Chad Oliver. The way for my approach with Lori's kids, Allie and Luke, became our kids. Yes. What he was to me as a stepfather is what I tried.
Robert DiLella Jr.. You are now that. I tried to model that. That's awesome. That's really awesome. Sorry to interrupt, I'm happy you guys.
Chad Oliver. So I'll probably talk, I'm willing to talk about anything, but I won't go into details on that.
Robert DiLella Jr.. Yeah, I'd more like to see what mom's influence had on. Just mom period. That's why I like to, I had such a special relationship. My mom was everything. Being an Italian son, my mother was, I was the golden child. Of course. I had a great relationship with my mom. So moms have such an influence on us in so many ways. So I like to just touch on moms. Like how would mom You know.
Chad Oliver. And what about your grandmother? Is it Nona? Nona, Nona?
Robert DiLella Jr.. She was grandmom. She was grandmom. Yeah, we didn't do the Nona. Now my mother to my daughter was Nona. In that opinion, yeah, yeah. Gosh. My grandmother was grandmom, grandmom and papa, papa, grandmom and papa, de la la. A lot of my life, if you watch the "Bastard Montescalco", his description of his Italian father and his family is very, very similar. That culture is, he nails it so spot on.
Chad Oliver. He is so funny.
Robert DiLella Jr.. Oh my gosh, he is.
Chad Oliver. I mean, his whole bit about company.
Robert DiLella Jr.. Yeah, oh yeah. The Senka. Yeah, yeah.
(Laughing)
Robert DiLella Jr.. I love that because that's exactly what it was. Oh no, that's for company. We always had that cake and we couldn't touch it. Don't touch the cake. Never, no, it was forbidden. It was like, gosh, I live here though, but no, no, no, not for you, that's company. They could come, they're not coming, but we don't know if they're coming, but if they do come, it's there.
Chad Oliver. He's so good. I secretly wanna be Sebastian.
Robert DiLella Jr.. Yo, me too, I just agree. Funny. He is.
Chad Oliver. And, they're Naples people. I know. And he's here all the time because of Simone and Scott.
Robert DiLella Jr.. I know, I have such a love for him because it wasn't until he came out and I discovered him to see the way he talks about his father because I always had a little bit like, why was my dad such a ball buster? He was such a tough son of a bitch, he drove me crazy, like he was always up my ass, I could never do anything right. And when I saw Sebastian, I was like, oh. It makes sense. Yeah, and I could have a love for my dad that I'd never appreciated before. I saw my dad really helped me come to terms, because I always loved my dad, but I always thought, man, I just could never live up to what he wanted me to be. That's it, that's their culture, that's the way they are.
Robert DiLella Jr.. He really helped me understand that.
Chad Oliver. And they have different ways of showing love. Yes, exactly, yeah. Maybe this, was there a feeling that if they, if they heap too much praise, you would grow up soft.
Robert DiLella Jr.. Yep, yep, because he withheld that. Like that didn't come, if he wasn't speaking, that meant everything was okay, I guess.
Chad Oliver. No words is a good thing. Dad is happy with me.
Robert DiLella Jr.. Oh man. You're in good shape, okay. So I'll do like an intro post after, where I introduce, because especially in front of you, I don't wanna do my intro because-- You can nail it, Rob, one take, maybe one take.
Chad Oliver. How's the shot look? If we sit back like that, is that okay? Okay, awesome.
Robert DiLella Jr.. We could get some of those Like they had at the one where they had the monitors, we could see ourselves. Yeah, that'd be cool. Yeah, where we could be like, all right, bye.
Chad Oliver. This is the day it would be distracting. I'm tired. Your espresso helped, guys, seriously.
Robert DiLella Jr.. I gotta, I live on those, I gotta have those all the time.
Chad Oliver. Exactly, so just to remind me, I got it, so it's 3.57. I gotta, if I'm outta here by 5.15 at the latest. At five.
Robert DiLella Jr.. Okay. Yeah. And I'll give you a wave at 5.45. Okay, good. So you haven't made the transition to pickleball. You're staying with tennis.
Chad Oliver. I'm trying, Luke wants me to get involved with pickleball. Oh yeah? I don't like the sound. Yeah, it's very herky-jerky. Yeah. I'm sticking with tennis, so I'm a tennis guy. I know, I know.
Robert DiLella Jr.. That's my passion. I know, I know. Big time. Yeah. Pickleball, eh. It's not the, okay, well. Not for me. I guess it's after, like at some stage of life. Yeah. But I can't do tennis.
(Laughing)
Chad Oliver. Are we on, are we doing this?
Robert DiLella Jr.. Yeah, just kind of roll into it. Okay. Yeah, yeah, yeah, yeah. But I knew tennis was your, but it just seems like so many people are going to the other side. They're doing the thing.
Chad Oliver. I don't like the sound it makes. The paddle, the pickleball, the pop, pop, pop. Yeah, yeah, yeah. Tennis is a graceful sport. It's beautiful. I love the sounds, it's elegant. Right? There's strings and the ball has felt, you can shape the trajectory of it. It's a beautiful game. Pickleball is like, bah, bah, bah, bah, bah, bah.
Robert DiLella Jr.. Ping pong, yeah, ping, ping, ping, ping.
Chad Oliver. Listen, people wanna move their bodies, that's great. Who am I to judge, right? You get out there, you're moving, you're having fun, the social aspect. The only reason I play pickleball, Rob, our son Luke will say, because he's home from Ka'I transfer. He's now at FGCU. He'll say, "Chad, we gotta get out there "and play some pickleball. "I'll go with Luke." But if it's not Luke, I don't, I'd rather be on the tennis court.
Robert DiLella Jr.. Well, is pickleball taking away some of your court courts from you?
Chad Oliver. Yes, I don't like that. All four pickleball, play the pickleball, expand access, just don't take tennis courts.
Robert DiLella Jr.. Yeah, I see it happening.
Chad Oliver. This is not that hard.
Robert DiLella Jr.. Yeah, I see it, they're doing it. They're just chomping it up. They're doing it.
Chad Oliver. The beautiful clay courts getting ripped up for pickleball. Nothing against pickleball, right? Play pickleball, expand access. Don't take the tennis courts. Yeah, they're doing it. They're doing it, Rob. I see it all over. Naples is a haven for tennis. Some of your clients are big names in tennis.
Robert DiLella Jr.. Yeah, which is very cool.
Chad Oliver. Protect tennis, it's a beautiful sport.
Robert DiLella Jr.. Well, is there an age where people have to convert? I'm not a tennis player, so I don't know where it is.
Chad Oliver. And by the way, they did these studies about which sport is the healthiest sport. And the USTA, the United States Tennis Association, is smartly doubling down on the fact that tennis is the world's most healthiest sport. Really? When you watch the US Open in New York, I think they even put it on the courts. They put an overlay. It's great for your heart. It's great for all parts of your body, the social aspect. And I go to a chiropractor, and they always tell me these stories about all the people with injuries, because of, not tennis, pickleball.
Robert DiLella Jr.. Really?
Chad Oliver. A lot of injuries. A lot of pickleball injuries. I think a lot of people, they pick up pickleball because it's easy. The learning curve is not steep. So you can find quick success. Tennis is not the easiest game to really master. I'm still trying to master it. 30 years of playing, I'm still working on it. Pickleball is a little easier to pick up.
Robert DiLella Jr.. But tennis, unlike football, all the other sports in the world, it doesn't have that drop off where all of a sudden you just cannot play anymore. Like you can continue to go. You can't. Like does it have to switch to, at a certain age, do you have to play doubles only? Because you can't move around the court as much?
