Welcome to the "Show Me The Way" podcast with David Seitter
In this episode of "Show Me the Way," Dave and guest Rita Cortes, Executive Director of the Menorah Heritage Foundation, to delve into her incredible journey. Rita, the first girl to play boys baseball in Kansas City, shares her experiences from practicing attorney, CEO of a construction company, to leading philanthropic efforts in Kansas City. She also gives insights on succession planning and retirement.
Ep. 53 — From the Ballpark to the Boardroom: Rita Cortes Shares Her Winning Strategies
Rita has crossed various domains, from law to business to philanthropy. She began playing baseball in Kansas City before becoming an attorney, CEO of a construction company, and now a significant player in philanthropic organizations. Her story is not just about career progression; it's about breaking barriers, continuously evolving, and giving back to the community.
Early Life and Education
Born and raised in Kansas City, Rita attended Barstow School and Pembroke Hill School. She grew up with a strong support system from her family, which ingrained in her the value of hard work and persistence. Rita was actively involved in sports and was fortunate to play numerous sports including tennis, basketball, and field hockey. She played basketball in college at Rice University and later transitioned to soccer, where she played as a goalie despite never having played soccer before.
Law and Public Service
Rita spent her summers working on Capitol Hill for various Midwestern politicians, including Senator Bob Dole and Representative Jan Meyers. This experience piqued her interest in law and public policy, leading her to attend George Washington University Law School. She practiced law in the DC metro area, primarily focusing on bankruptcy litigation. Dealing with real estate recession cases armed her with invaluable lessons on resilience and strategic problem-solving.
Returning to Kansas City
After practicing law, Rita returned to Kansas City to join her family's commercial construction business, Hoffman Cortes Contracting. Her journey was not straightforward; it involved rigorous negotiation and learning. Eventually, she took over as CEO and significantly grew the company's revenue and employee base. Rita emphasized the importance of external experience for any family member joining a family business, as it brings valuable insights and objectivity.
Succession Planning
One of the more profound lessons Rita shares is the complexity of succession planning in family-owned businesses. She underscores the necessity of clear communication and roles within the family. She recounts, for instance, how calling her father by his first name in professional settings helped her distinguish personal relationships from business decisions.
Philanthropy and Community Engagement
After leaving the construction business, Rita had a successful stint as a partner at a competing law firm before being offered the role to run Menorah Heritage Foundation. Here, Rita found her calling in helping give away money to philanthropic causes, a role that leverages her extensive experience in law, business, and community engagement. The foundation is focused on enriching the Kansas City area, particularly the Jewish community and broader Midwest.
Reflections on Retirement
Rita believes in the idea of "rewiring" rather than retiring. She sees herself continually engaged in meaningful work, whether in an official capacity or through volunteer roles. She currently serves as the chair of the board for Kansas City Public Schools, using her expertise to contribute to educational improvement.
If you found Rita's story inspiring, feel free to reach out to her via her professional email at rcortes@jcfkc.org or explore her work with the Kansas City Public Schools.
To reach out to Dave for advice or consultation, please visit
play boys baseball in Kansas City.
(00:21):
She's one of a kind, but it transcends it.
I just like saying thatbecause it's so much fun.
The lady went from Kansas City,she went to DC, became an attorney.
Became CEO of a constructioncompany, and now she is a
significant player for philanthropicorganizations for the Midwestern
(00:42):
region based here in Kansas City.
But you're going tofind so much more there.
You're going to find out about howto deal with succession planning
and how to deal with your thoughts.
Welcome
(01:08):
to Show Me The Way, a podcastpresented by Spencer Fain,
LLP about business succession,planning, the merger and acquisition
experience, and successful exits.
I am your host, Dave Sider.
Ladies and gentlemen, joining me ontoday's show is Rita Cortez, known
Rita a long time, great human being.
Rita's journey from a practicingattorney to the CEO of a construction
(01:31):
company, to the leader of a foundation.
That supports a wide range of nonprofitsin the Kansas city metropolitan area
with a heightened focus on thoseorganizations in the Jewish community.
