By Kellene Bishop, The Preparedness Pro
Why in the world is Kellene Bishop, The Preparedness Pro, on National Geographic’s Doomsday Preppers? That’s just one of a litany of questions that I’ve received via text, e-mail, social media postings and telephone. Because the answer to this question has so much to do with self-reliance and preparedness overall, I’ve decided to answer that specific question on my PreparednessPro.com site. However, there are a whole lot of other questions that I feel are more appropriate for here. I personally am surprised that folks actually care about these answers. But I’m happy to share if that’s what you want. Some of the questions I’ve received are as follows:
- Can the Preparedness Pro handle a wardrobe malfunction like a …well, like a pro?
- Is Kellene Bishop a scam of a prepper for going public with her stash?
- What was it like with cameras following you around everywhere?
- Will the filming of Preparedness Pro do any good to convince women that they can defend themselves even if they are short, fat, and out of shape?
- Is Doomsday Preppers intent on mocking the crazy fringe segment of preparedness?
- Has Kellene Bishop earned the title of Preparedness Pro?
If you want the answer to any of those types of questions then feel free to read on; an occasional bit of brain candy never hurt anyone.
I really can’t believe that it’s here already. In fact it’s quite likely that by the time you read this, Doomsday Preppers will have already premiered its first two shows of the season. I actually got a sneak preview 2 days ago of the first two episodes. Watching it was like witnessing the culmination of every bit of work and effort that I, my husband, and so many of my friends endured to make this happen. More importantly it reminded me of the amazing blessings that we received amidst some pretty overwhelming circumstances.
December 18th, 2010approximately 3:30 a.m. I just woke up, wide awake. Nothing was out of the ordinary. Hubby and the dogs were snoring away. What woke me up? Oh yeah. It was a dream; but it seemed like more than a dream. Due to worrying about a couple of family members and personally going through some tough financial times, I was accustomed to waking up due to bad dreams. But I knew that’s not what woke me. This was different. It almost seemed like I was involved in a conversation, not just witnessing a series of events. In this dream I was cooking behind counter and I was so incredibly happy. The colors of the food were so sharp and beautiful. I was cracking jokes, using some great knife skills (that’s definitely the dream part because I have no knife skills) and it seemed like I was giving instructions to someone else on how to cook the dish. There were bright lights all around and then I realized that I was giving cooking instructions on T.V. The next morning I told my husband point blank, said to my husband, “Guess what? I’m going to be cooking on T.V. some day.” No reaction from him other than the pat on the head and the obligatory “yes dear.” *grin*
The associate producer explained that usually each prepper segment focuses primarily on one specific aspect of that particular prepper—something that distinguishes them from other preppers such as alternative energy, a bunker, or alternative medicine. They started out thinking that they were going to focus on my Women of Caliber business in which I teach women exclusively how to defend themselves with a quick-draw self-defense shooting technique. O.K. good enough. I thought they just wanted me to show some of the technique and talk about that. But somehow it evolved into having students there. They actually wanted a good number of them, but I told them that it’s just not safe for me to teach this particular technique to more than 3 at a time. They acquiesced but I felt a lot of pressure to make sure that we gave them something television worthy with just the three gals. They suggested that I get different age groups for that—and they did so less than 2 week prior to the filming. Yikes.
Then they decided that they wanted to feature the non-firearm aspect of my preparedness efforts TOO. Would I be able to get a group of women together for the Feminine Fortress class (rape prevention) so that they could film some of that? Uh, sure. I can find 30 women to drop everything, dress in their workout clothes, discuss the warm fuzzy topic of rape prevention for national T.V. and with less than 2 weeks notice cause that’s normal, right? Oh yeah, and even though I’ve been in pain and in bed a lot of the previous 2 weeks, I’ll be just fine teaching such a class too. Yikes.
“Oh, we had one more thing come up, Kellene.” We want to feature you cooking with food storage to create gourmet dishes. How about a dinner party? Can you put together a dinner party setting for us and create several of your dishes so that we can film you using your food storage? Oh and can we film you preserving some of that food storage that you’ll be using too? Oh yeah, and can the women at the classes be the same women at the dinner party? We’ll do it after you’ve done the firearm instruction and the rape prevention instruction.” Did I mention that I had to cook these dishes using ONLY shelf-stable foods? Nothing that would require refrigeration. And it better be good because you know that if the camera catches someone spitting food into their napkin, that’s the part that’s going to make it on the show!
