Explorez tous les épisodes du podcast The Celebrant Survival Podcast

In this very topical episode, Claire puts her funeral celebrant hat on as she tackles the subject of direct cremations. With the increase in direct cremations and the appeal to some people of having a 'no frills', easy disposal of their remains after death, it's a topic that affects the funeral industry as a whole. As worrisome as it might seem on the face of it, Claire looks at how funeral celebrants can embrace this 'new' addition to the funeral landscape and how celebrants can use it to their advantage. She looks at how celebrants can create new opportunities for ceremonies for people who have chosen the direct cremations route, and in particular their families who are left behind and still want a way of closure. Listen now for some great tips and ideas around direct cremations and why Claire thinks this can be an opportunity for real positive change in the funeral sector.

Statistical sources cited by Claire:

https://www.sunlife.co.uk/funeral-costs/

https://www.funeralservicetimes.co.uk/features/2024/01/26/sunlifes-cost-of-dying-report-is-in-but-is-it-accurate/

https://www.goldencharter.co.uk/news-and-info/2024/direct-cremations-popular/

If you love our episodes please do consider leaving us a review. It really makes our day and helps other celebrants to find us. Thank you!

Other ways to engage with us;

1. Our Celebrants Collective Membership, where we run monthly celebrant webinars covering a whole range of useful and interesting topics which will raise the level of your celebrant practice and business.
2. Our wedding and funeral celebrant training, for those of you who would love to train with us as a celebrant.
3. Our amazing Facebook community of over 3K celebrants worldwide or our celebrant traning community for people interested in becoming a celebrant.

In this episode, Natasha talks about the importance of ceremony sound and why as celebrants sometimes it's not enough to solo rely on our naked voices to deliver our ceremonies. Natasha shares the story of a ceremony incident which not only left her devestated but which made her vow to never have repeated again. In this episode she also talks about what voice projection actually is, as opposed to what most people think it is and why as celebrants we need to take more respoinsibility for our voice delivery, if we don't already.

If you love our episodes please do consider leaving us a review. It really makes our day and helps other celebrants to find us. Thank you!

Other ways to engage with us;

1. Our Celebrants Collective Membership, where we run monthly celebrant webinars covering a whole range of useful and interesting topics which will raise the level of your celebrant practice and business.
2. Our wedding and funeral celebrant training, for those of you who would love to train with us as a celebrant.
3. Our amazing Facebook community of over 3K celebrants worldwide or our celebrant traning community for people interested in becoming a celebrant.

Back in March 2024, Claire set off on a dream of a lifetime as she walked the whole length of the Camino de Santiago from France to Spain. As well as wanting to know what it was like, how she did it and how she found it, lots of people wanted to now how she managed to leave her celebrant work behind and pick up where she left of on her return. Well, in this episode Claire shares all of her insights from her break, her experiences on the Camino and also what it was like to take on such a massive undertaking, physically and mentally! It's fair to say that the Camino taught Claire a lot about life and celebrancy than she realised it would!

If you love our episodes please do consider leaving us a review. It really makes our day and helps other celebrants to find us. Thank you!

Other ways to engage with us;

1. Our Celebrants Collective Membership, where we run monthly celebrant webinars covering a whole range of useful and interesting topics which will raise the level of your celebrant practice and business.
2. Our wedding and funeral celebrant training, for those of you who would love to train with us as a celebrant.
3. Our amazing Facebook community of over 3K celebrants worldwide or our celebrant traning community for people interested in becoming a celebrant.

In this episode, Claire and Natasha try their best to not sound like horrible child-haters (they're not!), whilst they talk about the worst and the best bits about having children at ceremonies. They look at what can happen when kids are present at ceremonies and how as a celebrant you can prepare yourself, the guests and their families for a smooth service. Sometimes though, prepared or not, when children are involved plans do not always go to plan! Claire and Natasha share their experiences, and what they do to try and ensure sure that everyone is happy!

If you love our episodes please do consider leaving us a review. It really makes our day and helps other celebrants to find us. Thank you!

Other ways to engage with us;

1. Our Celebrants Collective Membership, where we run monthly celebrant webinars covering a whole range of useful and interesting topics which will raise the level of your celebrant practice and business.
2. Our wedding and funeral celebrant training, for those of you who would love to train as a celebrant.
3. Our amazing Facebook community of over 3K celebrants worldwide or our celebrant traning community for people interested in becoming a celebrant.

In this episode, Natasha looks at four ceremony elements which can really affect the success of the ceremony itself. You may have been there yourself. You've written/prepared what you think is the perfect ceremony, the best one yet, you're prepped, poised and ready but when it comes to the actual ceremony itself, it just falls flat. And sometimes it can leave you scratching your head wondering why it might be. Well, tune in to this episode to hear Natasha share the four things which she feels can radically alter the way that a ceremony lands and what, if anything you can do about it.

Ps. Apologies for the erractic sound quality in some parts. Natasha was recording on a new to her device!

If you love our episodes please do consider leaving us a review. It really makes our day and helps other celebrants to find us. Thank you!

Other ways to engage with us;

1. Our Celebrants Collective Membership, where we run monthly celebrant webinars covering a whole range of useful and interesting topics which will raise the level of your celebrant practice and business.
2. Our wedding and funeral celebrant training, for those of you who would love to train as a celebrant.
3. Our amazing Facebook community of over 3K celebrants worldwide or our celebrant traning community for people interested in becoming a celebrant.

Check out the latest episode where Natasha and Claire answer a series of common questions that they've come across or are asked a lot. They start off by looking at the question "Should I put my prices on my website?" Followed by "Am I too emotional to be a celebrant?" And finishing off with "I hate social media, do I really have to be on it to get work as a celebrant?" Three juicy questions, right? Tune in and hear what that have to say.

