The sixth profile in this series is Lisa Burton, an audio-first creative, whose role in a successful campaign with Gomez y Guzman (Mexican food chain) was highlighted at the recent Heard Conference. She is passionate about audio, and balances her professional media career with her work as a personal trainer.
The series, Wisdom of Women in Media explores the career and personal journeys of women in the audio media industry. The aim of the series is to reflect on the wisdom they have gained, to mentor and to share their hopes for the industry.
1. Describe your current professional life and your stage of life.
Senior Creative specialising in Audio marketing (broadcast, podcast, streaming). 30+ years experience in the audio entertainment industry including Creative Director ARN Sydney and Creative Director Nova Entertainment Sydney.
Today I describe myself as an Audio-First Creative Lead. I get to give myself my own title because I’m independent. Audio is my expertise and passion. I’m also a registered fitness professional.
2.How did you come to be in this industry?
When I was about 17, we lived in a regional town in the North Island of NZ called New Plymouth. My parents owned a corner dairy (that’s Kiwi talk for convenience store). Staff from the local radio station were regulars. My Dad was always a big supporter of mine. Any chance he got he’d tell them how creative I was. “… and she’s really good at talking. She should be on air.” Finally, the Breakfast Host Roger Tonkin organised for me to go in an do an announcer’s test which I failed horribly because I was so sibilant.
Instead, they asked if I’d like to sit the Radio NZ Copywriter’s Aptitude Test, which I passed with flying colours. That’s how I got my first job in radio.
Theatre was also a huge part of my creative life growing up, both onstage and as a young Director.
Audio production is like being in theatre. We write the script, cast it, direct it and then put on the show. The wonderful thing about making audio ads is that we get to create so many different stories in any genre. Drama, comedy, documentary. We can make a 30 second musical if we want to! It’s the best day-in-the-life ever.
3. What are your core beliefs? How are your values evident in the work you do or the life you lead?
Treat others the way you want to be treated.
Lead as you would like to be led. Serve your customer as you would like to be served. Be the kind of friend you’d like to have. Set the bar. Make your expectations clear and you’ll find your kind of people.
Be fascinated. Not frustrated. I’ve shared this one many times! Certain situations will frustrate us forever. Turn the frustration into a learning experience. Observe. Consider. Be amazed by it so that you can understand better why it happened and with any luck, how to avoid it or improve it in the future.
Always do what you said you’d do, when you said you’d do it. This is probably the most valuable core value I apply to my professional and personal life. It results in setting achievable goals and making promises you can keep. Trust and respect follow the ability to consistently deliver on your word.
I’d like to think that those values are evident when people acknowledge them or share them with other people because they have also found them valuable.
4. How did your education, formal and informal, enrich your career/ life journey? Include mentors, detractors here
Media and entertainment are some of the fastest changing traditional industries right now because so much of what we create is for immediate or short-term consumption and so much of what we do is being impacted by cost-cutting and efficiencies.
Subsequently, not just the technology, but the data is evolving and coming at us at a rapid speed.
I try to stay on top of the latest developments and insights by committing focused time to leading industry publications and events, and I’m quick to jump on webinars and workshops that may educate or enlighten!
Through health and wellness education, mental health, support work and more recently training in AI and presenting, learning outside media enriches me as a creative because it arms me with additional lived experience and perspective.
“Detractors”, I guess that’s one way of saying it! I think creative, passionate, outspoken people will always encounter resistance in some form. Whether it is delivered with good intent or otherwise is ours to decipher.
I ask myself: Do I respect this person? Do they treat me with respect? Do I admire their achievements? Can I learn from them? Do I take their feedback seriously because I like to make them proud?
If the answer is yes, then they are your mentors, leaders and friends.
Don’t waste your energy on the others.
5. What are some of your key decision change points and how did they shape your career/ life journey?
In 2002 my partner and I were invited to come to Australia to join the ARN Sydney Creative Team and accepting that opportunity was certainly a change point in my life.
Within 1 year I had earned my first Creative Director role with an amazing team of writers and audio engineers. I was one of only two women on the executive team at that time.
Still at ARN in 2006, I had the first of what would eventuate to be three major brain surgeries and if I wasn’t in Sydney when that happened, I believe I would have been in a very different situation today.
