To dame the technical world as a woman. And it's not going to be only about technical as your world. It's going to be about technical world in general.And honestly, this talk is going to be quite personal because I'm going to share my personal experiences, but only to the point to help you to view your life and to view your attitude a little bit different and maybe make your life a little bit better and easier. Sounds good. I hope so. Um So I'm in e commerce consultant. My name is Christina Zinco, by the way, nice to meet you. I'm an ecommerce and technical seo consultant. I help businesses to thrive online and to get traffic and sales from Google. I also created my own um Seo challenge course. I'm an international speaker and I'm a current doll house builder, proud current doll house builder. But at the same time, I have a concession to make, I'm not an expert. I have no idea what I'm doing and I'm afraid that one day people will find this out, raise your hand or put something in your chat in the chat here. If you've ever felt this way, put one or raise your hand if you don't want anybody to see you because you are in the comfort of your zone of your home. Um, and yeah, let me, let me see the chart. Yes. Exactly. Exactly.

So, that's what I'm going to talk about today because we, as women are very prone to it. And that's why today I'm going to show you the steps that will help you own your own space and use your voice as a woman. This is very important because yeah, we, we are living in the modern world and this uh and we are working in the technical world. But let's get back to the beginning when we uh when we are Children, like when you're a child, you work out the ways to behave. So other people love you first, your parents, then your friends, then uh somebody else, right? And you work out these ways of behavior to make other people like you. But when you're good, uh when you're getting older, the same patterns apply if uh you were seeking love by um doing something when you were a child, the same patterns work right now for you. So Miss Christina, uh I think that here, I'm like four years old. I'm not a technical s a consultant yet. Uh But this picture, this photo illustrates amazingly how I thought I need to seek for love. I needed to be, I need to be the best. I needed to know all the answers and in general, I needed to put all my efforts into achieving everything that I wanted. And sometimes honestly, it's something that I didn't even want, but still I need it to be the best.

It's like the best scenario for parents because you can never have problems with, with such a child. Right. I was in, I indeed was the best student in my school, but it didn't really help me to become more confident, you know. And um yeah, also I remember that the only way, yeah, basically, the only way to get to get any uh love for me was to be that successful person to know all the answers. And throughout my life when I was four years old, I thought, OK, you know, to be loved, I need to know all the answers. When I was F-14. It was the same when I was 24. It was the same. But can you see how amazingly stupid this is? Can you think for a moment? Because the truth is nobody is able to know everything and that's ok. I want to repeat this because it's very important. Nobody is able to know everything and that's OK. That's the most liberating truth that you can hear because it basically means that you are enough. You are OK. And the the problem uh the problem when you, when you wait for others to think your greed, to um to say your greed is you are giving you your power a way for others to decide versus ha having this um realization inside yourself and then projecting it to the world.

So I remember, you know, I, I have different experiences in my life, but I remember that I didn't have enough courage to, for example, approach my boss and just say, OK, I need a promotion. I deserve the promotion because at the end of the day, I know all the answers, right? And I remember the situations when um my male boss was uh se secretly consulting me about the ideas that my male colleague had because the boss trusted me more, but he didn't trust, kind of trusted me enough uh to promote me. And I wasn't comfortable with that because I was waiting for them, for the company, for whoever it is to prove my worth by promoting me or by giving something to me before instead of owning my own value. First, that was the biggest mistake. And I'm pretty sure that if you look back at your life, you will see this has happened with you as well. And that's, that's what we want to change today, right? Um So, um I, I originally, I'm originally from Belarus and I moved to Canada three years ago and I was really surprised by this huge gap, gender gap uh between males and females in the marketing world in the technical world.

And they had so many uh so many different interviews and most of the interviewers were males. And that's OK. Uh But at the same time, I realized that, OK, when you are always among people who feel um who feel more confident than you are and you think, oh my God, I'm not good enough. That's when this feeling cripples, right? And uh I ended up working at an agency where I was the only female, my colleagues were amazing. So I was really lucky with this. But at the same time, I couldn't show up the way I would love to. That was the biggest struggle because I, I needed to be tougher. I needed to fit in and it was really hard sometimes. So um but then something happened, something that really changed my attitude and something that changed, I would say it changed my life. It was, it was the end of the working day. Uh I was sitting in the office finishing something on my computer being overwhelmed as usual. Uh so many tasks, so many uh things to do, right? And then my boss asked me something about some advanced uh Google analytic stuff. And I remember this feeling when, you know, my hands started trembling when my voice was trembling and also my blood was coming up to my face and my face was getting red. Oh my God.

