Cool that you are both from St. Louis. So, what high school did you guys go to? KIDDING! 
Natalie
I fail the “Are you from Missouri” question first, so nobody asks me the high school question.
But I thought I’d suggest that it can help talking preps if you focus on the left side of the threat matrix. These are the short term, localized, far more frequent kind of things as opposed to the right side of the threat matrix. And all the left side preps will help right side preps. For example:
Sheeple: My power was out yesterday and we couldn't open our fridge.
Me: You couldn't just run your generator every once in a while? Oh wait, you don't have one. Even if your power is only out for a day it would be nice to not worry about food going bad.
Sheeple: That ice storm knocked out our power so we didn't have heat for 3 days. No problem though as we went to stay with relatives.
Me: Good thing that worked out. That nice fireplace upgrade we did a few years ago? Not only does it save on our heating bills but it can keep us warm without the furnace.
Sheeple: You buy gold?
Me: It's a hedge against inflation-based currency devaluation. If the dollar drops in value this affects most of my dollar based investments. If that happens, hopefully gold becomes more valuable and partially offsets the loss of value in USD.
Sheeple: And you buy physical gold but you know you can’t eat gold?
Me: It's easy to do and I just throw it in a safety deposit box so the only recurring fee is the cost of the box.
Some people still roll their eyes at these kind of things, but a few might not.