From Footlongs to Faders: Walmart’s New Role as a Creator Hub?
Creativity has officially gone big box
This issue of Social Signals was written to Grandaddy’s 2003 album Sumday on repeat.
Happy Mid-June, Signal Scouts! This week I’m unpacking everything from Walmart’s unexpected pivot into the creator economy to humanoid robots leaping out of delivery vans, all while TikTok dodges bans and Threads sneaks into your DMs. I’ve got thoughts on AI’s reshaping of (my) self, Google’s existential Search shake-up, and why your next presentation deserves its own clicker. Whether you’re dreaming with DeepMind or rearranging your Instagram grid at last, the future’s arriving fast. Still!
Next week, paid subscribers are getting an additional subscriber-only post about what it’s like to wear an AI that listens to everything you say AND THEN reflects it back to you as memory, insight, and self-awareness. It’s part productivity tool, part therapist, part privacy nightmare... and very much the near future. Upgrade your subscription here to get that post.
Keep going! 🚀✨ –Greg
🎙️ From Footlongs to Faders: Walmart’s New Role as a Creator Hub?
Remember when your local Walmart had a Subway, a Coinstar, and maybe an optometrist tucked in next to the Redbox? Well, the Franklin, TN location just added something way more 2025…
A rentable podcast and video production studio.
Yes, inside a Walmart.
Create-It Studios just opened its doors with six fully-equipped spaces for podcasters, musicians, filmmakers, and creatives. They’re offering workshops, open mics, and even pro-level audio gear. And yes, it’s all within walking distance of great value deals on shampoo and frozen waffles.
Why does this matter? Because creativity has officially gone big box.
When studio access sits next to the cereal aisle, we’re far past talking about about gatekeepers and expensive tech. We’re talking about reach and access.
Walmart sees 255+ million shoppers a week. Imagine turning just 1% of them into creators.
This might sound like a one-off in Music City, and it is. But it’s a fascinating signal: when retailers become platforms for culture and creativity, the future of creativity and content starts to look a whole lot more... democratized.
Could your next podcast be recorded between pickup orders and pharmacy runs? Don’t count it out.
🪄 You Need to Buy Your Own Presentation Clicker
Let’s talk about an underrated tool that every professional communicator should own: a presentation clicker.
Yes, seriously. A clicker. That is yours. That you always have on you.
I carry one with me everywhere I go for work. So whether I’m presenting to a client, keynoting at a conference, or hopping into an impromptu team meeting where someone goes, “I wish we had a clicker,” I’m set. Or I’m set to help out others.
As we start doing more things in person again, too often we rely on whatever mystery tech is in the room. Maybe it’s a janky off-brand remote with low battery, maybe it’s someone frantically clicking the laptop from the back of the room, or (worst case) maybe there’s no clicker at all and you’re stuck awkwardly waving at someone to go to the next slide. We’ve all been there.
Owning your own presentation clicker is a simple, low-cost move that instantly improves your presence, confidence, and delivery. It says: “I came prepared.” Because you did.
The One I Use Is Cheap AF
This is the clicker I use (pro tip: down is next), and I love these cheap little stick clickers. No bells and whistles. USB port clicks into the base. Take a single AAA battery (nobody needs another thing to charge). If you lose it or someone accidentally takes it home, you just buy another one. And since I always also carry a USB multiport adapter dongle for my laptop, I know it will work with any brand of computer.
I also picked up this clicker case that protects it when it’s bouncing around in my bag PLUS it holds a spare battery, because you’re going to need it. As I’ve gotten older, investing in really nice cases for tech is my new love language. I’m unashamed.
Anyway, you have no excuse for not buying a $14 dollar clicker and being the hero of your next IRL meeting. It’s one of those small things that makes a big difference. Especially in a world where we’re all trying to make more compelling, human-centered presentations, why not give yourself every advantage?
