Redefining Island Hospitality: Natajia Miller’s Story of Resilience

0:00My advice for entrepreneurs is definitely to level up with Shopify. The platform is just never a worry. Like I have so many worries, but the platform is never one. I feel like Shopify really thinks about how they can optimize. It just always feels very ahead of the curve. Everything is just super easy to connect and link. They really know what we need. Time and money that is saved. I can spend on other things and on growth. Start your free trial at Shopify.com. ladies and gentlemen welcome back to another exciting episode of mcgumplug and today i'm honored to be chatting with one of my friends from the quiet bahamian k to global travel dreams she's turned turquoise tides into a thriving brand she's preserving heritage empowering locals and redefining island luxury bold he's a visionary she is unstoppable She is my friend, Natasha Miller.

0:58You're listening to Mick Unplugged, hosted by the one and only Mick Hunt. This is where purpose meets power and stories spark transformation. Mick takes you beyond the motivation and into meaning, helping you discover your because and becoming unstoppable. I'm Rudy Rush, and trust me, you're in the right place. Let's get unplugged.

1:23Natasha, how are you doing today, dear? Awesome. Happy to be here with you. I am honored to have you on. You know, I love asking all my guests right out of the gate about their because, that deeper purpose that they have, that fuel that's creating their legacy. So if I were to ask you, what's your because? What is it today? Today, my because is because I can't let my mom have blood, sweat, and tears paved the way for me, for me to drop the ball now. My because is because my team has been so loyal to me. I can only be loyal to them by giving them what they need for their families, as well as what they deserve as human beings on the job.

2:08My because is because I have a little cousin who looks up to me and I need to continue to be that role model that she so believes in. So when she believes in me, it makes me believe in myself. And that's my because. That's amazing. And I want to start with what you said about your mom and the blood, sweat and tears. Talk to the viewers about the resort, the history and just everything that you and your family have been through to make this the number one destination in the Bahamas. Yeah, for sure. So it all started with an island girl's dream. My mom worked her way up from sweeping floors at a local yacht club to managing the place.

2:54And while she was there, everybody had her as the unofficial concierge. Nikki, I want to get married. Can you help me? Nikki, I need to go fishing. Who can I go with? Nikki, I need a golf car. Can you get one for me? So that basically birthed three ends, which is the travel concierge arm of our business. Because my grandmother said, Nikki, everybody's asking you for this stuff for free do you realize that people get paid for this um so that birth three ends three ends is Nellie my grandmother Nicole my mom and me Natasia and when she when you know when you're an entrepreneur when you start getting that fire and that fuel for entrepreneurship it really makes you start to think big so she always had a dream to build a resort and okay being an island girl with no college degree.

3:41Of course, family members were like, Nikki, why you don't go open one little ice cream store? You should just do a little, just do a little clothing store. That ain't for you. You know, big dreams are not for small island girls, right? So she didn't listen. So she went to the banks and we have about six banks in the Bahamas. Every single bank echoed exactly what the family said, Miss, I don't know about this, Miss. You say a resort and it's not even on the beach? No, no, no, no, no. Let me give you some advice. Go try open one little shack on the beach or something like that and sell hot dog or conk.

4:23So she had everybody, and it knows for some people it comes from a really, it comes from a good place. It comes from a place of, I want to protect you. You might want to protect your finances. And I'm just so proud of her because she persevered in that she was using the money from three ends. She'd take$50, go buy some wood. Take another$50, go buy some nails. Take another$50 and pay somebody to put the nails in the wood. So the resort was built one by one by one. And even until now, so thank God he has given us the grace to be able to finish seven billas, completely bootstrapped, completed our cafe just about three years ago, finally put in a pool five years ago.

