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Stories Behind the Door: Daily Summaries Delivered
by Thaddeus Campbell
Self-storage isn't just square footage — it's a booming industry powered by smart operators, bold investors, sharp brokers, and everyday people making things happen. Hosted by Thaddeus Campbell, Stories Behind the Door pulls back the curtain on the real players behind the deals, developments, and day-to-day grind. Every week, we sit down with the people who are shaping the future of storage and flex space — one story at a time. If you're in the business or thinking about getting in, this is your front-row seat.
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- 3 days ago37 min
From Recession Survival to 500+ Stores: President of National Self Storage Travis Morrow Tells All
I sit down with Travis Morrow, CEO of Store Local and Tenant Inc., for a masterclass in self-storage operations, technology, and industry trends. Travis has spent more than two decades in the business, scaling from an intern at National Self Storage to leading nationwide co-ops and media platforms for independent owners. In this episode, we address the macro shifts transforming self-storage in 2026. Travis explains why major REIT consolidations are a natural part of the industry's lifecycle, drawing clear parallels to the hotel and hospitality sector. He breaks down how cap rates are aligning more closely with multifamily as Wall Street cements its confidence in the asset class. We also explore how Store Local grew to over 530 member companies to help independent operators leverage collective buying power, why he acquired Modern Storage Messenger in 2023, and what to expect at MSM The Show in Atlanta this November. Key Takeaways From This Episode: First & Foremost an Operator: Why Travis approaches every technology, co-op, or media venture with a focus on how it directly improves store-level P&Ls. The Lifecycle of Consolidation: Understanding why big portfolio roll-ups provide the ultimate exit liquidity for independent operators. Bridging the Tech Gap: How independent owners can combine resources through co-ops to deploy competitive systems without massive single-store budgets. Reinventing Storage Media: Transitioning a 40-year-old print legacy into an interactive digital magazine while keeping the independent operator's voice alive. East Coast Event Coverage: Why "MSM The Show" was built to serve an underrepresented Fall East Coast market with over 60 hours of curated content across data, development, investment, and operations. Whether you operate a single facility or manage a multi-state portfolio, Travis's blend of operational grit and forward-looking vision offers valuable perspective for navigating today's market. Event Info: Register for the November show at msmtheshow.com. Connect with Thaddeus Campbell (S3 Partners): Email: thaddeus@s3.partners LinkedIn: https://www.linkedin.com/in/itsthadcampbell/ Connect with Travis Marrow Email: travis.morrow@storelocal.com LinkedIn: https://www.linkedin.com/in/storageoperator/ Sponsor Shoutout: This episode is brought to you by Kiwi II Steel. Wayne Woolsey and his team bring over 30 years of experience delivering structural steel solutions for self-storage and small bay flex developments. Visit kiwisteel.com early in your design phase to leverage three decades of construction expertise on your next ground-up project.
