In partnership with Sofia Shved
Shanna Dickerson is defining ultra-luxury travel. With a laser focus on the most delicate details, Blue Sky Luxury Travels offers its elite clientele personally cultivated dream vacations and corporate retreats at the world’s most exclusive private islands and villas, including Necker Island, Laucala, and Mustique. Their specialty for world-class service includes yacht and jet charters, dining experiences, booking concerts & events, and concierge services.
After spending a decade in Nashville TN producing concerts for top artists, Shanna found her entrepreneurial spirit on St. John, US Virgin Islands, where she established Blue Sky Luxury Travels with a vision of crafting exquisite bespoke travel experiences. Since 2010, Blue Sky’s hands-on vetting approach has catapulted ultra-luxury travel to new heights.
Using the services of Blue Sky, you will be doing good and blessing our planet’s less fortunate animals as the company donates a percentage of its profits to Caribbean animal shelters through her nonprofit Blue Sky Relief Foundation. She also started Blue Sky Global Logistics to support disaster response, including rebuilding efforts following Hurricanes Irma and Maria.
Here is a detailed story of how this journey began.
April 2010, Shanna Dickerson had been in Nashville, TN, for nine years in the music business producing major concerts, music festivals, and corporate events. She produced the most prominent artists in the world, but she was losing her drive for the music business. So on April 27, 2010, she sold everything, downsized into a couple of boxes & moved to St. John, US Virgin Islands, to start a business. Everyone told her that she was crazy, but its good that she doesn’t listen to most people! She went with her intuition. Once on St. John, she got a job as the live-in property manager, thanks to country music star Kenny Chesney, at the Peter Bay Beach House. It was a trade deal. She lived there for free, drove the owner’s car, and in return, managed the villa & rental guests. But she was broke from spending most of her savings to relocate to St John and was struggling to make ends meet. Therefore she figured out one way she could make money would be to provide provisioning services for guests coming to St. John. It started with one villa. Then she had four villas. Then something happened that changed her life forever.
She was providing groceries for one of her villas, and when the guest checked in, they emailed her that they couldn’t find their Limes. She couldn’t believe that she had forgotten such an important detail! They told her not to worry about it, but when you arrive at your beautiful villa, you want to make your favorite cocktail; lemon or lime is a big part! So she got in her car after the most exhausting day, drove to the market to buy limes, and dropped them off at their villa. They were shocked and grateful that she had gone out of her way for such a small item. About a week later, she received a call from the largest villa booking company in the world. They told her that she had provisioned for one of their guests, and they were told the story about the Limes. They were so impressed with her attention to detail & service that they wanted to give her all of their villas to provision. She asked how many, and they said about 400! She about dropped the phone! And, said Yes! She requested that they give her about a month to create the business on a larger scale, then, game on! She quickly found a web designer to create an online shopping cart, got her liquor license, made a deal with the grocery store for a 10% kickback, plus had the revenue of the shopping fee & delivery fee. Now she had a small business! She did the first 300 provisions on her own. The amount of cases of beer, water, and wine that she has carried up steep flights of stairs was crazy! But this allowed her see many of the villas first hand. One of the things that she heard from clients is that they don’t trust the pictures online and would instead work with someone who has seen these villas before.
A lightbulb went off in her head. The real money is in booking the villas. Booking villas also turned into booking yacht charters, private islands & private jets. A company that started on St. John, is now a global ultra luxury travel agency with over 100 of the world’s top properties. She has formed two more companies and a nonprofit that focuses on children and animals. And she is not slowing down! She is SO grateful that she delivered those Limes!
The Key Takeaway from her entrepreneurial journey is to follow your intuition, and you never know what tiny little detail will change your life. You can book your next luxury getaway with Shanna’s company Blue Sky Luxury Travels, and Follow her on Instagram on her journey.
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