If a civic or community organization is having difficulty recruiting volunteers, it might want to consider asking Rolanda Pullen Daniel to join its ranks. This might very well guarantee the establishment at least one willing and able helper.
“I like to have a seat at the table and be in on the decision making,” says Pullen Daniel, a longtime Realtor with Coldwell Banker Pryor Realty.
Pullen Daniel, 51, has actually sat down at several tables in an effort to contribute to her profession and community.
Real estate agents who are familiar with the leadership at Greater Chattanooga Realtors likely know Pullen Daniel has been an active volunteer at the association since graduating from its Leadership Academy in 2016.
She’s been especially zealous about serving on the association’s committees. From the Community Partnerships Committee, which plans and carries out fundraisers for Habitat for Humanity of Greater Chattanooga Area and the Snack Pack Ministry, to the Consumer Education & Scholarship Committee, which will select four high school students to receive a $2,500 scholarship for college or trade school, she’s lending her time and voice to causes she believes better her community and the public’s perception of Realtors.
“It’s nice to be able to do things that will benefit our community and hopefully cause people look at Realtors more favorably,” Pullen Daniel says.
Pullen Daniel has also served on Greater Chattanooga Realtors’ Diversity Inclusion, Leadership Development, Governmental Affairs and Grievance & Professional Standards committees.
Of the latter, which settles Realtor Code of Ethics complaints, she says, “It was an honor to be trusted enough to serve.”
Since 2020, Pullen Daniel has extended her service at the association to its board of directors. She’s currently serving her second of consecutive two-year terms.
Pullen Daniel maintains this high level of volunteer activity because she believes participation and representation are vital to the health of her profession and city.
“If you’re part of an organization, you should participate and not be a placeholder. You should work.”
One might also say one should know when to begin turning down opportunities to serve, but the concept might be foreign to Pullen Daniel, who found herself raising her hand when the local National Association of Real Estate Brokers group asked for volunteers.
After joining NAREB, Pullen Daniel agreed to become the historian of the local branch. This puts her in charge of chronicling the story of NAREB Chattanooga as it performs community service, teaches classes on homeownership and more.
“When they asked if anyone would like to be involved, I said, ‘I would,’” Pullen Daniel smiles, knowing she’s sounding like she’s taken on too much.
Is she has, her clients aren’t telling her. Rather, they’re keeping her as busy as ever – or at least busy enough to finish last year as a multimillion-dollar producer – as she serves homebuyers and sellers in Tennessee and Northwest Georgia.
The word “serve” is spoken often during a conversation with Pullen Daniel, a born Chattanoogan who graduated from Brainerd High School and is still a devoted Panther. Even before she began selling real estate, her choices leaned toward lending a helping hand to others.
She studied psychology as a student at the University of Tennessee at Knoxville, for example, and then took a series of short-lived grant-funded positions because she wanted to contribute to each cause. She was working as a job coach when she decided to become a Realtor.
Or rather, when her mother talked her into becoming a Realtor.
“Everything I had done was either temporary or unpredictable, so my mom said, ‘Why don’t you try real estate?’” Pullen Daniel recalls. “I still have no idea why she suggested that.”
Pullen Daniel laughs and agrees it was simply enough to believe her mother knew best.
“She offers good advice. I might not always like it but I take it because I can see her wisdom in the choices she made throughout her life.”
Pullen Daniel has been with Coldwell Banker and owner Peggy Pryor as long as she’s been selling homes. She decided to hang her license at the brokerage after learning about its education program.
“Peggy had a sales manager named Ann Martin who taught new agents everything from how to prospect to how to complete a contract,” Pullen Daniel remembers. “Another company I interviewed casually said I’d learn as I worked, so I came here instead.”
Pullen Daniel says she made the right decision – not only because she’s done well but also because of the support she’s received from Pryor during the difficult times she’s endured as an agent.
“I was the top producer one year because of all the foreclosures I’d sold. But when you sell foreclosures, you come up against crazy situations. A militia guy threatened me because his lender foreclosed on his house. And other people threatened to sue me. But Peggy stood by me.
“She also supported me when someone accused me of doing something nefarious in a multiple-offer situation and helped them to see I didn’t do anything wrong.
“I can’t express how grateful I am to her.”
Even when Pullen Daniel is on the proverbial clock, she finds ways to serve others. This was the case when she helped an elderly woman buy a new house after her grandson accidentally burned her home.
“She’d been living with family and was ready to be independent again. I love helping buyers with their issues.”
Pullen Daniel also enjoys spending time with her husband and son. The former is Clarence, a programmer at BlueCross BlueShield of Tennessee, and the latter is a 9-year-old World War II history buff named Grayson.
“He became fascinated with the war while reading books and watching videos,” Pullen Daniel exclaims with a mingling of pride and disbelief. “I can’t take any credit for that.”
Grayson, who’s a Cub Scout, also is the reason Pullen Daniel and her husband occasionally leave their Ooltewah home to camp.
The only reason – she clarifies.
“If Grayson wasn’t a Cub Scout, I wouldn’t go camping. The only part of camping I like is hiking.”
Pullen Daniel also enjoys walking and running to stay fit. If there’s one thing she does for only her, it’s taking part on the annual Run for God program at Christ United Methodist Church, which teaches participants to live a healthy lifestyle and share their faith with others. (She and her family attend Olivet Baptist Church.)
“It keeps exercise in my life,” she says. “Diabetes runs in my family, and I’ve literally been running from it.”
A few days after discussing her life, career and volunteer work at a conference room table at Coldwell Banker, Daniel Pullen is serving again – this time on a jury.
She might have been fulfilling her civic duty but she did so gladly. One can imagine she even raised her hand when her peers asked if anyone was willing to serve as foreperson.