Building a Robust Business with Practical Preparedness | Timothy Brashier

Prepare to fortify your personal and business resilience with insights from Timothy Brashier, a former Navy SEAL hopeful turned cybersecurity whiz and practical preparedness trainer. This episode is a masterclass in readiness that every small business owner needs to hear, where Timothy enlightens us on the significance of time management and equipping oneself for the unexpected twists in life and work. His company, Practical Preparedness, is a shining beacon for organizations seeking the skills to steer through our unpredictable world, and he’s here to share his strategies with you.

Navigating the unpredictability of the business landscape, especially in high-stakes environments like real estate, requires a keen sense of situational awareness. We explore practical tactics that any small business can use —colleague check-ins, knowledge of exits, and vigilance at open houses—that are essential for safety and continuity. Timothy entertains us with tales from his extensive background, shedding light on why even the most seasoned pros need to stay sharp, ready for both triumphs and potential threats.

Cap off your preparedness journey with a dive into the physical and mental training that underpins resilience. Timothy and I dissect how vocal exercises during workouts and "train like you fight, fight like you train" philosophies forge the mental toughness needed for high-stress situations. By the end of our discussion, you’ll not only be armed with actionable strategies as a small business owner but also inspired to embed these practices into your daily routine, ensuring that you and your business stand unshakeable in the face of adversity.

Timothy Brashier: Practical Preparedness

Company Website: https://www.practicalpreparedness.us/

LinkedIn: https://www.linkedin.com/in/timothy-brashier-06a53226b/

Email: thepracticalpreparedness@gmail.com

BOSS Links:
Business Coaches: https://www.businessownershipsimplified.com/coaching
Business Funding: https://apply.businessownershipsimplified.com/landing/

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Chapters

• 0:00 Lessons From Business Owner Timothy Brashear
• 14:45 Business Disruption Preparedness and Training
• 20:41 Safety and De-Escalation Action Plan
• 25:36 Training for Physical and Mental Preparedness
• 31:51 Preparing for Safety and Security
• 37:39 Business Preparedness Through Mindset and Training
• 45:07 Proactive Intruder Preparedness for Small Business

Transcript

Speaker 1: 0:00

Learn from someone else's mistakes. Don't reinvent the wheel.

Speaker 2: 0:04

Yeah, because it won't cost you as much for one.

Speaker 1: 0:07

It's not going to cost you as much and it's not going to cost you the ultimate thing of what I would definitely think that everyone, if they don't get anything out of this podcast hopefully get. This is your time. That is the one you cannot get back is time.

Speaker 2: 0:34

Welcome to Small Business Pivots, a podcast designed for small business owners. I'm your it's time Simplifiedcom. Be sure to hang out to the end of this episode for my recap and coach's corner, where I challenge you with one thing or several to take action on that will move the needle in your business before our next episode. Our guest today is Timothy Brashear. Timothy is a visionary leader and expert in preparedness management, recognized for his unwavering commitment to empowering individuals and communities through comprehensive safety and preparedness training. As the founder and owner of Practical Preparedness, timothy has dedicated over two decades to the development and implementation of innovative strategies aimed at enhancing personal safety and readiness in an ever-evolving world. With a profound passion for preparedness and firearms education, timothy has emerged as a prominent figure in the field. His journey began with a deep-seated desire to equip individuals with the knowledge and skills necessary to navigate various challenges confidently. Timothy remains at the forefront of advocacy efforts aimed at promoting responsible gun ownership and fostering a supportive community for American firearm enthusiasts. His dedication to the mission exemplifies his commitment to affecting positive change on both a local and national scale. Let's get to Timothy now to learn how he prepared and survived the challenges that business ownership and life throw your way.

Speaker 2: 2:05

All right, welcome to another Small Business Pivots. We have a special guest from around the world. Actually, he's not too far from our headquarters here in Oklahoma City. Today we have Timothy Brashear and we are going to talk about something that has never been talked about on this show. As we talk about in the past, we always talk about all facets of the business how you should be prepared for financial crisis, an employee leaving, how to scale your business, and things like this. But today we're going to talk about something that can get your heart racing even faster than not having money at the end of the week. So, timothy, welcome to the show. How are you today?

Speaker 1: 2:41

I'm doing well. Thank you so much, Seth, for having me.

Speaker 2: 2:43

It's just a pleasure you today I'm doing well. Thank you so much, seth, for having me. It's just a pleasure, fantastic. So before we get to that heart racing facet of the business that we're going to talk about, tell us a little bit about your journey so we can kind of catch up to where you are today, absolutely so.

