Raising Values: Cypress Survivalist

[00:00:01] Welcome to the Raising Values Podcast, where the traditional family talks. You can find us on iTunes, Stitcher, and Spotify, and be sure to follow us on Facebook and Instagram. You can support the Raising Values Podcast through Patreon. Phil and Gillian are behind the mic, and we hope you enjoy the show.

[00:00:19] You scared me. I wasn't ready. I thought the countdown was going a little bit longer. I thought we still had 30 seconds of the pre-roll. Excuse us this morning. I didn't know that you were going to be there that quick. I really thought I had 30 more seconds to talk to Phil about something. And then you appeared in Hello and Good Morning and Welcome to Raising Values.

[00:01:08] And the nuttiness that is obviously at the Ravelet House this morning.

[00:01:11] Oh, Jesus Christ, I can't.

[00:01:16] I saw you hit the go live button, but I really did thought... So we have two pre-rolls if you've been watching the show. We have two pre-rolls. One is a countdown to the pre-roll where you hear my voice talking about the podcast.

[00:01:31] And I really thought that... I really thought that I had one more 30-second pre-roll to go.

[00:01:40] Oh, and look, there's a person in the comments that says...

[00:01:43] Riggle Fraggle says, this is my first time tuning in live. Don't let me down.

[00:01:47] He usually tunes in for matter of facts. I think this is his first time catching...

[00:01:51] Well, Riggle Fraggle, welcome to Raising Values. This is...

[00:01:56] This is me. This is Gillian. This is how this usually goes.

[00:02:00] The look on your face is going to be permanently burned into my brain for the rest of my life.

[00:02:04] That was...

[00:02:05] You went from irritated wife because I was meeting you to...

[00:02:09] Oh!

[00:02:10] Shit.

[00:02:12] He was. He was. I can't tell if you're being serious or joking this morning. You're just like...

[00:02:19] You're just poking. You're poking the right spots today that are just...

[00:02:24] Pokeable.

[00:02:25] Grinding my gears a little bit. And I wasn't ready for the world to see that.

[00:02:31] Anyway, good morning and welcome to Raising Values.

[00:02:35] Jesus Christ.

[00:02:35] We are raising something and it is my blood pressure. That's what's been...

[00:02:41] Okay.

[00:02:42] Anyway.

[00:02:42] So, three minutes in, I finally... I'm going to get myself together. I put Cypress Survivalist

[00:02:50] LLC in the title and Gillian pointed out correctly, we are not setting up an LLC. It's a non-profit.

[00:02:57] I goofed. That's what happens when I try to do these late in the evening and I'm drained and zonked.

[00:03:03] What's funny is though, he set this podcast up, I'm imagining, after our very first board meeting.

[00:03:10] Yes.

[00:03:11] Yes. Of a non-profit, by the way. So yeah. So, first off, before we get into the whole show

[00:03:18] and what's going on, we do have...

[00:03:20] Administrative work.

[00:03:23] Which do you want first?

[00:03:24] It doesn't matter. We can do merch first. We always need to talk about the merch and

[00:03:28] that it's there and that if you want to purchase it and support Tiffany and Chris in their small

[00:03:35] business, they are in control of our merch shop and there's all sorts of fun things that you can

[00:03:41] purchase there for raising value and matter of facts. And the information and link to the store

[00:03:49] is in the show notes and you can click there. They'll purchase your stuff and support the show

[00:03:55] and support Chris and Tiffany. And then, of course, we always want to talk about the raising value

[00:04:01] signal chat for patrons. So if you are a patron and we've been getting new patrons, I would say maybe

[00:04:09] one a week? No? One every two weeks? Three?

[00:04:13] I mean, one.

[00:04:13] We've been getting some new patrons lately, this month and last month, and that's really cool.

[00:04:18] There is a matter of facts signal chat for patrons, which is always... I always like to say that,

[00:04:26] you know, enter at your own risk on that one. And then the raising values signal chat for patrons

[00:04:31] is a little more low key. We're talking about a lot of the discussions that we have on this podcast

[00:04:38] in that chat. And I would just like to say to our patrons that are in those chats,

[00:04:46] I absolutely love your feedback. Please do not ever feel like you have to apologize to me

[00:04:52] for opinions that you've expressed or things that you've messaged or whatever. I love,

[00:04:59] love hearing your feedback. I understand that we're not always going to agree with the things that

[00:05:05] Phil and I put out on this podcast and that your life is totally different from ours. The way you raise

[00:05:10] your kids could be totally different from ours. Your marriage, your relationships are different.

[00:05:14] And so on this podcast, we talk about what works for us and what we go through on a daily. And

[00:05:23] you can take from it what you will. But I really do appreciate our listeners that

[00:05:29] are here all the time. And then we've grown and had such great friendships come out of both of the

[00:05:35] podcasts. And I love your honesty and your truth when you get on those signal chats and start talking

[00:05:44] to us about different things. And a lot of times I'm going to take some of the things that we talk

[00:05:48] about and we're going to talk about them on the show. So please don't ever apologize for expressing

[00:05:53] your opinions or asking more questions. I'm speaking to one in particular. Don't feel bad about that.

[00:06:01] Now, what I will say is, what I will say is, if you do listen to the show and you have opinions,

[00:06:13] how am I going to put this? I don't know.

[00:06:17] Please just remember that Phil and I are both human. We are not perfect. Our marriage is not perfect.

[00:06:23] My husband is not perfect. And I am not perfect. And before name calling happens...

[00:06:34] Has there ever been name calling though?

[00:06:38] What have I been calling you all week in jokes? An evil narcissist.

[00:06:44] Oh.

[00:06:47] Before that happens, please just remember, we're human. And things which you see for an hour on

[00:06:54] this podcast, or you hear for an hour on this podcast are small glimpses of our life and

[00:07:01] maybe give some grace. That's all I'm going to say. All right. So let's get into this. I was

[00:07:08] excited. Phil was like, what do you want to talk about? I was like, the obvious. Let's talk about

[00:07:11] the obvious.

[00:07:13] The elephant in the room.

[00:07:14] The elephant in the room. We're not quite sure how it's going to be taken for a lot of people.

[00:07:18] But anyway, it doesn't matter because this is what we're doing. So the last few episodes,

[00:07:23] I have been really hard on Phil about things. And it is all centered around not an LLC, but a

[00:07:36] nonprofit that Phil and I both started with help from our other founding members, his sister and

[00:07:46] brother-in-law or her husband, our brother-in-law, whatever. You get it. It's family dynamics. Anyway,

[00:07:52] we've started a nonprofit called Cypress Survivalist. And a lot of you have heard about it,

[00:07:57] especially our patrons, because we've put this all throughout our signal chats. And we've talked

[00:08:02] about this getting feedback from you guys. And we appreciate that on how we should, how we should

[00:08:10] do this. So let's kind of roll it back just a little bit. Phil started Matter of Facts podcast,

[00:08:20] what, eight years ago? Eight years ago. Eight years ago. This past August.

[00:08:23] And... Or August, June, somewhere in there, middle of the year.

