“Digital marketing is a blessing and a curse…”
Maurice Bretzfield has been a lifelong Dodger fan, a raconteur, traveler, and a connoisseur of matters of the tongue, ear, and eye. He’s also a blue water sailor, dad, granddad, Digital Marketing geek, consultant, mentor, and teacher. Maurice has been practicing Digital Marketing since the release of the first Web browser, Netscape, in 1994.
This episode is near and dear to my heart. I don’t know how my career would look like today if I didn’t meet him—good thing I did! We talked about how he got into digital marketing, how he became my mentor, common mistakes small business owners make when trying to transition into a digital-first business, why he loves Martech, why personal branding is important, and more!
Full Episode Transcript:
Kenny Soto 0:02
We are now recording in 54321. Hello everyone and welcome to Kenny Soto’s Digital Marketing podcast. As always, I am excited for today’s guest. But this guest in particular is very special and dear to my heart because he is the man and the mentor, the person who got me into digital marketing and changed the course of my career. And his name is Maurice bruntsfield. Welcome, Reese.
Maurice Bretzfield 0:35
Thank you, Kenny. It’s good to be with you.
Kenny Soto 0:38
So, as always, as always, definitely. And I want to start this interview off by having the audience get more context about who you are as a person and professional. So my first question is, what got you into digital marketing?
Maurice Bretzfield 0:59
Well, in about 1980, a guy rolled a card into my office, he was a salesman for Monroe business equipment, I don’t even think they exist anymore. And he demonstrated to me what we called a computer, it was this big gray beige box, and demonstrated a program called VisiCalc, which was the precursor to Lotus 123, and Excel.
And it changed my business career, I had been trained in the army to use a keyboard, which is a skill I never thought I would ever use typing. But all of a sudden, there was this keyboard, which is the only input device into the computer. And I was prepared to use it. And the next thing I knew is IBM came out with their first PC ADA ADA model with DOS operating system that they had acquired from Bill Gates. And that bought a modem. And all of a sudden, I was able to log on to CompuServe, which is the service I used. There was CompuServe, AOL and one other which name escapes me at the moment. And all of a sudden, I discovered that I could search databases.
And a year or so later, a few years later, Microsoft released Windows 95, which just opened a whole new world. And their call, of course, came the Netscape browser, and I had a first look at it and realize that every computer on the planet was now able to communicate with every other computer on the planet. And that meant major things for communications and in my field marketing, but a marketer for years and years and years.
And it was off to the races, and I’ve been pursuing digital marketing, products and services and now can consulting. I consult on two levels, one, with an organization called score. I provide an hour or two a month to score clients, which I truly love doing, it’s pro bono work.
And I run into the most interesting people and business ideas. And I consult on a on a private basis with the private consulting clients, I usually keep two or three clients going now. And that’s what I’ve been doing. And that’s what I continue to do. I’m fascinated by by digital marketing in general martech, and what’s possible with social media. I once described the targeting capabilities of Facebook to a woman who had retired from a company by the name of Ogilvy and Mather, who are the original target marketing marketers.
David Ogilvy is the pioneer of direct mail. And when I explained to her the capabilities of targeting in today’s world, she looked at me and she says, you know, David would have been or would have been orgasmic about this. And because it provides us so, so many capabilities, and today I tell all my clients that digital marketing is a blessing and a curse.
It’s a blessing because it opens up the world of direct communications with our potential clients in a way that’s never been possible before TV, radio, print advertising is one directional. We never really are able to measure the response rates of those things. And today we can measure with precision where our customers are coming from you which pieces of our content have attracted them, learn about them learn the languages they use to, to look with for what they’re looking for.
And these capabilities are just mind blowing. And it’s just the beginning, I I take two or three product demos a week, from software, technology, marketing, software technology companies, that what’s going on now with artificial intelligence and how it’s influencing these tools, is a great leap forward. It’s just amazing. So I first saw marketing fell in love with it. And I continue to it keeps me young keeps me active, keeps me I once had a question in a class. Guy raised his hands in his hand.
