The Celebrant Talk Show

The Celebrant Talk Show

By Josh Withers and Sarah AirdBusinessEntrepreneurship
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The Celebrant Talk Show episodes

  • Are we finished being angry at Glenn yet?

    A wide variety of celebrant chat in this episode! Celebrant Institute turns one (happy birthday!). We recap our first year and what we have accomplished. We discuss Glenn’s feedback from our previous episode plus general discussion on industry updates.

    0.40 Sarah’s nicknames

    4.00 Global Climate strike

    8.50 1st year anniversary for Celebrant Institute!

    14.11 Sarah is now training through CI

    16.37 Community over competition and raising the industry standard

    24.57 LGBTQI Awareness

    27.17 Are we still mad at Glenn for his feedback?

    29.11 Signing the certificates

    41.06 Can we have the rings please?

    45.05 High heels for presence

    48.56 Continue to develop

    51.15 CoCA update

    62.38 Say yes to all the things and be a good human

    1 hr 5 min
  • Ladies and Gentlemen and Everyone Else!
    Today on the podcast we're super lucky to be joined by Glenn Mackay, who is an award-winning wedding MC and DJ in SE Queensland. He's seen hundreds of wedding ceremonies while he's been playing the ceremony music, and we're delighted to have him talk to us about his thoughts about what celebrants can do better.
    Remember: this is only Glenn's opinion! We're not suggesting anyone has to do anything Glenn says. But it's always good to be open to new ideas and new ways of thinking, so we hope listening to Glenn will at least make you stop and think about what you do and why you do it.
    Glenn talks about the MarBecca method; you can find out more about that here: www.markferrell.com/
    You can connect with Glenn here: gmeventgroup.com.au/
    Let us know if anything Glenn says resonates with you, if you've changed the way you do something because of something he said, or if you're completely offended and hate every word that came out of his mouth! We always want to hear from you at [email protected] :)
    1 hr 19 min
  • On the off chance that no-one knows what this sentence is about

    Hello everybody! Thanks for joining us for another episode of The Celebrant Talk Show! This time Josh and Sarah chat about the annual registration fee (pay yours now!), the review of the marriage forms, the epic funeral course Sarah went on (http://www.silvercelebrants.com.au), and the new fact sheet about celebrants’ obligations in an online environment, plus an exciting announcement! As always, shoot us an email at [email protected] if you have any questions or topics you’d like us to discuss in an upcoming episode!

    What a time to be alive!  The Marriage Act 1961 has finally aligned with the Electronic Transactions Act (thanks Josh)! and this ep chats about what this means for us.

    Paying your Annual Registration Fee and why pricing yourself out per hour or perhaps why you can’t are also discussed in this episode.

    Other awesome content re the MLCS fact sheets and Sarah has some wonderful advice for funeral celebrants.

    You can’t miss this one!


    03:00 – Sarah’s fav podcast. This podcast will kill you. https://thispodcastwillkillyou.com/

    04:10 – Why it’s impossible to price yourself out per hour.

    12:40 – Why do you have to pay your Annual registration fee?  Why such a big deal?

    19:15 – What do the MLCS do with the funds from the Registration Fee?

    27:45 – MLCS Fact sheet regarding Celebrant obligations in an online environment

    28:25 – Accepting the NOIM, Date and place of Birth electronically! -  What a time to be alive! (Thanks Josh)!

    30.20 – Sighting evidence of identity electronically.

    33:40 – The Electronic Transactions act

    34:07 – What is a Commissioner for Declarations?

    36:15 – Children of previous marriages – Australian Bureau of Statistics

    41:50 – Conference chat - DJ Alliance of Australia https://www.djaa.org.au/

    52.22 – Doing the Cert IV with Sarah and Lifeskills Training https://www.lifeskillstraining.com.au/

    59:00 – Silver Celebrant Funeral training – Robyn O’Connell https://www.silvercelebrants.com.au/

    1 hr 9 min
  • Sarah is pretty riled up

    Hi everyone and thanks for tuning in once more! This episode we chat about:


    • funeral training and why Sarah continues to attend it, even with her level of experience

    • funeral photography:

    • https://thefuneralphotographer.com.au/

    • https://www.abc.net.au/news/2017-11-07/meet-john-slaytor-sydney-funeral-photographer/9113246

    • outcomes from the May meeting between the Marriage Law and Celebrant Section and representatives of celebrant associations

    • the disaster that is the Victorian BDM marriage registration system, and what's currently going on with it

    • why join or stay in an association?

