Sometimes life changes slowly. And sometimes something happens that shakes everything you thought you knew about yourself, your relationships and the life you thought you were going to have.

Hayden Panettiere calls these moments “life quakes” in her memoir, This Is Me: A Reckoning—and after listening to her tell her own story, Erin couldn't stop thinking about the life quakes that shape all of us.

Erin dives into Hayden's deeply personal memoir and discovers far more connections to her own life than she expected. Hayden spent virtually her entire childhood performing, becoming famous before she was old enough to understand what fame meant. Her story moves through childhood fame, family turmoil, sexuality, motherhood, a traumatic delivery, postpartum anxiety, addiction, rehab, custody, abusive relationships and the complicated ways we sometimes try to survive feelings we don't know how to carry.

In this episode:

• The Lindsay Clancy trial and postpartum mental health
• Why appearing “fine” tells us very little about what's happening underneath
• Hayden growing up in Hollywood and never really knowing life without performing
• Childhood fame, identity and authenticity
• Sexuality and sharing the parts of ourselves we've kept hidden
• Family turmoil, divorce and why “a broken home is still a home”
• Erin's experience creating a new version of home for her boys after divorce
• Hayden's traumatic birth and postpartum experience
• Erin's anxiety after her newborn son was hospitalized with RSV
• Motherhood and the enormous pressure women can carry
• Alcohol, pills, addiction, rehab and attempts to quiet emotional pain
• Motherhood, custody and making painful decisions for your children
• Domestic violence and why leaving isn't always as simple as it looks from the outside
• Shame, survival and finally telling the parts of our stories we'd rather hide
• Why another woman's bravery can make us brave enough to tell our own truth
• “Life quakes” and the experiences that divide our lives into before and after
• Letting go of old versions of ourselves and moving toward a more aligned life

Our hardest experiences don't have to disappear for us to move forward. We can acknowledge the choices we're proud of, the ones we aren't, the things that happened to us and the things we wish we'd done differently—and decide what we're taking with us into the next version of our lives.

Sometimes someone else's bravery gives us permission to be brave too.

Life is short. And a life of alignment is priceless.

Submit listener questions or share your story as a possible pod guest at www.laylowpod.com

Thanks for laying low with me. ❤️

• How Erin and Janene met at work over 20 years ago, and how they found their way back to each other post-divorce

• Growing up Mormon in Utah County vs. being Mormon-adjacent — and why that distinction actually matters

• The embarrassing bishop's office story Erin has never told Janene before

• Janene's experience at 16 that taught her exactly how shame gets assigned in these communities

• What it felt like to move into a small town as a divorced mom and be treated like an outcast

• The real reason Janene believes pornography played a role in her marriage

• How "no" turned into pressure, turned into a threesome, turned into swinging
• Erin and Janene's genuinely different takes on porn — and why they can disagree without it becoming a fight
  

Erin and Janene don't wrap this one up with a bow — there's too much left to say, and they both know it. What they land on instead is the thing that's held their friendship together for two decades: telling the truth, even when it's messy, even when it doesn't make you look good.

Submit listener questions or share your story as a possible pod guest at www.laylowpod.com

Thanks for laying low with me. ❤️

This week on Lay Low, it's just Erin — sitting down to say some things she's needed to get off her chest for a long time. She's spent almost two decades in survival mode — financially, personally, in her work — and she's finally ready to leave that version of herself in the past.

Before diving in, Erin catches listeners up on the week it's been: eclipse season energy, football season, and a documentary she cannot stop thinking about. But the episode goes deeper, too. She opens up about where survival mode actually started — an investment that cost her family everything back when her kids were little, the divorce that followed, and the relationship after that where she finally saw a red flag she'd been missing for years. She talks about what she actually needs from a partner going forward, why hustle isn't the same thing as healing, and the small, intentional changes she's been making lately that are quietly adding up to something bigger.

This episode includes:

• Riding out eclipse-season energy instead of fighting it
• Forty-eight hours with her son Colt, a Zach Bryan concert, and the moment she wanted more of
• Where her survival mode really started — and the two decades it took her to notice
• The investment that set her first marriage back in a way she never fully recovered from
• The red flag she didn't see until it became the biggest lesson of her last relationship
• What she actually needs from a partner going forward
• Small, intentional changes: pink shoes, cutting a ten-hour-a-week habit, and leaving an office she's outgrown
• Why "more moments like this" might be the most powerful thing you say to yourself all year
• A challenge to shake up one thing in your routine this week
  

Maybe the version of herself that's been surviving for so long doesn't have to be the version she brings into what's next.

Submit listener questions or share your story as a possible pod guest at www.laylowpod.com

Thanks for laying low with me. ❤️

This week on Lay Low, Erin sits down with one of her best friends, Tiffany Alder-Bown, for the kind of conversation that happens when two women have known each other through marriages, divorces, raising boys, career changes, unforgettable trips, and a whole lot of life.

Tiffany is a successful real estate broker, mom of three boys, self-proclaimed introvert—and someone Erin wishes could see herself the way the people who love her do.

They talk about growing up before smartphones, social media, location sharing, and security cameras—when dating meant calling someone’s house phone, friendships were built through handwritten notes, directions came from an atlas, photos had to be developed, and your teenage mistakes weren’t permanently documented online.

But the conversation goes deeper, too. Tiffany opens up about getting married young, feeling pressured into decisions before she had fully found her own voice, divorce in a small town, motherhood, friendship, and learning to give younger versions of ourselves a little more grace.