[00:08:27] And like I have said on the previous episodes where we started kind of talking about this

[00:08:32] with you guys, the podcast that Phil and Andrew and now Nick have built are, it's wonderful.

[00:08:42] I think it's gotten a lot of information out there. Obviously, it's touched a lot of people. It's

[00:08:47] gotten a lot of people thinking. It's really done a great job on meeting the mission that Phil

[00:08:54] originally intended.

[00:08:56] Which just to kind of like loop that in, like my original vision for Matter of Facts podcast

[00:09:02] really was coming at the preparedness community from this perspective of like a lot, a portion

[00:09:10] of the preparedness community was preaching things that I had grown up doing or grown up aware of.

[00:09:16] And it was never preparedness. It was, you live on the Gulf Coast, you're supposed to do these things.

[00:09:21] And so I started, I started circling around this idea that like there's so much of maybe not the

[00:09:27] things done in the preparedness community, but the principles involved that it was never like a

[00:09:33] community or a mission or something that had to be pushed. It was just adulthood. It was things you're

[00:09:37] supposed to do to take care of your family. And I really, I formed the podcast originally by myself

[00:09:43] with the idea that we have to like reclaim some of this, this knowledge that's being lost and these

[00:09:50] mindsets that are being lost. And we have to get people to understand that these are like everyday

[00:09:55] normal things. You know, this is having money in a savings account is a prep.

[00:10:00] Right. And I always like to use that example with people.

[00:10:03] Well, I tell everybody, if you have money in a savings account, if you have air in your spare tire,

[00:10:08] if you have a 401k or a retirement plan, if you have any or all those three things,

[00:10:13] congratulations, you're a prepper. You're the, you're, you were doing things for the exact same

[00:10:17] reason as the crazy, the crazy ones on doomsday preppers who live in bunkers. You're just doing

[00:10:21] it a different way. But that's, that was like my original mission statement was like, I was watching

[00:10:29] massive flooding in South Louisiana. I was watching people that weren't prepared for it.

[00:10:34] And I don't know. I just, I literally sat down on a day off of work and Googled, how do you start?

[00:10:39] This silly as it sounds, this was the origin story. I Googled, how do you start a podcast?

[00:10:45] Podcasts for dummies.

[00:10:46] Well, but I knew I'd listened to a lot of podcasts, but I had no earthly idea what I was doing. So like,

[00:10:52] I just, I started on a wing and a prayer and a free Potomac account. And, uh, I don't even think

[00:10:59] I used audacity for like the first six or seven episodes. I literally just recorded it, straight

[00:11:04] dumped it, no intro music, the, the most amateur hack job podcast you'd ever seen in your life.

[00:11:11] But to me, I felt this pull inside of me where I was like, I have to get this knowledge. I have to

[00:11:17] get this information in the hands of people who need it. And I didn't know how I was going to do it.

[00:11:21] But that tends to, I think you would agree that tends to be me is like when I feel the pull to do

[00:11:26] something, I don't care if I don't, if I know how to do it or not, I'm going to jump out there and

[00:11:30] try because I can't not. It's a compulsion. So that was eight years ago, how this insanity started.

[00:11:41] Right. And so we've grown and the podcast has grown. Monet Matter of Facts has grown and our reach

[00:11:48] has grown. And, but I think what, what happened was Ida hit and that really set us back to, you

[00:12:00] okay? Yeah. I had something that was stuck in my eye. Why are you crying already? No, something in my

[00:12:04] eyebrow was like drifting back and forth. It's probably a cat here anyway. Um, Ida hit the house and that

[00:12:11] kind of opened our eyes a little bit more to what is here just in our community. Like we love getting

[00:12:18] the message out and being a family of preppers, survivalists, ready, readiness, whatever you want

[00:12:27] to call it. Every, every word you use for this type of lifestyle is going to have some kind of stigma

[00:12:32] attached to it. Um, and so what we realized is that we're, well, Phil and Andrew and now Nick are,

[00:12:42] you know, on every week talking about this lifestyle. But what we realized is we didn't have a mag,

[00:12:49] which means mutual assistance group in our area. Um, we know that we have listeners of both podcasts

[00:12:57] in our area. We know that people listen and we know that people, um, in the same lifestyle,

[00:13:03] listen to the, the podcasts and everything else, but we didn't know who they were. We don't know where

[00:13:07] they live. We just know that they're local because sometimes they reach out to us about different

[00:13:11] things. And so I think it kind of stewed and Phil's brain for a little bit of, well, what can we do?

[00:13:17] And then how can we, how can we make this better? And how can we reach out to our community to

[00:13:23] create these mutual assistant groups and know who they are? And, um, I kind of equate it to,

[00:13:29] so, um, because of this podcast, I kind of equate a mag to, um, a phone tree. I don't know if y'all

[00:13:37] remember phone trees. Um, if you were ever a, um, a class mom or, you know, you worked in your,

[00:13:44] your child's classroom or maybe a Sunday school group or whatever, you had a class tree. And

[00:13:49] when something happened, the leader of the tree would call so-and-so who would then call so-and-so

[00:13:55] and then it would just kind of roll and you would make a plan and who was going to bring this casserole

[00:14:00] and who was going to bring that treat kind of thing. So that's what I kind of feel like a mag is.

[00:14:04] It's just like a fancy prepper word now, prepper. I mean, not now. I mean, it's always been,

[00:14:10] but it's, it's a, it's a survivalist's phone tree. It is, it is an internal 911 call. Yes. That like

[00:14:20] that, that's the way a lot of us in the community view a mag is, is it's not, I mean, sometimes mags

[00:14:27] are like a group of people you train with or group of people you may barbecue with or hang out with,

[00:14:31] you know, like friendships definitely knit throughout that group. But the, the true purpose of a mutual

[00:14:37] assistance group is, is if I have a tree sitting on my house and one of the front yard, because our

[00:14:42] cat three hurricane just blew over the top of the house, I engage the mag and say, Hey guys, anybody

[00:14:48] that can come over with work gloves, with chainsaws, lend me a hand. I could use it. If y'all are not in

[00:14:54] worse shape than I am, I'm putting my hand up saying I need some help. And that goes for everybody else.

[00:14:59] So like if, if we had had had a local mutual assistance group, that would have been a group of people

[00:15:06] who, if they had chainsaws, they had chainsaws, they had fuel, they had bar oil, they had fully

[00:15:11] fueled up trucks. They had, they had, they were prepared to self-rescue. And if they didn't need

[00:15:17] to self-rescue because their damage was fairly minor, they're now in a position to help rescue

[00:15:21] someone else. So that's, that's the whole concept of a mutual assistance group. And like, you're very,

[00:15:29] you're very right that that was a lot of my motivation for doing this after Ida. But the other thing

[00:15:33] that's really, it's really been gnawing at me since Hurricane Ida was like, I have no illusions

[00:15:39] about the fact that a very large subsect of this community we live in, I don't like to use words

[00:15:47] that would upset them, but they're soft. They were not prepared to weather Hurricane Ida. Where, like,

[00:15:54] in this neighborhood for, as an example, we had the, were the biggest problems to deal with. We had a

[00:16:00] hole in the roof you could jump up and down in. We had a tree sitting on the house. We had another one

[00:16:06] in the front yard. We, we just, just those trees falling. We had bigger problems to deal with than

[00:16:12] anybody else in the neighborhood because from looking around, I saw some shingles out of place.

