Latest / The QuadCast / S7 E14 - My Conversation With The VOQuadfather...
Transcript
- John McAleavey: And those velvety tones you heard on my intro there come from my guest today, the one and only Doug Bartling Jr., aka the VO Godfather. Doug, what a pleasure to have you here. Thank you so much for coming on. Doug Bartling Jr: My buddy, my buddy, how are you doing? Good to see you, John. Thank John McAleavey: I'm great. We've been Doug Bartling Jr: you. John McAleavey: we've been putting some some emails together and texts and finally the day is here and I'm so happy to have you on. And what I like to do with my shows, Doug, is begin at the beginning. So why don't you tell us where did you grow up and and what was your youth like? Doug Bartling Jr: Mm. Grew up with kind of a divorced household. Parents divorced when I was four. My my brother was two. So we bounced around a lot, you know, from house to house. You know, we lived with my dad and then my mom. So I believe from second grade to twelfth grade, we went to seven schools. So we John McAleavey: Yikes. Doug Bartling Jr: bounced around a lot. And I remember I remember being younger, and it was like I had two choices, you know, you're the new kid. And you're either gonna be the new quiet kid or you're gonna be the new kid that's kind of going, you know, to talk. So I've always kind of been a talker ever since I was little. I mean, my mom always told me I had a gift of gab. Other friends and other people would be like, he's just annoying. He's just won't shut up. You know, it depends on who you talk to, buddy, you know. But John McAleavey: Yeah, exactly. Yeah. Right. Doug Bartling Jr: I've always kind of been I like people. You know, I like people, I like talking to people and I like listening to people. So I think, you know, growing up, I've always kind of wa was always a social person. I was always a social butterfly in a lot of ways. And my childhood was pretty pretty good. My mom did a good job. My dad did a good job and and so we kinda go back and forth to schools and then I found my way of sports and that was my life and and then I got involved with the wrong crowd and I started going astray and went down the wrong path a little bit as most people or I don't want to say most do, but many. A lot a lot can go. Right. So John McAleavey: A lot growing up, sure. Yeah. Doug Bartling Jr: I've I so I kinda did that. But sports was always my my thing. Sports and parties and scholastics wasn't really a a a big thing for me. I went to school because I had to or I'd get in trouble if I didn't. but I I'm I'm very glad that I ended up getting my, you know, degree and then I went to college and stuff like that. So John McAleavey: Yeah. Doug Bartling Jr: But I I gotta say my mom and my dad did a good job for what they were given on both sides. So yeah. John McAleavey: Mm-hmm. So at this point you're you say you were going to college and whatnot. What did what did you study and what were you thinking your future was gonna be? What what did you think you were gonna work at doing? Doug Bartling Jr: In my senior year I wanted to be an actor, but I had no theater theater background. I didn't know how I was gonna get to LA or or, you know, New York or whatever. So I that kind of went was the thought and out the door. And I was like, Well, what am I gonna do? So I started this design and drafting. And then I realized I was sitting in a room with a bunch of dudes for hours and hours and hours every day. And I said, Nope, this doesn't work. Drawing blueprints. That's not gonna be for me. John McAleavey: Yeah. Yeah. Doug Bartling Jr: And then I made it as a walk on at a D three school in Fitchburg State in Massachusetts. And so I went out there and I did design and drafting out there, but I kind of moved it to more construction and kind of like like woodworking kind of thing. And I actually John McAleavey: Okay. Doug Bartling Jr: really liked it. I started getting good at it and then I my grades slipped because being on the baseball team and then also doing school, I couldn't keep up the good grades. Then I got out of there and then I moved out of the house and then I kinda went astray. And that's when I got John McAleavey: Okay. Doug Bartling Jr: involved with a lot of drugs and bartending and living the night life. And, John McAleavey: yeah. Doug Bartling Jr: you know, for the next five years, that's what I would do. You know, I didn't get John McAleavey: Mm-hmm. Doug Bartling Jr: my college degree until after I got hurt, after I got disabled. so John McAleavey: Okay. Doug Bartling Jr: I kinda went from bouncing around to different colleges trying to find my way, then getting pulled out of the school and I'm like, I don't want to live home. So I was like, all John McAleavey: Right. Doug Bartling Jr: right, you know I know everything at twenty, twenty one years old and I move out and and then I, you know, live the nightlife for the next five, six, seven years, you know. John McAleavey: Yeah. Yeah. One of those if if we only knew then what we know now, right? And youth is wasted on the young. Yeah. Absolutely. Doug Bartling Jr: Amen. Amen. Yep. You know what's crazy, John, is that, you you know, it was what was nuts is that you when I I actually met my ex fiancee, probably I wanna say when I was twenty seven and I was just getting out of the bartending. I was becoming a construction worker, I was really good at it. I was painting new houses for a very well established construction company in in upstate New York and I was framing r framing houses and and roofing and I was building houses from the foundation up and I was getting really good at it. I started, I think I was John McAleavey: Yeah. Doug Bartling Jr: twenty four, twenty-five, but I was doing it like part-time, like when I was in bartending. Then I started building cabinets for a friend of mine. And then I and then it just started being like working with my hands. I was just loving it. And I got my life together, got my shit together, man. I got everything going together and John McAleavey: And you were good at it. Yeah. Yep. Doug Bartling Jr: I was To have a kid. We were our she was pregnant and we were gonna get married in 2007. And we bought we had rental property, I had snowmobiles and jet ski. We had everything. We had I brought beautiful truck, life was going good. My I got everything together, and then that's when I broke my neck, and I always wondered. Why did it happen after I got my life together? John McAleavey: Yeah. Doug Bartling Jr: And it didn't happen when I was a a screw up. And so we ended John McAleavey: Yep, yep. Doug Bartling Jr: up having a miscarriage that year. And then, two years after I broke my neck, she then walked left. So then John McAleavey: Mm-hmm. Doug Bartling Jr: it was back to me, my disab d disability, and now what? What do you do? You know? So you just never John McAleavey: Yeah. Well you Doug Bartling Jr: know which way life turns, you know? No. John McAleavey: You never know. It's it's it's time timing of everything is is crazy. I have a crazy timing story that I'll tell you a little bit later. But you mentioned your spinal cord injury and that that sort of is what brings us together Doug Bartling Jr: Yeah. John McAleavey: here today. We have that in common. So if you could, Doug, tell us about the day that changed your life. What do you remember before, during, and then in the immediate aftermath of your injury? Doug Bartling Jr: Oof. I re I John McAleavey: No, I'd hate to take you back there, but Doug Bartling Jr: you know what though? It's good because a lot of like it like I wouldn't have the fiance and the kids I have today if it wasn't for the you know, being hurt. I wouldn't have my faith if it wasn't for being hurt. John McAleavey: Of course. Yeah. Doug Bartling Jr: So yes, of course it was a tragedy. It was the worst thing that ever happened at the time. But you know, that was nineteen John McAleavey: Right. Right. Doug Bartling Jr: years ago. You know, I've met the most amazing people because of me being hurt and if I never got hurt, I probably would have none John McAleavey: Yeah. Doug Bartling Jr: of them in my life now. So, you know, you got two ways to really look at John McAleavey: I know, I know. Doug Bartling Jr: life. You can look at it as, you know, my life is shit and that's always going to be shit. And I'm never going to be shit, which is John McAleavey: Yeah. Yeah. Doug Bartling Jr: which is normal. If if if you don't face those those those questions, and that's I went through that. I mean, I went through my dark time and it was well, I remember the day that I got hurt. it was two months before the wedding. We went camping. We weren't supposed to bring our dog because no dogs were allowed. And of course you get to the campsite and there's only dogs everywhere on the freaking dam, on the campground. And it was cloudy and John McAleavey: god. Doug Bartling Jr: it was rainy out. And we were all at the beach because we wanted to go, you know, there was like ducks and the waves were coming in. But it was at a lake where you could run out a hundred feet off a shoreline and be up to your knees. But it looked John McAleavey: Yeah. Mm-hmm. Doug Bartling Jr: deeper than it was. And so I just ripped off my shirt. I went high tailing it, running, running, running, running, running, running over the waves, over the waves. And I jumped out right from the ground. And I must have misled because I was gonna do a shallow dive like I normally do in the shallow end, I do a shallow dive, John McAleavey: Yeah. Doug Bartling Jr: and I misjudged that led too far in my hand and it impacted right into the sandbar on the ground. And John McAleavey: Mm. Doug Bartling Jr: I remember I flipped upside down and my family was just laughing. John McAleavey: Of course. Of course. Doug Bartling Jr: They thought I they thought I was joking. And then they said they saw me sink under the water and came up and my face was like as red as an apple. They came and got John McAleavey: God. Doug Bartling Jr: me and they helicoptered me to Fort Henry. They brought me to Syracuse. I was there for two weeks. And in Syracuse, they I I went through surgery and I remember seeing like just I woke up and I I looked in the ER room in the in the room where they were doing the mirror you know, immediate surgery. John McAleavey: Mm-hmm. Doug Bartling Jr: And all I saw was a row of blue, all just blue people, blue, the the nurses and doctors. And then just a tray of silver, all John McAleavey: Hmm. Yeah, they had their coats on. Yeah. Right. Doug Bartling Jr: the all the instruments. And then I knock out, I wake up, and the doctor comes in and he goes to