Started in music journalism. Ended up writing for Bulgari before I could legally rent a car.

I started writing because I couldn't not. Music reviews for magazines nobody read, pitching features about bands who'd peaked five years prior. It turns out that training ground, learning to make something feel worth reading when the subject is deeply niche, is one of the most transferable skills in copywriting.

From there: a magazine internship that put my name next to Bulgari's anniversary retrospective. A phone-hold script company where I wrote up to nine scripts a day for brands across Asia-Pacific. A philanthropic foundation, a food startup, a distillery, tech companies, adult content creators, and a wine brand with a very particular sense of humour. Every one of them needed its own voice, and finding it fast is the job.

The foundation was editorial. Writing music reviews, pitching features, editing copy for publications that were beloved by hundreds of very committed readers. It built habits that stayed: writing to a deadline, writing for an audience who didn't owe you their attention, and learning that a good opening line is the difference between someone reading and someone clicking away.

In 2014, an internship at Box Magazine produced 14+ print articles for some of the most recognisable luxury brands in the world. Luxury writing has to sound confident and warm at the same time, and assume the reader already wants the thing.

The brief ranged from Bulgari's anniversary retrospective to Salvatore Ferragamo's Brisbane boutique launch, plus Jaguar, David Bowie's Louis Vuitton campaign, Swarovski and Rimba by Ayana Bali. All of it had to sit next to very expensive photography and not embarrass it.

Pedestrian readers are younger, more sceptical, and can smell a press release in disguise from a mile off. The job is to write with enough personality that the piece belongs in their feed.

Writing for people who've already decided they don't want to be marketed to turns out to be most of modern content work.

In 2017 I joined Messages on Hold as their youngest copywriter, writing sales content for major companies, hotels and professionals across Asia-Pacific.

It sounds simple until you're doing up to nine a day, jumping from a Mazda dealership to a national bank to a local hotel chain without letting the voices bleed into each other.

I also voiced the scripts, which taught me the best editing rule I know: if you can't read it in one natural breath, it isn't done yet.

Later the writing started carrying more weight: copy that had to rank, launch a business or explain a tech product to people who'd never heard of it.

Freelance has covered a deliberately wide spread: Balenciaga-level copy and a small wine brand run by someone who named their product after a situation. Hilton Hotels and an independent artist with a big vision and a small budget. Rolls Royce and Illegal Tender Distilling Co., which is the most fun brand name in the southern hemisphere.

I like it that way. Switching voices every week keeps me sharp, and clients get someone who can sound like them by Tuesday.