We caught up with the brilliant and insightful Maranda Douglas a few weeks ago and have shared our conversation below.

Maranda, thanks for joining us, excited to have you contributing your stories and insights. What’s something crazy on unexpected that’s happened to you or your business

So as of recent, February 20th was the most treacherous day of my life. My “new to me” truck died, I fainted for the first time ever and I basically got abducted.

I’m a busy body. I’m often doing more than one major project at a time and this time I was running for Clearwater City Council on top of running my business – Top Nauts. I help clients get on the water by serving as a concierge and coordinating their boat rental. February 20th was to have my first memorial at sea.

Even with the best laid plans, nothing could have helped me overcome the obstacles I faced on this day except Gatorade, a couple solid friends and a good laugh.

So that morning starts with me skipping breakfast to go meet up with a neighbor. I’m running for city council so I found it to be more effective to go to my neighbors’ turf and talk with them about any ideas or issues they had with the City.

As I’m wrapping up this conversation, I’m standing outside of my “new-to-me” truck and realize the sun is killing my eyes; more than usual. So I began to try telling the neighbor I needed to get going but as soon as I reached for the door I fainted. I was out before I could finish the sentence.

Luckily, I’m a machine so I snapped back enough to wake up and call my man. The neighbor brought me some water while we waited for my ride and he assured me that he was 100% voting for me.

At this point, I have like two hours to get this charter ready. I feel well enough press on and I tell my man to take me to 7/11 so I can get a Gatorade and some chips and bring me back to the truck.

I get back to the truck and decided to get some gas as well as strategize. I fill this Jeep Laredo up with $50 of gas…it doesn’t come back on. Like its completely dead.

My phone chimes and it’s an alert from Publix that the catering order for my client’s cruise is ready to be picked up. I still had a little bit of decorating I wanted to do so I planned to go get the groceries right before the family arrived. I’m flipping out so I recruited one of my good friends to help me out, and tell her to meet me at the dollar store while I grabbed a few more things. We get the supplies, get the boat mostly decorated and head for the groceries.

Of course, the groceries are not in the pickup area so I head to the customer service desk to see if I was overlooking something. We walk back over to find a shopper guy playing something like Cops with the scanner gun. My attitude is escalating so I get my friend to ask him about my order. With the most undeserving snarky tone he replied he was still checking the items in. I learned how to use the scanner myself, words were exchanged but we got the groceries and headed back to the boat.

By this time I’m just thankful I’ve made it this far in the day and begin to laugh off all the obstacles. The client had a menu of finger foods so I snuck a few popcorn chicken bites in and made sure things were tidy for the guest to arrive.

I never mind bumming a free cruise with my clients, but for the most part I leave and meet them back at the dock. So it is important to note that neither I nor my friend intended on joining the guests on this cruise.

As the family was arriving, I greeted the main client, helped them board, and made sure they were ready for their cruise. Again, I usually sneak off when the captain starts going over the safety rules. This time however, we’re inching our way to the back to get off, only to find the dock attendants tossing the line and the boat was already in motion. I literally burst out laughing. I turn around and my friend says, “I’m sure we can’t leave my truck in the loading zone.” I assured her I would cover it and we just found a spot out of the way to enjoy the day on the water.

Of course the clients had a wonderful memorial. I think the most important thing I learned on this day is that I can roll with the punches and still deliver. I could also practice delegating so I don’t have to cram my schedule like a maniac.

Awesome – so before we get into the rest of our questions, can you briefly introduce yourself to our readers.

My name is Maranda Douglas and I am the CEO/ Founder of Top Nauts. In simplest terms, I help people get on the water! Top Nauts is a premier marine network, connecting enthusiasts of the recreational boating industry. Our pledge is to serve as a purveyor of unique cruise experiences, top-quality vessels, and provide responsible support services from “click-to-slip”.

My business spurred from a short stint where I worked as the Marketing Coordinator for a local yacht charter company. Even though I am a Florida native, I didn’t have many experiences on a boat, let alone yachts, so quickly became enthralled with the industry.

I really enjoyed my work with the company and learned a lot about the industry on such a short time. I built genuine relationships with a majority of people we worked with or serviced. Fortunately/unfortunately, it didn’t take me longer than six months for me to realize that my values about service didn’t align with my boss’ at the time. I decided to quit and just planned to explore the industry on my own.

I kept getting calls from former clients and yacht owners asking for help with various things so I was inspired to start a business around it. Another motivating factor was finding opportunities to uplift the African American community by making the marine industry more accessible and equitable.

My business started with coordinating boat cleaning and grew to managing private rentals (charters). With COVID things changed, I had more demand than supply because boat owners were becoming weary of strangers’ germs or simply selling their vessels. This inspired me to look into government contracting to add to our services and potential clients. There are a wide range of projects we are looking into such as derelict vessel clean ups, marina construction, and aquafarm observation.

How did you put together the initial capital you needed to start your business?

I mostly only spend money on marketing my business. By serving as a concierge to my clients, I am not directly responsible for a lot of costs associated with maintaining a vessel or even paying the crew.

For marketing I am a firm believer in guerilla style marketing and creating unique interactions with key prospects. You will find Top Nauts brand ambassadors at boat shows, fishing tournaments, the Tampa Bay Gasparilla parade, and other key boating events across Florida.

One of my taglines is, “When you see us, you’ll know.”

Any stories or insights that might help us understand how you’ve built such a strong reputation?

I’ve always been and been seen as a “do’er”. I am optimistic, proactive, and take pride in the unique experience that is my life.

Many of my friends and family are inspired by me and tell their network about me. I’m actually a touch shy so it’s still awkward when I’m meeting someone new and they say the classic. “Oh I’ve heard so much about you!.” It’s humbling to have peers speak so highly of me and it has enabled me to connect with people and places many people wouldn’t normally have access to.

Contact Info:

• Website: www.topnauts.com
• Instagram: @TopNauts
• Linkedin: https://www.linkedin.com/in/maranda-douglas/