O.K. Now I start to get really nervous. Usually if I’m throwing a party of that size, I am in the kitchen for 2 days straight; I use some other location because my house won’t fit that many people for a sit down dinner; I spend another week cleaning everything from top to bottom; I make the invitations and send them out 3- 4 weeks in advance followed up with reminders; and usually it takes me a week just to put the menu together as I devour lots and lots of pages out of my cookbooks for inspiration. What’s worse is that not only was I going to have only 4 hours in between the self-defense class and the dinner party to clean up, clean myself up and gussied up all over again, set up place settings, tables, and chairs, and get all of the food prepared for the dinner party, but I was also going to have to share a chunk of that time with the camera answering questions, taking multiple shots of what I was cooking and doing, etc. Holy cow!
I’ve got less than 2 weeks to find 3 women who are willing to learn how to shoot for the first time in front of a camera and who are then willing to join the 30 other women who are willing to sweat like a pig in a self-defense class for a couple of hours and then devote another 3 hours+ of their time while they are being filmed eating. AND let’s not forget the gorilla in the middle of the room—they are doing this for a show that’s relatively unknown and highly suspect to have an agenda to paint preppers as some kind of crazy people. Yup, this will be easy, won’t it?
Did I mention that my husband wasn’t exactly on board with all of this as a result of how things turned out with TLC? My best friend. My confidant. My anchor. Would I have to go through this without him? I think that he always thought that nothing was going to come of it and frankly wasn’t 100% convinced until the camera crew actually showed up on our doorstep.
And since I’m revealing all of the back-story stuff, I should mention that I was incredibly embarrassed to be filmed at my present weight. Grant it I’ve come a long ways but I knew that I still had a hundred pounds to lose and no camera angle, makeup or Spanx was going to hide that. I couldn’t help but wonder if my hope to share a positive message about being independent and self-sufficient would be drowned by the years of fertility drugs, steroids, and whacked out hormones? What could I wear that could cover up, not make me too hot, and not compromise my confidence? How could I get my head in the right place and just not care about that which I couldn’t change overnight? Could I be thick-skinned enough to handle the emboldened rudeness that’s sure to come with this kind of publicity? Anonymity in today’s electronic world is civility’s strongest foe. Not only would I surely be scorned for being crazy but I’ll be mocked about the weight too. I could just imagine the snarky comments that I knew would come, unfiltered by any sense of kindness. “She’s got a year’s supply all right and she carries it with her.” How can a woman like that expect to defend herself?” Unfortunately we live in a society in which a person’s credibility is partially determined by their physical appearance.
Lastly, it was very, very important to me to provide a strong counter image to the stereotypical one that people usually think of when they think of “preppers.” I am blessed to be surrounded by so many fabulous, beautiful, strong and faithful women. I wanted the world to see these regular, everyday classy women who support a self-reliant lifestyle instead of the cliché’ image of the shrill, wild-eyed, matted hair down to their ankles, unfeminine “survivalist” persona that is so often associated with preparedness.
My prayers better make it all the way to heaven because I’m going to need a few miracles. Looking back on all of the pressures that I got advance notice of and knowing perfectly well that there would be other curveballs thrown at me during the course of these two days, I have to say that I’m kind of shocked that I went through with this. I look forward to sharing with you all of the little miracles that came along the way. To be continued…
I’ve loved the commercials, and looked forward to your segment. it was even better than I expected. You are beautiful dear, inside and out (based on what I’ve seen and read)! I just wish I could be closer to participate in some of your workshops. As a teacher wanting to do everything I can to empower young women, I would love to be able to do exactly what you are doing. Have you ever considered franchising?
I look forward to more humor from you! Thanks for sharing of yourself!
Jana
Kellene I gained a massive amount of weight from medical issues, got it off and gained it again for medical issues again. People are so cruel!
You know I have let that stop me so much. I got so pissed off when I saw you. I said if it isn’t stopping her why the heck am I letting it stop me? Do I really believe I have nothing to offer anyone unless I am the perfect size or until I reach it? No!