Speaker 1: 2:57

My journey and preparedness management started, honestly, back when I was 18 years old no, 17 years old, I'm 43 today. But I wanted to be a Navy SEAL and to kind of get prepared for that, taking the ASVAB and everything. I trained for probably two years thinking that I was going to be one of these action guys. But I still am today. But it's a little bit different. Didn't actually join the military. I talked to actually several of my friends into join the military, the navy and the marines.

Speaker 1: 3:27

Uh, that's a side story on in itself. But getting the real world practice and action of understanding the mindset behind pushing your body further than what you think you can go and do that for about two years, uh, actually running out here at a lake that's in our state, lake Hefner, running around that 10-mile course in the heat, the rain, the snow, trying to adapt my body to all facets of that, and that kind of got my mind mentally prepared in the state of what direction do I want to head in? So for me, that kind of took me down the path of understanding what's at that time and I don't know if they do it now, but they used to. It's called drown proofing and, you know, resuscitating their uh, their the trainings are going through their the process, and that kind of was not appealing to me whatsoever.

Speaker 1: 4:16

I was like no you know, I want to do all this stuff and serve my country, but I definitely don't want to go through drown proofing, yeah. So for me that kind of led into what, what route do I want to go through drown proofing? So for me that kind of led into well, what route do I want to go? So I went through a series of ride-alongs with the Oklahoma City Police Department and kind of just, you know, kind of get my head squared on and understand what direction I want to head, and so through that journey I kind of found myself learning about. That's when information technology started taking off. So I kind of I have a background in cybersecurity. And then our church actually Thunder used to go to our church. The whole team had Kevin Durant, abaka and I'm trying to think of some other names, some of the bigger names that were there. Of course these guys are giants, right, so I mean I'm six foot but these guys are, you know, six, seven, six, ten, seven feet in their mat. And of course that started my journey in executive protection. So I was around a bunch of guys that are former law enforcement, military, some special operations, and they kind of just took me under the wing and that began my journey in executive protection and preparedness management, and along that journey I've owned two IT companies as well. So I understand security on all facets, whether it be cybersecurity or personal security, in person, and that's basically how my journey began.

Speaker 1: 5:40

And so today I now own a company called Practical Preparedness. And so today I now own a company called Practical Preparedness. It is we are a preparedness management company that writes course curriculum for any and every organization schools, whether it be schools, banking, real estate, firearms training, hand-to-hand combat or hand-to-hand defense is what we call it. Working with state governments, local, I guess, state and local governments we're on the federal level, municipality level and, just you know, everywhere in between.

Speaker 1: 6:11

It's one of the things that I definitely did not foresee us going this direction. But one of the things that it has opened up for us is working with residential people, working with. So when I say residential, what I mean by that is you have, say, people that say civilians, right, well, unless you're military, everybody is a civilian. So you're not going to hear me say civilian, but I, just as a resident or residential person, that's kind of the individuals that need to have this type of training that we provide, and so that kind of gives a pretty quick synopsis of the beginning and where we're at, and I know we'll dive deeper into that.

Speaker 2: 6:55

So you were in the security business, it, before, so you had to be aware of a tax there. What kind of pivots did you learn owning those businesses on the business side?

Speaker 1: 7:10

Absolutely. One of the things I learned is that trying to do something by yourself is the largest headache that you can give yourself. Yes, yes, wearing multiple hats of CFO, coo and down to the janitor, literally. And on the information technology side of that, you're talking about even marketing, purchase, ordering, getting parts in setting schedules for yourself. It takes a tribe to do that. Setting a schedule for yourself, it takes a tribe to do that. And that, for me, was probably one of the most telling things of understanding and developing my business acumen as of today.

Speaker 2: 7:54

You're exhausting me just thinking about those days of having to do it all, and I know for a lot of our listeners they are trying to do it all. They may not have the resources or feel like they don't to hire somebody there, but I encourage people to make that first hire because it's almost impossible. I know solopreneurs are all over the Internet saying how to do it, but they still have VAs, they still have remote workers. They may not have a team, a brick and mortar building, but they still have support, which is what you're talking about, and I know so many business owners struggle with that, and that's one of the. I feel the first steps of how to grow and scale your business is making that first hire, and so I'm glad you hit on that point. Anything else that you learned in the business before we get into what you're doing now?

