Many times our message is lost in the way it is expressed. One of the hosts and guest speakers at The Ready, Set, Prep Summit in Irving, Texas, Mark Hyland of Food Insurance , brought up this fact when the discussion turned to how we can make the message of being prepared more effective. Too many times words like disaster or crisis create a very negative view in people’s minds. If we want more people to be prepared, we may need to re-examine how to get our message across to those persons who aren’t prepared.
There is a mindset amongst many individuals that a disaster or a crisis is something that happens to other people. It’s something we hear about on the radio, see on TV or read about on the internet. They take the view that it is something that happens to other people. They mistakenly think it will never happen to them. This makes it extremely difficult sometimes to get people on board with the need for being prepared for the next “unexpected event”.
We all have family members or friends that may see us as slightly different because of our views about being prepared. Personally, I prefer being prepared to being a refuge. I would also like to think that my family members and friends don’t want to wind up a refuge waiting for help or a handout from some government agency that may be slow in coming. This is where semantics is important.
It should be a lot easier to get family and friends involved if we use the right message. I agree with Mark that it will be a lot easier to get people on board with being prepared if we use better terminology when discussing the need to be prepared. The use of his new term “unexpected event” can cover a lot of areas that other words like disaster or crisis don’t. The “unexpected event” may be a lay-off from work, a sudden health issue or a major and quite unexpected maintenance issue with our home or vehicle. The term “unexpected event” also doesn’t carry the negative connotations of the other terms that are frequently used when discussing preparedness issues.
If you’re having trouble getting your family members or friends involved in preparedness, you may need to talk with them about the unexpected events that could occur in their lives.
Mark Hyland is the CEO of Food Insurance . Thanks Mark for some valuable insight on how we can help others be better prepared for an “unexpected event”.
Got unexpected event?
Staying above the water line!
Riverwalker