How I Built my new website Using AI (and a Little Reckless Optimism)
You know the saying "The cobler's son has no shoes"? Well, that was always me with my own personal website.
But with all these new amazing AI tools, I took the plunge.
I built my site as an experiment: could I use the newest AI tools to go from “vibes in my head” to a real, editable WordPress site with an automated content pipeline without getting lost in the weeds? Google Stitch helped me jump from prompt to UI + frontend code fast, then I used Claude Code to translate that export into a WordPress theme powered by Advanced Custom Fields, and a Python script (with Claude’s help) to pull my podcast video data from a Google API and turn it into a WordPress import XML file.
Jesse Brede — Artist, Entrepreneur, & Mentor: Bridging the Gap Between Creativity and Business is my banner, but this build was the backstage pass: a curious, funny tour through design AI, dev AI, and “how do I get content into a CMS without manually copy/pasting until 2 a.m.”
The premise: a creativity-to-business pipeline
I wanted a workflow that matched how I actually think: start creative, get something concrete quickly, then refine into a system that can scale. Stitch is literally aimed at reducing the design-to-development gap by generating UI designs and frontend code from simple prompt (and image) inputs.
So I treated this project like a relay race: AI helps hand off from idea → interface → code → CMS → content.
Phase 1: Stitch as my “design co-pilot”
I started in Stitch by writing prompts describing the look and feel I wanted and iterating until the layout felt like “me.” Stitch is built to generate a visual interface from plain English and support iteration through variants, which made it perfect for rapid exploration.
Once I had a direction, I exported the code/HTML so I could stop prototyping and start building. Stitch is explicitly positioned as a bridge into real development workflows by producing frontend code.
Phase 2: Visual Studio + Claude Code = turning “static” into “smart”
Exported HTML is like a movie set: looks great from the front, but behind the walls it’s not designed for long-term living. I imported the export into Visual Studio and used Claude Code as a pair programmer to convert the site into WordPress templates.
The big move was swapping hard-coded content for structured content. Advanced Custom Fields (ACF) is made for that: it lets you create custom fields and field groups, attach them to specific content via location rules, and then render that data in your theme.
What this meant in practice:
- Stitch sections became WordPress template parts (header, hero, modules, footer).
- Text/images/buttons became ACF fields instead of static markup.
- Reusable patterns became flexible components so future updates don’t require surgery.
Phase 3: Automating podcast content (the “make it populate itself” chapter)
A website without content is just a very confident rectangle, so I leaned into automation. I had Claude help generate a Python script that connects to a Google API, pulls down my podcast video data, transforms it, and outputs a WordPress-ready XML import file.
WordPress supports importing content using an XML/WXR file through Tools → Import, which makes XML a practical “final form” for programmatically generated posts.
So instead of manually entering episode titles, descriptions, publish dates, and links, I treated the podcast like a dataset: fetch → clean → export → import → done.
Why I loved this experiment (and why I’d do it again)
Stitch gave me momentum when I needed it most: the beginning. Stitch is designed to turn prompts into UI + frontend code quickly, and it absolutely helped me move from “idea” to “artifact.”
ACF gave me durability: a site I can actually maintain. ACF’s field groups + location rules are exactly what I needed to keep the design consistent while making content editable.
And the WordPress XML import pipeline gave me leverage: once the script works, content updates become a repeatable workflow instead of a recurring chore.
And now I have a place to show of my DJ mixes, photos, and drone videos.