5:09So it has been a work in progress. And I had been watching her from afar because I lived in Dubai for a while. I lived in China for a while. And actually, while I was in China, she called me and she's like, Tasia, I'm so tired. I need you to come home. I can't do this by myself anymore. So I'm in China, you know, and they're telling me, Natasia, we want to, we want to do your offer letter again. We want to extend your contract. You write the terms. I'm like, Natasia writes terms for contract or goes to tired mom. And I chose tired mom. And six months later, six months later, COVID broke out. So I would have been stuck in China and COVID if I had been greedy, you know with my room upgrade to a suite and double salary and everything so that's the history in the nutshell and that's why my because is so strong because it's not like this was handed to her and she handed it to me no she worked for this she ate she had me eating noodles in college for this she skipped meals for this she spent her last for this you know her friends went out she couldn't go because she had to use that 25 to buy the nails that she needed so I have to make sure that that That is preserved because she did too much for me to just let the ball fall out of my hands now.

6:28No, that's that's beautiful. So I got the history of the resort, but let's talk about you. So I know how you got there, but let's talk about you before you were there. One of the most brilliant minds that I know. Let's talk about, you know, some of the things that you were doing before you decided to say, OK, mom, here I come. So I have always been a person that's like, I always want more. So even while I was in college, I'm in college, I'm getting two bachelors, I'm getting, you know, I'm the president of the Caribbean Student Association, I'm the vice president of the Model United Nations, so always go, go, go, go, go, go, go.

7:07and that led me to becoming an international student mentor in college which opened my eyes to the world outside of my one by two mile island in Staniel Key you know what I mean so I got to experience so many different cultures I had one of my students was from Greece and had another from Iran another from Germany another from Saudi Arabia a lot of from Sri Lanka so meeting and interacting and finding out about all of their cultures just gave me this culture itch that could not be scratched. So went to university, got my MBA, stayed in the U.S. for a year, because fun fact, audience, when you're an international student, you get one year to work in the U.S.

7:50and most of us have an American dream, so we pray to God that we get that visa extended. But in my case, I was working in the front office, so immigration was like, you mean to tell me that in the 50 states of the United States of America, you can't find a front office agent? And no. So I had to come back home and I came back home and I literally Googled places where Bahamians can get a working visa. And I applied every day, a hundred jobs a day. in every Australia, Europe, Asia, all over. And then I get an email to go from Dubai. I thought it was spam. I deleted it like, ha ha, you thought you were going to get me.

8:34You didn't. Long story short, it was Dubai. And I went to Dubai and I stayed there for three years. And I always say that that is the most transformational experience ever. And it's not because of the glitz, the glamour, the gold in your coffee, the, you know, the tallest building, the biggest mall. It's because culturally, it's like, it's as cosmopolitan as it gets. The hotel that I worked at has 67 different nationalities. So I would have like a German on my right, the Filipino on my left. I'm checking in a Russian. I go down to have lunch with a Sri Lankan and then I go home to my roommate who's from Kenya.

9:13So it just really opened my eyes and even made me more grateful because I remember speaking to somebody from Iran and I was just so excited. It was my first time going back home since I went there. And I was just like, oh, I'm so excited to go home. I'm dancing around the office. I'm so excited. And he's like, well, at least you have a home to go to. You know, and it makes you grateful because, you know, there are some things that people take for granted. and one of those things was having a home to go to so so yeah Dubai was amazing and I didn't stop there I went to China and I was thinking that just like my Dubai experience everybody would speak English it would be super easy but I didn't read the fine print because I did not go to Beijing or Hong Kong I went to Yinchuan Ningxia which is like very rural so it took me out of my like I said, I was go get her.

10:10Yeah, Natasia can do it all. And that humbled me because I'm like, can you help me get lunch? Can you help me get a cell phone? Can you help me go to the doctor? Can you help me buy this online? So it really took that independent, I can do whatever I want and put it back into the box of humble Island girl, remembering that, you know, you can't do it all. You need a community of people to help you, to support you. And I think that has also influence my leadership into today. So that is a journey of the life of Natasha, Nick, in a nutshell. I love it, Natasha. I love it. I love it. I love it. So now you're back at the family business and it's a lot of vision, right?

