No Vacancy
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.
Hosted by: Chris Feild, Brian Russ and Andrew Rockoff
No Vacancy
50 Years, One Philosophy: People First with Foy Cooley
Use Left/Right to seek, Home/End to jump to start or end. Hold shift to jump forward or backward.
In this special episode of No Vacancy, we sit down with Foy Cooley, Founder and CEO of Access Self Storage, to look back on nearly 50 years of entrepreneurship, innovation, and change in the self-storage industry.
From taking a chance on a little-known concept and navigating high interest rates to building a lasting company culture, Foy shares the lessons that have shaped Access, and her leadership, along the way. Through it all, one philosophy has remained constant: do the right thing, invest in great people, and the business will follow.
It’s a conversation about business, family, leadership, and what it really takes to build something that lasts.
Making the first row a little bit further back. Because you get there first, you really kind of set the standard for the job. A lot of pressure. Yeah. It's like, you can't that up in front of me.
SPEAKER_01You better not. I mean, there'll be a there'll be a stirred talking. You got all this beach. You got all this beach. We're the only ones here. And you choose to sit up. I mean, the second tubies coming over here from the second group has no chance. Because even if they're a mile away, the this the the thought passing through my head is, of course, I had to choose this mile.
SPEAKER_03I had to choose this mile. My sister-in-law bought like a tent for everyone to s sit under. You know these like bigger tents that they have now? What were you doing last year? Just just roasting in the sun? No, like individual, like each couple had their own little umbrella.
SPEAKER_01You were building a community out there.
SPEAKER_03Yeah. Exactly. Yeah. Um we f we figured we'd upgrade our community. Sure. She bought this like four posts at least ten feet wide. And so we're constructing this like the first day. And I can see the people behind us. They're like, fucking these people. We've been sitting here for and it was after the lifeguards were on duty, and it was like, this is our first. So we're I can just see them like we're trying to look at the ocean, not your ass is from uh northern Jersey. So then we finally get it set up, and the posts are so like maybe an inch in diameter that go down. So you can see everything through it. It's not impeding anything. Yeah. By the time we get it fully constructed, like their facial expressions have changed. Just give it time, people.
SPEAKER_04Let us get it set up.
SPEAKER_01Was this the first time that anyone had set it up? Like did you have to bring the instructions to the god yeah. Yeah, yeah. Yeah. Was it one of those where you had to like dig in the sand, like apply the sand to the four uh pockets in the corners? So it had posts?
SPEAKER_03Yes, pockets. And then it had pockets that came off of it. Yeah. That you buried. Yeah.
SPEAKER_01And it kind of like swing around, like, God forbid, you know, Hurricane Irma came through. There goes grandma.
SPEAKER_03This episode of No Vacancy is a special one. We're sitting down with the woman who started it all. Access self-storage founder and CEO, Foy Cooley. From building a business and navigating decades of change and self-storage to leadership, culture, family, and legacy. We're going behind the scenes with the person who built Access from the Ground U.
SPEAKER_01Hey Foy. How are you doing?
SPEAKER_00I'm doing fine. How are you guys? Doing well.
SPEAKER_01How you feeling, Foy?
SPEAKER_00Great. I always feel great. Almost always.
SPEAKER_01So we'd like to keep it casual. All right. Foy Cooley. Thank you for joining No Vacancy Podcast. Co-founder and CEO of Access Self-Storage. Welcome, welcome, welcome. It's our pleasure to have you. I want to go all the way back, way, way back. And I want to talk about how you got here. And I think that starts at home. What was your uh what was your upbringing like when you were a kid? Where were you? Um and what was that like?
SPEAKER_00Born in Connecticut, lived in New York, uh up in Westchester County for a while at 10 years old. I went down south because all of my family on both sides is from the South. And uh that was a shock. I was a Yankee. Um and I was I as a 10, I was also a year ahead of myself in school, probably a year and a half because I skipped a grade. So it was socially, I didn't really fit in at all. But I had to work really, really hard to fit in. The South is extremely social. And so, and my family was social. So I I managed well enough, I guess, and then got out of college and came tootin' back to the Northeast. And I will always live in the Northeast because I the role was that was set out for me and my family now consider this is decades ago, was not the right role for me.
