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The Terri Cole Show

757 How She Grew a Gut Health Empire with Lifeway's Julie Smolyansky

The Terri Cole Show

Terri Cole

Relationships, Society & Culture, Health & Fitness, Mental Health

4.91.5K Ratings

🗓️ 6 September 2025

⏱️ 48 minutes

🧾️ Download transcript

Summary

In this inspiring conversation, Julie Smolansky, CEO of Lifeway, shares her journey of resilience, healing, and leadership. From escaping the Soviet Union with her family to unexpectedly becoming a CEO at 27 after her father's sudden passing, Julie opens up about overcoming trauma, sexism, and self-doubt while building a successful business rooted in the mind-gut connection.

She also reveals her passion for advocacy—producing The Hunting Ground to raise awareness about unreported crimes on campus, co-founding Test400k to fight for justice, and navigating the painful boundaries of addiction within her own family. This interview is a powerful reminder that growth, empowerment, and mental health are possible when we honor our truth and lead with courage.

Read the show notes for today's episode at terricole.com/757

Transcript

Click on a timestamp to play from that location

0:00.0

Well, hello there and welcome to this episode of the Terry Cole show. It is a very special episode.

0:05.9

And it's a little bit longer than it usually is because this conversation was so juicy that we did not want to stop.

0:13.5

I am interviewing, someone who I've known actually through a mutual friend for a bunch of years.

0:18.9

She's a Lifeway president and CEO, Julius Smolanski.

0:23.2

So we just talk about her amazing career

0:26.9

and how at 27, she became the very youngest female CEO

0:33.0

of a publicly traded company.

0:35.8

And all along the way, what she needed to do to sort of, you know,

0:40.7

having some sharp elbows in this male dominated world. And they've done a, in the past five years,

0:47.2

they've doubled their growth in the past five years. And now they're not just in the U.S.

0:52.9

They're in Mexico, Ireland, France, South Africa, you know, all over the place. And it's not just that. What really

1:00.6

inspires me about Julie is the amount of philanthropic work that she does to empower women

1:07.6

around safety around, you know, she, she was, um, a rape survivor.

1:14.7

And basically that drove her philanthropic work doing a bunch of documentaries,

1:19.9

getting 400,000 untested rape kits, uh, tested in the U.S.

1:25.2

So many good things while she's running this massive company.

1:29.8

So I hope that you are as inspired by Julie as I am and that you enjoy this interview.

1:50.8

This is the Terry Cole show, and as you might have guessed, I'm your host, Terry Cole.

1:55.6

For over two decades, I've been a licensed psychotherapist, love and boundaries expert,

1:59.8

and I'm also the founder of the Real Love Revolution and Boundary Boot Camp.

2:01.9

On this show, I'll bring you simple strategies based on practical psychology, inspiring expert interviews, and my own insights and observations

2:08.5

from my time on the front lines in the fascinating world of entertainment, empowerment, and mental

...

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