    • https://celebrant.institute/membership/business/how-to-leave-a-celebrant-association/

    • what advice would you give to an aspiring celebrant?


    Wow! This episode really explains all the things!

    To join an Association OR why you possibly wouldn’t….. ? J

    It will have you counting your blessings you are a member of the Celebrant Institute and thanking the universe there is now an RTO lead by one of the best! https://www.lifeskillstraining.com.au/

    Lastly, valuable advice to aspiring celebrants.  So much gold in this ep!  You’ll love it!


    04:35 – Why would an experienced celebrant attend training?

    07:38 – John Slater – Sydney Funeral photographer https://www.johnslaterphotography.com/

    07:38 – Why would you have a funeral photographer?

    12:30 – Silver Celebrant Funeral training – Robyn O’Connell https://www.silvercelebrants.com.au/

    14:30 – More on why would you attend a Training Seminar?

    16.57 – The second you make the statement that you are at the top of your game, that’s the direct indicator that you haven’t.   Dunning Kruger Effect https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Dunning%E2%80%93Kruger_effect

    20:30 – Forms review chat

    23: 45 – Celebrants working in an Electronic Environment

    24:54 – Why do we still need to sign two copies of the Marriage Certificate plus Form 15 when we upload the MC to BDM thus not requiring two copies of the MC?

    33:57 -  Victorian BDM online – RIO Software  https://my.rio.bdm.vic.gov.au/   This is the part where Sarah gets riled up re delays in registration! (In relation to the VIC BDM System) J

    46:10 – Data entry changes in RIO (VIC BDM)

    49:15 – Celebrant Associations – What is their purpose?  Why we ARE or ARE NOT a member of an Association.

    49:54 – Is the Celebrant Institution an Association?

    50:06 – What is the Celebrant Institution and what do you do?

    52:00 – AFCC Australian Federation of Civil Celebrants https://www.afcc.com.au/about-afcc/

    53.50 – AMC Australian Marriage Celebrants https://www.marriagecelebrants.org.au/

    55.23 - International College of Celebrancy Association of Alumni and Friends – ICCA

    www.icca.net.au

    56.35 - Association of Civil Marriage Celebrants Victoria https://www.acmcv.org.au/

    59:43 - AFCC Australian Federation of Civil Celebrants https://www.afcc.com.au/about-afcc/

    64:14 – AFCC Training strategy– The main reason Sarah was riled up this episode!

