Marketing, AI & the Independent Advantage with Melissa Stiles, Jessica Johnson and Holly Fiorello

Andrew (00:00)

What was the name of it?

Brian (00:02)

song I will follow you into the dark

Andrew (00:07)

And this was before bed.

Brian (00:09)

Yeah, yeah, okay, so right, maybe a choice. Obviously a bit of a bad choice, but I was just going for the low energy, mellow kind of thing and he…

Andrew (00:13)

this.

Chris (00:17)

Yeah.

Brian (00:19)

is at all are now you can see my mass and change this shit the globe in a basketball hoop back there

Andrew (00:25)

set.

Chris (00:27)

What’s in that box over your right shoulder?

Brian (00:29)

Nothing, it’s just

a big empty box because Megan ships to eBay and I got her eBay workstation behind me and I got a bologna sandwich, yeah.

Chris (00:35)

right on, you got a little packing

peanuts and

Brian (00:38)

All that. All that. Yeah. But anyway, I thought Chris would appreciate my future emo boy reacting so sadly to a emo song.

Chris (00:39)

Bubble wrap.

Yeah.

Andrew (00:50)

right up there with that audiobook you were listening to right before bed. was that one? Hatchet!

Brian (00:56)

hatchet. Yeah.

Chris (00:58)

Hehehehehe

Brian (00:59)

Hatchet went well. Yeah, that was, was, that was.

Chris (01:03)

So how many nights do you think Ben Gibbard has scared your son into bedtime?

Brian (01:10)

You

Andrew (01:15)

Dad, I don’t wanna go to bed.

Brian (01:15)

apparently.

It was like really sweet and sad at the same time, right? He came and sat on my lap and he was like, can you cuddle me for a minute? And I was like, okay, what’s going on? And he’s like, I don’t want you to die. I was like.

Chris (01:29)

Yeah.

Brian (01:31)

Fuck.

Andrew (01:32)

Welcome back to No Vacancy. When we launched this podcast, the goal was simple: have real conversations with real people about what it actually takes to succeed in self-storage. No scripts, no corporate talking points, just honest discussions about operations, revenue management, leadership, customer experience, technology, and everything in between. Over the course of season one, we’ve been fortunate to sit down with incredible guests, hear amazing stories.

Challenge conventional thinking and share plenty of laughs along the way. From industry veterans and innovators to entrepreneurs and thought leaders. Every conversation reinforced one thing. This industry is powered by great people. Now we’re kicking off season two and we’re taking things to the next level. Expect bigger conversations, fresh perspectives, more industry insights, and the same authentic, unscripted style that got us here.

Whether you’re an owner, operator, manager, vendor, or simply someone passionate about self-storage, there’s a seat at this table for you. So grab your coffee, turn up the volume, and settle in. This is no vacancy.

Chris (02:48)

Yeah, I those lyrics, they’re incredible.

Brian (02:51)

So then I really kind of like, you know, it’s a song I’ve heard so many times that like every time I hear the lyrics, I’m not necessarily.

Chris (02:56)

no, no,

no. Here comes the discovery by dad.

Brian (03:01)

No, no, no, no, I know

Andrew (03:03)

You

Brian (03:03)

what the song is about. I’m just saying like, you know, you hear it enough times and you’re just kind of used to it, you know? And so like, it made me reflect on the lyrics and I was like, yeah, okay, could, yeah, I get this now. I can understand why he’s suddenly contemplating all of our own mortality and…

Chris (03:09)

Yeah.

Wow.

Andrew (03:24)

when you pop on an episode of

Bluey.

Chris (03:25)

Today on No Vacancy, we are happy to welcome Jessica Johnson, Melissa Stiles and Holly Fiorello.

three great self-storage advocates who have all been in the industry for longer than they want to admit and we want to mention on this podcast and we’re just going to get right to it. Jessica, Holly, Melissa, thank you all for joining us. Welcome to the podcast. It’s pleasure. So we really just want to get started with how you got into the business. Melissa, let’s start with you. How did you find self-storage?

Melissa Stiles (03:48)

Thank you for having me.

Jessica Johnson (03:48)

Thanks for having me and

us.

Holly (03:51)

Thank you.

Melissa Stiles (04:01)

Yeah, I mean it’s not really any cool story. I just answered a blind ad for a marketing position and met Jay and Alyssa, the founders of Storage Asset Management, really liked them and saw some things that I could immediately make an impact on within marketing within our website, those type of things. And thought I came from the international world. I worked for the World Trade Center, so I thought I would do storage for a year and then go back into the international world just to get some other experience.

and here I am 12 and a half years later still in the storage industry.

Chris (04:35)

Wow, wow, it’s amazing. It’s amazing how it just keeps you right there. You meet so many great people and you see so much growth and potential in the industry and you just get locked in.

