Little Bets Lead to Big Results: A Conversation with Dorie Clark

Dorie Clark

A little over a year ago, I noticed my next guest for the Profit. Power. Pursuit. podcast, Dorie Clark, start working a systematic content strategy. Of course, that’s not really something of note in the digital marketing space: anytime someone has something to promote or starts a new venture, you’ll see their name start popping up everywhere.

But Dorie was different. Dorie was writing for sites like Harvard Business Review, not the typical online business or digital marketing blogs. I watched her topics slowly get more focused, the messages get cleaner.

I got more and more excited to see someone from the ranks of top business schools use methods I was so familiar with.

It didn’t surprise me at all, then, to find out that Dorie had been placing “little bets,” a term coined by Peter Sims, in order to see what topics would grow her audience, generate the seed of a book, and put her into the position of thought leader. I talked with Dorie about this plan and how it has resulted in not one but 2 books published with major houses.

Dorie also more than doubled her email list in the last year—of course, I asked her all about that, too.

To find out how Dorie turned little bets into book deals, content strategy into a massive email list, and the odd academic pursuit that she and I both have in common, listen to her interview on Profit. Power. Pursuit.

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Tara Gentile is a creativeLIVE instructor, business strategist, and the creator of the Customer Perspective Process.