Chapman On Air
Chapman On Air is a Southwest Florida–based podcast presented by Chapman Insurance Group, designed to inform, educate, and connect the SWFL community. Covering everything from Southwest Florida living and local community highlights to practical insurance tips and in-depth interviews with trusted community leaders, Chapman On Air brings valuable insights straight to your ears.
Each episode dives into topics that matter most to Florida residents and business owners, including home insurance, auto insurance, flood insurance, commercial coverage, and real-world strategies to protect what matters
Chapman On Air
Powerful Networking | The Secret to Forging The Right Relationships in Business
Use Left/Right to seek, Home/End to jump to start or end. Hold shift to jump forward or backward.
On this episode of Chapman On Air, host Mia Rae Stephens sits down with Jeanne Sweeney, founder of the Above Board Chamber, to talk about what it really takes to build a thriving business community in Southwest Florida.
Jeanne shares how she saw a gap in traditional networking—and created something different.
Instead of surface-level connections, her chamber focuses on education, expert-led panels, and meaningful relationships that actually help people grow their businesses.
Mia and Jeanne dive into the power of learning from the right sources, how to use tools like AI without losing your edge, and why relationships are the foundation of long-term success. They also discuss Jeanne’s work supporting local nonprofits and creating opportunities for professionals at every stage.
Tune in to learn how the right community can elevate your business, your knowledge, and your impact.
Hosted by Chapman Insurance Group | Insurance That Does
Prefer video? Watch the full episode here: https://youtu.be/CgvemQoAZ78
On this episode of Chapman on Air, we're sitting down with someone who has shaped Southwest Florida more than most people realize. Jeannie Sweeney didn't just create a chamber, she created a community built on integrity, visibility, and genuine connection. She founded the above board chamber to elevate leaders, strengthen local businesses, and make sure that people doing good work here actually get seen. If you've been in Southwest Florida for more than five minutes, you felt Jeannie's impact, whether directly or indirectly. Today we're talking about her story, her mission, and the work she's doing that continues to raise the bar for all of us. Welcome, Jeannie.
SPEAKER_03Well, that was very nice. Thank you. It's all true.
SPEAKER_00All real things. I'm so happy to have you here.
SPEAKER_03Yeah, I'm happy too. I was looking forward to doing it.
SPEAKER_00Yeah, me too. So we want to let people know I know you pretty well. But for the people who don't know you, um, we're gonna get a little bit of your story. So take me back to the moment you realize we need a different kind of chamber, and I'm going to build it. What sparked that?
SPEAKER_02Well, I ran a Christian chamber many, many years ago, like 15 years ago. And it was good. But I as I would have meetings, I would watch the people in the room, and a lot of them were my friends. And the person that was speaking, I'd have a speaker. They spent more time talking about their books, their tapes, and stuff like that to promote themselves, and nobody was learning anything. And I knew a lot of the people were in there because of me. They were my friends and they wanted to support me, but they weren't getting anything. And to me, that's really important when people go to a meeting that there's substance. So when they walk out with like the above board chamber, when they come into it, I want them to meet people. But more importantly, when they walk out that door, they're a better business person and they're a better person because they have tools they can take and learn things that can make them better.
SPEAKER_00Yeah.
SPEAKER_02And that's why we started the above board chamber because we wanted to do like panels. Because when you do panels, you get different people saying different things, and we get to learn from different people's viewpoints. So we do panels of experts and do business topics every single month in Leighton Kaida County.
SPEAKER_00Yeah. And panels are great because it's this it's one topic, but you have a bunch of different perspectives.
SPEAKER_02And that's and that's what's amazing because um sometimes in society we listen to one group of people and we don't know what else is going on. We have no idea. But when we listen to different viewpoints, you don't agree to disagree, but listen to them and see where they're coming from because we can learn from each other.
SPEAKER_00I agree.
SPEAKER_02Yeah.