[00:16:16] I didn't see any major structural damage. Well, Susan, our neighbor across the street,

[00:16:21] her, a tree fell on her house too. It grazed the back end of her house and kind of knocked down

[00:16:26] the, um, the very edge of her roof. So she had roof damage too. Yeah. That big pine tree. But

[00:16:35] looking throughout the rest of the neighborhood at the people that stayed, uh, a large portion of

[00:16:41] these people did not have any serious structural damage or any serious cleanup to do, but we were

[00:16:46] bumping into people who did not have food, did not have water, didn't have backup generators,

[00:16:50] didn't have fuel. It closed my mind. It closed my mind. But there lies my thing.

[00:16:56] I understand that there are people who are not, they're not going to ride out a hurricane in

[00:17:02] their home. Cool. You better evacuate ahead of time and you better have a plan that involves

[00:17:06] evacuation. Is that a assassin bug over there? I don't know, but it's a really big bug crawling on

[00:17:12] the wall. It's raining really, really hard outside too. So you could probably hear that. But anyway,

[00:17:18] back to us. But anyway, but then there are people who made the decision to stay that were in no way,

[00:17:24] shape or form prepared to ride this out. And that, that gnawed at me because I think to myself,

[00:17:28] I'm like, okay, there were probably a dozen, a dozen and a half, maybe more people in this

[00:17:34] neighborhood who almost certainly don't listen to the podcast. Yes, Stuart, I did not have a chainsaw.

[00:17:41] That's been remedied. He said none had a chainsaw. Not just you, all including, um,

[00:17:48] comment of no one in the neighborhood had a chainsaw. I trust he's needling me because I know Stuart.

[00:17:54] I love Stuart to death. True, well and truly like big brother energy, but I am positive that was aimed

[00:18:01] at me and I deserve it. But I guess that was kind of my thought process was like, there's always

[00:18:07] people around us that I'm almost positive don't listen to this, to this. Um, we could be having

[00:18:14] some technical difficulties guys. It's, um, we have a, I don't know if it's a cold front or whatever is

[00:18:20] rolling through and so the weather is really bad outside. So we might be getting a little spotty.

[00:18:25] I don't know. Anyway, so like I said, I feel like there's people in this local community that we're,

[00:18:33] we are not reaching with the podcast that we have to make an attempt to reach. And also for the purely

[00:18:39] selfish reason of wanting to put together something like a mutual assistance group in this area,

[00:18:43] like we have to figure out where the other preparedness minded people are and knit them

[00:18:48] together into a group because, you know, Stuart, Stuart and several other people said it very

[00:18:56] poignantly, which was the day after Hurricane Ida, I didn't need a whole bunch of friends,

[00:19:04] six, 700 miles away. That's not what I needed. What I needed was four guys within 15 minutes drive

[00:19:12] of me who could come over and help us unwind this mess. And the nature of the podcast is that because

[00:19:18] it's nationwide, because it's so diversified, I don't have that. And the problem is most of us who

[00:19:24] listen to this podcast don't have that. Like we live on an island by ourselves and we're,

[00:19:29] we're taking to heart the things we talk about in this podcast, but you, you don't know where

[00:19:36] everybody else is who's in that mindset. And so that's what, that's what got my gears turning

[00:19:42] right after Hurricane Ida about like, how do we, how do we take this original mission statement from

[00:19:47] matter of facts, which was just pump information out into the internet and hope to God it reaches

[00:19:53] somebody and how do I target it to this, this parish, this local area.

[00:20:01] And so your idea.

[00:20:02] And so my idea that Gilroy.

[00:20:05] It evolved a lot. It went from something small and then he involved his wife who said,

[00:20:11] uh-uh, we're going to make this big. We can do this. And then I needled him on a couple of episodes

[00:20:18] and I've already apologized and I'm not apologizing again. Yeah. So my, my idea was to try to host

[00:20:28] local, local educational events here in this area where we try to teach people. I want to,

[00:20:37] I really want to steep this in the, in the language of like practical preparedness or practical readiness.

[00:20:42] Like, you know, like you and you and I, like we, I think at this point we have most of a class

[00:20:47] schedule nailed down, which I have sitting on my phone so we can talk about it. But before you get

[00:20:51] to a class schedule, we have to explain what this is. So we've started this nonprofit and the reason

[00:20:57] we started the nonprofit, what? I wasn't going to talk about the class schedule yet. Oh, and you

[00:21:04] looked down and started scrolling. I'm sorry. Go for it. Yeah. I was trying to make sure my phone

[00:21:08] didn't go to sleep because it does that. Okay. No, I lost my train of thought. Okay. So we started

[00:21:13] the nonprofit. Um, we thought about doing an LLC, which is what, um, Phil put in the title,

[00:21:19] but we thought about doing that. But then a nonprofit opens us up to different opportunities

[00:21:24] for grants and things like that. But the reason we wanted to create an organization is to protect

[00:21:32] our intellectual property. And so if anyone has a question like, oh my God, really a nonprofit? Like,

[00:21:38] why are you doing a nonprofit kind of thing? Well, we're putting together classes and events. And so

[00:21:45] the whole point of this, this organization is to, um, host right now free classes, one day events. Um,

[00:21:56] there right now it's going to be held at our local, um, state park that has a beautiful pavilion

[00:22:01] that can fit a hundred some odd people in there. Um, and have experts in whatever field or whatever

[00:22:09] lesson or class that they're going to teach, come in and teach those classes, 30 minutes, 45 minutes,

[00:22:16] depends on what it is. And have a day where people can come who maybe are interested in beginning this

[00:22:26] lifestyle, interested to see what it's all about, um, or come in and see if there's anything new that

[00:22:32] they can learn or, you know, go back and refresh some skills and things like that. And so that's,

[00:22:38] that's our idea behind all of this. And the nonprofit gives us the chance to,

[00:22:45] you know, reach out for funding through grants. Um, it's a little bit more acceptable for people,

[00:22:51] especially when you're working with city and state governments. Um, and as far as donations go,

[00:22:57] people can use donations to a nonprofit as a write-off for themselves. It's just a little bit,

[00:23:03] um, easier to navigate. Plus I've worked in nonprofits most of my entire career. So I kind of

[00:23:11] know, um, a little bit of the back and forth between nonprofits. So. And I feel like a nonprofit

[00:23:18] really appeals to me personally, because like when, when I, as I, I don't know if it was before or

[00:23:25] after I'd kind of like start voicing you, but like in my head, I'd been rolling around, like,

[00:23:31] what do I want this event to be like? What do I want it to feel like? And I'm, I'm very,

[00:23:36] I'm very laser focused and I'm very, I've been very argumentative towards you and the rest of the

[00:23:42] board about like being very insistent on like this event, have a certain look and feel to it. I don't,

[00:23:47] I don't want this event to be impersonal. I don't want it to be convention centers. I don't want it

[00:23:52] to be corporate. I don't want it to be a big, huge, I think that's cricket. No, babe, that's

[00:24:00] cockroach. I believe it. Yes. I love bugs. I have worked as an entomologist and I have, um, done a lot

[00:24:11] of things with bugs. You talk, I'm going to go get something to murder. I do not like cockroaches.