shake my hand. He puts his hand out and I grab John McAleavey: right. Doug Bartling Jr: his hand and he's and he asked me to squeeze it. I'm saying I can't, John McAleavey: Mm-hmm. Doug Bartling Jr: you know, because obviously, you know, I broke my I I don't have any finger moving. I have full teenager. John McAleavey: What level are you, Doug? What level? Doug Bartling Jr: I'm a cervical six, cervical seven, C67. John McAleavey: Okay. Okay. Doug Bartling Jr: They call me a complete, which I a complete, incomplete. I I don't I don't. John McAleavey: Right. Who knows? Doug Bartling Jr: but I will say I never knew what that was, even when I couldn't shake the guy's hand. I stayed there for two weeks in Syracuse, went to Sunnyview. I was at Sunnyview John McAleavey: Okay. Doug Bartling Jr: for a good three weeks, and I'm shooting the shit like I. John McAleavey: Yeah. Doug Bartling Jr: and by the way, I might be a Christian, but I say shit a lot. So that's just hey, just just the way it is. So just so all people that are John McAleavey: Mm that's fine. Doug Bartling Jr: watching this, yeah, yes, I am a faith based person, but again, I'm a little bit different than most. So John McAleavey: Yeah, that's fine. Yeah, that's great. Whatever works for you. Doug Bartling Jr: Yeah, all right. So I'm just gonna I'll I'll set I'll set the standard right there. I'll just preset everyone. that's right. Hey yeah, that's that's the way it goes. But I will say John McAleavey: That's the preamble, yeah, yeah, yeah. Okay. Sure. Doug Bartling Jr: I didn't know that I was really hurt until one of my therapists, one of the PTs came in. And I was one day I was just making jokes. I I I made another friend on there, we call us the crazy cripple one, crazy cripple two, and And we were just friends, He had a girlfriend at the time, and then but we were watching people leaving their spouses. We were on the spinal cord unit. We were watching spouses not show up, we were watching girlfriends not show up, boyfriends not showing up. And it was crazy the amount of spinal cord people that were on that floor. And there was maybe four or five separations. people left after that. They didn't sign up for something like that. My fiance at at the time. did stay by my side, and John McAleavey: Okay. Doug Bartling Jr: and that was very important for me. But I didn't know that I was I was paralyzed forever until one of the therapists told me that she never saw somebody. I said, how many people have you ever seen walk again? She said, none. And I just looked John McAleavey: Zero. Doug Bartling Jr: at her and I just started, I went to my room and I bawled and I was depressed from, I don't know, two, three John McAleavey: I know. I know. Doug Bartling Jr: days I didn't want to do any therapy at all. And John McAleavey: Mm-hmm. Doug Bartling Jr: and of course, you know how it goes, it's You have those down days and you're like, What what do I do now? Where do I go now? John McAleavey: Doug, I feel exactly the same way. When I got to my rehab, I thought, all right, because like you, I was an athlete growing up and played a ton of sports and I was 24 at the time in great shape. And I thought, all right, I'll be here for a couple of weeks and we'll get ourselves back on the road. And then it was like, holy mother of God, when I got into therapy, Doug Bartling Jr: Mm. John McAleavey: and they're like, All right, try to take a step, and I'm like, Christmas, I couldn't lift my leg. I had been in bed for almost Three months with really no therapy, and how atrophy rolls in. And it was like, whoa, the old, we're not in Kansas anymore, Toto. This is this is a whole new ball game we're dealing with here. And and what a lot of people will will not understand is that how that affects us physically, we're talking about we can't do certain things that we used to do, but more so, I I I know it affected me and and a lot of our brethren more so mentally, is coming to grips with that. Doug Bartling Jr: Mm. John McAleavey: it's one thing not be able to. to move your hand or scratch your face or if you have an itch you can't get to with your hands like you and I both I'll show you these guys I've got I've got the quad hands here. I'm a C34. I'm I'm a a bit of a unicorn though because I'm a really an in incomplete. I can walk and I have been walking for for 34 years, but I have little to no use of my arms, hands and fingers. I'm central cord syndrome. So my central part of my cord was just demolished. So I Doug Bartling Jr: Mm. John McAleavey: I really I tell people I can get up and walk anywhere I want to go. I just can't do a bloody thing when I get there because I I can't pick anything up. I really can't even open my hands and fingers and things like that. But not to get it on about me, but about the mental aspect. Doug Bartling Jr: Well, I saw you I saw I saw you stand up while you were prepping. I'm like, show off. Yeah, hey, look at you standing up John McAleavey: Yeah, right. Show it off. Doug Bartling Jr: and moving, but you're like, I can't stand up and I can't do a thing when I get there. I just but John, John McAleavey: Yeah. Doug Bartling Jr: it's that personality that keeps you going, buddy. It's that is you you got to. You John McAleavey: Have to. Yeah. Doug Bartling Jr: got to if you lose it. And you know, you're not supposed to be you're not a superhero. You can't do it all the time. John McAleavey: Right. Doug Bartling Jr: but at the end of the day, I don't want to keep thinking about the negative thoughts of what I'm not going to do because that's very easy to do. It's John McAleavey: Exactly. It is. Doug Bartling Jr: very easy. We I I mean, still go by a golf course and I look out the window like a sad puppy. I mean, it's it's just like everywhere I go, and then I gotta watch my fiance do things that I can't do for her. And, you John McAleavey: Yeah. Doug Bartling Jr: know, it's just it's a constant struggle of relying on other people to help get you dressed or help. John McAleavey: Yeah. Doug Bartling Jr: I'll wash you off out of the shower. And it's like that's John McAleavey: Yeah. Doug Bartling Jr: why everything that I can do individually, feed myself or dress myself or comb my hair, shave, or anything I can do on my own, I am grateful for it, So John McAleavey: Yeah. Yeah. Peep people just don't know. You don't know, right, Doug? That's the thing. You you don't know until Doug Bartling Jr: You don't. John McAleavey: unfortunately. And and when you're in our when you're in our shoes, then you you you find it out and you you hey there he is. Introduce us to our friend here. Doug Bartling Jr: Good, this is Scooby. We just rescued him. He was looking at daddy. come here, buddy. Here. You wanna see? Come here. Look at this. Come here. John McAleavey: He's wonderful. Hi, Scooby. Doug Bartling Jr: Come up in this face here. Let me try. Come here, buddy. Here, look. Get something. Get it. John McAleavey: he's a beauty. Yeah, take your time. look, he's got treats. Doug Bartling Jr: he loves his treats. So we rescued Scooby about two and a half months ago. John McAleavey: Okay. Doug Bartling Jr: Come here, buddy. John McAleavey: Come on, Scoob. There's a good boy. you got kisses for daddy? I love it. Doug Bartling Jr: This dog was abused for his whole life and you he's got so much love. John McAleavey: I can see that. Doug Bartling Jr: And you know, he he's the the biggest blessing. We only've had him for two and a half months, but I feel like we've had him for John McAleavey: Well, it looks like he's been yours since he's been a puppy because he's given you some lovies. I wonder how much of that Doug Bartling Jr: He's the best. John McAleavey: has to do with that or the treats that you have around there. Doug Bartling Jr: Well, he's definitely treat driven and which is great to treat to teach him because John McAleavey: Yeah. Doug Bartling Jr: when they named him Scooby, we're like, I don't know if we're gonna keep the name. One John McAleavey: Yeah. Doug Bartling Jr: more and then you no one more and that's it. Easy. John McAleavey: Come on, Scoob. Doug Bartling Jr: Gotta go easy. Boy. Can we John McAleavey: Ha ha ha. Doug Bartling Jr: get a good picture of you? Can you see him? John McAleavey: I can. He's been great. He's getting he's taking the treats from you. That's f fabulous. Doug Bartling Jr: one more? Okay. No more. All right. John McAleavey: Ooh. We were talking before this. I I told you that I have a I have a dog from Canine Companions for Independence, and he's he's absolutely one of the best thing that's ever happened to me. He's wonderful. And he comes to work with me at Kessler Institute for Rehabilitation. And, you know, I bring him around to the to the rehab facility where people have just had their lives destroyed, like what you and I are talking about. And, you know, you go in the room and you know they're down and some of them are crying and they They're going down that rabbit hole that you and I were just talking about after you have an injury and they see a dog walk in the room and it's like, their faces light up and they smile and Doug Bartling Jr: Why not? John McAleavey: can we pet And it just changes the whole atmosphere. It's unbelievable what they can do. Doug Bartling Jr: I think every single yes, I think every single there's a reason why they call it man's best friend. And that's not saying it's just man's best friend, women's best friend. It they are our best friend because there's something about them that they know. And before Scooby, I had one, I had Max and Rosie before that, and and and princess was my dog that I had when I was able bodied and when I broke my neck, transitioned into an emotional companion. And if it wasn't for her John McAleavey: Of course. Yeah. Doug Bartling Jr: I would have given up a long time, but I had somebody to take care of. She still needed her daddy. So I had John McAleavey: Of course. Doug Bartling Jr: so so it was like that was something that kept me going. And your John McAleavey: Yeah. Doug Bartling Jr: dog keeps you going because it's somebody that so when my my pups passed, I I was heartbroken. Then my house was eerie and the quiet was deafening. It was almost John McAleavey: Mm, be quiet. Yeah. Doug Bartling Jr: like and I know that's It's a little weird to say, but the quiet was it the it was so still. And as a voice actor, you're thinking, Yes, all right, it's quiet. I can work. No. I'd rather the John McAleavey: Right. Yeah. Yeah. Yeah. Doug Bartling Jr: pitter patters of the feet and I'd rather the panting. I'd rather that and and try to make it quiet in the studio and John McAleavey: Mm-hmm. Doug Bartling Jr: and have that in the