Make Reality Your Training Partner: Break Your Prepping Gear Before Life Does

Summary

Practical Prepping Podcast — Episode 541

Make Reality Your Training Partner: Break Your Prepping Gear Before Life Does

Date: February 9, 2026
Hosts: Mark & Krista Lawley

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Episode Overview

This episode dives deep into the vital preparedness principle: “Confidence without testing is just hope.” Mark and Krista challenge listeners to get uncomfortable by intentionally exposing their prep plans and gear to failure before real emergencies do. Their message is rooted in real-life practicality—not apocalyptic fantasy—with actionable steps to help regular people foresee and patch the weak points in their emergency readiness. Key themes include realistic gear testing, learning from mistakes, and leveraging "after action reviews" to create a cycle of continuous improvement.

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Key Discussion Points & Insights

1. Why Test Gear to Failure? (00:00–03:07)

• Purposeful Discomfort: The episode sets the tone by encouraging listeners to seek out discomfort:

  "I want you to listen to this episode and feel slightly uncomfortable because we're going to talk about breaking our own gear, exposing weak plans, finding failure points, and admitting what didn't work." — Mark (00:00)

• Reality Over Appearances:

  "Reality doesn't care how much you spent or how organized your closet looks. It only cares what works when things go wrong." — Mark (00:29)

• Proactive Identification: Test and challenge gear purposefully to spot failure before your life depends on it (01:47).

2. How to Test Your Gear Effectively (02:40–05:18)

• Environmental Stress: Use gear in rain, heat, cold, dust, and mud. Example: Can you start the generator while your hands are near frostbite?
• Time Pressure: Deploy gear quickly when tired or under stress—simulate real, rushed conditions.
• Physical Limitations & Fatigue: Use gear one-handed, with gloves, or reduced dexterity; practice for injury scenarios.
• Endurance Testing: Run items (batteries, boots, etc.) longer than normal.
• Improvisation:

  "Sometimes we have to MacGyver... A friend of ours... made an ugly contraption that went over [his generator], that kept it warm. And it involved a Rubbermaid tub and a shop light..." — Mark (05:31)

3. Common Failure Points Most People Miss (06:33–15:12)

• Batteries Drain Fast:

  "Just having your flashlight come on and off is not the same thing. You may have to run your flashlight for eight hours." — Mark (06:47)

• Cold Weather Effects: Batteries and gear lose efficiency in freezing temps (07:07).
• Cheap Components: Zippers, straps, Velcro, and buckles often fail sooner than expected.
• Water Filters: Clog quickly in silty or “crunchy” water sources; pre-filtering extends filter life.
• Lighting & Gloves: Headlamps may be dim or too awkward in the cold; gloves reduce dexterity, affecting everything from firearm handling to fine motor tasks.

  "If your glove is too big, your fingers are just going to roll around in there and you're not going to get an exact curl…" — Krista (10:20)

• Fire Starters: Many fail in wind or dampness; redundancy and real-world practice are key.

4. Responding to Failure: Redundancy and Documentation (13:15–15:55)

• Identify the Type of Failure: Is it design, quality, or user error?
• Two Is One, One Is None:

  "If you've got one way and one way only to do what you're trying to do, and that fails... This comes back to two is one and one is none." — Krista & Mark (14:28)

• Document Issues:

  "Document the failure so that it's not repeated... especially if it's user error." — Mark (15:17)

5. After Action Reviews (AAR): Learning & Improving (17:25–25:00)

• Definition: Structured debriefs after drills or real incidents to capture what worked, what failed, and why—with zero ego or blame.

