1. Thank you for this opportunity. Would have never imagined am worth giving anybody advice - half the time I can't figure a way out of my own head. Lol

Am not sure where to start. As the intro shows. Am all over the place - Media, IT, PR - but there is a method to the madness.

2. A lot of people know of me for different reasons, dependent on, when they got to know me, why, how, or if they had contact, how much was before their eyes.

But for the purposes of this handle, it’s the professional and business aspects of my life that I'll speak about.

3. As such, I'll take a cue from my brother @RangaMberi and split my threads into something like

- Me, the person
- Journalism, Media
- IT
- PR, Handling attention and how I live my miracle.

Mukanyaniswa we zviyo but unosangana mberi - its a mess but it makes sense at the end

4. I was born in Zvishavane, to a teacher and a soldier. I took most of my traits from my mother. She was a public speaker and writer. She was sporty, she sings, and plays guitar. I attended Shabani Primary School, back in the days of Marie Drakes. My foundations were set there.

5. In pri school, I routinely won the Girl's College Literacy Competition - we were encouraged to write creative stories and received prizes for great submissions. My mother sat me through every submission. It was the same for Public Speaking. She invested hours into my eloquence

6. She was my first mentor. I can still trace my writing style & speech / debate delivery to her mentorship. My brother, Munyaradzi Manyowa, was my second mentor. He taught me every sport I play - including my first dream and love - cricket.

7. As a kid I wanted to play Cricket for Zim. I was quite good at it. So good that I was moved from Zvishavane to Harare to play cricket. Most of my mates still play professionally for Zim or abroad. At Allan Wilson & Harare Sports Club I shined as a teenage cricketer

8. My foundation carried on though. I won Passmark (A quiz held on ZBC) a couple of times & was runner up a few times too. In 2007 I won National Debate Competitions with my underdog AWS team. The highlight, I delivered a speech at International Families Day in 2008 at Rainbow.

9. In attendance that evening was Govenor Karimanzira (the late), Oppah Muchinguri, Milton Kamwendo & other political figures. I still have a copy of the speech today. It was a breathtaking display - and I left that evening with contacts that changed my life forever & till today.

10. In 2007, at a debate tournament at QE, I met Charles Mushinga. He was running Sunday Mail Bridge. He loved my delivery & asked me to write a report of the competition in 'news report' format. I wrote it & he gave me a byline with a picture. I am not sure he remembers even.

11. Charles gave me a 20 minute crash course, gave me his number & told me to read 3-4 newspapers in full to see how stories are written & submit. Went to his office next day, picked up 4 copies & read through all of them. He was my first journalism mentor.

12. The debate, public speaking, speeches & networks all culminated in what I consider my first dalliances with 'citizen journalism'. I instantly fell in love - but cricket was my career & Mash Cricket was heavily invested & so was I. So I continued to play & write occasionally

13. A lot happened in 08-09 that shifted both my reality & perspectives. As we were playing practise games (Zim U19 vs Zim A) I went home & sat on the balcony to think. I remembered that as a kid I watched Zim win a Test Match for the first time against Pakistan. It was epic.

14. Fans stormed the pitch. Players were heroes. So I wanted to be a cricketer and be a hero too. But cricket was a dream that came from my head & not my heart. So I made a choice to quit full time sport go to Uni. It was a tough choice - cricket could pay bills. School needed $$

15. A significant thing I forgot to mention. My sister invested in Internet at home quite early. By 2005 I had taught myself 2-3 programming languages. I could code & knew my way around both the dark web & the internet. Heck I could even delete my own Telone Dial Up bill entries

16. When I got to Uni I had time. More time than I had ever had in between my many activities in school & attempting to become an international cricketer. I increased my drive to learn code, web development & web design. I continued to write on sports, lifestyle &other topics too

17. By 2012 I was writing for a few publications including some in London. Things were bad though. I moved out of my sister's house to grow - became a father - had no income - so I lived in an asbestos-wall back room in Mabelreign. Our lunch & supper was Rice & boiled Royco.

18. I had access to politicians & business people I had impressed in 08 but it wasn't in me to ask for handouts. So I asked my sister to apply for Telone ADSL for me & $80 to buy domains. She did & I spent all of that year doing freelance web design & pushing my own sites.

19. In that time, I was in contact with Kuda (myzimbabwe owner), and I worked with Hamilton Katsvairo at Bitbury, Charles Nyachowe, Jadiel Masimba, and Constantine Chimakure - the latter being a renowned editor. Each contributed immensely to my knowledge of IT & journalism

20. Chimakure, especially, was significant as he eventually hired me to work for The Zimbabwe Mail. He also introduced me to Wisdom Mudzaingiri (newsday editor), Xolisani Ncube and Nigel Pfunde. At the same time Psychology Maziwisa kept encouraging me to push my sites & grow them

21. The whole time I never stopped writing. Anywhere. Free & Freelance. Then Chimakure nudged me towards hard news & political reporting. My kind of reporting was considered 'very anti-establishment', & it didn't take long for me to get in trouble. However, I was making progress.

22. Although my financial problems were real, things blew up around 2013-24. News 24, the biggest in the continent invited me to start writing for them. Power FM in South Africa followed. Before long I was on SaFM, NBC, while writing for News24 & Zimbabwe Mail & many others.

23. My IT skill allowed me to run many online hustles. Some of my sites were news. Some evergreen niche sites (these still earn me money today), some online businesses, etc. I didn't need a tech guy. I designed my own stuff. My journalism training meant I could edit my sites too.

24. I consider 09 (when I found myself with time) as the perfect moment for me to learn; Psychology, IT, Journalism all at once

I consider 2012 (when I fell into extreme poverty) as the perfect moment for me to use my skills.

In that whole time, I met people & learnt from them

25. I left out many details, names& events. Couldn't compress it into 1 thread. But every single event always led me to another. From my mum teaching me to write speeches, to public speaking, to reporting, to using the internet to learn, etc. I will expand in follow up threads.

26. Will split threads into categories & go a little deeper. Wanted to strip myself to bare bones 1st, so that if my journey is traceable, some may try to follow step by step. I think am especially lucky to be where I am but I know I also invested to be here.

# END OF THREAD 1.