10 Questions with Jeff Frandsen

1. What is your name? Jeff Frandsen

2. How old are you? 23 years old

3. What do you do with your life? I'm a freelance photographer, I own and operate Jeff Frandsen Photography. I also have my own baseball blog, Half Mental.

4. What is your favorite activity? Watching baseball, especially the Mets. I watch at least an inning of over 125 baseball games a season.

5. Who is your greatest role model? My grandfather Don. Even though he passed away while I was in my early teens, to this day I remember all the values he pushed upon my life. Check nutrition labels, just a pinch of salt, never say "want," don't fart in public. The little things that made me the person who I am today. He worked for his whole life and dedicated himself to his family. And someday, I wish to cook as well as he did.

6. What is your greatest fear? Failure, which feeds from my perfectionist tendencies.

7. What are you most passionate about? Well that's easy. Photography and baseball. At any point in time, I can take the world, camera in hand, and prove that life is happening. And not only do I have the power to prove this, I am capable of uniquely and artistically telling the stories of the beautiful people around me. And being a Mets fan gives me my understanding of patience. I could rant for years about baseball, but let's just say I'm obsessed.

8. Where do you see yourself one year from today? From today? I see myself as happy. Busy, driven, motivated, inspired and just plain happy.

9. Who is your favorite person? Why? If I wanted to be funny I'd say my future wife. But in all honesty, I can't pinpoint ONE person to say is my favorite. I'm blessed to have the friends and family that I have today. Anyone that takes time out of their day to talk to me, get to know me, experience life with me is my favorite. So if that includes you, thanks.

10. What is your favorite quote? "Maxima enim..patientia virtus" or "patience is a virtue." I preach to others about patience and self control all the time, but struggle with it myself. When I was in high school, my best friend Jenna had told it to me and it has forever stood in my mind. Patience is a virtue.

LINKS: www.jefffrandsen.com & www.halfmental.com

TWITTER ID: @jefffrandsen & @halfmentalblog

Everything Is Relational

God's desire is for us to be in a relationship with Him. He wants us to trust, love and depend on Him and Him alone. In the garden of eden God walked with Adam, talked with Adam and had a relationship with Adam. Sin entered the world and destroyed that relationship, but God in all his goodness and grace sent Jesus to be a bridge to restore that relationship between us and God. God has always desired us to be in relationship with him, but also with others. In Genesis God said, "It's not good for man to be alone" so he made Eve. The reason I am saying all of this is because God wants us to be in relationships, with Him and with others, so why wouldn't he want the same with our businesses? Why are we quick to help a friend in need but slow to help another business in need? Are we afraid that if we help them they are going to surpass us and be better than us?

Brooke and I went to Las Vegas for WPPI and we got the chance to listen to the wonderful Dane Sanders who touched on this point by saying, "If we tell everyone our secrets we will have to find new ways to be better and if we all get better we all win." I love a lot of things about Dane Sanders, but what really inspires me is the way that he wants to make everyone better at being a photographer. There are a lot of photographers in the industry that aren't friendly. They don't like new photographers, they don't want to help anyone because they are afraid that if they do they will eliminate their own jobs. It's the same in the t-shirt industry. There is so much negativity on the blogs and forums out there because t-shirt companies don't want other t-shirt companies to succeed. They are afraid that if another succeeds that means they will fail.

I used to struggle with jealousy toward other clothing companies, but over the past year God has really been working on my heart to show me that if we aren't stingy with our advice and look to help each other, everyone wins. It all goes back to everything being relational. I don't think God has different plans for our personal and business lives. Our business should be another extension where we can express the love and grace of Christ to the world. We shouldn't be relational with our social life and stingy in our business life. We should look to bless the start-ups in the same way we look to bless friends and family in need. Being the light of the world is about using every venue you have to express the love of Christ, so let's start using our businesses to do this.

Imagine with me for a second if every Christian business owner looked to bless someone in the same industry that wasn't a Christian? Jesus says, "love your enemies" and I think that can translate to the business world as, "love your competition."

Self-Control is Not Optional.

Self-control is not optional, it is a fruit of the spirit. About a month ago I thought it would be a good idea to give up sweets for a month, so my wife and I did. Now if you know my wife you would know that this isn't an easy task because she loves chocolate. Also, if you know me at all, you know that I love Coca-Cola. I would rather drink Coke than eat any dessert any day of the week. I really love it, but I had noticed that there was some extra area around my sides that I didn't always have so I thought giving up sweets would help eliminate that and get me back down to "fighting weight." My wife, who is a total fox, just did it with me to show her love and support. Seriously, she is awesome.

