Terms

"I was raised and born in Southern Vermont," starts Max Mackson of Maximilian Mackson, LLC. I attended homeschool up to high school. This provided me with the chance to spend time on the computer. I learned HTML, CSS, and JavaScript, the languages of the internet, and then continued to tinker with side project ideas."

When he was a teenager, Max entered a play program. "I was taught how to be professional; we were directed by a strict director, and I'm glad we did because he taught me to always be on time and ensure that you are prepared," he adds. Max's first IT job happened around the time of this interview. "Between my junior and sophomore year of high school I was employed at a country club located in the town. I was there twice a week, updating their website. And it was God horrible! They were using a bizarre third-party system; it took half an hour to complete tasks that using WordPress would have taken just two minutes." He explains.

Speaking to people face-to-face while fixing the tech certainly helped the process, says he. "I'm obsessed with personal connections. I gain a great deal worth out of friendships. During the season at the country club the club was at full speed all the time. So if the printer in the kitchen went down and I needed to get in there. It was hot and bustling everyone was moving about me. It was like we were "in the zone' immediately!"

Max enjoyed seeing first-hand the effects of what he was doing and trying to combat the difficult relationship we have with tech sometimes. "When I was working with other people and I'd say to them "OK, I've pushed an update on this machine And I'd get to know if the update was helpful to them, or if they were confused. I was able to observe the different perspectives and discover what people's reactions to technology are. A lot of IT people will simply affirm, "Oh, this is how things work today; here's the new update' which is a source of irritation for me. I enjoy working alongside people."

Max discovered that having a good grasp in technology could help people's lives. During the country club years, his dislike for printers beganto surface "They simply don't work when you want for them to!" he smiles. A significant portion all of his work time consisted of fixing machines; dealing with them helped him understand the architecture of systems "I eventually had to rework each of their systems throughout the years. I still do jobs for them," he adds.

He is stumbling around all by himself

In terms of formal training, Max went to Champlain College located in the northern part of Vermont however, he learned more beyond the standard syllabus. "I was among the dozen majors in information technology that was really hilarious since, while I was at school, they decided that they were going to sunset this particular major! We were taken into a room and said"Hey, guys! so you're still going to be able to graduate. We're just not going to offer your major after this year""

Max began working in audio-visual because of his experience in the theater. "That meant more fixing the technology because all the classrooms relied upon an electronic computer, projector and projection screen," he continues. "When the technology went down and we walked through these classrooms full of people and everyone would stare at us. Then we'd sit on the table and swap out a projector bulb!"

"I attended college for only two years; I dropped out because I was finding it very slow. The internet is moving fast, and when you finish having to learn something at college the subject is outdated and in use. For the professors having to learn and to push it out to students, it can take some time," Max adds.

Naturally, the rate of technological advancement hasn't stopped in the least - actually, it's increased and the pace and goal of education in formal school ultimately caused Max to starting his own business. One reason why 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 had 99% of their students employed immediately after graduation - that's awesome. However, they are extremely focused on making sure everyone is able to enter the workplace. I like working with other people but not so much as a result of that; it did not appeal to me."

Thus, Max struck out by himself and began the search for his first client. He'd just attended an online course and the person conducting it was looking for testimonials. Max recalls: "I sent one in with the intention of practicing my copywriting skills, but on the back I wrote 'PS - If I can help anyone, could you let me know'. And the man replied, 'Well what do you have to do?'"

Max looked over the website and wrote up an organized list of changes: "No BS, just straight to the point" and Max got a quick response: "Text me" along with a number. "That was how I got the job I wanted. And to this day he's one of my best clients!" Max smiles.

Services and projects

"You are dealing with all these diverse pieces of software powering businesses, but all of them aren't communicating with each other. I'm the guy who gets that software communicating perfectly," Max says. He explains that this creates one more robust system that is able to drive business growth while reducing time and energy. "I consider myself to be a systems architect and integrator. Many people even my parents simply call me the IT person!" he jokes.

Max says that a typical user's tech stack may have 100 pieces of software in silos. "You have to connect everything together in order that they speak to each other. I first started working with few clients on web design and then I got into integration specifically in April 2021, as one of my customers wanted to establish a member-paying only community."

Max was working with that client, a health influencer and evangelist for a few months and was having a great time. Max had no prior expertise with memberships, however the fact that he had anecdotally known exactly what the issues were going to be. "I ended up researching a bunch of software for membership. I've got a method of conducting research, where I go through diverse lists of what's the best software, and I'll put them together."

Max selects the software that will provide an optimal user experience on both the admin side and from a client side to save customer support time over the long term. Simplicity is crucial. "I can work in a more complex setting, but I can also see that when something reaches the point where it's not usable to everyday citizens. People want to buy some thing, and they'd like to access it. It's normal: whenever one signs up on the website, I'd able to see the look at their face. I'd begin to explain what they were doing and their eyes be glazed over!"

Styles of integration and the future

"Integrations may appear to be complex," Max muses. "They are of different kinds and different levels. Therefore, for a native connection such as Mailchimp you click a few buttons and the integration is approved and you're good to go. It's possible to create low-code or no-code integrations, like Zapier's Zaps; and totally custom ground-up integrations where you write everything in the ground up."

"Generally I work within the non-to low-code realm, since it is generally effective for my customers. For one integration, the client asked me to get very in-depth with it. They wanted to have the features that a native integration has, but through Zapier. I had to use a dozen different Zaps to have the entire system wired and make it feel like native and I still needed to add some code that was custom."

What made that particular initiative fascinating was the number of people who participated. "The first day we launched it, we put more than 50,000 tasks on the line, which was crazy! It had to be optimized significantly to be worthwhile. I managed to get it down to an average of under 5000 jobs per day. That's pretty ambitious."

He adds: "That was the first occasion I worked on a project of this magnitude using Zapier. I've had the pleasure of working on lots of projects over the years including some that were more design-oriented, others that were more technical, but this one stood out."

This larger scale of innovation is the driving force behind Max's future. Max says that: "Longer term, I intend to design software specifically that is designed for businesses." He says his thoughts on software are a lot because it's such a key element in his professional life and also because so many programs have become worse over time. "It is becoming bloated and slow; it's not user-friendly anymore. The software is constantly rolling out UI changes that only increase the difficulty. At this point, a lot of people believe that software is a joke!"

He says he's trying to offer a better user experience that is simpler and more intuitive for the end-user. "It's still in the development stage, but I have some interesting concepts. The project is likely to be about six months away, because I tend to work solo most often. I'm not a fan of working with agencies: they give an idea to a unknown developer, who will then lock inside the closet! I don't like that environment and tend to work with people only one-on-one."

Max shares his latest thoughts for subscribers of his list (which Max affectionately refers to in the form of the "#MilianFam"). In addition, as an exclusive benefit to subscribers new to , he has created an exclusive bonus course which, as of the moment of this article's post, hasn't previously offered elsewhere, for any price.