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Welcome back to Self Storage Lab, the podcast where we deconstruct how operators are adapting to today’s technology driven landscape and what it means for the future of the industry.

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This episode’s guest is Jessie Lamb, VP of Self Storage at and one of the sharpest minds working at the intersection of people, operations, and technology. Jessie’s path into the industry is anything but traditional. From early HR work and sticky-floor movie theater gigs to seven years leading tech and operations at Strat Property Management, Jessie has built a career around solving real problems for real teams.

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Today, she brings that experience to the vendor side, helping nodaFi shape software that actually works in the physical world operators live in every day.

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In this episode, we explore:

• Jessie’s winding and accidental path into self storage
• Why tech adoption fails and how operators can get it right
• The role of intuition, data, and joy in decision making
• Change management, culture design, and helping teams navigate the “messy middle”
• What moving from operator to vendor has taught her about speed, innovation, and collaboration
• The future of physical operations technology and what nodaFi is building next

If you’ve ever tried to implement new tools, lead through change, or build systems your team will actually use, this conversation is going to hit home.

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In this episode we discussed:

(00:00:22) Why we need more tugboats and fewer cruise ships in tech adoption
(00:00:52) Jessie’s transition from HR to operations and where her people-first approach began
(00:03:18) Moving from rural Texas to San Francisco and finding energy in the tech world
(00:05:00) Why tech should augment people rather than replace them
(00:06:30) How consumer behavior created new expectations around access, hours, and responsiveness
(00:07:00) Jessie’s Craigslist origin story and the unlikely path into storage
(00:12:00) Seeing problems early and learning to speak up with clarity and confidence
(00:14:49) Growing up in many environments and how that shaped her balanced decision making
(00:17:13) Why intuition only works when you understand the inputs behind it
(00:20:00) How she thinks about KPIs, joy, and defining what “good work” feels like
(00:23:20) Change management, transparency, and the importance of naming the hard thing directly
(00:28:00) Taking the leap from Strat to consulting to nodaFi
(00:32:09) What surprised her most about joining the tech vendor side
(00:34:18) The pace of innovation and why fast feedback loops matter
(00:37:04) Working with customers who love to “break things” and why they drive the best product decisions
(00:39:56) Operators as cruise ships, vendors as speedboats, and the need to move together
(00:43:45) The importance of slow moments, celebration, and reducing change fatigue
(00:48:22) What nodaFi is building and why physical operations software is the next frontier
(00:51:16) How real operators walk properties and why that matters for great design
(00:52:00) Rapid fire: butcher paper walls, black coffee, and motorcycle adventures
(00:58:47) Where to find Jessie online and connect at industry events

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Mentioned in This Episode

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Frameworks & Philosophies
• Joy as a productivity multiplier
• Transparent change management
• Blending intuition with observable signals
• The physics of entropy and why systems drift without intentionality
• Kinesthetic problem solving

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Tools & Workflows
• Butcher-paper ideation
• QR-based asset tracking
• Property walkthrough workflows
• Vendor-operator co-design processes

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Favorite Nuggets
• “Show people the variables so they understand the decision.”
• Why the best ideas often come from the most critical users
• Adventure as a career compass
• Storage culture, tugboats, and the power of celebration

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More from Jessie & Team

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LinkedIn: Connect with Jessie Lamb

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nodaFi: https://www.nodafi.com/

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