Palm Harbor Local
Welcome to Palm Harbor Local—where we celebrate the heart and soul of our community by sharing the stories of the incredible small businesses that make Palm Harbor thrive.
Hosted by Donnie Hathaway, a Florida native, real estate expert, and passionate community builder, this podcast is all about Building Community—connecting people, businesses, and ideas that shape our town.
Each episode, we sit down with local entrepreneurs, business owners, and changemakers to dive into their journeys—the dreams that sparked their businesses, the challenges they’ve overcome, and the impact they’re making. From brand-new startups to long-standing local favorites, we uncover what makes these businesses special and why they matter to the community.
Whether you're a fellow entrepreneur, a proud Palm Harbor resident, or someone who just loves supporting local, this podcast is your inside look at the passion, dedication, and creativity fueling our local economy.
Because strong businesses build strong communities.
Join us as we shine a light on the people behind the businesses, share valuable insights, and inspire you to engage, support, and grow alongside your community.
Subscribe now and be part of the movement to Build Community, one story at a time.
Palm Harbor Local
Building Community: How Small Businesses Thrive in Palm Harbor
Ever wondered how small businesses fuel the heartbeat of a community? Join us as Matt Menenga, the dedicated president and CEO of the Palm Harbor Chamber of Commerce, shares his inspiring journey from humble beginnings in the hospitality industry to leading a vibrant chamber. Matt's story is a testament to the power of relationship-building, resilience, and community engagement. You'll uncover his insights on how small businesses can thrive with the right support and how chambers of commerce play a critical role in fostering economic growth in diverse communities like Palm Harbor.
Explore the dynamic world of Palm Harbor's business scene as Matt reveals the challenges and triumphs of nurturing local enterprises. With a background that spans from busboy to business leader, Matt provides a unique perspective on the intersections of customer service, business management, and community involvement. Learn how his transition from the restaurant industry to the chamber world has equipped him to champion the cause of small businesses, creating opportunities for education, networking, and economic development.
Feel the pulse of the Palm Harbor community as we highlight heartwarming stories of unity and compassion. From festive parades to acts of kindness in the wake of hurricanes, discover how community events and volunteer efforts bolster local commerce and forge lasting connections. Be inspired by initiatives like the Palm Harbor Main Street project, which aims to revitalize the downtown area, and the touching generosity of residents who ensured that disaster-affected students could still attend homecoming. Experience the incredible spirit that defines Palm Harbor, where businesses and residents collaborate to build a thriving, supportive community.
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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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 are joined by Matt Menenga. He is a business owner and the current president and CEO of the Palm Harbor Chamber of Commerce. Now our show is all about celebrating those who have put in the sweats, overcome the hurdles and still find time to give back to the 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 better today, you're in the right place. In today's episode, you'll learn what your chamber should be doing for you, how Matt became the president of the current Palm Harbor Chamber and what Matt loves about being in Palm Harbor. Now be sure to follow us on Instagram at palmharborlocal and join our weekly newsletter at palmharborlocalcom. Let's get started, matt Menengo. Welcome to Palm Harbor Local man.
Matt:Thank you.
Donnie:I'm excited to have this conversation. We were just chatting a little bit before. Some good stuff and some some good stuff, and we'll share some of that too. But you're the president and CEO of Palm Harbor chamber. Like we just discussed what, um what led you to becoming the chamber, the chamber president, here in Palm Harbor.
Matt:Great question. Um, maybe just enjoying being a part of a community, seeing the needs of a lot of the business economies and communities in the local communities and trying to just help educate on how to build those communities by sharing exposure for those businesses. Because that's mainly what I concentrate on is the business part or business economy of a community how to teach people, how to build relationships through networking, how to send referrals and contacts, how to make those connections, how to get exposure through marketing, how to educate. You know a lot of small businesses are the heart of a community. Yeah, big businesses play a big role too. People don't they kind of disregard the bigger businesses sometimes, or vice versa, they concentrate on the big businesses and disregard small businesses. The small business makes that attractive for big businesses to come do big business in a community. So that's why I like to say that small businesses are the heart of a community and the more that we concentrate on building that, the more that will attract bigger businesses and more businesses to boost the economy we want to to have here, and so we try to offer a lot of education for things that small businesses don't have the opportunity or the means to have, like marketing.
