MEL ROBBINS WILL MAKE YOU DO IT

HOW THE PODCASTER AND AUTHOR ROSE TO THE TOP BY STATING THE OBVIOUS

- BELINDA LUSCOMBE

SEVEN MINUTES OF CHITCHAT AND ONE REAL QUESTION into an interview, Mel Robbins begins to cry. Her eyes brim with tears behind her signature glasses; her confident voice gets squeaky. Here’s the question: How would you describe what you do? Not exactly a hardball, especially for Robbins, who has an everything-must-go approach to self- disclosure. This is a woman who on her wildly popular podcast described the appearance of her aging breasts as “dirty gym socks,” and has also given listeners a letter-and-verse account of her urinary incontinence. A job description should be a light lift.

Then again, Robbins, 56, has had so many incarnations, perhaps it’s complicated to sum up for a stranger who she now is. She has been a public defender, a life coach, a syndicated talk-radio host, a CNN legal analyst, an entrepreneur, a motivational speaker, a self-help author, a daytime talk-show host, and now a luminary of the podcast world and mini media tycoon. She has also, famously, been $800,000 in debt. Her high moments have been giddying and her lows desperate.

Robbins’ style, trained as she is for radio, where silence is referred to as “dead air,” is to keep talking until she figures out what she wants to say. She tries to describe what she does in several different ways. “I think a lot about the magic of taking a walk with a friend,” she says, as she chokes up. “When you take a walk with a friend, you feel better.” Switching to business terms, she explains how she’s trying to transform that friend- feeling into content: “I’ve built a production and media company that focuses on the human experience.” As she regains her composure, she adds, “I am on a mission to find as many stories and pieces of science and research and tools that a person can use to make their life a little better.”