AI, Remote Management & Customer Experience in Self Storage — With LiveSwitch CRO James Hatfield

In this episode of No Vacancy we sit down with James Hatfield from LiveSwitch and discuss how he got started, moving over to LiveSwitch and how LiveSwitch is helping to transform Self Storage.  

About LiveSwitch: LiveSwitch is the world-leading communications platform for small businesses and entrepreneurs. We provide world-class technologies to help small businesses thrive–directly saving them money, making them money, saving them time, and helping them serve their customers better. Virtual estimates, on-site documentation, and AI built for small businesses are some of the many offerings we provide. We use innovative video and photo technologies to achieve this. 

• Book a demo: Andrew's personalized link
• Website: https://www.liveswitch.com/
• Start your free trial: https://www.liveswitch.com/contact-signup
• Coupon: Use code "Vacancy10" for 10% off at checkout!

Transcript

Chris Feild (00:00)
Right to the countdown, Jesus Christ.

Brian Russ (00:02)
Boy,

no problem. Just get

Andrew Rockoff (00:04)
All right. So real quick, James, we

just kind of want this to be as organic as, as possible.

So we'll.

Brian Russ (00:09)
You've done,

I think you've done a lot more of these than we have, James. So you'll probably be able to.

James Hatfield (LiveSwitch) (00:13)
Yeah, I've been on

over 100 podcasts in the last year and I used to have. Yeah. Yeah. Hey, Andrew, welcome to the show today. You got the believe sign up there, man. Tell us a something about what you believe in. Don't worry. I got you.

Andrew Rockoff (00:15)
All right, so do you want to introduce us and then we'll go from there or?

Chris Feild (00:18)
That's great.

Andrew Rockoff (00:24)
⁓

All right, so no vacancy, we're here joined by James Hatfield from LiveSwitch.

LiveSwitch is the world leading communication platform for small businesses and entrepreneurs. They provide world class technologies to help small businesses thrive directly, saving them money, making them money, saving them time.

and helping them serve their customers better. Virtual estimates, on-site documentation, and AI built for small businesses are some of the many offerings they provide. They use innovative video and photo technologies to achieve this. James, welcome to...

Chris Feild (01:02)
Today we are happy to welcome James Hatfield,

Chief Revenue Officer of Live Switch. Thank you, James, for joining us today. How you doing?

James Hatfield (LiveSwitch) (01:11)
Hey, round of applause. Thank you guys. Where's smoke? Good. I was just waiting for smoke machines and lasers and high fives as I came out the tunnel, but that's all right. Next time, guys. Next time. I'm doing great. That's all right. We're going to get there.

Brian Russ (01:13)
Energy. Bring the energy.

Andrew Rockoff (01:16)
How you doing, James?

Chris Feild (01:22)
Yeah, we're waiting to approve the budget for next year.

Andrew Rockoff (01:23)
Yeah, we're still in the learning phase.

Brian Russ (01:27)
We're gonna,

yeah, we have to increase the marketing budget to add the Pyro for next time.

Andrew Rockoff (01:30)
That's right.

James Hatfield (LiveSwitch) (01:31)
Well, I just want machines and lasers

on the cell storage property. Like, so I'm going down the roll up doors, like giving high fives to all the roll up doors. You know, that's, that's what we do. All right. We're a wild.

Andrew Rockoff (01:40)
right on.

Brian Russ (01:41)
I love this. This is a great idea. Next advert- Andrew, I hope you're taking notes. Smoke machines, maybe some strobes.

Andrew Rockoff (01:46)
I am, got it. Yep. Yeah, I'm sure Michelle will definitely go for

that. ⁓

Brian Russ (01:54)
Dude, they're cheap man, party city.

Andrew Rockoff (01:56)
So James would

James Hatfield (LiveSwitch) (01:57)
algorithm.

Chris Feild (01:57)
There's no more Party City. There's

Andrew Rockoff (01:59)
you?

Chris Feild (01:59)
no more Party City. Can we talk about that? Should we just go rid in the Party City? A downfall of Party City? And how Spirit Halloween is now supposed to take all of these demands on? I don't trust Spirit Halloween for my smoke machine or the rest of my party shitty accessories that I need. James?

Brian Russ (02:02)
I don't I don't wanna talk about that. Listen, my eight year old is like super depressed about that.

Andrew Rockoff (02:19)
You

Chris Feild (02:20)
Nailed it James, with the weather.

James Hatfield (LiveSwitch) (02:20)
I don't know how to follow that.

Andrew Rockoff (02:22)
Hahaha

Andrew Rockoff (02:24)
No Vacancy is the self-storage podcast that pulls back the roll-up door on the industry's most outrageous stories, toughest challenges, and unexpected laughs. Hosted by the team at Access Self Storage, each episode brings together real operators, sharp marketers, and off-the-wall personalities to talk about what really goes on behind the gate code. From crazy tenant tales to hard-won lessons in customer service, it's raw, unfiltered, and a little irreverent, just like life in storage.

Andrew Rockoff (02:54)
Live Switch brings real-time video and chat to self-storage. Book a demo using our personal link in the episode description and get 10 % off with code vacancy10.

Andrew Rockoff (03:08)
All right, so as mentioned, James is the Chief Revenue Officer at LiveSwitch. James, do you mind giving us a little bit of background, maybe where you started your career and then how you got into LiveSwitch and then we'll go into how LiveSwitch can play into the self-storage industry and we'll see where this goes from there.

