Celebrating Four Years of Palm Harbor Local

Reflecting on four impactful years, we share the growth and evolution of Palm Harbor Local, celebrating community stories while looking toward a promising future in 2025. We explore the importance of community engagement, upcoming events, and opportunities for local business partnerships.

• Reflecting on the podcast's origin during challenging times 
• Highlighting early guests who shared their inspiring stories 
• Plans for more community events in 2025 to deepen engagement 
• Exploring potential partnerships for local businesses 
• Envisioning a vibrant downtown Palm Harbor as a destination 
• Requesting volunteers for events and community initiatives 
• Encouraging listeners to subscribe for updates and engagement opportunities

Stroll through the laid-back streets of the Palm Harbor community with this informative podcast, proudly brought to you by Donnie Hathaway with The Hathaway Group, your trusted guide and local expert in navigating the diverse and ever-changing property landscape of Palm Harbor.

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Transcript

Donnie: 0:00

Welcome to Palm Harbor Local, where we bring you inspiring stories from the heart of our community. I'm your host, donnie Hathaway, and today we're doing a solo episode to kind of recap the last four years, look ahead to what's coming up for 2025, and let you know how you can get involved in joining the Palm Harbor Local community. So, as you know, our show is all about celebrating those who put in the sweat, overcome the hurdles and still find time to give back to our community. If you want to be inspired by how they got started, what keeps them going and what they're doing to make Palm Harbor even more awesome, you're in the right place Now in today's episode, like I said, we're going to recap. I want to recap the last four years, how Palm Harbor Local got its start back in 2020. Look ahead to 2025 and what we have planned for you guys there, and then, like I said, how you can get involved and join this Palm Harbor Local community, if you're not already a part of it. So be sure to follow us on Instagram at Palm Harbor Local and for any behind the scenes content, and then sign up for our weekly newsletter at palmharborlocalcom let's get started.

Donnie: 1:12

So, as I was thinking about this upcoming year and the fact that this is like the start of year five that I've been doing the podcast. Now I couldn't help but think back to the beginning and what it was like how we got started with this podcast, with titling it Palm Harbor Local and the focus and direction of the podcast. So it was back in 2020. This was just before COVID was really getting started. Something I was passionate about was the local business, small business community, but also like the business owner, and learning more about them, like why they got started, why they decided to start this business, what inspires them, what keeps them going, how they go about operating some of their wins, some of their losses just learning as much as I could from the small business owner. And so that's where the idea was born. And to start a podcast for myself back then was something that I never thought that I would find myself doing. I never thought that I would be here five years in to a podcast and continue doing it and really, really enjoy doing it. It's been a passion of mine for the last four years, so I'm excited for that and I'm truly grateful for everybody that is tuned into an episode shared, an episode for all the guests that have come on to share their stories and sit down with me, have a conversation with me. It's remarkable that we've gotten to this point and I'm so excited for what's coming up in 2025.

Donnie: 2:38

Some of our first guests on the show Essie Burgin. She's been a friend for the last four or five years now, um, and does some great things in our community with her artwork and everything that she's been doing. Uh, zach Feinstein, with the Feinstein group was one of, I think, the very first episode that I did for those people those those first, you know, 10 to 15 episodes when we really didn't have, uh, any direction or understand, like, what the podcast was going to be about. For those people to put their trust in me was really, really special and I'm forever grateful for, for those few folks that have done that and and, of course, for you, for you listening to this episode, for you listening to all any of the episodes you've had in the past, sharing the episodes. We appreciate the support and we're looking forward to 2025.

Donnie: 3:26

So, speaking of 2025, we really want to grow the community of Palm Harbor Local and really get more involved with what we're doing right, we've been hosting the podcast for the last four years, we've had the social media channel, uh, as well. Uh, we're now growing to YouTube so you can find us and watch us on, uh, our YouTube channel, um, where you can actually see the guest in in the studio, and we want to do more community events, right? So it's one thing in my mind to hear the story of a business owner, hear what they're passionate about, hear their wins, hear their losses and experience that, but then it's one thing to experience it in person, and I've had the pleasure to get to know a lot of these business owners over the last four years and get to use some of their services and get to use some of their services, purchase some of their products. We have a great community of creative people, smart people and people that are really passionate about our community, and I want to be able to highlight some of these businesses in our community and bring you guys out there with me to experience it for yourselves.

