Introducing Nan Piland

Bob Oller’s Take Me Out To Savoring Virginia’s Art The Dog Park Craft Breweries Celebrating the Region’s Most Influential Real Estate Professionals Living the Code Nan Piland CRS, GRI, E-PRO, SRS, MCS Making her hometown yours



Rainmakers are selected based on their sales Nan Piland accomplishments earning them a spot among the top 20% of Liz Moore & Associates’ top REALTOR®, performers. CRS, GRI, E-PRO, SRS, MCS In addition to sales volume standards, I LOVE WILLIAMSBURG Rainmakers share client-centric philosophies, BECAUSE a dedication to being masters of their craft, and a commitment to giving back to the I was born and raised here! communities they serve. #1 GOAL I am thrilled to have been selected as the featured Rainmaker for the month! Be happy and keep calm. Nan Piland FAVORITE RESTAURANT Le Yaca at the bar SUPERPOWER I can see around corners. YEARS IN REAL ESTATE Since 1993! 26 great years! PROUDEST MOMENT When our daughter graduated from college Nan was always there for me no matter what... Renate Magnus-Sharpe

Rainmaker Nan PilandSpotlight: If Nan Piland cut her finger, would she bleed REALTOR® Blue? If she did, none of her friends and associates would be at all surprised. People who’ve been to the Virginia Leadership Academy as she has are different because they get the big picture. “It’s what we do every day. It’s advocacy and ethics and sales, all rolled into one,” Nan says. Over the years, Nan has held top leadership positions in multiple real estate business organizations at the local and state levels. She’s quite comfortable talking to large groups such as Rotary Club, Virginia Realtors and Williamsburg Area Association of Realtors as well as having more private conversations with individuals such as Rep. Rob Whitman, since she resides in Virginia’s 1st District. “As part of a National Association of Realtors Federal Political Coordinator team, we talk about issues such as new changes we’d like to see regarding sexual identity and gender in the real estate practice HUD’s Fair Housing protected classes. Rob listened and nodded respectfully, which I appreciate. We also advocate for flood insurance issues, property owner rights and the ability to achieve homeownership. “I love being a REATLOR®,” she says. “Many of my friends are also REALTORS®, and also subscribe to the Realtor Code of Ethics. You’ll never hear an off-color comment, an inappropriate joke, or a derogatory statement among us. It’s just who we R, as the saying goes. We believe that everyone has a right to their opinion and is on their own pathway, but they don’t have the right to offend others or discriminate against them.” This philosophy is written into the Code’s preamble and applies to all aspects of life, both business and personal. Nan’s found the perfect expression of that core belief in her religious community, Williamsburg Unitarian Universalists, whose doctrine is all are worthy, all are welcome.

Though possessing deep family roots in Tennessee, Nan Piland was born and raised in Williamsburg. “My parents, aunts, uncles and cousins still live here, and my great-uncle, Archie Brenegan, was the Sheriff of James City County. Four generations of my family have worked for Colonial Williamsburg at one time or another.” Growing up as a Lafayette High School student, Nan babysat regularly for Brian Twiddy, who owned Twiddy Realty. She continued to babysit while she was a student at Christopher Newport University. “I was a business major at CNU, so when the Twiddys would return from an evening out, Brian would sit down with me and read my papers and talk about things.” He was more than a mentor in the business sense, Nan recalls, his wisdom guided her in life as well. “I was working for a law firm when I was expecting Leighton,” she remembers. “It was a great job, but Brian told me, ‘You don’t need a job, you need a career!’” At that time, he had been diagnosed with cancer, so Nan took this final good advice seriously and pursued real estate school with a 3-month old baby. “In my 50’s now, I look back on my life and realize that if it weren’t for Brian changing my trajectory, so many amazing things would never have happened.” One of those things is successfully launching that baby into her own career. “Leighton graduated from pharmacy school at MCV/VCU and is married now. There’s pride, plus an element of relief, because my job is done! So much happiness down the road,” she says. After Brian passed away, Nan continued working at Twiddy Realty until she transferred to McCardle Realty. “Kimber Smith was the president and was another mentor for me, since I was still so young,” she remembers. In 2010, during the recession doldrums, Nan met Liz Moore and was inspired to join her firm. “Everybody was hurting,” she says. “The realtors, the sellers, the lenders…everyone. But Liz’s theory is that change, even a problem, is also an opportunity. Nan saw her opportunity, thanks to Liz, and made the leap. “She’s done so much to change the culture of real estate in our area and beyond,” she says. “She sees it not as transactional, but as a relationship.” Throughout her career, Nan has found herself working with people who are at crisis points in their life. “Often, what makes people pack their boxes is a crisis. They’re often facing divorce, grieving the death of a family member, downsizing due to economic difficulties an unexpected illness, a military move or the blessing of a growing family. “I’m an analytical, low key, and calm by nature, so I’m able to let them vent their emotions yet keep them centered on the goal.” However, she can’t help but absorb some of that emotion herself, and it can sometimes be tough to compartmentalize. “I’d like to include in our ongoing real estate training some classes in grief counseling. Not only do we need to know the right things to say to our clients in tough circumstances, we also need to learn to look at grief as a growth point. Unresolved grief can poison the possibilities of the future.” Nan says wisely. So many people in business today define themselves and success by how much money they can make. Nan Piland never feels more successful than when she’s been able to help someone. “Since I entered my real estate career in 1993, if I was there for my client during the hardest days of their life or to celebrate their new home and was able to provide what they needed and do it well, I call that a win,” she says.

WE LOVE WHERE WE LIVE Bob Oller is pioneering a brand new artistic genre. Vector SO MUCH THAT WE HAVE is a computer program used by professional illustrators to COMMISSIONED LOCAL ARTIST, capture an artist’s mind and hand with all their subleties BOB OLLER, TO CAPTURE SOME of palette and brushstroke. When a skilled artist with OF OUR FAVORITE PLACES! an intimate familiarity with computers pushes it beyond its usual boundaries, technical capability marries with artistic technique, creating something greater than the sum of its parts. Imagine if Renoir married the Bionic Woman and had an extremely talented baby. A tour of the artist’s Jamestown home illustrates his exploration of this medium. Walls are tightly packed with examples of his groundbreaking work: huge magnolias march across the walls, surrounded by individual hits of vivid landscapes and bright tropical scenes. The home’s hallway features framed art on both sides, all Bob’s.

“I’ve been trying some pieces in two different mediums, Out back is the neatly arranged studio where creative magic either acrylic or watercolor and then also in Vector,” Bob says is unleashed. To a true artist, everything looks like potential as he gestures to examples in his gallery. “It’s fascinating. You art, and here are feathers, shells, string, and twigs which have to work at softening up the transitions in Vector; I love Bob’s translated into shelves and mobiles, plus other whimsies the challenge. It’s ten times as hard because it records exactly such as figural pottery boxes. He also takes creativity on the what my hand does, and there’s nowhere to hide if I make a road, combining world travel and plein air painting. mistake.” Bob worked visually for up to 12 hours a day in his previous professional life, so his eye/hand/brain connection Bob finds great satisfaction in sharing his knowledge, is unusually strong. Working within this medium, mental working with private students and giving group lessons. barriers eventually melted away, and he now paints with a “Thanks to a charitable foundation that liked my work, I’ll mouse or stylus exactly as he does when he holds a brush. be teaching a children’s art session in Jamaica soon,” he says “As I create color using Vector, I’m reaching into a pool of with pleasure. A committed Christian, for years Bob has color exactly as if I were mixing it on a palette.” He can made regular mission trips to Cuba, where he collaborates blend, build and layer as with acrylic pieces, but there’s no with local pastors. In his down time, this adventurer enjoys resolution to the artwork, so it can expand or contract with kayaking with Jean and fishing, both contemplative and no loss of crispness. Bob can create an image, then re-create restorative activities. “I can get lost easily in the rhythms of it in dimensions suitable for either a business card or the paddling or fly fishing. It becomes a mesmerizing dance.” he largest commercial spaces. The image can be transferred to says. For him, it’s also an opportunity to appreciate natural paper, canvas, or a thin sheet of aluminum, which lends a beauty and top off his enormous reserves of creative energy modern, industrial, almost three-dimensional feel to the so he can share with others. original artwork. Modestly, Bob doesn’t claim pioneer status in this medium. “There are others out there who are doing “Art is meant to be shared, both in teaching and creating,” the same sort of thing,” he says, “but there aren’t that many Bob says with passion. “I hope my work tells a story for of us. It’s pretty exciting.” Art has always excited Bob. “I the viewer. When that happens, their own creative detail never wanted to do anything else,” he says. Bob studied art at emerges and is added, dynamically connecting them with University of Central Florida, then was a freelance illustrator the arts.” in Orlando, doing film work and photography. He was drawn north by new opportunities in interactive media. He Oller’s art has many fans, one of whom is Liz Moore of Liz settled in Williamsburg in 1982 and soon started his own Moore and Associates, a boutique real estate company with advertising agency. His ultimate goal was to support himself offices in Williamsburg, Newport News and Richmond. entirely through fine art, so in 2010, Bob Oller Studios was born and things got serious. He’s developed a devoted Liz reached out to Bob to commission a series of local art, fan base that appreciates his artwork, including Liz Moore, in keeping with the “Love Where You Live” theme that who has included major pieces in the decor of her real estate inspires her business. Her Peninsula office lobby features offices in Richmond, Williamsburg, and Newport News. the Air and Space museum, the Lion’s Bridge, City Center Fountain, Poquoson Flats and the Coleman Bridge linking Touring his home unveils yet another facet of Bob Oller’s Gloucester and Yorktown. The unveiling of that body of creative abilities. He’s taken a simple rancher and pushed work was met with such a wonderful welcome, that Bob the limits of design, just as he does with art. He’s gutted and soon focused on Williamsburg. In her New Town lobby rebuilt, added and landscaped a ramble of buildings, porches, you’ll find wonderful paintings of Merchant’s Square, a ponds and patios, all reflecting a strong Asian influence. “I’ve William and Mary Homecoming tailgate, Liberty the Dog always loved Oriental movement and balance,” Bob says. The on Duke of Gloucester Street, and Aroma’s. 5 new works are home’s color palette features swaths of bright orange, most heading to Richmond: The Virginia Museum of Fine Arts, apparent in the kitchen cabinetry. “That’s mainly Jean’s color Monument Avenue, the Dooley Mansion at Maymont, the choice and domain,” Bob says. “She’s my sweetheart and a George Washington monument in front of the capital, and a fantastic professional chef. We’ve been married for ten years spectactular view of the RVA skyline from the East. now, and she’s had a lot of input in what goes where.” Stop in any Liz Moore office to enjoy 6 Bob Oller’s work, or check them out online (and even order prints) at lizmoore.com/art.









Congratulations, Nan!