How to Start a Public Health Consulting Business While Working Full-Time (With Jody Bogle, MPH)

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Starting a public health consulting business while working full-time is the path most consultants actually take — and Jody Bogle, MPH, is doing it right now. Jody is the founder and principal consultant of Conduit Consultants, LLC, and Senior Director of Community Engagement at Shatterproof, with nearly 20 years of public health experience spanning syringe access research, recovery services, nutrition, and government. In this episode, she walks through why she built her business plan, shelved it, then picked it back up — plus how she vets RFPs, recruits proposal partners from inside The Public Health Club, and protects herself with teaming agreements before a single word of a proposal gets written.

In This Episode, You'll Learn

• Why Jody built her consulting framework, walked away from it, and what made her come back a year later
• How to screen RFPs fast so you stop wasting weekends on opportunities you were never going to win
• The exact steps to bring on proposal partners — vetting calls, skill matching, and signed teaming agreements
• What to ask for after you lose an RFP (hint: most funders will hand you the scoring rubric)
• How to spot an opportunity you can't apply for yourself and subcontract under an organization that can
• Why "build the plane as you're flying it" beats waiting until your business feels ready

Frequently Asked Questions

Can you start a public health consulting business while working full-time?

Yes — and most consultants do. Jody Bogle built Conduit Consultants while serving as Senior Director of Community Engagement at Shatterproof. She's clear that it feels like two full-time jobs during the build phase. Dr. Des ran the same path from 2022 until she went full-time in October 2024, once she had consistent revenue and repeat clients.

What is a teaming agreement and do you need one for a proposal?

A teaming agreement is a signed document between partners collaborating on a proposal that spells out who does what, who gets paid what if you win, and what happens if you don't. Jody requires them before anyone touches a shared proposal doc. Unpaid proposal work is still work — the agreement protects everyone involved, including friends.

What is the FUSE Fellowship?

FUSE embeds experienced executive leaders inside government agencies for one year to work on a specific problem the agency defines. Fellows spend their first 90 days doing listening sessions before building strategy. Jody served as a FUSE Fellow at Travis County Health and Human Services on vaccine equity for Black and Brown residents. Details at fuse.org.

How do you find public health consulting RFPs?

Most public health RFPs never show up in general internet searches — they circulate through sector networks and community lists. Jody pulls hers from The Public Health Club's consulting opportunities list plus her own network, then runs each one through an AI screening process that checks for red flags, minimum contract value, and realistic timelines.

What should you do after losing an RFP?

Reply to the point of contact, thank them, and ask for feedback. Many funders score proposals against a rubric and will share it — Jody had one funder send hers, showing exactly how she compared to the winning bidder. That feedback shapes the next proposal. And a rejection can resurface later: Dr. Des was invited into a new opportunity three months after losing one.

Do you have to be a nonprofit to apply for foundation funding?

Sometimes yes — but that doesn't shut you out. Jody attended a foundation's info session, realized the RFP required nonprofit status, and reached out to a nonprofit CEO she thought was a strong fit. He said yes, and she subcontracted under that organization. Bringing someone an opportunity is its own way in.

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

Welcome back to the Dr. Dad Show. Today we have an amazing guest, another amazing guest on our show. We have Jodi Foggle. Jodi is one of our members of the Public Health Club, and she is the founder and principal consultant of Conduit Consultants LLC, a consulting firm specializing in community engagement, strategy, health equity facilitation, and participatory planning. So she has nearly 20 years of public health experience, and she mainly helps organizations build the trust and infrastructure needed to do community-centered work. She's also the host of the upcoming podcast from Community for Health that is launching in fall 2026. So you gotta make sure you give us that link so we can make sure that we share it. So, Jodi, welcome to the Dr. Dez show. Thank you so much for being a member in the public health club. And I'm super excited to have you on the show today and just highlight your journey in public health.

SPEAKER_01 0:53

Thank you so much for having me, Dr. Dez. Very excited to share about it.

SPEAKER_00 0:57

Awesome. No problem. So let's just dive in. I want to just kind of go through like early on, like what does what why did you decide to get into public health? What did that look like from a career standpoint? And then, you know, we'll just kind of go down the timeline to how you founded your consulting business.

