As I cruise the South Pacific on vacation with my wife, Connie, I’ve had some time to reflect on my decades as an entrepreneur and the road that led me and Connie to build El Portal, our small boutique hotel in Sedona, Arizona. The topic often comes up in conversation with our guests at El Portal. Every morning, I meet guests by the fireplace in the big room, where we talk and tell stories. I always find it interesting when people ask, “What did you do?” instead of “What are you doing?”—as if I’m through! I’m a 74-year-old serial entrepreneur—not the Silicon Valley type, but the 1970s, analog, brick-and-mortar, starts-a-business-in-the-garage type. And while my entrepreneurial journey may still be underway, I always enjoy sharing the story of how we came to own a 12-room Arts and Crafts hotel in Sedona.

How Connie and I met

Connie and I are both from the Pasadena, California area, where we met in 1970 while working at the Pasadena Star-News. Connie worked in the circulation department, and I—a 23-year-old high school dropout—was a morning news distributor. Delivering 2,000 papers by 7:00 each morning was no easy task, but it was a great way to learn about business. Soon, we moved in together, lived on one paycheck, and saved to buy a home or a business. We had no money and no college education, but we were “Boomers” in California in the 1970s; anything seemed possible.

On May 5, 1972, Connie took two hours off from work so we could get married at a local chapel.

Then, I bought a pet shop, without consulting Connie. I figured, how hard could it be?

Every day, I got up at 2 a.m. and ran the news distribution company until 9 a.m., then opened the pet shop and worked there until 7 p.m. Connie would come help out at the shop after she finished work at the newspaper. We worked every day except Sunday afternoons, when we would use our spare time to visit garage sales and antique shops around Pasadena. After 35 years of Sunday shopping, we had amassed a pretty large collection of Mission-style and Arts and Crafts furniture, lighting fixtures, and paintings—enough to fill a small hotel, in fact. 

Several years later, we bought a small pet food delivery company, for which we developed and distributed all natural, healthy pet foods. The first product I ever developed was called Avo-Derm, a type of food specifically for pets with skin and coat issues.

Our move to Sedona

 After visiting Sedona on a road trip, Connie and I bought a lot in Majestic Hills near the Chapel of the Holy Cross, where we built an Arts and Crafts-style home made out of adobe bricks. It was inspired by all the furnishings we’d collected on those Sunday shopping trips over the years. Designed by a firm called Design Group Architects, our home ended up being featured in Bob Vila’s American Home Magazine and the book, Southwest Style, based on its accuracy of Southwestern design and quality!

Around 1999, we started thinking about moving on from the pet business. I was seeking a new challenge—something unrelated to my past business experience, that I would have to learn from scratch. At the time, we owned a small piece of land near Tlaquepaque Arts & Shopping Village and as someone who’s always enjoyed retail and serving people, I thought it might be a good spot for a small hotel. So once again, we called Design Group Architects to help translate our vision into reality.

The name “El Portal” came from the hotel’s location, as well as the idea that it serves as a portal through which you step back into an age of serenity and calm.

I hope you’ve enjoyed reading about how Connie and I came to be the owners of El Portal. Stay tuned to hear more about our adventures in business and in life!