Chad Oliver. There comes a time. I play on a USTA tennis team, and it's 18 and over. And mostly we have the young guys, the 20 year olds, the college kids that play singles. But I still love singles. I still to this day, I'm 45 years old. I love singles. It's great. I mean, three hours in a singles match? You're burning a lot of calories. Heart rate's getting up there. But there comes a point when the injuries start to add up. The plantar fasciitis, the Achilles tendinitis. Not that I've ever had any of that rough. No, I do. Lori, my wife, is always making fun of me. She's like, "You got so many ailments.
Chad Oliver. "Your pillbox is gonna be massive." I'm like, "I don't want the pillbox." So at some point you do have to scale back and maybe go to doubles. Tonight I'm playing doubles.
Robert DiLella Jr.. You are, in a league?
Chad Oliver. In a league, the tennis team.
Robert DiLella Jr.. Where do you play?
Chad Oliver. Longshore Lakes. I'm a member at the YMCA though. I support the Y. Love the Y, love their mission, love the heart. So I will always be a member of the Y, as long as they keep their tennis courts and don't put pickleball courts in over them. Do they have pickleball there? They do.
Robert DiLella Jr.. Oh, they just put it in, they didn't take over all the tennis courts.
Chad Oliver. They didn't take the tennis courts though. So don't take our tennis courts. So yeah, Lori and I have been long time members of the YMCA of Collier County, big supporters. And the team that I'm on, our home court, is Longshore Lake off of Immokalee Road.
Robert DiLella Jr.. Home court, so you have like away matches where you do other-- We do, we do.
Chad Oliver. Where else do you play? The Quarry, Riverstone, Cambier Park has a team. There's another team that plays out of Longshore. So get this, last year, our Collier County team, our team, won the Naples league. We made it to Orlando to sectionals. And so you go up to the USTA National Tennis Center in Orlando and they have 100 tennis courts. And you're playing against people from all over Florida and actually the region too. But this was I think the Florida sectional. And it's a two or three day tournament. We won about half of the matches and we lost the other half. So we didn't win sectionals, but we tried to represent Collier County well. It's just a lot of fun.
Robert DiLella Jr.. Yeah, well it's good, because you're staying fit, but you also have a little competition to the fact too. That's it.
Chad Oliver. I don't care how old you get, like especially in women are competitive too. The women are actually more competitive than the guys. The league that I play in is an all men league. And from 18 through however old you want to be, that you can still manage the court. But people are hyper competitive, but it does scratch that itch for competition.
Robert DiLella Jr.. Yeah, so it's been your whole life you've been playing that?
Chad Oliver. I picked it up in high school. I played baseball growing up. And then when I got to middle, I couldn't hit the curve ball. And so middle school, I think it was probably eighth grade. I had to come to the realization that I was not going to be a baseball player. And I remember this vividly. The summer before my freshman year of high school, the kids in the neighborhood started playing tennis. And we had public courts walking distance. So literally my parents took me to Walmart. We bought a $30 racket and they wanted to make sure that I was actually committed.
Chad Oliver. And then a few months later, Christmas came around and I said, "Hey, mom and dad, I really wanted one of those nice Wilson hammer rackets." It was, I still remember it. It was a green, beautiful racket. So they went to the store and they picked out this racket. Rob, they were shocked. A, the price point, it was very expensive. And the expensive rackets didn't even come with strings. You had to get a separate string. So here my parents are, mom was a teacher, dad worked at a paper mill and they're like, "What, this racket cost how much?" And so that's when they got me the first really nice racket. And that was 30 something years ago. And I'm still playing it.
Robert DiLella Jr.. So was that when, I mean, they've evolved so much, but was that when they really started going to these I don't know, high tech in the home?
Chad Oliver. Yeah, I mean, this was a graphite racket. This was probably mid 90s. And not the wooden racket
Robert DiLella Jr.. The 70s and 80s.
Chad Oliver. They stepped up since then. Did you ever play with the wooden rackets?
Robert DiLella Jr.. No, I didn't. But we used to get, what I love about, remember a lot about tennis was Naples had this new Veen tour they used to do. It might've been probably early 90s, where they got Mac and Rowe and Connors to come and play. And like that senior sort of, and they had so much fun. It was so neat watching them post career, but still career and they're just such entertainers. And it was so fun seeing these big names come to Naples and watch them. These guys who we had, who had idolized and seen on TV.
Chad Oliver. You mentioned Johnny Mac, love Johnny Mac. As great as he was as a player, I think I like him better as a commentator. All those years with Mary Carillo on NBC and Johnny Mac still announcing. So quick story. He came down from one of the Pro-Am's and I think this was at Laley Resort years ago. And this had to be 20 years. I moved down in 04. And this had to be like 05, 06. So I got connected on the same court with Johnny Mac. And we were playing doubles, Pro-Am. And I was talking to him in between the matches. And he said, Chad Years ago when I was on tour, they would find me when I had my outburst on the court. Now in these programs, they would find him if he didn't.
Robert DiLella Jr.. He didn't have an outburst. That's exactly right. So true. Cause he would do it., he was in jest, but he would do it. And it was great. People loved it.
Chad Oliver. People just ate it all. You cannot be serious. Tennis needs more characters like that. You look at Federer, such a class act. And Nadal was my favorite the last few years. Djokovic, you look at his game, he does it all so well. Probably the greatest champion that we've had. Novak Djokovic, certainly the most grand slams on the men's side. Andre Agassi was my guy. And to see him evolve as a person, from the images, everything, Canon ads to family man Involved in so many just respectable ventures with his education. He started schools in Las Vegas. I mean, the guy, a Renaissance man. Yeah, Naples has a long history in the tennis community and I wanna see it continue.
Robert DiLella Jr.. Yeah, yeah, well, that was something that for me, not playing it, but being entertained by it. I mean, that he was just pure entertainment for me. And now Mary coming to the salon who I just, when she's here, I love her voice, Mary Carillo, just hearing her It was, whatever TV it was on at our house, cause we weren't tennis players, but it still would be on and hear her and just the way she spoke and how she Now she'll be saying, when is my next hair appointment? And just those words flow off of her. Like I just love hearing her.
Chad Oliver. I can listen to Mary Carillo read the phone book.
Robert DiLella Jr.. That's exactly what I know. Did they even make phone books anymore? Yeah, right.
Chad Oliver. It's just soothing and so thoughtful. Yes., she really added a lyrical touch to sports broadcasting, which you don't often see.
Robert DiLella Jr.. Yeah, yeah. And now that carries over into just her everyday life where I'll just stare in awe at her and listen to her, that voice that she has, it resonates. But coming from you and your background of communications, that's a big testament to who she is. Cause you not only know the tennis world, but you also know the communications world, which is something that I still think was so neat. And I'm still have this little awestruck thing going on by having this opportunity with you and meeting you and getting to talk to you. Cause the last time that you were in, and we didn't do the podcast and we were gonna, but we didn't.
Chad Oliver. I came in for the haircut.
Robert DiLella Jr.. You got the haircut, yeah. And it was so neat to see people after you left to see how they were You know, they didn't say anything to you, but they talked about you after you left. Is that him? What's he doing now? Like they know you, they know your voice. You were such a vivid face for people in our community. And you impacted many lives by being you, on their screens for so many years. And like you said, it's been how many years now?
Chad Oliver. I left NBC2 to go to Collier County Public Schools eight years ago.
Robert DiLella Jr.. Yeah, it's been eight years.
Chad Oliver. 2018. Just you saying that really does touch me, Rob, because like I'm a nobody, right? I'm just trying to use the little bit of skills that God gave me to do good, right? I know that my years on this earth are finite. And so I'm just trying to maximize every day. And when you show up day after day, whatever sector you're in, and you put your skills to use, running a business, creating content for a media, whatever you're doing You do it day after day after day and you build and you impact people without ever really realizing it.
