What Does it Mean to be Prepared with Toolman Tim

July 11, 2023

91. What Does it Mean to be Prepared, with Toolman Tim
 
In this podcast episode, host George Siegal invites Tim Cook as a guest to discuss the topic of disaster preparedness. They emphasize the importance of being ready for unforeseen events and highlight the fact that many people are not adequately prepared. 

Tim shares his perspective on being a prepper, debunking the negative connotations associated with the term. He explains that being prepared involves planning for the most likely scenarios, such as health issues, job loss, or local emergencies. The conversation touches on various aspects of preparedness, including the need for a solid plan, understanding potential risks in one's area, and identifying evacuation routes. 

The episode concludes by stressing the importance of proactive preparation and communication with family members to ensure everyone is on the same page during emergencies.

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Transcript

00:00:00:13 - 00:00:23:14
George Siegal
Hi, everybody. Thank you so much for joining me on this week's Tell US How to Make a Better Podcast. One of the most important things I talk about every week is preparedness and how people really need to be ready for disaster and how I think most of us are not. Well, several weeks ago I was a guest on Toolman, Tim's podcast, and we talked about my documentary film and about preparation.

00:00:23:22 - 00:00:46:20
George Siegal
So when it comes to the subject of preparing, Tim is an expert. So I think you're going to enjoy listening to what he has to say today that will help you get better prepared for a disaster. I'm George Siegal, And this is the Tell US How to Make It Better podcast. Your home is probably your biggest investment, and every week we show you warning signs and solutions to help you protect it.

00:00:47:07 - 00:00:59:19
George Siegal
Tell us how to make it better is partnering with the Readiness Lab, the Home for podcasts, webinars and training in the field of emergency and disaster services. Tim Cook, welcome. Thank you so much for joining me today.

00:01:00:03 - 00:01:06:21
Tim Cook
Well, thanks for having me, George. I figured it'd be great to return the favor. You were on my show and I could not wait to get back with you, man.

00:01:07:10 - 00:01:12:06
George Siegal
Yeah. No, it was fine. Thank you so much for having me on. Now, right off the bat, this is what I want to start with.

00:01:12:16 - 00:01:12:24
Tim Cook
Sure.

00:01:12:24 - 00:01:29:10
George Siegal
When? When someone is considered a prepper. Yes. Does that mean they're they're ready to survive when the disaster hits because they have all that preparation or have they prepared to do better in the disaster? So they're in better shape after the disaster hits?

00:01:30:15 - 00:01:55:24
Tim Cook
I would say both or a little of both, I guess. All right. So let me back up just a little, because I want to I'd like to start with a caveat, because that word prepper has a bit of a negative connotation because everybody remembers the doomsday preppers from Nat Geo or whatever, you know. And for me, my idea of being prepared is being prepared for the most likely scenario to happen.

00:01:56:18 - 00:02:29:07
Tim Cook
So that might be a health problem, that might be a job loss, that might be whatever your local emergency things could be. For me, I live in Alberta right now. That is the possibility of an evacuation for a wildfire, smoke, that sort of thing. So I would say being a prepper, number one, you'd want to be prepared. You want to have things on hand that will help you weather any storm so that you'll get through it better, but also to have things on hand that will help you kind of strive or get a little bit better on the other end.

00:02:30:10 - 00:02:35:04
George Siegal
Well, on behalf of all of us here in the States, we want to thank you guys for sending all that smoke down here.

00:02:36:13 - 00:02:53:17
Tim Cook
Yeah. You know, it's oh, man, this has been the worst summer I've lived on the prairies of Canada for ten years. And this has been by far the largest swath of wildfires we've had. It's been bad. I apologize. I'm sorry. As a Canadian.

00:02:54:10 - 00:03:01:20
George Siegal
I wish we could just put up some big fans and blow it back. But unfortunately, it's like sitting next to a cigarette smoker. Sometimes you just get the smoke right.

00:03:02:10 - 00:03:11:21
Tim Cook
And, you know, right now we we're lucky we had it horrible earlier in the year and now it seems to all be heading down your way. So, you know, stay safe the best you can.

00:03:12:09 - 00:03:30:02
George Siegal
Yeah, sure. Now it's all weather patterns, but hopefully everybody up there is doing okay. It's scary to think about the amount of land that's actually burning. So, yeah, I understand what you're saying about preppers. I kind of you know, when I thought about them before I started doing this, I thought of, you know, the tinfoil hats, people living out in the woods in an RV.

00:03:30:11 - 00:03:40:17
George Siegal
And then I come to think these are the people that really have it together because they're actually concerned. Most people are not preparing for anything. They're just day to day having a good time.

00:03:41:10 - 00:04:02:21
Tim Cook
100%. So for me, what one of my sticks or one of my brands that I like to talk about is repairedness. So it's kind of like looking after your home. So I call it the art of home Maintenance when Help isn't around the corner and it kind of brings fixing your house and preventative maintenance together with the idea of being prepared.

00:04:03:03 - 00:04:26:16
Tim Cook
But all of it starts with a plan. And I know you talk about this as well, but it's to look at because most people just go day to day and they figure, hey, whatever happens, you know, insert government organization here will definitely be there to help me on the other end. And hopefully, they are. But especially in the early time of whatever disaster you're dealing with, it's the individual's responsibility to look after themselves.

00:04:26:21 - 00:04:48:03
Tim Cook
And how do you prepare for that? First off, by having a plan. By having a plan looking at the things that are most likely to happen in your area. For me, wildfires, I wouldn't say tornadoes, but we have what they call plow winds here. That can be really bad. You have to kind of prepare for and we have a really large oil field area here.

00:04:48:07 - 00:05:07:05
Tim Cook
So that means you have lots of work going on in the fields, but it also means you have a ton of petroleum-based products going through my town all the time on trains now train derailment despite what the news wants to make you think they are a very common thing no matter what. It's not like they're just happening all of a sudden.

