March 10, 2023 • 24 mins
In this episode of the Wisdom for Business on Life podcast, Levi interviews Scott Meyers, CEO of Self Storage Investing, a company that specializes in all things self-storage.
Scott shares his 30-year journey in real estate, from investing in single-family houses to multi-family complexes, and eventually transitioning to self-storage. He explains the advantages of self-storage investments, including the ability to quickly turn over units without needing to rehab them, and the ease of dealing with non-paying tenants. Scott also talks about the importance of self-awareness and leveraging one's natural gifts to find success. Finally, he shares his wisdom gained from enduring recessions and the importance of learning from mentors, books, and past experiences to navigate challenging times in business and life.
About Scott: Scott Meyers is based in Indianapolis, Indiana and is the CEO of a company that specializes in buying and selling self-storage facilities. Unlike most educators, he actually does what he teaches and has owned and operated several facilities throughout the Continental United States. His company routinely manages various construction projects at their existing facilities, in addition to a few development projects from time to time. Find him at https://selfstorageacademy.com and https://www.selfstorageinvesting.com
Levi Brackman is a rabbi, Ph.D. in psychology, best-selling author of Jewish Wisdom for Business Success, and founder of Invown, a platform for real estate fundraising and investing.
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Episode Transcript
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(00:04):
Welcome back to the Wisdom forBusiness on Life podcast.
Thank you so much for joiningtoday.
I have another special guestwith me, Scott Myers.
Scott Myers is the c e o of acompany called Self Storage
Investing.
Thank you so much for beinghere, Scott.
Hi Levy.
Good to see you again.
(00:25):
Yeah, real pleasure.
I know we've spoken quite anumber of times already and
we've met in person, but for thesake of the audience, give us a
little bit of your backgroundwho you.
Sure.
So I own a company calledSelf-Storage Investing and
self-storage investing.com.
And that is really all we do,which is all things that
self-storage.
So I've been investing in realestate since 1993, so this is
(00:47):
this marks my 30th year in realestate.
Hard to believe.
And been investing in selfstorage since 2005.
So 18 years in self storage.
So, started the path like mostpeople do when they get into
real estate with single-familyhouses, and then got into
multi-family and looking forthat economies of scale that
we're all seeking.
Where we get property managersand management companies in
(01:09):
place.
And then it becomes more of apassive role, if you will,
although it's never passivebecause it is a business.
But we got to the place where wehad about 80 houses and over 400
apartment units and didn'treally see the passive side of
it.
It was just really more active.
And every time we bought anothercomplex, it was even more
active, even though we had themanagement companies in place.
And so I began to look aroundthe real estate landscape and,
(01:29):
we all love real estate.
Of course.
Everybody says we lovehabitation in landlording real
estate.
If it weren't for the tenantsand the toilets and the trash
and so if you look around inreal estate, then there's really
not much left outside of thatother than parking lots and self
storage.
To eliminate those.
And so that's what we begindoing is going down that path of
researching and, and lookinginto and doing my due diligence
on self storage and really likedwhat I saw.
(01:51):
If people don't pay, we can lockthem out or put what's called an
overlock on their units, selltheir stuff off if they don't
pay rent.
And then when they move outeither on their own or by the
way of an auction, we're leftwith a metal box on a concrete
slab and it takes us 30 secondsto blow it out and do, the turn
as they call it.
And so for those reasons, norehab.
No rehab needed?
No.
So for those reasons and manymore, but those are the main
(02:13):
ones.
I realized that, this is anasset class that I wanted to be
involved in, and so we began tolook into idea even further.
But, there really wasn't aneducation company or a resource
for teaching about it.
I went to the trade shows andsome of the other industry
events, but that was morevendors than folks talking about
the business and wanting to buyfrom them.
and so l learned through Schoolof Harden accident, but also by
(02:35):
way of getting a consultant tofill in the gaps and talking to
as many people as they could inthe industry.
And so we launched it, got intoour first partnership in a
facility and then never, neverturned back.
Sold all our houses andapartments and went full bore
into self storage.
And since there was a need inthe market for folks to teach
about the business as well.
We did launch a few years later,an education company and a
(02:56):
consulting company to teachpeople how to get into the
business by way of acquisitionsand, and then development and
conversions.
And so we, we grew two verylarge businesses and self
storage that eventually becamemerged.
And now we teach people how toinvest in storage, and then they
invest alongside of us or withus, either passively or
actively.
just depending upon the project.
And so that's a longwindedanswer to your question, but
(03:18):
that is the 30 year journey inreal estate and brought us to
where we are today.
Now, along that journey there'smany stops and ups and downs and
mm-hmm.
and no one, reaches any level oflongevity in the journey or
success without gaining somewisdom or without using wisdom.
Mm-hmm.
and this podcast is about that,so wisdom for business and.
(03:39):
Because often the two cometogether.
So if you look back at yourcareer it doesn't just have to
be business.
It can also be about life.
What are the wisdoms wisdomteachings or wisdom nuggets that
you have that seem to come upover and over again to help you
as you, reach differentmilestones and different,
challenges.
Well, first of all, Lavia,again, an honor to be on the
(04:01):
podcast cuz that that means thatyou consider me having some
wisdom to be able to impart onfolks.
So it's enough.
We did speak a few times beforeand I mentioned the podcast and,
you did say a number of thingswhich I thought were really
interesting would be veryvaluable for the audience.
That's why I've asked you tocome on and, and, and share some
of those things.
But I, going directly to thosethings, cause I'm sure you have
a lot more as.
(04:23):
Well, it's interesting, as wedid talk about, self-awareness I
think is a beautiful thing.
It's a gift that you giveyourself and it's, for those
that have kids, it's a gift thatyou can give them too for, them
to be able to find out andfigure out, first of all, what's
their, what's our giftings?
You know, what have they been,uh, born with?
What are their, their higherpower, their God given them?
And how can we utilize those?
I, I think if we turn away fromthat or fight it or be, we wanna
(04:43):
go towards something that's moresexy, that typically doesn't,
work out that way.
Then I think, you know, as we goon, you know, wisdom just comes
from, you know, it comes withscar tissues, scar tissue, and,
and it comes with a, limp.
And there's lessons that welearn along the way.
You know, if we lean into ourmentors and all those that, that
came before us, that, that welearned from by way of books
and, and mentors and teachers,that's one thing.
(05:05):
But, you know, we, we all stilldo learn by, by doing and, and
we have to endure some of thoseo on our own.
But the beauty of coming out onthe other side of that is after
being in real estate for 30years now, you know, that gives
us the ability, you know, we'vebeen through two recessions
heading into our third, and, andyou look a little further down
the road, once you've beenthrough a recession, you know,
you, you understand, you knowwhat this feels like, what it
(05:26):
looks like, and, and you, youcan very easily draw on the
pains of the last one or thehard times in our businesses
and, and understand, you know,how to avoid some of that, or at
least how to navigate it.
