certain types of gift ideas or even questions along these lines, be sure to text us 307. Bill and myself will be back. Don’t forget Bill’s website is prep2protectco.com. We’ll be right back. This is Ready Radio KLZ 560.
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SPEAKER 05 :
And we are back. Bill Anderson with me. Ready Radio, KLZ 560. Okay, so Bill, we started off with our initial bullet point here was, you know, basically we’re asking, asking ourselves, who is this person? Are they more of a prepared person, not a prepared person? You know, what are some of the things that they like? What would help them in their daily lives and so on? So then the next thing, of course, Bill, is we have to assess in this case, you know, not just necessarily what level of, you know, quote unquote prepper are they. But, you know, what’s their skill set like as well? I mean, no offense, Bill. You don’t want to buy somebody some high technical tool that’s not mechanically inclined is kind of where I’m going with this.
SPEAKER 09 :
Yeah, you also got to assess their level. If you’re buying for somebody who is not mechanically inclined, getting something that is difficult to operate or put together, you might want to reconsider that unless you are willing to put it together for them and teach them really how to use it, which is another possibility. It depends on your relationship with the person too. Again, it goes back to who you’re buying. If you’re buying for a family member, an intimate family member versus cousin Eddie or the neighbor or whatever, those all come into the equation as well as how much you’re going to spend, not only financially, but how much time. There’s just so many things you can do here. I think we’ve gotten… just so, you know, in the box or in the mold. We’ve gotten so conditioned to what a Christmas gift may or may not look like, or just a gift card or whatever, and we’ve really lost that personal touch. I’d rather give you know, five gifts with real meaning, uh, versus, you know, 50 gifts of just, well, here you go. You know, I just kind of thought about it. In fact, even in our family, I’ve tossed around the idea and I, for a couple of years, I really wish everybody would get on board. It’s like, Hey, let’s stop buying stuff for everybody. And why don’t we just draw names? And then you have to make something for that person. I mean, to me, that would just mean so much more, but you know, that’s a fighting, that’s an uphill battle, for sure.
SPEAKER 05 :
Definitely, you know, so again, assess what level are they’re at, you know, and again, folks, there’s beginner, intermediate, advanced, you know, beginner, they have basically nothing when it comes to some of the prepping end of things, Bill, or the, you know, the being ready, I guess you could say, you know, I mean, gosh, for those folks, it’s easy to anything like water filters, flashlights, power banks. I mean, there’s so many things that are even under $50 bill that you could help somebody out with along those lines where that person actually, frankly, is probably one of the easier people to buy for.
SPEAKER 09 :
Yeah, and it kind of goes back to that conversation we had about the ready radios. A year or so ago, we were talking about communications and ready radios and all that. And one of the problems with the ready radios is, yeah, I could buy five or six of them and distribute them to my family. But the family member has to, A, charge it. B, turn it on, C, carry it with them, you know, know how to use it. And so there’s lots of fail points in there, you know, and you may buy a, even a simple power bank for somebody, but if it doesn’t really have impact for their lives, it’s going to go in a drawer, you know, and great. Now we’re at the football game and their, their phone goes dead and it’s like, Hey, where’s that power bank I bought you? Oh yeah, it’s at home, you know? And so, you know, we can have great, great, you know, plans for people to, to buy things and have prepping in their life. But, you know, you got to look at the person and go, are they really going to use it? And that’s why I say you go back to that very first question, you know, look at their lifestyle and see something that’s missing in there that they would likely use, you know,
SPEAKER 05 :
Yeah, no, that’s exactly right. And again, that whole technical level, and for most of you, that’s not hard to figure out. I mean, for those of you that have been around any of the individuals that you’re typically going to be close enough to to buy something for, you know their skill set level. And what I mean by that is, and I’ve had this conversation even on my Saturday morning shows, how well do they use a screwdriver? Do they know the difference in even wrenches and wrench sizes? Do they know the basic… understanding, Bill, of how certain mechanical things work. Are they somebody that every time something breaks, they have to make a phone call? Well, depending upon who that individual is is going to depend upon what you buy for them in this regard, and that’s where you really need to know what their skill set is.
