#8: This week, we have another amazing guest, Bre Thurston. Bre has been a friend of my husband’s, Ryan, since high school, and has now become a great friend of mine. Bre is an award winning photographer, educator, speaker, and author. She began her professional photography journey in 2010 after working five years in publishing. In 2014 she published her first book, For the Love of Weddings: A Photographers Guide to Starting a Wedding Photography Business. She has taught at several successful conferences, events and online workshops. And in 2015 she co-founded Blair + Thurston Retreats, which incorporates photography education with a vacation-like experience.

Her work has been featured in People, Vogue Brasil, Cosmopolitan, E! to name a few and several online blogs/platforms including The Huffington Post, The Knot, Style Me Pretty, and Buzzfeed. Her clients have ranged from Olympians and fitness sensations to Forbes 30 under 30 honorees and tech start-up founders.

We get into how Bre got into photography and started her business, some of the early mistakes and failures she made while starting out. We also talk about how she combats the urge to compare her business to that of her other friends who are also in photography. This is a great episode, especially if you are a solopreneur or just getting started building a business.

Connect with Bre on Instagram here (https://www.instagram.com/brethurston/) .

Learn more about her wedding photography business here (http://www.brethurston.com/) .

If you want to learn photography, check out Blair + Thurston Retreats here (http://blairandthurston.com/) .

Follow our podcast on Instagram here (https://my.captivate.fm/www.instagram.com/ftfupodcast) .

Connect with Alex, click here (https://my.captivate.fm/www.instagram.com/alexohlinger) .

For more episodes, click here (https://my.captivate.fm/www.ftfupodcast.com) .

If you have any feedback or want to be a guest, email us at [email protected].

#7: This week’s guest is my friend and business partner, Jonathan Lambert. It’s kind of hard to describe what Jonathan does in a short and concise way, but let’s just say he’s a serial entrepreneur in the tech space. He loves to build companies, but he is also great at marketing as well and has worked with companies like the NYSE, Euronext, Disney, NBC, Atari, THQ, Playboy Major League Soccer to name a few. I was really excited to get Jonathan on the show because he refers to himself a professional failure, but because he was raised by entrepreneurs and has built so many companies, he has a different perspective and relationship with failure.

This conversation goes all over the place – we start by talking about how Jonathan managed to turn one of the first businesses he built from being on the verge of shutting down to making a pivot that transformed it into a $5MM per year business. We then get into the challenges the millennial and gen Z generations have with failure as a direct result of the internet, social media and the “hustle culture.” We also talk about how most large corporations don’t encourage a culture of failure (even if they say they do) and how that affects employee morale. Finally, we end on ways we can teach kids to embrace failure instead of fearing it. Jonathan shares some great wisdom and takeaways on failure in this episode.    

Follow our podcast on Instagram here (https://my.captivate.fm/www.instagram.com/ftfupodcast) .

Connect with Alex, click here (https://my.captivate.fm/www.instagram.com/alexohlinger) .

For more episodes, click here (https://my.captivate.fm/www.ftfupodcast.com) .

If you have any feedback or want to be a guest, email us at [email protected].

#6: This week, we have an attorney on the show, Dale Schafer; however, as you’ll soon hear Dale is not like any attorney you’ve ever met. Dale has been practicing law for over thirty years and has been a specialist in cannabis law for over two decades.

Prior to legalization, Dale represented thousands of growers and medical cannabis patients. Since 2018, he has represented businesses in all parts of the supply chain as they moved from temporary to full state licenses. Today, he focuses on building businesses from the bottom up compliance, mediation and expert opinions in the California regulated cannabis industry.

We start out by talking about how Dale entered cannabis law in the late 90s when his then physician wife was diagnosed with breast cancer. Once they navigated the troubled waters of Prop 215, they opened a medical-legal cannabis consulting practice that provided legal advice and cannabis recommendations to over twelve thousand California medical cannabis patients. The expert testimony they provided resulted in dismissal of charges or acquittals of several dozen people. 

We also talk about how this consulting practice ultimately resulted in Dale and his wife getting indicted by the federal government which lead to them serving 5 years in prison. Dale is very candid about what happened, his experience in prison, the effects it had on his family and how he had to start over in 2015 when he was released. 

This is a great episode. Not only does Dale have insightful takeaways on failure, but he is incredibly candid about topics that not too many people would be willing to talk about, so I am grateful that I get to share his story with all of you.

Follow our podcast on Instagram here (https://my.captivate.fm/www.instagram.com/ftfupodcast) .

Connect with Alex, click here (https://my.captivate.fm/www.instagram.com/alexohlinger) .

For more episodes, click here (https://my.captivate.fm/www.ftfupodcast.com) .

If you have any feedback or want to be a guest, email us at [email protected].

#5: On this week's episode of the Free to F'Up podcast, we talk to Alex's friend and colleague, Mark Wallace.

