Mel Robbins: The Power of Saying No, Changing Your Money Mindset, & The Busyness Addiction

Want to know the secrets of how to build real wealth, the difference between a job and a career, and eliminating cheap habits keeping you broke? Mel Robbins joins Maggie Sellers Reum on Hot Smart Rich to discuss the very real ways she went from $800K in debt to a media empire. In this episode, Mel gets unfiltered on the everyday mistakes that secretly ruin your status and finances, exact scripts for talking to your boss to be irreplaceable, and why learning the power of saying "no" is your ultimate career power move. We pull back the curtain on how to break your toxic addiction to busyness, shift out of a scarcity mindset, and why she’s making her latest big business move: investing in a protein beverage brand Pure Genius. Mel is the creator and host of The Mel Robbins Podcast - ranked the #3 Largest Show Globally on Spotify, #1 Most Followed Show on Apple, and closing in on 1 Billion Downloads. She is also the author of The Let Them Theory, the #1 selling book of 2025 and 2026. Get unselfish access to insights that will help you own the room. Sign up now https://linkly.link/2jPXJ ⸻ Timestamps: (00:00) Intro (04:43) The Power of Saying No (12:31) How to Get Paid What You're Worth (22:12) Stan Ad (23:17) Eight Sleep Ad (24:47) How to Scale & Build a Team (32:56) How to Get Ahead at Work (37:23) It's Okay Not to Know What You Want (42:24) How to Think About Money (50:27) Lululemon Ad Read (51:25) Bilt Ad Read (52:31) Breaking the Addiction to Busyness (01:01:05) Why Mel Created Pure Genius (01:10:43) Why She Loves This Product (01:13:45) Rapid Fire ⸻ Sponsors: Stan - https://ig.getstanley.ai/?ref=hotsmartrich&utm_source=podcast Eight Sleep - https://www.eightsleep.com/hsr and use code HSR for $200 off Lululemon - http://lululemon.com Bilt - Sign up at http://Joinbilt.com/HSR ⸻ Hot Smart Rich: Your Business & Culture Gossip For ambitious women wanting to own the room, gain power, and build wealth. Instagram: https://www.instagram.com/hotsmartrich/ Tiktok: https://www.tiktok.com/@hotsmartrich Maggie Sellers Reum: Instagram: https://www.instagram.com/maggiesellersreum/ Tiktok: https://www.tiktok.com/@maggiesellersreum LinkedIn: https://www.linkedin.com/in/sellersmaggie/ Locker: https://www.wantlocker.com/users/maggiesellers ShopMy: https://shopmy.us/maggiesellers Amazon Storefront: https://www.amazon.com/shop/maggiesellers/ Learn more about your ad choices. Visit megaphone.fm/adchoices

Speaker names marked ? are inferred from speaking time and the show’s known hosts — they are not voice-verified.

• 0:00Maggie Sellers Reum?

  If you're starting a business, there are certain things that are so fun to think about. Y'all know I love a mood board. So everything that relates to the creative, the name, the brand, the website, the vision board. But then there are the things that make you pause and ask, am I even doing this correctly? Or do I even want to be doing this? Like forming your business, getting the right documents, keeping your personal information private. This is where our sponsor Northwest Registered Agent is so helpful. They're a one stop shop for founders who want to launch and legitimize their business without turning it into a giant admin spiral. They help you form an LLC or a corporation, act as your registered agent and give you tools like a business address, operating agreement, website, phone number, professional email and free guides.

• 0:43Maggie Sellers Reum?

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• 1:06Speaker 01

  The action's on the court. And as the official beer sponsor of the NBA, Michelob Ultra is getting fans closer to the game with a chance to win courtside seats, merch and more. Visit michelobultra.com/courtside to enter. Michelob Ultra Courtside 26 to 27. No purchase necessary. Open to US residents 21 plus. Begins on October 1st, 2026 and ends on June 30th, 2027. Multiple entry periods. See official rules at michelobultra.com/courtside for free entry, entry deadlines, prizes and details.

• 1:33Speaker 02

  I'm going to tell you right now, 0.5% of you will actually do this. And the 0.5% of you that do this will make more money and take control of your life. And here it is. Never, ever have your phone on your body. What's on your phone? It's like crap. That's what's on your phone. You shouldn't be available 24/7. You just doused yourself with things that don't matter. Do you want a towel? Probably. People know me as an author or podcast host or the CEO of a global media business. But I was 41 years old and $800,000 in debt. You don't forget what that feels like. Money is power that allows you to leave a relationship. You do not need somebody else to buy you the designer handbag. There are so many stupid idiots out there making money. If you look up and it's 2031, do you actually like where your life is leading you?

• 2:18Speaker 02

  Because nobody's going to come and change your life, but nobody's stopping you from changing your life either. And so if you want to be successful, the most important word that you need to learn is

• 2:32Maggie Sellers Reum?

  Hi, angels. Did you know that subscribing to our channel is free? It doesn't cost you anything. And it is the simplest way for you to support Hot, Smart, Rich and help us grow so that we can bring you more of the conversations you love. Just hit the subscribe button below and thank you.

• 2:52Maggie Sellers Reum?

  In case you missed it, you're allowed to be hot, smart and rich. So let's get into it.

• 3:02Maggie Sellers Reum?

  Mel Robbins, are you ready to get Hot, Smart, Rich?

• 3:05Speaker 02

  I am not only ready, I am hot, smart and rich. And I'm here because my intention is that as you listen or watch right now, you are going to say to yourself, this is exactly what I needed. And you're going to get the encouragement and the one takeaway that you needed at this exact moment to be able to make that change, to be able to embody Hot, Smart, Rich. This is why you make the time to listen and to watch this show. That's what we're here to do.

• 3:33Maggie Sellers Reum?

  That was actually going to be one of my first questions to you because you're Mel Robbins. When my team got an email that you wanted to come on this show, I couldn't tell if it was someone playing a prank on me or if it was a mistake. I was like, Mel Robbins doesn't live in Los Angeles. She's here for a finite period of time. And she is making the effort and the plan to come on this show. And I have to ask you, as someone that has endless choices, how do you decide where you're going to spend your time? And what it actually means when you choose to do a behavior based on having so many options?

• 4:11Speaker 02

  Okay, I'm going to answer your question two ways. So first of all, thank you. Thank you for telling me that. Thank you for telling me that you were excited and that your team was excited. I am a person that lives by the power of intention. Okay, this is something that I learned way back in the day from Oprah Winfrey, who learned it from Zhukov, who wrote Seed of the Soul. And in life, we think a lot about cause and effect. We think about the fact that our actions and the ways that we think cause outcomes. But before your action, there is an intention. There is a reason why you do anything. And so if I want to answer this in the micro,

• 4:55Speaker 02

  the reason why I'm here is because I love what you're doing. I love empowering women. The age group that you're speaking to, especially women in their 20s and their 30s and their early 40s, you are the future of this planet. You're the future of business. You are the leaders of your family. You have so much power. And so my mission in life is to encourage people and to provide people with the tools and resources that they need to be able to create a better life. And if you and I can join forces and we can speak directly into the minds and hearts of 20, 30 and 40 year old women

• 5:39Speaker 02

  and tell you unequivocally that you have the power to change your life. You have the power to change your bank account. You are smarter than you're giving yourself credit. And you got to wake the hell up and start getting serious about what you want out of life. And so I said yes to you because we are very aligned in wanting to empower people. And also because so many young women look up to you. So many young women make time to listen to this show because you want to listen to something that's going to help you be smarter, that's going to help you change your habits, that's going to help you create a better life. And so we are completely aligned. In terms of the larger question, which is how do I make decisions about spending time?

• 6:24Speaker 02

  I think a lot about how one of the most important things, and I talked to my daughters. So I also have daughters who are 27 and 26. It's very important to think about input and output. And we have all kinds of ways to track all kinds of habits in life. Right? Whether it's your sleep habits or the number of steps that you take or the macros or the calories that you've burnt or whatever else. But really tracking your time, your energy and your attention and where you're going to put output and where you're going to allow input.

