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voiceover is becoming list-actular!

Outside of the world of fashion, I’m not sure if there is an industry that has more lists than voice over.

There are billions and billions (quite figuratively) of voice talent directories, paid and free, where voice over talents can be found and contacted for work. Keeping up with them can be a full time job.

Well you weren’t doing anything more important at the moment than reading this blog so here are two more lists you should know about and be on so get cracking.

The Minewurx Studio Voice Talent Directory – developed by Michael Minetree

VoiceTweet – developed by Trish Basanyi

mary mckitrick’s new blog address

The great, wonderful, talented and kind Mary McKitrick has changed the address of her voiceover blog recently.

I just updated my voiceover blog roll on here and if you were subscribing to her OLD feed, you need to update your RSS feed too.

And if you’re not reading her blog – well you should be, so get on that right now. 😉

you and i may own a nano business

So I was perusing the Sunday papers after lunch today and came across one of those local community business event ads where they sign your business up to participate and compete in something called “fitness fun”. As I don’t find fitness fun at all, I doubt I’ll participate unless there is a buffet afterward (j/k).

They evidently want you to sign up in categories according to business size so the competition is even. You can register as a jumbo business (1,000+ employees), a XX-Large business (401-999 employees and you do not have to work in the porn industry to be in this category) – all the way down to a small business (21-50 employees) and a micro business (10-20 employees). And then it stops.

Now I don’t mean to nit pick but I know a heck of a lot of businesses that fall into that 1-9 employee category, mine being one of them (there’s just me in my biz – all the other voice talents are independent contractors).

As I thought about it further, this list of business size categories is kinda indicative of how banks, state and federal governments look at the 1-9ers of the world…we believe they act (manage, loan money, govern) as if we are not worth noting. We are not invited to the party and maybe we’ll get a crumb of a business incentive and like it! Sheesh.

But back to my point. So what named category do we fall under? We 1-9’ers need a name, a brand (and then of course a splashy new logo).

Well as best as my non-scientific brain can determine, the next level down from micro is nano. In fact, I found a chart the accuracy of which can not be proven by me because beyond these terms, this stuff makes my eyes glaze over…but here it is anyway:

Prefix Symbol Multiplier Exponent
yotta Y 1,000,000,000,000,000,000,000,000 10^24
zetta Z 1,000,000,000,000,000,000,000 10^21
exa E 1,000,000,000,000,000,000 10^18
peta P 1,000,000,000,000,000 10^15
tera T 1,000,000,000,000 10^12
giga G 1,000,000,000 10^9
mega M 1,000,000 10^6
kilo k 1,000 10^3
hecto h 100 10^2
deca da 10 10^1
1 10^0
deci d 0.1 10^¯1
centi c 0.01 10^¯2
milli m 0.001 10^¯3
micro µ 0.000001 10^¯6
nano n 0.000000001 10^¯9
pico p 0.000000000001 10^¯12
femto f 0.000000000000001 10^¯15
atto a 0.000000000000000001 10^¯18
zepto z 0.000000000000000000001 10^¯21
yocto y 0.000000000000000000000001 10^¯24

So, in the world of science, there are 5 spots smaller than a nano. Hmm. So if we see than a micro business has 10 employees then maybe it works this way:

milli –> 10-20 employees
nano –> 8-9 employees
pico –> 6-7 employees
femto –> 4-5 employees
atto –> 3 employees
zepto –> 2 employees
yocto –> 1 employee

So maybe I’m a yocto sized business owner.

Now as of 2009, yocto is the smallest confirmed SI prefix (International System of Units). That sounds reeeaaaallllly small…and kinda cool.

But, what about those folks than have just one employee in their business and work at it part time?!

That sound smaller than a yocto size business to me. Sounds like those prefix folks better get working on some more Greek words, I’m just sayin’.

No wait, we’re a creative community…what do YOU THINK we should name a one person business who does it part time? And no, Avon and Mary Kay have already been trade marked :).

Let’s hear YOUR IDEA! And should we have our own events?

You’d only need a six pack and a bag of pretzels to call it catered!

opinions welcomed…maybe

Something that transpired recently got me thinking about blogs.

The content of a recent blog post written by a real-world and social media-world friend of mine introduced a new service. The service was developed by someone we both knew, and it offered a new angle on an existing business model via a small fee.

My very brief, civil and what I considered innocuous comment on the post questioned the need for a service similar to existing ones. I signed off with hope for good fortune on the project.