SPEAKER 09 :
Right. Yeah. I got another example for that. You know, when my, when my girls had moved away and they were now living on their own in their own apartment, I bought them all a little tool set, a little tool set that they could just throw in the closet, uh, understanding that, do they know how all those things work? Probably not. Maybe the basic screwdriver hammer. Yes. But mainly when I’m over at their house and they’re like, Oh, Hey dad, can you help me hang this picture real quick? I got tools there, you know, that are, you know, I didn’t have to carry with me or whatever reason. It’s like, well, where’s your toolkit? Yeah, we can, you know, tighten that or, you know, do this or hang this or whatever. So, and then there’s a learning opportunity now. They’re learning to use the tools, but, you know, you’ve also kind of staged places, if you will, for equipment that maybe they don’t use, but now you’ve equipped the area if you’re there. Or it could be anybody at that point. It could be my in-laws. He’s pretty handy. He could be over at my daughter’s house and, hey, where’s your toolkit? So we can think along that lines too, John. We don’t need to throw the baby out with the bathwater on that one too.
SPEAKER 05 :
Good point. No, great point. And again, there are so many things on the beginner level that I look at, Bill, where it’s like, okay, wow, there’s a lot of things you can buy and make it very easy. Intermediate, they’ve got some gear but lack the system. So in other words, maybe they’ve got some skill sets, but they’ve never really sat down and looked at, gosh, what is it I really need to make myself prepared for at the end of the day in other words they’re in that intermediate skill set they they’ve got some things by the way that they may have even started on that’s one of those where you know nonchalantly maybe you start asking them questions and start taking some inventory whether it’s mental or you’re physically writing it down or you’re recording the conversation by the way which you could also do but you start asking them you know what are some of the things that you actually have and then you know they’ll start filling in the blanks on things they don’t have
SPEAKER 09 :
Yeah, at this point, John, they are now seeing the importance of it. You’ve set the seed, you’ve watered it, and now the sprout’s coming up. You don’t see a lot of fruit yet, but it’s starting to grow. And so now they’ve got the idea of, oh, yeah, it’s a good idea to have some things on hand. Now we can go into that intermediate of… okay, let’s now explore more areas of your life, and let’s look for the holes, if you will, and see if we can kind of start to fill in those gaps, because now they’ve kind of got the understanding, there’s a little bit of momentum there, and you can definitely build upon that for sure.
SPEAKER 05 :
Exactly. So those of you that are, again, looking to buy gifts for these particular individuals, we’re assessing the level that they’re at, and then, of course, Our last level is the advanced level. They’re prepping, you know, actively. These are things where, yes, it gets much harder for these particular individuals because they’re pretty well, you know, bill dialed in. Although there’s always things that they may have one of, they need two of, or they have 10 of and they need 20 of. I mean, at the end of the day, these are people that understand the value of the things that they have. And that’s one of those things where, again, you’re assessing, determining what is it they have. And in some cases, this is one of those where you might just flat out ask, hey, you know what? I know you do a lot of this. You stock a lot of things yourself even. You’ve got your own inventory of items. But if there was one thing that you could have that you don’t have, what would it be? You know, sometimes, Bill, that old saying, you have not because you ask not. There you go.
SPEAKER 09 :
Yeah, take the guesswork out of it for sure. Because once now they’re up and running in that advanced mode, now they’re Now they’re chugging along. They don’t need you as much. Now they’ve got the bug, if you will, or they’ve got the understanding is a better term. And they’re chugging along, and you don’t know what they’ve acquired along the way, right? And so you ask, hey, what systems are you lacking in, or what could you do better? And here’s another thing, too. Maybe they have the jump starter for their car, but they have – kind of a budget one and you can buy them a better model, you know, something like that, you know.
