June 24, 2025 • 22 mins
Cut The Tie Podcast
Episode 276
What if the system isn’t broken—it’s working exactly as intended? In this thought-provoking episode of Cut The Tie, Thomas Helfrich sits down with Aleksandar Svetski, entrepreneur, philosopher, and vocal advocate for sovereign thinking. Aleks challenges the mainstream narrative around money, identity, and power—and urges us to cut ties with mass psychosis and reclaim our agency.
From founding Amber, a Bitcoin investing app, to co-authoring The UnCommunist Manifesto, Aleks has made it his mission to help people think independently and build outside the system. This episode is a deep dive into the mindset of someone who’s not just rejecting the norm—but actively building the alternative.
About Aleksandar Svetski
Aleksandar Svetski is an entrepreneur, author, and the founder of The Sovereign Collective. A fierce critic of collectivist ideologies, Aleks promotes self-sovereignty, decentralization, and personal responsibility. His work explores the philosophical underpinnings of freedom, finance, and identity in a world increasingly dominated by conformity and coercion.
In this episode, Thomas and Aleks discuss:
- Cutting ties with the system’s script
Aleks explains why chasing success within broken systems leads to emptiness—and how stepping out is the first step to real power. - Bitcoin as a tool for sovereignty
He breaks down how Bitcoin isn’t just a currency—it’s a rebellion against central control and monetary manipulation. - Mass psychosis and media control
From COVID to cultural chaos, Aleks explores how fear is weaponized to keep people compliant—and why reclaiming thought is the ultimate resistance. - The masculine crisis and spiritual war
Aleks dives into the loss of strong, principled masculinity and how cultural decay is tied to spiritual weakness. - Entrepreneurship as resistance
He shares why building your own business is one of the last true paths to freedom in a hyper-regulated world.
Key Takeaways:
- Freedom doesn’t come from comfort
To be truly free, you have to choose discomfort, risk, and responsibility. - Money is control—but Bitcoin breaks the chain
Bitcoin decentralizes power and gives individuals a chance to opt out of manipulated economies. - You are being programmed
Most people don’t think—they repeat. Real sovereignty starts with awareness. - There’s no revolution without self-mastery
If you can’t govern yourself, someone else will. - Opt out, build up
Don’t fight the system from within—build the parallel economy, culture, and mindset.
Connect with Aleksandar Svetski:
🌐 Website: svetski.medium.com
💼 LinkedIn: Aleksandar Svetski
📘 Book: The UnCommunist Manifesto
Connect with Thomas Helfrich:
🐦 Twitter: @thelfrich
📘 Facebook Group: Cut the Tie
💼 LinkedIn: Thomas Helfrich
🌐 Website: cutthetie.com
📧 Email: t@instantlyrelevant.com
🚀 InstantlyRelevant: instantlyrelevant.com
Serious about LinkedIn Lead Generation? Stop Guessing what to do on LinkedIn and ignite revenue from relevance with Instantly Relevant Lead System
Mark as Played
Transcript
Episode Transcript
Available transcripts are automatically generated. Complete accuracy is not guaranteed.
Speaker 1 (00:00):
Welcome to Cut the Tie podcast.
I am your host, thomas Helfrich.
I am on a mission to help youcut the tie to whatever it is
holding you back from success,and that success has to be
defined by you.
I say this a lot If you don'tdefine your own definition of
success, you're chasing somebodyelse's dream, and that's just
not going to work.
I promise Today I'm joined byAlexander Spetsky.
How are you?
Good, man, good?
(00:21):
Thank you for having me on moreof a look at what's necessary
for rebuilding culture in thefuture.
Speaker 2 (00:25):
On a new socioeconomic standard.
(00:48):
So that's sort of like myphilosophical side and I guess,
since I've been writing for solong, most people know me for
that.
But my general vocation isbuilding businesses.
So I've built everything fromgyms to hospitality ventures to
tech, and I think that I'd sayprobably the last nine years
have been primarily in tech.
My last company was a Bitcoinexchange in Australia.
(01:09):
We built the first Bitcoin-onlysavings app in the country and
it became quite a success.
I exited that a couple of yearsago and for the last year I've
been building what you couldcall the first social travel app
.
So imagine like the socialdynamism of an Instagram with
the travel utility of a GoogleMaps or TripAdvisor.
(01:31):
So like that's sort of.
I'm trying to build somethingthat's in the blend there,
because I truly believe that theway people travel, move around
and, in fact, live like we'removing into a more location,
independent world and a moresort of mobile lifestyle.
So I'm trying to buildsomething for people that
bridges that gap.
And, yeah, we we raised somemuch funding last year and we've
(01:54):
been working our asses off tobuild it.
It's quite a large product.
We looked at our GitHub theother day and we've pushed more
features in the last six monthsthan Twitter, instagram and
Facebook did combined in theirfirst three years.
So it's a big product and, yeah, man, I'm excited to get it out
into people's hands.
Speaker 1 (02:13):
Yeah, is it officially launched?
Is it in beta?
Speaker 2 (02:16):
No, no, no, so it's a beta right now.
We're going to launch over sixmonths.
So we're going to do a rollingrelease over six months because
of the complexity of the product, because you've got events in
there, you've got maps, you'vegot reviews, you've got
recommendations, you've got asocial feed.
It's quite broad, but the firstpublic release will happen on
(02:37):
the 20th of June, so we've goteight days.
Speaker 1 (02:41):
That's a long time.
That's pretty long.
How are you awake right now?
Um it's stupid.
Speaker 2 (02:48):
You're up pretty late .
Yeah, man, it's been.
It's been busy me and the boysare here, so the the team is
distributed.
I actually live in Brazil andsome of my team are from Georgia
, the country, some are fromEurope, some are from America,
and we just kind of flew intoPrague, which is where the big
conference is, where we'rereleasing it next week, and
we're just here like plowingaway and it's coming together.
(03:11):
I do like Bratislava, it's abeautiful city.
It's a beautiful city.
It's one of my favorite.
Speaker 1 (03:15):
My wife is Slovak and so I know it's Czech.
Just for those like that'sCzech, like I know it's Czech
enough, it's a train right awayfor us.
That's all of us, um, do lovethe city.
Great place it's.
