Unlocking Safe Secrets with The Safe Gal Cookie Tanney

This is The Secure Family Podcast. Welcome friend. I'm Andy Murphy, the host and the founder of The Secure Dad. This show is all about empowering parents to protect themselves and their family. I believe that security is the foundation of happiness, and I want your family to be safe and happy. If that sounds like something that really resonates with you, subscribe to the show because there's always something new to talk about.

My name is Cookie Tanney and I am the owner of The Safe Gal and Kaynine Safe Company.

Very cool. So what got you started in the safe industry?

In college I was a metal art major and I grew up in a machine shop, so I. Learning how to ride a bike in a machine shop and things like that is not the norm, but I've always been very interested in metal. And yeah, it's pretty random, but when I had moved back from college, I was working in my dad's machine shop and he had made safes from time to time and they just were not. Up to par. I guess you could say. And so I said what if I start making safes and I'm, I, we made one for a charity.

Oh yeah, no

That's where I started the journey and

That's

dad, what do you think if I make safes? And he said I don't know why you would want to, but if you want to go for it. So there I went.

Very cool. I like that. 'cause I think every safe I've ever seen has been black gray or hunter green. So Yeah. That's awesome that you were like, Hey, let's just do something different.

Yeah, the people were, we, when we donate things like that it's to bring money into the charity, and my immediate thought was you've donated this big safe and it was for a quarter of its cost. Who's it helping? And then we gotta deliver it. And these things are heavy, so it just wasn't making sense. So in a lot of ways I was just like, this can be so improved upon. It's just a metal box, but we can totally make it better. And then, everyone thought I was crazy, but here I am.

Very cool. So what has happened since that first safe that you made to now bring us up into, to what has happened in your world?

so once I knew I wanted to do this, I just, I knew immediately like I need to know everything about the safe. So I need to know how they're drilled. I need to know how the locking mechanisms work. The, what the steel thickness is. How are we fire lighting? Because I knew it was gonna be questioned, and I have been questioned, immensely over the years. As if you, maybe you just see me and you think I don't know anything about it, which is fine. I enjoy that kind of.

Yeah, because it seems it's such an important thing and people are gonna wanna make sure that, like you said, that the product is really good and breaking into the industry is. That takes a lot of guts to do something like that. Does it 'cause like I'm an entrepreneur as well. Like I get it. For the entrepreneurs who are listening, what was it like stepping out from the business side of this and saying, this is what I want to do and I'm going to change my corner of the industry.

Yeah, obviously there's a lot of, I wouldn't say necessarily backlash, but like at shows, there's a lot of putting me down. Like I, again, I don't know what I'm talking about or I, you already have a safe at home and it's this great, or it's, is, and there's really no training to get into this industry. 'cause who could tell me how to do it better or different? There's not, there's like really only five companies in the United States that are truly American made.

That, that, that would, that probably wouldn't go well.

No, but it's definitely scary 'cause it's, there's no. A lot in most businesses there's no like rule book, right? And you gotta figure it out on your own and to a certain degree. But selling something American made for a price, when you're dealing with a lot of things that are not American made that are quarter of the price is difficult 'cause you're consistently having to explain why. And then you have the great customers who already did the research and they know why.

And yeah I've only known you for a few minutes here, and I think that is I've really gotta, I gotta, show this guy that he's wrong here, so That's awesome. I appreciate that.

Yeah.

All right you talked about, the safe industry and the kind of being a saturated market. Tell me the truth. Here.

They'll work for a, I don't know, a couple of times. Is the best way to put it, right? I've seen those kind of safes where the batteries are located inside of the safe. So you know what? You have to pry it open when they die.

Yeah, of them come a bad idea. right, or they come with extra keys and they think, a lot of people think, Ooh, an extra key. It's a backup. I feel safe. To be honest, a lot of people lose that key and then what, that's majority of the time they lose the key, but no, they don't work. You could just pick it up and also run off with it. Look, I'd rather you have your gun in anything than nothing, in something than nothing, sure.

but. Realistically, if you've got it in your nightstand, someone else, can go and find it in your nightstand, pop it open with a screwdriver, and here we are. Or just take the whole thing.

Yeah.

I do not recommend them, but again,

Sure. Get that and yeah, like having the batteries on the inside, that doesn't seem like a good idea. Or, if the like the lever on the front is made outta plastic, that sort of stuff, that just doesn't evoke a lot of confidence. You need confidence in a safe, right?