This reminds me of the chapterfrom my book, specifically chapter
23, where I wrote, And by the way,my book is called Quiet Plans and
(01:52):
Exciting Results, available on Amazon,either in a written or audio format.
I hope that that was okay, Rita,that I did a plug for myself.
All good.
The chapter is entitled Oregon Trail.
We're going to follow the trail thatRita Cortez blazed in her journeys.
And where she's going to take usas far as the next level in her
(02:17):
career, Rita, welcome to the show.
Rita Cortes (02:20):
Thanks, Dave.
It's really a pleasure to get to have aconversation with you outside of the gym.
Dave (02:26):
Ladies and gentlemen, we both work
out with the same training facility.
I see her at least three times a week.
Let's how about a littleflavor of your background.
I'd like to have the listenersidentify with the individual.
So let's talk about whereyou were born and raised.
Rita Cortes (02:43):
So I was born
and raised in Kansas City.
I have always known and I wasreminded often in my life born
probably on third base Right hada lot of advantages growing up My
folks were super involved in my life.
So were my grandparents and But I grew uphere in Kansas City Went to the Barstow
(03:04):
school from kindergarten through sixthgrade and went to what is now Pembroke
Hill at the time was Sunset Hill fromseventh through twelfth grade So, kind
of grew up in the neighborhood, havealways lived on the Missouri side of
the state line in Kansas City, Missouri.
I live about 500 yards fromwhere I went to school.
Oh, wow.
Which is kind of funny.
I don't know that they were happy to haveme then, but they're stuck with me now.
(03:26):
And just really grew up withparents who demanded that
whatever you did, you tried hard.
And sometimes I struggled with that, butI, you put your head down, you do what
you say you're going to do, you work hard.
That, that applied to school, that appliedto relationships, that applied to sports.
And I was one of those kids who wouldplay any sport that involved a ball.
(03:49):
So get me out there, get merunning, get me doing things.
Taught me a lot oflessons about how to fail.
Right?
And how to get back up and keep trying.
Dave (04:00):
People don't fail, but
certain behaviors don't work
out well, needless to say.
So tell them about your athleticendeavors, because you played sports in
Rita Cortes (04:10):
college.
I did.
I mean, I, I grew up, I was so fortunate.
I grew up right on the cusp ofTitle IX and the changes that
it created in American society.
So I played three and two baseball inKansas City, Westwood Park, played over
at Brookside Park and with the Sheet MetalCardinals in the Missouri three and two
(04:33):
baseball, played lots of sports, tennis,basketball, field hockey, et cetera,
and was fortunate enough to have theopportunity to play basketball in college.
I played two years at Rice University.
And then I didn't
Dave (04:47):
even know that.
Wow.
Rita Cortes (04:48):
Yeah.
And transitioned actuallyto playing soccer.
My last few years, they were in atransition from club to division one.
And I had never played soccer.
I played goalie for three years andbroke lots of parts of me in the process.
Sports was always for me.
Something that gave me discipline.
(05:09):
If I hadn't had those components,even when I was very young, I don't
know that I would have learned howto kind of buckle down and get things
done that I needed to get done.
I am a master procrastinator, butif I wanted to play sports, it
was the motivator to go to school.
If I wanted to Get to practice.
It was the motivator toget my homework done.
And it truly taught me a lot ofthose lessons of resilience that not
(05:35):
everything is going to go your way.
And you have, you have somesimple choices when things don't.
You can pick yourselfup and go do it again.
Or you can blame somebody else.
I think the first time that.
I really saw that in action.
When I was in high school, I decidedthat I was smarter than the referee.
I think I was maybe a junior andI was mouthing off to the ref.
(05:57):
And I watched my father, this verypatient man, walk around the court,
come back behind my basketball coach.
I did not hear the conversation,but the next thing I knew
I was sitting on the bench.
And I learned later that it hadbeen to teach me a lesson, right?
Don't let somebody else determinethe quality of what you do.