• 7:09Speaker 02

  So for me, when I'm thinking about where do I want to put my time? Where do I want to put my energy? It has to be aligned with something that is either important to me or that is aligned with the values and the mission that I have. If you want to be successful and happier in life, the most important word that you need to learn is no. And as women, what you need to understand is you will be more successful and you will have more joy and you will have more power in your life the more you say no. And the hard part about saying no isn't the word.

• 7:52Speaker 02

  It's managing the feelings you have about somebody's reaction. So to me, I don't do it unless it's a hell yes. And it's only a hell yes if it's aligned with what I'm up to and what I believe in or aligned with somebody that I respect like you. Otherwise, it's a absolutely not, no.

• 8:14Maggie Sellers Reum?

  Is it still uncomfortable for you to say no? Or how? No.

• 8:17Speaker 02

  No, I don't owe anybody anything. I owe myself everything.

• 8:21Maggie Sellers Reum?

  The first time that you realize the power of that word, can you take me back to that situation?

• 8:26Speaker 02

  I don't know if I know the first time, actually. Because you know, there are going to be times in your life, particularly when you're building a business or you're changing your career, where there are realities to the day to day of your life. There are times where you have to take a job that you hate because you have bills to pay. There are times where you are going to take a deal or sign a contract that you're going to regret later because you need the money now and you need the opportunity now. And that doesn't mean you're a dummy. It means that you understand that right now, the priority is I need a certain amount of money to keep doing this thing. I need a certain amount of money in order to be able to pay my bills.

• 9:09Speaker 02

  But there will come a time where it is critical for you to start to understand what is the kind of agreement that you want to make with somebody else or a business or a brand or a job that you want to accept that you start to recognize that you don't want to be in a situation. This is kind of one of my fundamental rules around business. Don't ever sign a deal you're going to regret in success. Never. Always play the long game. Because if you're not willing to bet on yourself, if you're not willing to bet on your own capabilities, if you're not willing to bet that you've got the ability through your effort and your attitude to be able to figure things out and create value, then don't even bother trying.

• 9:52Speaker 02

  Here's where I remember it's starting to happen. So I spent a period of my life in the corporate world, doing a tremendous amount of corporate speaking and training. And I became the most booked female speaker in the world, speaking at massive corporate events. And it was an incredible way to make a living. And I remember that I loved it, loved it, loved it, loved it. And then there came a time where I started to hate the thing that I used to love. And it's important for you to pay attention to these feelings in your body, the friction that you feel. Like, I used to love to get on a plane because I was making money and I felt like it was making a difference

• 10:37Speaker 02

  and it was helping me pay off the liens on my house. And I felt really good about the work that I was doing and the impact that it was making. And so I would be like, yes, yes, yes. And then I started to notice that I was dreading getting on the plane. I started to notice that the things that I used to love started to make me just feel like, oh, you know, I'm missing my kid's soccer game again. Oh, I don't really know if I want to go to Omaha and stay in a Marriott Courtyard and eat like the breakfast in the lobby and go tap into a bunch of realtors and I need the money and I want to do it. And when you start to feel that dread about a job or a relationship,

• 11:19Speaker 02

  that's your body telling you something is no longer aligned. And the thing isn't going to change. You have to change. And so one of my early memories of saying no is I was starting to, we'd gotten the liens off the house. We had stabilized our income. We were out of a free fall, so I didn't need to say yes. And I remember saying to the person that was booking these speeches for me, no, I'm not going to do it. I'm not going to take it. And he said, why? I said, well, first of all, it's not enough money. And second, this is a speech on a Saturday and I'm no longer doing speeches on Saturdays because I'm going to keep missing my kids' soccer games and I'm starting to feel like a terrible mom.

• 12:04Speaker 02

  And I realize a lot of guys don't necessarily deal with this. They're traveling for work. But for me, I was starting to feel a lot of conflict about the amount I was traveling for work and what I was missing out on at home. And so I said, no, I've got new rules. I am not going to speak on a Friday and I'm not going to speak on a Monday because I am not traveling anymore over the weekends. I need to be home. And what was interesting is I thought that people would then go, oh, she's not available. What happened instead is people would be like, oh, well, would she speak Thursday? And I didn't even think that was an option. Oh, if she doesn't want to speak, would she speak if we double the fee

• 12:50Speaker 02

  and we fly her home on the corporate jet? Like, that's an option? And you don't know what is possible until you say no to the thing that you've always said yes to. And all the cheesy sayings are so true that you cannot open up a door if your hand is still gripping to the other one. And here's what I've thought a lot about when it comes to saying no. And I imagine that there's some anthropologist who's studied this. But I personally believe, especially as a woman,

• 13:33Speaker 02

  when you say no, you say, no, I'm not available. They'll double the fee. When you say, no, I'm not interested in you. The person's more interested. When you say, no, I'm not going to do some influencer deal for a brand I don't even use. I don't care. I'm not willing to do that. Oh, well, would you do it this way? When you say no, you start to bump into deeper reservoirs of your power and your value that other people see, but you have taken for granted. In fact, I'm going to tell you a story about the very beginning of being a keynote speaker. So I kind of stumbled into keynote speaking.

• 14:15Speaker 02

  I had given a TEDx talk that ended up kind of going viral. I didn't know that normal people got paid to give speeches. I thought you had to be a celebrity or a former athlete or some, you know, bestselling author. So I give this talk. It starts to take off online. People start to ask me if I will come and speak. And this is a very important lesson. If you're early in launching a business and you don't know how to price things, I'm going to give you the tool for how to price something if you don't know what to charge because you will under-fricking-charge yourself all day long. I mean, haven't you done that?

• 14:48Maggie Sellers Reum?

  All the time. I was starting and now I'm starting to get to the point of where you're talking about.

• 14:52Speaker 02

  Yes.

• 14:53Maggie Sellers Reum?

  And it feels good.

• 14:54Speaker 02

  And by the way, you have to go through this.

• 14:56Maggie Sellers Reum?

  Yeah.

• 14:56Speaker 02

  Because if you roll in and you're brand-new at something and you've got this giant ego and you think you can demand some big thing, people are going to think you're an asshole and you haven't earned the right yet. And so I'm one of these people that I really love people that just put in the work. That you're the kind of person that you don't care what your title is, you don't care whose job it is, you will do what needs to get done because that's the right thing to do. And so I start getting asked, this was 2012. I start getting asked because this little talk that I gave started to go viral. I start getting asked to speak at women's conferences.

• 15:41Speaker 02

  And I'm just thrilled. Like, at this point, I'm working at CNN. My husband and I, who had had a lot of financial problems, were starting to pay our bills. Like, we feel like our heads above water. I'm a legal analyst for CNN, very respectable, even though people don't know that I have liens on my house. And we got three kids under the age of 12 at this point. And so I'm like going to these women's conferences. I'm riding the ham track. Oh, my God, I'm going to the conference. I get to go to the conference. And you get to the convention center and there's 14,000 women there and they're like so amazing if you've ever been to one because you've got these incredible women up on the main stage. And you're like, oh, my God, there's Oprah Winfrey. There's this person. There's that person.

• 16:25Speaker 02

  And then there's breakout rooms. And so I would be in a breakout room. Like, you know, if you've ever been to a convention center, you have to wear sneakers because you're walking all the way down to the end of the hall, right? And it's like 10,000 steps and I'm on the second floor, all the way down, room 217E5. And so I just loved it because I love being in the company of women who realize that we have so much more that we want to create an experience in our lives. We are not here to be somebody's daughter or wife or girlfriend.

• 17:07Speaker 02

  We are here to make the world a better place and to leave people that we come in contact with feeling better as we make the world a better place. That's what we do. We create life. We, like, we have, I love being around women in that conversation. So I do like six or seven of these things. And it never even occurred to me.

• 17:34Maggie Sellers Reum?

  That's a good pitch.

• 17:36Speaker 02

  Didn't it occur to me?

• 17:38Maggie Sellers Reum?

  So you did it for free?

• 17:39Speaker 02

  Yes.

• 17:40Maggie Sellers Reum?

  Oh.

