For twelve years I ran paid media and content for brands most Australians have heard of. National retailers, furniture brands, D2C ecom, hospitality groups. The monthly retainer worked beautifully for them. At $2,000 to $10,000 a month, it should.

Then I started taking on smaller clients - a Melbourne cafe, an allied health clinic, a tradie in the northern suburbs. And the retainer model broke. Not because the work was different. The work was almost identical. Same frameworks. Same prompts. Same campaign structures.

What broke was the maths. Paying $2,000 a month for strategy felt insane for a business turning over $200K. Paying $150 a month for ten hours of AI-assisted DIY? That maths works.

So I spent all of 2025 rebuilding. Stripping the agency down. Productising every asset I'd ever shipped. Teaching Claude (and sometimes ChatGPT) to think the way I do. Testing on real Australian small business owners. In April 2026, I stopped taking retainer clients. Maeve Media as you see it now is the answer.

- Rach

For twelve years I ran paid media and content for brands most Australians have heard of. National retailers, furniture brands, D2C ecom, hospitality groups. The monthly retainer worked beautifully for them. At $2,000 to $10,000 a month, it should.

Then I started taking on smaller clients - a Melbourne cafe, an allied health clinic, a tradie in the northern suburbs. And the retainer model broke. Not because the work was different. The work was almost identical. Same frameworks. Same prompts. Same campaign structures.

What broke was the maths. Paying $2,000 a month for strategy felt insane for a business turning over $200K. Paying $150 a month for ten hours of AI-assisted DIY? That maths works.

So I spent all of 2025 rebuilding. Stripping the agency down. Productising every asset I'd ever shipped. Teaching Claude (and sometimes ChatGPT) to think the way I do. Testing on real Australian small business owners. In April 2026, I stopped taking retainer clients. Maeve Media as you see it now is the answer.

- Rach

For twelve years I ran paid media and content for brands most Australians have heard of. National retailers, furniture brands, D2C ecom, hospitality groups. The monthly retainer worked beautifully for them. At $2,000 to $10,000 a month, it should.

Then I started taking on smaller clients - a Melbourne cafe, an allied health clinic, a tradie in the northern suburbs. And the retainer model broke. Not because the work was different. The work was almost identical. Same frameworks. Same prompts. Same campaign structures.

What broke was the maths. Paying $2,000 a month for strategy felt insane for a business turning over $200K. Paying $150 a month for ten hours of AI-assisted DIY? That maths works.

So I spent all of 2025 rebuilding. Stripping the agency down. Productising every asset I'd ever shipped. Teaching Claude (and sometimes ChatGPT) to think the way I do. Testing on real Australian small business owners. In April 2026, I stopped taking retainer clients. Maeve Media as you see it now is the answer.

- Rach

For more than a decade I've built, pitched and managed advertising campaigns inside Australia's biggest media companies - for the likes of Disney, Medibank, Energy Australia, Nissan and BMW, representing titles from news.com.au to Vogue. Alongside it, I ran the same playbook directly for Australian businesses: a furniture retailer, footwear labels, a produce wholesaler, a Melbourne restaurant.

Then I started taking on smaller clients - a Melbourne cafe, an allied health clinic, a tradie in the northern suburbs. And the retainer model broke. Not because the work was different. The work was almost identical. Same frameworks. Same prompts. Same campaign structures.

What broke was the maths. Paying $2,000 a month for strategy felt insane for a business turning over $200K. Paying $150 a month for ten hours of AI-assisted DIY? That maths works.

So I spent all of 2025 rebuilding. Stripping the practice down. Productising every asset I'd ever built. Teaching Claude (and sometimes ChatGPT) to think the way I do. Testing on real Australian small business owners. In April 2026, Maeve Media as you see it now became the answer.

- Rach