An Identity Crisis? Not Really
Am I a voice and communication teacher? A celebrant-presentation tutor? Maybe a vocal coach? (I’d love to work with someone called Meg – then I could say I’m a Meghan Trainer!) *
A mixture of those titles would do, but there’s another ingredient in the celebrant mix: your personality! Voice, communication and personality are inextricably linked.
Do you tend to present each of your ceremonies in a similar style? Is the flavour of what you do pretty much the same almost every time? That’s natural. Just like we tend to think of our voice (if we think of it at all) as something that happens to comes out of our mouth when we talk, we generally accept our personality just as it is. Why not? There’s a place in celebrancy for all sorts of temperaments and styles: from the quietest and most reserved, to the larger than life, flamboyant.
Do you think it might be interesting, stimulating, valuable, to broaden your personality palette? I’m not talking about changing who you are, where you’re trying to become someone or something that you’re not. What I’m thinking about is looking inside for aspects of yourself that perhaps don’t often see the light of day. Every one of us has several personality strands (and we often present different ones to different people).
After a few minutes’ thought, I’ve come up with these characteristics of mine: I have a performing side; an anxious streak; perfectionist tendencies; a need to be humorous; I’m capable of introspection; I’m kind; considerate; I can be very picky; I often appear to be calm (when perhaps I’m not), and I can be calming; I’m passionate about things important to me; patient; and I tend not to give up easily. That’s 13 – unlucky for some, so I’ve wracked my brain (painful as it is) and come up with procrastination. 14! Phew! I thought of four of those quite quickly, and the rest came up after a bit of head scratching. And there are probably more.
That’s quite a list, and just by recognising and accepting those parts of myself, I already have several building blocks available to me if I were looking to expand the creativity of my writing – and broaden my presentation abilities. Those traits are all part of my personality; it’s not as if I’d be trying to assume an external identity like an actor building a characterisation.
I’d be calling on aspects that are already in me. And if I were to explore them rather than just acknowledge them, I’d have an even firmer foundation upon which to base my communication in ceremonies (and in my life). What’s the point of all this? Well, it can make celebrancy even more interesting and satisfying than it already is. And if you’re beginning to feel a bit stale and samey, it could help to get your celebrant juices flowing again. Exploring the nooks and crannies of your personality is almost certainly going to result in personal growth. Occasionally, amongst the feedback I get from people who’ve trained with me, the words life-changing have come up. At first, I was surprised, but I reckon it’s to do with them recognising the ingredients of their personality, and then broadening some of them because I’ve encouraged them to express themselves, in training exercises, in ways they wouldn’t normally.
This means that a celebrant has more of themselves to bring to a ceremony – so they become increasingly effective as they shine a light on the lives and stories of their clients.
I offer a free no-obligation chat (phone or Zoom) so you can see whether you’d benefit from working with me. Usually, the answer is yes. I work on a session-by-session basis. Some people book just one, and take it from there. Others commit to between two and four sessions. I charge £70 for a one-hour session. (And as someone remarks in the testimonials, I’m generous with my time.) When you get to four sessions, you get a fifth one, free of charge.
(Here’s another blog that tells you why I’m highly qualified to be a celebrant voice, presentation and communication coach.) https://paulrobinsonvoicecoaching.co.uk/my-background-and-celebrant-training/
Website: https://paulrobinsonvoicecoaching.co.uk/
Email: paulyrobinson@outlook.com
07469 957 199
If you’d like to train as a celebrant – one on one – with experts, check this: Heart-led Celebrants – Heart-led Celebrants (heartledcelebrants.com) We don’t just train you exceptionally well, we’re available to you afterwards for as long as we’re still on the planet. We want to to nurture you and your celebrant career.