AquaMermaid in Chicago!

[Nora AquaMermaid]

Hello Midwest Mermaids!

My name is Nora and I am new to the group! I am bringing Canada's AquaMermaid school to Chicago! We will do mermaid classes, parties, bachelor/bachelorettes, modeling, photoshoots! I will also sell tails. I am really excited and I would love to meet others in the community! I hope to launch the school in July 2016. If you're interested, feel free to like my facebook page or friend me on facebook! Excited to meet you, mers!

https://www.facebook.com/AquaMermaid...8392056252394/

https://www.facebook.com/profile.php?id=100011815592087

[Mermaid Jaffa]

Isn't this the mermaid school with the scammer owner and the unsafe monofins?

[Mermaid Momo]

Isn't this the mermaid school with the scammer owner and the unsafe monofins?

Yep. I was avoiding commenting because I didn't know whether to mention that (cuz tbh I doubt the owner told them) or just congratulate them and move on.

Sent from my GT-I9500 using Tapatalk

[Mermaid Jaffa]

Everyone should know. Even the workers.

[AniaR]

Well, the way this works is it's a franchise.

I believe this user is an American who simply paid into Aquamermaids kick starter to be able to start a school under their branch. We shouldn't judge Nora, on Marielle's bad behaviour. It's like fast food places. You wouldn't come to a Canadian macdonalds and not like it, but then believe the one in your home town is bad. Does that make sense?

I continue to hear more and more issues in Canada about Marielle. Lots of upset instructors, and other people who helped her along the way and now feel scammed.

If Nora can break out from under that shadow, then all the power to her. Having run my own independent mermaid school I feel there is a big need for them so kids can learn safety, and the community as a whole can overcome the monofin bans.

[Mermaid Jaffa]

Well ok. I do hope Nora can make something successful of it. At first I thought it was that other lady posting under another name.

Good luck Nora! I wish you all the best!

[Nora AquaMermaid]

Thank you all for your comments. I am sorry to hear you have a less than favorable impression of Marielle's school, I have been nothing but impressed with her and her business since the beginning. I don't know where you have seen the contrary? I guess all I can say is that I would invite you to come for a class and come see it for yourself! Email me if interested: Chicago@aquamermaid.com

[Nora AquaMermaid]

thank you!

[AniaR]

Thank you all for your comments. I am sorry to hear you have a less than favorable impression of Marielle's school, I have been nothing but impressed with her and her business since the beginning. I don't know where you have seen the contrary? I guess all I can say is that I would invite you to come for a class and come see it for yourself! Email me if interested: Chicago@aquamermaid.com

Marielle has a reputation in Canada for stealing from others. It has even been published about in local news http://www.theglobeandmail.com/arts/...click=sf_globe. We also had issues with her when she attended the mermaid convention: mermania in January. You can see a list of all the documented issues along with links to the news publications about her stealing from well known mermaids (such as mermaid linden) here: http://mernetwork.com/index/showthre...m-school-on-TV She also claims to be the first swim school in Canada which is untrue. I have been running ours since longer than most people here have been mermaids, and I learned from people who came BEFORE me. Her monofins were just cut exisiting monofins, and took mermaid Linden's foam inserts and put them in. Her tail designs were created by a different mermaid company who is currently in a legal battle with her for stealing their patent.

None of this reflects on you. I understand most Americans have no idea what goes on in Canada, because our news doesn't make it down your way. But she has a poor reputation, and the swim schools aren't doing great. Franchising seems to be her main source of income at this point. getting people to buy into her label.

It's sad, she went viral and got this "brand" after 2 weeks of using a fabric tail as a model, and stealing Linden's photos and videos and giving them to Canadian media (along with stuff from the Phillipeans mermaid school). So she went "viral" before she even existed as a company, and msisrepresenting herself with other people's content. You can bet your fishbutt Canadians were impress with LINDEN and what she does. But she's in California.

I even recently joined AIDA Canada, and due to Marielle misuse of Linden's images, they (knowing Linden as a free diving judge) actually believed she was working for Marielle!

It's all smoke and mirrors to give the illusion of success and it's infuriating for companies like mine who have been trail blazing for almost a decade. Getting mermaids taken seriously in Canada has been no easy task, and we are few and far between. She is not my competition in anyway, but it's frustrating because people saw how unprepared she was on the TV show I linked up there, and automatically associate her with us and think we must be the same way.

I've also had multiple ex-instructors of her reach out to me about how unprepared the classes were, lack of training, lack of pay in some instances, and misusing non competes illegally to make these instructors believe they can't do any type of work related to this ever again (life guarding, swim instruction, mermaiding etc) which is actually not held up in court in Canada.

For you, all I can suggest is while you're operating under her name that you do your best to distinguish yourself as your own school. You aren't her. People will give you a fair chance. Just do the work, do a good job, work hard to be well spoken, and you'll be totally fine. I wish you all the best of luck, but none of these things are rumours, their all backed up you can easily see it all yourself. I think it's important to know the associations.

[The Nerdmaid]

Hey, I think it's time I added my voice to the whole Aquamermaid debacle. I am one of those former employees Raina was talking about, and I experienced all of the issues she just described first hand.

But before getting into all that, I'd first like to say welcome to Nora! I've found mernetwork to be a very useful resource, and I hope you find plenty of info to help establish your branch of Aquamermaid. I discovered the forum while researching better monofins for the company, and feel that it could be a great place to get input on what people are looking for in classes. I'm sorry for the all the unexpected negativity you've stumbled into, but I think it is pretty important to be aware of.

Now as to Aquamermaid. I quit several months ago, and up to now have kept fairly quiet about things, trying to avoid potential conflict. But if there are new branches opening under different ownership/administration, then I think I should at least offer some advice to avoid the same mistakes being made.

In person Marielle was always very nice, and seemed receptive to the instructors' suggestions, but unfortunately this rarely carried through to actual problem solving. The reality is that the company was expanded very rapidly with very little practical experience or troubleshooting.

There are a few things I would like to suggest in regards to running Aquamermaid differently in Chicago, if you are interested. I can post them here but you're also welcome to PM me if you want.

Sent from my SM-G900W8 using Tapatalk