Preppers LIVE: Darius with Prepared Mentality

[00:00:04] You're listening to PBN. You're paying back the stability here. What is up, PBN family? We are live tonight in multiple venues. You can find us over at Instagram. It's not my best. I'm in a dark room with a light.

[00:00:48] Hair looks good though. Mustache is totally out of control. I got Darius with us from Prepared Mentality. Check him out. Is it at Prepared Mentality? Yeah, at Prepared Mentality. At Prepared Mentality over there. We'll mention that several times.

[00:01:07] I'm not naming this live right now. We're just going live. We're going live over at Instagram also. We are here with you, the Prepper Broadcasting Network. This show was made easy by a drone from the United States and a missile system from Ukraine.

[00:01:31] Fundamentally. This morning I got real excited about our show Darius because it looks like... Well, the story that I got is a little different than the story that actually has taken place. Russia is claiming that the US used a drone to identify a target.

[00:01:53] Then the Ukrainians shot rockets at said target. And it's made to look like... cut me off if I sound wrong. I'm just kind of putting this together in my head. What's up, guarding girl?

[00:02:09] It's made to look like rockets are raining down on the beach in Sevastopol in southern Crimea. And people are running. The video is terrible. You can't even see anything in the video. It's like a Bigfoot video.

[00:02:24] But as I sort of researched into it deeper, it looks like the Russians picked up the missile. Like their radar, and I guess surface to air, whatever, picked up the missile and blew it out of the sky. And what happened is shrapnel rained down on these civilians.

[00:02:41] So it's not as clear cut as US and Ukraine blow up beachgoers for fun. But two kids were killed. And it looks like the mouthpiece for the... the state mouthpiece for Russia.

[00:02:58] I think his name is Dmitri Preskov or something like that. I don't have the article in front of me. He's basically saying, you know, there's going to be repercussions for the US. Like there's going to be something. We can't allow this to have happened without repercussions.

[00:03:16] So, you know, that's another step closer to World War III. What are your thoughts? Yeah, it's unfortunate the way things kind of are taking place. I mean, we've seen the inevitable with Russia. We currently seen Russia have dealings with North Korea, have dealings with Iran.

[00:03:41] And right now, it looks like Putin setting up territories. He's setting up alliances that he badly needs. And Crimea is just a part of the major plan.

[00:03:57] I think it's an excuse to bring in America and say, hey, America, look at what you've done and this is why we're going to attack you. I think there's going to be more of that to come from Russia. And we just have to stay tuned.

[00:04:14] I mean, it's not really much more we can do except for a wait. It's a waiting game. It's a big waiting game at this point of the big one. The big one. Are they still in the Atlantic? Are they still down there in the Caribbean also?

[00:04:30] Yeah, they're still near Cuba. They're still down there. War gaming, quote unquote. Yeah, unfortunately, it's really just a boss push to kind of see what we were going to do and kind of push our ships closer to them to see, you know, try to engage a little bit.

[00:04:53] But their tactics are very I don't want to say in their infant stages, but we kind of can play ball a lot faster than they can. So, yeah, I'd say so. I'd say so. If you're if you're joining us over at Instagram, this might be a bit confusing.

[00:05:19] You might see me sitting here staring at you or somewhere else. This show you can get a prep or broadcasting dot com. Just click the live show and you'll be able to listen to us live while we do our thing here on Instagram.

[00:05:34] I just put in a request for you on Instagram too here. Oh, perfect. You saw? Yeah. Oh, great. Forget everything I just said. This will be good. The sound on the podcast is probably going to be way better. Did I not allow you?

[00:05:51] Yeah, it's going to be way better. Now I'm in. I think I'm a go. There you are. Oh, I got to turn you down. OK. We're doing things we haven't done before. I thought I heard you. You got me? Still got me?

[00:06:09] Yo, yeah, you're on there now. Audience, give me a heads up. Survival Solar. Garden Girl. If you're in there, Solare. Let me know if you can hear my man. I can't see Darius through here, but I see where you're.

[00:06:22] I see where you're supposed to be. It's OK. As long as they can hear you, I'm good. Yeah. Let's see here. Someone in chat let us know that you can hear the guest.

[00:06:35] I know the PBN family at the podcast side can hear the guests. I can hear you, so they got to be able to hear. All right. Good, good. Yeah, I mean, just just hackney verifies Darius that they can see you and hear you.

[00:06:51] It's just wacky on my who cares about me? What's up, JP? Welcome in. We're talking Russia. We're talking the all hazards preppers here, man. What's up? We're talking the Crimea incident, the shrapnel incident and what could be coming from Russia as they as Moscow.

[00:07:12] They always say like Moscow. You ever notice that? They're always like Moscow is threatening. What the hell does that mean? Who? Who? Moscow.

[00:07:19] You know what I mean? I don't even know. Right. If it ain't Putin, I mean, they think they name it for, you know, the major city. Like they'll name D.C. or New York here as just some major standpoint city.

[00:07:33] I gotcha like Washington responded to the big name. Yeah, it makes headlines. Yeah, I guess that's what it is. Got my attention. Tell you that. Right. Definitely got my attention. So, you know, for for the better part of this, what has become like the Russo Ukrainian War,

[00:07:54] I've been talking to folks here at PPN, folks over on Instagram and telling them, you know, I fundamentally believe that war equals off grid. And I think if we get into any type of war where the United States is truly affected,

[00:08:10] that it will be, you know, off grid living for at least lots of people in the United States because of the cyber warfare and that kind of thing that is just pretty much inevitable in a modern war.

[00:08:24] What are your thoughts on that? Yeah, I mean, if we take a step back and just look at our local communities and local environment, war does affect us.

[00:08:37] I mean, if we have a major war with any of the top four, I'll say it's going to affect our economy. It's going to affect our spending power. It's going to affect our groceries at the grocery stores.