Chad Oliver. And still to this day, I'll run into people in the community and they'll say, "Oh, Chad, I watch you every day." And I'm thinking, "You haven't watched TV in a while." If you still think that I'm on. But it really does touch me because people have choices. And when they choose to invite you into their house or they choose on YouTube to watch Spotlight on Good People, they're making a choice. And time is the one commodity that none of us have enough of.
Chad Oliver. And I always have this idea in my head that people are consuming TV with a remote in their hand, or nowadays they're at their computer or on their smartphone, just a millisecond away from scrolling past us, clicking onto something else because our attention spans are so finite. And I mean, I feel so blessed to be in this community after so many years where people still want to talk with you. And so when you and Zach reached out to have me on your show, I was the one that felt honored. So thank you.
Robert DiLella Jr.. Yeah, no, absolutely. It was really To me, you're like the first celeb we have and I look at it like that, because it was cool just that you're here because even though it's been eight years, and I can't believe that it's been eight years But your face is just, it's as if I understand that person saying, I watch you like today in the present because that's how much you live in the world because of what you did.
Chad Oliver. I mean, it's when you come into people's houses and I know that like I represent like legacy media, traditional media, people now consume media in so many different ways, but let's just stick with local network affiliates. So you're working for a local network. Remind me to come back to that in a second because I'll tell you a story from one of my professors in college, great advice, but you're reaching people at a vulnerable spot, right? They're getting ready for the day.
Chad Oliver. They're in their underwear, they're getting out of the shower, they're still in bed, they're in the kitchen, they're getting ready for their day, and they're choosing to turn you on because they respect you and they value what you're saying and they trust you. And I've never taken trust for granted. And I can say this after all those years, so when I left anchoring and I left mass media to, I'm the chief communication officer for Collier County Public Schools. Feel very blessed to have this opportunity.
Chad Oliver. I left the news world because this opportunity in Naples where Lori and I call home, I had the opportunity to stay in Naples and work in communication, just in a different field. I never took viewers for granted. When the lights came on on air, I always felt this urgency of now, the urgency to don't disappoint, don't be boring, because if you, and you can't be wrong. All those years on the air, when I left, I was anchoring four hours a day, the 11 a.m., the noon, the three, and the four. We launched the three o'clock, which is still going today. There was, you couldn't be wrong. It isn't a part of my approach at all to have facts incorrect.
Chad Oliver. Well, that's to get anything incorrect. I never had to go on the air to issue a correction. I never had viewers writing in to the news director or to the GM, the general manager, or to me directly saying, Chad, you're a flaming conservative, you're a flaming liberal. You're two left, you're two right. You got this wrong. Started in 04, got off the desk at 2018. All those years, nearly 15 years on the air. Think about the thousands of stories, Rob. Not one time did I ever have to go on and correct something. I never took viewers' trust for granted. They were choosing every day to turn us on. They had a lot of options, right? You gotta fact check.
Chad Oliver. You gotta put in a lot of work. You gotta work your sources. The minute I lost credibility, I was done. And I still carry that approach. Like in my line of work for representing the school district, I deal with a lot of people day in and day out, right? We have 47,000 kids. So think about all the families that choose Collier County Public Schools. We have 6,200 employees full-time that work for Collier County Public Schools that choose to work for the school district. They have a lot of options. All the community partners, the business partners who sponsor our schools in some way. My department of nine people. I mean, we're a small, mighty team.
Chad Oliver. We work our butts off to not disappoint, to not ever break the trust. Because if you break trust, they're gonna go somewhere else, right? Business world, public sector, news media, you can't break trust. Like that's a commodity that is so precious.
Robert DiLella Jr.. Yeah, I didn't think of that aspect of it. You said something earlier too, and I wanna touch on that, but first, how many years? Because you gotta be You can never not be on.
Chad Oliver. You gotta be on, man.
Robert DiLella Jr.. Like you can never not be on.
Chad Oliver. Like you're on the air, it's exhausting. Like I would get in the car, when I left, I was anchoring four hours live every day. Four hours live is draining. I call it a white collar assembly line. You're doing a white collar job, but in many respects, you're producing news at a high level. And I know from walking into your salon, you have a level of excellence that you expect from your team, and you guys deliver on that. And you deliver every day because your clients expect it. When we were to go on the air, I knew the level of excellence that we had to deliver. And there's no room for subpar. There's no room for getting anything wrong.
Chad Oliver. That's why I would get so stressed with technical problems, which are going to happen. But early on, I mean, I started in radio when I was a kid in high school. That's how I got involved in this business, Ron. So I was volunteering at my local Christian radio station in St. Mary's, Georgia. God bless Paul Hafer. He's the general manager still to this day, who gave myself and a few other people a shot. We were teenagers, somebody knows kids. Then he said, "Hey, yeah, take three hours on a Saturday, play the hard Christian rock and rap that we can't play during the week." We started our own show. No kidding. That's how I got started.
Robert DiLella Jr.. He gave you that slot.
Chad Oliver. That's so cool. Like, don't disappoint, be on. So when you think about it, I've been on since I was a teenager in high school, in the public eye, in some respect.
Robert DiLella Jr.. Yeah. People, there's just no room for, I didn't get enough sleep, there was traffic, I don't feel well. You gotta switch it, like, because you got every, eyes on you, but not only just you visually, but how you're responding to what's happening. Because it's coming at you, and you don't even know what's coming at you until it comes at you, or until they say what's in your ear, like you were talking about before.
Chad Oliver. It's exhausting. I loved it. I love the big news days. I mean, let's just be straight up real. We're in Southwest Florida, okay? So when you look at media markets in the country, there's about 210 media markets. New York one, LA two, Chicago three, and on and on. Philadelphia, top 10. Southwest Florida's in the, we were in the mid 50s. I don't know where we are right now. It's all based on people and population shift, obviously. So as a mid market, I realized if I wanted to stay in Naples, which is where our family was,? Lori and I decided Naples Performing Arts Center was based in Naples. Our kids were in school. I didn't wanna uproot them and move to Miami, New York.
Chad Oliver. This is where we decided as a family to make home. And when you come to that point in your life, you look around and I really had felt like I'd capped out. Like there was, I looked around and there wasn't a job that I wanted at Waterman Broadcasting at the time, which is now Hearst. Hearst TV bought out Waterman. And so when you look around and you don't see a job that you would like, that was a cue to me that it was probably time for something different. And that's when the role with the school district opened up. But to your point earlier about being on, people will oftentimes ask me, well, Chad, do you miss the news? Which is a very good, honest, basic question.
Chad Oliver. I miss the big days. I found that we just kept adding more and more newscast and it's Southwest Florida. There's only certain, there's only so much news that we're generating within the six counties day in and day out. We kept adding more and more news and that became a bit exhausting. I'm a quality guy, but I didn't have the luxury of just anchoring 30 minutes a day. They want more. So they want to maximize their resources.
Robert DiLella Jr.. And you gotta make something out of sometimes nothing or you gotta make it seem like it's something.
Chad Oliver. It's gotta be relevant. So you're selling stories. You're selling why this matters to you. I miss the big days. I miss the breaking news days. And the cool thing about when you're anchoring, you're able to anchor when news breaks, whether it's in the state of Florida or another part of the country or the world. You've got your producers in your ear. You've got the IFB that you're wearing. You've got wires that are in your computer being updated by the minute. So you're getting the latest information and you're getting like satellite shots from wherever the news is happening. So you become really comfortable at multitasking, which I'm not a good multitasker.
Chad Oliver. I think I'm horrible. Are you a good multitasker?
Robert DiLella Jr.. No, I don't think I'm good at it, but I end up doing it a lot and I end up getting nothing done. I'm not effective at it.
Chad Oliver. I feel like I'm just not a great multitasker, but you have to be able to juggle looking at live pictures, ad-libbing over breaking news, having your producer in your ear tell you what's going on. Okay, Chad, we're gonna go to Baltimore where there's this going on. And you have literally two sentences of confirmed information to go on. So at that point, you revert into being a reporter in the field and you anchor back to what, your life skills, what you've learned in the course of your time on this earth. And so I always say as a journalist, you have to know this much about everything.
Chad Oliver. It's why journalists are very fun people to have at parties because we can talk to anybody and we can talk about any subject.
Robert DiLella Jr.. Yeah, well, yeah, because you're getting somebody thrown at you who you have no relationships maybe or a visual of something that you-- Absolutely. You have to find what on the spot.
Chad Oliver. And you can't fake it. You have to be real. You have to be, and I always tried to be real with the audience and, me now, we've met several times. You kind of are getting a feel for who I'm about. I always tried to bring that genuine approach to the desk, to the work. And like, listen, I'm a part of Southwest Florida. I'm your neighbor. We go to church together. Our kids play Little League Ball together. I'm just here trying to do a job to report the news in the most honest way I can When I would have to be a reporter and literally in the course of a few hours put together a news package for the evening news, multiple hits.
Chad Oliver. You have to work fast and you're asking people to talk to you. Hey, Rob, we're doing a story about whatever. Can I come to your salon, bring a photographer? Can we go on camera and talk about this issue? So they're being vulnerable and trusting you that you won't betray their business, that you won't get the information twisted or you won't misquote them. So I always approached it, Rob, like they're trusting me to come into their home to tell their story, to come into their business. I can't mess this up. Yeah. I can't screw this up. There's a lot riding on it. Rob's built and his father built this business, right?
Chad Oliver. So if I'm doing a story with Robert of Philadelphia, I've got decades, I can't mess this up, right? And it's not, I'm trying to be impartial. I'm not there doing a commercial for whomever. I'm trying to do an unbalanced report or I'm making a reasonable effort to get all sides. I always say, this is what makes a really compelling story. If I can elicit three emotions, and this is true, whether it's video content, audio content, whether you're giving a story in person, if I can make the audience laugh, think, or cry. And if you can do all three, that's the best. Creme de la crème, mic drop, man. If I can make you laugh, think, or cry after a story Mission accomplished.
Robert DiLella Jr.. What was your access to that with people? Because you have so many different people. You have so many different Clyde Butcher to, Obama. Everybody. Wherever you're going. Yes. Everywhere you, how do you get there? Like, what did you do internally?
Chad Oliver. How do you get those interviews?
Robert DiLella Jr.. Well For what When, you nailed it with that person And you've never met them, but, you gotta elicit those emotions out of this person. What's access to that? What's your, how'd you do that?
Chad Oliver. I would be my harshest critic. I loved getting an assignment where all the other stations had crews that are covering the same story. And I loved, I would go back and I would record the competition. I would record all the other stations, and I would go back and watch how they presented the same story. And then I would see if we missed out on an exclusive interview that we should have gone after. Man, did they get a really compelling angle of the story that I missed? Did they reveal something that I didn't even see? And so I was always my harshest critic.
Robert DiLella Jr.. But your rapport, like you had an, you clearly had an edge out on the competition because you built, you had a reputation for that. You were trusted.
Chad Oliver. And that helps you as you stay in a market and you make it your home. People wanna talk to you because they know you, right? And this is what, great advice from the head of broadcast news at the University of Georgia. I'm a bulldog, go dogs, sickle. That's my school, right? University of Georgia, I grew up in South Georgia, chose to go to the University of Georgia because I got the Hope Scholarship and tuition and books were paid for. My family didn't have to take out loans. So very thankful for that.
Chad Oliver. David Hasinski, still alive to this day, still giving back to the world of journalism, still contributing ideas and as a thought partner, he's launched over a dozen networks around the world. He was an old NBC news vet. Worked side by side with Tom Brokaw. Remember Mr. Brokaw? Of course, yeah, yeah. From NBC Nightly News. So Mr. Hasinski was the head of broadcast news at the University of Georgia. He was a Vietnam vet. He worked in local news, worked in Pittsburgh for a long time and then made the transition to work for the network. So at the media level, working for the network, especially years ago, that was the epitome, right? You can work for the network.
Chad Oliver. Wow, that's a big deal. So he was a correspondent for NBC News for many years, did reports for the Today Show, Nightly News. He said when I was graduating, I was about to leave Athens, sending out demo reels to anybody, desperate enough to give little Chad Oliver a shot. I was so bad back then. Ill-fitting clothes, bad haircut, rom. I mean, you would laugh if you saw those early reels. It was bad, man. Bushy eyebrows, like, come on, I needed a stylist back then.
Robert DiLella Jr.. Do they exist anywhere? Are they on YouTube? I'm sure, yes. Dig those up. I have the reels.
Chad Oliver. I'll bring them in. They're on like VHS tape. Awesome. So we'll have to convert. Mr. Hasinski told me, "Chad, pick somewhere and make it home." Those words still echo because so many people that I've worked with through the years in media They always just jumped from market to market to market. God bless them. You have to do that.
Robert DiLella Jr.. That's what you have to do, right?
Chad Oliver. If you wanna stay in the business, make more money Get promotions, get a better opportunity. But I still remember those words. Pick somewhere and make it home. And when I moved down in 04, here I am, 23 years old, thought that I would sign a two or three year deal and then be on to Miami, Tampa, a bigger market. And they kept giving a little bit more for each contract renewal. Here's a little bit of a promotion. Here's a franchise. Like I did one tank trips Won an Emmy award. That was a fun franchise. They keep giving you more opportunities. I never thought I would be here after all these years, but we made it home.
Robert DiLella Jr.. So that's what got you here. You got hired from out of school?
Chad Oliver. I sent demo reels out of University of Georgia. That's how you get jobs. You send out reels. At that time, there were VHS tapes and you saturated the markets. And I remember I just wanted to work by the ocean or the Gulf. So I sent out tapes to Panama City, Savannah, Georgia, Fort Myers, Naples, Cape Coral, the Southwest Florida market. And they gave me a shot. I'm thankful that they did.
Robert DiLella Jr.. And you get a call from them that says, "Hey, we watched your reel."
Chad Oliver. Can you come down for an interview? And I came down right after Hurricane Charlie hit in 04. You're a long time Naples resident. You remember Charlie. And then Wilma the next year. And came down and I remember Charlotte County was really devastated.
Robert DiLella Jr.. And they got messed up bad from that one.
Chad Oliver. The debris piles were still on Sanibel and across Fort Myers. And yeah, they gave me a shot and I'm thankful for it.
Robert DiLella Jr.. What was that? So the radio station that you sort of gave you the bug for this industry. When you How did that part happen? Because that sparked your interest in this whole career anyway, right? Was that in, what stage of your life was that?
Chad Oliver. Great question, Rob. That's how it all started. And when I talked to high school kids, in fact, I was just on the TV production class at Gulf Coast High School. They invited me on their news program. And so I was able to talk about the beginnings. And I try to encourage kids to explore pathways because that's really how you experience what you wanna do for the rest of your life. I was in high school. I think I had just come back from a missions trip to Australia. And I was a part of this youth organization with students from all across America. And we met in Miami, and then we flew out to countries all across the world. I went to Australia for a month.
Chad Oliver. And I came back and a buddy of mine, who consequently was also named Chad, still to this day, he's my best friend, lives in Atlanta, Georgia. And he said, "Hey, my friend Adam and I just started volunteering at a radio station, WECC, AM 1190." AM. AM dial. Will you come on? The general manager has given us three hours on Saturday to have a show called "The Rock." I said, "Okay, sure, I'll come on your show, talk about the trip." And it was a youth show. They talked about teen issues, and they played the hard Christian rock and rap that the general manager didn't allow because they were like adult contemporary For the rest of the time. And that's when I got the itch.
Chad Oliver. I'm like, this is fascinating. So you sit behind a microphone, you tell stories, and you reach a lot of people. And in my mind, it was a lot of people. I don't really know how many people were listening, but God bless them. They listened and they called the show and to have live callers, to be able to go in the edit bays, and we would create these little audio reels. We would splice content together. And that's how I got my start editing.
Robert DiLella Jr.. So you got to play in that. You got to, you had free reign of that. You were able to use the facility for all that.
Chad Oliver. Absolutely. That'd be pretty awesome. The reel to reel machines where you're using old tapes, right? And you're blanking it. And so they taught us how to produce content for the station. And then I continued to volunteer. And I think about my senior year, that was junior year of high school. But my senior year, I was going to school half the day and in the afternoon working at the radio station and doing drive time afternoon for a couple of hours. So at that point, Rob, you're really getting a feel for what it's like to ad lib and to run the board. Have you heard that concept? Running the board. So you're working for a radio station and you're at the controls.
Chad Oliver. You don't see anybody in the audience. You have a microphone and you have a wall that looks a whole lot like this. And you're in charge of keeping it on the tracks. You have to play certain spots Sponsor spots that are donating to the station. You're going in and out of music. There's a little index card and it's telling you how many seconds before you hear vocals. And so, the minute you hit play and you're watching a counter. How much talk time you have. How much talk time you have. Yeah, okay, yeah, yeah. So even at the early age of 16, 18, I'm getting hundreds and thousands of hours of practice before I ever made it to college.
Chad Oliver. Malcolm Gladwell's book, "The Outliers" is what it's called.
Robert DiLella Jr.. I feel really blessed. Oh, you got all those hours in before you even went there.
Chad Oliver. Before I even hit the Grady College of Journalism and Mass Communication at UGA, I had all of these hours built in, man. So like hit the ground running. And 9-11 happened when I was in college And that really solidified the importance of journalism. And that's, then when I was in college, we went into Iraq and took out Saddam Hussein and that was
Robert DiLella Jr.. A lot of big news. A lot of stuff. Big news.
Chad Oliver. Like I have vivid memories of where I was when the Twin Towers fell, rushing over to the public radio station, the student radio station on campus, doing live updates. And so all those moments were formative.
Robert DiLella Jr.. What were some of the things that you were doing when you were on the radio initially to find your way? Was it just introducing the music or was there other things that you started to tinker with that getting a guest, how did you do that?
Chad Oliver. Talking out loud. I remember Mr. Hafer saying, "You need to go home and read the newspaper." "Read it out loud." And when I coach people, still to this day, I do executive coaching where I'm coaching professionals on how to make presentations, how to be comfortable in your own skin. Most people aren't even comfortable hearing their voice. Right. I remember standing in front of the mirror and presenting, presenting. Yeah. Setting up the ironing board. God bless my parents because I remember setting up the ironing board in our living room and giving speeches to my mom and dad.
Robert DiLella Jr.. That's awesome.
Chad Oliver. It's a practice public speaking. Right? Because they were my audience. And Laurie, she is from a theater perspective. She would perform for her parents. That's how you practice. And our parents are our first audience members. But that's what I did. I would read out of the newspaper and get comfortable with how the words felt coming out of your mouth. And then just talking to everybody. Oh, Rob, I was so afraid. Even getting a degree in broadcast news, getting to my first job, even coming to this market, 23 years old, getting assignments to go out in the community. And some days you're covering really horrific sad news.
Chad Oliver. Other days you're covering exciting, happy, joyful news. But you just have to get comfortable talking to everybody. Driving different routes to work. That's how you get story ideas. You can get out of your routine, man. Like if you're going the same way to work every day, switch it up. If you're going to the same coffee shop every day, switch it up, go somewhere different. Talk to someone new.
Robert DiLella Jr.. Just spark those, because yeah, you had to create stories. Part of that was being a journalist.
Chad Oliver. That's the currency, man. We all operated on story ideas. If you didn't come to the editorial meeting in the morning with at least two ideas that you could turn that day, you were losing. Yeah, you gotta hold your weight.
Robert DiLella Jr.. So from the radio station Where did this shift come to journal, to reporting about? Because that was the broadcast part, right? So where did your interests come in that I want to share what's happening with the world. I want to translate it my way to the world.
Chad Oliver. That was the track at the University of Georgia. It was get accepted to UGA, which is hard. Get accepted, okay, now that I'm in--
Robert DiLella Jr.. Yeah, that's the tough school there.
Chad Oliver. That's the tough school, right? Get accepted, okay, got that. And then I remember just getting accepted to the Grady College of Journalism. So you get all your core credits out of the way. And then I've always felt like I've been out to prove something, like I had to overcome these obstacles. Like I've always had a fighter's mentality that it was me against the world, that I had to work extra hard, because if I don't, I'm gonna get left behind. And so getting into, first getting accepted Having the funds to pay for college, okay, got that. Okay, now that I'm in Athens, can I get into the Grady College of Journalism? So I gotta study really hard. I can't get bad grades.
Chad Oliver. I gotta do all these amazing things. I've always felt this internal pressure to perform at a certain level, to deliver. And still to this day, man, it still drives me. Like I never, I feel like I'm a nobody, and then I have yet to make it in life. Wow. Still. I wake up with 15 things I wanna accomplish that day. I got big rocks and I got small rocks. At my desk, I have a notebook of priorities for that day. Even after all these years, Rob, there's that internal drive to, "Man, I need to call this person. "I haven't talked to my buddy in a while." So it's not all necessarily professional, but it's personal.
Chad Oliver. Things that I wanna accomplish, people that I wanna impact for the better. I just have this drive, like, man, there's not enough minutes in the day. So you ask about what track, how did I get on the journalism track? It was in Georgia, at the University of Georgia Applying to the broadcast news program within the Grady College of Journalism and Mass Communication. And I remember the professor saying, there's this many people trying to get in, this many people actually get into the journalism school, and this many people actually get into the broadcast news track, very few people.
Chad Oliver. And so you get in and then you're constantly feeling this pressure of, I gotta compete, I gotta make it. And then you get a degree and the pressure doesn't stop, because then I gotta get a job. And the professors are telling you, and we were fortunate to have all the former executives from like CNN and other networks. Because of our proximity to Atlanta, a lot of them would come in and be guest professors. And so they're telling you're not gonna make it. You're not smart enough, good looking enough. They wouldn't say it in so many words, but they would let you know that the odds were really small. And so I've always felt like this internal drive to just keep pushing, man.
Robert DiLella Jr.. In high school, were you a good student in high school?
Chad Oliver. Yeah, but my mother was a teacher. There was no other option. I had to keep my grades up. She was a teacher. And so I had this internal drive, and then my mother, she just kept pushing in a good way.
Robert DiLella Jr.. Yeah, teachers have that, well, I can't imagine being raised by one, but they have that ability to, yeah, kind of get more out of you in a way.
