COSTA MESA, Calif. — There’s little doubt where Dean Tompkins is from.

He dresses virtually from head-to-toe — along with the tattoo on his wrist — in apparel that represents his hometown of Costa Mesa.

Tompkins is the co-owner of Costa Mesa-based ThunderKing Coffee and has seen firsthand how the pandemic has caused small, local businesses around him to struggle or even close their doors. In a year that’s been polarizing, Tompkins hopes to use his voice to bring the community together.

"We’ve got so much stuff going on," he said. "There’s so much turmoil and political things and everything right now. And I feel that, as a kid who grew up here and knowing older people who have lived here way longer than me, it’s like, we can unify everybody."

Little did he know that he would get the opportunity to speak directly to his community. In October, the popular multimedia platform I Heart Costa Mesa was just about to go off the air, with founder Erin Huffstutter ready to leave the brand to focus on other projects.

She and her co-anchor/photographer Brandy Young had been covering their city hyper-locally, interviewing neighbors and local business leaders — including Tompkins — on their podcast for the last couple years.

As the pandemic continued to determine the fate of local businesses, Tompkins decided he wanted to step up to the mic.

“It’s like, living in the city my whole life and loving this city like I do, loving the people like I do, it was kind of a no brainer,” he said.

As a business owner, Tompkins has personally seen how rough it’s been for small businesses, with his own sales down 50-60%. For him, the podcast — which gets thousands of listeners — is a platform to help his city bounce back from the pandemic, interviewing and collaborating with other business leaders to make people aware of the great products, places, and people in Costa Mesa.

“I want to team up with these people to spotlight them because it’s like, you may make a great product, but do you know how to sell it, to get it out there? And that’s what hopefully we can help these small businesses do,” said Tompkins.

He’ll continue to run the podcast out of the Music Factory, a local spot. And as he gets ready to go back on the air in mid-January, Tompkins said he hopes his fellow locals will be tuning in — neighbors helping neighbors.

"I try not to say I’m spearheading this, but really I’m just a part of this community," he said. "And I’m just going to shed a little bit more light on everybody."