Kathy Sperl-Bell has an abstract painting called “Dinner Time.” In it, a Pelican stares down into the sea as dark shadows betray the location of fish who, unbeknownst to them, are in serious jeopardy. What strikes me about this particular Pelican is his ability to keep his eye on the prize. His hunger is evident. That patient facade is a practiced skill, not a breezy indifference. He knows that accomplishing his goal will require calm focus and repeated effort. Dinner won’t come easy, but if he refuses to quit, his belly will eventually be full.
I don’t know if Kathy had all this in mind when her acrylic brush first touched the wrapped canvas, but it certainly would be apropos of her own story. As a woman trying to succeed in business in the 1960s, it’s amazing her head isn’t scarred from banging against all those glass ceilings. But like that pelican, she never quit. Each challenge strengthened her resolve. Finally, when the moment was right, she founded Active Adults Realty in Delaware in 2009, an independent real estate brokerage focused on helping Baby Boomers plan for retirement. It was a hit.
In 2021, she and her husband, Bill, sold the business and retired to The Florida Keys, where she spends her time focused on core pursuits like blogging about travel and retirement, painting, yoga, pickleball, and listening to as much jazz as she can get her hands on.
There may be plenty of fish in the sea, but they aren’t always so easy to catch. Kathy Sperl-Bell’s inspirational story is full of heartache, hope, hard work, and happiness. Maybe yours is, too.
Read The Full Transcript From This Episode
(click below to expand and read the full interview)
- Ryan Doolittle [00:00:08]:
Kathy Spurl Bell has an abstract painting called dinnertime. In it, a pelican stares down into the sea as dark shadows betray the location of fish who, unbeknownst to them, are in serious jeopardy. Now what strikes me about this particular pelican is his ability to keep his eye on the prize. His hunger is evident. That patient facade is a practice skill, not a breezy indifference. He knows that accomplishing his goal will require calm focus and repeated effort. Dinner won’t come easy, but if he refuses to quit, his belly will eventually be full. I don’t know if Kathy had all this in mind when her acrylic brush first touched that wrapped canvas, but it certainly would be apropos of her own story.Ryan Doolittle [00:01:01]:
As a woman trying to succeed in business in the 1960s, it really is amazing that she doesn’t have more bumps and bruises from hitting all those glass ceilings. But like that pelican, she never quit. Finally, when the moment was right, she founded Active Adults Realty in Delaware in 2009, an independent real estate brokerage focused on helping baby boomers plan for retirement. It was a hit. In 2021, she and her husband, Bill, sold the business and retired to the Florida Keys, where she spends her time focused on core pursuits like blogging about travel and retirement, painting, yoga, pickleball, and listening to as much jazz as she can get her hands on. There may be plenty of fish in the sea, but they aren’t always so easy to catch. Kathy Spurl Bell’s inspirational story is full of heartache, hope, hard work, and happiness. Maybe yours is, too.Ryan Doolittle [00:01:57]:
Do you ever wonder who you’ll be and what you’ll do after your career is over? Wouldn’t it be nice to hear stories from people who figured it out, who are thriving in retirement? I’m Ryan Doolittle. After working with the retire sooner team for years and researching and writing about how they structure their lifestyles, I know there’s more to be learned. So I’m going straight to the source and taking you with me. My mission with the Happiest Retirees podcast is to inspire 1 million families to find happiness in retirement. I want to learn how to live an exceptional life from people who do it every day. Let’s get started. Okay. Kathy Spurl Bell, thank you so much for joining us on the Happiest Retirees podcast.Kathy Sperl-Bell [00:02:40]:
You’re very welcome.Ryan Doolittle [00:02:42]:
Now, you’re joining me right now live from your airstream. Correct.Kathy Sperl-Bell [00:02:46]:
We are sitting in our 25 foot flying cloud airstream in Medora, North Dakota.Ryan Doolittle [00:02:53]:
Okay. And you mentioned Madora is Teddy Roosevelt territory.Kathy Sperl-Bell [00:02:57]:
Teddy Roosevelt territory. I mean, this whole town, it’s like what you would think a western town, a nice western town would look like. It’s been restored, renovated, rebuilt. They have theaters. They have. They have this Midora musical that. It’s a whole review. It’s kind of like the North Dakota version of going to Nashville and going to see the grand old opry.Ryan Doolittle [00:03:22]:
Okay.Kathy Sperl-Bell [00:03:22]:
You know, so it’s a whole musical. It’s the storyline. They tell the story of the growth of the town and of Teddy Roosevelt. But it’s very well done. It sounds kind of kitschy, but it’s really very well done.Ryan Doolittle [00:03:36]:
Yeah, it sounds like, you know, you’d have, like, the faces of Mount Rushmore singing and dancing or something.Kathy Sperl-Bell [00:03:42]:
That’s our next stop, because from here, we’re going to Sturgis. And we were warned to make sure that this annual motorcycle.Ryan Doolittle [00:03:52]:
Yeah.Kathy Sperl-Bell [00:03:52]:
Love in.Ryan Doolittle [00:03:53]:
Is Harley Davidson. Yeah. Yeah.Kathy Sperl-Bell [00:03:55]:
So that that has been ended. So we will.Ryan Doolittle [00:03:59]:
Oh, and we’ll go to the, you.Kathy Sperl-Bell [00:04:01]:
Know, all of the monuments and parks there as well. So.Ryan Doolittle [00:04:05]:
So the bikers have left, and the Mount Rushmore fans can come in now exactly the same.Kathy Sperl-Bell [00:04:11]:
Yes.Ryan Doolittle [00:04:12]:
Okay. So you’re traveling all around the country in your airstream.Kathy Sperl-Bell [00:04:17]:
We’ve done this a couple of summers now since we retired, but we left this year on June 1 from Key Largo, Florida, which is where that’s our primary residence now.Ryan Doolittle [00:04:27]:
Okay.Kathy Sperl-Bell [00:04:28]:
And we took kind of the southern route out of, I call it mixing, visiting national parks, cities that I thought I would like, like Santa Fe, Sedona, and also visiting friends, some of whom I have not seen. The two gals I saw when we were in Oregon on the coast up near Portland, but on the coast I haven’t seen since we were 20, and I now 76.Ryan Doolittle [00:04:52]:
Wow. Okay.Kathy Sperl-Bell [00:04:54]:
We were in flight attendant training together with TWA.Ryan Doolittle [00:04:58]:
Oh, my gosh.Kathy Sperl-Bell [00:05:00]:
Is that a riot?Ryan Doolittle [00:05:01]:
Had any of you changed at all?Kathy Sperl-Bell [00:05:03]:
You know. No.Ryan Doolittle [00:05:04]:
We looked really.Kathy Sperl-Bell [00:05:05]:
I mean, yes, we’ve changed. I have gray hair, obviously.Ryan Doolittle [00:05:08]:
No, barely.Kathy Sperl-Bell [00:05:10]:
But I would have. I would have recognized them, and they felt the same. You know, we didn’t. None of us had put on a lot of weight or, you know, significantly changed our style. They were still Peggy and Patrice, and I was still happy. It was hysterical, though. It was fun.Ryan Doolittle [00:05:27]:
How does it. So how long you worked together for a few years or something. And then you just kept in touch?Kathy Sperl-Bell [00:05:32]:
Well, without Facebook, it was a little hard back then.Ryan Doolittle [00:05:35]:
Yeah. Yeah.Kathy Sperl-Bell [00:05:35]:
Think about it. I mean, so we kind of did lose touch, but I think it was Patrice that tracked me down a few years ago via Facebook. And we’ve been trying to put this together ever since. We were going to do the cross country last year, but life got in the way. So we did it this year. So we went the southern route all the way, stopping in Austin, San Antonio, Santa Fe, Sedona, visited friends in Palm Springs. Oh, my God, it was hot.Ryan Doolittle [00:06:03]:
Yeah, it’s really hot.Kathy Sperl-Bell [00:06:05]:
Don’t go there in July. It’s. And we ended up in San Diego, where I have a nephew who just got engaged, spent some time there, went to a Padres game.Ryan Doolittle [00:06:16]:
Ah, yes.Kathy Sperl-Bell [00:06:18]:
Then, of course, worked our way up the coast. And we only have a 25 foot airstream, so we could take the Pacific coast highway almost all the time, which is absolutely phenomenal.Ryan Doolittle [00:06:29]:
Yeah, it’s pretty breathtaking.Kathy Sperl-Bell [00:06:30]:
Oh, it’s gorgeous. So my husband had to drive Miss Daisy to wine country. Of course.Ryan Doolittle [00:06:36]:
Yeah, of course.Kathy Sperl-Bell [00:06:37]:
Do a little wine country. I think I sent you. We were at either Buena Vista or dry Creek vineyards.Ryan Doolittle [00:06:44]:
Okay. You said you had me at Merlot. Is that what you said to your husband?Kathy Sperl-Bell [00:06:50]:
Anyway, did that. We ended up in Port Orford, Oregon, along the coast, just across the border into Oregon, where the daughter of a very dear friend of mine that I grew up with lives my friend. He died of ovarian cancer eleven years ago. So that was, it was good to see her daughter and a granddaughter. So we had a. We just had a lot of fun. So then after that, up to dear Portland with the flight attendant friends, then across to Billings, Montana, where we spent time with my friend Tora, who was my roommate in New York City in like, the early seventies.Ryan Doolittle [00:07:30]:
Okay. But you really know how to keep in touch with the old gang.Kathy Sperl-Bell [00:07:34]:
Well, you know, I’ve lived in many parts of the country. I’ve had checkered past.Ryan Doolittle [00:07:39]:
Yeah, a checkered past.Kathy Sperl-Bell [00:07:41]:
So I do have. I do have friends that have also dispersed. And, you know, the only people I really know in key largo are people I either play pickleball with or my artist friends now.Ryan Doolittle [00:07:54]:
Okay.Kathy Sperl-Bell [00:07:55]:
So I thought this was something I had to do. I wanted to see these people that have been important in my life.Ryan Doolittle [00:08:01]:
Yeah. I mean, I really admire that. It’s hard to keep in touch, let alone actually make a plan of driving to see the person, you know.Kathy Sperl-Bell [00:08:10]:
Well, my husband does the driving. I do the planning.Ryan Doolittle [00:08:14]:
Okay. All right.Kathy Sperl-Bell [00:08:15]:
So he just. He goes where I tell him, point to point. Next up.Ryan Doolittle [00:08:21]:
I am. I’m married, so I know that dynamic pretty well.Kathy Sperl-Bell [00:08:24]:
Sure.Ryan Doolittle [00:08:24]:
Yeah.Kathy Sperl-Bell [00:08:25]:
Your skills, right? You need to have your skill sets.Ryan Doolittle [00:08:29]:
Yeah. Now, I was looking at your. So you have a retirement blog. You want to tell us the name.Kathy Sperl-Bell [00:08:34]:
Of it so people can find myretirementstory.com dot. Yeah.Ryan Doolittle [00:08:38]:
So I was looking at it, and I did notice you hit a few. California. I’m in California, so I keyed in on the California cities. But I did notice when you stopped in San Diego, you wrote, I always find something to like about a city, but I could live here.Kathy Sperl-Bell [00:08:53]:
Yes. Well, number one, once you start adjusting to the weather in Florida, you can’t take the cold anymore. My husband absolutely hates the cold. In fact, on our first date, he started working on me about the keys.Ryan Doolittle [00:09:08]:
Oh, really?Kathy Sperl-Bell [00:09:09]:
Yeah.Ryan Doolittle [00:09:10]:
He got right in there.Kathy Sperl-Bell [00:09:11]:
He got right in there and told me his. His goal. And I was thinking, well, now, how is that going to work? But he explained later that because I had done so much traveling internationally, even, that was one place I had not been.Ryan Doolittle [00:09:24]:
Oh, he knew how to hit. He knew how to.Kathy Sperl-Bell [00:09:27]:
That was his.Ryan Doolittle [00:09:28]:
Okay, well, okay. We’re gonna. We’re gonna get back into your kind of origin story, but I did. Since you mentioned that you live in. In Key Largo, I wanted to ask, because I don’t really know that much about the keys, but my brother in law loves Key west. So how do you. How do you pick one key? Like, what. What is.Ryan Doolittle [00:09:44]:
What’s one key?Kathy Sperl-Bell [00:09:45]:
That’s a good question. And they are very different, frankly. I mean, okay. Before we moved there, we used to take, first a couple weeks, then a month, and go to Key West. I mean, Key west is. Is a great place to spend a few weeks, a month.Ryan Doolittle [00:10:01]:
Okay.Kathy Sperl-Bell [00:10:02]:
The prices also, of housing were going, like, you know, through the roof. We tried. We made a run on a couple of properties. My husband also, not only were we in real estate together, but he did remodeling, renovation.Ryan Doolittle [00:10:16]:
Oh, okay.Kathy Sperl-Bell [00:10:17]:
Never seen a building. He doesn’t go, ooh, I could. I could do something with that.Ryan Doolittle [00:10:22]:
Yeah.Kathy Sperl-Bell [00:10:23]:
But the prices were getting out of reach, and then we started thinking about it when we realized we might be able to buy something that we’re not night people. We really, you know, we’re just not party people.Ryan Doolittle [00:10:37]:
Right. Yeah. Which is, I guess, is key west the party key?Kathy Sperl-Bell [00:10:41]:
Oh, yeah. Yes.Ryan Doolittle [00:10:42]:
Okay. Okay.Kathy Sperl-Bell [00:10:43]:
I mean, there’s other. There’s other things. When we would go up was a group that used to do yoga on the beach in Fort Zachary State park. You know, so I would go to yoga. I mean, there were a lot of other things, too, but you could find the prices getting out of reach and the fact that, you know, just like everywhere. Everywhere that’s popular gets too popular and starts to change. You know, the locally owned stores became tchotchke shops. You know what I mean?Ryan Doolittle [00:11:10]:
Exactly.Kathy Sperl-Bell [00:11:12]:
Started to become tchotchke and hawkers. And so we ended up coming up further. We bought a property in Isla Mirada, which is mid keys.Ryan Doolittle [00:11:22]:
Oh, that’s its own key, is Isla Mirata.Kathy Sperl-Bell [00:11:25]:
Yes, Isla Mirada. Actually, Isla Mirada is made up of a couple of keys. It’s called the village of islands, I think is what Islamorada stands for. We bought a property there. That’s too long a story. But it was one of these in the middle of Isla Mirada, in the middle of the art district that had been vacant for 15 years. It was a mixed use building.Ryan Doolittle [00:11:45]:
Okay.Kathy Sperl-Bell [00:11:46]:
My husband was like, hmm, I can.Ryan Doolittle [00:11:49]:
Do something with that.Kathy Sperl-Bell [00:11:50]:
Oh, man. That was a project. So we did buy it. He renovated. I mean, it needed everything, you know, electric, plumbing, everything.Ryan Doolittle [00:11:59]:
Okay.Kathy Sperl-Bell [00:12:00]:
Renovated. It had commercial on the first floor. And he made a gorgeous two bedroom apartment on the second floor. We lived up there for a while. We have two artists tenants on the first floor. But then, I mean, that was an investment property, so.Ryan Doolittle [00:12:16]:
Oh, I see.Kathy Sperl-Bell [00:12:17]:
We leased upstairs, bought the house in Key Largo, and then we sold that property last year because, you know, as I said, I’m 76. We’re at that age. I want to. I don’t want any obligations.Ryan Doolittle [00:12:30]:
Yes.Kathy Sperl-Bell [00:12:30]:
I want to travel. Yeah. Now I want to have fun. I don’t want.Ryan Doolittle [00:12:35]:
You sold the Islamorada rental property.Kathy Sperl-Bell [00:12:38]:
Yes.Ryan Doolittle [00:12:38]:
And you kept the key Largo house that you live in.Kathy Sperl-Bell [00:12:40]:
So we kept the house in key Largo. That’s our base. Our plan now is during the summer to do things like this. And then in October, we’re going to Spain and Portugal.Ryan Doolittle [00:12:49]:
Wow. Where in Spain and Portugal?Kathy Sperl-Bell [00:12:52]:
Well, we’re spending a month. So we’re going to Madrid. Barcelona.Ryan Doolittle [00:12:58]:
Barcelona.Kathy Sperl-Bell [00:12:59]:
Barcelona. Sitches, Valencia and Malaga. And then my husband looked at and Bill said, boy, we’re going to be honestly close to Casablanca. Can we sneak over there for a couple days? So we’re going to Casablanca for a couple of days.Ryan Doolittle [00:13:14]:
All right.Kathy Sperl-Bell [00:13:15]:
And then we’re going to Lisbon. So small.Ryan Doolittle [00:13:18]:
Portugal.Kathy Sperl-Bell [00:13:19]:
So we can travel around from Lisbon.Ryan Doolittle [00:13:22]:
Now, when you’re in Casablanca, do you think the two of you can reenact any of the scenes from the movie.Kathy Sperl-Bell [00:13:27]:
Just for fun or that might be fun, huh?Ryan Doolittle [00:13:29]:
Yeah. It’s the start of a beautiful friendship.Kathy Sperl-Bell [00:13:32]:
Well, actually, in. In the airstream one day, he went into a pawn shop, and he found a whole bunch of old VCR type tapes. And there happens to be a unit in the airstream, so if we’re somewhere and we can’t get any tv reception or anything, we played. Which one did we play? The maltese falcon or.Ryan Doolittle [00:13:51]:
Oh, another Humphrey Bogart.Kathy Sperl-Bell [00:13:53]:
Another Humphrey Bogart movie.Ryan Doolittle [00:13:55]:
Yeah. And the thing about Portugal. So, I mean, obviously Spain. Yeah. I would love to go. It’s. It’s a dream destination, but I’ve heard that Portugal is also. It almost matches it in beauty, but it’s a lot more affordable.Kathy Sperl-Bell [00:14:08]:
We’ve heard the same thing. I haven’t been to Lisbon since I was a flight attendant, so that’s been like, I was in Barcelona maybe about eight years ago when I was still in Delaware. A couple friends and I went on a yoga retreat to Barcelona.Ryan Doolittle [00:14:23]:
Okay.Kathy Sperl-Bell [00:14:24]:
It was marvelous, the food, really, you know, when you. And this is true throughout Spain, but I noticed mostly in Barcelona, there’s no filler food on your plate. You know, it’s the tapas. Everything is delightful. It’s just. I love the food. I love the wine. I mean, what’s not to love? And the architecture and the art.Ryan Doolittle [00:14:48]:
Yeah. Is it Barcelona that has the Gaudi and the. Yeah.Kathy Sperl-Bell [00:14:52]:
Or the familias Sagrada? Yes.Ryan Doolittle [00:14:55]:
Is that the building that’s still not finished?Kathy Sperl-Bell [00:14:58]:
Correct.Ryan Doolittle [00:14:59]:
They how long they’ve been building it for? A hundred years or something?Kathy Sperl-Bell [00:15:02]:
Something like that. But it’s incredible. I saw it when we were there, so I’m looking forward to taking Bill to see that and the ASA museum and all the other Gaudi influenced architecture. It’s just. It’s a beautiful city, and sitches is kind of. Sitches is a seaside town that’s only about a 30 minutes train rides from Barcelona.Ryan Doolittle [00:15:26]:
Oh, okay.Kathy Sperl-Bell [00:15:27]:
Gorgeous.Ryan Doolittle [00:15:28]:
Now, how are you going to drive the airstream across the Atlantic Ocean?Kathy Sperl-Bell [00:15:32]:
We’re not, obviously.Ryan Doolittle [00:15:33]:
Oh, okay.Kathy Sperl-Bell [00:15:34]:
No, we’re going. We’re going to fly and.Ryan Doolittle [00:15:37]:
Okay.Kathy Sperl-Bell [00:15:38]:
And I asked the gal that we have a travel agent that put it together for us. I said, I don’t want to stay in the Hilton’s. You know, I want to stay in places where the Spanish would stay.Ryan Doolittle [00:15:48]:
Right, right.Kathy Sperl-Bell [00:15:50]:
I’m trying to brush up on my spanish using babble, so.Ryan Doolittle [00:15:53]:
Oh, great. I thought about doing that. Is it working well, I think so.Kathy Sperl-Bell [00:15:57]:
I’m not saying I’ll be able to fluently have a conversation, but I’ll be able to understand, read a menu. You know, they don’t expect you to have perfect punctuation and perfect ground, but como sta, you know?Ryan Doolittle [00:16:13]:
Right. I think if they see you trying, they’ll be pretty helpful with it.Kathy Sperl-Bell [00:16:18]:
I’m better in French. I took more French, but I always tell France, also, if you try, they’ll help you.Ryan Doolittle [00:16:25]:
Okay, so that sounds fantastic. Let’s circle back to the beginning and do, like, a quick rundown of what you did during your primary working years and sort of how it. How it led to where you are now.Kathy Sperl-Bell [00:16:38]:
So I was born in New York, raised mostly in northern New Jersey. And I started plotting my escape probably as soon as I could walk.Ryan Doolittle [00:16:48]:
Oh, okay.Kathy Sperl-Bell [00:16:50]:
17. Right after high school, I moved into New York City, into a YWCA on 45th between Lexington and third, called Morgan Hall. I came from a family where my father did not think girls should go to college. Ah, so that’s the story. I said, oh, well, I went to a bilingual business school in New York City because the nuns in my high school, even though I was number ten in the class, said, well, your father doesn’t think you should go, so. Oh, well, really?Ryan Doolittle [00:17:20]:
So they were in on it, too. They didn’t want to. Okay.Kathy Sperl-Bell [00:17:23]:
I was bucking the tongue.Ryan Doolittle [00:17:25]:
Yeah.Kathy Sperl-Bell [00:17:26]:
I went to. It was a two year school. I did it in a year and a half. And I. My first job, I had a choice of the CIA. Really? Yes. A CIA, United nations or air France. Air France.Kathy Sperl-Bell [00:17:40]:
And CIA wouldn’t tell me where I would be or what I would be doing. I thought that was a little strange at 1920, and Air France paid more than the United nations and that the United nations. All I would have done was sit like you have those earphones on, and translated.Ryan Doolittle [00:17:59]:
That would have been your whole.Kathy Sperl-Bell [00:18:00]:
That would have been kind of boring. And that probably would have been what it was with the CIA also. But with Air France, I started as a bilingual secretary for the general management in New York, which was fun, but it didn’t take me long to realize that even in French, being a secretary was not my thing. So I remember saying to the personnel director, it was back before Hrtaine. I said, well, can’t I get into sales? You know, that’s what I want to do. And he actually, I was 20 years old. He got me a transfer to Los Angeles, to the district sales office, because he said, well, maybe in a smaller office, you know, those secretaries got transfers. But he helped me.Kathy Sperl-Bell [00:18:39]:
He was nice. But no, they laughed at me.Ryan Doolittle [00:18:43]:
Really? After all that.Kathy Sperl-Bell [00:18:45]:
Oh, yeah. They just said, honey, you know, you’re going to meet the right man. You’re going to want to have family.Ryan Doolittle [00:18:50]:
I said, what year was this?Kathy Sperl-Bell [00:18:53]:
This was in, like, 1968. They could say things like that. Oh, honey, when you meet the right man, you know, if you said that today, I’d be a multimillionaire, right? You know what I mean?Ryan Doolittle [00:19:09]:
Yeah, exactly. Yeah.Kathy Sperl-Bell [00:19:11]:
Side note, I lived in Los Angeles the year Bobby Kennedy was assassinated.Ryan Doolittle [00:19:17]:
Did you have an alibi or you.Kathy Sperl-Bell [00:19:22]:
You’re funny. Anyway, so I realized, no, they weren’t going to let me get into sales, and they wouldn’t let an American fly for them either. One Saturday morning, there was an ad on the radio. Literally, I was doing nothing. It said, TWA is interviewing for international flight attendants that are fluent in a foreign language, and I’m not doing anything today. I literally. I. I went to the interview and they hired me on the spot.Ryan Doolittle [00:19:48]:
That was a step in the right direction, from secretary to flight attendant. Like, that was more. It gave you more freedom.Kathy Sperl-Bell [00:19:56]:
I said, I’m going to wait for my age to catch up with my ambition and, you know, rather sitting in an office and being harassed.Ryan Doolittle [00:20:04]:
Oh, man.Kathy Sperl-Bell [00:20:04]:
Blew in an airplane and got harassed.Ryan Doolittle [00:20:06]:
You know, but at least you were mobile.Kathy Sperl-Bell [00:20:09]:
At least I was mobile. When you think about it, what else could I have done at that age that would have allowed me to travel? All of it? I mean, you know, it was eye opening. I. It was very. I think travel is the best education.Ryan Doolittle [00:20:25]:
Yeah. What’s that? Isn’t there a Mark Twain quote about travel? Probably it’s the cure for. For bigotry or some. Something like that. Butchering. Yeah. So you. How long did you do.Ryan Doolittle [00:20:36]:
When did you stop being a flight attendant?Kathy Sperl-Bell [00:20:38]:
I was offered a special assignment to TWA corporate. They were having a problem with, like, we used to cook on flight filet mignons and things, and they were disappearing from planes. So they. Who better than to hire a flight attendant? And there were two of us, a friend and I, to figure out a system to identify and stop the theft, but.Ryan Doolittle [00:21:03]:
And you were like. You were like a filet mignon detective, seeing who was taking these things.Kathy Sperl-Bell [00:21:09]:
I even went out to Guam. So they flew me around all these places, and we literally designed a system that back then was all paper. You know, I signed it over to you. You signed it. And then eventually they. They sent us to learn Fortran because they then turned this into a program. Yeah, a computer program.Ryan Doolittle [00:21:28]:
You mean you. They used what you did and converted it.Kathy Sperl-Bell [00:21:32]:
Converted it, yes. We created the programs that they then.Ryan Doolittle [00:21:36]:
That is really cool.Kathy Sperl-Bell [00:21:38]:
It was fun. Anyway, I got into sales in the travel industry, so back then, the only way you could get a discounted trip was to charter a plane. So it was a charter, and somebody put together a whole package for you. So I started putting those together, and I was going out and calling on corporations, and I did pretty well at it. That was with a company called Hawaiian Holidays. Did that same kind of thing, taking people to Hawaii. Ended up then at a Hilton inn up in Cranston, Rhode island, as the director of sales. It was a Hilton inn that was managed by Helmsley Spear out of New York.Kathy Sperl-Bell [00:22:15]:
If you’ve never heard of Leona Helmsley.Ryan Doolittle [00:22:18]:
The queen of mean.Kathy Sperl-Bell [00:22:19]:
Queen of mean. That’s exactly what it was.Ryan Doolittle [00:22:21]:
Yeah. Okay.Kathy Sperl-Bell [00:22:22]:
Yeah. It had gone bankrupt, was bought by a bank, and managed by Helmsley Spear. So I took over a hotel that had zero business and built it up, but.Ryan Doolittle [00:22:32]:
Oh, okay.Kathy Sperl-Bell [00:22:33]:
Yes. After almost two years, I was told I was overqualified for the position, and there was nowhere else for me in the company. I was the only female sales director in the company.Ryan Doolittle [00:22:42]:
Yeah.Kathy Sperl-Bell [00:22:43]:
You know, it’s just.Ryan Doolittle [00:22:45]:
It was a tough something. You were kind of used to by that point. I would think you were, because you were constantly running up against that.Kathy Sperl-Bell [00:22:52]:
Yes. So, you know, at that point, it was okay. I was in Rhode Island. I thought Boston would be a better place. I called a. A headhunter in Boston. I said, I gotta find a way to make some money. You know, I have to get into an industry where I can do something.Ryan Doolittle [00:23:08]:
Yeah.Kathy Sperl-Bell [00:23:09]:
And he eventually called back. He said, I’ve got the perfect job. I said, okay. He said, computer store. Framingham store manager. I said, I’m sorry.Ryan Doolittle [00:23:17]:
What did that lead you to? Working for compact computer in Houston?Kathy Sperl-Bell [00:23:21]:
Yes. Yes. We were the entrepreneurs that literally got Compaq off the ground. It was. It was incredible in the beginning. It was challenging, rewarding. I made it to director level.Ryan Doolittle [00:23:37]:
Oh, wow.Kathy Sperl-Bell [00:23:38]:
Yeah.Ryan Doolittle [00:23:39]:
You know, for someone who was up against, I mean, a pretty thick glass ceiling, you really were fearless, it seems like.Kathy Sperl-Bell [00:23:46]:
Well, I regrouped myself. I did it many times, but that one was. That was a good one. I then got hired over by Wang laboratories, decided they were going to start a PC division. When that didn’t pan out, you know, there was another. I tried a few other things, but the business had kind of had setbacks. The market had setbacks. Things got a bit touchy there for a while.Kathy Sperl-Bell [00:24:13]:
In the mid nineties, I was like, okay, I had to regroup. Again. And that one was hard when you’re getting around 50. And now what? That was tough. I ended up deciding to move over to Delaware because while you’re in DC, the closest beaches were the Delaware beaches.Ryan Doolittle [00:24:31]:
Okay.Kathy Sperl-Bell [00:24:32]:
I was single. I was single for 30 years in between marriages, so I got a beach house. You know, every weekend you’d be over at the beach. I said, well, let me move to Delaware and see if I can figure something out. And in 2000, I love jazz. I think I’ve mentioned that a few times.Ryan Doolittle [00:24:50]:
Yeah.Kathy Sperl-Bell [00:24:51]:
I’d met a couple people. We went to Rehoboth beach to go to the Rehoboth beach jazz festival in October of 2000, and I got picked up by this nice, young, strapping young gentleman. He’s. Yes. Who I’m now married to. And I thought to myself, well, at least he likes jazz, you know, at least give him a date.Ryan Doolittle [00:25:13]:
Right.Kathy Sperl-Bell [00:25:14]:
And, you know, he had had his turmoil. He was divorced, not that long, and regrouping. I said, all he had was his good looks, but that’s a good line. Yeah. And we just kind of, you know, he told me all his stuff. I told him all my stuff, and they come out like, hmm, worth a try. And we literally, we supported each other, and, I mean, we ended up getting together. And he said, you know, I always wanted to start a remodeling company.Kathy Sperl-Bell [00:25:51]:
I said, well, then do.Ryan Doolittle [00:25:53]:
Yeah, yeah.Kathy Sperl-Bell [00:25:54]:
But I guess one of us better go find a way to make some money.Ryan Doolittle [00:25:57]:
That’s important. Yeah.Kathy Sperl-Bell [00:25:58]:
And literally that, next Sunday, I opened a news journal in Wilmington, Delaware, and there was an ad that this seven office real estate company, but they were getting inquiries and leads, but they didn’t know what to do with them. So literally, the job they hired me for was called Internet business development manager.Ryan Doolittle [00:26:18]:
Okay.Kathy Sperl-Bell [00:26:19]:
And I was able, in 2000, going into 2001, to demonstrate one year, $20 million worth of new business.Ryan Doolittle [00:26:28]:
Oh, my goodness. Okay.Kathy Sperl-Bell [00:26:29]:
And I thought, huh, real estate. I’d not, you know, I had not thought of it. And I got my license, and Bill and I got married. I was finally in the right place at the right time, because I was in my fifties. I had been through all kinds of changes and relocations, and, you know, now what? And I, very early in my real estate career as just an individual agent, came up with this concept of active adults. Delaware. I was going to focus on people like me from all those expensive states, high tax states, New York, New Jersey, Connecticut, Pennsylvania, DC, Maryland, Virginia. Right.Kathy Sperl-Bell [00:27:09]:
Delaware was. And it had beaches, and it had. So I started literally just focusing on that market? I did. I created a website which, like I said, back in the early two thousands, very few realtors had their own websites.Ryan Doolittle [00:27:25]:
Right. So you were way ahead of the pack by having one.Kathy Sperl-Bell [00:27:29]:
Exactly. I was early, and I started generating my own leads. I was doing very well. So then Bill got his license because it was getting busy. And by about 2008, which was, if you remember, a big dip, the real estate market went. It was terrible.Ryan Doolittle [00:27:46]:
Yeah, well, the great recession. Right. That, exactly.Kathy Sperl-Bell [00:27:51]:
That was, it was tough.Ryan Doolittle [00:27:53]:
Yeah.Kathy Sperl-Bell [00:27:53]:
I decided that if I was going to stay in real estate, I had to have my own brokerage because, you know, I wanted to do it my way.Ryan Doolittle [00:28:01]:
Yeah.Kathy Sperl-Bell [00:28:02]:
And because he was also in construction. Long story short, there was a property on the main road into Lewis, Delaware, that was for sale. It needed everything. But I said, I don’t want to rent an office in this market. I wanted to start out owning the property and owning the brokerage. He turned that garage with an apartment above it into a beautiful building that became our office.Ryan Doolittle [00:28:29]:
So he got it. He worked his magic like he does when he has a project.Kathy Sperl-Bell [00:28:34]:
Yeah, absolutely. Absolutely. Did a fabulous job, and I focused on building the business. Our office manager came from the company we’d been with. She came with us. So it was the three of us. Initially, we call ourselves the three legged stool, you know, because I did the marketing and the sales and the, you know, and Bill did the back office. He took care of the accounting.Kathy Sperl-Bell [00:28:58]:
I did the forecasting. He did the accounting. And Judy took care of all the paperwork for the contracts and all that part.Ryan Doolittle [00:29:06]:
Wow. And there was the team. It was, it was an all star team.Kathy Sperl-Bell [00:29:09]:
Absolutely. It was the three of us doing what each of us did best. I remember sitting with Bill and Judy saying, all right, what should we call the brokerage? Active adults realty. You know, I mean.Ryan Doolittle [00:29:20]:
Yes.Kathy Sperl-Bell [00:29:20]:
So we stayed with that. And it’s funny because the, you know, the, the local real estate stars that had grown up there, you know, and their mothers were in the business. They thought I was crazy. They had. Did you have to limit your market? Yeah, I said, only to the people that actually have money.Ryan Doolittle [00:29:36]:
Well, and you. So you sold active adults realty in 2021, right?Kathy Sperl-Bell [00:29:41]:
2021, almost 22 some. I forget that.Ryan Doolittle [00:29:45]:
And that’s how you were able to retire at, when you were 74, so. And what does that mean for you, retirement? I mean, are you, you’re just not working at all?Kathy Sperl-Bell [00:29:53]:
You know, I’ve resisted. I, I would find myself starting to think about doing. I said no. And now that I took up painting which I had never done. I never took an art class.Ryan Doolittle [00:30:06]:
Really?Kathy Sperl-Bell [00:30:06]:
Never.Ryan Doolittle [00:30:07]:
Because you love it now, you’re an abstract painter, right?Kathy Sperl-Bell [00:30:10]:
I love it. I absolutely love. And, you know, so I’m. I joined an art guild. I’m doing that. I do participate in the art guilds, shows or some of the other, you know, the high school will have the fair things like that.Ryan Doolittle [00:30:24]:
Wow.Kathy Sperl-Bell [00:30:26]:
I have a website. You’ve seen the website, I think.Ryan Doolittle [00:30:28]:
Yeah. Yeah. In fact, I wanted to bring up. I liked your painting called dinner time, and it’s. It looks like a pelican who’s looking. Looking at all the fish that he might. Looking at the.Kathy Sperl-Bell [00:30:43]:
Keys all the time. But, yeah, I do the tropical series. I do a lot focused on jazz or dance or. I like the more abstract things, which is not necessarily what sells in the keys, but I’m working on other things. I found a company up in Montreal that does clothing. I can upload my painting, and they may. I can choose, you know, I want a duster, a scarf, a beach cover up. And it’s incredible.Kathy Sperl-Bell [00:31:10]:
I mean, so I’m going to see what I can do with that when we get back. We’ll be back to key largo the end of the month.Ryan Doolittle [00:31:17]:
Okay.Kathy Sperl-Bell [00:31:18]:
Got to get serious again.Ryan Doolittle [00:31:19]:
Time to. Yeah, it’s for you. For you to get specific. You also, it’s time to get abstract. So it’s sort of ironically, I said.Kathy Sperl-Bell [00:31:29]:
My other love is we’re active, and Bill and I both love pickleball, so we play pickleball. We even play.Ryan Doolittle [00:31:35]:
You play four or five times a week, right?Kathy Sperl-Bell [00:31:37]:
Yeah, for two, 3 hours each.Ryan Doolittle [00:31:40]:
That’s amazing. How do you do that while you’re on the road or that you can’t or we do.Kathy Sperl-Bell [00:31:45]:
I believe it. Well, there are apps. There’s one called places to play. So when we’re on the road, I’ll put in, like, medora, you know, and find out where people play. And there’s beautiful courts here. We’ve played. We played this morning. We played yesterday morning.Kathy Sperl-Bell [00:32:01]:
We played a couple times here. We’ve played almost everywhere we go. And what’s nice about pickleball compared to, like, tennis, it’s competitive, but it’s also social. And most places you go, they have what they call open play, and some places it’ll be in the morning, others it might be at evening. And when you show up, people will, all right, you two go off, and these two people waiting will come on. You know, they include you.Ryan Doolittle [00:32:31]:
It’s not like cutthroat. It’s not like, get off. We’re winning here.Kathy Sperl-Bell [00:32:35]:
No, it really. I’m sure some places, but I. We have not run into that. And where we play in Key Largo, we have a system. We have a board, and you have squares. So if you put a foursome together, you’re in that square, the next foursomes in that square. And that way, you keep mixing up the groups. Of course, they’re always the, you know, the best players that only want to play with the other best players, you know?Ryan Doolittle [00:33:01]:
Right, right. Yeah.Kathy Sperl-Bell [00:33:02]:
Typically, it’s social. It’s, you know, it’s a lot of exercise. I’m sorry. You play for 3 hours.Ryan Doolittle [00:33:11]:
Yeah. You’re burning some calories.Kathy Sperl-Bell [00:33:12]:
Not too many overweight pickleball players.Ryan Doolittle [00:33:15]:
Right. Do you consider yourself a pickle head? Isn’t that, like, a fanatic?Kathy Sperl-Bell [00:33:22]:
Kind of. I mean, we really. I really. I would miss it if I didn’t play.Ryan Doolittle [00:33:26]:
Right.Kathy Sperl-Bell [00:33:27]:
It’s just fun. And I mix that with yoga to try to keep my poor body in shape. I have broken my. I did break this a couple years ago. I fell playing pickleball. I was probably out almost a year because.Ryan Doolittle [00:33:39]:
Yikes.Kathy Sperl-Bell [00:33:40]:
It was. Yeah.Ryan Doolittle [00:33:42]:
So anyone out there looking to play pickleball? Two big pieces of. Yeah. Don’t fall. And if you’re looking for a place to play, use the app called placestoplay.Kathy Sperl-Bell [00:33:51]:
That’s one of them. There are others, but that’s one of the most reliable ones I’ve found. I also will just go to Facebook and see if the. If they have a Facebook group like our group in Key Largo. We have a group called Key Largo Pickleball.Ryan Doolittle [00:34:05]:
Okay. You can get all your.Kathy Sperl-Bell [00:34:07]:
And that’s how we communicate with each other. Hey, anybody want to play it for this afternoon? You know, that kind of thing.Ryan Doolittle [00:34:13]:
So a perfect day for you is you get up, you play pickleball kind of first thing in the morning, and you paint. You paint all afternoon.Kathy Sperl-Bell [00:34:21]:
Yep.Ryan Doolittle [00:34:22]:
And then in the hot summer months, when it’s warm enough to travel, you head in the airstream and drive all the way to Oregon or wherever that was. This year.Kathy Sperl-Bell [00:34:31]:
Last year, we went up the east coast and did the Newport Jazz festival, and then we went up into Maine. We went up to Bajaba. You know how to say it? Bajaba.Ryan Doolittle [00:34:41]:
Bajaba.Kathy Sperl-Bell [00:34:41]:
And went to, you know, Acadia National park up there. We went to Portland, which is. Portland is the place now. It’s a yuppie.Ryan Doolittle [00:34:51]:
Portland, Maine.Kathy Sperl-Bell [00:34:52]:
Is that Portland, Maine? Cormy is. I mean, it’s food heaven, great restaurants, and very chic. The young people love it. And then we went to, uh, we went to Cape Cod.Ryan Doolittle [00:35:07]:
Okay.Kathy Sperl-Bell [00:35:07]:
Cod, which was lovely. So, you know, we vary it every year, and now we want to mix it with, like, our trip to Spain and Portugal coming up in October.Ryan Doolittle [00:35:16]:
Going international now. Yeah.Kathy Sperl-Bell [00:35:19]:
We’re not taking the airstream. We’re flying.Ryan Doolittle [00:35:21]:
No. Right. And. And how often do you work on your retirement blog?Kathy Sperl-Bell [00:35:26]:
It’s been a little tough on the road because we’ve had not the greatest reception in some areas, so I’ve fallen a little bit behind, but I’ve been trying to. I’d like to post every week. I don’t. But maybe every other week.Ryan Doolittle [00:35:40]:
Okay, so. But you’re doing it fairly. I mean, fairly on more than some people. Yeah, that. That’s pretty often. Okay. And when you’re home, you’re writing every week, or when you’re home, you write less?Kathy Sperl-Bell [00:35:51]:
It depends. When I’m home, I’m probably focusing more on art, pickleball, you know, the things that I do. And when we travel, of course, almost a travelogue, you know, of the places we’ve been and the things we’ve done.Ryan Doolittle [00:36:05]:
Yeah.Kathy Sperl-Bell [00:36:06]:
And I always provide links, you know, so if it was a great park, a great restaurant, a great this, I always like to late to them. So it provides others with good information.Ryan Doolittle [00:36:17]:
Well, and you consider yourself happy?Kathy Sperl-Bell [00:36:20]:
Yes, I do.Ryan Doolittle [00:36:22]:
Tell me why. Tell me how you got there and why you feel happy.Kathy Sperl-Bell [00:36:26]:
I made it. I mean, you sure did. I faced a lot of resistance, a lot of odds, a lot of. I almost gave up a few times. But like I said this last time, I think, I don’t know if I could have done it on my own, but having somebody else, you know, having a partner and. And we really are partners, you know, we’re good at different things. You know, I said, yeah. Kathy does the marketing.Kathy Sperl-Bell [00:36:53]:
She talks to people. That. That’s Kathy’s thing, you know?Ryan Doolittle [00:36:56]:
Yeah.Kathy Sperl-Bell [00:36:57]:
He. But he’s very analytical. I mean, he can. He can do anything in construction. He can. You can do anything with the airstream. You know, he’s. I won’t show you.Kathy Sperl-Bell [00:37:06]:
It’s a mess right now, but he has redone parts of the interior of the airstream. I mean, he’s just. You can do anything.Ryan Doolittle [00:37:13]:
Yeah.Kathy Sperl-Bell [00:37:14]:
And we just put our heads together, and we managed to do it. We managed to. And it was because of our own efforts. There’s no way we could be doing this if we hadn’t, you know, been able to pull it off ourselves. We did it ourselves.Ryan Doolittle [00:37:30]:
You were both very talented in different ways, and you fit together like a puzzle piece. And then it was just twice the power, it seems.Kathy Sperl-Bell [00:37:40]:
Well, and, you know, he said one time, he said, you know what I’m afraid of? You’re going to die at your desk. Because we were, you know, and I thought. It made me start to think, you know, well, let’s see if we can. And that’s when we started talking to other brokerages and things. And I said, but I’m not going to sell it to somebody that doesn’t get it right. It was my baby. I mean, it was, you know.Ryan Doolittle [00:38:04]:
Yeah. I mean, you put so much sweat equity into it, you know, and we.Kathy Sperl-Bell [00:38:10]:
Spent six months working alongside with the folks that bought it. And, you know, how did you do those blogs? How did you do those videos? Tell me about, you know, the thought. And. And they have picked it up, literally, and made it theirs. And that’s the other reason we sold our home in Delaware. It’s a very small town, Lewis, Delaware. And I didn’t see how I could sell it to somebody and they would make it theirs if I was still next door.Ryan Doolittle [00:38:35]:
Oh, I see. Yeah.Kathy Sperl-Bell [00:38:36]:
Because it was. It was so identified with me.Ryan Doolittle [00:38:40]:
So you would have been. They would have been under your shadow? Kind of.Kathy Sperl-Bell [00:38:43]:
It would have. It would have been hard for me to stay away. And it would have been hard for them to make it theirs.Ryan Doolittle [00:38:49]:
Yeah.Kathy Sperl-Bell [00:38:50]:
They have really made it theirs. And I’m proud of it. I mean, I’m proud of the job they’ve done. They’ve tweaked it. It has their own personality on it. But they do the videos, they do the blogs, they do the. They’re focused. They’ve kept the focus and the whole personality of it.Kathy Sperl-Bell [00:39:10]:
It’s like being a child. Grow up and leave home and be successful.Ryan Doolittle [00:39:15]:
They are. And you are. I mean, you said you’re more relaxed now than you’ve ever been, and if.Kathy Sperl-Bell [00:39:21]:
You didn’t know me before, but that’s something that’s. Yes. I’m not sure. Mellow, but, yeah, I’m much more. Yeah, I’m much more relaxed, much more. I can let things go. It’s my time now to just be happy. Just do what I want to do.Ryan Doolittle [00:39:41]:
You worked hard, and now you get to enjoy yourself. I think. I think, do.Kathy Sperl-Bell [00:39:46]:
I wish I had a few more years? But I’m healthy, you know, I think I’m going to. I turned 77 in October, and I think. I think that’s it. I think we’re just going to stay 77 forever.Ryan Doolittle [00:39:59]:
That’s fine. That sounds good. Yeah, why not?Kathy Sperl-Bell [00:40:01]:
It sounds, you know, has a nice ring to it.Ryan Doolittle [00:40:05]:
And you don’t think you’ll get to the end of your life and think, I wish I had spent more time at my desk?Kathy Sperl-Bell [00:40:10]:
No.Ryan Doolittle [00:40:11]:
Yeah, I don’t think so. Well, Kathy, is there any other advice you’d like to give to people who might be looking for a happy retirement and they don’t know if they can get there or they don’t know what to do?Kathy Sperl-Bell [00:40:22]:
Well, you know, we all know people that never really put aside money for retirement. You know, that would be very scary to me, to get to this age and not feel that I’m okay. That would be very scary. So.Ryan Doolittle [00:40:38]:
Yeah.Kathy Sperl-Bell [00:40:38]:
And two others, you know, it’s not easy, but don’t give up. You know, you get knocked down, you got to get back up. You get knocked down, you got to get back up. That’s all we really can do.Ryan Doolittle [00:40:50]:
Yeah.Kathy Sperl-Bell [00:40:51]:
And that can happen to anybody. I don’t care how many degrees you have or whatever, you know, stuff happens, and the only thing you can do is come back.Ryan Doolittle [00:41:02]:
You know, I think there’s that, that saying. That’s not how many times you get knocked down, it’s how many times you get back up.Kathy Sperl-Bell [00:41:09]:
Absolutely. Everybody has a story. But I think the only thing I can say I had was I was able to. Okay, here we go again. Let’s. Yeah, just. Just try again.Ryan Doolittle [00:41:21]:
Yeah, that’s it.Kathy Sperl-Bell [00:41:23]:
And don’t let anybody else tell you exactly. No.Ryan Doolittle [00:41:27]:
You know, about you better than they.Kathy Sperl-Bell [00:41:29]:
Do, because if people think you’re a threat, what are they gonna do? Oh, you can’t do that. You know, go play it safe. No. You know, get training in something. Well, Bill, with his, one of his kids who was kind of floundering, he said, sean, get a trade. You know, do something that eventually you can make it your own business. Electrician, h vac plumber and he finally, he listened, and he’s now become an apprentice plumber. He’s doing very well.Kathy Sperl-Bell [00:42:00]:
He’s making money, and he’s in his early thirties. After x number of years, he’ll literally be able to be a licensed master plumber. Takes years and his own business. That’s the way you get security these days. People don’t have the opportunity often to work for the same company for 30, 40 years.Ryan Doolittle [00:42:23]:
And, no, it’s much more rare now.Kathy Sperl-Bell [00:42:25]:
Yeah, much more rare now than it was in our parents generation, for sure.Ryan Doolittle [00:42:31]:
Well, let him know that in about 35 years, I’m going to see if he’ll be on the podcast.Kathy Sperl-Bell [00:42:35]:
Okay.Ryan Doolittle [00:42:41]:Kathy Spurl Bell has been a real pleasure to talk to. And if you want to go and see any of her art or you want to see her retirement blog, we’re going to list all of that on our show page. Kathy, thank you so much for being on the show. It’s been a real pleasure.
Kathy Sperl-Bell [00:42:58]:
Well, it’s been a lot of fun. Ryan, thank you so much.
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