It was quite hard for me because I treated this as a, you know, the last question at the final exam which um basically decides everything that you ever have in your life. And I was thinking ok, I know the answer, but this fact doesn't really comfort me. Something is wrong. So as I was talking, as I was answering something just swished in my head and they realized, come on Cristina, you are not a student who is an ex, who is at an exam, right? You are a professional, you are a trusted professional who has been asked about their opinion or something. And as a result, I started answering the question as a student who feels as being tested at an exam. And they finished answering this as a trusted expert who is enough.

That's where the hugest shift in my life happened when I realized that I might not know all the answers, but I am enough. And um from that time I started having, you know, having this realization that um I need to, I need to, first of all, start with myself when it comes to confidence because OK, I've never thought that I'm a technical person. I'm quite on the opposite. I thought that I'm not technical at all because I got my computer when I was 15 and I needed to write down the steps to switch it on and switch it off. That's just ridiculous, right? But it was the truth for me. Uh and only 10 years ago I started uh doing sco and then I um I became a more technical, technical person who doesn't write code, but who could make sure that the like website, everything, everything works together and the website is um bringing traffic and revenue, right? And and that's amazing. And after this realization like this before and after a transformation, right, I started to be more confident in having conversations that were important for me, for example, asking for promotion because in many cases, we we are not uh we are just afraid to ask for promotions or just walking away if something didn't work for me.

And one year after that, after this small transformation, which is huge. Uh at the same time, um I'm, I'm a consultant. I'm an individual consultant. I created my course, I started speaking at the conferences and I thought that would never happen because uh I was never, I never felt that I was ready. Now, I'm not telling you this story just to talk about my life, right? What I'm communicating to you that this is just an example of what has happened in my life. But there are so many things that also happened in your life which are similar, you all had similar experience to that. And uh what I, what I'm doing, I'm inviting you to review this experience and see how you can use your voice and your confidence to um to change, to change. Um maybe the way you're treated, the way you treat yourself uh and have more confidence So, but before we, uh but before jumping to the six steps, they are amazing and they will guide you um to the point where you can claim your voice and own your space. I want to make sure that at first we identify three main issues which are stopping you from having more because I believe that it is important to first recognize them before actually uh trying to fix them.

So the main issues which are stopping you from having more are the following. First of all, not believing in yourself, that's the hugest one and especially as females, we are very prone to this. We are not satisfied if uh something goes wrong, but we are not satisfied if something goes well, but could potentially be right. Has it happened to you? I'm pretty, it has happened many times. So um this doesn't, this really shows that we uh the next time we might not be, we were, we might not believe in ourselves, right? Because last time it didn't work. So this is the first reason why you're not having what you want to have right now. Uh The second thing is setting unrealistic expectations for yourself. This is big as well. And one of the unrealistic expectations that I was talking about today is hoping that you will know all the answers before you even start. So, have you ever uh decided not to pitch to the con to speak at a conference or not? To apply for a job because you thought that OK, I'm not there yet. I'm, yeah, I have this amount of uh years of experience. Yeah, I've done this and this but still I think that I'm not good enough, right? I'm sure this happened a lot and this is happening all the time with us. So we need to recognize these moments and last but please is giving your power away.

So it's basically when you wait for others to uh to show you your worth, when you wait for from others that they say that you're great, you're amazing before you start feeling it. Now, don't get me wrong. It's important to be among other people. It's important to uh talk to others and to listen to what they mean. But uh if all the time, if uh people tell you, you're, you're amazing, you're great. You're great. OK? You're confident. But if one day somebody tells you, you know, you're not that great because this can happen. And this, that's OK. We, we not all people like us. So it means that this one day you're going to think. OK. So I'm not great and your self-confidence, your, your self esteem, your confidence will just uh decrease, right? This shouldn't happen because your confidence starts with yourself. And it's your responsibility to claim your value, to claim your confidence and project it to others versus waiting for them to project it to you, right? So uh we are getting to the, uh, six ways to claim back your value on your space and use your voice. The first of them is be your own cheerleader. This is very important. Um, do you have a best friend? I think everybody has a best friend and they think, ok, she is amazing or he is amazing.

