Lifelong Clevelander Joe Matejka knows the value of a strong foundation, both in life and in business. Growing up on the east side of Cleveland, attending St. Ignatius High School and later Ohio University, Joe eventually settled in Bay Village in 1993, where he has raised his family ever since. He’s the proud father of two adult daughters and has built a career rooted in entrepreneurship.

“I’ve been an entrepreneur for almost my entire career,” Joe says. He’s been part of three national licensee buildouts, selling one of them to a Fortune 500 company. Yet it wasn’t until a personal project outside Cleveland that Walk Your Plans (WYP) was born.

During a brief retirement, Joe invested in two major projects: converting the abandoned St. James Elementary School into commercial space and overseeing the construction of a six-bedroom mountain cabin designed for multiple families to enjoy together. The cabin project quickly revealed a challenge, the original “great room” was far too small to accommodate Joe’s vision.

“At that moment, we realized there had to be a better way to see a space before construction begins,” Joe recalls. “Could we take paper blueprints and project them life-size, to scale, so you could literally walk your space?”

And just like that, Walk Your Plans was born, an innovative solution designed to bring home blueprints to life before the first nail is hammered.

Walk Your Plans offers true-to-scale, life-size blueprint projections. Every wall, door, cabinet, and built-in is displayed exactly to scale, within one inch, giving homeowners a tangible understanding of their future home, home addition or remodel projects. This immersive approach allows clients to identify tight or underutilized spaces, ultimately saving time, money, and headaches.

“Building or remodeling a custom home can be exciting but also overwhelming,” Joe explains. “Our goal is to take the stress out of that process and give homeowners clarity and confidence during one of the biggest investments of their lives.”

A client testimonial captures the impact:
 “Walk Your Plans offers our homeowners a unique and powerful experience as they work through their custom home plans. Especially for clients not accustomed to reading blueprints, WYP projects the walls, doors, cabinets, and built-ins directly on the floor, allowing them to feel the flow and identify areas that are too tight or wasteful, depending on their needs and the way they live.” — Jason B.

Walk Your Plans launched in Lakewood, Ohio, but Joe’s innovative approach quickly caught a much wider audience. Social media virality in 2024 resulted in more than 200 million views and over 4,000 inquiries about opening WYP locations worldwide.

“This growth has been incredible,” Joe says. “As we rounded out 2025, we celebrated signing our 50th location and now have plans for 120+ locations across the U.S., with discussions underway to expand globally.”

For Joe, Walk Your Plans isn’t just a business, it’s about helping people create a home they truly love.

“Your home is more than a project,” he says. “It’s where you gather with the people you love, celebrate life’s biggest milestones, and live all the everyday moments in between. If WYP can play even a small role in helping someone create that home, then we’re doing something meaningful.”