• 17:41Speaker 02

  Yes. Because I'm just like a person that's giving a talk and I didn't have a book. I didn't, like, here, I'm also in my private life coming out of a massive financial crisis. I mean, when you're $800,000 in debt and there's a lien on your house and the short version there, for those of you that don't know, is my husband went into the restaurant business. And the first one went well and the rest of it was a disaster. And we had secured it all with our life savings and our whole life turned upside down. I'll never forget this moment. I just finished a talk about the five-second rule, this little hack that I use to get out of bed. That's an unbelievable hack for personal motivation. And this woman comes up to me

• 18:26Speaker 02

  and she was dressed like to the nines, like unbelievable designer, just had extraordinary makeup on. And so she comes up to me and says, oh, my gosh, Mel, like, that was fantastic. And, you know, I just wanted to ask you a question. I said, absolutely. And she said, you know, I spoke on a panel this morning and speaker to speaker. Have you gotten your check yet? And I kind of looked around. I was like, check? What do you mean, check? You got paid for this? And she had this look on her face. She even had like a, like a little gasp. And she said, oh, yeah. Like, I just assumed you were paid. I mean, you're in a much bigger room.

• 19:11Speaker 02

  You're an incredible speaker. And I remember stammering and thinking, wait, you got paid? And I was so dumbfounded because I immediately thought, you're a fucking idiot. Are you the only person here who doesn't know what she's doing? You need the money. Like, why did you not think to get paid? And so then I had a problem because I didn't know what to get paid. That's number one. There was no AI. There was not a lot of sharing of information 15 years ago.

• 19:51Speaker 02

  And the second thing is, is I didn't feel worthy of a lot of money because I was in a financial hole. And this is a very common thing to experience when you're starting something. You're taking a risk on yourself and you're pretending that you have it all together. And internally, you're questioning everything which can really make you feel like you're not worth the value that you deserve in the market. And those are two different things, how you feel about yourself in the moment versus what you're worth and your time and your energy and your expertise and your just capacity is worth being paid for. And so this is what I said to myself.

• 20:34Speaker 02

  I said, okay, the next time someone calls me, because I don't know what to charge, I'm simply going to say, I think I'm available. What's your budget? And then I'm going to pause, and this is the important part, pause and say, normally, I'm double. And wait.

• 20:58Speaker 02

  Two weeks later, the phone rings and it was a gentleman named Darren Powell. And Darren was, he had a whole parallel track. This is like a big, like God wank, universe converging story. His wife was working for a company that was hiring a speaker and Darren used to be in that business. So she asked him if he would call this woman who's been going viral on Facebook and see if she would come give a speech at Jay Hilburn, the men's custom suit company MLM, right? Direct selling. And he called and I picked up the phone and he says, is this Mel Robbins? Oh yeah, this is Mel Robbins. Listen, we have a company in Dallas looking for a keynote speaker. A lot of fans of yours have seen your thing.

• 21:42Speaker 02

  Would you be willing to come down to Dallas and give a speech in August? And you know, I like pretend I'm like, make a paper. And I'm like, yeah, okay. Yeah. Yeah, I think I could make that work. What's your budget? He said $10,000. I dropped the phone. That was three months mortgage on a house that had leans on it. I forgot the second part. I forgot to say normally I'm double. I picked up the phone and I was like, oh my God. Okay. Yes, yes, yes, yes. Now, there's a couple of key takeaways here. I felt so unworthy of that money that I did something that you have to do in life and business.

• 22:26Speaker 02

  If you really want to make an impression, prepare. Prepare. And yes.

• 22:32Maggie Sellers Reum?

  The amount of notes I have for this interview.

• 22:34Speaker 02

  Yeah, prepare because you never know when your moment is going to come at bat. You never know when the universe is going to toss that pitch. All I know is you better be ready when it comes. And so because I felt so unworthy of $10,000 back in 2013, I spent half of the money on a graphic designer to make a presentation with me. And it was the best thing I could have done because it forced me to prepare. So when I stepped up on that stage and I delivered that speech, I smoked it.

• 23:17Speaker 02

  It was one of the best performances I had ever done in my entire life because I was ready. And Darren came up to me afterwards and he said, Mel, I've been in the keynote business my entire life. You are by far the best female speaker I have ever seen and arguably top two or three in the world of everybody. And he said, who runs your business? And I said, you do. And he has run my speaking side of my business ever since.

• 23:44Maggie Sellers Reum?

  Wow.

• 23:45Speaker 02

  Yes.

• 23:46Maggie Sellers Reum?

  I'm going to hold your hand when I say this. You do not need to make marketing so hard for yourself. And I say this because I speak to founders day in, day out. And one thing that's become abundantly clear to me is that most entrepreneurs find building their businesses from scratch easier than marketing them. That's wild to me. We started using Stanley a little while back for Hot Smart Rich. And I'm not just saying this because they are sponsors and I absolutely love the founder, John, but it's genuinely made growing the business so much easier and fun because you can think of Stanley as your AI head of content. You just connect your social page and Stanley learns your tone, type of content and your audience.

• 24:28Maggie Sellers Reum?

  So when you give it a task like, write me a caption or build me a content calendar, it gets straight into the work without you having to handhold. It's great. You've already built a business, so let Stan help it to get seen. Head over to stan.com to start making your marketing easier now. That's stan.com to make your marketing easier now. There are some things that are absolutely worth spending money on and Eight Sleep is one of them. We spend roughly a third of our life in bed, thank God. If I'm going to be spending money anywhere, I want to spend it on something I'm going to use every single night. I see Eight Sleep coming up all the time when people talk about the things that they

• 25:11Maggie Sellers Reum?

  think are absolutely worth the investment. So angels, obviously because they're our sponsor, I got you a code just in time for the new Pod 6. If you don't know about Eight Sleep, it's a cover that goes over your existing mattress and basically works like a thermostat for your bed. Being too hot or too cold can make it harder to fall asleep and stay asleep. So the pod uses sensors to keep you in the right temperature throughout the night. I'm hot and cold depending on the time of the night and the new Pod 6 does that job even better. It can cool you down or warm you up 20% faster than previous models. So if you wake up too hot or too cold, you're not lying there waiting to get comfortable.

• 25:55Maggie Sellers Reum?

  It also has nine times more biometric sensors, which means more accurate tracking of things like your sleep fitness score, HRV and breathing. We can't improve what we don't measure. Pod 6 now starts at $1,999. It's lowest starting price yet. So go to eightsleep.com slash HSR and use code HSR for up to $200 off the new.

• 26:22Speaker 01

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• 26:50Speaker 03

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• 27:21Speaker 04

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• 27:50Speaker 02

  New Pod 6. You know, this is the other thing that I think is important is when people come into your life, especially when you're building something, pay attention because what I see a lot of people doing is they get very greedy when things start to work and they devalue loyalty. You forget about the people that were there at the beginning and that helped you build. And I see a lot of people start to build something and then want to really drive down the commission people make, or they want to devalue what the person's doing. But there's going to be people, if you're building something, that are part of the build.

• 28:35Speaker 02

  And it's important to recognize that loyalty does matter if you want to have a very, very longstanding career. Now, that doesn't mean that you're not going to have to weed out the greedy, toxic people that are going to come your way too. But I'm very proud of the fact that, you know, that is how it all began. And that's still the person that runs everything for me on that side of the business.

• 28:58Maggie Sellers Reum?

  I'm so interested in that, Mel, because I think that there's a lot of women that listen to this show that are in actually a big growth mode. They made their first 250, $500 million. They're building these businesses. How do you know if the people that you have around you right now that have been with you from the beginning are the same people that will get you to the next phase of growth?

• 29:17Speaker 02

  I love that you're saying this because I am saying to my team right now, what made us successful in 2025 does not work in 2026. And what made us successful this year in 2026 is not going to make us successful in 2027. And if I were to sit down anybody that works for me and I were to ask you, what do you think my job is? They would probably be able to describe 3% of what I do. My job as the CEO is always changing. People look at me and think I'm an author or podcast host. That's 5% of what I actually do. I am a CEO of a global media business that's making a positive impact in 194 countries

• 30:02Speaker 02

  right now. And I own everything that I do. And coming back to how do you evaluate? Because you're right. One of the hardest things about scaling is that the people that you begin with will only take you so far. And then there's going to come a time, and in fact, I'm in the middle of this process in my company right now. And I can unpack that more, but it's a very painful process because you have to look at what you're doing, why you're doing it, and what skills and expertise do you need in order to get you where you want to go next?

