Lay Low Pod

Erin Madsen
  • 4.4 (14)
  • Personal Journals

Welcome to the Lay Low Pod — the podcast about becoming who you were always meant to be. Hosted by entrepreneur, mother, and modern-day reinventor Erin Madsen, Lay Low is where deep conversations meet real life. We talk about growth, relationships, healing, ambition, energy, identity shifts, business, motherhood, heartbreak, confidence, and building a life that actually feels good to live. Some episodes feel like a late-night conversation with your smartest friend. Some feel like therapy. Some feel like the push you needed to finally change your environment, trust yourself, and evolve. This is for the people in-between versions of themselves. The ones outgrowing old lives. The ones quietly becoming. So pour the wine, go for the drive, take the walk, or lay low for a minute. You’re right on time.

  1. 3d ago

    Episode 24: The Best Worst Option

    Episode 24: The Best Worst Option — with Colt Madsen Erin sits down with her youngest son, Colt Madsen, less than 24 hours after he returns home from five and a half months away in Texas. What starts as a catch-up about summer sales, rejection, consistency, and growing up quickly turns into one of the most honest and vulnerable conversations they’ve ever had. For the first time, Erin gets to hear parts of their family story completely through Colt’s eyes. Sometimes life doesn’t give you a good option and a bad option. Sometimes it gives you a best worst option—and you figure out how to grow from it. In this episode, Erin and Colt talk about: • What Colt thinks Erin got right—and wrong—as a mom • Divorce through the eyes of a child and the memories that stayed with him • Losing the feeling of having a true “home base” • A difficult period in high school that Colt never fully shared with his parents • Why living with his best friend’s family became the best option during an uncertain time • The effort it took for Erin and Colt to stay connected while living apart • First love, first heartbreak, and losing a family he had also grown attached to • How those experiences affected Colt’s thoughts about love, marriage, and relationships • Faith, choosing not to serve a mission, and what Colt wishes Erin understood about his beliefs • People pleasing, rejection, and what five and a half months of door-to-door sales taught him • The power of consistency and how one difficult summer changed his confidence and perspective • The difference between feeling abandoned and recognizing that sometimes life simply doesn’t go according to plan • How their relationship has changed as Colt has grown from Erin’s little boy into one of her closest friends There are things Erin knew about her son’s childhood, things she thought she understood, and things she hears for the first time while sitting across from him in this conversation. It’s a candid look at what happens when a parent and an adult child revisit the same years from two completely different perspectives—with humor, honesty, forgiveness, and a lot more understanding than they had while living through it. And maybe the biggest lesson of the entire conversation comes in one simple moment. As Erin acknowledges the things she didn’t always get right as a mom, Colt reminds her: “We’re all trying.” Because sometimes there isn’t a perfect decision. Sometimes life doesn’t work out the way anyone planned. You make the best choice you can, keep moving forward, and eventually realize that even the best worst option can become an important part of who you are. Submit listener questions or share your story as a possible pod guest at www.laylowpod.com Thanks for laying low with me. ❤️

  2. Sep 29

    Episode 23: When Starting Over Isn’t Your Choice

    What happens when the life you thought you were building suddenly falls apart—and you weren't the one who chose it? In Episode 23 of Lay Low Pod, Erin sits down with Julie Jeppson, formally Julie Boyé, a single mom of eight who spent years sharing her family publicly before finding herself navigating a painful and very public divorce. Julie gets real about: • Raising eight kids while rebuilding her own life • Going through a four-year legal battle • Having your marriage end publicly when thousands of people are watching • Mormon culture, marriage and the expectations placed on women • Holding onto faith while questioning the people and systems around you • Financial survival and learning how to provide for a family on your own • Anger, grief and why healing doesn't happen on anyone else's timeline • Finding your voice after feeling silenced • The pressure to “give yourself grace” when you're still in survival mode • Letting go of the life you thought you were supposed to have • Reinventing yourself when you don't even know what comes next • Figuring out who you are outside of being a wife and mom This isn't just a conversation about divorce. It's about what happens when change chooses YOU—and how you begin putting yourself back together when the life you planned is no longer the life you're living. Julie is still in the messy middle of it, and that's exactly what makes this conversation so real. Submit listener questions or share your story as a possible pod guest at www.laylowpod.com Thanks for laying low with me. ❤️

