On their interactive, community Facebook group, Go Gilbert, top producers and serial entrepreneurs Mike and Ann Schude have amassed 40,000 followers and potential clients with their creativity, charisma, and humor. The Gilbert, Arizona, husband-wife team use the page and its corresponding website to highlight local businesses, things to do in the area, live events, recent home listings, and real estate news.
Their digital presence reflects what the highly relational pair values the most: Being a resource to those around them.
“We always ask how we can be of service to our community and peers,” says Ann. “Real estate is about building relationships and creating opportunities for others. It’s one of our biggest values.”
Their passion for building community led them to being perennial top agents with their former 100% brokerage, where they’d been for the last 14 years. They were hungry for an opportunity to learn how to structure their business and team in a more productive way when they made the switch to Keller Williams in March 2019 – on the heels of their rich experience at Family Reunion in New Orleans.
“We’d always heard, ‘run your business like a business,’ but we didn’t really understand what that meant or exactly how to do it,” Mike Schude offers.
“At Family Reunion, we were with 20,000 like-minded people who were running their businesses the way we’d imagined but hadn’t been able to articulate.”
Mike Schude
“Family Reunion overwhelmed us in a good way. We met the kind of people we want to be around, who think the way we want to think, talk like we want to talk, and who are actively creating legacy businesses.”
Gary Keller’s vision for the sweeping technology advances already underway at Keller Williams especially resonated with Mike. To compete and thrive in a shifting market, he knew that he and Ann and their growing team should align the Schude Group with the most forward-thinking partner in the industry. It was the culture of sharing that reeled in Ann. She recalls that her former experience with other agents was one of “every man for himself” with a scarcity mindset that permeated all interactions with other Realtors.
“To now be in a culture where everyone is an open book and is willing to share what they’re doing is just so special.”
Ann Schude
Now operating as The Schude Group at Keller Williams Integrity First Realty, Ann concludes, “With the flood of changes happening in the real estate industry, Gary Keller built an ark! The amount of educational opportunities, systems, and technology breakthroughs happening at Keller Williams are revolutionizing the real estate arena! I am proud and honored to be in business with high level, well-read, productive professionals! I only wish I would have jumped on board sooner!”