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Marketing Technology Insights and Intelligence from Go Local Interactive, a technology marketing company.
Shane Adams: [00:00:00] is the Go Local Brief, brought to you by GoLocal Interactive. Every episode, we dig into digital marketing, technology, and AI, and pull out what self-storage operators actually need to know. Today, we're sharing part two of our interviews from ISS in Las Vegas, and we're talking with Chief Innovation Officer Andre Pavlovic from Quikstor, and Industry Insider, Stacie Maxwell, from SecureLease.
Let's get to it.
Alright. Welcome to the Go Local brief. This is the local front where Jason and I are going to talk about the news.
Uh, that's kind of happened in technology in storage, uh, this week. And, uh, jason, uh, we're, we're, we're, we're out of ISS and kind of into the, the summer show season, but, uh, you know, how are you feeling actually coming of ISS?
Jason: It's good.
Yeah. I think it was a great show. Um, it's funny, the rhythms that are just natural in the storage industry. You know, you have their [00:01:00] spring shows, you've got the fall shows, you've, you know, all of a, what, what happens now as we go into the state shows?
Shane Adams: Mm-hmm.
Jason: Um, as, as our team is already out there doing those things.
Um,
Shane Adams: I think we somebody in Idaho right now.
Jason: Yeah. Yeah. And so, you know, you just have that natural rhythm. We're getting to what we lovingly call busy season.
Shane Adams: Yeah.
Jason: So, uh, we halt a lot of, any kind of, um, client facing major change type work.
Shane Adams: Mm. Mm-hmm.
Jason: Yeah. From the side of things. Um. So,
Shane Adams: yeah. Yeah.
good. Uh, so we got
three new stories that we're gonna talk about today.
first one, it happened down the road.
Um, you know, we, we are in the, based, in the Midwest. We're based in Kansas City. Uh, tornado alley.
Jason: Tornado alley
Shane Adams: in a lot of ways.
Jason: Yeah.
Shane Adams: Um, and, and just, just south of us in, in Hillsdale, Kansas, there was a, there was a cell storage facility that this hit the, the, the storage news that this an EF-2 two tornado came through and destroyed,
uh, much
that
facility.[00:02:00]
Jason: Yep.
Shane Adams: And I think we, we bring this up partially 'cause it's, it's local, but also because I think it's a good reminder, uh, for our, our, our clients and for, for self-storage operators. Like when, when weather season happens.
Jason: Yeah.
Shane Adams: You know, it's important to keep your Google business profile up to date. There are any changes.
Yeah. Uh, what would you
is like,
I mean, obviously. You, you can't prepare for something like that.
Jason: No.
News Mix: No.
Shane Adams: But
your reaction
to it, I think is where, where you're, where you kind of improve the customer experience, don't you think?
Jason: Yeah. Yeah. Exactly. And I, my apologies to whoever that happened to down the road that's actually, uh, close to where I live out that way.
So there we got, we didn't get that damage, but tree damage and, and whatnot. And, um, but from the, from our side of things, when something like that happens, uh, the, the, the real key is to. Be nimble. Mm-hmm. You know, uh, you, you nailed it with your Google My Business pages. You can go out and post right away.
They have a posting feature mm-hmm. [00:03:00] On those you can go and say, Hey, we've experienced, uh, you know, some damage. Uh, the hours have changed, you know, uh, the gate is gonna be manually opened and closed here for a
while, whatever that might be. Secondarily, if you've got a great, um, web platform, uh, my, my preference would be to have something on the homepage, but some of these operators are.
significantly larger and, and one location isn't going to move the needle. Right. Whereas in this particular instance, this is, I think,
uh.
Shane Adams: Yeah,
think the, I think
the operator maybe only has this one
Jason: location. I think so. And so like the entire, like the homepage. Certainly.
Shane Adams: Yeah.
Jason: If, if you, if you're too big, uh, that location page should add a minimum.
Say something like, Hey, we've experienced damage. This is what that means to our customers and this is, you know, this is how we're addressing it. So,
Shane Adams: yeah, and I think,
I think you bring up a good point
is
ensuring, like one of the things is to ensure that your web platform can support something like that, right?
Like, you wanna make sure that your pages aren't so static, that you can't put an alert [00:04:00] up, uh, right. Fairly quickly. That, that speaks back to being nimble. That speaks back to being, you know, able to, to move quickly.
Jason: Yeah.
Shane Adams: Uh, alright. Next story. We
like to talk a lot about, uh, AI here. Uh, anthropic, who is the, the manufacturer of Claude, uh, just got 5 billion with a B dollars from Amazon, which actually is in addition to the 8 billion that they got in the last funding round, I think.
Yeah. Uh, their valuations at somewhere like $800 billion right now.
Jason: Yes.
Shane Adams: But I think it, part of the, part of the investment that Anth, that Anthropic got from Amazon was, was partially 'cause, uh, anthropic said they would be using AWS for, that's right. For computing.
Jason: Yep.
Shane Adams: To the tune of like. A hundred billion dollars.
That's right.
Jason: Yeah.
it
Shane Adams: seems
like a good
return on the investment.
Jason: a little
circular,
Shane Adams: yeah.
Jason: In nature. Yeah. Um, you didn't have it on your news list, but,
That,
uh, tightly related, is that SpaceX and XI announced a big deal with Cursor yesterday, and not [00:05:00] everybody in this space knows what that is, but Cursor is a, a development environment that a lot of advanced, you know, developers use.
Mm-hmm. And it's the same sort of thing.
Shane Adams: Yeah.
Jason: Excuse me. Um. XI has the opportunity to buy Cursor for 60 billion or at a minimum pay cursor, $10 billion for the partnership and what they use.
Shane Adams: Mm.
Jason: So Cur Cursor is going to be using, um, the XAI, uh, they've got this Colossus,
uh, data center Okay. That they've built up.
And they're gonna be using that to train their own models. So I know that's not the story you brought
Shane Adams: No, but I, I
I think it, I think
it,
you, you even mentioned this, there's a lot of like, circular investing
happening in that AI space. Yes. It's like Nvidia is, is investing in open AI and Yes. For chips.
