We recently had the chance to connect with Lauren Swaim and have shared our conversation below.
Hi Lauren, thank you so much for taking time out of your busy day to share your story, experiences and insights with our readers. Let’s jump right in with an interesting one: What’s more important to you—intelligence, energy, or integrity?
I think integrity is the most important. You can always learn more, energy changes day to day, but integrity is something you have and it carries on after a conversation. It makes you stand out from someone else. You always remember the people who were good, trust worthy, honest people. I think that’s a value that is getting harder to find in people as well.
Can you briefly introduce yourself and share what makes you or your brand unique?
My name is Lauren, and I’ve been running my own private boat charter tours (SWFL Party Pontoon) in Fort Myers Beach for just about 5 years now. I bring my background in marine biology and love of the water, to every tour I operate. But I also wanted to make it fun. A lot of boat tours do just fishing, or just party cruises, or just ecological tours. Why can’t we do both? I will most certainly point out nature or cool history or places along the way, but my favorite part is tossing the anchor out and letting my guests snorkel, shell, float around, or do shots out of shells. I’ve taken out families, seniors, babies, and bachelorette trips. You really do have to be a people person doing what I do, but I love meeting people and having them enjoy the best part of SWFL, however they want to enjoy it!
Appreciate your sharing that. Let’s talk about your life, growing up and some of topics and learnings around that. What breaks the bonds between people—and what restores them?
Trust will break bonds instantly. I think trust is something you need to earn back as well. Sometimes people grow apart, or go through issues that they don’t want to work out. But trust between people isn’t something that’s solved easily with a conversation. To gain trust back, you really have to put yourself in the other persons shoes and prove that you’re in the friendship or relationship with them. Not just with people…If you trust a mechanic and they screwed your boat or car up, you’d be looking for someone else next time.
Was there ever a time you almost gave up?
After hurricane Ian in 2022, I didn’t know what to do. Our whole area (and the tourism) took a major life defining hit. Homes were gone in a few waves. Buildings were gutted. After Ian my boat survived so I went to the barrier islands and ran shuttles getting supplies and locals, on and off while they did search and rescue and rebuilt bridges. Watching everyone you know lose everything they own, their jobs, is hard. How do you move forward? What’s the path? A few months after the cleanup had started, I needed to find work so I started to waitress at a restaurant. I didn’t want to leave the area. This is my home. Business started to pick up again but tourism even today, isn’t back to its normal self, so I’m still working at a restaurant at night, and doing boat tours during the day.
Sure, so let’s go deeper into your values and how you think. What are the biggest lies your industry tells itself?
You do it for the money! I always laugh at that. There are good weeks of course! But what people don’t see is the grind and the bad days. I work on the water because I love it. I can’t think of anything else I’d enjoy doing. Hurricanes happen, engines break down, economies can change. There’s weeks where your phone won’t ring. There’s weeks where it won’t stop ringing. It’s an unpredictable field for sure. I’ve seen some fail and others thrive. It depends how bad you want it.
Okay, we’ve made it essentially to the end. One last question before you go. Are you doing what you were born to do—or what you were told to do?
Definitely what I was born to do. I’ve always wanted to work on the water since I was young. I just didn’t know exactly what. If I could go back and do it all over again, I sometimes think maybe I’d go to vet school to specialize in aquatic animals. But everything led me to where I’m at now and I have no complaints. When I left my last job before starting my own company, my boss had said “you’ll never make money doing it on your own”. That just makes me want it more.
Image Credits
Myself, Lauren Swaim
