Laura DiBenedetto - Author, Executive Coach, Self-Help Guru

Laura DiBenedetto

Laura DiBenedetto is an author, business expert, and creator. Laura has always been an entrepreneur, and her story begins when she was 19, when she decided to build a company that she wanted to work for, that paid her what she felt she was worth.

Her company changed her life, and Laura always wanted to create her own path, and to find real joy and success on her terms. She retired from her first company when she was 38 years old, after realizing she needed a change - she worked to make it happen. Right before she retired, Laura began a passion project that shortly became so much more. She wrote a self-help book about how to powerfully manifest joy and abundance, a companion independent coaching program, and a 90-day life-changing program. She had found her passion and her fire.

Laura is proud of her journey, her struggles, and the wealth of pragmatic business and leadership expertise under her belt. There’s a spiritual experience and divine light inside of her, and she’s honored to share these gifts and help serve others in a uniquely accessible, truthful, and loving way. Today, she’s an executive coach and self-help guru working with people one-on-one to help them step into their incredible lives.

I’m so excited for you guys to connect with Laura, check out her work, and follow along as she continues to use her passion to help others create their path toward joy and abundance, too.

I'd love it if you'd introduce yourself, what you do, and what you're working on.

I’m Laura DiBenedetto. Author, business expert, and creator describe just a few of the many roles I fulfill. Since 19 when I started my first company, I have always been an entrepreneur and a defiant one at that. I’ve consistently wanted to craft my own path, be fully myself, finding real joy and wealth on my terms. I retired from my first company at 38, and am now giddy to be fully living my dreams on my favorite island, working with heart-centered entrepreneurs in my new business on massive internal and business transformation, writing life-changing books, and creating products that generate enduring positive change. I’m working on releasing the first product line right now: The Six Habits. It’s a book, a course, and a program designed to give people the tools they need to create astounding power over their own destiny - in practical proven ways that actually work and last. 

How did you get started?

I got started when I sought to solve a problem for myself and got lost in research and self-inquiry. The more I learned, the more things crystallized into beautiful, simple, almost obvious answers. I got sucked down the rabbit hole - in the best possible way. I researched and tested and found the magic I was looking for. I knew I had struck gold and began implementing it with people one-to-one and saw profound results. A business was born - one I was head over heels in love with. 

What inspired the work that you're doing?

I was deeply inspired by my own struggle, having been profoundly depressed and defeated after *seemingly* had it all. The meaning and joy were missing. After years of doing so much personal development, reading books, doing programs and so much more, I still felt empty and I couldn’t understand why. I couldn’t live with that and needed to find out why nothing I had ever done before had stuck, and why. I needed to find out what to do about it. People can create from joy, but I created from pain and the pursuit of joy. It made all the difference.  

What is your biggest passion? Do you feel like you're living your passion and purpose?

I don’t have a singular biggest passion - I have many that all swirl together and intersect. The common themes are creation and love. When I work with people, I create clarity and innovate as I go, creating pathways for dream fulfillment. When I build programs, I create from a place of solving problems and accessibility, which is an act of deep love. When I speak and teach, I lead with love and create possibility through understanding and opening up new ideas. Even as I retired, created my dream business, created The Six Habits framework, and moved to my dream island - it was all centered in the act of creation (breathing life into new possibilities), and love (for life, for others, for nature). 

My purpose evolves as life changes and I grow as a person. My purpose in this chapter of life is to serve others from a place of leadership and love. I light the path I’ve already traveled as an average person so that others can see that it’s not only possible, but possible for THEM. I show people the specific steps and hold their hand either personally or through my products and give people the lives they always dreamed of. I have a tremendous passion for this work and I’m constantly thinking about the people I’m serving. I never punch out fully - this is my calling and I am devoted to the point of borderline obsession with facilitating joy and abundance and others. It’s a natural by-product of my own joy and abundance.  

What is your joy blueprint? What lights you up, brings you joy, and makes you feel the most alive?

