Mel Robbins

Melanie Lee Robbins (née Schneeberger; born October 6, 1968) is an American author, podcast host, and former lawyer. She is known for her TEDxSF talk, "How to Stop Screwing Yourself Over", and for her books The Let Them Theory, The 5 Second Rule, and The High 5 Habit. Since 2022, she has hosted The Mel Robbins Podcast.
Melanie Lee Schneeberger was born on October 6, 1968, in Kansas City, Missouri, and grew up in North Muskegon, Michigan. She graduated from Dartmouth College with a Bachelor of Arts degree and earned a J.D. from Boston College Law School in 1994.
Robbins describes "start[ing] her career as a criminal defense attorney" and in 1996 was reported to be "a lawyer for the Legal Aid Society in New York"; these appointments were prior to joining CNN as a legal analyst. Robbins is known for covering the George Zimmerman trial for CNN.
In 2011, Robbins published her debut book, Stop Saying You're Fine: Discover a More Powerful You.
In June 2011, she spoke at aTEDx event in San Francisco about a self-help technique she termed "the five second rule". As of December 2024, the video had been viewed more than 33 millions times at YouTube. On February 28, 2017, Robbins released her second book, The 5 Second Rule: Transform Your Life, Work, and Confidence with Everyday Courage. The book ranked as the top non-fiction book on Audible, and was the sixth most-purchased book on Amazon in 2017. The editors of Forbes have noted that it "remains the most successful self-published audiobook by total downloads", and with Robbins' The High 5 Habit, had been published in 41 languages.
She founded 143 Studios, a "company that produces audiobooks for Audible and professional development education for corporate clients". She hosted The Mel Robbins Show on Cox Media Group for one season, beginning in fall 2019, and A&E's Monster In-Laws in October 2011.
Robbins' syndicated daytime talk show, The Mel Robbins Show on Sony Pictures Television, premiered on September 16, 2019, and ran for a single season. She began hosting the podcast, The Mel Robbins Podcast, in 2022. On October 23, 2024, SiriusXM renewed Robbins' contract with the intention of continuing The Mel Robbins Podcast, as well as allowing Robbins to release a second show, which would premiere in early 2025. In March 2025, The Mel Robbins Podcast won Best Overall Host at the iHeartRadio podcast awards.
In 2014, Robbins received the Gracie Award for "Outstanding Host – News/Non-Fiction".
In a review of her participation in very early broadcast work, Neil Genzlinger of The New York Times wrote critically that her "expertise" in her 2011 appearance as a relationship expert in A&E's Monster In-Laws was "open to debate", noting that Robbins "considers duct tape a tool of the trade" and that "anyone who has experienced serious in-law clashes is going to be highly skeptical of the détente she finally arranges". Writing in 2020, The Hollywood Reporter's Rick Porter noted that The Mel Robbins Show was launched:
Noting that in a given week, it drew 615,000 daily viewers, less than half the average of other comparable new programs. As a consequence, Sony announced its cancellation in January 2020. Belinda Luscombe stated at Time that since the launch of Robbins' latest audiovisual efforts, The Mel Robbins Podcast, in 2022:
Up from a 2 million counts that had been reported earlier.
She won the 2022 Webbys' "People's Choice Award" for The Mel Robbins Podcast. In 2023, Forbes named Robbins "50 Over 50" Lifestyle Category.
Relatedly, as of November 2024, Apple has announced that the podcast was the 7th-most shared of Apple Podcasts' programs in the US for the year. As of December 2024, Forbes's profile on Robbins noted the figures for the podcast's first 8-months had reached "listeners in 194 countries and an average of 1.5 millions weekly downloads". More generally, Luscombe noted that as of October 2024, Robbins had "6.5 million followers on Instagram; 2 million on TikTok; 2.5 million on Facebook; and six audiobooks that had hit No. 1 on Audible".
Her 2024 book The Let Them Theory suggested letting go of concern about being ghosted, gossiped about, or excluded from social gatherings. Robbins responded to the claim that the book's idea is "so obvious it's laughable" by saying "Yeah, it is a cheap trick - and it works".
On August 24, 1996, Robbins married Christopher Robbins, a business executive, restaurateur and founder of the marketing company Hickory Group. The couple has three children. They have lived in Manhattan, Sherborn, Massachusetts, and are listed in Robbins' Forbes Profile as residing in southern Vermont.
Robbins has publicly disclosed that she was diagnosed with ADHD, anxiety, and dyslexia as an adult.