00:05:07:11 - 00:05:30:02
Tim Cook
So that's something I've always been prepared for in my town is, Hey, what do we do if one of those nasty trains happens to flip over here? What direction do we go? And for us, we try to have an, A, B and C kind of route of egress. And a lot of times with these kinds of scenarios, all you need is ten, 15, maybe 20 minutes before the masses end up running somewhere.

00:05:30:09 - 00:05:36:06
Tim Cook
And you can get out ahead of the storm per, you know, pardon the pun, of course. But yeah, preparation and planning for sure.

00:05:36:24 - 00:05:55:13
George Siegal
Yeah. With train derailments. I mean, most people think of, of passengers on a train and oh my God, are they okay? The most dangerous ones are the stuff that's being hauled. We've seen that here in the United States. And I would assume most people don't worry about that. When your stop stopped at the train tracks and the trains going by, you probably have no idea what's on there.

00:05:55:13 - 00:05:59:04
George Siegal
But there are some dangerous things that gets dragged around by train.

00:05:59:16 - 00:06:26:22
Tim Cook
I mean, we have the largest oil storage facility in Canada about 30 minutes from my town here. And so you see, you pull up, it's called Hardesty. And there's just it's called the Tank Farm. And you can see it for miles. These great big holding containers and coming out of it are the black oil. You know, they're they look like a big an oversize propane tank, but they're black and they have a I mean, you'll see 100, 200 tank tankers of crude coming through.

00:06:27:05 - 00:06:44:02
Tim Cook
But I've always been told the really nasty stuff or those odd ones that are in the middle, they just kind of put them there. They might have some placards, but you don't really know what they are. And you know what's great is our local town does have an emergency plan. Our local fire department is trained to handle this kind of stuff.

00:06:44:08 - 00:06:55:07
Tim Cook
Hopefully, it never happens. But the mental exercise of, Hey, where do we go? What do we do? How do we evacuate ahead of time? Put you ahead of 95% of the general public.

00:06:56:01 - 00:07:00:16
George Siegal
Now, I know absolutely nothing about trains except Thomas. The train when I was.

00:07:00:24 - 00:07:01:15
Tim Cook
Yeah.

00:07:01:15 - 00:07:14:22
George Siegal
Watching that with my kids, I would think you'd put the most dangerous stuff in the very back of the train, because it seems like that might survive if the front of the train hit something. But. But I wasn't at that meeting. Nobody asked me for my opinion.

00:07:15:09 - 00:07:36:20
Tim Cook
Well, that would make sense now, wouldn't it? And I'm not sure why, but I. And it could just be a local legend, but everybody always says that the most dangerous stuff is the random semi-unmarked car in the middle of the train somewhere. They always put that stuff. It's not like it's unmarked. It's just it doesn't say, you know, there's no neon sign on top of it saying, hey, stay away from this train, you know.

00:07:37:13 - 00:07:56:20
George Siegal
Well, let's go back to the planning thing for a minute, because I think most people treat planning like you maybe did when you were in school, and yet you knew you had a test coming up or you had a book you had to read and you put it off for as long as possible. But what we saw in my film, The Last House Standing was people that all of a sudden had to evacuate for a fire and they had no plan.

00:07:56:20 - 00:08:07:02
George Siegal
They have to evacuate for a hurricane and they have no plan. What should somebody do to just push them forward and say, it's time to make that plan now, let's just get it out of the way?

00:08:08:00 - 00:08:30:16
Tim Cook
You were I mean, the first thing would be okay. I tell a lot of people come to the idea of prepping out of fear or out of, hey, I'm scared about this thing or that thing. And usually once that, you know, it's the whole thing, there's a big power outage. Everybody goes out and buys generators. Three weeks after the power outage, you can buy generators for half price on Facebook Marketplace because the fear passes, right.

00:08:31:01 - 00:08:51:20
Tim Cook
So what you should do is focus on the benefit or the purpose behind it, and that is taking care of your family or making sure you're taking care of if something bad happens because the fear passes. You know, you only get that for a little while. But if you can focus on, hey, we should be ready so we can prevail on the other side, usually that's a better long-term motivation.

00:08:52:05 - 00:09:13:08
Tim Cook
So take our place, for instance. I mean, we're a wide-open plane here and almost everything is south. If you head north from here, you end up in Santa Clause territory. So you can't go very far. It's you know, you're up in the North Pole eventually or really bad forests where the highways peter out. So our only options are, you know, southwest, southeast.

00:09:13:16 - 00:09:47:02
Tim Cook
And you could go straight east or west. But no, your prevailing winds look at what way certain disasters may be coming and then identify at least two, maybe three routes of egress. And I know, especially in Florida, that can be really tricky because you have kind of one main route out of those coastal towns. So if there's any way at all you can look at, hey, what is an alternative road of egress and know that ahead of time it's going to put you ahead of the game and put those on paper, too, and then talk about them with your family, because that's what a lot of people do.

00:09:47:02 - 00:10:02:03
Tim Cook
They're okay. Well, I'll put it together. All have a plan in my head. You know what happens if you're at work or maybe you get injured in something like that and then you didn't tell your family because you didn't want to upset them. And now all of a sudden, they don't have a plan. And that's when panic sets in.

00:10:02:22 - 00:10:21:21
George Siegal
Yeah, evacuating from Florida is tough. The main thing you have to do is leave early enough that you avoid the traffic, but it's knowing which direction when you live on a peninsula. I know people from Tampa evacuate to Orlando and then Orlando ends up getting hit. People from here went down to Fort Myers because they thought Ian was coming here and then they got hit in Fort Myers.

00:10:22:08 - 00:10:25:14
George Siegal
So it's tough. You really have to leave early and go pretty far.

