Inspiring Conversations with Dr. Yvette Gavin of Yvette Gavin Consulting (YGC)

Today we’d like to introduce you to Dr. Yvette Gavin.

Hi Dr. Yvette, so excited to have you with us today. What can you tell us about your story?
This October, Yvette Gavin Consulting (YGC) officially turns 10 years old. Ten years! And if you had told the young journalist working at CNN, The Atlanta Journal-Constitution, and The Birmingham News that one day I would own a consulting firm serving organizations across the country, including the federal government and U.S. military, I’m not sure I would have believed you.
My career has never followed a straight line—and I’ve learned that some of the best journeys don’t.
I started my career as a journalist, where I learned how to ask the right questions, listen to people, communicate clearly, and tell stories that matter. From there, my career took me into corporate America and eventually into technology leadership, where I served in roles including senior editor, manager, and IT director. With every move, I was gaining another piece of what I would eventually need to become an entrepreneur—even though I didn’t know it at the time.

In 2016, I decided to bet on myself and start YGC. I wish I could say I had this perfectly mapped-out 10-year plan. I didn’t. I had experience, faith, a vision, and the belief that I could use what I had learned throughout my career to help leaders and organizations become better. And then entrepreneurship taught me everything else.
Over these 10 years, I’ve had incredible wins and some painful losses. I’ve won contracts and lost opportunities I thought were mine.

I’ve made great decisions and some expensive ones. I’ve learned how to pivot, how to recover, how to ask for help, and most importantly, how to keep moving. One of the greatest lessons has been realizing that success isn’t about getting every shot right—it’s about learning from the one you missed and being ready to play the next one.

Today, YGC is an SBA-certified 8(a), Woman-Owned Small Business providing leadership development, strategic consulting, training, facilitation, assessments, and program and project support. We’ve been trusted to work with federal agencies, military organizations, corporate clients, and leaders and teams across the country.
But when I think about what I’m most proud of after 10 years, it isn’t a certification, a contract, or a dollar amount. It’s that we’re still here—and we’re still growing.

There were seasons when the business looked very different from what I imagined. There were doors that opened and doors that closed. There were people who helped me along the way, and there were times when I simply had to trust God, trust the vision, and keep going.

So, for me, our 10th anniversary isn’t just a business milestone. It’s a reminder of what can happen when you have the courage to start and the resilience to keep going. Ten years later, I’m still learning, still growing, still taking the next shot—and I’m incredibly excited about what we’re building next.

Alright, so let’s dig a little deeper into the story – has it been an easy path overall and if not, what were the challenges you’ve had to overcome?
Absolutely not! And I think anyone who has been in business for any length of time will tell you there is no such thing as a completely smooth road.

There have been some incredible highs over the past 10 years, but there have also been disappointments, setbacks, mistakes, and moments when I questioned whether I was doing the right thing.

One of my biggest early lessons was learning that being good at what you do doesn’t automatically mean you know how to run a business. I knew how to lead. I knew how to develop people. I knew how to deliver great work. But I had to learn sales, pricing, cash flow, contracts, business development, and how to build a pipeline so that one “no” didn’t feel like the end of the world.

I’ve also made mistakes. I’ve spent money on things I thought I needed because I wanted my business to look successful instead of focusing on what the business actually needed to become successful. I’ve underpriced myself. I’ve pursued opportunities that weren’t right for me. And I’ve learned that every opportunity isn’t a good opportunity.

Federal contracting has brought its own lessons. You can spend weeks—or months—pursuing an opportunity, put together an excellent proposal, and still not win. I’ve had to learn not to allow a loss to become a verdict on my ability or my business. I tell myself: miss the shot, not the lesson. Learn from it, reposition, and play the next shot.

There have also been seasons when the revenue wasn’t where I wanted it to be, when I had to make difficult decisions, and when the vision was much bigger than the resources I had at the moment. Those are the seasons that really test you as an entrepreneur.

But looking back, I wouldn’t erase the hard parts because they changed how I lead and how I run YGC today. I’ve learned to be more disciplined, more strategic, more comfortable asking for help, and much more intentional about who and what I make room for.

Ten years in, I know this for sure: resilience isn’t pretending the setbacks don’t hurt. It’s refusing to let them have the final word.

We’ve been impressed with Yvette Gavin Consulting (YGC), but for folks who might not be as familiar, what can you share with them about what you do and what sets you apart from others?
Yvette Gavin Consulting (YGC) is a leadership and strategic consulting firm, and at the heart of what we do is pretty simple: we help organizations move from strategy to execution.

We work with government agencies, military organizations, corporations, and leadership teams to solve people, leadership, and organizational challenges. Our work includes leadership development, strategic consulting, training and development, team assessments, strategic planning, facilitation, and program and project management.

