ne of the best things about self-storage is that there are so many people who started their careers in a different field. Yet, once they get here, they realize they’ve won the industry lottery and get to apply their skills in surprisingly creative ways.
Jessie Smith is the creative director at Boxwell. Serendipity brought her here, while her unexpected love for the industry has ensured that Boxwell has flourished as much as she has.
As is the case with most Coloradans, being outdoors was an integral part of her life. “Skiing, hiking, camping, and fly fishing were all woven into how I spent my free time,” says Smith, who remains connected to nature.
Smith started working in her teens. “I was a proud Subway sandwich artist throughout high school,” she jests. While going to class, socializing with friends, and working would’ve been enough to fill her calendar, Smith also volunteered as a dog walker at the Humane Society of Boulder Valley.
As an animal lover, when it was time to think about college, she considered a degree in marine biology. And there’s no better way to study marine life than going to the South Pacific. “I started college at the University of Hawaii,” she says. “I’m a big diver and have deep respect for the ocean, so it was an ideal situation for me at that time.” However, she eventually switched gears to major in architecture; at which point she transferred to Colorado University at Boulder.
“Anyone who has gone through an architecture program knows how demanding it can be,” says Smith. “I remember countless late nights in the studio building models, working on hand drawings, and obsessing over details. I can absolutely trace a lot of my work ethic back to those years.”
Such a relentless academic schedule became a way of life. “One night in particular sums up the culture of that program pretty well,” she says. “It was around 3 a.m., and we started smelling what seemed like an electrical fire, so we called the fire department. When the firefighters arrived, they seemed bewildered to find more than 100 students, as if it were the middle of the afternoon. Their reaction was basically, ‘Why haven’t you evacuated, and why are all of you even here at 3 a.m.?’ To us, it was just another night in architecture school.”
From there, she moved to another athletic apparel brand, BOCO Gear, where she applied the same skills, tailoring messaging towards hikers, endurance runners, and other athletic outdoorsy audiences. After getting off work, she would work on freelance creative work; there wasn’t much that she turned down. She designed logos for local Boulder businesses and worked for global brands, such as creating chalkboard artwork for Lululemon and being part of a photography campaign for José Cuervo. “It was really an exercise in curiosity,” she says. “I kept saying yes to things I hadn’t necessarily done before and figuring out how to do them. Looking back, that experimentation gave me an incredibly broad creative tool kit, and I get to use nearly all of it in some capacity at Boxwell today.”
Most people who’ve been in the workforce long enough have realized that having a good network is the best way to open doors. This is how Smith arrived at the self-storage industry. “Lisa Maloney interviewed and hired me at Headsweats. Years later, after we had both moved on, she called me about an opportunity at Boxwell.”
The move occurred in early 2020, several weeks before the pandemic. “I started on a freelance basis and quickly ramped up to a full-time position,” she says. “Boxwell was still very much in startup mode and already experiencing rapid growth. Then COVID hit, the storage industry accelerated, and everything really took off.”
It turned out to be the perfect time to build a creative department within the company, and Smith enjoyed her new role. “One of the things I’ve loved most about joining a young company is that there are opportunities everywhere. Our CEO, Rod Bolls, has never been someone to hold people back. If you see something and think, I can make this better, you’re encouraged to go do it.”
Fast forward to more than six years later, and the Boxwell creative and marketing team is casting a very wide net. “We work on website design, social media, storage site plans, trade shows and events, container renderings and mockups, branding and logo design, blogs and articles, email campaigns, sales materials, and expansion into new markets and countries.”
And as most people who work in this industry have realized, storage has been a surprisingly fulfilling sector. “The industry is entrepreneurial at its core. It’s filled with hardworking, creative people who are always willing to try something new. I never would have expected to find so many genuinely fun, optimistic, and interesting people in this industry, but that has become one of my favorite things about it.”
She also admires how fast it evolves. “What worked just 10 years ago isn’t necessarily what works today,” says Smith. “The envelope is being pushed everywhere you look. Vendors are elevating their marketing and design. Trade shows are getting bigger, better, and more sophisticated. This is a multi-billion-dollar industry, and increasingly, it looks and feels like one.”
Being surrounded by her family is a priority as well. “My parents still live in my childhood home in North Boulder, and my brother lives just down the road from me, so I’m fortunate that we’ve all stayed close geographically as well as personally,” Smith says. “I’m incredibly grateful for all of them and how supportive they’ve always been.”
Finally, she closes with an insightful observation. “The way you do one thing is the way you do everything. Whether it’s work, relationships, fitness, or even cleaning the house, there’s something rewarding about showing up fully and taking pride in what you’re doing. It’s a mindset I try to carry into just about everything.”