From Nurse to Historic Hotel Legacy Builder

Summary

Living Your Legacy – Episode Summary

Episode Title: From Nurse to Historic Hotel Legacy Builder
Date Aired: June 25, 2026
Host: Jason Tyler (guest hosting for Rudy Mawer)
Guest: Rowena Felix Salas, General Manager & Co-Owner of Hotel Baker

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Overview

This episode features Rowena Felix Salas, who shares her journey from a career in nursing to becoming the co-owner and general manager of the iconic Hotel Baker. She reflects on how her diverse background in healthcare, HR, the arts, and entrepreneurship has shaped her unique approach to hospitality, history, and leadership. Rowena offers personal stories, practical business lessons, and her philosophy on creating lasting legacies through meaningful connections and guest experiences at Hotel Baker.

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Key Discussion Points & Insights

The Unexpected Path to Hospitality

Timestamp: 00:14–04:38, 06:42–07:52

• Rowena’s venture into hospitality was unplanned. Her husband and his partners decided to invest in Hotel Baker, and Rowena, a trained nurse with no hospitality background, initially questioned the move.
• The Salas family and their team learned hotel management “on the job,” hiring managers with and without traditional hospitality backgrounds, leveraging their diverse life and career experiences.
  • "We don't know anything about hotels, but eventually we learned all the different areas and we're able to handle the situations ... pretty well." – Rowena Felix Salas (00:35)

Embracing Many Roles

Timestamp: 04:38–05:49

• Rowena describes her hands-on involvement with every aspect of the hotel: sales, housekeeping (using her nursing training to “miter those corners”), gardening, and occasionally management.
• The theme of “wearing many hats” recurs, highlighting the entrepreneurial reality of jumping into whatever role is needed to keep the business thriving.
  • "Today I'm in sales. Tomorrow I'm in management. The next day, I'm doing plumbing ... We just got to solve problems on the fly." – Jason Tyler (05:45)

Transferring Life Skills to Business

Timestamp: 07:52–13:18

• Rowena shares how diverse jobs—nursing (staff and psych), HR, philanthropy, communications, and arts entrepreneurship—contributed crucial skills for hotel leadership:
  • Empathy and one-on-one interaction with people from nursing and psych
  • Staff recruitment, retention, and employee relations from HR
  • Marketing, communications, and training from philanthropy
  • Business operations and “back end” tasks from the spa and gallery
• She underlines the value of non-linear career development, where no experience is wasted:
  • “I didn't know that my past experience was going to help me in that job, but thank God I had all those experiences because it really did help me.” – Rowena Felix Salas (15:25)

Resilience and Adaptability

Timestamp: 13:18–16:07

• Rowena recounts business setbacks—closing the spa when the lease ended and the art gallery during the 2008 economic crisis—underscoring her willingness to adapt and rebuild.
• Transitioned into hotel management despite no direct experience; the breadth of her prior work equipped her for the challenge.

Building Experiences & Legacy at Hotel Baker

Timestamp: 01:03–03:50, 19:19–20:43

• The hotel’s rich history (est. 1928) is a foundation for its identity and guest experience. Rowena is passionate about sharing the building’s stories and significance:
  • "I always want the guests to feel special and get some historical information about the hotel. It gives them a different appreciation of where they're staying." – Rowena Felix Salas (01:03/19:19)
• Hotel Baker hosts many weddings and events, and Rowena personally ensures guests receive a historical booklet—connecting the past with the present. Participating in milestones at the hotel becomes part of its ongoing story.
  • "You're creating such a special moment for you and your family while you're at this venue that already has so much history to it. You're a part of that history now." – Jason Tyler (19:59)

Technology and Hospitality

Timestamp: 15:25–18:18

• Rowena and Jason discuss the challenges and surprises of using Apple technology for marketing and creative work, reflecting on how tools are only as good as your willingness to learn them.
  • "I just thought, if you have a MacBook, you can do all these wonderful things." – Rowena Felix Salas (16:42)
• Rowena shares a lesser-known tech history about the Next Computer, connecting back to her marketing days.
  • "The guts of a MacBook ... comes from the Next computer." – Rowena Felix Salas (17:46)

The Importance of Human Stories in Leadership

Timestamp: 11:37–14:11

• From HR and psych nursing to running a hotel, Rowena points out her biggest takeaway: understanding, relating to, and supporting people is foundational to every successful venture.

