Sometimes you have to shine your weird light super bright, so the other weirdos know where to find you. And that is exactly how the Bosses found today’s guest, Danny Galvez. This super-fan turned super-guest talks to Anne and Gabby about his time in radio, his corporate career and his voiceover success as an audiobook narrator. He’s funny, charming, super smart and does one hell-of-a Chicken Dance! Join us for today’s episode and hear how funny it is when three weirdos become friends.
Takeaways
Quick Concepts from Today’s Episode:
You think your chicken is safe at a corporate job…it’s not!
Ransom notes are still a thing
Audiobooks are a way to create a lasting legacy
ACX is a great resource that includes contracts
Royalty sharing is lucrative but requires a lot of work upfront
Audiobooks are a numbers game
Audiobook distribution is global
Romance Books do very well
Being an entrepreneur is not a 9 to 5 gig
Work for people who know what they want
Surround yourself with people who are more successful than you and pay attention to what they do
Money blocks are limiting
Clear your plate of negative people
Referenced in this Episode
Direct links to things we brought up ++
We love IpTDL!
Transcript
Announcer: Today’s voice over talent is more than just a pretty voice. Today’s voiceover talent has to be a boss, a VO BOSS. Set yourself up with business owner strategies and success with you host Anne Ganguzza along with some of the strongest voices in our industry. Rock your business like a boss, a VO BOSS.
Anne: Welcome, everybody, to the VO BOSS podcast. I’m your host, Anne Ganguzza, with my VO BOSS bes-tay, Gabby Nistico. Hey, Gabby.
Gabby: Hi.
Anne: [laughs] Gabby, we have a super special guest with us today, voice talent entrepreneur and actually, I’m super, super excited, our very first like legit fan, Gabby, is with us today. [laughs] Or let’s just say, maybe not our very first fan, but the first fan who actually reached out and like sent us mail.
Gabby: Yes, we got fan mail.
Anne: Physical mail. I loved it.
Gabby: And little caricatures. And I love them.
Anne: It was so awesome, and it, it really speaks a lot about who he is and, and you know, entrepreneur voice talent, way to network, and I think this gentleman networks I think better than anybody I’ve seen of late, because I track him quite heavily on Facebook. Welcome to the show Danny Galvez.
Danny: Oh my God, I’m fangirling over here. Just give me a second. [pretend hyperventilating] I can’t, I can’t, it’s Anne and Gabby! Oh my God. [normal voice] I’m about ready to shriek, so y’all get ready for it.
Gabby: OK, that’s fine.
Anne: Shrieking.
Gabby: Shrieking contest.
Anne: Shrieking is always good.
Danny: Shrieking is wonderful.
Anne: [in New Jersey accent] Danny, Danny, I got to tell you something.
Danny: Yes.
Anne: [in accent] We got someone that needs to say hello to you.
Danny: Oh, who’s that?
Gabby: [chicken noises]
Danny: Is that my chicken?
Anne: [laughs]
Danny: Is that my chicken?
Anne: [in accent] Danny, Danny, who’s got the chicken now? Who’s got your chicken? [laughs]
Danny: You know, you think that’s funny. I just got the chicken, and I had this whole thing lined out, and I bring it, of all places, you think corporate’s going to be a very safe place. I work in the mortgage industry, and you think, “hey, it should be safe here.” I’m going to leave it on my desk. That sucker got kidnapped before noon and blew apart my marketing plan for the day on social media.
Gabby: [chicken noises]
Anne: I watch you every day. You Facebook Live I think every single day, and so I believe it was this morning’s episode, or yesterday’s episode where you acquired a chicken. [laughs]
Danny: mm-hmm, yes.
Anne: You acquired a wonderful chicken friend, and today, that chicken was abducted. And so your Facebook Live this morning was roaming around the office.
Gabby: Who does this? Who steals a man’s chicken? Who does this?
Danny: I don’t know.
Anne: It says so much about who you are and what a great networker and what a great business networker, entrepreneur, and I’d love to talk to you more about that and, and, like give us your story. Tell us a little bit about your history and how you came upon voiceover and entrepreneurship.
Danny: And we’ll get back to the chicken thing.
Gabby: We will, because I need to know who the suspects are. Do we have any leads?
Danny: I do have some leads. And I know —
Anne: [laughs]
Danny: — they left me a very cryptic message today, and what they did was — have you ever seen the movies where they do, they do uh — they leave the cryptic messages, but it’s done with like cutouts from a magazine?
Anne: Ransom note.
Gabby: Sure. Every Liam Neeson movie ever, yeah, got it.
Danny: Yes. “I don’t know who you are, but I’m,” you know, it’s like — that’s exactly what – “I’ve got your chicken. I’m coming for you.”
Anne: The last I saw, there were tweezers.
Danny: Yeah, so they took a picture of the chicken, and there were tweezers in its mouth, because they were going to pluck out its squeaker. And the reason why this happened, somebody kidnapped it, and I’ll give you a reason. You’ll probably agree with them after I tell you what happened. We have about 65 people at our corporate office in Dallas, and they’re pretty, pretty reserved people, but I’m a little outside the box. They let me have long hair. I, you know, get to do pretty much what I want because I’m a recruiter by day for the home office, but I went around the room, every single office, and I was using the chicken. And I do that for the internal group as well that we have on Facebook for Southwest Funding, so it is more of a morale booster, and also to stay connected with my colleagues. And apparently some of them didn’t appreciate it, so they jacked my chicken. Took him out.
[chicken noises]
Danny: I didn’t mean it like that. I’ll leave the context there.
Anne: [laughs]
Gabby: It takes a particular type of [bleep] to steal a man’s chicken, and then ransom the chicken. And they’re going to pay, man.
Anne: Danny, Danny, we’re with you. We’re with you.
Danny: I want you to help it with the chicken dance —
Anne: Yes.
Danny: — because that’s what the ransom note said. The ransom note said, “if you want your chicken back, you will meet at high noon.” They didn’t say noon. They said high noon like we’re in the wild, wild west, and I have to meet in the lobby of our corporate office and do the chicken dance on Facebook Live. So I’m going to get to see my chicken again. I will be reunited with it, and I can continue all of my marketing efforts. But umm…so back to questions. Sorry, I do have ADD a little bit, but I come from a family of five kids, and Gabby, I know you live in North Carolina. We lived in Jacksonville. Yeah, it’s not bad. It’s OK, if you want to say armpit, go ahead. It’s fine.
Gabby: It’s a military town. I mean, it’s a cool… we know how those go.
Danny: Lots of coming and going. Yeah, there’s just lots of, lots of traffic, but you do meet a lot of people. I lived there for about eight years, and got to live in Hawaii and Guam, and Japan, and I finally took myself to Wisconsin and graduated from high school. And I auditioned for radio school. I’m just going to go to radio school because that’s what you should do when you can’t stay in college. That’s what took me into radio land, so I did that for about 17 years, worked various positions. And I was a morning show stunt guy, went streaking naked one morning in Wisconsin. I think it was wintertime.
Gabby: Oh, I bet that was fun.
Anne: And then one time —
Danny: Winter in Wisconsin, and then one time, after band camp —
Anne: After radio camp, I —
[Anne and Danny laugh]
Gabby: How many appendages did you lose streaking in Wisconsin in the winter? That’s uh… wow.
Anne: ooo.
Danny: You have to assume there is an appendage after being in Wisconsin in the winter.
Anne: brr, brr!
[women laugh]
Danny: I will just say that. I almost got arrested by the police officers, so that was a — I kind of went through like the busiest intersection, and this was like my first lesson in — I was probably about 23, 24 years old, and that was my first lesson in discretion. And school was still in full swing, and I was stripped down to my underwear, and I’m standing at this busy intersection. There’s a Walgreens, there’s a bowling alley, and then there’re a couple of restaurants on the opposite corners, and I’m like, “you know, I’m just going to make a square. I’m going to run across the street in a square.” The radio station got complaints about the fact that there was a naked man streaking through the intersection, and um the cops did go to the station, the radio station, and uh I avoided detection, umm… I didn’t last long at that job, but I sure did have fun. I had a really good time.
[women laugh]
Danny: So, so that’s where I learned about discretion because there were children in the cars on the way to school.
Gabby: I think it’s a rite of passage in radio, though. Mine, mine came from my, my, you know, brush with police decorum, was probably about the same age, early 20’s, and, and learned real fast that you don’t look at the police officers and say, “but, but, but I’m the DJ!” That doesn’t get you out of trouble. That does absolutely nothing to help.
