Melanie (Mel) Robbins is The 5 Second Rule’s author as well as a host and motivational speaker. Robbins was born in Missouri and graduated from Dartmouth College before studying law at Boston College. After graduating, Robbins worked as a criminal defense attorney. When her first child was born, she switched to hosting television shows such as The Mel Robbins Show, Monster In-Laws, and Someone’s Gotta Go. Robbins and her husband, Christopher (Chris) Robbins, have three children together, all of whom occasionally figure in this book.

In The 5 Second Rule, Robbins reveals that her career as a TV host was not as successful as she wished. At the same time, her entrepreneur husband’s pizza business unexpectedly went bankrupt due to expanding too quickly. It was during this period of financial anxiety that Robbins came up with the #5SecondRule. Today, she is most renowned for her TEDx talk “How to Stop Screwing Yourself Over,” which forms the basis for this book.

Christopher (Chris) Robbins is Mel Robbins’s husband. He occasionally figures in The 5 Second Rule as both a source of tension and support for Robbins. She first blames him and his failed business for her own anxiety and insecurity. However, since discovering the #5SecondRule, she has recovered from her anxiety and has realized that blaming him is unfair and unhelpful.