Venturing into the media industry is not as simple as it may seem and it takes a lot of hardwork , devotion, dedication and a good moral compass to be well respected in the media fraternity.

Dreaming of starting a show or a podcast takes a lot of guts and courage to act upon the dream hence one usually faces criticism, rude comments and negative feedback from the audience, potential sponsors and producers that giving up will not be a far fetched thought. Giving up was not on Isheanesu Muchena’s agenda hence he kept on pushing until he started his own podcast making his dream a reality.

Isheanesu Muchena attended his secondary education at GlenNorah High 1 and attained 14 points at A-level. His hope was to pursue tertiary studies in Journalism but a lot of people including his family condemned that, they wanted him to go on a different path and study something else. His love and passion for journalism gave him courage to follow his heart and study the course of his choice journalism. He then enrolled with Christian College Of Southern Africa (CCOSA) where he trained to be a broadcast journalist. His hardships and trials made him identify himself as the ‘Joseph of the media industry in Zimbabwe.

Muchena’s desire not to be a failure implanted the dream to start his own podcast and realizing that the decline of print media inspired the idea of his own podcast. However, him wanting to positively impact lives and also discovering that a lot of media houses have editorial policies that may limit creativity fueled his decision to start a podcast as he did not want to be boxed into a situation where he can not be creative enough to fully reach his potential as a media personnel. He chose to create a space where there is no editor who creates a limit to what he can do.

Entitling the podcast ‘Wisdom and Purpose with IME’, the name emanated from the objective of the podcast show which is to make wisdom not in the public domain, accessible to help people discover their purpose by sharing stories of people who are living a purposeful life and this how he came up with the concept and the name of the podcast.

Muchena also said that his target audience is anyone who is looking to acquire wisdom, live a life of purpose and anyone who has interests in personal development. For his topics for the podcast episodes, he said that his podcast features guests that have unique and inspiring stories to tell stories, people who are making strides in different walks of life. Besides running a podcast, he is also a writer, transformational speaker, leader and an attaché at the Zimpapers Radio Capitalk 100.4 FM and he is also a videographer.

Muchena whose podcast name is Ime The Finest, also mentioned that there are some challenges he faced when he was starting his podcast like finding it very difficult to find the right set of individuals who shared the same vision he had but later on he managed to assemble a team with the same vision, though he is still looking for like minded people to help him achieve his dreams .

Another challenge is funding and he stated that production needs money and he is looking for advertisers and partners who can help him with funding. He also mentioned that as a nation funding is what is needed and there is need to get big brands and corporates to advertise in podcasts with the target audience and this will help podcasters to tell the Zimbabwean story.

Muchena spoke of how his communication skills have greatly improved as well as engineering and editorial skills as he is the one doing it for the podcast. He hopes and believes that in the next three years his podcast will be the biggest platform for sharing African stories and personal development and as part of the podcast he hopes to establish awards to recognize individuals who are making strides in various walks of live. He is aiming to create employment opportunities for many people as he hopes to evolve the podcast into a media house.

“Currently, I am just repurposing my content and posts shorts on social media platforms such as Tik Tok, Facebook and Instagram. As soon as I amass the resources, I want to promote it by taking it to the people physically like doing shows in different places, hosting some workshops and making it accessible on all podcasting sites,” said Muchena.

He also offered strong advice to those that may want to start their own podcasts saying that people should follow their hearts , listen to that small voice inside and go for it.

“As a man thinketh so he becomes, always think big and you will achieve big things. Protect your mind from negative thoughts and distractions and focus. If you want to start a podcast just begin with what you have and where you are.”

Isheanesu Muchena can be found on Facebook ,Instagram, Youtube as Ime The Finest and on X as IsheanesuIME.