house than not. So we wanted to rescue John McAleavey: Yeah, and the amazing thing Doug Bartling Jr: an animal that needed a good home. John McAleavey: Yeah. The amazing thing about them, Doug, is that they don't see the disability. They don't see the chair. When I went to get my guy, his name is Jokin. When I got Jokin, I Doug Bartling Jr: Yelped. John McAleavey: was in a class. There were six other people. This was right in the middle of COVID. So they kept it small. But I was the only one that could walk. The other folks, they either had cerebral palsy or MS. And there was other another gentleman that had spinal cord injury. They were all in wheelchairs and were never going to walk. And I mean like profoundly disabled. These people were like pretzels in their wheelchairs. I I didn't know how they did it. Yeah, it was awful. But the dogs just wanted to climb on them and kiss them and have treats and it was just it's amazing. They don't care. They just want to love and eat. And that seems to be and the opposite, I think I don't know which they want more, that to to eat or to love you, but those two things are are top of the list for them. Doug Bartling Jr: How old is Jokin? John McAleavey: Jokin will be seven in December. So he's but he still acts like a puppy, I tell you. He chases his ball. Doug Bartling Jr: You got a lot of years left with him. What kind of dog is he? John McAleavey: He's a golden lab mix. His mommy was a Doug Bartling Jr: Well John McAleavey: golden, his daddy was a lab. Yeah, he's he's wonderful. I'll put some pictures up. Doug Bartling Jr: Well, labs, yeah, I sa well, I saw him. I saw John McAleavey: Yeah. Doug Bartling Jr: him. he's he's adorable. But I'll say lab mixes, you you got at least another eight years. They they live a long life. not as long as John McAleavey: Yeah. I'm hoping so. Doug Bartling Jr: not as long as cats, but but they they l they live like a long life. And I really believe the love you give the love you give and and you take care of But yeah, they take care of us as much as we take care of them, for sure. John McAleavey: They do. And I know we're going to touch on your faith and religion in a couple of questions from here. But Doug Bartling Jr: Sure. John McAleavey: just to tee that up, when I was out getting him, they told me because he was so patient with me. Like we would do a command, and then if they did it right, we were to give them a treat. And as I showed everybody before, my hands don't open up. So for me to reach into my feed bag to get him a treat, I mean, it took like a good couple of minutes and he's He's looking up at me with those eyes, those patient eyes, okay, it's okay, Daddy. I'll wait for you. I'll wait for you. So they told me, John, they said, dog spelled backwards is God. So they're they're they're in there somewhere. And I was looking into those eyes and not to get all holy roller, but I thought, my goodness, is are you looking up at me? Because I need your help, pal. I really do need your help. And so I know we're gonna touch on that in in a couple of questions, but if we could Doug Bartling Jr: Why? John McAleavey: just to to get back to to after you had your injury. tell me about your rehab. How how important were family and friends to your rehab? Did they keep you going? Because the we've talked about that rabbit hole that we all could go down. And if you if you if you let that happen, you can really s let sorrow take over, but I'm sure your buddies and your family didn't wouldn't let that happen. Doug Bartling Jr: No, they didn't. And, I don't have a big family. but John McAleavey: Mm-hmm. Doug Bartling Jr: the friends again, I had a I had a good circle that was around me, but John McAleavey: Right. Doug Bartling Jr: I didn't really want that. I I I didn't know how to t I didn't want to keep talking about what I was going through every day and what kind of therapy and everybody was trying to build my hopes up and keep my energy and we're gonna get you out of here and then it's like okay enough stop some guy John McAleavey: Yeah. Right. Doug Bartling Jr: came in he told me what life was gonna be like in a wheelchair and I about almost wanted to throw him out the window. and then another lady came in there and she started telling me, I was like well what can I ever do now? I'm a sports guy. I'm not a guy that sits out and plays video games. I play video games and s and stuff but I was a I was an I liked doing stuff. I was outright John McAleavey: You were physical, yeah, yeah. Yeah. Doug Bartling Jr: Yeah, basketball, golf, baseball, playing guitar, something, doing something active, snowmobiles, jet ski, that kind of stuff. I loved that stuff. And the ladies, John McAleavey: Yeah, don't come in here and put a happy face on it all. Doug Bartling Jr: the lady specifically says, Well, you can watch birds. And I look I I I was so angry. I was so angry. I John McAleavey: Take off, lady. Doug Bartling Jr: I don't that is the best PG related, G related version that you can think of. John McAleavey: I know. Get the bleep out of here, I can hear it. I know. Yeah. Doug Bartling Jr: Get the get the bleep bleep the bleep bleep the bleep bleep out of here kind of thing. She would have gone flying out the window if I could have done that. But but again, that was something again that I had to learn through it. Patience was a hard thing to learn. patience John McAleavey: Yeah, yeah. No doubt. Doug Bartling Jr: and when you're going through depression and you're going through, physical anguish and pain, mental pain and physical pain, spiritual pain before I even knew what spiritual pain was. it John McAleavey: Yeah. Doug Bartling Jr: it just There was so much. It's a mourning everything, everything. You're mourning the old you. You're mourning John McAleavey: It's a morning. Yeah, you're mourning the old you. Yeah. Mm-hmm. Doug Bartling Jr: the future. You're mourning the past. You're mourning I shouldn't have done that. You're mourning, you're mourning everything. You know, like John McAleavey: Yeah. Yeah. Doug Bartling Jr: why am I why am I here? How come I'm not dead? Why John McAleavey: Mm-hmm. Mm-hmm. Doug Bartling Jr: am I living? I don't want to anymore. Just not that you're suicidal, but and John McAleavey: Yeah. No. Doug Bartling Jr: it but you you you feel like you have nothing else to give for anybody. You know, why? John McAleavey: Mm-hmm. Right. Doug Bartling Jr: Why am I doing this? And that is exactly, where, my my ex at the time was stood right by my side. She would not leave the hospital. Every day she stayed the night in the hospital. I was in the hospital for 60 days straight. She maybe, maybe one night. And I don't even John McAleavey: Maybe one night. Doug Bartling Jr: think it was one night. I I want to say it was all 60. but I remember it was just the fact they gave her a bed that she could stay in and she grabbed the Bible out of all people, she grabbed the Bible. And we started praying, and I was like, praying to what? To who? okay, John McAleavey: Okay, yeah. Yeah, exactly. Doug Bartling Jr: well, you're gonna help me get unparalyzed and help me go John McAleavey: Yeah. Doug Bartling Jr: like this. Okay, God, if there was a God, he wouldn't have done this to me. So all right, nice talking to you about you and your Jesus person. I don't really care. that's where I was, buddy, at the time. I don't John McAleavey: Yeah. Yeah. Doug Bartling Jr: I don't that's I wasn't very recent. That's right, John McAleavey: Where was he when I needed him most, yeah. Doug Bartling Jr: right. That's how I I went at it. And I remember, leaving the hospital and the day I woke up my first day at home was the day of our wedding. What would have been the day of our wedding if we we we if we stayed together. I woke up to the church bells at the church down the street where the wedding was gonna be at. So and that was in my home and I woke up. I slept on the couch. My house wasn't ready. But John McAleavey: of course. Doug Bartling Jr: That was why I got out of actually doing social work for John McAleavey: Okay. Doug Bartling Jr: when I went to college, I wanted to be radio DJ at the time, but they wouldn't pay for me to go to radio school. So I John McAleavey: Okay. Doug Bartling Jr: said, Well, what do you do? And she says, Help people like you. So I went to school to do social work. And I found John McAleavey: Okay. Doug Bartling Jr: out in social work, when you are not showing active signs of getting better, they have to give somebody a bed that does. So like somebody else that needs it. So they'll send you home, even if your house is not ready to send you home. So they had John McAleavey: Okay. Doug Bartling Jr: to make up, they had to keep up making up things for me to stay. This is before John McAleavey: Wow. Doug Bartling Jr: I knew about that. That was the reason why. But then I saw it when I was going to school and I was doing my interning at John McAleavey: Right. Doug Bartling Jr: the place that I did my intern from. So I left and I went home. I got discharged before my house was ready. So I had to sleep John McAleavey: Wow. Doug Bartling Jr: on the couch, paralyzed for my chest down. No protection, no nothing, no comfortability. John McAleavey: Jesus God. Doug Bartling Jr: Yeah, it was crazy. And and then and then yeah, and so then yeah. John McAleavey: Good grief. Yeah, now we're sending we're sending people home in three and four weeks now. I I listen, I'm I go back to nineteen ninety-two was my injury. And I'll tell you, Doug, I spent two and a half months in the acute care hospital, and then I spent almost five months in rehab. So I was almost out of the house for a full half a year, seven well, more than half a year, seven months out of the house. So to get you ho I could imagine you w they didn't have your house ready. Good grief. They to do Fix your shower, probably. They had to open that up. They had to get ramps and whatnot. So yeah, that that's a real thing. Doug Bartling Jr: Yeah, yep, yep, yep, yep. I could yeah, yeah. They had to re they had to rebuild, rebuild the whole back deck to to get a ramp in there. They had to open up John McAleavey: Yeah. Doug Bartling Jr: every doorway, they had to take my office and knock the office down to make it into an accessible shower because my bathroom was upstairs. So they had to John McAleavey: Of course. Doug Bartling Jr: reroute the pipes, they had to make a whole shower in the thing, cost thousands of dollars. My dad had a connection to a construction worker. helped flip John McAleavey: Mm-hmm. Doug Bartling Jr: it all around and and made it no thank god but that I had people and I will tell you John McAleavey: Yeah. Doug