Bert Soren is a four-time NCAA All-American Track and Field Athlete and Former Olympic Trials Athlete. He s also the President and Co-Owner of SorenX Exercise Equipment, a company that makes some of the most amazing equipment you ll ever see. In this episode, we talk about the ebbs and flows of life and improving the average between the two points, creating intentionality behind our actions, why EQ is often more important than IQ, holding back in life when we shouldn t, and so much more.
00:00:00.120Passion and delusion aren't two terms we often think of working in harmony, but my good friend and guest today, Bert Soren, makes the case that some of the most successful people in the world are not only the most passionate, but often believe with no real valid reason to, that they do indeed have what it takes to succeed.
00:00:18.920Today, we talk about the ebbs and flows of life and improving the average between the two points, creating intentionality behind our actions, why EQ, emotional intelligence, is often more important than IQ, holding back in life when we shouldn't, and so much more.
00:00:36.240You're a man of action. You live life to the fullest, embrace your fears, and boldly chart your own path. When life knocks you down, you get back up one more time, every time. You are not easily deterred or defeated, rugged, resilient, strong. This is your life. This is who you are. This is who you will become. At the end of the day, and after all is said and done, you can call yourself a man.
00:01:00.560Gentlemen, what is going on today? My name is Ryan Michler. I'm your host and the founder of the Order of Man podcast and movement, and I am glad that you're here. We're into December now, which means that we're coming up to the end of the year, but I think more importantly than that, we can start thinking about, or we maybe hopefully already have, thinking about how we're going to make next year an incredible year for ourselves, and I wanted to let you know, I'm going to talk a little bit more about it later, but our exclusive brotherhood,
00:01:30.380The Iron Council opens back up the end of next week. So if you want a brotherhood, you want camaraderie, you want accountability, and you want a system that will help you achieve whatever goals you have as we roll into the next year, then check out The Iron Council at orderofman.com slash ironcouncil.
00:01:48.240And also wanted to mention my friends over at Montana Knife Company. They make knives, and they do a really, really good job, but one of the most important things is that they make all their knives in America, and that is something I believe in, that's something a lot of you listening believe in, and if you're looking for a great Christmas gift for somebody in your life,
00:02:09.360Or even if you want to sneak in a Christmas gift for yourself, which is acceptable, then head to montananifecompany.com, and you're going to figure out why these guys are taking the knife-making market and world by storm, why they're growing the way they're growing, and why so many professional hunters use their knives and have had tremendous success with their tools and equipment.
00:02:33.480Check it out at montananifecompany.com, and if you end up picking something up, use the code orderofman, all one word, orderofman, at checkout, and you'll get your discount when you do.
00:02:45.500All right, guys, let me introduce you to my guest, and more importantly than my guest, this guy's a good friend. He's a good friend. He's been a big support to me over the past five years, and he's a good human being.
00:02:56.620The amount of people that he has around him and the caliber of men and women around him just goes to show how incredible he is. His name is Bert Soren. He's the president and co-owner of SorenX Exercise Equipment, and they produce some of the most amazing equipment that you'll ever see.
00:03:16.700They outfit organizations like the Vikings and the Oregon Ducks, University of North Carolina, the Atlanta Braves, just to name a few. He's also a four-time Division I All-American track and field athlete by accident.
00:03:30.960Well, that's not entirely true, but he'll explain the story, which is actually pretty hilarious.
00:03:35.420A former record holder in the weight throw and Olympic trial participant, but again, more than that, he's become a good friend. He's an incredible human being, and he really has the ability to connect with incredible people, unlike anyone I've ever seen in my life.
00:03:52.980And today, through his company, they are transforming the way that college and professional athletes, veterans, and everyday people like you and me approach their health, fitness goals, and lives. Enjoy this one, fellas.
00:04:07.040Bert, what's up, man? So good to see you. Glad you could join me on the podcast.
00:04:10.800Yeah, man. It's good to be back, Ryan. How you been, man?
