§ 01 · The Hook
The bait, then the rug-pull.
Emmanuel Diaz has built over a thousand websites. His conclusion: the product he was selling was never the thing the client actually wanted. What follows is a live tour through three custom tools he built for local businesses — each one replacing a generic SaaS at a fraction of the cost, built in roughly a week with AI.
Who's talking.
00:00hostTyler Moore
00:00guestEmmanuel Diaz
Where the time goes.
00:00 – 01:45
01 · The thesis: nobody wants a website
Emmanuel introduces the core repositioning — websites are business cards, business owners want money and easier operations.
01:45 – 05:30
02 · Case Study 1: Firearms training CRM
Got Ur 6 Firearms Training — the pitch shifted from website redesign to a student retention and compliance CRM. Live demo of the Instructor Dashboard.
05:30 – 07:00
03 · How to find the niche problem
Niche selection advice: recurring-routine businesses with no subscription model. Claude Code as the unlock. How to put yourself in the business owner shoes.
07:00 – 15:30
04 · Case Study 2: Bridal boutique appointment system
Blushing Bridal — replacing an abandoned WordPress plugin with a full branded CRM, dress-selection tool, and in-studio presentation mode. $250/month.
15:30 – 18:00
05 · Case Study 3: Security guard license renewal CRM
Replacing $800/month HubSpot Professional with a stripped-down custom CRM built exactly for one compliance-focused business.
18:00 – 24:00
06 · Tactical playbook: starting from zero
How to approach businesses, build demos first, use niche specialization as leverage, and make the pitch about solving operational pain.
Lines you could clip.
01:15
"What customers actually want is not a website. What they really want is money."
05:03
"In the business owner mind, they think — wait a minute, this equals money. That is what they actually care about."
15:53
"If this increases her conversion rate to even one more dress per month — why would she ever cancel a subscription?"
20:09
"If you present the solution to the problems that you know they have, that is gonna convert way better than just a nicer website."
Things they pointed at.
Word for word.
HOOK opening / re-engagementCTA the pitch
00:00HOOKHi. My name is Tyler Moore. I've been building websites for over twenty years and this is Emmanuel Diaz.
00:05HOOKHe's been making websites for a long time and has made over a thousand websites. You told me something last week. You said that nobody actually wants a website.
00:18HOOKSo, you know, if if you run a website design agency, um, you might have noticed that you care a lot about creating a website and having a nice website. But for the average person or, like, the average business owner,
00:31HOOKtheir website is not something that they think about a lot. It's kinda like a business card where, like, you know, you wanna have a nice business card, um, and then that's kind of it. You just it kinda sits there.
00:42HOOKAnd if you've ever tried to do, like, a cold sale, calling somebody to offer them a website, they
00:50HOOKunless it, like, is a particular pain point where they're, like, embarrassed about their website or their business is just starting and they kinda need something up and running,
01:00HOOKthey don't really care about it that much. It's just like, okay. I have a website or I it's ugly or it's okay, and it just kinda sits there.
01:07HOOKIt's it's kinda fine. So what I've come to the conclusion of is that what customers actually want is not a website.
01:13HOOKWhat they really want is money. They wanna they wanna you need to sell them you need to sell them not on the website, but on systems that will will make their life easier.
01:26HOOKAnd if it makes your life easier and it also makes them more money, um, that is a a much better pitch than, uh, hey. I wanna make you a a better website. So how do you go about pitching them, and what is their reactions, and does it actually get the higher conversion rate when you reach out?
01:47So, uh, if you open right there where it says, um, if you go to gotyoursix,
01:53let me see. I think it's gotyour6.com. Oh,
01:59gotyoursix? Hold on.
02:01Gotyour6.com? You are. You are.
02:04You are. You are in the number six. Okay.
02:06Gotyour6.com. Okay. So this is like
02:12no. It's not this one. Although this is a this is a an equally equally bad What is this?
02:20I don't know. That's not the website. Let
02:24me send you the the link right now.
02:27Oh, sorry. My bad.
