Ft Myers Beach - Good Neighbor
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Tune in to the Ft. Myers Beach – Good Neighbor Podcast, where the spirit of community meets the rhythm of island life. Each episode is a laid-back journey through heartfelt stories, local voices, and the connections that make our beach town so special. Whether you’re a resident or just dreaming of coastal breezes, let us be your guide to all things good in our neighborhood.
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Ft Myers Beach - Good Neighbor
FMBGN-BIZ-Gulf Coast Business Bank-Banking on Community Revival
Hurricane Ian changed everything for Fort Myers Beach businesses. While some remain shuttered, others push forward with rebuilding efforts, determined to reclaim their slice of paradise. At the heart of this recovery stands Gulf Coast Business Bank, Southwest Florida's first community bank in 15 years, providing crucial financial support when it's needed most.
Treasury Manager Kathy Stefanski joins us to share how the bank's unique approach to commercial lending and business services is helping revitalize the community. "We want our area, our community, to grow," she explains, highlighting their mission to provide financing options and support that larger institutions might overlook. Unlike corporate banks, Gulf Coast boasts entirely local shareholders, fostering a genuine understanding of the region's specific challenges and opportunities.
Beyond financial services, the bank demonstrates its commitment through active community involvement. As title sponsor for the upcoming Bayside Friday Night Concert Series and through partnerships with local organizations like FMB Strong and The Heights Foundation, they're helping restore the island's vibrant culture. This dedication extends to their banking approach, where personal relationships flourish – their branch manager knows every customer by name, transforming routine transactions into meaningful connections.
The conversation offers a fascinating glimpse into how community banking adapts to modern needs while preserving personal service. For businesses struggling to recover from recent storms or entrepreneurs looking to launch new ventures, Gulf Coast Business Bank represents a partner deeply invested in their success. Reach out to them at gulfcoastbusinessbank.com or contact Kathy directly at 239-318-5946 to discover how local banking can make a difference in your business journey.
Gulf Coast Business Bank
Kathy Stefanski
239-318-5946
12205 Metro Pkwy, Fort Myers, FL 33966
(239) 345-2265
gcbbswfl.com
Ft Myers Beach-Good Neighbor
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Welcome to the Fort Myers Beach Good Neighbor podcast, where the sun's always shining and the stories are even brighter. Each episode we bring you closer to the neighbors, local legends and beachside businesses that make Fort Myers Beach the slice of paradise we all love. Pull up a beach chair, grab a drink and let's meet the people who make this island feel like home. We want to send out some island love to Eric Tibbs from Edward Jones State Insurance, usa and Home Well Care Services Fort Myers. Love to Eric Tibbs from Edward Jones State Insurance, usa and Home Well Care Services Fort Myers. They are the businesses that allow us to share the soul of our community with every listener, from local stories to the positive vibe of island life. Here's to celebrating all that makes Fort Myers Beach the slice of paradise we all love. Here's your host, cabo, jim Schaller.
Speaker 2:Welcome Fort Myers Good Neighbors. Today we have good neighbor Kathy Stefanski from Gulf Coast Business Bank Welcome.
Speaker 3:How are you?
Speaker 2:I am awesome. I cannot complain. It's Friday, it's good. It's kind of cloudy rainy in between sunshine, but we get rainbows for that, don't we?
Speaker 3:Yes, yes, my daughter sent me a picture of one this morning.
Speaker 2:See, there we go. Always a positive spin on everything, just like here we're about no shade just sunshine, right, that's what it's about. But let's start off with you explaining a little bit about Gulf Coast Business Bank. I think the words say it all, but I think you can go into a little bit more detail.
Speaker 3:Yes, thank you. So Gulf Coast Business Bank is a community bank that opened three years ago here in Fort Myers, florida. We are the first community bank to open in Southwest Florida. In 15 years. We have one. Yeah, it's amazing, it's really amazing. All of our shareholders are local. We don't use any private equity. We are a full service community business bank. We do offer consumer banks. We don't do any private equity. We are a full-service community business bank. We do offer consumer banks. We don't do any consumer lending but we do do consumer banking products. We just want to help the community. So we do a lot of commercial lending for the businesses. We want our area, our community, to grow. So you know, fort Myers Beach needs a lot of help right now and we're trying to get down there and help as much as we can.
Speaker 2:Absolutely. And speaking about Fort Myers Beach, I mean you could open a bank anywhere, but it sounds like a lot of you guys were local already and that's why you decided on the Fort Myers area.
Speaker 3:Yes, yes, most of our shareholders are local. Bill Blevins he's been in the area for over 30. Yes, most of our shareholders are local, but Levin, he's been in the area for over 30 years. He's our president CEO. Without him, we wouldn't be here today. So, yeah, it's a wonderful place to work and I think we're really going to have a really big impact on the community.