10:52And it's starting to become reality. But mom needs you. Mom needs you to not get it over the hump, but to say, I got it. I can do it. Let me run with it. Let me make things happen. So when you get back home and the resort business is real, what are the first couple of things that you did to put your stamp, to put Tasia on the resort? Oh, great question. So before I could even think about putting Tasia on the resort, I had to get COVID out of it. Because when I came back, when I came back, Mick, it was like, I literally came back end of 2019. And you know, COVID started 2020. So you know, I'm getting I just arrived just started leading.

11:42And I'm getting these calls. Hi, I'm gonna have to cancel. Hi, I'm sorry, I won't be able to come in December anymore. And I'm watching the bank account drift down, downward, you know, for all of the funds that we're giving until it reached, you know, like about 10 ,000. And I still had about 15 ,000 in refunds to give back. So that was my introduction to Embrace Resort. And so I'm talking to mom and I'm like, OK, mom, what's the occupancy average? I don't know. OK, that's fine. I get it. So, mom, tell me what is like the ADR? What's the average daily rate? So I can. I don't know. OK, mom, can you log into your QuickBooks so I can see she was like QuickBooks?

12:27Quick what? The books aren't quick. They're on the shelf. What are you talking about? Right. Yeah. So I'm like, mom, how do you how do you know what expenses you have? How do you know your you know, your accounts payable, your receivable? She said, there's a box in the corner that I keep all of my receipts and my stuff in. And I'm like, great. Pandemic. Refunds requested a box of receipts. So Mick, I literally, there is nothing that my master's degree could teach me in cash flow management. Yeah. That could help me in this moment. But I went online. I learned about cash projections, cash flow, because, you know, at that time there was a lot of online free resources and I sucked it all up.

13:13I was in class four hours a day. And, you know, in addition to that, so there is the business aspect of, you know, having I have to give my guests their money back. So we had to take out a small loan to do that, because at the end of the day, you trusted me with your money. I have to make sure that in situations like this, I return that. So that was first priority. Second priority was Natasia does not work alone. Neither does her mom. I have, you know, a housekeeper that has a family to feed on another island. I have a maintenance person that has to send money to Haiti. You know, I have all of these people that are also depending on me.

13:51So in that time, that was a crash course in leadership that I didn't even know that I needed. So when the pandemic happened, of course, like I said, no money, no money coming in because the country is closed down. But I still have these. I think at the time it was probably like 10 people that are looking to me to guide them and to help them and to figure out what we're going to do from here. So we started off, you know, paying them half salary. when that when that ran out we went to one week's worth of salary when that went out we went to here's a bag of chicken here's a bag of rice here's you know some cereal milk eggs um and we did that for as long as we could and that has having done that because there were so many hotels that just closed right hey there and that was another thing in the bahamas i think there were two to three other boutique resorts that they just couldn't handle it anymore um yeah and i'm watching that and seeing that on the news and i'm there like dun dun dun but at the same time the people that watched us as we you know gave them our last as we had meetings every week even if we just met to play dominoes or uno just to try to keep the spirits up hey guys i can't give you your full salary, but I can invite you over and cook barbecue chicken and peas and rice and macaroni so you have dinner tonight.

15:19So out of the everything, I don't even know what word to use for the chaos of COVID, the bond with the team, not only between like leadership and team, but between each other, because we came through that experience together, it built a resilience and built a loyalty that I could not pay for. I could not, you know, give incentives enough for I could not give enough bonuses to get the level of loyalty. And we're in this together and do what it takes attitude that I have now for those people who have come through COVID with us and remain. And after that, then I put my stamp of Dubai on it. That's what my resort operations supervisor tells me.

16:02She's like, Natasia, you just brought Dubai to the property because I've always had like a high service. I'm a, I'm a service fanatic, like fanatic. So I've always had that in Dubai, just, you know, tripled whatever I thought that I had before. So I am very meticulous. Even if I walk into a restaurant, I'm like, let me see how long they take. If you, if you are, you know, giving me a coffee and you smile and you remember my order and you repeat it to me and you know, you have that interaction. I will, I will tip you $20 for a$7 coffee, you know? So, so I think that what I brought to it is an understanding that service excellence is not just a fake smile.

