How to Find Your Public Health Consulting Niche

Resources Mentioned

Free Niche Development Worksheet — Helps you identify your consulting specialty and articulate it clearly to clients. Free inside The Public Health Club at https://www.publichealthclub.com/

Free Skills Translation Guide — From Day 1. Translate your PH skills into consulting language. Inside PHC at https://www.publichealthclub.com/

Free RFP Go/No-Go Checklist — From Day 2. Inside PHC at https://www.publichealthclub.com/

Public Health Consulting 101 — Free live workshop, June 16 + June 17. Register at https://www.publichealthclub.com/public-health-consulting-training

Subcontracting to Six Figures (S26F) — Doors open June 16th. Six weeks, step-by-step. https://www.publichealthclub.com/course


How to Find Your Public Health Consulting Niche | The Dr. Des Show Ep. [#]
Trying to do everything in public health is exactly what's keeping you from landing contracts. In Day 3 of Public Health Consulting Week, Dr. Des breaks down what a consulting niche actually is, why being a generalist works against you, and the two questions that will help you identify your specialty fast. She also tackles the myth that multiple revenue streams mean doing five things at once — and why it almost never works that way.
In This Episode, You'll Learn

Why "I do health equity" is not a niche — and what to say instead
How being a generalist gets your proposal skipped over
The two questions that reveal your consulting niche
Why doing work you actually enjoy makes building a business significantly easier
How multiple revenue streams actually develop — and why you start with one
How to talk about your niche confidently in networking conversations and at conferences

Timestamps
[00:00] Welcome to Day 3 — and why niche is today's focus
[01:30] What a niche actually is and why public health training works against us
[03:00] Why "I can do everything" loses contracts
[04:30] The two questions: what do you like to do, and what are you good at?
[06:30] How Dr. Des's own niche evolved — from health equity trainings to PHC
[08:00] Multiple streams of revenue: the real way it happens
[09:30] How to talk about your niche in a live networking moment
[11:00] Free Niche Development Worksheet inside PHC + S26F doors opening June 16th

Frequently Asked Questions

What is a consulting niche in public health?
A niche is the specific service you offer — not a topic area, a deliverable. "Health equity" is a topic. "Health equity-focused program evaluation for nonprofits" is a niche. Clients hire consultants for specific projects, and if they can't quickly identify what you do and how it benefits them, your proposal gets passed over.

How do I figure out my public health consulting niche?
Start with two questions: What do you actually enjoy doing in public health? And what do other people consistently come to you for or compliment you on? Where those two answers overlap is usually your niche. If you're still unsure, the free Niche Development Worksheet inside PHC walks you through it step by step.

Do I need multiple services to build a consulting business?
No. Multiple revenue streams almost always start from one strong one. Pick the service you do best, build a track record with it, then branch off from there. Trying to launch multiple offers at once splits your focus and makes it harder to win anything. Start with one. Get a client. Then grow.

About The Dr. Des Show
The Dr. Des Show is the go-to podcast for public health career development, consulting, and entrepreneurship. Hosted by Dr. Desiree "Dr. Des" Strickland — DrPH, public health CEO, and founder of The Public Health Club.

