TECH EXEC · ATHLETE · VETERAN PRESENTER & SPEAKER
Nina Sossamon-Pogue
Resilience expert and former elite athlete, broadcast journalist and executive, helping audiences thrive through change, uncertainty and constant disruption.
FEE RANGE
In Person Keynote: $15,000
Virtual Keynote: $7,500
TRAVELS FROM
Charleston, SC
FORMATS
In-Person Keynote, Virtual Keynote
About Nina
Nina Sossamon-Pogue is a highly sought-after motivational speaker, renowned for her expertise in resilience, change management, and mental wellness. With a dynamic career spanning elite athletics, broadcast journalism, and executive leadership, Nina empowers audiences $to navigate today’s unprecedented era of constant change, fueled by evolving technologies, vast data influxes, and machine learning.
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As a USA Gymnast (1982–1984), Emmy-winning television news anchor (1992–2007), and hyper-growth tech executive (2007–2019, Benefitfocus), Nina has experienced success at the highest levels in sports, media, and corporate America. She is also no stranger to life’s most challenging moments, including an injury that ended her athletic career, a very public layoff, and a tragic car accident that thrust her into the headlines and tested her mental fortitude. Through these trials, she not only rebuilt but reached even greater heights, fueling her passion for helping others do the same.
Nina is the author of two best-selling books:
This Is Not the End: Strategies to Get You Through the Worst Chapters of Your Life (2019, Morgan James Publishing), which provides a proven approach to overcoming devastating life events and reclaiming control of your future.
But I Want Both: The Working Mom’s Guide to Creating a Life She Loves (revised and updated edition releasing Fall 2023), offering actionable strategies for high-achieving parents to thrive in both work and family life.
She also hosts the podcast This Seriously Sucks: The Right Podcast When Life Goes Seriously Wrong, where she shares actionable strategies and invites successful individuals to reflect on their journeys through trauma and growth.
Recognizing the need for a clear, science-based framework to navigate life’s toughest challenges, Nina left her corporate career to research and develop tools that strengthen resilience, foster productivity, and improve workplace culture. Her unique blend of storytelling, neuroscience, and stoicism ignites audiences, equipping them with the mindset and strategies to thrive in adversity and embrace change with confidence.
Beyond the stage, Nina serves as CEO of her communications company, contributes to several non-profit boards, and passionately advocates for the Alzheimer’s Association. She was honored as a ‘Woman of Distinction’ by the state of South Carolina. Nina and her husband are proud parents of three adult children. Based in Charleston, SC, she travels the globe, inspiring people to overcome challenges, take control of their narratives, and achieve their greatest potential.
Speaking Topics
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Overview
Change isn’t the interruption of life - it’s the throughline. Careers evolve. Identities shift. Organizations move through chapters of growth, disruption, and reinvention.In this signature keynote, Nina emboldens audiences to embrace change and become the best they can be. She introduces her THIS Framework - a practical, science-based method designed to help people understand where they are in their timeline, regulate stress during uncertainty, and think more clearly about what’s next.
Audiences learn how to see their lives and careers as chapters, and recognize that today’s challenges are not setbacks, they are part of growth and becoming the next version of themselves.
The result isn’t hype or temporary motivation. It’s perspective, composure, and confidence grounded in how humans actually adapt to change.
What audiences gain:
A clear framework and new common language (THIS) for navigating change and uncertainty
A Timeline perspective that reduces fear and emotional reactivity
Science-backed tools to stay grounded under pressure
A healthier internal narrative about growth and transition
Confidence in the next chapter - personally and professionally
Ideal for
All-company events, transformation initiatives, leadership conferences, culture and wellbeing programs. -
High achievers don’t struggle because they lack ambition - they struggle because they’re trying to continuously improve during constant change without a framework for managing the pressure over time.
In this keynote, Nina applies the THIS Framework specifically to high performers and executive teams. Using timeline thinking, she shows why success is not a straight line, and she introduces her ReverseResume™ concept - that shows why trying to “hold it together” indefinitely leads to exhaustion, not excellence.
Audiences learn how stress, fear, and identity interact during periods of sustained performance, and how to adapt intentionally so success can be repeated without erosion.
This is not about slowing down. It’s about learning how to continually be productive and raise the bar.
What audiences gain
A science-based understanding of stress and adaptation in high performers
Practical tools to regulate pressure and sustain performance
Timeline-based strategies for navigating seasons of intensity
Permission to evolve without losing momentum or credibility
A long-game mindset for success in a changing world
Ideal for
Executive teams, leadership offsites, sales organizations, professional associations, high-achiever events -
Nina loves delivering this fun, powerful, closing keynote. In today’s high-pressure world, the end of a conference is a pivotal moment. Attendees leave inspired, but quickly return to overflowing inboxes, urgent decisions, waiting teams, and full personal lives. Without a clear way to apply what they’ve learned, even the best ideas fade fast.
Now What? transforms that vulnerable transition into a launchpad.
Grounded in Nina’s proven THIS Method, a practical blend of neuroscience and stoic wisdom, this keynote equips audiences with a simple, repeatable game plan to stabilize stress, regain clarity, and move from insight to action. Instead of feeling overwhelmed by what comes next, attendees leave knowing exactly how to apply what they learned in a way that lasts.
This keynote doesn’t add more pressure.
It gives people a way to move forward with intention.Attendees Leave:
Better equipped to handle post-event stress and pressure
With a clear 72-hour game plan that helps insights stick
Using a practical 4-step framework, they can return to anytime (and share with their team!)
Ready to turn momentum into confident, focused action
Why It Works for Your Event
Attendees don’t just leave inspired - they leave prepared.
By giving people a clear method to apply what they’ve learned, Now What? helps ensure your investment in the event carries forward into real decisions, real behavior change, and real impact back at the office.
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Overview
When teams move through change quickly, people lose perspective - on themselves, on one another, and on the bigger picture.This interactive workshop brings Nina’s work to life through her signature Reverse Resume™ and timeline-based exercises. Participants map their life and career chapters, identify the strengths earned through challenge, and reframe uncertainty as part of their growth trajectory.
Grounded in neuroscience and psychology, this experience gives teams shared language for stress, change, and becoming - while strengthening trust, clarity, and alignment.
This is where insight becomes practice.
What participants gain
A tangible application of the THIS Framework
Timeline clarity that reframes challenge into capability
Reverse Resume™ insights that surface earned strengths
Stress-regulation tools that support mental wellbeing
Stronger connection and alignment during change
Format
2 hours • Half-day option available
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