And, uh, Oracle I think has promised that they're going to, you know, build a data center for open ai. Yes. But they had to lay off like 30,000 people here in Kansas City area. Yes. not, not just in [00:06:00] Kansas City, but within their Oracle Health, uh, division. Uh, and so
it, the, the, the way that that
money is
traveling is is kind of interesting.
Jason: And it's, it's funny because
It's
a symbiotic relationship and that's what we think of as circular. You know
the,
that in this scenario, anthropic needs the. The, the, the chips more or less.
Shane Adams: Mm-hmm.
Jason: And the Amazon Web services, cloud compute, and then Amazon Web Services is getting the benefit of one selling that service.
And then they're of course, reaping the rewards of, of what Anthropic provides back the other direction. Right. Yeah.
Shane Adams: Right. All right,
so the last story, this
was
story that I saw,
um, kind of pop up on a couple of websites, and it's an opinion piece, but I think it's, it's worth us mentioning in the news, which is that, um.
That,
That, that
one of the, it was a per perspective that
uh, a
lot of
marketers are missing an opportunity when it comes to one particular, uh, strategy. Yeah. Which is [00:07:00] online reviews.
Jason: Yes.
Shane Adams: Uh, I
know that's
something that we talk about a lot with our, with our customers.
Yeah. Uh,
Yeah. Uh, you know.
know,
I, I think online reviews and how they, uh, how they perform, I, I, I think are incredibly important.
Uh, what would you say about, uh, their, their kind of presence within the marketing stack?
Jason: Yeah. Uh, they're extremely important. They have been for a long, long time. I think that this particular industry kind of did like, okay, let's go do it, and then it's done.
Shane Adams: Hmm.
Jason: And that's kind of how it seems to have been approached.
And it, it's a, it's an ongoing continuing. Process that you, you, you've gotta stay with. And so historically, I, I think everybody came through as if it was like a checkbox item. Like, yep, we did it done. And I, I.
I,
the, the, the
the opinion here I think is right. I don't know if, I think it's the most important thing.
Shane Adams: Yeah.
Jason: Um, I would say that it hangs on, like if, if I did one thing in this space, just absolutely one thing, it would be Google my business for [00:08:00] every single location.
Shane Adams: Yeah.
Jason: Hanging off of that is the rating in the review.
Shane Adams: Sure.
Jason: And so, um, and that's extremely important and, and, and all unfortunately, or or fortunately bringing it back to AI always seems like lately.
They're looking at those as like a validation of mm-hmm. Uh, hey, this is a good listing right here,
Shane Adams: right
Jason: now. Same thing with the, the algorithms that rank, uh, organically.
Shane Adams: Yeah.
Jason: But they're certainly looking at that for validation, uh, from,
You
the
user base or the client base.
Shane Adams: Yeah. And this came up, uh, this came up at the self storage meetup, uh, that, that, uh, Jim Mooney and Jim Ross host, yeah.
Uh, last week. Yeah. They, they talked a lot about online reviews.
the, whether
it's important to call out individuals and, or
it, it was
just like a, an interesting
discussion around Yeah.
uh, what makes a
good review?
Jason: Yeah. I think the thing I would say, uh, which with anything Okay. But like, [00:09:00] take, take the rating and review, um, as the example, how do you use it?
Shane Adams: Right?
Jason: You
know, if you're the marketer out there Yeah. Or you're the one doing the operating. How, how do you use rating, ratings and reviews? If you were to go and book a hotel, or if you were to go, you're looking for a restaurant in a town you've never been to, or you're thinking about getting like a microphone stand.
Shane Adams: Mm-hmm.
Jason: For a podcast like. There's a certain amount where you're like, well, that's not real.
Shane Adams: Right.
Jason: You know, that the, or that's hardly any ratings or reviews. That must be a brand new product. I will wait.
Shane Adams: Yeah.
Jason: You know, think about like using the Amazon app.
Shane Adams: Yep.
Jason: You want a certain threshold to have been reached.
Shane Adams: Mm-hmm.
Jason: You want a certain score to have threshold to have been reached and then. If you've got questions like, is this thing strong at all or is that thing gonna fall over with a, you know, the slightest breeze that's on the floor? Yeah. That's when you start reading through one [00:10:00] or two of them at the top.
Mm-hmm. So I, I always approach it like, how, how would I, what does this, how do I do this?
Shane Adams: Yeah.
Jason: Is the same thing with like search history or, or, or search behavior. Right. Now, how often are you going to the LLMs? Mm-hmm. Versus how often are you genuinely, I want the 10 blue. Links.
Shane Adams: Yeah, yeah,
Jason: yeah. You know, and, and you think about that and that's okay.
Well, I'm doing that less and less. Mm-hmm. The second part, I'm going more and more to the ai, uh, result.
Shane Adams: Right?
Jason: Oh, light bulb. I should probably figure out how to get in there. You know, and so
sure,
that's how I think about the ratings are reviews, is, it's not a, a secret you guys, um, you know, you need them.
The big key, uh, you'll hear over and over and over again, and if you haven't heard it, then you must be new to this space, is you cannot pay, you cannot incent those.
Shane Adams: Oh, sure. Yeah.
Jason: Yeah. You, you can Google doesn't like it.
Shane Adams: No, sure.
Jason: So you can certainly ask. That's easy enough. Hey, I'd love to [00:11:00] get your feedback.
Mm-hmm. If you wouldn't mind, leave us leaving us a review. We'd love that. Appreciate that.
That
sort of thing.
Shane Adams: Right. Well, I think
that's all we've got for the news, uh, this week. Uh, we'll
be back with another episode soon, but, uh, we're gonna get onto the rest
our show,
so thanks for joining us for the local front.
Yeah. And let's get to it.
Jason: Yep. And this is gonna be a good one.,
Shane Adams: I'm here with Andre Pavlovic. Pavlovic?
Andre Pavlovic: Pavlovic,
Shane Adams: yes. Yeah. Uh, who is the chief innovation officer at Quickstor. Um, he leads the creation of next generation technology in the self-storage industry. Uh, you have experienced startups, VCs, uh, you've established enterprises, uh, you've built and scaled multiple SaaS platforms.
That's awesome. Uh, very, very, uh, like, experienced in the technology space. What brought you to self-storage?
