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Creating Wealth Through Self Storage

Supports investors getting in or growing a self storage business

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21 episodes
Avg 15 min
English

Episodes 21

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August 21 · 12 min
Put a Bullseye on Your Customer: Why Landing Pages Still Win in Self-Storage
I don’t see owners utilizing landing pages that much anymore in online self-storage marketing, and I am not sure why. I suspect it is because it has been beat into our heads that reduced clicks for consumers is the holy grail for online marketing success
August 14 · 10 min
What the Jobs Report, CPI, and Bond Market May Be Telling Us About Interest Rates
It has been a while since I used an SBA loan to develop some storage, but I am in a deal where we are using it now for a boat and RV development. We are racing to get it closed by Sept. 14 because the deal was underwritten at today’s interest rates, and
August 7 · 10 min
The One Habit I Wish I Had Started Early In My Career
I have made a lot of mistakes over my business career and done a few things right. Fortunately, it only takes a few good decisions, and some grace from the universe, to be successful. But if there is one lesson I wish I had learned early in my career, it
July 31 · 11 min
Why the Smaller Investor Can Win in Today’s Self-Storage Market
As I move through some of the various deals I am involved with today, the markets and the deals themselves are changing at a very rapid pace. Let’s look at what is behind these changes and the big advantage this current environment can offer the smaller
July 24 · 17 min
The First-Call Offer: A Different Approach to Finding Off-Market Self-Storage Deals
I think trying to find off-market listings is hard as well today. As a storage owner, I get, on average, 10 texts a week, lots of letters a month, and perhaps one to two calls every week or so about selling my facility. Some inquiries even come for prope
July 10 · 14 min
AI in Action: How I’m Using It Right Now to Move Through Self-Storage Due Diligence
We all know how AI is changing the self-storage landscape. Others smarter than me have talked about using chatbots for storage answering services, AI in revenue management and tenant data analysis (determining which tenants can pay what rate based on beh
June 26 · 18 min
Five Lessons About Business I’ve Learned After 40 Years
After over forty years in real estate and the self-storage business, I have learned a few things about business that I am sharing as I hover around this 500-episode mark. I guess we could call these episodes “What I’ve Learned About Wealth, Busines
June 19 · 18 min
Five Things I Have Learned About Creating Wealth
As I hover around the 500-episode mark, I am apparently becoming more philosophical and want to share some insights I have gained over the last ten years or so in the storage business. I’ve talked about the five biggest mistakes I have made in my career
June 12 · 26 min
Five Decisions I Made That Created My First Million Dollars of Wealth
Here I am at Episode 500. On one level, it means nothing, really, but on another, it shows I can stick to something for a long time and/or you can hang in there with me no matter how bad or off I can be at times. I hope you have received some value from
June 5 · 19 min
The Five Biggest Mistakes I’ve Made Over My 31 Years In The Self-Storage Industry
As I approach Episode 500, I have been thinking a lot about the self-storage business and my thirty-one years in and around the industry. I was thinking about what I could share that would be helpful. I had two startling insights. The first was that what
May 22 · 16 min
Vendors Can Make or Break You Today
There has never been a moment in self-storage history where the gap between well-chosen vendors and poorly chosen ones mattered more than it does today. We are currently choosing our vendors for a new brand and have discovered one thing… Vendors today ca
May 8 · 11 min
The New World of GSO and How It Applies To Your Self Storage Business
You have heard of SEO, pay-per-click, Google algorithms and the gambit of online marketing terms. There is a new but vitally critical term you have got to understand today…the new world of GSO. Although you may be tired of hearing about AI and how it app
April 24 · 11 min
Rethinking the Millennial Customer – A Force of Nature for Self-Storage
In the most recent ISS Expo I attended, once again I saw that Millennials have become 20% plus of self-storage customers, up from about 16% a year ago. I remember some of the stereotypes many had a few years ago about the millennial generation: • Avocado
April 17 · 13 min
Self-Storage Myth Number 2: REITs Outperform Small Self-Storage Owners
I hear partners, people I coach, and investors ask the question, “How can a smaller independent owner compete today with REITs or a big institutional player today? They have a lot more money and people, and their cost of capital is so low.” Valid questio
April 3 · 11 min
The Square Foot per Capita Myth
It’s time to talk about square foot per capita again. I have run into more and more issues with that metric and think it is time to permanently interrupt the myth that still pervades our industry. That myth is: ….. {explained in video} **Self-Storage Tur
March 20 · 14 min
Insurance Shock: How Self-Storage Owners Can Fight Back in 2026
Let’s look at ways to reduce our insurance cost in 2026 and beyond. This expense line item is doing nothing but going up. Last week we had Terry Campbell of Johnson Insurance visit us in the Inner Circle. Here are some of the tips he gave us last Friday.
March 13 · 13 min
A Big Shout Out To U-Haul
Finally! U-Haul’s President and CEO Joe Shoen took a public stand in opposition to the deplorable pricing practices most of the bigger REITs and institutional players use today, with the absolute worst being Extra Space in my opinion. I am talking about
March 6 · 23 min
Expense Discipline: The Quiet Way to Grow Self-Storage Value in 2026
A few weeks ago we had a three-part series on Revenue Strategies designed for 2026. Now let’s focus on the expense side today. Today, let’s go over the expenses I think can be impacted in 2026 and a few general ideas and practices I might recommend doing
February 21 · 7 min
So You Are Opening A Facility Soon – Let Me Share With You What We Are Doing
I am in some partnerships that will be taking over some facilities and doing some expansions. So I have been thinking through some of the spaces our team will have to go through as we prepare to bring these projects online. Given the purpose of these epi
February 13 · 15 min
Self-Storage Revenue Strategies for 2026 Part 3 – Increase Add-On Revenue in 2026
Two weeks ago I started this series (Episodes 487 and 488). I think it is critical for this year, given what we see in the current self-storage landscape. Effective revenue strategies are going to make the difference between well-performing assets this y

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