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One of the topics I get questioned about constantly is networking:How important is networking?Can’t I just get really good at my craft so my work speaks for me? (I hate networking!!!)How often do I really need to do it? Today’s guest, Emmy award-winning editor turned director, Kabir Ahktar, ACE feels very strongly that:“It’s really important to stay networking…However much you’re doing, it’s probably not enough.”Kabir has built his entire career through networking and creating genuine relationships, not to mention constantly practicing his craft and doing the work (no matter if he’s getting paid for it or not). His work includes Crazy Ex-Girlfriend, Never Have I Ever, Arrested Development, and The Academy Awards. A three-time Emmy nominee, Kabir won for editing the pilot of Crazy Ex-Girlfriend. He has now transitioned to directing full time having directed 12 episodes of television last season.In our conversation we talk about the skills Kabir developed and the challenges he faced in building the career he enjoys today. We dig into the psychology behind building successful relationships and the perseverance that’s necessary to keep your head in the game and have the confidence to forge ahead, regardless of the setbacks.This is the third episode in a three part series (here’s part 1 with David Rogers and part 2 with Andi Armaganian) with editors who have successfully transitioned to director. If you’re looking to advance your career, sharpen your networking skills, and learn to play the long game, Kabir drops more knowledge bombs that I could keep track of in this interview!Want to Hear More Episodes Like This One?» Click here to subscribe and never miss another episodeHere’s What You’ll Learn:Why Kabir rejects the stereotype that editors work in dark roomsHIs first foray into editing was cutting his own mashups of songs on CD’sHow he learned Avid being a phone tech in collegeHe was an outlier, but it led him nowhere until he built the right relationships.How Kabir avoided being an assistant editor and went straight to editing.Why you want your career to look like a hockey shaped curve.The difference between the rockstar and the artist and which you need to be to avoid burnout.The small steps Kabir took to learn directing in order to make the transition.How his experience as an editor has informed his directing.The secrets he’s learned now that he’s making bigger deals as a directorThe importance of being smart with your money so you can have the power to say no when the opportunity isn’t right.How to know when you should walk away from a job. Useful Resources Mentioned:Four stages of hockey stick growth Kabir’s websiteKabir’s TwitterKabir’s InstagramContinue To Listen & Learn:How to Avoid Getting Pigeonholed, The ‘Concentric Circles of Networking’ & More | with Doc Crotzer, ACEThe Socially Awkward Introvert’s Guide to Networking with Industry “Experts”On the Importance of Building Relationships, Asking Questions, and Never Giving Up | with Andi ArmaganianFrom Scraping Up Cigarette Butts to Editing, Directing, and Producing Emmy-Winning TV Shows | with David RogersEpisode TranscriptOptimize Yourself Podcast DOWNLOADNEW TABZack Arnold 0:00My name is Zack Arnold, I'm a Hollywood film and television editor, a documentary director, a father of two, an American Ninja Warrior in training and the creator of Optimize Yourself. For over 10 years now I have obsessively searched for every possible way to optimize my own creative and athletic performance. And now I'm here to shorten your learning curve. Whether you're a creative professional who edits, writes or directs, you're an entrepreneur, or even if you're a weekend warrior, I strongly believe you can be successful without sacrificing your health, or your sanity in the process. You ready? Let's design the optimized version of you.Hello, and welcome to the Optimize Yourself podcast. If you're a brand new Optimizer, I welcome you and I sincerely hope that you enjoy today's conversation. If you were inspired to take action after listening today, why not tell a friend about the show and help spread the love? And if you're a longtime listener and Optimizer O.G., welcome back. Whether you're brand new, or you're seasoned vet, if you have just 10 seconds today, it would mean the world to me if you click the subscribe button in your podcast app of choice, because the more people that subscribe, the more that iTunes and the other platforms can recognize this show. And thus the more people that you and I can inspire to step outside their comfort zones to reach their greatest potential. And now on to today's show. One of the topics that I get questioned about constantly is networking. How important is networking? Can't I just get really good at my craft? So my work speaks for me because frankly, I hate networking. And how often do I really need to do it? Today's guest Emmy Award winning editor turned director Kabir Ahktar feels very strongly that as he states it is really important to stay networking however much you're doing. It's probably not enough. Kabir has built his entire career through networking and creating genuine relationships, not