Andre Pavlovic: So, Shane, that's a really interesting story. I was an investor in self-storage, you know, I've been software my entire life, you know, startups, both sides of VC table, even though I stint in private equity and, you know, kind of [00:12:00] moved back to the startup space because I really like to create rather than, you know, financially engineer, which is, you know, many times I've just seen the private equity side of the shop.
Uh, but basically, um, started investing, uh, with Trojan Storage, believe it or not, whose quick stores, uh, you know, ownership owns, uh- Yeah. ... uh, Trojan Storage as well. Um, got in touch with them, you know, they were, uh, looking at some, you know, potential investments that they're gonna make in the technology space, and so I kind of worked with them through those.
Uh, there was a fit, and I thought I was leaving software. Uh, about a year and a half into it, they said, you know, we, we want to be able to control software, be able to have it do what's gonna drive the owners wealth. So they're seeing a shift in the industry where, you know, there wasn't a lot of innovation, innovation was slowing, which typically happens when you have that level of consolidation.
Uh, so they asked, you know, could we build it ourselves? We did. Uh, we started on that path. They invested heavily in it. We purchased Quickstor. It was quite fortuitous. Uh, Quickstor's, uh, owner, uh, who's still a, a minority owner, uh, liked the story and said, "You know, why don't we join forces?" And so, uh, we acquired it about four and a half years ago and, uh, [00:13:00] here we are today, you know?
Shane Adams: So it feels like, uh, there's ... And, and I'm new to sell storage, right? I, I've been in self storage for four months.
Andre Pavlovic: Okay.
Shane Adams: But, uh, but I've worked in tech before. What have you seen from the technology perspective? It feels like there's an acceleration of, of new money, like people are diving in now, or is it too late?
Uh, like, what do you feel like?
Andre Pavlovic: So it's interesting. It bought a traditional niche industry progression, at least in my experience in the software space where, uh, you do have a niche market that's very specific, you know, filling a very specific need, you know? Uh, I did have some experience in multifamily real estate software, uh, in, in my career.
And, you know, self storage certainly is unique in terms of the needs and what's needed to serve the industry and much smaller than, you know, another asset class like multifamily real estate where the software is a much broader, you know, market that they can actually have. Right. Um, you typically see that level of consolidation when, you know, you might have private equity or some other ownership, you know, a strategic buyer start to acquire portions of the industry.
Um, and I think we're seeing [00:14:00] now just another, uh, you know, another age of the self-storage technology where you have some consolidation, there's some new up and comers. Quickstor's an old company, but we're certainly newer in it. We built this platform from the ground up- Yeah. ... to be really modern tech. Uh, so I think you're gonna, kinda see, uh, not to sound cliche, but a little bit of a renaissance in the self-storage tech space with these new entrants really trying to solve real problems, take advantage of, you know, uh, the AI boom, things that can help operators, you know, really achieve their goal, which is really maximize the value for their investors, maximize the value of their portfolios.
Uh, I don't think it's too early, too late in any industry for anybody because you see that, you know, large behemoths, you know, certainly get unseated. The first movers can certainly get unseated. You know, MySpace existed before Facebook, you know? That's true. Uh, and everything else kind of rolled out. So, uh, you know, I think the timing's right.
A big thing that I have seen, at least in my short time, relatively short time, you know, I started in self-storage, you know, working within the industry, not just as an [00:15:00] investor, you know, back in 2018, late 2018, 2019, and to me, I really got the sense that self-storage really trailed the more mainstream tech sectors, right?
Okay. Where you saw things that were happening in multifamily, just sticking strictly to real estate, uh, they're a little bit more cutting edge, more kind of, you know, pushing the boundaries of what tech can do to help operators operate and become more profitable. Right. Uh, however, you know, I see that shifting now.
You know, our gold quick store is really to work with partners, you know, like Gold Local, work with all of our partners to collectively make self-storage a leader when it comes to, you know, technology and be on, on the leading edge, the bleeding edge, trying things that have not been tried before to see what can deliver a better tenant experience and at the same time deliver more profitability and valuation for the owners.
Shane Adams: Right. And, and, and I feel like, uh, that, that's what's happening, right? We're, you're seeing, like, almost the industry kind of accelerate almost at a, a pace that feels faster than even some of the more traditional industries. I mean, would you agree with that? [00:16:00]
Andre Pavlovic: Like ... In terms of what this industry has seen over the past, you know, 18, 24 months, of course.
Yeah. Yeah. I mean, you're seeing more and more. And also, you, you have to put that into a framework of not just what's happening in the self-storage industry, but what's happening in technology as a whole. I mean- For sure. ... the AI boom is certainly some, something that people really have to pay attention to.
You know, you hear people afraid for their jobs because of AI and whatnot. I mean, uh, to me it's a shift and it's a shift that we need to actually, you know, stay on top of from a tech perspective and how do we apply it within self-storage so that we can actually drive value- Right. ... in the technology solutions.
But, you know, by no stretch of the imagination do I feel that this is ... I mean, you know, people are afraid ... I, I saw in the news this morning, people are afraid of their jobs. 50% of jobs are gonna be asked because of AI, because of LLMs. Come on, 200 years ago, 98% of the world population were farmers, right?
Right. And what's the, what's the percentage today? I bet it's less than 1% of farmers. Yeah. So, you know, uh, that shift globally with technology, you know, I think self-storage is kind of accelerated, uh, it's adoption and it's pushed for technology at the same time that this massive [00:17:00] acceleration is happening, which is gonna be great for everybody in the industry.
Shane Adams: Do you think that, um, that, that's being driven by the influx of, like, investor capital that's going into self storage or ...
Andre Pavlovic: Somewhat, and this might be ... This is strictly my opinion and, you know, some people might not appreciate it, but there's various interests in the industry when capital is influxing, right?
You, you see a situation where, you know, from a private equity perspective, I've worked in private equity and the model is typically to grow, acquire, you know, increase the footprint, and eventually sell it some multiple on your EBITDA, on your earnings, right? Um, when it comes to, you know, venture investments into any space, in any technology space, will take self storage, the goal is obviously to exit and get acquired and not in the too far off future.
Private equity's holding periods typically shorter than, than venture, but they're opportunistic to see an opportunity to exit. And I think you're gonna start to see a separation of the financially driven interests versus the industry driven interest. And that, I mean, our [00:18:00] ownership is the ownership of Trojan Storage.
