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; 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. Our wedding and funeral celebrant training, for those of you who would love to train with us as a celebrant. 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; 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. Our wedding and funeral celebrant training, for those of you who would love to train with us as a celebrant. 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; 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. Our wedding and funeral celebrant training, for those of you who would love to train with us as a celebrant. 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; 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. Our wedding and funeral celebrant training, for those of you who would love to train as a celebrant. 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; 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. Our wedding and funeral celebrant training, for those of you who would love to train as a celebrant. 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.