We’re excited to introduce you to the always interesting and insightful Miki Gilmour. We hope you’ll enjoy our conversation with Miki below.
Miki, so great to have you on the platform and excited to have you share your wisdom with our community today. Communication skills often play a powerful role in our ability to be effective and so we’d love to hear about how you developed your communication skills.
I’ve been working on this throughout my career, and some things I learned the hard way. One thing that helped me the most was to find one person on the team who’s very good at communicating with people, and observe that person, watch how they handle the situation and try to learn from it. As a freelancer, I meet a lot of new people, and with almost every project I’m on, there’s at least one or two new people. A few things I make sure to do while I’m on a job are: never assume what people are thinking or expecting, ask as many questions as possible before starting a project, and keep the team posted about what you’re doing if working offsite or remotely.
Let’s take a small detour – maybe you can share a bit about yourself before we dive back into some of the other questions we had for you?
I am a freelance motion picture editor. I mostly edit commercials, short-form or long-form documentaries and social marketing videos. My clients include Apple, Google, Uber, Spotify, Pinterest and others. I like editing because it constantly challenges me to make art out of limited resources, which is footage. Unlike other forms of art, video editing creates art from something that already exists. Every project brings a new challenge, and that helps developing my skillset. I like the feeling that I never stop growing while I work.
Looking back, what do you think were the three qualities, skills, or areas of knowledge that were most impactful in your journey? What advice do you have for folks who are early in their journey in terms of how they can best develop or improve on these?
Patience, open-mindedness, and technical knowledge are the three things I value most. Like most jobs, it takes time to build your career. With me, I was an assistant editor for many years before I became an editor. I saw my friends succeed before me, I also saw many people giving up in the middle of their career. Every time I saw people succeeding or leaving the industry, I made sure to tell myself that my time would come. Being open-minded is very important in my industry. Making videos is a team effort. Everyone has different creative ideas, and sometimes people butt heads when trying to push each other’s ideas. I try to stay open-minded and know that my idea is not the only idea in the world, and that makes it easier to collaborate with others. Staying up to date about computer programs I use daily is another important thing. With technology improving every day, softwares I use also improve, and it often saves time and helps us being more productive. To know what’s new and what will help our work are important parts of the job to me.
Looking back over the past 12 months or so, what do you think has been your biggest area of improvement or growth?
2023 was a whirlwind year for me. For the first half of the year I had a full-time job, then the rest of the year I went back freelancing. During my full-time job period, I lost a good amount of clients from my freelance era because I simply didn’t have a chance to work with them. When I went back to freelance, I started marketing myself and building new relationships with new clients. As a result, I gained over 10 new clients and I am working with them in 2024 as well.
Contact Info:
- Website: https://www.mikigilmour.com/
- Linkedin: www.linkedin.com/in/mikimouse
