March 31, 2025 • 29 mins
The unexpected happens—platforms crash, power fails, key equipment breaks down. Is your business prepared to keep functioning when disaster strikes? In this eye-opening conversation with business continuity expert Erika Andresen, we explore the critical yet often overlooked practices that keep businesses operational through any disruption.
Erika, a certified business continuity professional, former lawyer, and emergency management professor, reveals why small businesses are particularly vulnerable to disruptions despite being the backbone of community resilience. She shares compelling stories of business owners caught unprepared. These cautionary tales highlight how seemingly small dependencies can create devastating single points of failure.
We dive deep into practical approaches for identifying vulnerabilities in your business operations, from social media dependencies to supply chain fragility. Erika explains that while large corporations have robust continuity teams, small businesses can achieve significant protection with thoughtful planning and backup systems. Her firsthand experience surviving Hurricane Helene without power, internet, or cell service for days provides sobering insights into how quickly cascading failures can impact even the best-laid plans.
Most valuable is Erika's practical framework for developing your own continuity strategy: aim for an 80% solution by methodically examining every aspect of your business and asking, "If this disappeared tomorrow, how would we continue?" The difference between hoping disasters won't happen and having concrete contingencies can determine whether your business survives or thrives through unexpected challenges.
Connect with Erika:
www.eaasc.com
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Check out Erika's book:
https://www.amazon.com/How-Not-Kill-Your-Business/dp/199018538X
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Instagram
https://www.instagram.com/dontkillyourbusiness/
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https://www.tiktok.com/@dontkillyourbusiness
LinkedIn
https://www.linkedin.com/company/eaas-consult
Got a question about something you heard today? Have a great suggestion for a topic or know someone who should be a guest? Reach out to us:
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Transcript
Episode Transcript
Available transcripts are automatically generated. Complete accuracy is not guaranteed.
Carl Richards (00:04):
Welcome to Communication Connection
Community the podcaster'spodcast.
This podcast takes a deep diveinto modern day communication
strategies in the podcastingspace.
We chat with interesting peoplewho make the podcasting and
speaking spaces exciting andvibrant.
We also dive into thepodcasting community with news
(00:24):
updates, latest trends andtopics from this ever-evolving
space.
So strap in, it's going to beone amazing ride.
Let's dive into today's episode.
Is your business ready in casesomething happens In other words
, if Facebook goes down, theinternet goes down, power
(00:46):
outages, natural disasters isyour business protected?
You might be hearing this andgoing well, yeah, of course it
is.
But our guest today is going towalk us through some
interesting scenarios and talkabout business continuity.
She's an expert at it.
Erika Andresen is a subjectmatter expert in keeping
(01:07):
businesses alive, thriving,making money and increasing
value.
She is passionate aboutempowering business owners and
investors by educating themabout business continuity
practices so they can remainoperational through any disaster
, disruption or even quickgrowth period, because that can
be a challenge too, too, thatmaybe you weren't planning for.
She's a certified businesscontinuity professional, a
(01:31):
former lawyer, veteran professorof emergency management,
invited speaker, mit guestlecturer, international podcast
guest, quoted expert in Forbessuccess money geek smart sheet
and dark reading and Amazonbestselling author as well, and
she's also so much fun.
She's a hoot, apparently, andwe're so glad she's here today
(01:52):
talking to us about businesscontinuity.
Erika, welcome to the podcast.
Erika Andresen (01:57):
Sure.
So what I like to say as mybusiness proposition is that I
keep your doors open and cashflowing.
And before I actually say whatthat is, I just invite your
listeners to think about that.
What do you think that means toyou?
Keeping your doors open andcash flowing?
So business continuity iseverything and anything that
(02:18):
allows you to stay operationaland making money through any
type of disaster, disruption atall.
And that could be a naturaldisaster, a man-made disaster,
and disruptions can be good orbad.
So the good disruptions areviral, overnight success that
you're not prepared for.
And then the bad disruptionsare things like maybe there's a
(02:38):
key piece of hardware that youhave that stops working all of a
sudden, and maybe it's youremployees win the mega millions
and I'll quit the next day.
Or it could be as simple, asyour entire business is on
Facebook and you're put inFacebook jail.
So that is a major disruptionand would allow you to not have
a business if you didn't planfor it.
(03:00):
Because some people will dorisk management, but risk
management does not alwayseradicate risks.
It helps mitigate them.
So business continuity picks upwhere risk management fails.
Carl Richards (03:12):
Wow, and I'm so glad that we're talking about
this today and I'm glad youmentioned the variation of this
that it can be, depending onyour business.
It can be something like apiece of equipment that you need
it can be employees leavingbecause they did win the lottery
.
Or it can be like you saysomething that is connected to
social media or other reach outsthat you do, which is very
(03:35):
relevant in the podcasting space.
There are a lot of podcasterswho rely on social media
platforms, email, all kinds oftechnology to get their
messaging out there, and withoutit they're screwed in a lot of
ways unless they have this, asyou said, this business
continuity set up.
In your experience, have youfound that a lot of business
(03:55):
owners or entrepreneurs they'renot set up with a business
continuity plan.
They're just not thinking aboutit.
Erika Andresen (04:03):
Yes, both.
So business continuity is aprofession.
You may not have heard of it oryour listeners, and that's not
abnormal.
This is a profession that hasexisted for decades and large
international corporations do it.
The government does it.
They actually call it largecorporations enterprise
resiliency, but it is businesscontinuity.
They have an in-house team thatdoes this all the time.
(04:24):
And small businesses, by andlarge, do not do business
continuity because they don'tknow what it is and there's no
barrier to entry.
And I made that my mantle tohelp small businesses, because
small businesses are the fabricof communities and it's not just
the US economy or Canadianeconomy, it is all over the
world.
Business continuity ispracticed all over the world.
Business continuity ispracticed all over the world and
(04:45):
they call it businesscontinuity and there is specific
programs, even through the UN,to help developing.
And I watched all these smallbusinesses who did not do any
(05:06):
business continuity throw upthings like their GoFundMe page
because they needed assistanceafter the disaster.
And one of the things I'vetalked about in every single
talk I've ever given aboutbusiness continuity is a thing
it would only apply to your bestlisteners, but there's a grant
called the Readiness forResiliency Grant and it's
sponsored by the US Chamber ofCommerce Foundation with FedEx,
(05:29):
where they are going to rewardsmall businesses for preparing
for these types of things, andwhat you need to do is you just
have to register and show themyou have a continuity plan and
if you are ever in an areathat's declared by disaster,
they will give you $5,000 tohelp you recover.
And knowing, like some people,like a $5,000 big deal, that
made a huge difference for a lotof the businesses here and they
(05:52):
didn't have it because theyweren't doing business
continuity.
They didn't think it was thatimportant.
They didn't see it as aninvestment instead of a cost and
it's like no, you have a costof inaction.
The cost of inaction is youstanding on a burning platform
and saying, oh God, what do I donow?
Carl Richards (06:10):
Right, $5,000.
You're right, it doesn't soundlike a lot of money, but at
least it is something, and thankyou so much for sharing that.