16:44It's about how that person feels in your presence. It's about caring. Service comes from caring. When we had a guest that came, she was a divorcee. She let us know, you know, because we were, you know, on arrival, we want to get to know you. Hey, you're here. You're solo traveling girl power, but what are you doing here oh i just got divorced you know i just wanted to get away so every day the team without natasha saying guys please check on her you know she's divorced the team is going to her room knocking on the door hey how are you doing hey i'm going for i'm going to the to this thing tonight do you want to come hey did you grab etc just checking in with her taking care of her hey you should definitely try this hey you should do this tour hey have you seen the swimming pigs And by the time she left, she admitted to us that she was actually clinically depressed after the divorce.

17:37And she came here basically like on her last string. And after those interactions and seeing that people care, she said that it was better than the therapy that she had had. So this is service. Of course, you know, we can give you a cold towel and all the things. but caring when people come in for their anniversaries, we're excited. Like it's our aunt's anniversary, you know, because marriage is beautiful because we, some of us know what it's like to be married. When people come in, their kid is celebrating a birthday. Some of us have kids. So it's like, it's a do unto others on steroids. Because if I am at a resort, I, and I'm either going through something negative, like a divorce or going through something beautiful, like a 10 year anniversary, I want to be, I want to feel like I'm seen, feel like I'm heard, feel like I'm cared for, feel like you're in it with me.

18:29And I think that that's what, that's what makes, that's, that's the touch that my experience, as well as the team's experience, I can't take full credit for it, but that's what makes us different. And that's what I'm most proud of is at the end of the day, when people come to embrace, they always say, I feel like I visited an aunt And it's not because, you know, the pots and pans are out. It's because you feel like somebody cares about you at this place. So oftentimes when guests are leaving, they're hugging us. They're, you know, hey, I'll send you back. Because we create relationships. And that's something that I also think that the world is losing out on as the years go by.

19:10It's true relationship, true human connection. So we are definitely going to continue to be the catalyst for that, for sure. No, that's that's wonderful. And, you know, you answered a question I was going to ask, even though I knew I wanted you to tell the viewers what makes Embrace Resorts different. And I you nailed it. Because we feel you, you know what I mean? Like, like we truly feel you. And when people are spending money and time for a resort, like a lot of times that might be the one vacation that they do in three, four or five years. Right. And I think a lot of establishments and hospitality miss that.

19:54Right. Everybody doesn't go on a big vacation every year. right some some people it's a once in a lifetime thing to to leave the country to to fly somewhere to a destination and to spend a week you know doing something like people save for that people you know put their their their life their hopes and dreams into that a lot of times and i think that embrace resorts does an amazing job of making people one be seen like you said but two making sure that they're felt and that embrace fills them back. So talk to us about how many repeat visitors that you get, because to me, that says a lot about any establishment, right?

20:38Everybody can go somewhere one time when you have people coming two, three, four, and five times. And that tells me who you are. So talk to us about how many repeat visitors you get to the resort. Oh, yeah. So our repeat numbers are between 40 to 50 percent. And again, it's a beautiful resort and the area is beautiful, the clearest water you've ever seen. But when the guests come back, they come back to see Dexie. They come back to visit Gabby. They come back to see Tasia. Like we have one guest that has been coming to embrace since we had one villa, one villa and sand. I'm talking no pool, no cafe, barely an office.

21:22There was one villa and she has been coming. Amy, her name is Amy. She has been coming from one villa up until now. She brings her kids. She brings her husband. His husband brings his family. and it's just a beautiful thing to see and I was talking to Amy about you know the next level of embrace and asking her like you know you if nobody knows embrace like you do so you've seen us go from one villa to seven villas ten rooms cafe everything why do you keep coming back here because when we had one villa you didn't come back for the pool and we had two villas you didn't come back for the cafe because it didn't exist so what keeps you coming back here um instead of going somewhere else and she helped me to coin what is now our i guess tag taglines which is peace privacy and personalized service she works in marketing fun fact so of course like she said that when she comes to embrace it feels like an oasis it feels like you know on the island there's a yacht club there's local bars, et cetera.

