"Half the time I don't feel like I'm qualified to be here. I do suffer from imposter syndrome."
There's a particular kind of hush that falls over a room when someone says the thing everyone has been too afraid to say out loud. At Cromlix, the country house hotel near Dunblane owned by Kim and Andy Murray, that moment came early. Sitting in conversation with egg founder Kylie, Kim admitted that she still doesn't always feel she belongs.
The whole room breathed out. Because if Kim feels it, the rest of us can stop pretending we're meant to feel any different.
Our latest Women on Top brought together a room full of women in business, there to connect, to be inspired, and to hear Kim talk honestly about a life most people only know from the edge of a tennis court. What we got was something far richer. A conversation about reinvention, fear, building a team around your weaknesses, and what luxury really means once you strip away the starch.
Beyond the sidelines
Most people know Kim from the sidelines of some of Britain's biggest sporting moments. Fewer know the woman who stepped in to reimagine and run a capital-intensive country house hotel, in her own words, with "a visual brain, not a numbers brain."
Andy bought Cromlix more than a decade ago, against a chorus of people warning it would be a money pit. When the management contract came up for renewal, Kim had just finished having children and building the family home, and was ready for a challenge. So she stepped in. Properly in.
The result is a five-month refurbishment that has transformed the space, anchored by an old stone wall that had been completely buried and is now the heart of the room.
"We wanted to build something very new that comes off something old and beautiful, a nod to the historic details that make this house so wonderful."
She is the first to admit it has been a steep climb. "It's been a learning curve I was never really prepared for at the time."
A visual brain in a numbers world
The part that landed hardest with the room was Kim's honesty about the bits of running a business that don't come naturally.
"It's not just about choosing wallpapers and fabrics, which is really fun and I love doing that. All of a sudden, it's financial forecasting and budgeting, and it's really not my comfort zone at all."
Every woman in that room recognised the gap between the work you love and the work you have to do. Kim's answer wasn't to fix herself or fake it. It was to build a team around the gap.
"The most important thing is having good people, the right team around you. I always feel safe if I've got people who can do the numbers looking at the numbers."
It's something we say to women in The Lounge all the time. You don't have to be good at everything. You have to be honest about what you're not good at, and brave enough to bring in someone who is.
Redefining what luxury means
If you've ever found a grand hotel a little intimidating, Kim is quietly on your side. Her vision for Cromlix is a gentle rebellion against the starched-tablecloth idea of luxury, something the pandemic shifted for her for good.
"This place used to be a traditional luxury hotel, very suited, quite formal. I wanted to move it away from that. Luxury doesn't have to have really starched tablecloths."
For Kim, real luxury is something simpler and more human.
"Luxury, in its very basic sense, is indulgence, and it's often time-related. It goes hand in hand with having time to indulge in yourself."
You can feel that thinking everywhere. Pre-arrival calls so each stay feels personal, guests on first-name terms with the team, family-run Scottish brands woven through the details, and a soon-to-open women's retreat with a sauna and cold plunge looking out over the loch. She calls it micro-wellness. Walking, foraging, opening the windows, bringing the outside in.
It's the same instinct that draws so many of us to the best of Scottish hospitality. No stuffy formality. Just warmth, done properly.
On fear, and showing up anyway
The most powerful moment of the morning was also the most vulnerable. Kim spoke openly about imposter syndrome, about being known first as someone's wife, and about the fear that comes with taking responsibility for a business.
What she said about that fear is worth holding onto.
"You don't overcome the fear. You're always scared if you run a business, the fear is there every day, and it's a good thing."
And on the discomfort of not being able to control everything, something every founder feels:
"I'm a control freak, I like to be in control of everything, but I can't be, because I'm not here most of the time. So I have to have a huge amount of trust in the people we've got here."
Her advice to anyone thinking about starting or scaling something was simple. Let the nerves come with you. Surround yourself with people who fill your gaps. And back yourself, even when you don't feel ready.
"Just doing it with confidence is half the battle."
Top takeaways
Build a team around your gaps, not around your strengths. Let the fear travel with you, it usually means something matters. Lead with conviction, even on the days you feel out of your depth. And remember that reinvention has no expiry date, you can step into something new at any stage.
Thank you
A huge thank you to Kim for her warmth and honesty, and to the wonderful team at Cromlix for hosting us in such a beautiful setting.
And to our friends and sponsors at FreeAgent, the award-winning accounting software for UK small businesses and landlords, for backing the day and championing this mission alongside us. egg members can enjoy a 30-day free trial, 50% off the first six months, and 10% off for life.
This is exactly why we do Women on Top. Most women come on their own, unsure they belong in the room. They leave knowing they're not the only one.
If you'd like to be in the room next time, our Women on Top Summit returns to Edinburgh in September 2026. We'd love to see you there.
Photographs by Nikki Leadbetter.