Matt:We do marketing mondays. It's a free educational class in a way, to teach people how to do it. If they can't afford to, you know, pay somebody to do their marketing for them. Their social media, which is so relevant these days. We might not like it I don't typically like that, I have to do social media but it's so relevant and so much of it's free. If you know how to utilize it as a tool, um, it can really benefit your business. So we teach a lot of that because, especially small businesses at first, or when they're first starting in business, they don't have that knowledge or they don't have the means to hire a marketing department or a marketing person. So that's crucial in the beginning.
Donnie:Yeah, I like that. I like that you touched on, like the, the concept of you know both the small business community and some of these larger corporations like you know, we, we need both of them here.
Donnie:Right and I and I think we're we're fortunate in Palm Harbor and in a lot of our little um cities around Palm Harbor too that have like this core downtown community of small businesses right, that there's other parts of the of the state and in our immediate area and county that don't. They don't have that right. They just have like some of the bigger corporations and stuff in there. So I think it's, um, it's important to, like you said, to educate the small business owners so that they can stay there long term and we can keep this, this core structure of of having like the downtown areas that we have and Palm Harbor is unique and special.
Matt:We're more widespread. We're Ozona, crystal Beach, east Lake, right. So we're more spread out, you know, and we actually have like two or three times the businesses that a Dunedin or a Tarpon or Safety Harbor has. So we have a lot more potential. And that's kind of what attracts me here too is because the untapped potential and trying to figure out how everybody can utilize each other's contacts, figure out how, um, everybody can utilize each other's contacts, you know, you know we a lot of people may not remember rolodexes, but, um, it's basically how it's teaching people how to use each other's rolodexes by, you know, um, creating relationships yeah um, now it's.
Matt:I would guess you would consider your contact list.
Donnie:Yeah so yeah, it's important. I would guess you would consider it your contact list.
Matt:Yeah, so yeah it's important and we just have so much potential. That's not being you know as far as how many businesses were spread out. We don't have a little concentration. We have a little concentration of downtown, but that's just not all of Palm Harbor. There's way more to palm harbor and I I'm trying to include all of it and uh and try to figure out how to focus on um, getting everybody involved to help attract more, more money to be spent in our businesses.
Donnie:So yeah, I like that. So your your background, let's, let's go go there and like where did you, what have you done before being involved in the chambers?
Matt:I was in the customer service business hospitality business For the majority of my life. In high school I was in the roofing and construction business. Because, I like work with my hands. I'm a solutions person. I love figuring out solutions to problems.
Matt:That's what I do, and in the restaurant business, that's every day. You never know what's going to. You walk in the door and what challenge is going to need to be focused on to find a solution, and that's ultimately what I enjoy doing. Um, but I come from the restaurant, bar, nightclub business, uh, for many years and enjoyed it.
Donnie:It wore me out how did you get involved in that? Like what was your first? Did you start like Busting tables?
Matt:or, yeah, I was actually a busboy, then I did dishwashing, then I was a cook for a long time. Okay, bartended, I like variety, so I wanted to learn everything. And one day I realized I've done everything in this building and my manager at the time, when I was was younger, saw that and he was like I want to send you for management training many different personalities and employees and staff and and then strategies on how to keep your costs down, on your profits up and how to control labor costs and, yeah, I'll be efficient and all that. So that really intrigued me and that's when I really kind of learned. I really like figuring this stuff out and figuring out solutions for how to be more efficient, how to make people happy, how to make that customer that that you go visit or I used to call it touching tables come back two, three, four times a month. I mean, that's the whole game in. There is, how do you attract customers to come back more?
Matt:because building that core regular is how um local restaurants, independent restaurants, even corporate restaurants, how they survive? Yeah, I mean, all the seasonal stuff is all you know. Frosting on the cake is how it should be right, and but building that repeat customer multiple times a month is is where I always looked at concentrating on, yeah, and how I trained my staff, how I trained my managers did you, did you ever want to or have the idea of owning your own business?
Donnie:because so you owned your own restaurant and stuff for a little while I've been partners and okay, and own my own.
Matt:Yeah, um, and it's not easy. I mean a lot of people think, oh, they can just buy a restaurant, start a restaurant yeah, and then it's just a piece of food yeah, um, it's very rewarding in many ways, especially if you have a creative side and a passion for people. You have to have a passion for people, yeah, or owning a customer service based business will not work for you.
