I’m a CEO and Prepper; I Want to Make Sure My Family Is Safe

This as-told-to essay is based on a conversation with Cody Barbo, founder and CEO of Trust and Will. It has been edited for length and clarity.

At the start of 2020, I was living in San Diego near a military base. I started noticing guys in uniform buying carts of canned goods. No one was talking about COVID-19 yet, but I thought to myself, those military personnel probably knew something I didn’t.

My wife was about to have our first baby, who was eventually born on February 1, 2020. If something was going to happen, I needed to be prepared.

So, I went to the store and bought about $600 worth of nonperishable food. I also went online and bought items like two-way radios, bottled water, and vehicle emergency kits. I wanted to be able to get out of the city, if needed, and live for two weeks off the grid.

When the pandemic finally shut down the state of California, I felt very calm. I wasn’t hoarding toilet paper like everyone else, because I already had what my family needed.

Practical prepping is possible, even in a townhouse

We’ve all seen extreme peppers. I’m not that — I like to think of myself as a practical prepper. When I first started prepping, I was living in a townhouse in California. I needed to compile what we needed, without my wife yelling at me for taking up our precious garage space.

I bought six storage totes, which fit on two small shelves in our garage or in the back of my Kia Telluride. I wanted to be able to quickly grab the totes and fit them comfortably in the car with the family and our dog.

I filled the totes with everything we’d need to survive two weeks: food, diapers, supplies for starting a fire and cooking, water filtration systems, first aid, gas masks, and more. I also bought two five-gallon tanks for water, and two for fuel. With a roof rack, those could fit on my car if we had to leave quickly. Just knowing we had that option gave my wife and me massive peace of mind.

Prepping has everyday applications, and even helped our friends

A lot has changed in five years. The pandemic passed, I moved to Dallas, and we had a second child. That means our prepping has changed.

Texas has wild storms that can knock out electricity for days or even weeks. I’ve installed a solar energy system in my home and two backup power banks. I can control the breakers remotely, turning off non-essential functions so that we can have enough power for a few days if the grid is down.

Recently, most of Dallas lost power. I invited my cofounder and his three kids over to our home, since we had backup power and they didn’t. It was great to be able to not only care for my family but also host our friends.

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My prepping has practical benefits, too. Each of our cars has an emergency box filled with everything from diapers to dog gas masks. If I forget a snack for my 5-year-old, she loves to dip into the food in the emergency bin. My wife used a compressor from the box when she had a flat tire. I’ve utilized paper towels and a change of clothes when my infant son had an epic blowout.

I troubleshoot worst-case scenarios at work, too

I bring my prepper mindset to work, too. At home, I think about how we stay safe inside our home, secure the outside, and minimize vulnerabilities if we have to leave. At work, I think about securing the front door of the business, back door operations, and the people who work for me.

A worst-case scenario might be hackers stealing our users’ data and ransoming it for bitcoin. Well, we have insurance for that. We even have a planned order of operations if I or my cofounder dies.

As a CEO, husband, and dad, I take security seriously. Preparing for things that could go wrong gives me the peace of mind to enjoy when everything is going well.