Pro moves only, folks. 🎤
🌀 TikTok’s Legal Limbo: The App Lives to Scroll Another Day
It’s been almost 150 days since the U.S. ordered TikTok to sell or be banned, and... it's still here. Despite two missed sale deadlines and a Supreme Court loss, TikTok continues to operate in the U.S. thanks to President Trump’s repeated executive order extensions. He’s expected to issue a third, buying TikTok until Sept. 1.
Despite all those supposedly dire (and hypocritical) national security concerns that led to the ban, Trump’s fondness for the platform (and its reach with younger voters) seems to be keeping it alive. For now.
For brands, it’s safe to assume TikTok isn’t going anywhere for 2025-on for now, and it should be (re)prioritized in your channel mix. And as always, platforms shift all the time and you should hold your channel mix loosely with flexibility to shift yourself. My quick-take: any investment in vertical video and social-first video is going to be worth it headed in 2026.
🏆 Shorty Impact Awards
I’m excited to serve as a judge for the 10th Annual Shorty Impact Awards! 🏆✨
This year’s theme, “Decade Forward,” celebrates a decade of honoring purpose-driven creativity. Although my teams have been entering (and winning!!) Shorty Awards for years, I'm proud to return for my third year on the Shorty Awards jury to help spotlight others’ impactful work from brands, nonprofits, agencies, and creators. Such an honor!
Oh! And if you and your organization have work to share, it's not too late to submit!
⏰ Not PTO, but DTO (Dad Time Off) for Father’s Day
My team at FINN Partners has some new #client work in the world for Father’s Day that I’m pretty proud of and want to share with YOU!
Nearly two-thirds of U.S. dads say that they have missed an important event or activity with their kids because of work. DECKED wants to help change that. To celebrate Father's Day this year, they’re giving Dads a day off. DECKED is paying for 100 dads to take off a day of their choice to spend with their kids. It’s not just PTO. It’s DTO (Dad Time Off).
The response to this integrated creative+PR+social+influencer+digital campaign has been huge, including coverage in AdAge, PRWeek, USA Today and more. Nominate a deserving dad here!
🪞When the Mirror Talks Back: How AI Is Reshaping Our Minds, Memories, and Inner Voice
It was about 18 months ago now that I realized ChatGPT was impacting my dreams (reminder that paid subscribers can access the full archives) and just a couple months ago when I shared this essay from
that explores how AI is not just a tool we use but a variable in shaping who we become: Rao argues that as we increasingly interact with AI, we enter into a recursive feedback loop — offloading parts of our cognition and receiving a distorted yet influential reflection of ourselves in return.
This process, termed autoamputation flow, gradually edits our identity, behaviors, and expectations.
I’ve called my blogs and social data trail “my offboard brain” frequently over the past decade-plus. I rely on that archive to go back and find stuff I thought was important to document at the time, with the knowledge I could pull it back up now. And it has changed how I think and act accordingly.
So in that regard, the autoamputation flow for me started with my live journal. Then my Wordpress. Then my Twitter. Then Timehop (all the data, but served up fresh each day with __ Years Ago Today context). And now my Substack.
And also I’m noticing that I increasing think less in “search” and more in “prompts” these days. Whether conjuring dreams, writing an email, or giving advice to my kids, I’m adapting my thinking and speech to a ChatGPT-style habit. And it’s really early in the process for the “flow” to become so prominent.
Have you felt any of this impact in your own life? Hit reply or leave a comment and LMK what you’re experiencing. -G.
📊 Chart of the Week
⚡️ Social Signals
Apple's new AI-powered image search, unveiled at WWDC, could turn every iPhone screen into a shoppable moment, giving brands a powerful new discovery channel right in consumers' photo libraries and social feeds.
This week Snap announced its sixth-gen AR smartglasses (now rebranded as Specs) coming in 2026 with a lighter design, built-in Snap OS, and support for both Gemini and GPT AI models, signaling a major push into consumer-friendly spatial computing. Throwback: How we brought Snapchat Spectacles to pro sports, starting with the MN Wild when my team helped do some awesome stuff with v1.0 in 2016.
