I grew up listening to The Killers and Kurt Cobain, and their MTV unplugged album before school, I was 4. While also asking the big questions: is god real? How are babies made? Do I have to go to school? WHY? 

I was serious about jazz, because jazz took me seriously at 16 when no one else did. It taught me to improvise in a culture that forced me to memorise. More seriously, it taught me to listen. It taught me to empathise. Charlie Parker and Wes Montgomery filled my early evenings with Bebop bliss - empathy was easy. In hindsight, I’m grateful to have been discouraged from studying jazz at university (in hindsight, I was only chasing fame) and since I couldn’t do, I taught music. To date, the hardest job I have ever had. Are you still listening? 
 
Working in the humidity of some of Colombo’s biggest advertising agencies sounds like the hot grind that it is. An aimless 21-year-old creative navigating the ‘Mad-men’ hangover of advertising veterans. Dealing with disagreeable clients and a few great ones across FMCG, babycare, automotive, finance, hospitality and airline. Where were we headed? 

Sri Lanka was recovering from its worst economic crisis, while I discovered the cathartic experience of researching human emotions at a university in London. I understood the correlation between brands and shame. Simultaneously, I was hired as a brand strategy lead at Shape History, an independent social impact agency in London. I took on a few of the largest organisations in the world, recreating their brands or creating them from scratch and starting discourse with their CEOs, investors and stakeholders. Recognising how empathy can inform research decisions, the four-year-old headbanger, 16 year bebop prince, and the 18-year-old music teacher was pleased. Sort of? 

On most days, I get dressed up as a copywriter from Colombo, an award-winning strategist from London, an Economics major, actor, and film enthusiast. I see a world where brands stand for a cause, to better the lives of people. While bringing causes to the front of brands I'm helping them make the big bucks. Your people need a story to invest in, a story of culture, a story of truth, and the story of you. With strategic purpose - we can get there. But let's start with, 'why?'