The Power Of The Pen: 5 Ways Using Your Voice Can Lead To Opportunities

Writing is a great way to reach a wide audience, develop credibility, and be seen as an expert in your field.

I have been writing since dinosaurs roamed the Earth. Well, as soon as I say that, I realize that I am a millennial and that the dinosaurs went extinct about 65 million years ago. But exaggeration aside, I have been writing for a while — nearly my entire life!

In my high school days, I wrote for my school’s newspaper. During my college days, I focused on research and writing for scholarly publications. It was an amazing opportunity to be published and learn on the go.

Once I entered law school, I continued writing. Although I knew that joining a traditional law review is prestigious and could help further my legal career, after a few “citation checking parties,” I realized that I didn’t want to be merely proofreading others’ writing. So instead, I published my own law review articles on topics I actually cared about, and I learned a lot in this process.

When I graduated and joined a law firm, I wrote technical articles on litigation, intellectual property, and corporate law. This helped me attract mentors and find more opportunities. After I transitioned to in-house practice, I slowly shifted to interviewing legal leaders and influencers. I also focused my writing to advocate for causes I believed in. Along the way, I discovered social media and used it to reach people beyond my immediate professional circle.

For nearly my entire life, I have used writing as a tool to learn, develop connections, and even make changes in my professional life. I could not imagine my career or my world without writing!

But that’s just my story. You may be wondering: why should you write? Why should you engage in social media? Well, it’s as simple as asking — why should you have a voice? Using your voice through writing and social media can lead to many exciting advantages. Here are some that I have observed through my legal career:

Career opportunities. Writing opens doors to opportunities where you can influence people through your writing. By sharing your unique perspectives, you can help shape people’s careers, or even your own. For example, my high-profile reputation as a writer actually led to my current job. Regardless, whether your goal is to showcase your knowledge or connect with others, your writing must be clear and specific, using simple words to reach the audience.

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Developing and sharing your voice. Writing also allows you to harness the intrinsic power in developing and sharing your unique voice. The publishing world helps you find new experiences, meet new people, and learn outside your immediate sphere of knowledge. You can also improve your communication and technical skills. Writing consistently will also help you develop a portfolio that serves as a repository for all your knowledge. For beginning writers who may be daunted at jumping into the writing world, it can be helpful to see writing as storytelling. When developing and organizing a story, try to structure it around a sequence of events.

Board positions. Social media may be intimidating, but it offers a lot of advantages for a relatively small investment! Cultivating your social media presence will help you become identified as an expert in your field. One very practical way to use social media is to raise your profile for board service and other opportunities. Social media can help you join, shape, and eventually drive the conversations in your industry, helping you be seen as a qualified candidate for board positions and other influential opportunities.

Speaking, podcasts, radio, and TV appearances. Using your voice can set yourself ahead of the pack in more ways than one. Writing and speaking opportunities are closely related. Your writing can lead to invitations to publically speak and appear on podcasts, radio, and TV — all of which are further opportunities to reach others with your message. I’ve certainly seen this effect in my own career!

Shaping the world. Finally, your voice can shape the world around you. You can use it to make powerful connections with peers and decision makers. In fact, your voice can even change the world, inspire change, and motivate actions. Katia Bloom and I have both made it our mission to use our voices as bold lawyers who speak out against wrongdoing when we see it, demand accountability when it’s due, and ensure a sustainable future for our clients, ourselves, Silicon Valley, and all of corporate America.

Writing is a great way to reach a wide audience, develop credibility, and be seen as an expert in your field. And there is no doubt that your social media presence has a powerful and extensive reach that you can use to motivate people in different ways. You can capture the world’s attention using your voice. So, how are you going to harness the power of the pen?

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Olga V. Mack is an award-winning general counsel, operations professional, startup advisor, public speaker, adjunct professor at Berkeley Law, and entrepreneur. Olga founded the Women Serve on Boards movement that advocates for women to serve on corporate boards of Fortune 500 companies. Olga also co-founded SunLaw to prepare women in-house attorneys become general counsel and legal leaders and WISE to help women law firm partners become rainmakers. She embraces the current disruption to the legal profession. Olga loves this change and is dedicated to improving and shaping the future of law. She is convinced that the legal profession will emerge even stronger, more resilient, and inclusive than before. You can email Olga at olga@olgamack.com or follow her on Twitter @olgavmack.