[00:24:18] Um, there was an exhibit that I had to work at when I was at the insectarium in New Orleans and

[00:24:24] we had to service this exhibit on the daily and it was the cockroach exhibit because

[00:24:31] cockroaches are everywhere and especially in New Orleans. It's dead. You're good.

[00:24:37] I physically can't. I just, I hate cockroaches. I hate cockroaches. Anyway. Um, okay. I've saved my

[00:24:45] wife. I've been watching that thing crawl on the wall over there. So where was I? I just, I,

[00:24:55] a nonprofit appeals to me because like the entire mission statement here is really focused on like

[00:25:01] providing a service to the community and about, you know, like this, this isn't intended to be like

[00:25:08] a money-making one of us is going to quit our jobs type of thing. This is really intended to be

[00:25:13] something where like I see a need that the community is not having filled. And maybe that's

[00:25:19] because there's nobody else around that is in this lifestyle. And maybe that means because

[00:25:23] there's a bunch of people that nobody has just taken the leap. But as I did eight years ago where I

[00:25:29] didn't know what the hell I was doing and I just took a leap, I'd be here we are again. I'm,

[00:25:32] we're going to take the leap again. Although you know far more about this than I do because I've

[00:25:37] worked in exactly zero nonprofits my entire life. Yeah. But I think a nonprofit works in this capacity.

[00:25:47] I mean, we really are trying to provide an educational resource to the community. And the whole idea here

[00:25:52] is to make it as low cost to the attendees as possible because I don't want, I don't want

[00:26:03] the difficulty in traveling hundreds of miles to be the thing that keeps them from coming, which is why

[00:26:09] we're really going to focus marketing in the local area. I don't want ticket costs to be the reason

[00:26:14] people don't come. I look at, I look at this very similarly to a lot of other parallels where

[00:26:22] everyone has a need for this information, even if they don't recognize it yet. And everyone has a

[00:26:29] right to have it. So any, any business structure that allows us to pursue grants, to pull in money

[00:26:37] from other sources so that we can offset the ticket costs of the attendee. I, that's, that's the

[00:26:43] direction I want to go. And to Raggle Fraggle's point, I wouldn't say this is another prepper camp.

[00:26:47] That's, that's, see, this was also another thing that we've talked about probably way, way, way down

[00:26:54] the road. But I, I do not believe that having a few large events in the nation that promote this

[00:27:07] lifestyle is the way to, the way to get the point across. I think you run into problems with, if you

[00:27:13] event on the East coast or the West coast or way up North or way down South where a lot of people

[00:27:19] can't attend because it's too far of drive, you know, like for us, it was a 10 to 12 hour drive.

[00:27:24] It was a, it was three days off of work commitment for us to go up there and back. It's, it's, it's a

[00:27:31] commitment. Yeah. And now I think it's worth it, but it's a hard sell for persons just getting into

[00:27:36] this lifestyle to make that commitment. So what I think we can do here, our cat is trying to wake

[00:27:44] up our daughter, but anyway, um, I think what we can do here is we can do a small, a smaller scale

[00:27:50] event in the local area where we can reach people and then we can try to provide some kind of a

[00:27:56] blueprint so that we can take this event and we can do another one elsewhere in Louisiana and do

[00:28:02] another small scale event for that local community and bring those people in. What I, what I see here

[00:28:09] is basically it's the idea of like diversification. We're taking a very large, very well run event and

[00:28:16] we're breaking it up and we're going to put a little bitty one in all these different places

[00:28:20] so that we can reach more people. You know? No, let's correct that statement. We're not taking

[00:28:27] anything prepper camp. No, I guess I'm saying as I'm taking the concept and. Which.

[00:28:33] There are others around the country that do that. There's quite a few actually. And the,

[00:28:39] the thought process, which Phil hasn't said yet is start small first. We're going to start small

[00:28:44] in our community and kind of work the kinks out and figure out what needs to happen. And then what

[00:28:50] we would like is to, um, what we would like is for people to feel like they can reach out to us and say,

[00:28:57] hey, I really liked your event. Would you come do one in our town? Or, or we can say,

[00:29:03] you know, if you want to do one in your town, here's the backbone for it, which is another

[00:29:07] reason why we made it a nonprofit. So we have more legal power to say, no, this is, this is our brand.

[00:29:14] Yes, you can use it or whatever. We can, we can set something up in your town, but it's ours.

[00:29:21] And we run it and we get to call, call the shots about that kind of stuff. So small enough and

[00:29:27] compact enough that it can go from place to place and become a traveling way down the road, a traveling

[00:29:32] sort of, um, educational day or maybe one or two days, depending on the location. But, um,

[00:29:42] just something where you can get a small amount of groups together and talk about different

[00:29:48] different subjects in this lifestyle. And I think it's important because just like you said,

[00:29:54] we, I, I was already having trouble with taking three days off. I get eight days off a year. I

[00:30:00] know I get holidays and summers and all that stuff, but between sick kids and me getting sick and

[00:30:07] whatever needs to happen, you know, if I want to go on a field trip that eats into my eight days for

[00:30:11] the year. And so I was already starting my year off with five days because I was taking three days

[00:30:18] to another event. So, um, anyway, I think it's important to stay small as, as long as we can.

[00:30:26] And then if we do grow, we just make it smaller pods. We just keep the smallness of it. And, um,

[00:30:34] there was something, yes. Um, garden girl said small scale can also be a lot less intimidating for

[00:30:41] newbies because we're very much aware. And Nina, I know you're aware of this too. And I said this the

[00:30:47] last time on the podcast, and I will say this every single time. And if you ever attend an event,

[00:30:51] you will hear me say this, this lifestyle is overwhelming and there's a lot, there's a,

[00:30:58] there's a lot to it. And how do you eat an elephant one bite at a time? And I think these

[00:31:04] little bitty events that we want to create and host are the small bites. They are just five to six

[00:31:10] hours of a class with little things mixed in kind of thing, little activities that participants can,

[00:31:18] um, can do, um, in an area where you don't, you're not tied down for a long amount of time. It's just,

[00:31:27] it's just a five hour, like, um, what am I trying to say? Like it's hammered into you really quick

[00:31:33] kind of thing. Um, anyway, I think, I think it's going to work. I think, um, we are just in the

[00:31:41] beginning stages. And just like some of our friends have said, we're not going to,

[00:31:46] we are not going to look at the first event and say, Oh, only five people came. So we,

[00:31:51] we have to stop doing this because we're not going, the next event will be bigger and bigger and bigger.

[00:31:56] And we want partners. We want people to come in and be like, yeah, I want to do this in my area.