[00:08:52] It's going to affect our gas. Everything's going to go up and supplies is going to run low for a lot of things that we are used to getting in a modern day society.

[00:09:08] Those things may be shortened. Yeah, one of the you know, one of the big ones is and this ain't going to this ain't going to rectify anytime soon, but the nitrocellulose, which is a key component in smokeless gunpowder, is becoming a serious issue.

[00:09:29] It's going to affect the ammunition market. And of course, any wars are already affecting that and affecting prices. And Washington wants to affect that and affect prices. And that should be a concern to everybody. Yeah, yeah. I mean, it's going to it's going to hit us hard.

[00:09:48] And the more we prepare and the more we stay aware of these things and the time of events, it's going to help to get ready, get prepared the best way you can. I mean, there's only so much people can do. People are already struggling.

[00:10:04] The pockets are tight. Things are expensive. But there's little steps that you can make, little things that you can do to get ready. Put a little can of beans aside, the simple things. Make sure you get first aid supplies.

[00:10:19] We know that if something happens domestically here, I mean, that's a major threat as well. As well as the territories overseas, the territories here domestically. I mean, our borders are open. So who knows if they're setting up a double whammy?

[00:10:34] That could be in play. So these are things that people just have to be aware of. Yeah, the threat the threat profile is changing by the day. The one thing that I would slather over everything, you know, like if you're really looking for an answer,

[00:10:52] what I would what I would really slather over every aspect of your preparedness is your ability to I mean, if I say no inputs on your own for two weeks, then given the situation that we're in and where we're at

[00:11:11] and all the different threats that we're facing, whether it be resource, whether it be terrorists, whether it be warfare, whether it be, you know, immigration, whether it be social, cultural upheaval, you know, into civil unrest.

[00:11:27] Everybody should at least be in a position or be moving into a position where you say you're at home for two weeks and it doesn't even make you flinch. You know what I mean?

[00:11:38] Like that should be a goal or it should be a place where you're already at from my point of view. You know, you should be able to say two weeks at home, no tap water, no electricity, you know, none of that.

[00:11:50] And we're going to be OK no matter what season it is. And that that should be your starting point right now. You know what I mean? Yeah, World War Three jumps off tomorrow.

[00:12:02] You should be able to say no matter what gets shut off by cyber attack, no matter what happens to freight lines, what you know, air travel, you know, whatever import export, we at least have a two week window to say,

[00:12:19] What's our next move? You know, that's enough time to probably figure out what your next move actually is and be able to decide if it's a good or bad move. You know?

[00:12:29] Yeah, I mean, that's that's one area where I hit the most when I train and I do these courses is make sure you have enough emergency supplies for everybody in your household. Create an emergency plan. That's going to be essential for anything,

[00:12:46] whether we have war, whether we have a domestic threat, whether the grocery stores are down or your power goes out for a month. Create a family plan. This makes sure everybody knows what to do when the time comes. You're not running around with your heads cut off.

[00:13:03] You know, you're not doing things at the last minute. You're not trying to go get supplies at the last minute, which you don't want to be in that chaos. So that's number one. Get an emergency plan. Let everybody know what's going on, your relatives, your children.

[00:13:20] If you have elderly handicapped people, you know, the different elements of families that people have real life situations that come about during your preparedness. Just take the time and recognize who you may have to take care of. What kind of supplies you may need?

[00:13:37] What type of medical supplies will you need for certain types of individuals in your family? What are you going to do when the power goes out? So that's a major thing I think people should really, really pay attention to.

[00:13:54] Yeah, another. And within that plan, and this is a tough one. I'm not going to act like it's not a tough one, but within that plan, you should have some way to get everybody back home. A method that you've already touched on, already discussed, already figured out,

[00:14:16] to get everybody back in the house in the middle of the day when people are at work, kids are at school. You know what I mean? All that kind of stuff. Or maybe it's not even home. Maybe it's maybe home step two.

[00:14:29] Maybe you are all in a location that is closer to another beat up point. You know what I mean? And then that goal turns into we're all going to meet at our aunt's. You know what I mean? Or some other location, this school.

[00:14:44] We're all going to meet at this school because the kids are there. And then from there, we'll figure out what's next. So that's a huge part of the plan that's oftentimes overlooked is, we have this idea that everything's going to go wrong 6 p.m. after dinner.

[00:15:02] Everybody's already home. Or Saturday morning, you know? The perfect situation. Yeah, exactly. But it could just be the middle of a work day and you got to go get everybody. Or somebody's got to go get half the family, the other parent goes gets the aunt.

[00:15:19] Whatever your situation is, sit down and think about that because that's probably something you're going to be faced with. You know, in a real... It doesn't have to be a World War situation.

[00:15:29] It can be any kind of major disaster. Like everybody's got to get home before you can do anything next. And that's a really good point too because normally when we think about getting back home,

[00:15:41] we think it may be a smooth ride, you know? A little bit of traffic. You know, traffic lights are working. There's no emergencies going on on the road. There's no crashes. But all that could be going on. There could be traffic. There could be crashes on the road.

[00:15:58] There could be emergencies right in the middle of your destination. So you're going to have to plan how to get around certain areas. I always think it's important to get a county map or even a state map.

[00:16:16] Map out your locations. Map out your traffic roads. Map out where you guys are going to meet. If that road is blocked because of an accident or because they shut it down, know a way around it.

[00:16:31] But you're not going to know unless you have a map or you really, really know the area. And not many people really, really know their area like they should. Yeah. One of our hosts, the PBN family, you'll know him very well.

[00:16:45] Instagram, you may not know him as well but you've heard his voice. Dave Jones, the NBC guy, really takes all emergency planning, all training, and really sums it up best in one phrase and that's to avoid having firsts or have as few firsts as possible.

