Is friendly advice... good advice?

kicking off a new show, and how to know when to call a pro

Jan 29, 2025

Advice from a friend can get you unstuck, get you halfway to a solution, or get you in deep trouble! Depending on what you’re struggling with, it’s worth asking - are our friends really equipped to advise us on our toughest problems at home?

This question sits at the heart of my new show, True Home Confessions. Open any social media lately, and you’ll see an abundance of people who can’t wait to tell you everything they (think they) know about what you’ve shared. Advice that’s informed by their life experiences, or second-hand sharing what a friend went through, or perhaps they read an article or two and feel really qualified to tell you how to solve all your problems.

If you’re reading this, it’s possible you’ve been along for the ride with me over the last year, listening to me talk about this project incessantly, and I thank you for your support. If you haven’t, well - hi! I’m Laurie, residential project manager and home improvement producer. I spent the last ten years working with HGTV and a ton of home and lifestyle brands - remodeling and designing spaces, producing digital video series, countless photo galleries, and writing and creating more DIY projects than I personally care to remember. I’ve got 20+ harddrives taking up room in my office to prove it.

Before HGTV scooped me up and kept me busy, I worked in Los Angeles as a project manager and designer - helping clients (often busy writers, actors, and show runners) move their home improvement projects forward while they were at work, making sure they made it through the process with their sanity intact.

Over the last ten years, I realized how many home improvement projects start with a life change: a baby on the way, a financial windfall, a first time home purchase, a marriage or divorce, or a family member moving in or out. All of these projects had emotional undercurrents, swirling around under the floorboards. Being good at my job meant learning how to diagnose and solve emotional and interpersonal problems on the jobsite just as often as it meant finding the perfect contractor or paint color.

Over the years, I used this skill set for my clients, in my work with the network, and for countless friends and family members, when they needed advice on something at home. From real estate inspection reports, to pinterest pages full of interior ideas, to frantic calls trying to figure out how to de-escalate a contractor argument… sometimes I had the answer, and sometimes I needed to tap my deep network to get expert solutions - fast.

Casual advice among friends can pass useful ideas at lightning speed. High protein recipes with Greek yogurt, a simple solution for an ugly stain, the perfect loungewear set that looks put together (still hunting). This is one of the best parts of social media today.

Since I started creating an anonymous confession show, I find myself obsessed with all sorts of advice columnists and call in programs. Some consider the earliest printed advice column originated in 1691 - the Athenian Mercury paper in London. It was so popular, it launched a female-edited spin-off The Ladies’ Mercury paper that answered womens’ questions. It was cancelled after a four week run, some speculated it threatened to take readership away from the original.

Anonymous readers submitted questions like:

Were there any men before Adam?
Is there an impartial and true history of the world?
How can a man know when he dreams or when he is really awake?

People have been asking their elders for guidance since the dawn of time. Some situations don’t have an easy answer. Other times it takes SO long for someone to understand the backstory, like an age-old family feud with a neighbor over a property line, to really understand how it’s escalating today.

It’s easy to feel alone when we end up in a situation at home where we just have no idea how to move forward. Our callers have huge questions like: should I buy a house with my aging, unwell older parent? Looking forward to sharing that one - it’s episode Eight. Questions this big have layers. Interpersonal, financial, medical, familial, ethical. (I’m sure I could think of a few other words that end in ‘al’ but that felt like a solid list)

In each episode of True Home Confessions, we sit in studio to get some friendly advice for our caller, to speculate on the kind of suggestions and solutions they might have already gotten at home before they decided to reach out. It’s such a fun way to start the show!

Many decisions have real-life, long term ramifications. It helps to know when to call in a pro - someone who has spent a career or a lifetime studying and working on sticky situations. Some issues need contractual, professional or legal advice, to keep you on the right side of history, you know?

That’s where the second half of our episodes come in! I bring on an expert, to offer serious advice for our caller, to help solve their problem, or truly get them unstuck. From air quality experts, to lifestyle tech pros, to insurance agents - to CPA’s! Advice from folks like Kevin Espiritu from Epic Gardening, to fiery realtor Glennda Baker, to Zero Waste and Recycling coach Jonathan Levy: each episode has actionable tips for our caller - and our listeners.

Listening to True Home Confessions means you’ll be able to spot these issues before they pop up in your life - and you’ll hear a roadmap for how to get unstuck if an episode hits close to home for you. I hope you’ll consider subscribing?

SPOTIFY
APPLE
YOUTUBE

There are plenty of ways that our friends can offer incredible support when things get tough. I’d be nowhere without mine! And it’s such a healthy practice to just talk to someone, as our expert from Ep. 6 Lori Gottlieb says, friend or therapist.

Wanna be friends here on Substack? toss your email in that lil blue box!