Chad Oliver. Absolutely, she was an incredible mother. Single mom up until I was nine years old. And then she remarried to an amazing man who, he really taught me what it was to be a dad. He had three kids from his previous marriage. He adopted me, I changed my last name to Oliver. And that's when I was between third grade and fourth grade. And he showed me what it was like to be selfless as a father. And my mother was incredible. She was the first of her siblings to go to college. She fought extreme obstacles to succeed in life. She became a teacher, had a good paying job with benefits, and just a tremendous heart. She was an incredible, is an incredible mother.
Chad Oliver. She's still doing well and in great health.
Robert DiLella Jr.. Oh, great. What's her name? Paula. And how would she describe you?
Chad Oliver. Probably, I don't know. She's just like your mother, very proud, just, I could do no wrong. If there's anybody who's in your corner, it's your mother. And still to this day, she has immense pride. And she would say sometimes when watching it, Chad, you're very confident. And I was like, well, thank you, mom. There's no other alternative. If I didn't believe in what I was saying, how was the audience going to believe? And so I never, ever wanted to come across as cocky or arrogant. I never want to exude that. I was okay being confident because I believed in the work. And if you don't believe in what you're doing and saying Then how is anyone supposed to believe you?
Robert DiLella Jr.. Yeah. Well, how did you know that you were, like at the radio station, how did you know that you were doing okay?
Chad Oliver. I never knew that. I never really knew that I was doing okay. You just keep showing up, Rob. And I guess I figured out I was pretty good at it because I kept getting opportunities. Fast forward to 9-11. I remember auditioning to host 9-11 Athens react. And I was up against all these upperclassmen who were already in the broadcast news program and I wasn't even there yet. And I remember winning the audition and getting tabbed to host the 9-11 forum after the 9-11 attacks. And I guess at that point I realized, huh, I must be okay. But the compliments weren't coming from the professors.
Chad Oliver. You had to have that internal confidence that, man, I'm just gonna keep trying every day and just keep knocking the door down until I get through.
Robert DiLella Jr.. Yeah, what were some of the slaps in the face that woke you up along the way or the things that happened?
Chad Oliver. Oh, I remember even as a professional, research that would come back that would say the show was failing. You need more viewers. And that's what I don't miss. The pressure of being beholden to Nielsen ratings For your family. I don't miss the research. I don't miss the pressure to perform day in and day out. Those types of hurdles you had to overcome. For a time I anchored, I came back to this market to launch the ABC 7 Morning Show. They had canceled the ABC 7 Morning Show. They were simulcasting the same show on ABC and NBC. And I got a call and came back to Southwest Florida, which I'm so glad I did. That's when I eventually met Lori after coming back.
Chad Oliver. I wasn't getting promoted. And this was like 2009. I put my stuff in storage. I was on a month to month contract. I was in my late 20s at the time. And I said, I'm just gonna pursue other opportunities. Put my stuff in storage, traveled the country, pursued some opportunities. And I was actually at the Masters Golf Tournament in Augusta. I get a call from the news director here, Chad, what are you doing? Do you have any appetite to come back to Southwest Florida? We're relaunching the morning show. I'd love for you to come back and anchor that. And I never thought I would be back, Rob. It was late, by that point, it was the spring of 2010.
Chad Oliver. I had been to Southwest Florida, been there, done that. I thought I would call for my stuff. I thought that I would have a moving company, ship my things to another city. I get a call to come back and relaunch the morning show. A year later, I met an incredible dance partner, Lori. And we did Dancing with the Stars for charity.
Robert DiLella Jr.. And you won. We won the dance.
Chad Oliver. Thanks all to Lori. And that changed the trajectory of our lives. We became friends, and the rest is history.
Robert DiLella Jr.. What was-- were you a dancer? No! What was that?
Chad Oliver. I was scared out of my mind. I've been getting choked up thinking about it.
Robert DiLella Jr.. So how did you go from not being a dancer to winning it, though?
Chad Oliver. I was so nervous. I remember the night we performed, we were going on stage. And literally five minutes before we were set to go out, I turned to Lori and I say, I have forgot all the steps. Can we run it? We've got to run it again. And so she goes in the back room, and we go through the steps. And we did-- you're the one that I want from Grease. Oh, awesome. So we ran the steps. It comes back to me. I'm like, OK, good. I went out there so-- I was sweating bullets. I would rather speak in front of 1,000 people. Broadcast-- give me a broadcast any day of the week. But to do a dance with her, choreographed-- oh, I was so intimidating.
Robert DiLella Jr.. Yeah, in front of-- Yeah. In front of people.
Chad Oliver. But we ended up winning Best Dance. And she was on your show.
Robert DiLella Jr.. I love her. She's just left me feeling so whole. She's just such a real person. Like, her heart is beautiful.
Chad Oliver. As beautiful as Lori is on the outside. She's incredible, right? I'm so blessed. She is far more beautiful on the inside. I tell her she is the most special person in my life. She is someone that I view as a godsend. I mean, I never deserved anyone as good as Lori. And I married late. I was 32 when we got married. I had moments when I gave up thinking I would ever find anybody that could put up with me. Because I'm a lot, right? My mind is I've got so many different passions and priorities. And I'm a lot to deal with. And we somehow mesh. She and I are so opposite in so many ways. She is a beautiful, beautiful soul. And she makes me want to be a better person.
Robert DiLella Jr.. And that's a beautiful relationship. That's one of the things that I really Was left with after talking. I was number one, how much in love she is with you. Like, how much she loves you. And how she expressed it. And to hear you on the other side. Because I feel blessed to have married somebody who God sent me, who's just-- is that for me? Like, she just makes me more of me than I knew I was. She seasoned me what I didn't know existed.
Chad Oliver. Isn't it special when you find someone that you can see yourself growing old with? I want to think we want to maintain and be as vibrant as we can for as long as we can. But down the line, to find someone that you're like, you know what? I could grow old with this person. That's a beautiful thing.
Robert DiLella Jr.. Oh, it is. It is. I just so appreciate it. And it's neat to hear your side of it after her side, too. Because I could tell that there's genuine love.
Chad Oliver. She's so funny. And because of my profession, and whether it's anchoring the news or being in my role with Collier County Public Schools, I have to be so buttoned up. Very rarely can I just cut back and just be authentically Chad. And she is so the opposite. If Lori thinks it, she'll say it. You never have to guess what's on her mind. She's so transparent and real.
Robert DiLella Jr.. And that's what people love her. She's purely her. That's what's so delicious about her. You're getting what's right in her heart.
Chad Oliver. She's got such a passion for kids. She'll send me these reels of these kids. And I don't even get it, by the way. I see these memes and these quick reels. And, Zach, you've got to help me out with this. Because I see these quick little blurbs. And there's an emoji. And there's words on the screen. And there's someone off in the distance doing something engaging. I don't know where to look. Like, Rob, what's with the look at? And then she's like laughing, dying laughing. I'm like, I don't even get it. And she goes, watch again. So I watch it again. And I'm like, OK. That's pretty funny. And then she's like, oh, you're too serious. You don't even get it.
Chad Oliver. I'm like, I don't get it. I don't get it, Rob. Help me get it, man.
Robert DiLella Jr.. I'm right there with you. My wife does that with TikTok. I don't get it. Well, that's a testament to something special. Because it really helped my relationship, hearing your relationship. It just had me have a deeper appreciation for what I have with my wife, too. Because I know you two are destined for each other. Just like that phone call you got to come back here and then be in-- Wow., you Oh, where are we on time? He's got to be done by when?
Chad Oliver. You OK on time?
Robert DiLella Jr.. We have 12 minutes till 5. 12 minutes till 5. And your best departure time is what?
Chad Oliver. If we're not-- if we stop recording at 5 o'clock, we're good.
