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

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...

LinkedIn approach

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This article perfectly captures why I’ve avoided LinkedIn (and withdrawn from most social) for so long. But I realise now, whilst it is fine to avoid consuming social (especially doom scrolling), the mistake I made was I also stopped creating for social. How I’ll incorporate this… For all our content, let’s focus on providing value and education only. Especially on...

The 20/80 Rule

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I used to ridicule people who focussed on small tweaks (eg skim milk instead of full fat) whilst seeming to ignore the big issues (eg they smoke 3 packs a day). But later I realised momentum is often incremental – we usually need to start small (focus on the 20%) to get confidence to attack the big (ie 80%) activities. Here’s another example that still gets ridiculed: highlighting the...

How to Be Elegant by Michele Connolly

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My wife has just launched her latest book. She’s a rare mix of skills – not only is she a funny and insightful writer (and very creative), but she’s also very technical. She taught herself how to use a bunch of tools to prepare it, then format it for Kindle, upload, set up Stripe and PayPal, build out a site on PayHip and integrate it into her website. Everything from start to...

Unclog your Stuck Pipeline with Blair Enns

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I found this webinar useful as a reminder of a few things: Market sentiment: Not panic, but there is uncertainty 5 thoughtlines to consider from the prospect’s perspective: Timing Opportunity cost Performance Risk ROI Complexity Good Q+A discussion at the end around specific scenarios: key advice being ‘ask the prospect’ Blair Enns – in case you aren’t aware –...

Pronoia

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Word of the week: Pronoia

“Pronoia describes a state of mind that is the opposite of paranoia. Whereas a person suffering from paranoia feels that persons or entities are conspiring against them, a person experiencing pronoia believes that the world around them conspires to do them good.”

I’m not saying being in either state is a good thing, but if you had to choose one…

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