Karl Mullins

✦ Holomovement Purpose Lab ✦

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What if the thing you doubted you were good enough for is exactly what you were made for? 

In this episode of the Awaken Your Purpose Podcast, host Zenka Caro sits down with Karl Mullings, a professional photographer who has spent 25 years in northern Arizona capturing people at their most real — seniors, athletes, families, and now a project honoring women's stories.

Karl shares his journey from getting in trouble at Catholic school until a box of flash cubes from his mom changed everything to 15 years as a U.S. Marine, a divorce that made him quit photography entirely, and the mentors — including one paid in Happy Meals — who pushed him back into his craft. Along the way: an unexpected call from TLC to shoot Sister Wives, and his growing project to photograph 31 women in 31 days, honoring the mother who believed in him before he believed in himself.

This conversation explores mentorship, legacy, and the quiet discipline of trusting your gift before anyone else does. Karl explains how purpose rarely arrives as a five-year plan — sometimes it's a nun smiling at a photo you handed her, a nervous senior portrait subject finally relaxing, or just saying hello to a fellow veteran on the street. Living your purpose may be less about proving your talent and more about showing up with it, again and again, until you believe it yourself.

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✦ Enter the Lab ✦

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📚 Browse the research, books, tools + resources: https://www.lightnet.org/labs/purpose

🔎 Search the archives: https://www.holomovement.net/awakenyourpurposepodcast

🧭 Take the quiz + find your stage: https://www.lightnet.org/purpose/quiz

📝 Found your purpose? Add your data + insights: https://www.lightnet.org/labs/purpose?view=my-map

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✦ Guest Bio ✦ 

This conversation explores mentorship, legacy, and the quiet discipline of trusting your gift before anyone else does. Karl explains how purpose rarely arrives as a five-year plan — sometimes it's a nun smiling at a photo you handed her, a nervous senior portrait subject finally relaxing, or just saying hello to a fellow veteran on the street. Living your purpose may be less about proving your talent and more about showing up with it, again and again, until you believe it yourself.

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✦ Guest Links ✦ 

Karl Mullings: https://kfmdesigns.com/ 

✦ Interviewed by Zenka Caro ✦ 

Zenka Caro is a systems-builder, filmmaker, and founder of LightNet, the world's first consciousness research data platform — home to the Holomovement Purpose Lab and the Awaken Your Purpose Podcast. 

Her work spans purpose discovery, group coherence, and consciousness research, with projects ranging from the Dream Machine to the Love Army. Her passion and purpose: making the impossible possible.

Zenka Caro: https://www.zenka.org 

✦ Time Codes ✦ 

00:00 A camera he swore he'd never touch again 

00:46 Welcome to Awaken Your Purpose 

01:05 Meet Karl Mullings 

02:45 Karl's purpose: storytelling 

04:09 The nuns, the flash cubes, and how it started 

05:27 His mom, Coral O'Malley 

07:36 The 31 women, 31 days project 

09:33 Divorce, quitting photography, and Sedona 

11:47 The call from TLC and the Sister Wives shoot 

12:48 Mentors who changed everything 

14:51 Donald Jack and a Happy Meal mentorship 

17:00 The real struggle: valuing your own work 

18:01 What high schoolers taught him 

20:33 A full-circle moment: being asked to teach 

21:07 Advice for anyone who hasn't found their gift 

21:58 A world where everyone lives their purpose 

23:35 Karl's final message: believe in yourself

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✦ Our Mission ✦ 

Thank you for joining us today. Our goal is to help you gather the courage to identify your passion and live your purpose for the sake of yourself and for the sake of us all.

The Awaken Your Purpose Podcast is a collaboration between Holomovement and LightNet. Through a multi-year research project and 100+ interviews, we are mapping the patterns, stages, and methods that help people discover and live their purpose.

✦ 🎙️ Listen to the Awaken Your Purpose Podcast ✦ 

🍎 Apple Podcasts: https://podcasts.apple.com/us/podcast/awaken-your-purpose/id1746656881

🎧 Spotify: https://open.spotify.com/show/1MfzpoYO4V0CvcohVNIhg4

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