Stay focused on yourself your teamhow to accomplish your objective
(06:19):
and it was a great lesson for me
Dave (06:21):
God love you that you
learned that at such an early age
Rita Cortes (06:25):
My folks might tell you
that I didn't learn it consistently,
but you try to deploy those lessonsas you grow older So you went
through college and then you wentto a graduate school of sorts I did.
So when I was in college, I spent mysummers working on Capitol Hill for
a variety of Midwestern politicians.
(06:45):
I had the great opportunity, pleasureto work for Senator Bob Dole.
And then I worked for RepresentativeJan Myers and quickly realized that
what I really wanted to do was bein Washington and work in politics.
So I moved out there after graduation, gota job working for Senator Jack Danforth.
And I worked for Senator Danforth andnot too far into my time there, maybe six
(07:08):
months, realized that, If I really wantedto pursue my passions and my interests,
I needed to go to graduate school.
And at that point, I was really wrestlingbetween going to journalism school and
law school, and decided to go the lawpath, which was, I think, a great fit.
My cousin, Fred, who was on the facultyat Columbia Journalism School, Up in
(07:31):
New York and I talked during that timeand he kind of helped me realize what
my objectives were in that law schoolwas probably the right place for that.
Dave (07:39):
Interesting.
Delve into that.
How did he come to that conclusion?
That's, that's a greatinsight on his part.
Rita Cortes (07:44):
It was, and it
had to do a lot with why did
I want to be a journalist?
At the end of the day, what I want,really wanted to do was work on policy.
Influence policy and that I want to dothat through the lens of a journalist
or did I want to do that throughthe lens of somebody who actually
was in the room impacting policy.
Now, that's not the path that mycareer went, but that was that
(08:06):
still sits in what I do today, butpolitics has always fascinated me.
Kind of the science of politics.
And so you chose a lawschool, which one was that?
Went to George WashingtonUniversity Law School.
So I just kind of went downthe street from the US Capitol.
And went to law school there.
I was there for three years, and whenI graduated, I worked in in the D.
(08:30):
C.
Metro area.
One of my big learnings early onin law school was that I was not
destined to be a big firm lawyer.
I really wanted to be in courtearly, and I had an opportunity
to work for a smaller firm kind ofwith the promise that Be in court.
I wasn't particularly driven bydidn't necessarily have to be civil
litigation or criminal litigation.
(08:50):
Ironically, ended up being bankruptcylitigation because I graduated law
school right into a recession in the D.
C.
Area real estate recession, and sothere was a lot of there were a lot
of see through buildings and a lotof bankruptcy litigation to be done.
Our firm represented creditorsin bankruptcy litigation and
almost all chapter 11 work,and it was a great education.
(09:13):
I don't think at that time,why is that a great education?
That's interesting.
So I, I was fortunateenough to go to a firm.
I worked for a litigator named MacEstabrook and I, it wasn't 30 days
into being at the firm that he kindof walked in, set the bankruptcy code
down in front of me and said, You needto start understanding what this is.
He is a great teacher.
(09:34):
I was in court.
What I, what I learned during mytime during the summers with big
firms was I didn't want to becarrying somebody's briefcase.
I wanted to be, I wanted a chance to do itmyself early and bankruptcy court turned
out to be a great place for me to do that.
I, I like being inside thebox of the code, right?
(09:55):
I like having a basic set of rulesand then learning how to, Within those
very creatively and most of the folksin the firm that I went to bankruptcy
was something new and scary and theythey were very happy to let the newbie
go do the work in bankruptcy courtmost of my practice was in either
(10:15):
bankruptcy court in dc or in theeastern district of virginia and i
don't even know if these exist anymoreat the time they had ends of court.
Mm hmm, yeah, where.
Lawyers and judges had the opportunityto learn together and Because there
was kind of this, there were the D.
C.
lawyers and then therewere the Virginia lawyers.
(10:37):
Our firm was on the Virginia side.