Absolutely. And like the ones that will come technology is cool, but like fingerprints I don't love those. I'll, I use them, certain brands, but on these ones where you're not, you're not spending a lot of money and it does have the fingerprint option. Think about like when the phones first came out. It was, did it work all the time? Not like half the time it didn't. So in an emergency, what if it's not working? You're gonna want something that's obviously more reliable.

Yeah. And I feel like there's a lot of times in this industry, and this is just from my outsider point of view, like if it's not broken, don't fix it. Like safes have been around forever and people are trying to put like the fingerprint things on it, or like a different scanner, RFID, and that requires power and all that sort of stuff. Th those are cool, but that doesn't necessarily make you any safer, right?

Absolutely. I use that like term all the time when I'm trying to explain to people about the locks. I like to use. I like to use like, it's called a D Drive lock. And it has a mechanical feature to it. So you're controlling it by, when you enter your number, you're spinning the dial and that's retracting your lock. It takes out the solenoid ver, parts of a lock where you just enter your code and it goes, back to your point, if it's not broke, don't fix it.

yeah. I have that sa I'm right there with you. Especially like a lock on a house. If it's got Bluetooth or there's a way that somebody can open that door without being in front of it, that makes me really nervous.

me as well. So I think you just keep, go back to the, like the bare the basics. You and I also, a lot of people don't like, if you still want the mechanical dial, I install them, as, people get older, it's harder to see, it's even harder for me to see and if you're just off, you got a bit, you gotta turn it all the way again, I get frustrated.

Yeah.

that's where I to what I put out by safes.

yeah. And that makes complete sense. So for people who are looking to buy a safe, what are like the real specs that we need to be looking for? What is it that really matters? We can get past the flashy stuff, but what is it that truly matters if you are wanting to buy a safe?

A hundred percent for me is the steel thickness. If you start doing your research and you're looking at all these websites and they don't list the steel thickness. Loud and proud, that should maybe alarm you.

Yeah, that's a red flag then, isn't it?

Yeah. So I think if you start there, you're in pretty good shape.

Okay, that's good.

Yes. So there are, there is a UL rating and some companies get them, some don't. You can the ratings kind of range all over the place. For mine, I, since we start with the thicker steel you're already ahead of the game there. My fire lining process is not one that's used very often anymore 'cause it's expensive. Like two build but it's a quarter inch body top, bottom and door. And then you have a three 16 body top bottom.

Got it.

that's not, when the safe sort of mask produced, they're generally just taking fireboard and wrapping it. Put some fabric and then putting it on the walls and then the degree of the temperature, you can look for that. If a sense gonna last three hours and fine print, it'll say up to 1200 degrees.

Yeah, that does affect the time, doesn't it?

have you ever Yeah. Heard of a fire that's, been going on for three hours and is only at 1200 degrees?

Yeah. That's that's a good note. Yeah. I get that. Yeah. That is yeah, that, that changes a lot of things.

it does. I think once you people start to look and find all of the like, information that's on there you'll start noticing things in different places and it will all make more sense. But it just goes back to what I think most important about a safe and its fire rating is the steel thickness.

So what are some of the common mistakes that people make when they're buying their first safe?

Mistakes I think would be more like going for the more digital one or the fancy new model, that could, doesn't always end up well going well. I always say if someone comes to me and like they're not at a place in their life where like buying maybe one of mine is out of their price range, and it's so get thinking something in the meantime. I'm like, absolutely. You can even send me whatever brand you're looking at and I'll tell you, yeah, this is good. No, that's a bad luck.

You just give them a box to carry it out in. That's what you've done, right?

so if you put anything in your garage, bolt it down like even in your

Yeah. 'cause a lot of people think if I put it in the safe, it's safe in the safe. Sorry to say that so often, but, and that's true. Like it is there, but you don't think about, oh wait a minute, two guys could pick this up and carry it out. Or, somebody could back up their truck, put a rope around it and pull it out like they're stealing an ATM if it's located in your garage. How do I bolt down a safe let's say maybe it's in a master bedroom closet.

So every safe should come with some type of anchor holes. And then they'll come, you're gonna wanna go into the foundation. Now if you're like somewhere with a subfloor or, a lot of people rent and they're like scared to, to bolt things down. You just gotta weigh that. The pros and cons of that. Do you, if you got a lot of stuff in there, I would bolt it down and figure out what we're gonna do after later. Because the holes are not huge.

