I’ve spent over four years at Freestar, and it’s been an incredible journey. Joining this team was one of the best career decisions I’ve made—it’s given me space to grow professionally and to contribute to an environment where customer success lies at the heart of everything we do.
Speak to anyone at Freestar, and you’ll hear the exact phrase: “publisher-first.” It’s this mantra that has helped inform my leadership style and, in turn, develop a well-rounded team that delivers results every day for all of our partners.
So how did we get there?
How it all started
A few years after college, I jumped into the media world, quickly landing a role as an account manager. Ironically, Kurt was my first boss in the programmatic space, back when it was just a small team figuring it out. I started with zero experience, learning on the fly, and quickly fell in love with managing publisher relationships. That early experience taught me resilience and adaptability—skills I carry into my leadership today.
Later, after moving to Texas and welcoming my daughter, I took on a part-time role in publisher development. As I began to think about returning to a full-time role, I couldn’t help but notice Freestar’s success on LinkedIn. I reached out to Kurt and joined the company as an account manager in 2021. My expertise at the time was managing publisher relationships as an individual contributor, but since joining, I’ve been fortunate to progress rapidly to VP.
Building trust, setting clear expectations, and maintaining accountability—especially in a remote environment—have been key priorities for me as a leader. I strive to create a safe space for open dialogue while ensuring the team continues to meet high standards. My goal is to empower everyone with autonomy while providing the guidance, support, and clarity needed for each person on my team to succeed.
Translating an ethos into a high-performing team
With our publishers as a top priority, delivering exceptional customer support is non-negotiable. Once client partners are onboarded with Freestar, my 23-strong team takes the reins, where managing people becomes both an art and a science.
The biggest challenge—and the most significant source of success—lies in ensuring we can provide that outstanding level of service to publishers with vastly different needs and approaches. So how do we do it?
- Pairing people who work well together: Excellence in customer success relies on consistency, with everyone on the team expected to achieve the same high standards. But we recognize that individuality also plays a key role, and we assign our customer success managers (CSMs) to specific publishers based on their strengths, technical prowess, specific requirements, and personalities.
- Cultivating satisfaction: I believe empowerment and autonomy are key to long-term job satisfaction. We strive to ensure team members have a good balance between the day-to-day aspects of their roles and involvement in projects they’re passionate about. This both supports their professional growth and, without a doubt, enhances the service they provide publishers.
- Looking at the macro level: Moving from an individual contributor to team manager in quite a short space of time, it’s easy to get lost in the details. Now, with every site and CSM under my responsibility, stepping back to assess how things are running at a macro level—in the department and across our publishers—is crucial. I need to identify trends, foster cross-functional collaboration, ensure we have the right subject-matter expertise, and stay on top of the overall health of the team and our client partners.
- AI’s role in the success of our team and our clients: We pride ourselves on quick, responsive support for our publishers, but we’re constantly exploring ways to make the process even more efficient. Freestar uses AI deliberately, with clear goals rather than as a novelty. In the customer success team, for example, that means exploring how to use it to tailor more thoughtful client responses to specific situations and publisher requirements. Slow and steady ensures we implement AI in the most effective way.
Our customer success team has grown significantly over the last couple of years, reflecting Freestar’s continued focus on delivering for publishers day in and day out. I’m incredibly proud of the team we’ve built. It comprises highly capable folks with diverse skill sets, which means we can support any new clients who come on board, regardless of their size or specific needs. The fact that we do this in a remote environment is all the more reason to celebrate what we have achieved, and gives us every confidence that we can keep evolving and excelling, guided always by Freestar’s publisher-first mantra.