We'll make sure we get theinformation so we can share that
to our listeners later on.
What is it that is stoppingbusiness owners from taking a
serious look at that?
Is it the thought that thatwon't happen to me?
(06:30):
Is it just we're too busy toeven think about it?
Is it we think that, well, whencrisis happens, I'll be able to
figure it out?
What's your experience orwhat's your gut saying?
Erika Andresen (06:43):
Again, it's probably all of the above Most
of the time.
There's a psychological thingcalled optimism bias, and this
is endemic all over the world,where you think the bad things
will never happen to you.
If I tell you there's a 60%chance something happens, you're
going to assume that you are inthat 40% chance.
It's not going to happen too,but 100% of people who believe
(07:04):
that it's a mathematicalimpossibility, 100% of people
can't be in 40%, and oftentimes,with a lot of the things that
happen, it's not a matter of if,it's a matter of when,
especially when you talk aboutcybersecurity type stuff and it
was like oh, I'm small, no one'sgoing to come after me.
No, you're exactly who they'recoming after because you haven't
invested in any type ofcybersecurity measures.
(07:25):
So you're like shooting fish ina barrel for a lot of them.
Carl Richards (07:29):
Wow, okay, good to note.
I'm glad you mentioned thecyber end of things, because
obviously podcasters live in thecyber universe, as it were.
Podcasts are, if not on YouTube, then on audio platforms.
But one of the things that I'venoticed is there's this
reliance on and you alluded tothis earlier about being in
Facebook jail.
(07:49):
There's this reliance on socialmedia to get the word out about
what it is that their show is,about, their fresh content.
But you've witnessed firsthand,or you've seen it happen, that
where folks have been either putin Facebook jail or there's
something that has disruptedtheir sharing of content, and
it's almost like they throwtheir hands up in the air and go
(08:11):
oh my goodness, I didn't thinkthis would happen.
Erika Andresen (08:12):
Right, right.
So I'll give you two examplesone with Facebook jail and one
with the recent TikTok ban.
So with Facebook jail, there'sa woman I know who is a
consultant, whose entirebusiness model is on Facebook.
Everything is Facebook and toinclude her contacts and I had
told her at some point I'm likeyou should probably back up all
(08:33):
your data offline.
You should have access toeverything offline.
Because it wasn't even aboutFacebook Jail.
It's about if the internet isdown, then you can't access this
information.
You may need to because you mayhave a client meeting that day.
How are you going to contactpeople if everything is online?
So there was a time where I wasactively engaged with her and
(08:53):
needing something to do with herand I was messaging her because
she only works through Facebookand I wasn't getting a response
, because it doesn't warn youthat the person you're messaging
is in Facebook jail.
You just don't get a responseand I was like, did she die?
And after a month I kind ofjust moved on and went somewhere
else.
And that's also part of whatthis is continuity, it's like
(09:14):
everyone talks about.
I want to spend my money onmarketing.
It's like okay, you're going todraw people to you.
But if you are unable to servethem, the need you've created
doesn't go away.
You've created doesn't go away,they're just going to go to
your competitors.
So after about a month shecomes back.
She's like oh God, I was inFacebook jail and I couldn't
contact anybody.
I go.
So you never put your contactsoffline, did you?
She went, nope, I was like well, and the thing is, they don't
(09:39):
tell you why you go intoFacebook jail.
Half the time she didn't knowwhy something apparently
offended something.
So her business, which reliesa% on Facebook, was shut down
for over a month and shecouldn't tell anybody.
And that's another aspect of upand discontinuity is crisis
communications.
So crisis communications iswhen you're communicating to the
community, your employees andyour stakeholders or your
clients hey, there's an issuegoing on.
(10:00):
This is the issue.
This is how I'm planning tosolve it right now.
I'll update you as moreinformation comes along.
You'll see that a lot with,like any kind of disaster,
people come out and say here'sour briefing about this.
That is crisis communication,but businesses do it too.
So if she would have said hey,I can't talk to my main platform
, I'm using this as analternative for the next 30 days
(10:21):
while Facebook clears this up,but don't worry, we can still
continue our business.
That's the first thing.
And then with TikTok, you knoweverybody wanted to think that
this ban wasn't happening.
They were waiting for a HailMary pass and I'm watching all
the influencers say things likeokay, well, you know what I'm
gonna.
You know, go to the link treein my bio and see all the other
platforms I'm on.
But of course, they wereconcentrating on TikTok mostly
(10:42):
and I can even account that.
My views I had one video that116,000 views.
That on Instagram had 268 viewssame video, but you know, it's
just different.
And, like on that Friday, beforethe TikTok pan was supposed to
go, in effect, everybody wasjumping like oh, you got to go
here, I have to go here.
And then they go.
(11:03):
I'm so sorry it's got.
It has to be this name on thisplatform, because somebody
already took my name on thatplatform.
And the way that people used tosteal website names not steal
like they would register them intheir name and say like oh, you
who would want this?
I'm not using this, and myintention was always just to sit
on it and sell it to you at amuch higher rate to see how
(11:23):
valuable it is to you to havethis exact website.
That's the exact name of yourbusiness.
So that's been a problem withTikTok.
How long does it take to setyourself up on other platforms?
It doesn't take very long atall.
I pretty much ignore myFacebook, but I have it.
But the first thing I did whenI started on my social media was
go and find every platform andsecure my same handle across all
(11:44):
of them.
So I've had a YouTube for overa year and it literally took me
like 60 seconds to set it up.
I haven't put any videos on itbecause I haven't wanted to do
it yet, but I might now thatTikTok is such a precarious
position.
Carl Richards (11:56):
Wow.
And again, I don't think westop to think about the severity
that this can have on business,yes, but also personally,
because obviously, if it'saffecting your business, it's
affecting you personally if youdon't have revenue coming in, if
something is impeding theoperation of your business, and
especially with something as andnot to downplay it, but
(12:18):
something, as we'll say, simpleas social media.
Like you said, it's easy, orthere's some steps to do it, but
it's reasonably easy to backthings up If you're connecting
with people on social platforms.
It's not impossible.
It's not like it's thatdaunting if you're doing it one
step at a time.
What is a good way for somebodywho is hearing this information
(12:39):
for the first time?
What are?
And again, not to give away thestore, just want to make sure
that we're setting people up, tomake sure that they are
properly protected.
What are some things that theyshould be aware of or that they
should be doing to make surethat there is business
continuity?
If they're hearing this going,oh my goodness, I'm not properly
set up.
What are some things that theyshould be doing right from the
(12:59):
beginning, right now, that willhelp them protect themselves?
Erika Andresen (13:03):
So there's a thing called a single point of
failure.
So what that means is, if thatthing is gone, your business
can't move forward, it can'toperate at all.
So having backups for anything.
So what I normally do when Iwork with a client is I walk
them through something and I gookay, tell me what you do, like
I'm five, because if you explainit to me in very layman's terms
(13:24):
, you're not glossing overthings that I often will find so
, like, for example, cupcakes.
Like, tell me how you makecupcakes, I bake them.
No Simpler.
How do you make cupcakes?
Okay, flour, eggs, water.
Okay, where do you get thesefrom?
I have a vendor.
Do you have just one?
Yes, I go, that's a problem,because what if that vendor goes
out of business, has some kindof problem of their own, has no
(13:46):
business continuity plan oftheir own, and you're relying on
them to give you supply and allof a sudden it's not there.
What's your backup?
So that would be a single pointof failure and I go okay, let's
go on.
And a lot of times too, I'llsay even for your podcasting.
Let's say you're using Zoomright now.
Do you have the ability torecord your podcast on something
that's not Zoom?
Carl Richards (14:05):
Yes, I do.
Erika Andresen (14:06):
Okay, there you go, so you don't have a single
point of failure.
So it's about yes, it's like Isaid, remember I said in the
beginning it's about keepingyour doors open and cash flowing
.
It's your ability to carry onno matter what happens.
So that is really like what Iwould tell people just start
looking at everything around andjust take it away and say, okay
(14:27):
, how would I do my job withoutthis?
Okay, I have a ring light.
Can I do something without thering light?
Do I really need the ring lightif I'm recording something?
Or I could figure out anothersolution.
Do I have a backup ring light?
Do I have another alternative?
I could put a lamp.
I have a laptop, Okay, one.
Can I do it off of my phone ifmy laptop craps out one day?
There are all these thatliterally look at everything you
(14:48):
touch and use and then yoursoftware systems, and take each
one in a way and figure out howyou would work around it.
But do it in advance, becausewhen you're doing it in the
moment, you're stressed.
You will, and haste makes waste, so you will oftentimes miss
the really obvious stuff andalso you won't be stressed.
You'll be like, oh, I planned.
Carl Richards (15:09):
I guess one of the biggest things too that can
happen that we have no controlover natural disasters, power
outages, that, just anythingthat disrupts us and almost
every business.
Now there's not too manybusinesses that are out there
that don't rely on somethinglike electricity.
You need that, you need to like, I need it.
If I don't have electricity, Ineed to make sure that I have a
(15:32):
laptop that's working.
I need to make sure or my phone, that I can do whatever I need
to do, even if it's something assimple as follow up on email or
take a call on Zoom or onanother platform, or even if I'm
recording.
How am I recording now that Idon't have my?
You know I'm not in my regularstudio to do that, so how
critical is it to, and at whatpoint do you?
(15:54):
Is there such a thing asoverdoing it or overprotecting?
Too many for lack of a betterword too many redundancies in
place if there is a crisis?
Erika Andresen (16:04):
So I'll tell you how important it is.
So when Helene hit me, I lostpower, I lost internet and I
lost cell phone service All ofthem and water too, so all of
the things and I didn't getpower back until a week later.
So I also didn't get cell phoneservice.
Really, it was texting only, itwas the minimal because you
(16:30):
couldn't even make calls Untilthey brought in boosters because
of 18 towers here, 16 of themwere knocked out from the storm,
so there was no way tocommunicate for a couple of days
.
But even then it was onlytexting.
But I remember getting a textbeing like your internet service
is back on and I'm like bigwhoop because I can't access it,
because I don't have power.
And they were things I neededto have done in that time and I
(16:51):
had to to.
I traveled out of the area whenthe roads were open and I was
like I have power, I can atleast send emails to people and
say hey again.
Pricey's Communication.
If you weren't aware or forgot,I live in Asheville.
This is in the news.
This happened.
I know I owed you this, I needmore time or you know whatever.
So that was something that wasreally, really important to
(17:14):
understand Like you actually canlose everything.
And then what would you do toresult?
So the stress I had of makingsure I had a fully charged phone
.
I had to use my car to chargemy phone because I didn't have
any other option.
You know, and I was usingcandlelight at night at 7 pm we
had a curfew of seven anyway.
So go home candlelight, read abook until it was too silly not
(17:36):
to yes and no, I think.
If you have plenty of money, goahead and throw all the money
in the world and you're going tobe like I might not have ever
used this, but I had it and it'shelpful.
I never advise on everybodygoing to 100% solution, because
that's often very difficult toachieve and some things you're
just not going to be able to getaround Like, aside from having
(17:57):
a generator.
But even then, if I had agenerator, I didn't have
internet.
But then the internet came andthen would that have been
sufficient for my phone?
Who knows about that?
But also too, I'm kind ofkidding myself If I had a power
bank to use my laptop, Icouldn't have gotten the work
done because I was in survivormode.
So even my mental bandwidth wasnot able to handle that.
I tell people get yourself toan.
(18:18):
I think ideally an 80% solutionis fantastic.
I think that should be the top.
If you want to go as low as 60%solution, that's also better
than you're doing now A thousandtimes better than you're doing
(18:41):
now.
Carl Richards (18:41):
I don't ever recommend unless you have an
infinite amount of funds or whatyou're doing is, like
critically important to go for100% solution and just throw
everything out that you can not,understanding that generators
run on a type of fuel and atsome point that fuel might run
out and if there's no access orlimited access to fuel, you
might not be able to fill yourgenerator, like there's so many
(19:01):
other spinoffs or snowballs thathappen, so there's a trickle
down.
Erika Andresen (19:11):
Well, I can tell you from this.
And the generators.
So people had solar, but itwasn't sunny those days, it was
cloud, so you got some power,but not full.
The people who had generatorsgas stations weren't working
because you need electricity toget the gas to pump out Right
when they actually were able.
Some of them were working, butthey didn't have point of sale
systems working.
So you need the cash.
If you didn't have cash to payfor it, you're also having a
world of hurt.
(19:31):
But then people who got reallydesperate after a while.
You have to think about this too.
When you have a generatorrunning there, loud people can
hear it.
So if they don't have agenerator, or they do and they
don't have fuel, they're goingto come and steal your fuel or
generator.
It happens.
So you have to think about asecurity system for both of
these things, in addition to thestuff that you have.
It's, it's insane.
(19:52):
The level of this is where myveteran background comes in.
I know about high-risksituations.
I know about life and deathbecause when I was in
Afghanistan, the riskassessments we were doing was
most likely, least likely andmost deadly to us, because every
mission there was at least a50% chance we'd get killed.
So I had to think about allthese things and my brain is
wired to think of terrible,terrible things.
Carl Richards (20:13):
Third and fourth and fifth order fact down the
road I was just going to say youneed to think about not just,
okay, the immediate, okay, turnon the generator, That'll get us
whatever we need.
We're good, and then when thatruns out, I'll just go get more,
more fuel for the generator.
Like you said, there's otherthings that are going to happen.
That which is good that yourbrain goes that way, because
this is how you can help people,regardless of and obviously
(20:34):
we're talking about something.
But natural disasters arehappening more and more, and not
just in places like Californiaor Florida.
They're happening even here inCanada.
We've had natural disasterswhere people have been out of
power and out of not even beingable to do business for days, in
some cases weeks, because ofsomething that they didn't
(20:56):
expect would happen.
Erika Andresen (20:57):
Because I'm also a professor of emergency
management, one of my favoritechapters to discuss with my
students is an internationalchapter.
