Certified professional coach

My name is Yury Li-Toroptsov.

Most people know me as a visual artist. I’ve exhibited internationally and in Paris, where I’ve lived and worked for over two decades. But I’m also a certified professional coach working with individuals and institutions to create meaningful change.

I operate at the intersection of applied arts and professional coaching blending creative expression with systemic thinking from the Palo Alto tradition. This hybrid approach brings results. It also brings depth.

I place a high value on imagination. From a very young age, I understood it as a powerful force of transformation. I come from humble beginnings, yet I dreamed of doing things no one in my family had ever done like getting into a prestigious language school, even when people told me it was out of reach.

What got me there? Imagination and commitment.

I visualized every detail of that future life, I saw myself there, long before it became real. And when I commit, I go all in. That’s how I became the first in my family to earn a university degree.

Later, I received a fully-funded international scholarship to pursue graduate studies in New York City. From a remote family farm near Vladivostok to Manhattan, the growth was exponential. It tested everything: my resilience, adaptability, and sense of self. But it also opened my world. At the NGO where I worked, I met people who truly made an impact and I knew I wanted to do the same.

My path has never been linear. When I left New York for Paris and chose to become a full-time artist, it wasn’t a whim. It was a calling. A necessity.

But being different has its shadow. You don’t fit into categories. Sometimes, people don’t know what to make of you or you start questioning it yourself. You fear your life might just be a series of disconnected gigs.

What helped me were the people who saw me. Mentors, friends, wise guides. They believed in my difference. Because of them, I began to see the invisible thread running through it all. It wasn’t random, it was meaningful. I just couldn’t see it then.

Today, as a coach, I work with clients who also walk this edge.

They are multicultural, creative, ambitious. Expats, founders, seekers. People navigating multiple worlds at once. People who want to make an impact but sometimes feel disconnected from their own truth.

If parts of my story resonate with you, if you're looking for your place in the world and the deeper meaning behind your journey, then let’s talk.