SPEAKER 05 :
Great point. No, that, no, great, great way of looking at it and saying that. And again, folks, these are individuals that have a really good understanding of the direction they want to head with their own preparedness. They typically are going to have that dialed in. And again, the best thing to do in those particular cases is, hey, you know, If it’s OK, can you, in most cases, you’re going to know these people intimately anyway. So, hey, what all do we have? What is it that we don’t have? What is it that we need? What is it that, you know, if you had the ability to go out and get it, you know, you would. You know, what are some of these items? And again, these are questions just as a side note, too. You should be asking all year long. Don’t wait just until the Christmas season to do this, Bill. Ask these questions all the time.
SPEAKER 09 :
Right. And you know what you’re also doing, John, on a side note, you’re starting to build your your community. Because the analogy that I use, whether it’s church, small businesses, you know, preparedness living or whatever it is. We need to stop thinking that we are the solo one strong tower. Because when you have one strong tower, that tower may be strong, but it can fall. And once it falls, well, then it’s gone, right? And it’s better to have a fence with a lot of strong fence posts. that hold the fence together. Because then if one fence post goes down, well, guess what? You still have most of the fence up, and now all efforts can go and put that one fence back. It’s a better defense system, if you will. And if we start to have that lifestyle mindset of, hey, I don’t have one strong tower, but I have lots of strong fence posts up, holding up a fence, holding up a strong community. Now, my community, my family collectively is strong. And with that, that’s also less of a requirement that they’re going to be looking at upon me if something were to happen. Not only that, but, you know, hey, my family and it drives me nuts, but they’re all like, oh, yeah, we ain’t worried about it. We’re just coming to your house. It’s like, well, what if my house burns down? What if I have a fire? And by the way, I can’t provide for all you guys. And once you move out, yeah, I’ll try. But once you move out and get married, guess what? That’s now your central focus. Just like me and my wife’s my central focus right now. I’ll take care of my kids the best I can. But once they get married, they need to have that mindset that I have. And they need to build their own system and not go, oh, well, we’ll just cruise to dad’s because he’s got it. Because my system might go down. That’s a tower, John. But if we all have fence posts, now we’re a strong wall collectively. I don’t know if this makes any sense to anybody because I’m a little weird in my thinking, but, you know, that’s kind of how I see it.
SPEAKER 05 :
No, I agree with that. Absolutely. All right. We’ve got a caller coming in. Mark Wiggins, what’s going on, Mark?
SPEAKER 07 :
Hey, good afternoon. I heard you guys talking about gifts.
SPEAKER 05 :
Absolutely.
SPEAKER 07 :
So I just wanted to share a little concern that I had. For years, my sister didn’t really know what to get me, and sometimes she’d try to look for magazines or things that I didn’t have, but she was like, you’re kind of a hard guy to pick for. So what she started doing was just sending me a card, like a Christmas card, a basic card, with a Visa prepaid card like a gift card but they’re like a visa so supposedly you could use it at different places well my experience over the years of her doing this has made me realize i hate those things um they they make it really difficult like if you try to go buy gas and the pump has like a preset or something on it and it goes you know what what’s your pin what do you mean what’s my pin it’s a gift card you know, I can’t do that. So then you’re like, well, do I go in? And then sometimes, you know, it either works or it doesn’t. And that gets pretty frustrating. You know, if you’re like, well, I was really hoping to use this card to get gas, and now I don’t have a way to get the gas to get to where I need to go. Now I have a bigger problem. Or online purchases. I’ve tried several times over the years using these cards, and it’ll say, you know, invalid card, or you have to verify it. You know, you have to go through all these steps. And so I finally told my sister this last year, please don’t ever send those again. I love you. Thank you for the gift, but they’re such a hassle. They’re not worth my time anymore for you to send them to me and me try to use it. So I said, you know, maybe just a phone call. Just give me a call and say, you know, Merry Christmas is in itself a beautiful gift. because I think we lack connectivity in a world of connectivity.