SPEAKER_01So let's explore that a little bit. Um you mentioned college. Um, you know, Sweet Briar College, uh West Central Virginia, in really in the middle of farm country. Um how did you end up there? How close were you living from there? Um did you commute to school? Did you live on campus?
SPEAKER_00And I lived on campus, yeah. Yeah. No, I had a car. I drove to school, I don't know, it was maybe four or five hours from where we lived in South Carolina. And, you know, it was a I mean, this is back in the day, right? Um horseback riding, you know, jumping, uh fox chase, that kind of thing. Um but I did get a good education there. I mean, it was uh I majored in economics, and uh not that that was my plan, that was my father's plan. My plan was to be in art, psychology, other things, but he talked me into economics, and I'm really glad he did.
SPEAKER_01So your dad pushed you into education from a young age? I mean, knew that was kind of or he thought that was the best path for you?
SPEAKER_00He did. He probably knew me at the time better than I knew myself. I mean, come on, when you're 20, 19, I was more into, oh, let's have fun, let's go to the fraternity parties.
SPEAKER_02Aaron Powell Probably like every 19-year-old in the world, yeah.
SPEAKER_01So when when you graduate college and you you rush back to the north, you rush back above the Mason-Dixon line. Where where do you land? Um, back with family up north, or you go right to New York City? How how does that go?
SPEAKER_00Aaron Powell I went right back to North New York City. And I I was working for a brokerage firm in Greenville, South Carolina, the first year after I graduated from college, and they had an opening in the research department. And the fellow that I was working for, he said, you know, you'd really be good at that. He said, You want to apply for it? I had the job about two weeks later. And that was a day when there were very, very few women on Wall Street, almost none. Sure. You know, sure. So it was it was fun too.
SPEAKER_01And the college that you went to was exclusively women at the time, is that correct? Yeah. Yeah. Um All right. So then take us from there. When when do you meet Ken? When does when does self-storage come into the picture for you?
SPEAKER_00Um Ken was all in the same research department. Um, and so he was an aerospace analyst. I was analyzing Texas, foods, food companies, and different things. Um and, you know, we met and fell in love. But Wall Street had a massive meltdown in the early 70s, which it does have periodically. Uh, and firms were merging left and right, firms were going under. I mean, it was much worse, honestly, than the great financial crisis of 2008-9. And at that point in time, we were both out of work. And it's like, oh my gosh, what do we do next? We had seen a self-storage property down in North Carolina visiting my grandmother the year earlier, and kind of looked at each other and said, Do you think we could do something like that up here? There were none up here. And we said, let's try, you know. So that's how we got started in it. It was difficult to say the least, but um we persevered. We were both real hard workers.
SPEAKER_01The real I just wanted to jump in real quick.
SPEAKER_03Foy, how did how long from the two of you seeing the facility in North Carolina to opening the doors of your own did that process take? Two years? Two years.
SPEAKER_00Yeah. You know, things you could move things much faster then. Um, getting uh getting approvals, getting building permits, getting construction, everything was so much faster than it is today. And the rent up was incredible. We rented up in six months. Wow.
SPEAKER_01The whole facility?
SPEAKER_00The whole facility. It was about 45 or 50,000 square feet, and then we immediately got busy on expanding it.
SPEAKER_01Going back a few years when you said when when you two had that let's go for it moment. I mean, when you think, do you ever give yourself a chance to think back at that time? I mean, you're like 10 years out of school, you know, 12 years out of school, and you just say, let's do this thing. I mean, that takes a lot of Hutzpah. That, you know, that's that's pretty ballsy. I mean, where where does where do you where do you All right? Said ballsy to my boss, put that on the board. Um where do where does that come from? That was that you? Was that Ken? Was that both of you?
SPEAKER_00It was both of us. I mean, we were, I mean, certainly it was Ken. He was Ken was 16 years older than I am, and he was kind of done with working for other people. And we had a choice, you know. He he always wanted to be in business for himself, so we had a choice between doing this in New Jersey or him going back to Montana and taking over his father's business, which was a school supply business. I didn't want to live in Montana. And so that that kind of put a real damper on that option. And uh, I'm so glad that I didn't want to live in Montana because Amazon would have just completely eaten the lunch of that business. Totally. But of course, when we got into self-storage, we had no idea that it would grow the way it did.
