Support that meets you where you are.
Every office is different. Your resources, your hazards, your team size, your timeline — none of it is the same as the community down the road. Our services are built to be useful whether you're starting from scratch or trying to close specific gaps.
What if no one is coming?
That's not a hypothetical. For a lot of small and rural emergency management offices, mutual aid is limited, federal resources take time, and you may be the only experienced person in the room.
The question isn't whether your community deserves support. The question is: what system can you build right now, with what you have, that will hold when it matters most?
Everything we offer is designed to answer that question. The tools, the frameworks, the coaching — they're all built for the office that can't wait for a cavalry that may not come.
The Disaster Resilience Blueprint:
Flagship Product
The DRB Playbook is a complete, self-guided system for building an emergency management program that works — even without extra staff, outside support, or a budget that matches your responsibilities. It is built for the solo EM, the new coordinator, the office that's been patching things together for years and finally wants a foundation that holds.
What's Inside: The Playbook walks you through five phases of work over 90 days. Each phase builds on the last. You don't need to complete it all at once — it's designed to fit inside a real workload.
-
Days 1 through 15 Start with an honest baseline. What plans exist and which ones are actually current? Who are your real contacts — the ones who will answer on a Sunday? What hazards are you facing and how prepared are you for each one?
-
Days 16 through 30 Using the Minimum Viable Emergency Management (MVEM) framework, you'll identify your highest-priority functions and build the essential plans, documentation, and resource pathways to support them. This phase is about doing enough of the right things — not everything.
-
Days 31 through 45 The Hidden Capacity Framework. Your community has more resources than a government database will show you. This phase maps what's actually available: government partners, private sector relationships, community organizations, and individual human capital that isn't labeled as an emergency resource.
-
Item description
-
Days 76 through 90 Building something that outlasts you. Annual calendars, corrective action tracking, a funding pipeline, and a plan for keeping your systems current even when the workload spikes.
Inside the Playbook, you'll find three proprietary frameworks:
Minimum Viable Emergency Management (MVEM) — identify and protect your highest-priority functions first.
The Hidden Capacity Framework — map what your community already has, before you go looking for outside resources.
The Documentation Defense System — build the documentation habits that protect FEMA reimbursement, support grant applications, and create defensible records before a disaster happens.
Who This Is For: The DRB Playbook is right for you if you're managing an office with limited staff, working in a rural, tribal, or under-resourced community, or trying to build a formal system where one doesn't fully exist yet. It's a starting point and a roadmap, not a credential program.
Availability Note: The DRB Playbook is launching soon. Add your name to the list to be notified when it's available — and to get early access pricing.
Full Product Stack
Find the level of support that fits your situation.
Every office is different. Some need a self-guided tool they can work through independently. Some need a live cohort with accountability and office hours. Some need a full consulting partner embedded in their work for 90 days. We have all of it, and the pricing is designed to reflect the real financial constraints of small and under-resourced offices.
-
$97–$297 — PDF download
A complete, 90-day self-guided system. Five phases, three branded frameworks, decision tools, and a full roadmap. Designed for the EM who can do the work independently but needs a structure that holds.
Best for: solo EMs, new coordinators, offices that want a starting framework before investing in more intensive support.
-
$497–$1,500 — six-module video course
Six video modules, each with slides, worksheets, and a consistent fictional example — Bear Creek County — that follows the DRB process from orientation to full implementation. Designed for offices that learn well from structured instruction and want to go deeper than the Playbook alone.
Best for: small EM offices wanting structured learning, offices building a team and needing sharable training, coordinators who want both the framework and the instruction.
-
$2,000–$8,000+ — 90-day live program
A guided 90-day cohort: live sessions, weekly office hours, and the DRB process worked through alongside other emergency managers in similar situations. Accountability, peer learning, and expert facilitation in one program.
Best for: offices that want structure and live support without a full consulting engagement, EMs who benefit from working alongside peers, offices ready to implement but wanting guidance along the way.
-
$15,000–$50,000+ — 90-day implementation partnership
A full consulting engagement. We assess, plan, document, train, and build alongside you for 90 days. At the end, you own everything — 15 major deliverables, 300 to 400 pages of editable documentation, a completed exercise program, and systems built to run without a consultant.
Best for: offices with significant capacity gaps, those working toward accreditation, communities facing complex hazard environments or significant federal compliance requirements.
Pricing Note: Our fees are equity-adjusted based on population, income levels, emergency management budget, and cost of living. No office is turned away for inability to pay. Pro bono, phased payment, and grant-funded arrangements are available. Talk to us.
Pricing Note: Our fees are equity-adjusted based on population, income levels, emergency management budget, and cost of living. No office is turned away for inability to pay. Pro bono, phased payment, and grant-funded arrangements are available. Talk to us.
Grant Funding Note:
Many of our consulting engagements are grant-eligible. We provide documentation to support reimbursement and can help you identify potential funding sources before you commit. Ask about this on your first call.
Not sure where to start?
That's a normal place to be. A 30-minute conversation is usually enough to get a clear picture of what your office needs and whether we're the right fit. There's no pitch, no pressure, and no expectation that you'll hire us.
If you're an EM working in a rural, tribal, or under-resourced community, we especially want to hear from you. That's who this is built for.
Prefer email? Reach us at issa@vagabondconsultants.com
Vagabond Consulting Co. does not serve California jurisdictions due to a conflict of interest with current professional affiliations.
Values / Working Principles
How we work together.
Partnership, not prescription. We don't come in with a plan and hand it to you. We build it with you. Your community's context, your constraints, and your knowledge of your own people and hazards are essential to the work.
Plain language. Federal jargon stays in federal documents. Everything we write for your office is in plain, accessible language — because clarity is a form of respect.
Editable, client-owned. You receive every deliverable in editable formats. There are no licensing restrictions. You can modify, share, and use the work however serves your community.
Equity-adjusted pricing. Our fees are based on your community's actual capacity to pay. We don't turn away offices because their budget is small. We find a way.
No dependency. The goal is for you to not need us anymore. Every engagement is designed to leave you better equipped than we found you.