Uh, they, they've done so much, so much things, so many things and they are just, they're just rocking it right? And then one day they come to you and say, oh my God, I'm rubbish. I'm not good enough. And you think, how is, how, how in the world, this person can think like that about themselves. They're so amazing. Why just, they just can't see this and guess what the same happens to yourself. Your friends also look at your, yourself and think, oh my God, you are so amazing. Why can't you see this? So I'm inviting you to talk to yourself as if you are the best friend because you are your own cheerleader. The second, uh the second step, the second way of claiming back your voice and your confidence is to elevate others, help other women grow, support them. It just makes the world a better place when I was still working um at that agency. Um I had an opportunity to hire a junior person and I was so happy to hire a female because, um you know, she was eager to learn. She was passionate about this fear. And I was so happy to get her on board and to train her. And I know that after actually I left the left the company, they hired some more females and now the way she was like 5050 I'm really happy that I could contribute to this shift, even like on the company level. So, yeah, elevate others because it's, it's really important.

It makes you a better person and it makes the world better in general. Next thing is join the groups of like-minded women or like-minded people. Um It's very important because only after joining um some groups, I realized that OK, it's not only me, it's not only me who thinks um OK, I'm not, I'm not good enough. I'm not that smart. I'm not that this or that, that right. I realize that is just the angle or a negative lens that I pull put from my pocket and look at the world through this lens and, but it doesn't mean that this is true and talking to different people. Um talking to amazing women in some groups will help me. So you're now in women tech network. That's amazing. This one of the groups that you can speak to and talk to people communicate to people. Um I'm also in women and technical seo group. It's one of the best groups I've ever um been part of and if you're in technical seo or in general, se it's not about technical only. Uh, if you're in seo 100% join this group on Twitter, on uh Facebook. It doesn't really matter. But, um, I mean, having honest conversations with other women, like-minded women is really important. The next step is fight your imposter syndrome. And remember you're enough. And it's so funny that we, especially as women.

Uh We think we, first of all, we ourselves think, think that, ok, we are not enough and then we are afraid that other people will discover that we are not enough. It's just ridiculous. Uh And fighting in poster syndrome is a process. It's not like something that happens overnight. It's a process. And I would definitely recommend you watching this video. I'm gonna make a screenshot, write this down. Uh The year I watched this video by Tiffany da Silva. She spoke last year at many conferences about fighting imposter syndrome.

And how about her experience in general and how she did this. She gives really amazing tips to uh fighter Imposing syndrome. The fifth step is start sharing before you feel ready because guess what? You will never feel ready. 100%. I'm sure that this happened to you when you're sitting in the auditorium and you see the male uh the like the dude speaking on the stage and you're like, oh my God, I know all of this, but still he is there and you are not, it means it doesn't mean that he's the smartest, he just have has this confidence so p to the conference and speak even before you feel that you're 100% ready.

Last but not least, I'm trying to, to do this quicker because I, I feel that the time is running out. So last but not least is work on your mindset because your mindset defines all the steps in your life that you take and basically defines your life. Uh read books, write journals, whatever works for you. And the summary of the steps is do your own cheer, cheerleader, elevate others. Join the groups of like-minded women fight your imposter syndrome. Start sharing before you ready and work on your mindset. Even if only one person after this talk feels a little bit different, feels a shift in their mind. This talk was worth it. Thank you very much. I'm Christina Zarco. Connect with me on Twitter. I'm Azar there. Uh Visit my website, marketing syrup and yeah, I'll be happy to connect with you. Thank you. And I'm going to stop showing my screen and if we have time. Uh Yeah, thank you. Uh I'm not sure that I will be able to read all the chat, but thank you very much for attending me. Thanks. Yeah.