And naturally, there are stories: baseball trips with five boys, espresso martinis in Florence, an impulsive fur coat and diamond purchase, getting separated on the last train of the night, teenage sneaking out, AOL chat rooms, cassette tapes, pagers, and more.

This episode includes:

• Growing up before smartphones, social media, and location sharing
• What dating was like when you had to call the house phone
• Tiffany opening up about marrying young and feeling pressured into a life-changing decision
• Divorce, judgment, and being misunderstood in a small town
• Raising boys and trying to give our kids permission to make mistakes
• The kind of friendship that can survive disagreements, different seasons, and different paths
• Why our younger selves deserve forgiveness instead of judgment
• Pagers, handwritten notes, answering machines, MapQuest, mixtapes, and disposable cameras
• Erin's teenage sneaking-out stories—and why she could never get away with them today
• The infamous Florence night involving espresso martinis, fur, diamonds, wine, and one very unfortunate train ride
• Why some of the best friendships are the ones where someone knows the whole story—and stays

It’s nostalgic, vulnerable, funny, and exactly what Lay Low is about: telling the stories behind the version of ourselves everyone else thinks they know. Maybe growing up before everyone was watching gave us something we didn’t realize we had—the freedom to figure out who we were in private.

Submit listener questions or share your story as a possible pod guest at www.laylowpod.com

Thanks for laying low with me. ❤️

What started as a weekend full of unexpected frustrations—turned into one of the most important moments in Lay Low's journey. In this solo episode, Erin reflects on how losing an entire 45-minute recording forced her to pause and ask a bigger question: What is this podcast really meant to be? The answer surprised her.

Inspired by the overwhelming response to last week's guest, Ed, and witnessing the healing that came from him sharing his story, Erin realizes that Lay Low is becoming much more than a place to tell her own story. It's becoming a safe space where people can release shame, find peace, and discover the freedom that comes from speaking their truth.

In this episode, Erin shares:

• The unexpected lesson hidden inside a weekend where everything seemed to go wrong.
• Why losing an entire podcast episode ended up being exactly what she needed.
• How last week's conversation with Ed transformed her vision for Lay Low.
• Why people don't just need advice—they need permission to tell their stories.
• The importance of honoring your own perspective, even when others experienced the same events differently.
• How shame, guilt, and unspoken experiences can quietly shape our lives until we're ready to release them.
• Erin's vision for creating a community built on honesty, grace, growth, and healing.
• An invitation for listeners to consider whether there's a story in their own lives that could help bring peace—not only to themselves, but to others.
• A look ahead at the future of Lay Low and Erin's hope to leave every person she meets a little better than she found them.

Whether you're in a season of sharing your story or simply listening to someone else's, this episode is a reminder that healing looks different for everyone—and that your hardest chapter never has to become your identity.

Submit listener questions or share your story as a possible pod guest at www.laylowpod.com

Thanks for laying low with me. ❤️

This week on Lay Low, Erin is joined by her friend Ed Terris for one of the podcast's most honest and vulnerable conversations yet.

Ed shares his journey through addiction, rehab, jail, divorce, and ultimately finding his way back to himself. Together, they explore the lies addiction tells, the impact it has on families, why recovery is about so much more than getting sober, and how trust can slowly be rebuilt.

Whether you've struggled with addiction yourself, love someone who has, or simply believe in second chances, this episode is a reminder that our hardest chapters don't have to define the rest of our lives.

In this episode:

• The early warning signs of addiction
• How addiction affects relationships and families
• The role of honesty in healing
• Setting boundaries without giving up on someone you love
• Why your worst decision doesn't have to become your identity
  

If this episode resonates with you, consider sharing it with someone who may need a little hope today. You never know whose life a conversation can change.

Submit listener questions or share your story as a possible pod guest at www.laylowpod.com

Thanks for laying low with me. ❤️

• Why even successful people are still figuring things out

• Learning to trust yourself after making mistakes

• The story of finding the therapist who changed Erin's life

• Books and tools that helped during difficult seasons

• Why growth often begins when your identity changes

• The importance of responding instead of reacting

• Protecting your peace while embracing new opportunities

• Why your next chapter starts before you feel completely ready

Submit listener questions or share your story as a possible pod guest at www.laylowpod.com

Thanks for laying low with me. ❤️

What if feeling rich has very little to do with money?

In this episode of Lay Low, Erin is joined by her cousin Jade for an honest conversation about the mindset, habits, and everyday choices that create a life that feels abundant long before financial success arrives.

Together, they explore how gratitude, authenticity, and finding joy in ordinary moments can transform the way we experience life.

In this episode:

• What it really means to "feel rich"
• Why abundance starts with your mindset
• The truth behind "main character energy"
• Starting over and rebuilding with confidence
• Morning routines that set the tone for your day
• Trusting your intuition and embracing the next step
• Creating a home and environment that elevate your energy
• Finding joy in everyday moments instead of waiting for milestones
• Why perspective is one of the greatest forms of wealth
• Building a life that feels meaningful, fulfilling, and truly your own
  
  Whether you're rebuilding, growing, or simply looking for more joy in your everyday life, this conversation is a reminder that the richest life isn't measured by what's in your bank account—it's measured by how you choose to live each day.

Submit listener questions or share your story as a possible pod guest at www.laylowpod.com

Thanks for laying low with me. ❤️