We recently sat down with Heather Fraker Thompson, owner of HT Production Company, an event and promotion company. Heather was nominated and chosen as February’s ‘Positive Person of the Month’. One nomination we received stated, “Heather’s name is the first person on my mind when I think of a positive person who is constantly uplifting others, and local businesses. She is such a positive influence here! She is an absolute mover and shaker and is constantly thinking ways of making things better for all of us here in Flagler County. No matter what challenges she faces, she is there and ready to help everyone , and small businesses here, win!”
When asked how she felt when she found out that she’d been nominated for Person of the Month, she explained, “It’s really exciting to think that all the hard work that I’ve put in over the last 12 years here is finally getting to pay off and it really helps too. I really enjoy helping people be successful and putting them in the right spotlight in order to make their business shine.
We asked Heather if it was easy for her to always be positive and to always inspire others. “It takes a lot of biting your tongue shall we say, or smile through? It’s been difficult. There’s a lot of challenges. There’s a lot of competition. There’s a lot of people that are trying to mimic some of the ideas that I have. It’s a little frustrating, but if you continue to do the right thing all the time, as best you can and it pays off in the long run,” she said.
Heather went on to explain that she has included other things into her routine to help with positivity. “Well, I think I started off 2024 in the right way. Joining the gym, doing 10,000 steps by 10 a.m. I am trying to get up, get active, clear my mind and focus on what I can do for the day. I also like playing with my dogs. We have two rescue dogs from S.M.A.R.T. So that grounds me when I come home and am bombarded with puppies, it calms my soul.”
We asked what difficulties she faced being an event planner and how she handled those difficulties with positivity. “It’s very difficult, because you never know what can happen. For instance, an event we had a few weeks ago, we had to reimburse $25,000 back to the cooks based upon one hour of not having gas. You never know what can hit, including the weather. You can’t change the situations, you just walk right past it.”
Heather explained that she has been through difficult times throughout her life and had a support system to help her through those times. “I guess the difficult part was watching my mother being sick when my father was involved in a horrible car crash. It left him in a coma for four months. Trying to stay positive and taking care of both of them at the same time, was that was tough. Just seeing anybody else struggle, health wise, is difficult to see if I can help somebody pick them back up. That’s what I’m here to do. My friends, and the rest of my family is really important to me. We keep a small group of friends because yeah, keep it close.”
For those that may not know Heather, we asked her to give us a bit of background on her involvement in the Flagler County community. “My background is being with the Chamber of Commerce. Working with Flagler Radio has given me a really nice platform to be able to help promote local business by doing grand openings, ribbon cuttings, anniversary parties or relaunching certain products for customers.”
Heather also reminisced about her favorite interactions within the community. “There’s so many. I think when we did the Palm Coast Seafood Festival, it was the number one event in Flagler County. We had. There were 20,000 people at our two day event. That as well as the Flagler Beach pirate invasion, just seeing the people come come through and enjoy our community and put money in the bank for the hotels and the restaurants. Another big one is the Palm Coast Chili Cook Off which is with the International Chili Society. We’ve had up to 50 cooks come from all over the United States to stay at European Village and to put money back into the village. It’s a world qualifier which gets them a chance to go to the World Championship in Myrtle Beach to win $25,000. These people have been coming back year after year, so seven years in a row. Several people have actually bought some places here from doing so. Also, I think the farmers market that I started nine years ago at European village. To see that continue to grow during COVID. It was difficult, so we had to relaunch it again. But I’ve seen seven or eight of my original vendors have gone and got a business storefront or a mobile truck or something. Just to see that growth, really makes me happy.”