SPEAKER_01 1:15

Yeah. So it started in undergrad at Rutgers University. I thought I was going to school to become like a cell and neuroscience researcher. Um, and then I took chemistry and I said, no, no, I'm not. I am I am not. Um and I had a friend who was on like a pre-med track, and she told me about public health. She was like, You love working with community, you can still do health stuff, you should look into public health. And I took a couple courses and I was like, oh yeah, this is it for me. This is it. And um we had a program that was geared towards students of color who were going into the health professionals. And I took a class with the director of that program, and he told me that there was a uh professor at the med school who needed a research assistant. And that's how I got my first, I'm gonna call it big girl job, while I was still in undergrad because I was doing research on um syringe access programs in New Jersey. And that's back when they were just pilot programs, just coming out. There was a lot of controversy around it. It was interesting talking about it with my family and and church members. Um, but it really exposed me to social determinants of health, it exposed me to um something I hadn't ever seen before. And from there, I continued to work in uh the recovery addiction space. Um, I was working at a nonprofit that was a drop-in center. And so we were providing a lot of direct services to people who were unhoused, people who had HIV, um, and also people who were using substances. Um and it was great. It was great just like really seeing public health so raw and on the ground like that. And my career kind of took me in different areas of public health. So from there going into a more recovery-focused space, working with peers, so people who were in recovery themselves. And um then working at a nutrition agency for a few years, which I absolutely loved. They did like a food is medicine was their thing. And so we were making meals for people who had um serious illnesses and they were tailored to them. And I went back and got my MPH while I was at that organization that was very supportive of me and decided that I wanted to do more. I wanted to explore more about what public health had to offer and um did a little stint with this developmental disabilities, and um then COVID hit. And, you know, I think for everybody, COVID had a different effect for me. It helped me lean into what I really valued at that time, which was family. And at the time, my sister, my little sister, and my nephew were living here in Texas, and me and my mom were kind of like, yeah, we want to be closer to family. And so I started looking for jobs down here, and I came upon the Fuse Fellowship. And so I was a Fuse Fellow for Travis County Health and Human Services for one year, and the focus of my project was on vaccine equity for black and brown residents in the county. And so that gave me a different perspective in public health because I was embedded within a government system, which was completely different from nonprofit. And nonprofit, I feel like you're allowed to take a lot of risk and try to figure things out. And with government, it was like, oh, you gotta ask for permission, you gotta do this, and it has to go through there, and it has to go through this. I was like, oh, okay, this is interesting. Um, but it was a great learning experience. I got to do a lot of work with communities here and really um helped to reestablish trust in a system that so many Black and Brown residents had developed distrust for for various reasons. There's a whole history behind it here. Um and then from there I went to my current employer, uh, which is Shadowproof, which is how I actually know about you, Dr. Des, because you worked with Shadowproof as an influencer for one of our programs, our Georgia Recovery's programs, and we had that. And um, yeah, I work as a senior director of community engagement. I'm leading amazing teams that are doing a lot of great work. So doing um anti anti-stigma addiction campaigns in various states. And um, I lead the community efforts, making sure that we are centering the voice of community. And in the areas where we can, we are making sure that they're community-led as well. And so it's great work. Um, and I also started the consulting company while I was doing it. So before I started at Shadowproof, I was like, you know, I really want to like step out into consulting, it just feels like the natural next step. And I kind of built the framework and then forgot about it. I went to Shadowproof, I was like dove head in, and it wasn't until lately I was like, you know what, let me go revisit that business plan, let me go try to do some things with it. And I really went hard with it this year, I would say, is really when I've like built out the website, like formed the LLC, did all the like the steps, um, and being in the public health club has really helped a lot with that.

SPEAKER_00 6:35

As you were talking, and I wanted to to just go back to, you know, you mentioned like when you were in school, you took chemistry. For me, it was physics, and I was like, oh, physics, what is it and organic chemistry? Like I said those, and yeah, I was like, Yeah, I don't think medical school is done. So I and I feel like so many people have that experience in public health, and it's just it's it's amazing. Like when I do like, you know, events and I have a large amount of people there, and like I literally asked that question, like, who all thought they were going to medical school? So many people like raised their hand, or they're like, Yeah, I thought I was gonna be a dentist and I thought I was gonna do this. And you know, then they they just kind of found public health, like someone like a friend told them about it, or you know, they just kind of stumbled upon it. But I I love that, you know, we we have that intention of going in, but then we're open to the changes. And I feel like that's so and that's what college is all about, just trying to figure out what you like and where you want to go. Um, and then you mentioned Fuse Fellow. Can you tell us a little bit more about the Fuse Fellowship?