Speaker 1: 8:42

Yeah, um, one of the things like you kind of just spoke about is the uh, solopreneur right and it's. You know that whole saying if you want to go fast, go alone. If you want to go far, take others. That and I know if you watch, listen to Instagram or have any type of social media. You've probably heard that but it's the truth, you know. It was one of the things for me that opened my mind. Set up to understanding delegation is key, whether they work directly for you or it's some type of partnership or some type of camaraderie that you have with someone in the area where you're looking to scale or go in your company. It is key to develop those type of relationships and also look on past relationships. That's one of the things that I'll kind of get into. But along the journey has actually helped my company in scaling and how we've scaled. Didn't think that so many people from my past would be relevant today in what I'm doing, but as they're building their today in what I'm doing but as they're building their businesses in what we do, it kind of goes hand in hand. We've had multiple different venues that we've actually been able to do that had I not had to learn those lessons of reaching out to other people and other, I guess, businesses and business owners just for questions. And I'm not talking about paying people, I'm talking about hey, what do you do? How did you do it? I also learned having a mentor is huge, I think a lot of business owners, because we do, we want to, obviously, we want to do it ourself, but it's a control thing. I mean, I'll be honest, for me it was a control thing. Um, it was okay.

Speaker 1: 10:28

I'm a subject matter expert, probably not the best. I'm always a student, but I want to learn and as I learn, I start trying to take as much information as I can get. Well, one of the basic, one of the very simple things I think, uh, business owners understand is learn from someone else's mistakes, don't reinvent the wheel.

Speaker 2: 10:48

Yeah, because it won't cost you as much for one.

Speaker 1: 10:51

It's not going to cost you as much and it's not going to cost you the ultimate thing of what I would definitely think that everyone, if they don't get anything out of this podcast hopefully get. This is your time. That is the one you cannot get back is time.

Speaker 2: 11:05

Yeah, absolutely. I often say when you're considering a course as a business owner whether it be what we're fixing to talk about or an online course to make you smarter in business we have a course for our two heads better than one and it basically addresses business partnerships and it's less than $100. I mean it's affordable. It is some money, but it is affordable. But that course cost me hundreds of thousands, if not millions, of dollars because I filed bankruptcy due to a bad partnership. So you know, learn from others. It's going to cost you less than the other outcomes. So good points. Okay, so today you own Practical Preparedness, which is a business but it's also more of a mission. So tell us about that. You kind of told us how it led you to this place, kind of your journey. But what is Practical Preparedness?

Speaker 1: 11:58

Practical Preparedness. And let me throw this side caveat in there when your attorneys tell you to, maybe when they tell you to say, hey, stop trying to do an elevator pitch speech and say, well, we do, yada, yada, yada, and all of a sudden you lose everybody. Listen to what they say, say, hey, find the vision, take the vision, and then put that into words and make it one simple phrase so ours is preparedness management. That's what we do. Why do we say that, instead of getting very specific? Because then it opens up the door for conversation, right, and so for us, that door, conversation. Being open, leads to what is preparedness management? Well, it is, entails being proactive. Our company, you know mission statement, is a prepared community, is a stronger community, and that's one of the things that I like to kind of really drive home with people is you don't know what you don't know, even when you think you know, there's always an opportunity to keep growing and keep learning and keep obviously scaling. So practical preparedness as a whole we teach everything from preparedness management in schools, whether it's emergency, having an emergency response plan in your home with your family, having key safety phrases, to basically situational awareness what to look for, how to look for things, how to look for things To first aid.

Speaker 1: 13:28

So I say first aid, trauma is what we call it. So some people may say just first aid, but there's a big difference between first aid and first aid trauma. The trauma portion has to do with, say, if you well, kind of, since what happened to me, I took a chainsaw through my leg three years ago and had I not actually taught how to use tourniquets and taking those courses, um, that could have been a very bad situation for myself. Yeah, so, taking the time to really dive into the smaller features of what we're going to talk about today, but of who we are as a whole, because we're multif, multifaceted, you know, we're not just in one specific space.

Speaker 1: 14:09

And a lot of people think that preparedness is okay, well, it's survival, well, it's a little bit of that, well, and then it's management of your resources a little bit of that. And then it's also situational awareness, it's getting downright to the training and the physical aspect of that. And then the bigger point of that is the mental aspect of that. A lot of people overlook the mental aspect. They think, okay, well, I'll physically get in shape and go to the gym, but a lot of people have what I say, they have a purpose, but they don't have a plan, and so that's the ultimate of where we really step in with that plan.

Speaker 2: 14:45

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Speaker 2: 15:23

Let's get back to our guest now. It's kind of one of those uncomfortable discussions or at least it is for me because I work with so many small business owners as a business coach and I think one of the things that a lot of us think about is do we have enough money for payroll? How am I going to survive this week? How am I going to get this job done? How am I going to make good on this situation that we messed up with a customer but we never think about if somebody were to walk in our business and cause a disruption and in today's world that happens all the time. So tell us a little bit about the process of how you prepare businesses, real estate, people, schools, things like that. What does the process look like?