Robert DiLella Jr.. OK, all right, great. Great, thanks. I know I get too-- I get trolled off because he's got so much inside of him. I love it.
Chad Oliver. And I want to give you guys-- there's so much we could talk about. Yeah, I love it. So if you want me to talk about the family aspect, like if you want me to go into the blended family, as not a lot of people can relate to blended families, you tell me, like, what do you want to know?
Robert DiLella Jr.. What's cool for me is how you got to be you. Your mom was a teacher, you said. And so who had the biggest impact on you growing up? How did you end up being you? Because you're wired a certain way. And our community gets that to have a chunk of you, which I-- I love that you're here and you didn't leave. Because I see so many that's what they have to do. They come to our market, we fall in love with them, and then they have to leave. They have to move on to grow. And you found a way to stay with us.
Chad Oliver. I love this community. And I feel like I've grown up here. And people have watched me grow up, from age 23 to where I am now. I've seen Naples grow and Southwest Florida grow. Not your perspective. I mean, you have other previous decades, you've seen-- you and I were talking about what it was like in the 80s and just the small town feel. But yeah, I mean, I do feel-- sorry, Rob, I totally lost. What was your question?
Robert DiLella Jr.. I just went up on a squirrel. Well, no. Who had a big influence on you of who you are? Was there one person that changed the trajectory of who you are? How are you wired?
Chad Oliver. I mean, obviously, the parents had a huge role. I mean, my mom, I saw the obstacles she had to overcome. And I'm just extremely grateful. She was such a hard worker, my father too. And the man that I call my dad was my stepdad. He adopted me. He had three kids from a previous marriage. But he always treated me like his own blood. And I try to model that with Allie and Luke. When they turned 18, they changed their last name, which was the biggest compliment they could ever give. We never asked them to even consider it. They did it on their own. Blended families aren't easy. I've tried to do the best that I could and can. And it does take a village.
Chad Oliver. So you ask, who had the biggest impact? I'm thinking through mentors that I had growing up. So my mom raised me as a single mom up until I was nine years old. So those are crucial years. I can think about my uncle Warren, Paul Hafer, the general manager at the radio station, men who came into my life at critical points, baseball coaches I had My dad, Ricky Oliver, who treated me like his own. He was a welder at a paper mill. Blue collar guy worked really hard. He would take time off to be at my tennis matches in high school. He would travel to wherever I had a match. If I was playing, Ricky Oliver was there. He didn't have to be, right?
Chad Oliver. He knew and my mom knew the first names of my friends. They would have my friends over to the house. And Lori and I try and do that with our kids. We wanted to be the house where kids felt comfortable coming. And so for anybody watching this, if I can encourage anybody, know the names of your friends Your kids friends. Know the names of your kids friends. Invite them on trips with you. Do vacations together. I really struggle with society and the phones and the lack of connection. I hear so many stories of people that just get buried in their phone and they don't need to lose this.
Chad Oliver. I mean, the ability to sit down with you and talk for an hour about life, about where you came from and where I came from and share experiences. That's how you get to know people. That's how you gain trust. And this isn't a political show nor that it needs to be, but I feel like if more people had connections, our society would be more civil. We can disagree better. And there's so much vitriol in 2026. Like we gotta do better. Like if we want the fabric of Naples to remain, we're dealing with people that are coming from all over the world, Rob, who want this slice of paradise. People have different upbringings, different political leanings, different religious leanings.
Chad Oliver. You gotta respect that. We gotta figure out a way to be more civil as a community. And you gotta get to know your community. And we all take ownership of a little slice. So who had the biggest impact? It was a collection of people, but I mean, one person, I mean, my mom, still to this day, someone you can call and you can lean on and don't wait to tell people how you feel about them. It's why Lori and I try to be so honest with each other. Her dad, thank God, is still living. He lives at Shell Point. We see him often. We go to church with him, have lunch, dinner. I call my parents and just out of the blue call people.
Chad Oliver. And I try and make a list every week of somebody in my circle, current or former, to reach out to. One name a week. And I got someone in mind right now that I'm gonna call tonight on my way home. Even if it's five minutes, pick up the phone and I've started just calling, not even texting, but just calling because my phone doesn't ring that much anymore.
Robert DiLella Jr.. No, no, yeah, I love that you say that because yeah, it's the easy way out to shoot a text. It's not, but talking to somebody on the phone is a whole different.
Chad Oliver. No one calls anymore. Pick up the phone, call them. I wanna hear their voice. And if I can't talk, I can't talk. I won't answer. Let it go to voicemail, right? And I love calling with no agenda. I don't need anything. I just want, like I got a buddy of mine who went through really tough time with substance abuse. He's a friend from college. And I just called him out of the blue recently. How you doing? Just to check in on him, right? We need more people just calling to say hello. I can't tell you the last time anybody just called me out of the blue, just to, they don't want anything. They don't want media coverage. They don't wanna quote. They just wanted to talk to Chad.
Robert DiLella Jr.. Yeah, that does not exist. I don't, that doesn't. Right?
Chad Oliver. Because, and people respect each other's time. They probably think Chad is busy, Rob is busy. I don't wanna bother him. You're not bothering me.
Robert DiLella Jr.. Yeah, but it's how it always was. I mean, you just, you got a phone call. You didn't know what was coming. You didn't even know who it was before Call of Right Day. Like you just got a phone call.
Chad Oliver. It's like. So you know what I started doing recently? Answering the phone. Answering the phone. I used to, I would let calls go to voicemail. And then I would have this anxiety that I gotta call these people back. And I would build it up. Now I just answer. So if you got my number, you call me. There's a good chance I'm gonna answer. Yeah, that's cool. Because I don't wanna have to call you back.
Robert DiLella Jr.. That's awesome. Yeah, I see that as almost a game., like answer the call. Answer the call. Because it just, it's a lost. My mother-in-law in heaven now, who I was one of my other humans that had a massive impact on my life. Not only because she raised my wife, my soulmate, but because she was just somebody who was very impactful. And she always had this practice of On your birthday, she was gonna call you. No matter what you had going on, there was a phone call coming in. It was never a text. Never, I mean, she might add that to it. But it was always a phone call. Like, she's calling. I could be in the middle of, it didn't matter what she's calling.
Robert DiLella Jr.. And that's just, that's such a lost art. It's such a unique thing. Now we look and see somebody calling. You're like, why are they calling me? Why, my reaction? Why are they calling? Why didn't they text me first?
Chad Oliver. I feel like I have to text people to say, hey, do you have five minutes to talk? Can I call? You two, we would just pick up the phone and call. And now I feel like I have to send a preliminary text. Can you talk?
Robert DiLella Jr.. Yeah, that's the world. Just call, yeah. If your life was a movie, what would the opening soundtrack be?
Chad Oliver. If my life was a movie, the opening soundtrack. Oh, I love music. What did Lori tell you? What did she say that I like? 80s music?
Robert DiLella Jr.. I think she had some 80s. Yeah, because I'm trying to build a playlist of the spotlight on good people playlists. So your playlist is gonna matter to me too. But if it was a movie, what would that one be?
Chad Oliver. Oh man.
Robert DiLella Jr.. I think I remember it was 80s.
Chad Oliver. I have, oh, there's so many that go through my mind. I'm thinking, okay. You want first reaction, YouTube, beautiful day.
Robert DiLella Jr.. Oh yeah.
Chad Oliver. Beautiful day. Because listen, every day I try and remind myself, every day is a gift. And every day is beautiful, especially in Naples. But seriously, every day I try to approach it no matter how long the to-do list is. I'm not promised another day. Like I'm a relatively young guy still. I could live another 50 years. I could be gone next year, right? This could be the last time anyone has record of chat on video, like this could be it. Not to sound morbid, but you never know what could happen on my way home. I have to capture each day. Make it count.