SPEAKER_00With that statement. Yeah, for sure. And I know a lot of us here at Chapman Insurance Group have had the privilege of being a part of the above board chamber and learning from these panels. Some great information. I tell people all the time. If you are you own a business or you're part of a business here in Southwest Florida, get plugged into the above board chamber because you are going to learn something. It's not just there is a lot of networking that happens and some great relationships that come out of it, some great business, but you're also coming out of there. You say better than you came in, but smarter. I feel smarter when I come out of there. Smarter, yeah.
SPEAKER_02Yes, because you can take what you learn, yeah. And you can apply it right away. Exactly. Yeah. We're really careful about our topics because we want them. Sometimes we take a while to get them to put together because we just don't put anybody on a panel or anybody up there to be the MC, and you were one of my favorites. Aw, thank you. And um, those things are important because they they actually come to the above board chamber to learn. And we work with the universities and they're members of the above board chamber too. So we want people to get things, you know, and I feel that every business person has something they don't know how to do. So if we can lay a foundation for different things that they can come into the room, when they leave, they can actually have conversations with it and feel confident enough to take classes, maybe a Florida Gulf Coast University or Florida Southwestern, because they'll feel confident about that. So we're doing our job and we're able to do that.
SPEAKER_00You are. And I always tell people if you have a team of people and you want them to get better, get them involved in the above-board chamber because you're sending, you're investing in something that's going to pay you back 20 times full, right?
SPEAKER_02And that that's important to us. A couple of years ago, when everybody was talking about cryptocurrency, um, it was driving me crazy because everybody was an expert. You know, yeah. Me, my father, my newborn baby, everybody knew. So I said, I gotta find the experts. I called up the Federal Reserve. The real experts. I called up the real experts, and they came in and they taught, and we had a sold-out place, standing room only. And people learned. We need to learn. We get we grow when we learn.
SPEAKER_00Absolutely. Yeah. Yeah. I was talking to another guest. Um, we we were talking a little bit about neuroplasticity and the importance of that. And when you push yourself to learn new topics, even if you don't think they directly relate to your industry, it helps so much. Things are firing in there. You are just a better business person, a better parent, a better spouse, everything. Everything's just better. Yeah. And in this day and age, I've learned a lot about AI. And I feel like I was very ahead of the game, big part due to Bubboard Chamber, because you guys were ahead of the game, brought in big experts before people knew how to use it. Before they knew about it. So I was able to get ahead. And one quote that I used before was you know, people aren't, we're not gonna lose our jobs to AI, we'll lose it to people who use AI. But now, on the flip side of that, a lot of people are using AI, and we need to learn how to use it right, not because we need to encourage more use of it, but we need to encourage the right use of it.
SPEAKER_02Exactly.
SPEAKER_00Because you don't want to take something that should be used as a tool and let it turn you into a fool. Like you just don't want to do that. It's dumbing people down, and so you have to use it the right way. Exactly.
SPEAKER_02I use um ChatGPT and different platforms every day. But what I do is I write all my stuff out and cleans it up for me. Yeah. But then what's it's the most important thing is you re-read it to make sure it because it could be wrong. Right. So you have to check it out, but you learn a lot, and I personally am a better writer because of it.
SPEAKER_00Yeah.
SPEAKER_02And I've had many conversations with professors in the universities about the kids not being able to use it. And I said, Well, I think maybe they should be able to use it in the right way. In the right way. But that's what they if they have to read what you can't just say, tell me a story about, you know, X, Y, and Z, and it bum, bum, bum, and it gives you all the words. No, you have to write things. And I I love the way um AI works. I personally love it. As a matter of fact, next this up this coming week on the um 19th, we're gonna be bringing um in Lee County and the 21st in Naples, we're bringing top experts in to talk about AI. And um they are phenomenal. And we have a top um MC that understands the concepts of these different things. And um, I was really intrigued by one of the people because I think I told you earlier, she was on a panel with some men. She was the only female that um they put the personality in it. Like a couple years ago, if you said thank you to Chat GPT or did something, it didn't know what you were talking about. But she was on the committee that put that in it that it could talk back to you in a personal way. So that's pretty cool. But we have some wonderful people coming up. And AI is something you need to learn.
