One of my new agents emailed me to get my updated voice over demos (thank you Pastorini-Bosby). While I was attaching the cuts to an email, it occurred to me that I never properly finished my narration demo update that I had started in May (hey, don’t laugh, paying jobs come first!)

So I spent another two hours to fix some parts and voila (that’s a word my friend Mary McKitrick taught me) here is the finished product:

Click here to download Peter O’Connell’s narration demo!

In it, you will hear that I am:
* tall
* short
* happy
* sad
* confident
* unsure
* serious
* jovial
* thoughtful
* scatter-brained
* newsy
* conversational
* and most of all available for hire as the perfect choice for your awesome narration voice.

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Tags: announcers, audio production, commentary, narrations, voice talent, voiceover // 3 Comments »

If you ever hired for or been trained by a professional in presentation skills, sales or call center ops, chances are you have heard of Mike Aoki of Toronto. He also does some great motivational talks as well.

I first met Mike up in the T dot when we were both active in Ryze (I dropped my membership but still have friends from the group, Mike included). He’s a talented guy and good people.

Well out of nowhere, Mike drops me an email today about an online Newsweek article about political voice overs and how campaigns choose their political voice over talent. He came across it in his reading, I might not have ever seen it without his ping and I thought the article and video was great.

Even more impressive was Mike’s selflessness on my behalf. Thanks Mike!

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Tags: commentary // Add Comment »

I am not what you would call a baseball fanatic. The Buffalo Bisons (for whom I have voiced commercials) counted me among their season ticket holders until it became clear they were not going to be able to secure a major league franchise.

Now that the New York Mets will have the Bisons as their Triple A Baseball affiliate, Mrs. audio’connell, who is a die-hard Mets fan, will likely drag me and the audio’connellettes to a game or two next summer. It will be fun.

But the reason I bring up the topic of baseball today has to do with a wonderful tribute I read, among many, with the closing of the original Yankee Stadium. Nope, I’d never been to a Yankees game and was not really a Yankees fan. But I absolutely get the history and magic of the place.

So I come across the Bronx Banter blog (try saying that three times fast as a VO warm-up exercise) and a post written by a guy named Ed Alstrom who plays the organ at the stadium. He was reminiscing about his most cherish stadium memory, the voice of Yankees Public Address Announcer Bob Sheppard.

Please read the whole tribute here.

Even I, who have never been to a Yankees’ game, know Mr. Sheppard’s voice, which first was heard on April 17, 1951 when the late Yankees greats Joe DiMaggio and Mickey Mantle were in the line up. As the late, former Yankee player then play-by-play man Phil Rizzuto might say “Holy cow!”

I totally can relate to how a public address announcer sets the mood. For me it was at Buffalo Sabres games. Our public address announcer was a gentlemen named Milt Ellis whose vocal timbre was somewhat similar to Mr. Sheppard’s. Goals, penalties (especially after bench-clearing brawls) and even weather updates if the snow got bad during a game…he made it all sound great.

And wouldn’t you know local broadcasting historian and WBEN-AM newsman Steve Cichon has a tribute to the retired Mr. Ellis on Steve’s amazingly informative web site.

So to all you public address announcers out there, remember you do have an impact and people do know you as part of the fabric of the game.

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Tags: commentary // Add Comment »

My dear wife, amazing mother of my two awe-inspiring children and the person whom I frustrate on a daily basis, married me ten years ago today.

I know I am lucky. I know I am unworthy. But I also know she’s still the one I want to grow old with.

My life is a gift, not a guarantee.

She is the gift. She has given me the gifts.

She has allowed me to believe in me.

I am grateful and rather speechless.

Cue the music.

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Tags: commentary, voiceover advice // 8 Comments »

Likely you’ve not heard of Gary Vaynerchuk or Wine TV. Go to his website if you’d like to learn more. He is a passionate and successful guy. Those who have met him in person truly enjoy his company.

The reason I am posting this video is to provide you with a pep talk. You may need one or you may not need one which I think is a pretty good time for a pep talk as you’re not combating negative feelings and can more easily build on the positive vibe you’re working off of at present.

Gary’s message is about passion and people and how we all need to do what we love. Easily said, right?

But sometimes we need a kick in the pants to remember it’s not a “slogan”, it is an action but for it to be an “action” we need to take action! This video from Web Expo 2.0 (which contain some HBO-like NSFW language) is a hyper reminder that passion, hard work and caring for people will result in success. There are no quick solutions. Social media has tools we can all use to build our brands but we have to make it work. It takes time.

However if you love what you do…time goes by pretty fast.

I hope this helps you. Go kill it!

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Tags: commentary, community, social media // 4 Comments »

BUFFALO, New York, September 23, 2008 - - Citing a 25% increase in new client growth over 2007, retention and expansion of existing client work in 2008 and web site improvements this year that resulted in increased web-based inquires, audio’connell Voice Over Talent is expected to achieve 20% year-over-year sales growth versus 2007, it was announced today.

Company president and professional male voice over talent Peter K. O’Connell cited three primary factors for audio’connell Voice Over Talent’s growth thus far in 2008 - expanded existing engagements with current voice over clients throughout the year, an increased menu of voice over services available to existing and new clients. Finally, improvements to the company’s web site infrastructure enhanced the site’s search engine optimization and marketing functions.

The company introduced a new service in 2008, International Voice Talents, which features a growing roster of professional, foreign language voice talents, helping fuel audio’connell ‘s year-to-date revenues.

“There has been a bunch of rotten economic news this year that has reached a near-crescendo recently in the U.S. but we have been fortunate that our business plan and services menu is more global in scope so we won’t take the potential wallop a lot of other small businesses are bracing for,” O’Connell said.

“While not everybody gets it yet, it does seem that the business we deal with understand that in a strong economy marketing and communication are important to business growth and in a bad economy marketing and communication are vital to business growth,” O’Connell said.

A professional voice over talent and audio producer for over 25 years, Peter O’Connell is president of audio’connell Voice Over Talent, a worldwide, English language-based voice talent organization. Mr. O’Connell also operates International Voice Talents, a company featuring professional foreign language male and female voice actors.

Both companies provide voice talent for commercials, animation, corporate narrations, documentaries, broadcast voice imaging, audio books, podcasts and messaging on-hold (MOH). Industries served by the two companies include advertising agencies, media and broadcast production companies as well as both large and small businesses around the world.

Mr. O’Connell also owns Voice Over Workshop, which provides professional voice over training to novice and experienced voice talent around the world.

audio’connell Voice Over Talent, International Voice Talents and Voice Over Workshop are all a part of O’Connell Companies.
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► NOTES TO EDITORS

Company Name Pronunciation:
au•dio•o’•con•nell (awe-de-oh-oh-kah-nel) or au•di-o’•con•nell (awe-de-oh-kah-nel)

Company Name Spelling:
Use lower case letters- audio’connell or audio’connell Voice Over Talent

Company Web:
http://www.audioconnell.com
http://www.internationalvoicetalents.com
http://www.voworkshop.com

Company Blog:
http://www.voxmarketising.com

Corporate Web:
http://www.oconnellcompanies.com

Social Media Connections:
Linked In
Facebook
FriendFeed
Twitter
Naymz

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Tags: media releases // 4 Comments »