NPM 17: Derrick from Prepper Press

Ladies and gentlemen, Day 17. Kind of. Maybe I'll tell you the secret about Day 17 someday, but... Let's go with Day 17. National Preparedness Month. Tremendous month thus far. I, uh... Unfortunately, I think I might be indebted to, like... A ton of people for doing this, man. It's been such a great... A great group of guests. Today, no different. Today, no different. Today, we have somebody who, uh... really carved out we're going to talk to him about it really carved out sort of a unique spot in the prepping content creation world here on instagram and i'm pretty sure on tiktok also and uh yeah that's not how i met him you know what i mean and it's just been really cool watching his stuff evolve over time we have with us today derek from prepper press my man how you doing today i'm fine how are you doing good man doing good i uh I remember distinctly sort of your content changing into what it is now. And I think you really found a cool sort of like niche for what you're doing. I don't know if niche is the right word, but method maybe is the better word, you know? Yeah. Well, what did you observe? For me, it's easy to stuff kind of evolves. Yeah. Here's the best way to break it down. When I think of you and your new style, I think of movement. You know what I mean? I don't know why. I always think of like you're chewing your way through an environment and teaching people about a thing. You know what I mean? And I think those are some of the coolest videos. And I kind of remember like when those started popping up on my feed and I was like, oh, look at this. I like this. This is cool. You know, and it's it's since then it's, you know, that kind of is. Aside from that and you at the desk, like, reviewing the coolest freaking Nerf guns of all time and that kind of stuff. So everybody's got to love that video. People went crazy for those things. Dude, they're awesome. It's like, oh, I've got this, like, pump, like, automatic or pump Nerf gun, and then I've got this, like, fully auto Nerf gun, and, like, this is silly and simultaneously kind of awesome. Oh, definitely awesome. Yeah. Definitely, like... don't lose sight of the awesomeness of that. I know. I think I'm like holding these. I'm like, I wish I, I wish these had been around when my kid was just a little bit younger. Oh yeah. They're perfect for, uh, you know, play around the house or in the tree house. And definitely, man, I was at the, uh, I was at a gun show up in Philly, not, but a month ago or about a month ago. And they were selling these guns, these handguns that were made out of Legos, but they shot, you put a, put like a, uh, you know, like a legitimate casing in it that had a little loaded bullet in it. They were really cool. I had to get them for my kids cause they were so sweet, but you could build on them too. You turn it into an airplane. Right. Right. That stuff's fun, man. That stuff's definitely fun. What, um, what kind of reactions are you getting to your stuff over there? Like in terms of, uh, I do read your comments from time to time and I try to comment cause I know it helps. Um, do you feel like you're getting a pretty good, uh, you know, balance of people? You get people that are, I'm sure you get plenty of people that are like, this dude's nuts, you know, and that kind of stuff. Well, you always get some of those people. Right. And it's interesting, like, every platform has its own unique crowd. Okay. I'm not too familiar with TikTok. What is that like? Is that the worst of the worst? Well, yeah, TikTok is like, TikTok's very different from the rest because you get, you know. It's very specific to the video itself. Like I can go over on Tik TOK and I can review something totally unrelated to prepping some product video and, and Tik TOK content. Well, that's, that's a whole conversation, but I can make a, a, a product video over there and, and know that it's not really going to annoy my, my, you know, core prepper audience on that platform because Tik TOK just won't feed it to them. They won't feed it to a lot of the followers unless it's like aligned with the followers. But if, If it's on Instagram or Facebook or YouTube, then I kind of got to be a little more mindful of, like, people don't want to hear about, you know, cast iron cookware. Well, cast iron cookware could apply, but as an example. Yeah, so how does TikTok know? What does it go by? The titles? Well, I think AI is, like, scanning what you're saying. That's probably first and foremost with the algorithm. And then, you know, your description and your YouTube description. I mean, sorry for your video title. Yeah. But yes, I mean, I never really wanted to make videos. You know, I started producing content in 2007 and that was blogging. And it was at the time. It's way back. At the time, yeah, it was SHTF blog. That was like early days of prep of blogging. So I was like one of like five sponsors. prepper