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

Alright, Tasha thanks for taking the time to share your stories and insights with us today. So, let’s start with trends – what are some of the largest or more impactful trends you are seeing in the industry?

Mermaiding is an increasingly popular activity, especially with the new Live-Action of Disney’s The Little Mermaid set to hit theaters in May. Mermaids, once thought to be a fun fairy-tale for children, are now a large part of pop-culture throughout the world. I began working as a mermaid performer many years ago. Back then, there weren’t that many mermaid entertainers around. Most of our gigs were performance-based, where the mermaids would swim around and entertain the guests/crowd in a mermaid tail, performing tricks underwater for birthday parties, aquariums, festivals, and other events. As mermaids have increased in popularity, more and more people are picking up “mermaiding” as a hobby or profession. As these new “mermaids” get their tails for the first time, safety is a huge concern. Swimming as a mermaid is a huge workout, and a dangerous one! Legs are bound together, and feet are confined to one monofin. Swimmers that are not fit enough, don’t understand the proper technique, or don’t follow safety protocols (like always swimming with a buddy) can easily drown. Because of this, there has a been a large push to form a more standardized safety protocol for swimming in a mermaid tail. Mermaid lessons are now just as popular as the mermaid performances.
Recently, dive organizations like PADI, NAUI, and SSI have all incorporated a mermaid program to their course offerings. These reputable organizations provide training held to an international standard. With more people seeing mermaids on television and in movies, more people are wanting to try this unique and fun exercise experience. Therefore, what was once a 100% performance-based industry, has evolved into two main aspects: performances as well as lessons. I still do tons of mermaid performances, and in 2022, Mermaid Tasha LLC had 171 mermaid events, but over the past 2 to 3 years, there has been an exponential increase in mermaid lessons. I am a PADI Mermaid Instructor, and offer mermaid certifications around the world all year round.

Tasha, before we move on to more of these sorts of questions, can you take some time to bring our readers up to speed on you and what you do?

Hi there! I’m Tasha Haight – an entrepreneur, author, teacher, and MERMAID! I am a PADI Mermaid Instructor, Advanced Freediver, and current Divemaster. I’ve been a lifeguard since I was 15 years old. I was hired for my first mermaid event in 2012, did my first photoshoot in a tail in 2015, and joined the Circus Siren Pod in 2017, which started my “mermaid career”. Circus Siren Pod currently has 2 permanent and 3 travel tanks, and does underwater performances in tank shows throughout the east coast. I saw that they weren’t utilizing all of the Ocean City area opportunities I was sending their way and branched into Mermaid Tasha LLC in 2019.
Mermaid Tasha LLC started as just birthday parties, hotel appearances, community events, and other smaller performance-based events with just me as the mermaid and a few helpers as “merwranglers” to help move me around since I can’t walk in tail. Covid came in 2020 and cancelled ALL of our Circus Siren Pod events and most of my Mermaid Tasha LLC events. With events no longer being any source of income, I started Mermaid Camps to still make money mermaiding. Mermaid Camps were weekend-long (now week-long but shorter days) mermaid intensive camps where people (ages 6-12 for half day with no swimming, 8-12 for full day with swimming, and adult 15+) learn how to be a “mermaid” by safely wearing/swimming in their new mermaid tail (included in the cost of the camp), how to take care of their own bodies, how to take care of the environment, and about local marine life, with some arts and crafts as well. 2020 was actually the most successful year for Mermaid Camp!
Things slowly started going back to normal in terms of events. Now Mermaid Tasha LLC offers performances/events as well as courses. In 2022, we had 171 events and contracted 9 mermaids! Mermaids and wranglers are independent contractors; there aren’t any employees of Mermaid Tasha LLC at this time. A majority of the events came from hotel residencies, or repeat performances at the same venue. Our residencies for 2022 included Jolly Roger Amusement Park (Splash Mountain), Frontier Town, Residence Inn, Aloft, Fenwick Shores, and T.C. Studios. We also had a few one-off events, such as Furnace Town Renaissance Festival, Downtown Cambridge’s Halloween event, and Downtown Pocomoke’s Enchanted Fourth Friday.
The major growth area is currently our mermaid course offerings. Mermaid Tasha LLC began offering mermaid lessons in 2020 when I became a FinFun Mermaid University instructor. In 2021 I became a NAUI Mermaid Instructor, and at the beginning of 2022 I became a PADI Mermaid Instructor. If someone is just looking for a beginner-beginner course at a cheaper price, I still conduct the FinFun Mermaid U class, but most of my focus is on growing the PADI Mermaid Certifications. According to the PADI website, “The PADI Mermaid Program was developed based on prevailing mermaid diving practices and consultation with experienced PADI Instructors who teach mermaid diving, as well as other training experts. All PADI courses are performance-based, so that they are student-centered. This means you progress based on how fast you learn, with your PADI Mermaid Instructor providing guidance that fits your individual needs. PADI is the world’s largest and most well-known diver training organization, so the PADI Mermaid certification(s) you earn will be recognized internationally.”
I also have several children’s books published; 3 currently for sale (Glitter is Not the Winner, Practice Handwriting with Mermaid Tasha, Mermaid Tasha’s 12 Days of Christmas) and the 4th (Mermaid Tasha’s Mission) is currently in the formatting stage, set to be published in early 2023.
Because I have several mermaids contracted by Mermaid Tasha LLC, we are available for events year-round even when I am not physically in the area. I am currently the only mermaid instructor for certifications, but I have many mermaids available for performance-based events.
One type of event that is new for 2023 that I’m really looking forward to is mermaid shows! This is where, rather than just an ambient performance or interactive swim, the mermaids put on a synchronized swim show for about 35-40 minutes followed by a 20 minute meet and greet for pictures and questions. This really allows us to showcase our tricks and underwater skills rather than just swimming around. Pools for this show need to be at least 4-5ft deep in order for it to be safe enough for a majority of the tricks, such as backflips.
As far as I know, our mermaid shows will be the first show of its kind in the Ocean City, Maryland area. Our performances, the high-quality of our tails and tops, and our safety certifications really set us apart from the other local mermaid competition, as all Mermaid Tasha LLC mermaids are PADI certified mermaids and carry performers insurance!

