Dr. Yolanda Columbus is a Transformational Speaker, Real Estate Investor and mentor to small business owners. In all of her roles, she challenges the status quo and facilitates change. She specializes in fear-setting, mindset development, and building wealth via real estate. When she accepts a new client, it is because she believes the value added to both her and her client significantly exceeds the quantifiable.
Dr. Columbus (aka dr.yoco) is a proud product of the inner city. For the past twenty years, that pride has shaped her impact on multiple higher education institutions. In August 2017, after the unexpected death of her maternal grandmother she decided to expand her impact and to honor her Granny’s legacy. Hence, she established a real estate investment business focused on helping families make lasting memories.
As an higher education administrator, Dr. Columbus has enjoyed success at a traditional 4-year public university, a newly accredited 4-year public institution, and a community college. She introduced evidence-based quality course design standards to a well-established traditional institution,
integrated quality course design standards into the fabric of a newly accredited 4-year public institution, and implemented data-based decisions at a community college.
Her results are both quantifiable and anecdotal. In her most recent position at North Lake College, she serves as the Associate Dean in Liberal Arts. When she started, she presented a report published by the Education Advisory Board titled ‘Smart Growth: Running the Academy by the Numbers’ to the Executive Dean. To date, those ideas have impacted enrollment management, course scheduling, and hiring practices. And while her results may impress some, it is the “why” that guides and motivates her.
These experiences in higher education have helped her to quickly determine her niche in real estate and to take action. In August 2017, she joined a local real estate club, DFW REI Club. In September 2017, she established her LLC, 5028 Holdings, LLC. In late October 2017, she signed her first sandwich lease on an unfurnished single-family home. By mid-November, she welcomed her first guest into her vacation rental (i.e. AirBNB)
Dr. Columbus was raised in Fort Worth, TX in a neighborhood called Stop Six. While outsiders may focus on the crime rate or the socio-economic status of the residents, Dr. Columbus focuses on the sense of community and the ingenuity of friends and family. In her own words, “I was raised in a marginalized area that many despised or ignored. Descendants of my friends, my family, and my neighbors are stuck by circumstance, not by choice, in similar areas. I labor to break barriers and extend access to those in these forgotten spaces.”
Make Moves Not Excuses 