It was an opportunity to get to knowmembers of the court to really learn
what they were expecting from lawyerswhen they appeared before them, the
kind of preparation they expectedand to really develop some expertise
really early in my career that kind ofled into doing ultimately doing deal
work because what better foundationthan how to take things apart.
(11:00):
So, or put them back together again afterthey're broken, that's, there's that too.
So trying, I had the opportunity tolitigate motions for relief from stay
and other things and lots of trusteemeetings and just lots of learning.
And people were very generous with theirtime and with their willingness to, to
point me in the direction of resourcesso that I could get better at what I did.
Dave (11:23):
Now, somehow you matriculated,
I had to throw in a long word for the
heck of it, from Thank you, Hank Stram.
Exactly.
From, it's a Kansas Cityreference everybody, from D.
C.
back to Kansas City.
How did that come about?
Rita Cortes (11:37):
So, we each
write our own history.
My father and I have differentversions of these conversations,
but my family 1920, 1921.
The business had been startedby my great grandfather after he
emigrated to the United States.
And where did he emigrate from?
He emigrated from, I alwaysheard it called Russia, but
(11:59):
it's actually the Ukraine.
And I was fortunate enough, I knewmy great grandparents, my dad's side
when I was a kid, my great grandfatherpassed when I was eight years old.
And so he was kind of a, Big loomingpresence with this very heavy accent, but
he founded Morris Hoffman Construction.
And then when my father finishedcollege, he was a, he's a
(12:22):
civil engineer by training.
He joined the business and itbecame Hoffman Cortez Contracting.
And I used to always kind of jokinglysay, but it's very true that I grew up at
the table with myself and three siblings.
Myself, my brother, my sister andthe business because the business was
present at every family gathering, right?
(12:42):
And my great, my grandparents, my,my great grandfather, my grandmother,
my grandfather, my grandmother washis daughter, my grandfather and
my dad all worked in the business.
And then when my grandparentspassed away, my mom became involved
in some aspects of the business.
So it was always present in conversation.
I had no intention ofjoining the business.
(13:05):
That was going to be my brother's destiny.
He went to school to studyconstruction management and
decided that that was not his jam.
He's a really talented tech guyand he pursued a different path.
After some attempts by my dad tofigure out what succession looked
like, we were having a conversationand I think I had just finished
my third year in private practice.
(13:27):
I was kind of hitting that point whereI was either going to become a partner
in the firm that I joined in Virginia.
I had opportunities to migrate to someof the much bigger firms downtown in D.
C.
Probably still in the bankruptcyspace, my dad said, do you think
about coming back to Kansas City?
And I laughed at him.
DC had become my home.
I'd been there almost 10 yearsand came back to visit a few times
(13:52):
and it started to grow on me.
And we've engaged in thisconversation for about a year.
What would it look like if I came back?
How would I learn the business and whatwould that mean for my legal career?
So the end of those conversations,I talked to the partners
in the firm that I was at.
They asked me to take a leave of absenceinstead of to leave leaving the firm.
I did not know that.
(14:12):
Okay.
So I took a leave of absence.
I guess I'm still on a leave of absence.
I took a leave of absence and cameback to Kansas city, took a position.
I think my first official job was asa chief financial officer of the firm.
And.
Frankly, really learned the businessfrom the ground up in part by learning
(14:33):
from the people around me who were verygenerous to teach me what was happening,
as well as learning as a client.
So one of the things that my familyhad been doing over the years was
acquiring different parcels ofcommercial real estate, some of
which had been undernourished asmy dad had had to focus on the
growth of the construction business.
(14:54):
And I really spent the firstprobably three years working on.
Learning the business negotiatingcontracts, actually learning that
lawyers get in the way of negotiatingconstruction contracts often and
frankly, learning where the risks werein the construction industry as a as a
practitioner and how to navigate them.
(15:16):
And also being a client so starteddoing some one project at a time real
estate development with some partnersand really learned as a client of
the firm as well as a leader so beganthat process a few years and started
talking with my folks about whattransition would look like how we would
accomplish that and all of the things.