- 1 weeks ago30 min
9-Figure Growth Secrets: What Noah Woolsey is Bringing to Storage
I sit down with Noah Woolsey from Kiwi2/Kiwi Steel for a deeply personal look at family legacy, structural engineering, and corporate transitions. Noah spent his entire youth surrounded by self-storage builders, eventually joining his father, Wayne Woolsey, to navigate one of the most respected steel operations in the commercial sector. Noah outlines the operational realities of the July 2026 marketplace. We look closely at the macroeconomic factors that are causing developers to hold back projects until early 2027 as they wait out interest-rate shifts and steel-pricing timelines. Noah explains why Kiwi Steel embraces a proudly "old school" approach to estimation and business development—relying on manual calculations and deep human trust rather than delegating calculations to open-source AI. We also walk through the strategy behind the team's massive corporate merger with Janice International, explaining how a public acquisition can leave a legacy private brand completely untouched on a local execution level. Key Takeaways From This Episode: The Entrepreneurial Buffer: Noah describes his father's masterful ability to work until midnight at the kitchen table without letting the emotional toll of business cross into his family life. The Regional Real Estate Divide: A strategic look at current development trends showing why the West Coast is holding steady while East Coast projects face major financing bottlenecks. The Small Bay Pivot: How a sluggish residential housing market is being offset by dense apartment construction, creating a massive secondary wave of demand for small bay flex, boat, and RV toy storage. Precision Value Engineering: How to protect your project parameters by using targeted zip-code calculations—beefing up roof purlins for Massachusetts snow loads or modifying structural frames for high-velocity Florida wind loads. The Truth of the Handoff: Why institutional buyers are willing to pay massive premiums for private platforms while keeping the original founders completely in charge of the day-to-day controls. Whether you are a private merchant developer waiting for the right moment to break ground on a new asset or an independent operator analyzing the industrial flex market, Noah's unique mix of multi-generational wisdom and front-line data is essential listening. Connect with Thaddeus Campbell (S3 Partners): Email: thaddeus@s3.partners LinkedIn: https://www.linkedin.com/in/itsthadcampbell/ Connect with Noah Woolsey Email: noah.woolsey@kiwisteel.com LinkedIn: https://www.linkedin.com/in/noah-woolsey-9499a1183/ This Episode was brought to you by: https://www.kiwisteel.com/
- 2 weeks ago31 min
Before AI, Gary Edmonds helped define Remote Management in Storage decades before AI existed!
I sit down with Gary Edmonds, the former head of The Storage Manager, for a deeply insightful history lesson and operational reality check. Gary has spent a quarter-of-a-century operating, developing, and consulting within the storage vertical, tracking its transition from a niche real estate landhold into an intense institutional landscape. Gary maps out his entry into the space in 2001, shifting away from residential real estate after a friend's sudden divorce forced an emergency liquidation of properties. We look closely at the modern operational traps of 2026—where owners stack up recurring software costs without measuring true local ROI. Gary passes down his foundational advice on defending your cash flow against rising 40% expense ratios, why commercial/contractor tenants are the ultimate stable base, and why he and his wife Diane recently chose to step away from 90-hour property management weeks to focus back on their core investments. Key Takeaways From This Episode: Analyze True Competition: Why your neighborhood metrics matter more than flashy software sales pitches. Each layer of tech must generate clear returns or be cut from your margins. Safety Rules Over Aesthetics: Customers do not pick facilities based on the color of your roll-up doors. They choose assets based on the explicit safety and cleanliness they feel. The Commercial Trade-off: High-touch contractor clients demand early 6:30 AM gate availability and require frequent lot cleanups. However, they build out spaces like their own garages and stay rooted far longer than consumers. The Legislative Wall: Why micro-market operators in secondary and tertiary zones are not safe from predatory city licensing laws and syntax adjustments. Association membership is mandatory to maintain a unified voice. A Call for Community Support: Host Thaddeus Campbell shares a critical GoFundMe initiative for longtime producer Erick Falck, whose family's home region north of Caracas was recently devastated by a major earthquake in Venezuela. Whether you are a corporate developer building automated Class-A assets or an independent owner protecting your local domain, Gary's grounded, non-commercial advice provides the perfect blueprint for the road ahead. Connect with Thaddeus Campbell (S3 Partners): Email: thaddeus@s3.partners LinkedIn: https://www.linkedin.com/in/itsthadcampbell/ Connect with Gary Edmonds Email: gary.edmonds@thestoragemanager.com LinkedIn: https://www.linkedin.com/in/gary-edmonds-70899a23b/ Donate for the Venezuela Earthquake victims here: https://www.gofundme.com/f/emergency-relief-for-venezuela-earthquake-victims Sponsor Shoutout: This episode is brought to you by Kiwi2 Steel. Wayne Woolsey and his partners bring over three decades of premier experience providing structural steel erection for self-storage and small-bay flex projects. Visit kiwisteel.com early in your land planning phase to lock down stable parameters and ensure your development's eventual commercial success.