So it's been about a month and it hasn't been the easiest thing. Through the process I've noticed two things. One, I really drank a lot of soda and ate way more sweets then I thought I did. And two, that self-control is hard. Throughout this month God has really been giving me a new picture of self-control. The phrase "self-control" appears in the Bible six times. It's most famous appearance comes in Galations 5:22-24 which reads, "But the fruit of the Spirit is love, joy, peace, patience, kindness, goodness, faithfulness, gentleness and self-control. Against such things there is no law. Those who belong to Christ Jesus have crucified the sinful nature with its passions and desires." Now I won't claim I am a Bible expert but this sounds pretty straight forward to me and I am going to write it out in my own words and really emphasize the self-control part. All the other parts are important but I am just talking about self-control.

The fruit of the spirit, which you are given by God when you ask him to take over your life, is self-control. Self-control is not a spiritual gift, it does not come down like a lighting bolt and take away all your bad desires immediately. It must be practiced, it must be trained and it must grow, like fruit does. God has given you self-control when he gave you His spirit so stop asking for it over and over again thinking that it will come down on a cloud and engulf you, it won't. If you have a bad habit that you want to stop, start using the spirit of God that dwells in you to stop it. Stop saying "we'll pray about it" and start saying "God has given me self-control and with his spirit all things are possible and I will stop." I think we've gotten so wussy as Christians and if something is hard we give up and chalk it up to "trials" and sweep it under the table, when really, we should be using the power of the almighty God to help us quit what we are doing.

If your overweight it's only up to you to lose weight. If you bite your nails it's only up to you stop. If you look at porn it's only up to you to stop. If you are addicted to drinking it's only up to you stop. If you are a liar it's only up to you to tell the truth.

God has given us the free gift of his spirit to bless our lives and to live the way he desires, why don't we unwrap that gift and take advantage of the power it holds. I am not saying that addictions aren't hard to break and habits can be reversed overnight, but I am saying let's stop making excuses and start living the spirit filled, self-controlled lives that God wants us to.

In Philippians 4:13 it says, "I can do everything through him who gives me strength." Why aren't we using the strength? What are we waiting for?

It's been a month and I still want to drink a Coca-Cola more than anything. The desire is still there but the self-control, by the power and grace of God, is outweighing the desire. If you have something you want to quit or stop or not do as much it will take practice, it will take time, but it is possible. God will help you if you have his spirit within you, but you have to make the first step, you have to go for it. My practical advice is to tell someone, post it on facebook or twitter. Tell people that you are going to try something that will be hard and have them get around you and hold you accountable, support you and even join you. Take that first step, use God's spirit, practice self-control and your life will change for the better.

Busy, busy, busy

My wife and I are wedding and portrait photographers. Basically that means from May to August we are totally swamped with work. We also own and operate a clothing company. That means during the summer we hit the road and go to a few music festivals to sell our shirts. During the summer we are busy. This summer has been even busier than summers past. We have booked double the amount of weddings we had last summer and also doubled the amount of festivals we are going to. I just want to clarify something, I am not saying all this so you think that I am so awesome and such a hard worker. That is not the point of this post. The point of this post is this: Busyness comes, whether you are a wedding photographer or astronaut, busyness comes. I think that we have a very important decision to make in the face of busyness and that is "what matters to you?" I mean what really matters to you way down in your soul because it's now time to make some cuts. I've found that through this busy season I need to take time. Time to breathe, time to relax, time to love, time to pray, time to focus on how I can be my best. The tendency is to just dive into all the busyness and play catch up later.

I want to neglect a lot of things in the name of busyness. I want to neglect my relationship with the Lord. I want to neglect working out, relaxing with my wife, prayer, eating healthy, doing chores and I constantly have to stop and remind myself that I need to make time for what matters. I need to let God know that even in my busiest time of life that he is my center and strength. I need to love my wife through all the stuff we need to get done. I need to love myself, eat healthy and exercise because I want to live a long fulfilling life. I can't let busyness become my excuse. Busyness cannot become my idol.

