Showing off your local community has never been easier.

What'sUp 24/7 [is] the concept of literally a 360 degree view of what goes on around you as an individual or a 360 degree view about what goes on around you as a community. And the neat thing is “you” is interchangeable...so if I'm a community leader I'm trying to figure out how do I make my community better? What'sUp 24/7 lets you literally promote what you have to offer and everything around you that makes living there better. At the same time it was designed to attract people from their region to come enjoy the things that you offer to visitors.

...Regionalism is something that every expert said if our rural communities work together, they'd be stronger, they would grow if they promote one another. That hasn't happened. No one's ever figured out quite how to do that. So what tends to happen in my community is we close store after store after store because people jump in their car and go to the easiest route. They run down 25 miles to the Noblesville, Indiana, the big stores. And what they do is they pass 12, 13 small communities along the way. And in those 12 or 13 small communities, there's independent owners that...own a men's store, they own a shoe store. They put everything they've got [into these businesses], two or three generations. I just wanted to honor that.

...And so we're in this meeting and everyone's sharing their stories and I'll never forget one lady stood up and she says, "You know what, I've been in this community development thing for 40 years." And she goes, "Our biggest problem is we don't even try to support one another." She goes, "If we would just have a community calendar and we knew what each other were doing and support each other, you know how much stronger we would be." And that was one that just stuck...

I even had a mayor one time say to me... "Well, I'd never promote anything outside of our community, that wouldn't be right." And I said, "Well, if I can, may I be a little facetious, and may I respond to that?" And he goes, "Well, yeah." And I said, "Okay, do you ever have your local residents fill up their wallet, pack up their car with their family, and leave here to go do things in other communities?" And he goes, "Well, yeah." I said, "Do you have enough people from other communities fill up their wallets, pack up their family, and come here to enjoy the things you offer?" He goes, "Well, we would like to have more." And I said, "You can build a wall around your community, you can not promote other things...but you're not keeping people in, you're keeping people out. Because until you'll promote other people they're not gonna promote you.”

...We plugged our widget on there and she would go to our website now and [enter the movie showtimes]. And when she did that...the communities all wanted to promote her. So they all built that connection [co-promotion]. And so as soon as she put...[showtimes] on our website, [it] shows up on hers, it would show it up on Economic Development, and the chamber, and the county and all of the communities’ [websites]. And now it shows up on the county next door. They don't have a theater. They're 11 miles to 18 miles from her...the county foundation for the next county promotes her. And now the county north of them is adopting this. And they're gonna promote. That's the point. So why would she say...even for an instant believe that "wow, that's just like another calendar." No, she was excited because she recognized - I plug it in and it does it across all the platforms.

I’d say to anybody who's just starting, anybody...it doesn't have to be entrepreneurial, but I'm saying somebody who's stepping up for their first time into leadership in a community: learn. Study. Don't just show up at a couple of meetings and think you're gonna make it. If you're entrepreneurial, don't think just 'cause you can open a storefront today, you got it. Study. What don't you know, what do you need to know? Surround yourself with people who are champions of what you're attempting to do, meaning don't hang around naysayers….that's the things that I think are most important. And if it's all about money, don't start. If your relationship with your dream is because of what it might bring you financially, man, that's the wrong reward.

Oh man, I'll tell you what I'm so excited about 2021. We're gonna come out of Covid, I firmly believe that our rural communities are gonna be able to take advantage of this. I think that people are gonna be somewhat resistant to large crowds, but thirsty or hungry... to get out and to be around other people. So I think our rural communities, if they really take advantage of promoting what the got, effectively, we can really win.