And I said to me, What scares you? And that was a question that put me back on my feet, because it wasn’t what I expected. And I looked at it, and I said, becoming irrelevant. And I’m staying relevant today is world in a major way through digital marketing, and helping clients of all kinds.
Yesterday, I got contacted by a young girl, who is a astrophysics Major, the University of Washington, who started a organic soap and skincare product line, when she was in middle school, and has been selling product and now wants to amp it up, she has earned enough money through this business to invest in digital marketing. And I got off that call. And all I could say was Wow. So that’s the reason I do this meeting people like this and who have unique and interesting businesses and products and services.
Kenny Soto 7:01
Could you describe for the audience how we met?
Maurice Bretzfield 7:07
Yeah, I was teaching a digital marketing course, as part of an entrepreneurial program at the University that you were vice president of the student body at City College in New York, part of the CUNY system. And one evening, we got talking after class, and you asked me to mentor you, I asked you what your major was, you told me you were a music major.
And when I asked you what you were going to do out when you graduated the following year, the year of your presidency of the student body, you really didn’t have an answer, you didn’t know what you were going to do. And I said to you that whatever you do, you’re going to have to promote yourself online, because that’s the world we’re in today. And instructed you to build a personal website, learn WordPress, and learn digital marketing.
And we worked together, volunteering at score in New York City, putting together a digital marketing program there, where you sucked up all this information and knowledge like a sponge. And here you are today.
Kenny Soto 8:26
A question that? I think I know the answer to but I want you to elaborate is, why are people and you can speak from experience that you’ve had at score? Why are people still afraid of digital marketing?
Maurice Bretzfield 8:47
Well, you know, that’s a really interesting question. And I have to tell you, honestly, that since the COVID, locked down about 18 months ago, now, all of a sudden, people had to get their businesses and their and their themselves online. And so I think that the fear of taking the first step in some cases, has been mitigated.
But I find that people believe that, number one, everyone has their own business and they work hard at their businesses all day long. And most small companies and solopreneurs and even some large companies fail to execute marketing properly or to develop their marketing capabilities.
Because I think it’s complicated and musk in a lot of cases people don’t understand marketing and they think that digital marketing is above their, their their knowledge level and capabilities. I think that’s the major reason then it’s you know, it’s that’s why I love teaching people because it’s it’s within reach of every business, you can start small scale up by adopting an agile marketing method that is incremental. You don’t have to dominate this search engines or Facebook, and you won’t.
At the beginning, it will take time to develop. And I think people are slowly learning that, and beginning to understand that they will not survive. And in today’s business environment, which is a connected world, obviously. And they won’t survive if they don’t master some of this, or at least learn enough to be able to hire the right people.
Kenny Soto 10:50
I’ve always been impressed by how how you can stay up to date in a field that’s changing every single minute at this point. So my next question is, how do you do your research and stay up to date on digital marketing trends, tools, and news.
Maurice Bretzfield 11:13
I subscribe to numerous newsletters. I watch because of the variety of clients and the needs that they have. I’m constantly doing research into new tools and understanding them. And as I said, I take two or three product demos a week. Because an even tools that I had a demo yesterday was Sprout Social. And if you remember, we use Sprout Social at score of five, six years ago, products completely changed.
And it’s up to date. And has capabilities that are absolutely magical at this point. So I’m taking those product demos, I read two to two hours, on the average day of newsletters and discovering I have a Search Engine Land and Marketing Land and all those apps on my phone. And I’m constantly reading and listening and watching instructional videos about the capabilities, the tools out there.
And then the and the the trends in in Google algorithm updates and what they’re all about their SEO requirements today, coral web vitals and eatin Bert and all those things. And I’ve always done a try I my background. Before I got into digital marketing, I was a an apparel designer and manufacturer. And that taught me to do research because I was constantly researching what was going on in various world markets. I’d take extensive trips through France and Italy and Britain and other places to discover what was going on there.