Yep.

putting it in a cabinet. We'll put holes in the back and then we'll go through some two by fours in the wall. So we could add holes anywhere. But, if you're just buying a standard safe, you're make sure it has holes. But I honestly haven't seen one that is of a decent size. It didn't come with regular anchor holes.

Okay.

and then, yeah.

If I, if I was worried about somebody running off with my safe could I put like an apple air tag in it? Would that signal come through the steel? I, that's something I haven't really thought about until right now.

Yes definitely. And then there's also a company called. Safe tech and they have, they've been around for quite some time. There, there used to be a different one that would, was like a tracker, but it did, that did more of alarming you if there was heat or I. Moisture. But the safe tech one does is a tracker and it has an app on your phone and it will tell you if there's movement. So if someone's picked up your safe and you know the thing's bouncing around, then you're gonna get a text.

Okay. Yeah. That's awesome. Alright if I can't bolt this thing down and like I, like I just have one of the smaller safes, that sort of thing, maybe I am renting that sort of thing. Is there anything else I can do besides putting a tracker in it? Or is it pretty much just, I gotta rely on the weight of the safe itself.

You pretty much need to rely on the weight or if you have an ability to hide it. Some like compartments have the pull down things or an attic or something like that. If you can hide it well enough, people are gonna look in your bedroom, they're gonna go to your garage, they're gonna go to your bedroom first. So maybe find anterior alternative place. If you start looking around, there's lots of kind of places you could hide things that maybe they're not gonna go to first.

Yeah.

You want something that, like you and your friend can't go. You and your friend can load it up at the store. Me and my friend can load it up at your house,

Got it. Yeah. All right. Yeah, definitely. I'm gonna need somebody to help me get this up the stairs kind of situation.

Yes.

Okay, so I know that there most likely is a difference between a safe that is rated for like holding jewelry or valuables and one that holds firearms. Can you walk us through that?

In the kind of the big jump is when you get into jewelry. So the jewelry stores have to have. I should have printed the, all of the ratings so I could go over them with you. But for a jewelry store to be insured, they have to have a tr it's be on the top of my head, but one of the highest ones. And then basically it just means they need a one inch thick door. I think it's a one inch thick body. And then, a UL rated lock.

I think a lot of people just assume that if they see a safe, that means, oh, there's something like super dangerous in it, but it could really be just for like your family keepsakes and things like that.

Yeah, a hundred percent. Yeah. I have a whole not, a safe full of like picture albums and maybe I have a problem, but in the end, the industry I'm in, you see he starts to take things mean more to me, if I don't want it taken, I'm putting it in the safe. And then, my husband's do we need to like literally have all these baby spoons and things in the safe? And I'm like yeah I would miss them. Or, and May have gone overboard though.

So you have mentioned Kaynine safes and then also The Safe Gal. Tell us about those.

Kaynine safe stick In the beginning I was just doing branding more for gun safes. And that's, my goal was always to make them for jewelry. It take took quite some time to get people to believe in kind of my vision. Of doing these armos inside and installing watch winders. Not, the people weren't taking me. Seriously, and then I finally found someone who had like an artistic bone in his body and was really great at woodworking.

So Cookie, if I am looking to get a safe, I wanna balance, accessibility with security. If I have a, firearm safe that I want to be able to get to quickly, what's the balance that I'm looking for? What is it that I need to do?

A lot of my customers, if you're able to do it, I recommend putting something maybe smaller in your bedroom that we can hide away and it, whether you're. You're wanting to, your shotgun is the go-to or a handgun, we're gonna base the size o of it on that. Accessibility wise, the lock I always recommend I is easy to get into and it's quick. And then maybe do a safe somewhere else that has a majority of your, other items, your jewelry, your other guns, your ammo, collectibles.

Got it. So it's really just a good idea to have something that would just cover your emergency access, and then have another one that covers everything else, right.

Yeah, because most people don't have the space to, have a four foot wide safe in their closet. Or if you do have a two story house, you're not gonna want to put a thousand pounds safe up there, We don't want to come down to the living room, so it's like we could, the ease of access for you is what we want. And then we also don't want, um, you go into the garage every day to get your jewelry, so think about like that.

okay.