- 3 weeks ago33 min
How Warehouse Anywhere Helps Storage Owners Scale NOI Effortlessly
I sit down with Laura Holmes, CEO of Warehouse Anywhere, for an inside look at how enterprise businesses are completely rethinking supply chain logistics through the lens of self-storage. Laura shares the incredible story of navigating the massive Extra Space and Life Storage corporate merger, transforming a back-office utility into a standalone platform that handles the physical storage burdens for national sales forces. We dive into the massive operational inefficiencies inside corporate storage accounts, where companies routinely lose track of forgotten inventory and historical marketing items—and how centralized platforms provide instant visibility. Laura breaks down the exact differences between strict traditional warehousing and nimble, month-to-month storage models, why B2B commercial accounts are the ultimate tenant base for operators, and how she leverages agentic tech workflows to keep her business running on steroids. Key Takeaways From This Episode: The Operational Audit: How digging into corporate expense reports often reveals that field reps are storing old household furniture alongside high-value company assets. The Flexibility Factor: Why avoiding restrictive long-term leases enables enterprise firms to scale up or down instantly in response to seasonal product launches. Streamlining the Network: Eliminating the administrative nightmare of managing hundreds of separate property managers across a fragmented 70,000-location US map. A New Era of Data: Shifting past rigid, pre-built reports to utilize conversational data environments that answer complex regional inventory questions instantly. The Global Roadmap: Laura outlines her future milestones, including expanding footprints into Canada and tracking emerging macro storage associations across Europe and Asia. Whether you are a self-storage operator looking to capture premium commercial tenants or a real estate professional tracking the massive convergence of tech and industrial flex space, Laura's sharp execution strategies and building milestones are essential listening. Connect with Thaddeus Campbell (S3 Partners): Email: thaddeus@s3.partners LinkedIn: https://www.linkedin.com/in/itsthadcampbell/ Connect with Laura Holmes (Warehouse Anywhere) Email: lholmes@warehouseanywhere.com LinkedIn:https://www.linkedin.com/in/lauratholmes/ Sponsor Shoutout: This episode is brought to you by Kiwi Steel. Wayne Woolsey and his premier team bring over 30 years of field-tested experience providing structural steel solutions for self-storage and small-bay flex developments. Visit kiwisteel.com early in your planning timeline to leverage three decades of crew expertise, lock in structural parameters, and prevent costly design modifications down the road.
- Jul 1, 202633 min
Matt McDermott spent over a decade making money for some of Wall Streets biggest companies. Now he protects income for real estate investors.
I sit down with Matt McDermott, CPA, the owner of South Jersey Tax Services and my personal accountant, for a masterclass in strategic tax planning, asset protection, and wealth preservation. Matt spent the early part of his career climbing the corporate ladder of the world's most recognizable financial institutions, including Deloitte, Merrill Lynch, and BlackRock, before pivoting to run his own highly successful advisory firm. In this episode, we explore how Matt scaled his business to over 1,200 clients by treating accounting as a process and efficiency problem rather than a sales problem. Matt breaks down his core wealth strategies, explaining why business owners must stop intentionally under-reporting revenue to avoid short-term tax bills, as it fundamentally cripples their long-term valuation and bank financing power. We dive deeply into high-yield real estate mechanisms, including cost segregation studies, 1031 exchanges, and how to utilize the IRS "Real Estate Professional" status to completely offset a spouse's heavy W-2 tax burden. Key Takeaways From This Episode: The Big Box Forensic Play: Matt recounts his time as a 22-year-old auditor uncovering a billion-dollar sale-leaseback corporate accounting failure that shocked the financial markets. The Ultimate Valuation Pitch: Why smart cash flow reporting and tax books must be structured cleanly to protect your eventual business exit strategy. The Non-Cash Friend: How real estate developers and operators can maximize depreciation by shifting from standard 39-year timelines down to 5- or 7-year buckets via engineering cost segregation. The W-2 Offset: How a married couple can convert passive real estate investments into an active participation designation to legally wipe out corporate tax exposure. The Limits of Agentic AI: Why open-source data risks keep AI restricted from executing direct tax resolutions, and how operators can still deploy