2835: Empowering Mothers in Tech: The Supermums Journey

[00:00:00] But before we get today's guest on, it's time for a quick shout out to the sponsors of Tech Talks Daily. And in today's digital age where data breaches are all too common, securing sensitive information has never been more critical right? Well enter Kiteworks, a pinnacle of managed file transfer security or MFT security. So with its FedRAMP moderate authorisation, a prestigious certification that they've held since 2017 by the Department of Defence, Kiteworks stand as a

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[00:00:49] So buckle up and hold on tight as I beam your ears all the way to Hastings here in the UK where head is waiting to share her story.

[00:00:58] So a massive warm welcome to the show. Can you tell everyone this thing a little about who you are and what you do?

[00:01:05] Absolutely. Some Heather Black, CEO of SuperMums. I launched SuperMums seven years ago to help bring more women into the tech sector.

[00:01:13] So you educate them about what the career opportunities are and now I spend most of my time taking part in speaker events, pop pass, talking to people and helping them change their life.

[00:01:23] And that's what I really love about my job is that people who've upskilled trained, relaunch their career to have something as well paid or flexible.

[00:01:30] A lot of the feedback is you've changed my life and thank you. And that's a really lovely job to have right. So that's what I do now.

[00:01:38] I absolutely love that we're approaching 3000 interviews on here and one thing that I've said on every single episode is technology works best when it brings people together

[00:01:48] and you're the epitome of that with the work that you're doing here. Another thing I always ask every guest is their origin story.

[00:01:55] There's always a backstory of we'll put you on this path. So Heather, can you share with me your story behind the inception of SuperMums and also maybe a few personal experience that could have influenced its creation?

[00:02:06] There's got to be a backstory right?

[00:02:08] Yeah, absolutely. It's funny isn't it? There's journey you go on and where things pivot and what comes into your life and how you end up where you are today.

[00:02:15] So there's definitely a story here. So I'll go back a few years, pretty odd years. So 20 years I started my first business. It was non-profit.

[00:02:23] And it's still qualified for the university. I was focused very much on helping people into employment and starting businesses.

[00:02:30] So as you can see that resonates quite clearly with SuperMums. But I did a lot of research work for government actually looking at what strategies work to get people into employment and entrepreneurship and what worked and what didn't work because they were investing a lot of money in that.

[00:02:44] And then 20 years ago, I actually launched my own business that would help 18 to 30 year olds set up businesses and get jobs within small companies if you like.

[00:02:58] And through that journey of running that business, it grew very quickly because we won a lot of government funding to help young professionals get into jobs and start businesses.

[00:03:10] And I started using a CRM called Salesforce. And Salesforce became our living beating heart of the organization. It helped us with our marketing, our data and compliance impact measurement.

[00:03:22] See what we were doing with the beneficiaries and where they were going to and helping us track all our funding and our income. And it became like the I don't know how businesses really survive without one quite frankly is your kind of collection of all your customer data and everything that we're doing with customers or your emails go through that.

[00:03:39] And so it's your Bible really and they live in beating heart of the organization. And it's quite instrumental swag growth as an organization.

[00:03:46] So we went from 100 K to 1.3 million in a year, went for staff to 40 staff. And so obviously having this CRM was was quite one helped us secure more funding but you helped us manage the growth.

[00:03:58] And I ran that organization for seven years to the point that conservative came into government in the UK and a lot of the funding that I had used relied on with the Labor government, dried up and shifted.

[00:04:11] And so it's much more harder for me to run that organization. So I had that point where I was just about to get married and have a family and I kind of lost my job and my company really didn't really have the funding and I'm like, oh God, what am I going to do?

[00:04:28] So I had this whole habit of like I need to find something else because there wasn't there wasn't really that the opportunity to carry on with the business.

[00:04:37] So I had to read a cut what I could do obviously to the really enjoyed working with Salesforce as a system in the organization.