  "If it didn't work, don't be trying to defend why you did that. Don't get your feelings hurt... We're trying to make this better." — Mark (18:14)

• When to Conduct AARs:
  • After drills/simulations (e.g., blackout weekends, bug-out tests)
  • After near-misses (fuel shortages, communication breakdowns)
  • After real events (storms, evacuations, medical emergencies)
• Framework (19:19):
  • What was supposed to happen?
  • What actually happened?
  • What went well?
  • What went wrong—and why?
  • What will be changed or improved?
• Areas to Review: Gear performance, clarity of communication, decision-making under stress, time delays/bottlenecks, human factors (fatigue, confusion, “paralysis by analysis”).
• Involve the Whole Family: Kids can spot solutions adults miss (e.g., let the air out of the tires to fit a truck under a bridge).

6. Focusing on Systems, Not People (24:09–24:56)

• Systemic vs. Personal Issues:

  "It's not that so and so failed, but did the system fail?" — Mark (24:09)

• Document changes and assign follow-ups to address “gaps or thin spots.”

7. Continuous Improvement: The Compounding Effect (27:05–28:55)

• Exponentially Better Preparedness:

  “A single after action review can improve maybe just one outcome. But repeated AARs will create exponential preparedness gains over time…” — Krista (28:25)

• Practice what you preach:

  “This show applies to you and me just as much as it does anybody else…even Mark and I…we don’t always have 100% of our gear tested as well.” — Krista (29:12)

8. Notable Memorable Quotes

• “Preparedness isn't proven when things go right. It's proven when things go wrong. And you've already planned for it.” — Mark (30:32, repeated for emphasis)

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Important Segment Timestamps

| Segment | Topic | Timestamps | |--------------------------|---------------------------------------------------------------------|----------------| | Gear Failure Testing | Introduction, why test, reality of gear failures | 00:00–02:07 | | How to Test Gear | Environmental stress, improvisation, endurance testing | 02:40–05:18 | | Failure Points | Batteries, water filters, gloves, fire starters | 06:33–15:12 | | Responding to Failure | Redundancy, documentation, learning from error | 13:15–15:55 | | After Action Review (AAR)| Structure, timing, involving all members | 17:25–25:00 | | Focus on Systems | Systems vs individuals, writing changes, follow-up | 24:09–24:56 | | Compounding Effect | Value of repeated reviews, personal example | 27:05–29:59 | | Key Quote | “Preparedness isn't proven when things go right...” | 30:32 |

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Notable Quotes

• Mark (00:00): “Confidence without testing is just hope.”
• Mark (00:29): “Reality doesn't care how much you spent or how organized your closet looks. It only cares what works when things go wrong.”
• Krista (14:28): “If you've got one way and one way only to do what you're trying to do, and that fails... This comes back to two is one and one is none.”
• Mark (18:14): “If it didn't work, don't be trying to defend why you did that... We're trying to make this better.”
• Mark (24:09): “It's not that so and so failed, but did the system fail?”
• Krista (28:25): “A single after action review can improve maybe just one outcome. But repeated AARs will create exponential preparedness gains over time…”
• Mark (30:32): “Preparedness isn't proven when things go right. It's proven when things go wrong. And you've already planned for it.”

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Key Takeaways

• Test Your Gear Ruthlessly: Don’t rely on hope or assumptions—put your equipment, plans, and yourself under real stress to uncover true limits.
• Failure Is Data: Each failure or flaw you find is a gift; patch it before it matters.
• Embrace AARs: Regular “after action reviews”—even after success—transform good intentions into real-world improvement.
• Family & Team Input Matter: Involve everyone, and focus on improving processes, not blaming people.
• Preparedness Is a Cycle, Not a Checklist: Real readiness is built by continually testing, reviewing, and refining your systems.

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This engaging and practical episode reminds listeners that prepping is about honest self-assessment, not “buying confidence.” As Mark and Krista put it:

“Preparedness isn't proven when things go right. It's proven when things go wrong. And you've already planned for it.” (30:32)

Transcript

[A]

I want you to listen to this episode and feel slightly uncomfortable because we're going to talk about breaking our own gear, exposing weak plans, finding failure points, and admitting what didn't work. Confidence without testing is just hope. Wearing tactical gear. Reality doesn't care how much you spent or how organized your closet looks. It only cares what works when things go wrong. Today we're talking about how to make reality your training partner instead of your enemy. Because preparedness isn't proven when things go right.

