Ditch the Ick with Katie Carson: Redefining Relationships, Self-Worth, and Building Your Dream Life as Millennial and Gen X Women

Psst — this is from my new show, I Thought I Wanted This.

Ditch the Ick grew up. I Thought I Wanted This is about what happens when the life you planned and the life you actually want stop being the same thing: careers, relationships, money, moving across the world and changing your mind out loud. There’ll still be the occasional dating story, but mostly it’s honest conversations with women who’ve been there (or are in the messy middle right now).

If you liked hanging out here, come find us. Follow along on Instagram: @ithoughtiwantedthis.

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Do you actually like the work, or do you just like being good at it? If you were the gifted kid, the eldest daughter or the one who always gets voluntold, this one’s for you.

We dig into how being good at something turns into an identity you never asked for, and why praise and promotions can keep you in a role you don’t enjoy. We also talk about how to tell the difference between liking the work and liking the recognition that comes with it.

In this episode:

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Psst — this is from my new show, I Thought I Wanted This.

Ditch the Ick grew up. I Thought I Wanted This is about what happens when the life you planned and the life you actually want stop being the same thing: careers, relationships, money, moving across the world and changing your mind out loud. There’ll still be the occasional dating story, but mostly it’s honest conversations with women who’ve been there (or are in the messy middle right now).

If you liked hanging out here, come find us. Follow along on Instagram: @ithoughtiwantedthis.

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Ellie Kime thought she’d be a copywriter forever. Then the business she built for freedom started to feel like a trap. So she threw her copywriting offers a retirement party and started over with everyone watching.

We get into how she knew it was time to go and why changing direction publicly can feel like letting people down. We also talk about what the messy middle actually looks like almost a year later: more joy, less income and a lot of experimenting.

In this episode:

About Ellie:
Ellie Kime is a business personality strategist and the founder of Eleanor Mollie, where she helps small business owners put more of their personality forward to stand out from competitors (and robots alike). She’s the host of the Front & Centre podcast, an event MC, and has worked with businesses like [noths] and Pinterest. She doesn’t believe in the phrase “long story short,” and her absolute favourite thing in the world is 0.5 zoom photos.

Connect with us:

Learn more about your ad choices. Visit megaphone.fm/adchoices

Psst — this is from my new show, I Thought I Wanted This.

Ditch the Ick grew up. I Thought I Wanted This is about what happens when the life you planned and the life you actually want stop being the same thing: careers, relationships, money, moving across the world and changing your mind out loud. There’ll still be the occasional dating story, but mostly it’s honest conversations with women who’ve been there (or are in the messy middle right now).

If you liked hanging out here, come find us. Follow along on Instagram: @ithoughtiwantedthis.

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What happens when you finally get the thing you wanted, and it’s not terrible, just fine? We’re kicking off the show with the job I was sure would fix everything, why “fine” can be harder to leave than a disaster, and why we so often need a villain before we let ourselves change our minds.

We also walk through the five questions we’ll come back to all season, and what this show is (and isn’t).

In this episode:

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It's been a year, party people! In this long-overdue episode, I share big news: Ditch the Ick is evolving into a new podcast, I Thought I Wanted This, launching in October. The new show is about pivots, big life changes, and realizing that the thing you thought you wanted isn't always the right fit.

Then I catch you up on life in Italy: immigration headaches, building community, a long-awaited first catcall, and some new experiences (family, you've been warned). I also talk about the guy I've been seeing for a couple of months. We met on Facebook Dating, our first date lasted nine hours, and the whole thing was in Italian.

In this episode:

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The first few episodes of I Thought I Wanted This will also drop on this feed, so stay subscribed!

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I'm kicking off 2026 with some real talk about the Scotsman's chaotic holiday visit and why I had to draw some hard boundaries after watching him turn into someone I barely recognized. After that mess and some honest feedback from my Italian crew, I've decided to do a "Dry Hoo-ha January" – no dating, no apps, just focusing on hobbies and expanding my community here in Florence. Of course, the universe immediately threw me a curveball with a cute guy at the café.

In this episode:

I'm ready to make 2026 about actually living the life I moved here for instead of just filling the time.

Connect with Katie:

⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠https://www.instagram.com/ladykatieabroad/⁠⁠⁠⁠

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⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠https://www.patreon.com/DitchtheIck⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠

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Buckle up, party people, because we're diving deep into the absolute chaos that is dating in Italy as a plus-size woman. And I mean chaos. I thought I'd seen it all with dating in America and the UK (God, I miss dating in the UK), but Italian men have brought a whole new level of wild to my life. We're talking about a culture where men won't be seen with you in public but will absolutely beg to be pegged in private. The machismo is real, the Madonna-whore complex is alive and well, and apparently being over 135 pounds makes you "plus-size" here. It's been eye-opening, honestly, in ways both hilarious and frustrating. The apps have been a disaster (looking at you, mommy guy), and I've officially deleted them all. But you know what? Despite the dating horror show, I'm genuinely the happiest I've ever been. I'm making incredible friends, saying yes to amazing experiences, and living the life I always dreamed about.

In this episode:

If you've been putting off your big move or that thing you've always wanted to do... stop. I promise you it's more possible and more worth it than you think. Even with the dating disasters, this is still the best decision I've ever made.

Connect with Katie:

⁠⁠⁠⁠https://www.instagram.com/ladykatieabroad/⁠⁠⁠

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⁠⁠⁠⁠https://www.patreon.com/DitchtheIck⁠⁠⁠⁠

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Okay party people, it's been a hot fucking minute. Literally. I'm finally back with proof of life and holy shit, these past five months have been an absolute rollercoaster. Between melting into a puddle every time I stepped outside, becoming a hermit with Archie in my AC-dependent bedroom cave, and stress-eating over whether I could communicate "ovarian cyst" in Italian, summer in Florence was not the romantic European dream I sold myself. But spoiler alert: I had the best gynecological appointment of my life, paid less than my monthly US insurance premium, and left with zero surprise bills in the mail.

The lifestyle here is phenomenal even when it's hard as fuck, and I'd be lying if I said I haven't questioned this move a few times. But between friends visiting at the perfect 90-day mark, making new connections at supper clubs, and averaging 6,500 steps a day without even trying, I think I made the right call. Coming up in the next few weeks: Sex and the City Florence edition, the vulnerable shit about starting over, what it's like navigating fatphobia in Italy, and apparently re-working through middle school trauma because that's fun. Send me your questions about literally anything (dating, Archie, making friends in your late 30s, logistical chaos). I'm here for all of it.

Connect with Katie:

⁠⁠⁠https://www.instagram.com/ladykatieabroad/⁠⁠

Join the Patreon Party!

⁠⁠⁠https://www.patreon.com/DitchtheIck⁠⁠⁠

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Four weeks into my big Italian move and I'm hitting that inevitable expat reality check - you know, the part where you realize moving across the world changes everything and also absolutely nothing. I'm sharing the messy, sweaty, hilarious truth about what it's really like when the honeymoon phase wears off and you're left figuring out how to build a life from scratch in a place where your dog speaks better Italian than you do. From the things I wish I'd packed (spoiler: not what you think) to navigating loneliness in paradise, this is your unfiltered update on what happens when you stop romanticizing the move and start actually living it.

Connect with Katie:

⁠⁠https://www.instagram.com/ladykatieabroad/⁠

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Y’all… I’m in the thick of it. I basically Marie Kondo’d my entire life, packed it into a car, and (at the time of recording this) I’m days away from hopping on a plane to Italy with my dog and an even bigger sense of “WTF is happening.” This episode is a real-talk voice note about that weird-ass limbo where everything’s changing but nothing’s quite real yet. If you’ve ever told yourself “I could never do something like that,” I promise—this one might just flip that script.

Inside the chaos, we chat about:

Selling all my sh*t and living out of a car like a hot mess minimalist.

Flying an anxious, oversized dog across the world (pray for Archie and his crate the size of a Smart car).

Letting a maybe-kinda crush help me drive stick (literal, not metaphorical… this time).

Choosing the “scary but exciting” option instead of the “safe but soul-sucking” one—and why it’s worth it.

Connect with Katie:

⁠https://www.instagram.com/ladykatieabroad/

Join the Patreon Party!

⁠https://www.patreon.com/DitchtheIck⁠

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⁠https://www.facebook.com/groups/ditchtheick/

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Katie is back this week with zero spoons, a suitcase full of mental health revelations, and a one-way ticket to Italy (because of course). In this episode, she’s catching you up on burnout, boundaries, and why sometimes moving across the world is the only logical next step when your nervous system is shot. It’s raw, it’s real, it’s deeply relatable—and somehow still funny even when it shouldn't be.

Come for the chaos, stay for the catharsis.

Move Abroad Crash Course: https://freedomlife.thinkific.com/courses/the-move-abroad-crash-course?ref=1dec9d

Finch App: https://finchcare.com/

Connect with Katie:

https://www.instagram.com/ladykatieabroad/

Join the Patreon Party!

https://www.patreon.com/DitchtheIck

Join the Facebook Group:

https://www.facebook.com/groups/ditchtheick/

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