Today we’d like to introduce you to Melissa Thacker.
Melissa, we appreciate you taking the time to share your story with us today. Where does your story begin?
First of all there are two of us. Melissa Thacker and Kassie Abulghani. We met playing softball about 12 years ago and stayed friends after the team broke up. We grew up and evolved into professionals and we stayed friends and stylist/ client. Kassie is a master stylist and owns The Beauty Mark Salon, which houses our storefront. Melissa is a bail bondsman and runs a surety management business BigTrouble Surety which manages bail agencies across the state of Florida. In her spare time Melissa has dabbled in teaching herself graphic design mostly doing work for friends. In the spring of 2024, we arranged a girls night out at a pop up hat bar being hosted locally. Over a glass of wine hats were made and ideas were hatched. As we looked around we hyped each other up on how fun it would be to do this kind of thing for ourselves. We talked setup, hat designs, names and dreams, while we sipped and stared. Two weeks later we were registering our business on Sunbiz and it was off to the races. Our initial business plan centered around local events and happenings as well as the hat bar storefront. Just our sweet little side dream. We were bumping right along when around Thanksgiving 2024 we got a call from Cummins Inc that changed everything! Danielle Smith with their marketing department came across our website and reached out. Soon we were curating and designing a fully custom branded hat bar for a well known national brand. We were invited to participate in three Cummins sponsored events this year. It’s taken us around the country. We’ve been to Las Vegas, Orlando, Ohio, and Indy for Cummins this year alone. With the exposure that the Cummins event gave us we’ve been able to partner with more companies to do more trade shows to offer fully custom hat bar and experiences live in their hosted exhibits. That’s pretty much our story in a nutshell
Alright, so let’s dig a little deeper into the story – has it been an easy path overall and if not, what were the challenges you’ve had to overcome?
To be honest opening this business has been pretty easy. The struggle comes in finding the balance. The balance of partnership and friendship. The balance of our primary businesses and the demands of this one. Kassie also has a husband and children to be present for. The balancing act is the ongoing struggle for every small business owner we’re no different.
Thanks for sharing that. So, maybe next you can tell us a bit more about your work?
We offer a 100% “you” experience. We offer you the chance to make the hat or custom garment of your dreams! Our motto is if you can dream it we can help you wear it.
As a hat bar customer you’ll be welcomed into our storefront to browse thousands of options to style your hat. From pre made patches to custom patch designs, rhinestones, glitter, pins, chains ropes, you name it! If you don’t see what you’d love we’re happy to design or make you whatever makes your hat the one you can’t live without! We offer in house vinyl production for quotes, sayings, and simple images. We also have DTF options for photos and crisp images. We truly want to make what makes you happy!
As a trade show or branding customer you can expect to receive a truly brand specific custom experience. We start by hearing your vision and act with purpose to make your vision a reality. We will walk you through designing the perfect patches for your existing logo or help you design a whole new look. We’ll help you curate accessories and embellishments that are unique to you, your product and your brand. We’ll are always resent on site for the entire event, do our own setup and do the work of engaging passersby with a dynamic duo and an intriguing interactive product to drive foot traffic in to your exhibit and product.
What sets us apart is the 100% custom experience. No matter how big or small your project is we’re honored to be able to help you design it and bring it to life.
How do you think about happiness?
Melissa: I think for me it’s knowing the people I love are happy and secure. That they know I love and value them. I revel in the little things like my plants and my dogs and the amazing people I choose to surround myself with. I’m of the opinion that living fiends lastnlibg enough do you should buy the thing, take the trip, get the puppy etc. if it makes you smile it’s worth while!
Kassie: for me it’s, waking up everyday to my family, hot cups of tea, botanical gardens, flowers, traveling good hair days, the mountains, fishing, making my clients happy!
Pricing:
- Is dependent on the embellishments you choose but on average the hats run $35-40 a piece
- Because everything is fine in a custom basis prices vary dramatically.
Contact Info:
- Website: https://Www.mothertruckinhatco.com
- Instagram: https://Instagram.com/mothertruckinhatco
- Facebook: https://www.facebook.com/share/1K2wkcCeK6/?mibextid=wwXIfr
