420: How to Prepare For What’s Coming

[INTRODUCTION]

Hal Elrod: Welcome to the Achieve Your Goals Podcast. This is your host, Hal Elrod, and thank you so much for joining me today. I really, really appreciate it. I'm feeling really good. I just recorded this episode for you. I just finished recording. I always do the intro after the episode just to make sure what I introduce is what I talk about. And today was a departure from my normal episode, for sure. Today is based on an email that I received, and I'm reading that email to you and I'm giving my commentary on that email, how to prepare for what's coming. And I don't want to repeat myself because I explained this in the beginning of the podcast. But here's what I want to say about today's episode. I want you to know that if you're a long-time listener, I think this probably goes without saying but I want you to know that, genuinely, I love you and I appreciate you. And it might sound weird if you're new to the episode but I personally have a belief, a paradigm that all human beings that we're part of the human family and I care for everybody. You know, to me, you're a brother or a sister like we're all family. And so, today's episode was recorded from that place of care.

And to be totally transparent, it was overcoming my own fear and insecurity around sharing topics that are controversial, not even controversial that could create fear for you, right? Like today's episode, it might create some fear, some concern. You might hear some things that you weren't aware of. It might make you feel kind of overwhelmed. I don't know. And like, obviously, my intention with this podcast and my work, in general, is to uplift people and help you feel better and feel more empowered and inspired and confident. And all of the things that enable you to not only feel great but to create everything you want for your life to fulfill your potential. That's my focus. So, that's why today is really a departure for that. This is like, “Hey, here's what's going on in the world. Here's what could happen. It could get bad and here's what you should do to prepare.” So, again, you could see where that is outside of the norm for me. So, I hope you receive today from a place of love and care and concern and service and not me trying to fear monger and like make you stressed out or worried because that is not at all my intention.

So, before we dive into the episode today, I want to take just a minute to thank our sponsor, Organifi. If you are like me, you know the importance of eating healthy but you may not always have the time or willpower to cook with all the colors of the rainbow. Organifi Superfood Blends make it easy and enjoyable to add more variety and more nutrition to your day. These are delicious organic powders you can add to water, almond milk, juice, your smoothie, and enjoy any time for more energy, nutrition, hormone balance, and peace of mind. They are a great way to jumpstart your morning, energize your afternoon, or nourish your evening. I've been using them for roughly half a decade, and I'm a big fan. Head over to Organifi.com/Hal and check out their whole line of products. If you find something there that you want to try, something that looks like it's a great fit for you, use the code “Hal” at checkout and you'll get an additional 20% off your entire order as a listener of the Achieve Your Goals Podcast.

And one more quick thing before we dive in, that is the Miracle Morning app. In case you're not aware, we launched the Miracle Morning app in January of 2022 this year a couple of months ago and getting great feedback that'll help you keep your Miracle Morning on track, tracking your SAVERS, staying accountable, achieving streaks, doing 30-day challenges, as well as seeing videos from me and members of the Miracle Morning Community in the app each and every day for your first 30 days, and we've got all sorts of features that we're adding as we move forward. So, head over to the App Store or the Google Play Store and you can try it for yourself.

All right. And that's it, I think. Let's dive in. Let's dive into this episode, how to prepare for what's coming. And I do want to say one thing before I transition into the episode because this came up for me after I recorded. I don't think I really addressed this. And Mike's email begins by talking about Ukraine and Russia, what's going on over there. And, by the way, this email was a week ago. So, actually, it was addressing I think the first day that conflict began or an attack began. And I've received some messages asking my opinion on all of this. And honestly, all I have to say about the Russia-Ukraine situation is that I'm watching it in real-time with all of you. You know, I have no more information than you do. I have no more insight that's any more valuable than your own. My heart, of course, goes out. I am hoping and praying for the best, and that's really at this point. I don't know what else I can do but, of course, I am open to any suggestions. Leave them in the comments below. This episode is Episode 420. If you have any suggestions, if you know anywhere I can donate to, please don't hesitate to let me know. I really, really am wanting to help in any way that I can. And today, hopefully, this episode is helpful for you.

And last thing I'll say is think of this like a buffet. When you go to the buffet, right, you don't eat everything at the buffet. You look over it all, you consider it all, but you just pick and choose the things that really resonate with you. And today, think of today's episode, everything may not resonate with you but I hope that there's at least one thing that's a game-changer, at least one or two or three things that are really valuable for you. And of course, I am sharing ten steps today from Mike's email, so maybe you'll get more than one or two. Maybe we'll get 10. But whatever it is, I hope today is helpful for you. I love you. I appreciate you. Enjoy today's episode!

