How to prepare for an emergency (at home and work)
This week we are joined by emergency preparedness expert and prolific author and speaker, Virginia Nicols, webmaster of EmergencyPlanGuide.org. We talk about why and how to prepare for a disaster/emergency in your personal life, as well as how to do it for a small business. This is a bit different than our usual episode, as there is very little talk about backup and recovery. We talk about where to start when assessing what to do, and what steps you can take right away to prepare. Virginia is extremely knowledgeable on the subject and we learned a lot. You will too!
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Well, thanks Prasanna.
W. Curtis Preston:Uh, you know, uh, w w we did, I didn't have to ask hardly any
W. Curtis Preston:questions, you know, th this,
Prasanna Malaiyandi:I know she just
Virginia Nicols:you just turn me on on and away we go.
W. Curtis Preston:Hi, and welcome to Backup Central's Restore it all podcast.
W. Curtis Preston:I'm
W. Curtis Preston:your host, W.
W. Curtis Preston:Curtis Preston.
W. Curtis Preston:AKA Mr.
W. Curtis Preston:Backup and I have with me, my website reconfiguration
W. Curtis Preston:consultant, Prasanna Malaiyandi.
W. Curtis Preston:How's it
W. Curtis Preston:going?
Prasanna Malaiyandi:I'm good, Curtis.
Prasanna Malaiyandi:To be honest with the listeners.
Prasanna Malaiyandi:I did very little.
Prasanna Malaiyandi:That was all you.
Prasanna Malaiyandi:I was just there like as emotional support and as a venting partner.
W. Curtis Preston:but, but, but then you would chime in yes.
W. Curtis Preston:As an occasional venting partner and you would chime in with, with those words of
W. Curtis Preston:encouragement of like, um, it's looking good, Curtis, uh, you know, that it was so
W. Curtis Preston:for those, for those who, who don't know.
W. Curtis Preston:Feel free to go over and check out the, the all new backupcentral.com.
W. Curtis Preston:It looks a thousand times better than it ever did before.
W. Curtis Preston:Um, I went with a podcast forward theme for WordPress, and so, you know, the
W. Curtis Preston:website used to be more, uh, blog forward.
W. Curtis Preston:And now it's sort of podcast forward since I talk a lot more than I write these days.
Prasanna Malaiyandi:Yeah.
Prasanna Malaiyandi:Listeners, you should definitely go and check it out if you've only seen, like,
Prasanna Malaiyandi:if you listened to our podcast or your favorite podcatcher and you've never
Prasanna Malaiyandi:been to backup central, go take a peak.
Prasanna Malaiyandi:You'll get to see pictures of Curtis and I,
W. Curtis Preston:Yeah, we did a photo shoot.
W. Curtis Preston:We did it.
W. Curtis Preston:We talked about the podcast that, that, that was released.
W. Curtis Preston:It was released yesterday, but who knows when this one will actually go publish,
Prasanna Malaiyandi:On March 28th.
W. Curtis Preston:Yeah, the, um, yeah, so we, we, we, we actually
W. Curtis Preston:did photos together for the flu.
W. Curtis Preston:It was all the pandemic, right.
W. Curtis Preston:We've been doing this for what, almost three years now.
W. Curtis Preston:Right.
W. Curtis Preston:And we, for most of those three years, we've, we've worked together.
Prasanna Malaiyandi:I would probably say for maybe like 10 episodes tops,
Prasanna Malaiyandi:we've been in the same room.
W. Curtis Preston:Right.
W. Curtis Preston:Right.
W. Curtis Preston:And that was early days where we were like, w when I used to come, when you
W. Curtis Preston:used to be in the Druva office and I used to occasionally come to the Druva
W. Curtis Preston:office and then we'd do, we'd do it live.
W. Curtis Preston:But for the most part, it's like this.
W. Curtis Preston:So doing a photo shoot.
W. Curtis Preston:Yeah,
Prasanna Malaiyandi:I think it was funny because I think it was actually more complex
Prasanna Malaiyandi:to do it in the office than it is to do it remote, just because all the
Prasanna Malaiyandi:echoing of the mics and everything else it's like technology is wonderful.
Prasanna Malaiyandi:Even in the same city, you'll still be in different rooms.
W. Curtis Preston:Yeah, there have been some episodes where I've been in.
W. Curtis Preston:I've been in Santa Clara and you were also in Santa Clara, but we, we did it remote.
W. Curtis Preston:Yeah.
W. Curtis Preston:Cause it's just easier,
Prasanna Malaiyandi:but, for the listeners, again, check out backup central
Prasanna Malaiyandi:Curtis, it looks amazing.
Prasanna Malaiyandi:I know you put a lot of hard work and effort into that and also
Prasanna Malaiyandi:figuring out a new podcast service.
Prasanna Malaiyandi:Right.
Prasanna Malaiyandi:But I think
W. Curtis Preston:Yeah, yeah.
W. Curtis Preston:Yeah.
W. Curtis Preston:Yeah.
W. Curtis Preston:I went to captivate, uh, after, after a long search, uh, I went with
W. Curtis Preston:captivate with, which I think is, is a bit more forward-looking than
W. Curtis Preston:some of the other podcast services.
W. Curtis Preston:And so anyway, yeah.
W. Curtis Preston:So super excited
Prasanna Malaiyandi:You know, what we should do is we should probably do part of
Prasanna Malaiyandi:the podcast episode on how to do podcasts.
Prasanna Malaiyandi:Right.
Prasanna Malaiyandi:I'm sure people are curious about, like, what is your workflow, Curtis?
Prasanna Malaiyandi:You've done so much research on this.
Prasanna Malaiyandi:It might be worthwhile.
W. Curtis Preston:We've learned a lot over the last three years.
W. Curtis Preston:And I, and of course I've, I've completely changed my workflow because
W. Curtis Preston:of the, um, my new tool descript, which is like changing my life.
W. Curtis Preston:Um, but, but.
W. Curtis Preston:So, all right, well, let's get onto our guest, by the way, before we bring on our
W. Curtis Preston:guest all throughout our usual disclaimer.
W. Curtis Preston:Prasanna and I work for different companies, he works for zoom.
W. Curtis Preston:I work for Druva.
W. Curtis Preston:This is not a podcast of either company.
W. Curtis Preston:And the opinions that you hear are ours.
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Prasanna Malaiyandi:Leave a comment.