And, and put some of the, youknow, the, the guardrails in
place to make sure that doesn'thappen again.
You know?
But for instance, you know,there's, there's many people
that have made money in realestate and done well in self
(05:46):
stories since 2010, you know,when we come outta the
recession.
And that's great.
And a lot of smart people.
But, you know, 50% of thatsuccess, including my own was,
was a gift from the marketitself.
So, you know, we're, we're notall that in a bag of ships, you
know, but those of us that havebeen through a few recessions,
you know, we learn a few otherthings from that.
But by the same token, you know,there's other folks in real
estate and, and, andself-storage that are,
(06:08):
influencers and, and, and one of'em I saw on, on Twitter
recently, somewhat bragging.
I guess that's the only way youput it, cuz I don't know why you
would put out there that youlost$400,000 on a project before
you decided to pull the plug andthen use that as a lesson.
You know, for other folks or,you know, his followers or or
his tribe to learn from.
And, and I don't know the, thecircumstances, but I can tell
you lady, there's there is noway that in our organization
(06:30):
that we would get to the pointwhere we knew we were gonna lose
or potentially lose$400,000before we pulled the plug on a
project.
And that only comes from, youknow, the experience of being
going through a couple ofrecessions and having projects
start and stop, and some thatwe, we have had to pull the plug
on.
But I, I can tell you sure, asI'm sitting here, I'm not gonna
let$400,000 go through myfingers of my money or my
(06:52):
investor's money, or my family'smoney, before we begin to, you
know, the, before the, you know,the alarms go off and you
recognize that something isgoing south.
So there's just, there's wisdomthat comes from some of the
challenges that allows you to,go further down the road in the
business.
Because you've seen it before,let me, push on that particular
note, because, so what is, yougot one guy, maybe younger.
(07:17):
Less experienced, which, Couldbe a bad thing, could be a good
thing as well, because maybe youhave less experience, you're not
jaded sometimes.
You're able to seeopportunities.
Some older people are not ableto see, and, and I see this in
our space as well, that youngerpeople they've got an ability to
see.
What their generation is goingthrough and therefore how things
(07:38):
might look in five or six yearsbecause of how their generation
are moving, whereas older peoplemay not see.
So there's a, a flip side tothis as well.
But what is it that you have,having done it for 30 years,
what is it, what are the thingsthat you look out for which are
gonna ensure that you don't losethat$400,000 or whatever it is
that this guy might, what are,what are the key things that
(08:00):
you.
I wouldn't do this because ofthe wisdom I've learned, et
cetera, or Yeah, I've learnedthis wisdom, which means that I
won't do this.
Yeah.
I, I think it comes with, youknow, there's, there's the
youthful.
Exuberance and the optimism andthat, that newer entrepreneurs
have.
And, and, and, and I've had thatas well.
And, and to the degree which Ithink you're referring to, you
(08:21):
know, you hope that people don'tlose that we're, I hope in
myself, I don't lose that asthey grow older because, you
know, we have had some badexperiences and, and sometimes
that causes you to beovercautious in the opposite
direction.
And, and not really realizethat, that you can move forward
with something.
And there's that also thatsituational knowledge and
experience, as you alluded to aswell.
There's there's diff differencesin generations and they may see
(08:42):
something that the oldergeneration doesn't.
And so all those things,encapsulated, you know, how how
do we navigate that on bothends?
And I think for those of us,that have been around a little
bit, one of the ways we prepareourselves is that, you know, we
know that this is a litigioussociety that we, that we live
in, and so we put all thosesafeguards in place and making
sure that we have just soliddocuments and paper in place.
And also, I've had to, I've hadmy attorney push back.
(09:05):
Against me.
Many, situations, within aproject saying, I can paper this
thing up all day long, butScott, I think that this may be
a little too risky and here'swhy.
And I'm not just saying that cuzI'm your attorney, but I think
he could get into some troublewith this one.
And earlier years I thought,well I'm gonna prove them wrong
cuz you know, he doesn't knowany better.
She doesn't know any better.
You know, my attorneys, my.
(09:26):
And now they don't know what Iknow because I'm younger than
them and I'm gonna move forwardand, and prove it to'em And
they've said, I'll never stopyou unless I really see that
you're gonna step in something.
But this is a, this is a projectyou probably shouldn't go
forward with.
And and I went forward with manyof those and one of'em I wished
I hadn't because they wereright.
And, um, I should have listenedto them in that instance.
And I still have that propertytoday.
And it best will break even if,you know, and maybe make a
(09:47):
little bit of money on, on thisproject.
It's a piece of and maybe we'lltell that story another dot
another day, but, I, I thinkyou, you measure that some of
the losses that you've had.
You, you get good solid advisorsand counsel from attorneys to
other folks, mentors that havegone down the, the path before
you.
and, and then the numbers.
I think many times that thereare folks, I'm still surprised,
(10:09):
you know, we run, as Imentioned, an education
organization.
Mm-hmm.
and I'm still just shocked ladythat, that we see people out
there writing up purchaseagreements on projects when they
really don't know the numbers.
They really don't know how tounderwrite and they haven't
bothered to ask and reallylearn.
And, I think that their, theirunderwriting is a little too
optimistic and they've grabbed amodel or even a software from
(10:31):
somebody else and they don't.
Not even how to use it, letalone how to read the
information back.
That is giving them data in.
You're seeing that in inself-storage.
Mm-hmm.
Yeah.
Amazing commercial real estateacross the board when you're
operating with a, you know,evaluation based upon a net
operating income, on anoperation of a business or a
piece of real estate and a caprate, there's literally
(10:52):
thousands of ways.
I mean, there's a hundred or so150 different calculations.
That you need to be mindful of.
And then you can make roughly athousand, plus mistakes within
that, algorithm and thosesoftwares and those underwriting
pieces.
It's a art and a science, and Ithink many folks are, are not,
treating it, with, as either,and it's just a, a necessary,
(11:12):
uh, evil in, in order to putsomething in front of the lender
in order to get a.
Yeah, yeah, I thought, cuz I'veseen that a lot from people who
are starting off in real estatebuying single families or, or
two, three family places.
But you know, they're puttingfor them a lot of money, a
hundred thousand,$200,000 down.
(11:33):
And I've seen that quite a bit.
But I didn't realize that thedegree that, you know, when
people are putting millions ofdollars down mm-hmm.
they're still doing that.
I mean, So that's not practice.
Those are the basics.
I mean, those are the kind ofthe blocking and tackling, but
I, I think you have to have thelong.
You have to have the long gamein mind.
In order to succeed.
I, I believe more than anythingif you're just looking for the
(11:54):
quick hit or if you're justlooking to make a run, you know,
before the next recession andget out, or you've got a five or
a seven year in mind, if you'realways looking at that, at, at
your business or at yourapproach to a venture with that
in mind as the end game, I don'tthink that people are gonna be
successful, you know, for me.