[EPISODE]

Hal Elrod: Goal achievers and members of the Miracle Morning Community, hello and welcome to today's podcast. Today's going to be a little different than normal. I'm actually going to read you an email today from my good friend, Mike Dillard. That's where we're going to start. The title of the email, the subject line is how to prepare for what's coming, which will likely be the title of today's episode. And Mike sent this about a week ago, so it was very current the day it was sent. Some of this is a little outdated. You'll be able to decipher what's outdated and what is still relevant. And what's relevant is he gives 10 steps, 10 tips to prepare for what is coming, what is coming in regards to the changes that we are seeing in the world related to the war that's going on right now. But more specifically, even before the war, I think these are relevant and they'll be relevant after. It's the supply chains that are breaking down. I've done an episode on this podcast regarding some of the supply chain issues that I've seen and regardless of the details of the email and anything that you may or may not agree with. And, for me, not that I don't agree with everything in the email but some of it's outside of my wheelhouse, right? So, it is what it is but I agree with the 10 steps.

And Mike and I have been friends for quite a few years now. In fact, he's just a good human being. He’s very smart. He's a brilliant entrepreneur and a really good human being. Our kids go to school together. Our families spend time together. And when I was going through one of the toughest times in my life about a year-and-a-half ago, where I was only sleeping for two to four hours a night for months, about four, five, six months, I couldn't figure out what was wrong. Mike helped me diagnose it because he had gone through the same thing, and it turned out that, amongst other things, chemotherapy and all that, I was suffering from mold poisoning. I had heightened levels of mold, very unsafe levels. And so, he realized that's what happened to him. He spent time with me and helped me figure it out, and then I got through that difficult time in my life, and Mike was a big part of that. So, what I'm going to do today is I'm going to read you Mike's email, and then I'll probably add my commentary where appropriate in terms of the 10 tips that he's given, especially, what I'm doing or what I've done in alignment with these 10 tips because we've talked about these topics before, and then I want to talk to you about just how to prepare in really three different ways.

Mike's talking about logistics. So, those 10 steps are how to prepare logistically, right? What to do to prepare. I'm going to talk to you about, as well mentally and emotionally, and just give you some thoughts I have on what I've done or what I do or how I prepare mentally and emotionally for the unknown, for the things that might otherwise cause me fear if I didn't have a strategy for how to interpret all the craziness in the world and all the chaos, and by the way, none of it's new. You know, I taught my daughter. This was probably a few months ago but she said, “Dad, I wish I grew up when you did. You guys didn't have to deal with all this craziness going on in the world.” Remember, the example she gave me but specifics but I just said, “Sweetie, when I was a kid, it was just different craziness. There was war going on and people were fighting and people were politically charged. I mean, I think now, yes, it's probably much more in our faces than it was when I was younger.” But again, there's always been chaos, there's always been wars, there have always been challenges, problems. And this too shall pass kind of thing, which is easier said than done if you are in the middle and you are feeling the effects of the chaos or of the adversity going on.

All right. Let's just keep this simple, starting with Mike's email. I'm going to read this just top to bottom, and then I'll get into the commentary when I get into the 10 steps. Here we go.

The final climax of America's fourth turning has begun. Here are 10 ways you can prepare now. Twelve years ago, in 2010, more than five million people watched a webinar I produced about the changes taking place in the world. In that webinar, I predicted the fall of the U.S. dollar, the fall of the U.S. Empire, global unrest, a fight for freedom, and eventually war. Well, I thought 2008 was going to be the crack that would burst the dam. The Fed was able to come to the rescue with trillions of dollars in stimulus that not only rescued the market but took it to new all-time highs. They bought themselves 10 years but now there are too many cracks and holes in the dam to hold back the coming destruction. CB19 was the catalyst that pushed every aspect of society past its breaking point. Some people say that CB19 was actually created to do exactly that, and I happen to agree with them. In fact, as of yesterday, it's been revealed that parts of CB19’s DNA sequence is a perfect match for a sequence that was developed and patented five years ago by Moderna, the same pharma company funded by the Gates Foundation.

And then Michael sent a screenshot of an article here that is titled More Evidence COVID-19 Was Tinkered With In A Lab. Now Scientists Find Virus Contains Tiny Chunk of DNA That Match A Sequence Patented By Moderna Three Years Before Pandemic Began. You can take that for what it's worth, right? I don't believe all the headlines that I see. Here we go.