James Hatfield (LiveSwitch) (03:25)
Yeah, well, I never intended for any of this stuff. You know, if you just follow the bouncing ball, you never know where you're going to end up. I literally came from a blue collar family. My father built the house we lived in. I know how to work with my hands. I know how to work on engines and I knew how to paint houses and power wash houses from head to toe. And that was my big family dream. That's what my grandfather wanted me to do is own a painting company. And that's what I did. I had a painting company. I cruised, put food on the table for my team. I just had one problem because some of us become accidental business owners is I'd go to the bookkeeper and they'd speak

this thing called English to me and I wouldn't understand a word coming out of their mouth. And I'm like, I don't think that's good. So I decided to go to business school while I'm running my companies because I didn't want to be taken advantage of. I went as upon graduating business school, I met another guy doing the same thing. He was getting his Duke MBA and he had landscaping companies and he invented a technology that solved the problem I had. It literally could read an income statement and balance sheet and tell it to me like I'm five. And I was like, that is awesome. And he's like, do you think you can sell this? I'm like, well, maybe if it gets me off a ladder.

but it's kind of out of my wheelhouse. used to going around neighborhoods and commercials and beautifying our community. And so I jumped, well, got down off the ladder. I didn't jump off the ladder. That's never a good look. Although I've had guys fall off ladders before and that was not good for my insurance and that was scary, but hey, things happen when you got guys on ladders. So we took that company from, this was over 20 years ago. We went from nothing

Andrew Rockoff (04:37)
Steve.

James Hatfield (LiveSwitch) (04:49)
To Inc. 500, we one of the fastest growing companies in the country for three years, and then we sold it, and it's a multi-billion dollar company. So that kind of worked out. Yep. Then we got into philanthropy, and we did this thing called inmates to entrepreneurs, putting thousands and thousands of incarcerated men and women through our programs. We go into the jails, we teach. It turned into an ABC television show called Free Enterprise. So that kind of worked out too. And then finally we were like, well, we're too young to hang up our boots. Let's buy a company this time. We still kind of like tech. So we bought a 16 year old.

Andrew Rockoff (05:18)
Are you ever too

young to hang up your boots?

James Hatfield (LiveSwitch) (05:21)
I feel that way after four kids, two businesses and building a bunch of nonprofits and stuff. I'm tired, I'm ready to take a nap. But I felt too young to hang up my boots. I'll tell you that much. So we went ahead and purchased a company and you've seen our stuff and used it. Like we did the Superbowl the last three years. If you go to an MLB ballpark and scan a QR code and they put you on the Jumbotron. Like during COVID, during NBA and the bubble and WWE wrestling where they filled all the screens, we did all that. And I got a chance.

Andrew Rockoff (05:27)
Yeah. Yeah, I hear you.

James Hatfield (LiveSwitch) (05:49)
And I'm going to bring this in for a landing because this is a long story long. But I got the chance to work with the chief of police in Washington, D.C. to reinvent our nation's 911 phone call. And the whole idea was everyone's carrying around three to four cameras in their pocket. How do I get into that camera feed with no app because a compromised citizen can't download anything and then they can't be trained? So you got to we got into a text. I woke up at three in the morning. I was like, I got it. We're going to go into a text message. And once you tap a text now.

That live video stream can go right to the police car, fire truck or emergency medical so they can see what they're driving into. So I'm building that out and there's a guy that you guys probably know. We're good friends. His name is John Lindsay and the Lindsay family has been in self storage for 30 years and they're in the Hall of Fame. And John's like, why don't you just use this stuff and like reinvent self storage? I'm like, John, I don't know a dang thing about self storage. He's like, don't worry. I do. And I'll come with me to Vegas and I'll

Chris Feild (06:24)
Wow.

James Hatfield (LiveSwitch) (06:43)
Introduced all smarty pants guys and you can figure it out. You're the nerd with the glasses now. And so I get there and I see all this and this is my Virgin tech guys. And I'm like, wow. Like I think those, the kiosks are cool and stuff. I'm just like, if I'm a mom and pop or, I only got one or two facilities, like I can't buy that. And I'm not going to spend five figures on that. It's cool though. I was like, I can replace that with a sticker or a piece of paper. So that's what we did. I got to work. I worked with a

Gal at StratProperty, StratProperty Management, Don Claussen's operator, Jesse Lamb. And she's a very tech savvy person and I created tech that she needed. I was like, what do you want? So I built it for her and we took off. I mean, I met people I didn't know like AJ Osborne, he was my first customer and I didn't know him from a hole in the wall. I just LinkedIn messaged him. was like, this guy looks maybe popular, you know? And then we just started going down the line. Now I got a bunch of top 100s and I'm actually starting my own self storage company.

with Jesse lamp, and a other folks. And I got a great board of advisors and, people that, know, know and love and trust. so I'm trying to buy intershary markets and, show everyone how to remote manage and hybrid manager properties and demystify it and open source. And I'm not trying to compete with my customers. I'm literally just trying to, you know, eat at my own restaurant. So that's my long story long.

Brian Russ (07:38)
Nice.

Andrew Rockoff (07:39)
That's awesome.

Chris Feild (07:59)
So going back to when you first met Jesse and when they presented their needs to you, what did they first want and where did that take you from there?

Brian Russ (07:59)
No, that's great.

Andrew Rockoff (08:00)
That's awesome.

James Hatfield (LiveSwitch) (08:11)
That's a super question. So she's a tech nerd and she literally had everything. I was like, you got everything. Like what don't you have to your question, Chris? And she's like, you know what I really want? I like, what? She's like, I just wanted to have an iPad with a big button that says, need help tap this. And so she put a little sensor on the door that said, if you need help, tap the kiosk. then, but I was like, I can build that. I have a bunch of computer scientists, a bunch of nerds. And so I named the project after her. I called it project lamb.

And we kept iterating and iterating until she's like, I love it. And then she deployed it across the 81 facilities. And, but she just wanted a simple button. That said, I had other people, I have some folks overseas, one box in the Netherlands and they're like, we don't really want that because everyone carries a smartphone. And that's when I was like, ⁓ we'll just put a QR code on the wall. And we just call it wall to call. And I know exactly where you're standing. you're in the lobby. you're, let's do a site walk. And now we're adding in all this AI, which is bonkers.

So we just add an AI and you can literally take a video for an auction or take a video of a cleaned out unit. Like a tenant can scan a QR code with no agent, take a video, and then we can run that through AI and flag it if it's not empty and give you an inventory of what's in there. It's, it bonkers.

Andrew Rockoff (09:26)
That's crazy.

Chris Feild (09:26)
That's incredible.

