From Cleaning Toilets To Making A Big Name in Australia's Television Industry

The Story of Annie Gichuru

(This is an adaptation of a story originally featured in 'Daring Abroad,' a YouTube Media Production by Chams Media, Kenya, Aired on 9 Nov 2019)

It is said that life happens when we are busy making other plans. Annie Gichuru can attest to this. When she first went to Australia, Annie Gichuru had no plans of staying. But 23 years later, she is a busy person in a rare field and in fact, what many Kenyans abroad would find challenging to do - independent content production. This is her journey. Annie Gichuru lives in Perth, a city is located to the west of Australia. It has a population of about 2 million people, making it the fourth most populous city in the country after Sydney, Melbourne, and Brisbane. Perth is the capital of Western Australia, and the city is known as a centre of commerce culture, education, entertainment, and a beautiful natural Environment. But Perth is also known for its love of wildlife, a major tourist attraction where visitors get to bond with animals like koalas pirates, and even kangaroos. Despite its uniqueness, the city shares a name with another port city in Scotland. And just like Kenya, Perth City's favourite pastime is football.

Annie Gichuru hosts a television and online series known as True Life Stories. It is a series that focuses on people who have overcome great challenges in life. Her passion is storytelling and covering people's stories, particularly those who are doing work that seems to be making a difference - untold stories that people don't hear enough, or stories about some of the extraordinary good deeds in society. Annie Gichuru loves capturing that kind of stuff and just hearing their beginning, how they've sort of started out and ended up to where they are and where they want to go to. Annie Gichuru is based in Perth City. She believes that it is this passion that inspired her to venture into journalism in the first place.

At some point, speaking to Alex Chamwada of the Daring Abroad series (Annie’s episode was aired 9th November 2019), she recalled watching television a fair bit at home in Kenya while she was growing up. She would admire the journalists on television reading the news, and she would think to herself, ‘Oh, you know I'd really love to get into this.’ Annie particularly remembers watching the Oprah Winfrey Show from around the age of 10 when the private-owned Kenya Television Network (KTN) became the second national channel after the nationalised Kenya Broadcasting Corporation (KBC). In those days, the electronic media space was very narrow, and people only used to have the then KBC. With KTN, Annie Gichuru was able to watch The Oprah Winfrey Show for the very first time and she thought, ‘Wow I love what she's doing.’ A lot of the subjects that Oprah Winfrey aired were relatable and they were really emotional as well. Annie Gichuru loved this, and so a seed was planted from an early age. This seed continued to grow well into her teenage years, and upon completing her high school education at Loreto Convent (Valley Road, Nairobi) Annie relocated to Australia.

Annie joined Murdoch University for a degree in Mass Communication with a double major in journalism and public relations. She loved it. It was a great learning curve and she felt like she was inching closer to getting into what she always wanted to get into. After completing her studies, Annie thought she was all prepared to practice as a journalist - but little did she know that there was a stumbling block ahead. First and foremost, being the only person of color in her course was an issue. One day she went to a television station where she needed to do an internship and she thought to herself, ‘Oh there's no way I can do this”... because there was no one that looked like her. Secondly, there was no one that sounded like her, and she didn't want to stand out like a sore thumb. Annie Gichuru really wanted to blend in with the Australian culture just like everyone else. But she couldn't blend in because she was what she was - a person of colour struggling to fit in a sea of White people who hardly understood her accent.

This situation really frustrated Annie. She decided not to continue in media, meaning that she would need to go back to university and pursue something else - this happened to be a Master's degree in human resource management. Annie Gichuru later ended up working in the publishing sector and after that, the real estate sector. This was before she ended up joining the Commonwealth Scientific and Industrial Research Organisation as a human resource adviser. In this role, Annie would advise those from Africa and the rest of the commonwealth, seeking greener pastures abroad in Australia.

Annie alway would be very emphatic that life abroad is not that easy; it's hard work. She wouldn't dare tell anyone aspiring to go out there in the Diaspora that it's all bread and butter. In fact, it's a hard life, especially for those who come unprepared for it. Annie normally advises that you've got to really have a passion and a drive in order to cope with the pace and demands of life in the diaspora. You've got to know why you're doing it - because there are times when things can get extremely hard. You must prepare yourself to knock on doors for so long, with people often saying ‘No Thank You’ to you. So Annie this is how turned her back on journalism and ventured into human resource management. But somehow, fate would have it that she would later make a comeback to journalism - this time round, as an independent content producer.