SPEAKER_01 7:39

Yeah, so Fuse is an organization that embeds executive leaders within government agencies for uh like one year. And um, the government agencies develop a problem, so to speak, that they would like the Fuse Fellow to work on. So what we like to say is it was like you're in an insider-outsider role. And that worked in particular for me, um, because when I needed to say, like, oh, I'm not an employee of Travis County, that really helped with building trust with communities. Um, but the Fuse Fellowship, for those of you who aren't familiar with it, um, websites Fuse.org, uh, they do cohorts, like cohort style. So you come in with other leaders from all around the country and you do a week of orientation virtually, and then you actually spend the first 90 days of your fellowship doing a listening session. And so all they want you to do is like find all the people that you should be talking to and learning about your particular issue area so that you can then think about what the strategy should be. And I absolutely love that because so often um well-intentioned public health leaders create the program and then they go to the community and they're like, So, what do you think about our shiny new thing? And the community's like, we didn't even ask for this, you know? And so it really was about being intentional um in building out uh different programming, different initiatives that we tried to do within the confines of one year. One year is not really a lot, but um, we did our best. And um yeah, it was amazing. I met some amazing folks around the country that I still keep in touch with, some who were doing similar projects, others who are doing completely different things. It's not all public health. Some people are working on workforce development, other people might be working on violence things. There's just like all different types of opportunities out there. Um, so if people are interested, you can go to fuse.org to learn more about that.

SPEAKER_00 9:41

Nice. I love that. I love it so much. And I love how you mentioned, um, and I guess this just goes around along with like your community work that you do. So, like um, you know, how people like well-intentioned professionals who develop these programs and then put it out there and just expect it to just, oh, people are gonna love this. And, you know, it reminds me of um my course I took when I was in my master's program, um, community organizing. Um, and the one quote that really stuck out to me, she um my professor, Dr. Lopez, she was always just like, you know, nothing for us without us. You know, don't build anything for a community without involving the community and building it. And that I always took with me, um, even developing like the public health club. Like, you know, I'm surveying the members, I'm seeing like, okay, what do people want? How do they want it? Like when I do like our um QA sessions, like I'm talking to people, okay, I'm seeing their questions and like, okay, let's let's see how we can do this better. Um, so it's it's a it's an iterative process, and I love that. And it it reminded me honestly in my head um when you were talking um about just Instagram. And you know, Instagram came out with this like Instagram instance thing. Did you see that? No, it was it don't know, it was weird. Like nobody asked for it. Like it was literally like I don't know, like it was something that popped up and you take a picture and it's automatically posted to everybody. I don't know, it's just I think it's still there. I don't know, but it's like I'm I'm like, I don't want to use it. How do I disable this? Because nobody, I don't know who asked for this. Everybody was complaining, but it's the same concept, right? When you're developing stuff, whether it's for technology or whatever you're doing, like you have to ask the people what they want and involve them in that, or else the uptake of it is going to be, you know, it's not gonna be great. Um you're not gonna get great results.

unknown 11:23

Yep.

SPEAKER_00 11:24

Yeah. So just kind of moving forward to, you know, you mentioned your work with Shatterproof. Um, and then now, like you mentioned, I love how you kind of told the story of like, you know, you started your consulting business and then you're like, oh, like let me, let me, I kind of, you know, fell off a little bit, let me pick it back up. So, what was that process like in your head of wanting to even start a consulting business? What were you thinking about that?

SPEAKER_01 11:47

Um, I was thinking about the the gaps I was seeing over and over again in my career with, like I said, organizations wanting to do good work, um, some wanting to check a box and feeling like, okay, I I know this, right? I've done this for a decent amount of years. I know how to um work both ends. So both the community end as well as the organizational end. Let's kind of be that conduit. Uh, let's kind of build that bridge between the two to make sure that um we're not just creating these like one-off public health programs that have great outputs but not really great outcomes. And so that was kind of this the spark for me is like being able to work with organizations that I felt were aligned with with what I wanted to do. Um, so mission aligned organizations, I guess you could say, and help them to think differently about how it is they want to execute their programming, or just help them to work through some of the difficulties, you know. I I I had to do that in my Fuse Fellowship. Like I'm coming into a situation that's very tense with community and whatever the other entity is. How do we kind of work through that and reestablish and build use trust as a foundation and not like an afterthought?