• 30:44Speaker 02

  And the hardest thing you will ever face, whether you are building your own thing or you are a leader inside of an organization, is having extraordinary people working for you who are wonderful and kind hearted and hardworking, but they do not have the skills to help you get where you need to go. I think about it this way because I believe a couple fundamental things. I believe most people want to do well. And when people can't do well in a job, it's not lack of intent most of the time. It is a lack of skills. It is a broken process. It's a lack of clarity. And so if I break down the way that I think about things in running a company is I'm always looking for points of friction.

• 31:30Speaker 02

  So where is it in your day to day job or in the company that you're building? Where you just have internal agita? Where is it? Is it in the social media production? Is it in the contract negotiation? Is it in the fulfillment and the shipping? Is it in the local geo-tagging, search result strategy that you can't seem to get to? Where is the friction? Because as the founder, as the leader of the team, you can sense when things aren't going well. And then when I can make a list of all the things in my business that are driving me crazy,

• 32:15Speaker 02

  or that cause me frustration, or that I just know we can and should be doing this differently. First of all, I don't think I'm the one that can solve it. My job as the CEO is to identify all the points of friction. Then I go to the next column, which is, okay, these are all the things that aren't working, or they don't feel the way I want them to feel. Now let's go to the next column, and I ask myself, is it a process issue? Because if you don't have the right tech, if you have too complicated of a process, I don't care how good the people are, they're not going to be able to do the job well.

• 33:00Speaker 02

  So is it a process issue? Is it an issue of people? Do you have good people that are willing to learn, but they don't have the skills for where things are now? And can you solve that by bringing in somebody that has the expertise that can then train this? Or are you looking at a painful situation where you just need people that have an entirely different set of expertise? And those are two very different problems. And you also have to ask yourself, is this a problem that needs to be solved right now? Because it's on fire and this business is going to implode? Or is this a problem that my, um, my business partner, who's also my sister-in-law,

• 33:45Speaker 02

  she's a genius, she's our CFO and our COO. And she was the CFO of a much, much, much larger company for 19 years before she joined this company. She always says, there are parts of your business that we can operate under the rule of do no harm. They're not killing it. It's not impressing you. It may just be limping along with a broken process and not a lot of skilled leadership there, and a bunch of people bumping into each other. But it's not important right now.

• 34:24Speaker 02

  So can you tolerate this aspect of things just being a C+? Because there are other aspects of your business that require your attention. And so to me, that's the matrix that I look at to start to untangle. Okay, any point of friction, if it's not working for you as the founder or the leader of the team, that's a problem. Because you're going to then bring your negative energy to everything that's happening, and people are going to feel it. And your leadership style is going to become, I'm afraid of mom. Because mom's mad. And the second thing then is look at every point of friction and go, do I have a process? Do I have a people person problem?

• 35:08Speaker 02

  Or, and this is the bigger one, do we have a problem with clarity about what's important? And I think this nine times out of 10 is the issue that most people are struggling with. That in today's world, the secret to success is simplicity. That if you can't start your day, and if your team can't start the day by going, this is the singular most important thing that we make progress on, then they're working on everything and nothing at the same time. Because if everything is of equal importance, nothing is actually important in your business. And your job as the CEO, number one, is to define what is actually important.

• 35:50Speaker 02

  And number two, it's to get behind everybody and build the systems and the process, and put in the training so that people can actually do their jobs.

• 35:59Maggie Sellers Reum?

  And what if you're listening to this and you're one of those people that wakes up and has no idea what they're working on every single day? Doesn't feel like their job is simple at all? There's bad mom, there's mean mom, and they just feel so confused and so lost on how to make progress in their job. What strategies would you tell that person tomorrow to go to their boss and say it in a way where they can find a solution versus being a problem?

• 36:23Speaker 02

  It's a great question. I'm glad you said go to your boss. So I would make a list of absolutely everything that you currently have on your plate. And I would walk into your boss's office, and I would just say, hey, do you got five minutes? I just need some help focusing on what the strategic priority is this week. Hell, today. Here are the 19 things happening right now. And what is the single most important thing I should be working on? That's number one. Number two, what is the most important thing that would actually help you if I got it done? Because the more you align what you're focused on with the bigger objective this week for the company, and the more you're aware of what pain points to solve for your boss,

• 37:07Speaker 02

  you will become indispensable. And most bosses are horrendous at clarifying what's actually important. And part of the reason why is we are all under an avalanche of Slack DMs, and of texts, and of Zoom meetings, and nobody has time to get work done. And so it's just input, input, input, input, input, input, input, input, input. But oh my God, I don't even know what to do. And everybody at work can just Slack you shit, and now they think it's off their plate, and you haven't even opened up the other 75 things. We actually just did an analysis of Slack in our company in, as part of this change management process. 89% of Slack messages were DMs. Not public channels, not threads, DMs.

• 37:52Speaker 02

  And so one of the things that you could do is you could also, in addition going to talking to your boss, if you're the boss, you could clean up the way people are using tech, because it's killing your team. Killing your team. You could change the meeting culture. Like this is, this comes back to saying no. Do you actually need to be in all the meetings, or can you send somebody on your team? Does this even need a meeting? And if you're in the leadership position, it starts with you. If you're a go-getter in your twenties and your thirties, I'm going to tell you the secret. You're going to hate hearing this. Be the first one in, be the last one out.

• 38:27Maggie Sellers Reum?

  Why do people hate to hear that?

• 38:29Speaker 02

  Well, you got to decide you want a job or a career.

• 38:31Maggie Sellers Reum?

  What is the difference?

• 38:33Speaker 02

  A job gives you a paycheck. A career gives you a runway to take off. I have a lot of people that work for me that have a job. And they look at it like a job. And I can very clearly tell who actually sees this as a career. And the difference is, you understand that there is something of value. Well, there's value in every job. Every single job you have, particularly the ones that you hate, teach you something critical about success, about leadership, about money, about human dynamics, about sales, about marketing, about product testing, every single job.

• 39:16Speaker 02

  And you can practice showing up with incredible energy and focus and intention in every job. And it pays so many dividends. But if you're just kind of showing up and you're resentful of being challenged, or you're, if you, you know, are going to work late or have to work on the weekend, then you want a job that matches your lifestyle. If you want a career that is going to launch you into something else, then you show up very differently. You understand that proximity to the person that is running the company is everything. Proximity to your boss is everything.

• 39:56Speaker 02

  Inserting yourself, solving problems, these are the skills that advance your career. Like a lot of us think that the skills are something else. Oh, I got to learn AI and do all this stuff. That makes you a coder over there. And that's an important thing to learn. But if you're the kind of person that can see problems and you just step in and solve them, you're indispensable. You will always, always, always be somebody's right-hand person until you become your own right-hand person.

• 40:24Maggie Sellers Reum?

  It makes me laugh because I remember when I first graduated school, I went to work at Salesforce, and I earned a lot of money right out of school. I earned like double what my friends were earning. But I hated it because it was a job. I clocked in, I clocked out, I felt no emotional connection to what I was doing. And when I went to my first startup, I legitimately cut my salary in half for half the amount of what I was making, but with equity and real purpose and mission in what I was doing. And that was when I was like 24, 25. That company ended up going public. I reported to the CEO, because to me, that was a career, whereas Salesforce was a job. I see value in both. But I think a lot of people that are listening to this, a question I get all the time is the uncertainty that they feel about what they actually want to do.

• 41:08Speaker 02

  You don't need to know what you want to do. You're not supposed to know what you want to do. I have had like 19 career changes since I was 20 years old. I went to law school, I was a public defender, I worked in a large law firm. I then jumped into the first tech boom in 1999, working in a like marketing content tech company. Then I jumped to another one that was a marketplace that connected creators to advertising agencies. Then I went to an advertising agency and did business development and account management. Then I started a business and life coaching business. Then I hosted a reality TV show that never aired.