So I’ve always been kind of a sponge for knowledge. And doing research into this stuff is so readily available today. It’s available to anyone, all you got to do is set your mind to do it.
Kenny Soto 13:18
I’ve seen you give marketing advice to more than 100 business owners while volunteering that score with you. What are some common mistakes or challenges that your clients make? That could be easily avoided? Um,
Maurice Bretzfield 13:39
I think that the biggest mistake that they make, and something that I pound on them about is doing keyword and competitor research through tools like SEMrush. And understanding the marketplace before they dive into it. These tools today can teach us how our customers think what language they’re using to find what we have.
And researching those trends and those things that that that are going on in their marketplaces. And I think a lot of people don’t see the necessity of that. And that’s why I’ve got to pound them on it. And then don’t do it enough. This is research is something that especially artistic people don’t enjoy doing. So when I find a client that is keen to learn it, it’s a thrill for me because I can teach it to them and it opens up a whole new world.
Kenny Soto 14:40
Can you tell the audience and I think this would be a great segue. Can you tell the audience the story of gum source?
Maurice Bretzfield 14:50
I had gone off shore in 1971 when I was 24 I ended up in South Korea. To try and square away a manufacturing program problem for a local Los Angeles apparel maker, he sent me over there. And I couldn’t get his problem solved. But I got into the t shirt and sweater business primarily.
And did that for some 20 years until I bailed out of the apparel business. for numerous reasons, I was burned out, and the market was changing rapidly. And in 2002, I needed more labor than I could find in the United States. So I went to Asia, went back to this case, China, and put together a business that gave me the capability of doing all the production work that I needed for my marketing business.
One day, I was having breakfast with an old friend of mine who had met at Disney. And he was them with Microsoft. And I was telling him about the capabilities we develop. Next thing I knew I was up in, in Redmond, talking to his his his superiors and put together a company called gom global outsource management source to do outsourcing marketing work for people like Microsoft.
They had the reputation at the time of having the worst PowerPoints in the advertising industry. This was Microsoft Network, MSN. And I said, Hey, Aaron, what you guys need is a piece of cake for me to do over there, give me a shot. And the next thing I knew we were putting together a team that did all the research using us databases and Microsoft’s library of phenomenal resources to put together sales presentations that were constantly updated with current research and look beautiful.
And we put together a machine where various salespeople go in and tell us what their pitch was about who it was to, and what kinds of slides they wanted included. And we put together the decks form and turn them around in 24 hours or less. And then it was off to the races with that with all MTV and all kinds of other clients. And I did that until 2010.
Kenny Soto 17:44
Work Are you interested specifically in Mar tech? And what changes have you seen in the martech landscape over the years? And I asked this because I know you’re interested in more tech tools like, well, you’ve just mentioned Sprout Social and SEMrush. But ever since I’ve known you used still today have the most knowledge even in my network on Mar tech. So I definitely want to dive deeper in this topic.
Maurice Bretzfield 18:12
Yeah, beginning with research keyword, and competitor research was the first tools that I started to utilize. Originally, the Google Adwords tool was great until they restricted and added all kinds of restrictions to unlimited to only their advertising platform. And it was it was in the original I took a course up in Toronto for some people in about, I don’t know 98 or 99.
And they introduced me to a keyword research tool. And I can’t remember the name of saved my life right now I apologize. That just opened the world to me it was a Wow. We can actually go in and sit behind the user’s screen, sit on the other side of them and seeing what keywords that they were using to find what they were looking for. And then of course, that tool, that classification of tools started to expand rapidly with things like SEMrush and H refs and a host of other ones today.
And people began developing tools as the capabilities of marketing expanded social media came along. People express social popped up. And today there’s a tool. I like to say that if you have the need, there’s a tool out there for and I began playing with in the early days of Blackhat stuff to be honest, scraping content scrapers that allowed me to spin and create new content out of it. And I’ve been following the world of martec ever since.
There’s a site called chief Mar tech, that has been publishing for years now an infographic showing the growth of various tools and various categories, they now no longer can fit it on one page. And I’ve followed the development of all of these categories of tools.
