How to Build Resilience and Rewrite Your Story with Nina Sossamon-Pogue

“It’s okay to not be okay. It’s just not okay to stay that way.”

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How to Build Resilience and Rewrite Your Story with Nina Sossamon-Pogue

What do you do when life knocks you flat?

Former U.S. gymnast turned Emmy-winning journalist, tech exec, and resilience coach Nina Sossamon-Pogue has fallen—and learned how to get back up more times than she can count. In this episode of The Storytelling Lab, Rain sits down with Nina to explore how we build personal resilience, reframe failure, and use storytelling to take control of our lives when everything feels out of control.

They dig into Nina’s practical “T.H.I.S.” framework, which helps people process failure, navigate identity loss, and shift the narrative they’re stuck in.

This conversation blends the science of mindset with the art of storytelling to help high achievers—and anyone in a “now what?” moment—redefine success and take back authorship of their lives. If you’ve ever felt lost in the messy middle of your story, this one’s for you.

In the episode, you will learn to:

Zoom out on your life story using Nina’s “lifetime timeline” exercise to shift from tunnel vision to long-term perspective.
Assess and strengthen your support system by identifying who’s helping and who’s hurting in your current chapter.
Isolate the moment to reduce anxiety and take meaningful action in the present, rather than spinning in regret or fear.
Reframe the stories you tell yourself to stop self-sabotaging with catastrophizing and overgeneralizing thoughts.
Move through “Now What?” moments with intention by defining your next chapter based on who you want to become—not just what’s happened to you.

It’s okay to not be okay. It’s just not okay to stay that way.”

- Nina Sossamon-Pogue

If you want to understand how to overcome obstacles, build resilience, and rewrite your current story... this is the episode for you!

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Some of the highlights of the episode:

00:00 - Why Every Story Has Struggle, and Why That’s a Good Thing

02:01 - From U.S. Gymnast to Resilience Expert

05:27 - How Athletic Mindsets Fuel Entrepreneurs and Artists

09:09 - Failure, Feedback, and High Performance in Business

12:22 - Transitioning from Gymnastics to Journalism

14:09 - Navigating Identity Loss After Major Life Shifts

18:39 - The Power of Mentors and the First “Now What” Moment

20:49 - Seeing Your Story from 30,000 Feet

23:05 - Using the Lifetime Timeline to Zoom Out on Your Life

27:03 - The “T.H.I.S.” Framework for Resilience

29:47 - It's Not Half Full or Half Empty—It’s Just 3 Ounces

33:42 - The Real Danger of Self-Sabotaging Language

37:57 - Talk to Yourself Like You’d Talk to a Child or a Friend

39:51 - Vulnerability and Growth at Different Life Stages

43:49 - High Achievers and the Trap of Excellence Exhaustion

45:42 - Speakers, Influencers, and Storytelling That Connects

49:32 - How Nina Prepares to Speak (and Why She Listens First)

52:03 - Why We Get Stuck in the Messy Middle

55:24 - Nina’s Personal “Now What” Story and the Power of the Next Page