Laura Vella

The Muppets have been a great source of inspiration for me since childhood. Not only were the crazy cast of characters quirky and entertaining, they lived by an essential paradigm: BELIEVE IN YOUR DREAMS. This message profoundly resonated with me from a young age and continues to inspire me today.

Kermit the Frog was always chasing his dream of working in show business against all odds. As even the most optimistic frog would do, he occasionally felt the weight of his challenges, yet he never stopped pursuing his dreams. I later learned that my hero, Muppets creator Jim Henson, was actually inspired by his own personal story. Kermit (Henson) has been an ongoing source of inspiration in how I’ve chosen to live my own life.

Naturally a creative child, I became obsessed with our video camera and decided that I too wanted to work in “show business.” I wanted to own the Muppets. After graduating with a film degree from San Diego State University, I moved to Los Angeles where I lived and worked in the film industry for 8 years. Unconsciously, I veered off the path of realizing my dream. Instead I focused on a career based on money and security. Sure I had a blast working in a new environment every day, taking months off to travel and rubbing elbows with celebrities. But something was missing. I was working for “just a paycheck.” Other people thought my job was “cool” but I was discontent. I wasn’t living in alignment with my values. I was tired, exhausted even, on a very regular basis. And dreaming was something I only did while I was sleeping.

I grew incredibly burnt out on the film industry and took a serious look at the life I was living versus the life I wanted to create. I began honoring more of the things that were important in my life and woke up to new life-affirming opportunities. With much fear and doubt, I left the film industry behind to pursue a practice as a full-time life coach. I enrolled in the most prestigious coach-training program I could find and the rest is history (in the making).

As a coach, I am fully living my dream of encouraging others to live theirs. I have personally experienced tremendous growth from acting in the face of doubts and have dedicated my life’s work to leading and supporting others to do the same. I see potential as limitless, and anything as attainable. As the frog himself once sang, “Life’s like a movie. You write your own ending. Keep believing, keep pretending.”