On another note, they really enjoyed recording this type of episode, so if you've got a burning question that you'd love them to answer, let us know and they will!

Email: hello@thecelebrantscollective.com

Website: www.thecelebrantscollective.com

In this episode, Natasha talks about working with wedding planners and her experiences of working with them, and why she thinks that having a good working relationship with wedding planners can be really good for business. She looks at how wedding planners can help to push referrals your way, which can increase your overall number of bookings, as well as how helpful  wedding planners can be on the wedding day itself. And because with the good, sometimes comes the bad and the ugly, she talks about the potential negative sides of working with wedding planners too.

In this episode, Claire talks about how she has been gearing up for her trip of a lifetime, walking the 500 mile Camino de Santiago in Northern Spain.

Before she left, Claire shares about what led her to want to want to do the Camino in the first place and how the idea crystallized into a solid plan. We also hear about what she's had to do in order to manifest this dream and the praciticalites of bringing a dream into a reality when you work as a full time celebrant and celebrant trainer.

It's such an inspiring listen about life, about what motivates us, and about how we all can and should advocate for the things that we want in life, because at the end of the day, life is too damn short to be putting things off, waiting for tomorrow, waiting for a better time.

It's a corker of an episode and be warned, you will come away full of inspiration and ready to kick your own plans into action!

In this revisited episode, (first recorded by Natasha in episode 12!) Claire and Natasha tackle the controversial and oft-cited statement that there are too many celebrants. They look at whether there really are too many celebrants, the accuracy in being able to make such a claim and whether actually the situation is far too nuanced for a blanket statement such as this. They also look at what celebrants can do if they feel like their work is under threat or if they are based in an area with lots of celebrants.

In this latest episode, Claire challenges you to think or rethink how you plan your time off away from your business. If you're thinking, 'time off? What time off?,' then this episode is for you! Being self-employed requires us to manage so many things within our business, and one of them is our time management and also managing our time off. But many celebrants and self-employed people per se, find this a difficult thing to do. Listen to this episode for Claire's top advice on how to avoid burnout, how to protect your precious time-off and how to recognise that time away from your business is actually a good thing, even if you can't quite see it, or fully appreciate it.

In this episode, Natasha gets stuck into the topic of 'ghosting.' She looks at what ghosting is and why this frustrating and sometimes annoying occurence happens. She looks at what might be going on with some couples and families, which might explain why they never get back to you. And she also looks at some of the things that celebrants might or might not be doing which stops couples from getting back in touch with the celebrants they initially reached out to.

In this episode, Natasha talks about why she recognises her business as a successful one and she shares what she's done to grow it into one. With 17 years worth of celebrant experience under her belt, Natasha gives her insights into how she created success on her own terms and what she's learnt from growing a business that works for her and helps her to achieve her goals.

In this episode Natasha and Claire talk about the joys of celebrant connection. Of what it is like when celebrants come together online and also offline and how positive it can be for your celebrant growth and confidence. They look at the different ways that celebrants can connect, how to connect with the right groups for you, and what different types of meet-ups offer on a personal and business level. They also take time to look at the negative side of celebrant connection from gossip and bad talk, to negativity online too.

In this first of a two-part series, Natasha and Claire get to grips with celebrant communication by looking at how celebrants communicate with one another. Celebrants are so used to communicating with clients and families and other funeral and wedding colleagues, but how do we communicate with our fellow celebrants? How do we reach out to our celebrant neighbours and make connections with them, or not? In this episode they look at what happens when new and wannabe celebrants take the plunge and get in contact with celebrants either in their area or someone who they might have come across online. Claire and Natasha look at some of the no-nos of cold calling and emailing celebrants, as well as sharing advice for celebrants on the receiving end of lots of cold calls, emails, and DMs from new or prospective celebrants.

If you're a new or wannabe celebrant and you've got questions that you want answers to, why not join our 'So You Want To Be A Celebrant,' Facebook, here.

In this episode, Natasha talks about her experiences of being a wedding celebrant in Spain and the challenges that celebrants working here can face. Having been a celebrant there for almost 17 years and built a successful celebrant business from scratch, Natasha talks about both the highs and lows of being a celebrant in the Costa De Sol. Yes, it's not all sunshine! In fact, there can be too much sunshine! Listen to this episode to hear her top 4 "challenges" of working in the sun. There's one quite obvious one!

In this episode, Claire talks about her experiences of having ADHD and how it affects her as a celebrant, in both the good and bad ways, and what she does to manage her ADHD alongside her work. Claire talks about the aspects of work that she really struggles with, how they show up for her in her wedding and funeral work, and what strategies she has in place to help her. This is a great episode for fellow ADHD celebrants, those who suspect that they might have ADHD or anyone who simply is interested in learning more about the experiences of a neurodivergent celebrant, and to gain a better understanding of it.

In this episode, Natasha and Claire look at the different ways that celebrants can move away from celebrancy. 

They talk about retirement and how empowering it must be to come to the decision that you’re ready to take your final ceremony. When is the right time? Or do you just know in your heart that it is?

They also look at pivoting away from celebrancy, which means not saying goodbye but making celebrancy something that you do alongside something else. This might be in the case of a celebrant who has been working or trying to work as a full time celebrant but has found for whatever reason, it isn’t working, or something’s come up. It might mean that there are other things that need prioritising, alongside your celebrant work.

And lastly, they discuss stepping away from celebrancy altogether. Not retiring but leaving the profession to pursue other goals, perhaps with a view to one day returning, or not.

It’s a really interesting and fascinating episode where they both consider their own futures as celebrants and weigh up how much time they feel they have left doing what they do, and also pondering the feelings involved in making such a big decision.