• 41:51Speaker 02

  Then my life went to shit when my husband opened up a restaurant, and we almost lost all of our money, and da-da-da-da-da. Then I got a call in, radio show, like I have had, and here's, there's two types of people in life. There are people that are like an arrow to a target. You come out of the womb, and you know you want to be a doctor. And it's just in your DNA. And then there's the rest of us. And you don't have a clue. But the way that you figure it out is understanding that everything you do, every job that you've ever had, is leading you to the thing that you will feel fulfilled by.

• 42:36Speaker 02

  And here's the real twist. Even when you find the thing you're fulfilled by, guess what? At some point after doing it for two or three years, or five years, you're going to be like, I don't think I like this anymore.

• 42:50Speaker 02

  If you're the kind of person that needs to figure it out by experience, you have the opportunity to grow and change your entire life. And I'd love to kind of frame where we're at in the world right now.

• 43:04Maggie Sellers Reum?

  Yeah.

• 43:05Speaker 02

  Because the world that I grew up in is very different if you are starting your career or you're in your career in your twenties and thirties. Like, the old world was static. And you were rewarded if you had the knowledge. You were rewarded if you had expertise and that gave you ability. And the old world worked based on who you know. That's not the world we live in. The world we live in right now is dynamic. It is always going to be changing. And what's great about that is 50% of the people, actually, maybe 90% of the people are paralyzed by the amount of change. You know what that means?

• 43:47Speaker 02

  There is absolutely nobody in your way but you. And so if you can wrap your brain around the fact that the new rules are this, since information is everywhere, having information is actually not the value. It's being able to see through all the information and connect the dots and see the singular thread and spot the patterns. Being somebody that can look through the noise where everything's important. No, it's not. That's important. That's a superpower. The second thing, it's not ability and expertise necessarily, it's flexibility. Because everything is changing.

• 44:31Speaker 02

  Everything is changing. Unless you are a chemist or a medical doctor or a nuclear scientist or a profession that demands and should have credentialing and professional licenses, and there are lots of professions like that. For the rest of us, it's about flexibility. That's the skill. And the third thing, it's no longer who you know, it's who knows you. Who knows you? And if you are putting your head down and you're staying silent, you're hoping somebody notices what you're doing and like promotes you because you show up every day and you work really hard, nobody knows what you're doing.

• 45:12Speaker 02

  Are you good at talking about your contributions? Are you good at expressing your ideas? Are you good at putting yourself out there? Because in today's world, it's who knows you, not who you know.

• 45:28Maggie Sellers Reum?

  We wouldn't be here if I hadn't started doing that. I wouldn't know Mel Robbins had I not started posting online and talking about the things that I know. But I haven't stopped thinking about this since you said it actually a little bit of time ago. But there was a woman who came up to you that asked you about the paycheck. And I think what I can't stop thinking about and why I'm so happy you talk about money and like that moment for you is that women are taught not to talk about things like that. I was thinking, wow, how brave is that woman to come up and ask you, and what are you getting paid for this? Because that is such a thing in society that we tell women, do not talk about money, do not tell people how much your salary is, do not share any of that information.

• 46:11Maggie Sellers Reum?

  If you were to tell women one thing about how they should start thinking and talking about money with people in their lives to normalize the conversation

• 46:20Speaker 02

  Yeah.

• 46:21Maggie Sellers Reum?

  and gain the skills to be able to do it with someone they're negotiating with or with a new boss.

• 46:26Speaker 02

  Yeah.

• 46:27Maggie Sellers Reum?

  What's the one takeaway you would have about women and how they treat and think and talk about money?

• 46:32Speaker 02

  Well, I can only speak about myself personally.

• 46:35Maggie Sellers Reum?

  Yeah.

• 46:36Speaker 02

  And I'll tell you what I tell my daughters. Make your own damn money. Money is power. Money is freedom. Money allows you to leave a relationship. It allows you to leave a job. It allows you to move. It allows you to be in control of your life. You do not need somebody else to buy you the designer handbag. There are so many stupid idiots out there making money. If you got off your phone and you stopped scrolling online and you stopped making yourself feel miserable by comparing yourself to everybody else and you took your time and your attention back and you got serious about learning about money and how to make it, how to save it, how to invest it, how to be smart about it, there's nothing sexy about being dumb about

• 47:21Speaker 02

  money. And it is the most important thing that you can do because it gives you choices, it gives you control, it gives you power. It is no longer sexy or cute to be like, hi, I don't have any money. No, not in today's world. And so, number one, I want women to get serious about money as a tool and money as an important pillar that gives you the things that traditionally women have been socialized into thinking that's what your marriage is going to give you. When you have money, when you understand money, when you're smart about money, you

• 48:04Speaker 02

  have power and control over your life. And so that's number one. Change your mindset about it. Second thing would be is you're already doing it. You're listening to a podcast like this. What's so exciting about today's world is there's so much information. The only person's fault it is if you don't understand money and finances or how to get out of debt. And look, you're looking at a person who brought $12,000 of secret credit card debt into her marriage. You're looking at a person who used to believe that, you know, the money I made was my fun money and Chris's money was our money and we're both contributing, but he's in charge. Absolutely not. That is not how I roll anymore.

• 48:47Speaker 02

  I used to sneak the packages in, you know, because somehow, no way should you set yourself up like that. Because that means you've given power to another person and no one should have power over you but you. And to me, number one, understand that money is power. Number two, start to educate yourself. Continue to listen to podcasts like this. Talk to other women that are building something, that are ambitious. Because when you're around people like that, we do talk about money. We do talk about sales funnels. We do talk about, and there are lots of places that you can go, whether it's online communities

• 49:29Speaker 02

  or it is in-person events, where you can educate yourself about this. And one of the things that I would do, even though I kind of was dinging AI in the corner, get educated about AI. Because there is an absolute gold rush happening right now of women in particular, learning how and teaching themselves how to build businesses online using these tools, which wasn't possible 20 years ago. To me, it starts with you. It starts with you actually wanting to. And this is kind of one of my core beliefs. I think one of the reasons why most people stay stuck, and I know I stayed stuck for decades, because I couldn't answer this question.

• 50:12Speaker 02

  What do I want? What do you want? If you have not answered the question, what do I want? You are basically hoping your life turns out. That is a really sad way to go through this one remarkable life that you have. I really want women in particular to wake up and to ask that question of themselves every year, every single year on my birthday. I go through an audit, I look through my photos, I go back through the entire year through my photos, I write all the highs and lows, I compare it to the list I made last year, what did I accomplish? What did I experience? What trips did I take? Who did I see?

• 50:56Speaker 02

  And then I ask myself, what do I want in the next year? Because if you don't stop and create the space to get intentional about what you want in your life, you're not getting it. And to me, it's the most important gift that you could give to yourself. Because you don't often think about this fact. Like, think about this. The life that you're in right now, the job that you're in right now, the relationship that you're in right now, where you live right now, it's a path. You may not like it, you may like parts of it. But have you ever stopped and considered that if you roll the clock forward five years, it's going to be 2031?

• 51:41Speaker 02

  And let's say things go okay at your job. Let's say things are okay in your relationship. If you look up and it's 2031, do you actually like where your life is leading you? And if the answer is yes, great, keep going. But if there are parts of your life where you're like, 2031, oh my God, I don't know, no, absolutely, then do something. Because nobody's going to come and change your life, but nobody's stopping you from changing your life either. And when you can get clear about what you want your life to look and feel like, what you want your career to look and feel like, what you want your bank account to look like,

• 52:22Speaker 02

  I mean, just imagine, imagine what it would be like if you opened up your bank account and there was a million dollars there. Imagine that. And imagine that you were the one that earned it. How would that feel? And I say to my daughters all the time, it's not going to happen this year. But if that's what you really want, that kind of security, that kind of like pride in yourself, that kind of, oh my God, I figured it out, I can do cool stuff for my family, wow. Don't you think if you gave it 10 years, you could figure it out? Don't you think if you gave it a decade, you're smart enough through your effort and

• 53:03Speaker 02

  your actions to make whatever you decide and you can envision? Of course you can. But we don't stop and give ourselves permission to say, what do I actually want? Not what society's told me, not what my folks have told me, not what, you know, my girlfriends are doing. What do I want?

• 53:26Speaker 02

  That's where it starts. And it starts with money. What do you want?

