An Interview With Dr. Carla Marie Manly
Cook a new recipe. Try a new hobby. Watch a movie you’ve never seen before. Experiment with how you show up for work. For me that’s trying new techniques, or posting to instagram differently. By doing one new thing a day, big or small, your allowing yourself to gain inspiration and think about things differently. This will help you get out of a rut, to problem solve differently and keep you from feeling burnt out. The smaller your bubble of influence the harder it will be to think creatively.
Growth is an essential part of life, both personally and professionally. Every day presents an opportunity to learn, evolve, and become better versions of ourselves. But how do we seize these opportunities? How do successful writers, leaders, and influencers ensure they are constantly growing and improving? What daily habits, practices, or mindsets contribute to their continual growth? In this interview series, we are talking to authors, leaders, influencers, and anyone who is an authority about “What We Can Do To Grow Every Day”. As a part of this series, I had the pleasure of interviewing Natalie Korman.
Natalie Korman (of Good Earth Photo) is a micro wedding and elopement photographer based in Boise, Idaho, and serves the entire PNW with a focus on nontraditional ceremonies. In an oversaturated industry, Natalie has distinguished herself by offering a safe space and celebrating all things unconventional, empowering her clients to be authentically themselves without fear of judgment. She leverages her commitment to continuous learning and growth as a core part of her brand, ensuring she always delivers her best and demonstrates her dedication to enhancing the client experience.
Thank you so much for your time! I know that you are a very busy person. Our readers would love to “get to know you” a bit better. Can you tell us your “Origin Story”? Can you tell us the story of how you grew up?
I’m just your average chronically ill girlie doing her best. I grew up in Buffalo, NY, and moved to Boise, Idaho, when I was 15. Both my dad and I have multiple autoimmune diseases, and our symptoms worsen in cold, humid, and gloomy places. Boise’s dry air has been a lifesaver for us.
My upbringing was anything but traditional, allowing me to explore who I am and what I stand for. With my mom as the breadwinner and my dad, due to his disabilities, essentially a stay-at-home dad, I gained a perspective most people never experience. Stereotypical gender roles were absent in our home, and I learned early on that people’s opinions don’t define me or hold weight in my mind.
Moving to Idaho was a major culture shock. My friends introduced me as the vegetarian Jew from NY — three things they had never encountered: not eating meat, not being Mormon, and coming from a big blue state. I embraced my uniqueness and attracted friends who also felt like outsiders. I became a unifier of various cliques and groups because I wasn’t afraid to be myself and inspired others to do the same.
Traveling was the only thing I knew I wanted to do when I grew up, so I spent most of my 20s exploring. My dad’s stories of backpacking across Europe fueled my passion for travel. It became my safe space and helped me understand what others felt when they came to me looking for a sense of belonging. Realizing the value of that, I made it my mission to be that person for anyone who needs it.
Can you tell us a bit about what you do professionally, and what brought you to this specific career path?
My butterfly effect on how I got into this industry is a wild ride. Before I can really get into my backstory you need hear about my mom. My mom is a huge inspiration to me. She has always succeeded in male dominated industries showing me that women really can do any thing. My mom taught me it was never too late to change your mind on what you’d like to be when you grew up. She dropped out of high school and later got her GED, and went to college to become an accountant. She learned that wasn’t it for her, and went this time went to night school to become a computer engineer. In her free time she was always creating and in my childhood basement we had a darkroom for her to print her film photography.
Okay so now fast forward to us moving to Idaho while I was in high school. The high school that I transferred over to had a photography program, and I was there as much as possible. Half of my classes were photography or art related and I even placed second in state wide photography competition and won a small scholarship for college for photography. BUT, when I graduated high school I decided to live in the moment, put my camera down and travel. Expect my travels were to roadside attractions and everything off the beaten path. When I got back to Idaho, I tried out multiple different career paths, but ended up in the retail management world, working for a major department store.
While living my best retail girlie life with a job that that had flexible hours, and plenty of vacation time to travel, I met my husband and we got married. When we hired our wedding photographer we were on budget, and didn’t know what to look for or care about when hiring someone to take our photos. So when our engagement session came, I noticed she was shooting in auto and over exposed our entire wedding. It dawned on me then in there that I could do this myself, so that no one else had to go through that experience of not liking your photos and not knowing any better when hiring someone for one of the most important days of your life.
The day we got our photos back is the day I bought a new camera and the first time in over a decade where I picked up a camera other than a cell phone. It felt serendipitous and it was fun to be creative again. From that point on I worked two jobs. I was a still a manager at a department store and now I was a photographer too. I barely knew what it took to run your own business and learned everything through trial and error at the start. I would work my 8 hour shift, get off work, and go straight to a photoshoot and come home and edit until 3am and wake up and go back to work. Rinse and repeat for a year, while also googling and spending countless hours learning how to market yourself and everything related to the back end of a business.
