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🛤️ From Elementary Ed to Enterprise Ops — A Career Built by Curiosity

Nicole Looker's journey to RevOps in the Salesforce Ecosystem

Author

Royce Hall
July 03, 2025

Nicole didn’t set out to work in RevOps or Salesforce. She actually started in elementary education, but quickly pivoted after a single exhausting summer as a camp counselor. From there, she jumped into finance, then underwriting, before realizing she had a knack for data, process, and client communication — skills that eventually led her to a sales ops analyst role and RevOps at Rebuy Engine.

That role was her gateway into Salesforce.

“I became a power user of Salesforce. I’d take feedback from the sales team and work with technical folks to improve the system. It was my first glimpse into the world of ops, and I was hooked.”

👩‍💻 Becoming a Technical Product Owner — With Zero Backend Experience

Nicole’s first technical Salesforce role came at a startup — despite the fact that she had never built anything in the backend before. So how did she land the job?

“I didn’t lie. I just emphasized my soft skills — communication, stakeholder management, problem solving — and showed that I could learn anything technical.”

Her advice to anyone hesitant to apply for a job that feels “too technical”?

👉 “Go for it. You can learn the technical skills. What companies really need are people who know how to communicate and build trust.”

🔑 6 Keys to RevOps Efficiency (Even as a Team of One)

Nicole now leads RevOps at Rebuy Engine, where her team (just two people!) supports sales, marketing, success, partnerships, support, finance, and execs. Her secret to staying sane?

She developed six principles for operating efficiently with a small team:

  1. Stay Organized – Use tools like Jira for ticketing and async stand-ups.

  2. Build Relationships – Know how each stakeholder prefers to communicate.

  3. Be Transparent – Let stakeholders track project status publicly.

  4. Manage Expectations – Not everything can be priority #1.

  5. Execute Reliably – Deliver what you commit to, with quality.

  6. Build Trust – All of the above earns your team credibility.

“Trust is the product of all the other principles. Without it, you’re just chasing fires.”

🧰 Nicole’s Favorite Freemium RevOps Tools

At her upcoming Mile High Dreamin’ talk (August 2025), Nicole and her sister will dive deeper into how small RevOps teams can operate like enterprise giants — on a startup budget. Here are two tools she swears by:

Pulls Salesforce data into Google Sheets — perfect for execs or board members who don’t need full Salesforce licenses.

“Instead of paying for extra Salesforce licenses, we use Coefficient to share the data they need in a simple sheet.”

A powerful tool for visualizing and troubleshooting your Salesforce org — even if you’re not deeply technical.

“It’s my favorite Salesforce tool ever. I once tracked down a rogue automation changing old opportunities in five minutes using Sweep.”

🎤 What’s Next for Nicole?

Nicole will be speaking at Mile High Dreamin’ in August 2025, along with her sister, on how to maximize efficiency in lean RevOps teams. She’s also co-leading the Denver RevOps Co-Op chapter, organizing events and meetups for the local ops community.

💬 Nicole’s Final Advice

  1. Soft skills are your superpower
    Hiring managers notice how well you communicate and collaborate — especially in client- and stakeholder-facing ops roles.

  2. Just keep going
    The job market can be tough, but persistence and learning pay off.

  3. There’s more than one path into tech
    Salesforce, RevOps, and operations in general are growing fields with room for all kinds of talent — not just coders and engineers.

📲 Want to Connect with Nicole?

Find her on LinkedIn
Or catch her at Mile High Dreamin’ 2025 in Denver, Colorado

Watch the full episode on YouTube and don’t forget to subscribe to the Coffee Dreaming Podcast for more RevOps conversations.

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