survival bloggers me survival blog james wesley rawls yeah um a couple of dakin guy who's long gone um md creek more he's still on youtube yeah he was. Blogging yeah um survival no no no they were relatively new who. Else so then do you know i because i was i mean i'm I have an English degree. I was into writing and I was quite comfortable just doing an anonymous blog. And then book publishing came along and I got into that. And then just blogging, AI kill, Google algorithm and AI killed blogging really for the most part. And all the attention was moving to videos. And I was like, I guess if I want to continue doing this, then I have to suck it up and figure it out. Hey, I'm right there with you, man. I love nothing more than doing a podcast, unkempt, no shirt on, me and the microphone. Like, it is my favorite. And same thing. How do you grab more audience? How do you get more people? You got to put a camera up and light and light. Yeah, yeah. Right. Drive yourself crazy with production to reach out to people. And I guess that's just to get, that's about as much of the game as I'm willing to play because there's a lot of, the game's deep, right? I mean, the content creation. And it's constantly evolving. It's constantly changing. Yeah, I'm too dumb for that. I can't keep up. I just know it. There's just no way I'm going to keep up. It's crazy talk, you know. But I like that. Go ahead. No, I was just going to finish up. That was sort of the TikTok scene. TikTok is just, for me anyway, the content is very product heavy. But with Facebook and Instagram, those are pretty similar. Different videos will take off for randomly selected. who knows what reason differently on the two platforms. But the audiences are more sort of core preppers. I would describe as my core preppers. Facebook's my biggest following. I've got a little over a million there. Wow. But the Facebook crowd can, you either got people that are just like, a lot of people are, maybe I've whittled the audience down or maybe it's just sort of gravitated that way. But a lot of the people that are in the comments are supportive and and trying to help each other out and asking questions. But Instagram audience is a little more kind than the Facebook audience because you can get still the people that are just wanting to insult you and everyone else and just scroll past. I wonder if they're even real. You ever wonder about that? I wonder, like, is this a real person or is this a bot? It could be. Yeah, I think sometimes it's both. It's both. Oh, for sure. Yeah. For sure. You notice anything big in terms of like because so much of prepping is on online in video, like you ever notice any weird trends or anything like that? People are doing this. One thing that comes to mind is like the area study. The area study was a thing that I never really heard of. And then I felt like all of a sudden everybody was talking area study on all kinds of different platforms. Do you ever pick up on those kind of trends coming and going? Um, sort of, um, Sarah's just having a conversation with my, my, my, I try to tailor my, my feed. Um, so my feeds on all platforms are largely for the most part, I've got, um, prepper content, survival content, and I've got content on producing content. So, you know, you know, content for, for, for prep, for influencers, video hacks, what's happening in the algorithms and whatnot. Um, my wife was like, you don't follow any bands. You don't listen. You don't follow Metallica. I don't, I'm not, no. Metallica on Instagram seems weird. Yeah. All the big bands are on, on, on any of them. They have to be right. We're all, we're all doomed to this thing. We're all together. Yeah. But I do see trends. I do see trends, um, from what I would describe as not your typical, uh, So, you know, you've got all the big names that you the people that you and I both know. Yeah. That have been in this industry in this niche for a while. Then you've got other people who may have successful followings because either they're a lifestyle brand um, or, you know, they're just, you know, buff and fit and good looking and go to exotic places. Um, they will sometimes pull in on current events and, and it's, they'll produce some content that's like a survival or this is the, you know, the events of the world. And this is how we got to pull our shit together and survive this. So Yeah, those sort of like fringe influencers, content creators will sometimes get on a theme. And I picked up on this one in a recent video. Everyone was doing these 2030, get ready for 2030 videos. I saw one of those. Yeah. I didn't know that was like an ongoing thing, but I definitely saw a guy talking about that. Get ready for 2030. Yeah. Yeah. So I did one of those videos and it seems to be performing well so far. Yeah. That's a big piece too, right? You want to hit those trends at the right time. At the right time. I mean, for me, I'm trying in my sort of evolution as a