What we’re really known for, though, is creating experiences that move people to action. I never want a client to leave one of our engagements with a beautiful PowerPoint, a binder that goes on a shelf, or a list of great ideas that no one ever implements. Whether we’re facilitating a leadership program, helping a team work through challenges, or leading a strategic planning session, the question is always: What happens next?

That’s where our tagline, “Where leadership, strategy, and execution connect,” comes from. It’s not just marketing language. It describes how we approach the work.

I also believe one of the things that sets YGC apart is that we don’t believe one person has to be the expert at everything. Over the years, I’ve intentionally built a network of talented facilitators, coaches, consultants, and subject-matter experts who bring different experiences and expertise to the table. We assemble the right talent around the client’s challenge rather than trying to force every client into the same solution.

Today, YGC is an SBA-certified 8(a), Woman-Owned Small Business, and I’m incredibly proud that a company I started 10 years ago has earned the trust of federal agencies, military organizations, corporations, and leaders across the country. We’ve gone from me having an idea and believing I could build something to delivering work in rooms and with organizations I once could only imagine.

But brand-wise, what makes me proudest is our reputation. I want people to know that when YGC’s name is attached to something, we’re going to show up prepared, we’re going to care about the outcome, and we’re going to deliver. Excellence matters to me. Relationships matter. And doing work that actually makes a difference matters.

As we celebrate 10 years, I don’t want YGC to simply be known as a company that provides training or consulting. I want us to be known as a trusted partner that helps organizations and their people get better—and then helps them turn that growth into action.

That’s YGC: where leadership, strategy, and execution connect.

What were you like growing up?
One of my college professors once described me as “progressive,” and I think that word captures who I have always been. Even as a young girl, success was in my spirit. So was helping people.

I grew up in rural Georgia, the oldest of five children, in a middle-class, hardworking family. Being the oldest came with responsibility. I was expected to lead, set a good example for my younger siblings, and do the right thing. I took that seriously. Whether I was captain of the cheerleading team, president of 4-H and other school clubs, or teaching Sunday school, I somehow always found myself leading.

Entrepreneurship was also all around me, although I didn’t recognize it as entrepreneurship at the time. My father owned a cleaning business and farmed on the side. As teenagers, my siblings and I helped him clean offices. I remember emptying trash cans and cleaning desks while looking at the women who worked in those offices. I loved their pretty business suits, and I would imagine myself dressed like them one day, sitting behind one of those desks, with an office of my own.

My grandmother, whom we called Big Mommy, ran a boarding house. She was a strong woman who knew how to take charge, run things, and yes—boss a few people around! I saw parts of myself in her. I liked leading. I liked being in charge. I had opinions, and I wasn’t afraid to share them.

I was also a talker and a storyteller. I was always helping someone solve a problem, trying to make sure everybody was okay, or making people laugh. Looking back, so much of who I am today was already there.

At 16, I started working through my high school’s vocational program in the administrative offices of a Goody’s hair products plant. I was a strong typist and did so well that I was named VOT Student of the Year my senior year. I was also the only Black person working in the administrative office at the time; the other Black employees worked on the factory floor. And there I was—in the office, earning my own money and finally able to buy some of those pretty suits and dresses I had admired years earlier. In my teenage mind, I had arrived! I was winning.

But my high school English teacher saw something else in me. She recognized my ability to write and tell a compelling story and encouraged me to pursue journalism. I took her advice, studied journalism in college, and by my senior year had landed a reporting job with The Atlanta Journal-Constitution. That decision ultimately launched a career that would take me into journalism, corporate America, technology leadership, and eventually entrepreneurship.

What’s fascinating to me now is realizing that entrepreneurship wasn’t new to me at all. I just didn’t have that language for it growing up. My father was an entrepreneur. My grandmother was an entrepreneur. Even my great-grandparents were entrepreneurs and farmers who owned more than 100 acres of farmland—an extraordinary accomplishment for Black landowners of their generation and a tremendous legacy for our family.

Somewhere along the way, I became so immersed in building a successful career working for other people that I forgot entrepreneurship was already part of my story.

Now, when I look back at that serious, responsible little girl from rural Georgia—the storyteller, the helper, the leader, the girl cleaning someone else’s office while imagining having one of her own—I can see the breadcrumbs.

She was already becoming me.

Contact Info:

• Website: https://www.yvettegavin.com
• Instagram: https://www.instagram.com/yvette_gavin/?hl=en
• Facebook: https://www.facebook.com/yvettegavinconsulting
• LinkedIn: https://www.linkedin.com/in/yvette-gavin-leadership-coach/