W. Curtis Preston:and leave a comment.
W. Curtis Preston:Yeah.
W. Curtis Preston:Yeah.
W. Curtis Preston:Um, it's always nice when we get to hear from our listeners.
W. Curtis Preston:So, um, and then also if you're interested in anything, you know, anything that we
W. Curtis Preston:can sort of tie back to the world that we do, the, the one we're doing today.
W. Curtis Preston:It's very interesting, which initially you might not think has
W. Curtis Preston:nothing to do with what we do.
W. Curtis Preston:But I think a lot of the concepts that we're going to learn from our
W. Curtis Preston:guest today are universally applied.
W. Curtis Preston:So if you're interested in, just reach out to me @wcpreston on
W. Curtis Preston:Twitter or wcurtispreston@gmail.
W. Curtis Preston:So let us bring on our guest.
W. Curtis Preston:She is a direct marketing copywriter and you're saying, what does
W. Curtis Preston:that have to do with our world?
W. Curtis Preston:Uh, w well, you're going to learn that.
W. Curtis Preston:The thing that interested me and got me excited and wanted to
W. Curtis Preston:bring on is that she is also the.
W. Curtis Preston:Uh, the emergency plan guide, which is you can find at emergencyplanguide.org.
W. Curtis Preston:And when, when she talks about disaster recovery, she's not talking
W. Curtis Preston:about our kind of disaster recovery.
W. Curtis Preston:She's talking about real disaster recovery, meaning recovering
W. Curtis Preston:when the big one happens, both of us live in California.
W. Curtis Preston:She's actually right up the road from me in Irvine.
W. Curtis Preston:And, uh, so I'm, I'm super excited to bring her on the podcast.
W. Curtis Preston:Welcome to the podcast, virginia Nicols
Virginia Nicols:well, thank you so much.
Virginia Nicols:I feel honored with all of the technology in front of me here.
Virginia Nicols:I, I, I feel at the fact that the Zen desk, I have to say this Zen
W. Curtis Preston:Zencaster
Virginia Nicols:Recognized my legacy recognized my legacy headphone
Virginia Nicols:recognized my separate video camera.
Virginia Nicols:I felt, I felt very welcome and comfortable.
W. Curtis Preston:Well, that's good.
W. Curtis Preston:That's
Virginia Nicols:It doesn't always happen that way.
W. Curtis Preston:Right?
W. Curtis Preston:Right.
W. Curtis Preston:So this is not your first time doing things like this, but, and you're saying
W. Curtis Preston:sometimes they don't go as, uh, as
Virginia Nicols:As planned that's right.
Virginia Nicols:Lots.
Virginia Nicols:Doesn't go as planned in world in the world, as we know, and
Virginia Nicols:we experience that every day.
Virginia Nicols:I was I'm delighted that you introduced me as being something different or out
Virginia Nicols:of the ordinary from your usual podcast.
W. Curtis Preston:when we say disaster recovery, normally that means
W. Curtis Preston:something different to our audience.
W. Curtis Preston:Right?
W. Curtis Preston:That means something very specific to our audience.
W. Curtis Preston:But when you say those words, you mean something very different.
W. Curtis Preston:So why don't you explain what you mean when you say disaster recovery?
Virginia Nicols:Yes.
Virginia Nicols:In fact, I don't use disaster recovery because I do know that generally it
Virginia Nicols:applies to networks and it, and so on for, uh, we have, uh, we have purposefully
Virginia Nicols:use the word emergency preparedness and emergency response becauseI think
Virginia Nicols:ordinary folks understand emergency.
Virginia Nicols:They understand response.
Virginia Nicols:Uh, they don't get recovery.
Virginia Nicols:not in the vocabulary of what I would say is be ordinary citizens.
Virginia Nicols:And, um, my world, as far as emergency preparedness, concerned is dealing with
Virginia Nicols:people that are my next door neighbor.
Virginia Nicols:No matter who they are, whether they have had any kind of training of any
Virginia Nicols:kind that has to do with supplies, first aid, understanding what
Virginia Nicols:happens, you know, what the, what the authorities do and what they don't do.
Virginia Nicols:They, none of them have any particular background in disaster
Virginia Nicols:recovery, but they all have some.
Virginia Nicols:They will all be impacted when a disaster hits.
Virginia Nicols:So my level of experience and exposure has really, as I say, been with my
Virginia Nicols:neighbors if you sat live next door to me, it would have been with you too.
Virginia Nicols:And in particular, though, with you and your family members and your elderly
Virginia Nicols:parents and your pet and all the things that all the people that really get
Virginia Nicols:impacted when there's a disaster.
Virginia Nicols:It's not just business.
Prasanna Malaiyandi:So, could you talk a little bit about, I think some of our listeners
Prasanna Malaiyandi:may be, they're not quite aware of what encompasses an emergency in your mind.
Virginia Nicols:That's a really good question because an
Virginia Nicols:emergency is really self-defined.
Virginia Nicols:Uh, what, what I work in though is specifically are large-scale emergencies.
Virginia Nicols:Where, where as cert cert is set up to assist the community until
Virginia Nicols:professional first responders can arrive.
Virginia Nicols:Well, that's where I started.
Prasanna Malaiyandi:And could you define what cert is by the way?
Virginia Nicols:I certainly can Community Emergency Response Team Training is
Virginia Nicols:offered by in every state in this country.
Virginia Nicols:And in many, many cities it's usually for free or at a very low cost.
Virginia Nicols:It's a program that's sponsored by FEMA and, uh, uh, Homeland security
Virginia Nicols:started in, I think the 90s.
Virginia Nicols:And really came into its, uh, self after 9/11.
Virginia Nicols:Uh, so it is a course that is provided in the city are not going
Virginia Nicols:to describe hours because it's really classic put on by the city
Virginia Nicols:emergency manager taught by emergency managers, taught by police department.
Virginia Nicols:Active officers taught by the fire department with fire actual
Virginia Nicols:firefighters of all kinds.
Virginia Nicols:So it takes about eight to 12 weeks.
Virginia Nicols:Uh, you as a regular citizen sign up.
Virginia Nicols:In our case, we do even get fingerprinted and interviewed.
Virginia Nicols:Uh, I knew prov provided this training.
Virginia Nicols:It's about 24 to 28 hours worth of training over a course of those weeks.
Virginia Nicols:And it's hands-on stuff.
Virginia Nicols:Well, much of it's hands-on, but it includes understanding what goes on in
Virginia Nicols:your community when there's an emergency.
Virginia Nicols:What do the police force do?
Virginia Nicols:What does a fire department do?
Virginia Nicols:What happens when the power goes out?
Virginia Nicols:How do we all communicate?