Thank you!
We only stop ourselves and I’m 100% positive that we ALL have something to contribute. Look at how you just contributed so positively to my day! Seriously.!
Thanks for stopping in to comment.
Hi Kellene…I loved the show, and liked your part the best. Question…encasing the cheese was great! Where do I get the wax? I’m assuming it doesn’t need to be refridgerated..
Thanks from a fan in New Mexico!
Susan, so glad you liked our contribution. If you go to my preparedness site, PreparednessPro.com you’ll find tons of info on the cheesewaxing. Just enter it in the search bar. There’s also a resource guide with a DVD that’s available if you want more in depth info. (Found in the Prep Pro Classes tab) Also, I post a lot of additional things in the Preparedness Pro group on Facebook.
Dear kellene,
My husband and I have learned so much from you and your husband. We have recorded your segment and are disecting it. We have been planning for about nine months, but we’ve been moving pretty slowly. We have two boys 11 & 13, and their lives keep us busy. Seeing you and your husband working as a team, reminded us of, well, us. But it also showed us where were are extremely lacking. We need to move faster. We ordered the Food Saver machine and plan on using it for whatever we can. I am currently looking into the bulk food purchasing (Emergency Essentials). My husband is currently stocking up on our ammo. I love how you showed many different avenues where we need to be prepared; water, food, protection (guns, ammo, hand to hand), cooking, planning and rotation. From eggs to ammo; we appreciate you knowledge, and sharing it with us. I love you as a person for caring enough to share your knowledge with others and also I’m sure when the TIME comes, you’ll be the perfect hostess in your castle. The good folk that will stumble upon you will be blessed. The evil folk…well, they’ll just be S.O.L.
Thank you again!
*cringe* May I suggest that you order from Honeyville Farms instead of Emergency Essentials. They have an unparallelled selection and the people who work there actually know their preparedness stuff! The prices are much better and the quality is definitely MUCH better. I loathe Emergency Essentials, personally.
Ok. Now that I’ve saved you from a fate worse than death–hee hee–let me thank you SO much for taking the time to write such kind words! I really, really do appreciate it! I think you’ll like the 10 Principles of Preparedness that I base everything on my site. It shows which principles are relevant to a self-reliant life and which order of prioritization they fall in. Best wishes in your efforts of self-sufficiency.
I think you did an incredible job at demonstrating the fact that no matter one’s physical make-up or body type, anyone can be effective at self-defense. Not only did you open the eyes of women to this fact you did it for men as well. I imagine that many assumptions thugs and criminals may have had toward ‘easy’ targets have vanished! It really was an important lesson for everyone to learn.
Hmm..I never thought about the message being pertinent to men before. Thanks for the food for thought.
We will check into Honeyville Farms asap. We hadn’t ordered from Emergency Essentials yet. Thank you Kellene, for the heads up.
Kellene Thanks for the great tip on eggs. That was a new one for me. Keep up the good work teaching others how to prepare for what will come eventually, none of us will know what will be the cause or when just that it’s highly likely. I am just getting started on my preps but already feel better knowing that I am at least planning.
Thanks again
I’ve will link you site to mine also http://www.survivingoffgrid.com (no laughing it’s new and I am working on content)
You and your husband are my favorites preppers on the show so far! Your well rounded approach to prepping is wonderful and the two of you are as cute as can be! You are exactly the kind of people who will help others see how important and normal it is to be prepared as much as possible. I love your tips; I know I have a lot to learn. As part of my prep I am increasing my personal library — a world without books would be pretty sad. Am also adding things like coloring books and colored pencils and small stuffed toys. They may come in handy someday to comfort a child. I think anyone can prep and everyone should — good for you for showing it can be done with humor and grace!
Yes, we are well rounded, but we’re working on that. *grin* I’m a total book-a-holic. I hardly ever make time to read fiction anymore. I’m always buried in a reference book or a cookbook or something doctrinal. When it’s back to school time, I get a lot of the items you described for free or very, very cheap thanks to the coupons that come out at the same time and the competition for that business. We’ve managed to put some of those things aside for varied purposes.
Thanks for your kind words! The world needs more of those going around.