SPEAKER_00 13:09

I love that. And I love that you said, you know, you can work with organizations that you kind of want to work with, you know, that you see the need for. And I feel like um that was one of the reasons why I started my consulting business too. Like, you know, I was like, you know, it's so many amazing organizations out there, amazing public health organizations. There's no way I'll touch all of them, you know, in my career. But, you know, if I start this consulting thing, I could do small projects for different organizations and be able to make an impact, more of an impact, and of course increase my income too. Right. So I think that that was, you know, that was definitely a motivating factor. So what made you just say, like, okay, now I'm gonna pick it back up?

SPEAKER_01 13:49

Um, honestly, I think it's the shift that we've seen over the past year and a half with the current administration and the attack that has been put on public health as a as a as a career path, as as science. It's just been attacked from so many different angles. And I was like, oh no, I can't, I need to, I need to pick this back up. Like Jody, you know what you need to be doing. Um, and then realistically, it's also the the time freedom that comes with consultancy or at least the the control of my time. Um, you know, I have a daughter, she's two years old, I got a husband. You know, I want to be able to make decisions about how I spend my time and how much effort I might want to put into a particular project. And and that, you know, I'm the type of person that likes to be able to try things and fail and learn from it. And you can't always do that at your job because they don't got money to be paying you to fail. So I want to be able to try a thing out and see if I like it or see if this particular kind of thought process that I'm thinking of is working. And if it doesn't, like, okay, let's let's pivot. And if there's not a write-up or something or whatever that's that's uh associated with it. So it's the yes, I want to do this great work, but the reality is I also want this level of control over my life at this point in my career that I think I could achieve through consulting, understanding that it's a lot of work. Um it's a lot of work. It's like oh yeah, two full it feels like I have two full-time jobs right now with trying to like really get it off the ground.

SPEAKER_00 15:34

Yeah, yeah, I I'm with you on that. And and something you say, you know, I have a daughter, she's three. Um, so listen, I know all the things. Listen, I think she started getting real sassy lately. So no. I'm like, wait a minute. You could barely put the sentence together.

SPEAKER_01 15:50

Why are you so sassy?

SPEAKER_00 15:51

The more they're talking, the more they talk, the more they talk. Oh god, but it's it's amazing just the words she's putting together and how she's just putting sentences and just her own thoughts. And I'm just like, wow, this is crazy. But but I 1000% agree with you about like the time freedom part. I think that, you know, for me, I stepped into full-time entrepreneurship um October 2024 was when I went full-time into entrepreneurship. And I was so scared, like I was shaking in my boots. But like I was like, okay, I built up, you know, um consistent revenue. I have clients, I have this going on. So I was like, okay, let me like continue to um just continue to do this and see where it goes. Because, like you said, it felt like having two full-time jobs, but I was like, okay, what if I put all my energy into this business, right? How how good can I make it? How how much can it grow? And it's grown so much since I've decided to bet on myself and do that. But it took a while to get there. So, like, of course, like you, like I was working full-time um while building my consulting business, and it was a lot. And at the time, like I had and I started my consulting business in 2022, and that's when I had my daughter. So, like it was like but I said to say, like, it can be done. Um, but it does take like that discipline, right? It takes that consistency, and I love that you mentioned it is work because I think that you know, I talk about consulting a lot and I talk about it on social media, and people feel like, oh, it's just an easy fix, it's something easy I can do, and I can just land a contract in two seconds. And I'm like, let's let's kind of level set here. Like, yes, I'm exposing this to you as this is an option, this is what you can do, but it is going to take work just like anything in life that you want to do, and you know, that you want to really make an impact in and really do well. It is gonna take work, it is gonna take consistency, you are gonna get a ton of rejections.

SPEAKER_01 17:41

Um, and that's the season I'm in right now, is the rejection season.

SPEAKER_00 17:45

Yeah. And I feel like, you know, that that's the season for everybody, right? Like, I feel like, you know, you get so many rejections until you get that one like yes, and it's like, okay, I'm turning the corner now. And I feel like um, I actually had one of my colleagues, um, and he texted me. So he texted me last night, and uh he basically, so he does uh videography and he has a public health background. So he was like, um, he's been doing more non-public health photography, but he was like, I want to get into like photography and videography for public health organizations. Um and he was like, he wants to do that more. And so every time I come across a contract, like I come across contracts for that, and I'll send it to him, I'll send it his way. So I think I sent him like maybe three um so far, so not many. Um, but he texted me last night, he said, Hey, I just wanted to tell you thank you so much for sending me the contract. I've been applying to RFPs and I've been getting rejected. But the one, the first one you sent me, I won the contract and we just won the project. I was like, oh my God, like it's just like, yeah, I've been getting rejected so many times, but you know, just sending that and I was like, that's a testament to like just keep going because you're gonna get rejections, like it's part of the game, but you just need that one yes. Same with like when people are applying to jobs, like that's the same thing I tell them like you're gonna get so many rejections, but at the end of the day, you can only accept one job. So all you need is one yes to get something started and to keep going.