Melissa Stiles (04:47)

Yeah, Alyssa did tell me when I took the job that I’d probably never leave storage and I didn’t believe her at the time, but now 12 and a half years later starting to believe her.

Andrew (04:52)

Hehehe.

Chris (04:56)

Nice. That’s great. That’s great. Jessica, how did you come to Self Storage?

Jessica Johnson (05:01)

Yeah, not similar to Melissa, but kind of the same.

wasn’t anything glorious, actually was talking with a group and they had an opportunity to launch a business and they needed somebody to help launch the business and I went in. Unfortunately, that side was a little bit of a failure to launch. Just the concept that was originally thought just didn’t pan out to be what we had anticipated. And it’s like, and we have this storage business over here too. So since this one’s not working, like let’s have you work on the storage side. I’m like.

That wasn’t part of the deal and I really don’t want to work in storage. But you know, got into it, fell in love with it. And like Melissa said, I don’t think I’ll ever leave it now. Sadly, I’m heavily invested from the vendor side, now the owner side too. I’ve got my money wrapped up in a couple properties, personal money. So you know, that makes it personal, obviously. Yeah, and it’s just been, it’s been great.

Chris (05:54)

Sure.

Yeah, absolutely. It is

wonderful. How long have you been on the owner side of things?

Jessica Johnson (06:05)

Probably over the last four years now I’d say is when I stepped into the ownership role heavily.

Chris (06:10)

Okay, okay.

Andrew (06:12)

So

Chris (06:12)

And how have you found that experience? Yeah.

Andrew (06:12)

about 47, real quick, sorry Chris. So about 47 months and 29 days more than Holly. I heard Holly just, congratulations is in order for you.

Jessica Johnson (06:23)

Yeah, yeah.

Holly (06:27)

thank you so much. I

Jessica Johnson (06:28)

It is.

Andrew (06:29)

Was that just yesterday that you closed on it?

Holly (06:32)

Yeah, yesterday,

no, actually Wednesday it closed. So yesterday was the first day I woke up as an owner.

Andrew (06:36)

That’s awesome.

Okay.

Chris (06:43)

So doing a little research on your new acquisition, have you told your family that you’re relocating back to Michigan or is that just, I mean, the map looked pretty close to the hometown when I was looking at the location.

Holly (06:57)

Yeah.

Yeah, it’s, we’re gonna actually go visit it this summer. we’re gonna go visit, my family’s still in Michigan. That’s where I’m from. So we’re gonna go check it out, but I don’t think I could get my husband to move to Michigan. Even though we’re in Pennsylvania, he’s a Jersey boy through and through. So I don’t think he’s a Midwest.

Chris (07:21)

Gotcha, gotcha. Congratulations, Holly. That’s excellent.

Holly (07:22)

Bye.

Thank

Chris (07:25)

All right, so we’re all here for marketing purposes. I know very little about marketing. Andrew? Take it away.

Andrew (07:35)

Alright, my

cue. Let’s do it.

what part of self-storage marketing do you find yourselves paying the most attention to lately? And I know this is kind of an obvious question because with AI now at the forefront of everything. Is there anything?

specific with AI that you’re focusing on? Is there anything beyond or that you’re still focusing on?

Melissa Stiles (07:59)

me to jump in. They’re like, yes. So I think for us, I mean, so many things, right? And I always say you use AI for streamlining processes, you humanize for relationships. But still, I think we’re seeing, you know, more than half of

global consumers are starting to use AI to start any search that they do. And so we are really focused in measuring our AI visibility now. So how do our storage facilities show up on the different models? So how we’re tracking it every month over month. How did we show up on chat GBT? How did we show up on cloud? How are we showing up on perplexity? And so then being able to use that and then adjusting our strategy. So do

Do

we need to do more content on a certain theme that we’re not showing up well on those models for? Do we need to look at some ads in some other places as well? So that is what we’re really focused on is the search visibility on the AI models and how we can better show up.

Jessica Johnson (09:05)

Yeah, and I’ll piggyback on that with Melissa’s comments. are as well. AI visibility is extremely critical. That’s what we’re really looking at. We’re actually releasing a product through the storage group next week that gives this availability. And I love these stats and I want to share these stats because I think they’re just they’re phenomenal. Chat GPT reached 365 billion searches in two years. That took Google 11 years to achieve that same metric. So I’ve even noticed in my

own search, I search differently now too. I I almost always go to chat GPT. I will say it’s device dependent because I have the paid version of chat GPT on my desktop. I don’t on my phone. So if I’m on my phone I typically will go to Google but if I’m in front of my you know desk working everything I’ve run through chat is where I ask all of my questions now. I hardly ever go to Google anymore. So I see that shift and like Melissa was saying you know more almost half of the consumer

base out there. 75 % of people today are now using AI more than they were last year. So I mean, like, you can’t ignore these type of numbers, right? They’re all over your close to 50 % or well over, you’ve got to pay attention to these numbers.