SPEAKER_00And you have to, yeah, you have to, but the right way.
SPEAKER_02And not to be afraid of it. Yeah, not to be afraid of it. You know, just be careful, learn it. Don't put information, personal information about yourself out there and that you don't want anybody to know. But um, it's a tool and it's not going away. So we might as well go towards it.
SPEAKER_00Agreed. And I think that, but that's goes back to the importance of the topics that you have at your meetings because yes, you we're not getting away from it. But you do have to learn how to be wise with it. Exactly. And those are the things. So by the time this airs, I that that meeting will be gone. But it's not your first one and it won't be your last. You have incredible, incredible meetings all year long. There's ones that are helping people to understand their finances for their business and their personal life, like amazing things that you I mean, I can't even put a dollar amount on on the information and value that comes from these meetings. So even if that meeting has passed by the time this airs, they'll you'll have another one because you've had this topic several times, and I always learn something new. It helps propel me and my business forward. What I do, my systems, the people on my team, we learn so much from it. So thank you for that.
SPEAKER_02And we're bringing the Fed in and in January to Naples. So because I thought that would be the best time because there's so much changes going on, even with the Fed right now. But we need to know by January, hopefully, things will be stabilized a little bit better, and we can be able to find out where they're at and what we can learn. Because we need to learn from the people that know, not the people next door to us.
SPEAKER_00Right. Yes, and that's what I think that's what you do so well is you bring in the right people because I early on when I was introduced to the Bubboard Chamber, you had the Federal Reserve then as well. We've had the Federal Reserve. And I know they trust you because they keep coming back and you're getting the information from the source.
SPEAKER_02That and that's what we need to do. And I, like I said, I want people to walk in and meet people, which is really, really nice. Yeah. But we want them to learn and walk out the door and be a whole lot better. Yeah. And um and confident.
SPEAKER_00And then you become a source of knowledge as well. Yes. Because you're getting it from the right place, and then you can pass that on, but you can pass it on confidently. And when you speak to other people, when you're trying to make business relationships and you know what you're talking about, it elevates you automatically. Empowers you. It does. It does. Absolutely, puts you in a class of your own. So before the Bubboard chamber, you had a full career and life of service. How do you feel like that background shaped you into the leader you are today?
SPEAKER_02I think I always love nonprofits. I always love them. And I because there's something about helping change somebody's life and um just getting out there and finding out who they are and how you could we all at all of our above board meeting meetings, we always I always say at the end, um, when God brings us into the world, he gives us gifts. And I always pause and say, but they don't become gifts till we give them away. And we all have so many gifts within us, and we need to find out where we belong and how who we can help. You know, and that's important. And with the above board chamber, it's education and business and stuff, you know, and and that's important to me. But I've have been in charge of a lot of nonprofits that I have been blessed to do, and hopefully I made a difference. Um, that we were able to help people, and you know, it just moves on, and we help each other, and that person learns from me, and I learn from somebody else, and we just all get better because we should not be doing things alone. We need to be together. Yeah.
SPEAKER_00And I see just how where your heart is with nonprofits, and um, we might get more into that further into this, but I the hand that you play and just wanting to see them get better and make connections for no gain of your own, other than feeling done, right? Which is amazing. I we our community just needs more of that.
SPEAKER_02Well, they're the hands in the feet of our community. We ran a big event for the nonprofits in August called Mission Possible. And what we did is we realized that a lot of the nonprofits were being cut and they had did not have the money to do the things that they needed to do. So we put together on an event called Mission Possible at the Hilton in Naples, and 180 nonprofits came. We had 15 speakers from both areas. We had some sponsors, we had breakfast, lunch, and everything. We charged the nonprofits $25 to come. And people were emailing me and texting me and saying, Did you forget zeros?
SPEAKER_00Yeah.
SPEAKER_02Right.