Yeah. And they wanted to set out because they saw that financial interest weren't serving their best interests. So they said, let's do it ourselves and get a bunch of people to help us grow our largest wealth creating assets, which are facilities, right? Right. And so you will have more money, more and more money come into the industry because people are seeing that it's quite profitable.
And, you know, this is just the typical cycle that I've seen in many other industries- Yeah. ... where money comes in, it changes hands, a lot of different acquisitions, and you end up kind of at a level playing field again where it's not one or two large, you know, heavily, um, funded companies- Right. ... from, you know, outside, you know, from other financial interests where it then kind of levels out where you still have a handful, you know, a dozen, two dozen in each individual category of technology within that space, you know.
It's, it's just, it's cyclical and, you know, I, I think, uh, it's not concerning, uh, to me at all, you know? Yeah. It's, uh, there's people, you know, pushing different agendas, basically.
Shane Adams: So speaking of heavily funded companies, like, the industry just continues to talk about public storage acquiring NSAT. [00:19:00] I, I mean, what's your, what's your take on that and how it's gonna impact the, the rest of the industry?
Andre Pavlovic: So it's interesting because, you know, obviously, if you look historically at the self-storage industry, you have your extras, your, your public storage, large publicly traded REITs, you know, have grown to a much, much more larger and larger market share, right? You know, uh, we put out a report in our self-storage division to our investors, it's a state of the union letter that has shown that over years where it is a, a, a much larger, you know, piece of the pie that the, the REITs are controlling.
But at the same time now, I'm hearing, I'm seeing where a lot of people are like, well, um, I think one of the booths over here that I saw said, tired of your REIT management, you know, coming to people that are really focused, you know, on the industry instead of pushing it over to the REITs. So it's going to be cyclical, just like, you know, the, the acquisition pipelines are cyclical- Yeah.
just like, you know, the, the rent rates are cyclical, you know, things will continue to move forward, and as long as we're moving forward and upward trend, I think everybody in the industry's gonna be certainly happy.
Shane Adams: Yeah. All right. So a chief innovation [00:20:00] officer at a technology company, what's, what's your, what's your thing that you're focusing on for the next six months?
Andre Pavlovic: So heavy, uh, automation, right? You know, how do we drive value for our own operators? There's really, you know, it all comes down to NOI. Can we increase revenue or help them increase revenue or be, have them be more efficient in generating that revenue on one side, uh, or can we reduce costs? And I think automation and not, not just AI driven automation.
AI driven automation certainly can deliver things like, you know, when we're talking revenue management, I mean, AI is perfect. You and I might have the exact same profile, might have the same age, we might live at the same address. Um, there's affluency indicators from the credit card companies that tell you, you know, how affluent is that person?
The gate systems t- tell us, you know, how often do you come? All things being equal, if you go there five times, uh, a week and I only go there once a year, it's go- going to take that into account and build that kind of regression, local regression model and AI's gonna tell you Andre's probably less likely to move out so you can hit them over the head with a larger increase than you can't shame, you [00:21:00] know?
And so seeing things where AI and other just, you know, traditional non-AI driven or non-agentic, you know, uh, automation, I think are gonna be big things. So we're working on a number of things, uh, that we're gonna be releasing here over the next two months that really drive that automation. How do we make life easier for the operators and make it less expensive to operate, mo- most importantly, to maximize the overall revenue, not missing opportunities to, you know, uh, have a lead from a website or a call go missed or something.
Right. Have that be automated through and leveraging technology to really kind of see that, you know, really come to fruition.
Shane Adams: So that's a great, uh, segue to, to talking about the way that we work together, you know, go local and quick store, uh, have an integration partnership. Um, we've, we've been talking about how important it is to have, uh, almost a, a, a
I, I would, I'm gonna call it a more open, uh, architecture to, uh, the way that, uh, that, uh, operators are able to interact with, with their ... Because then the operator can choose what [00:22:00] works best for them. Uh, what, what, what would be your take on that?
Andre Pavlovic: So I, I, I couldn't agree more about openness. And I, I think one of the biggest problems that we have in the industry today is that, you know, if systems are closed or if systems aren't communicating, I'm sure you have, you have issues.
I, I like to use an analogy, and I know, I, I see you have a MacBook there and everything, you know, and people used to think, you know, Apple versus Microsoft. Microsoft boo, Apple, yay. Yeah. Let's go back to the '80s, right? What did Microsoft want to do? Microsoft wanted to basically own the operating system.
Yep. They built Word, Excel, they had hardware, they had all this other stuff around, they had CRM, everything. Uh, Apple initially wanted to own everything, the hardware, the operating system, and all the application software. Who won back then? Hands down, Bill Gates won- Absolutely. ... because he wanted to build this open ecosystem where the best thing that they did.
Quickstor, we're taking that approach. I think Gold Local takes that approach where we're good at what we are, and if we're the best FMS in the customer's eyes, if you're the best website and marketing services in the customer's eyes, great, we need to be able to communicate to drive that value to be the one plus one equals three, not [00:23:00] one plus one equals two.
And driving that openness, I think, you know, as you see consolidation industry, you do see some situations where, you know, some ecosystems become closed off. Mm-hmm. A closed ecosystem's never gonna be the best thing in, in, in the long run. Yeah. You know, you, you need partners that openly communicate, uh, give free access to the data that the customer grants to each system, and so that you can actually connect the dots in the entire chain.
I mean, a lot of systems before we started working with GoLocal, GoLocal's been great, your entire tech team, David Rahia and their team, they're phenomenal because, you know, oh, here's a problem, let's solve it, where a lot of website FMS integrations nowadays, you lose the, the, the Google, uh, uh, tag manager, uh, journey.
Yeah. And you're guessing whether it converted based upon reports from a couple days later. I mean, that's table stakes, that's basic functionality where-
Shane Adams: Right. ...
Andre Pavlovic: if you can't say the person who clicked on that ad came to the website, went through and actually did convert to a lead or dropped off mid cycle, I mean, we're not doing our jobs as, you know, technology firms partnering to give the [00:24:00] actual benefit to the customer.
Shane Adams: Right. That's absolutely true. I think, uh, you know, we're, we're working to, to really try and ensure that, especially that matchback reporting, like, it's so critical for us to be able to report back on as much data as possible and those tight integrations where we're able to really share data through APIs is critical in us ensuring that the, the operator sees you, you spent this much money on ads that resulted in these rentals over here, right?