• 53:30Maggie Sellers Reum?

  Hot Smart Rich isn't just the name of this podcast. It's a lifestyle. Let me explain. I used to actually lack the motivation to work out until I got addicted to the feeling of what it felt like once I was done, just moving my body. However, to help me get there, I really needed to change exactly what I was going to wear to make myself get excited about getting into the gym and moving my body. When I look my best, I feel more confident. A slick high pony, a little lip gloss, and the right gym fit. Like our sponsor, Lululemon's new License to Train set. Made with innovative Everlux material, this set is super soft, sweat-wicking, and supportive, meaning it can keep up when training gets tough. And if you need a new set to get you feeling workout-ready, you can find Lululemon's new

• 54:14Maggie Sellers Reum?

  fall drop at lululemon.com. Popular colors go fast, so be on the lookout for those drops. And remember, free returns always. So head to lululemon.com to get your hands on your next gym fit. That's lululemon.com. You know that rent and mortgage payments have got to be the least sexy thing we spend our money on, but they're a necessity. You have to pay them whether you like it or not. And with our sponsor, Bilt, you can earn points on rent and mortgage payments to put towards the nicer and finer things in life, like flights, hotels, that hot yoga class you've been putting off, and more. And I love that idea because it's kind of like your housing payment takes care of the

• 54:55Maggie Sellers Reum?

  responsible stuff and Bilt gives you a little something for the fun stuff. Bilt can make other parts of where you live more rewarding, too. Just download the Bilt app, link a debit or a credit card, and ask the neighborhood concierge pretty much anything. It can tell you about exclusive benefits at restaurants, fitness studios, and more around your home. Download the Bilt app and join the membership for where you live at joinbilt.com slash HSR. That's J-O-I-N-B-I-L-T dot com slash HSR. And make sure to use our URL so they know that we sent you. Is this where you talk a lot about our addiction to busyness?

• 55:37Speaker 01

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• 56:08Speaker 03

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• 56:37Maggie Sellers Reum?

  Yes, and how it's really hard to slow down because we're doing so much. If someone doesn't know if they're addicted to being busy, to give themselves the space to even ask themselves that question, what's the work that they need to do to identify the behaviors that they're exhibiting, to know that like they don't even have time to think about what they want to do?

• 56:58Speaker 02

  Yeah, it's an excellent question. So I'm gonna, I'm gonna give you the tool in a second to be able to test this in yourself. And first, I want to say something. There's the busyness that comes from being in a moment in your life that is due to the circumstances of your life. And, you know, we've all heard the metaphor of a chapter, but I do think it's really helpful when you think about your entire life as either a book or a movie. And right now, you are in a scene of your life. That's it. You're on page 117.

• 57:39Speaker 02

  And if it's Akatar, we know we got 600 more pages to go, so you got a long way to go. And if you're in a movie, you're in one of the scenes and like kind of the opening of the movie. That's all that this moment is. And so if you're feeling the busyness of like, oh my God, oh my God, oh my God, I gotta do that, and I can't do this, and I gotta pay the bills, and then my roommate's pissing me off, and then I gotta do this thing, and then my boss is mad, and then I didn't do this. And it might be because your mom's going through cancer. It might be because you are in a part of your career or at a job where it's just crazy-ass demanding. And that's what life in this scene feels like.

• 58:22Speaker 02

  That's different than what a lot of us are experiencing in our day-to-day life, but we're not aware of it, which is a busyness that comes from a nervous system that has never actually flipped into a calm, resting state. So what I want you to do, if busyness and always being on and chronically being stressed and never having time for yourself resonates for you, is, and I'm gonna tell you right now, 0.5% of you will actually do this. And the 0.5% of you that do this will make more money, you'll be happier, you'll have

• 59:02Speaker 02

  a better life, because you will be practicing a skill that is necessary for you to take control of your life. And here it is. I do not want you to sleep with your phone. I want the phone, it can be on the other side of the room, but sleep and the pause and the space between you and the entire world is what you need to create. And your addiction and constant attachment to meaningless bullshit on your phone is destroying your ability to change your life. It's destroying your happiness.

• 59:46Speaker 02

  It's destroying your power. And there is a simple solution. It is to recognize what a problem this is. It is to recognize that you have become a tool in the algorithm, and it is to take back your attention and your time and your energy and to understand that your attention and energy is the single most important thing, because where you put your attention and energy is where your life goes. And so you're gonna put the phone on the other side of the room, and I already know the objection, but what if my friend needs me? And what if this? Okay, great. You got a job, somebody needs. Here's what you tell everybody. Don't Slack me, don't text me, because I don't sleep with my phone. If it's an emergency, call me.

• 1:00:27Speaker 02

  Your friends will text you all kinds of bullshit drunk from the bar all night long. They will only call if it's an emergency. Then, in the morning, what happens, and this is why this is so important, when the alarm goes off on your phone, it's not near you. It's not near you. So now you're forced to get out of bed, and you're forced to give yourself this space. And in that space, this is the most important thing. You now get to choose what you do next. You get to choose if the news and social media and all the stuff going on at work

• 1:01:08Speaker 02

  pollutes your brain, or you get to choose whether or not you are going to widen the space and you're going to set an intention for the day. You're going to create a routine that begins with you and your goals and your dreams and your power and your energy before you let all the idiots on that phone pollute your mind. And we all know this is true, but we don't change anything. And you were sharing something with me before we got started about how, you know, an expert came on here and told you, looking at your phone first thing in the morning is cheap. It makes you cheap. You are being used.

• 1:01:53Speaker 02

  Used. You're giving your most valuable thing that will make you rich, that is how you are smart, that makes you feel hot, the most valuable thing you got, your attention, first thing in the morning when it's most important, to meaningless crap. And now you wonder why you have no purpose in your life. Because you literally laid in bed.

• 1:02:14Maggie Sellers Reum?

  I love it.

• 1:02:15Speaker 02

  Like this, right? You know, you laid in bed, and I'll give you the thing, and I'll even do a little demonstration here. I don't want this one's wrong. What's on your phone? It's like crap. You know what I mean? It's like, that's what's on your phone. Negative crap. Right there. You just douch yourself with things that don't matter. And now you wonder, why do I have anxiety? Why do I hate my job? Why do I? Because you started the day by allowing things that don't matter, and that actually make you feel terrible, into your brain. And for the rest of the day, you're playing catch-up. And here's what I'm gonna tell you.

• 1:02:55Speaker 02

  Your dreams, your mental health, your confidence, your sanity, your goals, your money, it deserves a lousy five to 20 minutes before you pick up the phone. Everybody can wait.

• 1:03:09Speaker 02

  But if you don't make this change, your dreams and your power and your success will always wait because you prioritize something else and it's stupid.

• 1:03:21Speaker 02

  Stupid.

• 1:03:21Maggie Sellers Reum?

  First of all, do you want a towel?

• 1:03:23Speaker 02

  Probably.

• 1:03:23Maggie Sellers Reum?

  Okay, Bob, towel production? Production? I'm obsessed with you, first of all.

• 1:03:29Speaker 02

  You know, I do that because it's funny, but when you see the water, like that represents, it's not meaningless. And until you see it, you don't really go, wow, it's true. And you can't trust yourself. If you're an alcoholic, you should not sleep next to a bottle of Tequila. Because you will grab it when you're not thinking. And so putting the phone away from my bed, it's been the biggest unlock ever because I can't trust myself either. In fact, as a, as a CEO, one of the big changes that I've made is I never, ever have my phone on my body. Because if it's on my body, I will look at it.

• 1:04:12Speaker 02

  And if it is off my body, I use it when I need it. And you shouldn't be available 24/7. Because if you're available 24/7, you're cheap. If you value your time, you're not available to everybody at all times. And when you can text right back, when you're always available, it means you don't have anything important going on. You're training people to know that you're the go-to because you're always there for them to go to. And, you know, not when you can get around to it, but oh, immediately, I gotta get right back to people. It will change your life if you start to really protect your time and your focus.

• 1:04:58Speaker 02

  It changes your life.

• 1:04:59Maggie Sellers Reum?