Speaker 2:And that's what it's about. It's like getting some of these smaller businesses back up after, like I said, running a business by the beach sounds like a dream job, right, but we deal with storms in certain situations. We've dealt with a lot of storms lately, but is there something that maybe sticks out for you guys that you can kind of point to that hey, we made it through and now we see the light at the end of the tunnel.
Speaker 3:You mean as far as for the beach?
Speaker 2:Yeah.
Speaker 3:Businesses in general are definitely picking up. In the area all through Fort Myers we're getting a lot of interest in opening new business, a lot of commercial lending. You know people are, people are ready to to get their businesses back up and running. They're ready to reopen and some of them haven't reopened since Ian and it's heartbreaking. So I mean, that's kind of where we come in. We're trying to help them with the financing or just being supportive and helping them with just their basic business accounts and trying to get them back on their feet.
Speaker 2:And what do you think I mean? Obviously there's a lot of issues going on, from rebuilding to restructuring, but what do you think their biggest challenge has been? To get back so they can start bringing money in rather than spending it.
Speaker 3:Right. Well, a lot of people still have so much damage from the storms so just repairing that damage and trying to get some revenue, you know, like a decent revenue stream coming in. They're still struggling with that. But then you have other businesses that have been booming because of the hurricane. So there's a definite there's a flip side to everything.
Speaker 2:Have you seen an influx of new businesses popping up now or coming to the area?
Speaker 3:Yes, yeah, we've definitely seen it. I think, more so after the storms. The businesses that wanted to stay and had the intention of staying, they're still here, but a lot of the pop-ups that were just kind of coming in to make a buck, they've definitely cleared out, thank goodness.
Speaker 2:Yeah, the storm chasers as we call them.
Speaker 3:Right, yes, Right, right, hopefully we don't get any more storms, so we have no more storm chasers.
Speaker 2:Right, keep our fingers crossed. So far, so good, right.
Speaker 3:Absolutely.
Speaker 2:So we touched a little bit about the community. Uh, are there certain things that you guys are doing to help maybe get involved or give back to the community locally?
Speaker 3:yes, absolutely so. I do a lot of volunteering um with a lot of local non-profits. I work with fmb strong, I work with the heights foundation, the boys, boys and Girls Club, pace for Girls and we are actually the title sponsor for the first Bayside Friday Night Concert Series.
Speaker 2:Really Wow, yes, yes and for a little plug for that.
Speaker 3:that's this Friday the 29th at Bayside Park. So if you can make it, smack Daddy will be the band. We're very excited. We're the title sponsor. We will be there. I think we're going to have beach balls past now some good stuff, so we're going to have a table? Yeah, we're raffling off a bourbon and bubbles basket. So we're going to have a bottle of bourbon, a bottle of champagne, some other fun stuff in there. So if anybody sees our Gulf Coast Business Bank table, come on over and put your ticket in the raffle.
Speaker 2:Very nice, very nice. I wish it was tequila, but bourbon's still good, I guess.
Speaker 3:Tequila's my favorite, jim, so I'm right there with you.
Speaker 2:Right, good, tequila's way better. I get it so do you notice certain things maybe trending or changing in your industry. You said you've been around what? For 15 years now, right? Or the first new bank in 15 years? You've been around for three years.
Speaker 3:Yeah, we've been around for three years. I've been in banking for over 10 years, five here in Florida. It's just Florida's a different market when it comes to, I think, all types of businesses. It's very fluid. Things change quickly. You need to be very adaptable down here especially. I'm from Michigan, so compared to Michigan, things don't just real slow up there. So, but yeah, definitely a lot of change. Yeah, I think in everything. But people are. People are getting used to the fact that you don't have to go into the branches anymore.
Speaker 2:Yeah.
Speaker 3:Do you know what I mean? Like we, we still have two you know two personal bankers and tellers on our teller line, but a lot of people don't need the use of an actual physical bank. You can do everything online. You can do your mobile deposits, even for businesses you know they can take pictures of their checks for a mobile deposit, or we have, you know, check scanners that they can have at their place of business. So, and we also will come and pick up your deposits if you need it, if you're in an emergency. So I think people just want better customer service, but they realize they can don't need to be inside the branch as much as they used to.
Speaker 2:Yeah, they don't necessarily need their hand held all the way through the process with somebody. They can, like you said, sometimes when you want to make a deposit at two in the morning, Yep. But you can still do it right.
Speaker 3:Yes, absolutely, absolutely.
Speaker 2:So you mentioned you were from Michigan, right, the Mitten right. You got to say where on the Mitten you were from right?
Speaker 3:No, I'm from right here.
Speaker 2:Okay, All right, very nice, what brought you down to Southwest Florida?
Speaker 3:The weather.
Speaker 2:The weather.
Speaker 3:Yeah, so we bordered Canada, so we had all the lake effect, snow and what they called up there, the polar vortex.
