How To Fail With Elizabeth Day
Mar 24, 2026 · 1 hr 20 min · 17 segments
I never thought I would have to write these words, but here we are. In the wake of my dear friend’s passing, I wanted to reflect on the life of one of the most radiant people I’ve ever met: Mel…
Mel SchillingGuest
Elizabeth DayHost
This is an introduction I really hoped, against hope, that I would never have to record.
Even when Mel was dying of cancer, I still thought that it would be completely illogical for her to actually die because Mel was someone who was the embodiment of vibrant life.
The energy she brought into her room, the way her smile and her eyes could generate enough electricity to power the national grid.
She was an extraordinary person, someone I'm so lucky that I got to call my friend.
I'm also so blessed to have got to know her incredible husband, Gaz, and her gorgeous daughter, Maddie.
And I feel so grateful to them for allowing me to visit her just before she passed away.
I will miss Mel so much, but I also feel her vibrance still coursing through the atmosphere.
I feel her urging me on and urging you on to find love and to believe yourself to be worthy of it.
And when I was thinking about how best to pay tribute to her, I thought there was no better way really than to re-release this incredibly special episode of How to Fail with the unparalleled Mel Schilling.
And I'm so grateful to her for the laughs, for the brilliance, for the spicy margaritas, for the dancing in sequence on dance floors, for... all the advice that she gave me, and all of the things she made me believe were possible to dream.
So without further ado, please enjoy this episode of How to Fail with my friend,
My guest today has taught me so much, despite the fact that until now, I've never actually met her.
Melanie Schilling is known to many of us as one of the therapists on Married at First Sight, the television program where experts match compatible strangers who then meet on their wedding day with fascinating and sometimes explosive results.
Schilling has always been a comforting yet rigorously insightful expert on the couch.
My favourite bits are generally when she calls out a man for his raging misogyny with calm yet lethal precision.
There's now an equally compelling UK version which regularly attracts a massive audience on Twitter as much as on TV.
Schilling, a specialist in human behavior and performance, has built a 20-year career as a therapist, business consultant, and leadership coach for high-performing people.
Her book, the C-word, Confidence, Make Friends with Fear and Build Confidence from the Ground Up, was published last year.
In it, she writes that confidence, courage, and competence have the capacity to shift us from I wish to I did.
And I was already from maths, but your book is brilliant and so full of practical compassion.
And it's one of the few books that I have read for this podcast that it has exclusively garnered five-star reviews from readers.
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This is an introduction I really hoped, against hope, that I would never have to record.
Even when Mel was dying of cancer, I still thought that it would be completely illogical for her to actually die because Mel was someone who was the embodiment of vibrant life.
The energy she brought into her room, the way her smile and her eyes could generate enough electricity to power the national grid.
She was an extraordinary person, someone I'm so lucky that I got to call my friend.
I'm also so blessed to have got to know her incredible husband, Gaz, and her gorgeous daughter, Maddie.
And I feel so grateful to them for allowing me to visit her just before she passed away.
I will miss Mel so much, but I also feel her vibrance still coursing through the atmosphere.
I feel her urging me on and urging you on to find love and to believe yourself to be worthy of it.
And when I was thinking about how best to pay tribute to her, I thought there was no better way really than to re-release this incredibly special episode of How to Fail with the unparalleled Mel Schilling.
And I'm so grateful to her for the laughs, for the brilliance, for the spicy margaritas, for the dancing in sequence on dance floors, for... all the advice that she gave me, and all of the things she made me believe were possible to dream.
So without further ado, please enjoy this episode of How to Fail with my friend,
My guest today has taught me so much, despite the fact that until now, I've never actually met her.
Melanie Schilling is known to many of us as one of the therapists on Married at First Sight, the television program where experts match compatible strangers who then meet on their wedding day with fascinating and sometimes explosive results.
Schilling has always been a comforting yet rigorously insightful expert on the couch.
My favourite bits are generally when she calls out a man for his raging misogyny with calm yet lethal precision.
There's now an equally compelling UK version which regularly attracts a massive audience on Twitter as much as on TV.
Schilling, a specialist in human behavior and performance, has built a 20-year career as a therapist, business consultant, and leadership coach for high-performing people.
Her book, the C-word, Confidence, Make Friends with Fear and Build Confidence from the Ground Up, was published last year.
In it, she writes that confidence, courage, and competence have the capacity to shift us from I wish to I did.
And I was already from maths, but your book is brilliant and so full of practical compassion.
And it's one of the few books that I have read for this podcast that it has exclusively garnered five-star reviews from readers.