I'm unemployable.
I can't go back and work forsomebody else after being out on
my own this long.
There's just, you know, I was, Ifelt like a caged animal, the,
(12:16):
the, the few years I was incorporate America.
And there's no way that I wouldgo back.
And so part of that is, youknow, the fear of, hey, if I, if
I don't do this right and I loseit all, I may have to go back
and get a job to support myfamily or, or myself.
And, and to me, that is alwayshanging out there.
You know, it's just like, I, Iabsolutely can't, I have to
succeed at this.
and when you get into the realmthat, that, that you and I are
in, you know, it's a, it's asmall group, but a large group
(12:38):
of individuals and, andcompanies and offices and
contacts.
But if you don't do well byfolks, And I don't mean just by,
missing your projections, but Imean, you know, worse, you know,
you, you don't operate from aplace of integrity and, and your
investors see it, recognize it,or you're found out, then you're
done.
It doesn't matter, no matterwhether you wanted to be in the
long game or the short game.
In today's world of social mediatransparency and, and, and the
(13:00):
network of folks that arearound.
If you're not doing right byyour investors, all the way
through and operating, everysingle decision, every single
piece of information,everything, the word that comes
out of your mouth needs to be,truthful.
And you need to, we're all, weall say that we're conservative
and under promise andover-deliver, but you have to do
that.
You have to be realistic, andyou have to make sure that you
are conservative and that you doover-deliver.
(13:23):
That's how you stay in the game.
We, we've been at those paneldiscussions and, and this comes
up at every single one of, uh,these family office types,
events and meetings.
And the, the heads of the familyoffice will say, we, we won't
invest with anybody unless wecan.
We understand that they operatefrom a place of integrity and
that comes by way of a referralcuz you can't find that out in
the dating phase.
You can only find that out onceyou get married or if you have a
(13:44):
referral from somebody else.
But you know, this is true.
In everything.
I'll give you an example,because I, I went to a store,
and I ordered of the phone and,and they sent me and actually
delivered whatever I was lookingto.
It was, it was groceries orwhatever.
It was a small store.
And when I looked at thereceipt, I saw that they had put
certain items on the receipt,which I didn't order and weren't
(14:06):
in the, in the and I actuallywent back there and, and, and I
mentioned it and he was cageyabout it.
I could tell immediately thiswasn't the first time he had
done it mm-hmm.
he'd figured out a way then whatBill did, orders over the phone
or whatever, he was throwing afew extra bucks that's 15% over
time.
That's a lot of money for yourbusinesses, your bottom line,
but it's, he got thatdishonesty.
He's running a small business.
(14:26):
He's not going private equity.
Mm-hmm.
you still exhaust his integrity?
Mm-hmm.
and, and, mm-hmm.
and Nick 15.
It's not a big deal for me.
I'm not gonna go to the FBI overit.
You know, there's no classaction lawsuit, but mm-hmm.
enough people see that and youwill not make money.
It's so, this piece of itswisdom, but it's also like, it's
a, I don't understand how peopledon't get that.
(14:46):
It just doesn't make sense.
It's not good business to treatpeople.
No, it, it, it really isn't.
And, I don't know that they willever see a measurement of that.
But at, at the end of the day,you know, if you do measure it,
you know, the lost business byyou telling people not to go
there, you know, that arearound, whether this is a local
business and around your, your,your neighbors or whomever, or
just the fact that they lost youas a customer.
I mean, the cost of customeracquisition in any business is
(15:10):
much higher than it is to justkeep.
You know, and that, I mean, thatis the art of business anyways.
You pay all this capital, putall this time, you know, the
heavy lift, you know, to get thebusiness moving.
And as Jim Collins calls it, youknow, the flywheel, you know,
then after a while, once it'smoving, you just touch it.
Every once in a while, you keepwhat you got and you get a
little bit more, you keep thecustomers you've got and you get
a little bit more.
(15:31):
Yeah.
But if you're, if you'reoperating in, in, in that
pretense and you're losingcustomers, that is just much,
much more expensive to acquire,more, to get back to that same
level.
And you may lose some of thecustomer base that you'll never
have again, if it's a smallindustry.
So I, I, I've never understoodit.
I don't operate by nature thatway anyways.
But it's certainly not only abad way to live your life, but
it's a bad business model aswell.
Yeah, exactly.
(15:52):
So, I, I wanna touch uponthough, what we, we talked about
was just, you see.
You are in the business ofbasically where people have a
lot of stuff.
Yep.
Actually too much stuff often.
Mm-hmm.
Mm-hmm.
And, they need a place to storeit.
Mm-hmm.
And that's a big business.
Anywhere you go anywhere inAmerica, you'll see public
storage, mm-hmm.
So what is it that you've.
(16:12):
and what have you garnered interms of human nature?
Mm-hmm.
what observations do you have asyou've seen this business for
many years?
So we're, you know, lately we'rea service-based business.
Self storage is a commodity.
You know, we're in the traumaand transition side of the
economy.
When people are moving, there'sa transition.
If they're gonna, you know,yeah, they're getting ready to
move.
(16:32):
They're gonna put their stage,their house, and put all their
stuff in it before they move tomake it look like there's more
room.
And then when they actually domove, they'll probably use
storage until they get intotheir next home.
People are also going to usestorage if there's a transition.
And that means, um, you know,they're, they're, they're going
through a life change.
So they're retiring, they'reempty nesters, they're gonna
(16:53):
move into a smaller home, andthen they move into assisted
living and it's a smaller livingarrangement, uh, again.
And so each time they're gonnaput things in, uh, storage.
Your basement floods and you'regonna remodel, you're gonna put
things in, uh, storage, uh,death, divorce, bankruptcy, you
know, uh, you know, three dsare, are what drives this
business that is a demand base.
And so that is, that is a bigpiece of it.
(17:13):
But, uh, the other side thatyou're mentioning, which is, you
know, we are as Americans, thehyper consumers of the world,
and we have too much stuff andwe rent outta space and our
basement's, our garage, um, youknow, if we have them or, um,
you know, just the fact that weare going into smaller.
Types of housing.
Now we're becoming a more mobilesociety.
Uh, people aren't wanting to buya big house their forever house.
They wanna live differentplaces.
(17:34):
Uh, we're becoming moretransient in nature, you know,
covid accelerated that we canwork from anywhere.
So now people are moving toplaces around the world or back
home or wherever and, and, andthey can work from wherever.
So they're not acquiring as muchstuff and they're buying smaller
homes.
But at the same time, you know,they still, the, the millennials
and the generations behind,they, they like a adventure and
they.
(17:55):
To Google camping.
They like to ride motorcyclesand bikes and kayaks, and if
they're living in a smallerhouse or if they're gonna be
moving anytime soon, all thatstuff goes into storage.