That, that's so critical.
Andre Pavlovic: Yeah. And it, to take it a step further, Shane, if you're, if you're talking, uh, uh, an ad that clicked through and goes through and you haven't seen that entire chain or where it fell off, but even taking it larger, I mean, the concept of, of multi touch attribution really didn't exist in self storage.
I mean, it's just really starting to come up where if you have a call center solution, you have your website, you have your, your, your agency that's actually running your ads that's performing your SEO, you have your FMS, there's multiple touchpoints across multiple systems where, great, we got this click, but, and, [00:25:00] and it went through to a, a successful rental, but a call comes in that completes a rental, but we know that specific person already had 16 touch points from the website- Yeah.
so why are we attributing, you know, to a postcard phone number that's the same phone number that's on the building, it's the same phone number that's on the website, why are we attributing that all of the cloud in the return when we know the data's there, we just need to share it, we need to unify it, make it frictionless for our customers to see that.
Shane Adams: Because if you can tell the story of, "Hey, I know that, uh, if I, if I touch persons this one time, my conversion rates this, but if I touch them five times, my conversion rate is a multiplier."
Andre Pavlovic: What's that?
Shane Adams: It's huge.
Andre Pavlovic: Yeah.
Shane Adams: We used to, we used to talk about that a lot when I was working in entertainment. Uh, I worked for AMC Theaters for a long time and we knew that like, uh, if we had a, a loyalty person, they would spend this much money, but if we had a loyalty person with a cell phone and an email address, it was like 10X what that was.
Andre Pavlovic: Yeah, and you, you make a great point. I mean, you're really getting to, you know, [00:26:00] um, true CAC, customer acquisition cost and lifetime value, right? These are, every SaaS company and industry tracks that if they're a, a sign up service where, you know, given a trial, do they convert and whatnot, you know, formulaically what your acquisition cost is and what the lifetime value is and you can't have those be out of whack because they're spending way more money than, than, you know, the lifetime value of the customer.
Yeah. But, you know, those concepts are impossible, you know, in self storage. I, I, I don't think I really ever heard until the last year and a half, people in self storage really talking about acquisition costs and lifetime value, using that as metrics to really kind of measure the performance of their marketing and hopefully the maximization.
Shane Adams: All right. So we are here at ISS in Las Vegas. It's 2026. What do you, what do you come here for? Why, why, what, what are you here for? Like when, when you, when you come, when you walk into this room, what, what do you feel?
Andre Pavlovic: So personally, like what am I looking to get out of it? Yeah. So from my perspective, I mean, my, my, my core, uh, role at Quickstor is running the entire R&D team.
[00:27:00] So, uh, the, the, the tip of the spear on that is true product management, right?
Shane Adams: Mm-hmm.
Andre Pavlovic: What problems are we solving for our customers? Yeah. And so for me, it's for selfish purposes. Number one, it's great to get together with our customers, our partners, our vendors, everybody. Yeah. But really hearing firsthand what issues people are experiencing because if we can start to connect the dots and really hear all those issues, uh, we can come up with solutions and potentially even predict things that they really haven't thought of yet because we've talked to so many people to deliver something that's going to address problems or solve a problem they never knew they have that could be very beneficial to the operation of the business.
Absolutely.
Shane Adams: Well, you've given me a lot of your time. Of course. I really appreciate you coming by and, and being on the go local brief. Uh, Andre, is there anything that you want to make sure that the, the listeners of, of, of the Go Local Brief hear from you?
Andre Pavlovic: Uh, only thing I'd say is if you're in the market for a, uh, facility management software looking to switch, uh, Quickstor is the product for you, you should take a look at Quickstor.com.
Shane Adams: All right. Thank you.
Andre Pavlovic: Appreciate it. Appreciate it. Thanks so much. Thanks a
Shane Adams: lot.
Live at ISS. This is the Go Local Brief. I'm [00:28:00] Shane Adams. This is Stacie Maxwell. Stacie, tell the, tell the Go Local folks about yourself.
Stacie Maxwell: So, um, I've been in the industry for 26, this is my 26th year in the industry.
Shane Adams: God bless.
Stacie Maxwell: I worked for a top operator, industry top operator for 24 of those, 23, 24 of those years. Okay. Um, I used to be in charge of marketing and training for the entire company, about 80 locations, lots of different name brands. Um, so it was a huge challenge. I worked, um, at high octane speed for years and years and years and decided I'm missing out on a lot of my kids' lives and- Oh.
my, my twins just turned 15 this past Monday.
Shane Adams: Oh my goodness.
Stacie Maxwell: And I'm here. So, you know, so, but, um, I decided just to make a change for myself. Yeah. You know, and, um, do a little lower speed, uh, every day. And, uh, so I jumped over to Secure Lease, which is tenant protection program and a full, and a full service, uh, for commercial, uh, insurance agency.
Shane Adams: Okay.
Stacie Maxwell: So that was, um, August of 2024, so almost two years now. I am fully [00:29:00] licensed for property and casualty in all 50 states- Oh wow. ... and Washington DC. And I've brought a lot of animation and, um, really neat products to our, our suite of, uh, services.
Shane Adams: And probably quite a bit of, uh, industry knowledge as well.
Stacie Maxwell: Yeah, pretty, yeah.
Shane Adams: Of what operators need. I would,
Stacie Maxwell: I would like to think so, yes. Yeah. Yeah. I do, I do love to share knowledge. Uh, you'll never find another industry where, um, there's so much sharing and, and, you know, we, we're all so open and we share knowledge because we want, like, the better everybody does, we elevate all, right?
So why would you not share what you're doing that's working with another operator to help them elevate also because if the tenants don't have a good experience with any property, then that reflects poorly on all properties.
Shane Adams: Right, right. You
Stacie Maxwell: know? It's all about the tenant experience. And that's, I actually spoke yesterday morning here at ISS all about the, the future tenant, the tenant of 2031 and what operators need to be doing to get ready for that tenant.
Shane Adams: Oh, okay. And
Stacie Maxwell: we did this whole, like, diagnostic thing [00:30:00] where I asked 10 questions, um, about how your processes are right now, and the operators had to think yes or no. Oh, okay. You know, and just kind of tally their answers. And, um, the operators who had between eight and 10 yeses, they're already ready. Okay.