In this episode, Natasha breaks down the process behind getting paid as a celebrant by looking at when to get paid, how to get paid and what to do when you don't get paid on time! Recognising that this is an important part of your celebrant business, Natasha talks about what she does within her own business and also other popular methods that other celebrants adopt. She looks at how she handles these key transactions to ensure a clear, easy and efficient payment process not just for her wedding clients, but also for herself, as the business owner, with the key aim of being paid easily, on time and with zero stress.

Natasha references 17hats a lot in this episode (obviously, because she's obsessed with it!) and how she uses it for invoicing and keeping at track of payments. If you're interested in knowing more about 17hats, you can read our blog post about it here.

In the spirit of this podcast, surviving celebrant life, Claire and Natasha discuss a topic which affects so many celebrants, themselves included. In this episode, they look at the impact of being a celebrant who experiences menstrual cycles, perimenopause or menopause, and how it can affect day-to-day celebrant life and work. They share their experiences and the mechanisms that they have in place to cope with the physical and mental challenges that stem from these cycles, and they talk about how it can influence their celebrant practice, too.

In this episode, solo-host Natasha talks through the process she went through when she recently raised her prices. After years of advocating for other celebrants to charge their worth, Natasha finally took her own advice and realised it was time to raise her prices to the level that they ought to be at. She's now getting bookings at her new higher rate and couldn't be happier. Listen to this episode to hear Natasha walk through the three easy-ish steps that she took, which will help you to see that raising your price is often something we make more difficult than it really is.

In our latest podcast episode, Claire talks all about celebrant trainees and training prospects for the year, what they can expect and also importantly, what they should expect. It can feel lonely and scary when you’re on the verge of making a big move but this podcast episode will make you feel a whole lot better! Claire gives some awesome insights into the world of celebrancy and celebrant training and looks at why 2023 is a good year to make the leap for so many different and awesome reasons.

In this hour-long special, Claire and Natasha look back at their summer of 2022, a year which saw them hold record numbers of weddings (not to mention Claire's funerals too!), as a result of the pandemic and postponements from previous years! They discuss the highs and the lows and what this year of celebrancy has uncovered for them. They look at the lessons that they've learnt, the big fat no-nos and the things that they are not in a rush to repeat. But they also look at all of the joy that they had during this time too. This episode will hopefully get you thinking about your own celebrant activities over the year and help you to work out how you want to move forward for 2023. The things you want more of and the things you definitely don't!

In this episode, Claire talks about the pitfalls of comparing your results to other people’s - and what you can do instead. Comparisonitis is nothing new. We've all been there. And we all need to hear Claire's sage advice!

In this episode Claire and Natasha take a look at social media and discuss how we use it and navigate it as celebrants, particularly in the wake of Queen Elizabeth's death. They talk about the different ways that celebrants show up on social media and the 'expectations' that some celebrants may have about how they think they have to be on their platforms. They also chat about how they chose to not mark the Queen's death on the Celebrants Collective platforms, their treatment of world events in general and how they show-up online both personally and professionally.

In this episode, Natasha takes a look at how people approach the task of finding themselves a celebrant. And whilst she talks about it from a wedding celebrant's point of view, it actually can apply to all sorts of people looking for a celebrants. In her 15 years as a celebrant, Natasha thinks she has identified three main type of celebrant shoppers, with three quite different approaches to 'purchasing' their celebrant. With a better understanding of how some couples go about this process it can give celebrants a better idea of who their ideal clients are and the habits they have, which make them ideal or not!

In this episode, Claire and Natasha reflect on the inescapable news about the shape of the economy and the rising costs of living, and they look at how this might affect us a celebrants. There is not one country that isn't experiencing some form of inflation or rising prices and living costs, and with many only just back on their feet after the pandemic, it's understable that some may be worried. Claire and Natasha look at ways that we can keep our celebrant businesses running as usual, and taking action to make sure that our businesses stay afloat during a period of uncertainty.

In this episode, Natasha wants to get you feeling much better about SEO, especially because there's so much good that can come from it when you make yourself best friends with it. But the thing about SEO is that it gets a bad rap and most people end up thinking that SEO is confusing, difficult, unmaneagable and complicated. But Natasha's here to tell you that it's not true!

In this episode Natasha explains why all celebrants need to get onboard with SEO and why it's a good move for all small business owners. And she also debunks three big myths about SEO that do more harm than good.

If you're feeling a bit iffy about SEO but know you want to have a better grasp of it, then this episode is for you!

Want to get further stuck in to SEO? Check out our resources.

Our live SEO webinar workshop with Justine Coombs

https://www.celebrantscollective.eu/celebrants-collective-live-sessions/

Our SEO 101 for Celebrants 

https://www.celebrantscollective.eu/seo-101-for-celebrants/

There one where feathers were ruffled. Come and join Natasha and Claire as they talk about Natasha's Mexican wedding. Find out what kind of bride Natasha was and about the engagement that led them on the path to marriage in the first place. This laugh out loud episode (aren't they all?) will leave you in no doubts that Natasha was unapologetically herself and did not steer away from having their day, in their way!

In this episode, Natasha interviews Claire about her wedding day. Claire casts her mind back to her special date in August 2000 where she shares her wedding journey and how she got married in the way that she did. They talk about the decisions made and whether Claire has any regrets about how they got married. Claire also spills the beans on what she would do now if she renewed her wedding vows, as well as dicussing the way that her own wedding has shaped her as a celebrant.

• Where she gets most of her funeral enquiries from.
• What she does once she’s in touch with funeral clients.
• Where she has meetings with her clients and what she says and does in her meetings.
• The things she is SUPER mindful of when meeting with clients.
• How she keeps herself organised with her work process and the software she uses.
• What she does on the day itself and how she carries out the funeral service, manages music etc.
• How she receives payment for her services.

