About Guardiant Group
“Stop Waiting for the Right Moment. This Is It.”
Your best chapter doesn’t begin when conditions are perfect — it begins when you decide to stop shrinking and start leading.
Whether you’re a student stepping into your future, a veteran reclaiming your power, or an executive ready for what’s next — Guardiant Group was built for this moment in your story.
Serving clients locally, nationally, and internationally, Guardiant Group works with students, veterans, professionals, and growing businesses to navigate career decisions, strengthen leadership capabilities, and drive meaningful, measurable results. With a focus on practical strategy, structured execution, and real-world application, Guardiant Group provides the guidance and support needed to turn potential into sustained success.
Our Team
Yvette Golla - President, CEO
For more than two decades, Yvette led sales and business development in the federal contracting world; an environment where the stakes are high, the competition is fierce, and strong leadership isn’t optional. She built teams, won contracts, navigated corporate politics, and climbed every rung of a demanding industry. Along the way, she became the person people came to when they were stuck, overlooked, or unsure of their next move.
What she discovered was a pattern: the gap between where talented people were and where they knew they could be wasn’t a skills gap. It was a clarity gap. A confidence gap. A strategy gap. Most people had never been given the tools to close it.
So she built Guardiant Group to close it for them.
Combining her decades of real-world leadership experience with her training as a Jay Shetty Certified Coach and NLP practitioner, Yvette created a firm that goes deeper than career advice, one that works on the mindset, habits, and strategy that drive lasting, measurable results.
Today, Guardiant Group serves students stepping into their futures, veterans translating their service into civilian careers, and executives ready for what’s next, bringing the same commitment to every single engagement: help you become the version of yourself you already know you’re capable of being.”
Alfonso Rodriguez, Director of Leadership & Development
Alfonso Rodriguez is an Adjunct Faculty member at National Louis University and a Career Transition Coach specializing in career strategy, professional negotiation, and workforce transitions with Challenger, Gray & Christmas – the largest outsourcing firm in the nation. He holds an MBA from DePaul University and is currently pursuing a Doctor of Business Administration (DBA), with scholarly interests in leadership, decision-making, and applied organizational practice.
Alfonso brings nearly three decades of professional experience in real estate finance, where negotiation, risk assessment, and data-driven judgment were central to high-stakes decision-making. His work integrates negotiation theory with practical job search strategies, including offer evaluation, compensation analysis, and stakeholder alignment.
As an educator, he emphasizes evidence-based frameworks that help professionals advocate effectively for their value in competitive labor markets. His coaching practice focuses on equipping job seekers with structured negotiation approaches grounded in preparation, leverage, and ethical influence. Alfonso is fluent in Spanish and supports inclusive access to career advancement and negotiation literacy. He also serves in leadership roles within national and university-affiliated professional organizations.