to mention constantly practicing his craft and doing the work, no matter if he's getting paid for it or not. As you will learn about in our interview, his work includes Crazy Ex Girlfriend and Never Have I Ever, Arrested Development and the Academy Awards just to name a very select few. As a three time Emmy nominee. Kabir won the Emmy for editing the pilot of Crazy Ex Girlfriend, and he has now transitioned to directing full time having directed 12 episodes of TV in the last season. In our conversation, we talked about the skills that Kabir developed and the challenges he faced in building the career that he now enjoys. Today, we dig into the psychology behind building successful relationships, and also the perseverance that's necessary, so you can keep your head in the game and have the confidence to forge ahead regardless of the setbacks. Now, just to note, this is the third in a three part series with editors who've successfully transitioned to director and if you want to listen to the previous two parts, just go back to Episode 125 with David Rogers and Episode 126 with Andi Armaganian. If you are looking to advance your career, sharpen your networking skills and learn how to play the long game could beer drops more knowledge bombs that I could keep track of in this interview, he is a wealth of knowledge. If you are inspired by today's interview, and you would like to up your networking game so you can get the attention of the right people who can help open the right doors that lead you to a more fulfilling and rewarding career path. But your outreach email game is a bit weak. Well, then I invite you to download my Insider's Guide to writing great outreach emails. In this extensive and free by the way guide, I'm going to teach you why cold outreach is the most important soft skill that you must develop if you want to advance your career, which is important now more than ever that we are all stuck at home and cannot network in person. I will also show you the five most common mistakes that people make when writing their outreach messages. And I will bet that you've made at least one of these yourself in the past. And then finally, I'm going to break down step by step in a simple to follow checklist how you can structure an amazing outreach message that is going to provide value to your recipients help you build a lasting relationship instead of feeling like you're just bothering this person and actually get a response to your outreach. So you can then seek advice, connect with a potential mentor, set up lunch meetings and possibly even land your next gig. If you would like to download this brand new guide for free, just visit optimize yourself.me slash email guide. That's all one word, no dashes slash email guide. Alright, without further ado, my conversation with Emmy Award winning editor director Kabir Ahktar made possible today by our amazing sponsors ever cast and Ergodriven, both of whom are going to be featured just a little bit later in today's interview. And as a quick sneak peek Ergodriven has a brand new product that I'm super excited to share with you to access the shownotes for this and all previous episodes, as well as to subscribe so you don't miss the next inspirational interview, please visit optimize yourself.me/podcast.I'm here with Kabir Rockstar who is an Emmy winning director and editor your work include shows like Crazy Ex Girlfriend, and Never Have I Ever, Arrested Development, the Academy Awards. That's just to name a few not even mentioned some of the bigger names that might be coming very, very soon. You're a three time Emmy nominee, you won the award for editing the pilot of Crazy Ex Girlfriend. And now one of the things we're certainly going to talk about today's a you have transitioned to directing full time. And in fact, you directed 12 episodes of TV last season. And the one thing that you left out from your biography is that you and I have been trying to get this call in the books for at least seven or eight years now I've kind of lost track could have been seven because I didn't have a podcast but it's it's been a while it's been a while to finally have you here and finally get this conversation on the record. I'm really excited about this. Thanks for taking the time.Kabir Akhtar 6:01Yeah, of course. It's funny. You're right. I have left that out of my bio somehow I feel like how is that right? I should just update my website and include like, also has been trying to hang with ZackZack Arnold 6:10for like a decade. I agree. It's a big piece of the puzzle. It really really is.Kabir Akhtar 6:14I can't even remember where or when we met. You know, sometimes you really remember where you met a friend or whoever. But I can't remember a time like that. I didn't know you. Were I agree.Zack Arnold 6:24Do you I feel the same way where if somebody were to say, when did you meet Kabir? I can remember 50 different times we bumped into each other had a conversation and chatted. I have no idea when the first time was they all just kind of blend together?Kabir Akhtar 6:36Yeah. Because you know, I've been in a space of 2020 now, so I've been in a city for six years. But I feel like I knew you before then