An entire month ago (!!) right here in Social Signals I flagged for you that Mark Zuckerberg had pitched a future where brands skip creative, targeting, and measurement. But in May, this was a vision. In June, it's a product roadmap. Now, agencies and advertisers are not just reacting emotionally; they're adjusting their value proposition, developing AI tools of their own, and trying to prove that while AI can make ads faster, only humans can make them matter. Good reporting here from
.Ohio State is making AI fluency mandatory for all undergrads starting in 2025 by embedding generative AI into coursework and career prep to ensure every student graduates ready to lead in an AI-driven workforce. Note: This reminds me of having to take a .5 library course my freshman year of college. You gotta learn how to use the tools so you can learn! Key quote via University President Walter “Ted” Carter Jr.: AI is going to impact every career field, and we owe it to our students to ensure they are ready to lead in that world.
No more delete and repost. No more broken grid designs. Instagram is finally rolling out the long-requested ability to rearrange your profile grid and is giving users, especially creators and brands, more control over the first impression they make on visitors.
The shift from public to dark social continues! Threads is rolling out its own DMs and will give users a dedicated inbox (separate from Instagram) and bringing the X rival one step closer to being a true standalone social platform. Throwback: Messaging apps embrace the "dark social" Web (I was quoted in this CBS News story in 2016).
Google’s rumored buyouts within its Search division this week mark a pivotal shift toward AI-first discovery. This move may be signaling the end of traditional search at the foundational (talent!) level.
Thread of the Week:
Google DeepMind CEO Demis Hassabis predicted that AI will surpass human intelligence within five years, unlocking a new era of “superhuman” potential—from colonizing the galaxy by 2030 to transforming work and creativity. However, he draws ethical lines, like rejecting the idea of robot nurses. Hmmm…
Have you tried this? I have. A new Vox report warns that AI can now identify your exact location from a single vacation photo. Then they wrote that this may be signaling a shift in digital privacy, where everyday posts could be weaponized by increasingly powerful models with little oversight or accountability.
X/Twitter is piloting a new feature that highlights posts liked by users with opposing viewpoints as an evolution of Community Notes aimed at surfacing rare moments of consensus and reframing how social media platforms foster trust and context.
Amazon is reportedly testing humanoid delivery robots that could "spring out" of Rivian vans as part of a secretive new initiative to automate last-mile logistics using AI-powered machines built for real-world environments. I can picture this in my neighborhood. Also, my dog is gonna hate these things.
Rabbit Hole + Prompt of the Week: I went down a rabbit hole reading this piece in the NYT: I’m Wirecutter’s Water-Quality Expert. I Don’t Filter My Water. and it led me to this prompt: “You are a drinking water expert. Look up the CCR in (your city name) and explain it to me and then share what water filtration products you recommend based on this rating.” And I’m thrilled to share that the results were so enlightening for me, and confirmed the expense of our reverse-osmosis system that I love so much!
Good Read of the Week: Taste Is the New Intelligence via
. Key quote: Taste is often dismissed as something shallow or subjective. But at its core, it’s a form of literacy—a way of reading the world. Good taste isn’t about being right. It’s about being attuned. To rhythm, to proportion, to vibe. It’s knowing when something is off, even if you can’t fully articulate why.Another Good Read of the Week: why are we lying to young people about work? via
. Key quote: Good work should do at least one of these things: fund the life you actually want to live, align with values you can defend at dinner parties, surround you with people who challenge you to grow, or teach you skills that compound like interest over decades. Great work does several of these at once. But work doesn't have to feel like play, and you sure as hell don't have to love every minute of it.Reel of the Week: Renting exoskeleton robot legs to help you climb a mountain for $8.50.
Keep going! 🚀✨
Greg
Clickers are very important. I do the same.
Though we use radio ones at our conferences, because our tech team runs everything from the back of the room and that needs a stronger signal. So there you’d have to use ours.