That's incredible. How do you see this technology moving your company forward, your self-storage company forward? And are you imagining an unmanned facility, unoccupied facility, or some hybrid version to start? What are you thinking of the future in your situation in self-storage?

James Hatfield (LiveSwitch) (09:48)
Well, I think in anyone's situation, you got to judge your property, location, tenant size, and you got to meet the people where they're at. I'm also always about the customer buying experience, right? And it's also about when they're not on property. A lot of these tenants are filing and signing leases before they get on property. Like I don't want somebody, I don't want to take my four kids and put them in a van and go around the city shopping for self storage. It's not, doesn't sound like a fun satire.

Chris Feild (10:10)
Are you sure? I'm sure they're

lovely people.

Andrew Rockoff (10:12)
You

James Hatfield (LiveSwitch) (10:14)
They're lovely,

you know what? They don't find self-storage facilities lovely. know, if I'm taking them to the park, sure. If I'm taking them to Disney World, sure, but self-storage facility ain't Disney World, last I checked. I mean, it could be if you guys want to put up some roller coasters, but that's not good for your bottom line. But so now we're getting it to where someone's at their home and I've even taken recordings from call centers and walked them through our AI. I, in fact, sometimes I pretend to be a call center person with people and I haven't judged me.

Andrew Rockoff (10:29)
you

James Hatfield (LiveSwitch) (10:44)
Like, where am I good? Where am I bad? And we assess the call center agent, what they did well, what suggestions, and it will light you up because AI has no emotions. It'll literally light you up as an agent. showed one property, they've got like 40 properties. They're like, we're not going to need sales managers anymore. But what I'm envisioning to your question are two routes. First, we'll go the hybrid route. Let's say you got class A property or you got a larger property. We might put on our property, what we affectionately call the Walmart greeter.

This is a person getting paid hourly. Keep my space clean. Make sure little questions, but I don't even want that person to sell. I'm like, don't bother selling because it's hard to find those unicorn people. We try to find the person who can do the landscaping, fix the locks. do like, forget about that. That is asking someone to do too much. Yeah, it's not fair. And you pay them what? Like, no, like not going to work. So just have them wave. Welcome to Walmart. Right. Right this way. If they can't find their unit.

Chris Feild (11:27)
Yep. Yeah, we ask a lot. Yep.

James Hatfield (LiveSwitch) (11:42)
and then have your call center agents be whether they're at home or overseas, have them be your killers. Right. They're going to be the closers. They're going to be the ones that take someone when they're pissed off with their lock. And now it sounds like you've seen it. The locks, if you don't line it up perfectly, you'll have people jamming on that lock. And they're like, this thing, I got the numbers in. Well, now they can just call the number. That person can send a text. They tap it and then

We even have laser guidance. You see that little four? It's not lined up. Just up. There you go. Click it. Because I want to either one with their shopping at home. I want to get them there. They're shopping on site if they're needing some help. And I want my call centers to be my killers. So class A or larger ones, you have a Walmart creator in the call center or remote. I'm going to have call center first where I got my phone numbers, my QR codes. They're doing that. And then I'm seeing my 1099 people out there to

Keep it clean, check the locks, do the auctions. Don't even interact with the people. Please don't. Just keep my place shiny and clean. That's kind of where I see everything going. And I've talked to some of the largest operators, your REITs, all the way down to the mom and pops. Doesn't mean I have the 100 % right answer to the test, but I think I know where we might want to guide the ship.

Chris Feild (12:58)
Do have a square footage differentiator where you want to land for manned hybrid versus ⁓ unmanned facility?

James Hatfield (LiveSwitch) (13:06)
No, think no, I think because you you can get those large RV and boat. You can get large outdoor facilities that are just in the right part of town that are all outdoors. I don't know if I need someone at the head office there unless you got high volume. I would say if you've got a lot of foot traffic, then maybe that's when you want to consider it. Like otherwise, the more you can go the trend towards remote, you know, the better it is for your bottom line, frankly. And it doesn't shy away from customer experience. If your signage is good, you're going to win. If your signage sucks.

I don't care what you're doing.

Andrew Rockoff (13:37)
We'll be right back.

And we're back.

Chris Feild (14:01)
The way you do that throughout a facility Do you have your facilities or envision them wired for internet? To make connectivity stronger for people using their cell phones Is that an easy solution? With a with a facility that's already established. I imagine it's a lot easier with without walls building it first out, but Is that one of your solutions or how do you combat?

middle walls and not necessarily the greatest connectivity.

James Hatfield (LiveSwitch) (14:31)
Okay, it's fun three different ways. And we have hundreds of facilities that are already use our stuff, right? This isn't just something like I invented in the basement as a science fair project. We've already got tons of like, like facilities using this every single day, right? So these are real problems. I've walked around with some of the largest, you know, like, I'd love to name names, but ⁓ I'll try not to do that. But I've walked around properties and we've solved some of these problems, right? Step one is meeting people where they're at. If a person is

wanting to call the phone number, make the phone number easy to find and let them call. Right. If someone knows how to use a QR code, let them use that. You know, if you want to put up a iPad where someone can tap for help, put that up, but let the customer choose their adventure rather than trying to educate the customer on something new. Nobody wants to have to learn something new. They just want to meet them where they're at. Right. And the most popular is a phone call. Right. So make sure you pick up the phone. Really, that's a different.

That'll differentiate you over above most everyone in the country. If you can just pick the phone up, I go to speak on stages and I'll cold call different companies and it'll go nine calls and it'll go to voicemail. I'm like that is a that's a failure. You can't have that happen. But if someone's in a rural area or in a basement, we have a couple of things that will even work when Internet goes out.

But if you're on a lot with a live agent, you need some level of Internet. Otherwise, you keep them in that lobby space or place where they do have that connection and this talk to them there, send them a text message and maybe the map of the facility and guiding them around and things like that. But if they go in the basement, you may want to and some is a smart way to provide Wi-Fi on property is a key way to mitigate all this to your point, Chris. But in some cases, if you're so rural, you may not even do that. You may just keep it to the phone.

