Del Guerra is the co-founder and program director at DevMoms, an organization that builds websites for small businesses and trains women in tech. She graduated from the Tech Moms program and participated in a coding boot camp and hackathons. Guerra realized that her experiences and the skills learned from Tech Moms would be beneficial in building websites for small businesses. She also wanted to give back to the program that gave her so much, so she started DevMoms.
When asked what she has noticed about training women a male-dominated industry, Guerra noted, “Fear is the biggest blocker for these women, and they’re still under the scarcity mindset. Many women we work with come from a culture where they put themselves second. One of the things that I wanted to do with DevMoms was to help remove the fear and to help them find something that makes them happy.”
From working with aspiring women in tech, she discovered three tips that help women move from scarcity to thriving mindsets.
- Stop Negative Self-Talk
First, stop the negative self-talk. Why would you tell yourself that you don’t have enough experience or don’t know what you’re talking about? Stop giving your energy to that negative self-talk.
- Find Your Tribe
Second, counter fear by finding your tribe. Fear makes you think that you are on your own. Guerra advises women to counter these feelings and know that “there are people like you who also feel alone and are scared, and it’s really good to find your tribe. Other people are always looking for others to lift each other up.”
- Give Back
Lastly, find ways to give back to your communities and help lift other aspiring women in tech.
Beyond finding ways to reach a thriving mindset, she identified a commonality among the successful women who come through the Dev Moms program. “I love how they have this aura of like, ‘why not me?’ A lot of them have the just-do-it attitude. They just embrace the fear,” she adds.