Speaker 1: 16:09

Absolutely. So the process for disruption. We'll take real estate and then I'll talk about schools as well. So, in the real estate aspect in Oklahoma if you're not in Oklahoma, obviously you get beers all over the world um, we have our second amendment in america, and so that gives the right for um the individual to carry a what we call a lethal or non-lethal, um actionable force, which could be pepper spray, could be a taser, could be downright to actual a service dog or just a protection dog or a firearm, right, the more scary side of it, talking about the firearm. So the actionable, I guess you could say.

Speaker 1: 16:49

The actual piece that we put into play is what I mentioned earlier situational awareness. If you can master the art and we actually, it's a course that we have, it's called Mastering the Art of Situational Awareness. People think, oh, I pay attention. Okay, really Well, let me ask how many times have you ever driven from your office or your building to your house that you're used to driving? You're almost on autopilot and you caught yourself maybe drifting and looking at social media, or maybe you're just tired for the day because you had you know it's a full day and you don't even remember how you got from point A to point B. Well, those are the things that we need to focus in on situational awareness. So let's talk about someone's coming as a disruption. So, as a real estate agent agent, you may have a open house showing that you're doing right in that open, an open house, which a lot of and I can say this from a perspective of talk because we deal with a lot of realtors We've actually I want to make this side caveat point here We've actually trained to date almost 800 leasing agents and realtors. A heavier on the side of real estate agents, um, we've actually trained over 500 realtors as of today. So, with that being said, if you're doing an open house, I got to listen to a lady at a local real estate agency here that has a pretty prominent name and I was on their panel and we were. She had her speaking about she loves the open houses and she said you got to get back into the flow of doing open houses. She goes we make so much money doing open houses.

Speaker 1: 18:27

Well, one of the things that we teach them is you don't know who's coming in that day. So let's start with a preparedness plan. Do you turn your location on when people are coming in. How do you vet those people? Do you have an option to get out of that house? Do you know where all your exits are? Do you check in with someone every 30 minutes, literally? Do you have someone text you? What if it's a text or a phone call? Or do you just randomly have something in place where a husband or wife or a friend or colleague can come in and just drop by to just check in and see how you're doing?

Speaker 1: 18:55

These are simple things that we don't think about because we're like well, and see how you're doing. These are simple things that we don't think about because we're like well, we're good, we're here, nothing's going to happen, especially in your higher end homes. That's where people can kind of think yeah, you know, I've done this, I've been doing this for 10 years, I've been doing this for 20 years. Nothing's ever happened, and I'm great. Well, that being said, that is a I kind of tell people like your front door, right, your front door gives you time to prepare, whether you're going to shelter in place and defend yourself, or to call 911 or to get out of the house, right, and so that we're talking about someone coming as a disruption and so because of that disruption, whatever it may be. I mean, it could be something as simple, depending where you're at, and I've seen some stuff online where you know they had a moose out in their front yard, right, and guys, she's checking his car, and so what was his plan? Well, he was running around the truck, which was probably not the best plan, but at least he did something right, and so that means he had to think about that beforehand, and Right, and so that means he, those, we, he had to think about that beforehand. And so there's the bigger portion of situational awareness is have you thought about what could go wrong or what could go right? Because it's not just about what could go wrong, but what could go right and how. At the end of the day, you, you go home, to your family, and so, on the real estate side, one of the things we've been asked is well, you know and I've heard this a lot Well, we carry a firearm, I carry a gun, you know, I've gone through the training and I've got my gun, and so we'll ask details. Okay, awesome, what is your training? Well, I sat through an eight-hour course. Six hours of that was listening to someone, and we were sitting in what I call a horse stall right, and we had trained to hit target downrange. That's great.

Speaker 1: 20:41

What other actionable items have you put in place? You know because we talked about reciprocity. Do you know the laws? If you're a traveling agent, where are you going? Have you looked to see the municipality laws, the state laws Is even some people that didn't even know this.

Speaker 1: 20:57

But if you're traveling from Oklahoma to New York, there's a certain type of pepper spray that you have to have. You can't just take a pepper spray you buy in Oklahoma and use it in New York City or even New York. You have to buy there. Actually, they have a certain limit to what part of particulars of the actual content of maize or pepper spray that can be used there or pepper spray that can be used there. So these are simple things that we literally we get down to that level of really understanding what happens. If I'm on a flight, right, what can I do if someone is acting crazy? Is that hostility going to come towards me or my family or my children or my colleagues? And then thinking what have I done to actually prepare myself for that? Deescalation is a huge thing, being able to communicate as we're kind of doing today, right, talking about what you can do or what questions do I ask to maybe bring this person down.

Speaker 2: 21:58

Maybe they had a bad day?