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Notable Quotes & Memorable Moments

• On Accidental Entrepreneurship:
  "I was going to say it's quite the opposite." — Rowena Felix Salas (06:42)
• On Lifelong Learning:
  "Their experiences, the experiences they had in their previous jobs, really help in their current positions." — Rowena Felix Salas (07:52)
• On Resilience:
  "I didn't know that my past experience was going to help me in that job, but thank God I had all those experiences because it really did help me." — Rowena Felix Salas (15:25)
• On Guest Experience:
  "I always want the guests to feel special and get some historical information about the hotel ... Every time I read something about the hotel, there's always something new that I haven't read before." — Rowena Felix Salas (01:03/20:15)
• On the Power of History:
  "Not only are you learning about the history of the venue itself, but you're adding to that history ... You're a part of that history now. That's amazing." — Jason Tyler (19:59)

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Timestamps for Important Segments

• 00:14–01:03 – Rowena describes her initial doubts about entering hospitality and the “learning by doing” approach.
• 03:06–03:50 – The historical significance and ongoing discovery of Hotel Baker’s past.
• 04:38–05:49 – Day-to-day realities, wearing many hats, drawing on nursing for housekeeping.
• 07:52–13:18 – The value of career diversity; connections between nursing, HR, marketing, and entrepreneurship.
• 15:25–16:07 – Realizing the value of accumulated experience in adapting to new roles.
• 16:07–18:18 – MacBooks, Next Computers, and the ever-evolving tools required for business.
• 19:19–20:43 – Creating guest experiences, sharing Hotel Baker’s history, and helping guests become part of the legacy.

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Connect with Rowena & Hotel Baker

Website: hotelbaker.com
Email for Events: [e-mail]
Social Media:

• X/Twitter, TikTok, Threads, Instagram, Facebook
• Frequent updates, especially on weddings and special events

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Closing Thought

Rowena’s journey is a testament to the value of transferable skills, adaptability, and embracing every life experience as preparation for future opportunities. Her story encourages aspiring entrepreneurs to trust their diverse backgrounds and to focus on building legacies rooted in meaningful service and authentic connection.

Transcript

[Jason Tyler]

What would you say is like your biggest, your biggest piece of inspiration for why you got into becoming an owner of Hotel Baker? What was the spark that made you say, you know what, I want to own that.

[Rowena Felix Salas]

So my husband and his partners decided to put a bed at Hotel Baker. And I said, why would you want to do that? I'm a nurse. You don't have any hospitality experience. They're main focus is it. So we don't know anything about hotels, but eventually we learned all the different areas and we're able to handle the situations of different areas pretty well.

[Narrator]

Rowena Felix Salas is a resilient, dedicated and visionary hospitality leader and the general manager and co owner of the historic Hotel Baker. Drawing from her extensive industry expertise, she helps individuals and families celebrate life's most meaningful milestones, creating a lasting legacy of community, connection, cultural warmth, and unforgettable experiences.

[Rowena Felix Salas]

You know, I always want the guests to feel special and get some historical information about the hotel. It gives them a different appreciation of where they're staying. There's a wealth of history related to Hotel Baker. I can go on and on about it and it never ends. I mean, every time I read something about the hotel, there's always something new that I haven't read before. That brings me to a story that I'm going to share with you. So

[Unidentified Speaker]

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[Rowena Felix Salas]

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[Unidentified Speaker]

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[Jason Tyler]

Welcome back to another episode of the Inside success podcast. I'm your host, Jason Tyler, and I am joined here today with Rowena. Now, Rowena, you just finished filming your episode for women in power. How are you feeling now on the other side of filming your episode?