00:10:26:10 - 00:10:58:00
Tim Cook
I and the key is, is kind of doing the mental exercise ahead of time so that, you know, you have to everybody has to decide what their trigger is for leaving. You know, it could be, you know, whatever the percentages. So if you look at the weather network and they say, hey, there's a 70% chance. Well, here's the deal before you even egress, before you even decide to evacuate long ago, you should have identified some hotels in the area as well that in the area where you're going, because everybody always says, oh, well, why would I want a hotel?

00:10:58:08 - 00:11:19:12
Tim Cook
That's not a good prepper. Well, that's beautiful, because here's the deal. If you know where there are some hotels ahead of time, if you have them saved in your phone and these are a safe enough distance away from where you are, if you call them and say, hey, I need to book a room and you do that even a half hour to an hour ahead of time before everyone else, you're going to get a place to stay somewhere safe for your family.

00:11:19:17 - 00:11:37:12
Tim Cook
And the cool thing is, if you end up evacuating and the hurricane takes, you know, a sharp right or left turn and it doesn't hit you at all, you just had a great vacation with your family and you know that you ended up you know, and if the worst case scenario, the hurricane hits where you're safe as well.

00:11:37:12 - 00:11:38:21
Tim Cook
So either way, it's a win win.

00:11:39:19 - 00:12:02:01
George Siegal
Yeah, people when they're told to evacuate or they're encouraged and they don't. When I was a weatherman in San Antonio, Texas, early in the hurricane season, we issued a, Hey, this looks really bad. People may want to evacuate and people did and the storm missed us. So the next time they're told to do that, it's like the little boy who cried wolf.

00:12:02:01 - 00:12:08:19
George Siegal
It's like, well, it didn't happen last time. These guys don't know what they're talking about. And people, they stay. And then that's even more dangerous.

00:12:09:13 - 00:12:29:08
Tim Cook
It's tough. I, I interviewed a guy from another podcast from the Matter of Facts podcast, him and his wife. I mean, they're dyed in the wool preppers. They pride themselves on being prepared. They live in Louisiana. They were pretty sure they knew this storm wasn't going to hit them. It was a couple of years ago and they got hammered.

00:12:29:08 - 00:12:48:22
Tim Cook
They got stuck in there because they waited too long as well. They had their own kind of trigger. They decided ahead of time and they talked about it. You know, they had evacuated many times before, but this time they were sure it wasn't going to hit and it did. And it was, I would say, life and death. I mean, they were huddled in a closet hearing trees, land on their home.

00:12:49:11 - 00:13:09:16
Tim Cook
And so all a person can really do is decide ahead of time. These are the percentages. This is what I'm going to go with. And there's times, no matter how prepared you are, I'm a math guy and I love to go with the odds. And I know sometimes you get complacent because, hey, here's another evacuation notice, here's another evacuation notice, and you just need to commit to yourself.

00:13:09:16 - 00:13:33:00
Tim Cook
These are the contingencies that I'm going to see. And if I see those, that's when we leave and do that before I do that on a Sunday, you know, a sunny Sunday afternoon in the backyard, having a cold drink with your wife, do those mental exercises so that you don't have to do it. When the rain is coming in sideways, the wind's blowing and the interstate is already backed up.

00:13:33:00 - 00:13:51:21
George Siegal
And I'm not a meteorologist and I'm sure a meteorologist would argue with me for saying this, but weather is not an exact science. No, we see that. Yeah. And we see that every time there's a storm. And we certainly saw that with Ian where for a week we thought we were the bull's eye here in Tampa. It looked like we were going to get pounded.

00:13:51:21 - 00:14:12:03
George Siegal
They were not even thinking they were they were barely on the edge of the cone down in Naples and Sanibel. I mean, it was in the cone, but when you see that, you go, Oh, that's not going to hit us because we're not in the middle. And the storm turned. And then what some of the meteorologists did, and this is one of the things I don't miss about that business, is they acted like they knew it was going to turn well.

00:14:12:03 - 00:14:26:16
George Siegal
These things usually turn before they get to Tampa. That's why we haven't been hit for so long. It's like, come on, you had us ready to, you know, we thought we were all dead. So it's if it looks like it's threatening, you need to go.

00:14:26:23 - 00:14:57:03
Tim Cook
Yes. Every time. I agree 100%. And and like I said, being prepared also me, you know, hopefully and this is not an easy thing for anyone, but it means being financially prepared too. So having a little bit of cash on hand in case the power goes out and you can pay for things with cash or, you know, having when we travel, we're Canadians, we travel with three or four credit cards, especially in the States, because it's quite common, even though you call your credit card company and say, hey, we're traveling, don't shut off your credit card.

00:14:57:03 - 00:15:12:24
Tim Cook
All of a sudden they'll be like, sorry, unusual activity. So having a couple of credit cards with available funds on it so that you can go and just say, you know what, if this doesn't happen, we're going to make the best of it. So maybe, maybe have a backup plan to know where there's a waterpark or a zoo or something.

00:15:12:24 - 00:15:24:02
Tim Cook
If things don't get bad, let's just make it a good time with the kids and you won't regret it every single time. Because if you do it one of these times, it's going to pay off and your family's going to be safer for it.

00:15:24:18 - 00:15:45:17
George Siegal
Absolutely. People get a lot less angry if they don't evacuate, though, if they if the storm misses them, like here in Tampa, I think people just went, huh? We dodged another one. I didn't see a lot of my neighbors go out and get generators. I didn't see a lot change here. I still see houses going up with wood on the second floor and houses that are right by the water that are being built this way.

00:15:46:00 - 00:15:51:24
George Siegal
So I just think human nature, until it happens to people, I don't know that a lot changes.