And so, you know, the babyboomers were the, the, uh, ultra
users of, uh, self-storagethrough the years.
And now we're seeing that shift,uh, to the millennials, but they
haven't even higher.
(18:15):
Um, increase in a demand forstorage.
But the piece that, that kind ofsurprised me, um, the most is
that, you know, there are anumber, there's a percentage of
renters where they will putthose things in storage, whether
it's just excess stuff or evenafter a move.
And, and it's really just, youknow, the couch that doesn't fit
in there or, you know, and Clarapassed away and so she's got a
(18:35):
storage unit, or she gave us afew things, you know, it's worth
maybe two or$300.
Um, but instead of figuring outwhat to do with it or throw it
away or sell it or move it intotheir own homes, they let it
ride.
You know, it just sits there inthe storage unit and they pay
us, you know, a hundred bucks amonth or 150 bucks a month, and,
you know, to defer that decisionto do something with it.
And, and that's where the realeasy Americans come into play,
And how they lose money instorage is because they, they,
(18:57):
they just won't make a decision.
And so 5, 6, 7 years later, youknow, when they're, they're gone
and, you know, we can't findhim, and we go through the
auction process and cut the lockoff and open it up.
You know, there's, there's thatold green couch that have been
sitting there rotting for eightyears and, and a couple of spare
tires.
You know, now it's worth 20bucks and they've spent seven or
$8,000 is what they've paid usto store it.
(19:20):
So that, again, a longwindedanswer to your question levy,
but the, that's the side of itthat just, you know, is a head
scratcher.
And, and probably because I'm aminimalist, um, we've got 4
million square feet of storageall across the country, 25,000
units, and I'm proud to saythat.
Have one of'em that I'm usingeven for free.
I re I I refuse to do so.
We're, we're, I'm a hyper purgerand a minimalist of by nature as
(19:41):
well.
And, um, so to the, to the, theday that we ever have a whole
bunch of storage units is theday that, um, you need to check
on my meds because something'swrong.
Well, it, it, but it'sinteresting because.
There's something that's anattachment that we have with
material objects mm-hmm.
as humans.
Yep.
Which is we value ourselvesbased upon what we have.
(20:02):
Yeah.
Net worth and self-worth, youknow, in your business.
Mm-hmm.
I started off, my career as arabbi and ended up in
nonprofits, but as I got intobusiness, people talk about
their net worth a lot, and it'sreally, really important to
them.
which, which I still try to getmy head around, like, why is it
that important again?
Like I mean, I understand whyyou want to know it, but why is
it such a big thing?
People get really, reallyattached to these material
(20:24):
objects and don't want to givethem away.
And you are a minimalist, whichyou don't feel that way.
Like, what makes you realizethat maybe that's not a good
thing?
Part of it just stems from myspiritual beliefs.
Um, you know, do not store upyour, uh, treasures here on
earth where mouth and rust, uh,destroy, but, uh, store them in
heaven.
And, and there's, there's a lotof wisdom in that, um, as well.
Yeah.
You know, the more stuff youown, the more it rusts, the more
(20:45):
you have to break it, the moreyou have to pay to store it.
I mean, I'm talking, you know,boats and RVs and, you know, if
you've got, uh, two houses, awinter house and a summer house,
you know, there's just extraroofs and just, um, there's just
extra.
That before you recognize it orrealize that, uh, there's really
eating away at that net worth oryour monthly operating at
income.
So the more stuff you have, themore money it takes to maintain
(21:06):
it.
And the more time, I mean, youknow anybody who's listening to
this, you recognize and realizethat if you've got more stuff,
you just have to spend more timemaintaining it.
And you know, so for me, Youknow, having a extra baggage and
extra stuff, uh, means that I, Ihave to maintain it and I have
to spend the time, uh, you know,to do, do that as well.
And that takes time away frompeople and relationships and the
(21:26):
things that are, that are mostimportant.
Yeah.
So I think that's probably themain driver.
And, and second to that is that,you know, we, we had a near, uh,
as a, as Dave Ramsey calls it, anear debt experience.
You know, we, um, back when theeconomy shifted in 99 and two,
We were in houses and apartmentsand, and the economy tanked and
people were moving, um, first ofall moving back home.
(21:46):
And then right after that, theCommunity Reinvestment Act came
into place.
And, and then any of ourinvestor or our, renters that
could fog a mirror, they couldbuy a house.
And so they all left and theyleft our with, left us with a
high vacancy rates and, uh, youknow, we were robbing from Peter
to pay Paul until Peter wasbroke as well.
Um, you know, we recognize atthat point that, um, you know,
(22:07):
uh, gosh, if I wouldn't havespent that extra$20 on a bottle
of wine or a sweater orsweatshirt, you know, there was
times when I thought, boy, Ireally could use that$20 back.
And so now that you know thosepains and that scars, you know,
anybody has been in, infinancial distress or dures, You
know, you look back, you know,even the folks that have been
through the Great Depression,they don't spend money, you
know, they saved and they reusetheir aluminum foil and because
(22:29):
they can remember, and, youknow, immediately, you know,
transport themselves back tothat time in a place where they
didn't have any money.
And so, you know, I think ifyou've been through that
experience on your own, you tendnot to, to buy more stuff
because, um, you know, you justunderstand what that pain looks
like.
From what you're saying is itcomes from, you know, a lot of
experience with it, posture,your spiritual beliefs.
(22:50):
Mm-hmm.
which I'm imagining is, is areligious thing as well.
And religion brings a tremendousamount of wisdom.
I mean, the Bible has just somuch wisdom mm-hmm.
uh, in it.
If you, if you only look to tryand find it.
But I heard one guy telling methat, you know, he doesn't
actually his, he's got so manythings.
The things don't work for him.
He works for the things So, youknow, I think that's kind of a
(23:13):
little bit what you're saying,that, you know, you have the
boats, you have this, you havethat, you're actually working
for those things, and it ends upbeing, it's not as exciting as
it looks from the outside.
So anyway, this has been awonderful conversation.
I'm really, really grateful thatyou came on the Wisdom of
Business and Life Podcast and,and shared all of this, uh, with
me and them.
Therefore also with theaudience, how can people get in
(23:35):
touch with you or, uh, if theywant to.
And, if, if you wanna give anyof that information out.
Sure.
So self-storage investing.com isour website, and that that has,
all things that we're doingprofessionally in terms of, uh,
investing in real estate,teaching people about it, how to
invest, passively and a anythingand all things, lots of free
resources.
There.
You can, you can reach out to meby way of contact on the website
(23:57):
as well.
And then if you just look upScott Meyers self storage on all
the socials, you'll find me, um,our YouTube channel on, um,
Facebook, on, LinkedIn, youknow, anywhere else.
Uh, I think we've got like over40,000 impressions, if you look
up Scott Meyers self storage,so, um, pretty easy to find me
out there.
