Transcript of Redefining Island Hospitality: Natajia Miller’s Story of Resilience

Ladies and gentlemen, welcome back to another exciting episode of Mic Unplug. 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 ties into a thriving brand. She's preserving heritage, empowering locals, and redefining island luxury. Bold is a visionary. She is Unstoppable. She is my friend, Nataja Miller.

You're listening to Mic Unplug, hosted by the one and only Mic Hunt. This is where purpose meets power and stories spark transformation. Mic 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.

Nataja, how are you doing today, dear?

Awesome. Happy to be here with you.

I am honored to have you on. 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. 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 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. 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. 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? That basically births 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? That birthed Three ends. Three ends is Nelly, my grandmother, Nicole, my mom, and me, Nateasia. 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. 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 clothing store. That ain't for you. Big dreams are not for small island girls, right?

She didn't listen, so she went to the banks. 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. She had everybody, and it knows for some people it comes from a It comes from a place of, I want to protect you. I want to protect your finances. 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 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. Actually, while I was in China, she called me and she said, Tasia, I'm so tired. I need you to come home. I can't do this by myself anymore. So I'm in China, and they're telling I mean, Nateja, we want to do your offer letter again. We want to extend your contract. You write the terms. I'm like, Nateja writes terms for contract or goes to Tired Mom. I chose Tired Mom, and six months later, COVID broke out. I would have been stuck in China in COVID if I had been greedy with my room upgrade to a suite and double salary and everything. That's the history in the nutshell. 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 eat noodles in college for this. She skipped meals for this. She spent her last for this. Her friends went out. She couldn't go because she had to use that $25 to buy the nails that she needed.

I have to make sure that that is preserved because she did too much for me to just let the ball fall out of my hands now.

No, 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 some of the things that you were doing before you decided to say, Okay, 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... 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 the world outside of my one by two mile island in Stanilki. 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 are 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 US for a year because fun fact, audience, when you're an international student, you get one year to work in the US, 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 MIC, places where Bahamians can get a working visa. And I applied every day, 100 jobs a day. We always recommend Shopify. It took us from an idea to a real business. We got set up, I think, in less than a day. With very little effort, we could just focus on the supply chains and the product development. Shopify gives us the ability to customize without the complexity. We can change something without introducing fragility or having to pay a developer. We're Thirsty turtle, and we leveled up our business with Shopify. Start your free trial at Shopify. Com/au. In every... Australia, Europe, Asia, all over. And then I get an email 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. I always say that that is the most transformational experience ever. And it's not because of the glitz, the glamor, 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. I would have 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. 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. 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. It makes you grateful because 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, which is very rural.

It took me out of my... Like I said, I was, go get her. Yeah, Natesia 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 can't do it all. You need a community of people to help you, to support you. I think that has also influenced my leadership into today. So that is the journey of the life of Nateja making a nutshell.

I love it, Tasia. I love it. I love it. I love It's a lot of 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. But mom needs you. Mom needs you to not I 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 COVID started 2020. So I'm getting... I just arrived, just started leading, and I'm getting these calls. Hi, I'm going to have to cancel. Hi, I'm sorry, I won't be able to come in December anymore. I'm watching the bank account drift downward for all of the refunds that we're giving until it reached 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, Okay, mom, what's the occupancy average? I don't know. Okay, that's fine. I get it. So mom, tell me, what is the ADR? What's the average daily rate? So I can... I don't know. Okay, Mom, can you log into your Quickbooks? So I can see she was like, Quickbooks? Quick what? The books aren't quick. They're on the shelves. What are you talking about? I'm like, Mom, how do you know what expenses you have?

How do you know your account's payable, you're receivable? She said, There's a box in the corner that I keep all of my receipts and my stuff in. I'm like, Great. Pandemic. Refunds requested a box of receipts. So, Mick, I literally... There is nothing that my master's degree me in cash flow management that could help me in this moment. But I went online. I learned about cash projections, cash flow, because at that time, there was a lot of online free resources, and I sucked it all up. I was in class four hours a day. In addition to that, there is the business aspect of... 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 it make sure that in situations like this, I return that. So that was first priority. Second priority was, Nateja does not work alone. Neither does her mom. I have a housekeeper that has a family to feed on another island. I have A maintenance person that has to send money to Haiti. I have all of these people that are also depending on me.

So 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 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. We started off paying them half salary. When that went 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 some cereal, milk, eggs. We did that for as long as we could. Having done that, because there were so many hotels that just closed, and that was another thing. In the Bahamas, I think there were 2-3 other boutique resorts that they just couldn't handle it anymore. I'm watching that and seeing that on the news, and I'm there like,. But at the same time, the people that watched us as we We 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 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. So out of everything, I don't even know what word to use for the chaos of COVID, the bond with the team, not only between 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 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 remained. And after that, then I put my stamp of Dubai on it. That's what my My resort operations supervisor tells me, she's like, Nateja, you just brought Dubai to the property because I've always had a high service. I'm a service fanatic. I've always had that in Dubai. I just tripled whatever I thought that I had before. I am very meticulous. Even if I walk into a restaurant, I'm like, Let me see how long they take.

If you are giving me a coffee and you smile and you remember my order and you repeat to me and you know you have that interaction, I will tip you $20 for a $7 coffee. I think that what I brought to it is an understanding that service, excellence, is not just a fake smile. It'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 because on arrival, we want to get to know you. Hey, you're here, you're solo traveling. Girlpower, but what are you doing here? Oh, I just got divorced. I just wanted to get away. Every day, the team, without Nateja saying, Guys, please check on her. She's divorced. The team is going to her room, knocking on the door. Hey, how are you doing? Hey, I'm going 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 And by the time she left, she admitted to us that she was actually clinically depressed after the divorce.