It got to a point where I was turning down clients because of my work schedule. However, that steady paycheck and benefits kept me there longer than it should’ve. It wasn’t until an active shooter situation happened at my work where I was finally ready to take the plunge and haven’t looked back since.
Thank you for all that. Let’s now turn to the main focus of our discussion about Personal Growth. To make sure that we are all on the same page, let’s begin with a simple definition. What does “Personal Growth” mean to you?
Personally I don’t believe we’re ever done learning and growing. There is always something we can we can improve upon, and there is nothing worse than deeming yourself an expert and becoming complacent and stagnate.
Why do you believe that it’s important to commit to growing every day?
By taking steps to grow everyday you’re allowing yourself to try new things, to fail and to become a version of yourself you never imagined could exist.
What are the key upsides for those who mindfully engage in a journey of personal evolution?
When you take the time to self-evaluate you take away the power of criticism and how it can negatively effect you. When you can see and acknowledge your own pitfalls, it won’t hurt when someone else points it out. It allows for you to have a learning experience instead of going on the defensive.
When we stop evolving in intentional ways, what do you think are the biggest downsides?
The biggest downsides is growing complacent and stagnant in your work and in your own life. We are meant to change and grow and when you stop allowing yourself to learn new things it becomes harder when you do want to pick up new skills or try something new. The fear of failure hits harder when you stop allowing yourself trail and error as part of your daily routine. It’s okay to fail, but when you stop trying, you stop allowing yourself to fail and see failure as a negative instead of a positive.
What specific practices, if any, do you have in place to ensure that you don’t become stagnant in life?
I self reflect everyday and figure out what I’m feeling and why. With this I allow myself to have bad days, and explore all of my feelings and emotions, while also making sure that it doesn’t effect my clients or work. Reminding myself that I’m human and it’s okay to not be perfect and that there is beauty in imperfection is big whenever I’m having a bad day.
Making sure that I’m opening myself up to new perspectives is huge. Seeing how others think and see the world allows me connect and learn in new ways. I do this by making sure I surround myself with people who like to challenge themselves, and grow. This friend group is not in the industry that I work in, because I’d like to avoid tunnel vision.
I do however also network and collaborate with people in my industry to allow for new opportunities and there is a huge value in shared experiences. Having people in the industry that understands what you’re going through so that you both can mutually grow it paramount. Especially when this industry can be toxic at times with a competitive mindset, when community is how we all grow.
I also actively seek feedback from my clients to understand their needs and expectations better. This helps me refine my services and ensure I am always improving the client experience.
Is there any particular area of your life where you are most committed to growth (e.g., spiritually, professionally, socially, internally, relationally)?
Yes. Besides growing as a photographer and learning how to do business things (because my creative brain isn’t wired to understand how money works), my husband was recently diagnosed as being on the autistic spectrum and learning how to create an environment and relationship where we both can flourish has been the biggest priority since receiving his diagnosis.
If you could offer five tips to readers on how to stimulate and perpetuate self-growth, what would they be?
1 . Do not be scared to ask for help.
This year I’ve been trying to learn SEO, but no matter how much research I’ve done on my own it just hasn’t clicked for me. So I hired a specialist to help, and at first I wanted to impress her with all of my knowledge and I didn’t want to appear dumb, because I didn’t understand how it worked. After our consultation call, I quickly realized that it was disservice to myself to regurgitate all of the things I’ve read, even though I didn’t understand them. So I checked back in with her and told her to please explain everything to me like I’m five and she gave me platform to ask as many questions as I’d like. Even after she explained a few things, I still had to ask for clarification, and sometimes ask again. It wasn’t a hit to my ego that I didn’t know this and that I couldn’t grasp certain topics, because I knew eventually I would understand as long as I kept asking questions.
2 . Stop comparing yourself to others.
The phrase fake it till you make it is real, and the people you’re comparing yourself to I promise do not have it all figured out like you think they do. I recently became friends with a bigger photographer in the community, and would constantly compare myself to her as she had well over 30k followers on instagram. Once I got to know her I realized she had the same questions as I did, she ran her business in a way that worked for her, but wouldn’t work for me, and that’s okay. Comparison is a thief and you can’t be someone else. By learning what works best for you is going to make you more successful than trying to copy someone else.
3 . Try something new everyday.