02:30It's it's got your six firearms training. It's a very long name. So I'll send you the link.
02:36But the the website is it kinda has the same problem as the website that you just opened.
02:44It's like a ugly website. It's like a you know, it's just not they did it themselves. Right?
02:49Now if you if you look up the business, right, so if you just put Got Your Six Firearms Training, put Florida because they're in Florida. Mhmm. If you look up the business, okay,
02:59Got Your Six Firearms Training Florida, You can see that it's, uh, there. It's the first one.
03:05Wow. So they have, like, a very good they have, like, a lot of people going there. Right.
03:11So the business is doing well. They have a ton of reviews.
03:14They're very active on social media. So if I call them and I say, hey. I can make your website look prettier.
03:21Who cares? Like Yeah. You know, my my website my business is running just fine with, like, a simple website.
03:28Like, it gets the job done. Like, it's who cares? So what I try to pitch, not just them, but, like, any customer is, um, you know, you try to think about
03:37what could you actually improve in their business before you contact them. Uh, and it's hard to think about this for every single individual business that that could exist, so you kinda have to niche down to, like, okay. What what business can I solve a problem for?
03:49And for them, for example, the issue is that students will, like, book a class, and then, you know, they kinda do it one time, get, like, a firearms license, and then they they don't really go again.
04:01But, usually, for firearms, you're supposed to, like, train regularly so that you don't get rusty and you you know how to use it and, you know, you're safe about it. So what I yes.
04:10I offered them a nicer website because I want them to look more professional, but but what they actually want to buy is a a booking system that automatically, uh, what it does is when they sign up a student every month, it automatically sends them a reminder asking them to book another class.
04:29Um, it also they can also log what level of training they did. So he has, like, different levels, level one, level two, level three. He can log what level they did, and then it automatically invites them
04:39to do, like, the next level of training. If it's the student's birthday, it sends them a reminder, like, a couple days before saying, hey. You wanna come, you know, train for your birthday?
04:50And, also, like, before holidays, it sends a reminder asking them if they wanna, you know, use the holiday weekend, the long weekend to to do, like, a training session or something like So when I when I explained that part in the in the business owner's mind, they're like, wait a minute.
05:06This more students, more train okay. Wait. This equals money.
05:08Yeah. That's what they actually that's what they actually care about, not not having a prettier website.
05:14But how did you even, like tell me the story. Walk me through the story of how did you actually contact them? What did you say?
05:20Did they contact you? What was that first step? And then and then how do you even know
05:26what they needed? You know? How does, a new if I'm trying to pitch somebody,
05:31how would I even know? Yeah. You know?
05:33So the the that's why it's good to kinda figure out a niche because once you figure out one one problem, it's easier to sell other similar businesses. Like, you know, once you you kinda have to go either do the research and figure out a known issue.
05:47Right? So if if you research, you'll you'll know that there's a lot of gaps in, like, um, subscription businesses that are that are routine, but you can't really have a subscription, like pet groomers,
05:59barbers, things that people go to routinely, but they can't really offer a subscription service.
06:05And you could think, you know, how could I how could I make their life easier? Right? You you really need to put effort into putting your yourself in the shoes of the business owner.
06:14Imagine what their day is like and and how to how you would fix their solution. And, you know, with with tools like Cloud Code, which is what I use,
06:23you know, it it really opens the door to okay. I can build any kind of software that can run any kind of system. How can I use this?
06:32Which I know that the business owner probably doesn't have access to a tool like this. How can I use this to build some kind of really niche software
06:39that can solve specifically this very specific issue that that is so specific and so small that there's no, like, giant software that does it? Right. But you can offer it to that to that small business.
06:49Can you give me some more examples of, like, what is a small, you know, niche thing that you can do for people? Yeah.
06:57So another example was for a bridal company that I did. So I think you have it pulled up right there.
07:05So this is Blushing Bridal. There's, a bridal boutique. And Very nice website.
07:10Did did you Yeah. It's a beautiful it's a beautiful website. And to be honest, for for these customers, they they never asked me, like, oh, can you build me this?