Speaker 1: 21:59

I don't know. So those are just some very simple but very prominent tools that we use and that translates into schools. So we actually have a protocol that we're training all 539 districts in the state of Oklahoma and we started with the 15th larger school district here and one of the things that we had to have a plan in place of how to train 600 teachers and administrators in one day, within six hours. It wouldn't have happened, and so, because we did have that, we were given reviews by people walking up to us who've been in trainings like that previous multiple years. Teachers get tons of training throughout the years, and so we had a lady who was actually trained over. She's been to multiple professional development days for 18 years and she said this is the best training I've ever been through in my 18 years of teaching. Well, that wouldn't have happened had we not understood how we put that plan into place. So let's talk about that action plan.

Speaker 1: 23:06

If someone comes in to disrupt a school, right, well, they have school resource officers that are there to deal with that.

Speaker 1: 23:11

We've created action plans to deal with teaching teachers how to secure their room, what to look for If it's a student, if it's someone off the street. If it's another teacher Today, you really have to be ready for anything and everything. You can't just assume that it's going to be some random mad person coming off the street or a parent, or it could be one of your teachers, so one of the faculty, it could be a student as well. So, wrapping the mindset around de-escalation, which is communication so let's just put it what it is De-escalation is a fancy word for communicating to create an end that has a positive resolution for you and, hopefully, the other person that is upset that day. And so those are the actual plan of if something goes awry or someone kind of comes in and messes up your day or walks into your office, right, and they're upset, do you have those skills and those tool sets in your pocket to pull out just in case you need them? So hopefully that kind of answers that question.

Speaker 2: 24:21

I know it's a little long but no, that was a great answer and I'm sure, like most small business owners, we have a lot of questions because this is a it's a. It's something you don't think about. You know the facets of your business, you don't think about the safety of your people. And I had mentioned, you know, to you earlier about a situation that happened at my house and which was early Sunday morning. There were two guys had pulled up in our driveway we live on a cul-de-sac so everybody can see our house and I thought it was odd. I saw kind of the vehicle, but then they were just very aggressive trying to get into our door and the truck was kind of like a box truck van that had the moving sign on it, if I recall correctly, and my heart was racing so fast.

Speaker 2: 25:12

I wasn't thinking about anything other than is this really happening? I was just kind of in a shock mode versus a reactive, proactive mode, which is exactly what you're kind of talking about. You had shared a couple of exercises that, uh, to me, have had to escalate your heart to where you can think properly. What was that Can you share with the listeners?

Speaker 1: 25:35

Absolutely so. One of the things that I used to run in some what they call um OCR races the event was called Spartan races. Well, I run in the mountains and what I mean by that is the races. So I would leave Oklahoma and I would travel to Colorado or we'd go to New Hampshire, we'd go all over the place, but this training was going to be in the hills. So to simulate that training, to get your heart rate, use the elevation and the pressure and stress that you'd be under, what we do is we would actually we would go out, we'd find a decent hill in Oklahoma you can find decent hills. Right, we may not have mountains, but we have decent hills.

Speaker 1: 26:13

The we're called pulsating lunges. So what you would do is and I always say this consult your physician before you start doing any of the training or things I'm going to speak of today. But when you're going out pulsating lunges, if you've done the lunges, you put one foot in front of the other and you bend your back knee and that's called a lunge. Well, pulsating lunges are where you do two or three lunges at the same time. So you go, you do one lunge and you pulsate One, two, step into the next lunge One, two, three, one, two, maybe one, two, three While you're going up the hill. Also, then you turn around immediately while you're going down the hill, and one of the things that a lot of people may not be aware of is so my older brother, he's actually served in the Marine Corps. He is. So my older brother, uh, he's actually served in the marine corps, he serves in the army and he is currently serving in the air force, the reserve. He's also a dallas police officer, so he, he can speak to this, and I've always thought it was weird, um, because I didn't go into the military.

Speaker 1: 27:13

But I said, hey, why in the world are you guys singing those songs while you guys are running? That's the craziest thing I've seen, um, and he said, if you can, if you can talk, you can breathe it, as simple as that. It helps you regulate your heart rate, and so one of the things why I'm doing this pulsating lunges, I may do a little, I may sing a song or I may be talking out loud to actually number one, make sure that I can speak when I become stressed out, right, get that oxygen flowing in the proper way. And so I've taken that to heart. Since he told me that was probably oh, almost, he's been in a while, so that was probably 20 years ago. He told me that if you can speak, you can breathe. I'm like interesting.

Speaker 1: 27:56

And so if you're doing that in a stressful situation while you're exercising, when the time comes that you need to communicate, right, you're like Timothy, why is that so important? Well, here's why it's so important. If you have to tell your family what to do and you're stressed out and your heart rates what we call in a catastrophic state, where you're 155 plus try and talk, it's very hard. So you have to be able to take a breath and breathe through that process, to be able to speak or yell across your home to tell your family what to do. So that's the I guess you could say the end game of why that's so important to train like that.

