Creator Stories: Featuring @cfrankfilms, Carter Franklin

My name is Carter Franklin, I currently work at Ohio State University as a Social Content Specialist and with the NFL as a Live Content Correspondent.

My journey started in college where I attended Ohio Wesleyan University, a small division III school in Delaware, OH where I played baseball and majored in Sports Management and Business Administration. I had an interest in content creation for as long as I can remember, but it wasn’t until the summer leading into my senior year of college that I discovered it was something people were able to make a career out of.

In the fall of 2019, I got my first camera and reached out to the football team at my college to see if they would let me create content for their social media accounts. They took me in with open arms and the rest is history. I fell in love with the process of creating; and the grind of teaching myself everything I know about videography, photography, and storytelling, quickly became a passion. After a full season of working with our football team, I knew this was something I wanted to pursue as a career after graduation.

My senior year of college did not end the way I had hoped. In the spring of 2020, my senior season of baseball was cut short and we were sent home from campus to finish our degrees online due to COVID. Every job or internship that I had applied for or had interviews with were completely eliminated due to covid and budget cuts within teams and organizations. This left me, fresh out of college, pursuing a career as a sports content creator, in a world where sports no longer existed… That left me freelancing, not by my choice, but because I had no other options. At that time, I was shooting as much as I could, some paid work, and a lot of free work. Through the grind of freelancing, I really improved my skills as a creator along with meeting a lot of awesome people.

One day while shooting a recreational basketball game in Cleveland and Cleveland Browns Defensive End Myles Garrett happened to be there playing some pickup basketball. After the game, I went up to him and his social media manager and introduced myself. From there, I grew my relationship with Myles and did some home workout videos with him and some editing work for his social media channels during the 2020 season. After the season Myles asked me to move to Austin, TX to live with him where he would be training during the offseason. After a full offseason of shooting with Myles, the NFL caught wind of what we were doing and reached out to me prior to the 2021 season and offered me the job as an LCC in Cleveland. After my first season with the NFL, a full-time position opened up at Ohio State which brought me to where I am today!

One thing I promised myself after I graduated college is that I would never work a day in my life, doing something I didn’t love. Where I come from, people don’t dream big, they follow the societal norms of going to college, getting a degree, then working a regular, 9–5 job for the rest of their life. I knew that wasn’t for me. I had big dreams. From the moment I picked up my first camera, I knew I wanted to create and tell stories at the highest level.

I feel fortunate now with the two positions I have, that they truly don’t feel like work. The thing that I am most proud of is that I am living my dream every day I wake up.

You can check out Carter’s content and profiles below.

Gondola: https://gondola.cc/CFrankFilms

Instagram: https://www.instagram.com/cfrankfilms/

Twitter: https://twitter.com/CFrankFilms__

TikTok: https://www.tiktok.com/@cfrankfilms?