  Can I just say that too, to really hit the point home? Like, you're one of the most followed people in the world and you don't even feel the need to do that immediately when you wake up? And I think that's what it brought to me was, over the last few days, I've been thinking, wow, I'm really not as important as I thought. Like, to the level where I was like, I'm so important, I'm so busy. And it's actually maybe like, everything works without me. And that's actually a beautiful thing. But I think, going on the point of being one of the most followed people in the world, Mel, like, what I love about people like you, when they do, they build these businesses that are working, and it's working, and it's growing, and it's growing. And then they almost do something that no one expects, which is what you did with Pure Genius Protein.

• 1:05:41Maggie Sellers Reum?

  I love when people that have a spotlight and a theater performance as large as you, that does something that's taking risk. Because I think it's so easy, when you have success, to just like, not change anything. Like, things are working, let's just keep doing this, but scale that.

• 1:05:58Speaker 02

  Yeah.

• 1:05:58Maggie Sellers Reum?

  And when I see someone do something completely different.

• 1:06:02Speaker 02

  Yep.

• 1:06:03Maggie Sellers Reum?

  And put themselves back in the arena of having the opportunity to have challenges, to have struggle, to have failure, to have things they have to overcome again, I always question why? And I don't think that I've heard you publicly really talk about, as you're building Mel Robbins to be the brand that it is, why put yourself back in the arena to start an early stage brand and open yourself up to that level again?

• 1:06:31Speaker 02

  It's a great question. You know, it's interesting because I feel like it's totally aligned. Like, if you think about what I'm doing with the podcast, you know, my vision was really to create something that was helpful and encouraging to a normal person who is waking up today and they're exhausted, and they're wanting to do better and feel better in their life. And they want that for their families, too. And, you know, I've talked about the word simplicity. Our show really is a show about life. And we shine a huge spotlight on researchers and experts and people with very interesting stories, but we do it not for them. We do it in service of the person who's listening, who wants to improve their life.

• 1:07:16Speaker 02

  And the thing about simplicity is, it's very easy to make things complicated.

• 1:07:21Speaker 02

  It's super challenging to make something very simple. And I love solving problems. And I love making the things that make your life better easier and more fun to do. And so, the reason why I got involved in this, there's two reasons. The first one is, and this-

• 1:07:39Maggie Sellers Reum?

  Should we take one?

• 1:07:40Speaker 02

  Yeah, we can absolutely take one.

• 1:07:41Maggie Sellers Reum?

  I'm going watermelon because I just am obsessed with watermelon.

• 1:07:44Speaker 02

  Okay, now, that, what you're drinking is 23 grams of high-quality protein. It's only 100 calories. There's no sugar, there's no fat, there is no artificial flavors, there's no artificial color. It is shelf-stable, it's TSA-approved, and it solves a big problem that I was having. And so, there's two reasons why I wanted to get involved in this. Number one is, if you want to run a business, I'm always a student of something before I step into it. Study the grades. If you want to step into business, study the ecosystem of the business.

• 1:08:28Speaker 02

  And so, when you look at podcasting, there is only one person that understands the podcasting business as well as, or better than I do, and his name is Stephen Bartlett. And Stephen is a very, very good friend, but when you own your own show, when you produce your own show, when you syndicate your own show, when you understand that Spotify is a different business ecosystem than Apple, and Apple's different than YouTube, and YouTube's different than Netflix, and Netflix is different than Amazon Music, and you understand that those are business ecosystems, and in order to compete in those ecosystems, they're as

• 1:09:07Speaker 02

  different as trying to sell a product in retail as, you know, versus selling it online.

• 1:09:14Maggie Sellers Reum?

  Yeah.

• 1:09:14Speaker 02

  You know, versus direct to consumer, versus Amazon, versus from your website. These are all different ecosystems. And so, I understand all this. I understand that the podcast space is monetized based on both downloads, so the size of the downloads of your show, and the number of ads that are running on your show. And now that podcasts have become video, the advertising has become even bigger brands and more television commercial-style stuff. So, the business is changing before our eyes. And I am maniacally on top of it. I love this aspect of running this media business. I love all the innovation, I love the tech, I love the complexity. But one of the things that I noticed, and Stephen's interesting in this, because a

• 1:09:58Speaker 02

  lot of the advertising that runs on Stephen's show are companies that he has equity in. And the other thing that started to happen, and again, this is, you know, people always tell you, if you're thinking about starting a business, think about a problem that you have and how you could solve it. Or think about something that you love and what product could make you love it even more. And so many founder stories have this, I had a problem, or there was a problem, or there was a hole in the market, and I was starting to look for this thing, and it didn't exist. And so, I started to notice a bunch of things because I am a businesswoman. That's what I describe myself as. And I am a genius at spotting trends and a genius at slicing through the noise and seeing the simple thing that's right there.

• 1:10:44Speaker 02

  At the same time, I was starting to have a personal problem. And the personal problem is, I had gone through menopause, I hated my body, I felt like I had a flesh fanny pack here and meat wings that wouldn't go anywhere, and I've always been a very active person. I ski, I hike, I do Pilates, I do yoga, I've run five marathons, like, I'm like, go, go, go, go. I cook, we live in Vermont, we buy food at the farmer's market. Like, we are healthy, healthy, and I hated what was happening to my body. So, all these experts start coming on the show, and I know this happens to you all the time, too, as you're interviewing somebody, you're like, oh my God, this is me, oh, I need to do this. And the message was so clear.

• 1:11:24Speaker 02

  It's episode, I think it was 73, Dr. Amy Shaw came on and just started hammering protein and women, and protein and fiber, and that you have to eat more protein. And then another doctor came on and started talking about protein and women and hormone. And so, I took the advice on my podcast, and I said, okay, I'm gonna go talk to my doctor, which I did. And my doctor said, I think you need like 130 grams of protein a day. Do you know how much protein that is?

• 1:11:53Maggie Sellers Reum?

  It's a lot.

• 1:11:54Speaker 02

  It's too much, I can't do it.

• 1:11:55Maggie Sellers Reum?

  Yeah.

• 1:11:56Speaker 02

  I can't do it. I can't do it. The calorie intake is too much, it's too much food prep, there's only so many shakes and meat sticks and bars that melt in your purse that a human being can deal with. It's calories, it's volume, it sits in your stomach like a brick, I already feel like I have a flesh fanny pack, I don't want that. And, and, you know, I would be standing in the fridge, opening the door, eating chicken from last night, you know, for breakfast, because I'm trying to choke down protein, I'm making my eggs, and then I find out, eggs only have six grams of protein?

• 1:12:28Speaker 02

  So all of a sudden, this product gets sent to me. And it was an earlier version of this. And getting protein into a shot formulation in a consistency that tastes like juice is nearly impossible. Nobody had done it. And this had actually originally been developed overseas as a product that trainers and a professional sports league had made so that athletes could fuel themselves on the sidelines during a two to three hour soccer match. And if you stop and think about it, what do athletes have to fuel themselves during a long performance? Caffeine?

• 1:13:12Speaker 02

  And so they had developed this protein shot. And one of my now founders had seen it and brought it to the US. And they worked on it for a year. And then they brought it to me, wondering if I would come on and let them advertise. And I took one sip of it and I was like, this is revolutionary. And the product as launch sucks. And it tastes like a liquid Jolly Rancher. And it has all of this like artificial crap in it. And I cold called the founders and I said, I know that you're looking at the bodybuilder community for this and the sports community. I think you're missing the bigger picture. I've never, ever gotten involved in a product.

• 1:13:53Speaker 02

  If I'm going to do this, I have to be able to have the vote on everything. I need to change formulation. My first step is to be recruiting a world renowned medical board that I am going to handpick. And then I am going to the labs and I am going to be involved with our world renowned medical nutritional and scientific board. And we are going to change the formulation because I want people in chemotherapy and GLP-1s and I want pediatricians. I want anybody that is a medical professional to see this as an option for a normal person who's trying to get fuel. And it's having trouble, just like I was.