Speaker 1: 28:33

And it's very simple. It's one of those things. You don't got to go out and buy a gym membership as a small business. All right, you don't have to spend any extra money. Go out and buy a gym membership as a small business. On the right, you don't have to spend any extra money. You can go outside, go to a drive down to a park, walk to a park which is even better, right, if it's close to you find some type of hill and start doing the pole sitting, lunges and talk while you're doing it People may look at you weird, but as long as you know what your purpose is and then you go and execute that plan.

Speaker 2: 29:00

That's good advice and I do want to follow up because I'm sure someone's wondering what happened to those guys, what happened to your families. And they left. It seemed like they were there for an hour. I'm sure it was only just a couple of minutes, but they were up to something. It wasn't just knocking on the door. I mean, they were rattling the door trying to get in, but they eventually left. But, like you said, I wasn't thinking clearly I wasn't prepared, and then I literally, for probably the rest of the day, was still kind of in a shock mode wondering like what were they going to do? I wasn't thinking anything else other than just did that really happen? So I love this advice Because I know working with small business owners, they truly care about their people and so whether a disruption happens in your business, it also prepares them at their home or out in public.

Speaker 2: 29:51

I know this past weekend, at the time of this recording, one of the IRS offices in Houston had an open Saturday to try to help people with last minute tax preparation and a fight broke out in the line and they had to close down. So they were supposed to be open till four and this was in the paper. That's where I'm getting my information from, and I think they ended up closing like at 10 in the morning. Of course, because of that, there were more disgruntled people, so now we've got this big chaos of hundreds of people not, I guarantee, anybody that went in that morning, saturday morning, didn't think there was going to be a fight. It's like I'm going to get my taxes fixed or prepared or whatever, so it can happen anywhere. So for a business or someone looking to do this, what is kind of the steps? The process, is it ongoing? Do they come to you? Do they watch videos? What does that look like?

Speaker 1: 30:41

Absolutely so I think it's probably going to be threefold. Number one depending on your area, where you're at right now, we travel nationally and we travel internationally, so we'll come to you. We actually all of our clients, we actually come to our clients. So there are a couple of keys here. Number one we believe that you need to train and also get acquainted to the area that you're in. So if you're in your house and that's where you actually do your business, well then you might want to replicate that. So we'll come to you or find someone in your area if it's not us, right, that can come to you and do that. You want to actually take actionable steps in the place and environment that you're in, because training and getting training on an offsite location that doesn't look anything like your office, your home, your building that is another portion of situational awareness. Right, you may have something happen. They may not have desk in the way. So we want to make sure that we're replicating an actual structure or do it at your personal business, to give you that aspect mentally, so that you're prepared, you're not caught off guard. Well, hey, we had this desk and this. Well, I trained in an open space but, realistically, in my office. I have desks, I have chairs, I have a fridge over here. I've got this large table. This door doesn't quite open. The fridge over here. I've got this large table. This door doesn't quite open, it sticks a little there. Right, you may have those simple things. So that's number one.

Speaker 1: 32:10

We say train like you fight, fight like you train. I took that from one of my good friends out of Houston. He probably won't mind me saying that. But we also say be prepared. You are not and I'm going to throw this in here real quickly, because I told you this a little bit earlier is that you're not going to rise to the occasion. You're going to fall to your lowest level of training. So the actionable step of training besides number one training where you are going to be on a daily basis is finding a reputable company that listens to your needs. Number one if they're not listening to your needs, then they're just throwing something at you. If you ever go to our site, you'll see it says that preparedness isn't one size fits all, and it's not. And so you need to find something that's going to be actionable, that you can use not just in your business life but in your daily life use, not just in your business life, but in your daily life, because if you are prepared, here's one thing that will happen You're going to be calm. Most people think, oh man, I'm getting on this train, so I'm going to walk around paranoid. Actually, it's the exact opposite. Now that you have tools to rely on, you'll fall back to that, and so, when it comes time, you're going to be a lot more calm. You're going to be much more calm. There are those kinds of steps, so let's move on to the next step.

Speaker 1: 33:32

I would also say you want to run drills, and when I say drills, it could be as simply as something I do. Okay, now that this is, people are going to think it's silly, but we have what's called in the home defense training. I've actually ran drills in the middle of the night, tried to get out of my bed without waking my wife up gone, and opened my safe in the dark. People think that's the silliest thing. Yeah, until time comes and you have to do that Navigated my house or my business at night with very low light. Right, there's generally some type of ambient light coming from somewhere. One of the advantages that you have that most people don't think of is. You know your structure better than anybody else. So, like that, advantages that you have, unless you don't think of it, you know your structure better than anybody else. So, like that day that you, those people, were coming to your door and they were pulling on your door, well, I can tell you this much they were not there to sell you Girl Scout cookies.