[B]

Welcome to practical prepping. Today is February 9, 2026, and this is episode 541. This is the prepping podcast with no bunkers, no zombies, and no alien invasions. Just practical prepping, where we teach everyday people how to prepare for life's emergencies, disasters, and crises. And we're here to help you prepare, get prepared. I'm Krista.

[A]

And I'm Mark. And if you'd like the expanded notes for this episode, go to practicalprepping.info 541. Now let's talk about gear failure testing. What we're looking at is identifying weak points. Now, hopefully we do this before real emergencies expose them.

[B]

Well, that's a good idea.

[A]

Well, gear failure testing is the deliberate process of stressing, abusing, and using equipment under realistic conditions to find out what breaks, what degrades, and what becomes unusable. And we want to do this before our life depends on it.

[B]

Absolutely. And here's why that matters. Most of your gear won't fail catastrophically. It fails gradually or at the worst possible moment. Factory specs and online reviews do not account for these things. Your freezing hands, your level of fatigue, the darkness of the night, the stress you're under, and the improvised use that most often has to take place. Now, testing will reveal the difference between owning your gear and being able to trust your gear.

[A]

Here's how we test that gear effectively. Okay, we want to put some environmental stress to this. And we're going to be stressed as well.

[B]

Absolutely.

[A]

We want to use our gear in the rain, in the heat, in the freezing temps, in the dust and in the mud. Can you get that generator started when there are freezing temps out there and your hands are on the verge of frostbite?

[B]

Right.

[A]

We want a time stress. Can you deploy it quickly when you're rushed or exhausted? Or does it take all day to get this out?

[B]

Because your mind can be fried? You know, in a moment of stress, you can forget everything you ever knew.

[A]

But this is one reason our generator sits where it does now instead of where it used to sit is because that thing's heavy. And it's getting harder and harder to move on those small wheels from the garage to the patio.

[B]

Well, thank goodness you have that heavy thing on a roll around cart. I recently looked into something. Do you know that generator weighs 270 pounds?

[A]

I don't doubt that at all.

[B]

That's why it's on a roll around car.

[A]

I don't doubt that. You could tell me 475 and I would believe it right now. Also, be aware of some skill degradation. Use this gear with gloves. Use it one hand or low dexterity. Can you use that gear one handed?

[B]

Yeah. Maybe you have an injury, maybe you've sprained a muscle in there. You know, anything could happen. It's not something we often prepare for, but this is a great time to be able to push that envelope and.

[A]

Look at sustained use here. We're talking about running items longer than we would realistically expect, like batteries, filters, blades, boots.

[B]

Good plan.

[A]

Some of these things may not hold up to sustained use and improvised scenarios. Use your gear in ways you might need to, not just how the manual suggests.

[B]

You know, this kind of harkens back to almost like a military style of training in the sense of they drop soldiers into the woods and they have a certain amount of gear that they can utilize, and they have to be out there in the weather and it's not always ideal. And this is. This is where they're putting their gear to the test. And it makes me think, well, maybe we need to kind of think like a good soldier in the sense that's how they prepare. And maybe that's where we need to.

[A]

Prepare that and they begin to trust their gear.

[B]

Exactly.

[A]

But I also think about MacGyvering things here.

[B]

Oh, and that's great.

[A]

Sometimes we have to MacGyver, you have.

[B]

To repurpose a few things.

[A]

A friend of ours, in the great freeze of a couple of weeks ago, his whole home generator came on and began to run and ran for quite a while until the regulator on the gas tank froze up.

[B]

Oh, no.