SPEAKER_01Was that first facility self-funded, or were you able to convince somebody to give you money?
SPEAKER_00Um we were able to get investors. We were both good at that. Getting a bank lender was very hard. And the problem was the the banks, they always asked, well, okay, you build this funny looking building. What happens if all the tenants move out? What do you do? How do you repurpose the building? And of course, we wanted to say to them, which we didn't, was okay, so what do you have, what happens to you if all your depositors leave all at once? It just simply doesn't happen, you know? Everybody doesn't leave all at the same time.
SPEAKER_04Yeah.
SPEAKER_00But we were able to get, you know, we were able finally to get uh a very entrepreneurial kind of lender to work with us. Um I don't, we got maybe 45% loan to value, something like that. It wasn't a lot, had to raise a lot of equity, but hey, we did it.
SPEAKER_01Yeah. Yeah. And you were off to the races from there. Um What was the next step the scariest where you parted ways with your original business partner and then really, you know, right into the dirt in Woodbridge?
SPEAKER_00Or was the original step the next step that was scary were were our interest rates at 21% in 1980. And that's where our we had a partner, and the partner we we had already had the approvals for Woodbridge, and we're ready to start, you know, getting it built and financing it. And the partner that we had was feeling pretty hopeless about our ability to do that. And so he wanted us to sell it, you know, or to involve an angel investor. We didn't want to do either one. We liked having lots of smaller investors and we prevailed. But I at the cost of him saying he wanted out of the partnership once we got that one up and going. And once we got that one up and going, we had to sell one of them, which we sold the first one in order to buy him out. But, you know, that's business.
SPEAKER_03Yep. Yep, absolutely. It's funny you mention the uh interest rates as high as they were, because I have conversations with my dad all the time. And I, you know, I when we were looking uh every once in a while I'll take a look just because I'm in I'm interested in like the housing market and stuff, and you know, interest rates are you know maybe six percent right now. And I say that to my dad and complain. He's like, Do you you know when I was looking for a house with your mom, interest rates were like 15 to 18 percent on a house?
SPEAKER_02And yeah, and like the houses were fifty thousand dollars. Right. Yeah. Just trade-offs, yeah.
SPEAKER_00No, it's true. I mean, I bought I bought the house I'm in now in 1981 when interest rates were that high. Just had to pay all cash, that's all.
SPEAKER_04Yeah.
SPEAKER_00But it was a teardown, so we got it pretty cheap, so that was okay. But uh you know, the one of the things that um when I think back on what it took to be successful was, I mean, obviously it was a lot of hard work, it was a lot of attention to detail and everything, but it's also a lot of luck. And one of the luckiest pieces was going from 21% interest all the way down to 3%. If you're in real estate, it's amazing what that does for the value of the portfolio you're building. And of course, now we're in a very different environment. Yeah.
unknownYeah.
SPEAKER_01During those early years in self-storage, you're also raising a family. Yeah, okay, you shrug very casually. Yeah, no big deal. Look, I got three kids, and I don't know how many of them have clean socks and underwear right now. Um You're on par, Chris. How did you manage that?
SPEAKER_00Um, you know, I I used an agency and I I ended up hiring somebody full-time who lived in, did all the cooking, the grocery shopping, carting the kids around, uh cleaning the house, the whole nine yards. I could not have done it without that. And I didn't have any relatives living close by, you know, that I could park them with ever.
SPEAKER_03For nearly 50 years, Foy Cooley has built more than a successful business. She's built a culture centered around people. Through decades of growth and change, she's never lost sight of what matters most: treating employees, customers, and partners like family. That people-first approach isn't just part of Access Self-Storage's history, it's the foundation Foy continues to lead with today. Now, back to the show.
SPEAKER_01When you guys chose to bring self-storage to New Jersey, it it seems like you also almost immediately found a need for extra security. And you and Ken were, I believe, were integral in developing one of the first individual door alarm systems. Where did that idea come from? And how did you was there an incident that that led you to that idea? Um was there a break-in somewhere, or uh where did that spring from?
