
Show Notes
Magen Smith, Co-Founder and CEO of Atomic Storage Group, joins Matt Engfer to share how disciplined execution, strong fundamentals, and a people-first mindset have fueled one of the fastest-growing third-party management companies in self storage.
Magen walks through her unconventional path into the industry—from accounting and consulting to development and ultimately building Atomic Storage Group into a national platform. She explains why marketing is often the first indicator of operational health, which metrics truly matter in a property audit, and how consistent execution across marketing, operations, and customer experience creates long-term success.
Rather than chasing shortcuts or shiny tools, this episode reinforces a simple truth: doing the basics well, every day, at scale is what separates average operators from great ones.
Key Takeaways: (0:00) Intro (3:13) Magen's story (7:14) The metrics that matter in a property audit (9:23) How do you compete in today's market (10:18) Managing all aspects of the facility (12:37) Doing it well everyday - it's all about execution (15:34) Building an effective team (18:07) A diverse group of managed properties (19:16) The secret is, there is no secret - hard work and a great team make the difference (20:56) The growth and future of Atomic Storage Group and self storage (25:46) What's ahead for Cubby in 2026
Resources Mentioned: Magen Smith | LinkedIn https://www.linkedin.com/in/magensmithcpa
Atomic Storage Group | Website https://atomicstoragegroup.com
Cubby | Website https://www.cubbystorage.com
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.
#SelfStorageManagement #StorageMarketing #StudentsOfStorage
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.