To Our Core with Katie Murray

The episode starts with Katie discussing the night she refused to cook dinner, something she shared from her Instagram 'Rule Breaker' series that reached over 120,000 people and gained her over 800 new followers from one reel... and Katie explores why she believes this resonated so deeply with so many.

In this episode, Katie discusses:

• What a self-made rule is: The quiet "shoulds" like a balanced dinner every night, a clean house before guests, instant replies, handling everything alone, and fresh sheets on Sunday.
• Four places rules come from: inheriting them from adults around us, cultural and social media standards, strategies that once kept us safe or loved, and the need to prove we're good enough.
• Three reasons we keep following them: the rule is welded to our identity, our brains forecast disaster (negativity bias), and rules make us feel in control.
• Four steps to loosen a rule: listen for giveaway words, ask who wrote the rule, break it small and treat it as an experiment, and separate the task from the story about you.

"Overthinkers don't need someone showing them a more polished way to be perfect. We need to see someone be imperfect and then be completely fine."

Did this resonate with you?

Connect with Katie:

Come say hi to Katie on Instagram or send her an email at [email protected]

Need more support?

Access Katie's FREE resources here

Explore Katie's work further here or look at the offerings Katie has available

Remember to share this episode with someone who may need this reminder and go on, give this podcast a 5 star review so that it can land in the ears of many more people.

Katie explores why receiving can feel so uncomfortable, especially for high-functioning women who are used to being the giver in every relationship. She breaks down how childhood messaging, conditional care, and identity habits can make compliments, help and love feel risky instead of supportive. 

The episode is a practical and emotional invitation to notice your reflexes, stay with the discomfort and practice letting things in.

Key topics

• In this episode: why receiving a genuine compliment can trigger deflection, minimisation, or quick turnaround praise
• Katie explains how women are often taught to value giving, selflessness, and being “good” over needing, wanting, or asking
• She connects resistance to receiving with nervous system protection, especially when care has historically felt conditional or transactional
• The episode explores the identity of being “the strong one,” “the capable one,” or the “low-maintenance one”
• Katie shows how refusing to receive can create loneliness, surface-level connection, and a feeling of never being fully known
• She points out that deflecting kindness also shortchanges the other person, who wants to contribute, help, or care
• The core question of the episode is whether you extend to yourself the same care you give to other people

Connect with Katie:

Say hi to Katie via her Instagram and let her know what you think of this episode.

Find out ways Katie can support you in the work she offer women via her website and her program offers. 

Free Resources:

Access Katie's FREE Resources here

Content note: This episode discusses childhood sexual abuse, breast cancer, lupus, and serious illness. Please take care while listening. Support services are referenced in the episode’s show notes below.

Katie Murray speaks with guest, Megan Coburn, about what happens when the identity you built around being “the healthy one” is challenged by childhood abuse, breast cancer, lupus and a life-altering medical episode where she feared she was having a stroke. 

This conversation is about more than survival - it’s about identity, self-trust, inner child healing and learning to receive support. Meg shares how she moved from over-exercising, self-blame and emotional suppression toward the belief that she is enough as she is.

The episode also explores the role of intuition, the courage to start over in a new state and the power of choosing yourself even when it feels terrifying.

Key topics

• Meg reflects on how she once used over-exercising and strict routines to prove she was healthy, strong and sufficient.
• Meg discusses the family role she took on as a child: the healthy one alongside a sister living with serious illness, and how that shaped her independence and desire to keep everyone happy.
• Meg shares how childhood sexual abuse contributed to a pattern of running from feelings, disconnecting from her body and blaming herself for something that was never her fault.
• Katie and Meg explore making the unconscious conscious, and how healing began when Meg could see the patterns that were shaping her life.
• Meg recounts her breast cancer diagnosis, her family history, BRCA1 testing, and the shock of hearing, “It’s cancer.”
• We discuss how treatment brought major body and identity decisions, including a double mastectomy and reconstruction.
• Meg describes the night she believed she was having a stroke while alone in a Melbourne apartment, and how that experience showed her how deeply afraid and overwhelmed she felt.
• Meg shares why her lupus diagnosis felt even harder than breast cancer, and how she eventually began to reclaim her agency.
• The conversation turns to receiving help and recognizing that accepting support is not weakness.
• Meg reflects on moving to the Gold Coast in her 40s, leaving behind familiarity to live by the ocean and rediscover who she is beyond illness.

Resources:

Breast Cancer Awareness

Braveheart - Child Sexual Abuse Resources

Lupus Foundation Australasia

Connect with:

Meg Coburn - send Meg a DM on Instagram where you can let her know what you took away from this discussion and purchase her boo: Be Brave, Be Bold, Be You.

Katie via Instagram - to say hi and let her know what you think of her Podcast or visit her website to find out more about the work that Katie offers for women.

