How To Build A Business That Survives Any Crisis (with Erika Andresen)

April 22, 2026

Erika Andresen, JD, CBCP, MPA, is a recognized expert and consultant in Business Continuity. She has nearly two decades of experience as a lawyer in both the corporate finance world and the military. Erika became a subject matter expert in national security and disaster preparedness and response while advising different commands including during high-risk situations while deployed in Afghanistan and in response to natural disasters. Erika left active duty in 2020 and started EaaS Consulting, LLC, with the goal of keeping businesses in business. She is also a professor of emergency management for the MPA program at the University of Texas at El Paso.

In this episode, she and Tom discuss why many businesses fail to anticipate disruptions. From natural disasters and cyberattacks to equipment failures, permit issues, or sudden staffing loss, businesses are often much more exposed in ways they never thought to consider. Erika stresses that preparedness comes from creating, training on, and exercising a usable plan, not a long template that creates false security.

She outlines three client types (proactive “unicorns,” crisis-driven, and compliance-forced), describes her audit-to-playbook process, and highlights common gaps like untested backups, power outage impacts, staff accountability, and vendor resilience.

This episode is for anyone who’d rather do a little work now to be prepared rather than a lot of work later should catastrophe strike.

DISCUSSED IN THIS EPISODE

02:58 Why Businesses Get Blindsided

04:31 Disasters vs Disruptions

05:31 Where To Start Planning

05:50 Three Types Of Clients

07:54 Beware Checkbox Plans

08:50 Make Plans Short and Usable

10:13 Backups That Fail

11:27 Test Your Gear Early

14:03 Empowerment And Control

14:58 Government Won’t Save You