[00:17:07] So in other words, the first time that you do something shouldn't be when it counts. Those firsts. And that might resonate with you man because you're a military guy and I'm pretty sure that's military talk coming from Dave Jones. But that's a big one to lean on.

[00:17:28] When you go through your preps, man, it's real easy to look at things and say, have I ever used that? Have I ever shot that? Have I ever done that? Have I ever even put that on? And then we talk about planning. Have we ever gone through that?

[00:17:42] Have we ever practiced that? Nobody's perfect, right? So it's nothing to be ashamed of but it's just try to avoid the firsts when it all counts. Because that's the worst. You have to stay ready. Don't try to get ready. Stay ready.

[00:18:00] And I think what I go over too is make sure that you go over your plans, your emergency bags, your kits, your directions, your emergency files and documents every single month. Every single month. Do it the beginning of month or the end of the month.

[00:18:21] Just make sure everything is up to date. Because if people have to know where that stuff is, if things are going bad, if you need to get rid of some stuff. I know many people who have too much stuff, too much gear,

[00:18:36] and there's no possible way that they can load and have all that if they're on the road or if they have to flee. Yeah, there's a great resource, guys. Everybody out there listening at PBNfamily.com. It's called the Preparedness Master Schedule.

[00:18:55] If you've listened to me, then you've heard about it before. But PBNfamily.com, it is a paid resource. So you got to join our membership side. But if planning and scheduling and routine resonates with you and you're saying I want to get prepared, I want to be prepared,

[00:19:14] the Preparedness Master Schedule is probably worth 10 years of membership at PBN, to be honest. And one of the things on that membership is exactly that, is scheduling out what I call your QAs, your QCs, whatever, for your bags and things like that. Oh my God.

[00:19:33] The ceiling fan behind me looks like an alien. Scared the shit out of me. But anyway, yeah, PBNfamily.com. That's another conversation. Yeah, right, exactly. Look at that thing back there. The Preparedness Master Schedule, check it out. Really, it's designed to be customized,

[00:19:55] but it's got a bunch of examples of what you could do and how you could do it. It is fundamentally preparing for your entire year, 365 days. Plan it out. Plan it out the way you want. We've got an area for plans. We've got food storage stuff.

[00:20:11] We've got firearms training stuff. We've got drills. All the basics. And then you can add to the spreadsheet as you want. You go ahead and notch it the way you want to notch it. For when you want these things to be checked, purchased, practiced.

[00:20:25] And the whole thing was fundamentally built out from an annual schedule for just numerous inspections I used to have to deal with in my previous career. And it worked. So then I applied it to preparedness. Sometimes it takes that.

[00:20:45] It takes that when you start getting deep into this stuff. Because who the hell can remember it all? It's a lot. It's a lot. Oh, yeah. Oh, yeah. You have to make sure that you have a schedule. You have a plan. Write things down.

[00:20:57] If you keep a notebook. These things count. These things matter. Especially if you have younger family members or older family members that may not remember or forget. It's good to write things down for them, if anything. Yeah, I've been thinking about that lately for kids.

[00:21:18] I had been taking on a bunch of contacts in my cell phone. Some new ones, but important ones. And I started thinking about how you set up your cell phone in terms of the naming of things. You know?

[00:21:33] So like, your kid, you know, something happens to you or something along. Somehow in a disaster, your kid winds up with your phone. Like, the way that you name things and people in your phone is important

[00:21:48] if you look at it through the lens of my kid has it now. You know what I mean? Right. Like, your kid might see your wife's name and you might have your wife's name under as her actual name.

[00:22:02] And then you might have your wife's name under as her actual name. And it might not resonate in an emergency. Right. You know, like my kid, maybe my eight-year-old or something like that in an emergency might grab my phone and see my wife's name

[00:22:17] is not her real name under my phone. It's not anything secret. It's just love. It's just corny. But they know that. Right? That stands out. But if it were her first name in a calamity, they might see that and go, I don't know who that is. Where's Mom?

[00:22:38] You know what I mean? Like, I put my parents in under Mummum and Pup-Pup the other day. Because I was thinking about it that way. You know? Like, you see Dad, I don't know. If I got Dad under mine, that might just be confusing.

[00:22:54] Why does Dad have his own number in here? Yeah. So I think one way that that can be done that could help is to start letting them dial that number and recognizing that name. You know, just dial the number every month, every two months,

[00:23:12] just to get them in that habit of knowing who that is and who they're talking to. Yeah. And that's easy too. It's a great idea because you can just do it for fun. Doesn't even have to do anything. You don't have to have anything to do with prepping

[00:23:26] through their lens. You know, you can just say, call Mummumma. Here's my phone. Call Mummum. Tell her you love her. You know, see what they're up to today. And then they'll get the reps in. You know, you don't have to be like, call Pup-Pup

[00:23:39] because we're practicing for the end of the world. I mean, that might be a nice role play, you know, playtime. Depends on your kids, you know? Depends on your kids. Yeah, yeah, get them involved. I got one of each, you know?

[00:23:52] My oldest son, he's just like, let's do Apocalypse. You know, and the younger one is like, I don't want to think about that kind of stuff. So, you know, it depends on the kid. But yeah, they're the ones that need it.

[00:24:06] You know, they're the ones that need the reps because they're living their life, you know? And it's important with the kids to give them the reps in a way that works for them, you know? Right. You're welcome, Burpees and Survival. Thanks for joining us.

[00:24:21] It has to resonate with them, you know? It can't be Dad's way or the highway because they just will block. Once they get to a certain age, man, they just block you out. You know, you're just like...

[00:24:31] And they're going to know more about the phone than we do. Yeah. Well, that's true too. That's true too. Yeah, we got about two hours. No, it was about three hours. About three hours ago, my emails, my son's emails, my son's entire computer,

[00:24:47] because our emails are linked together, were hacked and we were shut off from our emails. He was starting trouble, I think, online with somebody. And they were a little more endowed than he was when it came to the digital world. But, yeah, so we dealt with that.

