Linden Wolbert Finds Her Profitable Passion as a Professional Mermaid with a Purpose of Ocean Education and Preservation

Mermaid Linden Wolbert
Photo by REUBEN E. REYNOSO

Years ago, my little niece, now grown was all about the Disney classic film “The Little Mermaid.” You simply could not go wrong buying her a “Little Mermaid” gift for Birthdays or Christmas. My niece loved the ocean, swimming, and of course mermaids. If somebody would have told her back than you could grow up to be a real professional mermaid, she would have said sign me up! Of course, there isn't such a thing as a professional mermaid or is there?

That would be “silly” to use one of my niece's favorite words as a toddler.

Linden Wolbert does not think being a mermaid is silly and has created her own career doing just that. Linden is a professional mermaid!

How do you become a mermaid?

Linden tells the Huffington Post, “"I just kind of dreamed up this idea of what I wanted to do."

Now that is profit by imagination!

Los Angeles based Wolbert became a full time mermaid in 2005.

Linden Wolbert
Photo by MATTHEW ADDISON

“My day-to-day as a mermaid is never the same thing. It can involve working on maintaining and designing tails, doing training, editing my “Mermaid Minute” videos for children, which is my passion, booking events like Hollywood parties or working with people to come up with neat fund raising ideas for ocean causes I believe in. I’m pretty much a one woman show. Overall, I’m wearing about 50 different hats. I get hired very frequently to do really high-end celebrity events in swimming pools at hotels or at people’s private mansions. I just did a huge party for a certain celebrity’s little girl. I do all sorts of events where you don’t even know who’s hiring you. I’ve sort of become a mermaid to the stars and mermaid to the stars’ kids. I have pinching-myself moments frequently. (Huffington Post.)"

Indeed, Linden Wolbert is an excellent case study in how to find your profitable passion and create a career through what I call “Profit by Imagination.”

First, Linden was aware of what her passions. In her Huffington Post interview she explains that while a residence director for a local college, she was “becoming increasingly distracted by the oceans and scuba diving and free diving. Swimming is my favorite thing in the world.” Linden is also passionate about the ocean, ocean preservation, sea life, and ocean education and advocacy.

She says, “There was one day where I got emailed to come down to the Grand Cayman Islands to do a shoot for free diving. When I came back I thought, “Why am I sitting in this office in A/C wearing uncomfortable shoes when I could be doing something more meaningful for the oceans.” At that moment I knew I had to pursue my underwater career. I didn’t realize I would become a mermaid yet -- that happened organically over the next few months.

Mermaid Linden with Children
Photo by REUBEN E. REYNOSO

Add some Disney style imagination and a friend who happens to be a Hollywood special effects artist to help design her silicone tail and presto, Mermaid Linden was born and ready to swim. ((Sidebar: If you can be a professional mermaid, why not Merman? Yes, there is such a thing, some 3000 miles from Linden Wolbert in Florida, Eric Ducharme supports what he calls his Merman lifestyle with a creative business selling mermaid and merman wetsuits. Read that story on Yahoo Shine here.)

Linden's passions for swimming and all things ocean drive her life purpose;

“The main core of what I do is sharing the ocean with people. Kids are my main target audience. That’s why I started [being a mermaid]. My “Mermaid Minute” series was born because I wanted to be a mermaid to be a vessel for education for the oceans and conservation for our oceans.”

According to Linden's website, The Mermaid Minute is a completion of short videos featuring “Mermaid Linden” in a series of what she calls ocean “ 'edutainment' for children to enjoy at home or in the classroom!” Linden's goal is for “any child with computer access may enjoy free ocean education programming which teaches them to explore, love and protect our oceans!”

View one of Linden's Mermaid Minutes below;

Linden Wolbert followed the profitable passion and profit by imagination formula perfectly. It is really quite simple;

Passion + Imagination + Action = Purpose + Success

When you incorporate the other core principle of the Don't Seek Success – Be Happi model of belief, enthusiasm, heart, and attitude to passion, purpose and imagination, genuine happiness and fulfillment magically appears in your life.

Make no mistake, it is not always easy, personally, professionally or financially as Linden readily admits; “...It’s a very inconsistent profession. I’ll go for weeks where I am booked straight. And then there are other times in the winter where it’s a lot slower. I’ve learned to weather my way through the storm. That’s just part of creating your own career.”

Mermaid Linden
Photo Courtesy of www.mermaidsinmotion.com

Wolbert understands that pursuing your profitable passion and purpose is not about the money. There will be times, especially in the beginning when following your profitable passion results in financial struggle and other frustrations. Is it all worth it in giving up a 9 to 5 job and a stable paycheck to pursue a career of passion and purpose? I am positive Linden Wolbert would answer unequivocally yes! Indeed, virtually everybody that I have ever met or interviewed who has found and pursued their profitable passion and purpose says the same thing, it is more than worth it in terms of happiness and fulfillment.

For more on finding your profitable passion, profit by imagination, and the entire Be Happi model, see Don't Seek Success – Be Happi. Also stay tuned for the upcoming series of books, entitled Profit by Imagination, scheduled for release in early 2014.

Be Great!

MB