Everything is starting to happen at once. Russia has invaded Ukraine as of this morning. The attorneys behind the prosecution of racketeering charges against Trump have quit. The stock market is crashing. Canada has fallen into tyranny. We have a commander in chief who is mentally incapacitated by any standard. The American truck or fleet is headed to DC and is growing by the day. And now rumors that China is about to invade Taiwan are starting to swirl. The single best time for them to make their move would be in the coming days and weeks ahead. Why does this matter? Because Taiwan produces 90% of the world's semiconductors and computer chips. Whoever controls Taiwan controls the flow of these critical components. Without them, we'd fall back into the stone ages. No new cars, no new computers, phones, or anything else electronic. Would they cut us off completely from those chips? Not unless we went to war against them.

But would they leverage against us to get what they want? 100%. We basically become a whipped dog on a leash. These moves represent the making of a new world order and the death of the American Empire. If we stand by and do nothing, these countries will be emboldened to do as they please. If we go to war to try to retain our place in the world, the world goes to war. Either way, it's the end of the American paradigm as we know it. A year ago, I spoke about these events in front of 200 people in Austin, Texas. I said that our way of life, as we've known it was going to disappear and that it would never return as the world's power players go to war in order to define and control the next era or turning. There have been three previous turnings that have happened in the US, the Revolutionary War, the Civil War, and World War II. Each of these periods in time completely changed the course of our nation and the world. I believe today marks the beginning of the climax of America's fourth turning, which will unfold over the next 36 months. The bad news is that the climax of every single turning in history has been marked by war. This will also be the first turning that takes place in the world where weapons of mass destruction have been present.

We've already been warned by the people trying to take advantage of the chaos of what's still to come, specifically, Klaus Schwab and the members of the World Economic Forum, war, a cyber pandemic that takes down the internet and potentially the electric grid, a reset of the currency and financial system and another more severe pandemic. I cannot stress how important it is that you immediately take action to increase your level of security and self-sufficiency when it comes to food, water, and money. I've been encouraging my readers to do this for years. Some of you listened and others called me a fearmonger. I've never taken those comments personally because I know that these kinds of changes truly scare people, and scared people tend to lash out in response. Do I think this mess in Russia will continue to escalate? No, not unless we escalate them. With that being said, events like this can spin out in unpredictable ways. China would love the US and Russia to go to war because it would weaken their two biggest military rivals, and they'd be left in a position of strength to do as they wish.

What I do know with a high level of certainty is that this is just the beginning of the chaos that's going to unfold. If you have not done so, please prepare yourself accordingly. Here are a few recommendations that I would make a top priority.

All right. Let me pause. So, all of that, you can take that for what it's worth. Like I said, I'm more concerned with what I'm about to share with you in terms of these 10 steps that Mike is giving and I'm going to share with you what I've done with regards to each of these steps. Most of them, I've taken action on, not all of them. And here's the thing, I think that we can agree that what's going on in the world, in our country, whatever country here and I know we have listeners in 217 countries so this is really a global audience but what's going on is unprecedented. And I've joked that that is maybe one of the most, you know, both misused and appropriate words right now. It's hard to talk about what's going on in the world without calling it unprecedented. In my lifetime, I've never seen a lot of what I am seeing now, and I'm 42 years young, right? So, a lot of you've been around a lot longer than I have but I've never seen anything like we're seeing now. And what I'm seeing is supply chains breaking down in ways that are unprecedented. Okay. I have friends that are farmers and they are not able to get fertilizer for their crops. And they've sent me many articles that are showing this is a widespread problem, and they're scared that they will not be able to produce a yield next year.

So, that's something that if there are widespread, if there are farmers, hundreds of farmers, thousands of farmers that aren't able to get fertilizer and produce their crops, then that's something that we're not feeling the effects of now but in six months or 12 months, that could be catastrophic. I don't know. Also, those same farmers have told me they're not able to get tractor parts. And so, if their tractor breaks, they cannot fix it and they won't be able to tend to their land, right? So, these are real issues. I can tell you as an author. We are facing a paper shortage. My printer has sent us. Normally, they'd print books in a matter of days. We are months out because they cannot get paper. There are supply chain. There are shortages with paper, with plastic, I mean, you name it. It is across the board. And so, anyway, I don't know what may or may not cause. No one can predict the future, right? None of us can predict the future but we can pay attention to trends and kind of like you buy life insurance. You don't buy life insurance because you're planning on dying, of course, right? You buy it as an insurance policy just in case.

And the way that I look at being prepared and the 10 steps I'm about to share with you that Mike shared is this is about preparing so that you don't have to be paranoid, right? You don't worry about preparing so you're paranoid. I’m sorry. Being prepared and not paranoid. Being aware but not afraid. And I talked about this recently. I've talked about this in the last few months talking about the topic of fear. I did some podcast episodes on being fearless. And if you remember the premise of that, of these episodes, was that if you think about what really causes us to experience fear, it's not the things that we're afraid of. It's actually our perceived inability to handle the things that we are afraid of. Because if you perceive that you can handle whatever comes your way, then there's no fear. It's only when you imagine a scenario that comes to pass and you go, “Oh my God, I don't think I could handle it. I don't know what I would do. It would be too difficult, too painful, too stressful. I couldn't handle it.” That's what causes fear. If you are clear that you can handle anything that comes your way and you've affirmed that and you believe that, that's your paradigm that you can handle anything that comes your way, then there's no fear.

