Governed AI Craftsmanship in Action
Client: BAF Training | Austin, Texas | Live at baftraining.com
Taylor Gashette is a certified personal trainer building BAF Training, a fitness practice in the Austin, Texas area. The existing website needed significant development: comprehensive service documentation, pricing transparency, client testimonials, legal compliance pages, and SEO optimization - all while remaining true to Taylor's values-first approach to business.
The core tension was philosophical as much as technical. Taylor operates from a "giving vs. selling" framework: the belief that genuine helpfulness precedes transactions, that free resources build trust, and that pricing should be accessible rather than hidden. But translating these values into a functional business website raised hard questions.
This question became the central research challenge of the project.
Echo Angel Studio employs a governance-first methodology. Before writing code, we document decisions. Before claiming results, we verify sources. Before implementing, we research.
For this project, that meant:
| Phase | Activity |
|---|---|
| Research | Systematic investigation of pricing transparency psychology, pay-what-you-want models, and personal training industry standards |
| Documentation | Every significant choice logged with rationale, traceable to source |
| Verification | Implementation through formal checkpoints, each phase confirmed before advancing |
| Reconciliation | Existing client documents treated as authoritative sources for alignment |
Taylor's values suggested exploring "pay what you can" or "name your own price" models. We conducted systematic research on NYOP/PWYW implementations.
| Model | Outcome | Key Finding |
|---|---|---|
| Radiohead "In Rainbows" (2007) | USD 3M before physical release | One-time experiment; band acknowledged "not repeatable" |
| Humble Bundle | USD 200M+ to charity, 47M bundles | Works with digital goods, strong guardrails required |
| Panera Cares (2010-2019) | All 5 locations closed | High marginal cost services fail under PWYW |
Research inverted Taylor's assumption.
| Source | Finding |
|---|---|
| HockeyStack (31M visitors analyzed) | Hidden pricing causes more abandonment than visible pricing |
| Harvard Business Review | Transparent pricing correlates with up to 50% higher trust scores |
| Forrester Research | Price transparency reduces sales cycle by approximately 30% |
| Kajabi (e-commerce platform) | Three-tier pricing produces 28% higher conversion rates |
| MyPersonalTrainerWebsite | Industry-specific recommendation: publish rates for client clarity |
Resolution: The data indicated that hidden pricing creates more customer anxiety than visible pricing. Taylor's concern was understandable but empirically inverted. Publishing prices with context would build trust, not erode it.
| Category | Tiers |
|---|---|
| In-Person Training | Bronze (4 sessions), Silver (8 sessions, "Best Value"), Gold (12 sessions) |
| Remote Training | Basic, Standard, Premium tiers + Hybrid add-on |
| AI Services | Transparent rate derivation from base hourly rate |
| File | Before | After | Change |
|---|---|---|---|
| index.html | ~18 KB | 41.2 KB | +23 KB |
| style.css | ~8 KB | 18.5 KB | +10.5 KB |
| privacy-policy.html | - | 20.7 KB | New |
| disclaimer.html | - | 11.6 KB | New |
| terms.html | - | 15.1 KB | New |
The "giving vs. selling" framework became concrete through specific design decisions:
| Value | Implementation |
|---|---|
| Free Resources | Meal Finder tool, educational content - accessible without payment |
| Free Consultation | Explicit invitation to discuss fit before any commitment |
| Sliding Scale | Direct statement that pricing adjusts for circumstances |
| Honest Exchange | Higher-investment clients receive priority scheduling - transparent about the value exchange |
The result is a website that operationalizes values rather than merely stating them. The business model is visible because transparency is the value.
| Item | Status |
|---|---|
| Live website | Verified at baftraining.com |
| Contact form | Working, verified |
| Social media integration | 4 platforms linked |
| SEO implementation | Schema.org + Open Graph |
| Legal compliance | Privacy, Disclaimer, Terms |
| Pricing transparency | 8 tiers fully documented |
Echo Angel Framework with systematic verification protocols for decision documentation, source verification, and implementation checkpoints.
| Method | Application |
|---|---|
| File hash comparison | Backup integrity verification |
| Regex pattern matching | Content verification |
| Section ID verification | Structure validation |
| Tag balance checking | HTML integrity |
This project demonstrates that AI-assisted development can be governed, verified, and grounded. Every claim in this case study traces to documented sources - session logs, file system verification, or web research with citations.
The philosophical question of pricing visibility was resolved through evidence rather than assumption. The technical implementation followed systematic checkpoints. The final product operationalizes the client's values rather than compromising them.