How I accidentally got into self storage:

Back in 2008, I was looking for work.

Any work.

Those of you who remember that time know it wasn’t exactly a great moment to be entering the workforce. The economy had just fallen apart and jobs were scarce. So like everyone else, I applied to everything I could find.

Eventually I got a call from a small mom-and-pop self storage company.

They weren’t hiring a manager.
They weren’t hiring sales.

They needed someone to fix the buildings in the back of the property.

Apparently the structures had been sitting broken since the Nixon administration, but demand for storage was starting to explode and suddenly those old buildings needed to come back online.

So I showed up to the interview and demonstrated that I could weld.

Afterward the owner said something that stuck with me.

He told me he liked two things on my resume.
First, I grew up on a farm, so he figured I wasn’t afraid of hard work.
Second, I played college football, so he assumed I could take direction and work as part of a team.

That was it.

No industry experience.
No storage knowledge.

Just welding, work ethic, and teamwork.

I had no idea that fixing broken units in the back of a storage property would turn into a 17+ year career in the industry.

Funny how the world works.

Sometimes your entire career starts with someone simply deciding:

"This person looks like they’re willing to work."