00:15:53:01 - 00:16:14:21
Tim Cook
It's a hard thing to wake people up to and because we are desensitized to it, whatever you want to think about it, we see it a lot and whatever your opinion on it is, it does happen a lot. I mean, you look at people who lived in, you know, Louisiana, New Orleans their entire lives and they always rode out the storms because it always missed them.

00:16:15:02 - 00:16:18:10
Tim Cook
And in your documentary, was it Tampa Bay? Was it Tampa that they said.

00:16:18:10 - 00:16:22:11
George Siegal
We're the next big bullseye, but it always misses us eventually. It's not going to it.

00:16:22:11 - 00:16:42:07
Tim Cook
Always does until it doesn't. Right. And that makes it hard. And everybody has to come to being prepared on their own. I can stand there and ring the bell and try to encourage people. But most people, unfortunately, are just going to be stuck in life has always been this way and they'll have to react on the other end.

00:16:42:07 - 00:17:00:03
Tim Cook
And I hope I can, you know, encourage a lot of people to become prepared because it's very little work and very little investment, too, for a really big return. It's kind of like, you know, some people say, oh, I'm not a real prepper. I'm a real prepper. I'm not going to buy roadside assistance or I'm not going to buy insurance.

00:17:00:03 - 00:17:14:14
Tim Cook
Well, that's the first thing you should buy because, you know, if you want to be prepared and you end up blowing a tire on the interstate, well, yeah, I want triple-A to come by and help me out. I'd be foolish not to. So. Yeah, you know, that's kind of the way it is, for sure. For sure.

00:17:14:14 - 00:17:37:02
George Siegal
But I think you can. You can warn people all the time. I know people that could, because homeowner's insurance has gotten so expensive here in Florida that people are looking in. They switched to a company where, okay, I can save two or 3000, maybe even more, switching to that company. You can't just do that. You want to find out how that company has performed in past disasters, because the whole point of having insurance isn't necessarily to save money year to year.

00:17:37:10 - 00:17:54:16
George Siegal
It's if you need that insurance, will it pay your claim? Will it be there for you? And I don't think people really even look into that. It's like that. We just want to save money and I bounce around with auto insurance because that's not quite the same. Even though it can be if you get in a bad accident, it can make a huge difference.

00:17:55:01 - 00:17:59:19
George Siegal
But for your home, I think you want a company that you know is going to be around to pay the bill.

00:18:00:20 - 00:18:16:24
Tim Cook
So here's an underrated tip for sure is have a relationship with your insurance broker. And a lot of people say, oh, I'm just going to go with Geico and that's I get it. And that may be what works for you, but now I live in a small town, but my guy, I'm on a first name basis with him.

00:18:16:24 - 00:18:32:17
Tim Cook
Now, this doesn't mean you have to be you know, we have multiple businesses and that sort of thing. But even when we first started, I got to know Nathan really well to the point where I could call him if I had questions and if I was getting a new policy, I would go in, sit down with him and I would ask the questions.

00:18:32:17 - 00:18:51:08
Tim Cook
You know, we just bought a rental property recently and I said, Well, okay, what happens if the tenant, you know, falls asleep with a space heater and the house burns down? You know, we went through different scenarios that in my mind might be like likely because I wanted to know my coverage. And again, most people don't really care about that.

00:18:51:08 - 00:19:08:02
Tim Cook
So, you know, get on a first-name basis with whomever is dealing with your insurance if you can, or at least take a minute and look over your insurance policies and have a guide. The other cool thing is Nathan will shop my policy around every year so he doesn't just answer my questions. He also tries to save me money.

00:19:08:08 - 00:19:11:22
Tim Cook
So if you do that, that's a really good way to be prepared.

00:19:12:16 - 00:19:35:13
George Siegal
I think insurance is has kind of become like speed dating where if you're with Geico or you're with State Farm or you're with Progressive, they all have their own in-house team. So a normal real estate agent is I mean, an insurance agent isn't necessarily shopping you to those places at least here. So I've ended up bouncing around a little bit.

00:19:35:13 - 00:19:37:07
George Siegal
So you don't always have that relationship.

00:19:38:03 - 00:19:55:15
Tim Cook
And it's true. And I know that's kind of the way the world's gone. You know, it's it's not it's a bit of a Mayberry kind of idea to think that you can always have somebody like that. So I understand. But if you can even find somebody that can answer your questions, you know, at least once, they can tell you, hey, these are the things you look for going forward.

00:19:55:20 - 00:20:18:03
Tim Cook
And then do your own research too, because obviously when you get insurance, your company's going to send you a policy. Another really good thing to do is if you're looking at a new policy, ask them to send you two or three different forms of coverage. You know, here's the full meal deal, here's the medium one and here's the barebones least expensive.

00:20:18:12 - 00:20:42:23
Tim Cook
And then look over them and see what things you know, there's a difference between blanket coverage and I can't remember the other term for it, but you know, you want to make sure you're covered, especially on really big investments and, you know, find out what you are covered for in your home health. Hopefully you don't have to rely on, you know, government subsidy if your house floods or it burns down because of a wildfire, because you're going to be waiting a long time.

00:20:42:23 - 00:21:03:24
George Siegal
Yeah. And I think what people find out about insurance, unfortunately, way too often is I feel their goal is not to pay you if there's a way they can get away with not paying you for that claim, you're not getting your money. And that means you have to know what you're claiming, what you what the exclusions were, what your deductible is, what the different perils for your roof, for your house.

00:21:03:24 - 00:21:17:10
George Siegal
I mean, you really have to understand it, because if not, I wouldn't necessarily rely on after a disaster for them to go. Well, Mr. Siegal you fill this out wrong. You actually did have coverage for this and will pay you now. I mean, you better know the answer to the question.