Andrew (10:20)

Yeah, we’ve I’ll get one second Holly. I’ll let you chime in there. you know, we’ve we’ve we also track AI traffic and we’ve seen a huge shift in the customer behavior, especially organic. You know, we’re starting to see a lot a lot less come from here. We’re seeing more from chat GPT, Gemini, perplexity. We’ve even seen a few.

Melissa Stiles (10:34)

you

Andrew (10:48)

rentals come in through there, which is kind of cool to be able to see those start to come through. But the changing landscape over even the last, I’d say 12 months has been so accelerated. I don’t think I’ve ever seen something in marketing that’s kind of changed that quickly. Just wanted to jump in there. Sorry, Holly.

Melissa Stiles (10:50)

Yeah.

Yeah, no, sorry, just to add to that, Andrew, real quick, is to your point, what we’ve seen is we are seeing, you know, there’s still minimum traffic compared to other referrals to our websites, but they are highly engaged and they are converting much faster, much quicker and at a higher rate than any other traffic source too.

Holly (11:11)

No, please.

Andrew (11:28)

Yep.

Absolutely. So, to that point, you might see some, you know, organic, start to decrease, but your lead quality is certainly increasing to a, another level. That’s it’s scary because we’re used to seeing those traffic numbers come in, but at the same time, the traffic numbers that are coming in now, it’s just so much more qualified.

Melissa Stiles (11:31)

Sorry.

Yeah, it’s here.

Jessica Johnson (11:53)

Yeah, and you always see a lot

of people get wrapped up on the traffic numbers while traffic’s important. The rental is the most important piece, right? The conversion is what we want. So it’s like, if you can get that better quality lead that’s going to convert, you really need to start to understand that while the traffic numbers are still important, they’re maybe not as critical as like they used to be, right?

Andrew (12:00)

Absolutely.

Yep, absolutely.

Chris (12:15)

Speaking of AI and what we’re typing into chat, among others, do you feel like the education a consumer gets from the AI response is going to help the more independent operators because of what AI is pulling from reviews and feedback of the larger reads?

Melissa Stiles (12:37)

That’s interesting. I do think if we look at like our, when we chart visibility, we do get where the other operators are in those markets that we’re in. we do see, we’re up there with the reads, but then we do see that there’s these small operators too. Like in one market we just looked at yesterday, a facility after, they’ve been open for, I don’t know, five plus years, and they finally just got a website, and now they’re showing up in the AI visibility too,

were never before because they didn’t have a website. So I do think to your point, it lends well. one of the things that I was talking about yesterday to someone is I think AI starts to become its own aggregator too, right? Where you can easily compare and pull in.

Holly (13:21)

Yeah, that’s

Chris (13:21)

Yep.

Holly (13:23)

I was going to say. I think that it does help the independent operators because it’s decentralizing the power away from Google and Google Ads. So now you have all these other channels where right now it’s not pay to play, so to speak. So you can show up in the results rather than reowning the first page of ads or search results. So I think that part is really interesting.

There’s also a podcast I listened to a couple months ago and it was, it wasn’t adjacent industry, but the speaker was talking about how he was looking for like the financial advisor and he was going through the prompts. I think at the time he was using chat GPT and he’s like, well, why did you pick this financial advisor based on, you all this one’s closer. This one’s got better reviews and it basically like.

made the decision for him because it found out that they went to the same school that he went to and they thought that the chat GPT thought that he would prefer to work with someone that was his alumni. And that to me is really interesting because the AI is making the choice now. It’s not an algorithmic type thing. Like they’re making the decisions rather than giving a list and us making the decisions. So I think that part’s interesting. I don’t know.

Chris (14:24)

Hmm.

Andrew (14:31)

Mm-hmm.

Holly (14:39)

how far that will mature, but he had basically just kept prompting to figure out why that was the response. So I know obviously we can all do that with our own businesses.

Jessica Johnson (14:49)

Yeah, I think it helps the independent owner as well because what you can do to feed the AI search engines through organic SEO measures, like making sure.

Your website is the best website out there, right? You’re adding content to it. You’re updating your, you know, we focus on the frequently asked questions and how to make them more conversational. Cause obviously AI is going to pick that up. Your listings is another critical piece where AI is getting some of these citation from followed by reviews. So think if you can own those three categories, website listings and reviews as an independent operator, you will suit well against some of the REITs in your market.

Chris (15:27)

Yeah, you got a chance.

Andrew (15:30)

Yeah. And we’ve been, we’ve been seeing that because we keep track of, like we try to summarize each location because we don’t, we’re not a huge operator. but we tried to do it on a location by location basis and take a look at

Jessica Johnson (15:30)

Mm-hmm.

