hurdling with ryan march: editor of alternative wales, co-founder of teras and musician

on sticking your neck out, backing yourself and finally just making the thing you wished existed. and why you don’t actually need to move to london to ‘make it’ in a creative career.

Jul 22, 2026

Ryan March is many things. He is the co-founder and producer of Teras, a design, photography and video studio based in Cardiff that exists to tell the stories that are often overlooked, the quiet graft, the local pride, the people and communities building something real from the ground up. Ryan is also the founder and editor of Alternative Wales, a magazine, newsletter and podcast that celebrates Welsh football through the lens of culture, travel, music and fashion. And if that’s not enough on one man’s plate, Ryan is also a musician, playing under Family Entertainment and about to go on a U.S. tour to support the band Swmrs.

Ryan is also my friend from my hometown of Bridgend, and it gives me great millennial joy to share that I first met him within the grey-ish blue-ish digital walls of MSN, back when we were 16. He was a boy from another school in Bridgend, and I was a girl who probably had a Paramore lyric in her status, and we became friends over our shared love of bands, gigs, festivals and feeling like we wanted to do things with our lives that felt bigger than the general expectations of Bridgend. Ryan and his friends got to know me and my friends and we all ended up at Reading festival in 2012, of which I do not remember a lot but definitely do remember crying as we all watched The Cure.

Things have changed a lot for Ryan since those days, and yet they’ve also somehow remained the same. Here, Ryan tells me all about his hurdles, including the eight years he spent doing the things he didn’t want to do because he thought that’s what he had to do to get to where he wanted to be, before finally sticking his neck out, backing himself and finally just making the thing he wished existed. He talks about his desire to ultimately just spend his days doing what he loves, and how he’s walking proof to anyone else from a small town that no, actually, you don’t need to move to London to ‘make it’ in a creative career.

Ryan will be speaking at the first ever Hurdles for Dinner event next Wednesday at Bara Café in Peckham, where he’ll be diving into all things modern Welsh heritage – and all the hurdles that come with it. I’m buzzing, he’s buzzing and you should come and join us. You can get tickets here.

Get tickets for Hurdles for Dinner

Hiya Ryan. Please tell us a little bit about you as a person, and a snapshot of your life right now:

Hiya Em! When I bump into someone I haven’t seen in a while and they ask me how I’ve been, I always find myself saying something along the lines of, ‘Bloody busy!’ I guess right now that’s pretty accurate, for better or worse. But overall, I’d like to think I’m enjoying life now more than I ever have before. I feel fulfilled and content, creatively, professionally and personally. For the most part, anyway.

Q: Where in the world do you live?

Grangetown, Cardiff. The best place on earth? Not for me to say.

Q: How would you describe yourself as a person? Tell me who you are, where you came from, where you’ve been and where you’re going.

This is tough, isn’t it? I don’t often do much soul-searching, and if I do, I can be quite hard on myself. But I guess, I’d like to think I’m quite driven, ambitious, hard-working and passionate. I really care about what I do and about trying to be the best version of myself possible.
I grew up in Bridgend, like you. I spent a lot of my angsty teenage years doing my best to get out. I was the walking embodiment of a pop-punk album. But as I’ve gotten older, I’ve been able to appreciate what a great place it was to grow up, and how much it shaped me as a person.
Since then, it’s always felt like I’ve been chasing something, whether it was a career in music or media. And chasing that has taken me around the world, through plenty of highs and some very low lows, but it’s all been part of the journey that’s got me to where I am today. I’m really comfortable with my current situation, and as for where I’m going next – who knows? But I am excited about it.

Q: What were you like as a child? How would you describe how you showed up in the world, how you felt and how you interacted with your own life and the lives of others?

All in all, I’m pretty sure I was a happy child. I have lots of good memories of growing up. I don’t think I’m speaking out of turn in saying that my parents didn’t necessarily have the best childhoods, and I’m very grateful they made sure history didn’t repeat itself by giving me and my sister the best possible start. They instilled a lot of confidence in me, allowed me to express myself and chase my dreams – I owe them a lot for that.
They also gave me so much culture! My dad took me to watch Cardiff City and Wales from a young age and introduced me to punk music, two of my greatest loves. They took me abroad, showed me the world and gave me a real lust for life.
I was always doing something – very social, very confident and pretty wise to the world. It stood me in good stead, even if, at times, it gave me an outlook that made me question authority and speak up in school when I didn’t like something. Some teachers thought I was rude or too opinionated, but instead of going into my shell, it gave me a chip on my shoulder and a desire to always do what I loved, first and foremost.