content creator, trying to hit those trends, grow the audience and those sorts of things. But like, you know, if you want to, this, as you know, this is a full-time job. It's brutal. And you don't, you know, it never ends. You never get it all done. And then you're like, okay, I got to make some money at this. Cause this is just, Oh, it's a job. And then you get people that are hating on you, calling you a sellout, but then you're dealing with all the brands and just goes on and on. So where I'm, where I'm trying to get is like more, I'm trying to develop my own products, my own books, because so many people are asking me questions. That's a good place to be. Yeah. Yeah. So then I'm not like slave to all these companies who are, you know, asking me to do content. For them and do that. And yeah. Yeah. Um, But I mean, they're fun people too. I work with good brands. I'm not trashing them. They're bad brands. I don't work with them. But, so I try not to do too many trends. I'm trying to do fewer trends and try to more, do more like helpful content, particularly on Facebook and Instagram. Yeah. Where, because people want, I mean, do you want them? I want to build that loyalty. People don't want to be sold products. Some people want the information on products, so that's fine. But some people just want, you know, this is the basics of, purifying water. And so that may not be a trend video, you know, that may only get 30,000 views versus 300,000 views, but those 30,000 views are ultimately more valuable than, you know, 300,000. It's a crazy game. Does it affect your prepping at all? I mean, you probably get more stuff. I know I have a lot more prep related stuff when you get into the sort of And it was never my goal to get into the online influencer thing. But you wind up with stuff. People send you cool stuff. They talk about my stuff. So you probably wind up with more preps and stuff, right? I have a stupid amount of prep. Yeah, I give a lot of stuff away. I give my friends like, you guys, you sure you don't need another power station? That's the way that I do it also. I gave my UPS driver a generator last year. No way. Yeah. And like the chaos of TikTok, it was just like packages after packages after packages. And I'm like, are you my regular UPS driver? He's like, yep. You want a generator? Merry Christmas. Hey, that's doing the prepping thing right there. That's spreading the word and the love for real. That's right. Like I said, I've been doing this since 2007 and you think you know it all and people will hit me with questions and I'm like, I don't know the answer to that question and then I'll end up doing some research and figuring it out and so I continue to learn. Yeah. I look back, one of the things that I wish I had done early on, I mean, you could always change, but one of the things that I had wish I had done early on was created a pattern of creating DIY videos that then funded themselves over time. You know what I mean? I think about like, wow, what would that backyard look like? What would that pantry room look like if I was doing that kind of content, you know, because that's what, like you, like you said, and you know, one of the probably dirty secrets is like some days you do so much work on creating something and promoting something. It's like, I like, I don't have any time for that right now. I'm busy to like this month, like national preparedness month. I don't know what I'm going to get done of note. You know what I mean? Maintenance and that kind of stuff. But yeah, that's the weird. Yeah. Well, that's, that's what I've got going on now. I've got game cameras cause it's, it's a archery season's approaching here. I've got game cameras set up. I got a hunting blind set up. I got the chair set up in it and I'm just like, went through this whole process, but I, and then I'm looking at, you know, Video commitments and whatnot for the next month and a half. I'm like, I don't know if I'm actually going to be able to get out there and sit in the chair. It is weird, isn't it? That's one of those weird things about it. Now that you mention it, I think it's actually urban archery season here right now. And my neighborhood is, dude, they just, they keep digging and they keep building here in Richmond, Virginia. And I swear, all roads lead to my backyard. I don't understand it. Well, it's really our neighborhood. It's just overtaken with deer everywhere. So we've got to do something about that. So are you going to, you don't seem to want to relinquish the prep or press angle of it. Is that, are you looking to just go into your, creating your own books? Are you going to drag some people in and kind of get back to the business of publishing too, or? Um, no, the publishing market was great while it was great. And then it, and then it wasn't. Um, so I got on the early end of like, uh, Amazon, uh, print on demand stuff. Uh, so I wrote that for quite a while and thought that that's