Any advice for managing a team?

It sounds simple, but treat your team how you’d want to be treated. Don’t treat them like they’re “less than” because they’re “below you” on the company hierarchy. Give respect to get respect. My teammates are all independent contractors, so they aren’t entitled to any employee benefits. However, I try to provide incentives throughout the year to keep up that high morale and keep them interested in working for Mermaid Tasha LLC.
As long as the mermaid works 10 events/days, her PADI mermaid certification cost is covered by the company. If they decide to leave before completing that requirement, they just owe the PADI fees, not the entire cost of the course. One of our residencies offers us passes to use the waterpark when we aren’t working; they’re welcome to go by themselves when they want but I also host a team day at the end of the season, before the college kids go back to school, for us to use the waterpark all at the same time as a team bonding activity. I also provide food or snacks during trainings and team meetings. Little things that let them know you’ve put a little extra thought into their comfort can really go a long way in securing loyalty.

Any insights you can share with us about how you built up your social media presence?

I actually get this question a lot from new “mers”! The mermaid community is pretty large on social media. My Instagram game is not the best; I only have about 2500 followers. But on Facebook, Mermaid Tasha LLC has 6.5k followers and an average reach of over 10,000. I have 13.8k followers on TikTok, and 410 subscribers on YouTube at time of writing.
When I was in my master’s program (I have my MBA from Loyola University Maryland), we actually had a course on social media marketing! I learned a lot from that course and thought I was pretty fluent in social media. However, that was back in 2017/2018, and that quickly social media has completely changed. Nowadays, videos are more important, and I just am not a video person. While everyone was watching YouTube growing up, our internet wasn’t strong enough to handle videos, so I missed out on that boat and now I do struggle a little to keep up with taking and posting video content.
However, I think the basic principles of social media still apply. You want to be consistent and constantly posting. The recommended number of posts per day/week vary based on which platform you’re on. Don’t start out on all of them. Find out which one your audience is on, master that one, and then move on to adding another. A lot of mermaids and guppies are on Instagram and TikTok, but a lot of their parents are still on Facebook. I also live in an area where people come to retire, so getting in front of grandparents that are looking for fun activities for their grandkids is a big market for me and those grandparents are on Facebook as well. So, it’s great that I seem to be doing the best at Facebook because that’s where most of my key audience is.
Once you do reach out to more social media channels, make sure you’re gathering content that can be used in a variety of ways over many different outlets. Don’t make a bunch of videos just for Instagram then have your blog be dry because you weren’t able to convert the content to fit it. Work smarter, not harder. It might take some extra up-front planning, but it will save you more time in the end. If anyone hasn’t told you already, try to stick to the 80-20 rule; 80% of your posting should be entertaining, educational, fun, and only 20% should be salesy. So if you post twice a day, five days a week, 2 of those posts can be about your sales and deals and the other 8 should be more entertaining or educational. Try to use a call to action on all of your posts – engagement is key so maybe ask your followers to comment something or share with a friend or give a like if they agree, etc.
One thing that’s definitely helped me with my Facebook reach is sharing to groups! Don’t trust that the algorithm will get your post out for you. Be active! Figure out which groups are relevant that you can share to and share your post with them! I share to a lot of “Locals: Ocean City”, “Delmarva For Sale”, “Mermaids of Maryland” etc type groups – location or interest specific. If you want to pay for an ad, you can give it specifics in terms of interest and location of how you want it pushed out. If you do pay for ads, don’t expect results right away as it takes about 3 months to see returns on social media advertisements on average.
Finally, utilize analytics. Every social media platform should offer analytics. Since Facebook and Instagram combined, you can see insights for both as well as schedule posts for both on Meta Business Suite. It’s super helpful to schedule out your posts to ensure you’re staying consistent with your posting. I love the insights tab of Meta Business Suite, especially the Benchmarking option. Here, you can “follow” similar pages to see how your page stats are ranking against your competitors. Out of the 7 that I’m following, I currently have the 3rd highest amount of page likes, but I’m also posting more than all but one of them. The insights and analytics of your apps can also show you where your audience is from, their ages/genders, what time their most active (so when you should be posting), etc. It provides very useful information that if you’re not using, you’re missing out on and could be wasting your time and energy with your current strategy.
Like any marketing strategy, you should re-evaluate your social media campaigns regularly to see what’s working well, what should be changed, etc.
Social media is an ever-changing game, especially in such a technology-driven world. As businesses, we need to learn to evolve with it if we want to stay relevant and stay in the eyes of our customers. I wish you all the best of luck!

Contact Info:

• Website: https://www.mermaidtasha.com/
• Instagram: https://www.instagram.com/mermaidtasha/
• Facebook: https://www.facebook.com/MermaidTasha
• Linkedin: https://www.linkedin.com/company/52152255/
• Youtube: https://www.youtube.com/channel/UCb5KIwQWPJiQfXOkuSORdXQ
• Other: https://www.tiktok.com/@mermaidtasha

Image Credits
Moments with Ada, Regan Bunting, Starr Lively