Right. So you got to know your property really well, but it's a very inexpensive way to enhance your property. And this thing called Starlink makes it. You know, pretty easy, really, you're kind of you're without excuse. The only excuse I could find is you don't want to pay for it, but it's like you'd rather pay to have a full time person there over Starlink and I can have someone overseas getting paid $1500 a month rather than, you know, 4000 like.

Chris Feild (16:30)
⁓ Yep, that's pretty powerful.

Andrew Rockoff (16:48)
Mm-hmm.

James Hatfield (LiveSwitch) (16:51)
This is a solved problem.

Andrew Rockoff (16:53)
I think it's interesting, just to go back a little bit when you said meet the customer where they want is so important, especially in today's world, because we're seeing this transition happen where you have a generation that was so comfortable just calling or maybe even walking in. And now you're getting that Gen X millennial, Gen Z that's so much more comfortable with technology that maybe they don't.

necessarily want to call or walk in. Maybe they just want to scan something and take care of it remotely. So I think that's so powerful to be able to meet the customers where they want. And I think that's awesome.

James Hatfield (LiveSwitch) (17:31)
Yeah, we all want an Amazon Prime experience. We don't want to wait for our stuff and we're happy to pay a little bit. I mean, you don't have to pay for Prime. You can wait two weeks for your packages, but we all pay because we're impatient. Like that's just what it is. Like I don't want to wait, you know, and neither do your customers. Because you want to get that right as well. And then tell your

folks how they can serve people better. And that's just a start. mean, the AI is blowing my mind. Like I literally had an HVAC guy in my house two weeks ago. He comes downstairs. I'm like, hey, can I send you a text? And you go in with the unit and just in 30 seconds, just act like an ignorant customer. Don't try to solve the problem. So he walks in. He's like, the water pan's full of water. There's condensation on the pipe and it's leaking right there. And then I run it through our HVAC diagnosis prompt.

And it says most likely cause is there is algae. Just undo the drain line and get the algae out. He undoes it. Algae goes everywhere and it fixes it. His jaw is on the floor. He's like, can I buy stock in your company? But like you can think about it for site walks, right? Like when someone's doing the site walk and the audit as they talk to it, say, Hey, the looks clean. It'll, it'll look and it'll assess and say, it looks like you've got some tree work to do. It looks like you've got some bangs up on your gutters. Like have.

Andrew Rockoff (18:27)
You

You

James Hatfield (LiveSwitch) (18:44)
You could get the prompt to do everything. I've got electricians that will give the entire bid remotely down to timelines, budget, everything. Your imagination is the limitation for AI and it's here today. It's here right now. This isn't like, this is ready to go. I've got it to put it in your hands right now. And it keeps blowing my mind on what it does.

Brian Russ (19:04)
So you would be a big advocate to tell people, don't be afraid. I saw at the SSA show, I think it was Rodolfo from Swivel, he had a t-shirt that said, I'm not afraid of AI. I thought that was pretty great. ⁓

James Hatfield (LiveSwitch) (19:15)
Yeah, Rodolfo is great. I know

a Mason or Dolpho very well. Our stuff integrates with, with swivel. But yeah, that AI fear is real, but the more you fear it and the longer you put it off, the more you're going to get beat by

But now the race is not that the next race is a data race. All right. Which is documenting all of your processes, documenting all the issues.

getting everything. now the AI can even document your process. So when you go to sell your facility, if you've got everything documented, you know, or someone wants to buy your portfolio, I don't care what kind of business you have. These are the types of things that raise the overall value of your entity, of your business. And also when you hire new staff, just mark things as training. And now they can, if they're joining the call center, if they're joining the operations facility team, whatever they're doing, their marketing team, now you've got things.

process is documented for people to onboard faster, especially if you're dealing with any turnover and banging your head against the wall with staffing, right? You got to get ahead of this stuff and AI can help simplify it because you tell any business owner, hey, you need to write out all of your processes. And if they haven't done it already, it makes them want to take a nap. They're like, my goodness. They'd rather watch the paint dry. But you're like, if you don't do this stuff, you're probably banging your head like, why can't I find good people? Why can't we be consistent? Why isn't my property this? I'm like, I can guess why.

You just might not like the answer. You know, a little tough medicine.

Chris Feild (20:37)
How does Live Switch balance the work that you did at the Super Bowl versus the work that you do for self-storage? And how do you keep your employees motivated, the ones that get to do the work on the Super Bowl versus the ones that main job is the self-storage industry?

James Hatfield (LiveSwitch) (20:58)
Well, they're gratifying in different ways. Right? Like when you see your stuff on the Super Bowl, there's a certain proud papa moment with your stuff. Right? There's a different kind of proud papa moment when your customer comes like, like we literally had one this week. We had a mover say, hey, because we documented everything, I had one of my team members leave and I almost lost this job. But since it was all documented, we were able to go do it, get a re-up on it. I was able to talk to the customer and I saved.

a job. He's like, do you mind sending me car magnets? Like you saved me like five figures of income. I'm going to represent your company anywhere. I'll literally get a tattoo on my neck because of it. Right. So it's one of those things that that to us, we sent that entire Facebook message that we got to our entire company. Like we're here. If you look at our mission statement that Andrew read, like we're here for small businesses. We're here for helping those folks because we've seen it over and over and over again.

Andrew Rockoff (21:52)
What does a Super Bowl commercial cost, if you don't mind me asking?

James Hatfield (LiveSwitch) (21:56)
Well, what we did at the Super Bowl was not commercials, but like when you go and you scan a QR code and they put you on the Jumbotron in the arena, have you seen this? We power that, right? Like for like the NBA, if you'll see like for the Golden State Warriors, they have this thing called the Dub Hub where like corporate fans can be virtual into the locker room and they can interact with the players and they have to pay extra for that. We power all that kind of stuff. So lots of cool instances. You know, we've done stuff in the metaverse, we've done things for sports entertainment.

Andrew Rockoff (22:06)
Gotcha.