Uh, I, good luck getting stuffdone.
There's no distractions therethat possibly could pull you
away from your work at night.
Not at all, not at all.
So that should be pretty easyto focus.
(03:37):
Uh, you should have picked likeberno or someplace like a
little bit chiller, like a fewlike an hour away or something.
It would be a little bitchiller, like a few like an hour
away or something.
Yeah well, this is next time,next time.
Well, good luck on that.
So, before we get into yourjourney, a little bit, you know,
and the ties you've cut,metaphorically, so to speak,
with the definition of successfor you.
Speaker 2 (03:59):
Definition of success .
Hmm, that's a.
I think success is quite amoving tug.
I don't think it's a place younecessarily arrive at.
It's a North star or adirection you move in.
And I think if you are, ifyou're in alignment alignment is
(04:22):
maybe not the right word, butif you are facing that direction
, if you are continually makingprogress in that direction, I
think that is the process ofsuccess, not the destination of
success.
Speaker 1 (04:34):
I bet that's interesting.
Most people don't.
No one's actually answered thatway, but I think that's.
I think that's right.
I think if you ever get there,you didn't actually.
You know you're chasing the sun, you'll never get to the sun,
and so you're all you'll do isget off course from where you
thought you could be.
Not always all of them are bad,but you know, occasionally
you're like where the hell isthe sun?
It's always behind me.
I think that's a great way tothink.
Speaker 2 (04:59):
So you're, you Pursuing a path.
I think that's really important.
Speaker 1 (05:03):
So what's your current path?
You're like is it release-based?
You're like, eight days outsuccess metrics right now, yeah.
Speaker 2 (05:10):
Right now, that's all that matters.
That is the path.
But even beyond that and thisis why I said we don't have a
launch day, we have a rollingrelease.
I won't define the metric ofsuccess based on how we go at
this conference.
This conference is aboutputting something into people's
hands, seeing how they use it,getting the feedback and then
iterating and acting on thatfeedback.
(05:31):
And I think I've learned this asan entrepreneur over the years
is you know, everyone talksabout, oh, you know, you need to
fail, and fail fast and allthis sort of shit, and it's kind
of a failure and success.
People kind of measure them inweird ways and then they say,
well, look, failure is the pathto success.
And then we'll, you know,success, the path to failure.
In that case, like it's, it'sall a little bit confusing,
which is why I think this sortof angle of looking at it as a
(05:51):
pathway it's like look, man,you're going to trip over,
you're going to fall over,you're going to get back up.
You need to persevere, you needto you that you are moving in
that direction.
I think you are on the way ofsucceeding.
No-transcript.
(06:17):
Were you satisfied with thelife that you lived, or did you
have um, or do you regret it?
And I think we won't know thatmetric, or we won't know that
thing until we get to ourdeathbed.
Speaker 1 (06:28):
So until then it's a path, until then it's math, it's
journey.
Talk about your journey alittle bit and maybe what the
biggest kind of obstacle tie,metaphorically or whatever
you've had to kind of cut to getto where you are.
Speaker 2 (06:43):
Yeah, I've been someone who all throughout my
life I never had too many tiesactually, which maybe I'll give
you an unconventional answerhere is my lack of ties probably
caused me more problems.
So I left home at a relativelyyoungish age, like 17, 18.
I took my scholarship money, soI was very academically strong.
(07:04):
I went to university.
I decided that everyone atuniversity was an idiot.
So I took my scholarship moneyand I invested in stock market.
I taught myself, I self-taughtmyself to trade derivatives and
I turned like $5,000 into$60,000 in a matter of six
months.
I thought I was a genius.
I was like, watch out, warrenBuffett.
Thousand dollars in a matter ofsix months.
I thought I was a genius.
I was like watch out, warrenBuffett, I'm coming for you.
And my goal was to make my firstmillion by the time I was 20.
(07:26):
Unfortunately, this was 2007.
So then I lost everything and Isomehow managed to get a bunch
of loans from the banks allsorts of stupidity.
I don't even know how I didthis and I ended up a quarter of
a million dollars in debt whenI turned 20.
So that put me on aninteresting path and the only
thing I could do at the time inorder to pay the loans and feed
(07:46):
myself was to go knock on doorsand sell stuff.
And I was this kind of academickid.
I had no friends.
I was really introverted.
The idea of going and sellingsomething was preposterous, so
the only thing I could do wasthat.
So I sold paid television whileI was living on someone's
lounge room floor.
I didn't have a TV, I didn'tknow what was on television, but
I learned how to sell andcommunicate by necessity because
(08:09):
I had to eat, and that sort ofopened my life into a very
different direction.
I went from studying to be acivil engineer to having to drop
out of uni, pay back theseloans, become entrepreneurial,
and you know, my life took mealong that path and I built
businesses.
I blew up more than I succeeded.
In the early days I built a gymwhich blew up in my face, solar
(08:32):
energy company where I made myfirst million when I turned 23,.
And then dispute with thegovernment and all this sort of
crap with government rebates andall this sort of stuff, and
that blew up in my face as well.
My first app failed thehospitality venture.
I grew that from one shop to 13shops in the space of six
months.
Most of those failed.
(08:53):
I ended up with a couple ofthose that succeeded, if we're
going to use that word, and thenI ended up selling those and my
first two apps also failed.
They didn't work out, but Ikept persevering and I think the
older I've gotten, the moreI've tried to actually be a
little bit less unhinged andinstead tether myself to
(09:16):
something.
So maybe this is anunconventional angle for the
show, but I've tried to tiemyself to a theme and try and
narrow down the scope or the Ishouldn't say the ambition, but
the target in the early days,because what I did very much in
my 20s was I tried to do toomuch with too little resources,
(09:40):
too little ability, too littlecapability, too little capital
or whatever the case was.
So, yeah, my last company,which was a success, was me
sticking to one thing, tyingmyself to the thing and really
like rebuilding that andcompounding on it, and it's the
same thing with this one.
When I raised this ventureround with the investors, they
said, okay, so what's your exitstrategy?
I said exit strategy.
(10:01):
I said no, no, no.
This is a game for the next 10,15 years.
I said I'm building somethingthat I'm not building it to exit
.
I'm building it to like.
