Terms

"I was born and raised in Southern Vermont," starts Max Mackson of Maximilian Mackson, LLC. I was homeschooled through high school. This allowed me to work on my computer. I learned HTML, CSS, and JavaScript as the main languages on web development, and I continued to play with my side initiatives."

At the age of a young adult Max entered a play program. "I learned how to behave professionally. We had a demanding director and I'm glad we did because he taught me to be punctual and make sure that you are prepared," he adds. Max's first IT work experience came around this time. "Between my junior and sophomore year at high school, I was working for a club that was located in the town. I worked there two times a week to update their website, and it was God awful! They used a bizarre third-party platform which took about half an time to accomplish tasks which with WordPress would take only two minutes." he says.

Meeting people face-to-face when fixing the tech certainly helped He continues. "I'm focused on personal connections. I gain a great deal of value out of relationships. When I was at the country club, the club was at full speed every day. Therefore, if the printer at the kitchen went down, I had to run in there. The kitchen was hot and bustling everyone was moving about me. It was like we were "in the zone" in the moment!"

Max enjoyed seeing first-hand the effects of his work and trying to combat our difficult relationships with tech sometimes. "When I worked with other people, I would say "Okay, I've just uploaded an update on this machine' and I would get to know if the update helped them or if they would get confused. I would get to see the different perspectives and discover how people respond to technology. Most IT individuals will declare, "Okay, that is what is happening currently; it's the latest update', and that irritates me. I like to work with other people."

Max realized that being proficient in tech could make a difference to individuals' lives. In the days of country clubs the reason for his dislike of printers beganto surface "They don't seem to perform when you need them to work!" he smiles. A significant portion of his time was spent fixing printers; working with hardware helped him understand systems architecture "I was able to overhaul all their systems over many years. It is still my job to jobs for them," he adds.

Singing all by himself

For a formal education, Max went to Champlain College located in the northern part of Vermont but learned something other than the course. "I was one of the dozen majors in information technology that was really hilarious since, while I was at school it was decided by the school that they would be ending that major! They brought us into a room and said, 'Hey, guys, that's why you'll be able to complete your degree. However, we won't give you a major until the end of this year'!"

Max was able to enter the field of audio-visual because of his theater background. "That required more fixing of technology as all of the classrooms depended on having computers, projectors, and projection screen," the actor continues. "When things went wrong, we would walk through these classrooms full of students and everybody would look at us, and we'd stand on a table and change out a lamp for the projector!"

"I attended college for less than two years. I dropped out because I was finding it slow. The web world moves so quickly, that when you finish up learning something in college and it's out of date on the market. The professors who have to learn and to push it out to students, it takes a while," Max adds.

Of course, the pace of development hasn't diminished in the least - actually, it's increased and the speed and purpose of higher education eventually caused Max to create his own business. One reason that he quit was due to the fact that his plans for his prospects was not as clear as that of his college: "They liked to say that they could get 99% of their students a job right out of college - which is fantastic, however, they make sure everyone is able to enter the working environment. I enjoy working with others, but not with them in this way. It wasn't for me."

Thus, Max struck out on his own , and set off the search to find his first client. He had just taken a webinar and the man conducting it was looking for reviews. Max recalls: "I sent one in hoping to practice my skills in copywriting, however, on the back I added 'PS If my abilities could ever serve anyone, could you let me know'. Max replied: 'Well, what can you do?'"

Max looked over the website and wrote up a bulleted list of improvements: "No BS, just right to the point" and Max was greeted with a straightforward answer: "Text me' along with a number. "That was how I got that particular gig. And to this day he's an excellent client!" Max smiles.

Services and projects

"You are surrounded by all the different pieces of software powering business, but they're not communicating with one another. I'm the person who understands that software communicating perfectly," Max says. He says this makes an even more efficient single system, that can be used to boost business performance while reducing time and energy. "I am an integrator of systems and systems. A lot of people like my parents simply call me the IT guy!" he jokes.

Max says that a typical user's tech stack could comprise 100 different pieces of software that are all separate silos. "You must bring the pieces together so that they speak to each and each. I began working with a handful of customers on Web design, then I started to work on integration in April 2021, as one of my customers wanted to create a membership-based exclusive community."

Max worked with the client, who was a health influencer and evangelist for a few months and it was going well. He had not had any expertise with memberships, however the fact that he had anecdotally known the issues that would be. "I am now doing research on a number of membership software providers. I've got a method of looking up various lists of the best software, and I'll compare them."

Max chooses software for the best user experience, both from an admin side and from a client side to save customer support time in the long run. Simplicity is crucial. "I can be in a more complicated environment but I also understand that when something reaches the stage where it's unusable for everyday people. The customer wants to purchase some thing, and they'd like to get access to it. That's common: when you sign in to the website, I'd aware of the expression at their faces. I'd begin to explain what they were doing and their eyes just glaze over!"

The ways of integration, and the future

"Integrations can be deceptively complex," Max muses. "They come in different forms and different depths. For a native integration similar to Mailchimp, you click a few buttons, and it's approved, then you're ready to go. There are no-code and low-code integrations, like Zapier's Zaps; and totally customized ground-up integrations that code everything from beginning to finish."

"Generally I am within the non-to low-code realm, since it is generally effective for my clients. For one integration, the client asked me to really go into the integration. They desired to incorporate the functionality that a native integration has, however they did it via Zapier. I had to use a dozen different Zaps to get the system wired and get it to feel native but I had to add some custom code."

What made that particular project particularly interesting was the number of people who participated. "The first day we launched it, we ran 50,000 tasks through that was insane! It had to be optimized numerous times to be worth the cost. I managed to get it down to an average of under 5000 jobs per day. This was quite high."

The author adds: "That was the first time I had worked with a client of that scale with Zapier. I've been involved in a variety of projects over the years including some that focused on design, and others with more technical aspects, but this was the standout."

This larger scale of innovation is the driving force behind Max's future. Max says that: "Longer term, I want to develop software for business." He says his thoughts on software are frequently because it's a key element in his professional life and also because so many programs have changed over time. "It becomes bloated and slow It's no longer user-friendly. It's constantly releasing UI changes that only add more problems. As of now, a lot of people believe that software is a joke!"

He says he's trying to create a superior user experience that is simpler and more intuitive for the end-user. "It's extremely early in the development stage, but I've got some intriguing ideas there. The project is likely to be around six months or more, because I tend to do my work on my own most of the time. I'm not a fan of working with an agency. They hand the project over to a new, unnamed developer who they just keep locked inside the closet! I'm not happy in that type of setting and tend to collaborate with individuals only one-on-one."

Max shares his latest thoughts and offers preferential treatment to subscribers of his mailing list (which he lovingly refers to in the form of the "#MilianFam"). And as an exclusive offer to new subscribers coming from  his list, he's created an extra bonus program and, up to the date of posting, has not been offered anywhere else, at any price.