Andrew Martinez of Powerful Digital Solutions — author of From Idea to Blueprint — spoke at Last Thursday's Networking Breakfast on the question every business owner is currently wrestling with: how to plan a website in the age of AI, and how to use tools like ChatGPT and Claude without letting them run your business into a ditch.
His central argument is simple and almost nobody follows it: build the blueprint before you build the website. Here is what he covered.
Last Thursday's Networking Breakfast runs on the last Thursday of every month at 8:30 AM in the Lounge (Suite 800) at Venture X San Antonio Northwest, 7550 I-10. It's open to the wider San Antonio business community, not just members.
From security guard to 100 websites
Andrew's route into web design didn't start in a classroom. In 2017 he was working full-time as a security officer at a federal office building — eventually lead officer and site supervisor — when he bought an online course on affiliate marketing. It taught him to build a WordPress blog, register a domain, set up hosting, and run an email funnel.
Something clicked. "Wow, this is so cool — everything that goes into creating a website on the backend," he remembers thinking. He worked through more courses on web development, design, and digital marketing, earning a reasonable amount in affiliate commissions along the way.
Then a local makeup artist asked him to build her site. He was straight with her: he wasn't certified and hadn't studied it formally. Her response became a philosophy he still works by — she trusted him because he was "a lot further along" than she was.
As Andrew puts it: "It's okay if you don't have everything down, as long as you're at least a step or two ahead of the client — as long as you're able to help your client get the result they're looking for, that's all that really matters."
That first client paid $300, and her website is still in his portfolio. On 12 October 2017 he went full-time. He has since built somewhere between 80 and 100 websites.
The big idea: blueprint before you build
In November 2024 Andrew wrote and published From Idea to Blueprint. The premise, in his words: "How to use the power of AI to plan out the details of your website and create your own website blueprint."
His analogy is construction. "If we think about building your website like building a house — every home builder will tell you they make a blueprint before they start laying any concrete or hammering nails. So just as every home builder makes a blueprint before homebuilding, I teach my readers and clients that they should make a blueprint before they purchase any domains or anything like that."
It sounds obvious. It almost never happens. Most owners start with a domain and a template, then spend months and real money bolting fixes onto decisions they never consciously made. Andrew reverses the order: plan first, buy and build second.
What makes this current is how he has you plan. The book is built around ready-to-use prompts that force the decisions people usually skip:
- Clarifying the goal — what is this website actually supposed to do for the business?
- Choosing colors and fonts for the brand deliberately, rather than by guesswork.
- Determining which pages you actually need — no more, no less.
AI isn't writing the website here. It's acting as a thinking partner that drags the important questions out of your head and onto the page before you commit. That is the difference between a site that grows with the business and one you tear down in eighteen months. Andrew has watched DIY sites grind to a halt the moment they passed 50 products with no plan behind them.
AI is your Jarvis, not your replacement
If there was one line people took home, it was this one.
Andrew is genuinely bullish on AI — he uses it "just about every single day" — but he is firm about how:
"I used the illustration of Iron Man in my book. Just as Iron Man had his Jarvis to help him with his missions — Jarvis didn't do everything for him, but he basically helped augment Tony Stark's effort. So I'd encourage all my clients and prospects to use AI wisely. Just remember it's meant to augment your efforts, not to replace your efforts."
This matters because the loudest advice online argues the opposite: automate everything, remove yourself from the loop. Andrew's experience is that this is how businesses lose their voice, their judgment, and eventually their customers' trust.
It's a grounded message, and it's why his guidance lands with owners who don't want to become full-time prompt engineers — they just want a website and a marketing engine that works.
Match the tool to the task
One of the more immediately useful things Andrew shared: the models are not interchangeable. He works across several daily and has a clear sense of each one's strengths.
- ChatGPT — his all-purpose default, good for general business questions.
- Claude — his pick for content. Blog posts, email newsletters, and brand copy that actually reads well.
- DeepSeek — his choice for technical troubleshooting, where he finds the step-by-step guidance stronger.
For most owners juggling one chatbot and a lot of frustration, that single insight — match the tool to the task — noticeably improves what they get out of AI.
Beyond SEO: the rise of GEO
This is where the talk got ahead of the curve. For years the goal was the same: get found by Google, land on page one. That still matters.
But the landscape is moving. As Andrew put it: "With more and more people going to [ChatGPT] and the other large language models for information and guidance, there's the emerging trend of Generative Engine Optimization — GEO."
In plain terms: your future customers aren't only searching for you. They're asking an AI. If your business isn't structured to be found, cited, and recommended by those tools, you are invisible to a fast-growing share of the market no matter how good your traditional SEO is.
Powerful Digital Solutions now works on both. For anyone planning or refreshing a website, this is one of those topics you'd rather hear a year early than a year late.
Building an AI "dream team"
Andrew doesn't only talk about AI — he has quietly built a back office out of it. Using a platform called Marble he has assembled what he calls "my own dream team of six AI agents":
- An executive assistant that manages and categorizes his inbox and drafts client replies — but never sends without his review.
- A social media manager connected to Facebook, Instagram, X, and LinkedIn, which knows his brand fonts and colors and produces images and posts.
- A receptionist with a real local number that answers calls 24/7, so a client working at 1:30 AM still gets a helpful response. It's live in the footer of his own site.
- A content writer and a lead-generation agent handling outreach.
He plans to offer these as AI integration packages alongside website builds — standing up a tailored dream team for a client's specific business. It's a direct extension of his core belief: get the foundation right, then layer on AI that augments the humans rather than replacing them.
Why this fit the room
Andrew wasn't an outside expert flown in for a keynote. He's a member who built his business here.
Asked by Audrey, our community manager, about his experience:
"Being here at Venture X Northwest has been a tremendous blessing. I've been to a number of other coworking spaces in San Antonio… some felt more like country clubs — people gathering to chitchat — and a few shut down or downsized. But here at Venture X Northwest, y'all pretty much give me everything I need for success."
In practice that means a soundproof phone booth for client Zoom calls, Loom videos, and podcast appearances — "after I shut that door, I don't have to worry about anyone disrupting me." And it means people: "I've made some great connections here. I've made a few referral partners, and I've even had a few book buyers since being here."
Referral partners, book buyers, and someone to answer an off-the-wall question at the coffee bar. That is what a workspace is supposed to add beyond the desk.
Join the next breakfast
Last Thursday's Networking Breakfast — 8:30 AM, the last Thursday of every month, in the Lounge (Suite 800) at Venture X San Antonio Northwest, 7550 I-10, San Antonio, TX 78229.
Connect, collaborate, caffeinate. Meet other San Antonio business owners over good coffee. Business professionals are welcome, members or not.
Get Andrew's book
Buy From Idea to Blueprint on Amazon for the AI-powered planning prompts behind the talk.
See the space
Andrew's story is also a Venture X story — the right environment helped him build, connect, and grow. Book a tour or call (210) 985-9749 to see the offices, meeting rooms, and soundproof phone booths for yourself.