And that, to me, is what being prepared is about. It's being as prepared as you possibly can so that you can live your life and not worry about whatever is to come. Whatever the cause might be, whether it's a supply chain issue or whether it's related to war, or whether it's related to the World Economic Forum that Mike mentioned in their agenda, right? And by the way, if you're not aware of that, the World Economic Forum is a very powerful group of people led by Klaus Schwab. They meet in Davos once a year. It's all of the billionaires, not all of but most billionaires and world leaders that are invited to this to shape the future of the world essentially, right, the World Economic Forum. And they have published an agenda, Agenda 2030. And essentially, you may have seen the video. You’ll own nothing and you'll be happy, right? But they want to eliminate private property ownership. They want to reset our currency so it's a global digital currency. What else do they want to do? I'm not looking at the list, but they have a published list of all these things they want to do, which for most of us, they restrict freedom, right? They want to have this digital ID where they're able to track and monitor every citizen. To each their own, if you're like, “That’s a great idea.” Okay.

Personally, I prefer to be a sovereign individual and be able to make my own choices on I like owning a home. I like having some freedom. So, anyway, there are forces. There are influences that are wanting to remove some of these freedoms. So, what I'm about to share with you, these 10 steps, again, it's not like Mike mentioned, the fear mongering piece. This isn't fear mongering. This is really from a place of like care. I view all of us as family and just like I would look out for my family, everything I'm about to share with you, I've shared this with my dad and my mom and my sister and my close friends. All right. And many of them are taking similar actions. And the last thing I want to say, and I might repeat some of this at the end, I might kind of bring it back but I want to mention that my good friend, Jon Vroman, actually, we met this morning for breakfast and talked about some of this stuff. But he mentions or his philosophy on this is that when you take time to prepare… Where was I going with that? Alright. Never mind, I'm drawing a blank. I'm going to go back into the email. It'll come back to me. Here we go. Alright. So, from Mike Dillard, here you go.

Here are a few recommendations that I would make a top priority. Number one, make a plan and tell your family. If and when the power goes out and communications go down, you will not be able to communicate. You need to discuss that plan now ahead of time. Who is picking up the kids? Where are you meeting? Does everyone know how to get there without access to Google Maps or electronic navigation tools? That's number one. Make a plan and tell your family.

Let me give a little more context on where Mike is talking about if and when the power goes out. Klaus Schwab has predicted that, and he wrote a book, by the way, called COVID-19: the Great Reset. So, like he's putting out all of this out there publicly. None of this is conspiracy theory but Klaus Schwab has said that, "There will be a catastrophic event of our grid going down, the power grid.” So, you can imagine the power grid going down, then we rely on electricity, right? Heat water, power plants, refrigeration, hospitals, right? Imagine if we lost power, if the grid went down, hospitals couldn't care for patients. We couldn't refrigerate our food. Often, potentially water would not be able to pump to our homes, et cetera, et cetera. According to Klaus Schwab, I think he said, I'm paraphrasing, but he said, "It would make the COVID-19 pandemic look like child's play,” or something to that effect. So, I think that's what Mike is talking about is that some of the folks that have predicted the pandemic, for example. I don’t know if you're familiar with Event 201 but it was a war game or role-played a COVID pandemic. It was done just a few months before the actual COVID pandemic rolled out.

And it involved the World Economic Forum. It was at John Hopkins, Bill Gates, the whole crew, and they predicted that a novel coronavirus would come out of China and then would create a pandemic. It's very interesting how everything they role played essentially on almost like play-by-play, it did happen. So, now to say that they had anything to do with that would be a conspiracy theory, right? But it does make you scratch your head and go, "That's kind of weird they roll played. They said a pandemic is coming.” They literally said it was going to be a novel coronavirus that came out of China and then a few months later it happened.

And then a few months later, it happened. And in the role-playing, they role-played masks and vaccines and the public’s resistance and how they would push it through and how the governments would work in coordination to handle it, and all of that was role-played. It’s all public, I don’t know if it’s still online, but you can actually watch the entire thing. Again, it’s called Event 201 if you want to watch that.

