Show Notes
“It’s okay to not be okay. It’s just not okay to stay that way.” — 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 this 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.
Hosted on Acast. See acast.com/privacy for more information.
More from The Storytelling Lab
"You've got to manage both sides. You're the captain of the ship. You let the playful side talk and then you get it organized and manage it. People are dominant on one side or the other, and either side can be very bad if you go to the extreme." — Kim Krizan
"Advertising is the loudest, most publicly visible, and highest-stakes storytelling that your brand will do. And one misaligned ad can destroy and erode years of trust that you have built." — Rain Bennett
"Storytelling is local. But we are a global brand, so we do need consistency — and enough flexibility that everything can be used at a local level, because what resonates in China is not the same thing that resonates in Kenya." — Sydnye White
"You do the story that you want to do because you believe in it and it will find an audience. You have to be passionate about something and not try and hop off what's already out there. You have to absolutely 1000% have a vision." — Leslie Zemeckis
"The best of the writers know structures are important. And then they forget that they've been intuitively following a structure and tell the world you don't need structure. The rest of the people think they don't need structure and realize by the hundredth page they don't know what the story is going to be." —Anubhav Srivastava