My Rejection Story

What happens when you're known for helping people feel seen—but suddenly, you're the one being misunderstood?

In this episode, therapist and bestselling author Whitney Goodman joins Alice to talk about the emotional labor of being visible online, the backlash that followed her viral posts, and how she’s built resilience without losing authenticity. But this conversation goes far beyond internet culture.

They unpack the hidden costs of toxic positivity, how emotional suppression shows up in our daily lives, what denial really feels like inside a family system, and why we need better tools for handling discomfort. Whitney also shares her most personal rejection stories—from being publicly “dragged” to quietly questioning whether she could keep showing up.

Whether you're navigating rejection, burnout, visibility, or vulnerability—this episode is packed with honesty, nuance, and relief.

Resources & Links

Order Whitney’s Book

Toxic Positivity: Keeping It Real in a World Obsessed with Being Happy amazon.com/Toxic-Positivity-Keeping-World-Obsessed/dp/0593542754/

Join Whitney’s Community
Calling Home: https://www.callinghome.co

Follow Whitney Online
Instagram: https://www.instagram.com/sitwithwhit
TikTok: https://www.tiktok.com/@whitneygoodmanlmft

Chapters

00:00 The Hidden Rejection of Being Misunderstood
02:27 Why We Reach for Positivity in the Wrong Moments
06:32 “Everything Happens for a Reason” and Other Harmful Messages
12:14 Toxic Positivity as a Coping Strategy
18:52 How Emotional Suppression Becomes Exhausting
22:57 The False Comfort of Certainty
28:11 What It’s Like to Be Misunderstood by Thousands
35:50 The First Time Whitney Got Dragged Online
41:57 Her Relationship With Rejection Today
48:33 How She Keeps Showing Up Anyway

Why does sharing your story feel like standing naked in a room full of strangers?

In this solo episode, Alice reflects on the hidden vulnerability behind visibility. She shares the behind-the-scenes truth of how she promotes her own brand and books guests like Guy Winch and Neil Patel, how most great pitches begin with fear, and what to do when visibility feels like a personal attack.

From recounting a brutal rejection that left her physically sick to explaining how storytelling makes your work more compelling (but more exposing), Alice breaks down how to pitch yourself, how to emotionally survive it, and why the fear of being seen is something we all have to learn to live with.

If you’ve ever said “I know I need to put myself out there, but…”—this one is for you.

Resources Mentioned:

📄 Grab Alice’s pitch template:

https://hustlingwriters.com/template

📬 Contact Alice for consults or agency support:

[email protected] or [email protected]

https://hustlingwriters.com

Chapters:

00:00 The Six-Month Mark & What You Didn’t See Behind the Scenes
04:15 Pitching Vulnerability: Why It’s So Uncomfortable
06:35 When Clients Don’t Want to Share Their Story
08:57 Visibility That Feels Aligned
11:23 Are You Avoiding Visibility—Or Is Something Else Misaligned?
13:40 Pricing, Accessibility, and What Made Podcasting Feel Right
16:00 The Rejection Story That Gets Alice Booked on Top Podcasts
20:00 How to Hook People with a Vulnerable Story
24:40 What to Include in Your Pitch (and Where to Get the Template)
27:36 Facing Uncertainty and Rejection Head-On
30:36 The Most Brutal Rejection Alice Ever Got
32:57 Find Your Front Row—Why Community Is Everything
35:12 Rejection Challenges, Pitch Tracking, and Why It’s All Worth It

What if your fear of rejection isn’t a flaw—but a survival strategy passed down through generations?

This week’s guest is Vera Milan Gervais, a speaker, author, and success mentor who has spent her life pushing against the systems that tried to define her. From being disowned by her father at 19 to rewriting the story of a childhood medical trauma, Vera has learned how to reclaim power in the face of rejection.

In this episode, she shares the scientific and ancestral roots of rejection sensitivity, the ways women are taught to reject first before being rejected, and what it means to finally become yourself—even if you were told you were defective from the start.

If you’ve ever been called “too much,” if you’ve ever muted yourself to stay safe, if you’ve ever rejected a dream before it had the chance to reject you—this conversation will meet you there.

In This Episode, We Cover:

• Why women are wired to fear rejection—and how it ties to historical survival

• The “identity ceiling” that keeps us from becoming who we truly are

• What happened when Vera’s father called her the black sheep

• The medical trauma that became her first memory

• How we self-abandon in order to stay lovable

  Why rewriting your story might mean confronting everything you were taught

Hannah Brencher has built a career around sharing her life openly, but at what cost? In this episode, she gets brutally honest about the dark side of public vulnerability, the pressure to turn your life into content, and the raw reality of rejection.

She shares the moment she realized she was burning out from oversharing, the painful lesson of being turned into content herself, and why one friend muted her on Instagram because her life seemed too perfect.

Ever had a moment where you thought, maybe I should stop putting my life online? This episode is for you.

In This Episode, We Cover:

• The moment Hannah realized her personal storytelling was harming her mental health
• Why social media makes friendships more complicated than ever
• The fear of rejection—and why it hurts so much when you're trying to be kind
• What happens when you stop seeking external validation online
• How to be vulnerable without losing your sense of self

Links & Resources:

Read Hannah’s book The Unplugged Hours: https://www.amazon.com/Unplugged-Hours-Cultivating-Digitally-Connected/dp/0310367700
Visit Hannah’s website: https://hannahbrencher.com
Join Hannah’s newsletter: https://hannahbrencher.com/newsletter/
Follow Hannah on Instagram: https://www.instagram.com/hannahbrencher/

Chapters:

00:00 Why Hannah Stopped Turning Her Life Into Content
06:23 The Boyfriend Who Didn’t Want to Be “Content”
12:45 The Blog Post That Ended a Friendship
18:10 Rejected at the Doorstep—The Christmas Cookie Story
24:35 A Therapist Was Discussing Hannah’s Depression in Someone Else’s Therapy Session
30:52 The Friend Who Muted Her on Instagram
38:17 Why Being the “Main Character” in Your Own Story Can Be Dangerous
45:50 How to Protect Your Personal Life While Still Sharing Your Story

Don't forget to subscribe, leave a review, and tag us on Instagram with your thoughts on this episode.

In this episode of My Rejection Story, host Alice Draper speaks with therapist and author Jason VanRuler about the complexities of rejection, particularly in relationships. They discuss the importance of rewriting personal narratives, the necessity of grieving losses, and the journey towards authenticity. Jason shares his experiences with rejection and how they shaped his path to becoming a thought leader in the mental health space. The conversation emphasizes the value of community, the challenge of faulty beliefs, and the growth that comes from embracing rejection.

Takeaways:

• You can rewrite your story and make it true.
• Grieving a future is a different kind of grief.
• Growth comes from feeling and grieving loss.
• It's better to share scars than wounds.
• You need a purpose greater than yourself to take risks.
• Simplicity scales, complexity fails.
• Practice saying no to build confidence.
• Surround yourself with people who uplift you.
• Rejection can prompt personal growth.
• Authenticity is key in relationships.

For anyone listening, you can order a copy of Get Past Your Past on Amazon, here: https://a.co/d/gIGMvYQ 

I will also be giving away a copy to a listener who subscribes and reviews the podcast. You just need to email screenshots to [email protected].

To find out more about Jason VanRuler and his work, visit: https://www.jasonvr.com/ 

Follow Jason on Instagram: https://www.instagram.com/jason.vanruler/ 

Why is it so terrifying to truly try? According to writer and creative entrepreneur Jamie Varon, it’s because trying means opening yourself up to rejection. It’s easier to self-reject, to stay small, to convince yourself you didn’t really want it anyway. But what if the real risk isn’t rejection—it’s never trying at all?

In this episode, Jamie and Alice unpack the deep emotional weight of putting yourself out there. They explore why self-rejection is often the biggest hurdle, how social media tricks us into idolizing effortless success, and what happens when you stop chasing external validation and start trusting yourself instead. Jamie shares the raw reality of her own career—the disappointments, the setbacks, and the turning point when she finally decided to stop letting rejection define her.

If you’ve ever struggled with self-doubt or felt like giving up, this episode is your reminder that the only way forward is through.

Find Jamie online:

📖 Read Jamie’s Books:
📕 Radically Content: Being Satisfied in an Endlessly Dissatisfied World
https://www.amazon.com/Radically-Content-Satisfied-Endlessly-Dissatisfied/dp/B09VY6CLR6

📘 Main Character Energy
https://www.amazon.com/Main-Character-Energy-Jamie-Varon/dp/0778334201/

🌎 Jamie’s Website:
https://www.jamievaron.com

📱 Follow Jamie on Instagram:
https://www.instagram.com/jamievaron

Chapters:

00:00 The Fear of Self-Rejection
05:27 Rewriting the Narrative After Failure
12:45 Why Trying is a Vulnerable Act
18:32 The External Validation Trap
24:51 Effortless Success is a Myth—Here’s the Reality
30:16 Building a Career on Resilience, Not Luck
37:04 Radically Opting Out of Societal Conditioning
43:18 The Fork in the Road: Do You Keep Going or Let Rejection Win?

Let me know if you need any more tweaks!

💡 Why does thinness always seem to make a comeback?

Chrissy King is a writer, speaker, and the author of The Body Liberation Project. She’s spent years examining the toxic cycles of diet culture, thin privilege, and body liberation—only to watch mainstream culture backslide into the same outdated beauty standards.

In this episode, Chrissy and Alice discuss:

✔ Why thinness is “back with a vengeance” and how body liberation lost momentum
✔ The privilege of thinness—and the price Chrissy paid to maintain it
✔ The diet industry’s billion-dollar lie and why it thrives on self-rejection
✔ The emotional process of body grief & how to accept a changing body
✔ How fear of visibility and self-rejection keep us from showing up in the world
✔ Why rejection isn’t always bad—sometimes, it’s just redirection

If you’ve ever struggled with body image, diet culture, or the pressure to shrink yourself, this episode is for you.

📖 Read Her Book:The Body Liberation Project
➡ Book Link:https://www.amazon.com/Body-Liberation-Project-Understanding-Collective-ebook/dp/B0B44P3BQV

📰 Join Her Substack: Body Liberation For Real Life
➡ Substack:https://chrissyking.substack.com

🌍 Visit Her Website & Work With Her
➡ Website:https://www.chrissyking.com

📸 Follow Chrissy on Instagram & TikTok
➡ Instagram:https://www.instagram.com/iamchrissyking
➡ TikTok:https://www.tiktok.com/@iamchrissyking

00:00 Introduction – Why Thinness Is Back
03:40 How the Body Liberation Movement Lost Momentum
08:10 The Privilege of Thinness & The Price of Maintaining It
12:55 The Billion-Dollar Lie: How The Diet Industry Thrives on Rejection
18:20 Body Grief: How to Accept a Changing Body
22:37 Why We Fear Visibility & How to Overcome Self-Rejection
30:45 Rejection as Redirection: Chrissy’s Career Story
37:20 Choosing a Child-Free Life & Facing Social Expectations
45:00 Final Thoughts – How to Stop Shrinking Yourself

📩 Loved this episode?

• Share your biggest takeaway on Instagram or LinkedIn and tag me!
• Subscribe & leave a review—it really helps the show grow!

🔥 And if you’re struggling with body image, rejection, or self-doubt—know this: You are not the problem.

Connect with Chrissy King:Chapters

What happens when rejection isn’t a person telling you no—but life itself pushing back?

We talk a lot about rejection from others—failed pitches, book rejections, heartbreak. But what about the times when rejection comes in unexpected forms? When your body, mental health, or circumstances force you to hit pause, even when you desperately want to keep going?

In this solo episode, I get real about my own recent setbacks—curveballs that have thrown my 2025 goals off track. I dive into:
✔ Why our brains catastrophize setbacks and how to reframe the fear of “losing it all”
✔ How to find momentum when you’re exhausted (without pushing yourself too hard)
✔ Why rest is actually productive—and what elite athletes can teach us about taking a step back
✔ What you can control when everything feels out of control

If you’ve ever felt like life was rejecting your plans, this episode is for you.

Chapters

00:00 Introduction – When Life Says No
03:30 Why Setbacks Feel Like Rejection
08:10 The Brain Science of Catastrophizing
12:45 How to Keep Moving (Even If It’s Imperfect)
17:20 The Power of Rest & Letting Go
21:00 What You Can Control in Uncertain Times
26:00 Final Thoughts & Personal Reflection

📩 Let’s Connect:
Have you felt like life has been rejecting your plans lately? How are you keeping going? I’d love to hear from you!