But anyway, in the same way that these folks predicted the pandemic and it happened, they’re now predicting the power grid is going to go down. So, for me, I go, okay, well, if you’re predicting things and then they happen, I’m going to at least pay attention to these things that you predict as well, maybe you know something I don’t, I don’t know, I have no idea. So, number one is make a plan and tell your family. Now, for me, we don’t have necessarily a plan. We do have a road atlas, though. So, then, if we don’t have Google Maps or if the grid is down, we can get around the places, we can go across the country with our Road Atlas, right? We have a 2021 Road Atlas. But so, that’s Mike’s first tip, make a plan and tell your family.

Number two, get a Berkey water filtration system by the largest size you can afford. Every aspect of your life depends on access to clean water. And the website for a Berkey water filter, which I own two, I actually have a big one and then a smaller one we can travel with, but it’s B-E-R-K-E-Y, Berkey, B-E-R-K-E-Y Filters dotcom, BerkeyFilters.com. And you can take river water or lake water, I think, they even say you can take pool water, and it will make it drinkable. I don’t know how comfortable I’d be throwing water from my pool into the Berkey filter and drinking it. I think it’d be a little sketchy, a little skeptical, but it is what it is. So, that’s number two, get a Berkey water filtration system. And you can live a while without food. You can only live a very short amount of time without water so that is crucial.

Number three, buy a solar power station to provide you with backup power. I use the ones from Jackery.com. If you’re insulin-dependent, purchase a mobile refrigerator from Dometic, D-O-M-E-T-I-C dotcom. Jackery.com was J-A-C-K-E-R-Y. This will keep your medication safe and can be powered by the Jackery. Do I have a Jackery solar-powered generator? Yes, I do. I have two of them, actually. Again, back up for your backup, by the way. So, something to consider, and that way you can power your devices, your refrigerator, etc. And one thing about Jackery that’s nice, I’ve looked into other solar power stations, Jackery solar panels are extremely lightweight. I tried another company called Goal Zero, and their solar panels weighed like, I don’t even know, 50 pounds. They’re really heavy. Jackery’s are really thin, really lightweight, really portable. And you can get Jackery on Jackery.com, or it’s on Amazon as well. You can read the reviews on Amazon as well.

Number four, if you don’t own a firearm and ammunition yet, go get them and take some lessons at your local range. Now, I used to be, I don’t know if I say, against guns, I mean, I shot guns a little bit growing up, but I never owned a firearm and until 2020 hit and I decided to. I did a lot of research, Jon Vroman and I, Jon Vroman is the founder of Front Row Dads. He and I had extensive conversations about this. We did research. We weighed the pros and cons. We looked into safety of how to keep your firearm safe, so that your children can’t access them, so on and so forth. And both of us, we decided to get a firearm. So, that is something that again, I think that so far, I’m four for four on Mike’s recommendations. Actually, the first one, I don’t have a full-blown plan of what to do if the power grid goes down. So, I’m three for four.

Here we go. Number five, stock up on rechargeable batteries, medications, extra fuel, cash, and propane tanks. Be prepared to survive below-freezing temperatures if you lose access to power. Now, granted, that’s only if you live in a location that has below-freezing temperatures, which believe it or not, here in Texas, we do get below freezing for usually a month or so out of the year. But it’s crazy. Like last week in Texas, it was 82 degrees, 82 degrees, and then the next day, it was a higher 48. So, we have very unpredictable weather, but yeah, rechargeable batteries, medications, extra fuel, cash, propane tanks, having all of those things.

Number six, get emergency food, head to MountainHouse.com, and load up on freeze-dried foods while they still have them. The one-year supply option has been sold out for months. So, MountainHouse.com, you can get emergency food. Now, I will tell you, I shared this on an episode a while back. Personally, health is a huge priority for me, especially having survived cancer. My diet is about as healthy as it can be. I’m not going to feel good eating food that has a 25-year shelf life. You can imagine how many preservatives are in food that has a 25-year shelf life, right? Now, I would choose that over starving to death, for sure, but I shared this on the episode that what I’ve done, I have some of those of like back up to the backup. But what I’ve purchased is I’ve got organic, large bags, multiple 10-pound bags of organic rice, organic beans, organic mung beans that I can sprout, organic broccoli seeds that I can sprout so that I can have an organic, healthy living food.

Now, the shelf life on those isn’t 25 years, but it is like three or four years, right? And I just keep eating it. So, I buy a bunch. I buy more than I need, so I have a little bit of extra so that if I’m without food for a week or like, we had this happen last year in the snowpocalypse. According to City of Austin, we were less than 24 hours away from the grid being down for two months. And when the grid went down, by the way, so this is just an example of when– this is in Austin, it didn’t happen because of war or because of the World Economic Forum or whatever, it was just because of weather, it was unexpected weather that we didn’t predict, but we lost power for five days, and it was a real crisis. I mean, think about that, people, their water wasn’t running for five days, so they could not get clean drinking water. You can imagine the bottled water at the stores, it sold out real fast and didn’t have heat. And it was freezing, that was a snowstorm, and people didn’t have heat. They were staying in their house with no water in 28-degree weather. That’s a real crisis. And if that would have continued for two months, you could only imagine. Luckily, it was only five days, but it was still pretty devastating.