Virginia Nicols:And then how do the various parts of this whole emergency system?
Virginia Nicols:How do they respond to that emergency?
Virginia Nicols:And one of the things you'll be happy to know.
Virginia Nicols:And then my neighbors are always quite shocked and oh, is it?
Virginia Nicols:The fire department comes and talks to us and they say, you know, when the
Virginia Nicols:earthquake hits, we're not coming to
W. Curtis Preston:Hm.
Virginia Nicols:I live in a senior community.
Virginia Nicols:We have a lot of folks who depend on the fire department.
Virginia Nicols:The fire department is in here frequently.
Virginia Nicols:Individual situations, but in an earthquake, no, they
Virginia Nicols:say we're not coming to you.
Virginia Nicols:We have other things to do before we ever get around to a senior
Virginia Nicols:community, we have to do an entire assessment of the, what has happened.
Virginia Nicols:The danger level are the bridges down, you know, the roads passable
Virginia Nicols:and we have to protect, first of all, the city, the fire department,
Virginia Nicols:the hospitals, perhaps schools.
Virginia Nicols:Senior citizens are low down on the list.
Virginia Nicols:And, and as I say, that is shocking to our neighbors, but that's one of the
Virginia Nicols:reasons why we have built this group.
Virginia Nicols:And, and our purpose is to get everybody in our local neighborhood as kind of
Virginia Nicols:up to speed as we can on knowing what to expect, whether it were, it would be
Virginia Nicols:an earthquake or a storm or a tornado or a tsunami or whatever, airplane
Virginia Nicols:crash in the neighborhood, what to expect, how to be prepared to respond.
Virginia Nicols:I don't want to say that senior citizens are particularly challenging, but a number
Virginia Nicols:of them are, and they have their own reasons for not wanting to participate,
Virginia Nicols:uh, which I expect that a lot of folks share no matter what age they are.
Virginia Nicols:Uh, I'll tell you some of the reasons people don't want to talk
Virginia Nicols:about emergency preparedness.
Virginia Nicols:Number one, it's negative.
Virginia Nicols:Why do we talk about emergencies?
Virginia Nicols:Because it's gonna make me feel more worried.
Virginia Nicols:Number two I'm so old.
Virginia Nicols:I don't care.
Virginia Nicols:I'll this die.
Virginia Nicols:That's a common one.
Virginia Nicols:And so our answer has to be, well, you can die.
Virginia Nicols:That's fine, but you're going to impact me.
Virginia Nicols:I don't want you dying.
Virginia Nicols:Okay.
Virginia Nicols:And then another reason is some people say I don't need to prepare myself.
Virginia Nicols:I will trust in God.
Virginia Nicols:And that's a difficult one to.
Virginia Nicols:Uh, get around if you will, but we have our answers to that one too.
Virginia Nicols:Uh, because for our purposes, if everyone is the more people who are
Virginia Nicols:more aware and more of a bird, the better off the whole community will be.
Virginia Nicols:And that's kind of what my whole, and you mentioned that I was writer
Virginia Nicols:and I have written a lot of books now about all of these topics.
Virginia Nicols:Um, But that's the theme that runs through all of them is the more we
Virginia Nicols:know the safer we all will be, but it means everybody has to know more.
Virginia Nicols:So I work hard to get everybody to know more,
W. Curtis Preston:Yeah, it's interesting that there are parallels
W. Curtis Preston:between your world and our world.
W. Curtis Preston:Right?
W. Curtis Preston:We have the same concerns, you know, even that second one about
W. Curtis Preston:well I'm old and I'll, you know, I'll just die in a it's fine.
W. Curtis Preston:Ours is just different.
W. Curtis Preston:I I've sat with companies.
W. Curtis Preston:In fact, I can think of a company right up the road from you, a large, a large.
W. Curtis Preston:I'll I won't, I'll just say they, they make stuff and
W. Curtis Preston:they're up the road from you.
W. Curtis Preston:And I met with them.
W. Curtis Preston:We were talking about disaster recovery and being prepared for that.
W. Curtis Preston:And their response was, you know, if the big one hits or, you know,
W. Curtis Preston:there there's a list of things that we try to prepare for it right there.
W. Curtis Preston:I'll probably be dead.
W. Curtis Preston:And so I'm not going to care.
W. Curtis Preston:Right.
W. Curtis Preston:And it's like that, that one's hard to deal with.
W. Curtis Preston:Right?
W. Curtis Preston:If you, if you're just, you know, or, or if, if, if this company gets wiped
W. Curtis Preston:out, then I'll just move on to another company that didn't get wiped out,
W. Curtis Preston:um, that that's hard to deal with.
W. Curtis Preston:Uh, so I, it sounds like you deal with some of the very similar things, uh, just
W. Curtis Preston:trying to get people to move past that.
W. Curtis Preston:That, that other thing that we share is just trying to get them to
W. Curtis Preston:acknowledge that this is something they need to address in their life.
W. Curtis Preston:It sounds like that's a big
W. Curtis Preston:part of your job.
Virginia Nicols:it is a big part of my job and, and.
Virginia Nicols:Again, I don't want to, I don't want to linger too long on my senior community,
Virginia Nicols:but that's happened to be where I live.
Virginia Nicols:Uh I've we've also brought these kinds of programs.
Virginia Nicols:Our goal, my goal has been to create groups with, to bring preparedness as a
Virginia Nicols:topic or to any existing group, because as a group, people can make progress.
Virginia Nicols:One by one by one isn't is very difficult and unless they themselves already
Virginia Nicols:have an interest, you cannot tell them that they need to have an interest.
Virginia Nicols:So we, our approach has been, and this is the one I would hope that I can share
Virginia Nicols:with, with whoever's listening to this.
Virginia Nicols:Not only do I think existing groups are my target, but in particular,
Virginia Nicols:existing, small businesses are my target.
Virginia Nicols:And I mentioned that the thing that happens with, with, uh, I've
Virginia Nicols:mentioned what happened in Irvine again, so you can get an idea of
Virginia Nicols:where, where w what has been going on.
Virginia Nicols:Many cities have champions in emergency preparedness.
Virginia Nicols:They typically are involved with the city or they're engaged with
Virginia Nicols:a cert program as I described.
Virginia Nicols:And then they get all revved up and are really excited and they
Virginia Nicols:want to go out into the community and build little neighborhood
Virginia Nicols:groups to carry on the good will.
Virginia Nicols:Here in Irvine.
