Inspiring Story of 2 CEO's Growing Through Strength & Friendship

Two women who were drawn to one another, learn how the power of friendship can make miracles happen. When one’s husband is fighting for his life, it is her strength that pulls him through with support of those closest to her. Those women just happen to be two leading women in Chicago. Here’s their story you haven’t heard before.

The power of friendship is real. We have all read reports about people with strong healthy relationships living longer. They withstand hardships more easily and are more likely to survive illnesses. There is an interconnectedness between us all—it is vital to humanity and the quality of our lives. Never before have we heard a story quite as powerful as the one Curated Chicago heard as we sat down with Katrina Markoff and Julie Smolyansky.

You may know their names. Their stories have been told many times before. They are very accomplished women. Julie is the CEO of Lifeway Foods, a kefir-based health food company that she took over at the age 27 after the untimely death of her father. She also has championed women through founding a non-profit and producing documentaries on issues such as rape. Katrina Markoff is the founder and CEO of Vosges Haut Chocolat—the luxury confectionery with retail locations around the city and in O’Hare, not to mention a thriving online business. She has built an empire from her love of chocolate and daring flavor combinations.

What you don’t know about these two women is their friendship and the power of it. As Julie was taking the reins of her company, she had read about Katrina. She was another woman coming up in the food industry
in Chicago, she was about the same age, and she defying the odds. Julie had been told by investors to sell her company and bow out—she was too young to run the company (and possibly too female). Katrina had been told she couldn’t possibly sell never-heard-before-flavor-combination choco- lates for four times what other companies were—it was a pipe dream, they said. Time would tell and prove the naysayers wrong. Today, they are both heading up international businesses from Chicago that have not only de- fied expectations but changed their industries forever. But let’s get back to how Julie was drawn to Katrina through newspaper articles because once they met a friendship was sparked immediately.

Through the years they have been through life events together like any friends do... they got married, they had their children, they celebrated with one another, had super bowl parties together, they had girls’ nights out, and experimented in the kitchen together—can you say chocolate-covered grasshoppers! Until one day in early 2019, something happened that would changes their lives forever.

Katrina had been on vacation with her two young children when she got a phone call—the kind of phone call you never want to get. Back in Chicago, her husband was unexpectedly very sick, at Northwestern, and likely would not make it through the night. Katrina rushed home to be by his side. When she got there, the doctors told her that the odds of his survival were literally zero. No one had ever, as far as they knew, been able to recover from the infection he had contracted and the damage that had been done. They told her to prepare for the end. However, she would not take this as fact.

Her determination and as she puts it “her defiance”, which served her well so far (remember she was told she couldn’t possibly have a chocolate company do what she had envisioned). She did not take the doctors words for truth. For her, it was the opposite, there was no way he wasn’t going to pull through.

Over the course the next following days and weeks... her husband stabi- lized, but was in a coma. Hundreds of people rallied around Katrina, her family, and her husband’s bedside. Family, friends, and people from around the world came. Katrina did everything she could to bring healing to her husband. She insisted the hospital get certain drugs and treatment for her him, albeit unconventional. She had energy healers visit and put crystals around the room. People came and sang to him. There were vigils at his bedside around the clock. He was never alone. They surrounded him with so much love and energy so that he wouldn’t slip away. And he didn’t.

The one person that was there day-in-and day-out was Julie. She was there for Katrina, believing in her defiance, supporting her, and doing all she could to make sure Katrina’s husband would survive. Katrina says she couldn’t have done it without Julie, and being there through it all was the only thing Julie knew to do. It is times of great adversity that you know who your friends are. There is no doubt that this life-changing time bonded these women together far beyond the strength of their relationship.

Katrina’s husband did, in fact, pull through. He recalls Julie and the other visitors being there with him when he was in his coma in psychedelic form. At the time he knew they were there with him and he remembers it vividly today. He is still recovering, but there is no doubt that his wife’s determination and love, with the support she had from everyone around, especially Julie, is the reason he defied the odds.

Katrina’s husband’s recovery is far from over. It will be a life-long challenge, but one that has been met with so much optimism, hope, and joy that it is contagious. His story will certainly be told, but for now we have the story of his wife and how she made a miracle happen. And she couldn’t have done without her steely determination and support from others, especially Julie.

As Katrina and Julie told us the story, one things was apparent. These women were sisters. There is a saying, that you have the family you were born into and then family you chose. Or in their case, the family you were drawn to. These women are inexplicably tied together through their life experiences and the sheer energy they create when they are together. They light up a room, they draw you in, they make you believe that anything is possible when you have your best friend by your side. And they made the impossible happen.

OPPOSITE PAGE:
Katrina Markoff and Julie Smolyansky shot on location
at Beatnik in West Town
by photographer, Heather Talbert.

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