00:04:13.260I'm doing good. I'm doing good. You and I have talked about, you know, just personal issues in life, and man, life's crazy.
00:04:20.120Not just for me or you, but everybody listening to this podcast, especially this time of year.
00:04:25.440Well, it's kind of the definition of life, right? I mean, that's the thing.
00:04:28.440If you, especially, you know, someone long enough, and what have we been friends five years, six years, something?
00:04:35.160But, you know, anyone can see someone online or hang out with them one time at a party or a hunt or whatever.
00:04:40.820And it's like, I know this person, but like, my opinion, consistency of like the total, I'm going to say the whole work of art, right?
00:04:47.940But like, you know, you get around someone for five or six years, you kind of get to see the ups and downs and everything with it.
00:04:54.320And that kind of boils down to life, right? That's kind of the best fit line of what life is doing.
00:05:00.960So, yeah, no, it's, I know probably the first time we got to hang out was, what, at Big Chino on that hunt that time?
00:05:06.600I think, was that the first time we did? Yeah, I think it was.
00:05:09.920Yeah. But anyway, yeah, it's been, it's been cool. It's been, it's been interesting watching the ebbs and flows of each other's life, man.
00:05:18.440But it's interesting. Interesting is a good word for it.
00:05:21.800Yeah. That's kind of like the weather, right? You just, you know, it's going to change at some point, right?
00:05:27.380Yeah. Yeah. And it, and it does. And I wish the line was linear, like you were showing. I wish it was like that, but it's not.
00:05:34.420Hopefully over time, you can see it's up and down and then it's kind of just in there, right?
00:05:39.240That's the average. So I think you got to tell yourself is the average, just other than that, you'll, if you, if all the ups that you're, you're never as good as your highlights and you're never as bad as your worst day.
00:05:54.020Um, I, my, uh, my oldest son who, you know, and I were talking about you the other day, cause we were watching, he, uh, he watches, uh, what's the guy's name?
00:06:01.800D is it destroying or destroy or something where he goes around and he tours these, uh, college and professional, uh, training facilities, mostly, I think almost exclusively for football.
00:06:13.620And I swear 80% of the gyms they show are Sorenx. And he's like, that's Sorenx, that's Sorenx, that's Sorenx. I think they were at, uh, Oregon. We watched an episode at Oregon and where was the other one?
00:06:25.900Um, but he's like pointing out all the Sorenx equipment and everything else. And we thought that was pretty cool to see, to see what you guys have created for, tell me about, I think I know a little bit about the story, but I'm actually really curious how your dad pops started Sorenx.
00:06:42.240Because I think there's a lesson, there's a lot of lessons in there that we, as men can learn as it relates to the kind of legacy that we want to leave for our kids.
00:06:51.100Sure. Sure. Yeah. I mean, pop started the business of Sorenx without it really kind of actually, there was no like business plan or anything like that. It wasn't like, and gee, I don't even know if I would suggest ever doing the same way we did it.
00:07:06.620It was just kind of like a tyranny of will and involvement and passion. And I kind of talk like, you know, passion is the stuff that usually takes you through all the really dark years or the, or the uneducated years when you're bad at it.
00:07:20.180And if you're kind of delusionally passionate enough to keep doing it, you survive maybe, right? Like that it's, I haven't seen someone because, how do I put it?
00:07:32.200If it had to make sense or be profitable and only be in the black from day one, no one would do it. Like, because it's so rocky, not only in the early days, but it's so rocky.
00:07:43.600Just like we talked about life, right? If it was this all the time and you could program for it, okay, that's one thing.
00:07:48.440But then there's up and down and whatever, but because you love it or you're passionate about it and you feel it inside, you're less likely to let go of the rope.
00:07:56.560And that, that's kind of like when he started it, he was always into strength conditioning and probably wasn't even called strength conditioning back then.
00:08:04.260It was called, you know, maybe the iron game or just lifting weights, right? That was just it.
