Restless in his federal government job and hungry for change, Ottawa’s Abe Greenspoon was on vacation when he saw a sign – quite literally.
“Last summer, Abe noticed a for sale sign,” explained his wife, Leah Bartlett, in a recent interview with OBJ. The sign was in front of the Seaside Beach Resort in Saint Andrews, N.B., a tourism town where the couple was visiting family.
They decided to view the oceanfront property for “research purposes” and learned it was already spoken for. And so they returned home to Ottawa – where, at the time, Greenspoon worked as an executive with Immigration, Refugees and Citizenship Canada and Bartlett worked as a senior planner with Ontario Health East.
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But the sign had awoken a desire for a different life.
“There was fertile ground for us to make a decision because a lot of things were happening to make us question whether we really wanted to continue doing these jobs,” recalled Greenspoon, who spent 16 years in the federal public service. “The biggest influencing factor was my boss and I didn’t agree with each other. It really pushed me to go and start looking for other things.”
After more than 10 years in her role, Bartlett said she was also “very ready to do something very different.” She remembers low morale and high turnover on her team.
“I worked on COVID during COVID, it was rough,” she said. “I am just not aligned with the current provincial direction in health care. I got very morally uncomfortable.”
Then they got the phone call that changed everything.
“The (real estate) agent called us and said the conditional offer they had on the property had fallen through,” said Greenspoon. “Over a period of about 48 hours, it all came together in a crazy kind of way.”
After a whirlwind of paperwork and decision-making, Greenspoon and Bartlett bought into their new life, deciding to leave their secure government jobs to run a beach resort.
Over the next two months, the couple – both in their 40s – researched the property and reviewed financial statements.
“We became deeply knowledgeable about this specific property as a business and how it was being run, at least from a financial perspective,” said Greenspoon, adding they also learned about marketing and how to promote their business on Instagram.
But when they arrived at their 1.25-acre property in January 2025, they quickly realized there was much more to learn.
“Even as we were moving in boxes, the phones were ringing and we didn’t know how to take a payment,” recalled Bartlett, adding they gave themselves two days before taking reservations. “We walked in with close to zero information about how it actually worked.”
The pair hit the ground running, adapting to care for their new property – home to 24 cottage units that accommodate nearly 80 people. As they digitized the resort’s old, paper-based financing system, drafted funding proposals and welcomed guests, they quickly realized they had many transferable skills from their government work.
“People sometimes think in square-box ways about jobs, thinking, ‘Oh, I was a public servant. How could you possibly work in hospitality?’” said Greenspoon. “But I think there’s overlapping skills and areas of knowledge that apply in both fields.
“How do you make people feel like you’re attentive to their needs? In one case it might have been my colleagues or employees; in this case it’s guests. But it’s still empathy – treating people with respect.”
Almost six months later, Greenspoon said the Seaside Beach Resort is thriving.
“It’s going very well,” he said. “We’re getting nothing but 10 out of 10 reviews on all our channels; feedback has been unanimously positive that we’re doing a great job.”
Although their decision has meant a massive lifestyle change, the couple isn’t missing their old reality.
“We’re making way less money, is the truth of it,” said Bartlett. “But we’re not fancy people. We knew that we could scale back a lot and that’s created a little bit of freedom.”
The couple agrees that the stability they gave up in their salaries and pensions has been a worthwhile trade.
“I think you have to be really aware of what you’re giving up and what you’re getting for what you’re giving up,” he said. “We knew the opportunities that we could have here were worth it to sacrifice some of those things.”
Managing such a large property means Greenspoon logs 15,000 steps per day and Bartlett says the physicality of the work has translated into better sleep.
“I go to bed feeling good, I wake up feeling good,” she says. “Every day you get fresh air; it’s just a better life.”
