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400 homes: Keller Williams Community Partners has a new mindset
Keller Williams Community Partners teaching its agents to think like CEOs
Keller Williams Community Partners

This article appears in the November issue of 400 Life.

What do you get when you combine the leadership principles of John C. Maxwell with the real estate systems of Gary Keller?

Keller Williams Community Partners.

The local realty office, at 540 Lake Center Parkway in Cumming, is undergoing a transformation after 15 years in the community by creating a development center for real estate agents that provides culture, training, solutions and support to lift the lid in their personal growth and business.

Maxwell and Keller are two of the most influential figures in their fields. Maxwell is a former small-town pastor who became a No. 1 New York Times-bestselling author and one of the world’s foremost experts on leadership. Keller became a bestselling author himself after he started Keller Williams Realty in 1983 and grew it into the largest real estate franchising company in the country.

Ahndea May has an understanding of both worlds. 

May grew up outside the Chicago area and moved to the Atlanta area to work for Maxwell when she was 20 years old. She was hired because of her inherent leadership traits on the DISC personality test, and while at Maxwell’s company she absorbed his primary maxim: “Everything rises and falls on leadership.” 

May was recently called a “mini-John Maxwell” by Dr. John Maxwell himself, and when asked how he would choose a realtor to sell his home he said, “First, I would ask if they were being coached by Ahndea May.” 

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Keller Williams Community Partners
Ahndea May, left, team leader and CEO at Keller Williams Community Partners, was mentored by Dr. John C. Maxwell, one of the world’s foremost experts on leadership. May joined KWCP to help implement Maxwell’s leadership principles with the company’s more than 240 agents.

Over the 20 years May has been developed through Maxwell’s leadership, May learned the importance of understanding how people are wired and using that knowledge to put people in positions to succeed. May eventually started her own company that coaches entrepreneurs on leadership and brand development.

One of May’s clients was an Atlanta-area real estate team whose leader knew KWCP operating partner Jacqueline Arthur. They recommended that Arthur bring May onboard. The Forsyth County resident joined the group this past spring as a team leader and CEO.

May immediately got to work establishing KWCP’s development center.

First, she created a leadership academy based on Maxwell’s principles, particularly through his coaching methods.

“People get confused: ‘Why am I not doing well?’ My first question is, ‘What is it within yourself that is the gap? What’s the block?’” May says. “It’s finding those inhibitors, those blocks, and creating a plan around that with systems and solutions to break through those ceilings and ultimately get you to that next level in your business.”

May adds, “If you’re going to grow your business, you’re going to have to grow yourself.”

New agents enter a “road map to success program” including fundamentals, business planning, mentorship and continued productivity coaching. They’re also provided with daily training on subjects such as technology, branding, social media, marketing and understanding market trends based on Keller’s real estate systems and models.

All of which is helping KWCP spark a paradigm shift for its more than 240 agents. Historically, the role of a real estate agent has largely been subsidiary to his/her company; an agent’s success depended on the reputation of the company he/she worked for. Instead, Keller Williams encourages agents to have their own identity, May says, which made KWCP the perfect place to bring in Maxwell’s leadership principles.

“We’re creating a new conversation in real estate in that we are training our agents to think like CEOs,” May says.

And the best CEOs connect with their local community. KWCP has embedded itself in Forsyth County since it opened in 2004.

KWCP believes all the pieces are now in place to give new and highly-experienced agents a roadmap to new levels of personal success, and in doing so lift the local office to new heights.

“My goal is to bring all of our KWCP agents to a new level, solely because we’re developing people and intentionally designing their lives around their BIG WHY through the power of entrepreneurship, leadership and real estate,” May says.

For more information on Keller Williams Community Partners, click here.

Keller Williams Community Partners