Today we’d like to introduce you to Arianna Coltellacci.
Hi Arianna, thanks for joining us today. We’d love for you to start by introducing yourself.
My story begins in Caracas, Venezuela, in a home where my father, Sergio Coltellacci, would race my three siblings and me at the children’s plaza every weekend. Whoever won running a race got a planner as a prize, and I almost always won, because he warned us that whoever he caught with his foot would get a little kick in the behind. That was my dad. Joyful, optimistic, hardworking, and somehow already teaching us about daily goals, about going for it, about life. He is the author of 11 published books on positive mental attitude, sales, leadership, and wisdom, and today he is my partner in this endeavor.
I came to Miami at 28, after my first divorce, with almost nothing but my portfolio and a feeling that God was opening a door. He was. I have had the joy of building a happy acting career here in Miami for more than two decades… SAG-AFTRA, novelas, commercials, comedy. Miami became my home and my stage.
But life has its way of redirecting you. I went through two marriages that did not end the way I hoped. I had a TV role taken from me. I rebuilt myself again and again, through real estate, through comedy, through timeshare sales in Orlando, San Antonio, and Las Vegas. Every reinvention taught me something I now teach others.
The biggest turning point came in a hospital bed in Las Vegas. After a surgery, I almost died. I was alone in that room and I saw a cross on the wall. I prayed, I asked God for one more chance, and something inside me clicked. I was no longer going to spend my life building someone else’s dream. I was going to expand my father’s legacy and step into the work I was born for.
When I came home, I studied with the best. I earned my Robbins-Madanes Life coach certification completing the Training that Cloe Madanes and Tony Robbins created, took me a full year and half of great learning and hard study. I started turning my father’s 11 books into live workshops, one by one. I launched the very first one right here in Los Angeles based on his book “Awaken your Greatness” and watching people walk in carrying weight on their shoulders and walk out lighter, ready to believe in themselves again, was confirmation that I had found my mission.
Today I am an actress, a certified life coach, a motivational speaker, a licensed realtor in Florida and California, and the host of my upcoming podcast, “Way Better Off with Arianna Coltellacci.” But underneath all of it, my purpose is simple. To honor my parents, to expand my father’s legacy, and to awaken greatness in every person I cross path with.
Alright, so let’s dig a little deeper into the story – has it been an easy path overall and if not, what were the challenges you’ve had to overcome?
No, the road has not been smooth. And honestly… I am grateful for it.
When I came to the United States from Venezuela, I arrived with my basic English, my faith, and a heart that was already learning how to start over. I earned my real estate license first in Florida, and later in California, which took me a full year because of the language. And even today, although I speak three languages, I still feel like I am learning English. That little victory taught me, “if you can do this, you can do anything.” But the bigger lessons came from the harder roads.
I gave my career for love, and I lost it. I had built a place for myself in the world of novelas like a little ant, slowly and patiently, from the moment I arrived in the US without knowing a single soul, all on my own talent. And the man I had crossed an ocean from Venezuela, used his industry contacts to close those doors on my acting career. What had begun as a beautiful relationship had become a slow torment. He told me how to speak, how to act, what to be. For a while, I let him. That was one of the most painful lessons of my life, but it taught me that no relationship is worth losing yourself in.
I went through two marriages that did not end the way I hoped. The second was the hardest. There was a Valentine’s Day that changed everything, because when respect is lost, love breaks forever. That was the moment I finally closed the chapter and started listening to what the little voice inside me had been whispering to me all along. “Something smelled like fish” this is an old Venezuelan saying, and I had known from the very beginning that something was off with my ex husband. He had never loved me, and I had been ignoring the obvious signs. From then on, I learned to listen to my intuition the first time, not the third.
I have reinvented myself more times than I can count. Comedy in Orlando, real estate, timeshare sales across three different cities, and then a hospital bed in Las Vegas that almost ended it all. Every time life knocked me down, I got back on my feet with a blank canvas. Life turns you into a Da Vinci, capable of creating a masterpiece from nothing, with only a blank canvas and the willingness to grow and follow your path.
And today, while I am building this beautiful new chapter with the workshops, the podcast, and my motivational speaking, my parents are in their golden years. My mami is 91, a beautiful princess, because at this stage of life our parents become our children. My papi is 83. They have been together for 57 years, and he is her right hand, her cane, and her protective mantle. That is why I get up every morning at 5 AM, because the mission feels urgent. Honoring my parents while they are still here is part of why I do everything I do.
The struggles were never the obstacle… they were my teachers. Now i have the best partner next to me.
Thanks – so what else should our readers know about your work and what you’re currently focused on?
