Welcome to our blog series profiling the winners of the 2021-2022 Beautiful You Coaching Academy Awards. The awards aim to uplift and honour our worldwide community of coaches and the incredible work they are doing through their coaching, events, programs, books, products, podcasts and more. Get ready to have your mind and heart blown wide open and be inspired by an incredible round-up of coaches.

Today we’d love to introduce you to our 2021-2022 Emerging Coach of the Year, Jerico Mandybur. 

Jerico Mandybur (they/she) is an award-winning creativity coach and best-selling author who holds space for clients through a mixture of coaching strategy, intuitive tarot reading, and meditation. Their books are Neo Tarot, Daily Oracle, and Pleasure Oracle. Their previous hit podcasts were Self Service with Jerico Mandybur and Beyond Belief. As a former content strategist and editorial director, Jerico is passionate about helping creative and neurodiverse women and NB people unlearn perfectionism, own their cringe, and liberate their joy through authentic self expression—so they can tell their story, make their stuff, and build a better world. Jerico’s work has appeared everywhere from New York Magazine, LA Times, The Guardian, Elle, Refinery29, and many more. 

What did you hope to achieve when you first decided to train to become a Beautiful You coach?

When I first decided to train with Beautiful You Coaching Academy, it was because I felt that gaining coaching skills would benefit me as a tarot reader. So I was keen to learn certain skills like holding space, asking powerful questions, supporting clients to take positive action through small steps, and so on. It was only through experiencing the program that I discovered the true power of coaching and allowed myself to imagine playing a transformative role in people’s lives beyond a one-off (or “now and again”) tarot reading. By the time I was done with the course, I had decided—but also experienced for myself as a client and coach—that coaching was a profound gift to the people I work with but also to myself. Being in that coaching space with someone lit me up and changed my relationship with myself. It expanded my sense of what’s possible for me, and for everyone I’m passionate about supporting, ten-fold.

I’m so glad that I trusted my gut and sought out coaching training with Beautiful You. Every aspect of their ethical approach, rigorous perspective, and big heart contributed to this shift in me.

What have been some of your major highlights or achievements since graduation?

Oh man, so many! I have published a 3x books and 2x oracle decks in the last four and half years with a major publisher, I’ve been featured in some of my favourite national and international publications/radio stations like Vogue, Triple J, New York Times, and Marie Claire, I’ve spoken at live events like Pedestrian’s Selfish Sessions, I’ve become a registered meditation teacher, I’ve been honoured with two Beautiful You Coaching Academy Awards, a BBDP Award, and most importantly I’ve had the pleasure of supporting some of the most interesting, passionate, talented, and driven creative people and business owners in the world.

My 1:1 coaching program is consistently sold out and has included people doing the most incredible work; an award-winning filmmaker, poets, therapists, a well-known musician, a famous model, artists, fellow coaches, designers, and a tonne of incredible people doing extraordinarily brave, playful things in everyday moments. I’m constantly beaming with pride when thinking about my clients. And I’m also proud of myself for getting out of my own way and allowing myself to rise to the challenge of being a coach. And self-employment in general—we all know it’s not easy and often terrifying! But it’s worth it.

I’d also like to shout out the NEIS Program, which is available to new business owners in Australia. Having government-funded mentorship and support has been a highlight in that it’s kept the wind in my sails, so I highly encourage people to look into this opportunity.

Tell us more about the incredible work you do as a multi-passionate author, creativity coach and consultant helping women and non-binary visionaries unlearn perfectionism and liberate their joy through intuitive creative experssion and why it is so important to you? 

Like most coaches, my particular field of interest is inspired by my life experiences and what I’ve moved through. As an autistic (with ADHD) coach, I deeply understand the promise and pitfalls of a perfectionistic approach to life and I strongly believe that much of what plagues us—self sabotage, procrastination, overwhelm, impostor syndrome—are all symptomatic of chronic perfectionism and our tendency to set unrealistically (often irrationally) high standards for ourselves. In my own life and in those around me, I’ve seen that play out in rather depressing ways; we quit something before we’ve even started because we can’t stand the discomfort that arises when we don’t do something “right” the first time.

