Did it appear that the author of this blog was missing last week?  I was.  I was gone all week to a Mexican retreat.

Part of my ever-changing social media strategy is to delay letting anybody know when I’m gone on vacation (duh!)…so that would-be robbers will not take advantage of my absence.   But nothing prevents me from spilling the beans now that I’m back!

“But Dave,” you say, “I read a fresh blog article or two every day last week on Courvo.Biz.  Why did you mess up your vacation by blogging”?

I didn’t.  I sandbagged 5 fresh blogs, and scheduled them to be published one each day.  Here’s the cool part, though.  At the 3-level beach house in Sayulita, Mexico, the neighbor had Wi-Fi, and I was able to tap in, thanks to a worker who slipped me the code.  Gotta love the black market in Mexico!!!

So I did occasionally check email and tinker with the blog as seen in this photo:

…and yes, that’s the ocean in the background.

I took the time to inform my regular clients well in advance of my planned absence from the studio this week.  I DID take a rudimentary mobile studio but regretted it several times over.  If it were just a laptop and a mic it wouldn’t be so hard, but you need the cables, the mic stand, the patch cords, the battery charger, the USB cable, and when it’s all said and done, the TSA scanner Nazi’s just cant…quite…see…everything, and that means going to the “special” line where they have to break down everything in your bag.  Add Immigrations and Customs to that formula both going and coming back in TWO countries,  with connecting flights, and you have a wife who starts rolling her eyes.  Next time, I’m leaving the portable studio at home.  I never used it, and it was too much hassle.

I did, however, find an idea for a whole new genre of voice work that seems untapped here in the US.  Here’s a pic that shows one of several trucks that roam the streets of most Mexican towns with a loudspeaker mounted on the hood or the roof.  It plays a loud advertisement either recorded or spoken live by the driver into a mic.  See short video clip below.  Just think:  grab a couple of clients who want real-time advertising in YOUR city…promise them at least as much exposure as the taxicab placards get, and with a professionally-voiced message that can be altered at a moment’s notice.  What’s not to like?  (Uh, better check with your municipal noise-nuisance standards first.)

CourVO