Donnie: 4:39

So we're going to be different community events throughout the year, whether it's some of the markets that we've started doing in January. I think it's going to be January 29th. Don't quote me on that date yet, but I believe it'll be January 29th. We'll keep you guys updated once that is finalized. But we're going to be going out to own meditation, for a meditation class with amy triplet and to experience the own meditation and wellness that she's created there in safety harbor. So that is an incredible place that we're going to go um and and experience on january. At the end of january there's going to be like 15 16 open slots available. So if you're interested, feel free to reach out to us if we can get you the sign up form to get signed up for that.

Donnie: 5:21

So we're going to be doing more events like that, more markets, just trying to get out in the community more and showcase some of these small businesses that we, that we all love. We've also opened up the door for sponsorship opportunities in 2025. So if you're a small business or looking to start a small business and you're a small business or looking to start a small business and you're interested in sponsoring the podcast, feel free to reach out to us. We have a great opportunity to to partner with local businesses. You know, a lot of our guests that come on the show end up getting referrals that come through the podcast. Somebody listens to an episode and they end up using that service or product, buying a product from that that business. So we, so we want to help these small businesses grow and we feel like that we, what we can offer through our podcast, through our social media channels, through our weekly newsletter, that we can really help them grow, more so than other avenues, other marketing avenues that some of them are already spending money on anyway. So we're excited for that sponsorship opportunity. If you're interested in learning more about that, feel free to reach out to me and we're happy to get the information over to you.

Donnie: 6:21

Now the last thing I want to touch on and it's something that I'm really excited for, because I think there's a ton of potential for the Palm Harbor community. I really think Palm Harbor has the potential to be like the next desirable destination spot for people looking to visit, for people who are inviting their friends and family to the area, and that's the downtown Palm Harbor community. You know there's been a lot of undeveloped opportunities, a lot of missed opportunities in downtown Palm Harbor over the years, and I think we're at a position now where the community really understands and wants something to be downtown Palm Harbor and wants there to be a spot to go to and hang out with their friends and family and just enjoy on the weekends outside of their home and outside of their work. Anytime we do events in downtown Palm Harbor or Pop Sanctal Park or really getting the community together, there's always a great turnout. So I know there's great potential for what the downtown Palm Harbor community can be and we just got to get everybody on board and moving in the same direction to really reach it, for Palm Harbor to reach its full potential right. There's a lot of vacant land down there right now, a lot of undeveloped properties, a lot of vacant properties that are just sitting there and it's kind of it's honestly it's sad to see. You know, my office is now here in downtown Palm Harbor so I'm able to walk through downtown and you know you could see the potential walking down the streets of Palm Harbor and what it can be. So, and I know that the community wants it and looks forward to that day when that happens. You know we're doing some things with the Florida Main Street Program, which I think has some power to make some things happen, and I'm looking forward to what we can create and what all the business owners and community can kind of create together and create this downtown experience that we all are looking for.

Donnie: 8:25

If you're interested in being involved in anything, in any events and volunteering and stuff we always need volunteers for downtown Palm Harbor events throughout the year. So feel free to reach out to us and we'll put you in touch with the right people to help you get involved in the community. You can obviously, like I said, sign up for our weekly newsletter. We do put out a lot of information on their events happening in downtown, events happening in the community and just kind of updates on what's going on with the Florida Main Street program, with Parks and Rec or anything going on kind of in downtown. So be sure to sign up for that weekly newsletter if you're not already and and stay in the know, because we're excited for what 2025 is going to bring for Palm Harbor.

Donnie: 9:07

So again, I just want to say that I'm extremely grateful for everybody that has tuned into the episodes and listened to the podcast and discussed it with their friends and family. Subscribe to the podcast. We appreciate you. We're excited for 2025 and what that's going to bring to us. Next up we have the president of the Palm Harbor Chamber, matt Meninga, on the podcast. That's a great episode that I know you guys will enjoy, so be sure to tune into that one. Subscribe to our podcast, subscribe to our YouTube channel and let's have a great 2025. See you.