This is a part of my life andif Zuckerberg wants to come and
offer me a billion dollars infive years, I'll think about it,
but this is about tying andtethering myself to this thing
(10:21):
and compounding that over time.
So hope that's a useful answer.
It is.
Speaker 1 (10:26):
And listen, there's a book called 10X is Easier Than
2X by Dan Sullivan, and what youdid was actually just cut the
ties of all the shit that youshould have said no to before.
Okay, there you do it.
And every entrepreneur on theplanet I am not, I am.
It's the same thing.
You go and try a bunch of stuff, if that's what you do, and
then you're like that all wasdumb or it didn't work.
(10:48):
Then there's cost me a lot ordidn't make enough.
Whatever, the answer is it's1.5, 2x, and you're like I'm
going to go back to the thingthat can actually make money.
I've done it.
You could argue, this podcastis that, but I enjoy doing that
show.
Do you remember the moment,though, when you knew you were
going to just go focus on theone thing?
That was like just a like, theactual like, that's it.
Speaker 2 (11:12):
Yeah, I think the first wake up call for me was
when I did find Bitcoin, forexample.
I went all in and I really gotsucked down that rabbit hole
because for me, I found bitcoinvery interesting from a uh,
social perspective, from aneconomic perspective, from
philosophical perspectives, youknow, because, because I I've
always been interested inaustralian econ history, how the
world functioned, the story ofmoney and all this sort of stuff
(11:33):
, and and for me, like reallynarrowing down on that, like and
it wasn't immediate, like whenI first discovered bitcoin, I
screwed around with all the shitcoins and all that sort of
stuff and then over time, I justeliminated all the noise, all
the crap, all the junk, all thedistractions, everything like
that, and I just focused in onBitcoin and it manifested in the
product, our product.
In the beginning, investorswere like what the hell are you
(11:55):
doing?
Why don't you allow people totrade between Ethereum and this?
That I said no, no, no.
Bitcoin is a savings instrument.
People have the opportunity toacquire the best money on the
planet before the rest of theworld does.
The only functionality is setup the account, link your bank
and buy five bucks a week, 10bucks a week, 50 bucks a month.
I'll just bellicose the averageinto it.
(12:16):
That's it, nothing else.
Forget about trading.
Speaker 1 (12:19):
Forget about all this other I told myself 10 years
ago that I still like when ittripled and I'm like how did I
do that?
Speaker 2 (12:24):
You are still so early.
You know, one Bitcoin will golike billions of dollars in the
in the next 10, 20 years.
So it is it is not going away.
You, you, you, dollar costaverage into that thing and
that's it.
You forget about it.
And that for me, was, was, wasmassive and it really simplified
my life.
During that period and when Iexited that, I sat down and I
(12:45):
wrote some books and once againI just focused on one book, did
that, launched that and I hitthe bestseller list.
We got into all sorts of crazypodcasts with that Jordan
Peterson, this, that, all sortsof things and then, yeah,
finished up with that.
Then the second book that tookme two years of real, real, real
(13:06):
laser focus, and I didn't as Iwas finishing the book, I was
starting this business.
So there was a period of likeheavy, heavy, heavy overlap
where I was trying to do bothand now that the book is done,
that released last year.
Now I'm into this and yeah, man,I think it's also part of an
age thing.
You know you pass, you get past35 and you realize you know
it's kind of.
You know, when you're in your20s, you're at a, you're at a
buffet and you want to eat thechicken, the salad, the beef,
the pork, the this, that youwant to eat everything and you
(13:26):
realize you just stuffed yourfood full of you, stuffed your
stomach full of food that youdon't really like.
And now, so you pass that 35point.
It's like look, I like the beef.
So you know what I'm gonna do?
I'm gonna eat more beef.
Forget about the salad and allthe other bullshit.
This is it.
Speaker 1 (13:39):
They should only have one piece really.
Why am I at a buffet at all?
Couché, Let me get out of here.
Got my money back.
What are you most grateful for?
Speaker 2 (13:51):
grateful for at this point is my wife and she.
We found out she was pregnanton christmas last year, so she's
due for a baby soon.
So that's for me that's likethe highlight, really great for
that.
Speaker 1 (14:02):
Yeah, that's a, that's a big congratulations,
that's a.
By the way, that may changeyour perspective.
Some, some things.
When you want that little thingcomes out, I'm telling you that
, absolutely guaranteed.
Um, if it doesn't, I'd be.
You know, you might want to,might want to check my head
again.
Why?
Because it should.
Congratulations, that's, that'sfantastic.
What you know.
Give us some advice to the 20year old, something out there
(14:25):
who's like you.
What advice?
Speaker 2 (14:28):
yeah, I, I if I could go back to my 20s.
I know there's a lot of advice.
It's like use your 20s toexperiment, to explore and all
this sort of stuff.
I think that probably is validfor the early 20s.
I spent too much timeexperimenting, exploring,
blowing things up and all thatsort of stuff, and I probably
(14:49):
should have started compoundingearlier and compounding.
When I say that, what I mean isnarrowing the focus and finding
the one or two things that youshould do and do well.
So if I could go back to myselfin my early twenties or if
anyone is in their earlytwenties or mid twenties
listening to this is get to thatthing that you enjoy, that
(15:09):
you're good at, and compound,compound as soon as possible,
because compound growth is trulythe, not just in investments,
but in your own capacity, inyour own skill set, in your own
results, is truly the.
You know, whatever they call it, the eighth, ninth wonder of
the world I mean compoundanything that adds value.
Speaker 1 (15:26):
Right, it's something that I definitely you know, at
some point.
If you wait too long, by the way, the only confining you're
going to do is into yourself,and I'm one of those people that
did way too much at twentiesand thirties, um, and I know, I
know exactly what you mean.
Find something you love to dothat solves a problem, that you
have some skills in, and pour itall on skills.
Uh, cause, as you see successup, that raises the passion, and
(15:49):
even from, like you know, yourdollar cost, average idea.
Leave it Just, forget it Like,just treat it like a drink you
didn't buy at a bar, right, Imean, and, and, and.
The truth is, if you do thatand you do all the things that
are still behind the scenes thatyou know, you get money working
for yourself and getting yourown talents to work, and you're
you're when you hit fortiesfifties, you'll be really
(16:19):
freaking glad you did that,absolutely, I mean.