07:20It's kind of like I work with a subscription model. So, you know, there's only so much so many website updates that you can do.
07:27Right? Um, so I always try to think, well, what could I build that
07:33makes it worth it for them to continue to pay the subscription? Right? And Mhmm.
07:36When you give your customer a tool that, um, increases how much money they make, uh, and and and the money they make from the tool makes is more than what the, uh, what the tool cost. It's
07:48it it makes complete sense to to keep pay paying for it, which is, you know, I want my customers to be happy, and I I want them to use these tools for a long time. So she had on her she had a WordPress website,
08:00um, and she had a booking system that, uh, you know, it was a a very, uh, standard free plug in booking system. And what it would do is, uh, the person would would fill out the sheet.
08:11So if you go to her website if you go to her website, um, it says click click book your appointment. Book your appointment?
08:21Yeah. Right there. So this is what she had.
08:23She had an uglier version of this. We made it look pretty. Um, but this is what she had.
08:28So you could, uh, click a date right there, and then you could pick a time. And then the bride would fill out the information for, like, uh, trying on her dress. Right?
08:37And that's it. She did get a confirmation email, and that was it. And the the WordPress plugin that she had,
08:43it was abandoned, and it was starting to create, like, fatal errors on her website. So I told her, hey.
08:50Listen. We we we should replace this before it, like, breaks the website really bad. And she was like, okay.
08:56Let's let's let's work on that next. And I thought, okay. I can I can make a a booking plugin with Cloud Code?
09:01But I was like, you know, what if I made something that was, like, really cool? Like like like, go further beyond than just a booking plugin.
09:10There's a million booking plugins. So I made an entire appointment system.
09:15So it has the entire booking plug in part, um, that you would, you know, do. But the really cool thing is, uh, a couple of things. So she has this dashboard now that's, like, really pretty.
09:24Before, it was just, like, the WordPress UI, which is, like, blue and gray. Now it's, like, brand matched. So this is a demo of what she sees.
09:32So, for example, under Olivia, if you click view, uh, click view right there, um, it also has, like, all the bride's details, almost like kind of like a mini CRM.
09:44And now she has another tool, uh, that she could use. You see where it says pick dresses? So click where it says pick dresses.
09:50This is where she can kind of preselect the dresses that she wants to demo for the bride based on her on her thing. So those are all the brands that she has. She can click any of the brands,
10:02and it'll load from her website. Oh, wow. But instead of loading, like, the ecommerce view, it'll load, like, this really, like, nice elegant view.
10:10She can heart whichever ones that she wants to demo. So you can, like, heart one of them, it'll it'll add it to the little thing. And then you can click at the top left corner to, like, go back home or or save the the pic.
10:22So you go back home. And now here's the here's, like, the the really special part that I explained to her. She has in her in her studio,
10:32like, this really big, giant 60 inch screen where she has her website open, and she shows the videos and the images of what the dresses look like.
10:41So I was like, wouldn't it be nice if the bride came in and it said, welcome bride's name, and then it had, like it wasn't just, like, her website. It was, like, something nice, uh, for the bride. So now if she clicks start appointment,
10:54it automatically launches a, like, a presentation mode. That's cool. So, yeah, so this will be on her screen.
11:00Uh, welcome, Olivia. And, uh, it has there her, um, social media tag at the bottom. And the idea is what I explained to her is, hey.
11:08Listen. The bride comes in. She sees her name.
11:11It feels personal. It feels like you did something really, like, really special just for her. Usually, brides
11:18are not gonna post to Instagram a photo of the dresses that they're picking it's kinda like the the whole point is it's, like, it's a surprise. So, usually usually, brides will will share, like, every part of, like, what they do, but they won't share the dress part. But
11:31this, you know, they could take a picture that they're in the studio, and they could take a picture of this welcome screen with her tag. So it's something that is shareable without them having to share the dress. Right?