• 1:14:36Speaker 02

  And the profile of the taste can't taste like candy. The ingredients have to work for a clinical setting. And they said, yes. I want people to feel like a genius for reaching for this. I want people to feel like a genius for making a healthier choice. What if we called this pure genius? Because the idea is pure genius. And that's how I want you to feel. When in the middle of a busy life, you reach for something that's a better choice because you know, running on fuel is better than running on fumes. I want you to feel like a genius when you put this in your kid's backpack.

• 1:15:21Speaker 02

  Because what else are they going to be eating after school to fuel up before sports practices? I want you to feel like a genius for reaching for something mid afternoon because you need a little fuel, but you've already had breakfast and lunch and a snack. And you don't want the calories. I don't want the extra calories, but I need the protein. And that gets me through the day. And now I'm not a hangry bitch to my family. And so that's the origin. And then I said, and here's an even dumber idea. I think that our brand should be around vintage light bulbs. Because what is the actual symbol of a great idea? It's a light bulb.

• 1:15:58Maggie Sellers Reum?

  I had no idea. I am obsessed with that.

• 1:16:00Speaker 02

  Isn't that great? And the packaging all looks like vintage light bulbs. And but so that's the launch story. But there's so much that we've learned. Oh, my God, the hard way. Not about the product, it's the packaging that was really hard.

• 1:16:12Maggie Sellers Reum?

  It's the hardest thing to sell for direct to consumer retail. Like, the eye level of everything is crazy.

• 1:16:18Speaker 02

  But you want to know the hardest thing about this? And I would love everybody's ideas about this. The hardest thing about this product is it's the only version of it. And it's a hard thing to market something small when it's in the aisle with things that are this big. So this might be next to a product that's three times the size. And your perception as a consumer is that the 23 gram protein shake that's 600 calories and 24 ounces is actually more valuable. When in fact, this packs way more nutritional punch because 92% of the calories come from protein.

• 1:17:02Speaker 02

  And since this isn't everywhere yet, I mean, we've only been out since January. We had a million dollar launch and sold out like in two and a half days. We are about to roll out our first product, new product, which is protein and fiber. And I'm excited because CVS is carrying it point of sale. Like, my vision, remember how I said, you've got to have the courage to have a vision? My vision is that this replaces the five hour energy spot at POS.

• 1:17:29Maggie Sellers Reum?

  Well, I don't think I'm going to have time to go into the story, but you should really look up Vitamin Water and how they were actually sold with the water section first. And it wasn't working because everyone was like, what is this yellow colored water? They actually switched aisles completely. And that's what made Vitamin Water, Vitamin Water. Fiber.

• 1:17:44Speaker 02

  So we'll now be next to Metamucil. And there's no product like this.

• 1:17:48Maggie Sellers Reum?

  Yeah, we have to go into rapid fire before you come back on.

• 1:17:50Speaker 02

  Okay.

• 1:17:51Maggie Sellers Reum?

  You're going to have to come back on.

• 1:17:52Speaker 02

  I would love to. I think we need to get everybody's questions. Let's just coach people.

• 1:17:56Maggie Sellers Reum?

  Okay. Mel Robbins.

• 1:17:57Speaker 02

  Yes.

• 1:17:57Maggie Sellers Reum?

  What is the last possible thing you just put on your credit card?

• 1:18:00Speaker 02

  I don't know, because my daughters took it out of my wallet. And I asked them this morning for it back. They're here with me in Los Angeles.

• 1:18:07Maggie Sellers Reum?

  I'm obsessed with them. Okay, what's the last most expensive thing you put on your credit card?

• 1:18:12Speaker 02

  Uh, maybe this necklace.

• 1:18:14Maggie Sellers Reum?

  Okay.

• 1:18:14Speaker 02

  This is a Herkimer, they call it a Herkimer diamond, but it's a particular quartz that only grows in Herkimer, New York. It has magical powers. I'm convinced of it. I put it out in the moon to clear its energy every full moon. And these are also Herkimer's. And this necklace is a, it's basically a car. Not this, this thing's probably like 200 bucks, but this necklace is extremely expensive.

• 1:18:39Maggie Sellers Reum?

  Obsessed. Okay, something you hate to spend money on?

• 1:18:43Speaker 02

  Clothing.

• 1:18:44Maggie Sellers Reum?

  Okay.

• 1:18:45Speaker 02

  I really, part of the aspect of this job as I've become more and more public is the kind of public appearances. When I was a keynote speaker, I had a problem to solve. I had to be able to give four speeches in five cities in five days with a carry on. And so I would wear black polyester pants and a black polyester shirt. And you can steam them in a hotel at night. And they look great on a Jumbotron and you can fit a mic pack. And so I'm kind of a uniform person.

• 1:19:21Maggie Sellers Reum?

  I love that, by the way. And it's something I'm jealous of Stephen about, like, black t-shirt. Doesn't have to think about it. So it's like, I wish we could do that.

• 1:19:28Speaker 02

  But I'm trying to lean into like loosening up and being more fashionable. My daughters are really pushing me, but I don't like to spend money on clothes.

• 1:19:35Maggie Sellers Reum?

  Yeah, just please don't change the glasses because they're so you. I'm obsessed. I actually watched your TED Talk last night and I was like, wow, it's so weird seeing her without the glasses.

• 1:19:42Speaker 02

  That's a 21 minute long panic attack. That's the first speech I've ever given. You can see the chest rest a minute in. And I didn't even mean to say the five second rule in it. That, I forgot how to end the speech.

• 1:19:55Maggie Sellers Reum?

  That's crazy. Finish this sentence, Mel Robbins. I know I'm stressed if I'm spending money on...

• 1:20:02Speaker 02

  Oh, I know I'm stressed when I'm spending money on my third martini.

• 1:20:08Maggie Sellers Reum?

  Always stop it too. I love that. Okay, because we glamorize young entrepreneurs so much, I'm really excited for your answer. What age did you stop worrying about money?

• 1:20:19Speaker 02

  Uh, maybe 54? Because when you are 41 years old and you're $800,000 in debt, you're going to lose your house and you have no job. You don't forget what that feels like. Most people know me because of what I've built in the last three and a half years in my late 50s. And most people don't understand that at 52, even though I had all this experience, I was unemployed. I was starting over in a new place. I had no idea what was going to happen in the world. I just knew that nobody was going to come and figure it out, but nobody was going to stop me either. And by God, I needed to figure out what I wanted in life next and then get to work building it. That's why I'm as passionate as I am.

• 1:21:03Speaker 02

  Because I know you can do it. I know that you're selling yourself short. I know that you are the one arguing against your dreams. You're the one talking yourself out of it. And instead of constantly going, what if this, what if that? I want you to go, what if it all works out? Because if you put your head down and get to work, it will.

• 1:21:20Maggie Sellers Reum?

  Yeah. The work works. Okay, Mel Robbins, last one.

• 1:21:24Speaker 02

  Yep.

• 1:21:25Maggie Sellers Reum?

  I do this on Instagram almost every day. It's called HSR Love Notes. It's basically a way to retrain, I have a very toxic brain. If you could only tell yourself one HSR love note for the rest of your life, what is it?

• 1:21:37Speaker 02

  I am so grateful that I get to experience this day. And today is going to be a good day because I'm going to make it a good one.

• 1:21:47Maggie Sellers Reum?

  Love that. Mel Robbins, thank you so much for coming on Hot Throat.

• 1:21:53Speaker 02

  I just blobbity, blobbity, blobbity. Did you get anything? Was that...

• 1:21:56Maggie Sellers Reum?

  You brought joy back into my life. And I know you're going to help so many of the angels. So thank you so much.

• 1:22:01Speaker 02

  We love you. I love you too.

• 1:22:13Maggie Sellers Reum?

  If you're starting a business, there are certain things that are so fun to think about. Y'all know I love a mood board. So everything that relates to the creative, the name, the brand, the website, the vision board. But then there are the things that make you pause and ask, am I even doing this correctly? Or do I even want to be doing this? Like forming your business, getting the right documents, keeping your personal information private. This is where our sponsor, Northwest Registered Agent, is so helpful. They're a one stop shop for founders who want to launch and legitimize their business without turning it into a giant admin spiral. They help you form an LLC or a corporation, act as your registered agent, and give you tools like a business address, operating agreement, website, phone number, professional email, and free guides.

• 1:22:57Maggie Sellers Reum?

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