Speaker 2 (16:20):
Mean, I think it's.
It's funny, man, the older youget, the more you realize things
are so simple.
They're not easy, but they'resimple, you know.
And then when you, when you'reyoung, you think it's all
complicated, um and it it, itisn't.
It's just like.
You know the, the straight line, the gordian knot, you know,
when alexander the great cut thegordian knot, they were like oh
, you know, to become king ofthis land, you need to untie
this thing before the sun rises.
He pulled out his sword and hecut the fucking thing in half.
That's it.
And to take that approach Ithink in life is a real lesson
(16:43):
who gives you inspiration?
Speaker 1 (16:47):
Dead or alive?
You?
Speaker 2 (16:49):
can be anybody.
Okay, yeah, I think my.
The person who I'm inspired bythe most, whoever lived, is
Alexander the Great.
I think he was the greatestindividual who ever lived.
Were it not for him, romewouldn't have existed, the
Western civilization wouldn'thave existed.
None of what we have todaywould have existed.
A vision, a tenacity, aperseverance, a vision, a
(17:13):
strength, a courage that fewpeople, in fact nobody in the
history of humanity has evermatched.
And whenever I'm feeling like abitch, to put it crudely, I
will go back and listen to ahistory book or something like
that about him and then hardenup and get back to work.
Speaker 1 (17:35):
Yeah, yeah, he was ahead of his times.
Actually.
I think if, uh, I think ifchristianity was around during
that time, he probably wouldhave taken it, and I think that
happened later in the romanempire, but I think he was
probably one of the ones thatcould have done it.
Um, because he was likedifferent, uh, so brutal, but
brutal for the times probablynot, I don't know.
Uh, interesting answer, becausemost people do pick uh things
(17:56):
earlier, so I love, I love tohear the difference.
It's great.
If you had to start over today,though, and could go back at
any point, you know, would you?
And if you would, what wouldyou do differently?
Speaker 2 (18:06):
I would have kids younger.
That's my straight up answer.
It's the only regret I have isthat I waited too long and I
think think that's been a.
I think it's been a.
An epidemic in our millennialsort of generation is that we
kind of we had one foot in thedigital age, one foot in the in
the pre-digital age and we kindof almost like conned ourselves
(18:29):
into thinking that we'd be youngforever and that we can still,
like, have our cake and eat ittoo, that sort of sense of I,
you know, everything will befine.
And I see a lot of people myage like scrambling.
Now I'm trying, you know,organize kids and this and that,
and it's like you know, sure,we are healthier, we're younger
and all this sort of stuff andwe can probably be younger for
for a longer period of time.
(18:49):
But my, my piece of regret hereis that by the time my kids are
in their early 20s, I'llpractically be 60.
And I don't like that thought.
So I got more time for myself,but I got less time with them.
So if I could go back and do itall over again, I'd have kids
in my 20s.
Speaker 1 (19:06):
As a guy that's 49 who has a 15-year-old,
13-year-old and 10-year-old.
So I was later in life.
You won't feel so old whenyou're 49.
Old, so I was later in life.
You won't feel so old whenyou're 49.
You you'll be happy you hadthem when you did, because
you'll look back and go man, Iwould have been a shit dad at 25
possibly.
Speaker 2 (19:23):
I mean, it's one of those things we don't know.
Speaker 1 (19:25):
Yeah yeah, I definitely think a lot of 20
olds don't realize the wordresentment.
That you would realize, man, Iwould have been pissed.
I lost my 20.
There is no good time.
It just happens when it'ssupposed to for you.
So I'm trying to help you notfeel so regretful because it
happening actually for you whenit's supposed to be happening or
it will be, and but when it's ahere change shit, because 92%
(19:46):
of the time you spend with yourkids is before the age of 18.
So when you're worried abouttheir twenties, don't worry
about it.
They're not going to be aroundanyway yeah it's just, you have
plenty of time because, likethat age group before they're 12
, you'll you're going to want abreak.
Look, look around that, the.
The question I would tell you,though, is uh, anything, you
(20:08):
know, when you, when you lookback in your life, you say I'd
go back and do that differently,just do it now.
That's always.
That's kind of the full.
Speaker 2 (20:15):
Exactly, yeah, that's , and that's why we're on a
mission to have as many babiesas we can with the wife
Appropriate statement, butthey're called Irish twins here.
Speaker 1 (20:25):
If you can have two within 12 months.
Speaker 2 (20:29):
Me and my brother.
I've worked marriage so Ithought maybe maybe we can pull
that off.
So I thought maybe we can pullthat off, we'll see.
Speaker 1 (20:35):
Good job, well congrats.
If there's a question I shouldhave asked you today and I
didn't, what would that questionhave been?
Oh, okay.
Speaker 2 (20:41):
If there was.
Ooh, oh man, I've been askedthis question before and I can
never answer it very well.
Yeah, it's the one questionthat always stumps me.
Uh, I, I don't have a goodanswer for that question, I'm
sorry.
Yeah, I, I have failed youshould.
Speaker 1 (21:01):
The answer should.
Even I wish you would have toldme you were going to ask that
before we got here.
There you go, I did.
I sent it to an email, allright, yeah, it's the mystery
question.
We're gonna have it.
So, since he didn't askquestions, a question I would
have asked him and we're gonnago have it.
So, since he didn't ask aquestion, here's a question I
would have asked him and we'rejust going to go shameless plug.
Who should get ahold of you andhow do they do that?
Speaker 2 (21:18):
All right.
So people can I mean I'm, I'macross all the social.
So if, if my name is uniquelyspelled S V E T S K I, so if you
search that on Google, you'llfind me all over a little bit
more active on X, but eventhough actually, you know, I'm
not even active on any of thesocials these days but too busy
building stuff and kind of likeliving in the real world.
(21:38):
But if you do want to connectwith me there, I'm on Substack
on X and I guess I'm onInstagram, but I haven't used
that in a year or two.
And then, obviously, if peopleare interested.
You know what we're building atAtlantis is a new kind of
social network.
So I think if people actuallywant to connect with me, that's
(22:00):
where I'm more active, becausethat's less social, where you
know the people you follow, thepeople you connect with.