This is a great listen if you’re new to the funeral celebrant industry or you’ve been in the industry for a while. 

In this episode, it's Claire's turn to share her process of working with her wedding couples from start to finish. She talks about where most of her enquiries come from to how she responds to them. She also walks through the process of turning couples into clients. Claire then talks about her ceremony creation process and what she does on the big day and beyond! It's such a great listen, whether you're a new or more experienced celebrant. And don't worry funeral celebrants, Claire's going to share how she works with funeral clients in an episode of its own.

In this episode, solo host Claire talks all about celebrant training and the things you should look out for when you're looking into training as a celebrant. She looks at the pros and cons of the different types of celebrant training and gets you thinking about all the questions you should be thinking and asking! This is a must-listen to episode if you're thinking about training as a celebrant sometime soon! And of course, if our celebrant training stands out for you, you can get more information about it, here.

If you prefer to read along, Apple Podcasters can download the full How to choose the right celebrant training for you transcript here, and for other podcast platforms, you can read the whole thing here:

Natasha: Welcome to the celebrant survival podcast. 

Claire: Awesome advice and top tips for celebrants worldwide. I'm Claire one half of the Celebrants Collective. 

Natasha: And I'm Natasha, the other half of the Collective.

Natasha: Together it's our mission to help celebrants to be the best that they can be and have fun doing it.

Claire: Yep, that's right. We're here to help celebrants to ditch the overwhelm, stop the comparisons, and get fully aligned with who they are, and what they want for their celebrant business.

Natasha: We are your cheerleaders, brow wipers, and butt kickers, everything you need to get where you want to be with your celebrant career.

Claire: So stay tuned, get comfy, and open your ears for our latest episode.

Claire: Hello, it is Claire here flying solo today. And I thought I would just talk a little bit today about training. Now I know that we have a lot of listeners who are celebrants already and they're doing lots of celebranting around the place and that's fantastic.

But there are also quite a lot of people I know that listening to this podcast who are celebrant curious, who perhaps are loving the idea of becoming a celebrant, but haven't quite taken that leap yet. Also, let's just add as well that there are quite a few celebrants out there who have started their celebrant journey but who perhaps haven't had any training or who feel that their training wasn't perhaps what it could be and fancy doing a little bit of a retrain. 

There's all that going on. 

And basically, if you're interested in any way in training, then this podcast is for you.

However, if you are also a celebrant who has trained, you've been doing this for donkey's years, and you're very happy, thank you very much, don't forget that it's really important to keep an open mind in regard to life-long learning.

So, of course, I know I'm hoping I'm preaching to the converted here. But I'm hoping that all of you experienced celebrants, who are listening to this, know that there's plenty that you can do to keep your celebrant skills topped up and refreshed all the time.

Obviously, you can join the Celebrants Collective and have lots of lovely, CPD stuff that we do there. But also there are things like going to a creative writing class in your town or perhaps going to a public speaking group. So don't forget that the learning is never finished, you know, we're never done as it were when it comes to our training.

Anyway, I said I was going to talk about celebrant training. And so that is exactly what I'm going to do. 

As you may know, there is no actual need as such, to do any official celebrant training in most countries. That isn't necessarily the case in Australia and Canada, I know for sure. There may be odd specific things in different states in America as well. 

But generally speaking, in Europe and the UK, certainly, you don't actually need to have any professional qualifications. And in the US, actually, you can, you can be somebody who can officiate a legal wedding, but it doesn't necessarily give you the wherewithal to create a really beautiful ceremony around it. 

Anyway, so this as may be we don't actually need to have any training at all. But of course, it's always a really good idea to actually do some training, because then you know that you're not basically using couples or families as your guinea pigs really.

You might have loads and loads of transferable skills, and that's brilliant. But just being able to know how to put it all together and into a ceremony and creating something that's really unforgettable for all the right reasons, is something that does take a little bit of know-how. So we're not saying it's absolutely necessary, but we absolutely recommend it. Of course we do. Of course we do! 

Anyway, you will have noticed by now that there are a lot, a lot, a lot of different training providers out there. In fact, I know it can be - well it can be - quite a dizzying thing. When you first look out at the training and the training world. And I'm sure that if you're listening to this and you are interested in training, you've probably started to look through them all. And you've probably started to notice the ones that you are drawn to, and the ones that you most definitely aren't drawn to and something that we say a lot at the Celebrants Collective is, it's really important to trust your guts.

And that is very, yeah, that's very pertinent here as well, your guts, your heart, or however you want to say it, your instinct plays an important part here-  a very important part in fact. Of course, you have to do your research, but it's really the feelings that you particularly need to listen to as well. 

So I'll give you a good example of why this is important. Many, many, many, many years ago, back in the mists of time, when I was looking to train to become a life coach, there weren't an awful lot of coaching academies around at that time, unlike now.

And I did start to look around at what there was, and there were about three that were in my kind of, my sphere. And I really, I was really, really interested particularly in two of them. The one of them was in America, and I knew that that was going to be something that was really not impossible, but very difficult logistically and financially to go to. That was sort of off my list really, for practical reasons. And, then there were two others, one of them, I just loved, I really, really loved and just felt that they spoke my language, it felt very in line with my values and who I am.

And the other one, well, it, it got the job done, you know, it trained you to be a coach. And the thing was, that was more local and it was a lot cheaper than the one that I really felt in tune with.

And at the time, I mean, this was a long, long time ago, I had all sorts of money mindset issues going on. And also I had a small child. And there were lots of mitigating factors as to why on paper, it was totally the right thing to do the course that I didn't feel so attracted to. 

