Jose is a member of our AI Apprentice program and owns Best Price Kitchen Bath. A while back, I audited his website and found the usual problems. He’d been working with SEO vendors selling snake oil. So Jose decided to take matters into his own hands.
With an IT background and the help of AI tools, specifically Claude, Jose completely rebuilt his website in about a week. And the results were immediate. Within the first week of going live, he was already getting calls. One woman told him, “I saw you on Google, I saw your five-star rating, I saw your beautiful website. That’s what we want.”
That’s exactly what should happen when you do this right.
What Jose got right
When I pulled up his site, several things stood out. Everything is real.
Every photo, every hero image, every video is 100% authentic, from actual jobs his team completed.
No stock photos, no AI-generated filler. He shows pricing, which is the number one question people have when they land on a service website. Most businesses hide it. Jose puts it front and center.
He tells stories too.
His copy leads with real scenarios, like a homeowner named Anne who ignored her tub for 11 years. That’s the beginning of a story, and stories are what sell.
He also built it with AI the smart way. Jose used Claude to build the entire site as a static HTML site, connecting to MCP servers for one-click deployment. He feeds it Search Console data and it suggests improvements. His PageSpeed score is around 95.
Jose followed the core principles we teach in the AI Apprentice program. Be authentic, show real work, tell real stories. And it’s working.
The one thing holding him back
Here’s what I told Jose, the same thing I tell him every week. Show your face.
His site has beautiful photos of kitchens, bathrooms, countertops, and closets. But where are the people? Where’s Jose? Where’s Tim, his partner? Where are the homeowners?
People buy from people. This is especially true for local service businesses. When someone is deciding who to let into their home to remodel their kitchen, they want to see a face. They want to feel a connection.
Think about it like Disney or Pixar. What makes a great story? It’s always about what happened to a person. Not a countertop. Not a bathtub. A person.
Anne ignored her tub for 11 years. That’s a great story hook. But where’s a photo of Anne? Where’s a photo of Jose and Tim standing with a happy homeowner in front of their newly remodeled bathroom? That’s what converts.
Jose had also been using an AI cartoon avatar in his Zoom calls instead of showing his real face. I asked him why, and he agreed that people connect with the real person, not the cartoon. It’s that simple.
The before, during, and after framework
Remodeling has a natural story arc built right in.
It starts with the before. Here’s the situation. The outdated kitchen. The tub that’s been neglected for a decade. Then comes the during. Here’s the team at work. Jose and Tim on site, solving problems, building something great. And finally the after. Here’s the transformation. The happy homeowner. The finished result.
That’s a hero’s journey. That’s what “This Old House” does. That’s what Bob Vila did. Show the process with real people in it, and you’ve got content that sells whether it’s a reel, a YouTube video, or a story on your website.
What’s next for Jose
Jose already has a 90-day content plan in place that involves creating posts and videos about real jobs, telling real stories, and yes, showing his face. He’s also exploring video testimonials, though I pushed back on that word. We don’t do “testimonials.” We tell stories. There’s a difference.
A testimonial says, “They did a good job.” A story says, “Anne ignored her tub for 11 years. Here’s what happened when she finally called us.” The second one is what makes people pick up the phone.
Jose is already ahead of 99% of kitchen and bath remodelers because he understands how to use AI tools to build and optimize his site. But we don’t settle for B’s and C’s. We want A’s. The technical foundation is solid. Now it’s time to layer in the human element.
The number one takeaway is this. Show your face, tell the story, and put real people at the center of everything you do. That’s what converts visitors into customers.