As seen in dot net magazine!

Couldn’t not bloody believe it! Only gone and got myself in dot net magazine!! If you haven’t heard of it, it’s one of the biggest magazines in my industry. Wiki describes it as a “widely recognised as the premiere print publication for web designers…” so you can imagine how over the moon I was when they asked me to be in it :D :D :D

Here’s the published article and copy below:

Confidence, communication and kicks. This week Eloise Ranson discusses how kickboxing pushed her boundaries in both life and development.

Just like web design and development, kickboxing is something I always knew I wanted to do. I had those ‘Aha’ moments – the sudden realisation this was going to be a big part of my life. Both were callings, and they hit you like a, well, punch in the face!

After eight years, I’m taking my black belt grading. I was never a patient person, but kickboxing gave me a long term goal to work towards and showed me how much can be achieved when improving skills over time. With anything you love and do often enough, at times it feels like a grind. But you power through and eventually, you solve a problem or do something a bit differently. You move up to a next level and it feels great.

The health benefits to kickboxing are obvious. It gets me moving which is so important when spending hours sat down behind a screen. But also mentally. It can be quite easy in our industry to become introvert. We’re inside all day, on the computer for hours, communicating via email etc. Kickboxing gets me out the house and socialising at least once a week.

I’ve made good friends, seen class mates marry, and also met my boyfriend there. My kickboxing club feels like an extra family. Cool bonus: My teacher’s also a developer which is handy if I want to chat through a dev issue. I strongly advise anyone to join a club, whether that’s cooking, reading, tennis, whatever you enjoy. Human interaction is important, and we can easily lose that hiding behind a computer, so meeting a group regularly can be really beneficial.

I loved learning to code so much when I was younger. You could never get me off the computer! But because of this, I neglected my social skills and developed anxiety so badly that I couldn’t go to the shops or talk to someone I didn’t know. Kickboxing greatly improved my communication, as over the years I’ve had to explain many techniques to lots of people. It’s really useful as I truly believe communication is the key to a good client (if not every) relationship. Not to mention the confidence it gives you. Throwing a good punch or kick – how can you not be confident after that?? haha.

Kickboxing has forced me to overcome physical and mental barriers and I’m really excited for the next stage after my black belt. I’ve learnt the rules – now it’s time to break them.