Andrew (15:44)

what customers are saying about that business specifically. And then we try and compare that obviously to the any kind of competitors in the area. A lot of the markets that we’re in are re driven. So it’s it’s you know, can get tough for us. But I do think that to Chris’s point at the beginning of all this, there’s a opportunity for smaller operators to put their stamp on this if everything is done correctly.

which for a smaller operator like we are at 23 locations is trying to compete with the REITs from a spend standpoint has been almost impossible over the past couple of years. So this is, I think this is good for the industry moving forward.

Jessica Johnson (16:29)

Yeah.

And I’d say just to add on top of that, one of the easiest exercises an independent operator can and should do is run through

Holly (16:31)

It reminds me of…

Jessica Johnson (16:39)

whether it’s chat, Claude, whatever you use, your website URL versus your one mile, three mile, five mile competitors URL and ask for a SWOT analysis on what’s different on their website versus mine rather than you scanning all of those websites and trying to find it yourself. Let AI do the heavy lift and oh, if they have the same amenities and features as you do and it’s on their homepage and yours is buried on a different page, like those are easy corrections you can make to your website

huge impact and keep you competitive against your local market.

Holly (17:15)

I like it reminds me of SEO in the early 2000s when it was just like, if you updated the website accordingly, you automatically were ranking. And I feel like AI has kind of given us that again as it’s early in its evolution. But I feel like if you are just doing the right things that you’re supposed to and setting your site up.

for the AI to be able to read it, right? You’re in a really good spot.

Chris (17:46)

Yeah,

Andrew (17:48)

Quick break to talk about something that’s changing marketing faster than anything we’ve seen in years, AI search. More people are asking ChatGPT, Gemini, and other AI platforms for recommendations instead of traditional search engines.

At Access, we’re helping self-storage operators optimize their websites and content so they’re not just ranking on Google, they’re becoming the answer AI recommends. If you’re wondering how your business can stay ahead, let’s start the conversation. Now, back to the show.

Chris (18:26)

putting AI aside, we have two owners on the call. What’s the first thing you did or are planning to do marketing wise for your owned facilities? What was the first thing you did?

Jessica Johnson (18:39)

Yeah, we’re using a visibility report right now to see how we rank with, you know, the different AI engines. It shows us how we rank against our competitors. It gives actionable insights that, and it was so easy. Like one of them is we needed more reviews and I already knew that, right? So now I’m going to do a review campaign. So when you get those very tangible, do this, do this, like.

Don’t ignore the system, it’s giving you the output of what you need to do. So now we’re testing and we’re gonna track to see those, hopefully those KPI skill up once we make some of these changes.

Chris (19:16)

Holly, same question. What are you gonna do?

Holly (19:18)

Well,

Peter is managing the property, so I’ll have to call and ask Peter what he’s going to be doing. But to start, know it will be moving over to the Citizen Storage brand. And Melissa actually managed the property before the deal went through, so she probably has it teed up nice already with occupancy and whatnot.

Jessica Johnson (19:24)

I

Chris (19:48)

Andrew?

Andrew (19:49)

Yeah, what, so getting away from AI a little bit because we should talk about other things besides AI. What I know, because everybody’s talking about it. what are you seeing as some of the most underutilized channels that may have been around for a little while that operators are either just ignoring or they’re not paying enough attention to?

Melissa Stiles (19:57)

I’m just teasing.

Holly (19:56)

Thank

Melissa Stiles (20:12)

Yeah, I mean for us the influencer channel still is bringing in a very good ROI, know identifying different people and to be honest with you the ones that worked best have been already a tenant at our facility and just happen to have a big social media following and so just capitalizing on that and utilizing them that way. I will say it’s interesting because our referral traffic so like if you are a tenant with us and you’re

referring

someone else to us is up as well. So our rentals from people referring other ones is up this year. What we are seeing is our drive-by traffic is down. So all of our other channels are up as far as the marketing is concerned except for drive-by, which tells me more people are obviously going online. They want to trust other people. So whether that trust is with the influencer, with your friend referring you to the storage facility or through AI, it’s really about what you trust now.

Instead of just, pass that facility every day and I know nothing about it. It’s all about information and trust and how they’re making their decisions.

Jessica Johnson (21:20)

Yeah, I want to be Melissa when I grow up with influencer marketing. We’re just tapping into it. We’re really doing it on a local level, like local realtors.

Melissa Stiles (21:23)

Okay.

Jessica Johnson (21:29)

our best source right now, but we haven’t gone to the level that Sam has. we’re not as big of a portfolio, but definitely, user generated content. It’s wildly popular. People love it. Right. They trust. I mean, I love tick tock. I don’t, go to tick tock to find like new restaurants and new hotels and new experiences now, because I’m a visual person. I went to art school. Like I love visuals. So I can see that video. I can live the experience like kind of before I even

Holly (21:48)

Mm-hmm.