I know what they’re capable of most of them when I, when I have a need, I know that there’s a tool out there that I might not know. And I go and do extensive research into that classification of tools. Because I truly believe that automation is the way to make digital marketing perform at its optimum. By using these tools, we save countless hours, and find ways to discover what our clients are thinking about where they need the content, and when they need the content.
Email marketing became obviously a very big deal 10 years ago, 12 years ago, and people like you know, all these email marketing platforms were given life. And today, I work with all my clients and putting together a custom marketing tech stack. That you know, some tools are free in some the summer, you know, up to 119 a month for summarization 350 A month pro lately.ai, which is a phenomenal tool that helped us distribute, take voice, an mp3 file and convert it into a written file, and then break it up into small, incremental, social media posts.
And it automates that process needs editing, which needs the human input just fine. And then schedules it and puts it out there. So there’s tools that will help us automate 85% of what we need to do 80% of what we need to do, and I’m fascinated by them. And I love it. I love technology, I love automation.
Kenny Soto 22:45
This someone who is interested in starting a marketing career need to know all of the functions and or skills in the industry? Or is it okay for them to specialize right out the gate when they start their first job?
Maurice Bretzfield 23:03
That’s a really interesting question. Because employers today are looking for a specialist. But that doesn’t but but the broader your knowledge of the entire landscape opens up opportunities for growth, that sticking to one simple discipline doesn’t provide I think you’re probably better able to answer that question than I am.
Kenny Soto 23:44
Well, if I had to give my opinion, because at the end of the day, everyone’s career is going to look different. And some people might get into digital marketing, but realize through that experience that they actually like product engineering and coding.
So I can’t speak for everyone. But just from my own personal experience, I can say that being a specialist does help. But I would only recommend becoming a specialist in something after five, if not 10 years of experience. It’s one of the main reasons why I don’t consider myself an expert in one specific area of digital marketing. I’m confident saying that I know digital marketing as a whole.
But I wouldn’t say that I know the best of the best tactics and strategies in SEO or the best of the best strategies in social or in paid media. Because I keep my arms and hands so to speak in all areas of the business in the industry, just to make sure that I can be useful for multiple scenarios and multiple teams and for multiple clients.
Maurice Bretzfield 24:56
Well, I think that’s the key to the answer is that you were given a broad overview of the entire digital marketing process. And then you were able to slot yourself into those areas that you found your expertise and the things that you liked doing, and are able to offer your specialties today with that broad overview of what the entire landscape looks like.
Kenny Soto 25:24
Yeah, and I would add, before asking about asking my next question, I would add that if you generalize in the beginning, you’ll find out not only what you’re good and bad at, but also what you just don’t like to do what’s not interesting to you.
So for me, for example, I love creating content. I love video editing, I love making paid media, I love listening to what people are saying on social media as well. And I like something I’m learning now, at the startup I’m working at, I like to see how a user is using an application and based on their usage, data, do growth and product marketing tactics to increase the usage of the product that they’re using.
And that’s something I’ve never experienced before. Nor would I have experienced that if I didn’t keep myself open to these new opportunities. What I don’t like to do personally, is sit in front of Facebook Ads Manager or Google AdWords and try and figure out from reams and rows of data, what ads are working, that’s just not my skill set. And that’s not something, something I like to do.
But I’ve seen previous teammates of mine, not only be passionate about stuff like that, but also they they can synthesize, if you will, what’s going on in a way that I just can’t comprehend. And I think part of it is not just experience doing that kind of work, but also having a specific kind of passion for that kind of work.
So I would say if you are, if you the listener are interested in getting into digital marketing, I would recommend at least for the first three to four years, and first five years, keep yourself open to all different types of roles. Because you you will be surprised at what you can do and what you will love doing.
Maurice Bretzfield 27:15
But you were you had the broad overview that allowed that provided you the opportunity to find the things that you liked to do and the things that you didn’t like don’t like to do. I mean, there are people out there who just love doing working with statistics, that’s their life. That’s not you, but you knew about that part of this world.
