Billionaires and A-listers pay me to plan their luxury vacations. For $150,000 a year, I get them into the best restaurants and hotels in the world.

27.02.2024 - 11:13 / insider.com / Mariah Carey

This as-told-to essay is based on a conversation with Jaclyn Sienna India, the founder of the luxury travel concierge Sienna Charles . The following has been edited for length and clarity.

I came from an extremely poor background, but I always had a vision.

I attended university for art history. I was a typical college kid, but at that time, I started working at a five-star French luxury restaurant, Le Bec-Fin, as a server. I didn't know how much that restaurant would impact my life.

The clients coming in came from wealthy backgrounds. I saw people spend $10,000 on dinner. They were super dressed up, covered in jewels, and coming in with Rolls-Royces to dine on the best food and drink the best wine.

I became enamored with studying people with ultra-high net worths. I wanted to take that elegance, knowledge, and personal service I learned in the restaurant and bring it to travel.

I started my own travel concierge, Sienna Charles, 16 years ago. I definitely faked it until I made it, but I believed in it.

You could start a business for $99. But what you do with that after is when you start to grow as an entrepreneur. I opened my business, but it's not like the phone rang.

At that time, I was writing to Gotham Magazine and Manhattan Magazine, telling them that I was the most exclusive travel company in the world.

My husband thought I was the dumbest person in the world because we would get calls from people saying, "Oh, I saw your article. I'd love to go to Disney," or, "We're going to New Jersey for the weekend." And I was like, "Oh, I'm sorry, we're so busy, we're really sold out this season with high-net-worth people."

But I had no clients. My husband would say, "You're an idiot. Take the trip." And my response was, "No. I either work for the wealthy or I don't."

It took me three years to get a client. After booking my first billionaire client, I put the $30,000 profit toward my personal travel.

Most people would think I was an idiot at that time because I didn't have the money. In retrospect, it was about understanding the product.

I took it just as seriously from the beginning as I do today.

My dream was to create, for lack of a better term, a one-stop shop because the industry was so segmented. If you wanted to go on an African safari, you would call Abercrombie and Kent. If you wanted to go to Paris, you would call this person. You would call a broker if you wanted to go on a yacht. If you wanted to get a plane, you would call somebody else.

I wanted to be that one point of contact all the time for that wealthy person.

Clients typically come to us. Their average net worth generally starts at $100 million. Annual membership fees range between $75,000 and $150,000, depending on the services