So, what was the point of that? Anyway, but the point being that rather than you can go to Mike’s recommendation of MountainHouse.com and get some emergency foods and freeze-dried foods, and/or you can also get some organic rice and beans and mung beans and that kind of thing. And the brand that I prefer because they sell it in bulk and it’s organic is Food to Live. You can go to FoodtoLive.com or you can get it on Amazon. If I can go around Amazon, I prefer to go straight to a retailer, so I usually buy it from FoodtoLive.com. And they’ve got rice and beans and black beans and pinto beans and navy beans and mung beans. And they’ve got seeds and nuts, and FoodtoLive.com has a ton of organic options and non-organic as well.

Number, seven, from Mike Dillard here is buy a second freezer if you can find one and stock it. As of last month, every major store, including Best Buy, Lowe’s, and Home Depot were sold out nationwide. That’s crazy. I haven’t verified that, but I’d imagine Mike’s not going to put that in there unless it’s true. So, the freezers were sold out nationwide in all of those stores. He said the only place I was able to find one was on Amazon. Now, I will tell you, we have a second freezer in the garage that we have extra meat and frozen veggies and just all sorts of food in there. The second freezer is something we actually found on Craigslist. And the funny part is we didn’t have a truck, so we had to rent a U-Haul to drive 90 minutes south to pick up this. It’s one of those big freezers, it’s like six feet wide by three feet tall. What do they call that? The name’s escaping me, but it’s a freezer, right? It’s a garage freezer if you will. So, buying a second freezer, and again, getting a used one where it’s less expensive is an option, obviously, or could be an option.

The number eight is if you have a yard, buy the seeds, soil, and tools you need to grow your own food. We have just started the construction of a thousand-square-foot greenhouse. Again, yes, we have done that. We have seeds. I’ve mentioned, we moved out to 30 acres, which is more than we need. We really didn’t mean to move to that much. That’s a long story of how it worked out, but this is where we are. So, my family, we’re learning how to grow food. And for me, this is like a fun adventure. I try to get further away from technology and closer to nature. I find that when I’m in nature, I feel at peace, I feel harmonious, I just feel one with nature, right? So, we are excited for this adventure that my family, we’re learning how to grow food, and so on and so forth. I highly recommend that. And so, Mike is building a greenhouse. We built a greenhouse as well. And again, you can find, of course, Google, how to get a do-it-yourself greenhouse, that kind of thing. So, seeds, get the soil, get the tools you need to grow your own food.

And by the way, let me just say this. I mentioned I have some friends that are farmers, and they are concerned and they sent me videos of other farmers so I could see it wasn’t just them, but the farming community is having supply chain issues that could affect their yield for next year. One of my farming friends said, “Hal, based on what the supply chain issues with farmers are that including organic farmers,” he said, “there may be a time in the next year or so where the only people that are able to get healthy food, healthy organic food are those that grow it themselves.” And that was really hearing my friend who farms tell me this straight up, it was kind of a wakeup call. I thought, oh my gosh, it’s important for me to have healthy food. That means I get to grow up myself. I don’t really want a farm. It’s not my forte, but so be it. I’d rather take responsibility for making sure I have healthy food for me and my family. So, number eight is if you have a yard, buy the seeds, buy the soil, buy the tools. If you don’t have a yard, you can do hydroponics. You can do, there’s a lot. Even in a small garden, there are different ways. And you can, again, Google all of this stuff. There’s no detail here on where to find all this other than the websites that I’ve been sharing.

Number nine, this one’s really important. I think, in fact, this is why to prepare. Number nine, Mike says, “Don’t stop living your life. We have trips to Arizona and Aspen planned over the next month. I’m building a new podcast studio and I’m helping launch a new health-related company this year. The reason you want to prepare is so you can continue creating the life you want, knowing you’re prepared for any potential outcome.” That is maybe the most important line in this email. The reason you want to prepare is so that you can continue creating the life you want, knowing you’re prepared for any potential outcome. My hope is that none of this stuff comes to pass, and that’s kind of why I always take the approach of I don’t want to prepare for the worst-case scenario without making sure it also works in the best-case scenario. Does that make sense? Like growing my own food, like, I’m excited, I’m excited for that adventure, right? And we’re just kind of in the beginning of that process.