Danny: [laughs]
Gabby: They don’t really care much.
Danny: They don’t care. They [laughs] they’re reading to take somebody to jail that day. “You want to be naked? OK, you’re going to jail.”
Anne: [laughs]
Gabby: But, but, but, but, [goes into chicken noise]
Anne: [laughs] OK. After radio, how did you, how did you evolve into your voiceover, and also your day job?
Danny: OK, yeah, so great question. Um you know looking back at it, and you know, you probably understand this from — because I know you guys talk about like pay scales and things like that. We try to tell our kids, “hey, listen, go be a doctor first, and then you can be a DJ.” And that’s, that’s kind of the mentality. I’m like, “if I would have known about being a loan officer, I would have gone and made loan officer money, and then I could have done some really cool things as a DJ,” you know. When you’re young, you follow your passion, you go naked. So um, so —
[women laugh]
Danny: A rite of passage, like you said, Gabby. Back in 2009, the recession pretty much hit the state of Texas. In the rural market where I live — I live in Longview, Texas. There’s about 80,000 people that live in that town. At that point, if you were in radio in a market like that, more than likely they were going to cut you and pipe in a different show because they could. So, and that’s what happened to me. They said “sorry, you can’t work here anymore.” I was like, “well, can I voice track?” They were like “no, we don’t even want you in the building.” I was a little confused because I was like, I never stripped naked at that station. It was a country station. People was like God, family, church, football, America. And ended up making a jump to a hip-hop station in a talk format, and I was a sales rep. One of my few clients in 2009 was a mortgage company, and he wanted to do his own radio show every week. So that’s the niche that I filled, and um I got beat down in radio sales. It was a, it was a brutal, brutal experience, and I had two young kids at the time, and my wife would give me that look that all wives give to their husbands. Um I made a jump. I got offered a job. One of my clients said, “hey, I like the way you do business. Do you want to come and work for me?” That’s my, that’s my short journey, but in between that, I started deploying my own tactics and starting side hustles. I’ve got three children. That was my motivation. I ended up starting a mobile DJ company back in 2009, so I do that locally. I do a lot of weddings. Probably do about 40 to 50 of those a year, and then back in 2013 I picked up audiobooks through ACX. I started cutting my teeth narrating audiobooks on a royalty share.
Gabby: Tell us more about that. You know, a lot of our audience is definitely intrigued by audiobooks, wants to know more about them. It’s not a topic that Anne and I talk about very often, so um yeah, feel free to elaborate.
Danny: Absolutely. I was looking for a way to carve out something for myself and my family, a legacy, and that’s what prompted it. I also wanted to have something for my family that they could be proud of, but also something that I could do where I could still be there with my family. And so I built out my studio, and then I started going through ACX’s website and finding out what the parameters are and the instructions are for submitting audiobooks, how to audition, how to market. The great thing about ACX too is they have all of the contracts done, so there’s not really much that you have to, have to know in terms of well, you know, well, what about this and what about that? Let’s talk about royalty share real quick. So the agreement is this. You have authors out there that are writing books. And well, Gabby, you’ve got a book, right?
Gabby: I have a couple, yeah. [laughs]
Danny: Yeah. Have y’all put yours on audiobook yet?
Gabby: No, I won’t, I won’t narrate my own. [laughs]
Danny: I mean, I could do a Gabby Nistico, if you want. I mean, I can be Gabby Nistico.
Anne: Uh-oh.
Gabby: [laughs]
Danny: I mean, you know what? Listen, you know, [bleep] these wires and [bleep] everything that’s in here, and where’s my chicken? I want my [bleep] chicken.
Anne: [laughs]
Gabby: Yeah, I said something similar on my wedding day. So yeah, that sounds about right, yeah.
Anne: [laughs]
Gabby: Kind of, kind of like an excerpt from my vows. That was good.
Anne: An excerpt from your vows. [laughs]
Gabby: I know I said [bleep] at least four times, and there was definitely a reference to a chicken, so it’s pretty close. We’re going to go with it.
Danny: [laughs]
Anne: What kind of show is this?
[Anne and Danny laugh]
Anne: So back onto the topic of, of royalty share, was it working for you? I mean, how long, how many books did you record, you know, with royalty share and how did that work?