somehow?Zack Arnold 6:43I think so. Yeah, I think that it probably started if I had to venture to guess it was maybe when I was a speaker at Wdit Fest in 2011. That might have been when you and I just kind of maybe gotten mutually introduced or said hello or whatnot. But since then it all just kind of blends together.Kabir Akhtar 6:59Yeah, my first edit fest that I went to I spoke at in probably 13.Zack Arnold 7:04So could it maybe it was later than 2011. I just know that the first time I spoke I talked about Burn Notice and I was working on Burn Notice around 2011 12 somewhere in that area. But it was probably I'm my guess is I would venture to guess that you and I met at edit fest I don't remember doing it because it just seems like every edit fest I check off my list saw Kabir again and we chat. Right. And in any other Ace event or whatever, we always bump into each other and we get the chat. ButKabir Akhtar 7:29now we really tried to make plans. And then it didn't workZack Arnold 7:33yet again, exactly. But we finally made it work. It only took a global pandemic for both of us to find the time on our calendars to have this conversation. And there are a million and a half threads that we could pull. And we could talk about for hours and hours and hours. But I think the value that comes with talking to you and sharing your story with people is helping them better understand first, how it was that you just got into this industry in general. Because my guess is that with your Indian heritage and background that your parents or your culture or your extended family, were not all saying you know what? You should really get into Hollywood because that's just what Indian kids do. Right? So funny so that they so let's start there.Kabir Akhtar 8:10What's funny because my parents moved to this country right before I was born. And you know, they're living the, you know, Indian American, they're not in the America. They're living the Indian dream, like, move here, doctor, nurse, you know, until you drive German cars. That was the plan and it works for them. And yeah, for sure. I remember as a little kid, my parents were definitely like, so you're going to be like, you know, maybe you'll be a doctor. And I'm like, No, as a little kid, I was like, I am not trying to like cut things open and do blood and all this. And I remember my dad saying to me at some point, like elementary school, he's like, well, that's not the whole thing. He's like, that happens for a little part of medical school. But you know, there's lots of types of doctors that don't do that. And I was like, well, you already just had it happens where even part of medical school so forget, and I'm out of here. But you know, I mean, they've always been extremely supportive of whatever, you know, me or my sister we're trying to do. And, you know, it's funny because both of us ended up in creative fields. She's a creative director and graphic designer and does a lot of gigantic ad campaigns and illustrations for the New York Times and who knows what, and you know, I do this, it's it definitely hasn't kind of been a stake. You know, I tell the story a lot, but it's I was in college. And it started off at Penn in engineering because I was like the math and science kid. my whole childhood had been like the math and science kid. And I realized quickly that was not for me at all. I was like, this is like, you know, I like watching like the Discovery Channel special on like, how they made this bridge, you know, but I was not that was not I was not cut out for that sort of work at all. But you know, a friend of mine pointed out to me late in college. He's like you do loads of theater. He's like, that's all you do is like you're in theater more than you're in class. And not just in college. Like I was spending 70 hours a week sometimes in theater dealing with like, you know, lighting design for a long time then directing by the end of it was just like, it was interesting that he said it. I never thought of it as a career possibility. And that didn't really think of myself that way. But even in high school I spent every Saturday in high school 12 hours. Like in the auditorium, like, which I'm pretty sure, you know, most normal people don't do. But he was right. I loved it. I'd always loved it. And, you know, having been a communications major, and being a theater fan being a movie fan, it really made sense when he said it. AndZack Arnold 10:16it was weird because I was like, Oh, I you know, let's try it. And I mean, so far, so good. Well, what I'm curious about is, if I were to tell my story, it starts with what has become kind of a very common story for people, especially those of us that are either millennials or Generation X, somewhere in that kind of xennials, whatever it is, you want to call us. And we all say the same thing. I was running around the house with a video camera, and I was doing VHS tape to tape and I was just putting all this stuff together. And you're saying, I was in theater, and I was doing lighting design, and I was doing directing. So it makes a lot of sense to me how you ended up where you are now as a director…
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