I'm like don't think that weare in a precious snowflake
little vacuum.
These happen all over the world.
There's flooding, there'searthquakes, there is wildfires
all over the world.
Heat waves, which is one of thethings.
While it's not officially adisaster, it should be, because
(21:19):
heat waves cause the number onecause of death in pretty much
the world and it happens everyyear and people call it extreme
weather and it's like it's justgoing to be weather at a certain
point.
We have to stop calling itextreme.
It's just become weather,because it's the same thing as
repeating, year after year, ourseasons.
There is no hurricane seasonanymore.
It's getting longer.
Wildfire season used to only bea couple of months, now it's
(21:41):
all year long.
So the definitions that peopleare used to, with assessing
their risk and thinking, oh,this is again optimism bias.
This is never going to happen.
It will, and you'll be sothankful that you thought about
it in advance.
But don't be like those peoplewho like talk to me about, like,
oh, I want to make a businesscontinuity plan.
I'm like okay, great.
Actually, I had a consultationearlier this month and they said
(22:02):
all right, this is not a Q1 orQ2 thing for us.
It's something that's our goalfor the year.
But our biggest concern is X.
And I'm like okay.
So I finished the conversationand I said, all right, cool.
Before we close, I would justlike to make a statement that
I'm going to give you some freepiece of advice, regardless of
who you decide to engage foryour business continuity plan.
I said you told me that this isyour number one concern.
(22:24):
Because I'm an emergencymanagement professor, I know
that these are most likely tooccur in the winter and in the
summer.
So you told me these are not Q1and Q2 goal of yours, but the
thing that you want to protectyourself from happens in Q1 and
Q2 most often.
So you might want to rethinkthat statement.
They weren't too happy aboutthat, but I'm like you know it's
(22:44):
like telling me that I want to.
I want a hot girl summer body,but I'm not starting to die till
October.
And it's like well, what's thepoint?
Carl Richards (22:50):
Good for the following summer, I guess.
Erika Andresen (22:53):
Or if you're in the Southern Hemisphere.
Okay, sure, Starting late forAustralia, but you'll get there.
Carl Richards (23:04):
Yeah, yeah, exactly.
Or planning for that wintergetaway to Mexico or something
like that, where, yeah, no goodpoint.
Wow, this has been soinsightful.
I'm just in awe and, like yousay, a lot of people.
They either don't know about itor they just don't stop to go.
Huh, maybe I should not justput a pin in this and deal with
it later.
It's something.
No, I should probably sit upand take notice and ask myself
some questions.
(23:25):
Am I prepared in case it's likealways having that?
You know you keep theflashlight handy just in case.
You have the candles just toget.
You don't need them all thetime, but it seems like when you
do need them, you can't findthem Right.
So so, making sure that youhave these plans in place, you
actually have a checklist or ora quiz that folks can take?
(23:47):
Tell me a little bit about that.
Erika Andresen (23:49):
Yeah, so on the homepage of my website, which is
wwweaasccom, it's called theBusiness Readiness Assessment.
So at the bottom of thehomepage you can click on that
and it's 10 questions of youknow A, b, c choice, kind of
like a Cosmo quiz Are you mostlyA's, mostly B's, mostly C's?
And it'll tell you how preparedyou are operationally for your
(24:11):
business.
And then it gives you theresults and you know you are
free to book with me afterwardsto discuss your results more.
If you want better results orto understand them, you
absolutely can have anappointment with me.
But I think that's one of thefirst things that's going to
make you go.
Oh, okay, cool, and I also do amonthly, usually on Thursdays.
I don't know when you're goingto broadcast this, but it's the
(24:32):
20, it's actually two days fromnow.
I'm going to be doing what Icall a bastardized version of a
tabletop exercise.
A tabletop exercise.
The thing is you can have aplan.
It helps if you've walkedthrough, gone through the
motions so you understand whatto do when the time comes.
And I gave one scenario for afake business I make up every
single time, and so the last onewas kind of fun.
(24:53):
I said you're a stationarycompany that makes greeting
cards, but you your business onthe fifth floor of the Nakatomi
building in Los Angeles, which,and then there's a Christmas Eve
party that some terrorists govisit and there's a helicopter
that blows up.
So, yeah, it's diehard.
And I was like so how wouldyour business operate?
Like, what would you need to doif you woke up on Christmas
(25:13):
morning and saw that this iswhat happened to the building
you worked in?
And then you know we workthrough this, and then somebody
said at the end well, how oftenis a terrorist attack going to
happen?
I go, don't think of it thatway.
It is something that happens tothe physical structure that you
work in that is preventing youfrom doing your job.
It doesn't matter what it is.
There's all these things.
So normally within one scenario, I hit five to seven different
(25:36):
areas of business continuity foreach business.
Carl Richards (25:40):
Wow, phenomenal.
We'll make sure that thatinformation is posted in the
show notes, so we'll make surethat we get that from you before
you leave today.
Erika Andre sen, what anamazing conversation.
You know what?
As I said, we've never hadsomebody talk about business
continuity on the show, but nowI understand the relevance of it
, certainly for podcasters, notjust from a podcasting
(26:03):
perspective, but even from theirown business perspective,
because pretty much everyonethat we touch on a regular basis
they're podcasters, but they'rebusiness owners first.
So thank you so much forsharing your insights today.
Before I turn you loose, I'llgive you the final thought.
Erika Andresen (26:19):
It's really important for businesses,
especially small businesses, torealize how integral they are to
communities.
Now, one of the things when Iwas asked during some kind of
networking icebreaker questionwas can a business owner be
everything and everywhere all atonce?
And they're being cheekybecause the Oscar nominations
(26:39):
are coming out that day and, ofcourse, that movie went on to
win the Oscar.
And people giving very flatanswers like, well, no, I mean,
you're multitasking.
That's never good.
And someone's like, well, ifyou're on the internet, then yes
, you can be.
And I was like you know what?
One of the way I see what I dois I empower business owners to
keep their dreams alive, andwhat's part and parcel of that
is the dreamer, the businessowner.
If you have employees, if youhave businesses, you're paying
(27:01):
people so they can pay for theirexpenses, they can buy food,
they can pay rent, they can paymortgage, whatever it is, but
also buy things that enhancetheir lives, and they usually
get that from other dreamers inthe community who also have
employees.
So it's a beautiful cycle to bepart of, and you really get to
see it after a disaster, becausewhat everybody says after a
disaster is I just want to feelnormal again, and the way people
(27:24):
feel normal is being able tohave access to a coffee shop,
being able to go to a restaurantand get food, being able to
even listen to a podcast becausethey got their internet back
and they're able to do likeanything.
That is normal gives resilienceand comfort to people and
community.
So it is so.
This is why I really loveconcentrating on small
businesses, because I don'tthink anybody realizes truly how
(27:46):
important they are.
Carl Richards (27:47):
Well, thank you so much for sharing your passion
and all of your insights today.
Erika Andresen, that's a greatplace to leave it.
Thank you so much for being myguest today.
Erika Andresen (27:56):
Thank you.