Right.
So definitely suggest that We'lljust go and check that out.
Then you have also have a, aneducational people that wanna
(24:19):
learn about self-storage.
Do you have education for themas well?
Yep.
All of that is located on atself-storage investing.com.
That is our main website.
Mostly educational and nature,but then you can get to, all the
others.
Our, our mission work, ourpassive investing opportunities
and, uh, anything and everythingthat we're involved in, in, in
the way of self.
All right.
Well I'm very grateful for you,spending time with me today.
(24:41):
Thank you for your time and tillnext time, this has been the
Wisdom For Business and LifePodcast with Levy Brackman.
Thank you so much for listening.
Welcome back to the Wisdom forBusiness on Life podcast.
Thank you so much for joiningtoday.
I have another special guestwith me, Scott Myers.
Scott Myers is the c e o of acompany called Self Storage
Investing.
Thank you so much for beinghere, Scott.
Hi Levy.
Good to see you again.
(00:25):
Yeah, real pleasure.
I know we've spoken quite anumber of times already and
we've met in person, but for thesake of the audience, give us a
little bit of your backgroundwho you.
Sure.
So I own a company calledSelf-Storage Investing and
self-storage investing.com.
And that is really all we do,which is all things that
self-storage.
So I've been investing in realestate since 1993, so this is
(00:47):
this marks my 30th year in realestate.
Hard to believe.
And been investing in selfstorage since 2005.
So 18 years in self storage.
So, started the path like mostpeople do when they get into
real estate with single-familyhouses, and then got into
multi-family and looking forthat economies of scale that
we're all seeking.
Where we get property managersand management companies in
(01:09):
place.
And then it becomes more of apassive role, if you will,
although it's never passivebecause it is a business.
But we got to the place where wehad about 80 houses and over 400
apartment units and didn'treally see the passive side of
it.
It was just really more active.
And every time we bought anothercomplex, it was even more
active, even though we had themanagement companies in place.
And so I began to look aroundthe real estate landscape and,
(01:29):
we all love real estate.
Of course.
Everybody says we lovehabitation in landlording real
estate.
If it weren't for the tenantsand the toilets and the trash
and so if you look around inreal estate, then there's really
not much left outside of thatother than parking lots and self
storage.
To eliminate those.
And so that's what we begindoing is going down that path of
researching and, and lookinginto and doing my due diligence
on self storage and really likedwhat I saw.
(01:51):
If people don't pay, we can lockthem out or put what's called an
overlock on their units, selltheir stuff off if they don't
pay rent.
And then when they move outeither on their own or by the
way of an auction, we're leftwith a metal box on a concrete
slab and it takes us 30 secondsto blow it out and do, the turn
as they call it.
And so for those reasons, norehab.
No rehab needed?
No.
So for those reasons and manymore, but those are the main
(02:13):
ones.
I realized that, this is anasset class that I wanted to be
involved in, and so we began tolook into idea even further.
But, there really wasn't aneducation company or a resource
for teaching about it.
I went to the trade shows andsome of the other industry
events, but that was morevendors than folks talking about
the business and wanting to buyfrom them.
and so l learned through Schoolof Harden accident, but also by
(02:35):
way of getting a consultant tofill in the gaps and talking to
as many people as they could inthe industry.
And so we launched it, got intoour first partnership in a
facility and then never, neverturned back.
Sold all our houses andapartments and went full bore
into self storage.
And since there was a need inthe market for folks to teach
about the business as well.
We did launch a few years later,an education company and a
(02:56):
consulting company to teachpeople how to get into the
business by way of acquisitionsand, and then development and
conversions.
And so we, we grew two verylarge businesses and self
storage that eventually becamemerged.
And now we teach people how toinvest in storage, and then they
invest alongside of us or withus, either passively or
actively.
just depending upon the project.
And so that's a longwindedanswer to your question, but
(03:18):
that is the 30 year journey inreal estate and brought us to
where we are today.
Now, along that journey there'smany stops and ups and downs and
mm-hmm.
and no one, reaches any level oflongevity in the journey or
success without gaining somewisdom or without using wisdom.
Mm-hmm.
and this podcast is about that,so wisdom for business and.
(03:39):
Because often the two cometogether.
So if you look back at yourcareer it doesn't just have to
be business.
It can also be about life.
What are the wisdoms wisdomteachings or wisdom nuggets that
you have that seem to come upover and over again to help you
as you, reach differentmilestones and different,
challenges.
Well, first of all, Lavia,again, an honor to be on the
(04:01):
podcast cuz that that means thatyou consider me having some
wisdom to be able to impart onfolks.
So it's enough.
We did speak a few times beforeand I mentioned the podcast and,
you did say a number of thingswhich I thought were really
interesting would be veryvaluable for the audience.
That's why I've asked you tocome on and, and, and share some
of those things.
But I, going directly to thosethings, cause I'm sure you have
a lot more as.
(04:23):
Well, it's interesting, as wedid talk about, self-awareness I
think is a beautiful thing.
It's a gift that you giveyourself and it's, for those
that have kids, it's a gift thatyou can give them too for, them
to be able to find out andfigure out, first of all, what's
their, what's our giftings?
You know, what have they been,uh, born with?
What are their, their higherpower, their God given them?
And how can we utilize those?
I, I think if we turn away fromthat or fight it or be, we wanna
(04:43):
go towards something that's moresexy, that typically doesn't,
work out that way.
Then I think, you know, as we goon, you know, wisdom just comes
from, you know, it comes withscar tissues, scar tissue, and,
and it comes with a, limp.
And there's lessons that welearn along the way.
You know, if we lean into ourmentors and all those that, that
came before us, that, that welearned from by way of books
and, and mentors and teachers,that's one thing.
(05:05):
But, you know, we, we all stilldo learn by, by doing and, and
we have to endure some of thoseo on our own.
But the beauty of coming out onthe other side of that is after
being in real estate for 30years now, you know, that gives
us the ability, you know, we'vebeen through two recessions
heading into our third, and, andyou look a little further down
the road, once you've beenthrough a recession, you know,
you, you understand, you knowwhat this feels like, what it
(05:26):
looks like, and, and you, youcan very easily draw on the
pains of the last one or thehard times in our businesses
and, and understand, you know,how to avoid some of that, or at
least how to navigate it.
And, and put some of the, youknow, the, the guardrails in
place to make sure that doesn'thappen again.
You know?
But for instance, you know,there's, there's many people
that have made money in realestate and done well in self
(05:46):
stories since 2010, you know,when we come outta the
recession.
And that's great.
And a lot of smart people.
But, you know, 50% of thatsuccess, including my own was,
was a gift from the marketitself.
So, you know, we're, we're notall that in a bag of ships, you
know, but those of us that havebeen through a few recessions,
you know, we learn a few otherthings from that.