00:21:18:03 - 00:21:41:20
Tim Cook
And that's a really good thing. And that's another reason why I really love the idea of having a little more coverage than you necessarily need because, again, you know, there are businesses, but I agree with you on the idea that they don't necessarily want to cover you. So, you know, if you have more coverage than you need and they come back with you and say we're going to cover 80% of it, well, maybe you've got by with what you actually needed.

00:21:41:20 - 00:22:01:21
Tim Cook
And another really good tip and I can't remember I heard you mention this before or not, but this is something we do every couple of years. We go around and video all of our belongings, walk through the house, walk through our garage, walk through our storage containers, anything of any value so that there's no question you at least on the day I filmed that, I tangibly had it in my hand.

00:22:02:01 - 00:22:08:11
Tim Cook
And that's a whole heck of a lot harder for an insurance adjuster to say, no, you didn't have that if you have video proof of it.

00:22:09:01 - 00:22:31:02
George Siegal
Absolutely. Because you might not have a receipt for that big-screen TV anymore. But if you can show them you had it and you can document all the things in your house, you're way ahead. And also what people don't want to do and this happened in Malibu with the fires that we covered out there for my film is people had an old car in the garage or collector items around the house, and they go, I don't have to insure this.

00:22:31:10 - 00:22:53:01
George Siegal
And those are the things that got destroyed. This one gentleman in the film, his classic old Mercedes, completely melted down all his coins and his coin collection melted down. And he didn't take his teddy bear that he had from when he was a little kid with him when he evacuated. And that you just can't you have to think about these things and never complain that you had a good year.

00:22:53:01 - 00:22:58:04
George Siegal
So you don't need insurance. Think about the next year. It's all better. It's preparation.

00:22:58:23 - 00:23:29:22
Tim Cook
And that. So there's the difference because a lot of insurance companies are thinking about cash. A lot of them only cover X amount of dollars in cash if you have cash on hand. But if you have coinage, you know, quote unquote collectible coins, if you can prove that you had those and the value of them at least that the replace, whereas I can't remember the exact amount some are 500, some or a thousand because you could take a picture of cash anytime and you know, have that is part of your video for your insurance claim but yeah, make sure you document all that because I mean, those are the things.

00:23:29:22 - 00:23:52:16
Tim Cook
Well, okay, here's another thought to other things about this. Those are the irreplaceable things. So make a list of those have an idea of the things you want to grab, you know, baby photos, that sort of thing. And another thing that we do and this is a 100% free thing you can do to be way more prepared again every year, usually around New Year's, my wife and I will sit down and we will get out all of our ID.

00:23:52:16 - 00:24:15:15
Tim Cook
So, you know, our credit cards, our driver's license, passport, we'll get all of our prescriptions. We'll take updated pictures of our kids, of our dogs. We put all of that into an encrypted folder on a USB drive and on an encrypted online drive as well. So we have absolutely everything we need insurance policies, vehicle registrations, all of that.

00:24:15:15 - 00:24:36:02
Tim Cook
It takes us maybe 2 hours once a year. We throw all of that into a massive encrypted PDF. We save it in a couple of different places, including on a USB drive, and you will not believe how many times we've relied on that for just stupid little things. You know, I was getting ready to fly a couple of years ago and I needed to have, you know, a nasal swab in order to fly.

00:24:36:21 - 00:24:55:08
Tim Cook
And I showed up there. It was like a 20-minute walk at the airport to get to the testing facility. It would have been 20 minutes back to my vehicle. I had forgotten the ID I needed to go and get that done. Well, I mean, it's only, you know, what have saved me almost an hour round trip. Well, I was able to bring up my ID on there.

00:24:55:12 - 00:25:15:09
Tim Cook
They were cool with accepting that. It may not always work, but it's gotten me out of jams a few times and sometimes you don't remember to bring the paper things with you in an emergency. They might burn up in the home, but if you have electronic copies, it's going to at least expedite the process a bit for you with getting those documents replaced after an event, for sure.

00:25:15:24 - 00:25:39:14
George Siegal
Yeah, that's great advice for sure. And now you turn me on to something else that I was really fascinated by. And that's the Waffle House. You did a show about that and I had no idea. I just think of that as a place to go. If we're hungry on a road trip or if it's late and you need to grab something to eat before you get home and you know you want some waffles or pancakes or whatever, they have something pretty special going on.

00:25:39:14 - 00:25:41:01
George Siegal
Tell us what you found out about them.

00:25:41:10 - 00:25:58:09
Tim Cook
Well, okay, I'll tell you my personal experience. We spent last year, we went down and I spoke an event. We stayed at Daytona Beach for a bit, and that's when I fell in love with Waffle House as a Canadian. I'd heard about it, but never went there. And I have this affinity for diner food, that kind of, you know, fifties-era stuff.

00:25:58:14 - 00:26:15:19
Tim Cook
And Waffle House fits right into that. You go into there and I mean, it might not be the cleanest place in the world, but you know what you're getting? You're getting a good meal for cheap and probably friendly service most times. So for whatever reason, we ate there six or seven times over a three-week period and it just kind of fell in love with it.

00:26:16:04 - 00:26:46:17
Tim Cook
So I kept talking to a guy in Daytona Beach and he tells me, he said, You know, I was the only guy to ride out the storm here. And we get talking. And I said, Well, why would you ride out the storm? He said, You got to understand, Waffle House is a prepared company and their entire corporate mindset is we need to stay open for the people because they look at themselves as a lighthouse or a beacon of hope for people where they can go get a quick, cheap meal in the event of a natural disaster.

00:26:46:17 - 00:27:12:09
Tim Cook
And of course, they grew up in the South. They grew out of the south. So they're used to hurricanes, tornadoes. So their entire mindset right from that, the design of the building up to their different menus is all designed to be a place for people to go during and after a storm. They have disaster assistance teams that come in and take over for the local workers so they can go home and work or be with their family story.

