Want to make a successful career change? Start a blog

That’s the word from former venture capital lawyer, Peter Thomson (@PeterJThomson) when asked in a Fortune Magazine interview what the most important lesson he’s learned in his career.

The payoff is worth the time, says Thomson, now marketing director of SeedInvest, a leading equity crowdfunding platform.

Blogging. Or in other words, always sharing what I’m learning with others. I’m constantly telling clients and friends to “blog the journey”. Over the years, I’ve found that sharing lessons along the way with other people always pays dividends through increased connections or, at the very least, solidifying your own knowledge.

I started my career as a venture capital lawyer, so I’ve had a fairly unconventional journey into the marketing profession. And at each step along the journey I’ve tried to make the time to take notes on what I’m learning and to share these lessons with other professionals through blogging and public speaking. The value of leaving these little breadcrumbs along the trail wasn’t immediately obvious at first. But over time, my notes on the marketing profession have compounded into dozens of blog posts and a published book on digital marketing. The readers of these pieces have been a consistent source of clients, introductions and even a few friends. In fact, my current role at SeedInvest came about mainly through a series of coincidences that started with someone who read one of my blog posts that I’d written years ago.

I share Thomson’s story not to coax you to leave the practice of law, though blogging would give you start, I share his story to let you know blogging enables you to change your career path in the law.

Many of the lawyers I speak with are, unfortunately, a walking generality. They go from one matter to the next following the lead of a law firm or practice group. After a while they fall into an area of the law or an industry focus by default, more than by choice.

Worse yet, there are lawyers of all ages and all levels of experience looking for work. Some recent grads are finding it near impossible to get a job.

Blogging enables you to execute on a strategy and a plan to go after the type of work you want to do for the type of clients you want to work for. Blogging enables you to make a name for yourself and build relationships even while in law school.

It need not be that hard. Just share what you’re learning in a down to earth way, says Thomson.

I’ve found that the most interesting writing isn’t over-polished think-pieces about business theory, instead I’ve learned the power of the truism in the newspaper industry that “if it bleeds, it leads”. In business this means that it’s always better to share honest lessons from real world experience. These days my work focuses on helping startups to raise capital online and the lessons that I’m learning about how equity crowdfunding works in practice are hard-won. There are no existing guides to marketing best practices for equity crowdfunding; the whole industry is learning as we go along. This makes every day exciting and it makes the task of sharing the journey that much more worthwhile.

I’m not unlike Thomson. After selling my previous company to LexisNexis and being jettisoned by them, I was working in my garage – literally. Rather than go back to the practice of law in 2003, I wanted to help lawyers and law firms use the Internet for business development the right way. Problem was only a small segment of lawyers knew of me.

Website, listserv, email newsletter, message board – I considered all of them to make a name for myself and generate work.

By chance I stumbled into a blog, something I had never heard of. I quickly realized blogs could be the perfect medium for business development. Problem was I didn’t have a clue what blogging really meant or how blogs worked.

The answer? Read what I could find online about blogging — there wasn’t much. Talk to people who blogged. And share what I read and learned with readers of my blog.

The result was the founding of LexBlog built on a word of mouth reputation established by blogging.

The law is a learned profession. As a lawyer you continue to learn by reading, dialogue and processing what you’re taking in.

There’s no reason you cannot put your learning on display. It’s not sign that you don’t know the law, sharing what you’re learning shows your growth and capability.

As Thomson says, this sort of learning by sharing leads to engagement with third parties and relationships which lead to work and career opportunities.

Looking for a change in where you sit career-wise? Blog.