SPEAKER 05 :
Good point. No, and by the way, you make a great point, Mark, and something I probably should bring up even on some of the other shows and even the daily shows as we get closer to Christmas. There’s a lot of what you just talked about where you get somebody something along those lines, and at the end of the day, it’s useless, and it’s such a hassle to your point that you’d be better off doing something else. Even just a regular card you write in would be better than that at that point.
SPEAKER 07 :
Absolutely. I love getting cards in the mail with handwritten, you know, it doesn’t even have to be like more than five words. Like, I love you. I miss you or something like that. And, you know, just that, just that notice in the, in the physical mail is beautiful. I love that. It’s, It’s like going to Christmas five days a week. Obviously, I don’t get cards five days a week, maybe once a year, but to your point, it’s about the thought. It’s not about the value of it, unless that’s what your thing is, is you want to show the value. I guess that depends on where your heart’s at really in the moment.
SPEAKER 05 :
Good point. Mark, great point. I appreciate that greatly. I’m going to take a quick timeout. We’ll come right back. We’ll continue on and finish up this hour. I’m not sure we’re going to get everything done today, Bill, but we’ll get as much done as we possibly can. Don’t forget Bill’s website. Ours is ready-radio.com. Bill’s is prep2protectco.com. We’ll be right back. This is Ready Radio, KLZ 560.
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SPEAKER 05 :
All right, and we are back. Bill, real quick, you started something here of late when it comes to the website, blog, and so on. Talk about that, if you would.
SPEAKER 09 :
Yeah, on the website, PrepToProtectCO.com, if you go over to the More tab, you’ll see a blog linked. And we started putting up blogs to help people, you know, just with certain topics. And the last one I just put up was, you know, Christmas gift ideas for the preppers. So, you know, we could check that out to, you know, go a little deeper. Again, it’s more of items versus what we’re talking about in this particular show. But links are there to, you know, get some articles and some more how-to on what we talk about here. And also on that website, there’s links to the church and There’s links to arc electrocuting and cooling. There’s links to the homestead rabbits and chickens that we do and all that kind of fun stuff, the gun classes that we do. All that is kind of the main platform that we’ve chosen to bring all this together in.
SPEAKER 05 :
All right, so let’s continue on. We talked about the whole – we’ve got a – Of course, ask. We’ve got to assess. Now, we’ve already done all that, so now let’s apply. In other words, Bill, what do we look at? And there’s some core areas that we came up with that you could look at. At the end of the day, what should we be looking at? And I get it. Every one of these levels of individuals is going to be a little bit different, but give us some basic things folks can be looking at for some ideas for this Christmas season.
SPEAKER 09 :
Yeah, so these apply to pretty much everybody. There’s universal areas, if you will. Everybody needs water, you know, how to store it, filter it, purification tablets, things like that. Food, food kits, canning, dehydrated food, things that, you know, you can throw in your car. Maybe on the area of food, you could talk about gardening, if that’s the type of person they are. I mean, we could, all of these, John, could be a week-long conversation that we could, you know, explore out. and build out more of, but these are just in general power and heat, you know, kind of the core basic water, food, shelter, if you will. generators, battery banks, lighters, heaters, flashlights, things like that. Safety and medical, a big thing. You’re more likely to encounter somebody to have cardiac arrest, which happens every 90 seconds in this world than probably anything more. And then the last thing, which is what I tend to lead to because that’s the way I’m wired, and that’s skills and training, you know, And things like that. That’s really big for me. That’s a big investment for somebody who may not be at that advanced level. But if you are at that advanced level, you know, getting somebody a class. And there’s so many online things that you can build at your own pace and do at your own pace. You don’t have to necessarily do in person. But you could also consider those. And books are also, you know, they’re something you stick on yourself and you kind of always have it, you know, when the time comes. My problem, you have the fear of missing out, which I also have. But I have, hey, I got to collect all this information. And now I’ve got all these courses and books and all these things that I just don’t ever get into because as soon as I buy that one, going, okay, it’s on the shelf, I’m good. Now I’m buying the next one. Just to put it on the shelf, I’m good. So that’s the challenge I have.
