• How Azra Killru is redefining personal branding for professionals

Personal branding has become the new currency of professional visibility, and Azra Killru is helping people spend it wisely. Through her venture, Main Character Studio, she works with founders, CEOs, business people, and ambitious working professionals to shape how they show up online; authentically, strategically, and with purpose. 

For Azra, personal branding isn’t about curating a façade, it’s about refining the story that’s already there. With experience that spans from award-nominated fiction to high-level marketing campaigns, she brings both creativity and strategy to the table. 

In this conversation with The Daily Morning Brunch, Azra breaks down the philosophy behind Main Character Studio, the mindset shifts professionals need to make, and why the future belongs to those who sound unmistakably human.

Following are excerpts from the interview:

What inspired the name ‘Main Character Studio’, and how does that concept translate into the way you help clients build their personal brand?

The idea behind Main Character is to step into your dream character. Whether that means becoming a successful CEO, an influential leader, an inspiring artist or a go-to consultant, we help clients gain visibility and show up as the version of themselves they’ve always wanted to be. The concept isn’t to create an artificial personality but to refine and amplify the story that’s already there. 

You’ve worked with a wide range of people – from CEOs to independent creatives. What’s one common mindset shift every professional needs to make before building a strong personal brand?

Before starting to work on a personal brand, many professionals need to let go of assumptions that hold them back. There’s this idea that showing up online is vanity, it’s cringe, it’s fake. But that couldn’t be further from the truth.

The first step is understanding it’s about professional positioning so the right people can find you. You could be excellent at what you do but if people don’t know about you, opportunities will pass you by. In simple words, a CV is the old-fashioned way. Your personal brand is the way forward in 2025 and beyond. 

Overcoming these concerns requires a clear strategy and a strong understanding of who you are. That’s where we come in. We help clients become visible and stay consistent without feeling inauthentic.

Your background spans marketing, psychology, and editorial work, and you’re also a published author. How do these different disciplines come together in your approach to personal branding?

My novel ‘Tea Town’ was nominated for the State Literary Award in 2022 and I’m currently working on my next book. Writing novels taught me how to build characters because fiction falls flat without strong characters. Each one needs to sound distinct, with their own motivations, voice and quirks. That skill supports personal branding because every client I work with deserves to sound unmistakably like themselves and that’s one of my strongest skills. 

Meanwhile, my decade-long experience as a copywriter working with leading brands in Sri Lanka and international clients bridges creative writing and marketing. My role is to tell stories that not only sound good but also sell. 

Finally, editorial experience taught me discipline, training me to pay close attention to detail because in editorial work, you can’t afford errors. These disciplines together ensure the work I do for clients is creative and reliable, the kind of foundation you need when your reputation lives online.

What’s a misconception people often have about personal branding, especially among professionals in leadership roles?

We can’t generalise because every leader has a unique perspective, but a common mistake is assuming personal branding isn’t necessary because the company brand is already strong.

But everyone already has a personal brand. It’s the impression you leave, whether or not you’re actively shaping it. At Main Character, we help leaders take control of that narrative so people see who they really are, not just what others assume about them. Personal branding helps connect with the right stakeholders to achieve work goals and, along the way, inspire others who want to learn from your journey.  

With so many people trying to build visibility online, how do you help clients stand out authentically without falling into trends or over-curated personas?

We don’t limit our work to LinkedIn profile makeovers, captions or articles. We take a holistic approach instead. From videos and podcast scripts to workshop content, photoshoot styling and moodboards, every element is considered. Every professional has a different goal and we need to design their deliverables around that. 

Our first step is to decide where our clients should show up and what level of commitment they can realistically maintain. Then we build around that. The result is a presence that sounds and feels like them.

We also encourage clients not to focus too heavily on numbers. Having 100,000 followers is far less meaningful than having 1,000 who genuinely connect with your message. The goal isn’t to be popular but to ensure your ideas, skills and stories reach that one person who could transform your career. 

What makes Main Character different from other personal branding agencies or consultants?

Producing content like a factory line is futile. Like any brand, your personal brand should have a unique selling point (USP) and a strategy to guide it. Main Character is a studio that taps into the power of social media while drawing inspiration from a client’s offline identity to create a brand that feels alive because, ultimately, personal branding is about people.

We work closely with clients to understand their personality, strengths, and values, then translate that into an online presence that works hard for them while they’re busy running their businesses. 

If you could give one piece of advice to someone who’s just starting to build their personal brand in 2025, what would it be – and what’s one mistake they should avoid?

The biggest mistake is sounding the same as everyone else. AI-generated sameness is the new challenge. The future belongs to those who sound like humans again. So the real edge is in maintaining your distinctiveness. 

But with a lot on your plate, it can be challenging to stay consistent, come up with new angles for your stories and present your ideas coherently. Rather than trying to do it all alone, my advice is to outsource it to someone who can support you strategically without you having to micromanage every aspect. The key is not to leave your personal brand to chance.