Six Months In: From MeMedia to PROACTIVE Co

It's been a while since many of you have heard from me, and there's a reason for that. I want to take a moment to tell you what the last six months have looked like, because so many people in my network, and even past clients, have been left wondering.

The short version is that we had to change, or die.

The disruption that ended MeMedia

It's no secret now that MeMedia felt a serious disruption between December and February. We lost eighty per cent of our clients, and we had to say goodbye to our longstanding team, people many of you worked with over the years.

That was a very sad moment for me. It was a hard time. We weren't only grieving the loss of team members, which was heartbreaking enough, we were staring down the potential loss of much more. It was difficult, and not just for me, but for my family as well.

How my network held me up

What I realised through all of it is just how unbelievably supportive my network is, and has been. Several people were instrumental in helping me navigate that very difficult time.

My mentor continued to be my rock. He has far more experience in business than I do, and he helped me compartmentalise what was important, work out what I needed to focus on, and understand how I needed to change, reinvent myself, and become relevant again. Gareth Rydon was extremely supportive of the new pivot, and helped steer my education in AI, from the grassroots all the way to where I am now.

Coming full circle: an AI integration consultancy

Thankfully, I kept a couple of clients, both in construction, and developed new relationships, also in construction. Every one of them has allowed me to use AI every day, to improve not only my own outputs but to make sure their operations and communication were best practice.

And here's the part that still makes me smile. I've come full circle, back into the marketing world I've spent thirty years in, only this time I'm armed with AI coding and orchestration knowledge that is genuinely super-powering me. I haven't left marketing behind. I still draw on everything I learned building brands, and I still serve clients on marketing and advertising. The difference now is the leverage AI gives me to do it.

Teaching has always been my superpower

These days a good deal of my time goes into teaching leaders to become proficient in Anthropic's Claude. I've run several workshops already, all to ninety per cent capacity, and I've helped integrate AI into the operations of construction companies and marketing agencies alike.

Learning by doing is the best way to learn. What I've discovered, both at the beginning and now, six months in, is that educating people on new technologies is my superpower, and probably always has been. That's where our two taglines come from. The first is 'courage before capability', which simply means having the courage to make the change. The second is 'stop watching and start building'.

What this looks like for clients

Our workshops have helped organisations lift their productivity, in some cases a hundredfold. Take the concreting company we worked with on integration and education. We took their estimating from ten hours per estimate to ten minutes. That is mind-blowing, and it's going to help them stay at the forefront of their industry.

It's a wild time to be in business. It's a wild time to be an employee. But one thing we're very sure of is that if your skills don't include these tools, you'll fast become irrelevant. Much like MeMedia did in January of 2026.

Courage before capability. Have the courage to make the change, then get proficient as fast as you can.