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Anytime you buy a gun safe, you're
taking the word of the manufacturer that

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you're getting is going to withstand a
burglary or it's going to give you a

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certain level of security.

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The gun safe industry has continually
thinned the steel used in the bodies of

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the safe to cut costs.

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They're not secure anymore once the body
reaches a certain thinness.

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Guys break into homes with crowbars.

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That's the one really odd thing about
our industry, is that we're selling a

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product that people are never going to
really get to test.

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You can see some of the deformation that
occurred during the price test.

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If they make their decision based solely
on price, they're probably going to

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find out that they wasted their money,
and it'll be too late.

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My name is Don Suggs, and I am the CEO
and founder of Rhino Metal.

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I grew up on the East Coast, just south
of Washington, D .C.

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A lot of fishing in the Potomac River, a
lot of playing in the woods.

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Graduated high school and...

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Went to Virginia Military Institute, and
you have to be in the ROTC. Got an ROTC

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scholarship out of that.

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Four years active duty Air Force.

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Getting to be an Air Force pilot was an
amazing experience.

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I mean, I saw and did things that I
could never have dreamed of.

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I applied for a spot in the Air National
Guard, got that, went through that

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training.

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As a guard pilot, you're really only
part -time, so you've got to come up

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something else to do.

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I couldn't afford real airplanes, but I
started building this one out of a kit,

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and so that's aluminum.

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And so I learned basic metalworking, and
then it just kind of went from there. I

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had to learn how to weld and make some.

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fixtures and then that kind of
transformed into a welding shop.

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The whole time I was still in the guard
and then even for a while after I left

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the guard for a couple years I was in
the airlines.

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When I was hired was the top airline two
and a half years later was bankrupt and

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they furloughed me with a bunch of other
pilots.

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So all I had was my business.

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It's kind of sink or swim at that point.

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The day after my first daughter had been
born, my dad asked, Don, I got to get

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all these guns locked up. I need a gun
safe. And I went to the sporting goods

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store. They're too expensive.

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They want like $1 ,500.

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I can't afford it. Can you make one?

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So I went to the sporting goods store
and looked at them. And I was like,

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I can make that.

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I had the equipment to do it.

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And I also like a challenge.

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So this is what we made.

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It's a pretty simple safe with a plate
door design, but it's still very secure.

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Myself and my employees, we came up with
this design, and in a couple weeks we

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had it done. We did it in an automotive
paint job. It started the whole Rhino

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safe transition from a weld shop to safe
manufacture.

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My father, he's passed now.

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We keep this here. It's a way for me to
remember him and also kind of for us to

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see where we started.

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This is the genesis of hundreds of
thousands of rhino safes out there now

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protecting families, just like this one
protected our family.

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He was very happy with it because it
exceeded his expectations.

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He thought he was going to get a box
with a padlock on it.

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I had the employees by that time, and it
just kind of kept growing.

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Well, when you're operating a
manufacturing company in the United

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presented with a number of pretty big
challenges.

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You can solve that problem by throwing a
bunch of money at it, which we didn't

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have. So we did it with ingenuity. We
engineered the solution rather than

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financed it.

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Hi, I'm Don Tuggs, and I want to tell
you why a RhinoSafe is the best home gun

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safe you can buy.

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For the first probably 20 years of the
company, that's all it was,

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just trying to get by, reinvesting
money, not really being able to get the

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equipment that we really need. You
basically try and focus on your

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innovate around your weaknesses.

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My name is Jennifer King. I'm the
president of operations at Rhino Metals.

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Almost 18 years.

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I grew up in a little farm community.

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There was no walking. There was no town.
We were really far away, so everything

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was intentional and just really
hardworking.

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I went to Boise State for a year and
quickly found out it really wasn't for

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I joined the Army. I spent four years,
and I was 31 Mike, which is a multi

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-channel communication operator.