Virginia Nicols:We've had, we've had 2000 people go through the program and last
Virginia Nicols:year they pro well before COVID actually, it was let's go out.
Virginia Nicols:Let's give everybody who's been a graduate of the program, send them out into the
Virginia Nicols:community and see how well they'll do and raise the level of community awareness.
Virginia Nicols:They send them out.
Virginia Nicols:They have exactly zero response.
Virginia Nicols:Because they were not sent out with appropriate training in community,
Virginia Nicols:organizing appropriate training in communications in how to give
Virginia Nicols:a talk and how to get people engaged and how to sign them up.
Virginia Nicols:All the marketing stuff.
Virginia Nicols:That's just central to having any kind of success.
Prasanna Malaiyandi:Yeah, they were trained in cert, but not necessarily in how to get
Prasanna Malaiyandi:other people interested in understand.
Virginia Nicols:Exactly.
Virginia Nicols:So when we look at different organizations, if we have a
Virginia Nicols:group already existing, we can really make a big difference.
Virginia Nicols:And, and I'm, I'm thinking about, we've written several, a number
Virginia Nicols:of books for different groups, and we've talked to different groups.
Virginia Nicols:We've talked to church groups and service clubs and, um, uh,
Virginia Nicols:HOA homeowners associations.
Virginia Nicols:We've talked to businesses.
Virginia Nicols:What happens is a service group may get a really good idea and they
Virginia Nicols:really want to focus on emergency preparedness for their group members,
Virginia Nicols:but they had the same problem.
Virginia Nicols:The membership will get the knowledge, but the minute the member goes
Virginia Nicols:home, there's nothing out there.
Virginia Nicols:They're in the wilderness.
Virginia Nicols:So our most success has been with like where I live in a close-knit
Virginia Nicols:seizure community or in an apartment.
Virginia Nicols:Or in a small business.
Virginia Nicols:And, and here's why I think number one, they're close together,
Virginia Nicols:physically close together.
Virginia Nicols:If you're living in an apartment community, you know, your neighbors,
Virginia Nicols:you see them in the hall, you're taking out the trash, you know who they are and
Virginia Nicols:you begin to recognize their faces and you can begin to trust them as someone
Virginia Nicols:you'd want to be with in an emergency and in an, and so a, an apartment
Virginia Nicols:community can build a really powerful.
Virginia Nicols:Emergency response team to whatever level they can, as long
Virginia Nicols:as the owner of the property or the property manager supports it.
Virginia Nicols:And here's been a real negative on LinkedIn, which is where I found you all.
Virginia Nicols:Uh, I actually am engaged with, and you may well see them to a number
Virginia Nicols:of homeowner association managers.
Virginia Nicols:And they're really funny and they're good.
Virginia Nicols:And they're.
Virginia Nicols:Totally professional.
Virginia Nicols:And I have written to them directly and said, do you have any interest
Virginia Nicols:in, or do you know anybody who ever as a homeowner association manager
Virginia Nicols:ever present the concept of emergency preparedness to the people living there?
Virginia Nicols:And their answer is no, that's not within our job description.
W. Curtis Preston:Right.
Virginia Nicols:Okay.
W. Curtis Preston:Yeah.
Virginia Nicols:All right.
Virginia Nicols:So and so I've also, but on the other hand, I've had mobile home parks where.
Virginia Nicols:The owner of the park is interested.
Virginia Nicols:The people of the park are interested.
Virginia Nicols:They all live close together, as you can imagine, they, uh, know each other,
Virginia Nicols:they trust each other and they can build dynamite emergency response teams
Virginia Nicols:where they get together and clean up the whole neighborhood for fire prevention
Virginia Nicols:and they have picnics and whatever else they do, they practice evacuations.
Virginia Nicols:I mean, Really get, they are a group, they use their group for effect.
Virginia Nicols:Uh, and as I say, where I think we've got an extra benefit and I we're just
Virginia Nicols:working now on another new project where we're going to use small
Virginia Nicols:businesses to do it because small businesses, not, not big business,
Virginia Nicols:small to medium-sized businesses at the most have those same characteristics.
Virginia Nicols:The people are physically together.
Virginia Nicols:They are.
Virginia Nicols:Um, they know each other, they already have practice where he and
Virginia Nicols:his teams show they trust each other.
Virginia Nicols:And, uh, if the owner, and there is also pressure on the owner to pull
Virginia Nicols:together a preparedness plan or business contingency plan, I mean, big companies
Virginia Nicols:already have business contingency plans and they all updated them for COVID.
Virginia Nicols:Okay.
Virginia Nicols:That's fine.
Virginia Nicols:Smaller business.
Virginia Nicols:Often have unworkable plans or no plans at all.
Virginia Nicols:And there's where I feel that because they have an existing group.
Virginia Nicols:And if the owner really cares about it, the owner can also
Virginia Nicols:require them to get training.
Virginia Nicols:He can offer training, he or she can require them to get training and can even
Virginia Nicols:include their families as part of it.
Virginia Nicols:And suddenly you have an entire group of people who are really
Virginia Nicols:interested in emergency preparedness.
Virginia Nicols:For their own sakes, but more importantly, if the business suffers
Virginia Nicols:a disaster, if the business goes down, they lose their income.
Virginia Nicols:So they had a real, they've got a real impetus to really get interested,
Virginia Nicols:really get, um, knowledgeable, understand how the business works.
Virginia Nicols:So I'm showing you look, my, this is my.
Virginia Nicols:The latest.
W. Curtis Preston:like that
Virginia Nicols:it, I just published it Friday last Friday.
Prasanna Malaiyandi:Congratulations.
Virginia Nicols:thank you.
Virginia Nicols:So you see it's all about the magic five days that a small business has.
Virginia Nicols:If, about small business is interrupted and the doors close, if they don't
Virginia Nicols:open in five days, the chances of them surviving for a year are like 10%.
Virginia Nicols:Five days.
Virginia Nicols:That means you've got to know what to do immediately if something happens, whether
Virginia Nicols:it's a power outage or whether it's out from some back hoe, breaking up a gas
Virginia Nicols:line, or, or you have a strike with the company next door and they're blocking
Virginia Nicols:the traffic or whatever it is, you gotta have a plan to be open and up back in
Virginia Nicols:business, at least sufficiently that your customers think you're in business.
Virginia Nicols:Uh, within those magic five days.
Virginia Nicols:And so that's what this little book is about is like, here's the plan.
Virginia Nicols:Here's the bare bones, get it done, be ready.
Virginia Nicols:You can do it for the folks in house.