[A]

He started MacGyvering. And he made an ugly contraption that went over this, that kept it warm. And it involved a Rubbermaid tub and a shop light. Just a drop light out of the shop. Well, how about that 60 watt light bulb inside that Tupperware container? Container. Kept it warm enough to keep it from freezing up again.

[B]

Perfect example.

[A]

He strapped the whole thing on. And so, I mean, he sent me pictures and. And I'm proud of it. I'm really proud of it, but he made it work.

[B]

That's an improvised scenario if I ever heard one.

[A]

Yeah, he MacGyvered that.

[B]

Love it.

[A]

There's some common failure points that a lot of people miss.

[B]

Yeah. And emergency is not the time to find this out.

[A]

One is battery powered items that drain faster than expected.

[B]

Yeah. Because just having your flashlight come on and off is not the same thing. You may have to run your flashlight for eight hours.

[A]

Right. A lot of them won't work for eight hours. And so you're going to need extra batteries. But it also is a fact that cold weather diminishes the capacity of the battery.

[B]

And some of the people that listen to our podcast, they're in sub zero temperatures even as we speak. So they've lived some of this that a lot of them, we're just preaching to the choir on some of this because they're living it already know about that cold weather effect.

[A]

Yeah. I was in a zoom group this weekend with some friends and it's fellow podcasters is what it was. And one of them was talking about how they've got 13 degrees right now and another one was talking about how they've got seven degrees right now. And I felt almost guilty telling them that we were at 54 degrees, but a guy in Florida said, hey, we're almost 80 down here. Now he's in lower part of Florida.

[B]

So who wins? The 80 degree guy. The sub Zero guy.

[A]

Well, the Sub Zero guys would swap with the 80 guys in a heartbeat. But it's a good time to be testing our equipment. Now here's something else we don't think about failing. But I've had it happen. Cheap zippers.

[B]

Right.

[A]

Or cheap straps or cheap buckles. Even Velcro. Does it do what you need it.

[B]

To do under all that kind of stress?

[A]

Under all that kind of stress.

[B]

Good point.

[A]

Now, another item we don't think about is water filters clogging early due to silty sources.

[B]

Well, sure. I mean, if you're actually sourcing water from a creek, a riverbank, a lake, what have you, like that out in the wild, you. You're bound to expect to pick up some particulate matter.

[A]

You're gonna have some crunchy stuff in there.

[B]

And yet water filters can do what they. And then there's a point they can do no more.

[A]

Exactly. It'll filter it out, but it'll fail at a point. So that's where we stress pre filtering the water. Now, even if you're using a life straw or a sawyer mini or squeeze, you can filter that water into some type of container. And I'm thinking here, a pot, something like that or a travel mug that you can filter that water. Even a plastic bag if you got anything.

[B]

Yeah.

[A]

But you pre filter that water and then you drink from that container so that your sawyer, your lifestraw, whatever stays cleaner. It's not having to filter out what I call the chunky stuff.

[B]

Oh yeah. The crunchy water stuff.

[A]

And we would do the exact same thing with our filter. In the house. We have a countertop Pro1. It'll hold a couple of gallons. But we would pre filter water that we're putting into that so that we're not over stressing the filters.

[B]

Exactly.

[A]

And so they last longer. Headlamps. The headlamps can be too dim or awkward under this stress is too cold. The batteries have gone down. You haven't changed the batteries in three months, you know. Yeah. And so those things can become too dim. How about gloves that reduce dexterity more than anticipated?

[B]

Yeah, that's. I've actually experienced that as well. Just wearing gloves that were either too tight or too stiff. And it didn't allow my fingers to move normally or if there wasn't a good fit. You know, if a glove is too big, your fingers are just going to roll around in there and you're not going to get an exact curl on your fingers.

[A]

If I don't usually have that problem, they're usually too short. Fingers.

[B]

Yeah.

[A]

So I get the extra large, but they become bulky. And Krista gave me a new set of gloves for Christmas. Now they're great. They keep my hands warm. They really do. They're. They're great gloves. But I can't control a firearm real well with those.