[00:25:07] But those things happen. What's up, Jor-Rae? I'm drinking water, man. I got no coffee this late. But yeah, the kids need the reps, you know? It's an important one. You forget about them. You think you're just going to throw a kid on your shoulder

[00:25:22] and carry on, it ain't going to work that way. Yeah, I think too, possibly people can implement printing out the contacts and having them on a little laminated piece of paper that they can always get to and recognize the names and the phone number.

[00:25:40] So even if they don't have a cell phone, they can always use somebody else's or in another location. Sure, man. Yeah, that paper stuff is imperative. That hard copy stuff, them hard copy maps, hard copy references, really cool stuff. There's an awesome,

[00:26:02] and I'm going to shout him out again here, and he's here on Instagram, at my survive drive is the product. It's not released yet, but we're talking about something where it would really fit. And what the survive drive is essentially is a paracord bracelet, you know?

[00:26:21] And in the buckle there, instead of having like a ferro-serum rod in the middle of the buckle, you have a USB, an Android style USB, a USB-C. It's loaded with like survival library and anything else you want to put on it. So it's a pretty cool little resource

[00:26:43] if you're into the paracord bracelet thing. I don't really rock paracord bracelets, but it's cool though. I like it. I like the concept of the portable plug-in to your phone survival library, you know, just in case. Because even when you know your stuff,

[00:27:01] there's some stuff you want to review while animals come to mind. I think that's a good idea, especially with these tornadoes and hurricanes and flooding. You have to grab and go, you may not want to carry a box full of your documents and files

[00:27:19] because it may either be too late or it may just be in a rush. So having that bracelet, I mean, could definitely benefit a lot of people in that scenario. Yeah, definitely. Garden Girl in the Instagram chat says her son makes paracord bracelets. How sweet is that?

[00:27:40] That's pretty cool. Maybe you can expand on that idea, Garden Girl. I don't know. That's something cool though. Yeah, a good thing to do since we're on the subject of evacuation and the room is too dark for me to show you, but they sell fireproof, highly affordable,

[00:28:04] fireproof locking document bags that you can put all that stuff in, whatever documents, cash, snub-nosed revolver, into one of these bags. They're highly durable and they lock by combination and then everything's in one place. Then you have everything that's vital in one place.

[00:28:31] You can tell everybody in the family where it's at. That way if you're doing this, you can go get the special bag and grab it and go. That's been my go-to from the get-go is getting one of those bags and putting the important things in it

[00:28:49] because it's just easy. Yeah, I think too. For me, I'll have some important documents at another relative's location, out of state with somebody I trust. This way I really don't have to worry about it. I know that they have a copy either on USB or on paper,

[00:29:11] but I know that it's in a safe location. I don't have to worry about it. I trust who has my documents and it's not a thought anymore. Yeah, I love that idea. If you have the resources to do that, I know a lot of people don't have family,

[00:29:27] so it just depends on your situation, but it's another choice and option. That's like a locker. You could even use a Locker 9 or something like that concept where you have a small storage unit with it all in it in another state. Yeah. That's a good move.

[00:29:46] I think that's one of the things that a couple people are implementing right now, is having emergency supplies in a storage unit, even when you have to evacuate and or if you have to get from work and there's a middle location to home, but you can't get home,

[00:30:07] so that storage location will be the meeting point for your family to meet up with supplies. That's a good move. If you put it in a strategic location, you probably could even make it a short-term bug out location. Oh, for sure. Depending on the seasonality of the situation.

[00:30:27] You don't want to run a propane heater in a storage unit with your family. You'll all be dead by morning. And you probably don't want to be in one in June either with your family. But it could be an option in springtime and fall. You never know.

[00:30:45] You could bundle up too. Yeah, I know some people who have vehicles in the storage units and they're ready to go. That's a good idea too. If you've got that kind of scratch. I don't have vehicles. I could just stick in hidey-holes, pay insurance. Yeah, it's called extreme.

[00:31:04] That's out of my budget. But I like it. I definitely like it. I think it's a good move. It gives you a place to launch from too. Should you wind up on foot or something for some reason. Now you can launch from this location

[00:31:19] with four wheels instead of two feet. And that's a benefit. I mean, you bring up a good point there with the walking situation. Because I'm thinking about getting home from work and let's just say an EMP occurs. Our cars are dust at that point.

[00:31:40] So we have to walk. There's a lot of walking. There's a lot of miles between home and work or home to the store. Especially if you're not physically fit. I think one little tip, and this is simple. Have a good pair of boots or shoes in your car.

[00:32:01] That's that basic. Something that can save your life. Especially for ladies. You don't want to be doing miles in heels. Or really miles in most shoes that girls choose to wear to work. Or girls think they have to wear to work, I guess. And flip-flops.

[00:32:19] You don't want to be that guy. Yeah, man. It all depends on the person. But humans can be soft things. I see people use a shovel for ten minutes and their hands are ripping apart. So if you've got to walk five, ten miles

[00:32:39] and you've never done that before and you're doing it in work shoes, you're going to have an injury. What's the safety precautions? Because you've got to think about if something drastic happens like that and the roads are full of cars, there's traffic. What's the safety measures?

[00:32:59] You're going to be going through obstacles. There's no way you can't go through obstacles. So you want to have the right foot gear to make sure you make it out of those obstacles. Because it can be a hard time for you

[00:33:13] if you are running barefoot in those types of scenarios. You can run across oils, fire, nails. Anything could puncture your feet and you're out of the game. You're done. No doubt. What up, Jay Ferg? In the Instagram chat. Whenever I travel, I bring boots.

[00:33:35] Even though I just got back from the beach. That's just part of the travel prep. I'm not going to use them. There's almost no chance in hell I'm going to put them on for any other reason then everything sucks and we have to get home.