SPEAKER 05 :
By the way, what you just said a moment ago, too, and this is something to think about for some of these people, no matter what level they’re on, hard copies. of things so for example one of the things we’ve talked about some of these things in the past bill but you know hard copies of how-to books hard copies of maybe an entire book of maps maybe you can even get some of the geological type you know the topo maps depending upon what area a person lives in folks i’m giving you ideas for things that are hard to buy for that hard to buy or you know giving you ideas for the hard to buy person these are things bill that most people will not have enough of at the end of the day
SPEAKER 09 :
Right. They won’t have that. And you just got to make sure they’re in the right mindset. Otherwise, like I said, they’re going to be like, oh, gee, thanks. goes on their bookshelf, and then they forget they have it, and it ends up at Goodwill or whatever. But that basic thing, like my daughters, give them a basic, even if you go to Hope Depot and buy one of those basic Repair 123 books, which kind of has a little bit of everything in there, and at least they got that. Not that I know the answer, but they call me and I say, hey, did you check that book out? Because now I’m showing the value of that book. and that type of mindset, you know, I’m teaching, teaching that, Hey, I’ve given you the resource. I may not be the resource, but I’ve given you the resource. So we can think of it that way too. And, you know, I really like what, what Mark said there about the gift card thing, because I agree with him. That is such a pain. Sometimes people give you gift cards and it’s just like, you got to go through all these hoops to get it, you know, to get it, uh, you know, activated. And then it’s just, it’s a disaster and they end up, more times than not, not being used, you know, but hey, if anybody wants to gift me Bitcoin, I give you my strike address and you should definitely do that. There you go.
SPEAKER 05 :
I mean, at the end of the day, and you’re right. And by the way, they’re not all bad. There are some that do work, and some of you know which ones those are and which ones those aren’t. And again, depending upon you and the person you’re buying for and so on, I had a request today from one of my kids where it’s like, hey, Dad, you know what, doing a bunch of stuff around the house this year? Because I’d ask, hey, what are you looking for for Christmas, so on and so forth. And in this particular case, it was, hey, I just want a nice Home Depot gift card. Okay, those are easy. And That’s an easy one, Bill, at the end of the day to go grab. And in this case, he’s got several projects around the house that he needs to go do. Piece of cake. Done deal.
SPEAKER 09 :
Right, yeah. And, you know, there’s things out there like if you go to Costco, you can buy various gift cards for various places, and they’re not difficult to use because they are – brand specific if you will and there’s even things in there where you can get a little bit of a kickback if you buy it correctly you know with points and things of that nature so you can you can research that and leverage you know, uh, you’re buying as well. You know, we, we often, uh, we have an Amazon card and we, we stack cash, we get, you know, 5% back or whatever the deal is. And then around December, you know, we’ve got a little bit of money in there and it’s like, okay, well that’s the Christmas money that we can buy Amazon stuff with, you know? And so, you know, you can also think of that too throughout the year too, John, and, and not only what to buy, but Can I have the mindset of how I’m going to buy it? And can I stack it in a way that everybody gets a little bit of a benefit out of it?
SPEAKER 05 :
Yeah, absolutely. And again, folks, be looking at these. And what we’re really trying to tell people is, Bill, at the end of the day, be, I guess, really, ultimately, because we kind of wrap things up here today, be purposeful. I guess that’s what I’m really trying to say. Don’t just, you know, oh, gosh, it’s last minute. Let me just go grab something. No, there’s plenty of time now. We’re talking about this now several weeks in advance of Christmas to give people plenty of time whereby you might want to do something online. Maybe you want to go to a store or whatever the case. At the end of the day, Bill, there’s plenty of time now to be thoughtful about what you’re doing. That’s my point. Does that make sense?