SPEAKER_00And I said, If if you I'm one of those people who was always like, Jeannie, what are you doing with these prices?
SPEAKER_02But But if we made the prices what they should have been, they wouldn't have been able to afford to come. Right. You know, and um they were able to meet speakers in both counties that would help their business and find out that they were not alone. We had a girl call us the night before, young girl in North Fork Myers, and she wanted to come so bad. And that night, the night before she lost her job. And she called me and she said she couldn't come. And I said, Why not? And that's what she said she lost her job. And I said, So you can come, she says, but I don't belong to anybody. And I said, You belong to me. Bring your resume and come and let's sit get you a job. Yeah. We need to help each other, we need to figure out ways and not close our eyes to people that are hurt and open them wider.
SPEAKER_00Yeah. I love that. Yeah. Beautiful. Wow. Love it. I'm gonna clip that one. We're gonna we're gonna play that one over and over again. So when you first founded the above board chamber in Fort Myers and Naples, what was your vision? What did you want people to experience that they couldn't get anywhere else? I want them to see panels. Yeah.
SPEAKER_02I want them to see panels and different opinions. I mean, it's nice to have speakers once, you know, people a lot of people have speakers. I have no problem with that. But I wanted to do something different. And I had visions of it in my head to watch different people get up and say what they thought on different subjects, you know, and it's really neat to watch the dynamics of the different people, come from different backgrounds. And um, I've had panelists leave and say to me, I just learned stuff being on the panel as a panelist. Yeah. Oh, yeah. Yeah. So that was you have your peers there, and they're giving a different perspective. Yeah. You have your peers. Absolutely. And they they get to work together and do things together, and the people in the room walk away and they're like, Wow, yeah, I did not know that, or I did not know that person does that, you know. And it's it's it's it's done very well because we have great people that come and they step on the panel there and they come up and be MCs and different things and sponsors, and yeah, it's a it's a formula that works, and um, people like it. Yeah. People like it. Oh, we do. Yeah, but they they like to come to learn, yeah, you know, and that's the most important to me that they walk out better.
SPEAKER_00And I I do appreciate you being so particular in who you put on these panels because when you are extremely busy at work, it's not easy to step away. Even though you know there's there might be value, you might shake some hands with some important people, it's still not that easy to walk away from your work.
SPEAKER_03Yeah.
SPEAKER_00But at least we know when we're going to an above-board chamber meeting, we're stepping away, but we're going to gain something of value. We're gonna come back a little bit stronger, a little bit more pepper step. It's going to be worth our time, or it's if we're setting a team member, it's going to be worth their time to go. So thank you for being particular about who you put in there and the information you're sharing at such a low cost. Well, I'm told I'm a snob.
SPEAKER_02Yes. In a good way. They say I'm a panelist snob and an MC snob. But we we my members and my my community, business community, they deserve the best.
SPEAKER_03Yeah.
SPEAKER_02You know what I mean? They should only be able to sit there and learn from the best people so they can get things, you know, and that that's important. And you know what I find out with the educational value? They get closer together. It's not a room where they're walking around throwing business cards at each other. Absolutely. That's gonna throw away outside. And I've heard people come to me and say, Nobody even gave me a business card. I said they don't do that, they develop relationships, and relationships are what's what builds your business. You can get a million-dollar contract from somebody, and for a year, and um during that year, your competition is taking that person out to dinner, yeah, they're going doing stuff with families, they're doing all kinds of fun things. You don't have a relationship, you have one year amount of money, and maybe it's a lot, but it's gonna go away. Yeah, and then that your competition. So relationships are really important with the above board chamber. The people in Lee and Kyler County are all friends. You know, they they go back and forth. You'll see Lee County people in Naples meetings and Naples people and Lee County, they go back and forth. It's one organization that works together very well.
SPEAKER_00Yeah, and don't underestimate, you're right, the power of relationships. And yes, sometimes, sometimes we go back and forth because we go to the first one and it was so good that we want to go to the second one, or there might be one or two, you know, panelists different, and we want to hear the information again. So that's how great the panelists are.