00:08:08.880Um, and his goal was just to be relevant within the world that he held most dear, which was strength. That was kind of what was, what he had and, and in good times or bad times throughout his life, the constant was the weights for him.
00:08:24.880And, and, and maybe other people have something similar. Maybe, maybe they don't, but for him, even when he was a, a young boy that, you know, only child, both parents work six days a week, he was basically left latchkey on his own.
00:08:38.380And, you know, in the fifties and sixties, he wasn't allowed to go out, out of the, the, the yard because parents didn't want to get into whatever.
00:08:45.940So he was just a lone little boy, you know, that learned to build things and read about hunting and fishing and learn to lift weights because those are things he could do on his own.
00:08:57.000And so he became a product really of his environment, uh, in many ways, but that kind of set the table for SorenX and SorenX Outdoors and all this stuff, because it was a, it was a, you have to be so about it and you are your, you're kind of like, you are your rescue in that regard.
00:09:15.320Um, and so that just kind of built him into that. So, and, and as he got later in life, he's, he just wanted to be a part of that world that he held so dear.
00:09:25.080And so that's, it's kind of interesting. I would say SorenX officially was 1980 when it started, but I mean, really, it probably started in 1956 when pops brought his first, um, in kindergarten, when they said, show and tell, bring your favorite thing to school.
00:09:39.200Everyone's bringing a baby doll or a, or a teddy bear or something. And he brought his weightlifting set. Like he literally carried the bell and all the plates as a six-year-old to school and like, you know, drug it, you know, and there was like a 20 pound bar, but still like, that's pretty cool.
00:09:55.080It's wild that a little kid would like, this is my favorite thing. And for him to be 73 now, and it's still a thing, you know, there's still some relevancy there. So in my opinion, the more, actually we're, we're in the midst of writing a book right now and he's writing it.
00:10:10.560Um, yeah. And we're through four or five different stories right now. And I've let some of the guys read it. And, uh, there are guys here, Phil and guys like that. And Phil, Phil had the greatest response. He was like, after reading that, it's not like, was he going to do what he did or would he be successful?
00:10:31.000That is like, you could see from an early age, this is what he was going to do. The success wasn't guaranteed, but the direction and the somewhat trajectory was guaranteed. There is no other option for Richard Soren as a person.
00:10:44.360And it just so happened to gamble was, would it be successful or would he live under a bridge, but still be doing attempting to do the same thing. Right. And so you can see this die is cast early in life, which was, which is really interesting. Cause as I kind of go through, I'm helping the writing and the process.
00:11:00.360The process is just like, man, it, it, it, again, not the success, but the happenings are wildly predictable when you start reverse engineering it from like the sixties or like, oh yeah, this totally makes sense now. Um, so it's wild to see go, go ahead. Sorry.
00:11:19.200Oh, it's a really long answer to that. But I think kind of that just illustrates that, you know, in my opinion, if you're starting a business, I don't know how to start a business that only makes money.
00:11:27.920I don't understand that. That's not like, that's not my gearing. That's not my gifting. So people that could do that go, oh, that sounds like a great business idea. And like, that would be super profitable. And they, I don't even give a crap what these widgets are, but I'm going to make 30%. I'm glad people could do that. I can't, I may be too close to the things I love, but because of that, I probably held on during rougher times and probably gutted it out longer than most people would because that love was there.
00:11:55.220And so which one is better. I don't know. I know which one feels more, uh, real, like going down with a ship, right. One way or the other, maybe, maybe it would be less painful if I was smarter and less connected to it.
00:12:12.080Maybe, I don't know. You guys seem to be, again, you don't see the entire picture from the outside looking in, but one of the wild things to me is whenever I'm at a summer strong or winter strong or any one of your guys' events, like I see him, I'm an observer and I watch pops and I see him and he's standing there and you can just see, he's got like a little twinkle in his eye.