💌 Email me: [email protected]
📲 DM me on Instagram or LinkedIn
📢 Tag me on social media and share your story

And if you enjoyed this episode, please subscribe & leave a review—it truly makes my day! 💛

Why does heartbreak hurt so much? According to psychologist and bestselling author Guy Winch, it’s not just emotional—it’s biological. Heartbreak hijacks your brain like an addiction, making it one of the most painful experiences a person can endure. In this episode, Guy breaks down the science of heartbreak, the biggest mistakes people make when trying to move on, and why heartbreak needs a mourning ritual—just like grief. If you’ve ever struggled to let go, this episode is for you.

Website:
https://www.guywinch.com

Guy’s TED Talks:
https://www.ted.com/speakers/guy_winch

Guy’s Books:
📕How to Fix a Broken Heart
https://www.amazon.com/dp/1501120123

📕Emotional First Aid: Healing Rejection, Guilt, Failure, and Other Everyday Hurts
https://www.amazon.com/dp/0142181072

📕The Squeaky Wheel: Complaining the Right Way to Get Results, Improve Your Relationships, and Enhance Self-Esteem
https://www.amazon.com/The-Squeaky-Wheel-Guy-Winch-Ph-D-audiobook/dp/B004INR2VU/

Listen to Guy’s PodcastDear Therapists:
https://podcasts.apple.com/us/podcast/dear-therapists-with-lori-gottlieb-and-guy-winch/id1523340696

Chapters:

00:00 Introduction to Guy Winch
03:32 Heartbreak as the Ultimate Rejection
09:45 Why Heartbreak Feels Like Drug Withdrawal
14:20 The Science Behind Rejection and Emotional Pain
19:05 The Mistakes People Make When Healing from Heartbreak
24:40 Why Social Media Stalking Makes It Worse
30:15 The Importance of a Mourning Ritual for Heartbreak
37:00 How to Stop Idealizing Your Ex
42:18 Replacement Strategies—The Healthy Way to Move On
48:30 Rebuilding Rejection Resilience and Dating Again

🎧 Listen to the full episode to learn how to heal a broken heart and move forward with resilience!

Meredith Carder is a trailblazing ADHD coach, author, and advocate who knows firsthand the challenges of navigating life with ADHD. From the weight of rejection to the struggle of masking, Meredith has been there—and now she’s helping others rewrite their stories. As the author of It All Makes Sense Now: Embrace Your ADHD Brain to Live a Creative and Colorful Life, she’s a powerful voice for adults learning to thrive with neurodivergence.

In this episode, Meredith takes us inside the ADHD brain, breaking down the emotional toll of Rejection-Sensitive Dysphoria (RSD), the burnout of perfectionism, and the dopamine-fueled trap of people-pleasing. She shares her personal experiences and actionable strategies for managing emotional dysregulation, finding authenticity, and staying motivated for the long haul.

Instagram: ⁠https://www.instagram.com/hummingbird_adhd⁠

It All Makes Sense Now: Embrace Your ADHD Brain to Live a Creative and Colorful Life
https://www.amazon.com/All-Makes-Sense-Now-Creative/dp/1401977030

Meredith’s Website:
https://www.meredithcarder.com

Meredith’s Substack:
https://meredithcarder.substack.com

00:00 Introduction to Meredith and Her ADHD Journey
06:10 Childhood Rejection and Its Long-Term Impact
12:30 Masking and the Struggle to Fit In
19:05 Understanding Rejection-Sensitive Dysphoria (RSD)
26:40 People-Pleasing and Why ADHDers Struggle to Say No
33:15 Perfectionism and the “Lazy Perfectionist” ADHD Myth
40:10 Managing Emotional Dysregulation in Rejection
46:55 Staying Committed to Long-Term Goals as an ADHDer
53:20 Rewiring the Brain Through Sharing Wins

🎧 Listen to the full episode to learn how Meredith Carder helps ADHDers navigate rejection and embrace their unique strengths!

Order Meredith’s Book:Learn More About Meredith:Follow Meredith Online:Chapters