We were lucky to catch up with Jeff Taggart recently and have shared our conversation below.

Jeff, looking forward to hearing all of your stories today. We’d love to hear from you about what you think Corporate America gets wrong in your industry and why it matters.

Corporate America is very impersonal and plastic and we are the uncommon company!

Let me take you back to a time when a dollar worked for was a dollar earned! The Southern Empress is synonymous with entrepreneurial vision, Integrity and hard working people with a tenacity and a pioneering spirit striving to always be the best! The people that work everyday to make our riverboat cruises spectacular for our customers and for the people that live, breathe, consume and experience our brand.

Our mission is to stop the clock for a few hours allowing our customers to experience timeless and memorable, even romantic experiences. We provide a venue for all ages and statuses both public cruises and private events to socialize, team build or just celebrate in a friendly and clean yet historic and nostalgic atmosphere. Few moments are more relaxing then listening to the wooden paddles of yesteryear slapping the crisp waters of Lake Conroe.

Jeff, love having you share your insights with us. Before we ask you more questions, maybe you can take a moment to introduce yourself to our readers who might have missed our earlier conversations?

Just a country boy from Colorado and a city girl from Ohio that married in 1998. We relocated with my job to Brownwood, Texas in 1999 with a promotion to General manager of the facility of 7 employees and she started working as a legal secretary for the city attorney and kept that career for 16 years. I was again promoted in 2008 after growing that company to 32 employees and was replaced by three GM’s. I began to travel all of Eastern Texas and Southern Louisiana until 2012 and left the corporate world for our own ambitions.

I used my retirement to buy several “fixer Upper” houses and soon had acquired 13 rentals and no time at all to do both manage them and repair them. SO I hired a carpenter and my brother came down to paint and drywall. To keep them busy I took on jobs and before we knew it we were into both property and renovations. That all changed when I found the Southern Empress. She was a beautiful flat bottom riverboat replica of the 1880s and past the days of her grandeur. She still had all the glory of her youth but maybe age has set in as the elements of water and wind will deteriorate even the strongest of vessels.

Liza quickly assumed the kitchen duties, accounting and inventory as keeping all the USCG licensing and insurances up and current while I went to work on building a team of service oriented employees that love this epic idea of 200 years ago. It would require a unique style that many people feel is lost in the history books and no longer exists in this century. We have yet to fully achieve this yet the staff and crew of the Southern Empress are truly the most important asset to our family business.

How do you keep your team’s morale high?

investing in your product is only half of the strategy you must also invest in your people! We don’t have the benefits of some major companies around us so we have to do small things for our staff to make us uncommon and so unique. We specialize in company events so we sponsor holiday and summer events with the staff. It is truly all about relationships on a business level and keeping them uncomplicated and family oriented. Respect is a two way street and so is our admiration for our staff.

How about pivoting – can you share the story of a time you’ve had to pivot?

Are you kidding? Jumping from landlord/construction company to riverboat dinner cruise administrator seems like a bit of a jump both in financial commitment and style of management and commitment. It seemed natural but extremely difficult as the business had yet to establish an online identity.

Contact Info:

• Website: www.southernempress.com
• Facebook: https://www.facebook.com/thesouthernempress/

Image Credits
all images are owned by the southern empress cruises a division of Above the Wake INC.