[B]

Exactly.

[A]

And I've had other gloves that I have worn throughout my career in law enforcement. And one of the things I practiced was getting that right hand glove off very quickly. Kind of looks like a hockey player snatching his gloves off to fight. I can get that. Get that glove off. So reference. Yeah. So that finger fits into that trigger guard if I need it.

[B]

I hadn't even really thought about how because sometimes finger in gloves are so wide and so thin, it'd be nearly impossible to put your finger through where the trigger is. Yeah.

[A]

And if it's slightly too long.

[B]

Yeah.

[A]

Then it kind of folds up and it's wanting to put double layers of that into it. So my way around that was learning to get rid of that glove very quickly. If it's not one that I can get rid of quickly, then I don't wear it out when I go someplace, I'll use those around the house or whatever. But be careful about those gloves. They do reduce dexterity and sometimes it's a lot more than we expected, especially.

[B]

In a crisis moment.

[A]

Yes. How about fire starters that fail in wind or damp conditions?

[B]

You know, this is where you really have to experience this. You can't just trust the packaging label. And I'm not dissing the products. There are some great firest starting products and they will start a fire, but they cannot account for every single scenario out there. I mean, if you've got 75 mile an hour gusts, you're at a hurricane level. And there may be some fire starters that just won't help hold up.

[A]

I'm probably not trying to start a fire in 75 mile an hour gusts.

[B]

But I'm not talking about sustained wind.

[A]

I'm saying gusts in gust. Unless I can get into a protected area. And I'm thinking back among the rocks there where I could be protected. Yeah, but test your fire starters. And I'm thinking here, the tender, for example, if you're using a pharaoh rod and a wet bird's nest, that's not going to work in the rain.

[B]

Yeah, exactly.

[A]

You've got to be able to make spark and you've got to have something to catch that spark and keep the spark. Keep that spark. And one that we carry in our bags is wet fire. And it's something that will catch that spark. But we're not trying to start it with a wet ferro rod. We go back to our lighters and matches. Those are our first two possible things that we're going to do. But now what do we do when the gear fails? One is identify whether the failure was design or the quality or the user error.

[B]

Oh, okay.

[A]

In my case, it's usually user error. Okay. Especially when I'm dealing with computers.

[B]

Oh, dear.

[A]

But it may be something that we may need to decide whether to replace it, to upgrade it, to modify it, or just add redundancy, which we've done with the fire starter.

[B]

And that has really helped because if you've got one way and one way only to do what you're trying to do, and that fails regardless of the reason.

[A]

This comes back to two is one and one is none.

[B]

Exactly.

[A]

So I think in our bags we do have two different types of commercial tender. We have fatwood sticks cut to about four and a half inches to fit inside a medicine bottle, particularly metformin. The tall medicine bottle keeps it dry and it also keeps it in one place. And we have also cotton balls with Vaseline. So we have several options there. We have lighters, we have matches, and we have ferro rod. And if I can't get it started in those three, I'm probably not going to make bow drill work either.

[B]

Oh, yeah.

[A]

Especially in the rain.

[B]

You can forget a bow drill. I'm not doing it.

[A]

Here's something that you need to do is to document the failure so that it's not repeated.

[B]

Now, that's a very smart and wise.

[A]

Mature thing to do, especially if it's user error. If I identify that it was user error and I did it the wrong way, I need to document the right way.

[B]

We used to call that learning your lesson.

[A]

Learning your lessons. Okay.

[B]

Right.

[A]

And we need to train around the limitation if replacement isn't possible.

[B]

Okay. So, yeah, adjust, modify, adjust. Absolutely.

[A]

What about if your generator doesn't start? How do you keep going? Yeah, what's your game plan there? Right, but here's a key statement. If you've never struggled with your gear, you don't actually know it yet. Oh, you've got to struggle with it to really figure it out.