    69:48 - Considering becoming a Celebrant?  Advice for aspiring Celebrants


    1 hr 22 min
  • The emotional bit, with Vickie Musni, personality trainer
    A special guest, Vickie Musni, on the podcast this week to talk about the upcoming Celebrant Institute conferencewhere she's talking plus hosting a workshop on how personalities work themselves into your business. Get your tickets to the conference and Vickie's workshop at the conference web page.
    42 min
  • Money, money, money
    In this episode we discuss being a full-time celebrant, off the back of the results of the annual CoCA celebrant survey and a subsequent article on the ABC website plus we talk all things Celebrant Institute conference!
    1 hr 4 min
  • God bless the Facebook Groups
    Hello again everyone! Today Josh and Sarah are actually recording this from the same room! Amazing and awesome. We had a bunch of topics we planned to talk about, but instead it appears we ended up talking about the importance and difficulty of language for almost an hour. Hopefully you'll find something interesting in there!
    1 hr
  • You gotta know when to fold 'em
    Get the low down on Sarah’s’ new Cert 4 in training with the Kick Start Session explained. Followed by the Marriage Celebrant Matters Autumn Newsletter Debrief. Josh gets a high five from all celebrants with the Electronic Transaction Act Commonwealth Legislation – Sighting ID over Skype. And lastly a big D&M session on the VIC BDM RIO System and how to get it working properly for you. Sarah is here to save us all!
    2.30 Where we are both at this time as it is our first blog since December – Personal Info.
    6.42 Sarah’s Cert 4 Training
    8.29 Kick Start Session Explained – 5 Days face to face training with mx 20 people per class. Basically F2F is training then you have 12 months to complete the at home assessments. These include: Meeting, Paperwork, create ceremony and perform 5 weddings. 3 non marriage ceremonies: naming Day, Vow renewal & 80th birthday. 2 Memorials and 2 funerals. That’s 12 ceremonies in total and 10 performed.
    11.27 500 to 600 hours to complete cert 4.
    14.50 Explaining how everyone works differently and time varies for completion.
    16.20 Discussions on choosing the right training courses to better equip you as a celebrant – not just price.
    18.59 Discussions on how if you have bad training you might be prepared adequately for the celebrant world.
    20.06 Marriage Celebrant Matters Autumn Newsletter – Debrief.
    20.36 Sarah explains the different between the Commonwealth Attorney General Department and Births, Deaths and Marriages in each State and their roles.
    23.22 Josh informed the appropriate people about the Electronic Transactions Act Commonwealth Legislation in regards to sighting ID over skype not physically.
    26.10 The newsletter noted that a Factsheet was currently being created for celebrants in an electronic environment.
    29.00 Discussions held on electronic signatures in the possible future – Pros & Cons.
    31.00 Discussions on frauds in regard to adaptation of documents and our obligations as celebrants.
    32.37 Finish Celebrant Matters Topics with the colour changes on the document.
    34.16 VIC BDM RIO - Live 19th Feb.
    39.00 RIO - Occupation Lists Discussions.
    43.10 Discussions on QLD Systems in comparison and Josh’s input into the system.
    47.00 The Frustrated State. Josh recommends book to read.
    49.02 Going Full Time as a Celebrant: Member asked the question Josh & Sarah responded with their own personal stories. Josh – Brief explanation – No perfect way to do this just go out on fire. Story – May 2009 started no intention of going full time. 2012 Attended a wedding expo – Great Success – Pitch "If you book me this week I will MC your reception for free!" Focus on getting hours up. Started taking time off from work to do weddings increased. Decided to go full time as a Celebrant. Foundations – Tell your story authentically. Play the long game.
    01.03.10 Sarah’s Story – Total Opposite walked in to do it full time. Inspired by another celebrant she saw. She it up the way she way she wanted it to end up. Had skill that she can work at all times of hours – Professional transcript typist. Made her available for wedding, funeral any day. First expo – 10 bookings. Priced it cheap to get runs on board. Got to a point where she had more celebrant work available. By default, it happened no time left for transcript work.
    01.09.06 Refer back to member question – Budgeting as a Full time celebrant. Important to do your numbers and see what you need to survive and maintain your lifestyle and how many wedding that will take. If you have to cut costs can you diversify, funerals or training. Understand what full time means to you personally don’t be distracted by others term of this.
    01.14.42 Josh’s methods of measuring his business. – Invoicing times and account receivable. Sarah Method is more based on number of wedding per year. Starting a business is the easiest part.
    01.21.08 Member Question – How should one approach questions with their full time boss about reducing hours or taking time off for weddings without getting f
    1 hr 32 min
  • These vows are bad, I'm out
    Thanks for having us in your ears again! This episode we catch up on what's been going on in both our lives over the past three months, we follow up on a few issues from the last episode, and we chat about what's to come in 2019! Topics covered include:
    • Josh's baby and new house!
    • Sarah's new training job! (talentedtraining.com.au/)
    • paying your celebrant registration fee
    • marriage statistics (www.abs.gov.au/ausstats/[email protected]/mf/3310.0)
    • Dubsado, Tave and Xero
    1 hr 27 min
  • Is that wedding today?
    Hello again and thanks for tuning into The Celebrant Talk Show! This episode we chat about:
    - wedding planners
    - receiving identity documents electronically
    - Celebrant software: which package is better?
    - the importance of paying your registration fee as soon as you receive the invoice
    - what happens when a party isn't consenting?
    Let us know any thoughts!
    1 hr 27 min

About The Celebrant Talk Show

From the publisher's feed

A regular talk show on being a marriage celebrant, the Australian marriage laws around celebrancy, and the art of running a celebrant business, hosted by the editors of the Celebrant Institute, Josh…