Ep 38 - Callsign: "SPECTRE" - Programmer, Founder, Podcaster, Brand Builder

In this episode, Blake sits down with Anatoly Spektor—business consultant, programmer, podcaster, father, and endurance athlete—whose journey from post-Soviet Latvia to Canada, Ironman competitions, and Bali’s entrepreneurial scene reads like a series of inflection points.

Anatoly shares how growing up in Latvia left him aimless, how one cocky comment at a party in Toronto jolted him onto a new path, and how quitting safe jobs led him into software, Amazon brands, consulting billion-dollar firms, and eventually, creating communities and content that changed his life.

We cover:

• Roots in Latvia → Canada: childhood, entrepreneurship in the family, feeling lost, and the pivotal move to Toronto.

• From dropout to coder: flunking management school, thriving at Seneca College, and landing early work with Red Hat and startups.

• Ironman mindset: training 30+ hours a week to do the “impossible,” and how it reshaped his beliefs about limits.

• Consulting & content creation: helping governments and corporations restructure teams, launching a successful Agile/Jira YouTube channel, and discovering leverage in systems.

• Amazon brands & e-commerce: wins, failures, and why he ultimately sold and walked away from the grind.

• Podcasting evolution: from “10 Million Journey” to Soul to Soul, building networks of Amazon sellers, and now exploring spirituality, philosophy, and the human side of business.

• Bootcamps in Bali: creating containers with Sandra to help founders scale from purpose, not just profit.

• On failure & philosophy: vanity metrics, forgiveness after being burned, the balance of pivot vs. push, and leading with authenticity.

• AI as sparring partner: how Anatoly builds AI agent teams to automate research, planning, and creative strategy.

• Masculinity, family, and legacy: raising kids with alternative education, building podcasts as an archive for his children, and redefining leadership as service.

• Life in Bali: the vibrancy of entrepreneurship on the island, myths founders tell themselves, and the Hindu cultural backdrop that makes the place unique.

And of course, the three signature Zen & Callsigns questions:

• What is your philosophical operating system?

• What’s the difference between luck and skill?

• What about AI?