My husband, he said at the time. Well, you know, they're both of them going to get you to be a coach. And then you can be your own coach, however it works and he was right, of course, but I did go to the course that I didn't really feel as aligned with.  

And although it did what it said on the tin, I became a coach, I kind of created my own style and everything was fine.

Every time I met other coaches who had trained with the other coaching organisation, I just really felt that twinge - they were really my sort of people so much more than the colleagues as well, they were lovely, the people I trained with, they were just a different sort. They were really my people. And I always regretted or just had that niggle that I really should have done the other course.

So it was a long, long example as to why it's really, really important just to listen to your guts with this sort of thing and just make sure that you're not going to regret it later on down the line. Because you just went for something that really was just, you know, you made the decision on price or whatever.

Okay, so one of the main questions you need to ask yourself pretty early on is, 'Do I want to do online training, or do I want to do in-person training?'. And there are a ton of pros and cons either way on this. And again, you might be that kind of person that just has that feeling ‘I need to do it this way’. And that's fine. Again, listen to that, but also start to think about some of the some of the questions around it. 

So let's think about the face-to-face, the in-person training. 

Now some of the pros of in-person training, are that it's often very intensive, you normally are away for perhaps three days or so, and you are spending all of that time with your fellow trainees and the trainer, and you are really going intensively at the celebrant training, which is fantastic if that is the sort of learning that you'd like to do and it's all kind of in like one big download.

And of course, the other pro is that you get to meet people in real life. There is nothing like that is there? Especially as we've just come out of two - pretty much two - years of not being able to see people very much.

There is something just really lovely still about all being together in a room and just having no distractions. You haven't got your kids or your dogs wandering in halfway through - that kind of thing. You are all together in a room and you're able to just kind of have that bond and learn together. I mean, that is fantastic.

The cons however - so the things against the in-person training - is that there is a lot of information to take in over a short time. It's our brains - they're brilliant, they soak up lots and lots of things, and you might take loads and loads of notes and that sort of thing, but it is quite difficult to retain the knowledge, when it kind of comes as a big info dump like that.

It can feel lonely afterwards. So you've had this really intensive time with your other trainees and, and then you've absolutely filled your brain, it's been super intense. And then the kind of contrast afterwards is you're like, ‘Oh, I'm on my own. Now what I do?’, so there can be that as well, so just be aware of that.

And then, of course, the main thing with in-person training that can be an issue is - like I had when I was telling you about with the coaching course - the travel and the accommodation. 

So the course for me, the best one for me, was absolutely definitely the one that was in America, but there was no way that realistically at that time, I could get over to America and be able to stay over there, leave my small child behind all of that kind of thing, it just, it just wasn't going to happen.

So you've got to think about the accommodation, you've got to think about the travel. And you've got to think about taking out those times, those days. So that might be perhaps you have to take holiday off work or whatever. So there's a logistical stuff involved. 

And also you have less flexibility about the dates. So let's say that you have decided, right, I want to get trained, and I want to do it now. Now. Now! It might be that the course that you want to start is actually only starting in three months’ time and you’re kind of going ‘Come on, come on, come on, I want to do it now’. 

So those are some of the cons. But there are some like I say really good pros. And definitely I know, for me being in a room with people is massive. 

So then you might think okay, so maybe face-to-face training isn't for me, perhaps I'll look at the possibilities of online training. 

Now, the brilliant pros of online training of course are that you can do it without leaving your house, which I know also means that that means the dog is going to come in and the child's going to come in and all of those things. But you are able to do it without all of that stuff of having to carve out the big amount of time, without having to - yeah - spend all that money on accommodation and things. Brilliant. 

Often as well, you have flexible timings when it comes to online courses, not all of them. I mean, sometimes they will start in three months or whatever. But there's generally more flexibility with timings when it comes to the online training. 

And the other really big pro is that because of the fact that you don't have to travel, it often means that you're going to meet a much more diverse range of students. So, for example, some of our online training sessions, I've literally had one where we had somebody from Canada, somebody from Ireland, somebody from France, somebody from Switzerland, and about four people from the UK. It was, you know, it was brilliant. And I did think well, you would definitely not get that with a face-to-face course.

But of course, the cons and the major con with online is, well, you know, you're not meeting people face-to-face, I get that that's important for people. However, a lot of online courses do give you that opportunity to meet even if it is in a virtual way. And I know we’ve all had quite a lot of that thank you very much over the last couple of years. But it is still a really valid and really positive way of meeting up with other trainees. 

I say that - meeting with other trainees - do actually check if you're looking at an online celebrant course whether you do get to meet other trainees because sometimes, some celebrant courses are literally just home study and you don't get to meet any of your other trainees at all.

So yeah, that's something really important, it's really nice to be able to bounce off other people who are in the same position, to be able to speak to your mentor or your tutor. So you really probably are going to want to have something that gives you the ability to meet other people. And that's not always a given with online courses. 

Whether you have chosen to do an online training course or whether you've decided to go for something that's in person, then what sort of things should you look for what kind of questions would it be good to ask, what is, you know, important in a training course? 

Well, I have talked a little bit about this already, but the number one thing is the feel. You do need to do your research. Absolutely. And I'm going to give you lots of things to look into. But do you feel that the values the beliefs, the style of this training course matches who you are?

That's a really, really important thing to work out. And a good way of working this out is - how do you feel when you get an email from them? Do you feel excited? Do you feel a bit annoyed? Or hustled at? Or do you feel something else?

Does it feel like a friend's getting in contact? Or does it feel like this is - oh my god - this is the beginning of my new career!

So there's lots of lots of things, just notice how you start to feel whenever you think about this particular company that you're considering, it's really, really important to get that feel right.

You might want to look at or ask how much after care your training provider has, after you finish the course. Because it's so important to have that continuing support.