Bartling Jr: this my my my dad's my dad and his wife his his ex-wife my stepmom who helped raise me her family the Scarlatas really did this huge thing at their at their restaurant they had this huge benefit that all my friends John McAleavey: nice. Doug Bartling Jr: and family put together and they raised a significant amount of money for me to be able to afford John McAleavey: Wonderful. Doug Bartling Jr: the first I think it lasted me seven years, eight years after I got hurt, you know, the that that it helped me. So, you know, if it John McAleavey: Okay. Of course. Yeah. Doug Bartling Jr: wasn't for that, if it wasn't for people to to be able to look out for it. But I think at the end of the day, John, John McAleavey: Yeah. Doug Bartling Jr: the more I started implementing the the God thing, I chose I went to a church. And my first glimpse of Christianity was somebody came and laid hands on me and then told me to get up and walk. And I couldn't. And then John McAleavey: right. Doug Bartling Jr: he whispered in my ears, because your faith isn't strong enough. That's what he said. My first glimpse of Christianity. John McAleavey: Interesting. Interesting. Doug Bartling Jr: And then they told Sherry, which was my ex, they told her that because we're not married, that we need to put a divider up in our house, and then I need to go into one at. entrants and she needs to go in the other. So clearly that made her stop going to church. And that was the John McAleavey: Of course. Doug Bartling Jr: beginning of our end because I still wanted to stay church. Not specifically that church, but John McAleavey: Right. Doug Bartling Jr: I wanted to go, I got baptized and I really wanted to take it serious. And it was hard. John McAleavey: Course, yeah. Doug Bartling Jr: I was always home. I was living in Little Falls. It was always on a hill. So I'd go John McAleavey: Mm-hmm. Mm-hmm. Doug Bartling Jr: to Sunnyview for rehab, but I would be always be home. I was never out. I was always John McAleavey: Right. Yeah. Doug Bartling Jr: And then, my assistants were always in the house, and it ended up becoming like a nursing home. It was too much for her. She didn't sign up for that. You know, she didn't sign up for it. I went to school, John McAleavey: Too much for her. Yeah. Too much for her. Yeah. Yep. Doug Bartling Jr: got my degree, and then when I we we separated, I moved back into my hometown. And I had two John McAleavey: Okay. Doug Bartling Jr: choices. It's either go to get my bachelor's, I had my associates, or go to radio school. And I said, I'm gonna go to radio school. And that's what John McAleavey: Yeah. Doug Bartling Jr: started this, and that was in two thousand. ten two thousand John McAleavey: Yep. Doug Bartling Jr: eleven. John McAleavey: And the injury was in what year? Two thousand nine? Two thousand seven. Okay. So it took you Doug Bartling Jr: Seven. Yeah. John McAleavey: a couple. That was my next question. What next? Do you find yourself now all of a sudden disabled person? What what is the next plan? And so it's radio school, which is which is big Doug Bartling Jr: Yeah. John McAleavey: really cool, which is sort of leading us to where the direction that you're moving into now, which is exciting Doug Bartling Jr: Yeah. John McAleavey: as anything. And I can't wait to get into that. But tell me about your first foray into the world of radio. And a after you got out of school. Yeah. Doug Bartling Jr: The world of radio. Always wanted to do radio. you hear those voices and it's like, I would love to do that. People told me I had a great voice forever. you think it's all about the voice. It's all about, that. And it's not. It really's not. it's, John McAleavey: I know. No, right. Doug Bartling Jr: personality and it's about delivery and emotion and that kind of thing. So, but when I got into radio school, I didn't know if I could use the buttons and move this John McAleavey: Right. Doug Bartling Jr: and cue that and do that and do this and do that. John McAleavey: Course. Doug Bartling Jr: And I worked my ass off to do it. And I said, I'm gonna keep doing it. So at the radio school, there was a booth. And I would go in there and I would do and I'm mess around and I would act, you like what four nine the cat. We got blah, blah, blah, blah, blah coming on there. And I would get a John McAleavey: Yeah, yeah. Doug Bartling Jr: music queued up and whatever the music was coming up, I would come like with some lead in for that, something, something, something. And it's like, hey, I give it away, tip of girl, or whatever, whatever, John McAleavey: Right. Doug Bartling Jr: Just and then lead it in and I would do it. And then started getting good at it. Yeah, I started getting good at it. John McAleavey: Over and over and over. Of course. Doug Bartling Jr: And and then I had an idea and I went to the TV side and I said, you know, if you guys ever want to do a project, why don't you do like a day in the life of a quad and just have your camera, just have your students follow me around. And they did. Twenty-four hours I had five TV students like stay with me and like either come to my house, stay at at nighttime, slept over, and then some came the next day and all did. film footage of me bathing, showering, cooking, dressing, John McAleavey: Yeah. Doug Bartling Jr: radio, you know, going to school, coming home, and they just did a day in the life. And so it was on YouTube and John McAleavey: Day in the life. Doug Bartling Jr: yeah, day in the life of Quad. And John McAleavey: Very cool. Doug Bartling Jr: yeah, it was cool. And that's how the quad father came to be because one of the kids was like, dude, you you're like a leader. you lead the and then the the John McAleavey: Yeah. Doug Bartling Jr: the the main mentor, the teacher, the proctor like, you're like the Don of Quads. John McAleavey: Yeah. Doug Bartling Jr: You're like the Quadfather. And then all of a sudden a buddy got me, made me a shirt called the Quadfather on it, and then it just stuck. John McAleavey: Yeah. Well, this is wonderful. The two worlds collide. The quad father is on the quad cast. Yeah. Yeah, of course. Doug Bartling Jr: Yeah, yeah, yeah. Yeah, and it stuck, And it was I was I was honored by the name. It wasn't even like a gimme to me. For me, it was like I love mafia movies, per first of all. You know, John McAleavey: Right. Doug Bartling Jr: I I'm I'm kind of like that little like, hey, what you see is what you get kind of guy, you know. I don't there's nothing up my sleeve. Hey, how you doing? You know, like kind of thing. So it kind John McAleavey: Hey, how you doing? Doug Bartling Jr: of just you know, you know, it's family respect kind of thing. So John McAleavey: Course. Doug Bartling Jr: People can really say, it's a mafia movie, but you know what? It's I l I g I I'll Puccino right back here. that's what the John McAleavey: That's right. Doug Bartling Jr: whole but I the the the whole thing for me was John is I never thought radio was hard. I got out of radio broadcasting school and I got a job immediately doing weather, news traffic weather. They did not call me the quadfather. They did not call, they did not know that Doug Bartlane Jr. was in a wheelchair for a full year. No listener. John McAleavey: So the listeners had no idea. The listeners had no idea. Doug Bartling Jr: So I'm delivering the news, the weather, mostly the traffic, and John McAleavey: Okay. Doug Bartling Jr: I would try to bring Color into the traffic. Yeah, you got a little bit of a parking lot. You might be tapping the brake a time or two here over on John McAleavey: Yeah. Doug Bartling Jr: I-87 from exits, exit this to this to the trim bridges. John McAleavey: Yeah, yeah. Doug Bartling Jr: You might want to watch that. So I tried to bring color and they hated it. They thought it was John McAleavey: Of course. Really? Doug Bartling Jr: all hell yeah. They were like, we don't want you to do that. Don't do that. John McAleavey: That's interesting. Doug Bartling Jr: Yeah, so I was trying to do it because I was trying to earn a spot on one of the radio stations that I was doing the traffic for. I wanted John McAleavey: Right. Doug Bartling Jr: to gain a spot on there, but I was getting The 5 a.m. to 9 a.m. slot live. John McAleavey: dear God. Doug Bartling Jr: So I'm getting up at 2:30 in the morning to get up, get dressed, go to go to there, and then I would fall asleep driving in my van on the way home because I was guessed. And then when I decided John McAleavey: God, what a deal. Doug Bartling Jr: to walk away from radio, is when I got offered a my own station, play my own music, make it whatever I wanted. And It was for the same time slot and I had to make a decision. I walked away from it because John McAleavey: And what year was that, Doug? How how long into the radio f for you said you started Doug Bartling Jr: It John McAleavey: in twenty ten? Doug Bartling Jr: was twenty ten, I graduated radio school about twenty eleven. And John McAleavey: Okay. Doug Bartling Jr: then I want to say it was twenty twelve, and I was offered John McAleavey: All right. Doug Bartling Jr: that. Yeah. And I walked away and I got into motivational speaking and I got into voice coaches, which is like John McAleavey: Okay. Okay. Doug Bartling Jr: a voiceover. I heard about a voiceover program that was located local in Albany. And I was like, hey, I'm a speaker. I'm a radio guy. What are you gonna tell me about my voice? I thought I was gonna roll in there and steal the show. John McAleavey: Exactly. Doug Bartling Jr: I did not know a a a lick of John McAleavey: Just read the words off the page, right? With your with your as we said, velvety tones in the beginning. Doug Bartling Jr: Yeah, yeah. And that does not it sounds like you're just reading and and John McAleavey: I know. Doug Bartling Jr: and it's you don't know what you don't know, and so John McAleavey: Exactly. Doug Bartling Jr: and what I've learned from this company, I thought was amazing, but then I realized that they're just teaching me novice stuff, right? John McAleavey: Right. Yeah. Doug Bartling Jr: the more and more you do coaching with people that are more involved into the industry, you start realizing, whoa, there's a lot John McAleavey: Yeah. Doug Bartling Jr: to it. When I got into John McAleavey: Yeah. Doug Bartling Jr: public speaking, I wanted to really inspire people by saying, Don't give up, keep going. So I literally I had I had nothing to show for it, but I what I did was I literally found every school 250 mile radius from 200 from Albany north, south, east, and west, into Vermont all the way out to West, out out to Buffalo. So I was going