Izabela Dianovsky’s experience in the real estate industry spans over three decades—doing everything from building new spec homes as a developer to managing personal investments and multiple residences as an investor—so when the time came for her to become a REALTOR®, it was not only a natural transition, but a kismet lifeline.

 

Despite Izabela’s previous successes in the industry, she had to start from ground zero as an agent. Having spent the years leading up to becoming a REALTOR® as a stay-at-home mother to her twin children and solely focused on her family, in 2013, she unexpectedly found herself as a single mother.

 

“I was defrauded and betrayed beyond imagination,” Izabela explains. “I had to step up and reinvent myself to provide for my twins.”

 

In survival mode, Izabela hit the pavement. While building her business, she also worked in the commercial renting industry, renting law offices in North Shore. Once the pandemic hit, she went full-time as an agent and has never looked back.

 

A global agent with Jameson Sotheby’s International Realty today, Izabela draws on her international upbringing to assist her clients in buying and selling luxury real estate in North Shore. 

Born in Poland, Izabela was primarily raised by her grandparents while her mother completed medical school.

 

“They were my rock,” Izabela says of her grandparents. “My grandma was a ball of energy and a huge altruist, always putting others' needs before her own. My grandpa, an engineer by trade, was always a voice of reason, a warm and steady man.”

 

Displaying artistic talent and an incredible memory for detail as a kid, Izabela points to her years studying liberal arts, as well as interior architecture at the School of the Art Institute of Chicago, as her truest, most passionate time of academic pursuit.

In real estate, Izabela has found a new passion: matching clients with the perfect property, allowing her to watch a brick structure become a home where kids are raised, memories are made, and families thrive. “It makes my heart full to make that happen for my clients,” Izabela shares.

 

Looking into the future, Izabela imagines a life filled with many happy clients who keep in touch, giving her the chance to see them grow their families in their dream homes. With plans to operate in both Illinois and Florida, she looks forward to experiencing the snowbird lifestyle and helping clients in diverse markets.

 

While her kids, Ben and Maia, are now in college, she is still driven to give her best and succeed for them. “One glimpse at my kids’ photo will get me going every time,” she emphasizes. “The most rewarding part of my business, besides my clients’ happiness, is, hands-down, showing my twins that everything is possible with the right mindset, hard work, and self-discipline.”

 

In her personal life, Izabela enjoys spending quality time with her children. She shares a passion for healthy cooking with her daughter, Maia, and loves exploring local Ramen noodle spots with her son, Ben. Her hobbies include reading historical novels, meditating, and enjoying the company of her Siberian cat, Amber. She’s also been writing a nonfiction book during the long, Midwest winters, and is hoping it will come to fruition soon.

 

Nowadays, much of Izabela’s creative time is spent in the culinary arts. She loves cooking for people and coming up with creative twists on favorite recipes. “The kitchen is my ‘Zen zone,’ where I can relax and create healthy dishes,” she says. “I have my culinary gurus, but I always like to twist their recipes into my own creations.”

 

Izabela also enjoys using her skills in the kitchen to give back to the community. Every year, she and a group of friends make hundreds of individual Thanksgiving meals that they deliver to the homeless. She also partners with her mother every year to make warm hats and scarves for the homeless for wintertime. “I buy enormous amounts of wool, and my mom knits away all summer,” she says.

 

For Izabela, success is about having peace at heart, knowing your worth, and loving your life while having the ability to be appreciative of the ups and downs and knowing how to turn both into valuable lessons. Looking back at her own life, she is grateful for everything she went through and wouldn’t change it.

 

“My past experiences changed my perspective, made me resilient, stronger, and humble. I am grateful and have the ability now to see beauty in everything and everyone. Like this quote attributed to Oliver Wendell Holmes, Jr., says, ‘A mind that is stretched by a new experience can never go back to its old dimensions,’ I know now that once we are content with ourselves, everything else falls into place exactly as it should.”