I wear several hats… and I love every one of them. I am an actress, a SAG-AFTRA professional with more than two decades of work here in Miami in novelas, commercials, and comedy. I am a certified life coach trained by Robbins-Madanes . I am a motivational speaker, the host of my podcast “Way Better Off with Arianna Coltellacci,” and a licensed realtor in both Florida and California. But underneath every one of those titles, my real work is the same. I awaken greatness in people, in three languages, through every creative form I have at my disposal.
What I specialize in is bridging worlds. Latin warmth with American technique. Spiritual depth with practical tools. The philosophical wisdom of my father’s library with the most current coaching framework in the world today. I deliver everything I do in Spanish, English, and Italian, which means I can sit in front of nearly a billion people in their own language and tell them, “you are capable of more than you think, and here is the tool to prove it.”
What I am known for is my signature message and live experience, “Awaken Your Greatness / Despierta Tu Grandeza.” It is the title of one of my father Sergio Coltellacci’s books, the name of my workshop series, and the heartbeat of everything I do. I launched the very first workshop this May right here in Miami, and watching grown men and women walk in carrying years of weight on their shoulders and walk out lighter, ready to act, ready to believe in themselves again, was the confirmation I needed that this is the work God called me to do. Each of my father’s 11 published books will become its own live workshop, in three languages, accessible to the world.
What I am most proud of is not on a resume. It is that I get to honor my parents while they are still here. My father, at 83, is alive to see his books transformed into workshops, into a podcast, into a movement that will live longer than any of us. My mother, at 91, is being cared for by the man who has loved her for 57 years. And I get to be the daughter who built this beautiful chapter so that everything they poured into me comes back to them now. That is the legacy I am proud of.
What sets me apart, honestly, is that I lived everything I now teach. I am not a coach who studied transformation in a classroom. I am a woman who survived two difficult marriages, a stolen career, a near-death in a hospital bed in Las Vegas, an immigration, and a country I had to leave behind. I healed those wounds before I ever stood in front of a room. And when I speak, when I write, when I act, when I coach, you hear it. The scars are not what I hide… they are my credentials.
We’d be interested to hear your thoughts on luck and what role, if any, you feel it’s played for you?
Honestly… I don’t really believe in luck. I believe in timing. I believe that life has its own choreography, and the longer I have lived, the more I have seen that every door that opened for me, every door that closed, every person who walked into my life at exactly the right moment, and every person who walked out at exactly the right moment, was part of something much bigger than coincidence.
The world might call it lucky that I landed in Miami at 28, with my papers approved exactly when the political crisis in Venezuela was forcing everyone I knew to try to leave the country. The world might call it lucky that I met Joe on a Coors Light campaign back in 2005, lost touch, found him again, lost touch again, and twenty years later we both ended up single and available in the same city at the same time. The world might call it lucky that I survived a surgery in Las Vegas that almost ended my life. I do not call any of it luck. I call it the choreography of a life that knew where I was going before I did.
What looked like bad luck always turned into a gift later. The novela that was taken from me made room for the years in comedy, real estate, and timeshare, where I learned how to read a room, hold attention, handle objections, and close with my heart, not just my words. The marriages that did not end the way I hoped taught me to listen to my intuition the first time, and they prepared me to arrive whole to the man I am with now. The hospital bed where I almost died is what woke me up to the mission I am living today.
If anything, the only “luck” I have ever known is the privilege of being born to Sergio and Gladys Coltellacci. Being raised at a dinner table where my father quoted philosophers, and my mother ran our home with love and dedication. Growing up in a house full of optimism, discipline, and warmth. That is the only roll of the dice that was completely out of my hands… and I will spend the rest of my life being grateful for it.
So no, I do not believe in luck. I believe there is a script being written, and our only real job is to stay awake long enough to recognize where it is taking us.
Pricing:
- Podcast “Way Better Off with Arianna Coltellacci” — free on Spotify, Apple Podcasts, and YouTube
- Sergio Coltellacci’s library of 11 published books — available on Amazon in Spanish, English, and Italian
- Live workshop “Awaken Your Greatness / Despierta Tu Grandeza” — by registration
- One-on-one Robbins-Madanes-trained life coaching — by application
- Keynote speaking and corporate workshops — booking by inquiry
Contact Info:
- Instagram: https://www.instagram.com/ariannacoltellacci/
- Facebook: https://www.facebook.com/AriannaColtellacciArtist
- LinkedIn: https://www.linkedin.com/in/ariannacoltellacci/
- Twitter: https://x.com/arycoltellacci
- Youtube: https://www.youtube.com/@AriannaColtellacci
- Other: https://www.tiktok.com/@ariannacoltellacc