Q. What are you like now? How would you describe how you show up in the world, how you feel and how you interact with your own life and the lives of others? What are the main differences between who you are now and your childhood self?

It’s been a ride. It’s taken a long time to get here, but I’d go as far as to say I’m the purest version of myself I’ve ever been. I spent a long time doing things I didn’t want to do because I thought I had to. I took jobs I didn’t want, I said yes to things I knew were a bad idea. But deep down, I always knew what I really wanted, and right now, I’ve got that.
It’s taken a lot of work, a lot of stubbornness, a lot of moments where I never thought it would happen, and I suffered through a lot of it. But right now, I’m exactly where I want to be and who I want to be. Don’t get me wrong, I’ve still got work to do on myself, personally and professionally, but I’m having a bloody good time, and that’s all I ever wanted. It’s allowed me to rediscover that youthful confidence I lost for a long time and just be a better person to be around.
I think my younger self would be really proud of who I am now, and I don’t think I could’ve said that even a year or so ago. That was something that always ate away at me, so I’m glad to have come through the other side.

Q: When you were younger, what did you want to be when you ‘grew up’?

I always wanted to be a footballer, and then I found music and wanted to be a rockstar. But I think, looking back, what I really wanted was the freedom to do what I love, express myself through my work, and enjoy my life as much as possible.

Q: What do you do for a living? Tell me your current job title and all the job titles you’ve previously worn in the past.

We’ve never really given ourselves titles, but along with one of my dearest friends and creative soulmate, Greg Caine, I run Teras, a creative production company. We also run Alternative Wales, a Welsh football and culture platform.

Q: How do you feel about what you do? Does what you do define who you are? If so, has it always? If not, why not?

What I do has always defined me, to myself anyway – I’m not sure if it is to other people. But I’m not someone who can just do something for the sake of it. I envy those people in a way. So, it absolutely does define me, because it’s something I love. I’ve turned my hobby into my day job.
Football has really shaped me as a person. Growing up on the terraces influenced how I speak, my sense of humour, how I dress, what music I listen to, who my friends are, and my world view. And now I get to talk about that and capture that for a living – so it very much defines me.

Q: Tell me about your best job ever. Why did you love it? What did it give you? What did it teach you about yourself?

Is it a cop out to say this one? It doesn’t compare to anything else I’ve ever done. Nothing comes close. Other than maybe the time I was paid £150 to interview Neville Southall at Pontardawe Football Club – I must’ve only asked two questions, but he rambled on for almost two hours and that was that.

Q: Now tell me about your worst job ever. Why did you hate it? What made it so bad? What did it teach you about what you value in a job?

It would be easy to say the five years I spent crushing my soul working in a Vodafone store, or my ill-fated Christmas temp spell keeping the ladies shoe section of TK Maxx in Cardiff in good shape. But it was probably a big sports media company that will remain nameless, as much I’d like to name them.
I moved to London to work there, I thought it was a good opportunity to further my media career and do more in the football space, but on day one I knew there was something not right. I’d already started looking for other jobs on LinkedIn before lunch.
It was borderline negligent to hire me without any real plans. I’d spend over an hour commuting in and another hour commuting back every day, just to sit at my desk and twiddle my thumbs waiting for something to challenge me. I spoke out about and expressed my desire to try new things and learn more to further my career and it fell on deaf ears time after time, and then after another meeting where I said this has to change, instead of doing anything, they cut my contract short and left me jobless in London.
While others sat on their hands and were happy to collect their pay every month without lifting a finger, I suffered for trying to put myself out there. It absolutely wrecked my mental health, destroyed my confidence and no one ever took account for it. Hugely disappointed and I’d love to tell the people involved exactly how it affected me.
But then again, it lit a fire under me. I texted Greg two weeks into the job and floated the idea of a production company with him, and just over three years later, here we are. Living and breathing the god damn dream baby.

Q: How did you get to where you are today? What did it take? What decisions did you make? What was the path like? What hurdles stood in your way? Was it extremely difficult? What did you say yes to? What did you say no to?

It essentially took me sticking my neck out, backing myself and just doing it. I spoke about the idea of Alternative Wales for a while and never did it. And eventually I took a gamble and just did it, and it worked. Then I thought it had legs to go further, so I pushed and pushed myself and now it’s my day to day. It took a lot of late nights, bunking off the day job and just constantly learning from what others were doing. Buying magazines, watching different types of content, meeting good people and just asking the question.
It’s bonkers to me that I essentially would’ve had to stay at some of the jobs I had for the best part of a decade to work my way up to the level I operate at now, when I knew I was capable all along, however arrogant that might sound. And I have full creative control over what we do.
There’s always a desire to prove people wrong, and that’s quite powerful.