I have to say that when I have watched the show on NatGeo… I hate it!! When my husband put it on last night, I cringed!! When your segment came on, I was amazed!! you were the only person so far that I didn’t think was a nut job and needed to be on medication. Honestly, you made me feel like prepping like you do is the way to go. I would love to learn how to do canning. Do you have any info you can guide me to?
I hope that what Ive said has not been offensive, but some of the people I see on the show do seem a bit “extreme”!!
Laura
Gosh Kellene, I didn’t know about your show until Feb 16th. (I don’t have TV.) Because I am known in my homeschool group as a prepper, another homeschooler told me about your show.
Your show was wonderful. I appreciate that you allowed NatlGeo into your life. You are a wonderful example of how prepping is practical, necessary and not outside of anyone’s ability to do. I only buy on sale. Stocking up has been a great money saver, not crazy.
I have been trying to explain prepping for years. It has been only recently that I have noticed apathy being pushed aside with concern and folks are waking up.
I have been teaching solar cooking to help my community understand how easy it is and how it can drastically lower an electric bill. Recently I have been demonstrating the rocket stove. Little by little I am making myself learn how to be self reliant and teaching my neighbors. I want my neighbors prepared. I think we will fair better if we all get our act together, together. I have decades of notes I am getting ready to post to my blog in order to help my community.
I am also turning what I learn into science fair projects for my son. He had a wonderful time testing and tweaking the rocket stove and got a lot of positive attention at the science fair. His presentation caused others to feel it was a doable project for them.
I am also overweight due to medical issues. Before my injury I competed in fighting in martial arts. I am sure no one would guess that the short, fat, limping version of me is quite capable of being lethal.
I loved reading your comment. I don’t know if you’re aware of this, but learning for the purpose of teaching others enhances what we learn. So that fact that you’re learning and later teaching is fabulous not only for those who receive your message but for you as well!
So, injury–guess it’s time for you to take up firearms. 🙂 It’s the great equalizer. All seriousness aside, I’d love to communicate with you directly and see if some of what I’ve learned regarding alternative care might be of use to you.
I try to prepare my neighbors relentlessly. You could say it’s for purely selfish reasons if you think about it. The more they are prepared, the less burden falls on those who are. 🙂
All my prepping is framed in homeschool science lessons and practical money-saving practices. Eventually I will form a homeschool science club that focuses on these things. My son and I have a lot of fun demonstrating our science projects. I started my blog to help explain what we are doing and to point to others doing similar projects.
I was teaching solar cooking during the summer. Now my son (age 11) is teaching about rocket stoves. He did a demo yesterday, and will do another today at a park play date.
My hip broke when my child was born and the surgery is the only thing that will fix it. Surgeons recommend that I put off surgery. While I wait for technology to improve, I have learned inflammation management is my pain management. Among the regular tips for inflammation, I discovered the mallow ( a common weed) growing my yard has anti-inflammatory properties that have helped me a lot.
What natural solutions have you found that help reduce inflammation? I bet there are lurkers wanting an answer to this question so I left this conversation public.
So when are you going to give us an update on what’s happening after the show. It has prompted me to make several changes in my life. I am working on getting my supplies and learning how to can also. I will be getting a gun for self defense this week. Spent a couple of hours target shooting last weekend so now I want my own gun.
I also have quite a bit of stuff on order so I feel I will be better prepared for whatever happens in the future be it a man made issue or natural disaster!
Ooops! I should have read my first post before responding. I didn’t intend to repeat myself so much! Sorry about that. My schedule is intense at this moment. It will be less so after March.
Kellene,
I loved your segment on the show! I think you did a fabulous job. My husband and I are empty-nesters but we feel it’s important to prepare to be able to support the whole family should the need arise, so six kids and (so far) eight granchildren. We are only in the very beginning stages of planning to prepare and have your site bookmarked to start reading, studying, and planning how best to proceed.
I just have one question about your segment. You were making a sauce for something for your dinner party, and you said something bout adding a bit of butter to it because “butter makes the sauce.” So, is there a way to make shelf-stable butter? I’m pretty sure we’re not going to end up with enough land to own a cow, so knowing how to store something like butter for long-term storage would be invaluable. Thanks for any info you can provide.