Virginia Nicols:You don't have to hire some hot shot, expensive disaster recovery company.
Virginia Nicols:And so this is for small businesses.
Virginia Nicols:So, so that's, you know, not, you now have a pretty good idea.
Virginia Nicols:I think.
Virginia Nicols:The things that have kept me busy and engaged for the last 20 some years.
Prasanna Malaiyandi:So for Julia, just a quick question.
Prasanna Malaiyandi:Um, your book that you have, I'm sure a lot of small businesses
Prasanna Malaiyandi:think, oh, going through emergency preparedness, it's so complex.
Prasanna Malaiyandi:It's so complicated.
Prasanna Malaiyandi:I don't have time.
Prasanna Malaiyandi:I am sure that there's very simple things they can do and very straightforward
Prasanna Malaiyandi:things they could do to get prepared, or at least start that preparedness.
Prasanna Malaiyandi:Maybe it won't cover a hundred percent of all situations, but it's probably the most
Prasanna Malaiyandi:common or the most easiest to implement.
Prasanna Malaiyandi:Right.
Prasanna Malaiyandi:It's not like, oh, I have to go through all this preparedness
Prasanna Malaiyandi:and spend months and months.
Virginia Nicols:right.
Virginia Nicols:That's right.
Virginia Nicols:No.
Virginia Nicols:And, and most businesses have already done some of it, you know, OSHA requires
Virginia Nicols:business to have some evacuation plans and some safety features and so on.
Virginia Nicols:So you're absolutely right.
Virginia Nicols:And that's why.
Virginia Nicols:A number of things.
Virginia Nicols:And one I wrote was very come complete what I thought, preparedness
Virginia Nicols:planning process for small business, but it was like 250 pages.
Virginia Nicols:So this one is 30 pages.
Virginia Nicols:So if that's what it is, it's what is meant exactly what you're asking for.
Virginia Nicols:Number one, say, you think he need it, you're going to do this.
Virginia Nicols:That's the first thing.
Virginia Nicols:Okay.
Virginia Nicols:We gotta do this.
Virginia Nicols:And, and right now there's a lot more pressure on small businesses to do it.
Virginia Nicols:Not only just keep the business alive, but you know, clients are now
Virginia Nicols:saying, what's your, what's the status of your emergency preparedness plan
Virginia Nicols:or your business contingency plan.
Virginia Nicols:And you don't have one you're looking, you're not looking good.
Virginia Nicols:And also given what's been going on with COVID lately, uh, people are more willing
Virginia Nicols:to sue people if there's accidents or if there are illnesses of there are
Virginia Nicols:things going wrong in the business, you can be sued for negligence for not
Virginia Nicols:having had a plan to prepare for it.
Virginia Nicols:Okay.
Virginia Nicols:So, but anyway, simple things.
Virginia Nicols:Number one, commit to doing it.
Virginia Nicols:Number two, take a look around.
Virginia Nicols:Okay.
Virginia Nicols:What's going to happen to us.
Virginia Nicols:I've got a nice long list in there, go through and pick five things.
Virginia Nicols:Don't pick everything, don't prepare for everything.
Virginia Nicols:And what we find out is that if you prefer one emergency, probably about 80% of
Virginia Nicols:what you do is going to work for every other emergency, you know, it because it
Virginia Nicols:has to do with safety and communications and, uh, and alternative, uh, electric
Virginia Nicols:or air alternative utilities and so on.
Virginia Nicols:So number one, be committed.
Virginia Nicols:Number two.
Virginia Nicols:Pick your five, then number three, go through an inventory or describe
Virginia Nicols:all of the important processes that your business is engaged in.
Virginia Nicols:And that might take a little time, but not, you can limit it if you
Virginia Nicols:want, but like you've got a ma you've got a front desk capability.
Virginia Nicols:You've got a marketing department, you've got a manufacturing arm, you've
Virginia Nicols:got transportation, whatever it is, your business deals with and went and
Virginia Nicols:have the folks who are in charge of each of those business activities.
Virginia Nicols:Describe what they do briefly and what would happen, what they've already
Virginia Nicols:done to be prepared for emergencies.
Virginia Nicols:What, what would have to happen to bring that, that aspect of the
Virginia Nicols:business back up in an emergency and the people working there know
Virginia Nicols:these things, they already know.
Virginia Nicols:You don't need to hire an expert to come in and assess it.
Virginia Nicols:The people work in there every day, know it.
Virginia Nicols:So you've got a description of every activity in the business
Virginia Nicols:of the major activities.
Virginia Nicols:And then again, you pick what are the key activities that we have to have up and
Virginia Nicols:running within our five day magic period.
Virginia Nicols:What are the key activities that would allow us to then resume
Virginia Nicols:perhaps over time, full, full, uh,
Virginia Nicols:uh,
Prasanna Malaiyandi:Capabilities.
Virginia Nicols:and be in business and then you write it down and what,
Virginia Nicols:and, and it, and, and that a plan.
Virginia Nicols:If the electricity goes out for this process, we've got to do
Virginia Nicols:this and this for this process, because I do that these process.
Virginia Nicols:We'll just ignore them for the time being we'll focus on these two.
Virginia Nicols:Uh, if we have a, an earthquake.
Virginia Nicols:Do number one, but you got to do this, my God.
Virginia Nicols:Get that back up.
Virginia Nicols:What about the website that clearly has to be up and going?
Virginia Nicols:Can we do that?
Virginia Nicols:If we are, are, can no longer access the office?
Virginia Nicols:What our backup plan for having, let's say a website or communications capability.
Virginia Nicols:Um, what can we, if we are damaged with a fire, how do we go back
Virginia Nicols:to go to work somewhere else?
Virginia Nicols:So, you know, do we have neighbors who could borrow a space from, do we
Virginia Nicols:have called, do we have competitors who have the same kind of equipment
Virginia Nicols:we have that would share with us?
Virginia Nicols:And we, you make those arrangements, but yeah, you think it through, and as
Virginia Nicols:I say, in our experience, the people working in the business know what,
Virginia Nicols:what, what could happen that would bring you their bring their activity
Virginia Nicols:right back up or not right back up.
Virginia Nicols:But up enough
W. Curtis Preston:okay.
Virginia Nicols:So the business could stay open
Prasanna Malaiyandi:Yeah,
Virginia Nicols:and
W. Curtis Preston:It sounds like, uh, you know, the process is very similar
W. Curtis Preston:to what we do with the it functions,
Virginia Nicols:absolutely.