Robert DiLella Jr.. Yeah, I can hear the intro of that song right now. That's a perfect song for that. I love that. That's really great. Because this is all we have and we don't know., one of the, we have 33, how many episodes? 30, four-ish? 35, somewhere around there. And one of the first guests Jacqueline Pfeffer, who was the CEO of the Naples Baker Center, Baker Senior Center, passed recently. And she was somebody who I was very intimidated by to talk to her because she just has this presence about her.
Robert DiLella Jr.. And I had this affection for her when we were done because I wouldn't ordinarily have a conversation with her ever in life because of just, to me, she's just somebody who I had a lot of, I revered who she is and she just had this poise about her that just was intimidating to me. But when we were done, it was, I just felt like I wanted her to be my mom., I wanted to be a part of her life, how special she was because we got to spend that hour, two hours, whatever it was together, that time together, that little peace, that connection.
Chad Oliver. You have this platform to have long form conversations. This is what this is, like long form storytelling. It doesn't exist in many places. It's special and kudos to you, Rob, for doing something like this. It takes time, but you're having conversations and you're learning layers about people.
Robert DiLella Jr.. Yeah, and that's what I really, I love that so much, the relationships that get built for me with the people that I meet and get to know who are impactful in our community has been, it doesn't just end when the end ends because it's like you'll be in my life forever. And especially now knowing both sides of the two of you.
Chad Oliver. You're gonna have to invite us back. You need to be more than I at the same time. That would be cool. That would be too much. You would break YouTube.
(Laughing)
Chad Oliver. It would be too much. She's far more engaging and nicer and better at this. She is phenomenal.
Robert DiLella Jr.. I know she is, I know. But it would be fun to have the two of you all together. That would be really cool. To have you dance back and forth. Or dance, yeah, you could do that. We don't even do that anymore.
Chad Oliver. We should, we should. This is special, man. Is there anything, no hard-hitting questions?
Robert DiLella Jr.. You know, what would be hard-hitting? So coming from-- I don't even know.
Chad Oliver. I love your approach because you give space to talk.
Robert DiLella Jr.. Yeah, yeah, just wherever it goes. And I like in the fact of Well, talking about music because I love music, but I love to hear your playlist. But you too You too, gotcha. Actually, I see you when I do that, but I just don't nod. He's giving me space. I have to give you a cue that, yeah, I got it. We are, it's 504. Yeah, 504, oh, that's a little faster.
Chad Oliver. And I'm not even a big YouTube fan. It's just the first song that came to my head that was like positive.
Robert DiLella Jr.. Yeah, no, but I get it. That song specifically fits though. Because every time I hear that intro, I think of It just lightens me up. There's something about it. And especially living where we live in paradise here. It's the best.
Chad Oliver. You have to be the light. I go around, I'm involved in school public relations. And there's a lot of issues that we deal with that can be toxic and negative. And I encourage people to be the light. My colleagues in other parts of the country, you have to be the light. You have to bring your juice. You have to bring the energy. Whatever sector you're in, if you're not the light, who is gonna be the light? There's a lot of people that'll bring you down.
Robert DiLella Jr.. Yeah, there's plenty of that out there. There's plenty of that.
Chad Oliver. Can you be the light?
Robert DiLella Jr.. Yeah, well, you have that energy completely. Just as I knew you on TV is just how you are in real life.
Chad Oliver. It's a huge compliment.
Robert DiLella Jr.. Authenticity of you. Which is really cool to experience and get to know.
Chad Oliver. Maybe there's a part two in the future?
Robert DiLella Jr.. I think we have to do that. I think, yeah, absolutely. Because now that we have official studios, Actor Studio looks really good. Thanks for having me. Yeah, of course. Two more, let's see. Coffee drink.
Chad Oliver. Ooh, well, we just had an espresso before we recorded your show. I mean, it was great. Anything to get me going quickly. I'm basic, Rob. Coffee with a little half and half and honey.
Robert DiLella Jr.. A little splash of honey. Okay, a little honey in the coffee.
Chad Oliver. In the coffee.
Robert DiLella Jr.. Okay, that's a new one. All right, we got that on there.
Chad Oliver. I'm basic. Coffee, splash of half and half
Robert DiLella Jr.. A little honey. Okay, any book or podcast that's had either an impact on your life or that's on your playlist?
Chad Oliver. I did read a book called "Super Communicators." Awesome, and you're a very good communicator. You could co-author the book. "Super Communicators" was good. I'm reading an AI book right now that's a bit dry. I'm probably not gonna recommend it.
Robert DiLella Jr.. AI book. Like it's about using AI?
Chad Oliver. Yeah, it's about use of AI. Okay. It's a little heavy. The most read book in all of history, the Bible. I did an audio version of the Bible last year. First time I've ever made it through the Bible in a year. I did it.
Robert DiLella Jr.. Really?
Chad Oliver. Yeah, I listened to it.
Robert DiLella Jr.. So what version? There's so many versions. I always wanted to do that.
Chad Oliver. Yeah, it's great. It was through the Bible app. And I listened to, it was a daily devotion that gave you thoughts and scripture for the day and then corresponding scripture that related to that topic. And by the end of 365 days, you had made it through the whole Bible in a year. The most read book of all time. And I had never made it through the entire book until last year. Does it count that it was an audio?
Robert DiLella Jr.. It does for me. That's how I do it.
(Laughing)
Chad Oliver. Because we're busy people. I'm walking around the neighborhood, I'm in the car, I'm listening and we're consuming media.
Robert DiLella Jr.. Yeah, that's the way it's done. I get more done that way, but I'm gonna take that on. I love that you did that because that's something I've always wanted to do, but haven't ever heard it like that.
Chad Oliver. And just pick a version that you jive with, like New American Standard, New International Version. If you wanna get really, really formal, you'll go King James. But I like something that I can--
Robert DiLella Jr.. King James is more formal.
Chad Oliver. Yeah, that's more formal. I like NIV, New American Standard.
Robert DiLella Jr.. New American Standard, okay.
Chad Oliver. Yeah, I would go with one of those versions.
Robert DiLella Jr.. Okay, all right. I'm gonna, by our next meeting, I will have-- You'll start it. Put that into practice. Yeah, yeah, yeah.
Chad Oliver. Okay, good. There's so much that you can apply to your life.
Robert DiLella Jr.. Yeah, I always hear that. And I just, I never have found access to it where I felt like I understood what they were saying because I didn't have a version that some of the words just seemed out of my scope or just seemed the way it was worded, seemed difficult to understand.
Chad Oliver. I would highly recommend the app with a daily guide. Okay, all right. You'll be all set.
Robert DiLella Jr.. Thank you for that. I'll put that into practice too. I wanna leave you with, leave them with From you, what do you love about your life?
Chad Oliver. That I'm still here. Every day's a gift. Every day's a gift from someone who was born in a really hostile setting from a young child. I want to go into too many details there, but I have never taken a day for granted. And I feel very fortunate to have the family I do, the career that I have in a place where people call paradise. So I really do try and view every day as a gift.
Robert DiLella Jr.. Yeah, I appreciate that. I appreciate the gift that you are for us too, because you bring it with you. This is the second time now I had the honor to meet you, or be with you. Thank you, man. And you bring that positivity, that good energy that is infectious, just like you did when you were in media, in the other form of media. So, thanks.
Chad Oliver. You're a blessing for our community, man. Thank you brother. You're doing what you're doing around. God bless you.
Robert DiLella Jr.. Thank you. Thanks man. Zach, thank you. Thank you for guiding.