Often times people wonder what Lisa Brandt Creative Services does. I made the name deliberately vague so it could encompass a variety of things.
The services include radio coaching, voice-work, publicity, writing including my House Proud column for Sun Media and now publishing. LBCS is the publisher of The Naked Truth. Each year is a little bit different. The first year I offered it, coaching was the biggest part of my business. Another year publicity took over. This year it’s definitely voice-over work.
The biggest client I’ve had consistently this year is a wonderful, local production house called Keyframe. Through them I voice the Canadian and US radio commercials for Sunwing Airlines and Vacation Express. Recently, I also did a flight of about a half-dozen Vacation Express commercials using a British accent. My version of the Queen’s English falls somewhere between Gwyneth Paltrow in Shakespeare in Love and Stewie Griffin from Family Guy. My little studio has been humming this year. Rarely does a day go by when I’m not recording some sort of commercial downstairs.
I’ve had some corporate video work this year too, including one for Tribe Medical Group via Branton Advertising. These are in addition to the spots I read daily for various radio stations in Arizona and elsewhere in the US southwest. I often thought that when we were on our Harley ride in Arizona this year, if we had been able to listen to radio long enough we surely would have heard me!
I’ve written before about voice-work and how all is not as it seems. The finished products that make it to air all sound polished and effortless but – believe me – sometimes a whole lot of time and effort has gone into them. It all really depends on the client.
One of the best parts of being a third-party voice for a production house is that there’s a buffer between the client and me, the voice. It can be brutal. One regular client routinely sends back the first effort just because they can, even if it sounds virtually identical to the previous commercials in tone and approach. It’s a little power trip. Another insists on approving the first of a 10-commercial session before any further work can be done. That’s actually a good way to go about it, even though it’s time consuming to wait. The worst experience is when you send in those 10 commercials and have them all rejected. Best to do one and then wait for a green light. This is normal, by the way. Some clients are much pickier than others. Some will accept whatever you give them although that’s rare at this level when the commercials are played across the continent. It takes all kinds but as long as their cheques clear, you are happy to take them on.
I’m very lucky to be securing this work without the benefit of an agent. Truth be told, I’ve never tried very hard to get an agent. I took a couple of meetings here and there, it didn’t work out so I just shrugged and said “Oh well”. Word of mouth has been good to me. And there is nothing quite as sweet as legitimately earning money in your own home while wearing pajamas.