Hi, I’m Craig Bailey and this is my personal blog where I write about technology, business systems, HubSpot 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

Low value reviews on Amazon

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I love Amazon. For so many reasons. One of the reasons: reviews on books Usually so helpful. But I feel sorry for authors who get 1 star reviews because a customer received a damaged book. That’s not the author’s fault, and there’s nothing they can do about it. It also offers no value to people reading the reviews. And… of all the places to complain about a damaged book...

Problem to solve

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By definition a problem has a solution, otherwise it’s just reality.

If it’s not solvable, it isn’t a problem.

(I read this in a book in the past week – and made a note of it – but forget to note where I read it – will add credit when I find it again.)

Creative Days

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Have been thinking about the days that are most fulfilling for me. At their best they contain most elements from: Start with thinking Meditation Consume nutritious content – read a book Plan a blog post Write a blog post Publish a blog post Share to social Write a social post Think through a process or system part Document a process Think about a topic or life area of business area Ask why...

Barista Cloth

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Have you ever watched a barista clean the milk frother with a cloth after they steam your milk?

And then watched them use that same cloth to wipe down the bench, table, prep area, etc with the same cloth.

Kinda disgusting when you think about it.

So perhaps we shouldn’t think about it. And just enjoy our coffee.

40 Hours

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In the daily grind of work, consider where you are today in terms of the tasks, projects and progress you’ve made.

How different would your life be if you’d been at this place exactly one week ago?

Just 40 hours is the difference.

How many hours did you waste in the past week doing low value stuff?

A message to myself.

Nobody cares about the customer anymore 

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Have you noticed that most companies don’t care about their customers anymore? Just a few short years ago companies were focussed on their customers’ outcomes, these days they are just focussed on their own needs. Here’s a quick test you can do next time you get a sales call: start explaining the context of your situation, and listen for how they respond. The majority of replies...

Email Tracking will soon be a thing of the past

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The last few years have seen a crackdown on tracking activity across platforms, mostly with Apple leading the charge (eg their private relay release as well as IP blocking and email open rate blocking). We’ve seen services like Hey focus on this for years, and block any tracking pixels. To date, email open tracking has been the focus. This is all expanding though, with Apple’s...

The Simple Narrative Fallacy

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“Thinking that all complex problems must have a simple solution.” An extension of Narrative Fallacy. We see this all the time – and likely fall into the trap ourselves – of thinking that an elegantly presented explanation of a solution to a complex problem is true. The sheer elegance of it must be proof of validity. Often accompanied by the even bigger trap of dismissing...

The Law of Cause an Effect

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Deliberate typo there.

Saw this in a book the other day where the author was explaining:

the Law of Cause and Effect (ie ‘and’)

but had mistyped it as:

the Law of Cause an Effect (ie ‘an’)

which I thought was so much better.

Yes, review what’s working. But importantly, take charge and cause more.

People won’t leave their pets behind

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The following photo is from my daily dogs calendar yesterday: We’ve all likely seen videos of people rushing back into burning buildings to rescue their pets. What I didn’t realise was how common it was – as per the above photo – with half of disaster victims refusing to evacuate in that case due to staying for their pets. These aren’t isolated, rare cases. So much...

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