https://www.drdesshow.com/

https://www.publichealthclub.com/

Transcript

SPEAKER_00 0:00

Day three, public health consulting week. We are here, we are live, and we are talking all about your niche today. Now, if you're listening to this and you just popped up on day three and you have not signed up for public health consulting 101, my friends, what are you doing? What are you doing? We are live, especially for my club members. If you have not signed up, we are live next week, okay? So this is to get you prepared, to get you ready so you can walk in and you can leave out with a plan to know what your next step is to build that business, to land this contract, to get this money, y'all. Okay. Day one and two, listen, day one and two is paid. All right. I'm not gonna lie, I'm giving y'all a lot of information in a little bit of time, mainly because I want to make sure that you all get this information, you get it down, and you get started. And if you are inside the public health club, then go to our resources section and download your free resources to complement each one of these videos. Today you're getting a new free resources, right? We have our niche worksheet. And listen, y'all, if you are confused after this, that worksheet is gonna get you right. Okay. Number one, I always get people asking me what a niche is. And basically a niche is like your specialty area, okay? So in public health, or just honestly, in anything that you do, the goal is to niche down. A lot of times when we get public health degrees, we're taught to do everything, right? We do the evaluation, we do the data analysis, we do the program planning, we do it all, right? Therefore, it's you know, it's very easy and normal for us to say, hey, we do it all, so I can do it all for you, right? But that is not how you win contracts. That is not how you build your business, right? Being a generalist, okay? You have to start with your what is your niche in public health, right? And by niche, I mean what services do you actually offer, right? I get a lot of people who may be like, oh, I do health equity. Hi, what does that mean? What do you mean you do health equity? I don't know what that means. Like, do you do health equity focused evaluations? Do you do health equity focused communications development, graphic design? Like, what do you do actually? What services could you provide to a customer? And I think that we get so caught up with thinking, oh, I can do everything in public health that we forget that yes, you can do everything, but a client does not want everything for you. When they are hiring you, nine times out of 10, they're hiring you for a specific project, whether that be to do an evaluation, to do a focus group, to do some project management, to do um a data analysis, to make a dashboard, whatever, they're hiring you for a specific project, right? And if you put everything on there and they gotta go searching for what skills that they actually want, you're getting thrown out because if they skim it and they're not able to find what you actually do and how that benefits them, you're not getting it, okay? So that is one thing that we have to think about. Now, how do I know my niche, Dr. Des? Glad you asked, my friends. So the way I always tell people is that number one, you figure out what do you actually like to do in public health? That is the number one thing. What do you like to do? Maybe you like to do evaluations, maybe you love the data analysis. I am not a data girly. I say it all the time. I am not a data girl. But maybe you love to do data analysis. Maybe, you know, research is your thing, right? You can do an environmental scan, a landscape analysis, somebody, put it together in a nice little report. Maybe that's your thing, right? What is your area that you really enjoy doing? And then what is the area that you're also really good at? And if you don't know, think about what do other people compliment you on, right? Do they compliment you on or do they come to you for certain things? What do people normally come to you for, right? Really think about those things, and that is the way that you will really kind of figure out, like, okay, here is my area. Really think about those two things. What do I like to do and what am I really good at doing? All right. Because when you start your business, when you start public health consulting, you can do the things that you enjoy doing, right? Especially if you are doing this on the side of your full-time job. Listen, building your own business is hard. It's work, okay? This is work. This is not a quick fix, regardless of what anybody tells you. Entrepreneurship business, it is not a quick fix, okay, for anything. But I will tell you that it is 10 times easier when you are actually doing something that you actually love to do. I started consulting and doing health equity trainings. And back when you know health equity, we could say that word all the time, right? I was doing health equity trainings. I was doing um just overall training development for organizations, right? I was doing um project management support for organizations. And now in my consulting business, I do um program management support. And I have another thing where I'm doing some pro some um subject matter expertise um support as well. But those are my things that I do on the side. Those are my things I enjoy doing, right? I enjoy doing those things. But most of the things, most of the time, I will say for me, I really enjoy the things that I've built with the public health club. That is my passion. And that is how, and that is what I love to tell other entrepreneurs. Like you can start out doing consulting and then you have all of these different spinoffs. And that is how entrepreneurs, that is how people have multiple streams of revenue. A lot of people instantly think like, oh, I need to get like five jobs or I need to do this, this, and this at the same time. No, majority of the time, multiple streams of revenue really starts when you have one really mainstream and then you branch off on the side of those different ones, right? I branched off on consulting several times, right? To have different streams of revenue coming into my business. So it is definitely something that is number one, amazing, but number two, something that you can do. And it, and when you put it like that, and hopefully that doesn't make it that's less overwhelming for you when I put it like that. Like you don't have to do everything at once. Pick one thing. And if you're gonna pick consulting, then I got you. If you ain't signed up for public consulting one-on-one, we live and it's gonna be a great time, okay? But I say that to say like you really have to think about your niche because when you are even in a conversation, let's say you are walking along, you're at a conference, you're at whatever, and you know, somebody, a potential client comes up to you and you start talking, right? And you just gonna start spitballing, like, yeah, I can do evaluation, I can do program management, I can do this, I can do that. And they're not, they're gonna tune you out, like they're not listening to you. Have a specific focus area so you can be targeted when you go into these conferences or networking situations. You can know exactly what services you provide and know exactly how to articulate that to a potential client. We gotta be confident in ourselves, okay, when we're doing it. All right. Okay, y'all. That is that is all that was that was a quick, easy little little tip today. But the main thing is I have this niche development workshop or worksheet to help you develop your niche. The niche development worksheet is available for free inside the public health club, okay? If you are not a member and you're listening to this, go join the club. There is a free seven-day trial, and after that, it is only $30 a month. But the things that you get, you get way more than free resources. You get workshops, you get consulting opportunities, you get all of these things thrown at you. Like all of these things, all of these resources that are there inside the community, just waiting for you to knock, knock, knock and come on in. All right. So join the club because you get not only this resource, but also the two other that I mentioned um the other day, and then the two more that's coming up on Thursday and Friday, okay? So we are we are so close to Public Health Consulting 101, and we are so close to the opening of subcontracting the six figures. This will be my fifth cohort for subcontracting the six figures, and I can say that every cohort, multiple people have landed contracts. Every cohort that we have had, so many people have landed contracts, got money on the side. Like it's it's amazing, and I love being able to help others know that you can make money in public health. You don't have to be limited just because you chose to get an MPH or a DRPH or a PhD in public health or a bachelor's in public health, right? You are not limited, okay? You are only limited because you are not in the rooms with other people who are talking about these things, who are doing these things, who are showing you how to do these things. Subcontract in the six figures is that room that I built for that, where I walk you through week by week, step by step. You are with me, and I walk you through everything that you need to do from the legal aspect of your business, all the all the little things to growing it even more, right? To writing, writing proposals, to marketing your services, building your website, all of those things. I teach you in subcontracting the six figures. Doors open officially on June 16th. Now, for my club members, y'all might got a little something coming your way. So if you're in the club, be on the lookout tomorrow. All right, if you're not in the club, get in the club. Okay, all right, y'all. Well, I will talk to y'all later. Well, later, man, tomorrow. We'll talk tomorrow. Tomorrow, we got another amazing strategy coming at you all about consulting and entrepreneurship in public health. All right, and I hope that you joined Public Health Consulting 101. If you're on Instagram listening to this, just comment consultant below. If you are on any other um platform, then there should be a link. Um, if you're on YouTube, there's a link to the actual workshop. It is free for anybody to take, and you are going to walk away with a blueprint, with a roadmap to know what is your next step in becoming a consultant and landing your first contract. All right, I'll see you there. Bye.