We recently connected with Armando Millan and have shared our conversation below.
Hi Armando, great to have you with us today and excited to have you share your wisdom with our readers. Over the years, after speaking with countless do-ers, makers, builders, entrepreneurs, artists and more we’ve noticed that the ability to take risks is central to almost all stories of triumph and so we’re really interested in hearing about your journey with risk and how you developed your risk-taking ability.
My ability to take risk comes from my mom and dad, since I was a child, both of them encourage me to make decisions by myself and to try different things, music instruments, sports, art. Either way if I was or wasn’t “good” at it or if I did or didn’t “like it”, the point was to try something new, develop my decision making, get out of my comfort zone, take a risk and don’t be afraid of a new adventure.
Thanks for sharing that. So, before we get any further into our conversation, can you tell our readers a bit about yourself and what you’re working on?
I’m an artist who’s focus is writing stories about characters that are often overlooked on our society, the purpose of my stories are to give voice to those minorities that don’t have one.
I work as a professional photographer, writer and filmmaker based in Panama, leading a team of 10 people at Three Columns productions, a company I founded on 2020 focused on serving and delivering to comercial clients such as Coca Cola, Nestlé, Converse, Reebok. Our work can be seen across Latin America.
Wether it’s a passion project or a commercial client, I’m most excited about being around creative people, talking and having discussions that move us all forward to achieve the best decisions for the project.
The following month I’ll be announcing the premiere of my latest short film called “SHANTAL”, which is about a transgender girl named Shantal recollecting and sharing her day to a police officer trying to convince her that she didn’t commit the crime that she is blamed for against a powerful politician. Fun fact: Shantal is soon to be a feature film.
There is so much advice out there about all the different skills and qualities folks need to develop in order to succeed in today’s highly competitive environment and often it can feel overwhelming. So, if we had to break it down to just the three that matter most, which three skills or qualities would you focus on?
My journey have been a roller coaster of emotions and projects. Developing these following skills have been the most impactful in my journey:
– Soft skills: When I’m hiring staff I look for leadership, assertive communication, work ethic, passion and purpose.
– Sells: As a CEO of a production company, I’m constantly on a job interview. One job, one client leads to 3 more jobs and clients, learning to sell yourself, your service or product is key for growth.
– Decision making: On both, personal and professional level, I practice and encourage assertive communication, that will lead to more information, ending up on a sharp decision making.
My advice to people on the early stages of their career would be to do it and show it to people, put it out there…. No matter if you have limited knowledge, limited time or limited equipment, eventually you’ll get better equipment, bigger budgets but as an artist you must create, you must express it, you must find a voice and that come to surface by doing it, by constant practice.
What’s been one of your main areas of growth this year?
The biggest improvement has been on my spiritual and mental health. I strongly believe that what’s inside, weather “positive” or “negative”, bleeds into different areas of life, such as, personal, family, friends, job, hobby, physical, etc.
Since working on myself and wellbeing, I’ve seen huge transformations, empathy of the people around me on a personal and profesional level, empathy leads to difficult conversations that leads to better relations, better understanding to each other, developed a calm mind to make better decisions on the long run, improvement on my physical body leads to more confidence, confidence leads to better performing at sells, closing sells leads to company growth.
Contact Info:
- Website: https://drive.google.com/file/d/1YltPSkFXcIGzSeY-EVK7RA4op1fwnaRo/view?usp=share_link
- Instagram: @ArmandoMillan30
- Linkedin: www.linkedin.com/in/armando-millán-a13633123
- Youtube: https://www.youtube.com/channel/UCqI5YYXArek-Vdi6utrKHfw
Image Credits
Jonathan Amaya, Paul Castillero, Javier Ortega, Armando Millan, Jordan Knapp