But by the same token, you know,there's other folks in real
estate and, and, andself-storage that are,
(06:08):
influencers and, and, and one of'em I saw on, on Twitter
recently, somewhat bragging.
I guess that's the only way youput it, cuz I don't know why you
would put out there that youlost$400,000 on a project before
you decided to pull the plug andthen use that as a lesson.
You know, for other folks or,you know, his followers or or
his tribe to learn from.
And, and I don't know the, thecircumstances, but I can tell
you lady, there's there is noway that in our organization
(06:30):
that we would get to the pointwhere we knew we were gonna lose
or potentially lose$400,000before we pulled the plug on a
project.
And that only comes from, youknow, the experience of being
going through a couple ofrecessions and having projects
start and stop, and some thatwe, we have had to pull the plug
on.
But I, I can tell you sure, asI'm sitting here, I'm not gonna
let$400,000 go through myfingers of my money or my
(06:52):
investor's money, or my family'smoney, before we begin to, you
know, the, before the, you know,the alarms go off and you
recognize that something isgoing south.
So there's just, there's wisdomthat comes from some of the
challenges that allows you to,go further down the road in the
business.
Because you've seen it before,let me, push on that particular
note, because, so what is, yougot one guy, maybe younger.
(07:17):
Less experienced, which, Couldbe a bad thing, could be a good
thing as well, because maybe youhave less experience, you're not
jaded sometimes.
You're able to seeopportunities.
Some older people are not ableto see, and, and I see this in
our space as well, that youngerpeople they've got an ability to
see.
What their generation is goingthrough and therefore how things
(07:38):
might look in five or six yearsbecause of how their generation
are moving, whereas older peoplemay not see.
So there's a, a flip side tothis as well.
But what is it that you have,having done it for 30 years,
what is it, what are the thingsthat you look out for which are
gonna ensure that you don't losethat$400,000 or whatever it is
that this guy might, what are,what are the key things that
(08:00):
you.
I wouldn't do this because ofthe wisdom I've learned, et
cetera, or Yeah, I've learnedthis wisdom, which means that I
won't do this.
Yeah.
I, I think it comes with, youknow, there's, there's the
youthful.
Exuberance and the optimism andthat, that newer entrepreneurs
have.
And, and, and, and I've had thatas well.
And, and to the degree which Ithink you're referring to, you
(08:21):
know, you hope that people don'tlose that we're, I hope in
myself, I don't lose that asthey grow older because, you
know, we have had some badexperiences and, and sometimes
that causes you to beovercautious in the opposite
direction.
And, and not really realizethat, that you can move forward
with something.
And there's that also thatsituational knowledge and
experience, as you alluded to aswell.
There's there's diff differencesin generations and they may see
(08:42):
something that the oldergeneration doesn't.
And so all those things,encapsulated, you know, how how
do we navigate that on bothends?
And I think for those of us,that have been around a little
bit, one of the ways we prepareourselves is that, you know, we
know that this is a litigioussociety that we, that we live
in, and so we put all thosesafeguards in place and making
sure that we have just soliddocuments and paper in place.
And also, I've had to, I've hadmy attorney push back.
(09:05):
Against me.
Many, situations, within aproject saying, I can paper this
thing up all day long, butScott, I think that this may be
a little too risky and here'swhy.
And I'm not just saying that cuzI'm your attorney, but I think
he could get into some troublewith this one.
And earlier years I thought,well I'm gonna prove them wrong
cuz you know, he doesn't knowany better.
She doesn't know any better.
You know, my attorneys, my.
(09:26):
And now they don't know what Iknow because I'm younger than
them and I'm gonna move forwardand, and prove it to'em And
they've said, I'll never stopyou unless I really see that
you're gonna step in something.
But this is a, this is a projectyou probably shouldn't go
forward with.
And and I went forward with manyof those and one of'em I wished
I hadn't because they wereright.
And, um, I should have listenedto them in that instance.
And I still have that propertytoday.
And it best will break even if,you know, and maybe make a
(09:47):
little bit of money on, on thisproject.
It's a piece of and maybe we'lltell that story another dot
another day, but, I, I thinkyou, you measure that some of
the losses that you've had.
You, you get good solid advisorsand counsel from attorneys to
other folks, mentors that havegone down the, the path before
you.
and, and then the numbers.
I think many times that thereare folks, I'm still surprised,
(10:09):
you know, we run, as Imentioned, an education
organization.
Mm-hmm.
and I'm still just shocked ladythat, that we see people out
there writing up purchaseagreements on projects when they
really don't know the numbers.
They really don't know how tounderwrite and they haven't
bothered to ask and reallylearn.
And, I think that their, theirunderwriting is a little too
optimistic and they've grabbed amodel or even a software from
(10:31):
somebody else and they don't.
Not even how to use it, letalone how to read the
information back.
That is giving them data in.
You're seeing that in inself-storage.
Mm-hmm.
Yeah.
Amazing commercial real estateacross the board when you're
operating with a, you know,evaluation based upon a net
operating income, on anoperation of a business or a
piece of real estate and a caprate, there's literally
(10:52):
thousands of ways.
I mean, there's a hundred or so150 different calculations.
That you need to be mindful of.
And then you can make roughly athousand, plus mistakes within
that, algorithm and thosesoftwares and those underwriting
pieces.
It's a art and a science, and Ithink many folks are, are not,
treating it, with, as either,and it's just a, a necessary,
(11:12):
uh, evil in, in order to putsomething in front of the lender
in order to get a.
Yeah, yeah, I thought, cuz I'veseen that a lot from people who
are starting off in real estatebuying single families or, or
two, three family places.
But you know, they're puttingfor them a lot of money, a
hundred thousand,$200,000 down.
(11:33):
And I've seen that quite a bit.
But I didn't realize that thedegree that, you know, when
people are putting millions ofdollars down mm-hmm.
they're still doing that.
I mean, So that's not practice.
Those are the basics.
I mean, those are the kind ofthe blocking and tackling, but
I, I think you have to have thelong.
You have to have the long gamein mind.
In order to succeed.
I, I believe more than anythingif you're just looking for the
(11:54):
quick hit or if you're justlooking to make a run, you know,
before the next recession andget out, or you've got a five or
a seven year in mind, if you'realways looking at that, at, at
your business or at yourapproach to a venture with that
in mind as the end game, I don'tthink that people are gonna be
successful, you know, for me.
I'm unemployable.
I can't go back and work forsomebody else after being out on
my own this long.
There's just, you know, I was, Ifelt like a caged animal, the,
(12:16):
the, the few years I was incorporate America.
And there's no way that I wouldgo back.
And so part of that is, youknow, the fear of, hey, if I, if
I don't do this right and I loseit all, I may have to go back
and get a job to support myfamily or, or myself.
And, and to me, that is alwayshanging out there.