[00:33:51] Those boots aren't like apocalypse boots that I reserve for the end of the world only. Those are the boots that I hike in, hunt in. All that stuff. They're the boots that I wear when it's boot time. That's what you need. They've got to be broken in.

[00:34:09] The bare boots can be as bad as no shoes. You could wind up with all kinds of hot spots and blisters and everything on your feet. That's hell. That's definitely true. Especially if you're lugging around gear. If you've got a go bag or an emergency bag.

[00:34:30] If you're hauling around weight, water, stuff like that. That weight adds up. Again, it goes back to firsts. Avoiding the firsts. Don't be in that position for the first time. When it's that time. Because there's no magical gear that you're going to click into in a survival situation.

[00:34:56] If you have a desk job and you don't work out and you don't walk regularly and then all of a sudden you've got 30-40 pounds of gear on and you've got to travel 5-6 miles by foot. It's going to be the worst.

[00:35:15] There's a good chance you might not be able to take the next day off to recover. You've got to get harder now. Some people have that lunch. First hand experience. I work in the city. I wear boots. I wear working boots.

[00:35:36] But I have a pair of spare shoes. My work shoes in my backpack. Because I come across a whole bunch of things in the city. It depends on your environment for sure. But I know when I'm walking on the streets of the city,

[00:35:55] there's glass, nails, all kinds of liquids. There's homeless people with feces. That stuff is real. For my situation, I know I have to have some durable walking shoes in that environment. It may be different for somebody else. Somebody else may live on the countryside. What are your environments?

[00:36:18] What will you come across on the street, on the sidewalk, in the grass? Do you have snakes? That's a possibility. What kind of animals, insects may be crawling around on the streets in the grass. You never know. But it depends on your environment. Oh, for sure, man.

[00:36:38] You better understand your area of operation. That's for sure. The good, the bad and the ugly. Because once you get down in it, it's rough. The traveling by foot in your city, traveling by foot in your town, county, whatever, distances.

[00:36:59] It's one of my youngest son's favorite things to do. I don't know why. We'll drive out to a place, not far, a couple miles, three miles maybe. And he'll just be like, let's walk home. I don't know why. He's putting you to work. I never tell him no.

[00:37:19] But you always see stuff. You always find stuff, back alley stuff, and all that kind of things you don't see when you're driving through all the time, always driving. Exactly. You miss a lot of stuff when we drive. It's funny because when I drive with my wife,

[00:37:36] I'm always pointing out things to her, and she always misses it. It's always a miss. I'm like, hey, look at that. Look at that car. It has something on it. She's like, where? What is it? Just past it. Your awareness level changes when you're on foot,

[00:37:57] especially if there's safety concerns involved. Oh, sure, man. So now that we're 40 minutes in, why don't you tell us about Darius and prepared mentality? I think everybody's got a pretty good feel for your base level of prepping knowledge and stuff like that. Obviously, over here on Instagram,

[00:38:20] make sure you go over there and follow and tell us a little bit about what you guys do over at prepared mentality and how you wound up doing all this crazy stuff. Yeah, man. So my background, I was a firefighter in New Jersey,

[00:38:38] volunteer, and went to the academy for fire rescue. I started there doing some medical things, some rescue operations for the fire department. Then from there, I joined the military. I was in an MP company, 401. I was stationed at Fort Leavenworth for all of my duty.

[00:39:02] If you know anything about Fort Leavenworth, it's a place you don't want to be when you're in the military for obvious reasons. What is that? Mississippi? No, that's Kansas. Kansas? Well, it's Missouri and Kansas. Oh, okay. It's on the borderline. So it's intermittent and incarceration

[00:39:26] for military personnel at Fort Leavenworth. So I was an MP there. A brig? Yeah, yeah. From there, I got out and got my degree in homeland security and emergency preparedness. We moved into Richmond area back in 2019 when I got out of the Army.

[00:39:53] You were right down the street. Yeah. So unknowingly, we had the big pandemic happen, and that was a case of concern for many people, and especially my friends and family members. I was telling you when we talked last, they were asking me all the questions.

[00:40:14] What do we do? There's going to be lockdowns. The stores are closing. There's no more toilet paper, right? The big important things. Yeah, yeah. So for me, I took that as a calling to kind of help people in these worst-case scenarios, being that that was my topic,

[00:40:39] that that was my skill in emergency preparedness and safety. I figured why not create a business and try to start helping people the best way I can outside my career? So it was more of a calling to do what I'm doing now,

[00:40:57] and that's where prepared mentality comes in. It was the birth of prepared mentality in 2021 and started talking with people, doing consultations with people, what they should be doing, how they should be gathering their preps, emergencies, what type of disasters are in their area.

[00:41:19] So what we try to do at prepared mentality is we try to break it down to the most simplest level for anybody who had any emergencies, any safety concerns, break it down so the average person can understand the meaning of emergency preparedness.

[00:41:40] I know a lot of my friends, they're into the tactical aspect, the major survival, the bushcraft. That stuff is great, but the average person, that's not their daily life. So I want to prepare mentality to be something they can gear towards their everyday life, their daily life.

[00:41:57] Somebody has a nine to five, somebody is working hard to provide for their family and they can understand what's going on in their life about emergencies and preparing and make it not so taboo. This is not doomsday preppers, right? This is not that.

[00:42:14] So what we provide on our website and what we provide live is an emergency preparedness course one on one. It's very simple, it's basic. It takes you through the steps of having an emergency bag, having your everyday carry with you, how to set up your preparedness at home,

[00:42:35] recognizing what disasters are in your location, setting up your vehicle for emergencies and preparation. And so from there, we just started to build and build and build on top of that. So I've been doing it now for quite a while and it's been successful,

[00:42:54] trying to help people the best way I can. And that's the joy that I have. I like doing that part and the results that people get. And then hopefully, but not, I don't want emergencies to happen, but when people come back to me and say,

[00:43:08] hey, I had a hurricane and my lights went out and the grocery stores were down and I had some food that we talked about putting away. Those stories come up once in a while. So it's a good feeling. Yeah, so it's a good feeling.