machine learning to clear out their communication inboxes and capture sales leads. IRS Tealeaves for 2026: A look inside the current automated environment of the IRS, why "false positive" compliance letters are spiking, and how to handle sudden auditor turnover. Whether you are a real estate merchant developer, a small-bay flex operator, or an ambitious entrepreneur trying to scale your company past its current labor blocks, Matt's institutional clarity and real-world tax playbooks are mandatory listening for your 2026 financial roadmap. Connect with Thaddeus Campbell (S3 Partners): Email: thaddeus@s3.partners LinkedIn: https://www.linkedin.com/in/itsthadcampbell/ Connect with Matt McDermott Email:mattmc@southjerseytax.com Website: https://www.southjerseytaxservices.com This Episode was brought to you by: https://www.kiwisteel.com/
- Jun 22, 202625 min
Is Storage Harder Than Brain Surgery? Dr. Richard Dalyai Shares the Reality
I sit down with Dr. Richard Dalyai, a vascular neurosurgeon and the co-founder of Self Storage Brothers, for a masterclass in operational discipline, data tracking, and intentional family leadership . Richard brings an incredibly precise, clinical lens to real estate . After spending his twenties working 100-hour weeks during an elite residency at Thomas Jefferson University, he realized that despite his love for saving stroke patients, he wanted true asset ownership outside of massive hospital bureaucracies . Since 2020, he has partnered with his wife and mother to build a powerhouse regional brand spanning 10 locations from Raleigh East to Greenville, North Carolina. We explore why he rejects standard third-party management, how he uses local southern accents as a competitive barrier against Wall Street REITs, and the exact steps he took to build a proprietary data warehouse using Google Cloud, BigQuery, and Claude AI to audit his business daily . Key Takeaways From This Episode: The Autonomy Asset: Why doctors and high-earning professionals are turning to storage for a sense of true business ownership <sup class="supers
- Jun 17, 202631 min
Why Will Skillman Went All-In on Midwest Small Bay Flex (And Won)
I sit down with Will Skillman, Founder and CEO of Trowbridge Development, for an unfiltered masterclass in small-bay industrial flex operations and raw entrepreneurial discipline . Will has flipped 100 homes, managed dozens of apartment buildings, and rolled up massive mobile home portfolios across the Midwest before targeting the highly fragmented small-bay asset class . We unpack the exact economic indicators driving the small-bay boom in 2026, where sub-5% vacancies meet a massive gap between acquisition costs and soaring replacement costs . Will explains why he chose to pull back the reins on 15 months of development planning to protect his investors' capital, how he structures deals using seller notes to bridge valuation gaps, and why maintaining total equity control trumps chasing institutional fee-play models every single time . Key Takeaways from this Episode: The Intelligence of Capital Discipline: Why walking away from unfeasible projects is the ultimate sign of investment maturity .</s
- Jun 10, 202631 min
Inside the Deals That Changed Self-Storage Forever with Zack Dickens
I sit down with Zach Dickens, the Chief Investment Officer at Extra Space Storage, for a masterclass in institutional real estate, macroeconomics, and programmatic growth . Zach has spent over two decades directing the investment strategies for one of the most successful public platforms in modern real estate history . We step through the defining eras of the self-storage asset class. Zach shares behind-the-scenes insights into the 2005 Storage USA transaction, explaining how a tiny, newly public platform structured a complex joint venture with Prudential to swallow an entity three times its size . We trace the survival mechanisms Extra Space deployed during the 2008 banking collapse, the integration mechanics behind their 2023 Life Storage merger, and his real-time perspective on the massive consolidation occurring across the sector in 2026 . Key Takeaways From This Episode: The Value of Scale: Why self-storage has transformed from simple real estate landholds into an elite business of operational and technological scale <span data-path-to-node="19,0,
About Stories Behind the Door
Self-storage isn't just square footage — it's a booming industry powered by smart operators, bold investors, sharp brokers, and everyday people making things happen. Hosted by Thaddeus Campbell, Stories Behind the Door pulls back the curtain on the real players behind the deals, developments, and day-to-day grind. Every week, we sit down with the people who are shaping the future of storage and flex space — one story at a time. If you're in the business or thinking about getting in, this is your front-row seat.
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