Jessica Johnson (21:57)

go and know what to expect. Whereas, you sometimes you rely on maybe like a Google business profile, you get catfished with some of the photos, you know, like these are real people’s real experiences. So I love that. I think the most underutilized channel still that I see, especially working on our client side with TSG is Google business profile optimization. Like, they’re not posting weekly, they’re not listing, you know, their inventory where people can rent straight from Google and not even have to go to their website.

they’re just not hitting all the bells and whistles to make that a fully optimized profile. And it’s so easy to do. God, Google walks you through it, basically. Or you can hire a third party resource that is experts in it to do it for you. But it’s a really great mechanism to still get visibility and traffic and obviously the SEO and rankings and all that good stuff.

Holly (22:53)

I this will be a hot take from a technology representative, but I think grassroots marketing is still kind of undervalued. Especially like with the rise of the remote facilities and things of that nature, like getting out into the community, I think is invaluable. I know Melissa, you have a really cool program with your team that you do that, right? That it’s important.

Melissa Stiles (23:19)

Yeah, every facility needs to develop 15 good business relationships within the market to have those referral relationships as well. And so that’s, you your apartment complexes, your movers, your lawyers, community centers that have, you know, that usually someone that has need for storage will go to first. And so just making sure that we’re top of mind and have that avenue. So thanks Holly for bringing that up.

Andrew (23:49)

And I think that’s great, Holly, because I think that, I think that could, that’s a, a private operator, that could be a huge differentiator, you know, getting out there and becoming part of the community. So totally agree there.

Chris (23:50)

Yeah, the local marketing is… Go ahead, Andrew.

Holly (23:50)

differentiator.

Jessica Johnson (24:05)

It is. I mean, honestly with, know, sorry to say it, but I’m going to say it with some of the read activity and the awareness on, you know, rate and rate controls makes the local guy look like the hero. So they should be the hero. And some people don’t want to deal with big box retailers. You know, they just don’t, they want to shop local. It’s a great way to do that.

Melissa Stiles (24:05)

Yeah.

Holly (24:18)

Yeah.

Melissa Stiles (24:27)

Not only that, but I would say almost two thirds when they start their journey for, or their need for self storage do not have something in mind or a place in mind that they want to. But when they go online, they will only make that decision based upon a name that they know. And so, you know, that’s the case too for local marketing is that brand awareness piece.

Chris (24:48)

Absolutely. I think the REITs and how they choose to do business and continue to choose to do business has really created an opportunity for the local independent folks to, like you said, Jessica, be that hero and really find a lane in the community. The local marketing efforts, while there’s only, those street fairs are disappearing. So when they do come up, it’s more nostalgia and…

Holly (25:16)

Mm-hmm.

Chris (25:17)

I don’t know about you guys, but as a child of the 80s, the only thing I have left is nostalgia. seeing those events pop up in towns, in my opinion, really continues to generate a hell of a crowd and more interest than ever before. And my feeling is if we keep giving away our crap at these street fairs, they’re gonna need a place to put it. So come on back over.

Holly (25:22)

Yeah.

Yeah.

Chris (25:45)

And, you know, but the local marketing, it’s just real, it’s driving a lot of business. Surprise, it still surprises me.

Andrew (25:52)

Do you feel that…

the customer journey has definitely shifted, right? So we’ve seen, especially we, I said, we’ll get away from AI and we’re kind of going back to AI. but from an overall standpoint have we seen the customer journey? is it significantly different today than it was 10 years ago, or are we just.

Is it really the tools that we’re using that are changing?

Melissa Stiles (26:18)

think it’s the latter, right? The tools are changing. the reason I say that is because storage is still not something where I can keep serving you an ad for and then you impossibly buy, right? You have to have a need for it. And so that need is what starts the customer journey. And then, you know, like to your point, the tools have changed. You know, when I entered self storage, we still had some Yellow Book ads, right? And so that’s where someone would go for that information. Now they’re just using, you know, I’m a big clod user.

So now you know just going to Claude and going through that channel. So I think to your point, I think the customer journey stays the same because they have to have a need for storage with our industry, but it’s just the tools are different.

Chris (27:04)

So nobody is willing to admit that they’re still doing a single truck or double truck ad in the Yellow Pages. That’s not how, damn it. Okay, all right.

Andrew (27:10)

you

Holly (27:10)

Thank

Jessica Johnson (27:10)

I’m

Melissa Stiles (27:13)

Is your

name AAAA storage too?

Chris (27:16)

No,

not anymore.

Jessica Johnson (27:19)

Yeah, I would agree with that. mean, I think the customer journey is still the same, but I think there’s new expectations, right? Dynamic pricing, convenience, being able to pick your own unit, you know, that was relatively newer in our space.

Consumers are used to that from like the airline space or self checkout at, Target. I always joke and say I’m still waiting for the holiday invitation because I mean, I’m their best employee at Target because I don’t even bother them. do everything on my own. So I think, you know, I think the consumer.