They, you know, because they've removed the friction, they've, um, created human touch where it matters and automation where it makes sense. Yep. And not mixed the two.
Shane Adams: Right.
Stacie Maxwell: You know? 'Cause automation is good to handle some things, but it's not good to handle everything, you know?
Shane Adams: That's been something we've been talking about.
Like I feel like every episode of the, of the podcast that, that feels like something we're talking about is, you know, AI's here.
Stacie Maxwell: Yeah.
Shane Adams: Automation is here.
Stacie Maxwell: I've got AI in my system
Shane Adams: now. Ab- absolutely. Yeah. Yeah. I think I've got the, the nanobots. Uh-
Stacie Maxwell: No, I don't, I, I mean in my, my work system.
Shane Adams: No, I, I was just kidding.
Stacie Maxwell: Microplastics.
Shane Adams: Yeah, I know, right? Uh, no, but, but AI's here and, and it's, it's, it's not gonna go away.
Stacie Maxwell: Right. It's not.
Shane Adams: Yeah. Um, but, but there's still opportunity, [00:31:00] there's still a lot of opportunity for us to ensure that we are using it responsibly, uh-
Stacie Maxwell: Ethically. ...
Shane Adams: ethically, uh, and also, uh, to the best of, for the, for the, the tenant, right?
Stacie Maxwell: Yeah. The tenant experience is what matters.
Shane Adams: Yeah.
Stacie Maxwell: You know, and, um, as a vendor to operators, we both have the, uh ... It's, it's imperative that all vendors in this industry do the best they can to make sure that the tenant has a good experience with every operator that we serve. Mm-hmm. Because when, when something goes sideways at the tenant level-
Shane Adams: mm-hmm.
Stacie Maxwell: they're not, they don't know us as operators. They know the operator and they're gonna blame the operator. Yeah. And they have a problem with any piece of this, of the whole system, they're gonna blame the operator. They're gonna hop on their internet soapbox, they're gonna leave a nasty review-
Shane Adams: Right. ...
Stacie Maxwell: and it reflects poorly on the operator and then we, as vendors have failed that operator.
Shane Adams: Right. Absolutely.
Stacie Maxwell: Yep.
Shane Adams: Um, so, uh, what, what's the one conversation that, that you feel like operators are not having right now, uh, that they should be?
Stacie Maxwell: I think, [00:32:00] I think the conversation is, um, how can I get ready for that future tenant? I really think that's important right now because right now we're seeing a lot of techni- tech advances and people are, you know, stacking up tech like crazy.
Right. But are you doing it purposefully? Right. And are you, are you putting it in for the sake of adding tech or are you doing it because it makes the tenant experience better? 'Cause at the end of the day, if the tenant doesn't have a good experience with you, that can go very poorly. Yeah. But if they have a great experience with you, they're gonna tell everyone they know.
Shane Adams: Yeah.
Stacie Maxwell: Absolutely. So I think being mindful of the technology that you're implementing is something that ... I, I'm seeing a lot of operators that are adding tech and adding tech here, they're putting in chat bots and they're putting in this and that and, um, it becomes frustrating to the tenant.
Shane Adams: Mm-hmm.
Stacie Maxwell: And so what they're doing is they're adding tech, but in a lot of places they're adding friction.
Shane Adams: Yeah.
Stacie Maxwell: And they really need to be removing friction. Yeah. Because every time a tenant encounters friction in any of the processes, um, that's an opportunity for them to just quit and go elsewhere.
Shane Adams: Well, I, I, [00:33:00] everybody knows how frustrating it is when you call like a customer service line and you're just like, "I just wanna talk to an agent."
Stacie Maxwell: Yes,y. Representative.
Yeah.
Shane Adams: Yeah,
Stacie Maxwell: exactly.
Shane Adams: Representative. Yeah. Exactly. Uh, all right. So Go Local of Late really has been focusing on like small and medium size operators, like that eight to 15 location group.
Stacie Maxwell: Yep.
Shane Adams: Like what's their biggest blind spot right now? Do you think it's that same like not being prepared for the, the future?
Stacie Maxwell: I think that's a component, but I think another thing people need to be thinking about, especially mid-size operators is, um, the, the fact that marketing isn't just your website. Marketing is actually everything that gets them to the website, every experience they have on the website, their marketing is, uh, when they arrive at your property, what are they encountering?
Shane Adams: Oh yeah.
Stacie Maxwell: Is it clean? Is it, you know, is it easy to use? Is it, um, efficiently run? Um, the marketing is how well the door works, how well the gate system works, the entire experience, all the way through when that tenant vacates.
Shane Adams: Yeah.
Stacie Maxwell: Your [00:34:00] marketing is every step along the way, and I think that people don't think of it that way.
Shane Adams: No, they do not.
Stacie Maxwell: Yeah. So- Every, every, every piece of the, of the whole system, the whole tenant journey is a brand impression.
Shane Adams: Yeah.
Stacie Maxwell: And that's the real marketing.
Shane Adams: Yeah, so as somebody who's been a, a marketer for 25 years-
Stacie Maxwell: Yes. ...
Shane Adams: I will say people are very quick to point out when the, they think the marketing is wrong.
Stacie Maxwell: Correct.
Shane Adams: Um, but then you're like, well, but there are five other things that you're listing here that probably aren't necessarily in the purview of marketing-
Stacie Maxwell: Right. ...
Shane Adams: but you're saying they're marketing.
Stacie Maxwell: They reflect on the brand.
Shane Adams: Absolutely they do. Yeah.
Yep.
Shane Adams: They absolutely do.
Stacie Maxwell: Yep.
Shane Adams: Yeah. So if you could change one thing about how this industry approaches its digital marketing and technology- Uh-huh What would you, what would you change?
Stacie Maxwell: Oh, that's a really good question. And what would I change? Um, huh. You know, I thought about this and I had an answer, but I think it's changed over the [00:35:00] c- course of the next few days or the last couple of days with, with the things that I've seen. So, um, what would I change? I think that I would make it, um, I think I would, as far as digital technology goes, I think there's a lot of new digital products out there and I think that those individual product vendors need to do a better, um, explanation of exactly why that digital product exists so that the midsize and smaller operators understand it better.