It's inevitable - especially if you've done a course where it's all kind of big info dump, whether it's online or in person - if you've done it over a short amount of time, your brain is going to absorb so much, and that's brilliant. 

But then inevitably, you're going to be processing that and go, ‘Oh, hang on a minute, what about this?’ Or have some question pop up. And you need to be able to ask that. You need to have somewhere that you can go and actually talk about what it is that has just occurred to you.  

And preferably, you need to have that ongoing as well.

So it's all very well, for example, you start to you do a funeral course, let's say, and you’re feeling absolutely brimming with the possibility and excitement about it, you come out of the funeral course you go and meet all the funeral directors in your area, you go and do all the stuff and then you get your first booking, and you're over the moon.

And yet you're like, ‘Oh, my God!

You’re suddenly terrified. Suddenly your head empties, because that's the way we work.

And you think, right, okay, well, what do I do about this particular situation? I don't remember us talking about this on the course. Or I know that we did talk about this at some point. But I, this feels a bit different. They have a question. Can you go back and ask that? Do you have the support of your fellow trainees? Do you have the support of the tutors on the course? What happens there? And that might be something in an ongoing tutorial-type situation. Or it might be a busy Facebook group, not just ‘Oh, yeah, we've got a Facebook group that doesn't have anything going on on it’. 

 You know, what actual support do you get and how long after the course do get it for?

Because actually, there's another thing, if you're doing a funerals course, just the way that it works, normally, you will be starting to do funerals faster than you would be starting to do, for example, weddings, just because they have a longer lead time generally. 

So it may well be that it could be a good few months after your course that you're about to create your first wedding. And that's really when you start to need that extra support. 

Also have a think about how much contact you would like to have with your fellow trainees. 

Now, you might be a bit of a lone wolf, you like to do your own thing in your own time, and you don't really particularly need the input of other people, and that's fine. 

Or you might really like to be with people who are at the same stage of a new career as you are to be able to bounce off them and be able to brainstorm with them and all of those kinds of things.

So do have a think. Is that important to you? And what does the course that you are considering give you in this respect? Do you have plenty of opportunity to chat and meet with your trainees, whether that's online or offline.

Another thing to think about is what your learning style is. Are you a visual learner? Or are you somebody who likes to listen to the words of the trainer? Or do you learn by doing? Are you a kinesthetic learner?

What kinds of things go in better for you? And for example, do you prefer to have a big input in one go? Or do you prefer to have bite-sized chunks of information that you can then process and go on to the next one?

You know, and then is the course that you are considering going to feed into your learning style?

Let's say for example, the whole thing is written down, and you have a few sessions where you kind of meet up with a tutor but the rest of it is written down and you have to read it all. Is that going to suit you if you are very much a visual learner, for example? Is it going to suit you, if you much prefer to hear that stuff? 

You know, have a think about that ‘Is this going to do my head in if I sit there, for example, and listen to a whole load of recordings, but I don't have any written work?’

It totally is very, very different for every single person, and just be aware of what you prefer - what your learning style is. 

And also - which is kind of linked as well - how much time do you have to do this in your, in your week, in your, in your day in your months? And how much time do you have, maybe you've just been asked to do a funeral, and it's in two weeks’ time and you need to learn like pronto. 

Or maybe you've wanted to do this for a long time, you're doing another job, perhaps you're parenting as well, you've got a load of things going on. And you know that you've perhaps got a couple of hours a week max to give to your training, but you want to stretch it out, make sure that that is going to fit your needs.

So if you're going to have a three-day, intensive training that might be perfect if you're the person that's going to be doing the funeral in the next couple of weeks. But that's clearly not going to be the case for the person who's got a full-time job, is parenting, and who wants to take it slowly. 

Another thing about timing is, can you be flexible with the timing or is there a set timeframe? Now, obviously, there's going to be a set timeframe if you're doing an in-person training, then that will be fairly obvious.

But if you are doing an online training, sometimes they have times where there are sessions and you have to be there at you know, five o'clock on a Tuesday or whatever it is.

And also, sometimes, with some online training, you have to have completed it in a certain time.

Is that going to be suitable for you? Is that something that you need to be able to do? Or do you need to do it faster? Do you need to stretch it out? What do you need in terms of your timing? 

And make sure that you've got that all sorted in that course. 

Another question to ask when you are looking at a celebrant training course is are the tutors experienced practising celebrants themselves? And when I say experienced, I mean, they haven't just started doing it a few months ago.

And are they actually still doing it? Is their knowledge something that they had from years ago, and they haven't evolved because they've stopped doing it? Or have they still got, you know, are they still doing the actual on-the-ground celebranting themselves, because that can be really, really important. 

And last thing to look at is the homework and assignments.

Again, it's going to really depend on you and what you need and how you feel that you learn. 

But plenty of the courses that are out there, they will have varying degrees of homework and official assignments that you need to complete in order to be to be qualified with them. 

Now, in terms of assignments, it is good to have at least you know, a couple of written assignments because it is part of your training - this is something that you will need to be doing.

So I would be little bit wary if a course doesn't have anything that is looked at by a tutor in order for you to pass.

That said, if it's very, very, very heavy on the assignments, and you need to get this done quickly, and you feel really confident in your abilities in that area, then perhaps that's not so important. 

However, it is really good to have a variety of assignments and variety of different homeworks, because then that gives you the opportunity to expand beyond what it is that you're learning, it gives some output to the input that you've just been taking in, and really enables you to start to flex your creative muscles and see whether you can actually do this. 

There's one thing to learn all about a subject. And there's another thing to process that and to create something from it. And that is a really important part of the assignments. However, like I say, if there's absolutely tons of it, and you struggle with such research things or the timing of it, then you might start to think that that's a negative in your book. I'm gonna take a little break now and on the other side, we're going to talk about qualifications.