(15:36):
We started about five years in, Itook over as CEO of the company,
started working on acquiringownership in the company with my
folks and got this brilliant idea togrow the company at the same time.
So I think when I started acquiringan interest in the company and took
over as CEO, the company was about17 employees, did about 10 revenue.
(15:59):
And at our peak, we were 30 to35 million in revenue, 200 plus
employees, three operating divisions.
So as My friends in the hemp program so iwas fortunate enough to be involved with
that pretty early on in my leadership ofthe company the helensburg entrepreneurial
mentoring program i should say putyour worst foot forward i think i like
(16:19):
everybody, made lots of mistakes andhopefully learn from those along the way
but fortunately the folks that i workedwith were also willing to teach me what
they knew and the great example would be,A gentleman who was a project manager and
then ran our general contracting divisionand, He and I remain good friends.
(16:39):
We still get togetherevery two or three months.
He's still in the construction industry.
He works with a lot of our formerclients on the construction side.
And I remember him, we werenegotiating a contract on a project.
I had done that lawyer thing whereI like red line the heck out of it.
And he comes in my office and he kindof puts the contract down and he says,
(17:00):
Do we want to do the job or do youjust want to negotiate a contract and
it was a great, I mean, it's a greatway for me to learn about risk taking
and risk management constructionis a gambling industry, right?
How do people get projects?
Absolutely.
They get it because they got,they had the low bid or we were
not really a hard bid contractor.
(17:21):
We were designed build contractor.
So that's a little bitof a different animal.
But particularly when you're biddingprojects, the load bid is often who
made the biggest set of mistakes.
So learned a lot about working withowners, learned a lot about personnel
management or mismanagement and hadpeople like you and many of my friends
who were willing to kind of sit downand teach me lessons along the way
(17:44):
and was really fortunate that I metsome really terrific people in the
course of the almost 20 years that Ispent in the construction industry.
Dave (17:51):
So share with us, it's, it's always
difficult to go through succession.
planning and transition.
Do you have any words of wisdom lookingback now that you could share with people?
There are so many family ownedbusinesses throughout the United States.
I think that, I think something likeninety percent of all businesses make
(18:12):
fifty million or less in gross revenue.
So family or closely held businessesare the backbone of America.
Yet the succession planning that hasto go on is so very difficult because
you're dealing more often than not.
Either family or friends.
There's a people that you know.
What are the lessons that you learnedthat you would pass along to help
(18:33):
people going through the process?
Rita Cortes (18:36):
One of, one of the lessons
that I learned, so my dad is this like
everybody's best friend guy, right?
Right.
Everybody loves my dad.
He's a great guy like me.
I think he has some challengeswith procrastination.
So I had, one of the things Ihad to learn was how to talk to
him, not as his daughter, right?
But as his business partner.
(18:57):
Very good.
Thank you.
And we would go through periods where Iwould literally have to say, okay, dad,
when I call you dad, I'm your daughter.
When we're talking business, you're Gary.
And he thought that was weird, butI was like, it's a, I think it's a
little psychological trick that allowsus to interact with one another.
To set aside the family relationship,not to diminish, not to eliminate
(19:21):
it, but to understand that if we'retalking about succession and being in
business together, that we are peers inthat moment, not father and daughter.
Dave (19:31):
That reminds me of a
very good story of a gentleman.
I represented three.
Sons in the business and two outsidethe business and around customers and
employees, he would call them his boysor sons and how it graded on them.
And I remember him coming and asking me,I said, well, that they want to be looked
at in their own right, unrelated to you.
(19:51):
And I know that's part of that they can'tdo, but part of it they must do and you
please help them during that journey.
So that's, that little tool is a verynice tool, ladies and gentlemen, just
to walk away from, from this podcast.
Thank you, Rita.
Rita Cortes (20:07):
I think the other thing that
I would encourage people as they think
about how to bring their kids or the nextgeneration into businesses is to encourage
or maybe even demand experience in othersettings before they join the business.
My experience working on the Hillwas a great test of humility, right?