James Hatfield (LiveSwitch) (22:25)
take care of the government, we take care of Department of Defense, ⁓ we have really large customers. I mean, this is 16 year old company and we're only one of a few in the world that do what we do. And the nice thing is we don't just serve self-storage. So the benefit is a lot of these companies will just serve a single industry. We serve, I mean, I got electricians, painters, power washers, plumbers, like I've got Department of Defense. I can make our stuff extremely affordable because again, back to our mission statement of being there for the mom and pops, which I have a lot of, I can make this.

very affordable. In fact, it's probably their cheapest software.

Chris Feild (22:56)
Can you guys believe that

Andrew Rockoff (22:57)
So you're able

Chris Feild (22:57)
Taylor

Andrew Rockoff (22:57)
to.

Chris Feild (22:57)
Swift was scanning that QR code so many times to get on the Jumbodrome? My goodness.

Brian Russ (23:03)
You

Andrew Rockoff (23:04)
you

Chris Feild (23:08)
Go ahead, Andrew, sorry.

Andrew Rockoff (23:08)
So it sounds

like the play for self storage from Live Switch's perspective has so much better because you're able to leverage other industries, create it there, and then have that I don't want to say trickle down, but kind of trickle down to the self storage industry, which is what you're saying makes it that much more affordable for our industry to take advantage of some of these things.

James Hatfield (LiveSwitch) (23:31)
Yeah, like what we learn in different industries goes both ways. Like the QR code scan was born in self storage, but now it's also used by tons of home services like our Serve Pro customers love putting the QR code up on property for if as a proactive nature, like if you ever experienced loss or have a storm, just scan this QR code and show us the damage and we can make it run it through AI and then call back right for recurring revenue.

And so, or the guys will get on property and like scan it and then do their pre-walk arounds, post-walk arounds, customer testimonials. And that was all born out of self-storage, but vice versa. We're able to bring things from the other industries and bring it into the self-storage industry. Like, Hey, here's some best practices for speed to lead, right? Like around the call center stuff that we've been talking about. This stuff was born out of home service because these guys do virtual estimates now and virtual connections. And now when people are shopping from home, so because we serve such a wide variety to your

point Andrew, we're able to really benefit everybody and that's been really cool.

Andrew Rockoff (24:31)
is awesome. And over the past, I would say five years or so, it seems like our industry has started to embrace technology, but there is still such an opportunity in self storage to get like you said before, everybody's in this for that Amazon experience, right? quick, easy, get through the process.

in a simple way, is that one of the things that drew you to the self-storage industry is that potential for technology growth?

James Hatfield (LiveSwitch) (25:02)
Yeah. I am obsessed with disrupting industries. And that's what I like. The latest one I've been talking to the executives of Subway and Panera and we're trying to get rid of the line, you know, cause the biggest risk at a Panera or a Subway is someone standing in line and it's too long and they turn around and walk out. So we're trying to actually get rid of the line. So how do you do that? You put a QR code on the table, scan it, talk to an AI agent with your order and then pay. And once you pay for your food, you tend to not leave the restaurant.

So it's literally thinking of different ways that, it's more convenient. They're sitting down, they're getting their drinks. You know, the same thing happens in self storage, right? Like I would like to just like, okay, the best one is I met the largest self storage company in Dubai. And this lady was incredible. She's a COO and she was telling me what they have to do in self storage. I was so blown away. called MSM and I was like, Poppy, you've got to interview this lady. She's wiping the floor with anybody in this world when it comes to self storage, because.

And this is what she says, this is not a knock on culture, but this lady, she was from the UK, she's a COO over there. And she literally was like, James, these people have so much money that they don't want to do anything. Like we have to take photos of everything that we take. come, we pick it up, we box it up. We take it to the self storage facility. When they want it back, we have to bring it back and we have to put it back exactly where it was. It's like white glove concierge.

service and

Chris Feild (26:31)
Fully valet

service. Wow.

James Hatfield (LiveSwitch) (26:34)
Yeah, do nothing. It's like the Instacart of self storage. the Ritz Carlton of self storage. And there's a few people probably would pay a couple of bucks for that service, I think. And that's what it is. So sometimes we have to learn from.

companies halfway around the world does not mean we're going to implement that. know, but it means that will give me something to think about when it comes to the epitome of the Ritz Carlton of self storage and what can still room we still have left to compete and grow in.

Andrew Rockoff (26:59)
Yeah, I actually worked for a valet company in the States before self storage. And one of the things that we realized was that for urban areas, that is extremely powerful, especially at a market like New York where it's tough to get a truck from, one side of of New York City to the other. But then tried to venture out into more suburban and

rural areas and it just, wasn't there because their, pricing strategy wasn't enough to, really see something from the bottom line or it seems like it's more R and D than anything else, but we've seen a few of these disruptors try to make their way into the industry. and so far, I don't know if it's

something that people need to fear. I think it's just a space that could be big enough. the valet has really already been around, if you take a look at I to mention a brand name, but Pods has been around for a long time. They drop something off, they deliver it to a different place until you need it back. But we're starting to see a few other ideas start to trickle in. And I think...

everybody's expectations need to calm and it's okay. And to your point, I think it's more of a learning process than anything else.

James Hatfield (LiveSwitch) (28:13)
Yeah, it's know your market, know your customer, know your facility and know where you're competing.

thought process behind, I've met with so many of these different CEOs of different large companies as well as mom and pops. Like I get in the flavor of like, okay, here's how it's done. But they know their market. The ones that are winning know their market, know their team, know their philosophy and they win there. And know, a luxury storage locker is different than rural town USA, someone just trying to park their bass boat.

Andrew Rockoff (28:39)
We'll be right back.

And now back to the show.

Brian Russ (29:05)
favorite city outside of Asheville that you've traveled to.

James Hatfield (LiveSwitch) (29:08)
So many good ones is why I'm stumped. It's not a city, but I'll tell you what. I'll tell you, well, abroad, go to Scotland and you're done. I mean, I'm going there again next year. I'm a golfer. All right. Anywhere in Scotland, you're going to have a great time. But locally, my mind was blown when I went to Napa and the wine country. I was like, this place is awesome. You know, I'm not a big San Francisco guy at all, but man, you put me in Napa and I am like, this is amazing. And there's so many other beautiful places across our country.

