New Jersey-born, internationally acclaimed Maverick coach, Shari Teigman is launching her debut book ‘The Maverick Way: A Field Guide to Coming Undone On Purpose’ – as she encourages us all to take a look at our mental wellbeing through a different lens.
An interactive guide packed with guided exercises and ‘crazy dares’ designed to help people understand their own unique ingredients and access their full potential, rather than simply marching in line, Shari’s book, which beat Gabor Mate, Dr Julie Smith and Vex King in the Amazon book charts, tackles one of the biggest challenges she sees in her work: people knowing they want more from life and business, but not knowing how to find it, trust it, or act on it. Rather than offering a quick fix or ‘fluffy affirmation’, The Maverick Way invites readers into a deep, playful process of self-discovery that Shari believes is the real foundation of lasting success.
The book has not just been born from Shari’s professional experience but also draws deeply on her own personal experiences. Granddaughter of a Holocaust survivor and raised in a Modern Orthodox Jewish household, Shari, 52, grew up understanding that inner knowing and faith are what remain when everything else is taken away. After divorce and the decision to begin again entirely from scratch at 40, she launched her coaching business, only to fall into a familiar trap of rebuilding an ‘acceptable’ life in a new outfit. The turning point came when she scrapped her sanitised brand, rewrote her message in her own unmistakable voice, and chose visibility over approval – the business took off immediately.
With video guides, daily tasks and real talk reflections, Shari, who has been coaching mostly UK-based entrepreneurs and business owners since 2015, having built her entire client base across the Atlantic before ever setting foot in the country, brings a background as unique as her approach. A sociology degree, art therapy training, yoga teacher certification, formal coach training, and two decades as a makeup and mosaic artist combine to give her a rare ability to read between the lines and spot the patterns beneath a person’s story. She currently heads up the coaching department at Expert Empires, who’s hosted the likes of Gary Vaynerchuk, Steven Bartlett and Fearne Cotton, where she supports entrepreneurs in growth phase. She is the inhouse coach helping them to move past their limiting beliefs and create the life and business they desire.
She said: “I adore helping others to see themselves through new eyes, and I care passionately about helping people to understand how their brains work, so they can work with them, rather than against them! I started writing a book about the Maverick Brain and how we operate, but this book came out first, because I realised people needed to understand themselves before any of that makes sense. Getting unstuck and soaring doesn’t have to be painful and sombre. My way is deep, but playful – we make it fun.”
“My own journey drives this mission, I know what it feels like to be living a life you thought you were supposed to live, and to have forgotten your own magic,” she said. “My goal is to help people understand what makes them unique instead of how they can fit in. A world filled with everyone beating their own drums is far more fun, interesting, and true.”
Shari’s mission is increasingly urgent as research highlights a growing crisis of purpose and engagement among high performers, persistent burnout symptoms even while targets are met, high stress among entrepreneurs, and strong satisfaction rates among those who reinvent careers later in life — all reinforcing what she sees daily: “success without self is a hollow win, and reinvention is not only possible, it’s powerful” she says.
Shari, who has spoken on stages globally spreading her knowledge built up in coaching and mentoring over the last decade, added: “I believe everyone should have access to the change they want but don’t know how to find. This book means people can do the deep work for their life and business without needing to wait to find me. It tumbled out of my soul and I think readers will feel that.”
Shari is unapologetic about the way her approach cuts against industry convention. “I see most things in the opposite direction to the way my industry does. I believe in collaboration over competition. I think our weirdness and edge makes us stand out. How we feel in what we do determines our growth and success. People say I’m like your loving aunt and then I go New York Mafia on their ass!!”
Following the launch, Shari plans to roll out a Maverick Map experience and course alongside the book, allowing readers to explore their own path forward. She is also moving into more writing and speaking.
The Maverick Way: A Field Guide to Coming Undone On Purpose’ is available now on Amazon and you can also find Shari on YouTube where she has committed to providing free advice for 52 weeks of the year to mark her 52nd birthday this year to help more people get unstuck. One video every week is shared covering a whole host of topics around growth, identity, and scaling as an entrepreneur – all with the Shari signature ‘Maverick’ way.
The field guide was brought to life in collaboration with designer and publisher Claire Clarke of I Am Claire Clarke Ltd, whose work gives the book its visceral, maximalist visual identity.
Here Shari shares her top 5 tips from the book:
- Do the Alchemist’s Vault. Set a timer for 20 minutes and write the one story you’ve never fully claimed- unfiltered, not the version you’d post. Then underneath it, finish the sentence “Because of this, I now…” five times. Seal it in an envelope labeled: The Weapon I Never Saw Coming. Your greatest offerings will never come from your curated self.
- Write the Crave Confession Letter. Start with: “I’m so done pretending I don’t want…” and go. The selfish ones, the ambitious ones, the petty ones. Let it read like the diary of the version of you that doesn’t care if anyone thinks they’re too much. Seal it. Write one word across the front: MINE.
- Do the Should Shadow + Rewrite Overlay. Fill one page with every “should” still clinging to you- the ones you inherited, installed, downloaded from someone else’s blueprint. Then take a bold marker and write over it, not to cover it, but to reclaim the space. Keep writing until the old list becomes background noise. That’s the whole point.
- Build your Rest Inventory. Make two columns: Fake Rest vs. Fierce Rest. Scrolling vs. a 20-minute silence walk. Wine and Netflix to numb vs. lying down midday to feel again. Then choose one thing from the Fierce Rest column, build it into the next 7 days, and protect it like it’s sacred- because a rested person is powerful, unmanipulatable, and unrushed.
- Write your Living Manifesto. Start with: “From this moment forward, I live like this…” and write like you’re making a blood pact with your future self. Not who you hope to be- who you’ve already become. Write as if no one will ever read it but it will echo in everything you do.