north, south, east, west, all around in that circle, and I emailed every single vice principal, principal, and superintendent, middle school and high school. I had notebooks filled of trying to say this is what I would do to talk to your kids. And I emailed, you John McAleavey: Persistence. Doug Bartling Jr: know, persistence, or you, you know, I just it was something. I don't know what it was, but a persistence, resilience, John McAleavey: Mm-hmm. Doug Bartling Jr: it was kind of, but I only and then I finally got a nudge. And when I John McAleavey: Okay. Doug Bartling Jr: got, When I got accepted, I John McAleavey: Mm-hmm. Doug Bartling Jr: said, Okay, let me see what I can do with this And I hired a I hired a Yeah. John McAleavey: Mm-hmm. Had you, yeah, had you already had, excuse me for interrupting, had you already had your your spiel, what you were going to say and your your program down and and and have it to a like a certain time limit, or you were just gonna shoot from the hip? Doug Bartling Jr: I was shooting from the hip, buddy. I there was no time limit John McAleavey: Mm-hmm. Doug Bartling Jr: for me. They gave me a time limit. The first school I went into was in middle school, and it was like an auditorium full of 300 kids. And John McAleavey: Okay. Doug Bartling Jr: I remember I had those I had those YouTube videos from the documentaries that the kids made at the radio school. So John McAleavey: Right. Doug Bartling Jr: I would show that in the big screen behind me. I'd have that queued up. And then when I started talking, I would wheel up and down the up and down the the podium and the the stage and you could hear a pin drop you could hear a pin John McAleavey: Of course. Yes. Of course. Doug Bartling Jr: drop they nobody was snickering nobody was doing this and I have this huge thing about bullying and I would say everybody that got told they weren't good enough. They got made fun of. They've been told John McAleavey: Mm-hmm. Stand up. Doug Bartling Jr: stand up. well I said raise your hand. Raise your John McAleavey: Okay. Doug Bartling Jr: hand. Raise your hand. And then all of a sudden, I said keep your hands up. And I had my hand up too. John McAleavey: Mm-hmm. Doug Bartling Jr: And and then I said, now look around. It was everybody. 90, 90% of the people had their arms hands up, John McAleavey: Of course. Doug Bartling Jr: and including the teachers. Including the teachers. John McAleavey: Yeah. Yep. Doug Bartling Jr: And I said, now keep your hands up. Now those out there that have they think it's cool to make fun of people. They like to make fun of people. And I literally was saying, you know, I think it's, you know, people out there that are, you know, I I forgot how I phrased it, but I basically said, you think it's fun to pick on people? raise your hand. If you just think it's fun to pick on people, hey, you're not that, you're not that. There's always one, John. There's always one kid. John McAleavey: Yeah. Doug Bartling Jr: And I don't think I would do that now. But back then I wasn't very Christian esque. So I so John McAleavey: Mm-hmm. Doug Bartling Jr: I so they would raise their hand. I'd roll down to the edge of the wherever they were, and I would sit in front of them and be like, that's not cool, pal. I'm like, you know, it's not good to John McAleavey: Mm. No, it's not. Doug Bartling Jr: make. It's not cool to make other people feel bad. And bullies are really running from other things, you know, and it's not them. And I don't think I would do that again because I really John McAleavey: They are. No. Doug Bartling Jr: feel like it's not right to call out the bully, but it was also saying I wanted John McAleavey: Yeah. Doug Bartling Jr: people to know that they're more than what people call them. You know, they're more John McAleavey: Of course. Doug Bartling Jr: than what and that's really where I was that was what I wanted. But my John McAleavey: Mm-hmm. Doug Bartling Jr: delivery and my my maybe John McAleavey: Yeah. Doug Bartling Jr: I should have came up with a game plan because it wasn't a very good execution. But I did that at two John McAleavey: Yeah, but huh. Doug Bartling Jr: different schools and then I recorded it and got demos made for it so I had something to show other schools of what I did. John McAleavey: Of course. Yeah. So how many d over that time frame do you think you did as far as schools wise? Doug Bartling Jr: a handful. It wasn't that many. Yeah, yeah, it was good. I was very yeah, I was very John McAleavey: Good. But you know what it was it Doug Bartling Jr: what made made made it John was parents writing me letters saying that the kids came home and they were inspired. And I got I John McAleavey: Yeah. Doug Bartling Jr: got a good handful of letters written to me or emails written to me about that. And that made the world to me because that that that meant the world to me. but that was John McAleavey: without question. Without question. I have a funny Doug Bartling Jr: that John McAleavey: yeah. Doug Bartling Jr: That's where I found out that I had a better gift of encouraging people and inspiring people John McAleavey: Yeah. Doug Bartling Jr: and motivating people, not because of of money. I don't care about that. It's it's because I don't think John McAleavey: The way you were living your life after what had happened to you. Yeah, you didn't you didn't let it you didn't let it knock you down. I have a quick story to tell you. I as a sports guy like you, I when when I had my injury, that that window, and you know, that window closes. You can't really do sports or not the way you used to do them. you can't really, you know, go to the gym and pump iron and do all of that stuff. So I I that window really frustrated me. A friend of mine was started to coach youth basketball and he asked me to come help him. And I thought, well, how the hell am I going to coach basketball? I can't hold a ball, let alone dribble a ball. So I went the first day and just hung in the background. And the next day went by and I got a little more involved. I'm little more involved. And then the the following year my friend got busy with work and he had to relinquish the head coaching job. So he said, hey man, this is on you. And and twenty-two years later I coached hoops for twenty-two years and it was it was the most amazing thing that happened to me. And I and I had a young man, Doug, call me three weeks ago. He's now living in Indianapolis and he said, Hey coach, they call me Coach Mac, because my last name is MacLeby. Coach, I'm gonna be in the area. Would it be okay if I stopped over to say hello? And I said, God, I haven't seen him in so long. And I'm physically I'm really not the way I used to be. And I was I I didn't know if I wanted to, you know, show him that. And I said, do it. My friend family and friends said, have them over. And he sat there in the living room and we talked for about an hour and he told me, I'm coaching now. And he said, You don't know. You taught me more about life than you did about basketball. And and I have these lessons that I learned from you that I'm trying to impart on kids that I coach now. And I thought, all I ever I all I ever really wanted to do, Doug, was win a basketball game. I had no idea I was inspiring this kid. And He said, you have no idea all the people that played for you over the years. That was the first thing they would say when you made the team. Did you make Coach Mac's team? You're gonna learn this and that and the other thing. And we don't realize that that even unbeknownst to us, we don't even know that we're Doug Bartling Jr: It's amazing. Yeah. John McAleavey: doing it. But it's like, do you go down the hole and stay there and and want to die, or do you just live your life and maybe people can can pick up from that and and and move on and and accept that, you know, we always say you to you take things for granted. And once you're in our position, you know that you don't. Doug Bartling Jr: Yeah, you're you're absolutely right. And what a cool testimony that some kid John McAleavey: it was Doug Bartling Jr: that you were just teaching and all you cared about was winning basketball. And you just w John McAleavey: I just wanted to win, man. I was a competitor. Put the clock on there and I want one more point than that stinking coach on the other side who's who's walking up and down Doug Bartling Jr: man. John McAleavey: with his two legs. And here I am. I can't even hold the the highlighter pen as I'm trying to draw up a play with two seconds left in the game, but Doug Bartling Jr: John, you you John, you're my spirit animal, buddy. That that's amaz that's amazing. John McAleavey: Yeah. Yeah, we're all in this Doug Bartling Jr: Yeah, you don't know, and then this kid out of the woodwork just comes and now adult. he's he's probably got kids of his own now and he's coaching. That's that's John McAleavey: Blew me away. Blew me away. Doug Bartling Jr: those are the things that you just don't know that you're doing John McAleavey: Mm-hmm. Doug Bartling Jr: when you're doing and leading by example and I don't know, even to this day, I don't know who I'm inspiring or who I'm encouraging. I'm just trying to live my life the best I possibly can. And I've realized John McAleavey: That's all we're doing. Doug Bartling Jr: my value over the years isn't what I do, isn't what I bring home monetarily. It is it is who I am, growing John McAleavey: Exactly. Doug Bartling Jr: up and I'm still not mature. if you ask my fiance now, she's amazing, What do you want to be when you grow up? It's like, yeah, that's John McAleavey: Yeah. Doug Bartling Jr: what I'm still trying to figure out. It's like I want to be a Toys R Us kid. I I just I have a John McAleavey: Exactly. Yeah, yeah. Doug Bartling Jr: mentality that I just like to have fun. But my body says, Well, you are 49 years old, dude, and you are not getting any younger. So, Tim is John McAleavey: I know, I know. Doug Bartling Jr: but I wrote a mechanical bull when I first met her as a quadruple. I rode that sucker three times, fell off it, rode it, fell off it. And the third time I decided to go and I wrapped my arm around it. I threw my hand up in the air, I fell off and snapped my hip. it's, John McAleavey: Of course. Doug Bartling Jr: and that I think is on YouTube as well. There's one of the bull rides on there. But I would ride roller coasters and get in it and then not be able to get out of it. And, it's just like I wanted to do things, but I'm six five, two fifty. I'm a tall, I'm a big dude. And right now, what what we're John McAleavey: I didn't realize you were that big. Wow, you're a big dude. Doug Bartling Jr: doing is