Brian Russ (29:10)
It's a tough one, tough.

Andrew Rockoff (29:12)
could be domestic or abroad.

Chris Feild (29:17)
Hmm.

Brian Russ (29:17)
⁓

Nice

Chris Feild (29:20)
Ha ha.

Yep. ⁓

Andrew Rockoff (29:28)
Yeah

James Hatfield (LiveSwitch) (29:37)
But give me Scotland or give me Napa or just put me to bed or band in Dunes out in Oregon. I love playing golf.

Chris Feild (29:47)
What's the most famous golf course you've played?

Brian Russ (29:48)
Andrew, I know you got to.

James Hatfield (LiveSwitch) (29:51)
Oh, well, I have a golf story. So I have a guy that when I went through a bunch of life stuff, he just kind of stepped in and was like a secondary dad to me. And he was going through some stuff here in the last couple of years, had a heart issue and his bucket list item was to take his sons and me to go to Scotland to go play golf. And so we wanted to go the old course. And for some reason, we had something come up where we couldn't play the old course. And if you wanted to, you needed to spend the night in front of the pro shop.

And so the other younger guys I was with all did it. And I was like, I'll stay back and I'll go with Mitch and we'll play the new course in the morning. So we're going in Scotland, the new course and the old course are out and back courses. You're going out with the front nine and back on the back and we're going out on the front nine. And on the back nine, I look over, I'm like, oh, that's Gary Player over there. And I'm like, Mitch, you're about to meet Gary Player. He's like, don't interrupt him. Don't go over there. like, oh, he's getting interrupted right now. And they can take his security team can just knock me out. So I'm running over there like

Gary, Gary, Gary. He's like, he's got his, you know, South African accent. He's like, yes, I was like, you got to my friend Mitch. He's like, you know, in his late seventies and he loves you. He's like, bring him over here. And he spends like 15 minutes. He's doing karate kicks. He's making jokes. He's talking to Mitch. We're taking selfies. And as we walk away, Mitch is in full tears. And that's my favorite golf story in course.

Brian Russ (31:08)
incredible.

Andrew Rockoff (31:08)
awesome.

Chris Feild (31:11)
That's a great story. No, me neither. Me neither.

Andrew Rockoff (31:11)
I don't have any that cool. I'm not even gonna try.

Brian Russ (31:13)
You

Chris Feild (31:18)
What's your handicap?

James Hatfield (LiveSwitch) (31:21)
Crap. I enjoy the walk and I'm like, if I can drink a beer and do the sport, that's a sport for me. So you can insert any sport I can drink a beer with and I'm having a good time.

Chris Feild (31:22)
All right, yeah, welcome join us join the rest of us. Yeah

Brian Russ (31:22)
Doesn't matter.

Chris Feild (31:33)
You know, if you try hard enough, you can drink a beer in any sport. Don't sell yourself short, James. Kickball? Come on, man. That's right. Just need a moment.

Brian Russ (31:33)
Excellent.

James Hatfield (LiveSwitch) (31:37)
Thank

All right, next time I'm playing volleyball, I'm like, don't worry, I'm gonna have one beer in hand. This is gonna go great.

Andrew Rockoff (31:46)
Alright, Chris, get us back on track here.

Chris Feild (31:49)
It

seems like what LiveSwitch has done is make tech more approachable and easier to digest for mom and pops and really give them the tools to compete against the big boys. mean, people are going against some heavy duty stock traded companies in the self storage industry. So, you know, what would you say if someone wanted to dip their toe in the LiveSwitch pool for self storage, but very hesitant about

Brian Russ (31:49)
Well said.

Chris Feild (32:17)
about entering with AI and the tech that is available to them, how do you convince them to just give it a try and what do you recommend they start with?

James Hatfield (LiveSwitch) (32:27)
Yeah, some people just won't be convinced, right? They're the late adopters, right? When the iPhone came out, they're the last one. And now that they have it, they're like, oh, I guess I like this. Yeah, it's OK. We know you're a late adopter. You just don't like it. still sometimes I still like an old truck that I can do manual shift and I can work on. I'm OK with that. But now they got this thing called Tesla like it drives itself, you know. So it's OK where you are on the spectrum and know thyself. Right. But when it comes to business.

Chris Feild (32:29)
Yeah.

Ha

Andrew Rockoff (32:36)
Thanks

James Hatfield (LiveSwitch) (32:52)
You got to be careful with that. Right. And if you're in your lane and you're making it, you never want to change. Good for you, man. Like, I'm happy for you, actually. Like, why would I be upset? But if someone's ready to step tip, step their toe in the water, what we're going to do is called crawl, walk, run. I'm to meet you where you're already at. OK. So after you have someone pick up your phone, which everybody does. Now what we're going to do is just

teach that person picking up the phone, how to send a text message with live switch. So they can use that person can see what the person sees. It could be if they're shopping from home, if they're pissed off with their lock, if they're lost on property and need a virtual walk around. It's those are high value. Like if someone wants to place a lease with me, I want to face, if someone's pissed off, I want to face everything else. If I can automate that. Great. Do it, you know, but I'm to meet you right there, right at that process. All we're going to do is when the person's on the phone, we teach them how to.

It takes five minutes to learn. Like if you can send a text message, you're using our stuff. that's the crawl. Walk is where I'm going to teach the owners of the company. Hey, we're recording that entire session with the call center. Let's run that through AI and have a coaching session to make the call center better. And so that's where we're going to walk. And then we're going to run. We're going to start putting up QR codes around the facility. We're going to start looking at each facility. We're going to start implementing this in your operations teams when they're doing their site walks.

You got your 1099s out there for confirmation of work. I love to have it the landscaping audit tool. Hey, after you cut my grass or take care of my trees around my property, scan the QR code and prove it before I pay you. Right. So ⁓ it's things like that. That's where we're going to be in the run phase. We're going to get operations. We're going to get in the call center. And we might even get really fancy and even put up some QR codes that are live ones. But nobody jumps in. Well, in motion, like everyone who starts with us usually gets a couple of users and starts with one or two.

team members at one or two facilities, and we start there. And then they grow from there and add more users and it's across the entire portfolio. And I can't imagine not using it. gets used hundreds and hundreds of times a month.