(20:27):
Everybody up there thinks that theyare the greatest thing in the world.
And my first job literallywas opening the mail.
I took the job because I figured ifI can get in the door, I will get
promoted quickly and I was and Iwas very fortunate in that respect.
Right?
My skill in sports was neverthat I was the best athlete,
but I would hustle my butt off.
(20:48):
And that's what I did whenI worked for other people.
But being an associate in the law firm,Prepared me to be able to separate the
personal from the professional, right?
As a baby lawyer in this law firm of 8to 12 other lawyers, depending on what
iteration it was, sometimes I was themediator because I kind of had that
(21:10):
natural inclination to speak frankly,but not do it in a way that caused
people to run screaming from the room.
You've always had that abilityas long as I've known you.
And it's you try to use it carefully.
But when I came to work at HoffmanCortez, my dad didn't see me as his kid.
He saw me as somebody who was ona, on a professional trajectory
(21:33):
that became part of the company.
And so I think it was easier for methan it would have been like if my
brother had joined the business rightout of college, which was the plan.
I think that would havebeen much harder on him.
And I'm sure that it led to some humorousexperiences from my colleagues in the
company because I think they would tellyou that I'm a lot more like him than I
(21:56):
realized my proof text of that is thatat one point and I don't know if this
is somebody that you connected me to orI was connected through someone else.
We brought in a consultant from I thinkCleveland or Cincinnati to do some
work with my executive team aroundkind of how their personal expectations
(22:17):
and the company expectations aligned.
Some of it was disk type testing,some of it was other, but what it
allowed me to do was to see, didI have people in the right roles?
Who were the people that I couldanticipate I could move into management?
What skill sets that they have what didthey see is there and i had some people
who are really misaligned and some peoplewho are well aligned but he walked in
(22:40):
the room and he said i've not ever hadthis happen i have two identical tests.
Oh wow and it's like okaythat's weird and the guys that
i work with started laughing.
It's like, what's so funny?
They're like, well, we know who it is.
How could that possibly be?
I am much more a product of mymother of blessed memory than
(23:01):
of my dad, but apparently not.
So I did not
Dave (23:06):
know that.
Wow.
Rita Cortes (23:07):
Yeah.
All of those little markers,they were exactly the same.
Dave (23:10):
Wow.
Rita Cortes (23:11):
And we certainly
thought about things.
My mother, thank God for her.
There would be times when I woulddo things that I knew were gonna
set him off like scheduling 7 a.
m.
team meetings.
I am an early morning person as becausewe see each other at 530 in the morning.
Yes, but he is not.
So, in the construction industry,a 7 o'clock meeting is very
normal, but not for my dad.
(23:33):
And when I would do that, shewould pull me aside at dinner
on Friday night or whatever andsay, I know you're mad at him.
You can't do it this way.
Now, there's the
Dave (23:47):
lesson, ladies and gentlemen.
Rita Cortes (23:49):
That's a good one.
Always listen to your mother.
I was being a little passiveaggressive and she called me out on it.
But
Dave (23:56):
such are the dynamics
too of a family business.
Great insight that people can take awayin dealing with succession planning.
The transitions that have to take place.
So let's fast forward.
You are now where doing whatyou've evolved out of the, the
construction business into another
Rita Cortes (24:15):
business.
So I successfully exited the constructionbusiness, although I, the success was
largely not result of my work because Iwanted to go back to practicing law, which
Also gives you a sense of my mental state,so I became a partner at a competing
law firm, which was a great experience.
And that's what I thought I woulddo for the rest of my career.
(24:36):
And then I was offered the opportunity torun a foundation in Kansas City that was
the result of the sale of Menorah Hospitalback in the early nineties and then a
subsequent sale of Health Midwest to HCA.
I was offered the opportunityto do what I do today, which is
help my board give away money.
(24:58):
It's a pretty good gig.
It requires a lot of engagement with thecommunity and understanding what people
are doing and where we can impact thingswith the limited resources that we have.
We're not a very big foundation.
We're about 55 to 60 million.