But my wife and I are excited to try this out, and who knows how long that allows. Maybe I’ll get to the point where I’m like, I’m tired of growing my own food, but I’m excited, right? So, like, even if the supply chains, like, I am praying, I am hoping that the supply chains get fixed and get corrected and that farmers are able to thrive. I don’t want any of that. I don’t want any of that worst-case scenario to come to fruition. So, that’s the idea is that you prepare, for me, it’s how can I prepare for the worst-case scenario and all the scenarios in between, including the best-case scenario? So, we’re loving living on the land. We’re loving this change of pace. We’re loving having some animals. We have a few chickens now, which, by the way, that’s one tip that Mike didn’t give. I would add that into this list is getting chickens. Find out if you can put chickens in your neighborhood. And I’d imagine if you have HOAs, it might be a little challenging. You might have to hide them that you have some chickens in the house.

But anyway, for us, I’m excited. We got a few chickens. They’re still babies, or they’re not babies anymore, but they haven’t started laying eggs. I think they start in the next few months. But so, we’re excited for that. Kids go out, grab the eggs, bring them inside. And so, just kind of a cool change of pace from being a city boy living in the city my whole life. And I’ve joked, whenever I share, that we moved on to kind of a ranch, if you will. I always joke that I feel like it’s the 80s movie where the city folk moved out and they’re just blundering their way through it every day. And it’s like a real-life comedy here. That’s kind of how I feel like our life has become.

Alright, last but not least, number 10, Mike says, “Finally, make sure you have the ability to generate passive investment income no matter what’s happening around the world. Last month, we made over $25,000 per month in passive income just from our crypto assets, even as the market dropped.” Now, I will say, Mike, that’s his expertise, like that literally is Mike’s expertise is teaching people how to grow their business and generate passive income. So, I’m sure, for him, that’s a big part of what he talks about. In fact, if you want to learn directly from Mike, his website is just his name, MikeDillard, D-I-L-L-A-R-D, M-I-K-E D-I-L-L-A-R-D, MikeDillard.com. He’s got a ton of resources there. So, I encourage you, if you want to learn how to create passive income, you can check that out.

And I will just say this, I agree with that. I’ve been talking about that and I don’t talk about it a lot, but I’ve definitely done. I did a podcast episode on it, I think, a few years ago. The importance of creating multiple sources of income, not being reliant on one. If someone’s relying on one source of income, their job, and then they lose their job, right now, they’re at risk, right? They’re putting their family at risk of not being provided for. And so, for me, I had a mentor teach me this, I don’t know, probably over 10 years ago, and I’ve spent the last 10 years creating passive income sources. And the biggest one for me is books. I’ve written 12 books, and each of those books, whether I’m sleeping or awake, it generates passive income. And so, the 12 books have created the movie that we made, different sources. I have created online courses and just different things. And by the way, that is the long game, like this is an overnight, we are going to create passive income necessarily overnight. But I do think it’s worth making it a goal, like every year, learn how to create a new source of passive income and just create one a year and before you know it, you have a lot of passive income.

I have somebody in a mastermind with, he’s about to retire. Actually, he did just retire from being a doctor. And he has over a million dollars in passive income a year, which is mind-blowing. But here’s the thing, that’s not from being a doctor. Like, he had a career that he was passionate about, being a doctor and taking care of people, taking care of patients. But on the side, he was buying real estate and he started when he was in his, I think, mid-30s. Now, he’s, I think, probably mid-50s. And he bought one small little three-bedroom, two-bath condo, and then he bought another and then another and then another and rented them out and so on and so forth. Again, that’s not my expertise or my wheelhouse. But there are a lot of ways to make passive income, and I do think for financial security, having multiple sources of income is great. And the reason that passive income is so important, and by the way, I didn’t mean to go so in-depth on this last tip, but it is what it is.

When I got cancer and I was in the hospital for eight months, I was either in the hospital or I was sick from chemo and then I would start up again, right? And it was eight months like that I was not really able to work. And I really didn’t work because I had spent the previous seven years building multiple streams of passive income and writing 12 books. My family was thankfully taken care of. Our income continued to come in even when I wasn’t able to actively work. And so, that’s just an example. Of course, we can’t predict the future. We don’t know when we could get laid off or, heaven forbid, we could get sick or some other cause where I do agree with Mike’s 10^th tip, and again, didn’t mean to go so in-depth on that, but there you go.

So, those are Mike’s 10 tips for how to prepare for what’s coming out of the 11^th tip, which is if you can get chickens, get chickens, and they’re so cute, like my wife and I just sit out there with our coffee and we just watch the chickens run around, and they have such fun personalities. So, never in my wildest dreams did I ever think I would have my own chickens, but here we are. So, again– oh, I mentioned that I was going to talk about how to prepare, so that’s logistically right. Those are 10 steps to prepare logistically. And again, better be prepared and not need it than to not be prepared and something happens.

