Sheila Johnson, founder and CEO of Salamander Hotels & Resorts, was one of Hotel Management’s 2018 Influential Women in Hospitality. Four years later, the Salamander brand has grown internationally and Johnson has continued broadening her reach, investing in a range of businesses and paving the way for more women to get their feet in the door.
Act One: The Musician
The daughter of a neurosurgeon and an accountant, Johnson grew up aware of systemic inequality. Her father was not paid the same as white doctors and could not practice in white hospitals, she recalled—but her parents encouraged her entrepreneurial spirit early on. She made potholders on a little weaving loom and went door to door to sell them. “I would save every penny,” she said—and today, she still keeps piggy banks full of pennies.
At the University of Illinois, Johnson took on two or three jobs at a time, saving up her money and leaving the university with $27,000 in her checking account. “I was never in debt,” she said. She graduated with her bachelor’s degree in music and started working as a concert violinist and a music teacher in a school. “The pay was terrible,” she recalled. Deciding to be the “CEO of [her] own life,” she began teaching violin privately, which ultimately led to her forming her own orchestra. This, in turn, let her save enough money to buy a home in an upscale community where she could teach in her basement—and write off part of the cost of her house as a place of business.
Act Two: The Entrepreneur
On her 30th birthday—Jan. 25, 1979—Johnson and her husband, Robert L. Johnson, launched Black Entertainment Television with the help of John Malone, who invested $500,000 in the concept. “[For] startups and companies it's very hard not only to get investors, but also to keep [the businesses] afloat,” she said. “I see that in the tech business now, too.” Without investment and reinvestment, she said, many tech-focused companies don’t wind up working out.
The Johnsons sold BET to Viacom in 2001 and Sheila Johnson began considering her next steps. She invested in athletics, becoming team president, managing partner and governor of the WNBA team Washington Mystics. “Women do not get to have a seat at the table in team ownership,” she said. “I thought that I could make a difference as the first woman and first African American … in team ownership.” At the same time, she decided to broaden her reach and take ownership in the NBA’s Washington Wizards and the NHL’s Washington Capitals, making her the only African American woman to have ownership in three professional sports teams.
Act Three: The Hotelier
A broker contacted Johnson about 340 acres that were available for development outside of Middleburg, Va., and the proverbial wheels started turning. “I love traveling,” Johnson said. “I love staying in the finest hotels. I love luxury.” Her years in the music industry and as the co-founder of BET had given her an understanding of quality service and a love of good hospitality, and she saw an opportunity for a new career.
She founded Salamander Hotels & Resorts in 2005, and with an idea for her dream hotel in mind, Johnson tapped architecture firm WATG and hospitality veteran Prem Devadas to start bringing it to life. “It was really, really important that I was able to get some of the finest minds behind this project,” she said. But even then, she faced “a lot of opposition” on the project. “The town, the community—they did not want the resort built,” she recalled. “It's always that ‘not in my backyard' thing.”
Despite her successes, she was still an African American woman south of the Mason-Dixon Line. “It didn't sit well with a lot of people,” she said. But at the same time, Johnson understood that being a good leader means being an empathetic leader. With that in mind, she met with the town council and the county board of supervisors to show them how the hotel would help the town’s finances. “That education really helped a lot of them understand the goals that I had,” she said. She got the approvals she needed, and the Salamander Resort & Spa opened in 2013. Since then, she added, the town has been “thriving.”
Since that debut hotel opened nearly 10 years ago, Salamander Hotels & Resorts has expanded worldwide. “I really hadn't thought about that when I launched the hotel,” Johnson admitted. “I didn't know what the hotel business was off the bat. I just wanted to build this extraordinary hotel on this extraordinary property. But when I hired Prem, he said, ‘Where are we going to go from here?’”
Even as the first property was underway, Johnson had the opportunity to acquire the Innisbrook Resort and Golf Club in Palm Harbor, Fla. “I knew right away—instinct kicked in—that we should do this,” she said. The acquisition also made her the first African American woman to be part of the PGA Tour and inspired her to join the board of the United States Golf Association, where she meets with other golf resort owners to discuss challenges and successes. “My main goal with USGA was trying to help them with the diversity issue because, as we all know, the history of golf is very segregated. It's not inclusive at all,” she said. “I didn't make very much headway, but we're trying.”
Most recently, Salamander took over management of the former Mandarin Oriental, Washington D.C., rebranding it as the Salamander Washington D.C. “I have always wanted to be back in the city and be a part of the energy of Washington, D.C.,” Johnson said. “It's just a perfect segue into getting us back into urban development.”
Beyond the Middleburg, D.C. and Innisbrook properties, Salamander Hotels & Resorts also includes the Hotel Bennett in Charleston, S.C.; the Half Moon in Montego Bay, Jamaica; the Aurora Anguilla Resort & Golf Club; and the Aspen (Colo.) Meadows Resort. The properties, she said, share several key qualities: “We're about luxury. We're about experiences, we're about inclusion, we're about diversity. We're about everything that we want to live our value system by.”
Johnson expects the Washington, D.C., property to drive further growth for the brand. “I think now we're on the map of the hotel industry and other investors are out there that will say, ‘Hey, this brand is worth looking at.’” Still, she said, the brand’s growth will be careful and strategic. “I examine every step we make because I do not want to fail.”
While Johnson has invested in a broad range of businesses, there is always a purpose behind every decision. “I just don't do things haphazardly," she said. "There's got to be a purpose of making a difference. And that's what's really important—I want to make a difference not only just as a hotel owner but as a woman.”
In 2018, Johnson said she believed the future was bright for women in hospitality. Today, she is still optimistic. “I see women that are building restaurants. That's hospitality. I see smaller boutique hotels that are led by women or their families. And that's growth that we should not neglect in our thoughts.” Still, she acknowledged hurdles that the industry still needs to overcome. “Banks will not pay attention to women unless they have a proven track record,” she said. “How do you get that proven track record by building a company if you don't have the financial resources to do it?” Many businesses fail—especially for women—because they don't have the support they need to succeed, Johnson said, noting that the support can come from the family or from a spouse. “You’ve got to make your desires very clear of what you need from them—the sacrifices that are going to be put in line there, and they've got to buy into what you want to do and become part of that. Otherwise your business will not succeed.”
Hospitality, she noted, is a “very tricky, hard business,” and it often can be slow to pay off. “Even with Salamander Resort & Spa, it took us years to go into the black," she said. "We would lose money because the name, the brand, had to get out there.” Entrepreneurs, especially in the lodging industry, need to be patient and understand that they will lose money in the beginning. “But if you keep examining your business plan, and understand what you need to cut back, what you need to do … you're going to really make the changes in your life that are going to help you be successful in every way, shape and form,” she said.
And despite all the challenges, Johnson expects to keep growing her own business and helping other entrepreneurs grow theirs. “This third act is probably the happiest act of my life,” she said.