Carl Richards (27:57):
And thank you for joining us today.
Special thanks to our producerand production lead, Dom
Carrillo, our music guru, NathanSimon, and the person who works
the arms all of our arms,actually my trusty assistant,
Stephanie Gafoor.
If you like what you heardtoday, leave us a comment and a
(28:18):
review and be sure to share itwith your friends.
If you don't like what youheard, please share it with your
enemies.
Oh, and if you have asuggestion of someone who you
think would make an amazingguest on the show, let us know
about it.
Drop us an email, askcarl atcarlspeaksca.
Don't forget to follow us onLinkedIn and Twitter as well.
You'll find all those links inthe show notes, and if you're
ready to take the plunge andjoin the over 3 million people
who have said yes to podcasting,let's have a conversation.
(28:41):
We'll show you the simplest wayto get into the podcasting
space because, after all, we'rePodcast Solutions Made Simple.
We'll catch you next time!
Welcome to Communication Connection
Community the podcaster'spodcast.
This podcast takes a deep diveinto modern day communication
strategies in the podcastingspace.
We chat with interesting peoplewho make the podcasting and
speaking spaces exciting andvibrant.
We also dive into thepodcasting community with news
(00:24):
updates, latest trends andtopics from this ever-evolving
space.
So strap in, it's going to beone amazing ride.
Let's dive into today's episode.
Is your business ready in casesomething happens In other words
, if Facebook goes down, theinternet goes down, power
(00:46):
outages, natural disasters isyour business protected?
You might be hearing this andgoing well, yeah, of course it
is.
But our guest today is going towalk us through some
interesting scenarios and talkabout business continuity.
She's an expert at it.
Erika Andresen is a subjectmatter expert in keeping
(01:07):
businesses alive, thriving,making money and increasing
value.
She is passionate aboutempowering business owners and
investors by educating themabout business continuity
practices so they can remainoperational through any disaster
, disruption or even quickgrowth period, because that can
be a challenge too, too, thatmaybe you weren't planning for.
She's a certified businesscontinuity professional, a
(01:31):
former lawyer, veteran professorof emergency management,
invited speaker, mit guestlecturer, international podcast
guest, quoted expert in Forbessuccess money geek smart sheet
and dark reading and Amazonbestselling author as well, and
she's also so much fun.
She's a hoot, apparently, andwe're so glad she's here today
(01:52):
talking to us about businesscontinuity.
Erika, welcome to the podcast.
Erika Andresen (01:57):
Sure.
So what I like to say as mybusiness proposition is that I
keep your doors open and cashflowing.
And before I actually say whatthat is, I just invite your
listeners to think about that.
What do you think that means toyou?
Keeping your doors open andcash flowing?
So business continuity iseverything and anything that
(02:18):
allows you to stay operationaland making money through any
type of disaster, disruption atall.
And that could be a naturaldisaster, a man-made disaster,
and disruptions can be good orbad.
So the good disruptions areviral, overnight success that
you're not prepared for.
And then the bad disruptionsare things like maybe there's a
(02:38):
key piece of hardware that youhave that stops working all of a
sudden, and maybe it's youremployees win the mega millions
and I'll quit the next day.
Or it could be as simple, asyour entire business is on
Facebook and you're put inFacebook jail.
So that is a major disruptionand would allow you to not have
a business if you didn't planfor it.
(03:00):
Because some people will dorisk management, but risk
management does not alwayseradicate risks.
It helps mitigate them.
So business continuity picks upwhere risk management fails.
Carl Richards (03:12):
Wow, and I'm so glad that we're talking about
this today and I'm glad youmentioned the variation of this
that it can be, depending onyour business.
It can be something like apiece of equipment that you need
it can be employees leavingbecause they did win the lottery
.
Or it can be like you saysomething that is connected to
social media or other reach outsthat you do, which is very
(03:35):
relevant in the podcasting space.
There are a lot of podcasterswho rely on social media
platforms, email, all kinds oftechnology to get their
messaging out there, and withoutit they're screwed in a lot of
ways unless they have this, asyou said, this business
continuity set up.
In your experience, have youfound that a lot of business
(03:55):
owners or entrepreneurs they'renot set up with a business
continuity plan.
They're just not thinking aboutit.
Erika Andresen (04:03):
Yes, both.
So business continuity is aprofession.
You may not have heard of it oryour listeners, and that's not
abnormal.
This is a profession that hasexisted for decades and large
international corporations do it.
The government does it.
They actually call it largecorporations enterprise
resiliency, but it is businesscontinuity.
They have an in-house team thatdoes this all the time.
(04:24):
And small businesses, by andlarge, do not do business
continuity because they don'tknow what it is and there's no
barrier to entry.
And I made that my mantle tohelp small businesses, because
small businesses are the fabricof communities and it's not just
the US economy or Canadianeconomy, it is all over the
world.
Business continuity ispracticed all over the world.
Business continuity ispracticed all over the world and
(04:45):
they call it businesscontinuity and there is specific
programs, even through the UN,to help developing.
And I watched all these smallbusinesses who did not do any
(05:06):
business continuity throw upthings like their GoFundMe page
because they needed assistanceafter the disaster.
And one of the things I'vetalked about in every single
talk I've ever given aboutbusiness continuity is a thing
it would only apply to your bestlisteners, but there's a grant
called the Readiness forResiliency Grant and it's
sponsored by the US Chamber ofCommerce Foundation with FedEx,
(05:29):
where they are going to rewardsmall businesses for preparing
for these types of things, andwhat you need to do is you just
have to register and show themyou have a continuity plan and
if you are ever in an areathat's declared by disaster,
they will give you $5,000 tohelp you recover.
And knowing, like some people,like a $5,000 big deal, that
made a huge difference for a lotof the businesses here and they
(05:52):
didn't have it because theyweren't doing business
continuity.
They didn't think it was thatimportant.
They didn't see it as aninvestment instead of a cost and
it's like no, you have a costof inaction.
The cost of inaction is youstanding on a burning platform
and saying, oh God, what do I donow?
Carl Richards (06:10):
Right, $5,000.
You're right, it doesn't soundlike a lot of money, but at
least it is something, and thankyou so much for sharing that.
We'll make sure we get theinformation so we can share that
to our listeners later on.
What is it that is stoppingbusiness owners from taking a
serious look at that?
Is it the thought that thatwon't happen to me?
(06:30):
Is it just we're too busy toeven think about it?
Is it we think that, well, whencrisis happens, I'll be able to
figure it out?
What's your experience orwhat's your gut saying?
Erika Andresen (06:43):
Again, it's probably all of the above Most
of the time.
There's a psychological thingcalled optimism bias, and this
is endemic all over the world,where you think the bad things
will never happen to you.
If I tell you there's a 60%chance something happens, you're
going to assume that you are inthat 40% chance.
It's not going to happen too,but 100% of people who believe
(07:04):
that it's a mathematicalimpossibility, 100% of people
can't be in 40%, and oftentimes,with a lot of the things that
happen, it's not a matter of if,it's a matter of when,
especially when you talk aboutcybersecurity type stuff and it
was like oh, I'm small, no one'sgoing to come after me.