It’s just shifting with the digital era and us being, you know, more self-service than we’ve ever been before in our entire lives. And a lot of people liking that. mean, I have children that are in like their early twenties. Like they, I call them, they hang up and I get a text message. What do you want? I wanted to talk to you, but they don’t want to talk. So like meeting, you know, your consumer base through the different channels. And you have to have a variety of channels, especially if you have a variety of a consumer base.

Holly (28:13)

No.

Jessica Johnson (28:23)

a roundtable last week about the tech stack and kind of where operators get the tech stack wrong. If I’m in a super rural tertiary market, secondary market, I’m probably not going full tech stack. The consumer’s not going to tolerate it and use it. You’re in a major MSA, downtown New York, you better be full tech stack because that’s what they expect. So it’s really, really need to study customer behavior and know how to react to it. And it is not a one size fits all. You have to

have a variety of sources for them.

Holly (28:56)

I think back 10 years ago, right? Like what was happening in 2016. I think we were still having the argument if you’re supposed to put your rates online and like kind of, you know, hit the nail on the head when we talked about like self-service options are more prolific now. When in the past what happened, rentals were walk-ins. So we would rely on the resident or storage manager to be able to kind of educate all the way through the process.

So I think it has changed, but I think we’ve enabled customers to Jessica’s point to do business, or they want to do business rather than, you know, to have to rely on the person behind the counter as much.

Jessica Johnson (29:38)

And that can have almost like the flip reverse effect, right? Cause like we are now used to like the self-service. If I go onto a website and I have to dig for information, it’s not readily available or I can’t transact right then and there onto the next one I’m going, you know? So again, these are important things to be tracking and looking at.

Andrew (30:00)

Mm-hmm.

Melissa Stiles (30:00)

I

think too, just the access to information too. I mean, not just because I’m in this industry, but like 10 years ago, I don’t think most people knew what a five by five actually would fit, right? And now we’re able to show that through AI. Like you take a picture of your stuff and upload it and we can tell you that this is going to fit in a 10 by 10 or those type of things. So just that access to information I think has changed as well.

Andrew (30:24)

Definitely.

Andrew (30:25)

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Chris (30:54)

want to shift gears.

all three of you were heavily involved in the self storage associations both locally statewide and nationally three former state presidents, Florida, Pennsylvania and Pennsylvania and current Melissa’s the current PASSA president

Why is it worth it? Why do the SSA meetings and associations mean so much to you? tell us a little bit about your experience with that. We’ll start with Madam President, sitting Madam President, Melissa.

Melissa Stiles (31:25)

education is number one, obviously, with that. And I’ll let Jessica and Holly hit that. But I think within the storage industry, it’s so important because of all of the legislation. There’s so much legislation right now. And really diving into the SSA and understanding that and being part of that, whether it’s calling your senators and helping with that is really important. But the SSA is really the driving.

that in protecting the industry.

Jessica Johnson (31:52)

Yeah, I couldn’t agree more and I’ve been on two different boards, one that was ran by national and one that was ran by a different group and now is being run by national. So I’ve seen both sides.

heavily prefer national running us. It’s been a blessing having them do it. And they’ve got it buttoned up, right? They do this all year long. And no matter what industry you’re in, there’s some level of an association and why as a small business owner, wouldn’t you want to join forces and protect your industry, protect your business and join others that want to do the same thing? It’s been ultimately rewarding for me in my career, especially from the vendor side.

gotten a ton of business from, you know, being part of the board, being part of the membership. And I think it’s critical. you know, the boards I’ve been part of, it’s genuinely other members of the industry that truly care, truly want the betterment for the industry, trying to come up with new and innovative ideas for, you know, Holly and Melissa see it with Pennsylvania and Florida and others, you know, networking nights at baseball games. So it’s not just always like,

like education, like we want to have some fun too. And that’s where like the real magic happens. You know, like I have 10 trade shows all year long. I don’t get business in my trade show booth. I get business at night at dinners or at networking events, et cetera. So I think it just elevates you from an educational perspective, from a networking perspective, a career perspective. It’s great to have it on your resume that you’ve been part of, you know, association boards and have helped shape your industry.

Chris (33:13)

Mm-hmm.

Jessica Johnson (33:35)

you

Chris (33:37)

Yeah.

Holly (33:40)

The SSA is basically the guardian of the industry, right? In the legislation, obviously, as said, is very important. But I think it’s really important too for operators to come. So they’re learning like best practices all around, which will protect us from future legislation. I think that’s really important. And for me too, it’s the relationships, kind of like what Jess was saying about, you know, the time off the show floor is really the most meaningful again, you know.

being able to be part of the deal that Peter put together is relationships from meeting him at a conference. then there’s just there’s so much and like we kind of touched on this earlier about how like we don’t leave self storage, right? And it’s a very special industry because of that. I don’t know if there are a lot of other industries out there where people just don’t leave. Like there’s you end up being coworkers or clients like Melissa was one of my first clients and I actually worked at the company.

where Jessica’s working now. Like there’s just so much overlap and I feel like the associations and conferences are where we all get together and kind of develop those relationships and just move the industry forward.