Katie talks avoidance, why smart people still get stuck, and what actually helps when insight alone is not enough. She breaks down the hidden fears underneath procrastination, then gives practical ways to make movement feel safer and more possible.

Key topics

• Katie explains that avoidance is usually not laziness or a lack of information, but a cost benefit strategy designed to keep you comfortable and safe.
• She describes how emotional risks like rejection, embarrassment, or failure can trigger the same threat response as physical danger.
• The episode unpacks common disguises for avoidance, including preparation, waiting for the right time, overthinking, and helping everyone else first.
• Katie identifies the deeper fears underneath stuckness: fear of trying and failing publicly, fear of being seen wanting something, and fear of what success would require.
• She emphasizes that understanding your pattern is useful, but awareness alone does not change behavior. Real change comes from experience.
• She reframes courage as building evidence through repeated action, even when fear is still present.
• Katie encourages listeners to make the cost of staying visible instead of only focusing on the cost of acting.
• She offers four practical next steps: shrink the first step, stop waiting to feel ready, and tell someone what you plan to do.
• She closes by reminding listeners that the part of them avoiding action was likely protective once, but may no longer be serving them now.

Resources

The Embodied Mastermind - for women who know what they need to do however need support moving from awareness to action.

Ways to Work with Katie - check out the range of programs and offers Katie has available to you.

Free Resources

Connect with Katie via:

Instagram

Katie's Website

Send her an email: [email protected]

Katie explores why constant busyness can feel safer than rest and how a packed schedule can become part of our identity, not just a reflection of everything we have to do. 

In this episode, she invites listeners to look beneath the rush: What might staying busy be protecting you from, and what are you missing while you keep moving?

Key Themes:

• What Katie means by the “rush trap,” and why it goes deeper than having too much to do
• How busyness can become proof that we matter, have value, and are needed
• Why stopping may feel uncomfortable or even threatening
• The emotions and difficult questions that constant motion can help us avoid
• Why awareness alone may not be enough to change a long-standing pattern
• Three reasons the rush trap persists: habit, fear of judgment, and avoidance
• Questions to help you notice what comes up when life gets quiet
• Small ways to return to the present without overhauling your schedule

Want further support around this?

Click here to explore ways to Work with Katie

Explore Katie's Website here

Connect with Katie via Instagram or send her an email at [email protected]

Katie marks the first year of To Our Core with a reflective solo episode about what it took to build the show, what she learned from showing up every week, and why consistency matters more than confidence at the start. She also looks back at the conversations and themes that shaped the show, from identity and resentment to ADHD, burnout, trauma, and self-trust.

This episode is a celebration, and it is also a practical reminder that courage gets you started and repetition is what actually creates the magic.

Katie speaks candidly about nerves, imperfection and the pride that comes from keeping a promise to yourself.

Key topics

• Katie celebrates 12 months of podcasting, 54 episodes, and several bonus episodes without missing a week.
• She explains how the show began with uncertainty, fear and no real proof that anyone would care.
• She reflects on what real consistency looks like, especially when she feels flat, busy, or imperfect.
• She revisits the core themes of the podcast, including identity, the good girl tax, resentment, imposter syndrome, invisible load, perfectionism, and the stories we tell ourselves.
• Katie pays tribute to her guests and the vulnerability they brought to conversations about motherhood, career pivots, music, addiction, mental health, trauma, identity, reality TV, ADHD, and coaching.
• She emphasizes that every episode was built around one idea: someone listening might feel less alone or see themselves differently.

To Connect with Katie:

Go say hi to her on Instagram or send her an email at [email protected] 

Visit her website at Katie Murray Coaching and find out ways that she can support you HERE.

Katie also has FREE Resources available to support you.

Katie speaks with Zoe, a salon owner, mum, wife, and mentor who has struggled with perfectionism, shame, and the inner critic that kept her feeling not enough for years. This conversation explores how coaching helped Zoe move from self-judgment and fear of vulnerability toward self-trust, repair, and a kinder inner voice.

Katie and Zoe discuss how early comparison shaped Zoe’s self-talk, why vulnerability felt unsafe, and what changed when she learned to challenge her thoughts instead of treating them as facts.

Key topics

• Zoe’s struggles with perfectionism, fear of failure, and a constant feeling of not being enough
• Why “good enough” felt impossible to define as a wife, mum, and business owner
• How the inner critic can make us focus on negative feedback and overlook positive evidence
• The impact of childhood comparison on Zoe’s self-talk
• Zoe’s fears about vulnerability, asking for help, and being seen as broken
• How silence and thoughtful questions in coaching can create space for self-discovery
• Practical ways to catch and challenge self-critical thoughts
• Why building new thought patterns takes practice, and how the process becomes more natural over time
• Finding joy in small wins and responding to difficult moments without turning them into a story about personal failure
• Zoe’s advice for anyone who feels scared but senses they may be ready for change

Want support like Zoe received?