[00:32:01] Yeah. Yeah. I want to do that in my area. Um, you know, we've talked about five years in,

[00:32:06] in the future, 10 years in the future. What would this nonprofit look like? And I'm hoping,

[00:32:13] you know, I'm hoping that as a nonprofit, we're really here to just help people because,

[00:32:21] because of the intimidation of it, because of the stigma of this lifestyle and because of,

[00:32:27] of there are people that gatekeep the information and this is not information that should be gate

[00:32:32] kept, gate kept. I was picking up what you were putting down. I'm trying anyway. So,

[00:32:39] well, and I also think that like, there's an opportunity here to make this because we're,

[00:32:46] we're targeting something that's so much smaller. I think there's also an opportunity to make this

[00:32:49] much more personable. Well, that's what raggle fraggle said to be fair. I think it's,

[00:32:55] to be fair, I think it being regional is important because prepping looks different from place to

[00:32:59] place. Absolutely. And you know, like I had said when I first started talking to the team about this

[00:33:05] that like a lot of the coursework, I've really built a lot of this coursework out with some input

[00:33:11] from like you and the other two directors. And I'm leaning into y'all's areas of expertise,

[00:33:17] but like a lot of my coursework, it's a lot focused around hurricane preparedness. Cause why,

[00:33:21] why wouldn't we look where we live? So I agree with raggle fraggle completely. Like, I think that

[00:33:28] making this more of a regional event. And if we choose to partner with someone to move that,

[00:33:34] move that event somewhere else, then we have someone in that region who can kind of like bring us up to

[00:33:38] speed on what kind of coursework works up here. Like if we did, I think Joe mentioned, uh, what about

[00:33:44] doing one in Arkansas at the campground that we'd go to a couple of times, we've gone to a couple of

[00:33:49] times. And if I was going to do an event up there and partner with someone in that area, I would ask

[00:33:53] him, what kind of problems y'all deal with up here? Hurricanes, probably not as much, probably tornadoes

[00:33:58] though. Yeah. Maybe floods. I don't know. I don't live in Arkansas. So to me, the, the opportunity here

[00:34:05] is to make this a much more targeted event to the local population. But also what I meant by making it

[00:34:12] more personable is that I really want to make sure that, and this is something we talked about very

[00:34:20] early on. Like I don't want to do TV screens and PowerPoints. I don't want to do, I want to take

[00:34:26] every opportunity to try to make these classes as interactive with the group as possible. I want

[00:34:33] questions. I want volunteers. I want hands-on demonstrations. I want, I want this to be an

[00:34:39] opportunity to break down that traditional barrier where it's like, I stay on this side of line and

[00:34:45] I talk and y'all stay on that side of line and y'all listen. I want this to be something where like

[00:34:50] you feel as the audience feels as though you're not being lectured to for an hour, but you're being

[00:34:57] invited to like join me and let's learn about a subject. So like, again, it's hard for me to

[00:35:05] describe, but like I know in my head, my heart, what look and feel I want for this. And I just want

[00:35:09] something that feels kind of like the podcast in real life, honestly, where I grab a person by the

[00:35:16] hand and be like, Hey, do you want to learn how to put on a tourniquet? Let's come over here and

[00:35:20] check this out. And I just, yeah. Hands-on skill building is what the event is really shaping up to

[00:35:28] be a lot of hands-on things that, um, like activities that we're going to do. Um, not just

[00:35:36] in the classes themselves. I mean, those will be hands-on as well. Some of it will be lecture.

[00:35:41] It has to be because it's going to, I mean, we have to talk about this kind of stuff,

[00:35:46] but, um, the breakdown of it afterwards or the breakdown of it during or whatever. And, um,

[00:35:53] the way I kind of see it is, well, actually I, I could see it like this, but the pavilion we're at,

[00:36:02] it's all picnic tables. And so people are going to have to sit at picnic tables, which is fine,

[00:36:07] but I kind of see it as, um, an interpretive ranger or an interpretive guide, um, leading you

[00:36:15] down a path kind of thing that we're not going to have. I mean, we might have one class where you're

[00:36:19] walking out in nature and looking at different things, but, um, that one person is talking to

[00:36:25] smaller groups and, you know, giving all this information to the small group who's maybe

[00:36:31] sitting in a circle around a bonfire kind of thing. She's just intimate and personal and

[00:36:36] not overwhelming and overbearing. And here it is, here it is, here it is kind of thing. It's just

[00:36:42] a very, um, softly grab you by the hand and say, come on little guy, let's go this way. Um, this is

[00:36:50] what I want to talk to you about. Tourniquets are scary, but let's use them and learn how to use them.

[00:36:56] So. Yeah. Stuart said, I'll volunteer to teach people how not to be a dumbass.

[00:37:02] Oh, he didn't say not how to be a dumbass with a mirror and being an asshole. Oh, minor, minor,

[00:37:09] sorry. We can't read. Um, so yeah, so that's what Cypress Survivalist is. I kind of want to talk

[00:37:18] about the name too, because the four of us, we went around and around and around about what we wanted

[00:37:24] to say. We've had some, we had some friends, Stuart being one of them. Um, we didn't want to use the

[00:37:30] word prepper, um, or, um, or survivalist, frankly. And we didn't want to use those in the event name,

[00:37:37] but for the, for the non, the name of the nonprofit, we were just struggling with

[00:37:43] like, what, what get, what's us. Yeah. And what happened was, so you're, we're Googling all these

[00:37:50] names. Um, I'm in the secretary, this, um, uh, who is it? Secretary of state. Yeah. The secretary of

[00:37:58] state for the state of Louisiana going through and you put in the business name and you see if the

[00:38:02] business name actually is there, but we're Googling all these names that we wanted to do and they all

[00:38:07] which is great because then it really opened our eyes to, wow, there are these little pods all

[00:38:12] across the country of these prepper survivalist things, whether it's a blog or it's a podcast or

[00:38:19] these local little small events, kind of like what we're doing anyway. So Phil was like, what if we

[00:38:26] were just done with trying to name this organization? And he's like, what if we're like

[00:38:31] pine tree survivalists? So the reason I just threw that out there is because I got frustrated. I

[00:38:37] leaned my head back on my chair and I was looking out into the woods behind the house we were, we're

[00:38:42] hanging out at and there's just pine trees. And I was like a pine tree survivalist and everybody's

[00:38:46] head kind of craned around and looked at me and I was like, Oh God, did that just stick? No. Well,

[00:38:52] it kind of didn't, but it took us down the road of Cypress survivalist. Yeah. Um, and mainly one of

[00:38:59] the stories that we kind of attribute it to is we went on this family, um, camping trip and sight unseen,

[00:39:08] we, uh, booked a large enough camp campsite for the two families. So it was, um, Ross and Becca who

[00:39:16] are now directors on the board for this nonprofit and then us and Piper and we get there and not only

[00:39:23] are we literally in a water swamp, but there's Cypress knees everywhere. And so we had to set

[00:39:31] up our tents. There was a camp pad, but the camp pad had Cypress knees in it. Like they, obviously

[00:39:39] this site had not been maintained for quite some time because the Cypress knees were coming up through

[00:39:43] the tent, the tent pad. Um, and then we had to camp up on the road because there was nowhere else to go.

[00:39:53] We were in the water. Yeah. There was, there was kind of a wooden boardwalk on the side of the road

[00:39:57] and like, that's, that's what we, we set the tent up there and then we had to like tie it down.

