Craig Bailey

Use HubSpot Better

Hi, I’m Craig Bailey and this is my personal blog where I write about technology, business systems, HubSpot, marketing strategy and general life experiences. You can read my posts here.

(If you are looking for the Content is King post by Bill Gates it is here)

I’m involved with three agencies in Sydney:

  • The first is XEN Systems. We help government departments and mid-large B2B technology companies with their sales and marketing strategy, including implementation and training in HubSpot 
  • The second is XEN Create. We provide premium graphic design services to companies, with a focus on using the latest AI tools, including Midjourney
  • The third is XEN Solar, where we help high quality solar companies (dealers, installers) with their sales and marketing processes.

I also co-host HubShots, the podcast and YouTube show focussed on getting the most out of HubSpot. We are the creators of the HubShots Framework.

Craig Bailey presenting

Latest stories

84 to 85 = shoulder pain

By Craig Bailey
In General
1 Min read
8

I’d been wondering why I was getting pain in my right shoulder recently. Nothing sharp, just a dull ache by the end of the day. I realised (by accident) that it was the height of my standing desk. I’d bumped the height switch a few days prior and the height had gone from 84 up to 85. And in the following days the shoulder pain started. I took it back down to 84 (ie 1cm lower), and the...

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Game Changer

By Craig Bailey
In Humour
1 Min read
G

Game changer Definition: Any new feature—no matter how basic or specific to a particular area—which is talked about breathlessly on social media as if it’s going to unlock some amazing new level of productivity or performance. Usually accompanied by at least one fire emoji. Ideally, if it is in beta, that makes it more of a game changer. Bonus: if it’s a private beta, then it’s...

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Why I cancelled Duolingo

By Craig Bailey
In General
1 Min read
W

I’ve been using Duolingo for a while. I pay for the Premium (Super) version. But I cancelled this week. Not because I don’t use it. Not because I’m replacing it with another tool or ChatGPT. I cancelled it because I’m sick of so much upsell. The bottom set of icons used to give me access to different features. Now two of the six are just for upsells. I’m fine with...

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Reporting Slop

By Craig Bailey
In HubSpot
2 Min read
R

Reporting slop is a subcategory of Process Slop. Reporting Slop is all the reports that get created simply because AI suggested them as a good idea for your business, your department, your clients… First, let’s take a step back though. I think we’ve all had that experience in our careers where we’re asked to create a report (or to continue preparing a report) for the...

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Process Slop

By Craig Bailey
In Technology, HubSpot
6 Min read
P

I think we all understand content slop by now – the low value content pumped out by AI (usually at scale). Annoying, yes – but mostly harmless. One of the lacklustre side effects of AI advances. However, there’s another type of AI related slop coming – what I’ll refer to as ‘process slop’. It’s the side effect of people taking the ‘advice’ of AI when it comes to setting up their...

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Don’t Tell Your Story

By Craig Bailey
In Marketing
1 Min read
D

One of the things that’s taught in Marketing is around the power of storytelling and the exhortation that you should share stories. Often, people mistake ‘storytelling’ for telling their own story. But of course, nobody cares about the storyteller, they only care about themselves. Prospects and clients want to hear the story about the problem you solve for them. Hopefully we all know this...

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HubShots episode 311

By Craig Bailey
In HubSpot
1 Min read
H

Ian and I recorded HubShots Episode 311 a few weeks back. You can watch it here on YouTube. And full show notes are available here. Here’s what we covered: 00:00 Introduction 00:20 Deep Thought of the Week? 01:10 Should you Build your Website on HubSpot? 05:48 Subscribe to our HubShots Daily Tip 06:22 Canva integration with HubSpot 08:49 HubSpot SNIPPETS Helper 09:26 View Activity Summaries...

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Sucking your AirPods clean

By Craig Bailey
In Personal
1 Min read
S

My right AirPod had been playing up for the last few months. It was considerably quieter than the left one. I’d done all the obvious things – cleaning away wax build up, resetting and repairing, checking balance levels in Accessibility settings etc. No change. Then I came across this post that suggested I ‘suck’ the AirPod speaker. At that point I was happy to try anything...

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Rewards

By Craig Bailey
In Personal
1 Min read
R

Many, many years ago I was going to a nightclub with a group of friends. We got there and one guy in our group was denied entry by the bouncer because of his shoes (he had pointy toed boots – winkel pickers were having a resurgence at the time). So we all had to leave (we weren’t going to leave him on his own outside). We walked back to his hotel, where he changed his shoes, and then...

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Craig Bailey

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