Brian Russ (34:53)
I think meeting them where they're at, obviously, it's a great approach. mean, it's fantastic and it just goes to show that whether you are feeling very comfortable with tech in general, whether you feel like you have a strong tech stack already in place in your property, or you've just either built or bought something that does not have anything, you shouldn't be afraid to start. I just wanna take a second. You mentioned...

your interactions with Jesse Lamb earlier. Jesse is the vice president of self storage at Notify. And I just, since we mentioned her already, I'll give her a quick plug too. Jesse has compiled a resource that's really exceptional. It's a remote operations playbook that falls really well in line with everything that we're talking about here today. So if you want to search her on LinkedIn, if you're looking to get started here and just looking for a deeper understanding of how to approach this, what

things to consider, how the day-to-day operations can play out for you, ⁓ whether you're going fully remote, hybrid, or manned. Jessie has a great free resource available if you find her on LinkedIn. It's a 27-page PDF that I think takes a lot of the mystery and uncertainty out of it if you're interested in knowing more about that.

James Hatfield (LiveSwitch) (36:10)
yeah, she used to run Don Claussen Strat Product Management. 81 different kinds of facilities. She knows what she's talking about and now she's my business partner starting her own self storage company together. So I'm excited to be partnered with her.

we really want to enable this and I want to open source it. Like, I'm not going to have any hidden secret sauce. Like, if you want to ask me, I'll tell you. Like, you want to call, you know, reach out to me on LinkedIn and we connect, I'll help you. You know what I mean? Even if you don't use LiveSwitch, like, I just, I'm very interested in helping people operate their properties in a thoughtful way.

Andrew Rockoff (36:39)
Are you looking to start from a ground up? Are you looking to convert or are you looking to purchase something that's already?

James Hatfield (LiveSwitch) (36:45)
I'm looking to take the dustiest, oldest, tertiary market thing that nobody would want to tech enable and tech enable it.

Andrew Rockoff (36:48)
I

Chris Feild (36:49)
You

That sounds like a great way to learn. ⁓

Brian Russ (36:53)
Sounds like a fun challenge, you know?

Andrew Rockoff (36:57)
Yo, yeah.

James Hatfield (LiveSwitch) (36:57)
Yep.

Brian Russ (36:59)
You know, as you were describing your desire to help and be open with, you know, what you're with your knowledge. You know, I really, my immediate thought was it falls right in line with the industry culture, perhaps, that we've all experienced with self storage that yes, we are at times competitors, but I think, you know, it's just such an open place to be. People are very generous with their time and knowledge and.

I think your approach fits right in line with that.

Chris Feild (37:29)
James you are a breath of fresh air in the industry and the tech sector all together. So I really appreciate your outlook and everything you stand for and everything that you're looking forward to happening in the future. I've got some completely separate questions though. The real serious stuff. You said you started out as a painter and a painting company. What's the best way to get wallpaper off my wall?

and should I just tell my wife to put new wallpaper over it?

James Hatfield (LiveSwitch) (37:57)
⁓ I hate wallpaper. You have to get that special kind of, I forget what they call it because it's been so long, but it's a certain solution that you have to get the spray and let it leave on there and peel it off. It's terrible. Then sand it and then do it right. You got to do it right. ⁓

Brian Russ (38:00)
Don't we all do.

Andrew Rockoff (38:00)
you

Chris Feild (38:09)
You gotta get the spray.

Brian Russ (38:17)
Chris, Chris, hear the

sigh. You were hoping that James had a secret that he doesn't. It's elbow grease, my man.

Chris Feild (38:21)
A solution, yeah, like a real tech-based.

James Hatfield (LiveSwitch) (38:21)
No, no, no, it just. But I will tell you this, I tell you what you can

do if you want to tech based is you can take our stuff literally, go take a video of it, talk about wallpaper, what's going on and then write a prompt and ask the prompt and AI probably could give you a better answer than me and it will blow your mind. Wallpaper prompt.

Brian Russ (38:42)
Nice.

possibilities are literally endless.

Chris Feild (38:47)
great.

James Hatfield (LiveSwitch) (38:49)
They are. It's crazy.

Brian Russ (38:50)
It is.

Chris Feild (38:51)
I see you've got a guitar behind you.

Brian Russ (38:51)
What's the next one, Chris? Hit

James Hatfield (LiveSwitch) (38:54)
Yeah. Yep.

Chris Feild (38:54)
Your name's James Hatfield. ⁓

Do you cover any Metallica songs? And if so, what's your favorite one to sing?

James Hatfield (LiveSwitch) (39:05)
So close to Metallica, yet so far away. My last name is American History. I'm part of Hatfields and McCoys. My great-great uncle is Devil Ants Hatfield. Kevin Costner played him on the History Channel, so that was pretty cool. So I'm a country boy. I live in ⁓ Asheville in the Blue Ridge Mountains, and so we play bluegrass music and worship music. A lot of bluegrass. My daughters ⁓ play fiddle, and we sing as a family, and we sing in the hospice, actually. We go every once a month on a Sunday.

That just happened this Sunday. We were singing to people on their last day. It's pretty intense. I've been around a lot of death in my life. So I take my guitar and my singing family from room to room. That's where you can find us on most Sundays. That's what we love to do. And I don't have a favorite Metallica song. I don't think I've really ever listened to Metallica. But if you want bluegrass recommendations, I got you all day long.

Chris Feild (39:55)
Excellent. Excellent.

Brian Russ (39:57)
Just spit out the top one. What's your favorite bluegrass artist right now? Awesome. Yeah, selling out MSG, doing great things for the genre, I'm sure.

James Hatfield (LiveSwitch) (40:02)
Billy Strings.

Chris Feild (40:04)
Billy Strings is terrific.

James Hatfield (LiveSwitch) (40:06)
Yeah. Yeah. he's so great.