Yeah. That's like getting those smaller operators up to speed with the big guys. The big guys get whatever they want. They've got pockets deeper than God, right? Right, right. Like, you know, they just, they, and they do things, but the smaller operators, they're having to compete on that same level. Yep. And so making that digital technology a little more understandable- mm-hmm.
for the smaller operator and explaining the value of that technology and where it actually fits in the customer journey, making that a little more apparent to those smaller operators, I think is something that's needed.
Shane Adams: We, we had, we had had an experience at SSA [00:36:00] where, uh, I was at the booth and, uh, one, uh, an op- a really small operator walked by and she, she asked, "Well, what do you guys do?
And I said, "Well, we do websites, we do search engine optimization, we do paid media." Yeah. And she went.
Stacie Maxwell: Yes.
Shane Adams: Like she, like, as soon as I said websites, she was like, she was out. She checked out. She was like, "I don't know what you're talking about. " Yeah. And, and, and it's, it, but then you have other operators who, like, they're, they want to know what, what language you're writing your technology products in.
Yes.
Stacie Maxwell: Like, the,
Shane Adams: the, the variation in, uh, advancement when it comes to, like, understanding of tech- Yeah. ... in this industry particularly is incredibly vast.
Stacie Maxwell: Yes, it is. And so I come from a training background and one of the things, and my first degree was art education. Okay. So, like, I learned then that in, to teach most adults, like, to build a training program for most adults, you have to bring everything down to about a eighth to ninth grade level- Yeah.
because that is where you're meeting [00:37:00] everyone in the middle for easily understandable knowledge.
Shane Adams: Right.
Stacie Maxwell: And I think that that's, I think some of the tech companies, and I, don't get me wrong, I love all y'all tech companies, I love everybody here in the industry, but some of the tech is confusing-
Shane Adams: Yeah. ...
Stacie Maxwell: to some folks.
And, and I think just making a change, like, changing the way you present it and I hate saying dumb it down so that that average level intelligence can pick up what you're putting down.
Shane Adams: Yeah. And, and, and I don't even, I don't even view it as, as dumbing it down even, I would even say
Stacie Maxwell: it's- Simplify it.
Shane Adams: Yeah, it's simplifying it.
Yeah. It's, it's ensuring, it's ensuring that you're inviting people in- Yes. ... to the story wherever they are.
Stacie Maxwell: For comprehension.
Shane Adams: Right.
Stacie Maxwell: So they understand it.
Shane Adams: Yeah.
Stacie Maxwell: Yeah.
Shane Adams: Yeah. How does this impact me? Yeah. Uh, I had this, this PR, uh, partner that I used to work with where she, she used to tell me, um, what is happening, uh, uh, or, or what is happening, how, how does it impact me, and what do you want me to know?
Stacie Maxwell: Yeah.
Shane Adams: Like, those three questions, if you can answer them, often, like, are [00:38:00] really, really useful in- Yeah. ... crafting a story and being able to, but, but you have to layer in the part that's like, I need to understand exactly where you're coming into the story-
Stacie Maxwell: Right. ...
Shane Adams: so that I can ins- in all, for all intents and purposes-
Stacie Maxwell: Meet you where
Shane Adams: you are.
tailor it and meet, meet you where you are.
Stacie Maxwell: Yeah. I think that's what is, needs to happen is, um, we all need to, to figure out how to meet our clients where they are. Yeah. That's what I'm doing in my ecosystem at SecureLease and, and when anybody walks up to my booth currently, I, I first ask them, "Tell me about you.
What are you, what are you doing in storage?"
Shane Adams: Right.
Stacie Maxwell: You know, tell me about your product at, like, where, you know, so that I can better understand where my product might fit them.
Shane Adams: Yeah.
Stacie Maxwell: You know, and, and the parts that they need.
Shane Adams: We were, we were having this conversation, uh, the other day is really good sales folks, they ask more questions than they, than they- Than they
Stacie Maxwell: talk.
Shane Adams: They, they talk.
Stacie Maxwell: Absolutely.
Shane Adams: Like, they're really inviting people to, to share- Yes. ... what are, what are your pain points? What are your-
Stacie Maxwell: Yeah.
Shane Adams: And, and I
Stacie Maxwell: think- What can I solve for you?
Shane Adams: Good marketing does that too.
Stacie Maxwell: [00:39:00] Yes.
Shane Adams: It, it's harder because you're, you're talking about an outbound thing.
Stacie Maxwell: Right.
Shane Adams: But at the same time, if you can get them to relate to, uh, to, to a problem that they might have or, or a problem that they've heard of or-
Stacie Maxwell: You present the solution first.
Shane Adams: Exactly.
Stacie Maxwell: Yeah.
Shane Adams: Yeah. Exactly.
Stacie Maxwell: Yeah. Yeah. Apple does that in a real unique way.
Shane Adams: They really do. Yeah.
Stacie Maxwell: Yeah. They
Shane Adams: do a great
Stacie Maxwell: job. It's a great study.
Shane Adams: Uh, all right. So looking at the next, we're, we're here at ISS in Vegas.
Stacie Maxwell: Mm-hmm.
Shane Adams: One year from now, we'll be back in Vegas.
Stacie Maxwell: Yep.
Shane Adams: Uh, right? I think so.
Stacie Maxwell: About ... Well, actually next year they're flip flopping.
Veg- um, ISS is going to be in March and SSA is going to be in April.
Shane Adams: Oh, all right. Yeah. But we'll, but, but ISS will be still, still in Vegas.
Stacie Maxwell: Oh yeah.
Shane Adams: I mean-
Stacie Maxwell: They did a contract here. They'll be here for a minute.
Shane Adams: Got it. Yeah. Okay. All right. So we'll be, 12, 12 months from now, we'll be back in Vegas. Where, what do you think the industry's going to look like in 12 months?
Stacie Maxwell: Oh, um, I think we're still going to see a ton of AI popping up everywhere, but I think, um, there's going to be a little bit of AI fatigue also.
Shane Adams: Mm-hmm. Yeah.
Stacie Maxwell: So, and I just [00:40:00] introduced an AI product in my ecosystem, but it's, it's unique and it's exclusive to the industry, what I'm doing with it. So, um, I think the smarter operators and smarter vendors are going to have to differentiate themselves in unique ways that like that.
