The Letter That Turned a Young Dishwasher into a Hospitality Leader - Walter Isenberg, Sage Hospitality Group

Walter: I started in the business when I was 14. I answered an ad in the newspaper. I grew up in Kansas City and got a job as a dishwasher at a country club. It's where I fell in love with the business and I was inspired early on. I had a great mentor at that country club who was the maitre d' in the dining room, Carlos Pena, Mexican immigrant without a high school diploma. But he was a great guy. And at 14 years old, he inspired me and he got me out of the dish pit. That was one good thing, into the dining room and then really helped me along the way and introduced me to a gentleman in Kansas City. His name was Phil Pastelli. And Phil was what I would call a great, great hotel man. He was in his hotel at five in the morning so he could see the night auditor. There was a great coffee shop that locals went to. He walked through there every morning and spent a lot of time with the customers. He knew all his housekeepers and this was a big hotel, 400 rooms. And I was really inspired by him and really he had just this passion for serving others. And that was not just the guests, but also the associates at the hotel and in his restaurants. And I think that for me at an early age was something that I saw. I fell in love with the business and it's been my inspiration through my career.

Josiah: That's great. For the two individuals that you mentioned, what seems to stand out is what you just mentioned, the care of the associates as well. It sounds like both of them spent a lot of time, if you think about you when you first joined in that first role at the country club, spending time with you and then also with Phil getting a sense of how much time is spent with the team. It seems like that's a key part of hospitality leadership. I love talking about inflection points or moments where people I'm speaking with feels like everything changed for them. Does one of those come to mind in terms of this changed the trajectory of your career?

Walter: Yeah. So what I would tell you is that Carlos Pena, who I mentioned, the maitre d', after a few years, he said to me, "You love this business." I said, "I do." And he said, "Well, you need to go to Cornell University." I said, "Where's that?" He said, "New York." He didn't tell me Ithaca, New York, by the way. A little different. Anyway, I said, "Well, tell me about it." He said, "Well, they've got a great program in hospitality. It's the best in the world and you should go there." So he said, "If you're interested, some of our members know Phil Pastelli." That's how I met Mr. Pastelli. And at the time, Phil was the chair of the alumni organization for the hotel school and also the chair of the American Hotel Lodging Association. So he was a big deal. This was 1974, '75. He was a big deal. And I went and met him. And as a result, he wrote a letter of recommendation for me to get into Cornell. And I always say that that letter, thank God for that letter, because my SATs were not getting me in to Cornell. I can tell you that. And his influence in just helping me, he didn't really know me, but through my work at the club, he had heard about me and he helped me with that. And that was really, for me, a huge inflection point because I'm not sure I ever would have gone to Cornell, which was an amazing experience for me. And frankly, I never would have met Philip Esteli, who was also a huge influence on me and helped shape my understanding of the business, the importance of really taking great care of your people. It's a simple idea, right? But not everybody does it. And it was just instilled in me at a very young age. And it was really a significant moment in my life that changed the trajectory of my life.

Josiah: It's amazing to hear that because I think it inspires me and everyone listening to think about how they can act in that capacity for someone in their life, right? You might see things that the other person might not see, right, from your experiences. Maybe you write a letter, maybe it's something else that you do, but it can open up a whole new world and look at the course that it's set you on. Incredible.

Walter: Yeah. And it's really interesting. I get a lot of emails from people that, my friend's son or daughter, they want an internship or whatever, they're interested in the business. And I always reach out to those young people because it happened to me. And I think it's important to sometimes pay it forward. Maybe that's an overused line nowadays, but I think paying it forward is an important idea that I've been blessed to have had people that helped change my life. Doing that for others is also really important.