Mark is 28 years old and the amount of life he’s lived and the experiences he’s had will blow your mind. In fact, there were points in the conversation, where Alex was actually left speechless! We cover quite a few topics from his competitive swim career to his time in the police force, and the incident that lead to his unfortunate termination, which has resulted in a lawsuit. He also gets into the ripple effects that this situation has had on his fiancé and personal life. We end by talking about the importance of always staying true to yourself no matter what and how he managed to pull himself out from"rock bottom" to having a thriving career at Range Marketing. Through everything Mark has experienced, he still manages to be an eternal optimist and always have a positive attitude. Mark is such an inspiring person and someone we can all learn from. This is definitely an episode you don’t want to miss.

#4: On this week's episode of the Free to F'Up podcast, we get to know Alex's hubby, Ryan Ohlinger. Ryan is an entrepreneur and 3-year business owner who built his successful car dealership, Petrol Auto Sales, from the bottom up.  

We talk about Ryan's 17-year career (and counting) in the car business, starting off in sales to moving up the ranks to a General Sales Manager position in franchise dealerships, like Toyota, Honda, and Infiniti. We also get into how the car business shaped his relationship with failure, getting demoted (yes that’s actually a common thing as a car salesman), stigmas in the car industry, and how he made the transition to starting his own dealership. Finally, we tell the story about how our respective failures caused us to meet on the other side of the world in New Zealand. It’s a great episode with insightful takeaways on failure and being ok with constant rejection.

Connect with Ryan on website (https://my.captivate.fm/www.petrolautosales.com) .

Follow our podcast on Instagram here (https://my.captivate.fm/www.instagram.com/ftfupodcast) .

Connect with Alex, click here (https://my.captivate.fm/www.instagram.com/alexohlinger) .

For more episodes, click here (https://my.captivate.fm/www.ftfupodcast.com) .

If you have any feedback or want to be a guest, email us at [email protected].

#3: On this week's episode of the Free to F'Up podcast, Alex interviews her Mom, Marla Guttman aka Super Woman (as she likes to call her). Marla is a dental hygienist, a talented interior decorator, and the strongest woman Alex knows. She also is also insanely smart and can figure out how to fix almost anything!

We dive into various topics starting with her childhood where she was raised to be a perfectionist and not make/hide her mistakes. We then move into the tough choice women make between having a career vs. raising family and end on a long discussion around advice for raising kids and being ok with making mistakes as a parent. This is another great conversation full of wisdom, especially for new parents or anyone looking to start a family in the near future.

Follow our podcast on Instagram here (https://my.captivate.fm/www.instagram.com/ftfupodcast) .

Connect with Alex, click here (https://my.captivate.fm/www.instagram.com/alexohlinger) .

For more episodes, click here (https://my.captivate.fm/www.ftfupodcast.com) .

If you have any feedback or want to be a guest, email us at [email protected].

#2 On this week's show, I talk with one of the first people I met in Sacramento, Shannon Sophia. Shannon is the fun and sassy queen of Body Sugaring (don't worry, if you don't know what it is, she explains it.) She's an entrepreneur, speaker, esthetician, mom and the host of the Sugar Show Podcast. She also owns her own skincare studio in Sacramento called SugarMamas, and Love2Sugar.com, which is a go-to resource and online course that teaches estheticians and cosmetologists how to body sugar.

We get into Shannon's career path from being in the corporate world to getting the courage to quit and go back to beauty school and start her own skincare business. Then, 2008 came and not only did she get hit hard financially, but she also went through some pretty significant personal losses as well leaving her no choice but to push forward and reinvent herself again. Her story is both entertaining and inspiring, making this an episode you won't want to miss.

Connect with Shannon on Love2Sugar.com (www.love2sugar.com) .

Follow our podcast on Instagram here (www.instagram.com/ftfupodcast) .

Connect with Alex, click here (www.instagram.com/alexohlinger) .

For more episodes, click here (www.ftfupodcast.com) .

If you have any feedback or want to be a guest, email us at [email protected].

#1: It's our very first episode of Free to F'Up, a show focused on changing the conversation and sentiment around failure! Each week we will have raw and real conversations with everyday people who share their stores, struggles and advance on how to embrace failure as a positive force in life.

Host Alex Ohlinger talks about how she got the idea for the show and why she started the podcast. Her very first guest is her father, Ken Guttman. Ken is a psychologist, college professor, and eternal optimist. We get into his unique point-of-view on dealing with failure both from his own personal experience and from a psychological perspective. It's a great conversation full of wisdom and advice and I'm grateful that I got to have it as a result of starting this podcast.

Follow our podcast on Instagram here (Www.instagram.com/ftfupodcast) .

To connect with Alex, click here (www.instagram.com/alexohlinger) .

For more episodes, click here (www.ftfupodcast.com) .

Subscribe today and listen to unfiltered, raw conversations with everyday people, experts, and business leaders about personal failures in all areas of their life. From relationships to business, family, friends, finances, growing up, breaking the law and everything in between - no topic is off limits! You will learn to embrace your own failures, fiascos, frustrations and fuck-ups in your life and use them to grow, and better yourself as a person.