And I get to pull in all thosethings that I learned along the way.
(25:18):
You're running another business.
Dave (25:20):
Bottom line.
Rita Cortes (25:21):
Yes.
A much simpler business.
Dave (25:23):
Yeah.
Rita Cortes (25:24):
In
Dave (25:24):
some ways,
Rita Cortes (25:25):
the politics, a
little bit more difficult, maybe
nobody's going to, nobody's goingto have an accident on a job site.
Nobody's going to appear on thefront page of the Kansas city star
working on a beautiful summer daywith an OSHA violation, right?
Right.
Right.
Those are all the things you thinkabout when you're running it, when
(25:46):
you're operating a real business.
This, this is a.
This is a business, but it'sa much, much simpler business.
Dave (25:52):
What, what enjoyment do you
find in dealing with this business
versus the other businessesyou've been involved with?
Rita Cortes (26:00):
So some of
the same things, right?
I like to help.
I like puzzles.
I like figuring out the puzzle, right?
I think that's what I likeabout the practice of law,
about deal work like you do.
It's so oftentimes I'mtalking with nonprofit CEOs.
About the challenges that they have thatcan't be solved with a check or can't
(26:24):
be solved only with a check we have weknow we have a certain amount of money
we can give away every year and I havea have the privilege of working with
two other people who are terrific andthey do most of the heavy lifting in in
preparing and working through our grantsprocess I get to have conversations with
those Nonprofit executives about theother stresses that they're navigating
(26:47):
the other challenges they're navigatingand helping them identify solutions
or resources to try to wrestle throughthose at the beginning of the pandemic.
I wish that I had a counseling degreebecause I spent a lot of time just
listening to folks as they were.
Stressing about the shutdown ofthe world would mean to their
(27:07):
ability to operate their nonprofit.
The next book you and I should writetogether, by the way, is about the
impact of the PPP program on thenonprofit sector or the for profit
sector, because I think it was thelifeline for so many organizations.
Now, When it was put in place, noneof us knew that the markets would
(27:29):
rebound the way that they did.
None of us knew that people would bemore generous in 2020 and 2021 than
they had been in preceding years.
The second half of that book is goingto be, now that organizations have come
over the curve, be they non profits oreducational institutions, anybody who
got government money or philanthropicmoney during that period, now what
(27:51):
happens When you return to normal, andI think businesses, whether they are
for profit or nonprofit, are havingto adapt to does the world need from
them now, and what kind of resourcesdo they have available to execute with?
Dave (28:07):
All right, Greg Justice and
Kelly Watson with Scripter Publishing.
You heard it.
Rita's just called it out.
It'll be another book.
So looking into the future.
All right.
Do you ever see yourself retiring?
Is that really, doesthat word work for you?
Because I, I've, I have decidedI refuse to use the word retire.
(28:29):
I use the word rewire.
I'm convinced we're all goingto live to be about a hundred.
Okay.
So you got to figure out somethingto do past the normal age of people.
Retire in America.
What's your position on that?
How do you view it?
Rita Cortes (28:44):
So I have multiple
views for me personally.
The running joke in my household is thatretirement for me will mean that I do just
as much work with no paycheck associated.
Dave (28:58):
Right.
I get that lecture too.
Thank you.
Rita Cortes (29:00):
That I will fill the space
that, that not working for someone or for
something We'll create I've watched a lotof my friends go through the consulting.
The, I would say glide, right?
That doesn't mean they're notworking hard, but they're working
fewer hours or they're workingthe hours that they define.
(29:21):
That's probably what retirementlooks like to me because I know
that I need something to feed me inaddition to the other stuff, right?
Dave (29:29):
Absolutely.
Rita Cortes (29:30):
But I do also think
that there's an element of people
needing to know who they are andthat that retirement path needs to
reflect, or that next chapter needs toreflect the How they see themselves.
I say that because when my wiferetired, she retired, retired.
She was working and then she was not.
And I for years kept saying, butyou gotta know what you're gonna do.