SPEAKER_00You know, it was such a brand new concept. And it was Ken's idea. The thinking was that people will be very, very concerned about taking what's valuable to them and parking it in this other location. And what if it, you know, people break in and it gets damaged or stolen or whatever? And Ken thought, well, let's do, let's see what we can do to mitigate that fear on the part of customers. And so he found Dan Webster, who founded the Wham system, and he wrote the specs and said, this is the kind of system we want. This is what we think it will could is able to do. And fortunately, there were computers then. There were not computers when we first started the business. And so Dan built it and we we put it into the very first property that we built.
SPEAKER_01Yeah. Yeah. I mean, that the just the computer programming of that alone has me just totally floored. It's it's an incredible system.
SPEAKER_03Did Ken help write basically how the system was going to function, like technically? Did he help do that with Dan Webster?
SPEAKER_00He wrote, you know, the technical details of it, but he wrote out exactly what he wanted it to do. Trevor Burrus, Jr.
SPEAKER_03How he wanted it to be.
SPEAKER_00You know, trying to figure it out.
SPEAKER_03Got it. That's incredible. And so ahead of its time. People are still trying to affect that, but to be that far ahead of where people were thinking, um, that's pretty cool.
SPEAKER_00You know, it is, but the but the reality is, I mean, now that everybody is used to self-storage, you know, they see them everywhere they go. It's it's so much more accepted than it was in the very, very beginning. I honestly don't feel like that kind of uh surveillance is as necessary as it used to be. And that's you know, if you think about it, you go to a hotel, you know, and the hotel operator, he has a key to your room, so do the people who clean the room and everything. You never think about security.
SPEAKER_01A good point. Yeah. Yeah. When you're developing the business in the 80s and throughout the 90s, was there a particular facility or management contract or acquisition that kind of changed the way that you looked at self-storage or influenced the growth of access? What was the biggest lesson you've learned in self-storage or from that time?
SPEAKER_00Aaron Ross Powell My biggest lesson throughout my whole career is that the people matter. That it's people who make the business. What probably was the biggest asset for us was the partnership with the Gates Company. We started managing a property that they had built in Little Ferry in 1986. That's when I first met Bill Gates. And by 1989, we were co-developing a property up in Stanford, Connecticut. And that relationship continues today with his son Dan, who you've had on the podcast, running their company. And it's just, you know, we trust each other a hundred percent, and we own together many storage facilities 50-50. We've just worked together really well. And I I'd say that single relationship has been extremely valuable to us.
SPEAKER_02Foy, in the same vein as that, you mentioned the people. Was there a hire that you and and or Ken made early on that you would point to as a a key contributor to the early days of access?
SPEAKER_00Somebody that you brought in that really helped launch the company into a you know what I'd say about hires is that every year, every new hire, especially in the management company, is better and better than who they're replacing, usually, you know, in every in every way. And that's because we can afford better people as we have grown.
SPEAKER_01Aaron Powell Speaking of innovations and people, I'm gonna read you something that I believe you wrote or at least heavily contributed to, and I just want to know your thoughts about it after you wrote it ten years ago. At Access Self-Storage, we care about people and their things. That's why we're so driven to provide the optimal storage solution while treating people better than anywhere else. How do we do it? By assembling a team of extraordinary professionals working together in a unique culture. The twenty-nine fundamentals that follow in this book are the foundation for that culture. They describe the daily practices that make us leaders in our field. What brought about the access fundamentals? And at that, again, I believe it was over ten years ago now. What was the feeling that why were they necessary? And how do you keep going with them?