Angela
Yup, you can can butter. I have step by step directions on the blog wwww.preparednesspro.com Just put the words “canning butter” and you should have two specific articles come up. You can have a lot of fun with our search bar as there are hundreds of original written articles posted on our blog. Enjoy!! And thanks for your kind words!
Kellene,
What?????? You’re over weight?? I didnt even notice:) You are absolutely beautiful:) Besides, who’s standard is NORMAL anyway? Did I mention that I’m extremely fair skinned, it doesn’t look fab in a thong in the summer. You are a fabulous human being making a difference in this world. God bless you for sharing your knowledge with the rest of us. I appreciate learning so much from you. I want to be your new best friend:) I will enjoy following your blog. and thank you for ALL the hard work that you and your husband put forth for a tremedous show!
Girl, you are my hero! You are so cute and personable – such an adorable homemaker.. until you get in that gym and start kickin’ tail! I want to be just like you! As a native southerner I, of course, have been raised around guns and ammo, so that’s nothing new. However, I’ve just started preparing for what I believe to be an inescapable economic collapse. I use coupons to my advantage to get the most bang for my buck, and I’ve built up a pretty good food store in the past few months, but it pales in comparison to your pantry/guest bedroom! Watching your segment has added multiple items to my bug-in/out to do list: oiling my eggs, canning, self defense without firearms, and gourmet cooking are just a few. Thank you so much for sharing your story despite your concerns; you have definitely lit a fire under me!
I’m so glad that you found information that’s valuable to you! Be sure to join us over at Preparednesspro.com. OK? 🙂
Kellene –
How amazing that they gave you the same sort of notice on what they wanted you to do as they did to us. Luckily for you, you were filming at home. We did a lot of filming ourselves in the truck while we were moving and then had to coordinate the rest of the filming that was done in Albuquerque through Martin’s brother. Then the week we were in Albuquerque I got sick and was stuck in bed. I was still sick on the last day of filming, but got up so we could do the parts that we had set aside for me. Oh the things we do in order to spread our message.
Exactly! I was in major pain, you were battling cancer, one of the other wives had her wisdom teeth removed the day before and another wife was recovering from BRAIN SURGERY as a result of brain cancer–and yet these women did all of this because they wanted their 15 minutes of fame? Yeah, right. Try selling that at a Occupy Wall Street party–they’ll believe anything.
Woman! I wish that you were my neighbor. My youngest son told me about your segment because I like to cook. You are the reason I started watching the show. I also now see this as something my family should get moving on. I was raised in the country and my parents were pretty self sufficient. My mother did a lot of canning and freezing home grown food. They also cured their own pork. I remember Momma canning cooked sausage. I thought that was so weird. But, I have been a city girl for thirty fives years now and have gotten used to the grocery store being five minutes away. I am going to your web site now. Thank you for sharing your life and your smarts. Preserving the eggs was beyond kool!
I am your neighbor, just a little farther than most. 🙂
Kellene,
I just saw the show and this was the first article that I have read on your website so I’ll save any questions for after I go read your articles on shooting and on water. But, I wanted to tell you that other messages in this blog post are as powerful, especially for women, as your “technical” messages. I believe that women can be our own worst obstacle when it comes to learning or teaching, because we think, “Am I fill-in-the-blank enough to learn/teach that?”. I appreciate that you had some reservations, as you have mentioned in this post, and that despite those reservations you go forward with teaching and sharing. Look how many women are learning from you that they can learn anything, and that they can teach anything of which they have a firm understanding. They (we) don’t have to meet a fictitious standard in their mind in order to be extremely effective and to make huge differences. I think that for as harshly as women judge themselves, one of the lessons in this blog post can be the key that opens up the world of opportunities for women. As an ex-military, gun-owning, jiu-jitsu practicing, CrossFit trainer, I appreciate the segments on teaching women to shoot and on self defense; those reactions were priceless.
Very inspiring…keep on!!
BTW, If it is mentioned somewhere else, I will find it, but if not, what is your favorite book on tactical firearm handling? I’ve taken a few tactical firearm courses and I’ve got some notes from them, but I would love to read a more reference type of book on the fundamentals of pistol shooting and not rely on my post-course brain dumps.