  3. Sep 22

    Episode 22: Benny Blanco’s Fck Failure: The Messy Middle

    What if you’re not failing—you’re just in the messy middle? This week, Erin is talking about the space between where you started and where you’re going. The part where things don’t always look like you thought they would, the wins aren’t obvious, and you have to keep showing up without knowing exactly how the story ends. Inspired by Benny Blanco’s book Fck Failure*, Erin shares some of her favorite lessons from his career and connects them to her own season of change—especially the way she’s redefining success after years of tying it to money, achievement, and security. Maybe success isn’t just what’s in the bank account. Maybe it’s being happy, healthy, and excited for the future. In this episode: Why the messy middle can feel like failure—even when you’re growingRedefining success beyond money and achievementWhy failure, rejection, and bad seasons are part of winningWhat Benny Blanco’s career teaches us about staying in the gameThe surprising story behind Rihanna’s “Diamonds”The heartbreak behind Justin Bieber’s “Love Yourself”Why a detour can take you somewhere better than the original planLearning when to pause, pivot, and keep goingWhy relationships and the people you build with matterHow to stop moving the goalpost and recognize the life you’ve already builtThe simple “one inch forward” exercise for going after what you really wantYou don’t have to have the whole thing figured out. You don’t even have to know exactly where you’re going. Sometimes you just have to keep moving one inch forward. Because the messy middle isn’t where the story falls apart. It might be where everything starts coming together. Submit listener questions or share your story as a possible pod guest at www.laylowpod.com Thanks for laying low with me. ❤️

  4. Sep 15

    Episode 21: Meet My Psychic: What She Sees That We Don’t

    What if there’s more happening around us than we can see? In this episode of Lay Low, Erin sits down with her personal psychic and medium, Meg, (megtaylorreadings@gmail.com) for an open-minded conversation about intuition, energy, signs, the people we’ve lost, and the things in life we may never be able to fully explain. Meg shares how she discovered her abilities, what it actually feels like to connect with someone who has passed, and the difference between being psychic and being a medium. She also explains why she doesn’t believe a reading should tell someone what to do with their life—but can instead offer clarity, healing, closure, and a different perspective. The conversation also turns to the world right now: why everything seems to feel faster and more intense, the energetic shifts Meg believes are happening, and how self-awareness, perspective, and intuition can help people navigate seasons of uncertainty. And then the conversation gets deeply personal when Erin’s late friend Amberly comes through with a message for her four boys. Whether you believe in psychics and mediums, are completely skeptical, or simply find yourself curious about the things we can’t explain, this episode isn’t about telling anyone what to believe. It’s about staying open to the possibility that life may be bigger than what we can see. In this episode: The difference between a psychic and a mediumHow Meg discovered and developed her abilitiesWhat it feels like to connect with someone who has passedWhy loved ones may send signs from the other sideThe role intuition plays in everyday lifeWhy Meg believes the energy of the world is shiftingCreating your reality without giving away your personal powerFinding peace and perspective in things we can’t explainA beautiful message from Erin’s late friend AmberlyWhy curiosity may matter more than certainty Come curious. You don’t have to understand everything to leave room for something to bring you peace. Submit listener questions or share your story as a possible pod guest at www.laylowpod.com Thanks for laying low with me. ❤️