[Rowena Felix Salas]

Great.

[Jason Tyler]

Feeling good about it?

[Rowena Felix Salas]

I think so.

[Jason Tyler]

Good, good, good. So I want to just get us started. What do you think people will learn about you from viewing your episode? What's some lessons that they can get from it?

[Rowena Felix Salas]

I believe they will realize how passionate I am about what I do at Hotel Baker, that I am committed and passionate about it.

[Jason Tyler]

So bring me up to speed on Hotel Baker. What is the business model? What are we doing at Hotel Baker and why are we. Why are you so passionate about it?

[Rowena Felix Salas]

Gosh. Business model. Never really thought about that. Now, Hotel Baker is a historic place built in 1928. And it's registered in the National Register of Historic Places. It has quite a bit of history. So that kind of fascinated me. And if it fascinates me, I'm sure it fascinates a number of individuals who are into his history. A lot of historians out there. So every time I read about Hotel Baker or individuals who were connected with Hotel Hotel Baker, I always get some new information.

[Jason Tyler]

It's like a never ending well of fascination.

[Rowena Felix Salas]

It's true, it's never ending.

[Jason Tyler]

That's, that's the funny thing for me about history is that especially when you think about like historical landmarks is no matter, history is in the past, right? It happened already. But there's so much nuance to how we view it, how we're able to understand it, what was going on at the time, what, why was this built? Not just the what of it, the what is there, but what is the why behind it, the who, the where, all of these different things that play into these historical landmarks. So give me a little bit of a rundown on what your day to day looks like with Hotel Baker. As you're bringing people in, showing off the history of it, you're learning more about it every day with new information coming out. What's your, what's your day to day look like there?

[Rowena Felix Salas]

Day to day really? I have five managers who are rock stars and they manage their, their team really well. Been very blessed with that. Even even though I'm just, I'm titled as a general manager or co owner of the place. My husband and I own Hotel Baker. I really get to do a lot of different things. I used to have so many different sales managers, but now I only have one and then I'm the second one. So I fill in as needed in sales and you know, I'm a nurse by training, so I can do housekeeping. I probably make good beds. You know, I miter those corners.

[Jason Tyler]

I would hope so. I would hope so.

[Rowena Felix Salas]

The only thing I don't do is I don't cook. So even in the gardens I could plant and tell you what things to plant, but I don't do hot tubs. I don't know how to do those for buildings and grounds. But I forgot what the question was already.

[Jason Tyler]

That's fine. What I will preface by saying is now we just did your interview, right? And the interview is very like call and response, question and answer. This is just a conversation, right? So I love that, I love that you said that you, you do a lot of, you do so many different things because in business, right? We, as business owners, we. We tend to wear a lot of hats. Yes, we wear every hat. I mean this. Today I'm in sales. Tomorrow I'm in management. The next day, I'm doing plumbing. Somehow, I don't know how I ended up in plumbing, but guess what? I got to learn how to plumb because a pipe broke, and I. We just got to solve problems on the fly. What would you say is like, your biggest. Your biggest piece of inspiration for why you got into becoming an owner of Hotel Baker? What was the spark that made you say, you know what? I want to own that, or was it more of a situation?

[Rowena Felix Salas]

I was going to say it's quite the opposite.

[Jason Tyler]

It was quite the opposite. It was. So bring me up to speed. How do we get here?

[Rowena Felix Salas]

Yeah. So my husband and his partners decided to put a bed at Hotel Baker. And I said, why would you want to do that? I'm a nurse. You don't have any hospitality experience. Their main focus is it. So we don't know anything about hotels. So we hired hotel managers from different places, and that's how we started this all. But eventually we learned all the different areas and were able to handle the situations of different areas pretty well. And actually, most of some of our managers don't even have hospitality background, you know, and so they learned it as they went along. But their experiences, the experiences they had in their previous jobs really help in their current positions.