That's the content, you see, asopposed to algorithmic
clickbait, which is what we'retrying to avoid.
(22:20):
So people want to find me onthere.
It's atlantisio forward slashSvetsky, and you'll find me on
there.
Speaker 1 (22:26):
Wonderful.
I love it.
Thanks for coming on today.
I appreciate it.
Speaker 2 (22:30):
Absolutely man.
Speaker 1 (22:31):
Thank you, listen, if you made it this part of the
show.
Thanks for listening, watching.
If this is the first timeyou've been here, I hope it's
the first of many and if you'vebeen here before, thank you and
come back, get out there, go cuta tie.
Find your success first, though, because otherwise you're
chasing someone else's dream andit won't mean anything when you
get there.
Thanks for listening.
Welcome to Cut the Tie podcast.
I am your host, thomas Helfrich.
I am on a mission to help youcut the tie to whatever it is
holding you back from success,and that success has to be
defined by you.
I say this a lot If you don'tdefine your own definition of
success, you're chasing somebodyelse's dream, and that's just
not going to work.
I promise Today I'm joined byAlexander Spetsky.
How are you?
Good, man, good?
(00:21):
Thank you for having me on moreof a look at what's necessary
for rebuilding culture in thefuture.
Speaker 2 (00:25):
On a new socioeconomic standard.
(00:48):
So that's sort of like myphilosophical side and I guess,
since I've been writing for solong, most people know me for
that.
But my general vocation isbuilding businesses.
So I've built everything fromgyms to hospitality ventures to
tech, and I think that I'd sayprobably the last nine years
have been primarily in tech.
My last company was a Bitcoinexchange in Australia.
(01:09):
We built the first Bitcoin-onlysavings app in the country and
it became quite a success.
I exited that a couple of yearsago and for the last year I've
been building what you couldcall the first social travel app
.
So imagine like the socialdynamism of an Instagram with
the travel utility of a GoogleMaps or TripAdvisor.
(01:31):
So like that's sort of.
I'm trying to build somethingthat's in the blend there,
because I truly believe that theway people travel, move around
and, in fact, live like we'removing into a more location,
independent world and a moresort of mobile lifestyle.
So I'm trying to buildsomething for people that
bridges that gap.
And, yeah, we we raised somemuch funding last year and we've
(01:54):
been working our asses off tobuild it.
It's quite a large product.
We looked at our GitHub theother day and we've pushed more
features in the last six monthsthan Twitter, instagram and
Facebook did combined in theirfirst three years.
So it's a big product and, yeah, man, I'm excited to get it out
into people's hands.
Speaker 1 (02:13):
Yeah, is it officially launched?
Is it in beta?
Speaker 2 (02:16):
No, no, no, so it's a beta right now.
We're going to launch over sixmonths.
So we're going to do a rollingrelease over six months because
of the complexity of the product, because you've got events in
there, you've got maps, you'vegot reviews, you've got
recommendations, you've got asocial feed.
It's quite broad, but the firstpublic release will happen on
(02:37):
the 20th of June, so we've goteight days.
Speaker 1 (02:41):
That's a long time.
That's pretty long.
How are you awake right now?
Um it's stupid.
Speaker 2 (02:48):
You're up pretty late .
Yeah, man, it's been.
It's been busy me and the boysare here, so the the team is
distributed.
I actually live in Brazil andsome of my team are from Georgia
, the country, some are fromEurope, some are from America,
and we just kind of flew intoPrague, which is where the big
conference is, where we'rereleasing it next week, and
we're just here like plowingaway and it's coming together.
(03:11):
I do like Bratislava, it's abeautiful city.
It's a beautiful city.
It's one of my favorite.
Speaker 1 (03:15):
My wife is Slovak and so I know it's Czech.
Just for those like that'sCzech, like I know it's Czech
enough, it's a train right awayfor us.
That's all of us, um, do lovethe city.
Great place it's.
Uh, I, good luck getting stuffdone.
There's no distractions therethat possibly could pull you
away from your work at night.
Not at all, not at all.
So that should be pretty easyto focus.
(03:37):
Uh, you should have picked likeberno or someplace like a
little bit chiller, like a fewlike an hour away or something.
It would be a little bitchiller, like a few like an hour
away or something.
Yeah well, this is next time,next time.
Well, good luck on that.
So, before we get into yourjourney, a little bit, you know,
and the ties you've cut,metaphorically, so to speak,
with the definition of successfor you.
Speaker 2 (03:59):
Definition of success .
Hmm, that's a.
I think success is quite amoving tug.
I don't think it's a place younecessarily arrive at.
It's a North star or adirection you move in.
And I think if you are, ifyou're in alignment alignment is
(04:22):
maybe not the right word, butif you are facing that direction
, if you are continually makingprogress in that direction, I
think that is the process ofsuccess, not the destination of
success.
Speaker 1 (04:34):
I bet that's interesting.
Most people don't.
No one's actually answered thatway, but I think that's.
I think that's right.
I think if you ever get there,you didn't actually.
You know you're chasing the sun, you'll never get to the sun,
and so you're all you'll do isget off course from where you
thought you could be.
Not always all of them are bad,but you know, occasionally
you're like where the hell isthe sun?
It's always behind me.
I think that's a great way tothink.
Speaker 2 (04:59):
So you're, you Pursuing a path.
I think that's really important.
Speaker 1 (05:03):
So what's your current path?
You're like is it release-based?
You're like, eight days outsuccess metrics right now, yeah.
Speaker 2 (05:10):
Right now, that's all that matters.
That is the path.
But even beyond that and thisis why I said we don't have a
launch day, we have a rollingrelease.
I won't define the metric ofsuccess based on how we go at
this conference.
This conference is aboutputting something into people's
hands, seeing how they use it,getting the feedback and then
iterating and acting on thatfeedback.
(05:31):
And I think I've learned this asan entrepreneur over the years
is you know, everyone talksabout, oh, you know, you need to
fail, and fail fast and allthis sort of shit, and it's kind
of a failure and success.
People kind of measure them inweird ways and then they say,
well, look, failure is the pathto success.
And then we'll, you know,success, the path to failure.