Donnie:That's probably like the one of the most cutthroat, like service based, right where it's like if they don't get what they want, they're going to go online, leave you a bad review 100 yeah, yeah, it's.
Matt:You know, um. You know I always my goal was always I wanted to do something that I enjoyed, to go to work every day and do. And I did for many years. As I got older it wore me out faster, um. And one day my daughter said to my mom you know, does daddy love this more than me? Because I was working 80, 100 hours a week. And that broke my heart and made me realize, yeah, I need to change. So that's kind of how I phased out of the hospitality world, um. And then someone believed in, um, I guess, my perspective of customer service to bring to this the civic world, or to um to a chamber of commerce, and really wanted me to bring that concept. And I never thought I would be working at a chamber before. But once I grasped it and understood the need, then it was my job to figure out a solution on how to make it better.
Donnie:Yeah, did. You was being a business owner owner, was that something you always wanted to do? Or being involved in, like the small business community at all?
Matt:or, yes, I always wanted to have a small business. I still have one, yeah, today, um, and I enjoy that um. It gives you a sense of worth. That gives you um, a sense of me, what I do. I have a handyman business so I love helping people, actually help a lot of real estate agents with their inspection lists or um, and I have a lot of property management clients and um, and any one of my regular clients can tell you that I I love helping.
Matt:I I hate when I have to turn down a job or, and that's. You know, what I really contemplated on when taking this job at the Palm Harbor chamber of commerce was am I going to be able to focus on, you know, my, my regular clients and um, and I did. I got to talk with a lot of my regular clients and tell them and they are all very supportive of me taking this um because they knew my passion for the community and education um of what a chamber should be doing and what a chamber does for a community. So, yeah, it's kind of what brought what brought me to now.
Donnie:Yeah, so let's go back to, like, when you owned your restaurant, were you involved? Were you a part of the chamber? Then, when you, okay, and what was the? What was your experience like with with those, uh, with that chamber, at that time I had a good experience.
Matt:I had a good experience. They um utilized us quite a bit for networking events and um exposure events and um golf tournaments and and uh stuff like that. So they kept me as a small business owner, they kept me involved, which I think really helped me learn and understand um what really a chamber is about yeah um and what it should be doing for a community. So I think that exposure to me um helped create my perspective um in the chamber world.
Donnie:So, yeah, so let's talk about that, like in your mind, like what is the benefit or what should the benefit be of a chamber if someone were to join, or if someone is a part of a chamber?
Matt:Yeah, you know it's, it's really a two way street as well. I could list all the benefits, which I'll tell some benefits. But it's also being involved in the chamber and especially to me it's important when you're first in business as well, or when you just, you know, making time's hard for a business owner and I understand that totally. But if you can or send an employee or train an employee to come and be involved in our events, our educational classes, our networking, we do a lot of teaching of how to build relationships through networking, not just networking alone, because anybody can go into a room a networking room and pass out, you know, shake hands and pass out business cards to a room a networking room and pass out, you know, shake hands and pass out business cards. But I believe if you don't build that relationship, that business card just can be thrown in the trash when they get home or get back to their office or even before they leave that room.
Matt:Yeah, um, so building that relationship is key, but you can't build those relationships if you're not there, yeah, and you're not involved. Getting involved in some of the, you know, um community event, you know, getting exposure in some of the community events. I'm not saying you have to sponsor everything or anything like that, but just being involved and volunteering a little bit of your time, um, at that event, getting you know at that event, getting you know the sponsorship is just good because it gives you the bigger exposure experience, yeah, but also volunteering is huge.
Matt:that's what we don't get that much as people that step up and want to volunteer, but it gives you an opportunity to interact with the community, and that's what you want is the community visiting your business, and then, you're building rapport relationships with the other volunteers that you're there to Our locals here in our community can spend their money locally more than they were before.
Matt:And how to attract? You know, we're a tourist area and destination. We have great cities all around us Dunning, tarpon, there are way more touristy than even Palm Harbor. We just have the space and the parks. Yeah, that's what we, you know for visitors. You know this isn't talking about visitors. Even safety Harbor, I mean all three of those places are hugely um in the attraction of tourists and our visitors. And so, um, you know, trying to figure out ways to attract visitors to spend their money more, um, or when they're here in Palm Harbor, at our businesses, is something that I concentrate on all day and every time. I think about what we post on social media or business spotlights that we do, the newsletters that we, you know, communicate with all of our members in the community and the events that we come up with. That's all about attracting our, our community to spend their money at our biz, at our local businesses and visitors to support local as well.