SPEAKER_01 19:14

So I'm sorry. No, go ahead. I think every rejection, there's also the opportunity to learn from it. So I I always respond back to whoever the point of contact is to just like thank them for the opportunity and then understand if they can share feedback. Most times they might have a rubric that they were using. I had one send me the rubric so I could see how I compared to the other people and the eventually the person who won. And so that was super helpful for me going into the next proposal. Like, okay, I remember this was a thing last time. Let me see how I could change it. Um, so to me, the rejections are just like they're learning opportunities, every single one.

SPEAKER_00 19:52

Oh, yeah. And I think too, like one thing to think about is that a rejection could eventually lead to an opportunity. Because I've definitely um, I for one, for me, I don't um do proposals anymore, I don't write proposals anymore because a lot of my contracts now are coming from word of mouth um and coming from past clients. And you know, I may, you know, talk with them and everything like that. And I only have capacity to take like a couple contracts. So I'm not trying to expand that part of my business right now. But um, I say that to say when I was in that season of I'm applying to um all of these RFPs, um, I'm getting rejection. I remember one in particular I got rejected from, and um then about three months later, they emailed me and said, Hey, we have this opportunity and we think you'd be really good for it. Are you interested? And I was like, Yeah, like you know, it goes to show like you keep putting yourself out there, you never know who is going to see it and who is gonna recognize it and who can keep you in mind for future opportunities. So, what what has been kind of like one of your strategies? So, are you just like applying to RFPs? Like, how are you um trying to get clients?

SPEAKER_01 20:59

Yeah, so I actually um created a skill in Claude to help me go through the RFPs that I come across. So that's the ones in the public health club, as well as others that I see um out on the internet. And so Claude, like the skill I created, it actually knows what to look for, what the red flags are, like what the minimum amount should be, what the maximum timeline should be, all these different things. And so that kind of helps me when you know, public health club is posting. Sometimes it's like back to back to back. There's like 10 RFPs that come through, and I'm like, okay, maybe this one might work. I don't know. But public health club, if you're not a part of it, you all need to join because there's a lot of great RFPs. I think things that you don't like, I don't see the public health RFPs out there on the internet. They're like completely different. Um, so I use that skill to first kind of help me assess. Um, and then I go through and see is this something that I need to do on my own or that I should be doing on my own, or should I be pulling in other people? So, like right now it's it's just Just me and this in this conduit consultants, but I have a network of amazing colleagues who are doing great work. And so uh I think there's probably only one that I apply for by myself. All the others, I've pulled in other people I know who have this particular skill or might be able to do this thing. I even um submitted one with people that I met in the public health club. Like I put the call out, like, hey, I'm about to work on this. Does anybody have this particular skill and this particular skill? And like people started hitting me up. I was like, oh snap, I didn't think this was gonna actually work. But yeah, we submitted, we didn't win it, but it was still a strong proposal. And now I know two more people in the public health club that I'm like, okay, they have very particular skill sets. So if something else pops up, I'm able to go back to them and be like, hey, do you want to go in on this? And so it just built this like really amazing community in the public health club.

