From Panic to Preparedness: Strengthening Your Prepper Mindset

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Mental preparedness is just as crucial as physical preparedness when facing emergencies. This episode explores how to develop the right mindset for handling crisis situations effectively, with real-world examples from Keith's law enforcement experience.

• Shout out to the Local Prepper podcast and YouTube channel where Keith recently appeared ( https://www.youtube.com/live/_oOzsKkqBJ4?feature=shared)
• Reminder about Augason Farms affiliate program with discount code "podcast prep" for 10% off
• Mental fitness is essential for preppers to handle high-stress emergency situations
• Developing scenario-based plans for different emergencies helps prepare your mind
• Keith shares a compelling story about how mental planning helped him during a bank robbery response
• The importance of maintaining calm leadership during crises even when internally stressed
• Tips for involving family, friends, and prepper groups in mental preparation exercises
• Recommendation to watch the developing tropical storm if you're on the East Coast
• Suggestion to give everyone tasks during emergencies to maintain order and purpose

Thanks for listening to the Common Sense Practical Prepper podcast. Be safe out there, take care of one another, and until next time.

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Episode Transcript

Speaker 1 (00:00):
The only thing we have to fear is fear itself.
The National Weather Servicehas issued a severe thunderstorm
warning.
Welcome to the Common SensePractical Prepper Podcast, where

(00:21):
prepping doesn't have to becomplicated or expensive.
Coming to you from awell-defended, off-grid compound
high in the mountains, comingto you from his Florida room in
Richmond, virginia Neitheroff-grid nor well-defended,
unless you count as chickens andcats, here is your host, keith
hey everybody, welcome back tothe Common Sense Practical

(00:43):
Prepper Podcast.

Speaker 2 (00:50):
This is Keith, august the 10th 2025.
Before I get started thisevening, I want to give a shout
out to the Local Prepper.
You can find the Local Prepperon the X and on the YouTubes by
searching that name the LocalPrepper.
Earlier this week I was on hispodcast and I had a fantastic
time.
We talked about severaldifferent things in the chat.
There was a little Q&A as wewent along.
So show the local prepper somelove, check him out on the

(01:12):
YouTubes, give him a follow,check out his podcast, his gear
review, and then check him outon X as well.
Again, as a quick reminder, Iam part of the affiliate program
with Augustin Farms andthere'll be a link, an affiliate
link, in the show descriptionand when you go to checkout, if

(01:32):
you use podcast prep, you get anextra 10% taken off of your
order.
Okay, I want to talk about a fewthings.
I've talked several times aboutsituational awareness and I
want to take it a little.
I want to take it a stepfurther.
It is very important to havethe proper mental mindset when

(01:57):
it comes to prepping to be, Iwant to say, physically fit and
then mentally fit as well.
I don't go out and run everyday, I don't do half marathons
my knees and my back are trashed, but I do what I can.
However, you can sit at homeand become mentally fit.

(02:18):
You can do mental exercises.
You can talk about scenarioswith yourself, family, your
friends, your little group,whomever you have, and it's very
important to do that.
So why does this matter?
Because in a crisis situation,whether it's a blackout, a flood
, a hurricane, zombie apocalypse, when it comes to high stress

(02:40):
situations, these really messwith your head.
Fear kicks in, stress piles upand then suddenly you're not the
calm, cool, collected prepperyou thought you were.
We all think and it's a verygood practice to get into that,
given a situation that you aregoing to act accordingly.
You're going to act accordingto your training.

(03:00):
You're going to act accordinglyto the preparations that you've
made.
If you say to yourself ahurricane hits and we lose power
for three days, we're going todo this Seven days.
We're going to implement this12 to 14 days.
All right, we're getting kindof deep.
We're going to have toimplement X, y and Z.

(03:22):
You should all have a plan.
I know you hear it a milliontimes from all the podcasters
have a plan.
Well, it's true, you need tohave a plan.
So take the time just to sitdown and think about what you
would do, given a particularsituation.

(03:46):
On the news earlier today andthere is a tropical storm
kicking itself around off thecoast of Africa, where all the
hurricanes from the Atlanticcome.
It's way, way, way too early toeven guess where it's going to
go, if it's going to just peterout and turn into nothing, or
it's going to grow intosomething a lot larger.
And then the big question iswhere it makes landfall.
So check out the WeatherChannel or whatever app and over

(04:07):
the next several days,especially if you're on the east
coast of the United States,mexico, gulf of Mexico well,
mexico shouldn't have to worrytoo much about this one.
Even the Gulf of Mexico, theeast coast, from the Keys,
bermuda, the Bahamas, all theway up to the northeast Just
have a peek at the weather everycouple days and then, as it
gets closer, just go ahead andput yourself in the mindset of

(04:32):
how you're going to handle thisin the event it grows into a
major hurricane and in the eventit makes landfall.
If you live in the Midwest, whatare you going to do if there is
a blackout?
If you're on the West Coast,california, what are you going
to do if there is an earthquakeand power is out for three to

(04:55):
five days and with thatpotentially comes a slight
supply chain disruption?
Okay, so just think about that.
Folks in the EU, folks inAustralia, south America,
wherever you happen to belistening to me, just put
yourself in that mindset.
Just take a few minutes.
You can sit down and what I do?

