KATY, Texas – 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’s Jerky.
“We have plenty of orders coming in,” Thompson said. “It helped us a whole lot. I didn’t even know what was going on.”
Thompson and her husband woke up one morning to nonstop alerts lighting up their phones.
“We hear our phone just like ding, ding, ding, ding, ding,” she said. “It was crazy.”
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.
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.
As a result, the couple is now racing to keep up.
“We still have like 2,200 orders,” Thompson said. “Every time we ship, we just keep getting more in.”
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.
“We’re doing more work than normal right now,” Thompson said with a laugh.
The viral moment didn’t come from a planned marketing push. But from a Katy resident who wanted to help.
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.
“I honestly didn’t think much of it,” Dominguez said. “I posted the video one night, and the next day I woke up and she was global.”
Dominguez began creating content in 2025 after being laid off, using his extra time to support local vendors through social media.
“My family likes to go to a lot of markets,” he said. “When I started seeing I could help businesses, I thought maybe I could make some content and help them that way.”
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.
“They catch my attention, and I try to help them out as much as I can,” he said.
For Thompson, the overwhelming support has been a reminder of the power of community both online and in person.
“It’s a lot of support from the community,” she said. “I encourage people to go to more markets.”
As for this weekend, Thompson says they’ll still be busy just not behind a market table.
“Yeah,” she said. “We’ve got plenty to do.”