11:39So I think something that that they could share on social media, and it also has her her tag right there. That's cool. So now if you go to the bottom left hand corner I mean, sorry, bottom right hand corner, you click start.
11:51Yeah. Right there. It's gonna go to another screen where it's gonna have the dresses that were pre prechosen.
11:57You hover your mouse over them. It automatically plays a clip Oh, nice. Of the of that particular dress.
12:03And then if they click if you click on one of the dresses, then you get more photos and videos of of that particular dress. Wow.
12:10So this presentation mode, it doesn't have any tags or price information or or anything like that. It's all about, like, being in the moment and, like, selling the dress versus the the ecommerce website that, you know, it has a dress, but it has a bunch of other text information.
12:25And this is really more about, like, creating this, like, boutique presentation. So so what does she feel? Well, when you showed her this, what did she I mean, because this would have costed before, I don't know, a $102,100,000
12:36dollars, and I know she didn't pay that much for it. Her business probably couldn't even support paying that much for it. Right?
12:43Yeah. So So what did she say when she saw this? Yeah.
12:46She was blown away. She was blown away. She was, like, nervous.
12:49Like, she was, like, not sure. She she wasn't expecting it.
12:53Right? Mhmm. Because we basically developed an entire, like
12:58Yeah. A whole system for it. You're like Yeah.
13:01You pay this matcha, then you get, like, all of this, and she thinks it's some sort of scam or something. Right. So so she was blown away.
13:09She it's running on her website now, and I think her her first appointment where she's gonna use it is in a couple of days. So Oh, that's exciting. Excited about that.
13:17Yeah. So, you know, it's something that really makes her unique, and I think it's it's a you know, I like to think about it like, if it was my business, what would I want it to to feel like? Mhmm.
13:27And I think that is something that the customers value a lot. And when you're able to provide that kind of value to them, that is what they want, not just, like, a fancy website.
13:39Right. And I think that is part of the story. Now that we have and you have these tools, you can provide so much more value to people and go into so many smaller
13:49niches that were not available because this would've cost hundreds of thousands of dollars to make. Right. Like, um, you know, creating I created this for her.
13:59Probably it took about a week, um, to get it to get it to work just right because, uh, you know, it is integrated with, like, payment processing and booking and all that kinda calendar and all this kind of stuff. Um, but this would have been months months and months, um, in the past, and it might not have been as good. You know?
14:15And and I know that you said that you work on, like, a subscription services. You don't have to say the exact pricing of everything because I know it's probably per customer.
14:24But is this in the thousands of dollars a month, the hundreds of dollars a month, the 10 thousands dollars a month? Where are we? Yeah.
14:31No. I think she's paying she's paying, like, $250 a month is what she pays.
14:37And I think if you were to, like, get Bespoke booking software, that alone is probably more.
14:44Yeah. You know? Well, like, hundreds software.
14:46Hundreds of thousands, I think this would have cost Yeah. You know, for all of the appointment and all the integrations and the website and everything. Yeah.
14:54So she she's super happy. And and think about you know, how expensive is a wedding dress? Right?
14:58So my logic is if this increases her conversion rate to even one more dress per month, which it it'll probably do more than that, but let's say that's all it does, well worth the value. Like, she why would she ever cancel a subscription? You know?
15:11Yeah. Uh, the other thing I wanted to point on is you showed me
15:17a text of one of your customers. I think it was the firearm person.
15:24Yeah. Because And he and he said that, like, you're, like, part of his family, part of the team.
15:29He he felt like some you know, some was that this person? That somebody had their back. Yeah.
15:34Can you tell tell me about that story. I think that was really good. Yeah.
15:37So so this is a guy who he's starting a new business. Right? He he's been doing it on the side.
15:43What he does is, like, the renewal for, like, security guards. So security guards have to renew their licenses to to every, like, once or twice a year.
15:53And, you know, there are some compliances that he has to meet, like, with the state to do that. And it's very difficult because you have to have all this documentation saved, you need to re you need to remember everybody's renewal day and, like, remind them and, like, keep track of all the people.