(05:16):
I sit in my little comfy chair.
I turn the lights out nice anddark, nice and quiet and I just
think about what I would do as aformer police officer, as a
retired police officer.
I've said it before, I did thatas part of my training when I
had a few minutes.
When I was on the road, I wouldpull over, got my paperwork done

(05:36):
and I would sit there and sayto myself what would I do if the
7-Eleven, three blocks down theroad was robbed and I'm not
sure if you've heard the podcastor not, but there was a bank
that was robbed several yearsago when I was still a police
officer.
Working the road, the addresscame out of where the suspect
vehicle was registered to.

(05:58):
A witness got the license plateof the bad guys when they
jumped in the getaway car andheaded wherever.
The address was about five toseven minutes from me, but it
was out of my beat, in adifferent radio zone.
So I said to myself, what wouldI do if I started driving
towards the house on theregistration, and what would I

(06:20):
do if I ran into that vehiclegoing the opposite direction, in
particular on a very narrowbridge that went over into the
area where the neighborhood was?
I said to myself, what would Ido if we crossed paths at the
top of this very narrow bridge?
Not if I saw them at astoplight, or they were three,

(06:41):
you know three cars ahead of me,or they were at the you know at
a four-way stop, or I saw themturn into a mall or something to
that effect.
I literally told myself what Iwould do.
And again, I kid you not, folks, like I've said before, I
headed towards the address onthe registration and when I
crested the top of that narrowbridge, I came face to face with

(07:05):
the getaway car full of badguys.
I kid you not, it reallyhappened and it's just one of
those freaky things that oncethe adrenaline wore off, a
couple hours later, after wemade the arrest.
It just was.
It was surreal.
So that was an instance where Ican tell you 100% that planning
, even something I whipped up onthe fly, worked.

(07:28):
Now, what would have happened ifI just started driving and I
ran into them, ran across them?
I have no idea, because thatwasn't the scenario done.
If Well, that's a hypothetical.
All I can tell you is thisparticular situation worked out

(07:50):
very well in my particularsituation.
Plan a scenario, work yourbrain, because what's the old
saying?
An ounce of prevention is wortha pound of cure.
So, if you've got a few minutes, if you're taking inventory on
your pantry whether you do aninventory every month, every
week, every quarter, every sixmonths, every change of the
seasons, whatever it happens tobe, take a minute and sit down.

(08:12):
If you live alone or you have asignificant other, boyfriend,
girlfriend, whomever, just sitdown and talk to them.
Hey Linda, this is what we'regoing to do.
If, or?
Hey Linda, what do you think isthe best approach?
If X, y and Z happened, believeme, it is going to be well

(08:33):
worth your time to eitherdiscuss that in your head
amongst yourself, or bring yourfriends, your partner, your
group, your family, whomever, tobring them into the
conversation, because everybodyhas a role when something
happens.
Let's say, this hurricane reallykicks up, turns into a cat five

(08:56):
and it makes landfall Virginiabeach, the outer banks and then
Richmond is just going to gethammered.
All right, I'm going to get upwith my friends and I'm going to
you know those who prepare.
We're just going to have aconversation.
Hey, if you get hammered inVirginia beach and you're
without power, you've got aplace to stay.

(09:17):
And vice versa.
Hey, what are your preps looklike?
Are you good on water?
Are you good on food?
Have you rotated your cannedcorn?
Have conversations and if yourfriends need assistance, be that
person to be able to help themthrough this.
All right, folks, that was justsomething I wanted to get off

(09:37):
my chest.
A quick little reminder when itcomes to mental preparedness is
just as good as physicalpreparedness.
The bunker full of stuff is notgoing to do you any good if
you're not in the right frame ofmind.
When you're faced with astressful situation, you need to
be able to be calm and you needto be able to act accordingly,

(10:02):
because running around like achicken with your head cut off
is the worst thing that canhappen.
If you're the leader of thefamily, the matriarch, the
patriarch, whatever, and folkslook to you as a leader, you
need to exude calmness,leadership, even though in the

(10:22):
back of your mind you might beready just to flip out.
You have to remain calm because, as the leader, if you're not
calm, nobody else is going to becalm.
Okay, they're looking at you forguidance.
Oh, keith, what should we do?
How about this?
Can I get that?
Give everybody something to do,keep everybody busy and always

(10:46):
have a plan.
All right, folks, as usual.
Thank you so much for listening.
Be safe out there, take care ofone another and until next time
.

Speaker 1 (10:56):
Thanks for listening to the Common Sense Practical
Prepper podcast.
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