Advertise on podcast: Failing Forward With Nikou Lohse Podcast

In this episode, Nikou talks to power couple Angela and Shawn Blymiller who create content sharing their health journey as well as the challenges of raising an autistic child. To view Gut-Brain axis video go to https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=BcRZxd1WJ_A

In this episode, Nikou talks to Dr Wendie Trubow who has been through a healing journey physically, mentally, emotionally, spiritually, and in business. They discuss how she’s got to where she is today – personally and professionally – as well as the incredible things she’s had to go through to get here.

In this episode, Nikou introduces season 3 of the podcast by talking to former NFL players Reggie Walker and David Carter about failing forward and how to find your best self through trials, tribulations and adversity.

In this episode, Nikou shares her show with The Cosmic Love Antenna podcast, hosted by Harrison Maegher. Their conversation about love and energy reflects the mission statements of both podcasts, hence the simulcast.

In this episode, Nikou talks to Credit Ninja about Financial Literacy and Digestive Enzymes

In this episode, Nikou speaks to Dr Janie Lacy, a master in her field of working with women with adolescents, marriages and families overcome trauma, anger, conflict resolution and helping them find joy and a place of unity. They talk about her journey to where she is today as well as giving tips on how you can have better quality relationships, better communication and how to manage toxic emotions like anger.

In this episode, Nikou speaks to one of her life mentors, David Meltzer, whose sports agency (Leigh Steinberg Sports & Entertainment) inspired the film Jerry Maguire. He is now co-founder of Sports 1 Marketing which tried to recruit Nikou when she was doing B2B and B2C marketing a few years ago. The pair talk about David’s goal to empower one billion people to encourage each other to be happy.

In this episode Nikou speaks to Bobby Del Rio who works in the TV and film industry. He became super famous in his native Canada recently when he secured a deal with a Hollywood producer through Clubhouse. The conversation starts off about Bobby’s career but he soon turns the tables on Nikou and proposes an opportunity for her.

In this episode, Nikou speaks to Melani Ismail who – like Nikou – is the wife of an athlete, so shares some of the same experiences of being associated with her husband first in most people’s minds. Nikou invites Melani on to the show to tell us who she is, how she lived before meeting her husband, while her husband was playing and now he’s retired, how she has come into herself.   KEY TAKEAWAYS I was a very good barber in LA, which got me into the entertainment world, especially the music space. I wanted to get into A&R and worked alongside P Diddy. I met my husband after 5 years of grinding in the business when I met my husband. I was 23 years old and within 8 months we were married. It was the most shocking PTSD moment in my life. Neither of us was really ready for something so big. Within a year, I was pregnant and the Raiders moved location, so it was just me and my son. Then, 3 months after that, he got traded to Carolina which was a major move away from family and friends. 3 years later we moved again when he joined the Cowboys. I was about to have our third baby. The football playing days were just one constant blur of moving while having babies every 20 months. At 32 years old, a year before his contract was coming to and end, he broke his neck on the field and was paralysed. It was rough. He did regain use of his limbs, but it had aftereffects. I started a record label in Texas, but my timing was terrible because we were supposed to release an album with him on it the week he broke his neck. I felt responsible for my employees’ wellbeing, but we needed to focus on his recovery. I wasn’t always there for my kids when I was trying to rebuild the record label, I was happy building my business but miserable because I was missing my kids growing up, or tucking them in. All my kids are incredible entrepreneurs, they watched what I was doing all those years. Then, when I was just about to release our second album my Dad died. That was God’s way of saying “you’re not listening to yourself right now, you’re concerned about everybody else, but you’re suffering”. Nobody likes to feel invisible, no matter who you’re married to. We all want validation, to be seen and respected. I feel the pain and trauma now more than I did back then, because I had to just keep going. I pray tat if any woman goes through that that God gives you the grace to get through it and he’ll comfort you whenever you need to grieve. Guys go through a lot when they retire and all of a sudden they don’t have the camaraderie that they had when playing sport. He went into a dark, isolating space. Luckily the NFL now reaches out to retired footballers and reintroduces them as a support network. I knew that somewhere I wasn’t addressing my purpose, I wasn’t fulfilled. So, I started going to conferences (business and religious) and nothing felt good. So I fasted and shut myself away for 30 days. At the end of it I asked myself what I really want to do. I thought I want a church, but a fun church. The Fun Factory is faith based, but working with children to find what’s fun for them. In 2018 one of the kids in our neighbourhood shot another one. I cried for most of 2018. We lost three kids to gun crime in 2018, none of whom were really into any kind of trouble. Watching my son’s mental health spiral because of his friends dying was the impetus to start up the Fun Factory. It’s the most rewarding work I’ve ever done in my life, despite having to go through all that pain. BEST MOMENTS ‘I had a plan of what my life was going to be, but I had to put everything down to follow him and whatever he did became my life and what I did.’ ‘I look back over that time and I was in the thick of it, just surviving.’ ‘It wasn’t easy, laid back, enjoying a lot of money, it was traumatic for the both of us.’ ‘Sometimes the trials that you’re put through make you who you are.’   ABOUT THE GUEST   Melani

In this episode Nikou speaks to Joy Farley, a real estate broker who specialised in new construction out of Charlotte, North Carolina. Joy and Nikou met on Clubhouse a year ago and this podcast is a chance for them to get to know each other a little better.

In this episode Nikou speaks to Jodie Ellenor, an expert in holistically helping heal anxiety and is here to answer questions some of us have about anxiety and how to deal with it, including having a hard time during the pandemic, the end of the year and the holidays.

In this episode, Nikou speaks to actor, comedian, host and voice-over artist Eric Artell who shares his empowering story of failing forward to get where he is in life today.