W. Curtis Preston:Um, you know, the same thing of, of just first
W. Curtis Preston:inventory, everything that you have from a business function perspective.
W. Curtis Preston:And of course you need to decide what is business critical, right?
W. Curtis Preston:What w you know, I would argue even, even as a member of the marketing
W. Curtis Preston:department at Druva, I would argue that, you know, you can do without marketing
W. Curtis Preston:for, for five days, uh, But not without sales, not without the ability to
W. Curtis Preston:execute sales, not without that front desk person or the equivalent thereof.
W. Curtis Preston:Right.
W. Curtis Preston:Um, and I think that, um, I agree with you that a lot of these people probably
W. Curtis Preston:already know, they just, they have, they have the knowledge that they need
W. Curtis Preston:to sort of come up with those ideas.
W. Curtis Preston:But you, you do probably
W. Curtis Preston:need to goad them into
W. Curtis Preston:thinking that way.
W. Curtis Preston:Right?
W. Curtis Preston:What would happen?
W. Curtis Preston:Right.
W. Curtis Preston:You know, what would happen if we have a fire or we have I noticed
W. Curtis Preston:by the way that your, your list of disasters or emergencies is
W. Curtis Preston:actually quite broad because it includes things like active shooter.
W. Curtis Preston:I noticed that you had on your, on your website, uh, there, there are a number
W. Curtis Preston:of things that could happen to you.
W. Curtis Preston:And that's why you, like you said, you need to pick
W. Curtis Preston:your.
W. Curtis Preston:Your top five
Virginia Nicols:Your top five or how many ever.
Virginia Nicols:Yeah.
Virginia Nicols:And, and every business is different.
Virginia Nicols:I can imagine a.
Virginia Nicols:Uh, you know, a small print shop or a coffee shop.
Virginia Nicols:I I've been in a thousand of them.
Virginia Nicols:I know how that feels.
Virginia Nicols:What would happen there?
Virginia Nicols:A doctor's office is a small business.
Virginia Nicols:Uh, I mean there's, so the businesses are really distinct and what they would need
Virginia Nicols:is, is different, but they you're right.
Virginia Nicols:They, they probably already have a good idea, but they haven't written it down
Virginia Nicols:and therefore they can't transmit it to their employees or to the authorities
Virginia Nicols:who are looking for it, the lawyers.
Prasanna Malaiyandi:this reminds me Curtis, of when we talked about the hurricane
Prasanna Malaiyandi:that hit the tropical island, right?
Prasanna Malaiyandi:How it had documented the process.
Prasanna Malaiyandi:But they hadn't taken into consideration a lot of the emergency preparedness,
Prasanna Malaiyandi:like where are people going to sleep?
Prasanna Malaiyandi:Right.
Prasanna Malaiyandi:Where are you going to get food?
Prasanna Malaiyandi:Right.
Prasanna Malaiyandi:A lot of where are you going to get power,
W. Curtis Preston:And now we're yeah, there were assumptions
W. Curtis Preston:of power and also internet.
W. Curtis Preston:This was, uh, a company that was doing manufacturing on this island and they
W. Curtis Preston:relied on services that were on the mainland, you know, computer services.
W. Curtis Preston:And as a result, when the, when the internet was cut between the two.
W. Curtis Preston:Oops, how do we, how do we get back up?
W. Curtis Preston:But, you know, we have a cart before the horse problem, right?
W. Curtis Preston:And so, and while that that's a very technical issue, you have
W. Curtis Preston:the same problem with, with, with things like electricity and water.
W. Curtis Preston:Those things are critical.
W. Curtis Preston:I am curious about that.
W. Curtis Preston:What is this?
W. Curtis Preston:For a small business, you know, that I've gotten in my head like a
W. Curtis Preston:picture of, uh, of somebody renting a storefront somewhere, whatever
W. Curtis Preston:it is, it could be a doctor.
W. Curtis Preston:It could be a print shop.
W. Curtis Preston:It could be who knows what it could be a sandwich shop.
W. Curtis Preston:What is the, the, the normal thing that people do from a power standpoint?
W. Curtis Preston:Do do they actually go in and prepare like, you know, um,
W. Curtis Preston:generators and things like
Virginia Nicols:Yeah, they do.
Virginia Nicols:They can, there, there are companies out there and one of the main
Virginia Nicols:ones is that I've been watching.
Virginia Nicols:15 years and it's grown and grown and grown.
Virginia Nicols:And now it's kind of grown into a great big company, but they,
Virginia Nicols:you can establish a contract.
Virginia Nicols:You can establish a contract with a company like that, and you
Virginia Nicols:will be number one on their list.
Virginia Nicols:If something happens, they will bring you a generator within the first day.
Virginia Nicols:X period of time.
Virginia Nicols:Now you have to know how to use a generator.
Virginia Nicols:So that means that you have in, in advance, made these arrangements.
Virginia Nicols:You've got the right amount of power you can do.
Virginia Nicols:You've got to manage the cords that run through the building because the generator
Virginia Nicols:is not in the building, etc, etc.
Virginia Nicols:Uh, but yes, that's what, that's what you do.
Virginia Nicols:And I think most small businesses just as you've discussed.
Virginia Nicols:Probably haven't done that.
Virginia Nicols:So what would happen there is like your little candle shop or whatever
Virginia Nicols:they're going to just shut down.
Prasanna Malaiyandi:Yeah.
Prasanna Malaiyandi:I was thinking like a sandwich shop, right?
Prasanna Malaiyandi:That means the fridges aren't powered.
Prasanna Malaiyandi:Now they have produce and stuff going
Virginia Nicols:all spoiling.
Virginia Nicols:It's all spoiling.
Virginia Nicols:That's right.
Virginia Nicols:They have to throw it out.
Virginia Nicols:In fact, um, and, and their employees can't get to work
Prasanna Malaiyandi:Yeah.
Virginia Nicols:because something has caused the whole thing to blow up.
Virginia Nicols:They're there.
Virginia Nicols:Their plan would in likelihood have to involve having already scoped out
Virginia Nicols:a place where they could go and either piggyback on someone else got a similar
Virginia Nicols:type of business or they, they could.
Virginia Nicols:You know, they could even have someone, a location where they could quickly
Virginia Nicols:reconfigure, but a small business.
Virginia Nicols:Isn't going to be able to do that, not within that five day period.
Virginia Nicols:So it's tricky, it's tricky.
Virginia Nicols:Um, and I'm not saying everybody can recover, but it can save lives and
Virginia Nicols:you can have the right insurance.