Kim: Hello, my name is Kim and I'm delighted to say that I'm a wedding celebrant based in East Sussex. I started training with the Celebrants Collective in the middle of 2021, after contacting a number of other organizations. From the start, I really connected with the values upheld by the Celebrants Collective and the incredibly supportive way in which they nurture all their trainees. I feel that they give you the opportunity to really grow organically in your own unique way, encouraging you to understand just who you are as a celebrant, and where you fit within the community. 

And it really is a community with support and cheers freely given from everyone along the way, celebrating successes and picking you up if perhaps things aren't going so well. 

I've loved the training. It's been excellent, very thorough, and I've also loved connecting with others on the course. Claire and Natasha are both amazing, they really walk their talk, they're super knowledgeable, incredibly experienced, and always there to hold your hand, as well as hold you accountable when needed. Seriously, if you're on the fence, pop off and come and join, I promise you won't be disappointed.

Claire: Now, just before the break, I mentioned that I was going to talk about qualifications. And as I said at the beginning, there are actually no qualifications necessary at present in the UK in Europe. There are in some countries, including Australia and Canada. However, we do still recommend that you do some kind of training.

There are an awful lot of courses, particularly in the UK, which offer NOCN qualifications, which I think stands for National Open College Network, something like that, I believe.

Now, the NOCN is great. It's a nationally-recognised qualification. However, it's not necessarily a celebrant qualification, if you see what I mean.

If you did an NOCN in celebrant training, you would get that NOCN, but the NOCN qualification itself is a national qualification, it's still not like a professional qualification. If that makes sense. 

They're a fabulous thing to have. I know some people like to have a recognised qualification. And I totally get that.

However, please be aware that for a celebrant course to be a good one, the the NOCN qualification doesn't make a difference to the quality of the course.

And no matter what some people might infer about training, if they haven't NOCN qualification, it doesn't mean that you are any more likely to be able to be at the front of the queue if and when celebrants get to do the legal bit and all that kind of thing, which I know some people have the idea that NOCN qualifications will give them an advantage, if the Law Commission passes the decision that we are going to be able to do the legal parts of the weddings. 

So please don't worry too much about NOCN qualifications. If it's something that floats your boat, fantastic. But it really, really isn't necessary in terms of you becoming a celebrant, and it really, really doesn't mean that the course is any better than any other. 

Let's talk a little bit about pricing. 

You will see that there are a big range of prices on celebrant training courses. 

And it can be very, very tempting to just go for the cheapest one. 

But as I talked about earlier, when I was telling you about my coaching training experience, going for the cheapest one isn't always the best option. 

And certainly it's not the reason to make your decision. Certainly it's a factor. And of course, you can't necessarily do the course that that is out of your reach financially. But do remember that you are training to become a professional. You are you're getting professional training to start a new career. And this is something that you really want to be able to invest time and money into. If you're going to do it well, you know, it's really not worth doing it on the cheap. 

That said, it's important not to overreach financially, you don't want to be in huge amounts of debt for this for ages. But as I said, do not make a decision based solely on price either. 

And also find out whether your course will enable you to pay in installments. That's also some possibility with some courses. And some courses also qualify for learner loans and that sort of thing as well. 

But go back to your gut and back to your bank balance as well. Yes, like I said, you need to invest money and you need to invest time, but you still need to be very aware of the time and the energy that you can afford, and the time and the energy and the money that you can afford. 

And you know, yeah, reach a little bit, but don't get yourself in debt on any of those levels. 

So you've done your research, you've looked at all of the different options, hopefully you've sent some - kicked them to the curb, and they're not for you, but you know now the best ones for you on paper. 

Go back to them, have a look at them. Check in that they match your gut feeling too. Check in that you feel like you could hang out with these people, that these people would be people that you would want to spend time with. 

Dig a little bit deeper if necessary, ask questions and needle them. Find out what they say.

And then go for it. Go for the one that you really, really want. And notice how easy or otherwise they make it easy to get in.

Again, just keep your research going all the time, and yeah, go for it.

It would be a bit daft if I didn't tell you about our course at the end of this, of course!

So let me just tell you a little bit about us. 

You can start anytime on a Celebrants Collective training course whether that's the Weddings course or the Funerals course. And timing is very flexible as well. You can start anytime, you can take as long as you want, or you can do it as fast as you'd like. 

We have tutorials twice a week and you can come to as many as you like.

And that goes for after you have finished your course with us as well, and you've been a celebrant for a year or two or three. You can still come back and share your wins or ask questions or just hang out with your fellow celebrants as often as you like.

Our lessons are presented with video, with audio and they are downloadable as well as PDFs.

And we have dedicated Facebook groups which are chatty and lively and a good place to hang out.

We do have homework at the end of most of our lessons but they are suggested homeworks, suggested activities which will get you to - yeah - just progress a little bit further and start to think about how you will become your own celebrant. 

And then we have assignments which will stretch you but hopefully you will find fun and really, really useful when it comes to becoming a celebrant. 

When you study with us you'll get your first year’s membership of the HQ - the Celebrants Collective HQ - which has got tons and tons and tons of extra stuff in there. Really brilliant CPD celebrant learning. 

At the time of recording this, our courses cost 1200 euros each. But if you do one of the courses with us, you get the second one half price. And your first year membership of the Celebrants Collective HQ is thrown into that as well. What a bargain!

If we feel like the right people for you then do check us out but please do go through all of those things.

And remember, if you take away nothing else from this whole podcast, to trust your gut.

I wish you so much luck and love on your celebrant journey, and maybe you'll come and join us as part of it. 

We'd love that. 

Take care.