In that case, like it's, it'sall a little bit confusing,
which is why I think this sortof angle of looking at it as a
(05:51):
pathway it's like look, man,you're going to trip over,
you're going to fall over,you're going to get back up.
You need to persevere, you needto you that you are moving in
that direction.
I think you are on the way ofsucceeding.
No-transcript.
(06:17):
Were you satisfied with thelife that you lived, or did you
have um, or do you regret it?
And I think we won't know thatmetric, or we won't know that
thing until we get to ourdeathbed.
Speaker 1 (06:28):
So until then it's a path, until then it's math, it's
journey.
Talk about your journey alittle bit and maybe what the
biggest kind of obstacle tie,metaphorically or whatever
you've had to kind of cut to getto where you are.
Speaker 2 (06:43):
Yeah, I've been someone who all throughout my
life I never had too many tiesactually, which maybe I'll give
you an unconventional answerhere is my lack of ties probably
caused me more problems.
So I left home at a relativelyyoungish age, like 17, 18.
I took my scholarship money, soI was very academically strong.
(07:04):
I went to university.
I decided that everyone atuniversity was an idiot.
So I took my scholarship moneyand I invested in stock market.
I taught myself, I self-taughtmyself to trade derivatives and
I turned like $5,000 into$60,000 in a matter of six
months.
I thought I was a genius.
I was like, watch out, warrenBuffett.
Thousand dollars in a matter ofsix months.
I thought I was a genius.
I was like watch out, warrenBuffett, I'm coming for you.
And my goal was to make my firstmillion by the time I was 20.
(07:26):
Unfortunately, this was 2007.
So then I lost everything and Isomehow managed to get a bunch
of loans from the banks allsorts of stupidity.
I don't even know how I didthis and I ended up a quarter of
a million dollars in debt whenI turned 20.
So that put me on aninteresting path and the only
thing I could do at the time inorder to pay the loans and feed
(07:46):
myself was to go knock on doorsand sell stuff.
And I was this kind of academickid.
I had no friends.
I was really introverted.
The idea of going and sellingsomething was preposterous, so
the only thing I could do wasthat.
So I sold paid television whileI was living on someone's
lounge room floor.
I didn't have a TV, I didn'tknow what was on television, but
I learned how to sell andcommunicate by necessity because
(08:09):
I had to eat, and that sort ofopened my life into a very
different direction.
I went from studying to be acivil engineer to having to drop
out of uni, pay back theseloans, become entrepreneurial,
and you know, my life took mealong that path and I built
businesses.
I blew up more than I succeeded.
In the early days I built a gymwhich blew up in my face, solar
(08:32):
energy company where I made myfirst million when I turned 23,.
And then dispute with thegovernment and all this sort of
crap with government rebates andall this sort of stuff, and
that blew up in my face as well.
My first app failed thehospitality venture.
I grew that from one shop to 13shops in the space of six
months.
Most of those failed.
(08:53):
I ended up with a couple ofthose that succeeded, if we're
going to use that word, and thenI ended up selling those and my
first two apps also failed.
They didn't work out, but Ikept persevering and I think the
older I've gotten, the moreI've tried to actually be a
little bit less unhinged andinstead tether myself to
(09:16):
something.
So maybe this is anunconventional angle for the
show, but I've tried to tiemyself to a theme and try and
narrow down the scope or the Ishouldn't say the ambition, but
the target in the early days,because what I did very much in
my 20s was I tried to do toomuch with too little resources,
(09:40):
too little ability, too littlecapability, too little capital
or whatever the case was.
So, yeah, my last company,which was a success, was me
sticking to one thing, tyingmyself to the thing and really
like rebuilding that andcompounding on it, and it's the
same thing with this one.
When I raised this ventureround with the investors, they
said, okay, so what's your exitstrategy?
I said exit strategy.
(10:01):
I said no, no, no.
This is a game for the next 10,15 years.
I said I'm building somethingthat I'm not building it to exit
.
I'm building it to like.
This is a part of my life andif Zuckerberg wants to come and
offer me a billion dollars infive years, I'll think about it,
but this is about tying andtethering myself to this thing
(10:21):
and compounding that over time.
So hope that's a useful answer.
It is.
Speaker 1 (10:26):
And listen, there's a book called 10X is Easier Than
2X by Dan Sullivan, and what youdid was actually just cut the
ties of all the shit that youshould have said no to before.
Okay, there you do it.
And every entrepreneur on theplanet I am not, I am.
It's the same thing.
You go and try a bunch of stuff, if that's what you do, and
then you're like that all wasdumb or it didn't work.
(10:48):
Then there's cost me a lot ordidn't make enough.
Whatever, the answer is it's1.5, 2x, and you're like I'm
going to go back to the thingthat can actually make money.
I've done it.
You could argue, this podcastis that, but I enjoy doing that
show.
Do you remember the moment,though, when you knew you were
going to just go focus on theone thing?
That was like just a like, theactual like, that's it.
Speaker 2 (11:12):
Yeah, I think the first wake up call for me was
when I did find Bitcoin, forexample.
I went all in and I really gotsucked down that rabbit hole
because for me, I found bitcoinvery interesting from a uh,
social perspective, from aneconomic perspective, from
philosophical perspectives, youknow, because, because I I've
always been interested inaustralian econ history, how the
world functioned, the story ofmoney and all this sort of stuff
(11:33):
, and and for me, like reallynarrowing down on that, like and
it wasn't immediate, like whenI first discovered bitcoin, I
screwed around with all the shitcoins and all that sort of
stuff and then over time, I justeliminated all the noise, all
the crap, all the junk, all thedistractions, everything like
that, and I just focused in onBitcoin and it manifested in the
product, our product.
In the beginning, investorswere like what the hell are you
(11:55):
doing?
Why don't you allow people totrade between Ethereum and this?
That I said no, no, no.
Bitcoin is a savings instrument.
People have the opportunity toacquire the best money on the
planet before the rest of theworld does.
The only functionality is setup the account, link your bank
and buy five bucks a week, 10bucks a week, 50 bucks a month.
I'll just bellicose the averageinto it.
(12:16):
That's it, nothing else.
Forget about trading.
Speaker 1 (12:19):
Forget about all this other I told myself 10 years
ago that I still like when ittripled and I'm like how did I
do that?
