About Us

Joseph Krueger says . . .

“I’ve got over 25 years’ experience in general management and marketing consulting, and have held every title from Sales Manager to Creative Director, to Executive Vice President, President and CEO.

Throughout my career I’ve had a special interest in planning for — and how to avoid — business emergencies.

I’ve actually developed emergency planning programs for all kinds of businesses.  Some samples:

• As an electronics engineer-turned counterintelligence agent, I was Resident Agent of the US Army Intelligence Service in Northeastern France during the Cold War years of 1961-63.
• Later, I held a Class A Investigator’s License in California and served as President of an industrial security organization.
• In the 90s, one of our most successful direct marketing campaigns was an emergency preparedness program for Fortune 1,000 companies.  The step-by-step campaign was so appealing to corporate executives that over the course of nine months it received an over-60% response rate and resulted in sales of millions of dollars of business continuity systems.

Today, I continue to train in the field.  I’ve completed the Community Emergency Response Team course (CERT), FEMA ICS – 100, Introduction to the Incident Command System, the FEMA IS – 700 National Incident Management, FEMA IS – 250 Emergency Support Functions, IS – 288 The Role of Voluntary Agencies in Emergency Management and a variety of Red Cross Courses in Shelter Management.  I also hold a General Class Amateur Radio Operator’s License (KI6VUX) and have all kinds of radios, antennas, and other emergency gear!  (You’ll see my Advisories about them.)”

Virginia Nicols writes . . .

That’s what I do, is write!  I’ve worked with Joe and The Marketing Machine® since 1984.

Among my many awards for direct response copywriting is one that is particularly relevant here — a Gold Echo award as editor and lead writer on a comprehensive Disaster Recovery Program for large business.

Since about 2001, I have written extensively on personal emergency planning and preparedness, and I continue to participate in local CERT trainings.  I’ve completed the Community Emergency Response Team course (CERT), FEMA ICS – 100, Introduction to the Incident Command System, and FEMA IS – 700 National Incident Management.

As you’ll discover, I am a word-lover and language enthusiast, with a degree in French from University of California Berkeley, conversational German from having lived in Germany for five years, and enough Spanish to get by in a couple of environments including promoting energy efficiency to apartment dwellers!

I’m the one who’s responsible for most of the blog posts on this website.  Contact me or Joe with comments and questions!

P.S. I came across an old photo of me from high school — and most certainly, not the photo you might expect!  Check out the photo, and my story about what REALLY made me get involved in preparedness!

UPDATE:  Since 2004 I have been part of an active neighborhood Emergency Response Team.  You’ll see real-life reports on that group’s activities posted as part of our regular series of Advisories. Even more of those activities are included in our book series. If you don’t want to miss any of them, sign up below!