What I learned from touring Motown Records...

In the late 50s, a Ford Motor plant worker named Berry Gordy noticed something. On the assembly line, scrap metal would go down one side, and on the other end, a beautiful car was assembled. What if you could do the same with musicians…?

Gordy was a part-time songwriter who barely made ends meet when his friend, Smokey Robinson, encouraged him to start his own record label. 

On Jan 12th, 1959, what we know as “Motown Records” today was born. 

This label would be different. 

Just like the assembly line at Ford, where everything had a specific purpose, Gordy would do the same with his artists. 

He would take ordinary people with beautiful voices and turn them into big stars through an “assembly line” process.

In the end, once a song had been recorded countless times, Gordy had a “governing board” that would listen to the recording.

Gordy would ask them, “If you were starving and only had $1 for a hotdog, would you buy the food or this album?” 

If they said they’d “buy the food,” the song was not released to the public.

This got me thinking about two things:

1) Do you have a specific system for your content? An assembly line, if you will, that turns your good content into great content?

2) Is your content so good that a starving person would choose to read it vs. eat food?

By touring Motown, it really inspired me to be better with the content I share.