Chris (34:48)

Yeah, yeah, the camaraderie is is really incredible. Like you said, that is the magic. And also as on more on the operator side and the operation side, knowing that you’re doing it the right way. And if you’re not doing it the right way, knowing who you can go to for for help for for free. A lot of folks will help you for zero dollars, you know, on the trade show floor. People.

Everybody is just really friggin’ nice and not every industry is like that and so open and welcoming. But my favorite part is when other operators ask questions and you realize, well, we’re doing it a little different than them. So that’s always my favorite revelation. But knowing that you’re in it together is just really important and that everybody else is going through that same stuff, whatever it is.

you know, having those ears and shoulders to lean on.

Holly (35:47)

I want to do a little uno reverse on you

guys and Chris asks you guys, why do you attend shows? What could make a show more valuable for you?

Chris (35:55)

Extra drink tickets? I mean two? Come on.

Holly (36:04)

We’ll have to get the SSA that feedback.

Andrew (36:07)

You

Jessica Johnson (36:07)

Yeah.

Chris (36:10)

I would say that they’re pretty valuable now, but we’re mostly going for the relationships and the continued relationships and those networking opportunities and We really like bringing our managers

you know, more to the regional shows. I really enjoy the regional shows. We’ve gone to a number of state shows, but having it in a larger setting at a, maybe a nicer facility, you know, really brings us together and allows us to bring more people. But the education for our managers, and you know, sometimes your managers look at you like you got three heads. So again, when you bring them and they hear…

the other concerns from some of the other operators. See, we know what we’re doing. is okay. But I would say that the education is tremendous and the speakers are always dynamic.

Andrew (37:07)

Yeah, I agree with Chris and I think it’s the education for us too, because we get to, know, a lot of times we’re going to these, local or regional shows and we’re seeing the three of you talk and the three of you are experts in what you do. So even, you know, myself, I’ve been in marketing for, you know, 18, 19, oh my God, 18, 19 years now. Um, but I’m

still learning obviously about the industry and how to market the industry. Because when you’re coming from other industries, it’s just a different animal. it’s very valuable from a learning standpoint. But I agree with Chris, maybe a third or fourth drink ticket would make this.

Brian (37:47)

Ha ha ha.

Jessica Johnson (37:48)

You

Melissa Stiles (37:49)

you

Jessica Johnson (37:50)

And I don’t know how Holly and Melissa feel about this, but this is how I feel. Even when I’m part of like a panel or something like this, or just go to, learn, you know, I learned from the audience too. Like the audience will chime in and say, we’re doing it this way. And I’m like, they’re onto something, you know? So I think the learning’s full cycle while we tend to be ones up there providing some of the learning. I get, fully educated every time I go to a show and I will map my show out.

Every time before I go like to specific like sessions I know I don’t want to miss and I make sure like I don’t schedule meetings during that time and you know, I Used to say like my god another Google business profile session But I have a different view on that now because now I’m taking the positive approach of I’m gonna go to it anyway And I promise you every time I come out of it There has been something said that I hadn’t heard before or maybe it was said before and I wasn’t dialed fully in at the time it was said

So there’s always opportunities to gain those nuggets, whether you’re speaking or attending.

Chris (38:58)

You ready to go to the lightning round, Andrew? Okay. So we have a lightning round. do every podcast where we’re just gonna shoot rapid fire questions at you, answer them as honestly and quickly as you can. Okay, here we go. Melissa, first concert you ever attended.

Melissa Stiles (39:17)

Boister Men.

Chris (39:19)

Man, that’s like the third Boys to Men answer. Excellent. Yeah, Gary Vee, Boys to Men. Uh-huh. Where’d you see them? Do you remember where it was? Nice. Most recent concert you attend.

Andrew (39:22)

I know Gary Vee’s was too.

Brian (39:22)

famous Gary Vee.

Melissa Stiles (39:25)

really? wow.

Jessica Johnson (39:26)

That’s so funny.

Melissa Stiles (39:30)

Here, yeah, here in York.

Stevie Nicks.

Chris (39:38)

awesome. Where was that and when?

Melissa Stiles (39:40)

Atlantic City in November or October? Yes, very good.

Chris (39:44)

Her voice still incredible.

Holly, know Blue Oyster Cult was the first, most recent.

Holly (39:55)

Gosh, Melissa, what was, you came here and we went, Nellie, yep, Nellie.