[00:40:04] Like we, I think if I remember right, I frigging took, I tied, um, ropes around the tent stakes

[00:40:11] and then dropped them down between the whole, the, the gaps in the boards and then yanked them to like,

[00:40:15] you know, pop them like that. It was an operation to get that tent set up on a wooden boardwalk,

[00:40:21] but we got it done. So anyway, so that's a funny story that we always share, um, about camping,

[00:40:27] um, with it being sight unseen, uh, before we put our tents down and all that stuff. And so Cypress is also

[00:40:33] obviously a plant that grows or a tree that grows naturally. Um, all around here. Yeah. So

[00:40:41] that's it. That is Cypress Survivalist 501c3 educational nonprofit. Not an LLC. Not an LLC,

[00:40:48] like in the name. I'll take my beatings later. I was trying to do that. And then the pre-roll ended

[00:40:56] and everybody got to see me all upset with you. No, I might, I might clip that out and make that

[00:41:02] an Instagram reel because that was peak hilarity. That was funny. Um, we hope that you are all

[00:41:10] excited with us. Um, maybe you won't be, I don't know. I don't know why you would be watching this

[00:41:16] podcast if you're not. Um, and we do need to talk about the class schedule. Oh, okay. Let's do that

[00:41:22] really quick. I was just going to say like, um, you know, join us in this excitement kind of thing.

[00:41:28] Yeah. So in this, I wouldn't say this is like set in stone for the first event, but it's,

[00:41:34] it's getting pretty firm at this point. So, um, we're talking about doing just like a real

[00:41:40] base layer. I call it a preparedness one-on-one, but that's probably not going to stick,

[00:41:46] but I really, practical prepping, practical prepping that, that probably is what I should

[00:41:51] change it to. But, um, I'm really just thinking about like, you know, talk about the mindset,

[00:41:57] situational awareness, assessing threats, and then your actual base layer preps, like,

[00:42:02] you know, your food, your water, your self-protection, your shelter, and so on and so forth. And what I'm

[00:42:07] really trying to do is take a 50 minute block of instruction to take a person who has, is brand new

[00:42:15] and tell them, look, these are all the areas you need to cover to what degree is up to you, but you

[00:42:21] need, you need something in every one of these buckets. And also take the opportunity that if

[00:42:25] there's a person who's in this mindset, but they missed one of those buckets to point out, hey,

[00:42:29] you really need to put something in that bucket for later. Cause you know, that's something that

[00:42:35] like we on the podcast on matter of fact, has been very open about is like, we look back on where

[00:42:41] we first started preparedness and realize, oh my God, I had all these gaps. I didn't even know existed

[00:42:45] until I went a little further down the road and realized it. But anyway, so following that, I think

[00:42:51] we're looking at a medical one-on-one class from my sister, Becca, who is a freaking brilliant paramedic

[00:42:58] and has been for years. And she's going to, I don't, I have some basic bullet points here, which I

[00:43:04] think she's going to integrate into hers, but she's still building out that coursework. She really wants

[00:43:09] to try to take a person and basically tell them, these are the things you have to be able to do

[00:43:14] to keep someone alive long enough to get them to an emergency room. You know what I'm saying?

[00:43:19] Which it starts with CPR and it ends with like, you know, in more advanced trauma care. It's a lot

[00:43:24] of the same things that like I learned in the army, but outside of the military or first responders,

[00:43:29] there's a lot of civilians that don't learn that knowledge that probably should.

[00:43:33] Um, harvest from nature is your, one of your two classes. So you're going to, um, instruct people

[00:43:41] in all of the stuff out there in nature that they can make use of that. I know absolutely nothing

[00:43:48] about. Yes. Except goldenrod is a phenomenal anti-inflammatory and will cure a sinus infection.

[00:43:54] I wouldn't say cure a sinus infection, but it definitely helps. Well, I know it worked a lot

[00:43:59] better for me than everything that came out of a pharmacy the last time I had a sinus infection.

[00:44:02] So I'm going to say it cures, um, financial preparedness, which would be a short 25 minute

[00:44:09] class for me. And, um, you know, like I restrict myself on matter of facts to like once a year doing

[00:44:15] a financial preparedness class, because I feel like if your finances are not in order, it makes

[00:44:21] everything in your life much more difficult. If we had tons of debt right now, or like maxed out

[00:44:28] credit cards, we would be drowning in this economy. And the reason why we've been able to make things

[00:44:33] work is because we don't have a lot of debt. You know, we did a lot of foreplanning on the front end.

[00:44:39] Um, a use of force class from Ross. So he's going to talk through like the legal principles of

[00:44:45] self-defense in specific to the state of Louisiana, which was very important to me that

[00:44:49] like that class has to be taught state by state because state laws vary from state to state.

[00:44:56] And he's a sheriff's deputy. Yes. And I believe he's also a training officer. I mean, he's, he's,

[00:45:02] he's been, he'd been in the game for a very long time. Um, gray man, which, you know, the philosophy

[00:45:09] of gray man hiding in plain sight, basically there, there's a time to, to make it known who you are and

[00:45:16] what you're about. But most of the time you really just want to blend your community, which sounds

[00:45:19] hilarious to a guy that looks the way I do because having a beard this long, people literally refer

[00:45:24] to me around town as the guy with the beard. But I swear to God, if I shaved, no one would recognize

[00:45:29] me, including YouTube probably. Please don't ever do that. I've thought about it. I didn't say I was

[00:45:38] going to do it. I just thought it'd be funny to mess with everybody, but then we'd be doing this for

[00:45:42] like 18 months to get back to it. But anyway, uh, emotional prepping, which is your other class,

[00:45:48] um, managing emotions during, after the event, trauma, post-traumatic stress disorder, coaching

[00:45:53] your kids, involving your kids and your preparedness plan, which all of that, I feel like you're well,

[00:46:00] you're well equipped to talk about and try to like, try to get the audience to understand that like

[00:46:06] there's an aspect of an emergency situation that's going to involve managing emotions because you can't

[00:46:11] just bury them down forever. Sooner or later they come. I feel like that. So I've talked to, um,

[00:46:16] I was a guest at a conference, uh, women who prep conference last year, and that was what I spoke

[00:46:22] about there. And then when I go on different podcasts or whatever, that's usually what people want me to

[00:46:27] talk about is the emotional side and prepping with kids. Um, because it doesn't get talked about

[00:46:34] enough. Yeah. I mean, emotion. And again, because for so many years, preparedness has been a mostly

[00:46:42] male dominated sphere. And most men are very comfortable with the idea of like emotions,

[00:46:48] put those in a frigging bag, tie it off, throw them way over there. We'll deal with them later.

[00:46:52] But that doesn't work as well when you're dealing with children or when you're dealing with,

[00:46:56] you know, not stereotype, but a lot of women, you have to manage the emotions in the moment.