One of my greatest mentors, Brian, told me one time that you don't want to be a frog in hot water. Here is what he meant by that: If you put a frog into boiling water it will jump right out, but if you put a frog in cold water and slowly heat it up the frog will sit in their until it boils to death. The point is that we don't want to slowly accept things we don't like in the name of busyness. We don't want to play catch up on the things that are important, because I think after all the busyness is over we will not be the person that we want to be. Take care of the things near and dear to your heart. Spend time with God, love your family, take care of yourself in the midst of busyness because if you can do it then you can do it all the time and if you can do it all the time your life will be better.

10 Reasons why I love Ugmonk

I absolutely love t-shirts. Anytime I walk into any store I carefully examine the shirts they have. I will feel the quality, look at the printing, and check the tags. I started my own clothing company, walk in love. clothing, almost five years ago and have learned a lot along my way. One thing that I've always made a point of doing is staying true to our brand. The walk in love. clothing mission statement starts with "walk in love. clothing is simple." The point of all this is to say that in a world of t-shirt companies with zombies, blood, obnoxious design it is so refreshing to find companies who keep it simple and nail it. One of those companies is Ugmonk and here are my ten reasons I why I love them.

1. Simple Design 2. Oversized printing 3. Great details. They have printed tags inside and a little tag sewn on the outside. 4. Great blog and online shop design. 5. They are passionate about typography and it comes through in their brand 6. They know who they are as a brand and they are all in on it. 7. A majority of their shirts are one color prints, which I love! 8. They give back. During the Christmas season they use a portion of their proceeds to provide Christmas gifts for the needy. 9. Great quality shirts and printing. 10. Jeff Sheldon. Jeff is the founder/owner of Ugmonk and although I don't know him I've e-mailed him on occasion and he is super kind and friendly. Also my wife ordered shirts for me for my birthday and she e-mailed him to see if he could make sure they were here on time and he made sure they got here.

Basically Ugmonk rocks and if you want to get some great t-shirts to wear around check out his online store and show them some love. Also, Jeff just went full time doing Ugmonk so I am sure he would appreciate a few extra orders!

10 Ways to be more Productive

So this week Brooke and I have crazy to-do lists. You can see them here. I've been thinking a lot about how to get things done. I am a pretty productive person so I thought I would share some simple ideas that I use. Now I know that I am not the creator of these ideas but I do use them and can vouch that they work well. 1. Only check your e-mail 2 times a day. I picked up this little gem from Timothy Ferris's book The Four Hour Work Week. We get so busy with checking our e-mail every time it dings! Just turn of the sound and schedule two different times of the day where you only do e-mail. I do mine first thing in the morning and right after I come back from eating lunch, that works for me, but find what works for you.

2. Make a List. I make lists for what I need to do for the day, the week and the next two weeks. I think it helps you plan what is actually in front of you, but also keeping an eye on the future. I also recomend making lists that you have a place to check off. Doing things is so much better when you get to check off that little box afterward. Sometimes I will write things on my list that I've already done just so I can pump myself up by checking the box.

3. Start your biggest projects at the beginning of the week. I am a firm believer in getting the hard stuff out of the way first. You will be focused and your work will be better if you do the hard stuff first. If you wait till it's almost due you will rush and not do your best. Always do your best.

4. Research ways to do things faster. The likelihood of you being the first to do something is pretty slim. So, find out if there are ways to do something faster. There are youtube videos and books on how to do things faster, research them and teach yourself how to do things the fastest way. If it's something you do a lot it will save you a lot of time.

5. Stay off the internet while working on projects. This is a pretty basic one, but is so crucial to getting things done. Obviously if your task is on the internet then only stay on the sites you need to be on.

6. Do one project at a time. This is really hard for me to do, but I find that I do my best work when I am all in on a project. Your work will be better and you will finish faster.

7. Set a schedule (bedtime included). Schedules are so important. You need to give yourself time to do things. Also give yourself a bedtime, you will sleep better and have a lot more energy to do what you need to do.

8. Don't be afraid to ask for help. Look to friends, forums and blogs to find out how to do something. I remember when I started doing wordpress blogs I had so much trouble, but I just started watching videos and slowly chipped away at it.

9. Check twitter and facebook in the bathroom (sit down only). Now this one might sound silly, but when I use the bathroom, I check/update my facebook and twitter via my iphone. It kills two birds with one stone and you aren't constantly checking it while sitting at your computer. It seems weird, but it will save you time, plus everyone does it.

10. Just do it. This is the famous Nike tag line, but it's so true. If you just go all in and do something the best you can, you will get it done and people will probably love it. So just do it.