Virginia Nicols:Which is a big deal and you can have your bank account, your banking arrangements
Virginia Nicols:already figured out that if an emergency hits, you have access to a new line
Virginia Nicols:of credit because your employees that continue to work have to be paid.
Virginia Nicols:Uh, for some period of time, the other employees who are working
Virginia Nicols:on an hourly basis, they just suddenly are without any work.
Virginia Nicols:And that.
Virginia Nicols:You know that that's a, that's a catastrophe for them probably, but
Virginia Nicols:the business owner has has various things that business owner can do in
Virginia Nicols:terms of insurance to protect, uh, the business, at least until it can
Virginia Nicols:get back up, but you need to know how long will it take to get the money?
Virginia Nicols:What do you have to have to prove you need the money?
Virginia Nicols:And those are things you do have to learn about in advance.
Virginia Nicols:You can't wait till the disaster hits and then, then you're in line with somebody
W. Curtis Preston:Yeah.
W. Curtis Preston:It's like the old phrase to time to take dramamine is to late
W. Curtis Preston:to take dramamine, you remember that you remember that marketing
Virginia Nicols:No, I don't, but
W. Curtis Preston:You don't, you, you know, you know, drama
W. Curtis Preston:mean, right.
W. Curtis Preston:You know, the, yeah.
W. Curtis Preston:So that was their thing.
W. Curtis Preston:If you dramamine, it's too late, right?
W. Curtis Preston:Like you need to take dramamine beforehand.
W. Curtis Preston:Right?
W. Curtis Preston:Let it, let it get into your system and then you get seasick.
W. Curtis Preston:Or then you, you know, you, you would be in the condition to make yourself seasick.
W. Curtis Preston:And so you have to prepare for first, right at the time to look
W. Curtis Preston:for a, to look for a loan like that, like a line of credit is,
W. Curtis Preston:is not when the disaster happens.
Virginia Nicols:No.
Virginia Nicols:And, and so, so our thought is not only should the small business owner take
Virginia Nicols:advantage of the expertise with in-house.
Virginia Nicols:The it professional advisors that every small business typically has.
Virginia Nicols:There are people who need to be brought in to help out in advance with this planning.
Prasanna Malaiyandi:Are there questions that they should, like, I'm assuming a small
Prasanna Malaiyandi:business owner has no idea that they need to do this sort of emergency
Prasanna Malaiyandi:training or have a plan in place.
Prasanna Malaiyandi:Are there certain keywords that they could ask these other professionals that would
Prasanna Malaiyandi:sort of trigger the right set of responses from them or go down the right path.
Virginia Nicols:Well, I've, you know, I think there are, there are key concepts.
Virginia Nicols:I mean, so first the first thing is what happens the first day?
Virginia Nicols:What responsibilities do I have?
Virginia Nicols:What happens the first week?
Virginia Nicols:What responsibilities do I have?
Virginia Nicols:And if you ask that of your accountant for.
Virginia Nicols:The accountant is going to know.
Virginia Nicols:Okay.
Virginia Nicols:You remember, you've got payroll, you've got property, you've got
Virginia Nicols:taxes, you've got quarterlies.
Virginia Nicols:You've got whatever you've got.
Virginia Nicols:They can't know the answers to all that, but neighbor probably never
Virginia Nicols:thought about it in terms of a disaster.
Virginia Nicols:Okay.
Virginia Nicols:And the, the lawyer let's assume you have a lawyer and most people have had
Virginia Nicols:some dealings with lawyers if they've incorporated or even had employees, the
Virginia Nicols:lawyers going to know what kind of uh, liabilities you have for not having a plan
Virginia Nicols:or what kind of, uh, uh, uh, information you can share and how to share it in for
Virginia Nicols:and with whom and in a timely fashion, lots of companies have to report to
Virginia Nicols:shareholders or they have to report to, uh, various regulators or whatever.
Virginia Nicols:So somebody in that business knows about those dates and those requirements.
Virginia Nicols:But you have to ask in advance because the owner may, may or may
Virginia Nicols:not really be thinking about it.
Virginia Nicols:Um,
W. Curtis Preston:Right.
Virginia Nicols:so we've got a banker.
Virginia Nicols:Yeah.
Virginia Nicols:And, and, and above all, you've got an insurance company.
Prasanna Malaiyandi:Hmm.
Virginia Nicols:And I don't, I'm thinking of you at your home office right there
Virginia Nicols:now, you know, you've got some insurance potential of loss for whatever reason.
Virginia Nicols:Uh, and you know, do you have what you need?
Virginia Nicols:What kind of do you have insurance protection for the earthquake?
Virginia Nicols:For the rainy roof that came through last night, but didn't
Virginia Nicols:break through your roof last time, but will tomorrow and, and so on.
Virginia Nicols:So a good conversation with your insurance person.
Virginia Nicols:Uh, will open your eyes.
Virginia Nicols:It turns out by the way that you can't, there's a thing called
Virginia Nicols:business interruption insurance.
Virginia Nicols:Okay.
Virginia Nicols:But it doesn't work for COVID
Prasanna Malaiyandi:Hm.
Virginia Nicols:who knew?
W. Curtis Preston:interesting.
Virginia Nicols:I didn't know that they
W. Curtis Preston:it
Virginia Nicols:they said that it wasn't a disaster.
Virginia Nicols:It's been defined as not being a disaster.
Virginia Nicols:So then the question is in your insurance product, and I'm not an insurance
Virginia Nicols:expert by any means, but what do they rule in and what do they rule out?
Virginia Nicols:Because now we've got all this stuff going on in Ukraine
Virginia Nicols:right now, wars are ruled out.
Virginia Nicols:Acts of acts of God may be ruled out of your insurance and act of God is like,
Virginia Nicols:What should an act of God COVID was not an act of God according to the act, but
Virginia Nicols:according to some people, it was, um, earthquakes, I think are in most cases.
Virginia Nicols:Uh, I, I'm trying to
W. Curtis Preston:I, I know, I know in the case of like, you know,
W. Curtis Preston:again, you and I live in, well, all three of us live in California
W. Curtis Preston:and California has very specific.
W. Curtis Preston:You know, earthquake is, is by default, excluded from most policies and you need
W. Curtis Preston:specific earthquake insurance, right?
W. Curtis Preston:The same thing for flood insurance.
W. Curtis Preston:Um,
Virginia Nicols:land movement and so on.
Virginia Nicols:Absolutely.
Virginia Nicols:So, but I w the key words that I tried to create my list of keywords.
