hi, i'm rachel.
I often joke that the main theme in my career has been Other Duties as Assigned.
My job titles changed over time, but the pattern stayed the same. I was always the person people trusted to handle whatever the business needed next.
At my next company, I started as the office manager and left nine years later as Sales Operations Manager. Along the way, I sourced and implemented Salesforce, built the RFP function, added proposal automation, and developed the reporting and workflows the growing business needed. The company grew from an early-stage cybersecurity startup into an established mid-market firm and secured a growth-equity investment.
office manager → sales operations manager
early stage → acquisition
The next company was founded by two former colleagues who knew what I could build. I joined early as the sole project and operations manager. I created the operational infrastructure connecting sales to service delivery, and later built the PMO, including the team and processes. I continued to personally manage our Fortune 100 clients, representing roughly $3 million in business as the company grew from about $2 million to $10 million in revenue and was eventually acquired.
150 → 45
My first real lesson came when a 150-person company shrank to 45 almost overnight. The work didn’t shrink with it. I learned to step outside my job description, figure out what needed to be done, and do it with less.
the story.
Different companies, different titles, same work: figuring out what the business needed next and building it.
the work i do now.
Sometimes the company has outgrown what it built. Sometimes nothing's been built yet. Sometimes it's all working, but only because one person remembers how. I assess what's actually happening and close the gap.
I use AI and automation when they can make work faster, clearer, or more consistent. I’m not an AI consultant, but I know the tools well and think carefully about how to use them. The goal is to help people do their work better, not to automate just for its own sake.
how i work
I look at what’s really happening.
Not what the process document says is happening. Not what leadership assumes is happening.
The real work, including the spreadsheets, side conversations, manual fixes, and workarounds holding everything together.
I build for the company you have.
A 30-person business does not need a watered-down enterprise operating model.
It needs enough structure to work better now and support what comes next, without turning "following the process" into a second job.
I fix the work before I fix the tool.
New software can help, but it can also make a bad process more expensive.
I look at how work moves, where it breaks down, and what people actually need before choosing the right technology to support it.
I make things usable.
A system is not successful because it launched.
A system is successful when people use it, the work gets easier to manage, and the business benefits as a result.
I'll tell you what I see.
Sometimes the problem is not the one you called me about.
I’ll be thoughtful about how I say it, but I won’t pretend not to notice.
I build so you don't need me.
The goal is not to make myself indispensable.
It is to leave behind something your team understands, owns, and can continue improving.
a few
boundaries.
I'm not a fractional COO.
I can take on major operational work, lead cross-functional projects, and help turn business needs into action. But I’m not stepping in as your whole executive team.
My lane is business operations and service delivery.
That includes the systems, processes, workflows, reporting, and operating structure surrounding the work.
It does not include finance, accounting, or software product management.
I'm not a permanent workaround.
I’ll dive into the work when that’s what it takes to understand and improve it. But my goal is to solve the real problem, not to become the extra pair of hands always holding things together.
OFF THE CLOCK
I live in Minneapolis with two dogs and a cat, so "off the clock" is sometimes more theoretical than literal.
When I'm not working, I'm usually training a dog, wandering through a thrift store, cooking something, or learning far more than I strictly need to know about whatever caught my attention that week.