[00:43:24] That's what I do it for. It's for the people, for the citizens to get ready, especially now in these current times. I mean, it's getting ridiculous. It's getting crazy. So it's now more than ever, people are calling and people are tapping into what we're doing

[00:43:42] and gaining more of an interest because it's such a hot topic with what's going on. So that's the simplest broken down part of me in Prepare Mentality. Burpees in Survival asks, where do I get the course? Website? You can go on the website prepmentality.com.

[00:44:06] It's going to be our emergency preparedness one-on-one course. There you go. You go there and you take the course and have at it. We give some list of things that you should have or you can get within the course,

[00:44:24] but we break it down for you in simple easy steps. And it's great to share with your family. I want Prepare Mentality to be something that you can share with everybody in your family and kind of break it down for them

[00:44:37] so they can understand it and have baby bites and it's not coming at them like a tsunami all at once. That's important, man. That's a huge deal. A lot of people just want to know what do I need and where should I put it?

[00:44:56] You know what I mean? Like I want to have it when it goes bad, but I don't want to sit around and research what I need and how much and all that kind of stuff. Just tell me what I need and where I should put it

[00:45:09] and how it works. I talk to a lot of people like that, man. They're not really driven by a desire to prepare. But they do want to be that guy when the lights go out that's like, we're good. I think that's an important thing.

[00:45:28] It's really important for men. When all hell breaks loose, you want to be in that position. You want to know, okay, we got light, we got food, we got fuel to cook, we got water. All of that's handled because the rest of the family gets all excited.

[00:45:47] You know what I mean? They're like, oh God, what are we going to do? The lights are out, it's scary. I don't know what... It's good to be in that position. Yeah, it's a great feeling. It's great to know that you can provide and protect your family,

[00:46:03] the ones you love, the ones closest to you. If anything happens, if there's any safety concerns, you're the guy that they come to for that protection, for that oversight, for that wisdom. And so it's more important for us as men to be ready at all times.

[00:46:22] Be ready so we don't have to get ready, like we said in the beginning. Yeah, avoid those firsts, right? Yeah, that's the deal. But even things like flashlights and... Thanks, Crypto San Diego, we'll do our best. Crypto San Diego and Chad has invited us all to stay alive.

[00:46:42] And so even things as simple as flashlights and I don't know, I don't have real simple cook. Well, I guess you could call a camping stove and propane a pretty good option. Right. But just the thing that you know you can do,

[00:47:01] if you eat Mountain House and you have Mountain House and you know that you're a pot of boiled water away from eating and feeding everybody in the house. Right. Just possessing those resources and knowing how to use them. Because 99% of disasters that we face

[00:47:22] resolve in a week at the most. So you can really be... You can really handle things well with minimal preparations. Right. I think it's when people have nothing. That's when they get in trouble. Yeah, that's true. I think it's important for people to look at

[00:47:43] what they already have and kind of assess, do an assessment of your home. Do an assessment of your pantry, your closets, how many batteries do you have, how many flashlights do you have, what does your medical supplies look like? Are you low on band-aids? Simple stuff.

[00:48:00] Neosporin, alcohol, that stuff counts when you need it in a pinch. And so you build off of what you already have. Oh yeah. Like you say, you don't want to be rushing around and when a disaster or an emergency happens, you don't want to be out of luck.

[00:48:19] You want to already have it set aside, prepped and ready. Ibuprofen for the family. Easy, affordable. I mean you can buy big bottles of ibuprofen not even have to think about it. Stock up. Always have like two deep on children's liquid ibuprofen, even if you're not a parent.

[00:48:42] Because when you are a parent, that's a life and death serum right there. Whether you got an injured kid or a fevered kid or whatever the situation is, man. I knew right off the bat like this stuff, we need this stuff around in massive amounts.

[00:49:02] And then as my kids started to grow out of it, I realized like still probably pretty good to have. You know, somebody who knows got little ones. And you know, you want to have someone be eternally grateful to you. Bring them over a fever reducer

[00:49:18] when their kids got a fever and has had it for 48 hours or whatever. You know, break that fever. It's a difference maker. Cody Bixen, how are you man? Yeah, those little things, you know. That brings up the topic of personal hygiene items. Oh yeah, that's good.

[00:49:36] Because that can get to you fast. If somebody is sick, you know. Yeah. I subscribe to the... And this is like one of the main reasons I even play around with essential oils. But I subscribe to the study of baking soda plus essential oils.

[00:49:57] Like you have baking soda and essential oils. You can make almost everything you need for personal hygiene aside from a razor, you know. But your deodorants, your toothpaste, your hair, your shampoos, all that kind of stuff, body washes. With minimal ingredients.

[00:50:15] You may want to even add coconut oil to that mix if you really wanted to have an ultimate trifecta. Mouthwash. I've made all that stuff with essential oils, sea salt, coconut oil, baking soda. And you can clean them. That's good to have. You can also clean too.

[00:50:33] And a lot of those deuteras and... Oh man, they were a sponsor at one time. I should remember, but it's been so many years. There was another one. I actually have still some of that stuff. I got one of the cinnamon roll anti-inflammatory deutera for sickness. Yeah.

[00:50:59] The deutera starter kit is cool. It's expensive. But we had a company, and I still have it upstairs, but I don't remember the name unfortunately. And I got a starter kit from them when we first started doing the sponsorship with them. And that was a nice kit, man.

[00:51:15] That was a nice kit. It came with numerous rollerball jars, droppers, all kinds of cool stuff. Yeah, they're legit. When you talk about that personal hygiene and cleanliness, you know, we keep... I'm one of those chemical people. Like, I keep a lot of bleach because of that.