Cook a new recipe. Try a new hobby. Watch a movie you’ve never seen before. Experiment with how you show up for work. For me that’s trying new techniques, or posting to instagram differently. By doing one new thing a day, big or small, your allowing yourself to gain inspiration and think about things differently. This will help you get out of a rut, to problem solve differently and keep you from feeling burnt out. The smaller your bubble of influence the harder it will be to think creatively.
4 . Do things for yourself and fill your cup before filling others.
Take the time to figure what makes you happy. You are worthless when you are stressed and burnt out. That is not a life worth living. Currently we are working on this with my husband, as he never got the opportunity to learn who he truly is. He masked his entire life, until he learned he was autistic and now he’s relearning what it means to be himself. Personally I love seeing him transform into this new person with hobbies and feeling fulfilled in all aspects of his life. Without personal growth all other growth will be stunted.
5 . Give yourself permission to fail.
I cannot stress this enough. It’s okay to fail. In any aspect of your life it’s okay to fail. Failure is not a negative and we need to remove that stigma around it. What even is failure?? When something doesn’t work out the way you would like to, that just gives you the opportunity to learn why and become better because of it. The first year that I went full time in my business, I got so sick that I couldn’t work. I made no money but spent so much trying to get my business off the ground. I learned my limitations as a chronically ill person and took the time I needed to rest and get better instead of pushing myself to work as I knew that would only result in making me sicker. Now I know that I need breaks, rest, and to recover mentally and physically for myself and for my clients. By being open and honest with them about my health, I attract clients who are understanding of my limitations and want to work with me anyways because they know that they’re going to get my best self, one that takes care of herself. In turn that allows me to give my clients the attention and experience they deserve.
What advice would you give to someone who feels stuck and unsure of how to start their personal growth journey?
Start small. There is nothing more overwhelming than starting something new and not knowing where to begin. Ask yourself why you want to start your personal growth journey and once you figure out your why you have a jumping off point to start.
Are there any books, podcasts, or other resources that have significantly contributed to your personal growth?
I am not a reader, and I get too distracted to listen to podcasts. Years of working in retail with constant background noise has ruined my ability to listen to anything in the background as I just automatically tune it out. So I put myself out there and go to in person events. The photography community has lots of workshops, that you can go to to learn. For me I use these to talk to new people and force myself out of my bubble. I am naturally an introverted, quiet person when it comes to group settings. I prefer to observe instead of talk, which probably explains a lot about why I’m a photographer. If I don’t put myself in situations that make me uncomfortable I will never learn to get over them, and these workshops help with that while also teaching me new techniques and other related aspects of a photography business.
You are a person of great influence. If you could start a movement that would bring the most amount of good to the most amount of people, what would that be? You never know what your idea can trigger. 🙂
I talk about this a lot to my husband. But I would love to create an education platform for photographers that also works as a community and support system. It can be so lonely working for yourself so having group virtual work dates, and a place to just share everything I’ve learned the hard way. I know there are a lot of educators out there but they’re not all community based, and I would love to make community be the center of the group with in person options as well such as workshops. With these workshops there would also be a focus on wellness and rest because that isn’t often taught in the creative world.
How can our readers further follow your work online?
You can follow me on instagram @goodearth.photo and I also post gallery and resource blogs on my website goodearthphoto.com
Thank you so much for sharing these important insights. We wish you continued success and good health!
About The Interviewer: Dr. Carla Marie Manly — clinical psychologist, author, and advocate — is based in Sonoma County, California. In addition to her clinical practice focusing on relationships and personal transformation, Dr. Manly is deeply invested in her roles as podcaster and speaker. With a refreshingly direct and honest approach — plus a dose of humor — Dr. Manly enjoys supporting others in the ever-evolving journey of life. Her novel self-development paradigm builds resilience, emotional intelligence, and self-esteem. Highlighting the importance of loving connection, her work also focuses on helping others create deeply connected and satisfying intimate and social relationships. Working from a transformative model that honors the body-mind-spirit connection, Dr. Manly offers holistic relationship and wellness seminars around the world. An award-winning author, Dr. Manly’s books, The Joy of Imperfect Love, Date Smart, Joy from Fear, and Aging Joyfully highlight her empowering approach and profound expertise. Host of the captivating podcast, Imperfect Love, Dr. Manly offers uplifting guidance on navigating the messy road of life. Her expertise is also regularly cited in media outlets including The Wall Street Journal, The New York Times, The Los Angeles Times, USA Today, Forbes, Oprah, Newsweek, NBC, HuffPost, Reader’s Digest, Psychology Today, Parade, GQ, Women’s Health, Architectural Digest, Men’s Health, and more.
Growing Every Day: Natalie Korman Of Good Earth Photo On What We Can Do To Grow Every Day was originally published in Authority Magazine on Medium, where people are continuing the conversation by highlighting and responding to this story.