You know, it's just like, I, Iabsolutely can't, I have to
succeed at this.
and when you get into the realmthat, that, that you and I are
in, you know, it's a, it's asmall group, but a large group
(12:38):
of individuals and, andcompanies and offices and
contacts.
But if you don't do well byfolks, And I don't mean just by,
missing your projections, but Imean, you know, worse, you know,
you, you don't operate from aplace of integrity and, and your
investors see it, recognize it,or you're found out, then you're
done.
It doesn't matter, no matterwhether you wanted to be in the
long game or the short game.
In today's world of social mediatransparency and, and, and the
(13:00):
network of folks that arearound.
If you're not doing right byyour investors, all the way
through and operating, everysingle decision, every single
piece of information,everything, the word that comes
out of your mouth needs to be,truthful.
And you need to, we're all, weall say that we're conservative
and under promise andover-deliver, but you have to do
that.
You have to be realistic, andyou have to make sure that you
are conservative and that you doover-deliver.
(13:23):
That's how you stay in the game.
We, we've been at those paneldiscussions and, and this comes
up at every single one of, uh,these family office types,
events and meetings.
And the, the heads of the familyoffice will say, we, we won't
invest with anybody unless wecan.
We understand that they operatefrom a place of integrity and
that comes by way of a referralcuz you can't find that out in
the dating phase.
You can only find that out onceyou get married or if you have a
(13:44):
referral from somebody else.
But you know, this is true.
In everything.
I'll give you an example,because I, I went to a store,
and I ordered of the phone and,and they sent me and actually
delivered whatever I was lookingto.
It was, it was groceries orwhatever.
It was a small store.
And when I looked at thereceipt, I saw that they had put
certain items on the receipt,which I didn't order and weren't
(14:06):
in the, in the and I actuallywent back there and, and, and I
mentioned it and he was cageyabout it.
I could tell immediately thiswasn't the first time he had
done it mm-hmm.
he'd figured out a way then whatBill did, orders over the phone
or whatever, he was throwing afew extra bucks that's 15% over
time.
That's a lot of money for yourbusinesses, your bottom line,
but it's, he got thatdishonesty.
He's running a small business.
(14:26):
He's not going private equity.
Mm-hmm.
you still exhaust his integrity?
Mm-hmm.
and, and, mm-hmm.
and Nick 15.
It's not a big deal for me.
I'm not gonna go to the FBI overit.
You know, there's no classaction lawsuit, but mm-hmm.
enough people see that and youwill not make money.
It's so, this piece of itswisdom, but it's also like, it's
a, I don't understand how peopledon't get that.
(14:46):
It just doesn't make sense.
It's not good business to treatpeople.
No, it, it, it really isn't.
And, I don't know that they willever see a measurement of that.
But at, at the end of the day,you know, if you do measure it,
you know, the lost business byyou telling people not to go
there, you know, that arearound, whether this is a local
business and around your, your,your neighbors or whomever, or
just the fact that they lost youas a customer.
I mean, the cost of customeracquisition in any business is
(15:10):
much higher than it is to justkeep.
You know, and that, I mean, thatis the art of business anyways.
You pay all this capital, putall this time, you know, the
heavy lift, you know, to get thebusiness moving.
And as Jim Collins calls it, youknow, the flywheel, you know,
then after a while, once it'smoving, you just touch it.
Every once in a while, you keepwhat you got and you get a
little bit more, you keep thecustomers you've got and you get
a little bit more.
(15:31):
Yeah.
But if you're, if you'reoperating in, in, in that
pretense and you're losingcustomers, that is just much,
much more expensive to acquire,more, to get back to that same
level.
And you may lose some of thecustomer base that you'll never
have again, if it's a smallindustry.
So I, I, I've never understoodit.
I don't operate by nature thatway anyways.
But it's certainly not only abad way to live your life, but
it's a bad business model aswell.
Yeah, exactly.
(15:52):
So, I, I wanna touch uponthough, what we, we talked about
was just, you see.
You are in the business ofbasically where people have a
lot of stuff.
Yep.
Actually too much stuff often.
Mm-hmm.
Mm-hmm.
And, they need a place to storeit.
Mm-hmm.
And that's a big business.
Anywhere you go anywhere inAmerica, you'll see public
storage, mm-hmm.
So what is it that you've.
(16:12):
and what have you garnered interms of human nature?
Mm-hmm.
what observations do you have asyou've seen this business for
many years?
So we're, you know, lately we'rea service-based business.
Self storage is a commodity.
You know, we're in the traumaand transition side of the
economy.
When people are moving, there'sa transition.
If they're gonna, you know,yeah, they're getting ready to
move.
(16:32):
They're gonna put their stage,their house, and put all their
stuff in it before they move tomake it look like there's more
room.
And then when they actually domove, they'll probably use
storage until they get intotheir next home.
People are also going to usestorage if there's a transition.
And that means, um, you know,they're, they're, they're going
through a life change.
So they're retiring, they'reempty nesters, they're gonna
(16:53):
move into a smaller home, andthen they move into assisted
living and it's a smaller livingarrangement, uh, again.
And so each time they're gonnaput things in, uh, storage.
Your basement floods and you'regonna remodel, you're gonna put
things in, uh, storage, uh,death, divorce, bankruptcy, you
know, uh, you know, three dsare, are what drives this
business that is a demand base.
And so that is, that is a bigpiece of it.
(17:13):
But, uh, the other side thatyou're mentioning, which is, you
know, we are as Americans, thehyper consumers of the world,
and we have too much stuff andwe rent outta space and our
basement's, our garage, um, youknow, if we have them or, um,
you know, just the fact that weare going into smaller.
Types of housing.
Now we're becoming a more mobilesociety.
Uh, people aren't wanting to buya big house their forever house.
They wanna live differentplaces.
(17:34):
Uh, we're becoming moretransient in nature, you know,
covid accelerated that we canwork from anywhere.
So now people are moving toplaces around the world or back
home or wherever and, and, andthey can work from wherever.
So they're not acquiring as muchstuff and they're buying smaller
homes.
But at the same time, you know,they still, the, the millennials
and the generations behind,they, they like a adventure and
they.
(17:55):
To Google camping.
They like to ride motorcyclesand bikes and kayaks, and if
they're living in a smallerhouse or if they're gonna be
moving anytime soon, all thatstuff goes into storage.
And so, you know, the babyboomers were the, the, uh, ultra
users of, uh, self-storagethrough the years.
And now we're seeing that shift,uh, to the millennials, but they
haven't even higher.
(18:15):
Um, increase in a demand forstorage.
But the piece that, that kind ofsurprised me, um, the most is
that, you know, there are anumber, there's a percentage of
renters where they will putthose things in storage, whether
it's just excess stuff or evenafter a move.
And, and it's really just, youknow, the couch that doesn't fit
in there or, you know, and Clarapassed away and so she's got a
(18:35):
storage unit, or she gave us afew things, you know, it's worth
maybe two or$300.