Virginia Nicols:And I wrote this little book in, in a, in a format and I don't mean
Virginia Nicols:that I'm not, the book has just, uh, a co a summary of everything
Virginia Nicols:I've been learning over 20 years.
Virginia Nicols:It's like day one, do this day two do this.
Virginia Nicols:And there's 10 days and in 10 days, okay.
Virginia Nicols:You've covered the whole spectrum.
Virginia Nicols:And you can do that.
Virginia Nicols:You can read that thing in 25 minutes.
Virginia Nicols:And you'll have a really all the keywords you need to move forward to.
Virginia Nicols:Then, then the thing is though, what's the impetus, the impetus, you know,
Virginia Nicols:I impetus can come from an employee.
Virginia Nicols:I hate to say it could come from the law from legal liability of not having one.
Virginia Nicols:It's standard practice.
Virginia Nicols:You're in a big business.
Virginia Nicols:You don't get away without having one, a good business con con
Virginia Nicols:I'm sure you've dealt with them.
W. Curtis Preston:Right.
W. Curtis Preston:I w I would argue that if, you know, the, the only thing that you could argue,
W. Curtis Preston:as well as not going to happen to me, you know, and maybe you won't, right.
W. Curtis Preston:Whatever, whatever it is you're worried about.
W. Curtis Preston:But if it does, if a disaster hits your area, that's significant
W. Curtis Preston:enough that impacts the whole area.
W. Curtis Preston:Like if it's the kind of thing that takes out power flight lake, the
W. Curtis Preston:kind of thing that happened in Texas.
W. Curtis Preston:Um, you know, we're without power for it.
W. Curtis Preston:If, yeah.
W. Curtis Preston:If you're the company that is prepared and you're a company that provides services
W. Curtis Preston:to the general public in that scenario, I think you will get a long-term competitive
W. Curtis Preston:advantage from having prepared.
W. Curtis Preston:And you're going to gain a whole bunch of new people as customers.
W. Curtis Preston:Uh, and so th that can assist in the impetus, uh, Uh, I just think that I think
W. Curtis Preston:you, what the thing that you started with is, is the, you know, sort of the, Hey, if
W. Curtis Preston:you don't prepare for this and depending on what type of disaster happens,
W. Curtis Preston:that could be it for you as a company.
W. Curtis Preston:And, and that, that would hopefully scare, you know, a lot of people.
W. Curtis Preston:you know, a lot of people.,
Virginia Nicols:and, and, and, and it, it also means is it for your employees.
Virginia Nicols:They are now you have lost your company.
Virginia Nicols:You have lost your investment in your company.
Virginia Nicols:You may have a lot of debt at the end of it.
Virginia Nicols:Your employees are without a job.
Virginia Nicols:They are now bereft.
Virginia Nicols:So, and again, so there's the human part of it.
Virginia Nicols:What are you doing?
Virginia Nicols:How are you leaving your employees?
Virginia Nicols:You know, you're, you're pulling the rug out from under them.
Virginia Nicols:And so I, and I, there are a lot of small business people and
Virginia Nicols:owners who just really love their employees and they are a big family.
Virginia Nicols:And without some preparation, they are really, they're not doing their job.
Virginia Nicols:They're not providing that kind of support that you would want to
W. Curtis Preston:And I agree that it sounds like what you're saying
W. Curtis Preston:is that, that you, you know, you have a responsibility to those
W. Curtis Preston:employees, it's your business and it is your responsibility to prepare
W. Curtis Preston:for that scenario because without it, you, you become, you don't
W. Curtis Preston:fulfill your responsibility to your.
Virginia Nicols:I think that's true.
Virginia Nicols:I think that's accurate.
Virginia Nicols:And I think if you ask people, they would, the thing is people always agree.
Virginia Nicols:It's a good idea.
Virginia Nicols:No one ever said, oh, no, I don't really, I don't think it's a good idea.
Virginia Nicols:They it's just getting them off a dime.
Virginia Nicols:And, and so the people who like, were thinking about it, we're already doing it.
Virginia Nicols:I've got my 55 barrel of water in my backyard.
Virginia Nicols:So do you have one?
Virginia Nicols:No.
Virginia Nicols:Do you have water in your apartment?
Virginia Nicols:Do you have 10 days worth of water for yourself and your family and your pets.
W. Curtis Preston:I have 5,000 gallons of water right out my
W. Curtis Preston:back door, but it's not drinkable.
W. Curtis Preston:Um,
Virginia Nicols:Not too drinkable.
W. Curtis Preston:Listen, uh, you know, it's been a fascinating
W. Curtis Preston:conversation, Virginia.
W. Curtis Preston:Um, and I, and so here's a question.
W. Curtis Preston:How do people get access to this book that you, that you just published?
Virginia Nicols:Easiest thing to do is they, they should, of course, go on
Virginia Nicols:Amazon and look it up by its name, it's back up -two words- and running . But
Virginia Nicols:the easiest thing to do is to go to my website, emergencyplanguide.org which
Virginia Nicols:you've mentioned, and everything's there.
W. Curtis Preston:All right.
W. Curtis Preston:Well, thanks.
W. Curtis Preston:Thanks a lot for coming on.
Virginia Nicols:Hey, it's my been my pleasure.
Virginia Nicols:And I, I hope that you're, you know, I, I hope that other people in listening
Virginia Nicols:to this, if it gets up there are going to have the same kind of thought to
Virginia Nicols:get away from their job as a disaster recovery person or an emergency management
Virginia Nicols:person and say, well, wait a minute.
Virginia Nicols:What about my house?
Virginia Nicols:What about me?
Virginia Nicols:What about our family?
Virginia Nicols:What about my children's families?
Virginia Nicols:You know, what will happen to them when something happens?
Virginia Nicols:And can I, uh, can we improve that situation?
W. Curtis Preston:All right.
W. Curtis Preston:Well, thanks Prasanna.
W. Curtis Preston:Uh, you
W. Curtis Preston:know, uh, w w we did, I didn't
W. Curtis Preston:have to ask hardly any questions,
W. Curtis Preston:you know, th this,
Prasanna Malaiyandi:I know she just
Virginia Nicols:you just turn me on on and away we go.
Prasanna Malaiyandi:no, it was fascinating.
Prasanna Malaiyandi:I loved it.
Prasanna Malaiyandi:Thank you, Virginia.
Virginia Nicols:thank you so much for having me it's fun, let know when it's
W. Curtis Preston:And, uh, uh, thanks again to our audience.
W. Curtis Preston:You know, we, we do this just for you and remember to subscribe
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