[Jason Tyler]

So it's. It's funny how that works, right? Because you can have somebody like, for. For me, for example, I. Before I ever picked up a camera, I was working as an auto mechanic, and I was very. Just turn the wrench. That was work with my hands. That was my thing. And then from that, I pivoted into working in food and beverage. So I was, you know, server bartender for a long period of time. Neither of those things, by technicality, filter into a film background, but I found that, like, skill sets that I built along that period of time help out in these sorts of situations. Like, I used to hate the concept of seeing myself on camera and being on a podcast. You. In 2011, you couldn't pay me to be on a podcast. But now with, like, the bartending experience and customer service experience, that kind of filters in. So I'm a firm believer in the skills that life is preparing you with are ultimately going to lead you to the place that you want to be in.

[Rowena Felix Salas]

That brings me to a story that I'm going to share with you. So I went to nursing school, and after nursing school, I worked as a staff nurse at a VA hospital, worked in endocrinology, worked in neurology, neurosurgery, and then that was at the VA system and met a lot of veterans and so forth. And we talked about that during the interview and learned about the veterans experiences during the wars and so forth and being an active duty. And then I went back to Rush and I worked as a psych nurse.

[Jason Tyler]

I was just gonna say, like, that. The experience of working with veterans, like, yes, you were a nurse in these different fields, but you probably had to be a psychologist at some point as well.

[Rowena Felix Salas]

Well, you had a girlfriend who encouraged me to apply, and she was already a staff nurse at a. At Rush. And so I did and got the job. And I was working there for some time and really learned a lot about doing one on ones with patients and doing different kinds of groups, group sessions. It really helped me. I think it really did help me in my current position, those experiences. And then after staff nursing, I did a stint in dental school because I always wanted to be a dentist. And then that lasts for like a year. And so then left that. And then I went to.

[Jason Tyler]

Why did it only last a year? Because I feel like you were hesitating there first. What happened with the dentistry?

[Rowena Felix Salas]

I always wanted to be a dentist. Okay. And then my father lost his job during my third year in college, and he told me that I couldn't go to dental school because, you know, the fun, the financing and so forth. And I was so naive. I didn't know about. I didn't really know about scholarships or. Or loans or anything like that. So I said, okay, fine. So I went to nursing. And my. My other sister is also a nurse. She actually is a retired lieutenant colonel from the Air Force.

[Jason Tyler]

Oh, wow.

[Rowena Felix Salas]

Yeah. And so I went into nursing, and I learned a lot while I was a nurse. Not only was I a nurse, but after staff nursing, I went to human resources. And I did not just recruit nurses, I also recruited allied health professionals for the medical center.

[Jason Tyler]

I'm seeing a narrative through line here of you were learning a lot about people.

[Rowena Felix Salas]

Yeah.

[Jason Tyler]

Throughout this entire experience or human resources in general. I mean, dad, that filters, right. In human resources, learning more about people. Like, even in the nursing, you were learning about people because you're dealing with people one on one or in group settings.

[Rowena Felix Salas]

Right.

[Jason Tyler]

You're hearing these veterans stories. And then going into human resources now I have to understand the metrics of, like, how do I keep a staff happy.

[Rowena Felix Salas]

Yeah.

[Jason Tyler]

Right. So again, all of that stuff filters back in to now being at the hotel.

[Rowena Felix Salas]

Sure. And back then I thought, why, What. What is all this? You know, Because I had a girlfriend who also worked in human resources, but in a different department. She worked at compensation and benefits. So she taught me about positions and how they're graded and how each position is graded and so forth, so on. Then I learned something about employee relations where I dealt with union employees. So then I got experience with that and training and development. So I had experience with that as well. So my experience and human resources was so good. It was pretty comprehensive then. It really did help me a lot in my current position. After that, I went to philanthropy and communications where it was also. It had the marketing area as its arm and one of the arms in that area. And I opened. I was privileged enough to manage a physician referral service and marketed to 2500 physicians that we had.

[Jason Tyler]

Oh, wow, that's.