00:12:31.240He doesn't really say a whole lot all the time, but he's just standing there. He's always there. He's always present. And he always has just this air of, of maybe gratitude or pride, not prideful. I'm not saying that, but pride in what you're doing with the business, what you guys are doing with the movement, the organization and how it's all coming together.
00:12:52.160And I think about when I'm 73 years old, I hope I'm in that position where I can look at what I've created and think, you know, this has been crazy. We've had some highs and lows, but overall we've done pretty good for ourselves and other people in the meantime.
00:13:06.720Yeah, I agree, man. And, and that's, it was kind of interesting. I was talking with my wife the other day about it. Like, I think you have to have the passion and the presence of the time, but I believe personally, I, I shouldn't say,
00:13:21.860I believe you should. I know I have, and I think it's maybe that's just how my brain works. I try to see what is the scenario going to be in 10, 20, 30 years, or even upon like my funeral.
00:13:36.140What are people saying about me and what I left at my funeral? And then you work backwards from there. And, you know, I think that that's in a way, I think pops had that, although he was, he was very driven of what he was doing.
00:13:48.940And he's always kind of had a, a forward thinking mindset. And it's not just been through innovation, but it's like, you know, I was, I had the opportunity to hunt a fella's farm, um, about, about a month ago.
00:14:01.060And it was the coolest thing. And so we were hunting and, and he had his couple hundred acre farm and we were talking just, and he knew I was, you know, had a farm and kind of forward thinking.
00:14:09.560And he goes, let me show you something. We jumped in his golf cart and he showed me this row of oak trees. It was like 200 yards long that bisected this big field.
00:14:18.440And it was 200 yards, probably 10 to 12 yards wide. And every 10 yards was this, were these, um, sawtooth oak trees. And they were just like, it's like this, this line.
00:14:30.200And they called it the, I think the wedding aisle or something like that. And I was like, and he goes, pretty cool, huh? And I was like, yeah, that's awesome. You know, I'm kind of looking at all the deer tracks everywhere.
00:14:39.700And like, you know, the, the, the feed and everything that he's created. And I was like, what's the story? He's like, my sons and I planted these trees as acorns.
00:14:50.960Oh, we watched them grow. They started dropping acorns. When they got big enough, we hung a deer stand in them. We've hunted out of them. And then my son got married in this aisle last year.
00:15:06.200You won, dude. You won. You thought so far ahead and he kind of jeered up talking about it. And I saw that and I was like, oh, that's, that's the goal, right?
00:15:15.420That's the goal to, to think far enough advance where you create an amazing experience. You taught your sons things. You experienced your son. They saw the growth of something. You saw it manifest itself to the point where they started the next phase of their life.
00:15:29.460And it was important enough that they walked down the aisle of those oak trees. And I'm like, wow. And when I left his farm, he, he brought me a, um, a Ziploc bag full of those from acorns.
00:15:41.360He's like, put them in the refrigerator for this, for the fall. And he goes, the next spring, pull them out. And he told me how to do it. He's like, I want you to plant some of these on your farm. So you always have part of our farm on your farm.
00:15:52.100Like, so I have six months to figure out like, where do I want to put these there? But I thought about, I was like, that's, that's the move, right? It's not, what can this give me today? What can this give me when I'm gone? What can this give my family or what can the, and I think about like,
00:16:07.180what would you pay to be able to go back 20 years and rewrite that portion? And, you know, and it was just such a beautiful and brilliant way to look at life.
00:16:17.380And I can't remember who said it, but they said, you know, pick where you want to be and live life and then reverse life and live your life backwards. Basically. It's like, where do I want to be? What do I want to leave? What do I want people saying or feeling when I'm gone?
00:16:30.460And I thought about the other day, I was like, when I die, what do I want the people who knew me to, to feel, not just to say, but to feel.
00:16:39.540And it's like, in some way you kind of would want everyone to be sad, at least initially, because you know that you mattered, you know, that, you know, because there's a, there's a kind of an egotistical part in it.
