The Journey to WALKED UP
For more than 25 years, I’ve helped local businesses and communities find each other. WALKED UP is everything I’ve learned, built for what comes next.
More than 25 years ago
Face to face
A friend and I helped start a Chamber of Commerce in Parkland, Florida. That’s where I learned the most important thing about a community: you have to show up.
About 20 years ago
In print
I launched a directory magazine in a few towns. Every page was filled with local businesses, and I met many of them myself.
About 20 years ago
Online
Around the same time, my company built websites for local businesses, giving them a place online before social media took off.
About 20 years ago
Networking
I started my first networking groups. Meeting face to face still matters. Today, WALKED UP brings Town Ambassadors together the same way.
In Chicago
From Chicago to 28,000
In Chicago, while I ran my brokerage, I started Trading in Chicago. We met at events, in person. Today it’s online, with more than 28,000 members and more joining every day. Being connected is easy. Being known still takes showing up.
Now
The AI era
Search changed how people find what’s local. Social media changed it again. Now AI is changing it faster than anything before — and AI can write anything, including a business that doesn’t exist. So trust has to come from somewhere real. On WALKED UP, it comes from a Town Ambassador who walked up and confirmed every listing in person.
What comes next
Back into the real world
I believe that as AI moves beyond our screens and into the physical world, through our cars, our glasses, and devices we haven’t seen yet, the most valuable thing will be knowing what’s really there, confirmed by a person who walked up to it.
And I believe that brings people back into their communities, not out of them.