SPEAKER_02They're they're they're we're very blessed. And it's funny because I've been doing this for so long that I will have people sometimes come up to me and say hi, and I don't remember them. Yeah because you there's just you figure I do maybe eight a month, and it's been going on for 15 years, and plus I ran another chamber for 13 years. So I've worked with a lot of speakers, and um, I'm blessed to be able to say that. But once in a while you do like, oh, I forgot.
SPEAKER_00Yeah, yeah.
SPEAKER_02I can I can I can understand that. But then I don't mean this whole deal. We hardly ever, I don't even remember ever getting a know from somebody to be on the panel. It's only if they're on vacation or something because they it's nice because they want to be on the panel, they want to teach what they have in the room. So yeah, that's important.
SPEAKER_00Yeah, and it's a beautiful thing to be able to give knowledge away. It is, it is, because that's what helps us to grow. Yeah, exactly. So I have known you for a little over three years now, and what I've seen is that you are always creating and you are always building, you're building up the people around you, but also in your business. So, what new projects do you have in the works or or things that maybe have already launched? Share that with us. What what do you have going on?
SPEAKER_02As I mentioned earlier, I was talking about Mission Possible. In the summertime moment, I noticed a lot of my nonprofits were having a hard time. Not just the little ones, the big ones were. I had big nonprofits tell me they couldn't even do a budget because they didn't know if they were getting money. They had no idea where it was coming from. So I came up with something called Mission Possible. And the Mission Possible was a wonderful organiz um program that I spoke about that people could learn stuff. But it goes further than that. We also decided to relaunch the Christian Chamber. It's called the Southwest Florida Christian Chamber. And the purpose of that is to work with the churches and help them grow and help our nonprofits. And how we do that is an example is last week we had Matt Keller from Next Level Church. He has four phenomenal churches in Southwest, in Lee County rather. And um, I said to Matt, I said, Um, there's so many churches, and you can live next door to a church, and the church could be phenomenal and have all kinds of programs, but that neighbor does not have any idea what kind of programs you have, and they might need it. And he goes, You're right. So what we're doing now with the new Southwest Florida Christian Chamber is a pastor will get up from his church or a priest, and we're probably gonna work with rabbis too. They will get up and they will say a prayer. And after they sell the say prayer, instead of sitting down, they're gonna start telling us what programs they're doing for the community and what they have. So the house next door, if they have somebody with any kind of problem, say it's drug abuse, alcohol, abuse, any anything, um, they will know that that's there. And I tell our pastors and stuff, they said, they laugh and I said, I'm gonna open your doors and knock down your walls. Because if we can do that, if we can each month in each county bring a different church in there and say, This is the programs we have, every time, and we're also gonna bring an inspirational speaker, as people walk out of that meeting, they're gonna learn something. So maybe they need those programs, but they might meet somebody in the next month or so and say, such and such is having a hard time, they don't know where to go. Well, you can go to that, you can go to next level church or Cape Christian church or something. They have those programs that can help you and they're for free. And I said to the pastors, my goal is if I help you grow your church and you get more revenue, I need you to help my nonprofits. And they all said yes. And that's really to my heart right now. Um, if you're a member of the above board chamber, just so you know, um, the South Mesorta Christian Chamber is a BOGO, you get it for free. Okay. So this is not a money maker. Okay, this is a community maker to bring everybody together. Okay. So if we can grow these churches and help the nonprofits, then we're we're bringing our communities together. And we have a nonprofit that's gonna um come in, St. Matthew's House, who does great things in the community, both communities. They're gonna come in and they're gonna talk about what St. Matthew's does, House does. Right, you know, and how what we're gonna learn from each other. We're gonna learn the programs that are in the community. Because right now, nobody knows the com the programs that we have. I mean, we have diamonds in churches and diamonds and temples and diamonds all over the place, and we don't know because the doors are closed. Yeah.