Joy is my JAM!! It’s the very center of what I do, and is the heart of my “why.”  My blueprint for joy is the habitual work I teach about in my writing. I am my first customer and a living breathing testament for The Six Habits framework. 

Joy is found when you transform your relationship with yourself through the abolition of harmful habits and the introduction of constructive, life-giving ones. I focus on six critical habits in my work, and they have breathed tremendous joy into the lungs of my once-miserable existence. You really need to transform your relationship with yourself if you’re going to find true joy. Buying the fancy handbags, the expensive cars, the swanky houses, the trips, etc - they’re all bandages over wounds. My work and my own experience as a wounded human have proven this over and over and over. When you heal the wounds, joy begins to materialize everywhere in the pure, healthy, grounded ways that we as humans were designed to experience. 

What gives me joy is the little stuff. I’ve done the right work on myself to be able to appreciate the little stuff again, the way I did when I was a kid. I’ve fallen back in love with life and I am unapologetically myself. When I spend time in nature, I am my most fulfilled. Particularly when I get to share those moments with my loved ones. I create art, I write, I give, I share... all of it is joy and love.  

How do you live intentionally? Are there tools/resources/practices that you rely on to help you stay mindful and grounded?

Living intentionally has been a major focus of my energetic work for the last few years. I was painfully aware of the hamster wheel and my own complicit involvement in manufacturing a life that felt like I was checking the boxes, but not creating meaning. It’s a huge part of what I center my thoughts around. One of my favorites in The Six Habits is Presence. It’s my favorite because I am still working on it daily and with so much emphasis. My practice of staying in the moment is an ironic one: I schedule presence into my calendar and plan into the future for my success in moments where I know I’ll be invited to be present. If I know I have a dinner date with my husband, I’ll leave my phone in the car so I can immerse myself in his attention. If I have a chat with my Mom on the phone, I’ll walk on the beach so I won’t attempt to multitask. If I’m going to do something hard that I don’t like to do, I will set a timer on my phone and plug it in across the house and won’t allow myself to look at it until the timer goes off. If I’m going to be with a friend and know I’ll be stressing about something happening after, I’ll coach myself through it and set an appointment to mentally address the thing I’m stressed about. And so on! Sticky notes, reminders on my phone, asking others for accountability, etc. However I can create a win - I’m going to. 

What would your younger self think about what you're doing now?

My younger (let’s say 27-year-old) self was a wounded, insecure and angry rebel, honestly. She’d be feeling lots of things with regard to what I’m doing now. She’d be stoked that I’m retired so young and successful, living on an island with a good man, and really surprised that I’m focusing on joy and so many warm-and-fuzzy ideas. I’m not sure she’d believe it actually (I used to be a pretty negative and cynical lady). I’m pretty sure my younger self would be shocked more than anything for the most part, but if she allowed herself to be vulnerable long enough, she’d probably cry tears of joy knowing what lay ahead for her and that little old Laura could actually be joyful and would live in joyful service and love to others and that all the crap she endured served a valuable purpose and shaped her to be the woman that could do all this. We’d have a moment for sure. 

Do you have a go-to mantra or affirmation?

I’ve got a few life mantras, but the most powerful has always been: “I’ve got this.” Followed by a big deep breath and then diving into the big scary thing I’m dreading. 

What is your biggest dream?

My biggest dream is to be #1 on the NYT Bestseller List. It may take me a decade, but I love a challenge and I’m fully capable and qualified. I’ve got this. 

To learn more about Laura and her work visit her website www.lauradibenedetto.com and on Facebook @lauraldibenedetto and you can find her Facebook group here and on Instagram @lauraldibenedetto on YouTube here and on LinkedIn here

Joy Corner is an interview-style blog series brought to you by Seek The Joy Podcast. Our mission continues to be a desire to share your stories, truths, joys and inspiration in your words. We invite you to join our corner, and share your joys, passions, and moments of inspiration as we continue to seek the joy, together. Join this series here