Speaker 2:Yes, so I remember I had. I'm from Wisconsin.
Speaker 3:I know and what they called up there the polar vortex.
Speaker 2:Yes, so I remember, I know about that yep, I get it.
Speaker 3:We had one year um two weeks. The kids didn't have school because it was so cold. The buses wouldn't even start, oh boy, yeah. So we definitely moved down for the weather and we just love the fort myers area. So, yeah, we're super excited to be here and I'm never going back to Michigan.
Speaker 2:No, I moved down here originally in 89 and it was a joke back then was I was putting a snow shovel on the hood of my car and wait until somebody asked me what that is. That's funny. I don't want to shovel anywhere, so I'm done with that, you know? Yes, so speaking about outside enjoying the sunshine and being out in the community, are there certain things you do when you're not at work?
Speaker 3:Oh yeah, I love boating. I love being outside. I go to the beach as much as I can. I live right between Sanibel and Fort Myers beach so I every weekend I'm at one of the beaches somewhere, but I love being in the water. I love boating, I like golfing, hiking, anything outside. I'm definitely an outdoorsy girl.
Speaker 2:There you go, and it's why we live down here to be outside when we can and this is a good time of the year too, because it's not so busy out there right.
Speaker 3:No, it's really you could. Like you could go eat anywhere you wanted right now.
Speaker 2:Right and the parking is great, you don't?
Speaker 3:have to fight for a spot. Oh, my goodness, yes, and the people at Publix are so nice, I mean, like the customers. We all know the Publix people are nice but you ever go to Publix and you, the people that are in from out of town, I'm always like oh, wow, exactly right and it's been great.
Speaker 2:The summer's been great, the water's been beautiful. You know, big applause to what they've done for that, because it's just, it makes a difference. I mean, I'm going on the water and I'm actually seeing my feet in the water. I'm like I haven't been able to do that in a long time.
Speaker 3:It's nice right.
Speaker 2:Yes, really good. So is there is there one thing you wish our listeners knew about Gulf Coast Business Bank that maybe they wouldn't be too aware of?
Speaker 3:Just that we're here, that we're here. We're a local bank, we're a community bank. We're here for you, we can help you with your businesses. People don't know that we're actually here. So we're trying to get the word out, the message, doing some good branding. You know, if you come in you're probably going to know some of our shareholders. You know they're all community people here in Southwest Florida. I mean, just we want you to know we're here for you. How's?
Speaker 2:that and that's the important part. You know, because there's, you know, and you're a small community bank which makes a big difference. My mom worked at a community bank growing up, so it is, it's really part of the community. My mom worked at a community bank growing up, so it is, it's really part of the community.
Speaker 3:It really supports the community rather than the big corporation that's out there and you're just another number to them. Yeah, you're not another number, so I'm newer to Gulf Coast Business Bank, but if you come in and you meet our branch manager, rosie Jim, no lie, she knows everyone's name when they walk in, and it's amazing. And she's like hey Jim, no lie, she knows everyone's name when they walk in, and it's amazing. And she's like hey Jim, hey Bob, how's your day? How's the green kids? Did you go on the boat this weekend? And I just feel like that's how it's supposed to be.
Speaker 2:Exactly Right, right you should know your community and support your community.
Speaker 3:So how about how?
Speaker 2:about our listeners. Go about contacting you if they wanted to learn more get some more information from you.
Speaker 3:Um, they can reach out to us at gulfcoastbusinessbank. com or they can reach out to me directly my cell phone's on my business card. So I mean I'm happy to plug it.
Speaker 2:It's not, I'm not yeah, go ahead and plug it right, so you can reach kathy at 239-318-5946.
Speaker 3:I'm the treasury manager here, so I help all the businesses set up all their business services. Any questions or just if you're curious, don't hesitate to reach out.
Speaker 2:Very good, any last words for our listeners today.
Speaker 3:Have a great weekend and hopefully we see you at Smack Daddy next Friday.
Speaker 2:I love it, I love it, love it. I will be there looking forward to it. Kathy, thank you for being such a good neighbor and we'll see you at the beach soon, right yes, absolutely, thanks jim thanks for tuning in to the fort myers beach good neighbor podcast, where community meets paradise.
Speaker 1:If you loved what you heard, share it with a friend and keep the good vibes going until next time time. Stay sunny, stay salty and keep being a good neighbor. Also, to nominate your favorite neighbors, local legends, heroes or island businesses to be on the show, go to CaboWaboJim. com. That's CaboWaboJim. com, or call 239-427-4100. We want to send out some island love to Eric Tibbs from Edward Jones State Insurance USA and Home Well Care Services Fort Myers. They are the businesses that allow us to share the soul of our community with every listener, from local stories to the positive vibe of island life. Here's to celebrating all that makes Fort Myers Beach the slice of paradise we all love.