SPEAKER_00 22:50

I love that. I love that so much. And that was my intention with building it because I think when I first started, like my first contract that I got, I um I went in for it by myself and I won it by myself, but then I realized like, number one, I hate data analysis, like I can do it, but I am not a fan. Yeah, yeah, that's not I'm like I'm creating a assessment for you. Like I'll I'll develop it, but I don't want to analyze it. Yeah, you know, but uh so so when it came to that part, I actually called on one of my colleagues and um I said, Hey, you know, I have this contract, I need someone to do the um the analysis portion of this um needs assessment. And she was like, sure. So I ended up subcontracting with her, gave her a contract under my company, and she did that portion, I did the rest, and we kind of put it together. So I was like, wow, like, you know, I literally just partnered with my friend, like gave my friends a couple thousand dollars to, you know, do part of this and like literally something we're doing part-time, like on the side. And I was like, oh my god, like everybody should know about this, you know, like so. That was literally my thought after I got like my next contract, because I my next my first contract was with CDC Foundation, my next one was with NATO, then my next one was with um Aston, Association of State and Territorial Health Officials, and so I was like, oh wow, like everybody should be doing this, everyone should be doing it. Um, especially like I'm like, it's so much, so many people out there with like, you know, way more experience than me that and they feel stuck, right? They feel stuck or they feel like, you know, there's not many options in public health, right? You know, they thinking like, oh, I have to, you know, maybe work for a federal government for X amount of years, or I need to just stay at this job and hope to get promoted and hope to get like, you know, a $5,000 raise or whatever. But I'm like, it's so many other things that you can do. And I think that a lot of people, you know, they they just it's it's about exposure and getting exposure to that because I feel like for me, you know, I got exposure to it because I was actually managing a lot of the consultants that came through um just throughout my career. Like I would sign up on their contracts, I would monitor their work, I would do all of that stuff. So I knew they were making way more than me for just one little project that took them a quarter of my time. Um, so being exposed to that, and then me even working for a consultant and management firm, seeing how they operated, seeing how they built things and went at their contracts, I was like, yeah, like I need to teach other people in public health how to do this because it's it's so much money out there. And like you said, in the club, like we post in all of these contracts. Like I literally I'm fine, I'm the one finding all of them. And I'm like posting them and I have Ariana posting them. Um, and every now and again, like if I get one and I'm like, okay, it's like the weekend, I'm like, I'm not about to bother bother Ariana so much it. Um, but yeah, like posting them, and I'm like, I need to make sure like we're putting processes in place now to even try to figure out how we can source more contracts to get more coming through and organize the list better, and just trying to, you know, increase like that that level of opportunities for everybody because it's it's so much out there for everybody. And I love what you said about like, you know, just reaching out to people in the club or just asking, hey, who's available for this? And you get responses. And I feel like everybody's always shocked when that happens.

SPEAKER_01 26:12

Yes, I was because you don't, you never know, right? It's like a new environment, you don't really know anybody, but I think it's just a testament to who we are as public health people. And the the public health doesn't exist in a vacuum, it is literally a like conglomeration of all these different types of skill sets, and so you need to be working with somebody else. Like you can't just do public health by yourself. So it makes sense now that I think back on it, but it's still kind of like, whoa, when it happens.

SPEAKER_00 26:39

Uh-huh. I love that. I love that. And oh, can you tell us a little bit about how it went when you like you, um, you know, you asked if anyone wanted to partner? Like, what was that next step like for you? How did you all come together?

SPEAKER_01 26:50

Um, so then I did one-on-one conversations with all the folks that I um that reached out to me that were interested to talk about specifically what skill set I was gonna bring, what skill set they could bring, if we thought felt it was a good fit. Um and then I did have them sign teaming agreements. So just to like protect everybody as we're working on the proposal, because that is work, and I'm I campaign for it because I'm not getting paid for it. So like we need to just have an understanding about all of these different things. Um, and then we worked on the proposal shared in a shared Google Doc, and we set timelines like, okay, it needs to be done by this day, so we could all review it, da da da, put it together um for a submission. So that's that was kind of our process.

SPEAKER_00 27:36

I love that. And that is literally what I tell everyone to do because I feel like too, like in the community, it's amazing when all of these people want to help, but everybody might not be a right fit, right? Everybody may not have the skills that you need to make a strong proposal, and you don't want to waste your time like writing a proposal and you're not gonna get it because it's you know, you don't have strong enough on people on your team. So I always tell people like to, you know, have an interview with these people, one-on-one little 30-minute conversation to see like, you know, what their skills are, have them submit their resume to you, whatever references, whatever it is, and you know, have that conversation with them and really ask them some good questions so you can understand their skill set, make sure they can do the work, um, and go from there. And then I love that you had an agreement in place. I always tell people, like, do like a memorandum of understanding or something, like so you all know, like you know who's responsible for what, and let's, you know, go ahead and already get like if we do win this contract, what does payment look like? What does all this stuff and have it written down? Yes, and because it can definitely um you know, it can definitely be tricky. Like um, if you if you aren't like having a full contract with people, like if you don't have that and you're just going verbal off a word of mouth, like you can never do that in business.

SPEAKER_01 28:49

Never. No, no. I learned that through yeah, working in public health, seeing how if we were as an organization working with another organization on something, they're sending over a team agreement, they're sending over something that says, like, hey, we're gonna go in on this thing. This is what we're doing, this is what you're doing, this is how much we're getting paid, this how much you're getting paid. So it just felt like the right thing to do. And like I I was a little concerned about it coming off too, I don't know what the word is, like extra. But I was like, nah, like I gotta protect my friend, I gotta protect my friend. This this is all I got right now. So um, yeah, it was important.