[That’s the end of this podcast]

Find out more about the Celebrants Collective, and how you can join!

In this episode, we do touch on software systems and as always our big recommendation is 17hats. Boy, do we love it. And we know you would too! If you use this link, you'll get a 50% saving! Win-win.

In this solo-hosted episode, Claire talks through ten awesome principles that celebrants should take on board when it comes to being a celebrant and creating ceremony. These guidelines can be absolute game-changers for giving you a great foundation as a celebrant or for bringing some clarity and focus to your practice if you feel a little out of sorts. These guiding principles make up a whole module of our celebrant training course, so whether you're thinking about training to be a celebrant or you're a celebrant already, you're in for a big treat! 

In this episode, Natasha and Claire talk about the importance of ending the year on a high by acknowledging what has happened in the year. It's all too easy to see one year end and another begin, without tuning into the key events of your year and how it all panned out for you. Claire and Natasha share their top tips for bringing their year to an end, for reviewing their business and honouring everything that's happened. Helping to pave the way for an awesome new year of doing what you love.

In this episode, Claire and Natasha whip themselves up into a frenzy as they get ready to celebrate the first ever World Celebrants Week (November 15th-21st). Because celebrants need a whole week, right? They look at the aims of the week, what it means for celebrants and they outline ways that the week can be celebrated by both individual organisations and celebrants alike.  And don't worry if you listen to this episode past the date, you'll still be able to pick up some good social media prompts for raising awareness of celebrancy on your own social media platforms, at anytime of the year.

Please excuse the strange scratching sound of Claire's earring rubbing on her headphones for the first 9 minutes.

In this episode, Claire and Natasha look at our roles as celebrants. Although traditionally, celebrants peg themselves as wedding, funeral and baby-naming celebrants, we are in fact first and foremost celebrants. This means we have so much scope to define and refine our offerings to whatever it is we choose to do. Not what we think we must do. From their own experiences, Claire and Natasha discuss why they don't do baby namings, and for Natasha, funerals, and how they have refined their own roles to include the things they love to do and importantly, don't like doing. They also look at celebrants' wider working practices and how it's within our own power to shape and define how we work as celebrants to be as fluid and functional as possible.

In this latest episode, Claire and Natasha chat about celebrant awards and take a look at the good, the bad and the ugly when it comes to industry awards. They chat about their own experiences of awards, as entrants and judges and the emotional rollercoaster that awards can take you on.

They also discuss the nature of awards in general and how they can be a good thing on a personal, business and industry level but they also get into the 'dark' side of awards. The negativity, the comparisonitis, the lack of integrity, and other factors that can rub the shine off of awards. It's a cracker of an episode that leaves no award stone unturned. So tune in now to listen.

In this episode, we welcome back Heidi Thompson from Evolve Your Wedding Business as she shows celebrants why marketing your business without a plan is a recipe for disaster. Heidi's no-nonsense plan of action will help you to have a better understanding of your own marketing needs, where you're going wrong and how you can put it right. And don't be put off by the idea of a marketing plan, as when you hear Heidi's idea of one, you'll realise it doesn't have to be as complicated as you think!

Heidi is going to be presenting a free webinar on this at the Book More Weddings summit this coming October 18th. You'll be able to learn from her and over 20 other wedding educators who'll be sharing their business gems for growth without overwhelm.

Grab your free ticket here.

In this episode, Claire gets to grill Natasha! You'll hear all about Natasha's idyllic childhood which set her on course for celebrancy and how she took the leap into the celebrant world itself. From London to Mexico to Spain, you'll find out what drives Natasha to do what she does and what she's really passionate about when it comes to being a celebrant and her work with Claire at the Celebrants Collective.

In this latest episode Natasha puts her old BBC journalist hat back on as she interviews co-host Claire. From the hot-seat, Claire shares a slice of her past, her life pre being a celebrant and how much of her past life is still very relevant now as a celebrant. She even gives advice to her newly trained self! Claire also chats industry stuff too, what she likes, what she doesn't like and what she can't wait to see happen! Enjoy this episode!

In this solo hosted episode, Claire pulls out all of the stops on a mission to help you become your own biggest cheerleader. As celebrants we can have a lot of hurdles in front of us when it comes to developing and growing our celebrant business, but often one of the biggest hurdles is OUR SELF! Claire takes a look at how we get in our own way and shares some awesome top tips to help you stop being your worst enemy! Dive in, listen now and learn how to become your own best friend!

In this solo-hosted episode, Natasha takes a look at what happens when clients want a simple, fuss-free, stripped back ceremony. As celebrants we can be so focused on adding all the bells and whistles that panic can kick in when clients want the exact opposite of this. During this episode, Natasha busts some myths about simple ceremonies and gives some tips on how you can adopt a 'less is more' mindset when you need to.

In this jam-packed episode, Claire speaks to award-winning funeral celebrant and grief trainer Rosalie Kuyvenhoven about all things funeral. They discuss the discrepancies between the way that funerals are perceived and the actual realities of funerals. They look at creativity within funeral work, the growing trend of Zoom funerals and the rise in Death Cafes too. As well as discussions about the funeral industry itself. Whether you're a funeral celebrant or not this is a fascinating episode on life and death and our work in these areas as celebrants.

When it comes to marketing your celebrant business, if you want to and if you have the means to, you could spend a ton of money on it! But not everyone wants to or has the means to! In this episode, Claire and Natasha navigate the ins and outs of paid marketing - everything from directories to Facebook ads, to help you think about how to pick the right avenues for you without burning a hole in your pocket.

In this episode, Claire and Natasha go deep as they explore the long-lasting effects of Covid-19 and the pandemic and how it has affected us on both a human and celebrant level. They also look forward to a post-covid future and what lessons as celebrants we'll be taking with us.