SPEAKER_00I was introduced to the idea of it in Vistach, and that's where I've gotten a lot of my ideas about what we I think we ought to be doing. And as soon as I heard it, I just thought, this is terrific. You know. I spent a lot of time r actually writing those. And then the company that that manages the fundamentals, the surveys that we send out and the questionnaires that we send everybody, and then kind of set up the program, they helped me write those ideas about what's the values that are most important to us. And then more recently in the last three or four years, we decided to bring them, collect them into four main ones, uh, which are you know, helping at every step, doing the right thing, learning always. And finding a way. Those are my four favorites. And we've got 29 that fit under each one of those categories. But I love the fact that we focus on one of them every single week. It begins every meeting of the week. And they are aspirational. We don't have the kinds of values that a lot of companies say, you know, crow about and say, hey, we do this and that and the other. Hey, people are not perfect, and companies are not perfect. But it's really important to aspire to be better and better all the time. And I'm sure that some of those fundamentals speak differently to different people. Some of them, I got that. Others, like, I'm still struggling with that. That's definitely true for me.
SPEAKER_01So in your mind, what came first to you? A solid bottom line or the the fundamentals being the way to a solid bottom line? Way way back when? Were the fundamentals always in you? And you did you believe in doing the right thing and the money will come? Or was it the opposite way?
SPEAKER_00For me, it's always been uh do the right thing and the business will prosper. It's always about the people first. If you have the right people and you're helping them be the best that they can be, then the profits will follow. You know, in in our business, it seems like to me the the critical pieces are getting repeat customers, getting customers who talk about us to their neighbors and refer people. It's about treating our customers so well that they want to stay. They'll take a multiple units, fill up this one. Oh, let me get another one. For the long-term value of the property, it seems like to me uh treating people well is what's ultimately gonna make occupancy better.
SPEAKER_01Yeah. Yeah. You continue to prove that every every day. So throughout the years as the CEO, how has your role changed?
SPEAKER_00You know, I started, I guess I started in the very beginning more on the finance side. I did the accounting for a while. I wasn't any good at that because my br mind wanted to change it, you know. Say, oh, well, why don't we make the numbers look this way and why don't we make them look that way? And I realized I'm not cut out to be an accountant. And and then I've just done so many things. I did lots of feasibility studies, lots and lots of searching for sites, uh finding third-party management contracts. So I used to do all the marketing, did the pricing. Of course, back in the day, the pricing was really easy. You know, you change the prices once a year in January for all customers and street rates all at the same time. Um boy has that changed. But that that the whole industry was doing it that way. Um and of course, marketing has changed radically because it's I used to be have this gigantic budget for the yellow pages. Boy, what a what a dinosaur that is. But I've done so many things. At this point in time, I think I'm the person who is constantly looking for the opportunities for us to get a little bit better here, a little bit better there, and opportunities for us to grow. And certainly hiring great people. The hiring piece is really important to me. Aaron Ross Powell, Jr.
SPEAKER_01You know, when you talk about opportunities, um Brian and I a few years back had the pleasure of having dinner with Lewis Gilmore, uh formerly of Miller Buildings, and he spoke very highly of you. He said that you basically dragged him to a self-storage meeting, kicking and screaming. I did. The long story short kind of ended in and then Chris, the Pennsylvania Self-Storage Association came about because Foy brought me to a New Jersey meeting and forced me to join. Um is that can you confirm that? And what is your level of involvement in the SSA now and how has it evolved over the years? When did you start with the SSA and how how did that trajectory uh go?
SPEAKER_00We started getting involved with the SSA very early, and we always felt having an association was extremely important, and we shared lots and lots of ideas with other developers, just as happens today in the Self-Storage Association. I've been president of the New Jersey Self-Ass Storage Association, helped form it, helped get the National SSA to manage it. Uh, and then I I went on to be president of the National Association back in 2001. Uh, when we had our national convention was scheduled to happen two and a half weeks after 9-11 when nobody was traveling. That was difficult. Ken was very involved with it. He was president of it in 1991, and then I got elected to the Hall of Fame in 2009. Sometimes I say I don't know why, but I don't I'm not sure I, you know. I've been on the case.
SPEAKER_01We can give you your resume if you're looking for why. If you're looking for the why, we have a copy of your resume. We can send it over.
SPEAKER_00I've worked on a number of different committees for, I don't know, four or five years. I was on the large operators' council. And now I'm not not doing so much as I used to do. I feel like it's really important for me to spend all of my time here working on our company.
SPEAKER_03When you came on the call, you said everything is great. So this may not apply to you, but is there anything business related that keeps you up at night that you're constantly thinking about?