00:16:50.480Like everyone's like, oh man, that guy's gone. Well, anyway, what are you having for lunch? You're like, oh shit.
00:16:54.100Like, you know, I mean, because that's a real thing that could happen. And you're like, that'd be terrible.
00:17:00.520And then you're like, I kind of want people to be really sad, but just for a brief second, because I wouldn't want to put that on them, but I'd want to maybe, because if they're sad, that means that me being here was better than me being gone.
00:17:14.680But then the other side goes, well, but I want it better after I'm gone. Like if I've really done my job, maybe you feel it was better with me here, but the reality of it is it's better because of my life's work.
00:17:30.180And so I've been kind of wrestling with that late. I don't know why. I mean, I don't think I'm going to die anytime soon, but that was part of the like forward thinking of going, okay, what can I set up over the next 20 or 30 or hopefully longer years to where
00:17:42.100whatever that end thing is, is it sets right with me.
00:17:48.800Man, that's so powerful. I actually have a similar story as the one that you just told with a family that I hunt with in Minnesota. And I was driving around with their father.
00:17:59.520Yeah. I want to hear more about it too.
00:18:00.880That's right. We need to get you out there. Anyways, we were talking and we were driving around, moving a couple of stands around and he had showed me some pine trees that he had just planted and they were small.
00:18:10.540They were probably a foot or two off the ground. And I, and I remember saying to him, I said, you know, how long before you're able to sit in those trees and hunt out of those trees?
00:18:18.380And he's like, Oh, I'll never be able to do it. I'll be long dead and gone before my sons are hunting in those trees.
00:18:25.340Yeah. And the same, same thing. I mean, hunting runs in their blood. They love it. They live for it, farming and hunting.
00:18:32.220And man, they're out there planting trees and clearing lanes and wondering how the deer are moving.
00:18:37.740And they're doing things that for him, he's not going to see in his lifetime. He's definitely not going to see it happen.
00:18:44.180Right. But hopefully he has that legacy that his sons can carry on.
00:18:47.600And his grandsons now that I've seen over seven years, you know, they're his, one of his boys just shot an amazing buck from there.
00:18:56.100I think it was either, I think it was either first or second buck and it's this biggest mass on this buck I've ever seen.
00:19:02.360And I think, man, that's, that's the legacy. That's it right there.
00:19:06.400Yeah, exactly. And when we bought our farm, you know, there was a lot of work that had been done.
00:19:12.260I've done some work to it, but you know, the trees I'm sitting in and the fields I'm in and the pond I'm fishing in, I had to, I didn't, someone thought enough in advance.
00:19:23.420Thankfully, it eventually came my way. They weren't thinking of me, they were thinking of someone, they were thinking of leaving it better than they found it.
00:19:31.760And, you know, I'd love to go back and talk to whoever that was that decided to dam up the creek on our farm 120 years ago.
00:19:39.920And how they prepped it and all the things and all the little spots of the ducks land on this spot and then this and you finding these little Easter eggs around the farm.
00:19:49.140You're like, man, some guy spent a multitude of weekends doing this work and had this dream of this, you know, these ducks cupping down, coming onto this little kill hole or this little thing.
00:19:58.920It's just like, but that's passion. That's passion. They were passionate about it.
00:20:04.460And so then they did the work and then they wanted to leave it better.
00:20:07.960And I mean, I think that just goes all, I mean, kind of all the things you're talking about, it goes into business.
00:20:12.080It goes into parenting. It goes into all of that. It goes into who you are as a person, in my opinion.
00:20:19.680And if it doesn't, again, my opinion, I think probably re-evaluating the situation might be in order.
00:20:30.920How are you doing that now, specifically with your children?
00:20:34.220I've seen your kids get older, like we said, over the last five or six years and mine are getting older.
00:20:38.820How is a guy as busy as you are with your business?
00:20:42.300And obviously, we're right in the middle of hunting season.