And she came here basically 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, we can give you a cold towel and all the things, but caring. When people come in for their anniversaries, we're excited. It's our aunt's anniversary because marriage is beautiful because 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 a do unto others on steroids. Because if I am at a resort, and I'm either going through something negative, like a divorce, or going through something beautiful, like a 10-year anniversary. 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. And I think that 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 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, 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, is true relationship, true human connection. So we are definitely going to continue to be the catalyst for that, for sure.

No, that's wonderful. And 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 you it because we feel you. You know what I mean? We truly feel you. When people are spending money and time for a resort, a lot of times that might be the one vacation that they do in three, four, five years. I think a lot of establishments and hospitality miss that. Everybody doesn't go on a big vacation every year. Some people It's a once in a lifetime thing to leave the country, to fly somewhere to a destination, and to spend a week doing something. People save for that. People put 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? Everybody can go somewhere one time. When you have people coming two, three, four, and five times, then that tells me who you are.

So talk to us about how many repeat visitors you get to the resort.

Oh, yeah. Our repeat numbers are between 40% to 50%. 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. 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 café, barely an office. There 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. It's just a beautiful thing to see. I was talking to Amy about the next level of embrace and asking her, if nobody knows embrace like you do. You've seen us go from one villa to seven villas, 10 rooms, cafe, everything. Why do you keep coming back here? Because when we had one villa, you didn't come back for the pool. We had two villas, you didn't come back for the cafe because it didn't exist. So what keeps you coming back here instead of going somewhere else?

She helped me to coin what is now our, I guess, tag lines, which is peace, privacy, and personalized service. She works in marketing. Fun fact. Of course.

So peace.

She said that when she comes to Embrace, it feels like an oasis. It feels like on the island, there's a yacht club, there's local bars, et cetera. But when you're here, your home is how she I described it. 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 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 conk, but otherwise, we've got you. Then the privacy, because a lot of people gave us flap 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, Staniolki, 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 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, I've had guests say, Is there anybody else on property?

I'm like, Yeah, we're at 80% occupancy. It just feels like I'm here by myself. It's that privacy, especially since it's not like hotel rooms, it's villas, individual villas. Peace and privacy are the number one thing. That person RISE service, like I said, and you mentioned something as well about people, this being their only opportunity to come. Last story. We had a German mother-son. They came, and then we treat them like everybody else, right? Hi. And then the son was about 16, about 15, 16. So 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? So we were just interacting with them. It's something that we normally do. At the end of their trip, I always ask, You came here all the way from Germany. We appreciate you choosing Embrace because I understand that she could have stayed anywhere. To come from Germany to Staniel Ke and stay with us, it's an honor. And she explained to me 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, nick. I literally, I started watering. I've been interacting with this young man all week long not knowing. She 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 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 her resilience, she understood because she grew up on farmland in Germany. So this is not like a person that lives in downtown Munich. She came from a farm, and she said she just wanted to bring her son. Our story stuck with her, which is why she chose Embrace. And she said this vacation, she thought she did it for her son, but she did it for herself. And how amazing the time was. I'm getting chose thinking about it, but this is what I live for. All of my becausas, put this at the top. Those stories, because I used to, honestly, I used to always compare myself, ourself, to the big hotels, the Atlantic, the Ritzes, the Hyatt, and I used to look down on us like, Oh, no 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. Woe is me. Just really, really looking down on us like, Who do you think you are? People don't want to stay here. Then you have that negative self-taught that's telling you everything that it could possibly say. After just sitting with myself and listening to the guests' 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 chandelaire in all my rooms, and they would be super cute, I'm sure. But would I prefer to have a chandelaire in every room or to have stories of divorcies that are on the verge of 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. 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 We 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. We only have seven rooms. How many check-ins can we do in a day? 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 vanilla.

There you go. Yeah.

I'm proud now.

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 guests on their first night?

It has to be cunk. It starts with cunk. Everything revolves around cunk. So if it's dinner, let's put some crack cunk on there, lightly fried. That's what we call crack, but it tastes like crack, so that's also the reason. Lightly fried crack cunk. I would do cunk and rice because I just love cunk, 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. 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 going to get. 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 conk fritz as the advertiser.

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 Coming with the pigs. Coming with the pigs.

It's a tradition. People love it.

It's a tradition. What's the most surprising thing that tourists find out about island life when they get there?

I think recently, the most surprising thing is that island life has so much beauty and peace. There's a beautiful piece because we don't have traffic, there's no police cars. I don't think there's ever a stabbing on this island since I was born. Sometimes we tell the guests, if we're walking them, we're like, Oh, no, I have to lock my door. We're like, It's all right. 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. 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 Natasia is going to listen to to get ready?

Oh, Oh, my gosh. Let me think. I really like Caribbean songs. So it depends on what's the latest Caribbean song at the time. It could be Soca, it could be reggae. I used to do dance when I was in college, but I got saved Hallelujah.

Amen. Yes.

But I love me something so called 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, the little joeys. And then also I love that they have the Great Barrier Reef, But they also have the city life. So I would want to do four to six weeks there.

Okay. I dig it. Well, Tasia, again, I appreciate you more than you know. Where can people find and follow you and Embrace Resorts?

Sure. 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. I'm also on Facebook, Nateja Miller, as well as LinkedIn, Nateja Miller. If you want to check out the beautiful photos on our Instagram, it's Embrace Staniel Key. Also on Facebook, Embrace Staniel Key.

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. You 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 Mic Unplug. 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 there because. I'm Rudy Rush, and until next time, stay driven, stay focused, and stay Unplugged.