You are either relevant or redundant – there is nothing in between

Many companies have their “glory days!”. It doesn’t matter what they do, it just seems to turn to gold. Their marketing seems to hit a sweet spot. Word of mouth, networks, strategic alliance and digital presence just seems to get in sync.

Then there are the doldrums; you feel like you are being as creative as you can - enthusiastic, excited, putting yourself out there, and you just can’t take a trick.

I think every business has been through both those seasons - if you've been around for more than a couple of laps.

The doldrums is a sailing term and it means: “A state or period of stagnation or depression.”

It often has nothing to do with what you are doing or not doing, it is just that there is no wind in the marketplace at this moment in time. So, what can you do about it? Can you try to create or generate wind? You could try but it really is outside your control.

For two years I did some local amateur sailing and thoroughly enjoyed it. We had days where the wind was blowing a gale and other days where it was stale. On the days we had our doldrums, our skipper was more attentive than ever. He would be looking at the telltales for flickers, he would be looking across the water for ripples, and pressure lines. He would be shifting the rudder and maneuvering the yacht, letting sails in/out - always trying to lift us from the doldrums into something fresh.

I learnt a lot from my sailing years.

Winning is partly about your skill and partly about the conditions you are sailing in. It is about reading the tacks you need to take and not staying on one tack for too long. It’s about reading change, staying fresh, being ready, reading your tell tales and date from your instruments, setting your rudder, everyone staying on top of their game, knowing what the end goal is and setting a course - not drawing a straight line to where it is you are going.

Marketing gurus come and go like the season of a year. You can get different, plant pumpkins, follow the next fad, or just simply decide to stay relevant.

What does it mean to stay relevant? If you are focused on now and next (rather than was) - you have a head start.

In business, we can’t compete with the forces beyond our control but we can harness the energy that comes from those forces and get our boat moving in the right direction.

Staying relevant is planning for the needs, wants, solutions and desires of the current and future market potential. It is about nurturing relationships, so you don’t have a backdoor equal to the size of your front door. It's about regularly looking out the windscreen and not the revision mirror. It is looking at your horizon of knowledge and inviting people into your world who have longer horizons than you.

In our HELLO Marketing course, we can help you learn and be ready to apply principles that will take you from ordinary to relevant and excellent. To strategically connect your marketing plan to your Active Layered Business Plan which will help you Planalife you want to live in through a Business on Purpose.

In two weeks, we will announce our next course dates for “Hello Marketing”. Use this last quarter of the year to set up your business ready for next financial year On Purpose.

Happy St Patrick's Day to all. Don a little green, tell a little joke, have a swig of your favourite beverage and smile. If you have a friend who is Irish, give them a call and tell them you love them - make their day.

It’s my wedding anniversary today. My wife and I escaped for a couple of days into the “New England” region of NSW . The last time I looked at Dangars Falls, it was bone dry and the old house reminded me that once it was relevant but is now redundant.