Michael Bernier x Brand Builder AI
An award-winning landscape designer was running his business on six disconnected tools and a slow WordPress site. We rebuilt his site on BrandBuilderAI, automated his client intake, and consolidated his domains so he now pays one platform instead of six.
The client
Michael Bernier is one of the most respected names in luxury outdoor living design. His studio creates landscapes "shaped with intention to reveal the soul of the land" — mid-century modern retreats, Mediterranean courtyards, desert ranches and resort-style pools that read as extensions of the architecture around them.
His work is award-winning and has been featured in publications including Veranda and on Houzz. His team runs every project end to end: on-site consultation, design and planning, installation with aesthetic-integrity management, and handover. Projects have been designed and installed across the United States and internationally.
In short, the craft was never the problem. The design was world-class. The systems behind it were not.
The challenge
Michael's client acquisition was spread across six platforms that didn't talk to each other, sitting behind a WordPress site that was slow to load and hard to change.
A slow site for a visual business
Luxury landscape design sells on imagery and video. On WordPress, the high-resolution project galleries and hero video that should have been his strongest sales tool were the reason pages crawled. Plugins stacked up over the years, every update risked breaking something, and simple content changes needed a developer.
Six tools, no single source of truth
Like most successful studios that grew fast, Michael had added software one problem at a time:
Website on WordPress
Hosting with a separate provider
Domains registered elsewhere again
Email on its own platform
Forms and inquiries through a plugin or third-party tool
Follow-up and marketing in yet another app
Each one had its own login, its own bill and its own renewal date. Leads came in through one tool and had to be copied by hand into another.
What that cost him
Lost and slow leads. High-value inquiries sat in inboxes or form tools with no automatic response or follow-up.
No visibility. There was no single place to see where a lead came from, what they asked for, or where they were in the process.
Admin drag. Time that should have gone into design went into chasing logins, invoices and renewals.
Fragile tech. Domain and hosting changes were risky because nobody had the full picture of what pointed where.
Stacked costs. Six subscriptions for what is really one job: turn visitors into clients.
The approach
We treated this as a systems project first and a website project second: map every tool, decide what BBAI replaces, then rebuild.
Audit the stack. We listed every platform Michael paid for, what it did, who had access, and where each domain and DNS record pointed.
Map the lead journey. We traced how a prospect found Michael, how they made contact, and every manual step between that first inquiry and a booked on-site consultation.
Design the consolidated setup. Site, hosting, domains, forms, email capture and follow-up would all live in BBAI, with one dashboard for every lead.
Rebuild the site to match the work. A site as considered as his landscapes: fast, image-led, and structured around how luxury clients actually decide.
Migrate without downtime. Domains and records moved in a planned sequence so the site and email never went dark.
The principle throughout: Michael should spend his time designing, not managing software.
The build
The new site leads with the work and turns every section into a path toward a consultation request.
A site that sells like a portfolio
Cinematic hero. "Luxury Landscape & Outdoor Living Design" over full-bleed project imagery, with two clear calls to action above the fold.
Press bar. Publication and platform logos, including Veranda and Houzz, establish credibility in the first scroll.
Brand film. A featured video introduces Michael's philosophy before a single word of sales copy.
Projects Under Construction. Live work, such as the Mid-Century Modern Retreat, shows prospects the studio is busy and in demand.
Explore More Projects. A curated grid of completed residences lets visitors self-select by style.
Our Process. A four-step story (On-Site Consultation, Design & Planning, Installation & Aesthetic Integrity Management, Relax and Enjoy) with before-and-after photography at each stage.
Client testimonials. Social proof placed right after the process, where trust matters most.
Designed and Installed Internationally. An interactive map of project locations shows reach at a glance.
Meet the Team. Faces and roles, closing with Michael's own story.
Connect. A contact form with consent options, plus location and contact details, in the footer of every page.
Automation behind the scenes
Instant lead capture. Every form submission lands in one BBAI dashboard with source, project type and contact details attached.
Automatic responses. New inquiries get an immediate, on-brand reply so no prospect waits for a callback.
Follow-up sequences. Leads who don't book are nurtured automatically instead of falling through the cracks.
Consent tracking. Marketing and SMS opt-ins are captured at the form and stored with the contact.
Built-in speed. Optimized media delivery so galleries and video load fast without plugins.
Edit without a developer. Michael's team can update projects, copy and images directly.
Consolidation: six platforms down to one
We moved Michael's domains and services into BBAI, so he now pays one platform for everything that used to take six.
Domain migrations are where most rebuilds go wrong: a missed DNS record can take down email or break the site for days. We handled it as its own workstream:
Inventory. Every domain, subdomain and DNS record documented before anything moved.
Staged cutover. Records recreated in BBAI first, then domains transferred in sequence.
Email protected. Mail records verified so email kept flowing through the move.
Old accounts retired. Legacy hosting and tool subscriptions closed only after everything was confirmed live.
The result is one login, one bill and one support team. When something needs to change, there is one place to change it.
Results
Michael went from six platforms and a slow WordPress site to a single, fast, automated system that captures and follows up on every lead.
Great work doesn't market itself when the systems behind it are scattered. Michael's story is common among top creative studios: the talent is there, but leads leak through a patchwork of tools nobody chose on purpose.
Speed is part of the brand. A luxury portfolio has to feel as polished online as it does in person.
One system beats six. Consolidation cut cost and complexity and made every lead visible.
Automation protects high-value leads. When one project is worth six figures, an instant reply and reliable follow-up pay for themselves.
Migration is the hard part. Moving domains, hosting and email safely is what makes consolidation actually happen.
Running your business on too many tools?
BrandBuilderAI rebuilds your site, automates your client acquisition and brings everything onto one platform.