SPEAKER_00 29:25

I love that. I love that you said that thought because like I I thought that once too. Like, I was just like, uh, like, you know, this is my friend. But I was like, no, we're gonna have a contract. Like, even though she's like great and awesome, I still work with her, but like it's just clear, like it's just you got to, if you're having a business, you have to think like a business owner. And when you think about like liability, you think about all of these things that could happen, like this person could potentially come and try to sue you. Like, you never know where somebody's mindset is, even if you think you know them. Like, that is why, you know, you just always make sure that you have agreements. And similarly, I know we mentioned, like, you kind of mentioned um um the State Department, like working for government. And so I worked for government for a while in my career. So I worked for Florida Department of Health and I worked for Georgia Department of Public Health, um, both the state offices. And um, one thing that I I forgot that I was for a while, and I was doing something I just remembered, like I used to be a certified contract manager, and like I had to get a full certification and forgot about it. But um, but yeah, so when I was like at Florida Department of Health, like I literally would execute and manage the contract in conjunction with like the lawyers and stuff. So I was like, you know, I kind of got that foundation early on from like knowing, like, okay, how do we draft this contract out? What does the language need to say? Like, what does scope of work need to look like, like what attachments we need to have? So all of that, like I had all of those skills. And at the time, like with working for the state office, like I hated all the hats that I had to wear because I'm like, I was a program manager, but like I was the contract manager, I was project manager, I was the evaluator, I did some analysis, like I was on all of these things, but like now I'm like, okay, because I have my own business, I'm doing that and more now.

SPEAKER_01 31:10

Yeah. Yes, yes, it is a lot.

SPEAKER_00 31:15

Yeah, but yeah, but it's it's good and it's it's fulfilling work, um, and it's awesome. So, for you, what do you think is the next steps for your business for conduit consultants?

SPEAKER_01 31:26

Um, so in my business plan, I have like a five-year and a 10-year kind of goals for myself, and even my first year goal of like, I want to make X amount by the end of the year. I want to have one or two like solid um clients that I feel like will be repeat clients. So I kind of set those kind of goals for myself, still working towards them, but like very actively working towards like what that looks like because eventually I do want to do this full time. And so it's like, how do I make this transition in a realistic for me? Because it's not like it's like, oh, I'm just gonna quit my job and do this, and money's just gonna come flowing my way. Like we've been saying, it takes a lot of work to get to that point, a lot of like understanding. Um, you had a session, I can't remember if it was last week or the week before, where you talked about like networking and like using your network to get RFPs, because it's one thing to just fill out an RFP, it's another thing if you know the person, you know, and that could tell you, yeah, you need to go on and apply for this. Um, so like re-engaging my network again, because like I haven't been doing that because of the other work that I've been doing and um being able to expand outside of just like the SUD space and going into some other things that I'm interested in in public health. So for me, it's about um building that foundation that's solid so that I can like grow from there.

SPEAKER_00 32:53

Yeah, I love that. I love that so much. And yeah, networking, like that's one of the biggest things that I feel like oftentimes when we just get started, we kind of neglect because like I guarantee you, like you reaching out to your network, you can find somebody that could be potentially interested in the services that you offer. Um, it's just a matter of like continuously talking about your business and your services and what you do and and sharing that information with them and then following up with them too. Um, I think that I've seen like just been in me being in different rooms, like I've been able to see how far just knowing somebody can get you. I think we had um, so when we had our business of public health summit, our actually first business of public health summit that we had, we had one of our speakers, and he's you know, built a um, you know, multi-million dollar um public health consulting company. And basically he did it through starting it like with um one of his friends, had a um government contracting organization, and they it was, I think COVID hit, and literally he called him because he was just like, Oh, um, you know, I want to go after this contract, but I need someone with your background. We want we need, I think they were gonna set up like COVID testing centers or something like that. He was like, I need someone with your background to like be a sub for me. And um he was just like, Oh, like I could do that, but you know, I think at the time he didn't have LLC, he didn't have anything. And um his friend was like, just go ahead and get it. And so he went and got it, and then like a month or so later, they got the contract, and now he's got hundreds of thousands of dollars and he's building business, and you know, just continuing off of that, like literally just you know, him like literally having someone in his network that he knew. Um, and you know, it doesn't have to be like, you know, multi-million dollars in your network, but literally it could be a contract for $10,000, for $30,000, for a hundred thousand dollars, like in your network, and you never know because I feel like you know, one thing I've learned is that a lot of organizations, like some of them don't know they know they need something, but they don't necessarily know what they need until you kind of fill that gap and tell them. So some of them may a lot of them don't put out formal RFPs, but they hire consultants, and that's a lot of times how like I land my contracts because like they're not putting out formal RFPs, but I may be at a conference or I may be like at an event and I start talking with someone and I start telling them about what I do and ask them about their business, and then I identify the gaps in the conversation. I'm like, oh yeah, well, we could do X, Y, and Z, da-da-da-da. So that leads to another conversation, and then that leads to a contract because they didn't know that they needed it until they actually talk with somebody that's the expert in the space.