[00:51:36] You know, bleach is a go-to cleaner when things need a real cleaning. But if you don't, those essential oils are powerful. That oregano oil stuff, if you put oregano oil on your skin directly, it'll burn. It can literally burn your skin. Sure will.

[00:51:55] So you dilute that down and use it in a spray bottle. Create some kind of concoction for cleaning with that, and maybe vinegar. You know, you're going to kill everything that needs killing. Yeah, no, for sure. That's how I do it when it comes to that stuff.

[00:52:12] I mean, also, to be honest, before we ever needed to even get there, my wife does the whole soap and... Soap and what's the other stuff? Body wash shopping. Like, she's big in on that. So we got all kinds of hand soaps, that kind of stuff.

[00:52:30] And that's really... That's not even a prep. That's just kind of... She just likes to shop for that stuff. Every day. Yeah. So you wind up with a stockpile, you know? And that's nice. Right. But, you know, even if you wanted the stockpile on bar soap,

[00:52:45] like, if you were really aiming to knock out personal hygiene, you could probably do it with a $100 bill, you know? If you weren't, like... If you were truly concerned with the basics, and if you weren't thinking, like,

[00:53:03] we got to have the best stuff that we can get our hands on. Like, you could buy enough toothbrushes, enough toothpaste, enough mouthwash, floss, bar soap, and shampoo, probably with $100 to last you a very, very long time, you know? Yeah.

[00:53:22] Raise... dollar raises, the cheap plastic razors, you know? You could stockpile those. They're cheap as can be. If you really wanted to build, like, a bucket or, like, a trash can a la personal hygiene, you know? You could handle that with $5,200, I bet.

[00:53:39] And have it be something, you know, you wouldn't have to think about for a year easy. Yeah. I got a friend, he doesn't throw away his small soaps that get, you know, really short. Oh, the little one, like, when it gets worn down?

[00:53:55] It's like leftover soaps. He puts them in a bucket, and he melts them all down, and he makes more soap out of the smaller soaps. I thought that was always cool. Yeah. Dumps them into a mold or something and cuts them.

[00:54:07] Right. Yeah. I always thought that was cool. I never made soap. I love it. Bar soap. You know, before... What's it called? What's the popular man bar soap now? Dr. Squatch. Before Dr. Squatch came out, I was, like, secretly in love with, like, artisan soaps.

[00:54:29] Like, I wouldn't admit it that much. But it was one of my favorite things. Like, if I could get, like, a good homemade lavender soap, I was living. And now it's like a lot of people use the bar soaps again, which is good, I think. Oh, yeah.

[00:54:45] Like, good goat milks and all that. That's good stuff. Goat milk's good. Yeah. I love that stuff. Especially, you know, I think, too, getting away from all the synthetics that are in the liquid soaps. Yeah. You know, all the chemicals, all that stuff that's on our bodies.

[00:55:03] That's not even knowing that it's making us sick. Sure. Like I said... Yeah, I never liked that feeling. I was never big on the body wash feeling afterwards. I like the soap. The soap feels like, hey, what's up, Jake the Snake?

[00:55:17] I like the soap feeling after you clean up. You know, you're like, feel clean. Like, feels like something happened. With the gels, it's always like... There's like a film on me or something. I don't know. You know, that cancerous film. Leftover residue. Yeah, exactly. Exactly.

[00:55:37] You feel more dirty. Yeah. Or you feel like maybe less dirty but still contaminated. Yeah, you need to wash again with the bar soap afterwards. Yeah, the bar soap is it. That's the way to go. I'll take the crappy iron spring over a fancy body wash or whatever.

[00:55:55] With fragrance. You know what? We're talking about soap. It's like, if water... If you're on city water and that city water turns off, the county shuts it off on you. You better have some solutions. Right. So, like, that's what I go into. You know? Oh yeah.

[00:56:20] What if your city water turns off? Or they turn it off one morning and it just doesn't come back on. Or it's so contaminated, Detroit, Chicago, Atlanta right now, your city water is so contaminated that you can't use it. You can't even boil it.

[00:56:37] Can't get everything out of it. Yeah. What scares me is that you won't know. Do you know what I mean? Like, if it is an EMP or if it is some kind of disaster that affects the water system at large but water's still coming out,

[00:56:54] you're not gonna know. Unless communications are clear and that's assuming they're doing the proper testing. Exactly. We know because it's a person's job to test the water before it heads out into the pipes. But amid chaos, you might be thinking this water's safe, it's clear. Looks good.

[00:57:14] Maybe it's a little darker, but it can't be that bad. That's what scares me is when that dependence... Because it's not like I highly doubt in a really serious disaster that somebody's gonna come over the radio and be like, stop using the tap water right now.

[00:57:30] You'll never know. Exactly. You'll never know. And or it just won't turn on. They'll have it turned off. Yeah. And or you will notice that the chemicals aren't running. The machines aren't running, it's just flowing water. Sometimes you will know. Yeah. I mean there's... Everything...

[00:57:54] For those of you who are listening and getting overwhelmed, it's like you have to give the benefit of time, the benefit of the doubt to time. You have to learn a lot of things to get to a point where you can think about these kinds of problems

[00:58:10] and have the tiered approach is what I call. You don't want to be like, the water doesn't work so I have this one solution. You want to be like, the water doesn't work so I have a filter. I can make a biofilter.

[00:58:27] I can make water catchment in numerous ways. I have a creek. I have a well, whatever your situation is. We have stored water. That's where you want to be, but that stuff takes time. So whenever you're feeling overwhelmed, just keep listening to PBN.

[00:58:46] Keep listening to folks like Darius from Prepared Mentality because if you buy a bunch of stuff and say, well, I'm prepared, I'm good, then you'll never really build that repertoire where you can look at a problem and say, I've got many solutions for this.

[00:59:05] So if one thing doesn't work, we've got another thing. All that kind of stuff. But to your point, there probably is not going to be a go or it might be a hard stop. And then your life changes dramatically in three days. Exactly.

[00:59:23] And there's nothing like that really in our day-to-day life where a resource can be taken away from us that literally will result in death in three days. For sure. And that's a mind-bender. Electricity is the first thing to go, then your water source. Yep. Then it's that time.

[00:59:47] It's go time. It is definitely go time. It's change time is what it is. It's time to start figuring out how to survive off-grid, which is why I recommend it. I recommend looking at the world and understanding that war equals off-grid.

[01:00:05] Just have that in your head when you see this war news saying war equals off-grid. That's how we're going to be living. And also understand that we are playing with the sun. We're playing a game of galactic Russian roulette, essentially, with the sun.

[01:00:22] And we don't know when that chamber is going to have a round in it that shuts the power off forever. Or at least for a long enough time that we have to bend at the knee to China to beg them to send over all the components

[01:00:35] we need to rebuild our power system. God only knows what that would look like. It's a shame. Yeah. So, you know, look, I talk about it all the time. You guys are probably tired of hearing it.

[01:00:48] Those of you who have it, I'm sorry, but I have to mention it. What do you mean 27 seconds remaining? Is there a time limit on lives? Yeah, I think they're putting a time on us. They don't like what we're talking about. Probably. Probably. No grid survival projects, okay?

[01:01:04] It's a book that I wrote. Get your hands on it. Go to prepperbroadcasting.com and continue to listen to this. We're live over there. Okay, prepperbroadcasting.com. Go to the click the live show in chat and you'll see this podcast is running live.

[01:01:20] How about that shit? Who knew? Yeah, I think... I had no idea that they shut you down for yapping. Yeah, the moderators, I think they're onto us. Hey, we did good. It's too much information. Plus 200 others viewed your live video. That's good. Yeah.

[01:01:42] Let's see the insights on the live. I'm going to post it on my thing, but it is what it is. PB and family, they shut us down over there on Instagram. Wow, that's a first for me. I do lives all the time.

[01:01:56] I mean, I don't think I've done an hour live. So maybe... That seems so silly. I think it is. I mean, it might be a combination. You know, we start talking about these things and the powers that be get a little scared for some reason.

[01:02:16] When you do talk about these issues and subjects for a long period of time. So I'm not surprised. It happens. It happens. Oh, God. Imagine. This is why podcasting is king, man. I'm telling you. Podcasting is king because, you know, it's between you and the podcast host.

[01:02:41] You know, the hosting service and the hosting service have been strong through all this censorship. You know, they stand strong. Spreaker, our host, they never approached us about anything. You know, and we were just decimated through COVID because we dared as questions, man.

[01:03:00] Yeah, we were dissolved off a number of platforms. And our podcast hosts, they never batted an eye. There's something about it, man. It's almost like AM radio. It's a good deal. You're doing a podcast now, right? Yeah, I'm just getting started, man. It's going to be Preparedness Talk.

[01:03:22] We're going to be doing our first show. It's going to be live on the 30th. My plan is to do a podcast every month. So the end of the month will be when we do our podcast live and get into some preparedness stuff.

[01:03:41] Once I get some more guests and get it off, kicking and running, we'll be doing more more frequently. But I'm starting off slow for now. Yeah, well, when you get rocking, man, I got 15 people here on PBN, 14 not counting me, 13 not counting our religious guru, Stephen Menking.

[01:04:01] Though he's a great guest. I mean, he's just a busy guy, so I don't know. I can't guarantee that he would hop on one of them, but the other hosts, they'd be glad to, I'm sure. Yeah, for sure. They're all awesome. They all have something.

[01:04:16] You know, Jay Ferg, she's got the fiber skills. Dane Dee with the gunmetal armor, he's a trained blacksmith. Dave Jones is a nuclear biological chemical warfare expert. Like, they all got stories to tell. Every one of them is great, man. Yeah, we got to get them on.

[01:04:38] Yeah, you'd have fun with all of them. The Patriot Power Hour duo, they're like our news team. Those two guys are a hoot, man, and they know their stuff. Poof. They know their stuff. But yeah, man, what else? I don't want to keep you all night.

[01:04:53] I know you and me, we could yak it up the whole night. Where should we send people? And I think that the prepping 101 course sounds like a good starting line, right? Yeah, that's a really good start. Again, everything is on prepmentality.com.

[01:05:09] I just released a new book, The Eye of Clarity. It's the keys to effective situational awareness. Nice. It's how you want to get started in your situational awareness and your everyday life. Again, my courses, my books, they're geared towards the average person. Nothing too hard.

[01:05:31] It's a small read, you know, 70 pages. But they're key points. It's more like a guide to get you started in your situational awareness. So go check that out. It's on Amazon right now. The Eye of Clarity, the keys of effective situational awareness. Beautiful, man.

[01:05:50] Well, thank you for joining us tonight on Preppers Live. We always value a good guest. You're more than welcome the next time you drop something. Hell, after you drop this first podcast if you want. You're welcome to come back and join us.

[01:06:05] We'd like fresh voices and fresh takes. You know, you're the real deal, man. I like talking to you. No pretense. I had a good time, man. It's a good time. I really appreciate having on. All right, PBN Family, we're wrapping it up.

[01:06:21] I'm going to send you over to the Ammo Squared ad. Okay, this nitrocellulose thing is real. This ammo shortage thing is real. AmmoSquared.com slash PBN. Until I hear better news about ammo, I'm going to be pushing this on you guys

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[01:06:48] So run a few ads and I'll talk to you guys tomorrow morning for PBN Daily News. All right? Adios, PBN Family. I hope you had a good show. Who wants free ammo? Our new sponsor, AmmoSquared.com, is a truly automated, set-it-and-forget-it ammo purchasing program.

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