And then my buddy opens up for him. His name's John Stickley. grew up with him. ⁓ John Stickley Trio. He's awesome. So a lot of great bluegrass players out there. My daughter, we have a jam band here in Asheville. It's sponsored by the Steep Canyon Rangers, which also fantastic. And Steve Martin was in there and we had a really cool private event with a couple of the guys from Steep Canyon and their families. And my daughter was up there and her group and

Chris Feild (40:26)
Yeah, Steve Martin, sure.

James Hatfield (LiveSwitch) (40:34)
We just had a little private event at a brewery and I'm sitting there watching these Grammy award winning bluegrass guys in our small hometown and I'm like, this does not suck. This is awesome.

Brian Russ (40:43)
It's awesome. Are

you familiar with the Picking On series? I don't know who the artists are, but I know I've seen a few.

just do a cover, a series of covers or an album of covers of a specific artist and it's picking on insert artist name here. Yeah, it's pretty cool. I'm a big fan of the indie rock band Modest Mouse and there's a whole picking on series, a bunch of bluegrass versions of Modest Mouse songs that are really cool.

James Hatfield (LiveSwitch) (40:59)
No, that's cool. I haven't seen that. That's a great idea. That's cool.

I saw Modest

Mouse in Seattle at bumper shoot 24 years ago. They did great.

Chris Feild (41:18)
Ugh,

Brian Russ (41:19)
That's awesome,

awesome. Right at peak time. Making us all feel old, yeah.

Chris Feild (41:20)
24 years ago.

James Hatfield (LiveSwitch) (41:23)
And then

all of us got gray hairs, you know, and it's all right. Apparently that makes them more wise, but I'm still waiting on that. don't know. I don't feel any smarter than I've ever been.

Brian Russ (41:27)
It's all right. That's right. I think you've got it.

Chris Feild (41:37)
How do you find time to do all the charitable work? How do you prioritize that? Earlier you mentioned the incarcerated folks that you were helping. Can you explain where that comes from and who you help and what you're looking forward to with that?

Andrew Rockoff (41:38)
great.

Brian Russ (41:38)
house

James Hatfield (LiveSwitch) (41:55)
Yeah, I think people make a lot of excuses around serving like, when I make it big and I'm rich, I'll go and give away all my stuff and do all that. And that sounds good and it is good. It is good. But like you can start doing stuff now. You don't even have to have two pennies to rub together and you can go give to your community with your hands and feet, you know, that they were happy to use time. So I had some life stuff happen to me, you know, and, you know, been around a lot of death and that really changed me and then really decided, hey, I want to

give back and I want to build nonprofits and my business partner started the inmates entrepreneurs. I actually started a bunch of churches and we partner with a lot of nonprofits locally. So we're part of women's shelters that we go and serve food at group homes where we have kids that don't have any families. My wife grew up in the jungle in Indonesia. So she was a part of Habitat for Humanity. So I married into it as well.

Brian Russ (42:46)
You know, that falls right in line with our company culture as well. know, Access has been in business for approaching our 50th anniversary and we put a heavy weight on the communities that we serve. We take it really seriously and I think it's been a long-term part of what we do, but we've really formalized it more so in the last five or six years with our Access giving program.

And we empower our local managers to partner up with NPOs and other community organizations in their area and just develop a relationship and see how we can best serve the local communities. At our core, self-storage is local business. We occupy the ground that these facilities are built on, hopefully for a very, very long time. And typically serving a...

a three to five mile radius, right? And so we want to make sure that we're viewed as a trusted resource in that community, a community member, a partner, and like I said, a strong resource for a time of need. At our core, that's what we do. We're here to help people. so, yeah, another great example.

Chris Feild (43:55)
What was your first concert you ever attended?

James Hatfield (LiveSwitch) (43:57)
Oh my goodness. We're going way back. don't even remember. Sheesh. I'm not a big go out to see concert guy. I don't remember. Maybe like Ben Harper. I used to love that kind of music. I love that singer-songwriter. yeah, think Ben. Yes. Yeah. I love that guy. So that was probably one of my first ones I can remember. I'm sure there's others. I just can't remember.

Chris Feild (44:13)
Okay, the innocent criminals.

Brian Russ (44:13)
Nice.

Ben Harper plays the

lap steel, right? Yeah, Very cool.

James Hatfield (LiveSwitch) (44:28)
Yes, it's incredible. He plays lapsed,

he'll guitar, sings. He's so wickedly talented. Unbelievable.

Brian Russ (44:36)
Great pull, that's a good one.

Chris Feild (44:40)
Okay, why don't you give everybody all your social handles so we can get everybody connected to you. Where will they find you on all social media and your website and what's the charity that they should donate that you support most?

James Hatfield (LiveSwitch) (44:57)
Yep, I would say you can easily find me on LinkedIn, James Hatfield. I looked up Live Switch or go to LiveSwitch.com, L-I-V-E-S-W-I-T-C-H.com, click demo and even ask for James. I want to talk to James. Personally, anyone listening will make time for anybody here. So easy to get there. And then if you want to donate, you can donate through Church Network. If you want to go that way, Asheville Church Network will get it to good homes or you can donate to inmates, entrepreneurs. If you want to help folks that are getting

business help in the jails ⁓ or just honestly give it to your local charity. actually do that. Forget those things. Go somewhere local and find someone that is in your community and give it to the person locally. Don't even worry about my organizations.

Andrew Rockoff (45:33)
Thank

Chris Feild (45:39)
James, thank you so much for joining us on No Vacancy. We really appreciate it. Everybody check out James Hadfield and Live Switch.

Give them a call. Look them up on LinkedIn. And they're here for you. AI is here. They're happy to help. They will walk you through it, hold your hand, and do whatever needs to be done to get you up and running. Thank you, James. Appreciate it.

Andrew Rockoff (46:00)
Thanks, James.

James Hatfield (LiveSwitch) (46:00)
Thank you guys.

Speaker 2 (46:02)
Thanks

for listening to No Vacancy. If you liked what you heard, our episodes are available wherever you stream your podcasts.