22:27But when you're, when you're here, your home is how she described it. So embrace is all about creating peace for people. Number one, because you don't have to think, let us do the thinking for you. You know, you want all your meals planned out. We got you. Oh, but I'm vegan. We still got you. It sucks for you because you won't be able to try the conch, but otherwise we've got you, you know, and then the privacy because a lot of people gave us flack for not being beachfront a lot of people oh how could you you're in the bahamas but not being beachfront the place that we're at staniel key is a one by two mile island you can jog around the entire island in less than two hours getting to the beach is like nothing it's like it's a couple of steps away but with that what that does is it creates privacy because now if i'm a beachfront property everybody wants to be at the beach and everybody wants to but because we are tucked away when you're i've had guests say is there anybody else on property and i'm like yeah we're at 80 occupancy she's like it just feels like i'm here by myself you know so it's that privacy especially since it's not like hotel rooms it's villas individual villas so peace and privacy are the number one things and that personalized service like I said um and you mentioned something as well about people like this being their only opportunity to come last story we had a German mother son they came and then you know we treat them like everybody else right hi and then the son was about 16 about 15 16 so you know he's he's a young man maybe he doesn't want to be with his mom all the time so we would like come let's take you on an island tour oh did you see the nurse sharks at the Yacht Club.

24:14So we were just interacting with them. It's something that we normally do. At the end of their trip, you know, I always ask, you came here all the way from Germany. You know, we appreciate you choosing Embrace because I understand that she could have stayed anywhere to come from Germany to Staniel Key and stay with us. It's an honor. And she explained to me that that she had to save money for three years to do this for her son because her son was dying and this was his dying wish. I can't make these stories up, Mick. I literally like I started watering. I've been interacting with this young man all week long, not knowing.

24:53She said that he had to have there was no doctor in Germany that could perform the surgery that needed to be performed. So he had to go to another place. Anyway, long story short, his dying wish because the doctors gave him like an X amount of months to live. His dying wish was to come to the Exumas. And she said when she saw the story about my mom and, you know, her resilience, she understood because she grew up on farmland in Germany. So this is not like, you know, a person that lives in the downtown Munich. She came from a farm and she she said she just wanted to bring her son. And our story stuck with her, which is why she chose Embrace.

25:31And she said this vacation, she thought she did it for her son, but she did it for herself, you know, and how amazing the time is. I'm getting chills thinking about it. But this is what I live for. All of my because's put this at the top. Those stories, because, you know, I used to honestly, I used to always compare myself, ourself to the big hotels, right? The Atlantis, the Ritzes, the Hyatts. And I used to look down on us like, oh, nobody wants to come at our little resort. Oh, we don't have a lap pool. Oh, we don't have chandeliers and marble floors. Oh, we don't have a Louis Vuitton store.

26:08Woe is me. You know, just really, really looking down on us like, who do you think you are? People don't want to stay here. You know, then you have that negative self-talk that's telling you like everything that it could possibly say. And one, like after just sitting with myself and listening to the guest feedback in my head, instead of listening to what we're not, because we're not marble floors and we're not chandeliers, but we are barefoot luxury, the luxury of self that you can't buy. I can put a chandelier in all my rooms and they would be super cute, I'm sure. But would I prefer to have a chandelier in every room or to have stories of divorcees that are on the verge of, you know, suicide and people that are on the verge of death, people that have came to spread their parents' ashes, that they choose this as their safe place to come.

27:02Yes, and keep the chandeliers and the marble floors. I will take that every day of the week and every month of the week. So I am honored and humbled that we have the time to hear stories because you can't imagine how many people pass through the 500 room hotels that may have similar stories, but because I know I worked in Dubai, I was doing 120 check-ins a day. I don't have time to find out who's on their dying bed and who's divorced. I just need to get to the next person. So what I used to think was a negative thing, us being so small and not posh is actually what makes us amazing because we have time for your stories.