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Spent 13 months overseas, absolutely
loved it. I got to drive two and a half

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five -ton trucks with communication
shelters and logged about 12 ,000

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-free miles in a foreign country, which
was wild.

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Well, the story ends up with me at a
trailer manufacturer.

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Heavy equipment in 2007, 2008 hit. We
all got laid off.

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She was hired originally as an assistant
in customer service.

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So I come down.

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There's a card table and a lawn chair in
the corner, a notepad and a pen, no

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phone, no computer, no nothing.

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But I could see that she had a lot of
potential, constantly taking on more and

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more responsibilities.

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It was taking things off of Don's plate
a little at a time.

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She wanted more. I gave her more
responsibility. She just kept taking

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eventually she was running the whole.

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The production operation, and actually
operations includes customer service,

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trucking division, everything.

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She's in all that.

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So when I first started, we had a few
independent local dealers that we were

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selling to. I think domestically we made
two face -to -day, maybe one.

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We scaled the business, and now we're in
every Costco in the nation, going from

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one or two face -to -day domestically
upwards of 300.

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She filled a need that we had that I
honestly wasn't, I wasn't capable of it.

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I'm more interested in new products and
the Safex thing initially came out of,

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you know, recognizing that the industry
was producing safes that were thin. The

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old locking system just didn't work on
the bodies that were being used. And

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a, you know, it's a quantum leap in
security over the old mechanism.

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You may think all safes are created
equal, but we regularly do pry tests on

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competitor safes and our own safes. This
is not one of our safes.

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We have two professional safe crackers
here to show you just how easy it is to

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get into one of these safes that you can
get from the other guys.

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You'll see when we do the Safex the
difference.

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And, like, you saw how easy these things
just popped over. The doors start

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separating, and you'll see with the
Safex you don't get any of that

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This whole system of locking the door is
obsolete for anything that's even up to

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a 10 -gauge body because you can pry
them. Here we have another competitor's

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safe, and as you can see, it is
absolutely gorgeous. We are not denying

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This is a very well -made safe on the
outside.

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door hangers, have these nice drawers
for your jewelry.

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This is everything you could ever want
in a safe. And for $1 ,500, it should

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So, 22 seconds. 22 seconds.

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22 seconds. So, you beat the other one.
That was 23, right?

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This is a 12 -gauge body.

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So, this is thicker than the previous
one.

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To keep things fair, we're going to
break into one of ours as well.

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So, this is one of our entry -level
models you can find at big -box stores,

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like those other ones we busted open.

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But we are going to try to crack this
one open and see.

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Just how secure Safex is.

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No bolts and bars on the outside, right?

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Our Safex locking system uses these
studs, holes in the door with a steel

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that slides over, secures to these
bolts, making it virtually unpryable. As

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matter of fact, the more you pry on
this, the tighter the door is going to

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to these bolts.

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So prying this safe is pretty much
impossible.

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Good?

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I'm out of breath.

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Sweating.

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It's tough.

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You can't get in there. I don't care how
strong you are.

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It ain't happening.

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The steel gave way before the door did.

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This is our entry -level safe, and they
weren't able to get into it, and they

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were trying way harder.

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What you can see is, okay, here, even
the weld is the miter, but this...

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It actually tore the steel.

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But because the door is connected to the
door frame underneath here with those

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anchor bolts, even if it tears here, you
still can't get it apart.

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There's no gap between this door frame
and the door. The more you bend it, the

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tighter it gets.

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Well, my name's Ray White.

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And I guess my title would be I'm the
jack of all trades and the master of

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I do a little bit of everything.

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When I met Don, he was building 12 safes
a week and wanted to take it to a

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different level, and he knew I had a lot
of production background experience.

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I came in on an interview and realized
that he was building gun safes, which

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an interest of mine because I'm an
outdoors person. I love to hunt. I love

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fish. I got into archery, so I started
archery deer hunting.

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So I agreed and came to Rhino, and it's
been a 13 -year journey with him.