No, you're exactly who they'recoming after because you haven't
invested in any type ofcybersecurity measures.
(07:25):
So you're like shooting fish ina barrel for a lot of them.
Carl Richards (07:29):
Wow, okay, good to note.
I'm glad you mentioned thecyber end of things, because
obviously podcasters live in thecyber universe, as it were.
Podcasts are, if not on YouTube, then on audio platforms.
But one of the things that I'venoticed is there's this
reliance on and you alluded tothis earlier about being in
Facebook jail.
(07:49):
There's this reliance on socialmedia to get the word out about
what it is that their show is,about, their fresh content.
But you've witnessed firsthand,or you've seen it happen, that
where folks have been either putin Facebook jail or there's
something that has disruptedtheir sharing of content, and
it's almost like they throwtheir hands up in the air and go
(08:11):
oh my goodness, I didn't thinkthis would happen.
Erika Andresen (08:12):
Right, right.
So I'll give you two examplesone with Facebook jail and one
with the recent TikTok ban.
So with Facebook jail, there'sa woman I know who is a
consultant, whose entirebusiness model is on Facebook.
Everything is Facebook and toinclude her contacts and I had
told her at some point I'm likeyou should probably back up all
(08:33):
your data offline.
You should have access toeverything offline.
Because it wasn't even aboutFacebook Jail.
It's about if the internet isdown, then you can't access this
information.
You may need to because you mayhave a client meeting that day.
How are you going to contactpeople if everything is online?
So there was a time where I wasactively engaged with her and
(08:53):
needing something to do with herand I was messaging her because
she only works through Facebookand I wasn't getting a response
, because it doesn't warn youthat the person you're messaging
is in Facebook jail.
You just don't get a responseand I was like, did she die?
And after a month I kind ofjust moved on and went somewhere
else.
And that's also part of whatthis is continuity, it's like
(09:14):
everyone talks about.
I want to spend my money onmarketing.
It's like okay, you're going todraw people to you.
But if you are unable to servethem, the need you've created
doesn't go away.
You've created doesn't go away,they're just going to go to
your competitors.
So after about a month shecomes back.
She's like oh God, I was inFacebook jail and I couldn't
contact anybody.
I go.
So you never put your contactsoffline, did you?
She went, nope, I was like well, and the thing is, they don't
(09:39):
tell you why you go intoFacebook jail.
Half the time she didn't knowwhy something apparently
offended something.
So her business, which reliesa% on Facebook, was shut down
for over a month and shecouldn't tell anybody.
And that's another aspect of upand discontinuity is crisis
communications.
So crisis communications iswhen you're communicating to the
community, your employees andyour stakeholders or your
clients hey, there's an issuegoing on.
(10:00):
This is the issue.
This is how I'm planning tosolve it right now.
I'll update you as moreinformation comes along.
You'll see that a lot with,like any kind of disaster,
people come out and say here'sour briefing about this.
That is crisis communication,but businesses do it too.
So if she would have said hey,I can't talk to my main platform
, I'm using this as analternative for the next 30 days
(10:21):
while Facebook clears this up,but don't worry, we can still
continue our business.
That's the first thing.
And then with TikTok, you knoweverybody wanted to think that
this ban wasn't happening.
They were waiting for a HailMary pass and I'm watching all
the influencers say things likeokay, well, you know what I'm
gonna.
You know, go to the link treein my bio and see all the other
platforms I'm on.
But of course, they wereconcentrating on TikTok mostly
(10:42):
and I can even account that.
My views I had one video that116,000 views.
That on Instagram had 268 viewssame video, but you know, it's
just different.
And, like on that Friday, beforethe TikTok pan was supposed to
go, in effect, everybody wasjumping like oh, you got to go
here, I have to go here.
And then they go.
(11:03):
I'm so sorry it's got.
It has to be this name on thisplatform, because somebody
already took my name on thatplatform.
And the way that people used tosteal website names not steal
like they would register them intheir name and say like oh, you
who would want this?
I'm not using this, and myintention was always just to sit
on it and sell it to you at amuch higher rate to see how
(11:23):
valuable it is to you to havethis exact website.
That's the exact name of yourbusiness.
So that's been a problem withTikTok.
How long does it take to setyourself up on other platforms?
It doesn't take very long atall.
I pretty much ignore myFacebook, but I have it.
But the first thing I did whenI started on my social media was
go and find every platform andsecure my same handle across all
(11:44):
of them.
So I've had a YouTube for overa year and it literally took me
like 60 seconds to set it up.
I haven't put any videos on itbecause I haven't wanted to do
it yet, but I might now thatTikTok is such a precarious
position.
Carl Richards (11:56):
Wow.
And again, I don't think westop to think about the severity
that this can have on business,yes, but also personally,
because obviously, if it'saffecting your business, it's
affecting you personally if youdon't have revenue coming in, if
something is impeding theoperation of your business, and
especially with something as andnot to downplay it, but
(12:18):
something, as we'll say, simpleas social media.
Like you said, it's easy, orthere's some steps to do it, but
it's reasonably easy to backthings up If you're connecting
with people on social platforms.
It's not impossible.
It's not like it's thatdaunting if you're doing it one
step at a time.
What is a good way for somebodywho is hearing this information
(12:39):
for the first time?
What are?
And again, not to give away thestore, just want to make sure
that we're setting people up, tomake sure that they are
properly protected.
What are some things that theyshould be aware of or that they
should be doing to make surethat there is business
continuity?
If they're hearing this going,oh my goodness, I'm not properly
set up.
What are some things that theyshould be doing right from the
(12:59):
beginning, right now, that willhelp them protect themselves?
Erika Andresen (13:03):
So there's a thing called a single point of
failure.
So what that means is, if thatthing is gone, your business
can't move forward, it can'toperate at all.
So having backups for anything.
So what I normally do when Iwork with a client is I walk
them through something and I gookay, tell me what you do, like
I'm five, because if you explainit to me in very layman's terms
(13:24):
, you're not glossing overthings that I often will find so
, like, for example, cupcakes.
Like, tell me how you makecupcakes, I bake them.
No Simpler.
How do you make cupcakes?
Okay, flour, eggs, water.
Okay, where do you get thesefrom?
I have a vendor.
Do you have just one?
Yes, I go, that's a problem,because what if that vendor goes
out of business, has some kindof problem of their own, has no
(13:46):
business continuity plan oftheir own, and you're relying on
them to give you supply and allof a sudden it's not there.
What's your backup?
So that would be a single pointof failure and I go okay, let's
go on.
And a lot of times too, I'llsay even for your podcasting.
Let's say you're using Zoomright now.
Do you have the ability torecord your podcast on something
that's not Zoom?
Carl Richards (14:05):
Yes, I do.
Erika Andresen (14:06):
Okay, there you go, so you don't have a single
point of failure.
So it's about yes, it's like Isaid, remember I said in the
beginning it's about keepingyour doors open and cash flowing
.
It's your ability to carry onno matter what happens.
