I've been where you are, more than once.

I was producing political events with confetti cannons on campaign budgets - including one legendary November night in 1994 when 5,993 votes changed everything. I learned early that when the margin is razor thin, execution has to be perfect.

That same instinct — every detail matters, every hire matters — is what I bring to every client engagement.

I’ve led recruiting at organizations scaling through private equity, built TA functions from scratch at companies that didn’t know they needed one, and helped specialty medical practices and property management firms find the people they need to actually move the needle.

Tenacity Talent exists because the best recruiting doesn’t come from a portal or a pitch deck. It comes from someone who has seen your industry, knows your market, and treats your open roles like they’re her own.

well-established processes, defined lanes and predictable timelines. I’m not one of them - and after 20 years of trying to be, I’ve stopped apologizing for it.

My brain works differently. I make order out of chaos - not despite the noise, but almost because of it. I thrive on the sense of urgency chaos creates and it in turn fuels my ability to hyper-focus. Where others see a messy, high-pressure hiring situation and need time to orient, I see a well-lit path to execution. The more complex the problem, the faster I move toward the resolution. That’s not a personality quirk I’ve learned to manage. It’s the engine behind every result I deliver.

Inside traditional organizations, the challenge becomes an engine that powerful doesn’t always stay in its lane. When I was working in development at Volunteers of America Chesapeake, I could see that audit deficiencies in program operations were going to make high-dollar fundraising nearly impossible - no matter how aggressively we pursued grants and major gifts. I couldn’t unsee it. So I started working with program teams to integrate systems and processes to correct those deficiencies and inventory overlooked resources before we went after larger dollars. It worked. It also wasn’t in my job description. That pattern - seeing the not just what was in the box, but everything surrounding the box and being constitutionally unable to ignore what I see - followed me from role to role.

The other pattern I noticed? My best work always happened with secure leaders who set clear outcome measures and let me decide how to reach them - they let me run. When that was the dynamic, the results were remarkable. When it wasn’t, my competence was an exception to be managed rather than an asset to be leveraged. I spent a long time trying to contort myself to be a fit for that kind of environment. I’m officially over that. Not saying I’m above it, but if I can avoid it, I do.

So I asked myself a different question: not how do I fit, but where does the way I’m wired actually become a superpower - and how do I build something that removes the variables that were never really about the work anyway? 

Recruiting answered the first part. By nature, it sits at the strategic intersection of everything - culture, operations, growth, leadership - which means my instinct to see the whole organism and intuit what it needs isn’t a liability. It’s the job. And at the same time, recruiting by nature has genuine, well-defined boundaries. The answer to “is this my job?” is rarely ambiguous, which keeps me focused and my clients informed on the results they can expect. It also means that when I show up for you, I’m all in.

Tenacity Talent answered the second part. As a consultant, I work with leaders who are bringing me in because they want results, not because they need to manage me. Tenacity Talent builds a fundamentally distinct relationship where clients get extraordinary results. EVERY. Single. Time.

Tenacity Talent isn’t a compromise or a consolation prize. It’s what happens when instead of trying to fit the mold, you create the environment you were actually made for..

Julie Sarau grew up in Howard County, Maryland and attended the University of Maryland at College Park. As a college student Julie was a member of the Mighty Sound of Maryland Marching Band, Alpha Xi Delta Sorority and refereed intramural sports on campus. After studying Sports Management, Accounting and Government and Politics; her passion for Public Sector Finance and Sustainable Development led her to earn a Bachelor's Degree in Economics.

Having built her career across the Mid-Atlantic, Julie now calls Delaware home and very much enjoys seeing family and friends (from kindergarten, elementary school and beyond) when they travel to "the beach" to get away from the congested highways of the DMV. While she has only one amazing niece, she is "Auntie Julie" to several honorary nieces and nephews who are now anywhere from 8 to 28 years old. Julie also belongs to the Dewey Beach Lions Club, puts her fundraising skills to use for the Tyanna Foundation, tries not to miss beach or bay time on sunny days and enjoys gathering with friends to enjoy the abundance of live musicians the area provides.