what I was going to do. Um, but then everyone figured out how easy it was and it became easier to do to publish your own book. So everyone was just starting to flood the market. Um, And it just became, I mean, we were publishing some great fiction books and they were just well-written, well-edited, great cover design. And we just put ad spend behind it and there was just too much noise. Wow. It's weird, man. It's kind of mean and nasty out there. You know what I mean? You get a hold of a good thing and then it starts to like fall through your fingers, right? But that's the nature of business. It is. That's the nature of capitalism, the nature of business. You got to stay adaptable for sure. Yeah. But you said you were going to consider putting out your own books. Yeah. So, yeah, that would be my own books. Just the core sort of water, food, communication, security, those sorts of things. Like a stack. Exactly. Like exactly. And I get them all. Right. My challenge is I have perfectionist tendencies. So if I'm going to do a water book, for example, I mean, there's countless water survival books on the market. Yeah. But I know if I'm going to do it, I'm going to have to go everything in detail. So it would be like the book that has it all. So then that requires a whole lot of time. Right. So I'm sometimes my own worst enemy there rather than get something out that's good enough. It takes a lot longer to get something that's great. You know what I mean? Oh, yeah, I completely understand, man. And it's, you know, time's a ticking. That's the worst part about it. Right. Sitting on a fishing book like that. It's just too personal and too. Yeah. Yeah. It's the same thing. It's it's one of those books that I. And the problem with it is I want to get it out before my dad dies. You know what I mean? I want him to see it. So there's that pressure there, but I get it. I get it. I usually write when I write a book, I always want to hate it by the time I'm done. I feel like if I really hate this, looking at this book, then it's probably pretty good. You know, that's my metric. Have you, uh, have you written fiction? A little bit, not, uh, I don't think I've ever written like a novel. I've written some small, what are they called? Novella. Yeah. Like some novella stuff. So definitely anthology stuff, short story stuff, but yeah, I don't read prepper fiction. Do you? I don't, I don't read prepper fiction. Um, I read post-apocalyptic fiction and that's, that's really, I'm working on a trilogy there and that's really more my, my, my passion. Okay. Um, it's just a great creative outlet for me. I've been working on that for years now. Um, but you know, whether, whether that will resonate with my audience, I think probably for some people. Oh, yeah. Love it. What is it? What is the, if you can, if you can tell the catalyst or is it too much of a secret, you know? Don't compromise it. No, I haven't really talked about it much at all to anyone but family and friends. It's post-apocalyptic New England. Cool. Good setting. And it's about. So, shit hit the fan years ago. So, this is... the main characters are of the first generation who doesn't remember the world before the collapse. Oh, cool. Very cool. So they're proceeding to the preceding this generation where the folks who sort of kind of describe the in-between generation. Yeah. Who were young at the time of the collapse and transitioned into the post-apocalyptic world. Different societies broke off, three different societies around Greater New England. And each society has developed their own idea on how to fix going forward from a socioeconomic perspective in a post-apocalyptic world. How do we rebuild society so we don't repeat the mistakes of the past? But they only have story and history to go off of because everybody who. Has seen it. Yes, and they're all in competition for survival. Because there's definitely going to be, I would guess, there's going to be some kind of territorial sort of situation that starts to happen. That would be sweet, man. That would be cool. That would definitely be cool. Yeah, I don't know what it is. If that were a movie, I'd watch it in a heartbeat. But something about sitting down and reading a book about the apocalypse i just i don't know i read the road and i read the prepper by one of our hosts carl b and that's the max of all like the prepper related dystopia yeah i love. The movie people that read fiction though i mean there aren't as many as there used to be that but the people that read fiction like readers they devour this stuff and a lot of people are um are uh listening to audiobooks more and. More that's a great way to do it i see the um that yeah i see that the the demand for that kind of fiction every year at Prepper Camp because Sarah Hathaway, one of my hosts and the creator of the Changing Earth series, which is a nine-book series, she gets people to come up to that thing and are like, yeah, I read