The Mill Valley Chamber has a longstanding Ambassador Program, whereby business owners and employers in various industries go above and beyond in a variety of ways to support the Chamber and its members. Each month, we highlight a new Ambassador. Cheers to our latest honoree:
“We are your classic case of yin and yang,”Jason Nelson says. “I’m more left brain, linear, logical, analytical, and Michelle is the right brain thinker – multi-tasker, artistic, creative. She takes the lead on our home sales business.”
Jason and Michelle Nelson are the manifestation of the yin and yang in both their personal and professional lives – and Mill Valley is significantly better for it.
The couple are our February 2024 Mill Valley Chamber Ambassadors of the month. Peter O’Keefe was our January honoree.
“We are yin and yang, traditionally,” Nelson says. “I’m more left brain, linear, logical, analytical, and Michelle is the right brain thinker – multi-tasker, creative. She takes the lead on our home sales business.”
The seed was first planted at a Halloween party at Bungalow 44 in 2014.
Jason was born and raised here and has lived in Mill Valley his whole life. The future Michelle Nelson Nelson moved to the 94941 in 1997 after growing up in Vancouver and later spending some years in the New York-New-Jersey-Connecticut region.
After that first encounter, the two kept bumping into one another around town. They started dating in the summer of 2015. A personal connection grew to much more.
“It was falling in love. And staying here. I absolutely love being in this community,” Michelle Nelson says.
“I was transitioning in 2015 from being a lawyer and got my real estate license,” Jason Nelson says. “I realized quickly that while I was a relatively smooth talker, as a salesperson, not so much. Michelle is just a pure natural, and it comes through in everything she does.”
Jason nudged Michelle to get her real estate license. She did so in 2016 and they became the Nelson + Fallone Team and since marrying in 2020 the Nelson + Nelson Team.
Over time, they’ve honed in on a structure that made sense to them: “Working with integrity and heart, collaborating with clients to help them create their unique lifestyle story.”
They’re also deeply connected to family. Michelle’s son lives on the property, and the couple’s grandkids, now 5 & 6 years old, visit with them almost every weekend. “During the pandemic we had them 3 or 4 days a week,” she says. “We have been helping my son raise them so we have been doing that as well as building a business.”
More recently, with the real estate business in sync, Jason launched an ADU consulting business, n2 ADU, given the rampant levels of interest over the past several years, as well as the need and desire for more ADUs as a way to create more diverse housing types in the 94941.
The couple has their own lanes as well. For many years, Michelle Nelson has been a member of the Theatrical Wardrobe Union Local 784, a professional association of theatrical, motion picture and commercial costumers supplying skilled wardrobe and costume labor needs in live theater, film, television and commercials in the Bay Area.
In the years since Jason and Michelle have been Mill Valley Chamber Ambassadors, not surprisingly, they have followed the lead of lead Ambassador Phil Garratt in participating and supporting events far behind Chamber events, going way beyond their day-to-day engagement with the community and volunteering at the Mill Valley Music Fest. First Tuesday Artwalks, Winterfest, Marin Villages and much more.
But the centerpiece of it all is the real estate business they’ve built, and how they yin and yang their way through it all.
“When we go and look at houses for clients, I am inside looking at the flow and he’s under the house, looking at drainage and foundations,” Michelle Nelson says. “He’ll pour over the disclosures and I coordinate and keep the transaction moving with the client. Our clients love that we have unique skills.”
MORE INFO ON THE NELSON + NELSON TEAM.
Kathy Bakhshandeh, the Chamber’s Office & Visitor Center Manager, coordinates the Ambassador Program. Reach out here if you’re interested in learning more about the program.