Speaker 2: 34:14

No, not on a Sunday morning.

Speaker 1: 34:19

If that ever happens, when you say, well, what were they your mindset, what were they here for? My mindset is, if you're pulling my door and you're pulling really hard and you know that I'm home, um, you don't have good intentions. So at that point an actual plan would be okay. Well, I have a protection dog as well. She may be the first thing I send at the door. Most dogs, whether they're going to actually defend you or not, are going to scare people off. They just they don't. Even if it's a smaller dog, no one wants to be bit period. So that mindset, and just to kind of put the audience at ease most aggressors, when it comes to stealing or wanting your stuff, or they're cowards. Even the ones that try to bring about physical harm, they're cowards. And so if you can have something in place you had your screen door, that place right, that was in place then. So the next step for you would be okay.

Speaker 1: 35:13

Situational work Do I have? A lot of people have, and I don't want to give credit to one company, but I personally have cameras up, so we'll only give brands. But I have cameras up. They have motion detection. So we'll only give brands. But I have cameras up. They have motion detection. Here's another step to that Get cameras that have solar power.

Speaker 1: 35:30

I have had my camera up for over five years on my home and I've never had to recharge it. I've never had to do anything to it. It's gone through hell, storms. There's a company that I can leave you, that you can leave in the link, that make a tested product by myself and my company that works really really well. I mean, I can access it whether I'm in cameroon, africa, or if I'm just down the street, you know, at the local walmart or you know food store.

Speaker 1: 35:59

Uh, so having a plan preparing that, making sure that you're training number one in your structure that you're going to be in, Think going through your training daily, getting up at night, doing it in different, so doing it early in the morning, doing it at night, doing it in the middle of the day structure in a what I call a not the zoned out mode, where you're kind of intentionally making sure that you're walking through a structure so that you can navigate. So obviously I don't want you guys to get hurt. So do it when you can see first, and then maybe do it in the light, and so hopefully that gives a little bit of a, of a, of a place of where to start, because I know one of the things that we have to be careful of as a preparedness management it can kind of feel like drinking from a fire hose when we're training and we're talking about things. So I like to, as the Marines say, keep it simple, stupid now, no one is stupid, but that's what the Marine Corps says and there's a reason they said that.

Speaker 1: 37:01

Because they realize when you, when your heart rate's 175 and you've got combatives coming at you, whether it's a reason they said that, because they realized, when your heart rate is 175 and you've got combatives coming at you whether it's a dog or an actual person you have to keep it simple. There has to be that again, falling to your lowest level of training it has to be organic and it has to be fine motor skills at the simplest level because that's where your brain is going to be performing from is the very lowest level at that point, because it's called survival mode and that's where they kind of got that word from survival mode. You are functioning. You're not all there, but you are functioning and at the end of the day you have to go home.

Speaker 2: 37:39

Any final words? If you had a room full of small business owners, do you have any final words that would be applicable to all of them? Just some insights or mindset, or whatever it is.

Speaker 1: 37:52

Yeah, absolutely so. Mindset. The mindset that I would take is check Diego out the door and always be a student door and always be a student, Always be willing to learn, even if you think that it is just man, it's like this is a waste of my time or this is so simple. Let me put this in perspective. The tourniquet course that I took that saved my life was only a 30-minute tourniquet course and it was online. So that is, you can take courses online, start there, right, and then you can move into bringing someone like our company in or another company right to where you're doing stuff in person.

Speaker 1: 38:34

And I would say one of the things that people have to really understand is they think, well, I just read a book or I did this online.

Speaker 1: 38:45

Well, there are three elements that and there may be four, but I'll talk about the first three you need to make sure that you can hear it, you can see it and you can physically touch it.

Speaker 1: 38:57

So if you can bring all three of those into play, you are going to have a much better time at actually executing whatever it is you're setting out to do, Whatever your goals, whatever your plan, putting that into play, because you need to be able to hear it, you need to be able to see it and you need to actually be able to do it, which means get your body up and move physically, touch something.

Speaker 1: 39:20

Those are all three key things that I think personally, through the training that I've done personally and as a company in the organizations that we've worked with, down to you know, stay-at-home moms they want that aspect of it A lot of times. Yes, Zoom is great or online presence is great, but you need to be able to throw all those three key elements in it and if you don't do that, it puts you at a disadvantage, and I want, at the end of the day, everyone here that's listening to this to be at an advantage in everything that they do, whether it be protecting their home, their business or just when you're walking down the street. Being aware of what's around you is key.

