For over 20 years, Edie Reinhardt has worked with professional service firms to increase their name recognition, position themselves as industry experts and stand out from the competition. In particular, she specializes in helping law and accounting firms market and grow their business.

Prior to starting her business, she practiced law at a mid-sized law firm and worked in editorial, marketing and business development roles within professional media companies. Learn more about her in this Women Who Wow profile.

Why did you choose your profession?

I took a roundabout path making a couple of smaller choices rather than 1 big choice to move into marketing and consulting. Technically, I am on my third career. I used to practice law but to my parents’ dismay decided it wasn’t a good fit for me. I took advantage of my writing skills and experience in college working for a publishing company to get jobs in legal publishing and media. Initially, I worked in editorial roles, then transitioned into business and marketing because I liked learning how to leverage content for different purposes, which is a significant part of what I do now.

After leaving publishing, I decided to stick with marketing but made content marketing a strong component of my services. I also chose to focus mostly on helping law firms promote their practice, basically bringing together everything in my background and the skills I most enjoy using.

Any advice to young women on succeeding in the workplace?

Network both within your organization and outside of it. Your success is not just about your skill in the job; you need to build relationships. Look for opportunities to get to know others outside your immediate work environment – personally and professionally. You can learn a lot from others and also use the experience to help build your own reputation. Be honest, trustworthy and helpful. Early on in your career, you will be asking for more help than you are giving back to others and that’s okay. Later you can be the one to help. Start networking as soon as possible in your career. It’s much easier to do it when you aren’t feeling the pressure of looking for a job.

What do you think is the key for success in a role like yours?

It is important to be practical and flexible. Clients have different views and priorities about marketing. My goal is to help them improve their marketing in a way that works for them and takes into account their strengths, weaknesses, circumstances and budget. They may need time to feel confident about the steps they are taking, or they won’t follow through, which means a lot of wasted effort. I try to be encouraging and helpful as well as keep everyone on the right track.

Learn more about Women Who Wow and read the profiles of all of the women featured in the series.