Because you have this broader view that has allowed you the opportunity to dive drive into the things that you wanted to do. And you were working for a fin tech startup today doing the things you love to do because you knew where to look where to apply and what language to speak to them about. In order to get the job. Now, right.
Kenny Soto 28:06
Yeah. And I think this is a great segue into the next question that I have, because I wouldn’t have gotten my current job if it wasn’t for what I learned from you when it comes to personal branding. Why is personal branding so important, not just for digital marketers, but for any modern day professional.
Maurice Bretzfield 28:30
If you’re applying for a job today, and you submit a resume, that resume goes through a machine in large companies, it goes to a machine first and if the right keywords are there, your resume may end up on someone’s desk. And learning those those terms and the terms of the trade in terms of art. You can learn through digital marketing and doing internet research.
And then, if that resume lands on someone’s desk, the first thing that they do and the first thing that everyone does is Google you. So I twisted your arm and made you put up Kenny Soto calm. When you were a junior in college and said just write about the things that you’re passionate about, tell the world who you are. And lo and behold, you had a digital marketing job two weeks after your graduation as I recall.
And it was because I believe that you had built that body of content out there blogged and now you’re doing these podcasts and it tells the world who you are and what you’re capable of. These are one of my first piece of advice to this young woman seemed to be an astrophysicist was go by your name, www dot your name.com.
Even if you don’t intend to put up a personal website, just to protect yourself from somebody else from grabbing that and creating confusion out there between your name and someone else’s name, you recall that we had a friend in the class that I taught at CCNY who resisted doing it what not bought his personal name, which I gave to him eventually. And threatened to put up a game porn site under his name.
Kenny Soto 30:47
I remember that I forgot all about that. So you said it
Maurice Bretzfield 30:51
as as a demonstration of what kind of damage can be done if you don’t protect yourself? On the upside, building that personal brand and building that personal website and forming the world about who you are? is, I think an essential element in certainly beginning your career today.
I mean, the first thing that we do we hear a new name, Hey, have you heard about this product or your doctor talks to you about some medicine or, you know, whatever the topic may be, we go to start with Google and probably YouTube and, and learn about it and see who’s out there and what they’re all about what it’s all about.
So I think it’s an essential that, especially beginning and or, you know, when you’re in high school or college beginning to, to protect yourself by by buying your name, and then building a compendium of information out there that explains the world who you are.
Kenny Soto 31:56
Next question. In this one is hypothetical. If you had access to a time machine, I can go back to the very first quote unquote, job or digital marketing client that you were serving, knowing everything you know, now, how would you accelerate the speed of your career?
Maurice Bretzfield 32:24
Oh, I wish that some of the tools that I had to build myself existed because it would have sped up the process and made it come my company much more efficient and better at what we did. I, I’ve been playing with personal computers and the World Wide Web since the beginning.
So I don’t know that I would have changed anything about the fascination that I first felt with all of this stuff. I don’t know that I could have changed anything. I’ve been progressing with the marketplace, and the field and the technology field. I don’t think that answers your question. But that’s the best answer I can give. You.
Kenny Soto 33:19
Know, I think I think it summarizes a key point, which is for anyone listening, if, if you have a need in your job, to solve a problem. Take a focus and make it an objective objective scuze me to find the tools because they are out there to help you.
There, there are so many ways to solve a problem now nowadays, that usually that the reason why you haven’t solved the problem is because you haven’t searched enough online for potential solutions. So to add to that is not only tools, there are other people out there right now on Reddit, Twitter, LinkedIn, what have you, who are also Quora, exactly, who are also experiencing in real time, actually, the same business problems that you are facing? All you need to do is either go on these websites and ask your question, and someone will answer you.
