Christen Bryant never forgot the main things while carving a successful career in Storage!

From Stories Behind the Door by Thaddeus Campbell

March 11, 2026 · 31 min · Season 1 · Episode 39

About this episode

Christen Bryant shares her journey and insights from nearly two decades in the self-storage industry.

In this episode of Stories Behind the Door, I sit down with Christen Bryant, Director of Development at S3 Partners. Christen has spent 18 years in the trenches of self-storage, rising from used truck sales to becoming the President of U-Haul's Dallas-Fort Worth storage operations . In this episode, I cover: REIT Insights: Christen shares the unique, customer-first operational model of U-Haul and how it gave her a different perspective on the "ECRI" craze . The "Ownership Mindset": Why Christen treats every underwriting project as if her own capital were on the line, and how that leads to better decisions for our clients . The Return to Reality: Why the industry is shifting away from the "frenzy" of first-time developers back to seasoned operators who understand the core business . Small Bay Flex & Hybrid Assets: Christen's take on why Small Bay Flex is the natural next step for storage investors . Leadership & Faith: How a foundation of faith and family motivation has fueled a nearly two-decade career in the industry . Tune in to learn from the "Killer of Dreams" and find out how to truly pressure-test your next storage investment. Connect with Thaddeus Campbell: Website…

People in this episode

Host: Thaddeus Campbell

Guest: Christen Bryant

Topics covered

self-storage
real estate investment trusts
leadership
entrepreneurship
investment strategies

Keywords

self-storage
investment
leadership
U-Haul
real estate
entrepreneurship
customer-first model

Mentioned in this episode

Organizations: S3 Partners, U-Haul

Places: Dallas-Fort Worth