SPEAKER_00So you're helping put those diamonds on display.
SPEAKER_02We're gonna open the doors and knock down the walls so we can all walk work together and help our community heal.
SPEAKER_00Okay.
SPEAKER_02That's important to me.
SPEAKER_00Yeah, I know. Yeah, I know that I do know about you. So if somebody is listening and they want to get involved in the above board chamber, what do you want them to know?
SPEAKER_02I want them to know it's an organization that's there for you. That if they need help, if they need if they're if they're a brand new organization and they need help, we're there for them. I even tell our members if you're having a hard time and it's 10 o'clock on Sunday night and you need somebody to talk to, call me. She means that. I do mean that. She does mean that. I I mean that. I've done that many times where somebody just having a hard time. I will speak with them, talk to them, and pray with them, whatever they they need. Um, we're that organization that's gonna hold your hands and we're gonna set you up with the people you need to meet. That's important to us that we help. We also started a partner. With a above board chamber called they call it Jeannie's Dream Team and how that works. Um, and I started a couple years ago because I had somebody join the above board chamber and they fill out an application. And the application said the lady's name, it said her address, it said she was a business developer, and she had a phone number. She had no anything else. She had nothing. She had nothing. And I realized she didn't have any money. And I was like, how are we going to help her? And I said, well, we're going to start a dream team. And the dream team's purposes will be people in the chamber that do things like marketing, you know, that do ads, that do press releases, do all these, do websites. And they will do those things for those people at a discount price. You know, I don't want somebody falling through the cracks because they don't have the money. People need to know their what they we need to be there to make sure they get the things that they they need to grow their business. And that that's important because we all have stuff. Sometimes we have extra stuff and we need to share.
SPEAKER_00Yeah. Yeah. Yeah. And you're helping people access that, which is beautiful.
SPEAKER_02Yeah. Yeah. So we if they if they're interested in the above board chamber, they can go to our website. It's www.aboveboardchamber.com. Um they can find us there. They can find us on Facebook and LinkedIn, all over the place. Um, we're out there to to help our community because our community matters to us. Yeah.
SPEAKER_00And she you mean that. She means that. She is out there. Yeah, definitely. With social media. I I love how much you were on there just shouting from the rooftops. What do you think? Well, there we got your members.
SPEAKER_02We got great members, and uh the thing that I love most is to promote them and get them out there so people see them. Because sometimes in life things can happen to us and we become invisible. And one of my goals is to make the invisible visible. And so when somebody joins, I put them, you know, I put them up on Facebook, I put them on the phone. Yes, they do, it's everywhere. But when something special is happening, I want to make sure everybody knows that hey, look who's look who's new on the block. Like, look who's out there and look what they're doing. You know, let's help them.
SPEAKER_00Yeah.
SPEAKER_02You know?
SPEAKER_00Yeah. Yeah. Well, you have known Brian Chapman for a long time.
SPEAKER_02You love Brian Chapman.
SPEAKER_00Yeah, and he loves you. So, how did you guys meet? Was that through the above board chamber?
SPEAKER_02Yeah, we met through the above board chamber and Brian came. And Brian's one of those superheroes. He doesn't even need a cape.
SPEAKER_00He has bus. Yeah, he does. He has a bus. A lot of buses, actually.
SPEAKER_02A lot of buses, actually. But Brian's one of those people that's real. You can call him up. Like when we had um Hurricane Ian, my house got pretty much destroyed like yours. We were there in that club. Did survive. Yeah. He did survive. And um I could call Brian up, and if I needed help and just advice or something, he would answer the phone and he's always there. He cares about the community. He loves the community. He's a great family man, he's a great boss, he's a great businessman. And you know what? He's a great friend. If you have, you know, a friend in Brian is a great friend. Yeah, you know, and I appreciate him so much. He has done a lot for the Bug Board Chamber and helped us with our growth and different things. And um, he cares. And he and his his business has grown so much because of the great work he does in our communities. I mean, he's in Charlotte, he's in Lee County, he's in Naples. Yeah, he is everywhere right now. But he does it correctly, he does it wisely, and I I love him. And there's integrity there, there's sincerity. And I think that that cannot be fair. He's he the man is Mr. Ethics. Yes, he is. He's Mr. Ethics, you know, and I like I said, whenever I call him up to like do something with the chamber, he's been on the panel many, many times, and um he does a brilliant job. He just he's just knows how to do business. Yeah. But more important than that, he knows how to treat people. People first. People first. Brian is uh fam faith, family, business, stuff like that. And that's and that's why he's where he is. That's why he exactly because he knows he knows what's important and um he takes care of it. And he makes he makes you when you talk to Brian Chapman Chapman, you know you matter.