[Rowena Felix Salas]

Yeah, that's a lot. Because it's a big medical center.

[Narrator]

Yeah.

[Rowena Felix Salas]

And so after that, then I had my kids, and then I had twin boys. And I have twin boys, fraternal twin boys. And I was a stay at home mom. And when they were two years old, my husband thought I was bored with my twin boys, so he asked me if I wanted to be partners with a hair designer who wanted to open a salon and spa. So. So that's where I got in when the boys were small. And I worked in. In a salon and spa for about five years as a partner. So I learned about, you know, the accounting, filling out stuff for every month, submitting it to the state and so forth for taxes and so forth.

[Jason Tyler]

Yeah, the back, the. The back end.

[Rowena Felix Salas]

The back end of stuff.

[Jason Tyler]

Yeah, the legal.

[Rowena Felix Salas]

Right.

[Jason Tyler]

That's the stuff that everybody wants to avoid.

[Rowena Felix Salas]

Right.

[Jason Tyler]

Like if I could start a business today again and not have to do any of that, I'd start 40 of them.

[Rowena Felix Salas]

Right.

[Jason Tyler]

But because I have to do paperwork for each single one, I'll keep it to one business at a time.

[Rowena Felix Salas]

So I learned about all that and I had to work with an accountant. And then that seized after five years because the lease ended and my partner continued as a hair designer. And then shortly after that, I had an art gallery because my passion has always been in the arts. And when I say art gallery, these are original works of art with 35 artists that I represented. And that was during a time when the economy started to tank. It was about 2007.

[Jason Tyler]

2007, 2008. Yep. Financial grips.

[Rowena Felix Salas]

So we closed that. And my husband said that I need to work at the hotel and be the general manager. And like, I don't have any experience in that. No, we'll be here for you.

[Jason Tyler]

You have a wealth of experience, actually.

[Rowena Felix Salas]

So I didn't know that my past experience was going to help me in that job, but thank God I had all those experiences because it really did help me. So eventually when our HR person left and I was able to do that, eventually when we didn't need our marketing person, I started doing that. My husband bought me a Mac laptop and bought my two kids Mac laptops. I always thought that when you have a MacBook or Mac, you know, a MacBook, have a MacBook, you're ready to design and do layouts for advertising and so forth.

[Jason Tyler]

It's not that simple.

[Rowena Felix Salas]

I thought it was that simple.

[Jason Tyler]

And listen, I am a. I'm an app when it comes to my editing computers and all, like working in a creative field. I use all Apple. Yeah, I. My right there is our Mac studio. I got another Mac. I have my laptop, which I went and got when. When the M2 chip came out, I was like, give me the beefiest laptop you could possibly get. I spent like $5,000 on the thing. But it does not come from Apple. Ready for you to just go start designing stuff. I always find there's so many pieces of software.

[Rowena Felix Salas]

I just thought, if you have a MacBook, you can do all these wonderful things.

[Jason Tyler]

Okay, I can do all things through Apple, who strengthens me.

[Rowena Felix Salas]

Are you familiar with the Next Computer? Have you ever heard of the Next Computer?

[Jason Tyler]

I have not.

[Rowena Felix Salas]

Okay. That was when Steve Jobs left Apple. He opened up Next.

[Jason Tyler]

Oh, wow.

[Rowena Felix Salas]

Yes.

[Jason Tyler]

Why do I not know about this?

[Rowena Felix Salas]

So Google Next Computer. Next Computer was what I used when we had the physician referral service where I did the marketing of the 2,500 physicians that I told you about. And so we had those next computers. But Steve Jobs eventually went back to Apple and so they never. They didn't make the next computers anymore. And so eventually they got rid of all that when I left. And then they had different. A different system. But anyway, not many people know this, but the guts of a MacBook is really. The next computer comes from the next computer. Comes from the next computer. And so some people always tell me, you worked with the next computer. How old are you?

[Jason Tyler]

And then your rebuttal is like, you're still working with one now.