And what I wanted to add to this is how to prepare mentally and emotionally, and there’s kind of overlap between those two. And I guess I already mentioned this earlier, how to think about preparing or preparedness, it’s about being prepared, not paranoid, right? And it goes back to what Mike said, you’re preparing so that you can go about living your life and not be worried about the unknown, not get caught off guard, caught unprepared if you will. So, I think that’s the mental piece of it. And for me, it’s fun. Like, it’s not a stressful thing. It’s fun, it’s exciting. I’m like, oh, this is– I don’t know, I enjoy it. I think I enjoy it because every time I do something that makes me feel more prepared, maybe it’s because it relieves a little bit of stress, but I kind of look at it like a game. It’s just fun to prepare, and you can do it really inexpensive, like getting the organic rice and beans. A 10-pound bag of rice or beans is probably, I don’t know, $20 or something, maybe $30, I don’t know, $40. I really don’t know, I don’t remember. It’s been a while since I ordered some, but it’s not like this costs a fortune.

And some of the things Mike recommended, granted, are more expensive. Like the Berkey water filter, I think that’s a couple of hundred dollars is where they start. The Jackery, I think that also starts around 250 bucks. I mean, some of these are more expensive than others. But you do what you can, you just start where you can start and do what you can do. And then emotionally, how to feel about preparedness, that, for me, goes back to what I said earlier about being aware but not afraid, aware that there are things going on in the world. There are supply chain issues. There are things that we can’t control. But if you look back at the last year or two of this podcast, one of the themes that I’ve come back to over and over and over again, well, there’s really two of them, one is that when you focus on that which is out of your control, you feel out of control, right? We feel out of control, we focus on the things we can’t control, and it doesn’t serve us because they’re out of our control.

By the way, when you’re watching the news, that’s just amplifying that which is out of your control. You can’t control what’s happening across the world. You can’t control what the government’s doing that you’re not having input on. There are certain things we can’t control. We can’t control the people. And when we focus on that, which is out of our control, and we feel out of control, it creates anxiety and fear and depression and so on and so forth. It’s not really good for our mental health. So, focusing on the one thing you can control, which is you, what you think, what you talk about, what you focus on, and what you do, that’s you can control you and that’s pretty much all you can control.

And so, in terms of how to feel about preparedness, for me, being aware but not afraid goes back to the other theme we’ve had for the last couple of years on the podcast, which is inner freedom. That’s the one thing we get to choose is how we experience life, the meaning that we give, what we focus on. Are you focusing on what’s wrong or what you’re doing to make it right? Are you focusing on the things out of your control or what you’re doing to prepare so that you are equipped to handle anything that comes your way so that you can genuinely, authentically embody the mindset of, I can handle anything that comes my way? So, I’m not afraid of anything. There’s nothing to fear because I’ll handle whatever comes my way. I’ll take life as it comes. Was there something else I was going to say? Maybe that was it.

So, anyway, I hope this has been helpful for you. Again, I come from a place of love and care. And really, because this is so different from most of my podcast episodes, I usually am always striving to share with you things to uplift you, and some of you might have gone, oh, this is stressful or this is– now, I’m concerned. Now, I feel like I have to prepare or I feel like I’m unprepared. And again, none of that is my intention. And I hope that ultimately this episode gave you some things to think about. But I hope that the suggestions I’m giving or the coaching on being prepared and not paranoid, being aware but not afraid, realizing that you can choose to be fearless by affirming and believing and embodying the reality that you can handle anything that comes your way, I hope that really creates context for this episode so that you go, oh, okay, cool. Hal gave me some things to think about. Maybe there are some things I was already doing. Some of you I know were nodding, like Hal, we’ve already done everything on the list, like, tell us something we don’t know, right? Some you were like, yeah, I’ve been there, done that. We’re prepared. And some of you might be like, what? What are you talking about? You could be on both sides of the spectrum. I realize that.

And so, again, this is really like anything in life to me. When you’re in a learning environment, it’s a buffet. Like, take what you want, leave the rest. And I hope that something I shared today, I really hope it was valuable for you, and more importantly, that you’ll take action on it. I’ll put all 10 of these into the show notes, all 10 of these steps that Mike recommended in the show notes so that if you weren’t taking notes, you can go back and review these. These will be at HalElrod.com/420. That’s where this episode will live. And the show notes will live at HalElrod.com/420. And I think that’s it for today. Thank you so much for listening. I love you. I appreciate you. I’m so grateful to be doing life with you at this exact time in the world. Love you. Talk to you next week.

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