SPEAKER 09 :
Yeah. Yeah. And it goes back to what Mark said, too. You know, I mean, the days of receiving a handwritten note, that’s a novelty anymore. That’s, man, really? I mean, in the day of AI, we don’t know what’s real. You know, Hallmark, don’t buy me a card. You know, you didn’t say that. Hallmark said that. You know, I mean, just get a blank card if you’re going to tell me something and write something in there. Because to Mark’s point, that means nothing. that’s so much more valuable to me, you know, write me a note, you know, spend some time with me. I remember when we were kids, you know, when I was, when my kids were kids, I should say, they’d give me a gift and it would be a piece of paper that said five minute back scratch, you know, and I’m like, cool, that’s the greatest gift ever, you know? So, you know, kind of think along that line, you know, can we redevelop that, that, That one-on-one, that personal time, and in order to do that, it’s going to require the art of observation, which, by the way, John, and cell phones and all this social media and reality TV, we’ve lost. We’re in foo-foo land, do you know what I mean? We need to get back into reality. absolutely so again folks couple of minutes left bill really quick one more time talk about some of the classes things you’ve got coming up what you’re looking to do at the first of the year and so on let’s give you got about two minutes left let’s finish up that way if we can yeah one of the challenges we have john is we run our out our classes outdoors and so in the winter time our range you know a little cold can be a little muddy so we tend to hold off on the the outdoor stuff however with the You know, sheriff asking the deputies, I should say, asking me to hold a class for them. I may open one up here in December. So in December, what we really focus on is the things that we can do inside. And we have our stop the bleed first aid, AHA, BLS classes that we host and anybody working in the medical field has to have these and we are qualified to give those certificates for work. So you can check us out there for those. And we also run our scenario based class. We call it a level three, but it’s not really a level three, meaning you don’t have to take level one and level two to be a part of it. Level three, we turn our church into a shoot house. and as a participant, you run through about seven different scenarios, whether it be altercation at the coffee shop, or you’re in a mass gathering, and somebody comes in and starts shooting, or you come home to somebody in your house, or you’re at home and somebody comes in your house. These are all kind of scenarios that we run you through, and it’s a fun class. You are equipped with green gas airsoft guns. And so you get a little bit of the blowback, but you’re actually sending a projectile upon somebody. Everybody’s padded and all that fun stuff. But it’s amazing how attitudes and just the mental situation that people are in with an airsoft gun and the stress of the situation is It really exposes people’s weakness in their training and things they need to work on. So it’s a wonderful class, Level 3. So those are kind of what we work on through the winter months here, and you can check the website out for dates. Or just send us an email and ask us, hey, we’re interested. I’ve got a group of people, and it may not be up on the class, but we’ll put one on for you. And we can also, for churches, any people on security teams or anything like that, we can host a class for you, and we can also team up with our security team, and we can come and run some scenarios in your church so that you get the physical layout of your place. Very, very cool.
SPEAKER 05 :
Bill, as always, man, I appreciate it. Thank you always. You bet. We’ll talk to you later. All right, we’ll talk to you next week. And again, folks, again, Ready Radio, the website ready-radio.com. You can always go there, listen to some of our past episodes as well. Send those on to other folks you might feel would benefit from what we talk about on a routine basis as well. But again, this is Ready Radio right here on KLZ 560.
SPEAKER 01 :
The views and opinions expressed on KLZ 560 are those of the speaker, commentators, hosts, their guests, and callers. They are not necessarily the views and opinions of Crawford Broadcasting or KLZ management, employees, associates, or advertisers. KLZ 560 is a Crawford Broadcasting God and country station.
