They say the two best ways to succeed are to find a mentor, and to be a mentor. Of course, the second one usually comes only after you’ve succeeded a little already. One man doing both of those things is Andy Murphy, a/k/a The Secure Dad.
Andy is doing what I do, with a slightly narrower focus than Safest Family on the Block but going much, much deeper into the areas of his concern. His stuff, and there’s a lot of it, is some of the highest quality information about the security side of family safety. That’s why I was so thrilled when he agreed to come on the show. And I’m deeply honored by and thankful of the advice, mentorship, and support he’s given the show since he and I met.
Today, I want to familiarize you with all the stuff Andy has to offer. He’s not paying me to do this, and it’s not part of some kind of sponsorship or affiliate thing. I’m telling you about him and his offerings because he’s a good guy doing good things in the world.
Just the Facts
Andy brands himself as The Secure Dad, and that sums up perfectly what he does and why. Andy’s general topic is family safety, just like me, but he leans more deeply into the security aspects: cameras for the home, situational awareness, crime prevention, a home invasion plan, etc. He interviews top-level police, military, and private security professionals and has taken hundreds of hours of classes on the tactics, trends, and technologies of keeping the family secure.
Don’t get me wrong. He does touch on the other stuff, too — for example this great disaster preparedness guide he’s made available for free — but his real love is the tactical element of family safety. He believes strongly that final responsibility for our safety (and our family’s) lies on us, the parents, and challenges us all to fulfill that responsibility.
The Website
You can find Andy at his website TheSecureDad.com. It’s a central location for all the things I describe below, and includes a very detailed and helpful blog. If you want to know more about Andy, check out the “Mission” page’s About section, which says…
The world is a beautiful place for your family. But sometimes it can be a scary out there. Your family deserves to be happy and safe. That’s why The Secure Dad focuses on family protection, home security and the enjoyment of parenting.
It’s a good attitude to have about keeping family safe. I respect and admire it.
The Challenge
Andy has a lot of great content and knowledge on his site, but the place to start is with his 5-Day Challenge. It’s exactly what it sounds like, a five-day course where you spend an hour or so each day to make your home substantively safer by the end of that work week.
It’s free (well, you give him your contact information, but it’s well worth that price), and one of the best free intro courses available in this industry.
The Book(s)
Andy wrote a book: Home Security: The Secure Dad's Guide: Easy Home Defense Techniques to Keep Your Family Safe. It’s a short guide to…well…um…home security, home defense techniques, and keeping your family safe. I review it on the show here.
Besides that main book, he has also produced a number of shorter, topic-specific guides you can download from the site. Andy’s a good writer, and knows his stuff at a level few people his age even have the time to develop.
The Podcast
The Secure Dad podcast comes in two flavors. About half of them are deep dives, where Andy distills what he’s learned recently into easy to apply advice for parent protectors. The other half consist of long-form interviews with safety experts of all stripes. They typically last 10 to 30 minutes.
Some of my favorite recent episodes include:
I can confidently say that Andy has the second best family safety podcast operating today…but he can probably say the same thing about me. :-)
The COURSE
Andy’s course Unlocked is his first of what will likely be many family safety courses he’s starting to put out into the world. This is a 101-level introduction to everything from situational awareness, to crime prevention, to setting up a secure home network. He does that limited access thing, so you’ll need to check on his website for whether or not it’s open again yet.
THE NEWSLETTER
The Secure Dad Field Notes is Andy’s newsletter, where he tells subscribers what he’s been learning and thinking about on a weekly basis. You know what newsletters are, and you know how easy it is to just let them slide into your spam because you’ve got several dozen coming in every week, and who has time for that?
I’m subscribed to probably 50 newsletters of one kind or another. Andy’s is one of four I read absolutely without fail.
Andy and Jason, Sittin’ in a Tree…
You’ve probably figured out by now that I sort of like this guy. Andy’s good stuff, and we work and play well together. You can see it for yourself in out two-part episode where we talk about the things we’ve each learned in our journeys as experts in the family safety field: