John Maxwell in three vehicle accident!

[blessalessi]

I don't know how your business law works, but it looks quite shady to me.

Steve doesn't seem to actually do anything outside his patriarchal duties, and yet he seems to yield quite a lot of power as Company President.

That website has recently been revamped lately, so it was news to me too, @Howl

I love the ?glitchyness of the page layout on my tablet, which puts John's photo down beneath all the others.

[kpmom]

I think everything they do is under the CCI umbrella, including the books they put out.  Sarah's too.

Yes, Steve is over everything.  On Swift Otter he's listed as project manager (vague), and when the guys had their construction company it was called "Maxwell and Sons", though there was nothing to indicate Steve did anything.  Christopher's photography business is also a CCI company.

I'm curious about John's irrigation company.  Is it a CCI business?  And of course his real estate job is for a company not related to the Maxwells.

Although I could see John learning everything he can at this real estate company and then striking out on his own (well, as a CCI company).

[VodouDoll]

That website is so weird! Hire Communications Concepts to help grow your company's web presence: we have a president, programmers, developers, designers, and a guy with an irrigation business. Why is John even there?

[Palimpsest]

14 hours ago, blessalessi said:

 

http://cciteam.com/#team

And what is interesting in the above link is that it looks like all the sons' businesses belong to CCI, of which Lord Steve is President. 

Ooooh, goodie.  New meat!

They've revamped the website yet again!  No God-speak at all on this version -- that is so different from in the past.  The old websites were all "Christian Family seeks payment from Christians to do Christian IT or construction stuff.  Non-Christians will not be considered as clients because you are unworthy."

Methinks the Maxwell enterprises aren't doing very well these days.

The way they phrase everything is still strange but my cursory glance didn't discern any glaring grammatical errors.  I suppose I can't quibble too much about the adjective "creative" being used as a noun.  It is becoming deplorably common even in professional situations these days.

Yes, all the businesses are under the umbrella of CCI.

[sparkles]

All of their websites are very short on meaningful content about their qualifications and what they actually do. John's irrigation site is especially strange and I was still scratching my head after reading through it twice. It doesn't sound to me like he works in the field, more like he designs and then hands off to installers. But it's so poorly written that who knows? But why include him on CCI's main site? WTF does irrigation have to do with Communications Concepts? The fact that they have so many business doesn't speak well. I do think Nathan knows what he's doing and Swift Otter's site for Pleasant Hill Grain (a company I've bought from) isn't bad—and it's certainly for a real-live client not connected to the Maxwells—but the rest of them? Not so much.

I think what we discover Steve DOESN'T say speaks louder than what he does. The Maxwells ain't all that.

[kpmom]

Including John's irrigation business on CCi's site reminds me of that Sesame Street song about one of these things being different from the others.

I wonder if John oversees the installation?  Does he hire people to do it? 

All that time I thought Jon- Marie was hanging around the Maxwells 'cause he was interested in a daughter.  Turns out he was only there for John.

[Palimpsest]

1 hour ago, VodouDoll said:

That website is so weird! Hire Communications Concepts to help grow your company's web presence: we have a president, programmers, developers, designers, and a guy with an irrigation business. Why is John even there?

Yes, and why is Chris even identified as the "lead photographer?"   How many do you need?  I suppose he is also a project manager with a "knack for details."   I also don't want someone who "loves to solve problems."  I want someone who can avoid them if possible and fix them fast if they come up.

I wonder if any of them have Project Management certification.  You can do it online.  Nah, I expect they've just glommed onto the language.

[blessalessi]

What the hell even is a "Lead Photographer" in the context of this business? 

In a radio podcast that I listened to a while back, Steve really downplayed Chris's photography business.  He sniggered and called it something like a bit of a side-line.  Now Chris is described as "Lead Photographer", it almost suggests that he isn't even being credited as the only one! (Which he is, in terms of being the only one to earn money from photography).

I'd love to know how the family salaries are worked out.  Chris is likely to have the biggest family, and yet his business ventures don't seem to bring home anywhere near the biggest portion of income. Joseph is the one Steve boasted about as being able to bill the highest hourly rate. And yet he is living in the smallest house so far. 

The Maxwomen are probably grateful for whatever pin-money they are given but there must be at least some tension between the menfolk about who earns what.

[socalrules]

Honestly, I cannot see how all those business combined generate enough income to support even one of the families. They all seem like hobbies more than anything else. 

[blessalessi]

It is hard to imagine them having a full week's work each, on a consistent basis. 

When they get together on a construction project, I do envy what they achieve.  On the other hand, they are such grand masters of busy work for its own sake, and can waste as much time dilligently cleaning ceiling fans, as they spend profitably digging a new driveway. Which is fine on their own time, but doesn't bode well in the workplace. They seem to have spent so much of their lives doing, rather than being, that they are probably not great at discerning whether their offering is likely to actually meet other people's real needs.

I can believe that Joseph is very skilled, having started in IT at such an early age. But I think he would irritate the shit out of me with his laboured, earnest explanations of how seriously he takes his work, and why he is charging the rate he charges. The smugness and naivety combination is not attractive and while $80 per hour may be cheap to develop my IT system, I would not want to be billed for Jesus-talk that I can get for free elsewhere.

And they all seem to overdo things and over-explain themselves when it comes to professional activity. All of Chris's photos suffer from a lack of planning but an excess of post-processing.  The quality of Sarah's books is so poor, just in terms of the layout, the structure, the flow, etc, before you even get to the actual story. And yet almost all of the family have an input into reading the chapters, making suggestions, proofreading and editing.

I suspect all of them could produce something better if Steve would take himself out of the picture, stop the incessant family meetings about how to get even more involved in each other's business, and just leave them to their own devices.

[Palimpsest]

Christopher can't make a living wage from photography.  From the looks of his gallery, he only did one wedding last year and 4 the year before.  He estimates around $1,500 plus travel for his wedding albums of Doom.  His product and building galleries haven't been updated either.  They look so amateur.  Maxwell Photography uses digital equipment (like the rest of the world) and can photoshop your building so it doesn't look like a falling down shack!  Be still, my foolish heart.

Nathan has worked outside the family businesses as an independent contractor in IT, IIRC.  He seems quite competent and the others may be too.  Joseph also has mad construction skills.  No idea about Jesse, except he can clear up wood piles.  

John seems to have the most wide-ranging skills.  On LinkedIn he claims to be an electrician and master plumber as well as the irrigation stuff.  I would say that good electricians and good plumbers are worth their weight in gold and I pay mine a really good hourly rate.  Then he has his real estate licence (not on LinkedIn, yet.)  If he focused on all of that he could do very well - without the fancy irrigation sideline.  It looks like he just does the planning for the irrigation schemes and he has one whole recommendation on LinkedIn.  

Oh yes.  The family are "professional proof-readers" too!  And write bad books.

There is a GIF somewhere out there of a dancing otter.  I wish I could find it again.

[crawfishgirl]

It's a shame that they didn't continue their construction business - they seem talented and skilled in that area, and since they appear to have a good work ethic, they could have been successful in that field.  They could have made a good living doing remodeling jobs.

[VodouDoll]

I do not believe for one hot second that John is a master plumber. That's a serious job with education, licensing, and union dues. I don't know the Kansas rules, but in MI where I live he would have had to apprentice with a master plumber (so someone not-Steve) for 6,000 hours, and then be a journeyman under a master plumber's direction for at least 4,000 hours, when we all know he was being hauled all over creation in Uriah, not at home working a plumbing job full time. There's a lot of classroom instruction and multiple tests to pass. And if he were now a master plumber, he would be making bank. We had a plumber out when our basement ceiling started leaking and paid him $350 for two hours of work. They make like $200K a year. Why would John be messing around with selling houses and designing irrigation if he were rolling in master plumber cash?

[Arete]

Yeah, unlike a lot of the fundies we talk about, the Maxwells actually have legitimate, marketable skills in the family.  However, at least 35% of the skills are off the table because the skill bearers don't have a penis and therefore can't work outside the home.  Up until recently, the rest of them were using the delivery of their services as a platform to proselytize their customers.  They might even still be doing that.  Not a great strategy for growing your customer base.

[Palimpsest]

Perhaps John is a master plumber in the same way that Botkin is a Duck Biologist.  He fixed a faucet once.

For posterity, these are the skills John tagged on LinkedIn.

Irrigation

Water

Irrigation Design

Irrigation Management

Drip Irrigation

Sprinkler Systems

Irrigation Design Training

Licensed Master Electrician

Licensed Master Plumber

Irricad Software

Irricad Software Trainer

Horticulture

Renovation

Construction

Small Business

Landscaping

Garden

Landscape Design

Residential Homes

Contract Negotiation

Team Building

Sales Management

New Business Development

Strategic Planning

Marketing Strategy

Agriculture

Product Development

Negotiation

[nausicaa]

That's an interesting thought about the Maxwell men and tensions over salaries. I bet that is an issue and will only increase as relative family sizes do (or don't).

And I'm also in the party of  who have no idea why they don't flip houses for a living. They're obviously really good at it, could work as a family, and it's an industry with steady work and good profits (as opposed to Fundie photography).

[VodouDoll]

A master plumber AND a master electrician? No freaking way.

Okay, so on top of the 5-6 years of full time work and evening/weekend classroom instruction it takes to become licensed as a master plumber, to become a master electrician in my state you first need to apprentice for 8,000 hours, become a journeyman, and then work for another 12,000 hours and pass the test for your masters license. It takes ten years. So assuming Kansas's licensing requirements aren't too different, John Maxwell is claiming to have spent the last sixteen years at full time apprentice and journeyman plumbing and electrician work? Has he even been a legal adult that long? He belongs to both unions? He passed all the courses? He works both jobs enough to maintain his licenses?

I am sorry. This is horseshit. And insulting to the people who actually put years and years of their lives into earning these prestigious and rigorous certifications for real. My uncle is a master electrician, and earning his certification is NOT something he could have squeezed in around RVing for months at a time or while also becoming a master plumber. WTF.

[Palimpsest]

@VodouDoll

Looks like the Maxwells are lying again.  Or at least overstating their credentials.

How big is Leavenworth anyway?  Perhaps they just couldn't get construction jobs around there.

I'd really love to find a decent handyman.  I'd hire either Joseph or John in a minute if they promised not to talk about God or Death!

[nastyhobbitses]

21 minutes ago, Palimpsest said:

@VodouDoll

Looks like the Maxwells are lying again.  Or at least overstating their credentials.

How big is Leavenworth anyway?  Perhaps they just couldn't get construction jobs around there.

I'd really love to find a decent handyman.  I'd hire either Joseph or John in a minute if they promised not to talk about God or Death!

But how will you know where your dishwasher will go when it breaks down?

[Palimpsest]

My dishwasher will go to the appliance graveyard.  I don't think I'd let John, the "master plumber" and "master electrician" touch it.  I need some shelves put up though and a few repairs.

Oh, wait!  I see John also does landscaping, gardening and landscape design.  He can mow the lawn and trim the bushes while Joseph puts up the shelves.   

I wonder if the Maxwells are insured.  I only hire people who are fully insured.

[bertnee]

LinkedIn used to pop up a big list of skills/keywords that are possibly related to what you've already entered. Maybe John doesn't realize that "master" is not just an adjective to describe how great you think you are at plumbing/electric work but an actual license that actually means something? (Unlike SOTDRT certificates)

[Coconut Flan]

59 minutes ago, Palimpsest said:

@VodouDoll

Looks like the Maxwells are lying again.  Or at least overstating their credentials.

That's so fundie.

Spoiler

 

[Palimpsest]

18 minutes ago, Coconut Flan said:

That's so fundie.

  Reveal hidden contents

 

Thank you!

Unfortunately, he doesn't look very swift.

[blessalessi]

My guess is that they don't know what a Master Plumber really is. Steve probably does, but the others have probably never developed the kind of critical thinking skills or real life experience to know the difference.

I would recruit them en masse for home renovations based on what I have seen on the blog.  If they had each other for company, I think it would be super entertaining to see them in action. 

 

[Coconut Flan]

Spoiler