Danny: OK, so that’s, that’s a great question with royalty share. I went in, and I submitted auditions. That’s the first thing. So it’s a numbers game. Anything you do, you have to hit the numbers. I said, “OK, I’m just going to audition for any low hanging fruits.” I thought, this would be a good transition for me. So I auditioned for a book about money, um and I landed that audition pretty well. It was probably about a 37, 38-minute book.
Anne: We love that topic. [laughs]
Danny: Oh, money? Money, yeah. All day long, all day long, and it was OK. It wasn’t, it wasn’t well-written. I think it was ghost-written, and you, and you find a lot of that, but in terms of royalty share, the agreement is this. ACX distributes to Amazon, Audible, and iTunes. Their split, their cut is they take 60% of your money. You get 40%, so that means the author or the rights, the rights holder of the book, is paid 20%, and the narrator, who agrees to a royalty share deal, is paid another 20%. It’s pretty much the even split. The great thing is ACX manages all the payroll and things of that nature. You’re paid once a month. In terms of distribution, it pretty much goes around the world, so you might be heard in Germany. You might be heard in the U.K. Books in the U.K., by the way, audiobooks, don’t sell as much as they do in the United States.
Anne: Are you marketing those books as well?
Danny: Yeah, not actively. And that’s, and that’s another thing that I’ve learned from this journey.
Anne: Don’t they encourage you to help sell the book?
Danny: They do. They do, and I will tell you this, that I have been a [bleep] narrator partner. That’s, that’s what I’ve concluded.
Anne: [laughs]
Danny: If we’re being honest about it —
Anne: I’ve come to the conclusion that —
Danny: I’m a [bleep] narrator partner, but the experience has been great. And I’ve, I’ve done educational books. Romance seems to do very well. Some of those things written in those books, I haven’t said for 20 years.
[women laugh]
Danny: I will tell you a story real quick. So my wife, at my wife’s suggestion, she was the one who suggested, you know, she’s like, “you know what? Maybe you should do romance, because it’s” — she does research, and she’s like, “you know what? This, I think this is, this would be a good, good genre for you. It’s a good format, and you know.” I was like, OK. The first time, the first book I did that was romance, I got — I was in the closet. It was carpeted, and I’m sitting there getting ready to read, and I burst out laughing after the first three lines. My wife’s like, “are you OK?” I’m like, “yeah. I’m, I just, I haven’t said that in like 20 years,” and that’s why I was laughing. I started giggling. I was like hee hee hee hee hee like a little girl. We just cackled on about that because it was, it was funny.
Gabby: I’m right there with you. I find some of that language and, and uh just, I don’t know, whatever’s supposed to be, you know, the sensual aspects, I think it’s hysterical. I can’t get through them. I just laugh.
Danny: OK, and not to be crass or crude or anything like that, but like let’s talk about that, because some of the books, I was like, “is that it? Is that — no wonder people don’t like doing that anymore.” I see why there’s a market for it, but I don’t understand like, that wasn’t very good selling book, that particular book I did, and I understand why because of the language.
Gabby: I think some people though have the impression that it’s very disingenuine, and the storylines, you know, they’re, they’re so contrived and all of that, so I think that’s kind of in people’s heads too. They think back to the, oh gosh, the old Danielle Steel novels from the 90’s.
Anne: I love Danielle Steel.
Danny: Danielle Steel…
Anne: I did back in the day. This was back in the day. Times have evolved.
Gabby: Yeah.
Anne: Right? Times have evolved. Danny, let me ask you this. I see you working a full-time job, umm part-time, you know, DJing for weddings, and also doing audiobooks. That’s incredible to me. You are, you are so entertaining. You’re so funny, but beneath all of that too is a really strong entrepreneurial force that you get, you so get it. And I’d like to ask you, what does being an entrepreneur mean to you? What is, what defines a good entrepreneur?
Danny: Well first off, you don’t, you don’t work 40 hours a week. It’s not a 9 to 5. It’s a little bit scary. It’s like I want to laugh, cry, barf. That’s the emotion.
Anne: Yes.
Danny: And I work for entrepreneurs. I work for — we have one owner at this company, and I essentially, I work for millionaires. I work for people that know what they want. That’s part of being an entrepreneur. You have to be very clear about what you’re clear about. And I’d rather work 90 hours a week and have something to do than sit at home, feel sorry for myself, and watch Netflix, and not be chill. So.
