Mel Robbins is a former television host and lawyer, as well as a best-selling author, a popular podcaster, and a highly sought after motivational speaker. She’s written countless books and has sold millions of them already, including the New York Times Best-Seller ‘The High 5 Habit’ and the ‘The 5 Second Rule’. In short, Mel Robbins knows a thing to two about success and achievement.
So what is her secret? Well, every high achiever leaves a blueprint, and more often than not, their journey leaves small clues that anyone can pick up on, if they look close enough. Every success story we publish about visionaries, success icons, and high achievers like Mel Robbins, aims to unravel and reveal some of those clues for you. So, if you’re ready to see what Mel Robbins’ success story can teach us, then let’s dive right in:
THE MEL ROBBINS SUCCESS STORY
Early Days
Mel Robbins was born in 1968 in Kansas City, Missouri to Robert and Marcia Schneeberger. She and her family eventually moved to the Midwest when she was young. She was raised in the small town of North Muskegon, which resides in West Michigan, just outside of Grand Rapids.
Her parents were college sweethearts who married young. Her mother dropped out of school her sophomore year to marry her father and raise Mel and in due time, her brother. Initially her mom would work nights for the IRS, while her father attended Medical school. Eventually, her father graduated and become a Doctor, who specialized in neuromuscular medicine.[1]
Both of her parents played a significant role in raising Mel to place a high value on having a strong work ethic, appreciating enthusiasm, and a commitment to service.
After graduating high school, Mel attended Dartmouth College in New Hampshire where she earned herself a degree in History. She then went on to attend Boston College’s Law School, where she eventually graduated with a professional degree in law in 1994.[2]
From Law to Life-Coach
Mel’s early career consisted of working for a Large corporate firm in Boston. She then went on to work for three and a half years as a public defender for violent felony criminal offenders in Manhattan, and as an executive in two technology companies. She also bought, ran and sold successful franchise businesses with her husband.
But, after practicing law for a handful of years, Mel started having second thoughts bout being an attorney. It was stressful, it caused her lots of anxiety, and it was a title wasn’t really excited to be associated with when people would ask her “So what do you do?”.
So, she hired a life coach who would ultimately encouraged her to become a life coach herself. And in 2001 she launched her own self-help coaching company that focused on personal development and executive business coaching.
Her business grew as she started to acquire clients all over the country. She eventually created her own radio show, blog, and things were humming along for Mel, at least for a while.
Transforming Trials Into Triumph
However, it was around 2008, when Mel Robbins experienced a serious inflection point in her life. Like many other Americans at the point in time in history, Mel Robbins life’s started to unravel as well.
Her husband’s restaurant business was on the verge of failing, she was over $800K in debt, her marriage was on the rocks, and she felt like she was on the cusp of losing everything.[3]
In addition to this, she was suffering from bouts of depression and anxiety that had her not wanting to get out of bed.
She used a ‘5 second rule’ which she invented to help herself get moving and get into action. The idea behind the rule, is that during any moment of hesitancy, or moment when you know you need to do something, you automatically start counting down from five, and once you get to one, you take immediate and deliberate action on that “thing” you were avoiding, or know you need to do.
This rule became an effective method that allowed her to overcome the inertia that had a grip on her life. And it helped her get land a job with Cox Media, which transformed into an opportunity on television.
Her enthusiasm attracted the attention of one of CNN’s chiefs, which paved the way for her becoming a high profile legal analyst for CNN. She especially made a name for herself at CNN after covering high profile cases, particularly, the George Zimmerman trial.
Mel Robbins would go on to transform her growing celebrity star power into in various shows. She even did a Ted Ed talk which eventually garnered over 29 million views.
Transformation
Mel has since authored multiple New York Time’s best selling books that have reach millions of people. All of which has helped her with becoming one of the world’s most-booked motivational speakers, thus allowing her to create a multi-million dollar enterprise in the process.
Mel also landed for a short period of time, her own syndicated talk show, ‘The Mell Robbins Show.’[4] However, these days, she’s leaning heavily into her podcast and YouTube channel which has garnered nearly 100 millions views and over 1.55 million subscribers.
Success Ethos
So what’s Mel Robbins’s secret to success? Well, her story shows she is no stranger to taking action and leaning into things. Having gone from law school, to being an attorney, to coaching, to writing books, building and selling businesses, to doing speaking events, and her more recently venturing into podcasting and managing a YouTube channel, it’s clear, she’s highly ambitious and always on the go.
So, we’d have to pinpoint much of her success to her drive, ambition, and worth ethic. It’s also clear that her infectious enthusiasm and energetic personality has very likely influenced her ability to land jobs in the entertainment world.
Having said that, here’s a few of her own takes on success in her own words:
“Ambition is the first step to success. The second step is action.” – Mel Robbins
“Picasso created nearly 100 masterpieces in his lifetime. But what most people don’t know is that he created a total of more than 50,000 works of art. That’s two pieces of art a day. Success is a numbers game. You are not going to win if you keep telling yourself to wait. The more often you choose courage, the more likely you’ll succeed.” – Mel Robbins
“If you want to reinvent yourself, you must ignore your fears, your excuses, your self-doubt.” – Mel Robbins
“Start before you are ready. Don’t prepare, begin!” – Mel Robbins
Success Insights
If you’re looking for even more success insights related to what Mel believes leads to success, then you’ll enjoy this video she created. In it she reveals a handful of science-backed methods you can start using to begin manifesting more success and riches into your life. Enjoy!
Final Thoughts
There you have it, the Mel Robbins Success Story which covers her unique success journey and some of the success strategies she has used to change her life and achieve her goals.
It’s clear that much of her success is related to her enthusiasm, magnetic personality, and a commitment to helping people solve their problems. But, she’s also tapped into her work ethic, drive, and ambition to take massive action. And the combination of this things have seemingly made all the difference in creating the inspiring life she now leads.
That said, we hope you’ve gathered at least a handful of helpful ideas from this write-up that you can use to inspire and improve your own life.
