Meeting Chip Gaines at the Magnolia Silos in Waco Texas at the Advice Booth

The Silos at Magnolia · Waco, Texas · March 20, 2026

It started, like so many good things do, with an Instagram post.

On Friday, March 13th we were scrolling — the way you do when the week is winding down and your thumb is moving faster than your brain — when we stopped cold.

Chip Gaines. The Magnolia Silos. An Advice Booth. March 20th. Cameras rolling. And an open invitation to submit three questions for a chance to ask Chip in person, drawing on his fifty years of experience across business, life, faith, and everything in between.

The questionnaire asked, almost as an afterthought: Would you be at the event in person?

Yes. We absolutely would.

We wrote our three questions, submitted the form, and didn't think too much more about it. So when the phone rang the very next day — producers, calling to tell us to be at the Silos on March 20th.

One more detail from the producers: no logos, no branded clothing.

Apparently some folks hadn't gotten that memo and showed up in gear they were hoping would make it on camera. Let's just say the production team had back up shirts to cover the logos up with.

We were careful. We checked every tag, every label, every stitch. And yes — we made sure our Wrenwood Ranch gear stayed back at the ranch.

March 20th was warm — and when we say warm, we mean ninety-three degrees, standing-in-the-Texas-sun warm. We arrived early, found our place in line, and by 1:30 in the afternoon we were meeting the producers, signing waivers and releases, and trying to look calm. The Silos grounds were alive — busy in that good, buzzing way that only happens when something real is about to unfold.

They moved us off to the side in the shade and organized us into groups of five, pulling people forward in waves toward a smaller holding line.

Directors, producers, and security kept everything moving with the kind of quiet efficiency that makes a production look effortless even when it isn't.

We watched. We waited. We took pictures. We tried not to melt.

Then, at 2:30, security started quietly asking the crowd to make room. We knew what that meant.

Chip arrived the way you'd imagine — no fanfare, no fuss, just a man who showed up and immediately started doing what he came to do. The cameras rolled. The booth was set. And just like that, the advice was open for business.

There were around eighty people in line that afternoon. The first group alone spent eight, maybe ten minutes with him — questions about business, about dogs, about chickens, about life. Every person who walked away had the same look on their face and the same thing to say when they passed us in line: "He is a great talker."

We had anticipated nerves. But the moment we stepped up to that booth, nerves weren't really the right word for what we felt. Because Chip Gaines is — and there's no better way to say this — just about as down to earth as a person can get. So funny thing: we went to sit down and the cameras were not ready, Below is the raw video of us redoing our sit down so the cameras were ready!

He gave you his full attention like you were the only ones there. It felt like the cameras were not there, the heat wasn't there, the crowd, prodcuers and directors weren't there.

At one point, a soccer ball came rolling our way and bounced off my left boot while they were filming.

He was gracious in every sense of the word.

Before we stepped away, he signed our Wrenwood Ranch book on one of the last pages. Just like that — pen in hand, easy as anything, like signing a neighbor's copy of something they loved. We thanked him. He waved it off.

The cameras kept rolling.

The whole production team — directors, producers, every single member of the crew — was incredibly accommodating. Considering the heat. Considering the line. Considering all of it. You could tell this wasn't just a job to them.

If we hadn't had to make the drive back to Johnson City, we would have stayed. We would have stood in that heat and listened to every last question from every last person in that line.

It started with an Instagram post. And it turned into one of those days you'll be telling people about for a long, long time.

CHAD · KEISHA · WRENWOOD RANCH · THE SILOS · MARCH 20, 2026