My comment, the service developer later advised me via phone, was considered negative, hurtful and detrimental to the service developer. I offered an apology for the comment’s evident lack of clarity. I offered to amend my comment on the blog because its objective was not to do any of those bad things. It merely accurately stated my thought: ‘why did we need another similar service?’.

The offer to amend the post was negated when the developer advised the comment had already been removed by the blogger at the developer’s request.

Later in the day, when my blogger friend called me, I told him that I had no problem with the comment’s deletion because the blog is owned by the blogger – not the community. I refer to it proudly on this blog as “my house, my rules.”

But what, if anything, is to be learned by all this goofy drama that I stirred up? Well, a couple of things for me. Maybe some of these things apply to you as well.

My opinions and the words I express them with are all mine and that won’t change. But in certain communities, it seems my opinions (whether respected or derided) have more impact or weight (I’m not sure which) than I may realize and I need to be aware of that. And to be clear – that’s meant with humility.

Speaking of clarity, spending a little time clarifying a point in such comments might be a consideration. If I don’t feel like clarifying it, maybe it isn’t worth making a comment. Hmmm, it doesn’t seem like anything good can come from that kind of thinking, but we’ll see.

Feelings come into play here too (don’t they always). When people have a passion for something they’ve created and someone questions it (innocuous or not) – it’s like one is calling the other’s dog “ugly”. While it’s not meant to be personal sometimes the transmission feels that way to the receiver. It’s discourse, though, and sometimes that can be disagreeable, no getting around it; just keep it polite, I guess.

Lastly, and this one is a question I’ve yet to answer – whether we are writing or being written about on a blog, shouldn’t we come to expect by the very nature of the tool we are using the possibility of a differing opinion? Among the “atta boys” shouldn’t we anticipate the occasional, civil “um, wait a minute”? Shouldn’t we welcome it?

Otherwise, what’s the point of a blog?

MEDIA RELEASE – Vista Mini Captures O’Connell for Maximum Radio Impact

COCONUT CREEK, FLORIDA, March 16, 2010 – – Efficiency and style are the hallmarks of the Mini Cooper brand from its construction to its minimal fuel consumption. The brand’s efficiency even extends to its advertising which may be why Vista Mini Cooper in Coconut Creek, Florida secured Peter K. O’Connell as a voice talent in their dealership’s recent radio campaign.

Peter K. O’Connell Vista Mini Sample Audio:
[audio:http://www.audioconnell.com/clientuploads/mp3/Media_Release_Audio_Samples/1003_audioconnell_VistaMini_Jane.mp3]

Vista Mini is one of the premier Mini Cooper dealerships in the country and the number one Mini Superstore in Coconut Creek, Florida, offering one of the most comprehensive parts and service departments in the automotive industry. The Mini Cooper first came to the United States on March 22, 2002 from the BMW Group Plant near Oxford in the United Kingdom where it is still manufactured today.

A professional voice talent since 1982, some of Peter K. O’Connell’s professional voiceover credits include productions for the Public Broadcasting Service (PBS), Shell Oil, Starz Cable Channel, New Jersey Alliance and New Jersey Tourism, Sunsetter Awnings, J. Walter Thompson Advertising (JWT), 2K Games, Cleveland Browns, Tops Friendly Markets, Island Press Publishers, Harlequin Enterprises, First Choice Power, Pathmark Supermarkets, Crosby Stills & Nash, Fashion Outlet Mall, Junior Chamber International, Peek N’ Peak Resort and Spa, Devaweb and The Advertising Club of Buffalo.

Peter is President of audio’connell Voice-Over Talent which provides English-speaking professional male and female voiceover services for national and international clients. The voice over needs of foreign language clients are served through another O’Connell-owned company, International Voice Talents. Mr. O’Connell also owns Voice Over Workshop, which provides professional voice over training to novice and experienced voice talent world-wide.

audio’connell Voice-Over Talent, International Voice Talents and Voice Over Workshop are all a part of O’Connell Communications, LLC.
– 30 –

NOTES TO EDITORS

Company Media Releases ON LINE:
http://www.audioconnell.com/media

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

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

O’Connell Voice-Over Resume:
See resume here

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donna postel’s web site

The only thing worse than a guy who teases you mercilessly about getting your voice over web site up and running is a guy who totally misses when that web site is up and running and doesn’t properly acknowledge it.

And I’ll be pleading guilty here on both counts.

Donna Postel’s new (to me) web site is up and it looks and sounds terrific. I am so happy for her that it is up and it turned out so well and so disappointed in myself for not catching it sooner.

I hope you won’t be so late to the party in checking it out.