Sensei's Dissertation on Self-Storage Masterminds
A Comparison of Self-Storage Mastermind Programs:
Finding Your Best Fit
I don’t know about you, but for some reason my Facebook feed is filled with ads selling mastermind groups with everyone from Steve Martin to David Sedaris. I’ve always ignored these ads and thought of masterminds as something you do for fun if you have lots of free time.
Recently, while talking to one of my mentors about the issues I am facing developing my own self-storage projects, he suggested I join a self-storage mastermind group.
Self-storage mastermind groups? I didn’t even know that was a thing.
But boy is it ever. A BIG thing.
The Basics of the Big Four
I sat down with founders of four self-storage masterminds to learn more about these peer-to-peer mentoring groups (in alphabetical order by last name):
• Scott Meyers, The Self-Storage Mastermind
• A.J. Osborne, The Self-Storage Income Inner Circle
• Stacy Rossetti, Storage Nerds
Some mastermind groups, such as Rossetti’s and Osborne’s, are open to people with all levels of experience. To join Meyers’ group, members must be an owner or self-storage facility or a professional actively involved in the self-storage industry and interview with Meyers first, which candidates also do for Osborne’s group.
Wagner’s group has three tiers. The first tier, called the Storage Rebellion University, is open to everyone. It includes a one-month free trial for participants to check out the program and see if it is a good fit. This level meets once a month in a two-hour Zoom call and offers forty hours of video education.
The second and third tiers, Insider’s Mastermind and the Master’s Program, have an application process. Insider’s Mastermind participants receive everything from Storage Rebellion University, plus a once a month zoom call that is only open to this group and two retreats per year.
In the Master’s Program, participants receive all the above plus one-on-one coaching with a partnership. To make sure that the coach and the student’s success are aligned to one another, Wagner partners with the student on the first deal.
“Our job is to take the students from purchase to stabilization of their first property,” explains Wagner. “The student owns 81% of the property. My company is the 19% minority owner and serves as a guide. That way, we achieve success through our students. We want to make sure that everyone who joins the mastermind achieves the success that they’re after.”
Rossetti’s StorageNerds program is focused primarily on self-storage beginners. It is an annual program that includes her Super Simple Self-Storage online course. Students meet every-other-Tuesday in a two-hour Zoom webinar.
“We follow a 3-step process: find them, fund, and run them,” says Rossetti. “We’ve got people coming in every week in all different levels and ages. People come to the group and most of them have no idea what to do; all they know is that they want passive income/passive wealth. You’re going to come into the program and spend the first two months educating yourself. Once you close your first facility, then you have to get the foundation set-up. Then, we teach you how to run this type of business. That’s why it’s a year-long program.”
In Meyers’ group, The Self-Storage Mastermind, participants meet once a quarter for three days and have a three-hour virtual check-in meeting every other week. Also an annual program, every year this mastermind takes on a different area of the self-storage business to evaluate it in depth and see how to get better or scale to be better.
“We check the key performance indicators of each participant’s facilities and business levels,” says Meyers. “This year, we are focusing on the finance and private equity side of the business.”
Osborne prides himself on the small group size of his The Self-Storage Income Inner Circle, which participants can join or cancel anytime. Meetings are held virtually every other week, sometimes more. Content is prepared and directed by Osborne on a wide variety of topics driven by the members’ requests. All meetings are recorded and saved in the Forum for participants to view at their leisure. Also included in membership: AJ’s Self Storage Master Class, Freedom Model Calculator, Self-Storage Analyzer, contracts, due diligence checklists, access to solo investment opportunities, first seat in AJ’s syndicated deals (must be accredited) with Cedar Creek Wealth and more.
“We have a high participation rate and a small mastermind,” explains Osborne. “I interview each potential member to ensure their level of commitment to the group before accepting their request. We do not want members jumping in and out. That’s not how it works. When people are joining, they should be actively engaged, and an asset to the Inner Circle community.”
None of the mastermind groups screen for competitors within the same market, and all agreed it hasn’t been an issue. The mastermind groups are led by their founders, all of whom have a support team and guest speakers as faculty. The mastermind groups include a variety of calculators, contracts, checklists, and other useful tools specific to self-storage.
Varying Philosophies
To choose the mastermind that is right for you, think about how the founders describe how their group is different from others.
“Our mastermind is the original self-storage mastermind, and two former members now run their own mastermind group,” says Meyers. “We are very stringent in terms of who we let in. Just because someone can write a cheque doesn't mean we're letting them in. There is a level of integrity that we uphold, and that is driven by me because otherwise some would just join and sell during the program.”
“We don’t sell you anything, we don’t do funneling. I don’t coach,” says Osborne. “The Inner Circle is paid for by people who come to the table to learn. We have people who have fifteen facilities and people who have no facilities and they all come together.”
“I'm helping people as much as I can. I’m a true believer of giving. The more you give, the more opportunities will come to you,” says Rossetti.
“As storage rebels, we believe very strongly that storage is a means to an end,” says Wagner. “Not the end itself. We help our members think about what their ideal life would look like. Then we reverse-engineer a storage investing business plan to support their life.”
Another commonality of these four masterminds are amazing participant success stories. These stories illustrate the purpose of joining a mastermind: using the power of the group to achieve goals you might struggle to achieve on your own.
Wagner relays an example of a member named Ken Holmes who purchased five properties during his time in the group. “Since joining, he has spent three million dollars on these five assets and, once stabilized, they will be worth more than six million dollars. Another is Chris Butler. Over the span of about 13-14 months in the program, he contracted to buy twelve properties. He kept seven for himself and wholesaled the remaining five for a total of $280,000 in wholesale profits.”
Rossetti tells of two participants, “Ted tried to buy a multi-family property for two years without success. After he started the Storage Nerds program, he found a facility within one month and closed it after 45 days. Now, he’s under contract with his second facility. He got a bank loan with a 3.75% interest for 20 years. He started raising the 13% cap rate on his storage facilities. Also, we have Heather, who started in January and closed her first facility in September. She bought 110 units for about $275,000. Now she is in the process of looking for her second facility.”
Osborne shares, “We had member, Zach Quick, out looking for deals with whom we ended up acquiring a facility together in Kansas City. It was a 100,000 square foot facility. We got it locked up for $60 per square foot in a market whose rents were sky high. That facility has since dramatically increased in value. The facility was too large for Zach to purchase on his own, but he was able to with our help and partnership. It has been one of the best deals we've ever done!”
Rather than single out any one member, Meyers explains something he finds to be true amongst all. “A participant often thinks small when they come in until they recognize the resources they have in the community. They realize they now have access to networks, access for capital and lending for their portfolio, and they can confidently go out there in the field because they have the resources to do so. We have people who share their mistakes and experiences, then they point out blind spots to others. We’ve kept people moving forward and we save them from losing money. There’s no way to measure that other than some of the best deals you make are the ones you don’t end up investing in.”
Joining a mastermind helps committed participants bring energy and focus to achieving their vision of success in the self-storage industry. The chart below will help compare your options. If you’ve participated in these or other self-storage masterminds, please leave your comments below. (And if anyone reading this has joined Steve Martin or David Sedaris’s masterminds, I’d love to hear about that too.)
A 10x5 table depicting self-storage mastermind groups and their offerings