Um, but instead of figuring outwhat to do with it or throw it
away or sell it or move it intotheir own homes, they let it
ride.
You know, it just sits there inthe storage unit and they pay
us, you know, a hundred bucks amonth or 150 bucks a month, and,
you know, to defer that decisionto do something with it.
And, and that's where the realeasy Americans come into play,
And how they lose money instorage is because they, they,
(18:57):
they just won't make a decision.
And so 5, 6, 7 years later, youknow, when they're, they're gone
and, you know, we can't findhim, and we go through the
auction process and cut the lockoff and open it up.
You know, there's, there's thatold green couch that have been
sitting there rotting for eightyears and, and a couple of spare
tires.
You know, now it's worth 20bucks and they've spent seven or
$8,000 is what they've paid usto store it.
(19:20):
So that, again, a longwindedanswer to your question levy,
but the, that's the side of itthat just, you know, is a head
scratcher.
And, and probably because I'm aminimalist, um, we've got 4
million square feet of storageall across the country, 25,000
units, and I'm proud to saythat.
Have one of'em that I'm usingeven for free.
I re I I refuse to do so.
We're, we're, I'm a hyper purgerand a minimalist of by nature as
(19:41):
well.
And, um, so to the, to the, theday that we ever have a whole
bunch of storage units is theday that, um, you need to check
on my meds because something'swrong.
Well, it, it, but it'sinteresting because.
There's something that's anattachment that we have with
material objects mm-hmm.
as humans.
Yep.
Which is we value ourselvesbased upon what we have.
(20:02):
Yeah.
Net worth and self-worth, youknow, in your business.
Mm-hmm.
I started off, my career as arabbi and ended up in
nonprofits, but as I got intobusiness, people talk about
their net worth a lot, and it'sreally, really important to
them.
which, which I still try to getmy head around, like, why is it
that important again?
Like I mean, I understand whyyou want to know it, but why is
it such a big thing?
People get really, reallyattached to these material
(20:24):
objects and don't want to givethem away.
And you are a minimalist, whichyou don't feel that way.
Like, what makes you realizethat maybe that's not a good
thing?
Part of it just stems from myspiritual beliefs.
Um, you know, do not store upyour, uh, treasures here on
earth where mouth and rust, uh,destroy, but, uh, store them in
heaven.
And, and there's, there's a lotof wisdom in that, um, as well.
Yeah.
You know, the more stuff youown, the more it rusts, the more
(20:45):
you have to break it, the moreyou have to pay to store it.
I mean, I'm talking, you know,boats and RVs and, you know, if
you've got, uh, two houses, awinter house and a summer house,
you know, there's just extraroofs and just, um, there's just
extra.
That before you recognize it orrealize that, uh, there's really
eating away at that net worth oryour monthly operating at
income.
So the more stuff you have, themore money it takes to maintain
(21:06):
it.
And the more time, I mean, youknow anybody who's listening to
this, you recognize and realizethat if you've got more stuff,
you just have to spend more timemaintaining it.
And you know, so for me, Youknow, having a extra baggage and
extra stuff, uh, means that I, Ihave to maintain it and I have
to spend the time, uh, you know,to do, do that as well.
And that takes time away frompeople and relationships and the
(21:26):
things that are, that are mostimportant.
Yeah.
So I think that's probably themain driver.
And, and second to that is that,you know, we, we had a near, uh,
as a, as Dave Ramsey calls it, anear debt experience.
You know, we, um, back when theeconomy shifted in 99 and two,
We were in houses and apartmentsand, and the economy tanked and
people were moving, um, first ofall moving back home.
(21:46):
And then right after that, theCommunity Reinvestment Act came
into place.
And, and then any of ourinvestor or our, renters that
could fog a mirror, they couldbuy a house.
And so they all left and theyleft our with, left us with a
high vacancy rates and, uh, youknow, we were robbing from Peter
to pay Paul until Peter wasbroke as well.
Um, you know, we recognize atthat point that, um, you know,
(22:07):
uh, gosh, if I wouldn't havespent that extra$20 on a bottle
of wine or a sweater orsweatshirt, you know, there was
times when I thought, boy, Ireally could use that$20 back.
And so now that you know thosepains and that scars, you know,
anybody has been in, infinancial distress or dures, You
know, you look back, you know,even the folks that have been
through the Great Depression,they don't spend money, you
know, they saved and they reusetheir aluminum foil and because
(22:29):
they can remember, and, youknow, immediately, you know,
transport themselves back tothat time in a place where they
didn't have any money.
And so, you know, I think ifyou've been through that
experience on your own, you tendnot to, to buy more stuff
because, um, you know, you justunderstand what that pain looks
like.
From what you're saying is itcomes from, you know, a lot of
experience with it, posture,your spiritual beliefs.
(22:50):
Mm-hmm.
which I'm imagining is, is areligious thing as well.
And religion brings a tremendousamount of wisdom.
I mean, the Bible has just somuch wisdom mm-hmm.
uh, in it.
If you, if you only look to tryand find it.
But I heard one guy telling methat, you know, he doesn't
actually his, he's got so manythings.
The things don't work for him.
He works for the things So, youknow, I think that's kind of a
(23:13):
little bit what you're saying,that, you know, you have the
boats, you have this, you havethat, you're actually working
for those things, and it ends upbeing, it's not as exciting as
it looks from the outside.
So anyway, this has been awonderful conversation.
I'm really, really grateful thatyou came on the Wisdom of
Business and Life Podcast and,and shared all of this, uh, with
me and them.
Therefore also with theaudience, how can people get in
(23:35):
touch with you or, uh, if theywant to.
And, if, if you wanna give anyof that information out.
Sure.
So self-storage investing.com isour website, and that that has,
all things that we're doingprofessionally in terms of, uh,
investing in real estate,teaching people about it, how to
invest, passively and a anythingand all things, lots of free
resources.
There.
You can, you can reach out to meby way of contact on the website
(23:57):
as well.
And then if you just look upScott Meyers self storage on all
the socials, you'll find me, um,our YouTube channel on, um,
Facebook, on, LinkedIn, youknow, anywhere else.
Uh, I think we've got like over40,000 impressions, if you look
up Scott Meyers self storage,so, um, pretty easy to find me
out there.
Right.
So definitely suggest that We'lljust go and check that out.
Then you have also have a, aneducational people that wanna
(24:19):
learn about self-storage.
Do you have education for themas well?
Yep.
All of that is located on atself-storage investing.com.
That is our main website.
Mostly educational and nature,but then you can get to, all the
others.
Our, our mission work, ourpassive investing opportunities
and, uh, anything and everythingthat we're involved in, in, in
the way of self.
All right.
Well I'm very grateful for you,spending time with me today.
(24:41):
Thank you for your time and tillnext time, this has been the
Wisdom For Business and LifePodcast with Levy Brackman.
Thank you so much for listening.
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