We caught up with the brilliant and insightful Nathan Franklin a few weeks ago and have shared our conversation below.

Nathan, thanks for joining us, excited to have you contributing your stories and insights. One of the most important things small businesses can do, in our view, is to serve underserved communities that are ignored by giant corporations who often are just creating mass-market, one-size-fits-all solutions. Talk to us about how you serve an underserved community.

I spent a year living in Central America as a missionary. During my time I had the privilege of photographing the work we were doing and also teaching a photography class. Teaching the class was the most fun because it was the first time I had done anything of the sort and it was in Spanish, which I was not fluent in. I feel like in my preparation to teach, I learned so much. Getting to teach a skill like photography to my friends who would have never had the chance otherwise was so rewarding.

Awesome – so before we get into the rest of our questions, can you briefly introduce yourself to our readers.

For me to get where I am now has been a long journey. Though I am only 22 years old, I have seen a lot. My love for photography started at a young age. When other kids were asking for video game consoles for Christmas, I was asking for cameras. This passion grew with the advent of Instagram. It was the “cool” thing to do at the time, but I discovered a real passion for it and people kept telling me that I had an eye for it. I got my first DSLR when I was about 14 or 15 and since then I have been shooting on and off. I really honed in my craft in high school through my Photojournalism and Yearbook classes. I had a teacher who was very encouraging and helped me learn in my own way. Through these classes I learned the more technical side of photography and also developed a love for graphic design.

Now, I work on an in-house marketing team for a Bible School in Dallas, Texas doing both photography and graphic design. I think what sets me apart is my speed. Due to years of tight deadlines, I have learned how to be efficient and quick while still producing a quality product. If something is sprung on the team last minute, the project usually goes to me.

I have been married to my beautiful wife, Sarah, for just over a year and together we started 327 Creative. The name comes from our wedding date, which is March 27th, or 3/27. We have been focusing mainly on photography and small graphic design projects, but we are branching out now and trying web design for the first time. We tried social media management but it wasn’t for us. This business is small and still in the development stages, but it has taught me a lot about entrepreneurship. In all honesty, I’m still figuring out if entrepreneurship is for me.

A few quick facts: I am an introvert, I am a coffee snob, I was the youngest of 5 kids until we adopted 4 more kids, making me the middle of 9 siblings, I was born in Florida but I grew up in Texas, I have a crazy German shepherd/husky mix named Luna, and I prefer an iPad to a desktop for just about everything except the adobe suite (fingers crossed for the day I can have full photoshop and Lightroom on the iPad. One day).

Is there mission driving your creative journey?

My wife and I are called to be missionaries and live in Central America. We feel strongly that this is our life’s purpose and we are currently in the application process to become missionaries. That is why I do what I do. I love bringing joy to others through creative arts, and any money I make from it helps us on our journey to our calling.

How about pivoting – can you share the story of a time you’ve had to pivot?

In the beginning stages of 327 creative, we offered anything and everything. We had a client who wanted us to do social media management for them and we were very excited. This would include creating 2 posts a week for them and helping them take steps to grow their accounts with new content. About one month into our 6 month contract, we realized this wasn’t for us. However, we still had a contract to honor. We did our best to make it through the 6 months with a good attitude, doing the best job we could do, but afterward decided that we wouldn’t be doing any social media management work.

Contact Info:

• Website: https://327creative.myportfolio.com/
• Instagram: @nathan_cef
• Facebook: Nathan Franklin
• Linkedin: Nathanfrankin99
• Twitter: @nathan_cef

Image Credits
Photo of me with the camera by Matthew Norton