16:08It's complicated. So he was using HubSpot before, and the the issue with HubSpot is that
16:15first of all, you need to learn HubSpot. And they're like actually, go go up like, pull up HubSpot pricing right now, and it's, like, it's, like, insane.
16:24And it's kind of like a a most softwares are, like, one size fits all because it's obviously, it's very difficult to make, like, custom software for every kind of of business.
16:37But, yeah, you see, if you go into professional, it's it's already in the $800 a month.
16:41It's very expensive. And that's where all, like, the really good features are. So and even then,
16:48again, you have to learn HubSpot. Right? It's kind of like a one size fits all feature.
16:53There's a ton of stuff that that that you probably don't need to use, and it's it's just difficult for for business owners to figure out. Business owners don't want to figure out software.
17:03It's like another barrier. Yeah. Um, they don't they want the website to work for them, and they and and being able to approach a business and tell them, hey.
17:12Listen. I'm gonna build this software that does it does exactly what you need it to do. No nothing extra.
17:17Right. I'm show No the extra buttons.
17:21And, you know, when he calls me and he tells me, hey. You know, there's this new document that's required, and we need to add that to, like, the to, like, the CRM. Okay.
17:29Yeah. Let's add another field to the CRM. No problem.
17:31Done. Yeah. Versus like, hey.
17:34You know, that's not supported in the software you paid for. Sorry. Yeah.
17:37You know? I can't do it. I can't do it.
17:40So so this CRM here, to make it super easy for him, it's, like, alphabetized. The number of students per letter are in there.
17:49If you click on any of the student profiles these are all demos, of course. If you click on it also, it's, like, matched to his brand too. So if you click yeah.
18:00It's all demo information. If you click any of the student's profile, he has all their content information. He has, like, all their documents all in one place.
18:09So he doesn't have to stress about whether he's compliant or not with, like, what it is. Another thing he told me is that he does, like, a course that that they have to complete. So we said, okay.
18:19Let's just build the courses into the into the CRM. I don't know if this demo has it. Go back to the home page.
18:25It it might. Uh, let's see. Oh, I think this one I think this link doesn't have it.
18:32But, yeah, we we had the he he wanted to do courses, and we just built in built in the courses as well. Nice. So he has like a custom it's completely
18:42custom. But what I wanna know is what was his response when you showed him this?
18:48Because he's not paying thousands of dollars a month for it. You know, he's paying a small fee for this custom software that would not have been possible eight months ago or a year ago.
18:59So, you know, I I just really love when he when you shared that text, and I want you to tell everyone, you know, what basically what that text said. Yeah.
19:08It was like a super long text of him saying how happy he he was because, you know, it it was I think this was something that was stressing him out a lot,
19:17like, compliance. Like, it was a very big barrier to him starting the business, like, having the required compliance and a system to document everything.
19:27And and this is not a technical person. This is not a technical guy. He he just knows his trade.
19:32So to build him a software that works exactly meets him at his level, does exactly what he needed what he needs it to do, it was very impactful to him because it it really made it simple for him to, um, go on to the next level and and and, you know, he's he's starting to book students. Like, it's nice to see that you're starting a business and, like, the gears are starting to roll and it's starting to actually work.
19:53Yeah. So you you started this with nobody wants a website. What do they really want?
19:59And so, yeah, what do they really want? Do they they want they want sales? They want organization?
20:04They want a custom solution to, you know, what they want? Yeah.
20:09Exactly. That's exactly it. Um, what what businesses really want is, um, they want their lives to be easier,
20:15and they they want their business to to perform better. Right? So I think, uh, the the main takeaway is, um, you know, when you're trying to pitch a website, don't pitch a nicer website.
20:25That's it's gonna be unless the person really wants a nice website, it's gonna be hard to solve. Try to figure out what the pain point is of the business, figure out how you can solve it, and, you know, show them that solution that that that you built.
20:39And tell them, hey. Listen. You know, you probably have these issues, one, three, four, five, and and I built a system that solves these issues.