Q: Is the reality of where you are today different to how you imagined it would be? If so, how? What are the biggest differences?

Possibly, yes, but then again no. When I was younger I really thought I’d be a full time musician. I’m not, although I’m grateful I still get to dabble in it. But like I said earlier, ultimately I just wanted to do something I loved on my terms, and I’m doing that now.

Q: Who are the people you feel the most like yourself around? How did you meet them? What’s your relationship like? Why do you think they make you feel like this?

It’s probably the boys I’ve met through watching Wales away. Two of them are now my business partners/brothers in arms. But we all gravitated towards each other from various different parts of Wales somehow. Sometimes there’ll be months were I don’t see them and all of sudden we’ll find ourselves on a square in Eastern Europe, with them drinking dodgy lagers, and chatting the most ridiculous stuff and laughing and laughing until the early hours.
We often talk about how nice it is to not have a real liability in the group as well. There’s no one who’s going to start a fight for the sake of it or pass out and throw up after one too many. That’s a lovely feeling. I trust them and love them with all I’ve got.

Q: What’s the biggest hurdle you’ve ever had to get over? Why was it stood in your way? How did you get over it? Did anyone help you? What did getting over the hurdle unlock for you in your life? How do you feel about that particular hurdle when you look back on it now?

I’ve been thinking about this answer at the back of my mind as we’ve gone through everything else, and I guess I’ve realised it’s probably one of two things. It’s breaking the cycle of unfulfilling full time jobs and gaining back my self-confidence that had been shot to pieces after eight years of relative failure after university. I still struggle a bit with my self-confidence and often seek validation from my peers.
I guess it’s fair to credit my parents for helping me and encouraging me to not always play it safe and do what I really want to do. It gave me the bravery (or stupidity) to leave my last full time role when all we had was one small shoot booked. But breaking that cycle and overcoming that hurdle has helped me get my confidence back, given me creative and personal freedom and a new lust for life.
I look back on that sort of period from breaking out of retail jobs into the industry, to going into business for myself, with mixed feelings. I learnt A LOT, good and bad. It made me realise what I value for a job and actually what I’m good at, because there was a period of time at Vodafone between my band finishing up and me figuring out what I wanted to do next where I really didn’t know what I was actually good at. Still bitter towards a few experiences, mind you, but that’s only natural. As we say in Teras HQ, be better AND bitter (tongue in cheek… a bit!).

Q: What’s a hurdle that regularly trips you up?

My big mental head. I was recently diagnosed with ADHD (yeah, yeah, we’ve all got it, I’ve heard it all before) and it’s sort of changed my perception on a lot of things. For a long time, I’d be so mentally drained and overwhelmed I’d get this crippling inability to do anything, and I’d stew in my own anxiety. I used to think I was just lazy, but after doing my research into ADHD, it all made a lot of sense.
I’m now medicated and it’s changed my life. I’ve got way more energy and focus, and I’m quite frankly just way more productive. I still have moments of overwhelm, but they are few and far between and don’t last for as long.
I still struggle to switch off and relax and not think about work. I don’t think I’ve taken a real break from the business since I went full time with it in October 2024. My work life balance has taken a hit and I need to learn how to manage it better. That includes saying no to the right things and not piling mine and Greg’s plate too much. Thankfully, a lot of my social life revolves around work, which does help. But a bit of separation every now and then wouldn’t go amiss.

Q: What’s the best thing about your life right now?

Where I am. Literally and metaphorically. Grangetown is such a great place to live. I have my favourite pub a five minute walk away, plenty of good food, it’s ten minutes to the train station, fifteen minutes to the centre of town, easy to get on the M4 and most importantly I’m surrounded by a lot of good people. It’s the first time in a long time I’ve felt like I’ve got a real community around me, and it’s just lovely.

Q: Do you find life hard? If yes, why? If no, why not?

Of course, I think anyone who says they don’t is a liar. We’re all doing this for the first time and we’re all going to face challenges big and small, and I guess it’s how we learn from it and bounce back that shapes who we are. It would be boring if it was easy.
It’s draining, and things don’t slow down just because you need a break, the world keeps turning and sometimes it’s hard to keep up. I’m feeling that a bit at the moment. I’d love a real holiday, but right now it feels like I’d just fall too far behind. It’s the great self-employed dilemma.