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Being older, you know, I'm not a young
guy anymore, 74 years old, and I've had

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the opportunity to work at a lot of
different places and do a lot of

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things. He is like the ultimate
American, I think.

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The guy can do anything.

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You could say, hey, I don't like where
that mountain is. Can you move it over

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like 100 feet? He would do it. He can
figure out a way to move it. My dad had

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the philosophy, I'll never pay somebody
else to do something I can do myself.

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And so he made us kids do everything.

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And that's how I kind of learned a lot
of different trades, by just getting in

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and doing it.

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When you run a company, you like to have
people.

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that aren't afraid of challenges like
that and that can get things done.

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It's really interesting with Don.

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He has an innate ability to find talent
that we didn't know we had.

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When he does the interview process, he's
not really like honing in on, you know,

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have you ever worked on a $5 million
piece of equipment before? He's asking

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basic questions to figure out who they
are.

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And it's one of his strongest talents is
finding people.

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Don, I mean, put up a sign. I don't know
if you notice the sign outside when you

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come in the building here. It says,
Rhino Ray, no slackers allowed.

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And he recognized that from day one when
I was here. I'm not going to tolerate

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people that aren't here to do the job.
And as long as they want to show up to

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work and work hard, then I will train
them. I'll work with them every day to

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teach them the skills.

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But the ones that have survived it are
doing very well because they have good

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work ethic.

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Well, when you look at the finished
product, you have to realize that the

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is starting as a flat sheet of steel.

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The whole design nowadays, everything's
done in 3D modeling.

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It's a spit -out file to an automated
laser system.

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It cuts it. It's a fiber optic laser.

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We'll take those parts. If they need to
be formed, we form them on different

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bending machines.

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The top and bottom will be tacked on.
The inside will be welded out

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While that's being done, the door is
being made.

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Then the safe is prepared for whether
it's going to get paint or powder

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The logos will be applied with silk
screening, the

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fire lining, and all the mechanisms are
stuck into the safe at that point.

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Those parts have been made off to the
side on various pieces of equipment.

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The lock is put in, everything's tested,
and there's a ton of people that go

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into that process and a ton of knowledge
so that you end up with a product

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that works correctly, that looks really
nice, and that you can be proud of.

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We put a lot of effort into doing things
the right way and not the short

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way, not throwing a bunch of money or
marketing at something, but to build the

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best product that we can.

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A lot of the guys that are here at the
safe plan, you know, I hired 12 and 13

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years ago, and they're still here. That
means we're doing something right

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because they're not leaving.

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You know, you have pride in your
product.

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You see it in somebody's home or it
gives you a sense of accomplishment.

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But honestly, life is about
relationships.

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That's what makes life worth living.

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I think a safe really is protecting the
American dream.

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You've got everything that's important
to you in there.

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I have an old hex -barreled .22 pistol
that my dad had. Don't know if it's

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anything, but I know what it's worth to
me.

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You know, in my safe, I've got my
grandmother's heirloom jewelry. I've got

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kids, their first haircut, you know, a
little ponytail haircut.

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You know, you have these California
fires or the tornadoes or some of the

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things, and people lose everything that
they have.

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00:19:41,450 --> 00:19:46,550
You know, when you hear about the
attempted burglary that were thwarted or

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fires that didn't destroy somebody's
stuff, it gives you a sense of

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accomplishment.

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You've got to sell something that you're
proud of.

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Furniture means nothing. The big screen
TV means nothing. But I have a picture

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of my late wife when we were in the
Bahamas that I will cherish forever.

222
00:20:07,630 --> 00:20:09,050
Would I ever want that ruined?

223
00:20:09,250 --> 00:20:11,080
No. That'll be in my safe.

224
00:20:13,040 --> 00:20:18,460
It provides security for your family and
for your legacy.

225
00:20:20,680 --> 00:20:25,320
We build for the people that don't want
to gamble with what matters.