Good morning 👋
Who’s someone who’s made you smile lately?
There’s a very good reason for me asking that, as today’s blog is going to be the first official Sweeney’s Spotlight Series blog, a new idea that I had to shout out some of the people I have had the pleasure to meet in my life.
To kick it all off, I couldn’t think of anyone who’s better suited than Aidan Brannigan.
Hello and Welcome to Sweeney’s Blogs!
Let me take you back in time to around March 2021, when the UK was beginning to come out of its third Covid-19 lockdown. At this point in time, my Nana has been in Cwrt Enfys, a specialised care home for her Alzheimer’s, and we hadn’t been able to see her in person for a year.
When we got the phone call to say that the home was reopening for visitors, there was a huge range of emotions that we felt, but all in all, it was so special to be able to see her again. Anyways, after the visit, I decided to write a little post about it on my LinkedIn (I may even have done a blog on it here), when, all of a sudden, I had a comment on the post saying “Hey Nana”.
Yep, that comment was from Aidan, who happened to see the post as he was starting out on LinkedIn.
Seeing his profile pop up, my first reaction was, “Who is this person? He’s left a nice comment about Nana, so he could be worth finding out more about”. I decided to drop him a connection request – if you don’t use LinkedIn, think of it as a friend request on Facebook – and start to find out more about him and his story.
Anyways, we started chatting away, and it became obvious pretty quickly that Aidan was a vibe. He was a great laugh, someone who had a fantastic outlook on life, and who was genuinely interested in getting to know people, their stories and how he could use humour in marketing to make a difference in the world.
We carried on chatting away for a while, supporting each other’s posts, and then started having some virtual calls, as Aidan is based out in Baltimore, whereas I’m down here in the Swansea valleys. We started to become good friends when, in the spring of 2024, Aidan mentioned that he was coming to London for a couple of days on holiday, to see his friend Jeff.
We’d been virtual friends for around three years at this point, and as fate would have it, the time he was visiting also coincided with a weekend when I was in London for my mate Charlie’s birthday. We thought it would be great to meet up for a coffee in person, so we arranged it on Monday morning, before I was set to head home and Aidan was going to go to Paris.
Aidan turned out to be just as much of a lovely guy in person as he had been online, which wasn’t too much of a surprise in all honesty – you can’t fake the amount of energy this guy brings to everything he does in life. If you need someone who can constantly keep you motivated to keep on improving, living life and having fun in the meantime, he is someone you want as a friend.
We then carried on doing the usual virtual catch-ups, messages and supporting each other’s posts, when, in February 2025, I was told that the Cardiff office of my agency was closing down and that I was being made redundant.
At this point, I’d been thinking of possibly doing a US trip towards the end of 2025, as I really wanted to visit some states and see Aidan and some of my friends at the same time, when I suddenly had the opportunity to make this rough vision a reality.
We jumped on a call, and where I was originally just going to do New York and Baltimore, he helped me plan an insane trip from New York to Princeton, Philadelphia to Baltimore, before ending for a couple of days in DC. I’ve written loads about that trip over the last year or so – it’s safe to say I loved it.
As you may have seen from last week’s blog (add in the link when it’s published – it’s my blog recapping “A Day in Baltimore, one year later”), Aidan was a lifesaver – helping me plan the trip, letting me stay at his, spending the day with me while I was in town, taking me to see my first baseball game and driving me to DC where we got to spend the day with another one of our mates, Carson.
When it came to planning my US tour for 2026, you know I had to give him a call first to see when he was free and fancied coming along – it wouldn’t be a US trip without the Brannigan, at the end of the day, now, would it?
He was again worth his weight in gold when it came to planning the trip, where I could stay in Austin and some of the things to do while I was there (as he lived there for around a year while we’d been friends, before heading back to Baltimore). That’s not even beginning to mention the night out with him and the guys that I had for St Patrick’s Day, and the lovely day we had beforehand – chilling out, catching up and having a great time.
These fun times are awesome to chat about; however, I think it’s also worth mentioning how big a supporter Aidan has been on and offline. When I lost Nana, Cap and Grampa back in 2023, he was the first person, outside of my family, that I was open and honest about how I was really feeling.
We’d jumped on one of our usual calls, where Aidan asked, “Dude, what’s up? How have you been doing lately?”
I tried playing it off, saying that I was fine, but he made the space to chat about it all. That’s the kind of friend Aidan is – someone who’s there for the ups, the downs and the middle ground. He’s a legend, and someone I feel very proud to call a close friend.
Plus, having met his sister when I was in Baltimore, and hearing him talk about the rest of his family, the Brannigans are an amazing bunch, that’s for sure.
Meeting him through a random post about Nana back in 2021, my life is a much better thing with people like Aidan in it. If you need a reminder about the potential of social media, this is it – you never know what kind of amazing people you can meet.
Aidan, thanks for being the first spotlight in this series. For all of the good times we have had, as well as all of the future ones to come. For being you.
Thanks a lot for reading. This blog was so much fun to write. It feels good to sit down for a few minutes and get to chat about awesome people with you all – I’m looking forward to doing this a lot more moving forward.
To close off, I wanted to bring the question I first started this blog with back into play:
Who’s someone who’s made you smile lately?
Be sure to let me know your thoughts, answers to the question and I’ll, hopefully, catch you in the next one 😊
Sweeney
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