Speaker 2 (12:24):
You are still so early.
You know, one Bitcoin will golike billions of dollars in the
in the next 10, 20 years.
So it is it is not going away.
You, you, you, dollar costaverage into that thing and
that's it.
You forget about it.
And that for me, was, was, wasmassive and it really simplified
my life.
During that period and when Iexited that, I sat down and I
(12:45):
wrote some books and once againI just focused on one book, did
that, launched that and I hitthe bestseller list.
We got into all sorts of crazypodcasts with that Jordan
Peterson, this, that, all sortsof things and then, yeah,
finished up with that.
Then the second book that tookme two years of real, real, real
(13:06):
laser focus, and I didn't as Iwas finishing the book, I was
starting this business.
So there was a period of likeheavy, heavy, heavy overlap
where I was trying to do bothand now that the book is done,
that released last year.
Now I'm into this and yeah, man,I think it's also part of an
age thing.
You know you pass, you get past35 and you realize you know
it's kind of.
You know, when you're in your20s, you're at a, you're at a
buffet and you want to eat thechicken, the salad, the beef,
the pork, the this, that youwant to eat everything and you
(13:26):
realize you just stuffed yourfood full of you, stuffed your
stomach full of food that youdon't really like.
And now, so you pass that 35point.
It's like look, I like the beef.
So you know what I'm gonna do?
I'm gonna eat more beef.
Forget about the salad and allthe other bullshit.
This is it.
Speaker 1 (13:39):
They should only have one piece really.
Why am I at a buffet at all?
Couché, Let me get out of here.
Got my money back.
What are you most grateful for?
Speaker 2 (13:51):
grateful for at this point is my wife and she.
We found out she was pregnanton christmas last year, so she's
due for a baby soon.
So that's for me that's likethe highlight, really great for
that.
Speaker 1 (14:02):
Yeah, that's a, that's a big congratulations,
that's a.
By the way, that may changeyour perspective.
Some, some things.
When you want that little thingcomes out, I'm telling you that
, absolutely guaranteed.
Um, if it doesn't, I'd be.
You know, you might want to,might want to check my head
again.
Why?
Because it should.
Congratulations, that's, that'sfantastic.
What you know.
Give us some advice to the 20year old, something out there
(14:25):
who's like you.
What advice?
Speaker 2 (14:28):
yeah, I, I if I could go back to my 20s.
I know there's a lot of advice.
It's like use your 20s toexperiment, to explore and all
this sort of stuff.
I think that probably is validfor the early 20s.
I spent too much timeexperimenting, exploring,
blowing things up and all thatsort of stuff, and I probably
(14:49):
should have started compoundingearlier and compounding.
When I say that, what I mean isnarrowing the focus and finding
the one or two things that youshould do and do well.
So if I could go back to myselfin my early twenties or if
anyone is in their earlytwenties or mid twenties
listening to this is get to thatthing that you enjoy, that
(15:09):
you're good at, and compound,compound as soon as possible,
because compound growth is trulythe, not just in investments,
but in your own capacity, inyour own skill set, in your own
results, is truly the.
You know, whatever they call it, the eighth, ninth wonder of
the world I mean compoundanything that adds value.
Speaker 1 (15:26):
Right, it's something that I definitely you know, at
some point.
If you wait too long, by the way, the only confining you're
going to do is into yourself,and I'm one of those people that
did way too much at twentiesand thirties, um, and I know, I
know exactly what you mean.
Find something you love to dothat solves a problem, that you
have some skills in, and pour itall on skills.
Uh, cause, as you see successup, that raises the passion, and
(15:49):
even from, like you know, yourdollar cost, average idea.
Leave it Just, forget it Like,just treat it like a drink you
didn't buy at a bar, right, Imean, and, and, and.
The truth is, if you do thatand you do all the things that
are still behind the scenes thatyou know, you get money working
for yourself and getting yourown talents to work, and you're
you're when you hit fortiesfifties, you'll be really
(16:19):
freaking glad you did that,absolutely, I mean.
Speaker 2 (16:20):
Mean, I think it's.
It's funny, man, the older youget, the more you realize things
are so simple.
They're not easy, but they'resimple, you know.
And then when you, when you'reyoung, you think it's all
complicated, um and it it, itisn't.
It's just like.
You know the, the straight line, the gordian knot, you know,
when alexander the great cut thegordian knot, they were like oh
, you know, to become king ofthis land, you need to untie
this thing before the sun rises.
He pulled out his sword and hecut the fucking thing in half.
That's it.
And to take that approach Ithink in life is a real lesson
(16:43):
who gives you inspiration?
Speaker 1 (16:47):
Dead or alive?
You?
Speaker 2 (16:49):
can be anybody.
Okay, yeah, I think my.
The person who I'm inspired bythe most, whoever lived, is
Alexander the Great.
I think he was the greatestindividual who ever lived.
Were it not for him, romewouldn't have existed, the
Western civilization wouldn'thave existed.
None of what we have todaywould have existed.
A vision, a tenacity, aperseverance, a vision, a
(17:13):
strength, a courage that fewpeople, in fact nobody in the
history of humanity has evermatched.
And whenever I'm feeling like abitch, to put it crudely, I
will go back and listen to ahistory book or something like
that about him and then hardenup and get back to work.
Speaker 1 (17:35):
Yeah, yeah, he was ahead of his times.
Actually.
I think if, uh, I think ifchristianity was around during
that time, he probably wouldhave taken it, and I think that
happened later in the romanempire, but I think he was
probably one of the ones thatcould have done it.
Um, because he was likedifferent, uh, so brutal, but
brutal for the times probablynot, I don't know.
Uh, interesting answer, becausemost people do pick uh things
(17:56):
earlier, so I love, I love tohear the difference.
It's great.
If you had to start over today,though, and could go back at
any point, you know, would you?
And if you would, what wouldyou do differently?
Speaker 2 (18:06):
I would have kids younger.
That's my straight up answer.
It's the only regret I have isthat I waited too long and I
think think that's been a.
I think it's been a.