Donnie:So let's, let's dive into some of the events, right, cause, like Palm Harbor, like being on unincorporated, mm-hmm. So let's let's dive into some of the events. Right, because, like palm harbor, like being on unincorporated, um, we, I feel like that's always been a struggle of like you know, where do I get information from what's happening this weekend or what events are going on? Who puts on what events? Like, how can I be involved? Right, because there's all these these different um organizations and groups that are involved in, you know, making palm harbor what it is. Um, but specifically for the chamber, like, what events are you in charge of? Like, I guess, throughout the calendar year?
Donnie:like what events do you put on?
Matt:well, great question, because you know all the organizations that you know come together to do events and do the community events or the downtown events as well they're not just downtown, they're throughout the community as well Are awesome. I mean, they really love pulling together to create more community. I think this last year we concentrated on more and as the years come, we concentrate on more events that bring the community together, get the community in the habit and used to coming back together for events and and or downtown. Our downtown needs, you know, some help with that again as well. Um, and I think that's important, is the more we bring the community or give an opportunity for the community to come together, um, the more habit they will come down and visit.
Matt:You know our restaurants and bars yeah um salons and barbershops and retail that we have down here. So, but the events, we all support each other on each other's events. So mainly like, say, we have the Christmas parade coming up next weekend, saturday the 14th, so it is a chamber event that Parks and Recs helps support us. Palm Harbor Parks and Recs helps support us with the logistics and the organization of it. We couldn't do it without them. It is kind of on the shoulders of the chamber and ultimately the chamber in Palm Harbor Parks and Rec. We do this solely for the community, for the fun of the kids and little leagues and the Panthers, the football leagues and the Girl Scouts and the Boy Scouts and for the dance communities and schools and for our high schools and middle schools and elementary schools. It is a fun event. It is fun to see the community come together and celebrate the holidays. So we look forward to that every year. So we look forward to that every year um.
Matt:The other, the other big event that the chamber does in the community um, which is always in well majority in april, is palm harbor fest. Used to be called citrus festival, yeah, um, before my time they changed it to palm harbor fest. Um, that's huge. I mean it was a very big success this last april. Um, it's coming up again the second weekend of april, um, in 2025 and um we get support from downtown.
Matt:Uh, palm harbor merchants, um, you know ben from divine um, that is the president of merchants. He helps so much in this community and helps us with stuff and all of our barricades set up, and I mean there's a long list of stuff that he helps. And the merchants help with the Palm Harbor again, the Palm Harbor Parks and Rec help us with all that. And now we have a new organization that is rising called Palm Harbor Main Street and they will be based out of Harbor Hall and their really focus is going to be on this downtown community and the beautification community and um and the beautification, the helping, hopefully one day having a waypoint project to go so people know where things are and um know where downtown is know where downtown is, even though we're right off alternate 19, because we got a lot of traffic off alternate 19 in the trail.
Matt:Yeah, australia. So helping, yes, find our businesses and other um uh needed. You know, organizations, buildings, but uh, they're really going to be focusing on um, the future, the development, the vitality um of downtown Palm Harbor and Palm Harbor as a whole community as well. So I'm excited for that to come about. That's brand new, hopefully. I'm okay with spilling the beans on that. But, yes, the chamber. And then when the merchants have, like, their veterans day events and their other events, and when the palm harbor main street's going to have their events, our job is to help support those as well. We want to not only bring our, our business members to help get involved. It helps them get exposure for the business um, and then they're creating um a community reputation as well, which is important, yeah, um, for attracting the community to use your bit or utilize your business.
Donnie:So for sure yeah, I think it's. Um, I like what you said, right, like it's. You know, maybe, like you know, palm harbor chamber is putting on this event right, but everybody's involved and I think that's key for the growth and the future of what downtown you know can be right If we continue that and that's important to have.
Matt:It shows the unity, all that support, yeah, and showing that unity in a community, I think it just keeps the strength moving forward, yeah and if everyone's working together, everyone's collaborating, sharing ideas, bringing new ideas and then just helping each other with all these events.
