Over the course of twenty years, I've been through my fair share of reinventions in business.
We started out selling websites in 2005 even though my co-founder Toby and I weren't techies. We hired for those skills.
We added web consulting in 2008 when I realised I enjoyed sharing the marketing methodology we'd developed.
I'd always been drawn to speaking from stage, so after overcoming some butterflies and imposter syndrome, I jumped head-first into professional speaking in 2009.
Toby and I published our first book, Web Marketing That Works, in 2014. We also stopped the digital agency work altogether to focus on consulting, speaking and workshops.
This was the most painful re-invention because we had to let our staff go. That was something we never wanted to do, because to us it felt like failure and letting the team down. In hindsight, it turns out it was the best call for all of us, and probably should have come years sooner.
This decision also created space to launch online courses that catered to the thousands of small business owners who'd discovered our marketing templates and wanted more. This was a major breakthrough because it introduced genuine scale.
In 2018, we made the transition to coaching. I did this because I realised that clients needed much more hand holding to get good results than a one-off consulting engagement or workshop. It was around that time that Toby stepped aside to start his next chapter in business and I flew the flag for Bluewire on my own.
In 2025, with AI changing the world, many businesses like mine are reinventing themselves once again.
Every reinvention is a choice
Each reinvention comes with a choice and ushered in a new season. Sometimes a leap before I felt ready. And other times it felt like a push that was long overdue. There was always a moment where the old season ended and a new one began.
The tricky part? You often don't realise you're in the middle of a reinvention until you're already knee-deep in it.
That's why decision-making is such a critical skill.