three, four, and five. I need six, seven, and eight. You know what I mean? And they're not small books. And then some people buy the whole series. You buy all nine books and they'll come the next year and be like, oh, it was great. Yeah, they read at a breakneck pace. Leisure reading. And I mean, if you're if you're I mean, a lot of people have long commutes, too. So if you've got, you know, an hour long commute and you throw on audio books, it's a great way to hear stories. Yeah. Yeah. I tend to like lean into the sci fi and comic world when it comes to audio books slash audio dramas. I don't know why. If there were a superhero survivor or like a survivor who I don't know something about that archetype that I really like. maximal odds to overcome you know yeah like that that's kind of my deal but yeah man bring it to life that would be fun i'd love to read about that i'd love the reforesting of new england the buildings getting swallowed up and all that kind of stuff and these three factions sort of eyeing each other from a distance like look at these idiots they don't know what they're doing we know what we're doing yeah that would be fun i would definitely dig that um Yeah, man. So I want to keep it under 30 so we can turn it into a reel, put it up on Instagram. I'll give it to you if you want to do something with it too. But what do you got coming outside of publishing? You've got any cool review stuff coming up soon? You got to have something sitting in a box somewhere that's pretty cool. Yeah. I mean, in creative world, we're heading into Q4, right? So this is all like pre-holiday season. Yeah, of course. So companies are starting to... Like, I have to say no to a lot of them. So product-wise, you know, more of the sort of high-end Nerf guns. Oh, because Toy Company had Toy Time. Yeah. I mean, I've got a pile. There's some pretty slick ones that I haven't even shown. I'm like, I don't understand. Like, these are wild. Yeah. And a hunting season is coming, so more hunting products that I've got to review. Oh, yeah. Some of those, it's tricky to try and tie in the hunting blind into prepping. Yeah. But there is a crossover between the audiences. Oh, for sure. Yeah, outdoors and camping and prepping and all that kind of stuff. You do a good job, man, of staying in the pocket. All you guys who do really well as content creators, you have an uncanny ability to focus. And be like, these are the lines. I'm here and here. You know what I mean? And I'm going to stay in there. I admire that. I can't do it. I'm not good at it. I bounce around. But it's an illusion that I'm in any lines. Yeah, but your page is nice and orderly. You know what I mean? It's like you go to your page and you're like, oh, I know what's going on here. This is a situation. I see what's going on and I can get in with this content. It's good. I mean, it's cool. Yeah. I mean, part of, part of the, the ground rule that I set for myself is, you know, it's easy to get into rants and that doesn't serve anyone but yourself. And it usually doesn't even serve yourself. And I usually try to go into it. Like in the end, people really don't give a shit about me. You know, they want, you're either offering information or you're offering entertainment, you know, and it's just people want, if you're going to deliver something, Yeah. What are you creating of value? So that's kind of how I go into the videos. And so if it's if it's if I'm promoting broadheads on a bow and arrow, I'll talk about conceptually broadheads and bows and arrows for preppers. Yeah. Yeah. Makes sense. Give it that crossover. Well, like I said, I will. You don't have a what prepper press, right? You want me to link to prepper press? So we'll have the link to Prepper Press down below, and you can find Derek on Instagram, TikTok, Facebook. Is that it? And YouTube. And YouTube. All at Prepper Press-ish. Exactly, yeah. Search for Prepper Press in any of them, and I'll pop up. The squirrel will pop up. The squirrel will pop up, man. Well, I appreciate you taking the time to be with us today, man. I know you got a million things to do, and yeah, I can only imagine. boxes to unload and videos to make so i appreciate you taking out almost yeah thanks for having me yeah man it's always a pleasure always good to talk to you all right folks another day manana we'll see you 9 a.m or 9 p.m come find us all right talk to you soon. When you're off the grid or working in real winter conditions the basics matter more than anything Heat Force Pro was designed around a simple idea. One product doing more than one job. Heat Force Pro turns a single heat source into three essentials. Providing warmth, a place to cook, and generating USB power through high temperature thermoelectric technology you can use for charging or powering a light source. It gets the job done cooking, charging, heating, everything from A to B. I mean it's a good using product for the outdoorsman for sure.