(29:52):
And she knew herself well enough toknow that she would need time and space
when she left her pretty intense careerto figure out what that looked like.
And I tell people she is highlyproficient at retirement because
she is happy, happy, happy, right?
She, her days are theway she wants them to be.
(30:14):
She does the things she wants to do.
My engine burns a littledifferently, and I think that
that's more the entrepreneur engine.
And so I think those of us who are usedto, who dive into problem solving, who
dive into the new idea, the new thing,the new deal, we got to find ways to
(30:34):
keep ourselves engaged in that, whetherit's purpose driven or passion driven.
And those are really different things.
I, I.
Because I did some M& A work, Ispent a lot of time talking with
people about what their expectationsof their life would look like.
And I think you have to know who you are.
I worry about the people who just sit,I, I know lots of people who've retired
(30:58):
and retired to nothing in their lives.
I worry about them.
There are fewer and fewerpeople who do that today.
Retiring and playing alot of golf, not my jam.
So, We each have to, I think youhave to figure out what, and you
also have to be prepared to change.
Right?
In a lot of ways, the career Ihave today is my retirement career.
(31:20):
Right.
I went from running a businessthat was easily, it was 40 plus, I
don't know what the big number was,but it was, you know, 60, 70, 80,
depending on the periods of, of life.
And I noticed when I went back topracticing law that I kept those kind
of hours because that was what fed me.
I think as I get a little closerto not needing that to drive me.
(31:44):
I got to fill that spacewith things that energize me.
And some of it is reading and thinkingin, but some of it is just helping
people figure out how to solve problems.
Dave (31:55):
Well, to your point, I'll
refer you to a book called lit L I T.
And there he is first few chapters.
He talks about low energybrain and high energy brain.
And what you said, struck struck mebecause I find myself searching for
Opportunities and people that bringenergy and I tend now to shy away from
(32:17):
things that are low energy or don'tbring me that kind of energy that I need.
So I'm with you.
Your marriage is like my marriageis, you know, Becky is a lot like
your wife and the kind of the sameway she looked when she retired.
And I'm like you, I've, the, thegerbils are still running at Mach
four in my brain on that damn track.
(32:37):
And there's not a hell ofa lot I can do about it.
Right.
Minus minor.
I tell people I'm a squirrel, squirrel.
Well, ladies and gentlemen, I hope yousaw the path forward on dealing with
ways to handle succession planningand ways to deal with retirement.
What I think Rita's doing, myterminology is rewiring, finding
(33:00):
what's next and finding a way forward.
Rita, thank you.
Tell people listening how theycan find you, reach out to you.
Can they contribute to the foundation?
Rita Cortes (33:13):
I mean,
we do accept donations.
We don't solicit them.
Dave (33:16):
Right.
Rita Cortes (33:17):
My day job, I am with
the menorah heritage foundation.
Feel free to reach out if you, if youwant to talk or grab a coffee or whatever.
It's R Cortez, C O R T E S at J C F K C.
org.
There's also my, my volunteer job,which takes up a pretty good bandwidth.
And that's with the Kansas citypublic schools where I teach.
chair their board and you can alwaysfind me on their website as well.
(33:40):
So.
Dave (33:41):
The lady has a lot to
do, ladies and gentlemen.
Thanks again to Rita.
And if you're in search ofassistance, please go to dave cider.
com and schedule a consultation.
Also, please make sure to subscribe tothe show, rate it, and leave me a comment
on your favorite podcast platform,such as Spotify or Apple podcasts.
(34:02):
Ladies and gentlemen,again, thanks to Rita.
It brings that, and I'm accusedof the same thing, that soulful
presentation to all of you.
And we hope in a way that willallow you to advance yourselves in
your careers and your businesses.
Until we talk again, be safe.
(34:27):
This podcast is intendedfor educational purposes.
It does not constitute legal advice.
It is not intended to establish.
relationship.
The recommendations contained in thispodcast are not necessarily appropriate
for every individual or business indetermining the best course of action.
Business owners should consult with anattorney on their distinct circumstances.