This entrepreneurial idea first crossed Annie’s mind while she was on maternity leave with her first child, a girl. Annie realised that a lot of the news - with the news now being available over 24 hours as we all know - was just running in cycles over and over again. For the most part, it was just negative news. So Annie began looking for positive content that she could watch. But there wasn't enough of it, so she started thinking about how she’s always wanted to get into television - which in fact, was what brought her to Australia in the first place. This brainstorming propelled Annie into ideas around independent storytelling. She would soon set out to tell positive life stories, away from the usual negativity she saw around her.

Come 2017, and Annie established her own TV production company. With that, True Life Stories was born. It is a human interest series focusing on inspiring stories of people who have overcome great challenges in life. It is something that Annie Gichuru loves doing herself, in her own space. To this day, Annie is growing in that space as she explores deeper. At the time of telling her story the first time, Annie Gichuru was in the process of setting up her own studio where she could produce content not just for herself but for others. Through her media company, Annie Gichuru would also do events. She’s covered a few events for organisations that are either on-for-profits or networking businesses that now bring entrepreneurs, business people, etc, and she’s been able to cover that for them. Annie at this point has been assimilated into Australian culture - a transformation that has enabled her to connect with the local Aussie audience.

Since establishing her business as a budding entrepreneur, Annie has observed that running a business abroad is not as easy as most people think. At the startup stage, you're still trying to figure out things - it's not a walk in the park. You have a job every single day - and it's more of building a name for yourself at this stage than actually making money. It's more of networking, getting your name out there, and really talking about the work that you've done. It's about getting your story to more audiences. In addition, resources are just never enough. The business is not income-generating enough at the very start. From a funding perspective, putting together a television production involves quite a bit of money. It's not a cheap thing, especially if you want to do a high-quality production. It costs a lot of money. So there's always the challenge of funding to get the content done and produced well. Also, there's the challenge of selling your content to people who will not only go like, ‘Yes this is the kind of stuff that we want to air on our channels,’ but will also support it financially through subscriptions.

Despite the hurdles and setbacks she initially had to face and overcome, Annie soldiered on and found her feet at last. Online television is widespread in Australia, and there is a popular streaming service called Foxtel - probably the equivalent of DSTV back in Kenya. Annie’s media output is one of the channels there. It is found within Australia and New Zealand, and so her content is being viewed widely. So far, the feedback from the public remains pretty positive both from Australians and diaspora Kenyans, as well as other Africans across the board. Annie even has people from Zimbabwe, Zambia, and South Africa who consume her content, as well as people from Ghana, and they love it.

Perhaps the question at some point would be, with this positive feedback would she ever consider absolutely love doing the same in Kenya? Annie’s answer, either way, is very straightforward - yes. She would definitely do this back home. Annie believes that we have so many rich stories in Kenya, but one of the major barriers to venturing into the Kenyan market is ‘who do you know.’ You can't just innocently come back to kenya and say, ‘Hi my name is Annie Gichuru, I'm a documentary filmmaker, I've made this content and I'd really love to sit down and have a chat with you on the way forward.’ the reality is that Kenya, unfortunately is not straighforward like Australia. In Australia, you can do the straightforad stuf no problem, but in kenya you have to navigate a minefield of barriers just to secure good air coverage on mainstream media. Meanwhile, Annie continues to grow her own business in australia and indeed, she has become a powerhouse in inspiring content like her idols Oprah Winfrey and Tyler Perry. However, this is not her ultimate goal. Annie is married and settled in Australia, but her plan has always been to eventually move back home to Kenya especially now that she has growing kids. The thought of moving back home has really been in her heart and if she were to move for example to Kenya today, the first thing she would be doing would be, how can she get into television. When asked what advice she has for those thinking of doing the same thing, this was Annie Gichuru’s response:

“Living abroad is hard work. You've got to work hard. When I started and when I first came here, I used to clean offices, and it involved cleaning toilets as well. So it's hard work. You've got to come here prepared to work hard. And for me, having a relationship with Jesus is what's made a difference - just being somebody who prays and believes in God. he will open doors for you in places you never thought or imagined. It's not easy from my experience. Independent content production takes commitment and dedication, plus hard work.”

But as a creative Kenyan woman living abroad, Annie Gichuru takes it all to another level despite the challenges of life in the Diaspora.

Video reference:

• https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=SLzhZIWmv_A

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