Ready, Set, Reinvent

Reinvention. To remake or redo completely. Are youearly on, when I was jumping from one entrepreneurial
ready to pour your heart and soul into a business andadventure to another, I felt more like a failure than
then go back to the drawing board repeatedly? In mysomeone who was reinventing. For a few months
experience, you will need to reinvent your personal andeach, I sold Avon and then Discovery Toys. As a
business image, your website brand, your infoproductssingle mom, I even started my own very profitable
and much more, every few years.in-home daycare called, SMILES Learning Center. But
In business, reinvention is what helps you stand outmy heart wasn't in it and I kept finding myself back in
against the competition. My hope is that the creativestart-up again and again in new businesses. Sound
side of reinvention excites you as it does me. I need tofamiliar, anyone?
reinvent to keep me interested. If I didn't get to reinventNow, I get it, that reinvention is in my DNA. So, once
my companies, I would be completely bored with themyou find a smart business model like I did, stay in that
and they would not be profitable at all.business model and pour all of your reinvention energy
Here are a few areas (and time frames) you shouldinto that one business. That is how you achieve
consider as avenues of ongoing reinvention.success.
Remember that there is less competition at the topOther hints of my "branding reinvention DNA" go as far
and you always want to lead.back as first grade when I changed the pronunciation
- Personal branding, such as your bio and picturesof my name to "Sher-ee" instead of "Sheri" (which is
(minimum of once a year)how it is still spelled today). My mom moved us a lot
- Complete update and redesign of website (minimumand when we moved to my new school, I just decided
of once every two years)that when I enrolled again, I would tell them to
- Information products (minimum of once a year)pronounce my name a different way. It worked! And
- Product and service offerings (minimum of once amy mother, who was always in the middle of her
year)bipolar chaos, just went along with it. Talk about early
Over the last 10 years, I have literally created hundredsreinvention. I must have known intuitively that Sheri
of new promotions, reinvented my websites at least aLynn Keys just didn't work for me.
few dozen times, updated my information products atEarlier this year, my inner circle client, Daria Boissonnas,
least once a year, and reinvented my personal brand ae-mailed me and told me some interesting trivia about
few dozen times, too. My customers have alwaysthe way I pronounce my name now. She said it is also
responded with enthusiasm and each time welike the Hindu girl's name "Shri" (pronounced "Sher-ee"),
upleveled our companies in some way, we alwaysmeaning luminous beauty. And it can also mean
increased our revenues.Lakshmi, the Hindu goddess of wealth, light, wisdom,
Simply put, your customers want to see you investand fortune, as well as luck, beauty, and fertility. So,
time and money in reinventing or updating yourbecause of the uniquely beautiful way I pronounced
solutions in order to continually invest in you to solvemy name, it means: wisdom, luminous beauty, light,
their problems.wealth, fortune, luck, and fertility. Yep, that sounds like
Are you a reinventor?me! I often wonder what if? What if I had never been
When I reflect back on my life, I realize that reinventionso bold at six years old to reinvent myself? Maybe my
has always been exciting to me and I believe is one ofwhole life would have turned out completely differently
the reasons I have been so successful. However,had I never literally changed the meaning of my name.