Conducting HR Webinars For Extra Income While Keeping Your Day Job — An Expert Interview with Margie Faulk, PHR, SHRM-CP
By Alan Collins
Today, there seems to be lots of interest in discovering new ways to earn extra income from one’s knowledge and experience in HR.
However, most HR pros are highly skeptical that this can be done — especially those interested in doing it while keeping their full-time day job in HR.
Margie Faulk was initially skeptical as well.
That is, until she began developing, conducting and generating a second income from her own HR webinars.
Currently, in addition to her day job in HR, she runs webinars covering workplace compliance and HR international, national and local regulations.
I recently caught up with Margie and asked her squeeze some time into her hectic schedule to share some highlights about herself, her HR career and her webinar journey as part of our Success in HR Expert Interview Series.
Here are the key insights from my interview with Margie…
I am currently an HR Policy & Compliance Advisor for an international data protection company with over 7,000 employees in the U.S. and globally including EU, UK, China, India, Africa and Ireland.
I accepted that role following my return to the workforce, after being laid off from a federal defense contract company.
While laid off, I developed my own compliance consulting firm, HR Compliance Solutions, LLC. Although the business was successful, generating a steady income was the challenge. It was either feast or famine. I had several great clients but I needed to ensure regular client activity in order to sustain continued business growth.
That’s when I decided to return to the full-time workforce as an HR Compliance advisor for this data protection technologies firm …but also continue my consulting activities through my own business I started…at the same time.
I was further motivated to do this after reading your book, YOUR HR GOLDMINE: How to Turn Your HR Know-How into a Lucrative Second Income…Without Quitting Your Day Job In Human Resources. I was initially skeptical. However, the more and more I read this book, though it didn’t directly deal with webinars, the more it motivated me to consider using the consulting business I had launched and my own HR expertise to generate a second income.
It’s worked.
Big time.
These days, in addition to my HR day job, I deliver webinars and workshops for 12 different compliance institutes! I was initially approached by the first compliance institute to be a part of their panel of speakers through LinkedIn. Other companies then started reaching out to me requesting that I become a speaker with their training institutes as well – all reaching me through LinkedIn!
This has been awesome experience and the virtual webinars that I conduct have really taken off! I conduct both 90 minute and 3 hour webinar trainings on workplace compliance, HR regulations covering for both the national and international audience. I have also created a 3 hour Leadership Training Series for Managers on HR Compliance Topics that is very successful as well.
Here are a few examples of my webinars:
3-hr Virtual Seminar: HR Workplace Compliance Overview for Managers & Supervisors! Additional details here.
1. 5 hour webinar Employment Laws and Regulations For 2018! Employers Should Prepare for Regulations That Will Impact Them! Ignorance Is Not an Excuse! Additional details here.
Personally, I like the pace of working with these institutes and the second income of $300-$700 a month is nothing to sneeze at. For the month of October 2017, I made over $1900 with several webinars and a few of the 3 hour virtual compliance training sessions.
So far, I am already 75% scheduled for 2018 (3 times a week at an average of $300 per 90 minute webinar and $500-$700 for 3-hour webinars). This minimally means if all webinars are scheduled and with 2 weeks’ vacation equals an extra second income of $45,000 per year (conservatively). This does not include other consulting work that are derived from these connections.
While this has been fulfilling, exciting and a great learning experience, there are hurdles as well. If you’re interested in running webinars, there are four big hurdles you should be mindful of:
#1: Fluctuating Registrations. Based on the number of registrants, the webinar either “Goes Live” or is cancelled and rescheduled for another date. A cancellation can happen as late as 2-3 days before the event, which can be a bit unsettling and frustrating, if you’ve already blocked time and spent time preparing. You can’t get that time back.
#2: Delayed payment. Payment only occurs if webinars are conducted and then typically you’re paid 30-45-days after the webinar has been held. This is why it’s important to keep your day job for income consistency.
#3: Possible Conflict of Interest. Find out if your company allows you to engage in additional employment or consulting services. This is crucial if you don’t want to jeopardize your day job. Some companies can be rigid or feel that additional work will conflict with the current workload. I’ve never believed in that unless it impacts negatively on your performance or your ability to maintain both. But it’s important that you know where your own organization stands on this.
#4: Ensure the companies that reach out to you to be a speaker have been in business for at least 5-10 years, will allow you to contact other speakers for feedback and have efficient tracking mechanisms. Sometimes you have to go through trial and error like I did. Although 16 companies reached out to me, I only selected 12 to work with. Based on how they managed the interaction with me, their response rate when coordinating schedules & cancellations and if they paid on time…that determined who I would work with. Out of the 13 companies I started with, only 1 did not pay me because they went out of business. Not bad odds.
I recommend the following if you want to venture into the virtual webinar industry as a second income opportunity:
• Don’t quit your day job. I highly recommend that you keep your day job as you explore whether or not that is an opportunity you want to pursue. Additionally, you can use your HR experience for material for your webinars.
• Ensure you have flexibility in your day job. For HR professionals, this does require that you have the flexibility to adapt to scheduling webinars that mostly occur in the midday during the week. If your schedule is rigid, your tasks require you to be onsite for crisis issues and does not allow for you to work remotely, this may not be for you.
• Position yourself to be sought out on LinkedIn. You have the most leverage if you are requested and sought out by the training institutes. This works better than proactively selling your services or cold calling. To make this happen, make it clear on your LinkedIn profile that you offer (or can offer) specialized expertise, trainings or webinars in your HR specialty area. The 12 companies that I work with today have all reached out to me through LinkedIn.
• Be unique when you enter into a competitive area. Although there are many HR professionals who provide HR webinars for several HR components, focus on a niche and offer something more. For example; most speakers offer their knowledge and expertise, but I always offer free tools, checklists and toolkits for all attendees (I learned that from you as well Alan?)
To sum up, I am excited about carving out my niche as an HR Compliance Webinar Trainer serving nationwide and international compliance institutes. In addition, I also serve as an HR Mentor for entry level and advanced level HR professionals and will pursue ther avenues (like creating E-Books and other HR compliance tools) to capitalize on my HR experience while giving back to the HR profession.
Thank you for allowing me to share my HR career and webinar journey. If anyone has questions, please add them in the comments below or you can reach me directly by email at: mfaulk@hrcompliance.biz and you can join my LinkedIn network here.
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Want more ideas that can help you monetize your own HR expertise? Then you’ll want to check out: YOUR HR GOLDMINE: How To Turn Your Human Resources Know-How Into A Lucrative Second Income…Without Leaving Your HR Job! You can find more details about the book here.
About the author: Alan Collins is founder of Success in HR, Inc. and the author of a variety of best selling books for HR professionals including YOUR HR GOLDMINE. He was formerly Vice President – Human Resources at PepsiCo where he led HR initiatives for their Quaker Oats, Gatorade and Tropicana businesses.
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Thanks Alan. This was helpful and inspirational.
Thank you for the informative and detailed updates.
http://symbiosisconsultrain.com/
This is really an eye opener
Thanks margie.
Thanks Allan.
Thanks Margie and Thanks Alan. For been so liberal and magnanimous with your wealth of knowledge and achievements that you share fearlessly.
I appreciate your sense of responsibility towards giving back to the industry at large. God bless.