Melissa Stiles (39:58)

We just saw Nellie. Yeah.

Andrew (40:01)

Nice.

Chris (40:03)

Excellent, Jessica,

first concert, most recent concert.

Jessica Johnson (40:07)

First concert was Aerosmith, dating myself. Woo, I’m dating myself. But it was awesome. I’ve seen them a couple times too. And most recent, I just went to a reggae show last Sunday. It was Tribal Seeds, Soja, and Iration. I’ve seen Iration a few times. I saw Soja one other time, but didn’t really know who they were at the time, so I was super excited to see them.

But I’m going to say Tribal Seeds, who was the opener, knocked both of them out of the park. So now I have a new appreciation for Tribal Seeds. So super fun night. Yeah.

Chris (40:41)

Nice. Awesome. That’s terrific.

Jessica, favorite morning beverage.

Jessica Johnson (40:48)

Coffee! Or Coca-Cola. But I stopped drinking soda Monday, so I’m not okay, by the way. It’s been rough. No soda, no sweet tea. my God, I love a crispy McDonald’s Coke, but I’m really trying to drink more water, so I have not had any sweet tea or soda all week, and it’s been tough.

Chris (40:50)

Got it.

Andrew (40:50)

you

Chris (40:57)

How’s it going? Yeah, okay. Not great. Need to get you like a McDonald’s Coke or something? The good stuff?

Good luck through the holiday weekend. appreciate it. Holly, morning beverage?

Jessica Johnson (41:15)

Yeah, thank you.

Holly (41:21)

Definitely coffee too. I can pick whatever I want. would like the brown sugar ice shake and espresso from Starbucks. So good, I love it.

Jessica Johnson (41:32)

It sounds so good.

Chris (41:33)

Melissa.

Melissa Stiles (41:35)

am a loose leaf tea girl, so different loose leaf teas. I don’t drink coffee, but love some loose leaf tea in the morning.

Chris (41:46)

What kind of colander do you put, you pour the whole thing? How does that work? Explain that to me. Okay.

Melissa Stiles (41:51)

so I have an electric kettle. And then I have,

like, you can buy just like tea bags off, like empty tea bags, and then I just fill them with whatever tea. I mean, I’m buying them off of Amazon and then stuffing them.

Chris (42:00)

you’re producing your own tea bags at the house.

No, no, let’s not, let’s not reduce what

we’re doing at home.

Melissa Stiles (42:10)

Yeah.

Andrew (42:10)

Yeah

Chris (42:11)

Wow, we’re all going to your house for loose leaf tea and finding out what tea means.

okay. Summertime is coming up. Lake or ocean? Melissa.

Melissa Stiles (42:23)

anybody of water but ocean. just sold my beach house though but still ocean. Lewis.

Jessica Johnson (42:25)

You

Chris (42:30)

what beach?

Andrew (42:32)

Nice.

Chris (42:33)

nice, nice.

I could go for a dog fish head right now, as a matter of fact. Sorry. Jessica, Lake or ocean?

Holly (42:41)

worth it.

Jessica Johnson (42:42)

I’m going to go ocean. a Florida girl. I’m 45 minutes from the Atlantic. It’s beautiful. And then to get over to the golf side, you know, that takes about like five hours for me. I mean, there’s beautiful lakes, but definitely ocean.

Holly (43:01)

Well, I do love the Great Lakes very, very much so. I am also an ocean girly. Like the seashells and just the smell and it’s just wonderful.

Chris (43:14)

Yeah, I agree. I like the ocean, but mostly it’s because, you know, the 75 pound wagon full of shit that you got to drag the three quarters of a mile from the street to the beach edge. Yeah. That’s my favorite part. Yeah. Yeah. It’s great. All right. That’s it. You’ve survived. You’ve survived the No Vacancy podcast.

Melissa Stiles (43:21)

You

Jessica Johnson (43:29)

Yeah, that’s always fun.

Cool!

Yay! That was fun!

Melissa Stiles (43:39)

Do we get stickers?

Brian (43:41)

you

Chris (43:41)

Yes,

as long as you choose yes, absolutely.

Andrew (43:42)

Yes.

Chris (43:48)

Thank you all for your time. We really appreciate it.

Holly (43:50)

Thank you

guys, this was fun. I hope you have a great weekend.

Andrew (43:51)

Yeah, thank you all.

Melissa Stiles (43:51)

Thank you.

Jessica Johnson (43:51)

Thank you guys. Super fun.

Brian (43:53)

And that’s a wrap on another episode of No Vacancy. Huge thank you again to Holly Fiorello, Jessica Johnson, and Melissa Stiles for joining us and bringing real insight, real stories, and a ton of perspective to the conversation. From marketing and customer experience to leadership and where this industry is headed, this one had a little bit of everything. Until next time, keep the doors open, the units full, and we’ll see you on the next episode of No Vacancy.