Janus Podcast Episode 7: Josh Boyd from On Guard Self Storage

In this episode, we caught up with Josh Boyd from On Guard Self Storage based in Leeds, Alabama. Josh has a fascinating background in the medical technology field, and brought along a lot of unique and insightful perspectives into his career in the past 5 years as a developer in the self-storage industry. Recently he became a partner and investor at On Guard Self Storage, and is making his mark in the industry by prioritizing technology and the customer experience. Listen along as we talk about the importance of automation and a whole lot more!

Josh Boyd of On Guard Storage

Self-storage isn’t always so cut and dried. Sometimes, the best approach requires a totally different mindset than what’s usually found from industry professionals with decades of experience in the storage business. Josh Boyd’s unique background in entrepreneurship and technology led him to advocate for On Guard Storage to adapt to better serve the needs of the customer. That adaptation was focused on automation, something that Josh is passionate about.

He has witnessed firsthand how automation can transform the overall operations of a business to offer a better product, improve customer experience, and also enhance the overall operations for the facility and the industry as a whole.

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Josh talks about how he used his past experience in innovation and apply previous lessons to the storage industry to create a more streamlined business model that serves both the owner and the customer in a better way. Josh opened one of the first unmanned facilities of its kind using the Nokē Smart Entry System.

On Guard Storage has experienced significant success using the new automated storage model to produce better overall results. He talks about the different challenges that he’s encountered throughout this process and what’s been done to ensure that the customer gets what they need without ever having to speak to an actual person.

Topics covered in this podcast include:

• Why automation is important to adapting to a changing industry
• What owners need to do to achieve a fully automated facility
• How automation actually increases self-storage security
• How tech-integrated self-storage effects your bottom line
• How On Guard managed to achieve a fast lease-up rate
• Some of Josh’s initial fears using the Nokē system 
• How Josh expects automation to effect the self-storage industry as a whole over the near future
• Advice for self-storage owners considering automation

Or, read along with the transcript

Enjoy!