A few months ago a self-help influencer that you may have never heard of named Mel Robbins overtook Joe Rogan as the top podcaster in the world. I had never listened to an episode of her’s, but had the vague impression that she was a mostly harmless talking head who gave generic advice about how to make yourself just a little bit happier. I figured her astounding popularity was a fluke due for inevitable decline. But as I checked the podcast charts looking for trends there was something decidedly sticky about her hold on her audience. So two weeks ago I tuned in to a few episodes—on an interview with the faux-monk Jay Shetty and another with a neurosurgeon named Jim Doty—and it all started to make sense.
Yes, Mel Robbins is slinging the same run-of-the mill advice that self-help stars have preached for at least a century, but she does it in a way that has never been done quite so perfectly attuned to internet virality. In this week’s video I’m dissecting the way that she markets her ideas, and maximizes the potential of para-social relationships. I examine how she weaponizes traditional notions of “love” and “sadness” by hijacking the emotions and folding them into discrete calls to action (don’t forget to like and subscribe) like exquisite pieces of origami.
She’s so impressively manipulative that I don’t know whether to be disgusted or awed. In the video I also dig into her close relationship with Shetty, and how they have successfully piggybacked each other’s fame to usher in a new era of internet grift.
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