So that is really like what Iwould tell people just start
looking at everything around andjust take it away and say, okay
(14:27):
, how would I do my job withoutthis?
Okay, I have a ring light.
Can I do something without thering light?
Do I really need the ring lightif I'm recording something?
Or I could figure out anothersolution.
Do I have a backup ring light?
Do I have another alternative?
I could put a lamp.
I have a laptop, Okay, one.
Can I do it off of my phone ifmy laptop craps out one day?
There are all these thatliterally look at everything you
(14:48):
touch and use and then yoursoftware systems, and take each
one in a way and figure out howyou would work around it.
But do it in advance, becausewhen you're doing it in the
moment, you're stressed.
You will, and haste makes waste, so you will oftentimes miss
the really obvious stuff andalso you won't be stressed.
You'll be like, oh, I planned.
Carl Richards (15:09):
I guess one of the biggest things too that can
happen that we have no controlover natural disasters, power
outages, that, just anythingthat disrupts us and almost
every business.
Now there's not too manybusinesses that are out there
that don't rely on somethinglike electricity.
You need that, you need to like, I need it.
If I don't have electricity, Ineed to make sure that I have a
(15:32):
laptop that's working.
I need to make sure or my phone, that I can do whatever I need
to do, even if it's something assimple as follow up on email or
take a call on Zoom or onanother platform, or even if I'm
recording.
How am I recording now that Idon't have my?
You know I'm not in my regularstudio to do that, so how
critical is it to, and at whatpoint do you?
(15:54):
Is there such a thing asoverdoing it or overprotecting?
Too many for lack of a betterword too many redundancies in
place if there is a crisis?
Erika Andresen (16:04):
So I'll tell you how important it is.
So when Helene hit me, I lostpower, I lost internet and I
lost cell phone service All ofthem and water too, so all of
the things and I didn't getpower back until a week later.
So I also didn't get cell phoneservice.
Really, it was texting only, itwas the minimal because you
(16:30):
couldn't even make calls Untilthey brought in boosters because
of 18 towers here, 16 of themwere knocked out from the storm,
so there was no way tocommunicate for a couple of days
.
But even then it was onlytexting.
But I remember getting a textbeing like your internet service
is back on and I'm like bigwhoop because I can't access it,
because I don't have power.
And they were things I neededto have done in that time and I
(16:51):
had to to.
I traveled out of the area whenthe roads were open and I was
like I have power, I can atleast send emails to people and
say hey again.
Pricey's Communication.
If you weren't aware or forgot,I live in Asheville.
This is in the news.
This happened.
I know I owed you this, I needmore time or you know whatever.
So that was something that wasreally, really important to
(17:14):
understand Like you actually canlose everything.
And then what would you do toresult?
So the stress I had of makingsure I had a fully charged phone
.
I had to use my car to chargemy phone because I didn't have
any other option.
You know, and I was usingcandlelight at night at 7 pm we
had a curfew of seven anyway.
So go home candlelight, read abook until it was too silly not
(17:36):
to yes and no, I think.
If you have plenty of money, goahead and throw all the money
in the world and you're going tobe like I might not have ever
used this, but I had it and it'shelpful.
I never advise on everybodygoing to 100% solution, because
that's often very difficult toachieve and some things you're
just not going to be able to getaround Like, aside from having
(17:57):
a generator.
But even then, if I had agenerator, I didn't have
internet.
But then the internet came andthen would that have been
sufficient for my phone?
Who knows about that?
But also too, I'm kind ofkidding myself If I had a power
bank to use my laptop, Icouldn't have gotten the work
done because I was in survivormode.
So even my mental bandwidth wasnot able to handle that.
I tell people get yourself toan.
(18:18):
I think ideally an 80% solutionis fantastic.
I think that should be the top.
If you want to go as low as 60%solution, that's also better
than you're doing now A thousandtimes better than you're doing
(18:41):
now.
Carl Richards (18:41):
I don't ever recommend unless you have an
infinite amount of funds or whatyou're doing is, like
critically important to go for100% solution and just throw
everything out that you can not,understanding that generators
run on a type of fuel and atsome point that fuel might run
out and if there's no access orlimited access to fuel, you
might not be able to fill yourgenerator, like there's so many
(19:01):
other spinoffs or snowballs thathappen, so there's a trickle
down.
Erika Andresen (19:11):
Well, I can tell you from this.
And the generators.
So people had solar, but itwasn't sunny those days, it was
cloud, so you got some power,but not full.
The people who had generatorsgas stations weren't working
because you need electricity toget the gas to pump out Right
when they actually were able.
Some of them were working, butthey didn't have point of sale
systems working.
So you need the cash.
If you didn't have cash to payfor it, you're also having a
world of hurt.
(19:31):
But then people who got reallydesperate after a while.
You have to think about this too.
When you have a generatorrunning there, loud people can
hear it.
So if they don't have agenerator, or they do and they
don't have fuel, they're goingto come and steal your fuel or
generator.
It happens.
So you have to think about asecurity system for both of
these things, in addition to thestuff that you have.
It's, it's insane.
(19:52):
The level of this is where myveteran background comes in.
I know about high-risksituations.
I know about life and deathbecause when I was in
Afghanistan, the riskassessments we were doing was
most likely, least likely andmost deadly to us, because every
mission there was at least a50% chance we'd get killed.
So I had to think about allthese things and my brain is
wired to think of terrible,terrible things.
Carl Richards (20:13):
Third and fourth and fifth order fact down the
road I was just going to say youneed to think about not just,
okay, the immediate, okay, turnon the generator, That'll get us
whatever we need.
We're good, and then when thatruns out, I'll just go get more,
more fuel for the generator.
Like you said, there's otherthings that are going to happen.
That which is good that yourbrain goes that way, because
this is how you can help people,regardless of and obviously
(20:34):
we're talking about something.
But natural disasters arehappening more and more, and not
just in places like Californiaor Florida.
They're happening even here inCanada.
We've had natural disasterswhere people have been out of
power and out of not even beingable to do business for days, in
some cases weeks, because ofsomething that they didn't
(20:56):
expect would happen.
Erika Andresen (20:57):
Because I'm also a professor of emergency
management, one of my favoritechapters to discuss with my
students is an internationalchapter.
I'm like don't think that weare in a precious snowflake
little vacuum.
These happen all over the world.
There's flooding, there'searthquakes, there is wildfires
all over the world.
Heat waves, which is one of thethings.
While it's not officially adisaster, it should be, because
(21:19):
heat waves cause the number onecause of death in pretty much
the world and it happens everyyear and people call it extreme
weather and it's like it's justgoing to be weather at a certain
point.
We have to stop calling itextreme.
It's just become weather,because it's the same thing as
repeating, year after year, ourseasons.
There is no hurricane seasonanymore.
It's getting longer.
Wildfire season used to only bea couple of months, now it's
(21:41):
all year long.
So the definitions that peopleare used to, with assessing
their risk and thinking, oh,this is again optimism bias.
This is never going to happen.
It will, and you'll be sothankful that you thought about
it in advance.
But don't be like those peoplewho like talk to me about, like,
oh, I want to make a businesscontinuity plan.