[B]

Well, let me just take a turn here and say that today's cup of coffee comes from our dear Gloria. Gloria is a longtime supporter of our podcast. Gloria, honey, we really do appreciate your support.

[A]

And I saw on Facebook the other day that she's got some new baby goats.

[B]

Oh, yes, she does. They're adorable.

[A]

And Gloria, we certainly do appreciate that. Now, if you receive value from the podcast, like, did you learn something? Did you get an idea of something new that you need to do, like practicing with your gear? Were you entertained, or do you just love our Southern charm?

[B]

Oh, bless your heart.

[A]

Would you help us by giving back a little? You can go to practicalprepping.info support, where you'll find ways that you can support the show, including a coffee membership we highly recommend. And that's only $5 per month, but it really helps us offset the expenses of the show. So please consider doing [e-mail] support.

[B]

Now, let's get back to the show. The After Action Reviews. Learning from experience. Instead of repeating mistakes. We're going to call this the After Action Review. And from here on out, we'll call that the aar. That is a structured debrief. It's conducted after a drill or a close call or a real authentic emergency to capture the lessons that were learned without any kind of blame or ego.

[A]

And we used to do this in the fire department. We did it in the police departments. We did it in the sheriff's department. We call them after action debriefs.

[B]

Okay.

[A]

We went in and we all talked about what worked and what didn't work.

[B]

And it didn't matter.

[A]

The level of experience, it didn't matter. And there was no ego. Don't bring your ego to this table.

[B]

Right.

[A]

If it didn't work, don't be trying to defend why you did that.

[B]

Don't get your feelings hurt.

[A]

Don't get your feelings hurt. We're trying to make this better.

[B]

Exactly.

[A]

Want to do the exact same thing with our prepping?

[B]

Yeah. So why would a prepper need an after action review? An aar. I'll tell you why. Because a lot of people will repeat the same mistakes. Because they didn't document it. They didn't analyze their decisions or they didn't make the necessary adjustments to their plans. So an AAR is going to turn your experience into progress and not just some unhappy story. So when's the best time to conduct an after action review? I'll tell you. One, after drills or simulations like a blackout weekend or a bug out test. Two, after a near miss, like you're almost running out of fuel or there's been a miscommunication. And number three, after authentic incidents. Real storms, real medical emergencies, real evacuations.

[A]

Here's a simple framework for the after action review. What was supposed to happen?

[B]

That's the biggest thing right there.

[A]

What did we want to happen now? What actually happened?

[B]

Exactly.

[A]

They're usually two different things. What went well, what went wrong, and more importantly, why did it go wrong? And what will we change next time?

[B]

Good call.

[A]

These are all in the show notes. If you would like that, go to practicalprepping.info 5, 4, 1. And we've got all of these listed right there. Now, there's some areas that we need to review.

[B]

Okay.

[A]

We need to review our gear performance. How did it work? We need to review our communication clarity. This is the one that usually gets me in trouble. Krista did not hear what I intended to say.

[B]

Because you didn't say it.

[A]

She heard what I said, not what I intended to say.

[B]

See, this blows my cover because I had him convinced I could read his mind.

[A]

Oh, yeah?

[B]

Well, truth be known, I can't. So you've got to tell me in words what you mean.

[A]

And I'm not always good at that. Okay. I just. Sometimes I say what's on my mind or he'll.

[B]

He'll make a Statement. And he knows what he meant because he has all the details already and I have no idea who he's referring to, why, when, how or what.

[A]

Also review the decision making under stress.

[B]

Okay.

[A]

Did you make good decisions?

[B]

And if you not, why not? Yeah. What caused you to, you know, choose another way? That was not the best way to choose. And you may have to identify. You may have differing stresses. Like Mark's going to get stressed on things that don't phase me a bit, and then I might lose my cool, and he doesn't even understand why I would. So differing people have different levels of what I call stress breakage.