I'm I'm putting, I'm just trying to get more on social media. I got these airplane videos since flying and I'll tell you a little bit about it. I'll tell you more about it. John McAleavey: Okay. Yeah. And I wanna get back into the voice stuff. Yeah, yeah, we wanna hit that before we roll out of here. Doug Bartling Jr: Yeah, and that's yeah, go for it because the voice the voice stuff is what led to the airplane videos and the airplane videos, yeah. John McAleavey: And I I yeah, I have to tell you, what led me to you is someone that you've worked with, the great Mark Ryder. I had watched Doug Bartling Jr: Marge Ryder. John McAleavey: yeah, I watched a YouTube because I'm tr my fans and friends, not fans, Doug Bartling Jr: Love him. John McAleavey: I don't have any fans. I have like four people that listen to these shows. good, good. Doug Bartling Jr: I'm your fan, bro. I have four people. I'm John McAleavey: But but I I'm trying to do the voice acting stuff myself. I've been recording the pod for about six years and trying to get into the doing the voice acting stuff myself. So I'm watching, thank you. I've watched a million YouTube things and Doug Bartling Jr: I heard your demo. It's good. Yeah. Should be proud of it. John McAleavey: I I thank you. I watched Mark and I just said, I'm going to shoot this guy a an email because he said at the end, if you have any interest. So the first thing he wrote back to me, I couldn't believe that he wrote back to me because this guy is like the top tippity top of the world. And he said, Doug Bartling Jr: Sure is. John McAleavey: Hey, you have to meet do you know Doug Bartling Jr. And I said, I don't know Doug Bartling. He said, You got to reach out for him. So that was what I did. I I I then Got your name, put it in the put it in the Google machine. And this is sort of a year and a half later, it's what what's led to to us talking now. So tell me you went from radio to the public speaking to now you're gonna try and and forge a career in voiceover, which is now percolating and and really on Doug Bartling Jr: Yeah. It's getting there, yep. John McAleavey: yeah, you're you're you're my idol, and and I want to pick your brain on all of this stuff. So tell us about the beginnings. how you got into the coaching and how what what how important that is and you know what a day in the life is like of a voice actor. Doug Bartling Jr: Wow, that's mouthful, John. That is a mouthful. I'll try to keep it as brief as possible. John McAleavey: I know, I know. Yeah, yeah. Doug Bartling Jr: as brief as I possibly can make it. John McAleavey: Okay. Doug Bartling Jr: I'll say this: when I went to Albany voice coaches and I learned from them, I thought that it was groundbreaking stuff, dynamics and pitch and timing and all that. And I and then I realized, ooh, it's very novice. And you really gotta watch where you get your coaching from because They had a great studio, they had great baseline of it, which gave me a great bass. So I give a lot of credit to the voice coaches, family and that kind of thing. But what I learned from that was, whoa, I didn't know what I didn't know. I made my own website, got my demo from this voice coach's place, and the first person I reached out to was the voice of Porky Pig, Bob Bergen. And and I emailed him and I I sent him my demo and my w thinking like you did with Mark Ryder. And I heard back from him and I was like, John McAleavey: But he Doug Bartling Jr: my God, this is it. This is John McAleavey: Did he kill it? Doug Bartling Jr: my he killed it and gave me a two page email of why I was terrible. And and I will tell you this, I will John McAleavey: All right. Well that was at least good, a blueprint. Doug Bartling Jr: I will tell you this. It was the best thing that has ever happened because that the first day it sucked the wind right out of me like a gut. And I and I John McAleavey: No. Doug Bartling Jr: and I I was gonna give up then. And And he and he realized, okay, this is not good. That's not good. That's not good. That's not good. That's not good. This isn't good. That's not good. it was like, okay, what is good? my whip size says a lot of red marker. A lot of red marker. you John McAleavey: Wow. There was a lot of red marker on that sheet. Doug Bartling Jr: you lead in with this. Why are you calling yourself a quadriplegic voice actor? You're hiding behind your disability. And I only wanted because I I put it out there like that is because, hey, all these voice talents and hey, you're a quad voice talent. Ooh, that's interesting. John McAleavey: Right. All Doug Bartling Jr: Not because, John McAleavey: right. Doug Bartling Jr: but I understand what he's talking about now. But at that time it was just like, who's gonna hire me because I'm disabled? Nobody's gonna do that. I was just trying to stand out, but he, no, John McAleavey: Right. Exactly. Yeah, you weren't throwing the sympathy card out there. Doug Bartling Jr: I never that would never do that, but I could see his point. But he John McAleavey: Right. Doug Bartling Jr: made a lot of good points, but he introduced me to one of his people, and I coached with one of his people, and so I went from zero, you know, local to one of the best coaches in the country from John McAleavey: Very cool. Doug Bartling Jr: and I it was very cool, but for a full year I paid top dollar and John McAleavey: yeah. Doug Bartling Jr: and I went I didn't know what the hell I was doing. No idea. You know, I didn't know who I was. He's John McAleavey: Yeah. Right. Doug Bartling Jr: like, who are you in that script? I'm like, what do you mean? It's like they're not just words. John McAleavey: Yeah, exactly. Doug Bartling Jr: I well you're talking to somebody. Who are you talking to? What? What are you talking about? it's well it's about car John McAleavey: Exactly. There's Doug Bartling Jr: parts. Well what do you know about car? I don't know anything about cars. Well, what do you and I'm just I'm just pro I'm just spitballing here, but it was like who, the who, the John McAleavey: Mm-hmm. Doug Bartling Jr: what, the where, the when, the why, and that is how you sound. The emotion behind the read, it's not just words that I copy. And it took John McAleavey: Yeah. Doug Bartling Jr: years for me to realize what the hell he was talking about. And I would John McAleavey: Right. Doug Bartling Jr: fail. And I'm working with him one on one, face to face, over Zoom, and I'm reading the script, and I just kept failing and failing and failing and failing and failing. John McAleavey: Mm. Mm-hmm. Of course. Yeah. Doug Bartling Jr: And it was John McAleavey: Yeah. Doug Bartling Jr: like, why, why am I putting myself? Call it stubbornness, call it resilience, call it, I don't even know. But I just kept pushing forward, but I wasn't getting any better. And I kept John McAleavey: Yeah. Doug Bartling Jr: failing. And then I started working with other coaches. And then I was John McAleavey: Mm-hmm. Doug Bartling Jr: like, that's what Dave Walsh was talking about. Dave Walsh is an amazing coach. The true tell approach is the best, it's the best approach. But then John McAleavey: Yeah. Doug Bartling Jr: I go to Dave Rosenthal from G VAA, Global Voice Acting Academy. To him, to Mark Ryder. And then I'm learning from Mark Ryder. And it's like, that's what Dave Walsh is talking about. And then you work with John McAleavey: Yeah. Doug Bartling Jr: another person. That's what Dave Rosenthal was talking about. And Mark Ryder taught me, hey, every coach is a different club you pull out. And all of a sudden you start working with all these different coaches like Deb Monroe and you know, and now the coaches that I've had with like Josie Priano and Mary Lynn Wisner and you know Jason Giles and some of the people that I work with currently is just some of the people John McAleavey: Wow. Who's who? Doug Bartling Jr: that Yeah, they're they're they're up there, but the fact is that they're good people and they root for you and they love somebody that is going to just put it all they're all in all. And that is why Mark Ryder reached back out to you, John, because he's a good dude. He's a just a good dude. And and John McAleavey: Mm-hmm. Yeah. Yeah. Doug Bartling Jr: so he's all about trying to do good for others. And you know, and I love there's the John McAleavey: And I'm gonna send him the I'm gonna send him the completed episode here so that he could Doug Bartling Jr: You should. You should. John McAleavey: see two the two quads talking here. So tell us you've you've Doug Bartling Jr: Yeah. John McAleavey: I know you've had a lot of coaching, but you've also had some some really good success. Tell us about some of the jobs that you've booked. and and also I know you've got some exciting news with some some TV acting. And I I know you did some stuff for Law and Order SVU and and now you've got something else you're talking about with Paramount Plus and so. Here is the soapbox for you to stand up on and Doug Bartling Jr: Yeah. That's so fun. John McAleavey: and sh and blow your trumpet for us a little bit here, Doug. Doug Bartling Jr: man, that that's very, you know, honestly, I'm I'm a good talker. It's so hard for me to talk about myself when John McAleavey: I know. Doug Bartling Jr: it comes to like acclimating. It's like, God, it's so hard. But okay, so I I will John McAleavey: How about some of the companies that you've you've Doug Bartling Jr: say this. I will say this. I my my best attributes that I love in the voiceover industry, it's the clients, it's the people that you meet. The voiceover industry is filled. with the most loving people in the war in the world that I have come across the best of friends that don't even live in my state all throughout the globe, all throughout mostly in the US, that I have that some of my better friends don't even live near me. It's the people that I've met at conferences. It's the people, you know, so I went out to Burbank Hollywood for the first time ever in 2022. And I flew out there and getting a six foot five quadriplegic on a plane and off a plane is not easy. And the way John McAleavey: please. No. Doug Bartling Jr: they got me off the plane is they had no leg straps to get me off the plane. So they had to carry my legs out in their hands down a ramp because there was no jet bridge. So now they had no way to carry me off. So I was going for a Voice Arts Award gala where my demo was nominated for the best commercial demo of the year. And so for John McAleavey: Hey now. Doug Bartling Jr: me, I'm thinking this is it. This is my stage. This is where I'm going to make it and John McAleavey: This is where it all happens. Doug Bartling Jr: this is