  5. Sep 8

    Episode 20: Being Selfish Can Save You

    Sometimes being selfish is exactly what saves you. In this episode of Lay Low, Erin sits down with her friend Ryan Gregerson—a divorce attorney, business owner, and host of the Yes And Land podcast—for an honest conversation about divorce, relationships, business, and what happens when choosing yourself means changing the life everyone else expected you to live. Erin shares how Ryan became part of her story during a pivotal time in her life. At their very first mastermind meeting, a vulnerable moment opened the door to conversations and decisions that would eventually change the direction of her life. The conversation turns to a word Erin heard often during her divorce: selfish. What if being selfish isn't always a bad thing? What if there are seasons when taking care of yourself, setting boundaries, making a change, or walking away is actually necessary to save yourself? And because Ryan's podcast finds life lessons through Disney, they even turn to an unlikely source of inspiration: Cruella de Vil. Because maybe there's something to be learned from a woman who knows exactly what she wants, walks into a room like she owns it, and isn't afraid to take up space. Just…leave the puppies alone. In this episode: When choosing yourself gets labeled as selfishWhy sometimes you have to save yourself firstThe vulnerable conversation that helped change Erin's lifeLearning to trust yourself through major life changesWhy divorce doesn't automatically mean a marriage failedWhat Erin and Ryan learned from their own divorcesParenting and co-parenting through changeWhy kids may be more adaptable than we give them credit forDating, relationships, and knowing yourself better the second time aroundThe importance of communication, kindness, and curiosity in relationshipsEntrepreneurship, loneliness, and finding people who understand the weight you carryWhat Cruella de Vil can teach us about confidence, authenticity, and owning a roomFinding the lesson in the chapters of life you never planned for There are times when choosing yourself will disappoint people. There are times when someone may even call you selfish for doing it. But sometimes being selfish isn't about caring less about everyone else. Sometimes it's about finally caring enough about yourself to make the change that saves you. Submit listener questions or share your story as a possible pod guest at www.laylowpod.com Thanks for laying low with me. ❤️

  6. Sep 1

    Episode 19: When Life Cracks Open

    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. ❤️

  7. Aug 25

    Episode 18: Sex, Shame & Utah Culture

    This week, Erin sits down with her friend of over 20 years, Janene, someone she met as a young mom, and reconnected with after both of their divorces. They've built a friendship on disagreeing without breaking, and this episode is exactly that in action.Janene grew up Mormon in Utah County, and what she remembers most isn't church on Sundays — it was survival, image, and learning early that her value was tied to how she looked. Erin and Janene trace the through line from being teenagers with zero real conversations about sex, to marriages that fell apart in very different ways, to a second marriage for Janene that landed her in a one-stoplight town where she was labeled a Jezebel before anyone gave her a chance.But the conversation goes deeper, too. They get into the pattern they both keep circling back to: how, over and over, when a man in their life messed up, the blame somehow found its way back to them. Erin tells a deeply personal story she's never told Janene before. Janene opens up about how pressure, guilt, and a desire pulled her toward experiences — including swinging — that she now recognizes she didn't actually want.This episode includes:How Erin and Janene met at work over 20 years ago, and how they found their way back to each other post-divorceGrowing up Mormon in Utah County vs. being Mormon-adjacent — and why that distinction actually mattersThe embarrassing bishop's office story Erin has never told Janene beforeJanene's experience at 16 that taught her exactly how shame gets assigned in these communitiesWhat it felt like to move into a small town as a divorced mom and be treated like an outcastThe real reason Janene believes pornography played a role in her marriageHow "no" turned into pressure, turned into a threesome, turned into swingingErin 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. ❤️

  8. Aug 18

    Episode 17: Letting Go of Survival Mode

    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 itForty-eight hours with her son Colt, a Zach Bryan concert, and the moment she wanted more ofWhere her survival mode really started — and the two decades it took her to noticeThe investment that set her first marriage back in a way she never fully recovered fromThe red flag she didn't see until it became the biggest lesson of her last relationshipWhat she actually needs from a partner going forwardSmall, intentional changes: pink shoes, cutting a ten-hour-a-week habit, and leaving an office she's outgrownWhy "more moments like this" might be the most powerful thing you say to yourself all yearA 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. ❤️

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4.4
out of 5
14 Ratings

About

Welcome to the Lay Low Pod — the podcast about becoming who you were always meant to be. Hosted by entrepreneur, mother, and modern-day reinventor Erin Madsen, Lay Low is where deep conversations meet real life. We talk about growth, relationships, healing, ambition, energy, identity shifts, business, motherhood, heartbreak, confidence, and building a life that actually feels good to live. Some episodes feel like a late-night conversation with your smartest friend. Some feel like therapy. Some feel like the push you needed to finally change your environment, trust yourself, and evolve. This is for the people in-between versions of themselves. The ones outgrowing old lives. The ones quietly becoming. So pour the wine, go for the drive, take the walk, or lay low for a minute. You’re right on time.

Information

  • Creator
    Erin Madsen
  • Years Active
    2026
  • Episodes
    24
  • Rating
    Explicit
  • Copyright
    © 2026 Erin Madsen

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