Once I saw all the ways that my perfectionism, my “masking” and trying to be someone else—someone who makes no mistakes—was holding me back from all the things that make me feel joyful and ALIVE like creative expression, embracing my intuition, playing, and doing things imperfectly with intention—I realised it wasn’t a “me” thing, it was a white patriarchal capitalist thing.

So I work with anyone who identifies as a creative (practising or not) or neurodivergent that wants to divest from perfectionism and get back to the joy of intuitive creative expression. I support them to do this through practical exercises, thought experiments, deep listening, the creative use of tarot, and guided relaxations, so they can better access their intuitive gifts and tap into the wise creative consciousness inside them.

I work 1:1 with people year round in 3-month increments in my program Come Alive, and also offer 4-week Creative Containers for clients with a specific project they need support with. I also occassionally run a 6-week group beginner’s meditation and journalling class called Write About Now.

What do you think has helped you grow as a coach and reach the level of success that you’ve had so far in your business?

Honestly, I put it down to following my gut more easily than I follow the rules. I don’t follow most of the standard advice I see being offered to new coaches and allow myself to go where my excitement is. Where momentum or curiosity is naturally found. This kind of approach isn’t for everyone and I’m lucky in that I have a professional background as an editor and know content marketing like the back of my hand. But I don’t really utilise that knowledge most of the time. I prefer to share stories when I feel like it and go into sales mode when I feel like it. I think this is important, not only because our ideal clients can tell when something is forced, but also because our energy is too precious to burn through.

In the aftermath of COVID, I had to learn the importance of rest all over again. I had to prioritise myself and do what felt the most fun and easy, always. We’re not able to show up and serve our people when we’re a shell of ourselves, so there’s no underestimating the importance of listening to your body and heart, and becoming intuitive in the way you approach all aspects of your business.

My clients have taught me that people (at least in this area of coaching!) don’t want polished and perfect. They want relatable, messy, permission-granting, weirdos. They want and deserve to see that it’s possible to run a business *and* be completely and utterly yourself.

Since becoming a Beautiful You coach, what skills or practices have you developed to support your coaching?

Meditation! There’s really no substitute. In the process of becoming a certified teacher, the thing that helped me stop “fighting” with meditation (although I totally still have my days) was forgetting what I saw on Instagram and allowing it to look however I needed it to look. Sometimes I sit still in silence, but sometimes I chant or walk or fidget around happily, or dance. This is part of a bigger revelation for me—our brains aren’t all built the same, so why would we expect ourselves to approach things the same way?

Tarot, witchcraft, and my wider spiritual studies and practices have been really supportive as well, and similar to above, I’ve allowed them to evolve in terms of what they look like. It’s all a lot less serious and much more colorful, playful, improvised, and therefore emotionally-resonant than ever before!

My inner child has never been happier, as I’m continually drawing (crayons are the ultimate anti-perfectionist tool), journalling and writing, singing, dancing around the house, making playlists, playing with color and collage, and checking in with myself every day in order to locate what practices would most light me up, one day at a time.

What’s in store for Jerico Mandybur? What would you like to achieve in the coming years in your coaching business?

What’s immediately in store is my next book! It’s called Rainbow Power: Manifest your dream life with the creative magic of colour and you’re the first to know. It’s about colour magic and how to use colour to affect your psychology, energy, and creative self-expression. In the coming years, I would like to create an international community of weirdos, freaks, and would-be creative chaos agents who can support and encourage each other to tell stories, get vulnerable, and express themselves because they know how radical and important an act that still is! I’d like to write more books. But ultimately I’d like to just continue to plant the seeds of power, presence, and play in the heart of every client and member of my wider community. That’s more than enough reward.

Congratulations Jerico! We’re so excited to see what continues to unfold for you.

Find out more about Jerico’s work at Jerico Mandybur

Photography: Joe Brennan