KATY, Texas \u2013 What started as a slow day at a Rosenberg farmers market has turned into a life-changing moment for Dawna Thompson and her small business, Dawna\u2019s Jerky.<\/p>\n
\u201cWe have plenty of orders coming in,\u201d Thompson said. \u201cIt helped us a whole lot. I didn\u2019t even know what was going on.\u201d<\/p>\n
Thompson and her husband woke up one morning to nonstop alerts lighting up their phones.<\/p>\n
\u201cWe hear our phone just like ding, ding, ding, ding, ding,\u201d she said. \u201cIt was crazy.\u201d<\/p>\n
At first, they feared the worst, wondering if their website had been hacked or if AI was somehow involved. Instead, the alerts were real orders from real customers across the country and beyond all sparked by a viral social media video.<\/p>\n
That video, which has now surpassed 33 million views on TikTok alone, features Thompson offering free samples of her thinly sliced beef jerky cut chip-thin at a farmers market in Rosenberg. The clip has also spread across Instagram and YouTube, drawing attention from viewers as far away as the Philippines, the United Kingdom, and Canada.<\/p>\n
As a result, the couple is now racing to keep up.<\/p>\n
\u201cWe still have like 2,200 orders,\u201d Thompson said. \u201cEvery time we ship, we just keep getting more in.\u201d<\/p>\n
The sudden surge in sales is a dramatic shift for a business that usually spends weekends traveling across Texas, from farmers markets to gun shows, selling jerky in person. <\/p>\n
Order delay notice on Texas couple’s website after viral TikTok video. (Copyright 2025 by KPRC Click2Houston – All rights reserved.)<\/p>\n
\u201cWe\u2019re doing more work than normal right now,\u201d Thompson said with a laugh.<\/p>\n
The viral moment didn\u2019t come from a planned marketing push. But from a Katy resident who wanted to help.<\/p>\n
The man behind the camera is David Dominguez, a Katy-based content creator who travels to farmers markets across Texas spotlighting small businesses with low foot traffic. Dominguez says he met Thompson while shopping for Christmas gifts.<\/p>\n
\u201cI honestly didn\u2019t think much of it,\u201d Dominguez said. \u201cI posted the video one night, and the next day I woke up and she was global.\u201d<\/p>\n
Dominguez began creating content in 2025 after being laid off, using his extra time to support local vendors through social media.<\/p>\n
\u201cMy family likes to go to a lot of markets,\u201d he said. \u201cWhen I started seeing I could help businesses, I thought maybe I could make some content and help them that way.\u201d<\/p>\n
What started as a hobby has grown into a weekly mission. Dominguez now travels across Texas including Austin, Dallas, San Antonio, and El Paso highlighting farmers market vendors and hopes to expand to mom-and-pop restaurants as well.<\/p>\n
\u201cThey catch my attention, and I try to help them out as much as I can,\u201d he said.<\/p>\n
For Thompson, the overwhelming support has been a reminder of the power of community both online and in person.<\/p>\n
\u201cIt\u2019s a lot of support from the community,\u201d she said. \u201cI encourage people to go to more markets.\u201d<\/p>\n
As for this weekend, Thompson says they\u2019ll still be busy just not behind a market table.<\/p>\n
\u201cYeah,\u201d she said. \u201cWe\u2019ve got plenty to do.\u201d<\/p>\n
Copyright 2026 by KPRC Click2Houston – All rights reserved.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"KATY, Texas \u2013 What started as a slow day at a Rosenberg farmers market has turned into a…\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":116675,"comment_status":"","ping_status":"","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[6],"tags":[51291,43972,51294,51293,51292,51290,27,29,28,23618,51295],"class_list":["post-116674","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","category-texas","tag-beef-jerky-sales","tag-content-creator","tag-local-vendor-support","tag-online-orders-surge","tag-rosenberg-farmers-market","tag-small-business-success","tag-texas","tag-texas-headlines","tag-texas-news","tag-texas-small-businesses","tag-tiktok-viral"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-tx\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/116674","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-tx\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-tx\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-tx\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/2"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-tx\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=116674"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-tx\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/116674\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-tx\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/116675"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-tx\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=116674"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-tx\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=116674"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-tx\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=116674"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}