An epidemic in our millennialsort of generation is that we
kind of we had one foot in thedigital age, one foot in the in
the pre-digital age and we kindof almost like conned ourselves
(18:29):
into thinking that we'd be youngforever and that we can still,
like, have our cake and eat ittoo, that sort of sense of I,
you know, everything will befine.
And I see a lot of people myage like scrambling.
Now I'm trying, you know,organize kids and this and that,
and it's like you know, sure,we are healthier, we're younger
and all this sort of stuff andwe can probably be younger for
for a longer period of time.
(18:49):
But my, my piece of regret hereis that by the time my kids are
in their early 20s, I'llpractically be 60.
And I don't like that thought.
So I got more time for myself,but I got less time with them.
So if I could go back and do itall over again, I'd have kids
in my 20s.
Speaker 1 (19:06):
As a guy that's 49 who has a 15-year-old,
13-year-old and 10-year-old.
So I was later in life.
You won't feel so old whenyou're 49.
Old, so I was later in life.
You won't feel so old whenyou're 49.
You you'll be happy you hadthem when you did, because
you'll look back and go man, Iwould have been a shit dad at 25
possibly.
Speaker 2 (19:23):
I mean, it's one of those things we don't know.
Speaker 1 (19:25):
Yeah yeah, I definitely think a lot of 20
olds don't realize the wordresentment.
That you would realize, man, Iwould have been pissed.
I lost my 20.
There is no good time.
It just happens when it'ssupposed to for you.
So I'm trying to help you notfeel so regretful because it
happening actually for you whenit's supposed to be happening or
it will be, and but when it's ahere change shit, because 92%
(19:46):
of the time you spend with yourkids is before the age of 18.
So when you're worried abouttheir twenties, don't worry
about it.
They're not going to be aroundanyway yeah it's just, you have
plenty of time because, likethat age group before they're 12
, you'll you're going to want abreak.
Look, look around that, the.
The question I would tell you,though, is uh, anything, you
(20:08):
know, when you, when you lookback in your life, you say I'd
go back and do that differently,just do it now.
That's always.
That's kind of the full.
Speaker 2 (20:15):
Exactly, yeah, that's , and that's why we're on a
mission to have as many babiesas we can with the wife
Appropriate statement, butthey're called Irish twins here.
Speaker 1 (20:25):
If you can have two within 12 months.
Speaker 2 (20:29):
Me and my brother.
I've worked marriage so Ithought maybe maybe we can pull
that off.
So I thought maybe we can pullthat off, we'll see.
Speaker 1 (20:35):
Good job, well congrats.
If there's a question I shouldhave asked you today and I
didn't, what would that questionhave been?
Oh, okay.
Speaker 2 (20:41):
If there was.
Ooh, oh man, I've been askedthis question before and I can
never answer it very well.
Yeah, it's the one questionthat always stumps me.
Uh, I, I don't have a goodanswer for that question, I'm
sorry.
Yeah, I, I have failed youshould.
Speaker 1 (21:01):
The answer should.
Even I wish you would have toldme you were going to ask that
before we got here.
There you go, I did.
I sent it to an email, allright, yeah, it's the mystery
question.
We're gonna have it.
So, since he didn't askquestions, a question I would
have asked him and we're gonnago have it.
So, since he didn't ask aquestion, here's a question I
would have asked him and we'rejust going to go shameless plug.
Who should get ahold of you andhow do they do that?
Speaker 2 (21:18):
All right.
So people can I mean I'm, I'macross all the social.
So if, if my name is uniquelyspelled S V E T S K I, so if you
search that on Google, you'llfind me all over a little bit
more active on X, but eventhough actually, you know, I'm
not even active on any of thesocials these days but too busy
building stuff and kind of likeliving in the real world.
(21:38):
But if you do want to connectwith me there, I'm on Substack
on X and I guess I'm onInstagram, but I haven't used
that in a year or two.
And then, obviously, if peopleare interested.
You know what we're building atAtlantis is a new kind of
social network.
So I think if people actuallywant to connect with me, that's
(22:00):
where I'm more active, becausethat's less social, where you
know the people you follow, thepeople you connect with.
That's the content, you see, asopposed to algorithmic
clickbait, which is what we'retrying to avoid.
(22:20):
So people want to find me onthere.
It's atlantisio forward slashSvetsky, and you'll find me on
there.
Speaker 1 (22:26):
Wonderful.
I love it.
Thanks for coming on today.
I appreciate it.
Speaker 2 (22:30):
Absolutely man.
Speaker 1 (22:31):
Thank you, listen, if you made it this part of the
show.
Thanks for listening, watching.
If this is the first timeyou've been here, I hope it's
the first of many and if you'vebeen here before, thank you and
come back, get out there, go cuta tie.
Find your success first, though, because otherwise you're
chasing someone else's dream andit won't mean anything when you
get there.
Thanks for listening.
Popular Podcasts
Bookmarked by Reese's Book Club
Welcome to Bookmarked by Reese’s Book Club — the podcast where great stories, bold women, and irresistible conversations collide! Hosted by award-winning journalist Danielle Robay, each week new episodes balance thoughtful literary insight with the fervor of buzzy book trends, pop culture and more. Bookmarked brings together celebrities, tastemakers, influencers and authors from Reese's Book Club and beyond to share stories that transcend the page. Pull up a chair. You’re not just listening — you’re part of the conversation.
On Purpose with Jay Shetty
I’m Jay Shetty host of On Purpose the worlds #1 Mental Health podcast and I’m so grateful you found us. I started this podcast 5 years ago to invite you into conversations and workshops that are designed to help make you happier, healthier and more healed. I believe that when you (yes you) feel seen, heard and understood you’re able to deal with relationship struggles, work challenges and life’s ups and downs with more ease and grace. I interview experts, celebrities, thought leaders and athletes so that we can grow our mindset, build better habits and uncover a side of them we’ve never seen before. New episodes every Monday and Friday. Your support means the world to me and I don’t take it for granted — click the follow button and leave a review to help us spread the love with On Purpose. I can’t wait for you to listen to your first or 500th episode!
Dateline NBC
Current and classic episodes, featuring compelling true-crime mysteries, powerful documentaries and in-depth investigations. Follow now to get the latest episodes of Dateline NBC completely free, or subscribe to Dateline Premium for ad-free listening and exclusive bonus content: DatelinePremium.com