Blowing an Au-gust of wind under your wings

Happy August Celebros, Cerebellas, Celepeeps!

I hope you've taken the opportunity presented by winter to take a breath and a break from doing the work, and to spend some time by something warm - be it a BBQ, a person, or a glass of whisky.

From what Sarah tells me, it's not currently 30-40 degrees Celsius during the day in Australia, which makes me feel rather privileged here in Siena. I've entered the final days of my international sabbatical, with some weddings here in Tuscany and then in Paris before flying home to the Gold Coast mid-August.

All of this rest time, quality time with friends and family, time away from the "tools", and time in a different country (countries really, there's been ten so far) has left me feeling rather sage, so if you will, let me encourage you.

Life is short - I know I'm not the first one to have observed the quickness of the gift of life, but I bring it up because the truth has become ever more evident to me as I've taken this 12 month-long deep-breath. I wondered through Covid whether I was destined for other professions but I know more than I ever have that I was made to create ceremony. You probably know something similar, so through these slower months could I encourage to take the opportunity presented and invest in the longer tail of your business.

Personally I've completely redesigned my enquiry workflow and my customer journey so that I provide a better service, but am also tracking better where work comes from and why those couples chose me.

For the Celebrant Institute, I've spent the better part of the last year working on our organic search efforts so that more of the right people find us.

Work like this takes time. It takes the day or the week to actually do, and some work like the search optimisation work, takes months if not a year to gestate.

As the chills of August keep us cool, take the time to make that longterm investment if you - like I - know that this is where you're going to be for a very long time. 2033 you will be so thankful.

– Josh

Here's a pic of where I've spent the last month, Martina Franca in Puglia.

🛜 Some of the most popular posts on the website this month

• Changing your business's posture from selling to serving
• I didn't have a backup! Happy World Backup Day
• Celebrant, help wedding vendors not hate you
• Get AI-generated summaries of video calls
• Who can witness a NOIM under the title "Legally qualified medical practitioner" 
• Tax deductions for celebrants
• What do I read my ceremony from? P.S. I just bought a Kobo, and it's way better than my old Kindle!

⚖️ Get onboard the campaign to update the Marriage Act

The good fight to not just extend but make permanent the remote witnessing of NOIMs continues. Don't know what I'm talking about? Go to https://marriageact.plus/ and start by writing a letter to your Member of Parliament about the remote witnessing of NOIMs we're losing in December. I wrote to mine quite some time ago and finally got a letter back from the AG's office that pretty much dismissed our request.

We are pleased to hear the measures have been of assistance to couples and celebrants during the COVID pandemic and more broadly. I acknowledge the feedback provided and note the department will continue to monitor the efficacy of the current arrangements in the context of the broader requirements of the Marriage Celebrants Program (the Program). Such feedback helps inform decisions about the Program, including future opportunities for reform.

The rest of the campaign to update the marriage laws can wait until we get this simple thing across the line. Please write to your federal MP today.

💻 Marriage Celebrants Portal

If you've tried to access the AG Marriage Celebrant Portal recently you'd have found it littered with issues. I just tried logging on today and now you have to log on with your email address instead of your A number, and you have to register a phone number for two-factor authentication. As of yet there's no annual invoice yet, they reported they'll send that when the portal upgrades are complete, so keep your eyes peeled for that.

🎉 50 years of celebrancy

This last month saw our profession, our movement, our thing, celebrate it's 50th anniversary ... and yours rtuly wrote a tribute:

My friend Jeff is a celebrant in Canada, where they actually call you an officiant, and we were talking about the wedding industry as we often do, and he says “I’ve looked into a lot of other markets, and haven’t seen one that comes anywhere near the Australian market for creativity, and branding.”

Something powerful happened 50 years ago ... keep reading

💻 Your free celebrant directory listing

A little known benefit of Celebrant Institute membership is a free listing on the celebrant directory, celebrant.xyz. It's a new directory I started working on to test and build upon SEO skills I had been honing. So, six months on I thought I'd share how it looks. It started at zero views a month, and now with completely organic growth and no paid marketing, it's above 200 views a month and the most popular regions are Byron Bay, Southeast Queensland, Port Macquarie and Sydney. If you're not on there yet, then follow the link at the bottom of https://celebrant.xyz. And if you are on the website, have you made the most of your listing by going through the benefits checklist?

🤖 I'm using AI to reply to enquiries

Every day I'm researching ways celebrants can harness our tools, our computers, to make our lives easier, our product offering better, and our clients lives nicer. The most recent attempt at this is getting ChatGPT to reply to my enquiry emails so that 1-2 minutes after someone enquires with me, ChatGPT has checked my calendar and sent a reply. I've done a rough screen recording for members this month, and I'd like to work on a professional development video on the topic, but if you're interested in seeing how it works, enter a legitimate email address and Australian phone number into my contact form on my wedding celebrant page at https://withers.co and wait for the reply. Enter the wedding date of August 2nd, 2023, so I know it's a celebrant testing my system, not a potential client! #RIPMyInbox

🎓 OPD 2023

You've done your ongoing professional development right? JUST DO IT! Log on to the marriage celebrants portal and do it today!

🏷️ Actual Professional Development - August deal - two for one!

If you have completed your OPD this year you'll probably comment as most do that it's less professional development and more so professional competency testing - which is important. Trust me, I see enough celebrants saying that the NOIM period is 30 days, to long for higher standards in celebrancy (it's one month in case you're wondering, and #notallmonths are 30 days).

People who read this deep into the newsletter are my kind of people, so here's the deal. We're really proud of our professional development offering, the courses are helpful, highly rated, and you can access them whenever and wherever you like at a time that suits you, again and again if you need to reference the materials over and over. We've got courses in how to get a shortening of time, how to become a funeral celebrant, a refresher on marriage law, a refresher on the modern marriage legal forms, co-piloting a marriage ceremony with a priest or a friend, prospective marriage visas, and creating a client journey.

Buy one professional development course this winter (through August to be precise) and we'll gift you a second. Just reply to your order email letting us know what the second course is you'd like to do and we'll send you the details.

🥪 Best website ever

Every other website in the world is less good than this one.

Another month, another email, another swathe of time flys under the radar. The Celebrant Institute exists to help and support you. Join and become a member from $10 a month, so you can join the directory, access the articles on the website, have your voice heard in Canberra when we meet with the AGD twice a year, and of course get 24/7 access to Sarah Aird and I, Josh Withers, to help with marriage law, business, and marketing of your celebrancy practice when you ask a question.

You are enjoying another Celebrant Institute production and you're receiving this email because you're a celebrant. If you aren't a celebrant then I don't know how you ended up here. If you've been forwarded this update and you'd like to subscribe for free, you can do that here.