Q: What’s the best advice you’ve ever been given?

‘Don’t smash the door down, keep knocking on it until it opens.’
Penybont FC manager, Rhys Griffiths said that to me once in a post-match interview I was doing with him. He was referring to the steady growth of Penybont as a club. But it stuck with me as a bit of a way to go about things in my career as well. It’s tempting to just go all guns blazing and smash the door in sometimes, but we’ve basically chipped away at what we do until we’ve reached the point where we’re undeniable to the decision makers. Although, sometimes, things do call for you to smash the door in, but it’s been selective with it.
Oh, and I also love ‘slowly, slowly, catchy monkey’, but mainly because it’s a stupid phrase.

Q: What’s the worst advice you’ve ever been given?

Move to London to further your career. Pure guff.

Q: After your days, how would you like to be remembered by those who knew you?

I often think that when I’m gone, all I really want is for people to say “Ryan March? Yeah, he was a good bloke.”

Q: Who is the person you admire the most? What is about them that makes you feel this way?

There’s plenty of obvious ones like – my family, friends, whatever. I’m not here to be that gushing! For me, it’s any one who backs themselves enough to find a way, by hook or by crook, to do what they’re passionate about. I like to see good people do well.

Q: Have you ever had a big revelation in your life that caused you to make a change? What prompted the revelation? What changes did you make?

I went through a break up last year, after a twelve year relationship. It was a bit of a sink or swim moment, and thankfully I forced myself to swim, even when it felt like the hardest thing in the world.
I’m grateful that it happened, because I’ve learned a lot about myself and who I was and who I am, and I’ve become a better person because of it. As someone wise once said, we live and we learn…

Q: What’s one regret that you have in your life? (If you’re someone who says they have no regrets because everything that’s happened is what brought you to where you are today, tell me something that you’d go back and change – if it meant that nothing else would change as a consequence)

I wish I’d lived abroad for a period of time when I was younger, or went away for university. I stayed in Cardiff, a city I knew like the back of my hand, only 25 minutes from home, mainly to be in a band and chase the dream. Like, I don’t regret that decision at all, we had a great time and made so many memories that will last a lifetime and met so many friends, but there’s always a part of me that thinks ‘what if?’ to the idea of going to London, or Manchester, or abroad for university or work in my early 20s when you’re still figuring life out without the responsibilities of being an adult..
Oh, and eating too much shit food in my late teens and early 20s. My Mum was right, it does catch up with you.

Q: What is something that deeply concerns you about the world today? something that you think about on a daily basis?

As I sit here writing this amidst an extended July heatwave, it’s got to be climate change. I actually think planet earth is pretty class and we should really want to look after it. But maybe I’m the fool?!
I also worry about AI, and a new over-reliance on it. It still can’t produce anything near what a human can, creatively, but it’s just warping people’s minds and stopping them from being able to think for themselves, or write a simple sentence without the reassurance of a water guzzling robot.
And finally, it’s sort of linked to the AI thing, but I do genuinely worry about people’s tastes and attention span. I think there’s an art to making videos and music, but in this culture of AI slop, disposable content and the over saturation of social media, it feels like everything is just a bit devalued and means it’s harder to make something that has an impact.

Q: What is something that’s made you laugh recently?

The group chat I have with the Wales away boys. Someone says something ridiculous in there daily and it brings me so much joy. Big shout out to my mucka Rhodri Davies who is like no one I’ve ever met before. Deeply disturbed in the best way possible.

Q: Well me the one great story you have to tell. Maybe it’s the story you always dine out on. Or maybe it’s your favourite funny story. Or the one your friends and family always ask you to tell.

That goal I scored aged 8 at a fun day in Nantyffyllon for Bridgend Town, I’m still dining out on it. I can see it perfectly now.
Down the left hand side, beat up, beat another, cruyff turn between them, wrapped my right foot around and found the far top corner. The stuff of legend. My Bridgend mates are sick of hearing about it.

Q: Tell me about the greatest loves of your life. (This could be a partner, friends, family members, a hobby, a job, a pet.) What made them so great?

I can’t be anything other than football here really? I touched on it earlier, but like, it’s completely shaped who I am in so many different ways and given me so much. Travelling, friendships, culture, music, art, fashion, whatever it is, there’ll be some link to football in there. It truly is a beautiful thing.

Q: Do you have any parting words?

It’s nice to get out for an hour.

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