Speaker 2: 40:06

Golden advice, and I'm sure there's small business owners that have a ton of more questions. I'm sure we've raised their hearts just thinking about some of these disruptions that they could possibly face someday, and they all care about their employees. I know because I work with them. How can someone follow you, get in touch with you? What's the best way, what's the best avenue for that?

Speaker 1: 40:26

Absolutely so. If you go online, go to practicalpreparednessus, as in the United States, so practicalpreparednessus. And then if you'll scroll down to the about us or get more info number one you can click on the about us. You can see who we are. You can see my team. Number one you can click on the About Us. You can see who we are. You can see my team. I always tell people.

Speaker 2: 40:49

my team could probably take over a small country, but I've met them, and I'm sure they could.

Speaker 1: 40:54

I think one thing that will put people at ease we meet you where you're at. We are not going to overwhelm you with information. We're going to ask a lot of questions what is it you need? What are you comfortable with? Yes, we're going to push you, but we're going to push you in a timely manner. So another way to get in touch as well is email us. It's at info at practicalpreparementsus.

Speaker 1: 41:17

But again, check out the website, because it'll take you to all different courses that we have, and we also have the ability to write course curriculum different courses that we have, and we also have the ability to write course curriculum. So if you think, okay, well, you've trained schools, you've trained real estate, you've done some firearms training here. You're doing some federal companies. What about some smaller companies? We do that as well. We've worked with some smaller real estate agencies and some actually smaller private schools as well, and churches, and so for us, it is we build out for you to make sure that again and this is the saying that you're always going to hear me say at the end of the day you go home.

Speaker 2: 41:53

I love it. I love it. Is there one social media that you're more active on than the others?

Speaker 1: 41:59

Yeah, you can go to Instagram and it's Practical Preparedness LLC. That's our official Instagram. Don't have the blue check up there yet.

Speaker 2: 42:07

Maybe one day, but Well, you're out saving lives, so we'll get to that later. Right, those are just details. So, timothy, I appreciate your time and I for the business owners and listeners out there. We'll have all the links and everything in the show notes. I appreciate you again. What you're doing is a wonderful mission and vision and we'll see you soon.

Speaker 1: 42:30

Absolutely. Thanks so much.

Speaker 2: 42:31

Welcome to the Recap and Coaches Corner, where I share actionable coaching advice to help you create a business that runs without you. Today, we explore the secrets of readiness and mental fortitude in business and life with Timothy Brashear, whose journey from a Navy SEAL hopeful to a cybersecurity authority defines the essence of true preparedness. Timothy shared his extensive knowledge on staying ahead, both personally and professionally. His company Practical Preparedness exemplifies crafting, custom training approaches ensuring you and your team can navigate unpredictably with confidence. Timothy highlighted the critical importance of situational awareness. We discussed how balancing preparation with the responsible use of force can create a safer environment for any organization. Timothy also introduced us to physical preparedness through OCR Spartan Race training and military-inspired breath control techniques. These strategies help maintain composure under stress, offering practical guidance for business owners to ready their teams for any challenge without breaking the bank. Knowing this, I want to take us into the coach's corner, because today's actionable items are inspired by Timothy's emphasis on situational awareness and preparedness.

Speaker 2: 43:50

As a business owner, start by conducting a preparedness audit for your team. Here's how One evaluate risks. Identify the top five risks your business or industry faces. This could range from physical security threats to cyber attacks, market volatility or, you know, the unfortunate. Number two develop response plans. Create detailed response plans for each identified risk. Ensure that every team member knows their role in these scenarios. Number three training sessions. Schedule regular training sessions to practice these response plans. Use real-life simulations to make the training effective and engaging. Number four continuous improvement. After each training session or real-life incident, review and update your response plans based on what you learned. Number five foster a culture of awareness. Encourage open communication about potential risks and preparedness. Make it a part of your company's culture. By implementing these steps, you'll create a proactive environment that not only prepares your team for unexpected challenges, but also empowers them to handle any situation with confidence.

Speaker 2: 45:07

I pray you never have an intruder in your business or home, but if you do, I pray today's episode helped you be proactively prepared. Remember, preparedness is not just about knowing what to do. It's about being ready to act when it counts. Thank you for listening to Small Business Pivots. Please don't forget to subscribe and share this podcast. If your business is stuck or you need help creating your business to run without you, go to our website, businessownershipsimplifiedcom and schedule a free consultation to learn why small business success starts with boss, and if you have a guest or topic suggestion for our podcast, or just want to learn why small business success starts with boss, and if you have a guest or topic suggestion for our podcast or just want to talk anything small business related, email me at michael at michaeldmorrisoncom. We'll see you next time on Small Business Pivots.