[A]

Right.

[B]

And testing is going to help. You know what those are.

[A]

And look at time delays and bottlenecks. Where did it. What was the choke point on this? Okay, maybe we were trying to deal with too much gear at one time.

[B]

We're all trying to do the same thing at one time.

[A]

Exactly, exactly.

[B]

We need to delegate.

[A]

And look at the time delays. What caused the delay in us putting our plan into action? Did we start out and a piece of gear failed and we had to go get another piece of gear? What was it?

[B]

Did we have, you know, fear paralysis? Did we.

[A]

And that comes into the human factors. The fear, paralysis, the fatigue, the confusion.

[B]

These are normal. We're not saying these are bad things. These are things that happen to real people. They do, including him and I.

[A]

And sometimes it's an. It's paralysis by analysis. We try to over analyze it. We need to just get out there and test it just now. We can do this with families or groups. We want to keep our tone factual, not emotional.

[B]

That's important.

[A]

Yes. We don't want hurt feelings.

[B]

Right.

[A]

We want to encourage honest input from everyone. Even the kids.

[B]

Yes.

[A]

Especially if they're involved in this. They may notice something that we don't.

[B]

And they may have a clean, clear, simple perspective because they don't overanalyze. They just. They can just react from the gut.

[A]

I remember the story of something being moved on an interstate and they got to a bridge where whatever this that they had to move was about 2 inches too tall to go under that bridge.

[B]

Like a truck carrying a great big.

[A]

Piece of gear carrying something.

[B]

Right.

[A]

And they had the engineers out there and they were talking about how they could raise the bridge and things that they could do, how long it would take and all that. And this young man over there said, why don't you just let the air out of the tires and go under it and re. Air the tires?

[B]

Because I think they only Were is a matter of three or less inches.

[A]

Yeah, it was a couple of inches. It was a couple of inches. And so they looked at each other kind of dumbfounded.

[B]

Six year old boy.

[A]

They. They let the air out of the tire. Well, he was older than six, but they let the air out of the tires, drove under the bridge and aired the tires up again.

[B]

Really?

[A]

Why is this not working?

[B]

Yeah, maybe a child can have sometimes a very clear way of looking at it differently than you do.

[A]

Yep. And focus on the systems, not the individual.

[B]

Exactly.

[A]

It's not that so and so failed, but did the system fail? Yeah, we have systems for pretty much everything that we do in life, whether we realize it or not. For example, you have a system that you cook in the kitchen.

[B]

Right.

[A]

When it comes to making a cake, there's a particular system that you use or whatever you're cooking. I do the same thing with podcasting, with newsletter, even with books, whatever. Is that the system is what we need to look at.

[B]

Sure.

[A]

And is our prepping system working? And write these changes down and assign some follow ups there.

[B]

Okay. You can identify some gaps and some thin spots that need filling in.

[A]

Where do we need to work on this now? Let's just sit down in here and talk about this and find some other ideas.

[B]

Well, you know, let me go back to something too. The beauty of this whole show that we're going with today is you're finding out where the holes are before the holes show up where you really need them. We're trying to help you be what we call very practically prepared and testing your gear and testing your plans and testing your own emotions and your own exposure out there is the best way to know how you're going to be able to stay panic free in a real bona fide crisis.

[A]

Yeah. We want to create the holes before they matter.

[B]

Yeah. It's kind of. It's no different than when the car manufacturer, he's built the car. He or she, the team built the car. Now they're going to go test that car and they'll put that car through every kind of preparation to try to at least figure out, okay, here's what worked and here's what didn't work. I mean, if it's good enough for the car you drive, it's good enough for your plan.

[A]

And sometimes they will put that thing on the road. I know that there was a group that did this was motorcycles. They were testing Harley motorcycles in real conditions. In real conditions. And it was, I mean, be a great job.

[B]

Yeah.

[A]

You go to Work. They give you a Harley and you ride it all day and you bring it back and then they give it to somebody else to ride all night. And then. So they're seeing how far these things can go and they expect it to break down at some point.

[B]

Yeah, they're almost kind of looking for it because they've got to know that they can produce a product that is going to have some real provenance behind.

[A]

Yeah, yeah. I mean, how long is that engine going to last if it lasts 50,000 miles? That's not a good engine for a Harley motorcycle.

[B]

Really? No, no.

[A]

But if they test this thing and it goes 250,000 miles, hey, we're on to something.

[B]

They may be moderately satisfied with that.

[A]

Yeah. But how long can we run it? Till it breaks down.

[B]

So do this with your gear. Absolutely.

[A]

Some of the mistakes is skipping these after action reviews because it went fine.

[B]

So you're saying you need to know what. What worked well. Why did it go fine?

[A]

It went fine.

[B]

Yes.

[A]

Well, what could have been different? Another mistake is turning some of these after action reviews into blame session.

[B]

Yeah. That just doesn't have a place.

[A]

You did so and so and that wasn't right.

[B]

Right.

[A]

Okay.

[B]

That's not the place.

[A]

Stay away from that.

[B]

Yeah.

[A]

Another mistake is not updating the plans or the kits afterwards.

[B]

See, that's your. That's a huge failure.

[A]

It's a huge failure point. You know, you've got a hole here, you need to fill it. And if that means changing the plan, you need to update it. Maybe you need to update the kit. And then another failure is failing to retest after making those changes.

[B]

Oh, that's good.

[A]

Good. So we've put in new equipment. We found a hole, we filled it with new equipment. Now we need to test that equipment.

[B]

Now you're talking like a practical prep guy.

[A]

Well, I'm trying.

[B]

So here is what I'm calling the compounding effect. Think about this. A single after action review can improve maybe just one outcome. But repeated AARs will create exponential preparedness gains over time because they spur improvement on down the line. And a better, clearer way of thinking about your entire plan, your entire approach to your preparedness game that you're doing.

[A]

Exactly. And if you keep repeating them, you keep finding other holes.

[B]

It sounds like. It sounds like positive growth to me.

[A]

Oh, it is. It definitely is. But so many people figure that they bought it, they have it, they're okay.

[B]

Well, I'm going to be full real talk here for just a second. This show applies to you and me. Just as much as it does anybody else. You know, if people are involved in something, it's never going to be 100% perfect. And even Mark and I, as many years as we've been doing this and as many things as we have crises that we have faced one way or the other, big or small, we don't always have 100% of our gear tested as well. So, hey, we're preaching to ourselves first. This is going to apply to Mark and Krista and we want you to come alongside with us to join in this type of AAR and this type of preparedness before you actually need this to happen. That way you can take all the panic and fear out of your approach to the next emergency that's going to come your way.

[A]

We had a four hour power outage one night. We sat down afterwards. I mean, it was only four hours and it wasn't a big deal for us, but we sat down and we said, okay, what worked well and what can we do better? I remember that we learned some things through that. We tested some things through that. I had never actually put a headlamp on a milk jug, but I did during that time.

[B]

That's a great source of light.

[A]

Yeah, pretty good source.

[B]

Light up a room.

[A]

But now, preparedness isn't proven when things go right.

[B]

That's true.

[A]

It's proven when things go wrong. And you already planned for it.

[B]

Boom. That's a good one.

[A]

That's a good one. Let me repeat that.

[B]

Do it.

[A]

Preparedness isn't proven when things go right.

[B]

Preach it.

[A]

It's proven when things go wrong. And you've already planned for it.

[B]

I like that a lot.

[A]

Hey, we appreciate you being here with us today. We appreciate you taking your time selecting our podcast to listen to when you could have listened to any other podcast out there. And believe me, we appreciate you doing that and we thank you for being here. And as Krista always says, stuff happens. Stay prepared and we'll see you next time.