[00:47:00] And you have to manage the emotions on the back end. Even, I mean like post-traumatic stress disorder

[00:47:06] to me is if you don't manage your emotions, like as a combat veteran for long enough,

[00:47:11] your emotions are going to manage you. So it doesn't get talked about very often. I think that's

[00:47:16] why you get asked to talk about it so much because within this world, there's not a lot of people

[00:47:21] that talk about it. Certainly not openly. Yeah. And then the last one is communications,

[00:47:27] which would be my last class and last class for the day. And I want to start out,

[00:47:33] literally start at this is a cell phone. You should be using this because everybody has them

[00:47:37] and they work and go all the way to like alternative methods of communication.

[00:47:44] And I even want to involve things like controlling your digital footprint, controlling your information

[00:47:51] on the internet, like being careful what you put out on social media, how you, if you're talking

[00:47:56] on a radio, everyone around you can hear you. So how do you not give away information? You don't

[00:48:00] want other people to know. Like what I want to focus on in a lot of these classes is not just

[00:48:07] here's what you do, but here's why you do it and teach the principles behind these things. Because

[00:48:13] I could show a person, I could show a person how to use a, you know, Beofang GM 15 radio

[00:48:18] in 45 seconds. It's not complicated. But if I teach you the idea behind like signals intelligence

[00:48:26] and comm security and those principles, then you can apply that to any radio. You can apply it to a

[00:48:31] cell phone. You can apply it to posting on Instagram because the principle cuts across everything. So a lot

[00:48:37] of what I want to get into with these classes is I want to teach the principles behind the reason why

[00:48:42] we do the things we do. Because I feel like those principles, people can apply them in their daily

[00:48:48] lives. Yeah. And then when, so if a class is going on and that person doesn't want to attend a class,

[00:48:54] there'll be activity tables that they can go to. Um, and so those are going to be things like, um,

[00:49:01] learning how to use a ferro rod to, to start a fire. Um, I think you had medical bag rodeo. So

[00:49:07] yeah, that's going to be, X is going to take her, uh, her first aid kit that she's building for her

[00:49:13] class and open it up and break it down. There'll be a way that you can, um, you can get a list from

[00:49:20] her for all the things that she has in it, where to purchase it, how to purchase it, all that stuff.

[00:49:25] And then how to build your own medical bag. She might also, cause she and I talked last night

[00:49:29] about the possibility of her having like her medical bag from the class and also her go bag that

[00:49:35] she keeps in her vehicle, which is that med bag on steroids. And then also having like the IFAC I

[00:49:40] keep in my truck or the IFAC you keep in your Jeep. So that way we can kind of show people

[00:49:44] different form factors, different levels of equipment, different quantities. Because again,

[00:49:50] it's about, Becca's point of view is I need to teach people how to use the stuff that's in these

[00:49:57] bags because if there's stuff in these bags they don't know how to use, it's useless.

[00:50:01] Right.

[00:50:01] Right. But yeah, she talked about putting there like an Amazon, an Amazon list and we can put that

[00:50:07] into a QR code so that the person says, Oh yeah, I need that stuff here. Yeah. And or everything on

[00:50:14] the list and you're done. Yeah. And then we thought we'd have fun with tourniquets and have a

[00:50:18] tourniquet tournament where you're, we're teaching you how to apply a tourniquet and then, you know,

[00:50:25] who can do it fastest and who can do it correctly and who can do it, whatever.

[00:50:29] I'm going to tell at least one person to apply a tourniquet to their dominant leg with their

[00:50:35] non-dominant hit hand, one handed. That will be entertaining to watch.

[00:50:40] So those are just some of the activities that we're looking at doing while the classes are going on.

[00:50:45] But you know, we don't want this to be super big. Maybe eventually one day we'll have vendors out

[00:50:50] there, but we don't want to muddy it up. Like we want people to just come in and get the information

[00:50:56] that they're looking for and then they can go home for the day or they can camp at the state park or do

[00:51:01] whatever. Um, uh, there was something else I was going to say, but now I can't remember. So I don't know.

[00:51:07] I can't remember what I was going to say. I hate it when that happens. Anyway. Sorry. Yeah. It's okay.

[00:51:15] Anything else? There was something else I think. Well, anyway, I don't know. I like, I appreciate

[00:51:24] everybody taking a minute to listen to us decompress all this because this has been two weeks of absolute

[00:51:29] like, Oh, I know what it was. Go ahead. Nope. Um, before you forget Facebook and Instagram,

[00:51:36] I have been trying to begin that process of building, um, a social identity on Facebook and

[00:51:43] Instagram. I know that we need to get to tick tock and YouTube and all the other places are

[00:51:49] also in the show description. Um, yeah. And see, I'm going to go back to Stuart's comment just now.

[00:51:55] Um, he said, I hope never vendors. That is really what will be different for a lot of,

[00:52:04] uh, a lot of events around the country is we're not going to do vendors and we're taking a two hour

[00:52:10] lunch break. So you can either use a grill at the, the state park, or you can go into town and get

[00:52:16] something to eat, or you can bring your own. You're, you know, it's, you have enough time to do that

[00:52:21] kind of stuff. Um, we want it to be very personable. We want people to go away feeling like they've met

[00:52:27] their people again with what Holly said a long time ago in what I've put in a post is that we are

[00:52:35] normal. Um, it depends on who you ask, I guess, if we're normal or not, but we're normal people.

[00:52:40] And we want people to come to this, um, kind of going back to garden girl, Nina's comment is not

[00:52:48] be intimidated by the whole process and know that there are people who we just took it one step at a

[00:52:53] time. And we, um, you know, we just want you to understand that we're here and there are people

[00:53:02] out there like you. And I think, you know, what I have always been so thankful for with these podcasts

[00:53:08] is we get to go hang out with our, our chosen family, people who have the same thoughts and

[00:53:16] do the same things that we do and things like that. And so it's nice to be able to build that

[00:53:21] kind of community with other people who may just be sitting at home going, I wish I wish.

[00:53:28] And now hopefully we'll give them an opportunity to actually go out and do stuff.

[00:53:33] And to raggle fraggle his point about what's going to be your revenue source. Like I know that we're

[00:53:37] going to be pursuing some grants and some donations, but like to, to current what's funding the,

[00:53:44] the, this event is me like literally Adam. The four of us. Yeah. The four of us are funding

[00:53:50] this right now. You know, I was thinking about this the other day because like I've been very

[00:53:54] pointed about like, and you've, you put this as an action item for me that I need to develop a

[00:53:59] budget, which right now is like the budget is zero. I know. I said that in the meeting last night.

[00:54:06] I was like, by next meeting, Phil, you need to introduce a budget and we need to accept the

[00:54:09] budget. And I got this look like I had four heads and it was like, no, we really do have to have a

[00:54:16] budget for a nonprofit. I have to turn that in. Um, even if there is a zero, um, amount that we

[00:54:24] can pull from a budget, we still have to list things that we're purchasing for the nonprofit.

