Mel Robbins is …

Likeable. I’m sorry, but this is a massive part of her most recent success in overtaking a show synonymous with the word podcasting; The Joe Rogan Experience. By likeable I don’t mean cool. I’ve never looked at what she wears, what she drives, or asked myself how I could be more like her (besides podcasting).

It’s more.

She’s likeable because she’s really invested in being who the hell she is. Her IG stories range from excitement to mildly scolding you for having expectations of others, to a ‘just out of bed’ hair everywhere high 5 and saying hello.

She is unfiltered and that’s why the other day my wife said to me “I was listening to Mel and she said that […].” She didn’t say Mel Robbins. When someone of her visibility and brand is mentioned by first name only that means her audience feels like a friend to her, not just a fan or supporter.

Here are the 5 big reasons I believe she was able to beat out the top dog in podcasting.

But first, here’s an IG reel she made about it:

melrobbins

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Cool right? Ok - here’s how she did it:

1. Leveraged her personal brand and success

Mel is a already a best-selling author (The 5 Second Rule), motivational speaker, and been on TV a ton. So having a significant following when she launched her podcast was huge. And trust me that doesn’t always happen; I’ve had some clients with millions of followers launch a podcast with almost no traction.

Bottom line is, people were eager to hear more from her, which led to a solid launch 1.5 years ago and then a freaking rocket ship to the top.

2. High quality content and Run of show

I’ll spend a bunch of time here because this is my life.

It looks great, sounds great, and formatted great. I listened to my first full episode months ago (when I was auditing podcasts) and hers was flawless despite the ads. Her intro to the episode told me all I needed to know that it was going to be excellent.

First 8 seconds:

“Hey it’s your friend Mel and welcome to the the Mel Robbins podcast. (music).”

Freaking brilliant to say friend there.

Then:

^{“Oh my god. I just finished recording the episode you’re about to listen to.}

^{I have to tell you. Hands down this is one the of the single best episodes we’ve ever done. This conversation that has fundamentally changed how I view the world and how I view what is possible.}

^{It’s about manifestation, neuroscience magic, and how you can unlock the power of your brain your heart and your deepest purpose in life. You’re about to meet Dr. Jim Doughty. He just walked out of our Boston Studios literally a minute ago I came racing back in here to talk to you and wow let me tell you just a little bit about him. He’s a neuroscientist…”}

SOLD.

-By talking about just finishing recording, you can sense she in an a moment of real time processing.

-She claims it’s one of the best episodes ever —- ideal for a new listener like me to hear.

-There’s a fundamental shift in what she how she thinks she will view the world; we can all relate.

-Telling us how she came racing back to talk to us and not lose this thought was a very very real demo of her bringing us behind the scenes. It gives us a second to imagine her almost frantically trying to get to us. This makes a listener feel like WE ARE IMPORTANT.

Yeah so the intro alone showed me this podcast is dialed the hell in.

Yes - the podcast focuses on advice, self-improvement, and motivational stuff. The topics can resonate deeply but also allows for a wide range of listeners. But there’s ton of podcasts like that. So there’s gotta be more. Right? There is…

3. Engagement with us

It seems that Mel truly focuses on ways to connect with listeners through social media. She regularly shares personal IG stories, allowing people to feel like they are part of her journey… or day.

She shares screenshots of people who tag her or her DMs, all while seeking listener feedback for the show. This can help make the show better but also boosts interaction which is something that social media algorithms are always looking at.

It’s like she has an ongoing convo or relationship with her people. She, or her team, responds to a ton of comments daily. This is masterful.

4. Cross promos / strong network

I’m not talking about her being “OP" like the cool kids say. It means omnipresent or just another way of saying she makes sure she leverages the show with clips, posts, etc wherever she can across social.

The real difference maker was her collabs and guest appearances. She’s got a network of pretty freaking influential people and she was on their shows. You might of heard of some of them: Oprah, Khloe Kardashian, and even a top male sports podcast called The Pivot.

She collabs on the content that comes out because it helps her, her show, and their show. That and this is why guesting is so important - you are in front of PODCAST LISTENERS. If they love you, they may check out your show and love it too.

All in all the podcast tour for her newest book, The Let Them Theory, gives her existing and would be audience choices to watch her, listen to her, or read her. I talked about this last week and meeting you audience where they’re at. She does this at scale when she goes on podcast after podcast after podcast .. which is exhausting by the way. That’s how you know this means so much to her.

5. Her show does not depend on guests

She mixes between solo episodes and guest interviews. This helps her team analyze or at least see if the audience prefers one over the other. But even is that is true, when you hit the top spot it shows that both work. Here’s why:

Someone like Mel will never have a shortage of people who would say yes to being on her show. And by people, I mean great freaking guests who give great freaking information. But the truth is if it was always guests, people would likely and eventually want to hear from just her.

Now you might say “Rich Roll and Joe Rogan always have guests and they crush” — yes, but their audiences are different. I think it’s safe to say she has a large female audience, and in our experience here at UNFLTR, that usually means these female listeners desire to connect with a female host more so than with male hosts. We men are funny like that - we’ll just take what you give us and settle for that.

Here solo pods often share her personal stories of struggles, challenges, and overcoming sh*t, which makes her seem more human even though she is crushing life. In her newest episode on the challenges of making adult friends she talks about and apologizes for how she was a “walking red flag of a friend”. She just spells out the details of how she sucked as a friend … once again something we can all relate to.

It’s authentic storytelling at its best and allows listeners feel like they are learning directly from someone who has experienced similar issues, even if at a different level, which only increases the stickiness and and shareability of her content. (I can’t believe I didn’t get a red squiggly underline under “shareability” - I didn’t think it was a real word.)

In Closing

Joe Rogan had a 10+ year head start on her, has interviewed some of the most famous people on the planet, is on TV often, and widely considered the best podcaster out there. And he still still fell to Mel (on Apple rankings of ALL shows). I just checked and she’s she’s still number 1 today.

Now don’t think I’m ignoring that she belongs to a massive podcast network, has money to spend etc. But even so, she is doing all the little things I try to implore clients to do — and they don’t. She is much busier than you, me, and my clients which means one thing; she is willing to do whatever it takes. By the way she releases twice a week.

Just like the Eagles had to put down the reigning champion Chiefs, Mel is simply outworking the JRE. And he may not even care. But to her and her team, it’s important and you can sense the gratitude she has - not the sense of supremacy.

If you make your podcast or content a priority- it will work.