SPEAKER_00I would say um, I mean, I sleep pretty well. That's great. I exercise, I work out, uh, you know, I eat well, I I really I take outstanding care of my health. So I sleep pretty well. That's a major component of being healthy. At the same time, do I worry at times? I would say that I do worry, I worry about the industry and the supply-demand relationship. Now I come from a situation, a background from where, you know, build it and they will come for 35 years. And now they've popped up everywhere, and some people are building them and they're not coming. You know, the customers are not coming. And then the terms of the development are so different between the high interest rates, the cost of construction, the amount of time it takes getting through approvals, getting something built is at least twice as as long as it used to be. And then the rent-up is now twice as long or more than it used to be. And I'm not talking about twice as long as the six-month rent-up. I'm talking about twice as long as it was just four years ago. And so I have some concerns about that relationship. I would say the other thing that that is always in my mind is I feel a great responsibility for the people in our company. You know, I'm always reminding myself that this company supports 85 families. And I want not only to it to continue to sort support them well, but I also want every single employee here to go home at night and feel like they had a positive impact on the world. They did a good job. Their work was meaningful. It wasn't boring and just a job. And and I just I feel very responsible for seeing that that happens and it keeps on going. And I see the industry going much more towards transaction-based and leaving people out of the equation. And uh, yeah, the technology is fantastic and it supports that. But I think that the value of the technology is not to eliminate people, but to get rid of the boring parts of work and enable people to develop their capabilities and be able to do more with what they've got between their ears. And so I hate to see the industry going in the direction that it's going sometimes. But then on the other hand, you know, that gives us the opportunity to differentiate ourselves and say, hey, we do it differently.
SPEAKER_03It's uh interesting you bring that up. We did an episode, I think this was right after our holiday episode. I don't know if you guys remember. We were talking about the human touch versus more kiosk and other things like that coming into play, mostly in like supermarkets. And Chris brought up a great point that the Trader Joe's model is really working because they just have people. And they have people that, like you said, care about coming to work every day and care about who they're dealing with. And if they don't, then they probably won't work at Trader Joe's because that's the kind of culture that Trader Joe's has built. So I agree with you, and I think it's a huge differentiator for us to not be moving in a transactional direction, but to keep that um that personal customer first, employee first culture. And now a quick break. You don't build a business that lasts nearly 50 years by standing still. Foy Cooley has led access through changing markets, new technology, growing competition, and an evolving self-storage industry while staying true to the values the company was built on. Adapt, keep learning, take care of your people, and never forget who you are. That's leadership with staying power. Now, back to no vacancy. Conversely, what are you excited about?
SPEAKER_00Well, I'm certainly excited about the you know, the new project that we have we're building in Moorstown, New Jersey, where we're catering to our commercial tenant base. I don't want to say too much about it because I want we're we have to prove it first. It's gonna open in October. We'll be, you know, next year ask me about it. Okay, but um I I'm excited about that for sure.
SPEAKER_03Over the years, how has self-storage changed?
SPEAKER_00You know, there have been so many, many changes that it's hard to remember all of them, but I I have a list. Self-storage was only allowed in industrial zones, never in retail zone. So that's why you see lots of old facilities next to railroad tracks, because they are zoned industrial. You know, the the pricing has changed so radically. Uh we now have a lot of bait and switch pricing, which I disagree with totally. I think that's not customer friendly at all. I think it's really important for customers to know what they're gonna be paying for their units. And yes, we have to give big concessions up front in order to compete with the national companies that are have lowered their prices so much, but we do not surprise them. The technology has made a massive difference. I mean, when we started, everything was on paper, if you can possibly imagine that. And now we have these terrific property management systems. We love self-storage manager. Oh my gosh, what enormous capability that gives us now. There is the trend away from relationship-based marketing towards transactional. We used to be much more involved in the communities. And of course, at Access, we have maintained that. But now a lot of the larger companies, it's simply one size fits all. It's a very simplified model, uh, a little bit robotic, in my opinion. But I think that being involved in the community is really important. We have our managers, they join the Chamber of Commerce. We have one who's president of the Rotary. We encourage them to meet and know people in the town. And uh they all have a small budget for charity. They get to choose the charities where Access is going to donate. We certainly advertise locally, and the property is going to be in that community forever.