SPEAKER_00Yeah.
SPEAKER_02Because he makes he listens to and he makes you feel like you're the only person in the room when you talk to him. Not many people have that gift.
SPEAKER_00Yeah.
SPEAKER_02Yeah.
SPEAKER_00I agree with that. He's a rock star with all of that.
SPEAKER_02He's a rock star. Yeah, he belongs on a bus. On all of them, we gotta put him on the air. Many of them. We gotta put him on airplanes. On airplanes? We'll get him on the airplanes. I don't know if I have the budget for that.
SPEAKER_00We'll see. Give me give me a few years. Yeah, but I I agree with this.
SPEAKER_02He's wonderful. You know, and just look at this place. You look at all these people. When you walk into a Chapman office, you're walking into a place where people are happy to be here. You can feel the energy in the room, you can feel just from the receptionists and everybody walking by and they're like, hi. And it's like, people are happy to be here. Yes. Yeah, and that's a compliment to Brian and the way he runs his business.
SPEAKER_00Brian, uh uh, Janessa, we've had on previous podcasts, they run this business so beautifully. Uh-huh. And um, just there's a lot of heart.
SPEAKER_02A lot of heart. It's all heart.
SPEAKER_00For a profit.
SPEAKER_02Yeah.
SPEAKER_00And that's why the business is where it is today. It is. It is. For sure. It is. So I'm gonna ask you a few questions. Um when somebody thinks of Jeannie Sweeney, what do you think comes to mind?
SPEAKER_02She doesn't sleep.
SPEAKER_00I think that's true. We have that in common though. Yeah. That that that's actually very accurate. That is what it comes to mind when I think of you. All right. How do you start your day? Is there anything you do that helps you to have success in your day?
SPEAKER_02Well, I believe in not jumping out of bed. I believe in when you wake up, you just lay there and you say a prayer and you think of all the people that you love and and you just take a minute for yourself and God, you know, and appreciation. Yeah, appreciate like what what's important? Because sometimes we rush past important things. It's like we forget the child inside of ourselves. If anybody ever has a child and they go for a walk with a child, like a two-year-old or a three-year-old, they're gonna see things that they haven't seen since they were a child. It could be a bug, it could be anything. But you're seeing it through their eyes, too. You're seeing it through their eyes, yeah. So slow down, slow down a little bit. And that, you know, put that childness in you and just look it around. Like open the windows and look at the birds. Find wonder. Look at the sky, you know, like there's nothing more beautiful than the sunset in Southwest Florida.
SPEAKER_00Southwest Florida, yes. I want a shirt that says, look at the sky, you guys, because I every day I'm telling my kids, yes, look at the sky, you guys. And they're like, We saw the sky yesterday. I'm like, but it wasn't this. Like every day is different. I I agree with that wholeheartedly. Look for the beauty and all the things.
SPEAKER_02When we moved to Southwest Florida, which was 88, a long time ago. A long time ago, I called up my sister-in-law, who's a big artist in New Jersey, and I said to her, I think when artists die, God gives them a piece of the sky and they paint it. And she goes, I love that. Because if you live in Southwest Florida, wherever you look, and you can go back and forth, and you look, you see another piece of art. Yeah.
