Chapter 1: What inspired Natajia Miller to pursue her family's legacy?
ladies and gentlemen welcome back to another exciting episode of mc unplugged 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
You'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.
Natasha, 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.
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Chapter 2: How did Natajia's global experiences shape her leadership style?
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. My 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 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 that. 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 died. Worked her way up from sweeping floors at a local yacht club to managing the place. And while she was there, everybody had her as the unofficial concierge. Nikki, I want to get married. Can you help me?
Chapter 3: What challenges did Embrace Resort face during the COVID-19 pandemic?
Nikki, I need to go fishing. Who can I go with? Nikki, I need a golf cart. 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 it? for this. So that birthed 3Ns.
3Ns is Nelly, my grandmother, Nicole, my mom, and me, Natasha. And 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 being an island girl with no college degree, of 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.
Chapter 4: What unique hospitality experiences does Embrace Resort offer?
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 Lil' Shaq on the beach or something like that and sell hot dog or conch. So she had everybody. And for some people, it comes from a good place. It comes from a place of, I want to protect you. I want to protect your finances. And I'm just so proud of her because she persevered in that.
Chapter 5: How does Natajia define personalized service in the hospitality industry?
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 villas, completely bootstrapped, completed our cafe just about three years ago, finally put in a pool five years ago. So 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, Tasia, we want to do your offer letter again. We want to extend your contract.
Chapter 6: What role does community play in Natajia's leadership philosophy?
You write the terms. I'm like... Natasha 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 in 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 a 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 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 is preserved.
Chapter 7: How does Embrace Resort maintain high repeat visitor rates?
Um, because she, she did too much for me to just let the ball fall out of my hands now.
No, 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, okay, mom, here I come.
Yeah.
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 Model United Nations. So always go, go, go, go, go, go, go. And 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.
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Chapter 8: What are Natajia's future aspirations for Embrace Resort?
So meeting and interacting and finding about 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. And 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, 100 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. You 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, That is the most transformational experience ever.
And it's not because of the glitz, the glamour, the gold in your coffee, the tallest building, the biggest mall. It's because culturally, 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, Spanish. 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. So 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, 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. Yeah, Natasha 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 influenced my leadership into today. So that is a journey of the life of Natasha. Make it a nutshell.
I love it. 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. And it's starting to become reality now. 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.
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