There’s no hassle or travel time needed to complete your mandatory professional development or acquire new knowledge and experience, you have CPD for Me.

CPD for Me makes Continuing Professional Development (CPD) accessible to time-poor Australian professionals, particularly lawyers, accountants and advisors. The company offers a variety of channels to obtain CPD points and amplify your know-how, with interactive webinars, on-demand recorded webinars, and self-study courses. With over 90% exclusive content and high-calibre experts including leading Australian barristers, accredited specialists and industry experts, subscribers discover new ways of thinking or specific areas of law in these comprehensive (up to 1 hour) CPD sessions.

Here’s the founder of CPD for Me to give in-depth details about this virtual, cost-effective and simple way to complete CPD requirements – all online and on any device.

A quick intro: Who are you, what do you do and what’s your background?

I’m Paula Gilmour, a 40 something mum, online digital sales strategist and known as the million dollar practice builder. I have worked with thousands of clients, from developing tradeshow gaming apps for Aristocrat, signage for roulette tables on the strip with Stargames, business development consulting for legal and accounting firms to publishing engaging online content.

I’m the founder of CPD for Me, an online learning portal for lawyers, accountants and advisors and publish over 100 experts online content. I’m the host of CPD-LIVE and conduct monthly interactive CPD webinars and MidCoastDigital is my way to give back to my local community. It offers social media, video & production to create engaging online contents.

How did you get started with CPD For Me?

Back in 2013, I was a client services director and business development manager at various Sydney law firms and decided to give up the city traffic and corporate way of life for a country coastal view. I relocated and moved 3.5 hours north of Sydney to be close to my retired parents. Initially, I worked as a consultant for a few firms but the fortnightly commute all in one day to Sydney was not sustainable with an 18-month-old.

I loved what I had been able to accomplish with several firms such as Swaab Attorneys, Makinson & d’Apice & Curwoods Lawyers, I chose to introduce a 2-day masters retreat for smaller law firms at Coffs Harbour – CLE by the Sea. Fifteen experts presented 1-hour sessions and workshops which I filmed, edited and then published the content online via CPD For Me, an online learning platform for busy professionals and Bulletpoints, simplifying CPD compliance.

What do you offer that differentiates you from other CPD providers?

The thing that differentiates us from competitors is that “you really do get what you pay for”. We are publishing over 60 hours of content a year and in 2018 achieved gender equality. We offer a shared revenue model for exclusive content, record, edit, publish & distribute over 100 leading experts online CPD courses available 24/7, and on any device.

We offer subscribers a comprehensive range of mandatory CPD subjects covering practice management, business skills, professional skills and ethics & professional responsibility and Australian substantive law. We also provide LogCPD so subscribers are audit ready which is a 5-year free service to LogCPD activities from any provider, by lawyer CPD period and print a completion statement.

In addition, we listen to our subscribers’ content requests and we are independent – not to be dictated by any law society, the industry association, publication or supplier offering:

• presenter webinar capabilities coaching
• 100% Australian edit team, online and phone support team
• in-house social media and video production service
• local and global distribution

Subscribers can discuss their unique needs and we can steer them in the right direction to invest their CPD hours wisely and access content on any device via:

• CPD for Me single sign-on portal (firm or individual);
• LMS/Intranet: we supply individual Mp4 and pdf handouts with pay by month reporting;
• KnowLaw.com.au, global marketplace and learn management platform to assist firms to create and develop their own online learning library with bespoke course creation via MidCoastDigital.

Tell us about CPD-Live.

CPD-LIVE.com.au hosts interactive online CPD monthly events.

Enlighten us about MidCoastDigital.

In 2017, I formed MidCoastDigital to assist clients with their social media, content creation, film and video production needs. We are based in Taree, NSW and have camera crews on standby in most states. With over 25 years of consistent results in digital media expertise, social media with proven automation strategies and offer ‘done with you’ and ‘done for you’ services.

With 48% youth unemployment in the Taree region, we introduced Australia’s first Year 10-12 Digital Media Work Experience Pilot and the opportunity to give back and assist talented students to explore digital careers. Students gain ‘real’ work experience working on ‘real projects’ with ‘real clients’ either in our studio or remotely. All students need are great attitude, computer with good internet connection, keen to learn lots of new transportable skills and 2 weeks to learn one service task at a time for participating Australian business.

These kids ‘really deserve a go’ as they are learning to compete with a global workforce. The main aim of this pilot is for talented students to discover ways to make money online and offer the unique opportunity to continue to coach and develop our youth, one service task at a time and demonstrate they are a viable onshoring option by completing tasks effectively and efficiently so they can be hired casually by Australian businesses.

As an online educator, what do you think is the biggest challenge of eLearning?

One of the biggest challenges is that we realise everyone’s technology is different and do our utmost providing Australian online and phone support to ensure our webinar events and on-demand content is easily accessible and available on all major browsers and devices.

CPD can be seen a grudge buy for busy professionals as it is an annual and compulsory obligation to complete a minimum of 10 hours of professional development for lawyers. And so much more if you are an advisor or accountant. Our aim is to create engaging content, simple and easy.

What does your tech stack look like and what solution do you use to sell and deliver the eLearning material?

We utilise a multitude of cloud solutions so presenters and subscribers can attend and engage in live webinar events, and access on-demand content 24/7.

Thinking about the user experience, what are the key elements you need to ensure your customers / students remain engaged?

Our users just want a simple and easy way to access CPD and watch/listen one-hour comprehensive sessions where they learn more than 3 takeaways. We constantly listen to our subscriber and presenter feedback to improve our services and publish over 60 hours of new CPD content.

Any advice to young professionals? How about a business tip?

Never cease to learn because there is so much that you do not know. Invest your time to learn something new every day. Disruption is everywhere and there are a lot of business people doing the same things and expecting different results. Be the digital change, look for disruptions to do things differently. Be bold for change because there is only one person who controls your destiny, and that is you!

What’s the CPD For Me roadmap in the next 12 months?

I am looking for strategic business partnerships with larger firms and will continue to produce engaging online content each month based on our subscribers’ and client requests.