I'm like okay, great.
Actually, I had a consultationearlier this month and they said
(22:02):
all right, this is not a Q1 orQ2 thing for us.
It's something that's our goalfor the year.
But our biggest concern is X.
And I'm like okay.
So I finished the conversationand I said, all right, cool.
Before we close, I would justlike to make a statement that
I'm going to give you some freepiece of advice, regardless of
who you decide to engage foryour business continuity plan.
I said you told me that this isyour number one concern.
(22:24):
Because I'm an emergencymanagement professor, I know
that these are most likely tooccur in the winter and in the
summer.
So you told me these are not Q1and Q2 goal of yours, but the
thing that you want to protectyourself from happens in Q1 and
Q2 most often.
So you might want to rethinkthat statement.
They weren't too happy aboutthat, but I'm like you know it's
(22:44):
like telling me that I want to.
I want a hot girl summer body,but I'm not starting to die till
October.
And it's like well, what's thepoint?
Carl Richards (22:50):
Good for the following summer, I guess.
Erika Andresen (22:53):
Or if you're in the Southern Hemisphere.
Okay, sure, Starting late forAustralia, but you'll get there.
Carl Richards (23:04):
Yeah, yeah, exactly.
Or planning for that wintergetaway to Mexico or something
like that, where, yeah, no goodpoint.
Wow, this has been soinsightful.
I'm just in awe and, like yousay, a lot of people.
They either don't know about itor they just don't stop to go.
Huh, maybe I should not justput a pin in this and deal with
it later.
It's something.
No, I should probably sit upand take notice and ask myself
some questions.
(23:25):
Am I prepared in case it's likealways having that?
You know you keep theflashlight handy just in case.
You have the candles just toget.
You don't need them all thetime, but it seems like when you
do need them, you can't findthem Right.
So so, making sure that youhave these plans in place, you
actually have a checklist or ora quiz that folks can take?
(23:47):
Tell me a little bit about that.
Erika Andresen (23:49):
Yeah, so on the homepage of my website, which is
wwweaasccom, it's called theBusiness Readiness Assessment.
So at the bottom of thehomepage you can click on that
and it's 10 questions of youknow A, b, c choice, kind of
like a Cosmo quiz Are you mostlyA's, mostly B's, mostly C's?
And it'll tell you how preparedyou are operationally for your
(24:11):
business.
And then it gives you theresults and you know you are
free to book with me afterwardsto discuss your results more.
If you want better results orto understand them, you
absolutely can have anappointment with me.
But I think that's one of thefirst things that's going to
make you go.
Oh, okay, cool, and I also do amonthly, usually on Thursdays.
I don't know when you're goingto broadcast this, but it's the
(24:32):
20, it's actually two days fromnow.
I'm going to be doing what Icall a bastardized version of a
tabletop exercise.
A tabletop exercise.
The thing is you can have aplan.
It helps if you've walkedthrough, gone through the
motions so you understand whatto do when the time comes.
And I gave one scenario for afake business I make up every
single time, and so the last onewas kind of fun.
(24:53):
I said you're a stationarycompany that makes greeting
cards, but you your business onthe fifth floor of the Nakatomi
building in Los Angeles, which,and then there's a Christmas Eve
party that some terrorists govisit and there's a helicopter
that blows up.
So, yeah, it's diehard.
And I was like so how wouldyour business operate?
Like, what would you need to doif you woke up on Christmas
(25:13):
morning and saw that this iswhat happened to the building
you worked in?
And then you know we workthrough this, and then somebody
said at the end well, how oftenis a terrorist attack going to
happen?
I go, don't think of it thatway.
It is something that happens tothe physical structure that you
work in that is preventing youfrom doing your job.
It doesn't matter what it is.
There's all these things.
So normally within one scenario, I hit five to seven different
(25:36):
areas of business continuity foreach business.
Carl Richards (25:40):
Wow, phenomenal.
We'll make sure that thatinformation is posted in the
show notes, so we'll make surethat we get that from you before
you leave today.
Erika Andre sen, what anamazing conversation.
You know what?
As I said, we've never hadsomebody talk about business
continuity on the show, but nowI understand the relevance of it
, certainly for podcasters, notjust from a podcasting
(26:03):
perspective, but even from theirown business perspective,
because pretty much everyonethat we touch on a regular basis
they're podcasters, but they'rebusiness owners first.
So thank you so much forsharing your insights today.
Before I turn you loose, I'llgive you the final thought.
Erika Andresen (26:19):
It's really important for businesses,
especially small businesses, torealize how integral they are to
communities.
Now, one of the things when Iwas asked during some kind of
networking icebreaker questionwas can a business owner be
everything and everywhere all atonce?
And they're being cheekybecause the Oscar nominations
(26:39):
are coming out that day and, ofcourse, that movie went on to
win the Oscar.
And people giving very flatanswers like, well, no, I mean,
you're multitasking.
That's never good.
And someone's like, well, ifyou're on the internet, then yes
, you can be.
And I was like you know what?
One of the way I see what I dois I empower business owners to
keep their dreams alive, andwhat's part and parcel of that
is the dreamer, the businessowner.
If you have employees, if youhave businesses, you're paying
(27:01):
people so they can pay for theirexpenses, they can buy food,
they can pay rent, they can paymortgage, whatever it is, but
also buy things that enhancetheir lives, and they usually
get that from other dreamers inthe community who also have
employees.
So it's a beautiful cycle to bepart of, and you really get to
see it after a disaster, becausewhat everybody says after a
disaster is I just want to feelnormal again, and the way people
(27:24):
feel normal is being able tohave access to a coffee shop,
being able to go to a restaurantand get food, being able to
even listen to a podcast becausethey got their internet back
and they're able to do likeanything.
That is normal gives resilienceand comfort to people and
community.
So it is so.
This is why I really loveconcentrating on small
businesses, because I don'tthink anybody realizes truly how
(27:46):
important they are.
Carl Richards (27:47):
Well, thank you so much for sharing your passion
and all of your insights today.
Erika Andresen, that's a greatplace to leave it.
Thank you so much for being myguest today.
Erika Andresen (27:56):
Thank you.
Carl Richards (27:57):
And thank you for joining us today.
Special thanks to our producerand production lead, Dom
Carrillo, our music guru, NathanSimon, and the person who works
the arms all of our arms,actually my trusty assistant,
Stephanie Gafoor.
If you like what you heardtoday, leave us a comment and a
(28:18):
review and be sure to share itwith your friends.
If you don't like what youheard, please share it with your
enemies.
Oh, and if you have asuggestion of someone who you
think would make an amazingguest on the show, let us know
about it.
Drop us an email, askcarl atcarlspeaksca.
Don't forget to follow us onLinkedIn and Twitter as well.
You'll find all those links inthe show notes, and if you're
ready to take the plunge andjoin the over 3 million people
who have said yes to podcasting,let's have a conversation.
(28:41):
We'll show you the simplest wayto get into the podcasting
space because, after all, we'rePodcast Solutions Made Simple.
We'll catch you next time!
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