[00:54:28] But you know, I was thinking back to like matter of facts, when I first started that,

[00:54:32] and I ran the podcast at a loss the entire first year that the whole first year, everything was

[00:54:38] out of, was out of me. And that was back when like, you know, money was tight. We didn't have a

[00:54:42] whole lot of extra, but my, my extra money got spent starting a podcast. So I went down

[00:54:51] that road and I think it was, I'd have to go back and look at the records. But if I recall

[00:54:55] correctly, I think it was about a year, it was just shy of the two year mark. We actually

[00:55:00] like had enough coming on a regular basis to cover costs for the year, which ever since

[00:55:06] then, I've been very, very directed about making sure that the, the, the revenue coming

[00:55:11] from the podcast covers a cost. We don't have any shortfalls, we don't have any massive overruns,

[00:55:17] but I've kind of come to peace with the fact that to get this, this LL, this, to get this

[00:55:22] nonprofit and to get this event off the ground, it's going to, it's going to come out of my

[00:55:28] pocket, which I'm okay with. I know, I know that, you know, Ross and Becca have offered

[00:55:32] to help shorter costs and that hasn't been necessary at this point, but like, I feel so strongly

[00:55:38] that this needs to be done, that if it ends up being a couple of hundred dollars out of

[00:55:42] my pocket, like, okay, I've blown a couple hundred dollars on junk in the past that I

[00:55:48] don't feel like did as much of a service to the community as this could. So...

[00:55:53] And, you know, with that being said, if you're a local listener and you, we, you know, we

[00:55:58] wrote into the bylaws that we would have a board of eight members. We only have four.

[00:56:03] If that's something that you want to volunteer for, remember that it's your volunteering for

[00:56:08] that. Hit us up and let us know, and we can talk about positions that are still available

[00:56:14] on the board as a volunteer. I am going to be putting out a call for volunteers for event

[00:56:20] days. And, you know, I'm going to be looking for people like Boy Scout groups that, you

[00:56:25] know, maybe there's an Eagle Scout that needs some volunteer hours, and this would be a perfect

[00:56:29] opportunity for them to, to come out and get some volunteer hours and things, things like

[00:56:35] that. We, we are still in the baby stages of this. We don't have a bank account set up yet

[00:56:41] that's coming. I didn't realize, but when you, when you get your EIN number for a nonprofit,

[00:56:50] it actually takes two to three weeks before it becomes an actual thing with the federal

[00:56:55] government. Like we are an entity with the state now, but as far as the government, the federal

[00:57:00] government is concerned, we don't exist just yet. It hasn't been processed. So we have to wait for

[00:57:06] that to process in order for us to go and get a bank account and all of that stuff. Eventually we'll,

[00:57:12] we will open it up to donations. We will, I will be applying for grants. I can't tell you how many

[00:57:18] grants I've written in my life, but we will be applying for grants. And, um, I think it's really

[00:57:25] important to say that this is not a moneymaker for us right now. We're in the negative by a lot,

[00:57:32] not a lot yet, but you know, a few hundred. Okay. By the, by March it will be, it'll be, uh,

[00:57:40] it'll be an amount that we weren't expecting when we first, whatever, anyway, it'll be worth it.

[00:57:46] Um, so yeah, so we will be asking for that and you don't have to, and no one really has to be

[00:57:52] involved. If you want to just come hang out for the day, if you're local, or I mean, if you want

[00:57:56] to drive and come to South Louisiana for an event, but the event will be on March 8th. It's a Saturday.

[00:58:03] Um, we're hoping for good weather in March and that is the weekend right before Mardi Gras. So,

[00:58:10] you know, come hang out and get some practical survival skill knowledge and then go to Mardi Gras.

[00:58:16] I don't recommend it, but go to Mardi Gras. Um, so March 8th and is, it is an all day event,

[00:58:24] but, um, we're doing some finalizations on that event. And then after Christmas, you'll start to see

[00:58:30] some, um, you'll start to see some advertisements for the event and we'll have two months to add,

[00:58:36] um, advertise for that event. We'll be going on radio stations that are local,

[00:58:41] hitting up some, um, we're going to be, um, introducing ourselves to the parish officials,

[00:58:47] letting them know that we're here. So there's just a lot to do. Um, but back to Instagram and Facebook,

[00:58:52] one of the easiest and free things that you can do for us is to like our pages, like our posts,

[00:59:00] share them if you feel the need to share them, but help us get the word out about Cypress

[00:59:06] Survivalist and what we're doing and what we're building and be a part of it that way. If that's

[00:59:11] the only way that you can be a part of it. Um, it is a community nonprofit and, uh, you're part of

[00:59:18] that community because you listened to us. Welcome surprise. Uh, so yeah, so you can volunteer to do

[00:59:25] that part for a nonprofit. Yeah. And I would just say that like, if you believe like we do,

[00:59:30] that this is something that is well intentioned and very necessary for the community, like any amount

[00:59:37] of support you can lend to us is a huge blessing and support starts with very simply just telling

[00:59:43] people, especially people who you know in this area, although not only people in this area that we

[00:59:49] even exist because for eight years, it's been matter of fact's podcast and the raising values podcast.

[00:59:57] But the whole point of doing this, this way is that there's people outside this door that

[01:00:03] don't know we exist and we have to figure out how to reach them. So our, uh, you know, no one has asked,

[01:00:12] which I think is probably indicative of the fact that they just have confidence that the podcasts are

[01:00:16] not going away because that's not what we're doing here. To me, it's more of a, the podcast

[01:00:21] matter of fact started to serve a mission statement. Oh, I was going to read our mission statement.

[01:00:27] Every time you say mission statement, I keep pulling it up. Matter of fact was created to fulfill

[01:00:33] a mission statement. I feel like raising values also fulfills that mission statement in a slightly

[01:00:38] different manner. This is another avenue to fulfill that mission statement. Like as corny as it might

[01:00:46] sound to people, like I truly believe that like there are people who are called to do something

[01:00:53] and they cannot ignore that calling. And I just feel, I feel called to try to try to spread

[01:01:00] information and knowledge that I feel like people can benefit from. And I couldn't tell you why I got

[01:01:05] the calling, just something knocked on my door and I was like, okay, fine. I'll go do it.

[01:01:10] I love that. And we'll leave you with this because we know that we're past an hour now, but this is

[01:01:16] the mission statement just so you can kind of take this home with you. At Cypress Survivalist, our mission

[01:01:21] is to empower individuals and communities through accessible survival knowledge and skills. We are

[01:01:26] dedicated to disseminating critical information that fosters resilience, self-sufficiency, and

[01:01:32] preparedness. By providing expert resources, hands-on training, and a supportive community, we aim to equip

[01:01:38] everyone with the tools needed to thrive in uncertain times. Together we build a safer, more prepared

[01:01:44] world. Yay! All right guys, with that we're going to head out. We've got some things to do today,

[01:01:51] as I'm sure you do too. Thanks for listening as always. Again, thanks for always commenting or

[01:01:59] carrying on the conversation, whether that's in instant messages or in the signal chats for the patrons.

[01:02:06] We really do appreciate that. And I was kind of joking a little bit when I commented about the

[01:02:14] message that I got this week. So yeah, go do you and we'll do us and have a great weekend and have a

[01:02:21] great week and we'll see you next... No, we won't see you next week. My sister's getting married,

[01:02:25] so we will not be here. So we'll see you in two weeks. All right? Bye everybody.

[01:02:30] Bye everybody.