where it's all gonna happen. I'm on Warner Brothers studio. I couldn't wait. this is where it was and and then, I got there. I didn't win, but I was there and I got the hobnob and see all the my the the famous people. I'm just saying where am I? John McAleavey: Yeah. Doug Bartling Jr: I'm like I'm not in Kansas anymore. Like I what am I John McAleavey: Right. Pinch me. Doug Bartling Jr: doing? I'm from I'm I am from the hood and I am sitting here like this and I'm it was just the best thing, but flying is not an easy thing for somebody like me, And so that's when I was telling you about that about how I record and And about all the different things. But I will say the best part about voiceover for me has been has been the people. It's been the people that I meet. It's the coaches that are in your corner constantly. And when John McAleavey: Mm-hmm. Doug Bartling Jr: you feel like you want to give up, and then all of a sudden you get like you get that callback. You get that reminder because when you send your audition out into the void, you don't hear back. You don't hear back. And then people tell you, yeah, try pay play. He tried this pay to play. try this one. And then it costs a lot of money to get demos made and you got to get the coaching before the demos. And what genre are you doing? Is it commercial? Is it promos? It's TV narration. Do you want to do animation? Do you want to do video games? Maybe e-learning. All of that takes coaching before John McAleavey: Right. Doug Bartling Jr: demos. And good coaches will not make you do a demo until you are coach in that said field. Do you want to do automotive? All of those are different fields, different genres, but all of those cost money. Lots of money. Yes, it's hard. John McAleavey: And that's where I am right now. Yeah, I am at that point. Yeah. I did I did Doug Bartling Jr: It's hard, it's very hard. John McAleavey: two years with a with a wonderful guy. And he said I was finally ready for a demo. So we did that. And I have a website together. Now I'm at the I'm on the diving board and I'm like, okay, I'm doing the gonna do the triple Lindy like Rodney did and back to school. And where where do I land? Like what what do I do I send out the marketing letters? Do I try to pay to place? Do I you know reach out for Agencies, do I reach out for more coaching? And so I'm like, my goodness gracious. So Doug Bartling Jr: And those are you know what, John? Those are all the right questions you're supposed to ask yourself because those are John McAleavey: Yeah. Doug Bartling Jr: all of the right questions to ask yourself. those are John McAleavey: Yeah. Doug Bartling Jr: and it's and it's hard because we have, we have what if we get an audition and you're in bed? John McAleavey: Exactly. Doug Bartling Jr: And that has happened to me many a times. And it's you don't want to tell somebody you can't do the job or do the audition John McAleavey: Yeah. Doug Bartling Jr: because your assistant didn't come in. What do you do? John McAleavey: Right. Or your bow program is in the way, right? Yeah. Doug Bartling Jr: That's that's right. That's right. And so our hours are our different operating hours. And so I will tell you a little insight. There is a John McAleavey: Yeah. Doug Bartling Jr: one of my buddies owns a company, Audio Sigma, and he developed this instrument. It's called a Mic Hero DSP. Mic Hero John McAleavey: Okay. Doug Bartling Jr: DSP. It's like 250 bucks. And it is a software where you can plug your microphone into your laptop and you can record in your bedroom. And it sounds like you're in studio. John McAleavey: That's the coolest thing. Doug Bartling Jr: And it I take it with me. I take it with me on my on voiceover conferences. I bring it 'cause for me, it's I don't ever want to tell somebody no. And it is absolutely made for that specific reason. So it takes away all the noise, the bouncing, the all of the reflection, all of the reverb. And it's it's just an amazing, amazing product. John McAleavey: Very cool. Doug Bartling Jr: so yeah, so that's a little insight to you. But I will say John McAleavey: Yeah. Doug Bartling Jr: it's it's it's it's just People that you meet like Mark Ryder and and the people that I have in my corner, they root for you. And it's very easy to give up, John. It's very easy to not John McAleavey: Mm-hmm. Mm-hmm. Yeah. Doug Bartling Jr: feel like you're good enough. You could set off 50 auditions and it's like, what am I doing wrong? And you don't know what you're doing wrong. And then John McAleavey: Yeah. Right. Doug Bartling Jr: you find out, and then you know, and then after a year, you're getting better. And now you listen to your demo and it's like, oof. Now you start hearing stuff on your demo that you would have changed this. Well, I would have had a turn in the first five seconds because if you don't catch their ear, they're gonna go on to the next next demo because it's and you don't know about John McAleavey: Right. Yeah. Then the other part of it then the other part of it, Doug, is about, when you're on long term disability and you can't only earn so much money and then if you ooh, if you bump up Doug Bartling Jr: Dude. John McAleavey: to that threshold, then they're gonna take your benefits away and people don't know anything about all of that stuff. Doug Bartling Jr: bro. When I did when I did the law and order, that's what happened. I did the law in John McAleavey: god. Doug Bartling Jr: order. I got the job. They paid me six grand for three days of work. And and John McAleavey: Okay. Doug Bartling Jr: I got and I'm not to say how much whatever. And and but they thought I was making John McAleavey: Mm-hmm. Doug Bartling Jr: that every month. And so John McAleavey: Right. Doug Bartling Jr: for so they took away my disability, they took they took away my payment, and they said, You're like, I'm no longer disabled. I'm getting things in the mail. John McAleavey: Right. Of course, look, he's great. Doug Bartling Jr: Say so that was one. I'm no longer disabled. I got one like that. So and I was like surprised, I got a miracle. Then there was one that they took away my benefits because I was making too much and I was over at the cap, like you were just talking about, and the social John McAleavey: Right. Yeah. Doug Bartling Jr: security. And that money we rely on because that money is what pays my bills. That money is what helps me be able to afford whatever session I can afford or what and so I would piece together my equipment to start off. I would start off with a just a USB John McAleavey: Of course. Of course. Doug Bartling Jr: mic. And then I would get a mic that I get an interface. And I I get a mic with a pop screen. And so I just pieced it together, pieced my coaching, pieced the commercial. But then when you get better, and it's like, wait a second, I think my voice would be good for automotive. Now you gotta get training in automotive and rinse and repeat. And it John McAleavey: Yeah. Doug Bartling Jr: gets to be very expensive. And then when you don't see that coming back in, it's very easy why eighty percent of a lot of voice actors that go after it quit. I've thought about John McAleavey: I know, I know. Doug Bartling Jr: quitting. Mm. John McAleavey: Million times. Yeah. Doug Bartling Jr: And it happens. It happens and it's okay. It's life. it's life itself. John McAleavey: Yeah. Mm-hmm. Doug Bartling Jr: It's the same thing with life. that the acting thing just came to be, they saw me as the quadfather because I brought that back out maybe five John McAleavey: Yeah. Doug Bartling Jr: years ago. I had a good friend of mine, Devon Monroe. She's a coach out in Ontario, Canada. She's like, You should bring out the Quadfather again. And she had John McAleavey: Yeah. Doug Bartling Jr: one of her artists design after the Al Pacino chair. And I don't wear John McAleavey: It's fabulous. Doug Bartling Jr: suits. I wear track suits. So that we made it. John McAleavey: What is the so that my listeners can check you out, what is the website where they can find you? Doug Bartling Jr: The VO quadfather dot com. Yep. Yeah, the VO Quadfather. John McAleavey: Okay. VoQuadfather.com. And I'll see if I can superimpose that at the bottom. My last two questions for you, Doug. Doug Bartling Jr: Sure. John McAleavey: tell me what is next for you. I know I I I sort of teased the Paramount Plus thing. If you could tell us a little bit about that without letting the the cat out of the bag, and then I'll hit you with the last question that I ask all of my fellow brethren in the spinal cord injury community. Doug Bartling Jr: Okay, what's next? Well, I just filmed, I just did the shoe for that Paramount Plus. I can't tell the name of what it's gonna be, but it will be coming on next year. It's a small role, John McAleavey: Okay. Doug Bartling Jr: but it's a speaking role. so any speaking role that you can get, go for it. And I wouldn't John McAleavey: Get it. Doug Bartling Jr: and I would encourage you, John, like, you know, think about that because a lot of now, a lot of casting is looking for actual people that are disabled and not just putting an enabled actor into a wheelchair. John McAleavey: Yeah, that bothers me when I see that stuff. Doug Bartling Jr: No, so it really and they're not doing it. They're not. They're really trying to make that transition. But I lost my on-camera agent. So I don't even have an on-camera agent. I John McAleavey: Okay. Doug Bartling Jr: thankfully have a little bit of stuff out there on certain websites and platforms, but I don't have an agent. I don't have an on on camera representation. And I'm just grateful that some people just reach out to me and say, Hey, I have this audition. Some fit my specs, some don't. But some of I wanna go after. So I I I booked the role and I filmed it and I went down there and I filmed it. So that was cool. And what's next, I think, John, this is simple, ready? Whether if it's voice it's gonna be voiceover, whether if it's social media, with this airplane that I'm I've took footages for the last four years of filming, getting on and off the plane, trying to bring change so it's easy for you and I to fly. John McAleavey: Yeah. Doug Bartling Jr: Where in twenty twenty six air travel is the worst. They're so far behind the times. And the way I get handled and treated on and off the plane, it's it's awful. And I have it all on footage. And I'm trying to bring change that way. And I'm going to use it in a tasteful way because I don't want to bring hate. I don't want to br I don't want to sue. I'm trying to for make it so you and I, John, have the same fair shake when it comes John McAleavey: Yeah. Doug Bartling