Renee Tulve

By Alejandra Zilak

s soon as you start speaking with Renee Tulve, you immediately feel like you’re having a conversation with a friend. And it only takes a few minutes to understand why she’s being recognized as this month’s “Woman in Self-Storage.” For starters, she’s open to learning new things, even when they take her down unexpected paths. Take, for example, when she used to appear on TV shows, or when she trained to be a police investigator, or when she worked at a math learning center. None of it seems like the kind of job that would lead to the next, yet as she tells you these stories, you can’t help but nod and agree that it all makes so much sense.

For the past 15 years, she has been the marketing manager at Platinum Storage Group, a role in which she has worn as many hats as in the many careers that came before that. And because hindsight is 20/20, looking back, it’s clear to see that her life has turned out exactly as intended.

Tulve was born in Hollywood, Calif., and grew up in Alhambra. When she was 10, her dad passed away after experiencing a massive epileptic seizure. “It was just my mom and I after that,” she says. “We were very close back then and still are. From the moment my dad died, she dedicated her life to me. I was the most important thing to her, and I always felt it.”

Her mom, Gloria Ríos, moved heaven and earth to make sure her daughter had everything she needed and everything she wanted. “I’m so appreciative that she found a way to put me through Christian private school. I also played basketball, and she always encouraged me to have fun and to also get good grades.”

During her junior year, her class planned a trip to visit historic sites on the East Coast. “I didn’t tell my mom because I knew it would be expensive,” she recalls, “but when she found out, she said I should go, and she made it happen. We went to Boston, saw a play in New York City, and went to see the Liberty Bell. She spoiled me with attention and love, and as an adult, I can appreciate the sacrifices she made to pay the mortgage, my school tuition, and extracurricular activities.” Tulve also grew up in the church. “We went every Sunday; and all those things she taught me are still very present in my life today.”

After high school, she didn’t know what she wanted to do, but her mom insisted that she had to go to college. “UC San Diego was the only one I visited, and it was so beautiful, so I went there.” She majored in math because that was her favorite subject in high school. She enjoyed her first two years of college, but the last two were challenging. “We weren’t doing math anymore. It was a lot of letters and abstracts. One of my classes was even called Abstract Math. What is that?” she says and laughs. “But I made it through.”

After graduation, she still didn’t know what she wanted to do with her life. She decided to move to Hollywood to be an extra in movies and TV shows while she figured it out. “I was on a show called ‘Las Vegas,’ serving cocktails to Sylvester Stallone; and I was on an episode of ‘The West Wing.’ James Taylor was performing for the president, and I was a member of the audience,” she says. “The camera started on my face, then panned out to show the whole audience, and I was like, ‘Oh my gosh! I’m on my way!’” she says with a laugh.

While working on TV, she met a production assistant named Matt. They reconnected years later and ended up getting married. Eventually, she started thinking about getting more serious about starting a career. “I still loved math because of the problem solving. I loved going through the steps to get to the answer, so I thought doing investigations would be an interesting job to have.” A friend recommended she apply to the sheriff’s department. “He told me that after putting in two years, I could laterally transfer to a detective or investigation division, so I did that.”

She went through the background checks, her family and friends were interviewed, she underwent physical tests, and she got into the police academy. “They treated us like the military. If someone did something wrong, we had to drop down and do pushups. We learned how to disassemble guns and shoot them. It was all very intense.”

At some point, she had to learn a three-man tackle technique. “We were doing this exercise on each other, and I go ‘Oh my God. I don’t want to do this. If this were a criminal or some crackhead, I wouldn’t want to be on the floor on the streets or a prison tackling people.’ I had this epiphany of ‘What am I doing?’”

Next, she started working as a bookkeeper at a golf course. She also worked as an insurance exam sales rep and as a math tutor at a learning center in Pasadena. “That was very rewarding, working with kids of all ages.”

Then her husband received a job offer in Orange County, and after moving, Tulve was once again lost about what to do. “I decided to look for an admin job, and that’s how I applied to Platinum Storage.” She started working at the company on Halloween Day in 2011. While doing her admin job, she was recruited to help with marketing. “They had acquired a huge portfolio of 60 properties and were in desperate need of help in that department.”

This was back in the days of running ads in the Yellow Pages. “Our website was so basic. I started helping Dane Elefante [son of owner, Skip], who back then worked as the vice president of marketing, and I really flourished working with him doing marketing and advertising; and that’s what I’ve been doing ever since,” she says proudly. “I love it because it’s both creative and analytical. We’re running these ads. What’s the ROI? What’s the cost per lead? I just fell in love with the job and am constantly learning and engaged.”

As she explains it, she’s profoundly grateful that after feeling lost career-wise for so long, she finally found a path that fits her. “The biggest lesson I’ve learned is that while it’s nice to be ambitious when you’re young, it’s also OK to figure it out later in life. I believe that no matter when you start, taking initiative and problem solving is always valuable and will be rewarded. Pay attention to the gaps in your workplace and fill them. Recognize inefficiencies and roadblocks and provide solutions. These are the kinds of things that provide value and ensure you succeed.”

In addition to loving her job, she also enjoys the storage industry as a whole. “We still have room to improve how people store. We learned a lot about that during the pandemic.”

She also loves when industry visionaries pave the way to new technologies. “Shoutout to Tenant, Inc. for all the tech they’re introducing to our industry, like clickwrap and two-step rentals! I appreciate their constant drive to be on the cutting edge.”

In her personal time, Tulve loves to lift weights before going to work. “I can bench press 135 lbs., and I’m on my way to squat 225 lbs.” She enjoys live music and traveling as well. “I had never been outside of the country before I got married,” she says. “Then we went to a charity event for Matt’s company, where they had a silent auction for a six-days South African safari. I bid $3,000 because I thought that was so cheap for that kind of trip [that] we’d definitely get outbid, but no one else bid for it, and we ended up going,” she says. “All the animals were so incredible and beautiful. I was really amazed by God’s beauty in nature. I kept thinking, ‘How do you see all of this and not know there’s a God? And now I’m also saying that everyone needs to go to Africa!”