Gabby: [laughs]
Danny: So you know being an entrepreneur does require long hours. You have to constantly be thinking. You have to be willing to move quickly and change things. I’ve had that range of experience where I’ve been able to and been fortunate too to meet a lot of people that are doing uh very big things in their lives. So there’s a coach out of, out of Dallas. His name is Ryan Stewman. He’s one of my audiobook minds. I’ve narrated seven of his audiobooks to date, and they’re all based around sales and business. Ryan owns and operates 10 different companies. Don Yount, the man I work for now, he is a race car driver. He’s also tied into the gas monkey guys, and he owns Gas Monkey Energy Drink. I work for very, very entrepreneurial people and not just entrepreneurial people. It’s like you have to go see a doctor because there’s a problem. “So what’s your issue?” “I don’t know, I just can’t stop. I can’t stop starting businesses and being really, really successful at it.”
[all laugh]
Danny: So you know for me, you know, as a regular guy, I want to be like those people, and I love it. I love the conversations with them. I think in our heads, you know, we think that the more money people make, the more aloof and unavailable they are. And, and that’s not the case.
Gabby: No, I find that to not be the truth at all, yeah. It sounds like you’re really doing a great job of surrounding yourself with the people who have what you want and that you’re listening to them and gleaning from them. And getting advice where you can.
Anne: And learning.
Gabby: Even what you’re saying about the books that you’ve read, it seems a lot of the books are very strategically selected or gone after because you’re, you’re really getting paid to research.
Anne: And paid to learn too.
Gabby: Pretty smart.
Anne: I love that. Danny, you said something this morning in your, in your live video. “Well, you might as well make as much money as it can.” And I loved it because you were just so casual when you said it, but, but man, did you hit the nail on the head. This is what we’re doing as entrepreneurs. I mean, we are serious about the business, and, and if it is indeed a business. I mean, we’ve got bills to pay.
Gabby: mm-hmm.
Danny: Yeah.
Anne: And why not make as much money as you can? I’m right there with you.
Danny: I think sometimes, you know, our psyche, we, we associate making money and being successful with, you know, we’re better than everybody else, and that’s not the case. We tell ourselves these things. You know, we have these limiting self beliefs that we don’t deserve something. I know what that’s like, because I lived in a family like that. And I tell my kids, I say, “do not believe everything other people tell you. And if you don’t like what they’re saying, you come and talk to me because I’m going to tell you that it is possible, and then we’re going to go find the people and do the things that will show you that it is possible.” Or they’re surrounded, like you said, Gabby, they’re surrounded by negative people. Negative people are so toxic. That’s what I love about you guys because, you guys just like, it’s not just like, “hey, we’re voiceover vixens, what’s going on? You know, we’re voiceover bosses.” You are like out there going, “listen, you need to watch out for the negative people. You need to clear your plate. You need to shove them out of the room.” If you’ve got haters, that’s good. You’re doing something good, but at the same time, you have to watch out for those people, because they will pull you down. I’ve worked for people that did not want me to do better than what they were doing. I was good as long as I didn’t upstage them. I’ve been fired for that. That’s a real thing in radio but also in life.
Gabby: mm-hmm.
Anne: mm-hmm.
Danny: That happened to me a couple of times, and I said, “so you want me to play small, is that right?” I had a conversation one time with a program director, and he goes, “look, we’ve got some issues, and you know, the cohost is saying that you’re upstaging her.” And I was like, “dude, my hair is not even as long as hers,” at that point in my life. I said “how am I upstaging her?” But that’s a real thing. I got called down and eventually fired.
Anne: Well Danny, it has been amazing. How can people follow you, and get in touch with you, and uh basically kind of just fan, fan you? [laughs]
Danny: Find me on Facebook, it’s Danny Galvez. I’ve got sunglasses on, and I’m covering my forehead with my hand. It’s weird. You can also find me on Instagram too. If you want to check out one of my cool audiobooks, you can just Google Daniel Galvez audiobooks, and you’ll find the myriad of my work there on ACX and Audible. I have got to tell you something, Gabby and Anne, you guys provided so much value in your podcasts, I can’t thank you enough.
Gabby: Aww.
Danny: And I know that anybody that listens to your show will be able to make that next step.
Gabby: Thank you.
