Estimated read time: 4 minutes, 41 seconds

All of us at FastSpring are committed to fostering a culture of recognition and appreciation, where we all feel valued and inspired to contribute our best. The Springie Award, our quarterly Peer-to-Peer appreciation award, exemplifies this commitment, providing a platform for employees to recognize their colleagues’ exceptional contributions.

We are thrilled to announce that Danica Larsen is the recipient of the Q3 2023 Springie Award! Danica is a Customer Success Manager who has consistently demonstrated the embodiment of FastSpring’s core values – Make a Difference, Seek to Understand, and Act with Urgency – through her dedication to her work and her unwavering support for her colleagues.

Danica’s impact on FastSpring is evident in her numerous contributions. She consistently goes above and beyond to support her team, always willing to lend a helping hand and share her expertise. Her willingness to Seek to Understand has fostered strong relationships with her colleagues, creating a collaborative and supportive work environment. And when faced with challenges, Danica has a drive to Act with Urgency, taking initiative and finding solutions to ensure the success of her projects. Our Vice President of People & Culture, Louise Cherry Barber,  sat down (virtually) to chat with Danica about her recognition and time at FastSpring.

Danica’s dedication to her work and her commitment to FastSpring’s values have made her an invaluable asset to our team. Her positive attitude, willingness to help, and problem-solving skills have made a significant difference in the lives of her colleagues and the overall success of FastSpring.

We are incredibly proud to have Danica as part of our team and congratulate her on this well-deserved recognition. Her commitment to excellence and her embodiment of our core values serve as an inspiration to us all.

Keep reading for an abridged version of the interview with Danica:

Louise Cherry Barber:  Danica, you are our Springie Award Winner for our Q3 of 2023! So please tell me what does it mean for you to win this Springie Award here at FastSpring?

Danica Larsen: It was really nice to, like, genuinely heartwarming to know that I tried to put a lot of myself — my interesting personality — into my work every day. And it was nice to see that other people had seen it, and that it was welcomed and recognized in a positive way, you know; not just not only because of achieving a set number, which is previously how I might have been recognized and other workplaces that I’ve had, but also because of the person that I am and the things that I’ve achieved outside of just one dedicated number. It was really nice to be recognized as a person. I found that really heartwarming. 

Louise Cherry Barber: That’s awesome and well deserved. And one thing I am curious about, I’d love for you to talk about some of the highlights, you know, from when you heard, but even specifically, the work that you did on the benchmarking initiative was highlighted by a couple people. Can you tell us a little bit about that? 

Danica Larsen: Yes, I put in so much work, like I’m so excited to see that recognized. I think I was a little bit surprised to see the benchmarking initiative has been one of the things that was called out, I think, because we’re in the early stages, you know; there’s a lot more work to be done. And I’m super jazzed that everybody’s excited about it. Because it’s going to provide so much value, I really hope it’s going to provide so much value, not just for us as a company, but for our, customers, our sellers, as well. And we’ll help in an ideal world give us some insights into how we can grow long term, what we’re seeing works well as a success. So seeing that called out already at the first sort of, you know, like beta stages was really cool, because that means other people see the value too.

Louise Cherry Barber: We recently updated our company values to: Make a Difference, Seek to Understand and Act with Urgency. I’m curious about your thoughts on the updated values.

Danica Larsen: What they encompass is doing the right thing, and understanding what the right thing means. So actually investigating, digging into that, and acting quickly and making a decision. And I genuinely can stand by that every day… And looking at the other people, the Support Team as well, I mean, that they live the values with our customers, and with the buyers every day. They’re on the front, the front field, seeking understanding and acting quickly, because that’s part of if they cannot do those things. We fall apart as a company, nobody will continue to work with us.

Louise Cherry Barber: What advice do you have for those across FastSpring? Who would like to live the values? What advice do you have on how to make those come to life?

Danica Larsen:  I can only — you know, I can only speak from my perspective. But I think the key thing is to listen as much as possible. When you’re working with the various accounts, the companies, the sellers, everybody that we’re working with, understanding their needs, and what’s driving the true reason behind their need, it drives what we should do and how we should act. And that’s the “seeking understanding”; you can’t you can’t do it without listening. So that would be my pro tip number one: just to listen to people. 

Congratulations again to Danica, and if you’d like to join our team, you can find our open roles here