“Giving is what we are called to do as people. Helping. Loving. Enriching. We are called to these,” says Breanna McCormick of McCormick Legacy Estate Professional Realty. “When you give (and strategically plan to give), business becomes more than a livelihood, and income—it becomes purposeful and powerful, passionate and wholehearted. It shifts the focus from strictly ‘the numbers’ to real-life humans, from our clients, to those we hope to help a world away.”
10% of Breanna’s business is currently going all the way across the globe, to the Tai/Burma border, where an organization called “Help Save the Kids” educates and trains local orphans socially and economically, while giving them a place to live and reducing the chances of them being sold into slavery. Breanna’s connection with the organization extends way back to a time before she entered real estate.
Before she was a REALTOR®, Breanna was a youth pastor, as well as a discussion/practicum leader for a nine-month college level program called INSIGHT (Integrated Intensive Study In Global History and Theology). The classes prepared students to be sent as missionaries into the world, both near and far. One of her past students, Kelly Tana, became a missionary in Thailand, where she helped form Help Save the Kids.
The social and economical skills that are taught to the orphans at Help Save the Kids equips them with abilities that are considered valuable to their community, which gives them a chance at life. For example, they recently launched a company called “Thread Village,” which sells handwoven towels to help support the area.
Currently, McCormick Legacy Estates Professional Realty is raising money to either build a new home or purchase a new home for Kelly and her family, which ranges anywhere from $45K to $75K. In addition to contributing 10% of her commissions into a fund to help with this, Breanna helps support the sales of Thread Village by selling their towels at her brokerage.
Breanna opened her brokerage in the beginning of this last year. “It was a labor of love,” she says. “My husband and I renovated the entire building mostly on our own. It still needs a few finishing touches, but the space is currently being used for meetings and networking as needed.” She hired her first agent a few months ago and she has two people about to take their licensing exam, and a few more in classes right now.
“I am not in a hurry to grow. I want the right people,” she says, “people with passion, who support our mission, and have a heart to see change in the world.”
When Breanna puts her mind to something, she wastes no time in accomplishing it. She became an agent nearly four years ago, in the summer of 2016, after being told by multiple people that she would be good at it. But she was a single mother at the time, using her BA in Education as a substitute teacher, while her son was in school. Within two years of becoming a licensed agent, she closed enough transactions to confirm that it was truly what she was meant to be doing. Soon after that, she decided to take the broker classes and begin the steps necessary to open her own brokerage.
Outside of working towards her personal and professional goals, Breanna enjoys spending time with her 10-year-old son, Kaiden, and husband Steven, camping, fishing, hiking,and kayaking. Steven just opened a business as well, a high-performance Motorsports shop called MPG Motorsports, in Mentor, Ohio, just a mile down the road from McCormick Legacy Estate Professional Realty.
As Breanna sets out with her new brokerage, she is excited for all the good that will come out if, both locally and around the world.
Written by Chris Menezes. Photography by Clifford Norton Studios | View the full magazine here