“The key is to be able to embrace challenges before us and turn them into opportunities.”
~ Beth Jo Zeitzer, attorney, and board chair of
Jewish Community Foundation of Greater Phoenix
With very few women in her professional field, Beth Jo Zeitzer, Esq., is able to play ball with the boys and come out a winner.
A licensed attorney in Arizona and California, Beth Jo is president and designated broker of R.O.I. Properties, a full-service commercial and residential brokerage firm providing a variety of services including commercial brokerage, residential brokerage, property management and receivership services. While she is able to blend her real estate and legal background, “there is no one in the community who does exactly what we do,” she says.
A passion for real estate and the law led Beth Jo to want “to do something closer to the deal as opposed to documenting the deal.” She has found a successful niche resulting from what she calls a unique platform along with a unique set of service offerings.
She makes things happen
Before starting her own company, Beth Jo faced a turning point when the company where she worked merged with a huge corporation. A new direction was in order.
Going off on a new path and following her belief that “you make things happen,” in 2003 she started R.O.I. Properties and turned what seemed like an insurmountable problem into a real opportunity. “I have found there is no such thing as luck,” she says.
Having achieved success herself, Beth Jo looked for ways to give a leg up to other women in her field. “Women many times are not given a fair shake because they have responsibilities in addition to work and are not always seen as the same level of producer,” she says. As a result, and because she started her own firm, Beth Jo knew the importance of giving back to other women in the community who might lack the same level of confidence or experience, so she makes it a point to be a mentor. She works mainly with women in the commercial real estate community, typically seeing three women a week in three separate meetings.
Beth Jo has a solid career and is involved with a number of trade organizations and bankers’ associations. On top of that, she is actively involved in the Jewish community and serves as board chair of the Jewish Community Foundation, which is built to ensure an enduring legacy for the Jewish community. “Ensuring a Jewish future for the community is really a driver for me,” she says. “An organization like this that funds grants for a variety of organizations with Jewish roots and causes will advance Jewish culture and religion.”
Keeping a strong Jewish identity
Although she is surrounded by men in business, Beth Jo is a standout as the only woman at home. She is married to Adam Nach, and the couple has three sons, Ben, 19, Reuben, 18, and Aaron, 16. They are members of Temple Solel in Paradise Valley and The New Shul in Scottsdale. While growing up, her family celebrated all the Jewish holidays and her own sons attended Jewish day school. Being Jewish is important to her family, which is apparent in weekly Friday night Shabbat dinners with family and friends complete with candle-lighting, challah and wine.
Beth Jo cites Golda Meir as “someone I always looked up to and admired.” She also looks up to her parents, who she says have characteristics she tries to emulate in her daily life. Those characteristics are “embedded into who I am and who I want to be.” She considers herself lucky from a business standpoint as well as with her family and friends, noting a great network of people who stood by her at every turn in her career. This also is why she gives back so much of her time.
Beth Jo and Adam share a good partnership as they co-parent their children. “We really make it happen with a lot of mutual respect,” she says. “We love each other but really like each other, too.” The family enjoys hiking and watching movies. As far as classic movies, she notes “Annie Hall” as a favorite. Like the trailblazing main character of that film, Beth Jo has paved her own way in a profession in which the main characters are men. “The key is to be able to embrace challenges before us and turn them into opportunities,” she says.
The Jewish community and beyond
Beth Jo’s passion extends beyond her family in her devotion to strengthening and ensuring a viable existence for the Jewish community. She wants to give back and be part of confirming the long-term success and stability of the greater Phoenix Jewish community specifically.“Although it might not be the impetus behind the activity, it always amazes me how much I get when I give,” she says.
As she continues to make a difference in the Jewish community and beyond, Beth Jo says she hopes “to live a life that inspires others to be kinder to all, continuously learn, move through daily life with honesty and integrity, reach our full potential, and ensure a vibrant and enduring Jewish people.”
