Joe and Nikki Sweeney on Living with Purpose

At 4:30 a.m. each morning in Naples, long before the sun peeks over the Gulf, Joe and Nikki Sweeney are already awake. The house is quiet. Coffee is brewing. The couple begin with prayer, then move into what they call SAVERS: acts of silence, affirmation, visualization, exercise, reading, and scribing. Soon they’re outside, either strolling through their neighborhood or—on certain days—walking barefoot on the ground to garner the energy of Earth. “We manage our lives around what matters most,” Joe says. “We are very intentional,” Nikki adds.

It’s true. For the Sweeneys—both in their sixties—little about life is accidental. They moved to Naples in 2021. Both grew up in Wisconsin—Joe in Madison and Nikki in Port Washington. While they love the summers and picturesque scenes of The Badger State, they don’t miss the frigid Midwest winters. “The sunrises in Wisconsin are beautiful,” Joe says, “but not when it’s 12 below. I wake up every day [here in Naples] and think I’ve gone to heaven. We knew we’d like it; we’re shocked by how much we love it.”

But this isn’t your typical Naples retirement story. In fact, it’s not a retirement story at all. Nikki and Joe both maintain active careers, often working in ways that intersect.

After their daily morning walk, where Nikki says they absorb “vitamin D and perspective,” the Sweeneys return home for another beverage: a body-boosting concoction containing kefir, protein, and collagen. From approximately 10 a.m. to 2 p.m., they engage in what they label “deep work.” A seasoned businessperson, Joe might be found crafting words for his next speaking engagement or on the phone sharing insights and advice as a professional mentor. Nikki—a former teacher and school administrator—often spends her work time advising educators, institutions, and policymakers.

The Sweeneys’ afternoons are dedicated to physical exercise. Nikki, whom Joe calls “the Peloton queen,” cycles, strength trains, and does Pilates. Following their workouts, they might partake in a cold plunge or a bit of red light therapy. Dinners are typically prepared together, and most evenings are relished at home. “The six greatest luxuries in life,” Joe says, “are time, health, a quiet mind, slow mornings, meaningful work, and a house full of love.” The couple are deliberate about protecting all of these treasures.

Points of Clarification 

Joe is quick to clarify one matter: “Everyone thinks I’m an author and speaker, but I’m really a business guy.” It’s an easy misconception. He has authored or co-authored more than a dozen books, including Networking Is a Contact Sport (BenBella Books, 2011), a New York Times bestseller, and speaks to large audiences many times a year. But through the decades, Joe has owned and operated manufacturing companies, led investment banking firms, and participated in private equity deals, often with Nikki. He has also served on 28 boards—15 for-profit and 13 nonprofit—across diverse industries, including banking and manufacturing. The range of his experience, he says, is his edge. “When someone’s articulating a problem, I usually have three solutions before they finish,” he says. “Not because I’m brilliant, but because I’ve messed up so many times. I’ve been there.”

While they may be a part of what he does, Joe bristles at words like “coaching” and “consulting.” “I help people go from where they are to where they want to be,” he explains. High-level politicians, company owners, CEOs, elite-level military members, college and professional sports figures, and others have turned to him for advice and inspiration.

Nikki operates at that same altitude—but often in a different lane. With master’s degrees in education and educational leadership, she spent 21 years at the University School of Milwaukee, where she ultimately served as the director of innovation and entrepreneurship. Here, she built a nationally recognized robotics program, expanded opportunities for girls in STEM, and created diploma distinctions that allowed students to align coursework with their strengths and passions. “In many ways, I took Joe’s philosophies in his [second] book, [Moving the Needle (Wiley, 2014),] and I applied these to school,” she says. “If kids can build around what they’re naturally good at and passionate about, they’re more confident. They’re more prepared.”

More recently, Nikki has consulted with education leaders on one of the most polarizing issues in schools today: cell phone bans. After helping to institute a phone-free policy in 2022 at The Village School of Naples, where she served as head of upper school and assistant head of school, she endured some pushback. And yet she also saw something shift. “The mental health of the students improved,” she says. “Connection improved. It wasn’t easy, but it mattered.” She has since advised educational and governmental leaders and written publicly about technology’s impact on student well-being, arguing that in an AI-saturated world, human virtues are the real differentiators. She recently published a book on this matter, The Virtue Code: A Guide to Flourish for the AI Generation (American Real Publishing, 2025), and she has another one on the way examining why fewer people are pursuing careers in education or departing the field.

Service and Strength

Impacting lives happens on the daily for the Sweeneys. It’s built into their calendar. On a local level, once a week, they complete what they call the SWEENEY22: a 22-minute walk wearing a 22-pound weighted vest, followed by 22 minutes of biking, 22 minutes of swimming, and 22 repetitions of sit-ups, push-ups, squats, lunges, pull-ups, and jumping jacks. The workout is meant to honor the 22 veterans a day who, Joe says, die by suicide.

On a larger scale, through their work with The Honor Foundation, a career-transition program for U.S. special operations forces, they mentor military members moving into civilian life. “These are highly intellectual people under next-level stress,” Joe says. “When they’re trying to figure out what’s next, we can help them navigate that.” After speaking engagements for this foundation, Joe and Nikki often schedule about a dozen “virtual cups of coffee,” hour-long, one-on-one mentoring sessions with individuals offered at no charge. “For about 80 percent of our coaching business, we don’t charge,” says Nikki.

Nikki had an opportunity to complete the well-known BUD/S obstacle course at the Naval Special Warfare Center in Coronado, California, where she was able to observe BUD/S training and gain powerful insight into the Navy SEALs community, which she and Joe both admire and seek to serve.

Joe is unequivocal about Nikki’s physical and mental resilience. He calls her “the toughest woman I know.” A cancer survivor who endured a double mastectomy, sepsis, and a near-death experience, Nikki has overcome obstacles yet doesn’t dwell on the past. “I don’t like to give it energy,” she says. “When you give things energy, they reappear.”

Gaining Through Giving

Throughout everything the Sweeneys do, one simple principle seems to reign: it’s not about you. For Nikki, that conviction was shaped early on. When she was just 8 years old, her sister died by suicide. The loss altered the trajectory of her life. “That set me on a path,” she says. “I realized at a young age it’s not about me. It’s about helping other people. I wanted to make sure that didn’t happen to other beautiful, talented women.”

Joe and Nikki embrace wise words from St. Francis of Assisi: “It is in giving that we receive.” Joe explains that one can have everything they want in life by helping enough people. And meaningful connection, not material accumulation, is the real currency, he notes.

This philosophy guides not just their mindset but the way they live. They read voraciously—history, psychology, and other areas of nonfiction. They approach travel the same way they approach everything: with intention. Their marriage has been blessed in different corners of the world, often across varying faith traditions, with each experience deepening their understanding of god and the cultures around them.

When in Naples, their days begin in the dark and typically end early, often by 9 p.m. There is no grand performance to it—just repetition, discipline, and balance. For Joe and Nikki Sweeney, perhaps paradise isn’t a backdrop. Perhaps it’s a by-product of living with passionate purpose.

Story Credits:

Shot on location at the home of Joe and Nikki Sweeney, Naples

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