Phil Burns

Born in California and raised in Utah, Missouri and Tennessee, Phil married Adria Burns at age 19 and shortly thereafter, joined the United States Air Force. After serving 4 years, he and his wife stayed in Utah to raise their family while Phil built a career as a software engineer. Having been raised by self-reliant parents, Phil and Adria raised their 8 children in a similar manner; living on a farm and focusing on being able to support themselves regardless of what happened. Phil has been teaching preparedness to others for many years and in 2008 helped create Utah Preppers, a website about preparedness and living a self-reliant lifestyle. During this time, he produced preparedness videos for YouTube as well as a podcast for Preppers. His online efforts to teach Prepping to the mainstream led him to be involved with and eventually become an owner of the American Preppers Network, the largest online network of members and sites, and to serve as their Chief Technology Officer. After working with several television personalities while teaching preparedness and survival courses with OnPoint Tactical, Phil developed an interest in working with television. In 2011 he started working with Base Productions and Animal Planet to develop what would become Meet the Preppers. After over a year of working on the project, it was finally aired on Animal Planet in February, 2012. After finishing work on the show, Phil began working on a book about Prepping while continuing to create preparedness content online.