Career & Leadership
Coaching
Helping Women of Color Defy Limits & Thrive Beyond Reason
You deserve to do well, be well, and succeed despite the challenges you face in the workplace.
Discover What Your Degrees, Drive & Excellence Didn’t Offer (Hint: You already have it. Let me show you how to tap in.)
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You Already Woke Up Worthy. Get the Tools to Tap Into Your Value.
Make More Money with Less Effort
It’s time to close the racial wealth gap that more degrees will never fill. Learn how to overcome underearning, step over oppressive roadblocks to prosperity, and leave the struggle behind.
Be Unapologetically YOU
Start trusting the woman you truly are so that you can show up exactly how you need her to be. Find what motivates you to pursue more—without the weight of pain or shame, unbothered by what the world expects.
Superhumans Not Required
Embrace possibilities and rise to the occasion without relying on perfectionism, #BlackGirlMagic, immigrant daughter pressures, or working twice as hard for half of what someone else gets. We work together to create success on your terms—no capes or wands required!
Courageously Defying Systems Designed to Hold Us Back
You are worthy of the career and life you desire, no matter what the powers that be say.
If you’re unsatisfied with the path you’ve chosen or the level you’ve achieved, you are worthy.
If you’re at home, slouched on the couch, scrolling on your phone with no energy to read a magazine, much less produce the personal brand of your dreams, you are worthy.
On your laziest day, in your oldest head scarf, in your single years, and times of underemployment, you are worthy.
Being the exception to the rule will never prove your value.
You don’t need to be Serena Williams, Jessica Alba, Mindy Kaling, Tracee Ellis Ross, Beyonce, and Michelle Obama rolled into one to earn the right to a full, happy, and free life.
Supremacist lies tell us that only the exceptional deserve freedom and a life on their own terms.
I’m here to say that we all do.
As Women of Color, only we can define our self-worth.
The anti-DEI discourse is shouting loud and clear what we’ve long suspected: It’s never been about merit or qualifications. When two steps forward bring a barrage of backlash, we bring forth courage and create new ways to keep moving forward with unapologetic joy.
Our personal power has been denied and suppressed, and now it’s time to reach for practical tools and strategies to reclaim our time and determine our value. This mission is not easy in a world designed to dim our light, but Woke Up Worthy can help show you the way.
Hi, I’m Toya Gavin —
I help women of color confront internalized oppression so that we can live out our dreams and find joy in a world that underestimates us.
I’m a former attorney who founded my own firm more than a decade ago and soon started helping more women like me create success on their own terms. Fired up by the transformations I saw, you guessed it—I went back to school for training and earned an official coaching certification. But, like you, it was my life experience that taught me so much more.
I noticed that mainstream coaching was missing an important piece. It focuses on helping clients overcome limiting beliefs while ignoring—and often outright denying—the very real limitations put in place by systems of oppression. Those of us from marginalized communities have to learn how to understand the difference and equip ourselves with the skills and fortitude to overcome both.
I founded Woke Up Worthy to coach women of color in navigating barriers to success and confronting internalized oppression so that we can live out our dreams and find joy in a world that underestimates us.
As a Black woman, it often felt like my path to success was so narrow that one false move would throw me off entirely, and I know you can relate.
It seems like we only have two choices: 1.) manage all the things and be a shoulder of support for everyone in our lives, or 2.) lose the superhero badge, get stripped of the strong woman of color status, and fail spectacularly.
This narrow path is really just oppression. It tells us we only have one path to success, and that path is perfection. There is no room for us to be fully human, flawed, and successful at the same time.
But when we defy the system, we ground our identity in our worthiness, no matter our circumstances, so that we can make more money, achieve dream goals, and experience more self-love and self-trust than we ever thought possible.
At Woke Up Worthy, we hold space for the deepest desires of your heart and provide the strategies and tools you need to achieve them.
I can’t wait to see what we create together.
– Toya Gavin
How to Get What You Need From Woke Up Worthy
Achieve Your Personal and Professional Goals Without Compromising Your Identity. Get Coaching, Community, and Insights Full of Accountability But Free From Gaslighting.
Let’s work together to create and claim what you deserve.
Coaching
Unlock your full potential with one-on-one guidance and support that challenges you to become your best self in a safe space that honors what you’re up against.
Community
Join our popular Substack newsletter community for women of color. Get regular insights, motivation, and resources to embrace your worth and pursue your best self. It’s completely free, with an option to upgrade and connect with me and other WOC.
Speaking & Workshops
Contact me here to discuss ways that we can work together.
Toya's experience, insight, coaching, and overall kindness was incredible - she is like the nonjudgmental friend you can talk to about the not-so-fun decisions you have to make in life. From the very first time I met with Toya, she empowered me to be the truest, best version of me, and, throughout our time together, she helped me get clear on who that woman is and how to be more intentional about being more fulfilled. While I ultimately decided not to make an immediate career move, I have better clarity and peace about my decision and future plans - professionally and personally. Thank you, Toya!
Jen C.
My favorite part about working with Toya is her ability to help me create efficiencies of scale for my personal life so that I can spend time on those things that are more meaningful to me. This service has helped me to rethink my brand and my messaging and to focus my message/communication with intention. I would tell my friends to consider working with Toya to help them move out of their comfort and to take a chance on themselves. They can’t lose.
Lisa Deveaux
Working with Toya Gavin provided me with a bounty of tangible resources to help support the growth of my business. The thing that I appreciated the most was that my experience as a woman of color was addressed. For decades, I attempted to adopt constructs and models that were "supposed" to guarantee success, but they never fit. I would gain traction, and monetary wins, only to fall back into overwhelm, self-doubt, and burnout. But when I started working with Toya, she unveiled how internalized racism and societal conditioning were influencing my choices and negatively impacting my ability to thrive. She then helped me shape a sustainable business model that honors who I am, my values, and the life I desire to create for myself. Toya helped to infuse hope back into my business. She provided me with valuable strategies to centralize my well-being and joy while supporting scalable business growth.I have greater confidence, ease, and trust when relating to my purpose-led business now, and I'm so very grateful for all the support she's given me.
Dr. Natasha Kassam Paris
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Dear Worthy Woman,
Every week I write to you so that you remember…
- Every challenge doesn’t stem from thoughts that hold you back;
- Some limitations are just straight-up oppression;
- You have the power to navigate both!
This FREE newsletter and community upgrade option provides the inspiration and tools to help. You in?