Get High at Work!

Search + Rescue

Written by

Kevin Sandlin

in

This past weekend, I joined 21 of my fellow Georgia State Defense Force volunteer soldiers at Camp Merrill for Search And Rescue Specialist II (SARII) training.

We slept in tents, enjoying the 36° nights and 70° sunny days in the north Georgia Mountains. We learned. We embraced the suck. We became friends, and leaned on one another to get through the first of six grueling weekends to earn our SAR Tab.

In the attached image, on the left you see my “gear dump”, which consists of 61 specific items that have to go into our “SAR Kit” that we wear every minute of every day for the duration of training.

So, we are taught that “ounces are pounds, and pounds are pain.” We learn that lesson first hand during the “work capacity test”, in which we must walk 2 miles in less than 30 minutes carrying a minimum of 30lbs in our pack.

We’ve known since August that this has been coming. We’ve known since August that we have to have very specific items purchased, configured, packed, balanced, ready to use, and within hand’s reach, because you simply do not know what you will need or when you’ll need it.

But everything has to work exactly when you need it. Knowing that, you make a plan, a list of your gear, where it is, how much of each item you need and have, and exactly how to get to it exactly when you need it.

Sound familiar? That’s how it is when you’re building or moving into a new work facility, knowing without even thinking about it that you are 100% going to need:

• To control who has access to the facility
• To bring blindingly fast Wi-Fi to every square inch
• To cover the important spots with 4k security cameras
• To make your Zoom Rooms or Teams Rooms “CEO proof” (IYKYK)
• To ensure sound privacy between offices and conference rooms

Some of these, you and your coworkers will utilize every day without a second thought (Wi-Fi, card key access, sound masking). Other things, you get nervous about using because you’re not sure if you’re gonna do it right or if that big beautiful TV is going to show your long-awaited PowerPoint perfectly or not! Yay A/V!

But you’ve known for months that you’ll need all of this low voltage service.

Move-in day is coming. Are you prepared? Do you have an LV plan?

If you do, then your “gear list” will enable you to enjoy your new facility like a beautiful autumn morning in the North Georgia Mountains.

Comments

Leave a comment

More from Kevin

  • Try a sample, then eat the whole cake

    Have you ever seen a big tasty-looking carrot cake in the window of a bakery, then run in and bought that $21.99 carrot cake, and then you get home, nuke a piece, dive in, and…ugh. That’s how my grandmother made carrot cake!! Where are the raisins? It’s so dry! But you bought the whole cake, and…

  • 4 Steps to Determine How Well You Know Your Brand

    This post originally appeared on the General Assembly Digital Marketing Blog. How well do you know your brand? DO you know your brand? Actually, “brand” is an uncomfortable topic for many startup founders and small business owners, simply because they weren’t thinking about their brand when they started. It’s not a knock on them. Every entrepreneur…

  • It’s easier – and better – for someone else to tell your story

    Since transitioning from a simple content aggregation publication into a content marketing service, I’ve had dozens of meetings with entrepreneurs and marketers about “telling their story.” A consistent pattern has emerged out of those meetings that has become predictable in all my initial consultations with potential clients: It’s easier for me to tell your story…

  • How and Why to Segment Your Website Audience

    This post originally appeared on the General Assembly Digital Marketing Blog. When you go shopping for new clothes, online or in a brick and mortar store, which section do you hit first, the men’s or the women’s clothing? Good. OK, when you need a new power cord for your computer or smartphone, do you go…

  • 4 Steps to Predictable Marketing Outcomes

    One of the greatest achievements in starting a business is when you reach the point at which you can conduct a marketing campaign and predict with great confidence the outcome of the campaign, regardless of the end goal. When you can accurately predict the outcome of each individual marketing effort, you can then grow your…

  • Digital marketing summed up in six simple points

    Last Thursday, I led a 2-hour version of the six hour version of the 10-week Digital Marketing class at General Assembly. I really enjoy teaching these short, impactful sessions that serve as great introductions or primers for folks who want to learn to talk the talk in Digital Marketing or determine if they’d like to…

  • Digital Marketing 101: Glossary of Digital Marketing Terms

    This post originally published on the General Assembly Digital Marketing Blog. 1. Analytics – information resulting from the systematic analysis of data or statistics. In digital marketing, analytics is the information resulting from systematic analysis of data gathered from marketing activity such as email marketing, landing page A/B testing, or Google Adwords purchases. 2. Average…

  • Digital Marketing 101: Creating Your Digital Marketing Calendar

    This post originally published on the General Assembly Digital Marketing Blog. This post is part of our Digital Marketing 101 series. Sign up to get the full series! Everything we’ve discussed so far in this Digital Marketing 101 series has focused on what to do and a bit about how to do it. But in…

  • Digital Marketing 101: Understanding the Digital Marketing Funnel

    This post originally published on the General Assembly Digital Marketing Blog. When we started our latest session of Digital Marketing at General Assembly’s Atlanta campus, I told the class, “the term ‘digital marketing’ is a misnomer. It’s marketing, but we focus on getting our message to our audience digitally. But it’s still marketing.” What I…