SPEAKER_01That's a lot of evolution over the industry over the last number of years. Continue to grow and change and surprise everybody. Uh Access is a family-run business. What are the pluses and minuses of a family-run business? And how does that work at like Thanksgiving when everybody's sitting down at the table?
SPEAKER_00God, how do I answer that?
SPEAKER_01Um carefully, I imagine.
SPEAKER_00Well, you know, I mean, none of my kids wanted to really be in the business except for Graham. Even Graham, I'm not sure, he initially wanted to be in the business, but he came into it anyway. Um, and he's been very useful and helpful. You know, they're proud of the business. They like the fact that mom does a lot of nice things for them. Takes them on some really great vacations. Um but other than that, it's uh I think the family part of the family business is really the 85 employees. You know, that's the family part. It's like everybody here, and I hear it over and over again about from other, you know, from our staff that this feels like a family. And a well-adjusted family. Maybe I should add that. Yes. You know, not who family is. A family family.
SPEAKER_02Yeah. What a ma what an amazing compliment that must feel like, right? That uh the the environment has existed where people can feel that comfortable, that welcome, that empowered to contribute and appreciate it.
SPEAKER_01Well, you mentioned vacations. Uh I would call them adventures. Um you are quite an outdoors woman who enjoys fishing and skiing and climbing. How many mountains have you summited? Literally, not the figurative ones, not the ones in business, the literal ones.
SPEAKER_00I don't know. You know, I I didn't always get to the top, you know. That's okay. I tried to summit Island Peak, which is right next to Everest, and I didn't make it. Um but I did go to Everest Base Camp and I did make it to the top of uh Kilimanjaro. I tried to make it to the top of gosh, I can't think of the name of it, in in Argentina. Didn't make it because the weather socked us in and we, you know, we had to stop. Um and I've, you know, I've hiked in New Zealand, I've hiked in Italy, I've hiked in Scotland, certainly in the Rockies. Yeah, I've hiked in a lot of places.
SPEAKER_01In doing my research on you, I'm not sure if you're aware of this mountain range in Ireland, but there are the Cooley Mountains in Ireland.
SPEAKER_00Coolie Mountains, really.
SPEAKER_01Yes. Where? And the highest peak in that mountain range, I am not joking with you, we can look it up right now, is called Foy.
SPEAKER_00Oh, come on. Really?
SPEAKER_01Hold on. How do I share? Hold on a second. That's awesome. That's hilarious.
SPEAKER_00Where is it? What country is it in?
SPEAKER_01It's in Ireland.
SPEAKER_00That might be, yeah, okay.
SPEAKER_03I think you just gave Foyer next trip.
SPEAKER_00I may have to go there. Check this out.
SPEAKER_01Let me know if you can see this.
SPEAKER_00Oh my gosh.
SPEAKER_01So tell the family to get the passports ready. Because they have to climb Cooley Mountain.
SPEAKER_00Maybe the peak is sleeve foy, I don't believe.
SPEAKER_01I think this is a great team building. That's right. Okay. You want this to be a company retreat? Team building.
SPEAKER_00Yeah.
SPEAKER_04Would you come? Yeah.
SPEAKER_03In a heartbeat. Boy, when you hear the word legacy, what does that mean to you?
SPEAKER_00It has probably changed over the years. I mean, I think if 10, 15 years ago, I was going to be really proud of having built quite a portfolio and all of that. That doesn't matter so much now. So I I don't think of the term legacy is a little uh pretentious for me. Maybe not for other people, but I just I don't really care about the term. I would like to be of value to people. I've always wanted to make a contribution, help other people, and I just want to keep on doing that.
SPEAKER_01All right, Foy. We've got a feature that we we do every podcast called the Lightning Round.
SPEAKER_00Oh.
SPEAKER_01You ready?
SPEAKER_00I don't know.
SPEAKER_01All right, here we go. Uh first concert you ever attended.
SPEAKER_00I think when my oldest son was probably 15, we went to uh the Meadowlands and heard something I have absolutely no idea who it was now. And uh all I can remember is I had my hands over my ears the entire time. It was so loud.
