Welcome to REVolutions: a new blog series dedicated to showcasing the stories of people who moved into RevOps from different roles, industries, and backgrounds.
In this post, we'll share Travis Scott’s story on how he went from working as a Director of Marketing to founding RainierDigital, a strategic HubSpot, demand marketing, and revenue operations (RevOps) consultancy for staffing agencies, professional services, and medical and industrial component manufacturers and distributors. He shares how his non-linear career gave him the ability to move into a career that celebrated both his strengths and his interests.
Sweep: What was your previous role/career (before you started in RevOps)?
Travis: Director of Marketing
Sweep: What inspired you to switch careers?
Travis: I have had a non-linear career that has included sales, marketing, and CS. It helped me to understand how all three functions should work together. I also love technology, data, and building processes and I've typically been involved in those three things at some level in my past few roles. It all seemed like a perfect fit for RevOps.
Sweep: What lessons from your former career did you apply to your RevOps role?
Travis: The biggest is understanding how to break down the silos, especially between sales and marketing. I've also been in a leadership role and so I understand what reports and metrics are important. My leadership role, along with my MBA, has taught me how to speak the language of the business.
Sweep: What has been the biggest challenge in changing your career path?
Travis: The biggest challenge in my career path was searching for the right fit for my skills, experience, and interests. I guess I didn't really figure out what I wanted to be when I grew up until I was 46 years old and stumbled across RevOps. Prior to that, I didn't know that was a career path that was possible.
Sweep: Where do you see the biggest opportunity for folks looking to get into the world of RevOps from different backgrounds?
Travis: Whether it's RevOps or any discipline, the benefit of coming from different backgrounds limits the amount of cognitive entrenchment you might have as a RevOps professional. At one point in my career, I was a recruiter. It's crazy how much cognitive entrenchment exists in corporate recruitment and HR because people in those roles typically land them soon after college and never branch out into anything different. As a result, they don't even know the possibility that exists beyond their bubble.
Sweep: Who (if anyone) helped you transition careers?
Travis: Becoming a HubSpot partner helped me transition as did joining several communities like Pavilion, Marketing Ops.com (aka MOPros), and seeking out a mentor.
Sweep: What’s the best piece of advice you can share with someone looking to move into RevOps?
Travis: Moving into RevOps, like anything else, has pitfalls to avoid, specifically not getting caught up in the comparison game. Comparing yourself to someone who has been in it much longer than you is just going to kill your confidence and prevent you from asking the questions you need to ask and being patient as you learn. If you find yourself scrolling LinkedIn and feeling like you should know more than you do, stop. Go do something more productive and energizing.
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