Connect with Katie on Instagram and tell her what landed for your from this episode or explore what working with Katie could be like for you by visiting her Website HERE

In this episode of To Our Core, Katie explores one of the most powerful forces shaping our lives: the stories we tell ourselves about who we are.

So much of how we describe ourselves sounds like fact... “I’m not creative,” “I’m bad with money,” “I always put everyone else first.” Yet what if those aren’t facts at all? What if they’re old stories, formed from childhood experiences, repeated often enough to feel true, and quietly shaping the choices we make today?

Katie breaks down where these self-stories come from, why the brain holds onto them so tightly, and how they can become self-fulfilling loops. She also shares a practical framework for changing them: notice the story, question whether it’s actually true, look for the evidence you’ve been dismissing, and start building lived experiences that challenge the old narrative.

This episode is a reminder that you are not the old draft you’ve been carrying around. You’re allowed to revise it into something more honest, more accurate, and more fair.

In this episode, you’ll learn:

• Why self-descriptions often function as stories rather than facts
• How childhood, family culture, and single experiences shape identity
• Why the brain seeks evidence that confirms what it already believes
• How limiting stories like “I’m not the kind of person who asks for help” can quietly shape your life
• Practical steps to build a truer, more helpful story about yourself

Key moments:

• The difference between facts and stories
• How self-beliefs get formed in childhood
• Why the brain protects familiar narratives
• How to spot “always” language that closes off change
• Ways to gather new evidence and create a more accurate identity story

A few questions to reflect on:

• What story have you been telling yourself for years?
• Is it actually a fact, or just a repeated conclusion?
• What evidence have you been ignoring that challenges it?
• What would change if you told a truer story?

Connect with Katie:

Come and share on Instagram which line from the episode made you question your own story.

Resources:

If you’re ready to explore this work more deeply, check out:

• The Embodied Mastermind - Change, Connection and Community with like-minded women.
• Katie's Free Resources
• Ways to Work with Katie

In this episode, Katie explores a powerful question: Is perfectionism really about high standards, or is it actually protecting us from vulnerability, judgment and the fear of not being enough?

What you’ll hear in this episode

• The hidden function of perfectionism
• Why “high standards” can feel like a badge of honour
• The real cost of perfectionism in starting, resting and relationships
• How perfectionism can become tied to self-worth
• Practical ways to separate your worth from your work

Key ideas

Katie makes the case that perfectionism is not just about quality or excellence. It often acts as a control strategy: if the work is flawless, maybe criticism, rejection, or shame can’t reach you. Yet that strategy comes at a cost:

• Projects stay unfinished
• Delegation becomes difficult
• Rest feels impossible
• Relationships can feel strained
• Worth becomes tied to performance

Practical takeaways

Katie offers a few grounded shifts:

• Notice the difference between “this could be better” and “I’m not good enough”
• Practice doing small things imperfectly on purpose
• Separate the value of the work from the value of you
• Focus on building worth that isn’t dependent on outcomes

If this episode resonated, Katie invites listeners to message her on Instagram at and share which cost of perfectionism shows up most in their life.

Resources

• Work with Katie
• Coaching and community with like-minded women - The Embodied Mastermind
• Free Resources to support you here

Katie Murray challenges the idea that imposter syndrome is simply a untrue distortion by your brain to be fixed by thinking differently. Instead, she reframes it as a useful signal that can point to a real skill gap, an environment that is not designed for you, perfectionist standards, or the normal discomfort of being new.

This episode is a solo conversation focused on why the label can be misleading and what to do instead. Katie walks through four distinct experiences that often get flattened into one term, then offers more practical ways to respond.

Key topics

• In this episode: why the term imposter syndrome was originally an imposter phenomenon and how that shift changed the conversation
• In this episode: how pathologizing the feeling can turn a reasonable response to context into a personal flaw
• In this episode: the difference between a genuine skill gap and self-doubt, including Katie’s own early experience starting the podcast
• In this episode: how a room that was not built for you can create a real sense of not belonging
• In this episode: why perfectionists often feel behind even when their work is objectively strong
• In this episode: why “being new” is not a syndrome, just the natural discomfort of unfamiliar territory
• In this episode: why listing achievements works in some cases but misses the mark in others
• In this episode: why “fake it till you make it” can encourage inauthenticity rather than confidence
• In this episode: why real confidence is acting while doubt is present, not waiting for doubt to disappear
• In this episode: three practical shifts Katie recommends - evidence from action, one vivid memory of competence, and speaking openly about the feeling
• In this episode: why confidence grows faster in community than in isolation

“Real confidence is not the absence of doubt. It is the ability to act when the doubt is present.”

Katie invites listeners to join Fully Expressed, her 12-week group coaching program, and take the next step toward becoming more visible, more honest, and more fully themselves - doors close 13 September 2026.

More about Fully Expressed Here

Connect with Katie:

On Instagram

Through her Website

Or via email at [email protected]