00:27:12:18 - 00:27:35:22
Tim Cook
They have, you know, most of their stuff is designed off of propane. So they have different menus that they can run depending on what facilities they have available. If electricity out, they have one menu. If propane is out, they have another menu. Their buildings are basically giant cement buildings that will, in theory, survive almost anything. They have a really cool weather.

00:27:35:22 - 00:28:11:05
Tim Cook
I can't even call it a station. I want to call it a command center that apparently rivals all, you know, FEMA and the Weather Network. They watch it in. The craziest thing is quite a few years ago, I believe it was, the director of FEMA coined the term the Waffle House index. And if you've never seen it, check it out because they look at a disaster, they look at how many waffle houses were forced to close and they have a Waffle House index of severity, depending on how many Waffle Houses had to close because they closed under almost zero circumstances.

00:28:12:00 - 00:28:23:13
George Siegal
I just thought that was so interesting because in all the years I lived in Texas and in Florida, I have never heard that and I didn't think that much of the place to begin with. But now I'm a huge fan. I just think that's awesome. That's so cool.

00:28:23:20 - 00:28:39:13
Tim Cook
I love I have this goal of getting the director of social media and emergency preparedness on my show. I'm going to at some point, but I've reached out a couple of times. So if anybody's out there listening and can make a connection, I want to interview them because they have such a cool story.

00:28:40:07 - 00:28:55:02
George Siegal
They do, and I'm surprised that's not a marketing strategy. And if it is, I haven't seen it. So maybe it is. And I just, you know, I live in my own little bubble, but I think that's a great story. Now, I also caught a video of yours, the top five pieces of prepper gear. You have your five favorites.

00:28:56:06 - 00:29:00:18
Tim Cook
Oh, man, that's been a while since I put that one together. I mean, I do. Okay.

00:29:01:06 - 00:29:03:11
George Siegal
It doesn't have to be matching the video. It just has to be.

00:29:03:11 - 00:29:19:17
Tim Cook
Oh, that's my. I would. Okay. Number one, a knife. I wear a neck knife because I hate having things in my pocket. And so I it I just took it off so it wouldn't rattle around here while we were talking. But a neck knife and a flashlight I wear around my neck all the time because I'm a handyman.

00:29:19:17 - 00:29:24:03
Tim Cook
So you would not be you'll be surprised at how often you need a knife. If you don't.

00:29:24:03 - 00:29:30:17
George Siegal
They take that away from you when you fly. Because I had a a person on my crew had one in their bag and they took it away.

00:29:31:00 - 00:29:47:20
Tim Cook
Make sure you check that stuff and put it in your checked bag because you you don't want to lose it. I mean, and it becomes part of you, you know, you always have it, right. But yeah, that honestly a knife, something on you all the time. And that doesn't mean, you know, you don't need to be Crocodile Dundee and be right crazy.

00:29:47:20 - 00:30:02:11
Tim Cook
Just something with a blade that can I mean, people get mad at me because I use mine for, you know, like, you got such a nice knife. You shouldn't use it for Amazon packages or you shouldn't use it for a screwdriver. Well, that's why I bought it. So I had it to use it. Right. A good flashlight again.

00:30:02:11 - 00:30:24:08
Tim Cook
You'll be surprised at how nice a flashlight is to just have every single time you're in, like even walking at night. If you need a little bit of illumination, it's great. The next one is some sort of form of backup power. Now, I'd love to say a generator for people, but that's a big expense, like a really big expense for a lot of people.

00:30:24:08 - 00:30:48:03
Tim Cook
But almost everybody you talk to already has a generator parked in their driveway. So you've got a great big 40, 50, $60,000 internal combustion engine parked in your driveway. So something you can get on Amazon or harbor freight for about $100 is a 1500-watt inverter. And if you can squeeze your fingers together, you can hook it up to your battery because it just has alligator clips.

00:30:48:10 - 00:31:08:03
Tim Cook
You flip your hood up, start your vehicle, hook it to the red and black on your vehicle. While it's running, you run an extension cord into your home that'll give you 1500 watts of power. That will allow you to run any single plugged-in item in your home off your vehicle. So the cool thing is people like, well, I have a fridge, I have a freezer, I have a sump pump.

00:31:08:10 - 00:31:25:20
Tim Cook
Yeah, but you don't have to run them all at the same time. Run your fridge for an hour, then cycle it over, run your freezer for an hour, then run your sump pump for 2 hours to pump out your basement. You know, that's a worst-case scenario, but that gives you if you always keep your vehicle at least half full and I always say half full is empty, so make sure you fill it.

00:31:26:04 - 00:31:43:22
Tim Cook
You've always got at least a half a tank of gas and a $100 inverter that allow you to rent any single item in your home. So that yeah, I would say a flashlight, a knife. Here's another one that I absolutely love that a lot of people don't use is a freezer alarm. Again, you don't know if you have kids.

00:31:44:01 - 00:32:00:24
Tim Cook
I've run into this. They've gone down to get me out of their deep freeze. They've left the door open or you're away on a trip and you don't realize how. Shoot, you know, I just lost. I just bought a half a spear or a side of beef and it died or it went bad. Everything went rotten. So I have these little they're called govee freezer alarms.

00:32:00:24 - 00:32:10:19
Tim Cook
They're both 30 or $35 on Amazon. They're Wi-Fi and Bluetooth. And they give you a ton of peace of mind for sure. I think that was more was it?

00:32:11:03 - 00:32:12:11
George Siegal
That was for do you have a fifth one.

00:32:12:20 - 00:32:33:18
Tim Cook
One more. So if you want to store gas, so if you're into generators and that sort of thing and you want to store fuel, especially with, you know, the ethanol-based fuel, now, they don't store very long, you know, a month or two. And it starts getting either separates with water or smells bad. So there is a really cool product called well, I used to use stable, but this one's called a PR.