Donnie:We have a lot of great spaces and events already right, but just to build on top of that I think will be huge. And the consistency consistency you mentioned that before right just having those events. I think that's been some of the the problems, the last you know, five, ten years or whatever just the consistency of those events is, is and people like wait, is this happening this weekend?
Matt:but then they get out of the habit of coming yeah, together as a community and or coming downtown or wherever pop stands or wherever the event is, yeah. You get out of the habit of doing that when you aren't consistent. So consistency is huge. I mean I come from the restaurant business, if you don't. I mean there's a reason why Outback, carrabba's, longhorn, a lot of those companies that have been around a long time, and why they've been around a long time.
Donnie:It's all about consistency yeah, you know what you're getting.
Matt:I mean, most business is based on consistency. So if you're not consistent or don't concentrate on consistent um you know, you might as well hang it up yeah, yeah, so yes consistency with events in a community Huge.
Donnie:Yeah, massive, massive. So how long have you been with the Palmeiras Chamber? Now A little over a year.
Matt:Yes, october 9th was a year, so just a little bit over a year, and I'm looking forward and excited to this next year.
Donnie:So what are you, what's your goals for this upcoming year?
Matt:for the, for the chamber, great question a lot and I'm still working on um, that list, um, but, yes, uh, I uh, um. Main thing that I want to concentrate on this year is members, new members and an education of um, what a chamber does, um to a community and then um community involvement type.
Matt:I can say events, but um, not just events yeah, community happenings and and and just trying to refocus people's minds on Palm Harbor again. Really, yeah, we need you know, we're not in bad shape or anything like that. We just need the you know people to focus on Palm Harbor again and just trying to attract that yeah, I think that I think you're, and the community wants that too like the people in palm harbor like they.
Donnie:They want a reason to come downtown and and, and you know, hang out with their friends or whatever in in downtown, in pop stancel, wherever it is so. It's just, it's on know the different organizations, like with the chamber, the main street, um, um parks and rec and um and the downtown merchants, to, to just continue this momentum that we do have, you know so yeah, I love that.
Donnie:What is, uh I'm going to wrap up with this you, uh, how long have you been in this area now I? How long have you been in this area now I? I moved in this area in 2000. Okay, what is it? What is one thing, um, you love about palm harbor?
Matt:I'll give you to pick one thing the biggest thing I like about palm harbor is um, and especially that showed me in the recent two hurricanes is how the community, um it comes together for the community and other communities surrounding us. But, man, I mean I'm getting goosebumps right now because it was a huge. Just an example to me, um, on why I know I'm in the right place and from my heart, because people just came together, whether it be donations for all, for all the families and people kids you know that lost everything in the hurricanes are lost a lot or whether it was just cleaning up your neighbor's yard or helping them remove some of the debris, or even we had a really special thing that happened at the chamber and I was honored that they chose to use the chamber. We had some moms and some faculty of a couple of different schools locally that knew that a lot of kids either lost a lot of their clothing or stuff in the hurricanes or, because of the stuff that they lost, couldn't afford to get homecoming dresses or homecoming outfits, male and female. And so they came together, they utilized the chamber.
Matt:They had, I think, well over 200 dresses and outfits donated. They brought high school kids in there to fit them with and let them choose a dress that they probably wouldn't have been able to afford or have to keep them able to go to homecoming and have that experience, because I think that was a huge aspect and support of our kids' mental health in that time period. Because when disasters come around, you know, adults maybe have gone through it several times in their life. Kids, some of them, it's the first time they've dealt with that kind of stuff. So I was so honored that they even asked to utilize the chamber building. Um, to me, those ladies are angels, um, for this community, and they would probably, um, uh, be shy if I said who they were. So I won't, but, um, they know who they are and they're um just amazing that they even came up with that concept.
Donnie:To me that was special to be involved in, so, yeah, yeah, that's pretty cool and I'm glad you mentioned that too, because I think that's I think that's one thing that's unique about palm harbor shows the heart yeah, we just have a really great community of people who truly care about, uh, each other in the community, and so, um, yeah, that's awesome yeah yeah, matt, thanks for being here yeah, I appreciate it.
Matt:Donnie, thank you very much. I appreciate the opportunity and what you do for our community. Yeah, thank you. Yeah, all right.
