
Building Relational Capital To Drive Growth in Self-Storage with Mark Poole of Liberty Investment Properties
Students of StorageShow Notes
In this episode, we’re joined by Mark Poole, VP of Operations of Liberty Investment Properties. Mark is a seasoned leader with over 13 years at the helm of operations, development, and growth strategy in self-storage and hospitality. He shares insights into the value of relational capital and how self-storage operations are evolving. Mark also discusses how to scale, adapt, and innovate in a dynamic market, emphasizing the importance of speed, relationships, and hyperlocal marketing.
Key Takeaways:
(01:47) Curiosity and continuous learning help drive long-term success in the storage industry. (02:41) Strong professional relationships serve as a foundation for growth and collaboration. (03:50) Early exposure to industry collaboration can shape a more open business mindset. (05:58) Shifting market conditions influence development versus acquisition decisions. (08:25) Fast and seamless lead conversion plays a critical role in portfolio performance. (11:11) Every customer interaction can have a long-term financial impact. (15:22) Hyperlocal strategies are more effective than broad national campaigns. (17:03) Grassroots referral programs can outperform traditional marketing spend. (21:20) Technology continues to unlock new efficiencies in remote facility management.
Resources Mentioned:
Mark Poole https://www.linkedin.com/in/markryanpoole/
Liberty Investment Properties | LinkedIn https://www.linkedin.com/company/liberty-investment-properties/
Liberty Investment Properties | Website http://www.libertyprop.com
Suregard Storage https://www.suregardstorage.com/
My Neighborhood Storage Center https://www.myneighborhoodstoragecenter.com/
Amazon Gift Cards https://www.amazon.com/gift-cards/b?ie=UTF8&node=2238192011
Thank you for listening to “Students of Storage.” Be sure to leave us a 5-star review and subscribe so you don’t miss an episode.
#CubbyStorageSoftware #SelfStorageOperations #SelfStorageSoftware
More from Students of Storage
Buying a piece of software is not going to fix your business. That is not something you usually hear from a software company, but it is the perspective Andrew Capranos brings to his new role as President, Self Storage at Cubby. He spent his career on the operator side of the table, looking at move-ins, occupancy, and NOI, and he knows results come from how you run the business, with the right technology supporting it.
Self storage was profitable enough, for long enough, that nobody had to fix what was broken underneath. Rob Kapp argues that is exactly why the industry sits 20 to 30 years behind on technology, and why the margin compression operators feel today is finally forcing the issue. As he puts it, the profits masked the inefficiencies. Now that it is a six to ten percent margin game, they cannot.
Chris Michaels turned to self-storage in 2019 while broke and behind on bills, and closed his first wholesale deal about a week after he started. Today he leads The Storage Rebellion, the community he first joined as a beginner. In this episode he sits down with host Tully Hannan to talk about what it actually takes to buy your first facility in a market that is far more competitive than the one he started in.
Owners do not hand over their facilities lightly. What earns that trust is not a pitch, it is operational excellence delivered every day by a team that follows through. In this episode JC Reed lays out how a third-party manager builds an operation owners want to stick with, from the systems that hold up at scale to the attention to detail that sophisticated owners notice.
Brett Copper, partner and president of Copper Storage Management, joins Matt Engfer to share how he helped build one of the industry's first third-party remote management companies and what scaling it taught him about growing a business the right way.