Episode Details

How do you compete with McKinsey and BCG when you're a one-person consulting shop? Yogesh Chavda spent five years floundering between enterprise giants and contractor pricing until generative AI cracked the game wide open.

In this episode, Yogesh (founder of Y2S Consulting, co-founder of Yogi AI, former marketing & insights leader at Pinterest and Spotify) breaks down the exact 3-year playbook he used to build a reputation, land partnerships, and turn a stuck consultancy into a productized AI business with 40+ tools.

🎯 What you'll learn:

• How to stay 6 months ahead of every AI trend (the signal-spotting system)
• Why TikTok and 100+ newsletters beat traditional B2B research
• The 3-part trust formula: give first, build relationships, over-deliver
• How to pivot from selling hours to selling products
• Why "strategy consulting" is a trap for solo operators
• How a single breakfast meeting led to funding for Yogi AI

⏱️ Chapters:00:00 Intro — Breaking through the noise01:08 The McKinsey vs. contractor trap02:36 Picking your AI swim lane03:43 How to stay 6 months ahead05:21 The TikTok algorithm hack for B2B07:44 The 3-part trust formula11:24 Why services don't scale (and products do)16:36 Industry recognition and awards17:35 Building a podcast and newsletter from scratch21:36 The breakfast that launched Yogi AI23:39 Authentic networking that actually works25:32 Final advice for solo founders

🔑 Key topics: AI consulting, solo entrepreneurship, personal branding, agentic AI, marketing insights, synthetic data, productized services, thought leadership, LinkedIn growth

👤 Guest: Yogesh Chavda — Founder, Y2S Consulting | Co-founder, Yogi AI | Top 250 Global Consumer Insights Leader (SOMAR)

🎙️ Host: Catherine Jelinek

#AIConsulting #SoloEntrepreneur #AIMarketing #PersonalBrand #ThoughtLeadership #AgenticAI #ConsultingBusiness #StartupStory