The Art of Creating Leverage

I am so grateful for all the hardships as "hardships often prepare ordinary people for extraordinary destiny’s!" I am on my journey and excited for what the future has to bring....

The Art of Creating Leverage

When Sarah Tadlock launched her real estate career in 2005 at just 20 years old, she set out to beat the odds as a young, unproven real estate agent. Following years of dedicated effort, she built a thriving real estate business, reaching the upper ranks of St. Louis REALTORS®. But despite her outward-appearing success, she was on the verge of burnout. Sarah had created a 75-transaction-per-year business, but her business was unsustainable; something needed to change.

Sarah’s struggle eventually led her to turn things around. She hired a coach, found a business partner, and set herself on a new path.

Now, almost twenty years after launching her real estate career, Sarah leads multiple teams at PLACE, located in St. Louis, alongside her partner John Brueggemann. Together, they are redefining the possibilities for REALTORS®, enabling them to establish businesses that not only yield high volume but are also highly leveraged and profitable. She is deeply committed to assisting agents in crafting lives filled with purpose, longevity, and meaningful connections.

“What drives me every day to get up is to help agents build the leverage I didn’t have without sacrificing profit,” Sarah shares. “When I started, the only way I knew how to grow was to just work harder and longer. What I didn’t know was how to build smarter. So, I started sacrificing things that are really important to me, like health, family, and friends. I got myself to a place where, outwardly facing, it looks like a successful business. But inside, I was personally miserable, at my unhealthiest weight, working 90+ hours a week, mentally exhausted, and was hitting a breaking point. I knew I could not do this any longer. I looked up and set out on a path to build the company we have today.”

Sarah and John first partnered in 2014. Eight years later, they joined PLACE, allowing them to take their business to the next level. Now, Sarah has the pleasure of helping agents create a business they are proud of and a life worth living.

Partnering for Success

“The partnership with PLACE has transformed our business,” Sarah explains. “We help talented agents build highly profitable, highly leveraged businesses. We’ve created a platform for top agents to scale because most are stuck in the messy middle. That's what we’ve come to be known for.”

It’s commonplace to hear a top REALTOR® speak proudly of their 24-hour availability to clients. But Sarah knows the downsides of that approach all too well, and she’s helping her team take a different approach. By creating leverage, they can service their clients at a high level, scale their business and live a life they love.

“I am on a mission to unwind this, to change this,” Sarah continues. We partner with our agents to help them build their preferred future. When I talk with people about goals, it starts with family and values. Inevitably, real estate is our path to get there, our vehicle.”

Sarah and her team’s approach to creating leverage is rooted in well-practiced systems and strategies. She first focuses on helping agents center their time on the most productive sales activities. She starts by building an ideal success schedule and getting them in their ‘strength zone’: building relationships, identifying the right homes, and negotiating contracts. Everything else is handled by Sarah’s operations team, marketing department, and financial group.

“While most agents’ schedules are running them, we teach them how to build a success schedule so they own their time. We build back in what's most important — personal and family time. We build healthy boundaries, and we get more done in less time,” she explains.

The results are impressive; PLACE St. Louis, a team of 18 agents, closed $79.6 million in 2023 and continues to grow.

While Sarah and her team have been incredibly successful to date, they are on a mission of continued growth. PLACE will become more than a place to buy and sell homes; it is preparing to become a homeowner's resource for just about anything related to housing.

“When a consumer thinks of anything home, they think of one PLACE. The future platform will simplify the entire ownership process, from finding the home to financing it and from managing it to maintaining it. This will elevate the role of the real estate agent as a valued partner to the consumer across the lifetime of ownership and, in turn, provide new business opportunities for agents on the platform.”

More Than Real Estate

Sarah has benefited tremendously from her teachings, and her personal life is thriving alongside her business. She and her fiance, Nathan, enjoy traveling, spending time with Nathan’s three children, and giving back to the community. PLACE also has a nonprofit arm that has completed various projects locally and globally. The nonprofit has helped build staff housing at a medical center in Kenya and rebuild homes in St. Louis.

“The mission of the nonprofit is to create positive housing solutions in our community,” Sarah shares.

Sarah’s degree in architecture has always inspired her passion for building and creating. Now, she’s taken that passion into real estate and how she leads people to build their preferred future.

“I can see something before it's created, and now I have the ability to help people do that with their lives. I want to change the way top agents can live on a day-to-day basis. In 40 years, I want to look back and see the impact we have made in our partners' lives. We will know this by how their friends and family speak of them. In the end, this is what really matters. This is where our legacy is created.”

Written By: Zachary Cohen