Yeah. Um, otherwise it's just going to be the same old, same old. And I have actually heard a few murmurs here, like I, every time somebody walks up to my booth, I'm like, "What's the most innovative thing you've seen today?" Or, you know, "What has, what has fascinated you at this show? What have you found most interesting?
What has been most helpful to you? "
Shane Adams: Yeah.
Stacie Maxwell: And a lot of them are saying, "Well, it's kind of the same stuff," you know? And I was very proud to say, "Well, let me show you something completely different." Oh yeah. And, you know, you know, but, but that's always a fun question to ask people because you get their perspective and, and once you learn more about who they are as an operator or where they are in the industry, then you learn what matters to that type of person too.
Shane Adams: Right,
Stacie Maxwell: right. You know, it's unique what they say matters to them.
Shane Adams: That's great.
Stacie Maxwell: Yeah.
Shane Adams: Well, Stacie, I really appreciate you coming on the show. Of course. So great to chat with you. Uh, is there [00:41:00] anything that you, like, do you want to plug SecureLease?
Stacie Maxwell: Well, okay. So, um, SecureLease, tenant protection is absolutely amazing.
I've built this cool ecosystem. Um, we've got a platform that operators can log into and look at their financials. Um, I will be blending in claims information into that and auto enrollment into that as well. Um, from that, uh, secure scope is the name of that. From that dashboard, you can click on a link to go out to Secure Studio.
I have built a marketing store platform for my operators. I'm using my entire book of business as the economy of scale. Oh wow. So smaller operators can get better pricing on marketing products, um, and they get free shipping on orders over 50 bucks and you can order anything. It's, it's, um, based on the VistaPrint platform and, and you can order 95% of everything that VistaPrint offers you can order my system at scale pricing.
Shane Adams: Oh, wow.
Stacie Maxwell: So we've got that. We also, um, our secure outdoor product is, um, insurance for boats, RVs, vehicles. Okay. And it's not just treating the vehicle as a container and only covering the contents. [00:42:00] We actually cover the, um, the contents as well as scratch and dent and OEM parts. So- Oh, wow. Yeah. So the crazy crack head breaks into the RV that's stored at your facility, damages the door, steals the TV and the catalytic converter.
We're covering the TV, we're covering the catalytic converter and we're covering the, the damage to the door as well. So it acts kind of like gap coverage for the, um, auto policy that the tenant has already. Nice. So it's like deductible reimbursement. And then the last thing I'll plug is secure inventory, which is my great innovation.
Um, it's exclusive to secure lease and tenant protection and, and insurance in the industry. Um, you can only get it through me in insurance. So what it is, is it's, uh, when your tenant moves in, um, in their insurance addendum there is a link for them to create a, an account with secure inventory and this is an AI powered system I can actually show you a secure inventory.
Shane Adams: Uh-huh.
Stacie Maxwell: So, I don't know if they see that over there.
Shane Adams: Well, we'll, we'll put some, we'll put some, uh, screenshots right here.
Stacie Maxwell: Sure. Yeah. So as they're moving in, they can take a photo of [00:43:00] the items-
Shane Adams: Uh-huh
Stacie Maxwell: And it, the, there's an AI component that assesses the picture and tells you what it is. Here, look, I'll just do this.
Take a photo right now. Do that. Okay, so that's our photo. It's the ... I don't know if y'all can see it. The water
Shane Adams: bottle and the computer.
Stacie Maxwell: Yeah. So we're going to use this photo and I'm going to label the box number like, I don't know, 102, sure. And you can put in a, a category, you can put your unit number- Uh-huh.
If you have multiple units, that's helpful. So anyway, we're going to upload and detect, and it takes a minute because we're in this crazy building, but the AI component goes through and assesses what you're storing- Oh, wow. ... in that picture, so it's done. And so it picked up a wooden table with like blue grain finish, 100 bucks, open laptop, 800 bucks, plastic water bottle with a dollar.
Uh, water droplets on the table surface. No charge for those.
Shane Adams: No charge for the water
Stacie Maxwell: droplets. Yeah. So it gets the value there and then you hit create box, it goes into the system and it builds an inventory list automatically for the tenant.
Shane Adams: Oh,
Stacie Maxwell: wow. 'Cause in claims, one of the things we chase people around for is [00:44:00] photos of their items, which you can't take a photo of something that got stolen.
Shane Adams: Right.
Stacie Maxwell: You know, but, and their inventory list. But they're creating it at move-in, so if they ever have a claim, the photos are stored on a secured server, um, they can export the CSV file of this, highlight the items that are affected. Um, each of the photos and boxes has a date and timestamp and the photos, because they're stored on a secure server, they're just linked in that file, so they can't fake it.
They can't put a fake picture in there. Oh, wow. It's all fact-based.
Shane Adams: That's
Stacie Maxwell: so cool. So they can export that, you know, inventory, highlight the items that are affected, send it to my claims adjuster. He can look at it and turn and burn that claim and-
Shane Adams: Wow. ...
Stacie Maxwell: much faster
Shane Adams: time.That's a really, that's a neat, neat product.That's a- Yeah.
That's really cool.
Stacie Maxwell: And the tenant has access to it for the whole length of tenancy plus 30 days after move out.
Shane Adams: Uh-huh.
Stacie Maxwell: And then if they want to keep it after that, we can go subscription model and they can just keep it, you know, access to it.
Shane Adams: That is, that's slick. Isn't
Stacie Maxwell: that pretty cool? That's
Shane Adams: slick.
Stacie Maxwell: Yeah. I
Shane Adams: love
Stacie Maxwell: it. So that's my big, that's my big wow.
Shane Adams: All right. Well, uh-
Stacie Maxwell: Thank you for letting me tell it.
Shane Adams: Absolutely. Uh, look up secure lease, uh, that secure inventory product, uh, [00:45:00] I got to, to, to view a little bit- Yeah. ... closer view of it. It is so cool. Uh, so- It's, it's slick.
Stacie Maxwell: Yeah. So
Shane Adams: very, very neat. So thank you, Stacie, so much for being a part of it.
I really appreciate it.
Stacie Maxwell: I appreciate it.
Shane Adams: Uh, we will see you all next time. Thank you.
Stacie Maxwell: Bye-bye.