SPEAKER_01But you did it for your kids. That's terrific.
SPEAKER_00What is the most recent concert you probably chamber music at a parlance, they have a group, you know, it's classical music that's played in a in a church and it's really beautiful.
SPEAKER_01Excellent. Uh what is your morning beverage of choice? Coffee.
SPEAKER_00However, just uh a week or so ago, I learned that if I drink decaf when I first wake up and delay getting the real recaf for an hour and a half, I don't have the slump at two to three o'clock in the afternoon, and that's working. I can't say that I love it, but I hate the three o'clock slump. So that's what I'm doing.
SPEAKER_03Decaf first thing in the morning, hour, hour and a half later, the regular stuff.
SPEAKER_00Yeah. Sometimes and of course, an hour and a half. Sometimes I'm not I'm busy doing something else, or sometimes it's two or two and a half hours later.
SPEAKER_01I like that term, recalf. I've never heard that before. That's that's pretty good.
SPEAKER_02I feel like I need to recalf like every two hours during the day.
SPEAKER_00Well yeah.
SPEAKER_02I'm slumping.
SPEAKER_01Need a recalf. What is one place in the world that you haven't been but one to go to?
SPEAKER_00Wow. Oh, there's more than one.
SPEAKER_01Other than the Cooley Mountains. Right, right. Now the Cooley Mountains, certainly.
SPEAKER_00I haven't been to Turkey. I haven't been to Egypt. I haven't been to uh Vietnam. Those are three that would be on my list. I've been to an awful lot of other places. Lots and lots of other places.
SPEAKER_01Better weekend away on the slopes or in the streams. Ooh.
SPEAKER_00Probably on the slopes.
SPEAKER_01Best mountain on the east coast to ski.
SPEAKER_00Um probably Killington. Skied that last year, but you know, they don't compare to the mountains out west.
SPEAKER_01What are you looking forward to?
SPEAKER_00What am I looking forward to? I you know, there's so many things. It's hard to pick one. It really is. So I'll just pull one out of the air. Uh 50th anniversary party that we're having uh in November for Access.
SPEAKER_01Access self-storage celebrating 50 years in 2026. Biggest lesson?
SPEAKER_00Biggest lesson?
SPEAKER_01In the last 50.
SPEAKER_00God, there's so many. I get I get a lesson a day. You know, I journal every morning, and one of the first things in my journal is reflections from the day before. So biggest lesson I'd say over a long period of time is you have to like yourself and you have to forgive yourself. When you look back and you see the mistakes you made and some things you regret and you all that stuff you beat yourself up about, just stop it. You know, it doesn't, it actually hampers you a lot. And some days I actually go to bed at night telling myself sometimes I forgive myself for the things that I didn't get done and recognize, well, I still worked pretty hard and did my best, you know. Sometimes I start the morning that way. I'm gonna forgive myself for the things that I'm gonna do today. Where I'm gonna fall short, you know? You know, and that that really helps you accept other people a lot a lot better, too.
SPEAKER_04Sure.
SPEAKER_01Yeah. That's it. Foy, we really want to thank you for your time and all of the knowledge and all of the stories that you told us today and throughout the years. We really appreciate it very much. Thank you, Foy.
SPEAKER_00Okay. Thank you.
SPEAKER_02Where'd you find that? Foy Cooley Mountain Summit. Where did that come from? Just Google this stuff. It's the Google. It's the Google. What was your prompt? Like, what was your query to Google? Did you just search Foy Coolie and you were like, wait a second. Yeah. That's funny. Really? I can't believe that none of us have ever found that before. I think I feel like that she needs to do that. I know we gotta make it happen.
SPEAKER_04Yeah.
SPEAKER_02I know it's thinking about it. I think Chris is just smaller than way smaller than the Shenandoah that I just went to last week that I was mentioning. Like it'll be a breeze. You can do that with the kid strapped on your back.
SPEAKER_01I wonder if I could be that kid strapped to her back. The largest papoosh you've ever seen. Congratulations, you've summoned and have scoliosis.
SPEAKER_02Thank you for listening to No Vacancy. If you like what you heard, listen to us wherever you stream your podcasts.
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