Most of those people will be experts who are trying to promote themselves online, so they will know what they’re talking about. Or you can search for your question in the search bar, and it will come up and most likely would have already been answered. If not asked by you and then answered by an expert afterwards. So all you really need to do to solve most of your business problems is just search and don’t give up searching and eventually you will find the answer or at least someone who can answer the question and solve the problem for you.
Maurice Bretzfield 34:56
Yeah, I think the the first thing meaning that everyone needs to become expert at. You know, when I was, when I was a student, they they made us memorize long lists of all kinds of stuff. And it no longer is necessary to know, in your head, who the 27th President of the United States was because it’s so easy to search.
So the key skill today is learning where to go to find what you’re looking for, and how to become a great searcher that will solve 90% of volume problems in business and in life. If you learn to become a great searcher, and are able to find the information that you need, very easily, so I, the the I think the best advice I can give anyone is learn to become a great searcher learn how to use Google. It’s all there.
There are advanced search operators that you can utilize that refine down the topic and what type of content it is, and so on and so forth to to looking for. So learn to be a great searcher.
Kenny Soto 36:17
Before I ask my last question, for anyone who’s guessing the 27th, President of the United States was William Howard Taft.
Maurice Bretzfield 36:25
See, I didn’t know that. But you just went and googled it?
Kenny Soto 36:27
Yes, I did. Because I didn’t know either.
Maurice Bretzfield 36:31
So who’s the 26th?
Kenny Soto 36:34
I’ll search up laughter I’ll put in the show notes. So my last question, Maurice is do you have a question for me?
Maurice Bretzfield 36:44
I have a question for you. Talk to us. I mean, I’m in, in western Washington. As we’re speaking, you’re in South Africa, as we’re speaking, you work for an American company located where they located New York City in New York. So we’re spanning many time zones here.
And if you’ve been doing any research, or any if you’ve seen all this talk about digital nomads, you want to describe yourself as a digital Vagabond people are working for all kinds of companies and people in far flung places of the world far from far, far flung places in the world. So what advice would you give to people who are looking to uproot themselves take themselves someplace else and still maintain a being able to make a living?
Kenny Soto 38:03
Well, keep in mind I’m a digital nomad.
Yeah, keep keep in mind that while I answer this COVID-19 has put in some challenges that I do believe eventually will go away, either because COVID-19 itself will go away or because international governments will have systems in place for more tourism, which will lead to more digital nomadism as well.
So my first piece of advice, which I wish I knew, before I went and started my digital nomad journey back in 2019, is you want to save up at least six months of expenses before you go, and I did my digital nomad adventure right before COVID struct with with my fiancee, and she would argue that you don’t necessarily need to save that much.
But for me personally, I like to mitigate any and all surprises by having cash on hand that I can use so I can fly anywhere at any time. And besides an air b&b or a hospital, your biggest expense will be air travel. So you want to make sure that you have six months of expenses. And by calculating that just do what your current expenses are now because most likely, if you go to Asia or South America for example, you will be able to get by very well and the very comfortably while you’re doing your digital nomad lifestyle.
So that’s the first thing second thing is see if you can work for a set number of clients outside of your current job, because what will most likely happen, or at least need to happen before you fly? and go on your adventure is you want to make sure that you have at least two streams of income, just in case your current job cannot support this decision that you’re trying to make.
The ideal scenario is that they’re comfortable with you leaving the state that you’re in, and even the country that you’re in, so that you can can’t experience this kind of change. But sometimes they won’t. And you just want to make sure that you have at least a freelance gig on the side, or even a part time job that can turn into a full time job as soon as you make this transition.
And then the third thing that I would recommend, which really ties back to what we just talked about talked about, is you really need to set a foundation of success by creating as much content as possible for your personal brand. So that in the event, you can’t find a job or you lose a job, but you still want to continue your digital nomad lifestyle, you can find international clients.
And when it comes to international clients, they will be even more stringent, and look even deeper into your personal story. If you’re applying for a freelance gig, or a, a temporary position with their company, because not only are you applying for a job, an attack role, which is normally competitive, but you’re applying as a foreigner, so they need to make sure that you know what you’re talking about and until degree Americans, Australians, people from New Zealand, and people from the UK do have a advantage, just branding wise for their countries when they apply for international positions, mainly because of our ability to speak proper English and I say proper with quotations because there are so many people out there in the world that can’t speak English properly. It’s just it’s a branding issue at this point.
So we do have certain advantages to on our plate scuze. Me that can help us when we’re applying for these positions. But you also want to level up your advantages by having it so when someone Google’s your name, you own the syrup for your name. And they’re impressed so much that even though you’re a foreigner applying for the position, they consider you. So just to summarize, exactly.
So just to summarize, first thing, have six months of expenses on hand. Second, make sure that you have multiple streams of income before you start this lifestyle. And then third, make sure that you have or you are starting to build your personal brand. And then I think I think you’ll be in a great place. The only last point of advice I would recommend is just doing as much research in the country that you’re going to. So that way you can enjoy it and not just work every single day, but know where to go when you’re not working.
So that way you can actually explore and because at the end of the day, being a digital nomad is not just working remotely, it’s experiencing the world and traveling at the same time. So you want to make sure you’re doing that too. So that would be my advice.
Maurice Bretzfield 43:14
To that I would like to qualify something and add something, qualify a couple of things. Number one COVID is never going away. It will be controlled. But you know, we eradicated. We use the word eradicate for smallpox and polio. There’s still cases out there the disease’s still out there.
So it’s a matter of protecting ourselves from getting it. But it’s never going away. Number two, I think six months is overly cautious because people are going to base that six months of support, what it costs them to live in the United States. And you’re now living in South Africa, what 60 cents on the dollar US dollar.
Kenny Soto 44:04
Pretty much.
Maurice Bretzfield 44:05
Yeah, so you were able to save a lot of money and build that reserve, in part why you have already embarked on your trip overseas. The other thing is that the essential element that you’re going to require when you get there is bandwidth and be very cautious.
People there’s lots of people in Mexico are having real problems, especially in the beach communities. They’re you know, around Wahaca and other places where the bandwidth is limited. And it’s a problem. So in order to do all of this digital work, you’re going to need bandwidth. But again, I like to emphasize I think you’re overly cautious on the on the six months.
Kenny Soto 44:47
I always am. That’s a slam.
Maurice Bretzfield 44:49
you’re very cautious fire financially you have been since I first met you which is why you have no student debt and are able to live independently nicely as you do Don’t go where you want to go and do what you want to do. But you can save money in a lot of these places.
Because if you’re working for an American company, you’re working American dollars. And if you’re in Mexico, us spending, Spanish pesos Mexican pesos, which, you know, you can live in Mexico for 450 500 hours a month, get some great apartment on the beach and plenty of places and pack the rest of that money away. I mean, rentals in the United States.
The housing markets off the wall, rental prices are going through the roof. heard a story on the radio this morning about a woman whose rent went from maybe she got evicted because she couldn’t pay the increased rent to the landlord raised her from 900 to $1,400 a month, just like that. So it costs a whole lot less than Mexico or South Africa and a whole lot of other places. Wherever your dreams may take you and you’re able to bank some money that way.
Kenny Soto 46:07
I’m so glad I had this conversation with you because I cannot host the Digital Marketing Podcast without speaking to my mentor who got me into digital marketing. So my last question is, flatter me. Thank you. My last question for you, Maurice. Is if anyone wanted to say hello. Where could they find you online?
Maurice Bretzfield 46:27
They can find me online everywhere. Oh man number one. There’s plenty of references mauricebretzfield.com My old legacy website which you know like the shoemaker with a hole in the bottom of shoe I don’t have time to I should just hire somebody and get it done already. Or LinkedIn WWE dot LinkedIn slash in slash Breztfield . or shoot me an email at [email protected].
Kenny Soto 47:01
Perfect. Thank you, Maurice, for your time today and thank you to you the listener for listening to another episode of Kenny sorrows Digital Marketing podcast. And as always, I hope you have a great week. Bye.