Anne: Yeah.
Danny: I’m like scatter [bleep] over here, guys. I just want to be honest with you. I can’t stop thinking about my chicken. I’m so distracted right now.
Gabby: It’s OK. We’re gonna, we’re gonna raise a glass to the chicken.
Anne: We are. We are, and to the dance. Onward to the chicken dance.
Gabby: Does the chicken have a name?
Danny: That’s right. I’m getting ready to do it. Um, no. I didn’t even have long enough to name him.
Anne: Aww.
Gabby: Uh, well, first of all it’s a her.
Danny: What should we call her?
Gabby: I don’t know. There’s like a whole, you know, Camilla Gonzo thing. I’m such a big Muppet fan.
Danny: You’re a Muppet fan?
Gabby: Of course I am.
Anne: [laughs]
Danny: OK.
Anne: Oh you do. I’ve seen him. You do.
Danny: You guys need to get one.
Anne: You need to go to Vegas and take that to Vegas. [laughs]
Gabby: Oh my God, yeah, BOSS, BOSS Muppets would be amazing.
Anne: Exactly, BOSS Muppets.
Gabby: We could be like the critics in the balcony, Anne.
Anne: BOSS Muppets. Oh my God. You and I could be — yeah, the balcony. We could be in the balcony.
Danny: Ok.
Gabby: Do I get the Anne puppet and you get the Gabby puppet, is that how we do this?
Anne: I want, I want the Gabby puppet.
Gabby: Like we swap puppets?
Anne: Gabby puppet. So I can pet…
Gabby: Like I don’t talk to you enough during the day. I’ll just talk to the puppet.
Anne: I love my Gabby puppet.
Danny: Hey, listen. Um, I love y’all very much, and I can’t thank you enough.
Anne: Aw. Danny, thank you so much. It’s been amazing, and I’d also like to give a big shout out to our sponsor ipDTL for this amazing connection. Ahh, love, love, love ipDTL.
Gabby: For all things BOSS, you’ve got so, so many options. Let’s see, voboss.com, Facebook, Instagram, Twitter, YouTube, iTunes, Sticher, Google Play. I’m sure I’m missing some. We’re everywhere. You cannot escape us. Resistance is futile.
Danny: You guys forgot [chicken noise] dot com.
Gabby: [chicken noise]
Anne: [laughs] See you next week. Bye, guys.
Gabby: Thanks, guys. Bye!
Announcer: Join us next week for another edition of VO BOSS with your hosts Anne Ganguzza and Gabby Nistico. All rights reserved, Anne Ganguzza Voice Talent in association with Three Moon Media. Redistribution with permission. Coast-to-coast connectivity via ipDTL.
[bloopers]
1
Anne: Gabby, you rolling?
Gabby: I am.
Anne: So —
Danny: Whatcha rolling, Gabby?
2
Danny: Yeah, just so you know, like I don’t, I don’t get offended easily, and —
Anne: [laughs]
Danny: You can pretty much, you can pretty much ask me whatever.
Anne: OK.
Danny: I too am a cursing aficionado. I love it.
Anne: [laughs]
Gabby: Nice.
3
Anne: Gabby puppet.
Gabby: Anne puppet, what do I do today?
Anne: Gabby puppet, Gabby puppet, Gabby puppet. [laughs]
Danny: I’m going to be the chicken puppet.
Anne: I think there could be a song. I think there could be a rap. Gabby puppet — [laughs]
Danny: [beat boxes]
Gabby: There could be a multiple thing with the puppets.
Anne: Gabby puppet, Gabby puppet.
[all laugh]
4
Danny: [in Valley Girl voice] OK, so the VO BOSS ladies, I was listening to them. You know, I’ve been telling you about them. I said, “so I’m going to be on their show, and I’m so excited.” She’s like, ehhh, she’s like, “can you bring me some dinner?”
5
Anne: Girls are so, they are so mean in high school. They just are.
Danny: They are.
Gabby: Pff, because they’re not, they’re not mean in adulthood?
Anne: You’re right, Gabby. You’re so right. Oh my God.
6
Anne: I love pigs.
Danny: You love pigs?
Anne: I do. I have a pig hanging in my garage, so I don’t drive through the house when I pull in. He liked just hangs, and when he hits my windshield, I know, right, that I’ve, that I can stop the car.