00:32:33:18 - 00:33:02:10
Tim Cook
I dash gee, I don't know how to pronounce it, but they have I've read they're the studies, they've done third-party verification. It's the only fuel stabilizer that you can store fuel infinitely with so you can re-apply it every year. And it's the only fuel stabilizer that will bring old gas back to life. It's a little more money upfront, but it'll treat 256 gallons for the small container, so it ends up being the cheapest per treatment you can buy.

00:33:03:12 - 00:33:13:18
George Siegal
Interesting. Now for the inverter, you really can't use that during the storm. It's more for after, isn't it? Because you don't want to be out. You don't want to be outside hooking that up. And you certainly don't want your vehicle in the garage.

00:33:14:05 - 00:33:31:08
Tim Cook
No. Well, okay. There's a few thoughts on that. I mean, that depends on your risk tolerance. You know, I tend to run my generator during a power outage as well. So, you know, you can what I've seen people do is run their generator now. Yes. If you're in a garage, here's a thing. You should probably have a carbon monoxide detector for sure.

00:33:31:16 - 00:33:51:07
Tim Cook
Most modern vehicles, the the risk of carbon monoxide poisoning or any issue is is minimal. But I would still absolutely tell you, don't run it in a garage without your door open. So it's up to you. If you want to hunker down, wait for the storm to pass, then. Yeah, because I would not recommend being outside when things are being blown sideways for sure.

00:33:51:15 - 00:34:11:11
Tim Cook
But if you need to do something I've seen people do, those little inverters are really tiny. So you can hook them up and then you can kind of close your hood on them so that some ne'er do well who might be walking by can't really swipe it from you. You know what I mean? So just pay attention to, you know, safety and security, too.

00:34:12:05 - 00:34:30:00
George Siegal
I'm always amazed here in Florida, the number of people that do not have the generator or the whole home generator or at least one that's powered by natural gas. Yeah, because you can you can factor that into the cost of getting that house. And it should be something that, you know, the people that have them after the storm because they're so loud.

00:34:30:08 - 00:34:47:16
George Siegal
But it kind of seems like a no brainer. And the other is a storm cellar in places where you have tornadoes. I'm amazed. And those are a lot cheaper than a generator. Those we found out in Oklahoma, those could be 3500 $4,000. That could make the difference between living and dying.

00:34:47:16 - 00:35:07:14
Tim Cook
And that's that's minimal. And here's the other thing. I'm a big fan of whatever prep you do, making sure that it has multiple uses. So You know, if you want to have a bug location, well, it really should just be a summer cabin that you go enjoy because if you spend money on something that has one very specific use, it's not always worth it.

00:35:07:14 - 00:35:23:17
Tim Cook
You won't enjoy it. So a storm shelter, well, you could turn that into a pantry, an underground pantry or a bit of a man cave, as long as you make sure that you have enough room in there that people can, you know, safely fit in there, it's worth the investment.

00:35:24:14 - 00:35:28:13
George Siegal
And now I can see some people putting so much stuff in there, they can't get in there themselves.

00:35:28:13 - 00:35:51:04
Tim Cook
Well, that's yes, always balance it out for sure. But I'm a big fan of multiple uses no matter what that is. You know, we have a storm shelter in our basement. It was an old system. So years ago they used to deliver water to in our town before they had town water, everybody had an eight by eight or a ten by ten, fully enclosed cement underground, you know, cistern, for lack of a better term.

00:35:51:07 - 00:36:03:05
Tim Cook
I jackhammer through. I built a wall in there. I put really narrow shelves. So we have backup food in there, but we totally can all still go in, sit down and wait out if we ever happen to get a tornado.

00:36:04:00 - 00:36:08:09
George Siegal
Yeah, that can be a lifesaver. So what goes on in theToolman Tim's workshop?

00:36:09:00 - 00:36:30:12
Tim Cook
Sure. Yeah. So we have there's the YouTube channel where I review a ton of gear. So we have, you know, generators. The real focus is backup power. So I have videos like how to run an entire garage off a single two-volt battery or, you know, how to back feed a generator even though you're not supposed to and you shouldn't.

00:36:30:16 - 00:36:52:09
Tim Cook
But some people are still going to do it. So I'm going to tell you how to do it as safely as possible. You know how to hook up your generator to natural gas, because to me, I love the idea of a, quote unquote, unlimited supply of fuel for your generator. And, you know, a lot of DeWalt tools. I do some deep dives into, hey, what's an inverter generator and why should I get one?

00:36:52:18 - 00:37:12:09
Tim Cook
And then I have the workshop, radio, which is three times a week. It's a podcast where we do a deep dove into things like entrepreneurship, preparedness, just really motivating people to live the life they want to live. Because for us, we came out of what I would call a poverty mindset where we really didn't know what we were doing.

00:37:12:09 - 00:37:33:15
Tim Cook
And it was, you know, we were the must be nice people. And then I realized, you know what, you're a lot better off to be excited for other people. And we decided to start building our own business and all of this, you know, being self-reliant, being financially sound all feeds into the preparedness mindset. And so I do my best to encourage other people to live that life, to.

00:37:33:15 - 00:37:37:20
George Siegal
All right. Probably the most important question, what is your Saturday night drink of choice?

00:37:38:15 - 00:38:03:18
Tim Cook
An old fashioned. I am a bourbon fiend. I love it. I if I had to choose, it would be eagle rare bourbon, you know, two shots, eagle rare, four splashes of Angostura Bitters, two pumps of simple syrup. I like vanilla bean. And then, of course, an Italian cherry and a spritz of orange peel on top.

00:38:04:17 - 00:38:09:04
George Siegal
Okay. Yeah. What does that make me? A borderline alcoholic? That. That sounds really good right about now.

00:38:09:09 - 00:38:16:11
Tim Cook
It's really, really 1130 in the morning here. And I'm thinking I'd love to have one, too, but don't feel bad that that's my drink of choice by fire.