[Rowena Felix Salas]

Right, right, right. So, yeah, I remember working with an ex computer and I said to my husband, this computer is awesome. You can open up all these different screens, you know Go from one screen and go to another. It's all on the same screen. He's like, really?

[Jason Tyler]

That was a. That was a part of what Steve Jobs was building. The whole. You have a whole Apple ecosystem.

[Rowena Felix Salas]

Right.

[Jason Tyler]

And everything functions perfectly with the next thing, and you have all these screens, and I'm just. I have my one little central keyboard, and I can use all of this.

[Rowena Felix Salas]

Right.

[Jason Tyler]

I'll never stop singing the praises of Apple because it's helped me. I've. You know, I've done so many film projects through it. It's able to eat through all of the footage that I do in a day. I'm a huge, huge fan. One more thing that I want to talk about before we kind of wrap up here is I want to just give you an opportunity here to just kind of pitch to the viewers, like, what is the experience like at the hotel? What is your ultimate goal when people come to the hotel when they stay there? Is it the historical experience? I mean, history. You mentioned that you've always loved art. History and art are kind of one and the same. What's the experience like for guests at the hotel?

[Rowena Felix Salas]

You know, I always want the guests to feel special and get some historical information about the hotel. We have a historical booklet that we share with as many guests as possible. It gives them a different appreciation of where they're staying. I think when you read about its history, and we do a lot of weddings at Hotel Baker, and so when those couples provide welcome bags for their guests, I always tell them that we offer this complimentary so that their guests receive it in their welcome bag and read about the hotel.

[Jason Tyler]

That's great. Yeah, that's great. Especially having it as, like, a wedding venue.

[Rowena Felix Salas]

Yes.

[Jason Tyler]

And so you're. Not only are you adding. Not only are you learning about the history of the venue itself, but you're adding to that history. Right. You're creating such a special moment for you and your family while you're at this venue that already has so much history to it. You're a part of that history now. That's amazing.

[Rowena Felix Salas]

It's a great place. I mean, there's a wealth of history related to Hotel Baker. I can go on and on about it, and it never ends. I mean, every time I read something about the hotel, there's always something new that I haven't read before. You know, we do have a historical museum, a history museum in St. Charles that has a wealth of information about the Hotel Baker, so.

[Jason Tyler]

Got it.

[Rowena Felix Salas]

Yeah.

[Jason Tyler]

So, guys, if you're still watching up to this point, I want to go ahead and give Rowena the opportunity here. Where can people find you if they're looking to follow you on social media? If they're looking for information about Hotel Baker, where's your dot com? Where can people find you online?

[Rowena Felix Salas]

You can find [e-mail]. that's our website. If you wanted information about events, we do [e-mail]. it will reply as soon as possible. We are on all kinds of social media. We are on X, which was previously Twitter.

[Jason Tyler]

Twitter used to be. I still call it Twitter. To this day, I refuse to call it X. I think that's a silly name.

[Rowena Felix Salas]

We're also on TikTok threads. What was Threads before?

[Jason Tyler]

Threads is like the Instagram version of Twitter. Okay, so I guess Zuckerberg and Elon got in a fight. Yeah, I don't know where that is.

[Rowena Felix Salas]

TikTok threads. Of course, Instagram and Facebook are very, very popular. I think we started on Facebook, so we do have a lot of following and a lot of viewers, especially in our videos that we share. We do a lot of videos of our weddings simply because that's really our. Our staple.

[Jason Tyler]

That's like a big draw for people. Yeah, I can imagine. Well, guys, if you're still here, make sure that you guys are following Rowena and Hotel Baker on all of the social media platforms, whether it's Threads. Twitter. I still call it Twitter, Instagram, Facebook, everywhere. Go to hotelbaker.com if you're going to book any events. If you're going to book your wedding, shout out to everybody that's getting married. And with that, that is another episode here at Inside Success. We will see you guys in the next one.

[Rowena Felix Salas]

Sam,