Because I'm always late and I'm like, if I gotta spin it like 28 times, I'm just like, I don't need it.

right.

if you're not gonna the mechanical dial, don't get one of those.

So where are some good places in the average house that you can hide a safe? You've talked about that a lot, which I appreciate. So where are some good places that I can hide a safe in my house?

Contrary, like I said earlier, they're gonna run to your master first. Fine. If we've done, if we've built it correctly, we're gonna be in good shape. We're gonna have it bolted down. We've got internal relock where if you knock off that dial, it's just gonna pop. It's not gonna open, so they're gonna need days to get one of mine out if we've secured it properly. So we can use the master. We could, like I said, under the bed, I do love an in the wall safe because you can hang a picture over it.

So talk to me about the whole, the artistic side of this. 'cause that's something that is new to me and obviously that you've perfected what kind of goes into making a safe look like it really truly belongs in a space.

For my customers that are here, fortunately, like I'll go to their house and I always go do all the measurements and stuff myself, and then I get a vibe of I. Where are we going? Are we western, are we modern? Are we and a lot of times people just come to me and tell me what they want. Maybe it's totally off the wall and they want Miami dolphins, colors. Okay.

Sure.

whatever. I don't really care. And then, or if they just give me like a say I want turquoise. Okay, hey, I have these different fabrics that we can put in here. And then some people are just simple. I. They're like, it's gonna be hidden. I want it black. I want it gray. And I'm like , I always joke and say, I'm gonna sneak some like leopard in there or something. I haven't done it yet.

My wife would like that. She likes Leopard prints, she likes animal prints. She would love that. That's

Yeah.

As we wrap up here, what is the one question that you wish people would ask when they are making an investment in a safe? What is one thing that you're like, man, I just wish more people knew this and how to answer that.

I think it truly just comes full circle about to knowing your steel thicknesses and recognizing the weight, because I think if a lot of people, more people put two and two together when you, I. When you're looking at one of my safes and now the my safes are also very, refined and in their finishes, it could be a fabulous, safe and just look,

Look boring.

Yeah. Yeah. And that's cool. I love it as long as it weighs the same, but I think the biggest misconception, and the thing that makes up it actually upsets me about people investing their money is they feel like they're getting this. Amazing safe that's gonna last three hours and it's waterproof. I've seen on some people's website, it's, there's no safe that's waterproof. It's not true.

One more question here, and I know that you have the privacy of your clients to consider here, but what's your favorite project that you've ever done for somebody? What's one that you're just really super proud of?

I did once build one that went in the back of a Hummer and.

That's awesome.

And she was my favorite customer and still is till the end of time because she wanted to be able to put whatever she was putting in it, she needed to get into it fast. And by the time I was done building it, we had taken out the third row and we had to load it with a forklift because it was so heavy. And the Hummer was like,

Wow. Okay. Very

Yeah. So that actually, yeah, that was

Yeah, so you just put one, you just have a safe rolling around and a Hummer like that. That is, that's pretty cool.

it filled up the whole back and we bolted it to the frame and it was just, I just never forget her personally. She was a great g, was a pretty cool, obviously Tonita,

Oh yeah.

tape in the back of her Hummer,

yeah. If you have a Hummer and you need a safe in it, like you're pretty you're just living life. That is awesome.

Yeah. Yeah. I loved her.

So Cookie, if people wanna know more about you and all that you're doing, where can they find you online?

So we can go to TheSafeGal.com, Kaynine safes.com, and those will just have like our standard sizes. And I always tell everybody, the best bet is to just reach out, through the website or whatever. And then I'll talk to you personally and if anybody again, has any questions about anything I'm more than happy to steer anybody in whatever direction they need to go to get something that, suits them.

Yeah. Yeah. You have the

but there are some different ideas on there and and a lot of the safes before they leave the shop.

Cookie, I appreciate your time so much. I have learned a lot from you today. Best of luck in the future.

Thank you. I appreciate it. Have a great day.

Thank you friend for listening to this episode of The Secure Family Podcast. And a special thank you to Cookie for being on the show. For more on her, visit TheSafeGal.com. If you've enjoyed this episode or learned something new today, I'd be grateful if you'd follow the show, subscribe on your favorite podcast platform, or leave a five star review. Your support helps me reach more families, and that truly means a lot to me and my mission.