Jr: to traveling with family, traveling for work. Chasing dreams, chasing aspirations. So what's next on my agenda is to bring change by being a good person. Just try my best to live my life to be a good spouse, to be a good John McAleavey: Mm-hmm. Doug Bartling Jr: father figure, to raise Scooby-Doo the best I possibly can, because John McAleavey: Yeah. Doug Bartling Jr: life is short and all of this other stuff with work and and trying to earn and this and that is stuff. I've learned, I've John McAleavey: Background noise, yeah. Doug Bartling Jr: learned it's stuff. And, The money that we make. And then if we make certain amount of money, we can't make certain amount of money. And then we got to get this and that. And it could really just stress you right out to the point where it just gives you panic and worry and anxiety. And we have enough of that. I John McAleavey: Yeah. We Doug Bartling Jr: if I can wake up and I got and I can get in my chair and my family is healthy and I am healthy, damn, it's a good day. And that is John McAleavey: That's a good day. Doug Bartling Jr: the way I look at it is what I what do I want to do is I want my family to be healthy and I want to just keep being a good person and just a Appreciate the small things. And then if anything else big comes my way, awesome. But I'm not gonna let John McAleavey: So be it. Doug Bartling Jr: that dictate who I'm gonna be and how I'm gonna act because I'm not getting bookings and I'm not getting this and I can't afford that, or I'm trying to go that because life is already like that enough for everybody, right? Everybody's John McAleavey: Mm-hmm. Doug Bartling Jr: got that, the rat race. It's so busy, busy, busy. Go, go, go, reach, reach, reach. And and where's that time to say? You know what? I'm content. I got Yeah. John McAleavey: Doug, it's funny. That's that's my my on Facebook the the the picture that I have, it's it's not of me, it's of a a chalkboard that I was walking past it one day, and the the woman has sayings on it all the time, and the one that caught my eye was everyone you meet in life is going through something you know nothing about, so always be kind. And it sounds that sounds like exactly what you're talking about, and and that's Doug Bartling Jr: Yeah. Yes. Yes. Exactly. Exactly, Jen. You don't know. A simple hello. Every time John McAleavey: Yeah. Doug Bartling Jr: I go out to eat dinner, I will tell the waitress that they do a good job. If I see if I see a good customer service on the phone or if I hear could good cuss customer service on the phone. If I see somebody with a beautiful smile, I'm like, wow, you got a great smile. my God. I you never know what they're going through. You don't know what they're going through. And I if anything, this disability has made me aware and to be kind and to be and to be not so self But be selfless. And John McAleavey: Yeah. Yeah. Doug Bartling Jr: and and that's really what I I try to be. And so whatever comes my way is God's blessing for John McAleavey: Sure. It's gravy. Doug Bartling Jr: me. It's i I really truly believe I believe that God is giving me a gift to be, to give to others. That's why I do over the bridge, you know, giving out to people. I care about helping other people because you want to meet them where they're at. You don't know. My life is not, I'm not perfect. There is a little baby. I am so far from it. But there John McAleavey: Yeah. Doug Bartling Jr: are people out there that have life worse off than me. Who am I to feel g to feel bad about my life when there are people that don't have a roof, they don't have loved ones, they're John McAleavey: Yeah. Doug Bartling Jr: battling with addictions on the street and don't have nothing. there are people that are in the hospital right now away from their family. There are people that, kids that have traumatic brain injuries that don't know who their mom and dad are. There are John McAleavey: I know, I know. Right. Doug Bartling Jr: people out there that have it way worse than I do. And so I'm not gonna live my life feeling bad for myself. So anytime John McAleavey: Exactly. Doug Bartling Jr: I ever do have those moments, it's okay. I will face them John McAleavey: Yeah. Doug Bartling Jr: and then say, you know what? And then God helps me say, you know what? There's something better out there for me. And every time I don't know how he does it, but that that spirit comes in there and says, Doug, you have a purpose, John McAleavey: Pulls you through. Doug Bartling Jr: man. Yeah, let's go. Pull me through. And it might John McAleavey: Yeah. Doug Bartling Jr: not pull away the that the problem solution might not solve itself by removing itself, but the way I handle it does. I have John McAleavey: Yeah. Doug Bartling Jr: more grace and patience and peace. to be able to walk through life instead of wallow in it. John McAleavey: That's it. Which leads me to my final question, which is Doug Bartling Jr: boy. John McAleavey: yeah, yeah. And it's it's an interesting story. It came about. I was waiting in a long hallway with a high school friend of mine who unfortunately had a devastating spinal cord injury himself. He was in a wakeboarding injury. He was a C four quad complete and was in a power chair and had had the most amazing outlook on life even after his his injury. And I and I saw him, his name was Tommy. We used to call him T. So I said, Hey T, if I could snap my fingers right now, which I can't do because as we talked about, my fingers don't work. But if I could, and you would be completely able-bodied right now, what do you think the first thing you would do would be? So I look over at him and I see the smoke pouring out of his ears. And I hear from behind me, there was a woman, an elderly woman. She said, I would go out into my garden and I would tend to my flowers. And then there was a guy on the other side of me who said, I'm a car guy. I'd go in the garage and tinker with the truck that I was working on. And I thought, Whoa. this is a question that th people like us I'm sure are bound to have different answers to all of that sort of thing. And so I I pose the question to you, Doug Bartling Jr., what do you think the first thing you would do is if if you could just boom, all of a sudden you're back to the old you? Doug Bartling Jr: wow. Wow. Well, first of all, that would be a miracle if you could snap your fingers. That would be amazing. that that John McAleavey: Yeah. Woohoo, look at these things. Doug Bartling Jr: would be great. I I don't I don't know if I would ever sit back down. I think I would do everything I've John McAleavey: Yeah. Doug Bartling Jr: already talked about before. I would John McAleavey: Yeah. Doug Bartling Jr: I would hit the golf cart golf course. And then after the golf course, I would depending on the weather, I would go on a jet ski or a four wheeler or a snowmobile or grab a basketball or grab a golf go you know, my my baseball mit and a baseball and throw a baseball, throw a football, go kick a soccer ball, go on the tennis courts, go I would probably just be active nonstop. And I think that's what I would do. And I would sleep up against the wall and not sit back down John McAleavey: Yeah. Doug Bartling Jr: because I would be too afraid that I wouldn't get back up again. So that's what I would do. If you could yeah John McAleavey: it's so funny. Yeah. I've heard a whole bunch of them. I've heard I would dance with my wife. I would go for a run. I heard one guy tell me I would stand in front of the toilet and empty my bladder and with a big smile on my face, just. Doug Bartling Jr: Well, for a second there I was like, Are we gonna keep this PG related? Because there are some other things that I would do if and yeah, I'm sure you've gotten some of those responses. I bet you have. John McAleavey: That was yeah. Well that I got that one too. God, I had to cut that one out. I would go and I would, beep, beep, beep, beep for the an hour straight. And I thought, God. Yeah. Doug Bartling Jr: Yeah, yeah, yeah. Yeah. I think all of us, John, and I I think all of us would think that same answer, around that. So well, you know what? That is life. And I love John what you do, buddy. What you're doing, John McAleavey: Goes without saying, yeah. ho. Doug Bartling Jr: do not discredit any of it. You never do that, buddy. I don't care if you got four followers or four hundred thousand followers. Those four followers, the ones that watch you, watch you because they are inspired by you, encouraged by you. motivated by you. I am motivated by you, encouraged by you. You say I do that, but iron sharpens iron, my friend. And so John McAleavey: Yeah. Doug Bartling Jr: when you're around other people, you know, it's very easy to be down. It's very easy to to to want to give up. So anytime you ever feel that way, John, you ever have a bad day, you call me anytime. You drop a dime. Absolutely you call me. You have John McAleavey: I'm gonna drop a dime and give you a buzz. Doug Bartling Jr: you have you have a 247 policy with me, buddy. Anytime kid. John McAleavey: I appreciate that. And and Doug Bartling Jr., you are the reason why I've started putting these stories out there. It's stories like this that are inspiring for for folks like us, the newly injured people in this rat race that don't know what the heck is going. The world is is pulled the rug out from under them and they're figuring out their sea legs. But then again, it's folks that like you and I that have been around for many years. I'm 34 years in, you're 19 years in that that get stuck in a rut. need to hear stories like this that aren't like, I just want to die and I want to go sit in the corner of the room. But there's there's just so much more still that that can squeezed out of that that lemon that we we all are are dealing with. And so I I I want to thank you again for for your friendship over the last it's been I'd say eight months or so that we've been going back and forth with emails and texts and phone calls, but for you to actually Doug Bartling Jr: Feel like I've kno I feel like I've known you for a lot longer than that. John McAleavey: I know. We're like old souls, right? Doug Bartling Jr: Yeah. John McAleavey: Yeah, but to have you actually come on with me and record has been it's been an honor and a pleasure. And and as you said, I hope to keep bothering you with with questions about about the business and and dogs and friendship and all of that. And so Doug Bartling Jr: Absolutely. John McAleavey: again, thank you so much for joining me. It's been it's been an honor to have you. Doug Bartling Jr: It was an honor to be here, John. Thanks for having me, buddy. Appreciate you.