[00:04:46] And I really had a passion to learn more about what the job opportunities were because I didn't know never had background in tech.

[00:04:53] And so I started speaking to people in this street, started doing some more research and realized actually I didn't need tech skills like it wasn't like I had an ad that I didn't need a background in coding and actually because my background was business coaching at that point and running a business actually a lot of those skills were transferable over into Salesforce roles.

[00:05:12] So I can talk more about that within Salesforce roles are six different job roles that you can do and only one of them requires you to sort of be a code or if you like the rest are project managers business analysts, Salesforce administrator sells roles is a whole mix there.

[00:05:26] And I realized I had a lot of transferable skills and so I decided to up skill and I did retrain myself and I pivoted to become a Salesforce consultant for nonprofits and I would go into with a nonprofit organizations and help them implement Salesforce to improve their fundraising, their volunteer.

[00:05:41] And what happened on that journey is the first sort of two or three years I.

[00:05:48] Operators and self self employed freelance consultant I was in four and Japan day rates working three days week my newborn work, leave you remotely with clients and I was like actually I'm earning more than I was before like other women should know about this is really great job opportunity for other women.

[00:06:06] And that was coupled with the fact that I then started growing my consultancy because I did get more work than I can manage and I could turn it away but my entrepreneurial spirit was picking in.

[00:06:16] And so I grew a grew ourselves for consultants into 20 people and we worked with about 15 on profits on 700 projects during the time that was really the consultancy, but hiring talent was really hard right so I was like having to think of I started to see from seven years ago.

[00:06:34] With a view to bringing more people into this space because there was a massive shortage of talent I felt other women should know about this career opportunity because it allowed you to retain a career and share a wealth you've experienced in the role and but you could still work flexibly right and you can still have best of both worlds.

[00:06:55] And but I felt it was such a short talent that actually helped me hire and grow my own consultancy because there was amazing talent went through the seed months program with us we upskilled them they would go out into the ecosystem to find jobs and some of them came to work for me as part of the consultancy so that's my journey really where we are now and I've got lots of like a proud parent like 1300 people go to our program globally and they're all out there carving their new career path which is great.

[00:07:24] Wow an incredible story reminds me of the old Steve Jobs quote you can join up the dots looking looking forward is anyway look back and you see all those dots actually for this path that you're on now and I love what you've done here and how you took your experience with Salesforce and great at super moments I've got a way to say how do you leverage Salesforce to empower one mother's looking to transition into the tech sector because I suspect we will have a lot of moms of all ages listening to the show.

[00:07:52] At a various stage in their parental journey and maybe they want to get back into the workplace or considering moving into the world of tech maybe their previous career is at risk of automation or engage on they want to pivot into the tech career so can you tell me a bit more about how you do that to empower these mothers.

[00:08:11] Yeah so I created a quiz which allows parents to go through and look at their parenting attributes and to figure out which Salesforce job will be about them and I do believe on the back of that quiz there is a job for everybody whether you want or not and so it's interesting because I talk a lot about these transferable attributes and skills next experience so with the parenting skills attributes quit sorry if you're the empathetic parent like the other one that's always accounts slow and it might be not with kids it might be with your friends as well.

[00:08:41] Listening here and you're the problem solver I say that typically the job role for you is being a business analyst because there's a business analyst you go into an organization you sit with a team you listen to all their pain points.

[00:08:53] You look at their processes and you give them solutions and then you hand it over to somebody else to build right and fix but that's our empathetic listener.

[00:09:02] The other kind of attributes you might have is that you maybe you are the delegator the organizer you're having the you like a spreadsheet and you're the budget planner so you typically say that you could be the project manager on a project.

[00:09:15] So maybe project management is actually where you're lying to you because it's your natural skills so really if you are the person that is the fixer you'll just get on fixed things or you're the early adopter and that you'll learn things and then teach other people if you're quite tidy and you like everything tidy and all.

[00:09:31] Organising that way and you sort everything out you could be the Salesforce administrator with a Salesforce administrator that's where you're starting to build systems with clicks not code don't need code but you like organizing things like keeping date to tidy.

[00:09:45] You like helping users understand the system and organize them but you'll get your hands dirty and sort of lean in there and if you're a combination of those skills and you like actually doing all of those aspects I sort of recommend this else was consultant hatch because the salesperson is not going to be able to do it.

[00:10:00] But it's not a hatch because the Salesforce consultant you can actually be all three of those things if you want to be so it means you're not necessarily just sliding into one of them and if you are the parent that's quite the influencer and negotiator where they would be kids some in arguably I think we all are to some degree but if that's all the lines could be naturally or you're always selling gadgets and things to your friends you like we should get this because it's amazing.

[00:10:23] So I just sort of steer them towards the customer success and account executive roles where you're sending technology and I've worn all these hats on my journey up worn all these hats and actually they're all.

[00:10:33] They've suited me at different points in my life depending if I'm breastfeeding or if I'm wanting to go out more or whatever I've kind of taken these different roles in the consultancy as I've needed to and as that she's fitted with me so you don't have to come in and be one thing you can actually develop a career and sort of try all those different areas if you want to over time.

[00:10:52] But I still would say to people in terms of transferable skills it is very much if you love fake holder communication you've got an element of depends on which job role you go into but there's a lot of transferable skills from business and that's why people like to hire mature talent rather than maybe necessary graduates in this situation because

[00:11:11] you're in this type of role you are steering and shaping business processes and new systems that has to be that level of confidence and leadership with that because you've got to bring people on a journey with you you've got to engage and empower them to learn new technology which might be scared of.

[00:11:29] They might scared of the change they don't know what they're doing so naturally you need to be that kind of person that can bring people on a journey with you you've got great communication skills and effectively it can be from any industry because Salesforce is a number one CRM system is used in any industry and employers like to hire people who've got an industry background because they can speak the link go they know the KPIs they know how things typically work in the industry that they might have had years of experience in.

[00:11:57] So quite often employees aren't looking necessary to have an expert in Salesforce what they're wanting is somebody's got 10 years like for me I had experience in nonprofit so I was able to go and speak the link go with nonprofits.

[00:12:10] So we sort of always trying to say to the months that we're working with sell your industry experience sell your transferable skills and sell your attributes because that's what you're selling in for the new jobs.

[00:12:22] Incredibly cool and so much I love about what you're doing here and listening to you talk you see do easy for me to see and understand how you've managed to scale this business on a global level but of course none of it would have been very easy so if I was asking you to look back and those some of those sleepless nights what challenges did you face in scaling super months to a global level and how did you overcome that we probably get in flashback to the same that out loud now but is anything you can share around them.

[00:12:50] We inevitably have a bit of a situation where we're always empowering people to slow it in their careers so one of the things is we will hire like amazing talent but then no one to go off and do you think so you've always got this the talent turnator and obviously that's what I talk about right.

[00:13:05] So retaining team members sometimes where we've had people work for us for years don't get me wrong obviously move roles but we've hired quite a lot of super months actually come to work for super months which is nice we actually got that team.

[00:13:17] But yes it is one is one of the biggest challenges about growing a business is having the team that's going to grow with you and obviously people will naturally step out of that and step in.

[00:13:30] I think that's you know it's a challenge for any business I don't think it's dissimilar but it's you know retaining acquiring the right team to grow we are as

[00:13:38] evidently when global with this business it's funny with my last one is like I had with my last business I really wanted to go global but I didn't know how to do it whereas because with this business it was all virtual and so people just joined from all over the world because it was label so we literally had people from over 10 different countries join much more that more than that was saying terms of the nationalities of people doing the courses.

[00:14:02] But we launched our first USA time zone course night 2009 and obviously we had the pandemics that was interesting but with the pandemic it brought more people to us than actually reduction because people were on furlough and needing to pivot so we've launched a new country we obviously had to build our brand awareness there.

[00:14:22] They're built confidence with that market as I was mentioning in our chat earlier like 50% of our audience on our websites from the USA the fact that we got a third of our trainees are from the USA so we've gone through those steps of launching a new country having to be I tend to sometimes do podcast late at night and use a group speaker session so you know I can be working at 10 at night doing speaker sessions and things like that.

[00:14:47] To engage with that audience so that's the other thing with global domination is once you're there you then have to make your work.

[00:14:55] So it's all managing the time zones with people and sort of supporting that which we do across the team it's fine but it just can't be as much as some of flexing your time around that.

[00:15:07] And I think the thing is we've grown organically till today and I subsidize it initially with the consultancy and then we sort of pivoted with sponsorship so it's really growing a business as well and making sure that you're investing in growth but you've got enough to support you.

[00:15:25] I think that's again a challenge or any business owner. I don't think I've had anything that's unique particularly and we're just going through a cycle now to secure investment for our next age of growth because we've shown continued growth on growth we've done over 4.5 million in turn over collectively as an organization.

[00:15:41] We've worked with 300 companies who have hired talent from us so we're always wanting other companies to come and work with us and hire talent because we've got an urging experience talent.

[00:15:51] And so you've always got things to be doing things to be growing. You're always sort of for me I'm driven by the impact we make because where I started this call it's not financial obviously but you need to make it wash its face and make it work and have a scalable organization that we can have with more investment we can obviously achieve so much more and be helping so many more people and that's always my mission is to keep pushing it to that next level.

[00:16:19] And I love the fact that we'll have people listening all over the world and many business leaders want into crack America or go global you said there that you've almost done it by accident.

[00:16:29] It wasn't by design from the very beginning and I suspect you are being slightly modest that is a lot of hard work gone into to making this a global business but one of the things that also attracted me to what you've created here why I invited you on here was you're also contributing to reducing the gender pay gap

[00:16:47] and increasing diversity of the tech industry to huge topics and talking points right now but can you tell me a little bit more about how you're doing this.

[00:16:56] Absolutely I mean people don't understand what job roles are in the tech sector and yes we can continue to share stats that show the number of women in these roles there isn't enough women in the tech sector generally.

[00:17:09] The proportionate levels are a lot lower than the males and unless we go out and educate this audience that this audience women in general in different ways we're not going to get a track more into it right frankly.

[00:17:22] And there's a lot of seminars at school now which is fantastic it's great to be hitting schools and graduates with more information about these roles to bring people in is also equally important to have lots of role models so we encourage our alumni to do case studies with us to share their experience to build trust and awareness.

[00:17:43] And a lot of our time is spent providing information advice like the quiz for example we have team members that will do free career consultations with people and they've got to go on this emotional journey and quite often convince their partner or you ever is going to give them some money to retrain that yes they should be doing this.

[00:18:08] So it is we that there's not with battle but we haven't seen a significant change really for years unless we unless individual like myself who are influencers are actively out there campaigning want for better word raising awareness every day we aren't going to shift that dial.

[00:18:28] So I think it's I've we've worked with some companies you've sponsored us that seem to see the importance of this because all these companies that are out there saying yes we want to improve the diversity of our tech base and more widely.

[00:18:42] The thing is is a needle weren't changing unless we do more educational work and outreach I've been very thankful to companies that have sponsored our marketing activities now out which work because that's the only way that we can give them more talent at the end of the day so that helps us on our journey team for sure.

[00:18:59] And I think we are a moment in time where diversity of thought is so important to solving complex problem that in the tech industry and it in business in general and education as you said is a huge part of that so is there anything you can share around how you are addressing that digital skills gap and in doing so the kind of results that you're seeing so far.

[00:19:20] Yes so I can I will give an example of the program we designed as I said my background was in researching programs to support employability so.

[00:19:30] I had a very good understanding about actually what did work to get some new for me to be and with that we know it's not just delivering a technical training course for five days and saying I off you go you can go and do this job now it doesn't does a work so what we did with our program we broke the mold because traditionally sales force only.

[00:19:50] Did a five day course that was class free and based and was three and a half thousand pounds and that was the only way you could train up to be myself professional when we start super months and so what I did was broke down that program of the five day training into three hour training sessions once a week over three months but they do the trainees come on the program they do three hours of learning what we call a competency learning a specific thing

[00:20:16] and then we'll set them practice to go in and practice that and build out a system and do some trail heads so they actually do 16 hours of study on that one competency in a week and practice it three times if you like over and over again to really understand it.

[00:20:33] And we pair everybody with a one to one mentor so the mentor meets with that person every single week for once two hours to check that they've got the competency rights for them if they haven't and they complete a homework record.

[00:20:45] So it's very handheld in that way and so for the three months they're completing a competency practicing over and over again having somebody verify and support them and completing a homework record.

[00:20:58] And when they've got to the end of the three months we will have had seen that they completed the program because that also provides motivation and accountability and everything else that they need and why they choose to learn with us because otherwise they're not self motivated and they might not pick the end of it and they're on this program with a group of other people who are not ready to do it.

[00:21:14] So they're on with a group of other women and men we have men all the program to and they support each other via a peer group.

[00:21:21] So there's a lot of peer motivation and support as well so if somebody is stuck they help each other and they fall in that new friendship group because they're all launching their new career together so it's been lovely seeing like all these friendship groups like be created over the years.

[00:21:36] So after the end of the three months they've finished all their training, they've finished their homework.

[00:21:41] They get their certifications so they'll do their certification at that point and study for it and then we place them in a nonprofit organization alongside somebody who's experienced Salesforce professional to do what we call the Pobono placement and it's a 48 hour placement where they get hands on real life experience helping a nonprofit with their Salesforce system.

[00:22:03] And that's really helping on profit get bits of work done that they weren't able to do themselves but it's really help that person get work experience and then alongside that just add the other layer we do career coaching and support so we do for the only career coaching and we have our recruitment arm that then provide support to help them into getting the job opportunities.

[00:22:22] So we've got a funny roundered sort of A to Z back to work program that provides all the pillars of support you would need to give them the confidence of skills, you know, to relaunch successfully and it's all virtual as well.

[00:22:36] And another question I've got to ask is how supermums aligns with and supports the United Nations sustainable development goals particularly in terms of quality education and gender equality and the reason I asked that is before you came on the podcast I was doing a little bit of research

[00:22:51] about and I know this is something you're you're very passionate about but is that something you can expand on to.

[00:22:58] Yeah, absolutely well, I mean when we're running the organization we obviously want to align to certain goals and what they're doing and so this for distinct as you mentioned them there,

[00:23:10] there's a difference, sustainability goals around reducing inequality so we want to get bring more women into the sector.

[00:23:17] I'm really passionate about making sure that we accelerate the careers of the women when they're in the sector so I've just a whole series of blogs actually round

[00:23:26] a crib progression and how and what that would look like for you in your different job roles and provided like the step by step crib progression plan because I've seen and heard sort of situations where women are like well I'm really great,

[00:23:41] I've got a part time job so I don't really want to make sure I don't really want to feel uncomfortable asking for pay rise or asking for progressions actually very fortunate.

[00:23:50] No, no, no, no, no, the progression plan and what I when I have these conversations with women and some of them have been alumni for four years right.

[00:23:57] I'm like I'm like what is it that I need to provide them with help them in this role so as I mentioned I wrote these blogs around career progression what the first two years would look like what your different competencies could be as you grow and develop what a salary range would be so they could take that to their employer and say look this is a career progression plan

[00:24:17] that I'd really like to be on like is this possible here if not it might be that in two years I might be looking at something else realistically because this is where I want to go to and to give them the tools to have that conversation.

[00:24:29] So when we talk about gender and pay equality which is one of the goals as well, we've got to equip people with the knowledge to understand well where should I be what should I be being paid for what is I'm doing

[00:24:42] and we're a big advocate of giving people the tools and knowledge to know what there were and to know where they can be aiming for.

[00:24:50] So we do a lot of that capacity building with our alumni beyond the course as well to hit all of those things and we made the course virtual as I said and we

[00:25:00] we rather than a five day in person course, we made it a virtual course over a series of months to make it more accessible to people as well which aligns with one of the goals around education

[00:25:12] to break down participation education we wanted to create something we felt was more flexible for women.

[00:25:17] So we have a lot of women who have been stay at home parents for quite a while and obviously this is a step back into work.

[00:25:23] We have women that are on maternity leave that don't feel like can go back to their current job and we have people that are in full time employment actually but are fitting this around their full time job or part time job in some cases to

[00:25:38] get something more well paid and more flexible than the job that they're in.

[00:25:43] So we've tried to provide hit all those different agendas through how we deliver.

[00:25:48] And you will have the year of women listening all over the world to our conversation today so what would you say are the unique challenges and equally opportunities that you see for women that are thinking about returning to work to the tech sector post pandemic or maybe everything to the tech sector because we hear a lot about the challenges but there's a lot of opportunities too right.

[00:26:12] I think research your options and diving and that's why we provide such an educational page so we have a page on our website at seabound.org which is a page called What Is A Salesforce Korea and we explain all about the career you can download a free rare guide you can book in a call with one of our team

[00:26:31] and we just really support this and encourage it because we want people to make an informed decision.

[00:26:36] And it's really important to do as much research as you can around different career roles and to really find out if it's something that's right for you

[00:26:44] because otherwise people will never move forward. You always stuck with that I don't know I don't know if it's right.

[00:26:50] So we encourage just people to dive in and find out as much be eager and keen and then if it's not for you that's absolutely fine.

[00:26:57] And we're not we're not as supermums at all pushy that we want it to be the right choice for you because that's what makes you successful.

[00:27:04] So I think it's the case of what if the word tech is against it don't think I have to have a coding background that should be open to the wider range of roles in the tech sector.

[00:27:15] The reality that there's this huge statistics out there at the moment that show that 50% of jobs and skills are going to be changing.

[00:27:23] And I think if you're coming back to the workplace or you're looking at what jobs next is you want to be upskilling in those skills that are in demand and that people are needing.

[00:27:32] And the reality is that you can get be outdated so quickly these days if you're not keeping pace with things.

[00:27:37] So there is condition maybe is a wrong word we do say to people that if you're coming into the sector you have to enjoy lifelong learning because you're always going to be learning new things and solving problems and being excited about new technology.

[00:27:51] That has to be there. There has to be that appetite for that because that's the way that the sector is going, but that's where the new job opportunities are.

[00:28:00] Sure. Look at that and looking forward on your own journey of continuous learning and growth, what would you say your aspirations are for super moms and I had you envision its role in helping shape the future of work in the Salesforce ecosystem?

[00:28:15] Well with super moms because we've had people trainees join us from all over the world and really we have amazing case studies from all over the world.

[00:28:23] I'm going on this journey at the moment to secure investment to really help us scale up and actually make more of a footprint in these other countries because we just touch the service of people that find out about a three word of mouth, but actually we could do lot more in different countries with additional budget resources that are more localized in those areas.

[00:28:44] So we're just wanting to spread the magic a little bit further and help more people in these expected countries. Salesforce is a global product that's used in all these countries, there's some markets like South Africa and Dubai that are brand new almost to Salesforce focus and lot of resources is going in there and they need the talent.

[00:29:04] And so we want to follow where they're going and then sort of be upskilling people to service the the new clients that coming online in those countries.

[00:29:12] So there's a lot of opportunity therefore is I spend most of my time now sort of teaching I teach people on the consultancy skills course and I love that part of my week, I've written the book so I wrote a book because it was Amazon Beth Seller called Become a Super Salesforce consultant.

[00:29:32] So that went live in November so I love to educate people we've sold 500 books around the world and for me that's just equipping people with all the knowledge they need to be a super Salesforce consultant.

[00:29:42] It's like right, just read the book it's all there. They might need to do some additional training obviously, but you know, it kind of the footprint of what they need to do.

[00:29:50] And so we've got two more books plans for this year and next as well.

[00:29:55] Okay, that's to do.

[00:29:57] Well, I'm hoping you your insights will have inspired women listening all over the world and I would urge anybody listening wherever they are located wherever they are listening, you do serve a global audience I do urge them to get in contact with you but you've shared your insights.

[00:30:12] I want to ask you to leave one final piece of magic with everyone listening we have a Spotify playlist where I asked my guest to add a song that means something to them or maybe it's just a guilty pleasure whatever it is will add into the Spotify playlist or alternatively a book that means something to you or you recommend

[00:30:30] that we can add to our Amazon wish list and I don't mind which it is but what would you like to leave everyone listening with and why?

[00:30:36] Well, then a book that inspired me the most in my early 20s which kind of just maybe think that anything is possible.

[00:30:43] It was a book called The Art of Possibility by Ben Zander and he's an incredible speaker but it left so it's a footprint on me that it may be think actually anything is possible.

[00:30:53] Do you need something to boost your confidence in self esteem and give you the major to do it and that's a good one I recommend.

[00:30:59] Awesome, and I don't want to listen what in the final more about your book about the quiz we mentioned about all the work you're doing at Supermums how they can get involved or maybe they just want to ask you or your team of question where would you like to point everyone listening?

[00:31:13] So you can visit our website at the www.supermumorg which has all the resources and information on there but we can also do a quick link to the page what is the sales source career as well.

[00:31:26] Well, I get all those links added so people can find you nice knees and get to where they want to be to maybe go on that journey with you and as I said at the very beginning of this episode I always say technology works best when it brings people together but there's so much of what you're doing here.

[00:31:42] I love about how you're leveraging technology to reduce the gender pay gap support women's women returning to the workplace increasing the diversity of women in tech, the financial resilience of families and ultimately addressing that digital skills gap too so much great work and abstain touch with you and see how your story evolves but to more than anything thanks for sharing your story today.

[00:32:03] Well, thanks to the offer having me thanks for listening everyone.

[00:32:06] So as we wrap up today's inspiring conversation with Heather Black of supermums I think it's clear that the journey towards gender equality diversity and tech and bridging this digital skills gap.

[00:32:18] It's not just a vision but a tangible reality being shaped by incentives like supermums and I love how their work supports the critical UN sustainable development goals including quality education, gender equality, decent work in economic growth and reduced inequalities.

[00:32:35] And for me this episode is testament to how technology and a driven community can create pathways that empower underrepresented groups offering them a chance at flexible well-paid careers in the tech industry.

[00:32:50] So I place for anyone listening wanting to find out more about supermums wherever you're listening join their mission or explore our you can transition into the tech sector by visiting supermums.org.

[00:33:00] Heather and I are team not just creating a ripple in the tech world there orchestrating a wave of change for future generations.

[00:33:07] And as we sign off I encourage you to think about the role that technology might play in your life how it might be a force for good in the lives of others

[00:33:17] And also what steps we can all take to support initiatives like supermums as always share your thoughts with me by emailing me tech blog writer out com twitter link to an Instagram just out near cus let's keep this conversation going.

[00:33:31] But that's it for today so until next time thank you for listening and to each and every one of you listening wherever you are keep pushing the boundaries of what's possible with technology.