20:46And, you know, maybe that includes having a nicer a nicer website with better SEO and things like that. But if you present the the solution to to the problems that you know that they have, that's gonna convert way better than just a nicer website. How do you tactically go from,
21:00okay. I'm not gonna pitch a website anymore, but let's say I don't have a bunch of reviews like you do and people aren't coming to me.
21:07How do I approach somebody and say, uh, offer these solutions to them? Especially when I don't know exactly what they need.
21:15Is there a solution for that? Yeah. You know, if if I was starting from zero right now,
21:22um, I would still reach out to maybe friends and family who have small businesses. And, um, you know, using AI tools, it obviously makes it a lot easier. Uh, kind of talk to them, figure out what issues they have and what what tools would help them.
21:37And then from there, let's say you have a a family member who's a plumber or who's an electrician or, you know, works in in whatever in whatever trade or or job, if you can build them a really useful tool, then it it gives you a leg up to reach out to other plumbing business, other electric That's smart. Other you know, say, hey.
21:55Listen. I I built this for this kind of company. We can build it for you.
21:59And sometimes what you need to do, if you figure out a really good it's you just ideate a solution, just build a dummy version of it.
22:07And, you know, reach out to the business and be like, hey. Listen. I built this product for dog groomers, and it solves these problems and, you know, share it with them.
22:15Um, and if you come from a perspective that you you wanna help them solve a problem and improve their business and not you just wanna sell them a nicer website, that converts better. And you I I think that's a great great advice. What I wanna do is I've seen a bunch of these framing websites.
22:30You know, they they frame pictures and stuff. And what I wanna do and I wanna try it is I wanna try to build software because they don't have any software that allows them to adjust the size and adjust the thickness of the frames and all that and the type of wood. And I wanna build that for them and then I wanna show them this demo that's obviously better than their website of filling out just a form
22:51CTAAnd you know, they can interact with it, put in a picture. And I think that would do really really well. So if there was one takeaway, one thing that people can do tomorrow
23:04CTAin order to not sell a website, what would it what would it be? And sell something else instead.
23:09CTAWhat was, like, with the one action thing they could take home? Yeah. I think the the one thing you can do
23:15CTAwould be to figure out a a problem. And, you know, the the freebie that I would give you is businesses that have a regular booking. Right?
23:23CTASo they can't do a subscription. There's a lot of businesses like that, dog groomers, personal trainers.
23:30CTAThere's a ton of them. Pick one that you like, and that's a that's a really good niche that that has that specific problem that I've identified. But if if you're familiar with other businesses near you or family members or friends that run businesses, ask them.
23:44CTALike, hey. What are what are some things that, like, you are, like, really tough that, like, you wish was easier, um, or or some software that you wish you had, but it's too expensive or too hard to use?
23:53CTAUm, and that'll give you a lot of insight on on what you can build for them. Thank you so much. Please remember to comment, rate, and subscribe.
— full transcript
§ 05 · For Joe
Sell the outcome, not the deliverable.
WHAT TO LEARN
The freelancers who win recurring retainers are the ones who identify a specific operational problem before they write a line of code.
- Business owners evaluate services by whether they solve a real pain — a nicer website rarely qualifies because most businesses with existing customers are not losing them to a bad homepage.
- Recurring-routine businesses that cannot offer a subscription model — barbers, groomers, trainers, instructors — have an underserved retention problem that a simple automated reminder system can solve directly.
- Building a working demo for a specific niche before approaching a client converts better than pitching an idea, because it collapses the gap between abstract promise and concrete proof.
- AI coding tools have made the economics of bespoke micro-software viable: a week of development time at a $250/month retainer earns back its cost in months, and a client who earns more from the tool than it costs has no reason to cancel.
- When pitching a solution, anchor the value in business outcomes — more bookings, fewer compliance headaches, one extra high-ticket sale per month — not in the technology used to build it.
- Starting from friends and family with small businesses is a legitimate research method: asking what software they wish existed surfaces real problems that no one has yet productized for their niche.