00:38:17:01 - 00:38:30:11
George Siegal
All right. Well, let's give people an ultimate takeaway here. I need to do something to make my home safer. Give me one action item so everybody can say I'm taking one thing. You gave a lot of good stuff, so it's the most important thing I should do.

00:38:30:21 - 00:38:52:11
Tim Cook
It needs to be something free. I would honestly, I would say, beyond doing any changes to your home, make a plan first. Because if you don't have a plan, nothing else is going to work. So look at the most likely disasters in your area decide, okay, if it hurricane's coming, what are my three routes of egress? And then identify places you can stay on the other end.

00:38:52:11 - 00:39:07:09
Tim Cook
Write it all down, share it with your family. It'll take an hour or 2 hours, make a game out of it. If you have little kids or just chat about it with your wife and back everything up, make a quick electronic. I know that's true, but those are the things. They're free and they take an hour or two apiece.

00:39:08:04 - 00:39:28:14
George Siegal
Now, our new friend, mutual friend, Jeff Donaldson, who is up near you, you had him on your podcast. He actually has a relationship with a friend where they reciprocal can stay at each other's house in the event of a disaster. And then they don't have to pay for hotels. It's good maybe to line up somebody, you know, somewhere where you could go stay with them.

00:39:29:01 - 00:39:47:00
Tim Cook
Absolutely. I have a really good buddy who is 4 hours southwest of here and we have that exact relationship. If things are bad down there, he comes here. If they're bad up here, we go there. And that is a great idea. Absolutely. I didn't mention it, but it. Yeah. Just to have a bug up, buddy, whatever you want to call it.

00:39:47:00 - 00:39:55:16
Tim Cook
But if you need to get out of Dodge, it's really good to have somewhere to go, especially if you have animals and you want to make sure you have a place that's friendly for animals.

00:39:56:08 - 00:40:00:15
George Siegal
Maybe I need to put some more time into making friends.

00:40:00:15 - 00:40:18:11
Tim Cook
That's the hardest thing, man, when you're a content creator. And again, you know, I joke about the whole prepper mindset, but a lot of people, they always picture, you know, the lone guy living out in the woods by himself, but beyond anything, making community, making friends. And that's the hardest thing. You know, we can sit here and talk to each other over the Internet all the time.

00:40:18:11 - 00:40:32:02
Tim Cook
But the hardest thing is making time to get together in person and making real connections. And I've strove really hard over the last few years of doing that. And it's not easy. It gets you to your comfort zone, but that's the real thing that will look after you in an emergency.

00:40:32:24 - 00:40:42:10
George Siegal
Yeah, that's great advice. And the planning thing is so important because nobody wakes up the day of a disaster and comes up with their plan. Right. You have to have thought about that in advance.

00:40:43:05 - 00:41:00:18
Tim Cook
I talk about learning how to troubleshoot and I say the best time to learn how to fix a water leak is on a Sunday afternoon on your workbench with a beer in your hand, figuring out how to do it. You don't want to do it when the water's flowing. You don't know where your shut-off is. And your wife's upstairs saying, I water because the kids need the bath.

00:41:00:22 - 00:41:04:14
Tim Cook
You want to do it when it's not an emergency?

00:41:05:04 - 00:41:22:10
George Siegal
Yeah. For anybody who's never been in a panic situation and could be anything you have to think about. What would I do in that situation? That's why people go to the gun range. That's why people practice things on a regular basis because when it comes time to do it, you want to know that you can.

00:41:23:07 - 00:41:42:24
Tim Cook
I heard it said recently that a person doesn't rise to the occasion. You fall to your highest level of training, and that has stuck with me ever since. Because it's true. Because if you panic and if never done anything or never train for anything, you're going to fall apart. But that's why you recertify on first date every two or three years.

00:41:43:05 - 00:41:57:21
Tim Cook
Because if you've done that training and you know that stuff, you're going to remember you're not just to all of a sudden magically pull it out of your brain if you've never done it. But if you have that level of training, your brain's going to bring it back and you're going to fall to your highest level of training.

00:41:57:21 - 00:42:01:11
George Siegal
All right, Tim, what's the best way people can get in touch with you? How do you want them to follow you.

00:42:01:23 - 00:42:13:08
Tim Cook
TollmanTim.co. That's my website. You can find everything you need or add workshop radio in the podcast, or just search Toolman Tim on YouTube and I'll be the first one that comes up.

00:42:13:22 - 00:42:18:23
George Siegal
You do? Well, Tim Allen sneaks in there a little bit, but you tend to dominate the page.

00:42:18:23 - 00:42:26:07
Tim Cook
I'm working hard. It's been three solid years, man. I'm trying to slide him. He was Tim the Tool Man. I'm Tool Man, Tim. I need to be careful with that. You know.

00:42:26:07 - 00:42:31:16
George Siegal
So yeah, sometimes Google is not very forgiving about that, but you are taking over the page, so congratulations.

00:42:32:01 - 00:42:33:07
Tim Cook
Thanks, brother. I appreciate it.

00:42:33:15 - 00:42:34:21
George Siegal
All right. Thanks for coming on.

00:42:35:05 - 00:42:36:12
Tim Cook
Any time.

00:42:36:12 - 00:42:57:08
George Siegal
Thank you for joining me on today's Tell US How to Make a Better Podcast. All of Tim's contact information is in the show notes. That's how you can get a hold of me as well. My contact information is there. Also, there's also a link to my documentary film, The Last House Standing and for listening today, if you look in the show notes, you'll see a code to watch the movie for free.

00:42:57:15 - 00:43:07:22
George Siegal
And I hope you'll check it out. And if you enjoyed what you were listening to today, please become a regular subscriber so you don't miss an episode. Thanks again for listening. See you next time.