SPEAKER_01 35:31

That's so good. Something I did recently. Um, there was a foundation that put out uh RFP, and I went to the info session. I was like, oh my gosh, this organization would be great for it. So I reached out to the CEO of that organization. I was like, hey, I think you all would be great for this. I can help you, you know, fill in the gaps, like you said. And he was like, Yeah, let's do it. So I'm like, okay, cool. So that one was like me seeing the opportunity somewhere else and like pulling in an organization that could apply because you have to be a nonprofit to apply, pulling in that organization and being able to like subcontract under that organization. I'm like, oh, this is kind of a cool way of thinking about doing this type of work.

SPEAKER_00 36:13

Nice. Yep, I love that. Like you always got to think about different avenues um for landing contracts and and just getting in rooms with people. Um, so I love that. And I wanted to ask you too. I don't know if we cover like what exact services do you offer through your consulting business?

SPEAKER_01 36:28

Yeah, so um conduit has again, like I mentioned, the the the core of it is about ensuring that community voice is centered. And so we do community engagement strategy and participatory design. Um, we have like an equity-grounded approach. I actually created a framework. So that's one of the things that is telling me like I'm trying to, I want to test it and see like, does this really work? Um, that really is about moving organizations from just doing outreach to really having something that's more sustainable and community engaged long term. Um, we also do stakeholder facilitation, cross-sector alignment. So this is really about, like I mentioned, creating those conditions for those hard conversations, um, making sure we're pulling out shared priorities and really building this kind of collective momentum across different sectors. We also do health equity strategy development. Um, so working with organizations if they want to have like audits on how they're doing with health equity, developing an action plan, and then really supporting them and implementing these action plans. And then lastly, is program design and just strategic communication. So helping with a very evidence-based approach to how we develop programs, again, making sure it's centering the voices of community, um, and then also developing narratives that are going to resonate with the communities that they're working in.

SPEAKER_00 37:54

Nice. I love that. I love that. And if someone wanted to like find out more information about your consulting business, where would they go?

SPEAKER_01 38:02

Um, so they can visit our website, conduitconsultantslc.com. You can find me on um LinkedIn, Jodi and Bogle. You can also find conduit consultants on LinkedIn as well. And then um I do have that podcast launching in the fall from Community for Health. You can find us on uh Instagram.

SPEAKER_00 38:23

I love it, I love it. And Jody, so just like last piece of advice for anyone that's considering like building a consulting business or just stepping out on faith and doing it, what would you tell them?

SPEAKER_01 38:35

Um, this is so cliche, and we use it so much in public health, but you you kind of have to build the plane as you're flying it. I think sometimes we want to make sure everything is perfect before we take that step. And it's like, what little things can you do while also working your job or doing these other things? What are what are these little things you can do to really build that consulting uh firm that feels true to you and that's gonna like bring fulfill you and bring you happiness and give you um the life that you want? And it does again, you don't have to wait until everything is perfect before you start. Like you can start put you just gave that perfect example of like pulling together something real quick so that you can go after that RFP. Um, but you should make sure that you do take the steps eventually. But I would say, like, don't wait because I think too too often we wait and we allow um imposter syndrome to take over or all these other things, and it's like just dip your toe in the water a little bit. And if you need to bring other, you know, people along with you to really help you build that out, then you do that. But don't wait, just do it.

SPEAKER_00 39:41

Just do it. I love it, I love it. Well, Jody, I want to say thank you so much for just coming on and sharing your story. I feel like the time went by really, really fast. But thank you so much for just sharing your journey and your story in public health. I know that this has inspired our listeners. Um, so thank you again, and hopefully, um, for everybody listening, we hope to see you in the public health club to win some closure. Yes, go on and join y'all. All right.