The mentorship, resources training and support afforded to me at that early stage of my experience as a people leader was a solid foundation for my career moving forward.
Ironically, it was the eventual uncertainty of that same role that caused me to consider my ability to “pivot” if required. I went on to gain qualifications in Personal Training which is a profession I have continued to upskill and practise ever since then.
When did you stop, take a break or try something different in your career? How did this change impact you?
I’m fortunate to say that I’ve enjoyed most of my creative career in broadcast / audio entertainment. I’ve done stints with start-ups and in events & hospitality and have various interests outside of the industry, but I always return to audio. The only extended breaks have been through company restructure or in one case, liquidation.
I’ve been a certified PT since 2008 and maintained a regular clientele from then until 2016 when I took a break from it to focus fully on my role as CD at Nova Entertainment Sydney.
Since then, in any down time I automatically default to the hybrid life of PT and freelance writing. Increase the training sessions, keep the money in-coming and continue to upskill while I consider next steps.
Having this “Plan B” doesn’t just give me the sense that I can adapt as required, the balance of media with the world outside it, helps to keep me inspired and energised.
6. What makes you happy? What makes you get up in the morning?
Effecting positive change. If I can be part of a solution that improves a situation or assists to achieve a goal then that’s what makes me happy.
7. Share your words of wisdom for others in the industry or those wishing to work in the industry?
It doesn’t matter what industry you work in, having a Plan B is always a good idea. If you didn’t have a job tomorrow, what would you do?
Creative people may find that their job doesn’t always allow them to be as creative as they would like to be. Boredom is the first step to burn-out. Find something outside of your day-to-day that challenges you and fulfils you creatively. This will help you stay out of the rut.
Media is such a fast-moving industry. To stay relevant and effective, you need to keep learning.
Fortunately, learning today does not have to be cost-prohibitive. There are so many creative resources out there, many led by industry leaders and futurists. We can learn for nearly nothing. The only cost is time.
What have you learnt about sales and creative that you would like to share with others?
We need each other.
Creatives – you can have the best idea in the world but in most cases, the AM or the Agency is your closest buddy to the client. If you don’t have Sales backing the Creative strategy, then your chances of getting it up are dramatically reduced.
Sales – use your Creative people to help you sell the creative. There is no one more passionate about a great idea than the Creatives who brought it to life. Their excitement is genuine and contagious.
Leadership – Identify Sales / Creative personalities who have a mutual respect and chemistry and let them work together on key clients. As the client-sales-creative relationship develops, the benefits will become evident, beyond the sale.
8. Describe your vision for the audio media industry in the near future.
I felt there was a real sense of shift at HEARD 2026. When Mark Ritson got up there with his “beautiful data,” the excitement was palpable.
For a long time, those of us who work in audio have understood it’s influence instinctively – connection, trust, reach, memorability. We preach the power of creativity, consistency and frequency, but historically, we haven’t had the data or the tools to sell it as convincingly as we wanted to.
Now we do. And there is the opportunity. We now have access to compelling evidence, data and insights to tell a much stronger story about audio, not just as a familiar and intimate medium, but as a highly effective one.
My vision for the near future is that we embrace that shift with confidence and that we are united as an industry so that the shift is noticed.
9. What role would you like to play in shaping the audio industry of the future?
As creators and publishers, we work to make brands famous every day with the power of audio.
As an industry, I’d like to see us do the same for ourselves.
I’m not talking about the generic filler campaign on our local radio stations.
We need to go all in – utilise our hosts, our influencers and our most influential brands to educate and excite our agencies, clients and audiences.
We need to go hard out – utilise all platforms available including social and video to demonstrate how memorable, creative and cost-effective audio can be.
And we need to follow our own advice: creativity, frequency, consistency. This is a long-term strategy.
Underline creativity. We have a lot of work to do.
If today’s brief for the future was to “make audio great again” – I would love to be part of that campaign.
10. Is there anything else you’d like to add?
Thanks for listening!
Series compiled by Serena Ahern for radioinfo.
If you have a suggestion for someone to be considered for this series, please send a note to [email protected]
Previous articles in the Wisdom of Women in Media series: