Women in Technology: Gina Lucia

Iconic & Orderable’s Content Marketer on creativity, deep work, and inclusivity in tech.

Growing up in a creative family, Gina Lucia had creativity and business built into her childhood. Though she now lives in Bristol within the UK, Lucia grew up within the West Midlands with two artist parents who explored sculpture, photography, painting, and video. “They did this as a spare time activity after which turned it right into a job by making a graphic design business,” she says. Nevertheless, Gina’s artistic calling was more literary. “I grew up around that business and design mindset, only translating it into the written word once I got to college and did a Creative Writing degree.”

Lucia has spent the past decade working in tech, starting within the family business by coding and designing web sites for clients. Eventually, she pursued a solo profession in freelance website design. “It wasn’t until website builders like Squarespace and Wix began to change into more usable that I switched to content writing and at last put my Creative Writing degree to make use of,” she says.

Now she brings her creative skills to the Liquid Web family as a Contracted Content Marketer with Iconic & Orderable. “I like to consider my role as translating technical speak into something the common person can understand and become familiar with. I write articles, documentation, emails, product descriptions, and more for each Iconic and Orderable,” she says.

Obsessed with communication, it comes as no surprise that one of the appealing facets of a job in tech is, for Lucia, how easy it’s to discuss with people. “Individuals who work in tech understand what you wish or mean on a technical level, and so they grasp it much faster, too,” she says. “They’re also not afraid to try recent systems and techniques. Because tech moves so fast generally, people in tech are used to moving with it. So that they’re less afraid to adapt.”

Books have played a vital role in Lucia’s skilled and private life. “I’m a book person,” she says. “Lots of my working techniques or changes I’ve made are right down to them. But truthfully, I’d attribute my success to persistence and never giving up. After I was younger, I’d surrender on things in a short time. Violin, flute, bass guitar – after just just a few tries, I’d understand it was too difficult and surrender. As an adult, I spotted that things don’t work that way. On the web, things move and occur so quickly that it tricks your mind into believing it must occur for everybody. But it surely doesn’t. You need to work hard and keep going to attain what you wish.”

Lucia’s working style is deep work. “In the event you’ve ever read Cal Newport’s book Deep Work, then you recognize what I’m talking about,” she says. “If not, go read it! Deep work essentially signifies that you deal with one task with none distractions in any respect. The technique sounds easy, but it surely’s demanding with all of the distractions we now have lately.” What meaning for Lucia is batching like-minded tasks together and getting all of them done in a single deep work session. “By working this fashion, I get loads done in a small period of time. Giving me more time for rest.”

For Lucia, progress is all about balancing rest and growth. “I enjoy repeatedly improving. Without that, I believe I’d feel demotivated. This doesn’t just relate to my working life,” she says. “I enjoy making small, 1% improvements to almost the whole lot step by step and sustainably. There’s nothing more fulfilling than looking back on the 12 months and seeing how much progress you’ve made without burning yourself out.”

As for the long run of ladies in tech, Lucia notes that there remains to be unconscious bias within the tech world. “Although some progress has been made,” she says, “I feel there must be a cultural shift. These biases lead to institutional barriers that must be brought down. So I believe we’re going to proceed in the identical direction. Chipping away at progress while championing diversity.”

She notes the importance of seeing more promotion of trans women in tech, as well. “While many meaningful movements like Women in Tech may also champion trans women, it must be more explicit on web sites and marketing materials,” she says. “It must be a part of the conversation.”

Lucia believes the very best strategy to encourage more women to enter the sector is for ladies in tech to speak openly about their experiences. “Young women wish to see themselves in these roles,” she says. ”If all they see are white men, it makes it much harder.”

An avid reader, listed below are Lucia’s non-fiction book recommendations:

Deep Work: Rules for Focused Success in a Distracted World by Cal Newport
Grit: The Power of Passion and Perseverance by Angela Duckworth
Digital Minimalism: Selecting a Focused Life in a Noisy World by Cal Newport
Essentialism: The Disciplined Pursuit of Less by Greg McKeown
Brave, Not Perfect: Fear Less, Fail More, and Live Bolder by Reshma Saujani