Mel Robbins on How She and Husband Plan to Spend 30th Wedding Anniversary (Exclusive)

Personal development guru Mel Robbins can often seem like a woman who has it all figured out. But she admits that life, particularly her marriage, hasn’t always been all smooth sailing. 

Speaking exclusively with PEOPLE at The Hollywood Reporter and Spotify’s Golden Globes Nominees Night on Jan. 8, Mel, 57, recalled a particularly difficult chapter in her life.

“Just 16 years ago, I was $800,000 in debt. I was unemployed. My marriage was falling apart,” she said. “I was 41, and I told myself a lie that I was too old, it was too late, my problems were too big.”

However, as her fans know, her life turned around after delivering a famous TED Talk in which she introduced her “5 Second Rule” for making decisions. From there, she built a personal development empire, wrote best-selling books — including The Let Them Theory, which sold more than 7 million copies in its first year — and launched the chart-topping Mel Robbins Podcast.

Now. Mel is approaching another significant life milestone: 30 years of marriage to her entrepreneur husband, Chris Robbins, 56. She shared how the pair plan to celebrate their achievement. 

“What we’re doing is we’ve made a list of all of our favorite friends from all over the place,” Mel told PEOPLE.

“And we’ve made plans over weekends to see groups of people that we really love,” she continued. “That’s how we’re doing it — by just spending time with people that we love, and trying to be in the moment.”

The couple first met at a party in New York City in 1994 and tied the knot in Michigan two years later. They share three children: daughters Sawyer and Kendall and son Oakley.

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While their anniversary isn’t until Aug. 24, the two got a jump on the celebrations by dancing to a live performance of “I’m Every Woman” by Chaka Khan inside the party. 

Mel attended the Los Angeles event to celebrate her 2026 Golden Globes nomination for Best Podcast, the first year the award has been offered. While she ultimately did not win (the trophy went to Amy Poehler, who hosts Good Hang), she told PEOPLE at the time what winning the honor would mean to her. 

“It would be humbling,” she said, “and it would make me so proud to know that, at a moment in time where the world feels very overwhelming, a show that is making a global positive impact in the lives of real people is the first podcast to win a Golden Globe.”

She added that winning would mean much more than just taking home a trophy and would feel like validation for all the work she has put into helping people improve their lives. 

“There’s this famous quote that I love from Alice Walker that the most common way that people give up power is by believing you don’t have it. And one of the things that my show does every single time we release an episode is to remind you that even if you feel discouraged, you still have power through changing your mindset, through changing your decisions, through changing the actions that you take,” Mel said.

She added: “You can change how you feel. You can change the trajectory of your life, and over time, it changes everything for the better.”