27:42We only have seven rooms. How many check-ins can we do in a day? Right? We have time to sit with you by the pool. We have time to remember that you like your coffee with almond milk and a splash of of the splash of vanilla. So there you go. Yeah. So I'm proud now. I love it. I love it. Well, Tasia, I know how busy you are. I'm going to get you out of here on my quick five, my rapid fire. Go get them. You ready? Ready. All right. Number one, your favorite Bahamian dish to serve your guest on their first night. Oh, it has to be conch. It starts with conch. everything revolves around conch so if it's dinner let's put some crack conch on there you know lightly fried that's what we call crack but it tastes like crack so that's also the reason lightly fried crack conch oh I would do conch and rice because I just love conch but let's not let's do peas and rice because it's traditional baked macaroni and cheese because you know what why not two starches right you're in the Bahamas and it's one of my favorite things and then we'd of course add a salad coleslaw coleslaw with nice sugar and honey and everything in there it's as close to salad as we're gonna get um and then for dessert guava duff the most delicious succulent saucy sorry i think i'm dribbling a little bit here mick why did you do this to me but yeah guava duff for dessert and then conch fritters as the appetizer i love it i love it when you tell people that they're going to swim with pigs what's their first initial reaction oh my god yay which day we have people that come here just for them yeah yeah swimming with the pigs it's a tradition love it it's a tradition what's the most surprising thing that tourists find out about island life when they get i think recently the most surprising thing is that island life has so much beauty and peace.

29:52There's a beautiful peace because we don't have traffic. There's no police cars. I don't think there's ever been a stabbing on this island since I was born. So sometimes we tell the guests, like if we're walking, they're like, oh no, I have to lock my door. And we're like, it's all right. You know, leave it open. They're like, what do you mean? It's all right. I'm like, lady, my house has been open for the past six years. you know so i think that really surprises them that what is it really that safe there you go when it's time to get hype when it's time to get energized what's the song that natasha is going to listen to to get ready oh oh my gosh let me think i really like like caribbean songs so it depends on what's the what's the latest caribbean song at the time like it could be soca it could be reggae i used to do dance hall when i was in college but i got saved hallelujah you know amen amen yes but i love me soca bahamian music anything caribbean all right and then last question what's one travel destination that is on your bucket list australia people want to come to the bahamas for the pigs i want to go to australia for the kangaroos you know the little joeys and then also they have i love that they have like the great barrier reef but they also have the city life so i would want to do like four to six weeks there okay okay i dig it i dig it well tasia again i appreciate you more than you know where can people find and follow you and embrace resorts sure so i'm on linkedin so definitely feel free to hit me up there if you need any travel advice as well, even if it's not Embrace Resort, but you're thinking about coming to the Bahamas, but you want a more peaceful route, I can definitely help you out with that.

31:43I'm also on Facebook, Natasia Miller, as well as LinkedIn, Natasia Miller. And if you want to check out the beautiful photos on our Instagram, it's EmbraceStanielKey, also on Facebook, EmbraceStanielKey. I love it. Well, dear, I appreciate you more than you know, dear friend of mine. Just so proud of you. So proud of everything you have going on. You are amazing. I can't wait to come down and see you soon. Okay. Let me give you your flowers too. You are amazing. You are wonderful. You are everything. You are such a beautiful person in the space that you're in and the heart that you have, the things that you do, the opportunities that you provide for people.

32:30You are the epitome of amazing leadership. And I am very proud of you and proud to be called your friend. That means the world to me. I appreciate you. And to all the viewers and listeners, remember, your because is your superpower. Go Unleash It. That's another powerful conversation on Mick Unplugged. If this episode moved you, and I'm sure it did, follow the show wherever you listen. Share it with someone who needs that spark and leave a review so more people can find their because. I'm Rudy Rush, and until next time, stay driven, stay focused, and stay unplugged.