SPEAKER_00That's what I tell my I tell my kids every day. It's beautiful. I literally say that every day. I'm like, our God is an artist. Look at his art. Oh, yeah.
SPEAKER_02But sometimes he shows off.
SPEAKER_00Yep.
SPEAKER_02He shows off.
SPEAKER_00He's been shown off the last few nights. He, oh my gosh. You just go like, wow. It makes me emotional. Yeah. We see sunsets every day. And every day, if I take the moment, yes, you pause, yes, right, and and absorb the beauty, it just is incredible.
SPEAKER_02I love that. I think he does that because we forget so because we don't look down like the children do. So he puts it up so we definitely see what's going on. It lays up.
SPEAKER_01Yeah.
SPEAKER_02You know, look up and see what's there. And it's yeah, it's like artwork. It's like artwork, and you just can't wait to go out and look at it. And you want to you want to go to the beach and see it, you know. We are very blessed to live in San Thomas, Florida.
SPEAKER_00I agree. Yes. I love it when people have that attitude because we are blessed. I say people spend so much money they save for years and years and years to come here for one week and it's in our backyard. Yes. Enjoy it. Yes. Take it in.
SPEAKER_02Yeah. And be kind to them. If they want to drive a little slower, yes. Because they want to look at that sunshine. Yes. They want to see it. We'll we'll clip that one too. I mean, yeah. Yeah. Go, yeah, let them go a little slower. Because they're like, wow. We're like, oh yeah. And we can keep going. No, we need to be, we need to keep the wow in our lives. Yeah. Yeah.
SPEAKER_00I love that. Yeah. I think that's a beautiful place to end this. Let's keep the wow in our lives. Keep a little bit of sweet energy.
SPEAKER_02A little bit, a little bit of goodness because there's more goodness in this world than we can imagine. And we just need to embrace it and be kind to each other. Yeah. And notice it. Open your eyes and notice it.
SPEAKER_00Yeah. Yeah.
SPEAKER_02Thank you so much for sitting here for me. This has been fun. Yes. Great way to end a Friday afternoon. It really is.
SPEAKER_00Yeah. Now we get to eat, right? Um, because we're and neither of us sleep. So we don't need to sleep. So we're either sleep. Um, but yeah, thank you so much.
SPEAKER_02Thank you. And thanks, Brian, and everybody here for the great job you're doing in our communities. I mean, you do great in insurance and that, which is wonderful, but you also do great community work. I mean, going to the beach, Woodfallon, different things. You do our beach cleanup. Your beach cleanup that you do every year with her. I mean, those things are important. And so you're bringing up generations of people to appreciate Southwest Florida. So thank you for what you do.
SPEAKER_00We've always been involved in outreach, and Brian and his family. Brian has a beautiful family. Julie, his kids, they're they're just a wonderful family, but they really have a heart here in Southwest Florida. And but Brian and and his family have always done things like they don't talk about it. I'm in marketing. I'm like, I'm gonna talk about the things that you're doing and that we're doing. So Chapman Insurance Group, one of my big initiatives this year is getting everyone involved in more outreach. Yeah. Right. Because when you do good, you feel good. Yes. Right. And when you feel good, you are able to do a better job. Right. That it all plays together. You're a better parent, when you're you're a better team member, you're a better spouse. Like all plays together. So yeah, just getting our people out there. Share the kindness. Yeah. Yeah. And it's a gift. If we can give the gift of having a team member spend some time doing more for their community, it's a gift for everyone.
SPEAKER_02Exactly.
SPEAKER_00A gift for the giver, and it's a gift for the research.
SPEAKER_02And this time of year, a lot of our nonprofits need help. They need food. Um, they need toys, they need all those different things. I tell people all the time if you can't find it, call me. I will find you a nonprofit.
SPEAKER_00You heard here and help. Contact Jeannie Sweeney and make sure you join the above board chamber if you are not already a member. I feel like everyone's a member, but if you're not, get involved. Great business decision. Thank Jeannie.
SPEAKER_02Thank you so much for thank you for the invitation.