About Me — Isabella Hoesch

Passionate about Data, Lifelong Learning, and Willpower. Founder of Codum. Maxed happiness when surfing waves!

Hi there and welcome!

I’m excited to see you here on my Medium profile and flattered that you made it all the way to read about me! My name is Isabella and I am a curious mind based in Munich, Germany.

As a kid, my superhero was the German author Cornelia Funke and I wanted to become a writer myself.

From the activity on my Medium profile, you may guess … life and life choices distracted me from the path to becoming that author. I believe I underestimated the fact that you need to WRITE to get there…

Nevertheless, here I am, writing this short article about … myself (got to start somewhere) to share with you what I’m up to when I’m not writing (…).

Why am I doing this?

Well, for one I like the “About me” etiquette here on Medium. On the other hand, I do want to get started sharing more of what I’m learning and thinking about as a founder in the tech education+willpower space. A very very interesting field and I invite you to follow along!

So, what do you do for a living?

Enjoying life to the fullest, taking challenges, and spending time on things and with the people I love.

I’m a cliche European Millennial. I care about my ecological footprint, that my actions are of impact and that I take advantage of this one life!

Choosing the entrepreneurial route and starting a company as a solo founder at first and then having my sister join to tackle a problem we both wanted to see solved has been one of the most fulfilling and exciting decisions of my life!

We’re just getting started and are building an accountability platform for people that teach themselves to code. Learning to code all by yourself can be extremely lonely and frustrating — and I know because I have been there, shifting into data science for my first job with nothing but a business degree and loads of motivation in my pocket.

I am also a certified systemic coach, and as such the topics of goal achievement and willpower have always fascinated me! I aim to help many more people than I could on individual coaching sessions, but I still offer coachings to female career-shifters that are thinking about changing their lives by entering tech.

Where do you charge?

It’s a marathon, not a sprint.

While I’m working hard on building a valuable product together with my sister, I’m also well aware that we will achieve the most if we know what drains our energy and what boosts us with energy.

I consider us quite lucky because we are active in a space where the users themselves are a true source of energy. Career-shifters+Learners are people that want to grow and improve their lives! Their motivation and stories inspire me daily to improve, grow and push on myself! (Thank you, early users, also for bearing with us, for any bugs and early-stage startup inconveniences!)

Other than that I’m a big fan of sufficient sleep, fresh air, fresh water, healthy food, and meditation for a calm and relaxed mind. I love all things outdoors and need a healthy dose of these activities regularly: surfing, bouldering, skiing, hiking, …

A little curation of life hacks

Along my entrepreneurial journey I came across some hacks and habits that changed my life for the better — and I am convinced, some of them prove useful for you too!

Set your phone to be your tool, not your boss!

I have sent this article to so many friends after taking half a day to set up my phone for focus and longevity following its instructions. Life changer!

I highly recommend you check it out and use it as a guideline to set your phone up in a way that suits you and your life. For me, it included removing Instagram from my phone — and honestly, this is not TOO crazy. Most of us are ALL day in front of our laptops. You can check your socials there if you need.

Program your mind for progress

We all know these quotes painted on little wooden blocks sold in beach towns or yoga studios. Those quotes are just a little too much when more than two in one place, no?

“You win and you learn”

“You only fail when you stop trying”

“Go where the wifi is weak and the rum is strong”

(ok maybe let’s focus on the first two;)) … but you know what? I think many of them are quite awesome!

Positivity makes us nicer and more relaxed people!

Surround yourself with positivity where you can! Avoid the grumpy, skeptic people, and spend more time with the positive and supportive ones instead (and if you’re also based in Germany I hope you have a high skepticism tolerance in any case)! You could also join me and follow Cafe Gratitudes’ approach and name things around you after positive affirmations (this is their old menu, I find it genius … why not respond to the waiter: ‘Good afternoon, I am extraordinary!’).

I changed the name of my phone and now, whenever I connect to my device I choose “another good day 🧚‍♀️”.

Yell “plot twist” when things go wrong

I am somewhat of a perfectionist & impatient person. This can be a very inconvenient and stressful combination of traits when you start a company by yourself with very few resources to start with.
You may need to be your designer but don’t trust your design skills. You may have to acquire loads of legal expertise but at the same time avoid talking to any lawyer because you’re scared of their bills. Your account on the cloud platform where you deploy your web app got hacked, won’t let you login anymore and you have no clue how to fix it …

Things will take time, things will break, and only patience and a calm mind will get you forward. I have increased my zen thanks to the intense training that comes naturally with getting your hands dirty but I know there will be new, surprises waiting for me around the corner, testing my coolness.

And I will continue working on keeping my sleep deprivation and coffee consumption low to keep the nerves calm and consistently pass the vibe check!

When something goes wrong at work, yell “plot twist!” and move on. — Scott Stockdale

… you may want to raise your arms while you yell “plot twist” and perform a little dance too! Studies have shown this helps too (n=1).

When I come across quotes from people like Scott Stockdale (one of my favorite Medium writers) I know, I’m not alone!

The what ifs:

I’m a bad sleeper and at night I’m a big daydreamer. I enjoy envisioning things, thinking through scenarios, and following the rabbit holes of the “what ifs …” of life.
When November comes and/or life gets grey I enjoy thinking about how interesting and fun my lives in different universes are… Those lives I don’t live because at some point I (or my parents for god’s sake) took a decision that led me on this other path.

These are the lives I get particularly excited about. My life as a:

• Pro-surfer, touring the world to surf surf surf every day!
• Marine biologist, hopefully saving fascinating species this-life-me has no clue even exists!
• Cirque Du Soleil artist, performing acrobatics to the coolest soundtracks ever!
• Best-selling Author, learning about any topic I choose, to then write about it! And of course to live up to my childhood hero.

Wow, a lot about me here!

Let me tell you this last thing about myself before I let you go. I’m the third of 5 kids. Like my siblings, I DON’T love the spotlight, and can only perform karaoke when intoxicated and in a faraway country.

Now, I wrote this article just about myself, and the chances are high that I’ll press the ‘publish’ button!
The good news is: You’re still here. You read the whole thing. Cool!

I hope you follow along for more!:)