00:21:14.960So, I don't want to be put on any type of pedestal saying that I'm killing it because I would say almost every day I'm frustrated in the lack of quality time that I give my kids.
00:21:26.340Is it maybe more or less than a lot of good people I know?
00:21:47.520And I say no, unfortunately, more than I say yes.
00:21:51.000You know, I mean, that's the part that hurts your heart.
00:21:54.480And it's been hitting me a lot lately, just realizing like, because they've kind of hit the perfect age now, you know, seven, almost, almost eight, almost 10 and almost 12.
00:22:04.960So, it's like this, they're kind of self-sufficient in a way where most things are kind of doing and you don't have to like babysit, you know, manage all that.
00:22:14.500But, you know, if you throw a ball at them, they catch it.
00:22:16.680If you want to tell them to go get their hunting stuff on, they could go find it.
00:22:19.520So, you're not, like, it's kind of that free run place where we could go do stuff and I'm enjoying it.
00:22:29.880And, you know, I mean, heck, between whatever, you know, I'm gone a third of the, I don't know what to say, probably, probably have an obligation, probably a third of the weekends a year.
00:23:12.500If they could view me waking up in the morning and training and doing stuff and, you know, any second that I'm not watching TV, I'm either shooting my bow or cooking something with them or throwing the ball with them.
00:23:25.600Or sometimes it's just sitting with Leslie and having coffee.
00:42:45.620Because in my, when my kid in mind was all Americans and champions are these things,
00:42:50.880these people you meet at like an event or the mall and you shake their hand and you take a picture of them and you realize you touch greatness for three seconds.
00:42:57.620And that's the closest you'll ever be to it because those are, that's for other people.
00:43:01.820And then that first year taught me, no, I'm around these people every day and I see their work ethic.
00:43:32.000And that changed everything that changed the mindset of everything.
00:43:37.080And, and that's where I'm, I'm still so appreciative of that experience because that reformulate and recalibrated everything in my being.
00:43:45.180And then, you know, just, just to be able to look at the differences of that scenario and realize, like, I live with a bunch of Olympians and all Americans.
00:43:57.920I know what they do and I do the same thing.
00:44:00.420So eventually let me, give me enough time to catch up and we'll be there.
00:44:04.180And, uh, that was, that was a huge piece.
00:44:13.220We can just have a really powerful conversation, but we started this off with a phrase you use delusionally passionate.
00:44:18.020And then I, and then I hear that story and I'm like, that's it delusional enough, you know, ignorant, dumb enough, whatever you want to call it, but delusional enough to walk in and be like, oh yeah, I'll, I'll do the vertical and see what I can do.
00:44:28.820And you put yourself in the right place because there was enough passion.
00:44:32.660You know, I think what's interesting is a lot of men will reach out to me and, and, and they'll look at somebody like yourself or maybe even me to a degree, because I found what I like and what I'm passionate about.
00:44:43.260And so they'll look at guys like you or me or anybody else, they happen to follow Jocko or any of these amazing people.
00:44:49.560And, and they say, you know, like, how, how can I find that?
00:44:52.520And, and the thing I've always told them is you just have to take one step towards something that's interesting to you.
00:44:59.460But the problem is a lot of these guys will say, well, yeah, but like, but that won't lead anywhere, but I can't make any money, but I've got responsibilities.
00:45:07.720And all of that might be true, but you'll never be able to develop that greatness until you take that one little delusional step into something that interests you and not really worry too much at this point about the outcome of it.
00:45:20.220You nailed it, you nailed it, you nailed it, because whether it's you, me, Jocko, Rogan's a perfect example.
00:45:28.280And I don't necessarily like to put myself in their category, but those hyper successful known, all of them were doing the things that weren't popular and that had no real, like, this is going anywhere.
00:45:44.460Never for probably the first 10 years, maybe 20, you know, you, you hear Rogan talking about how he was a martial arts instructor in the nineties, you know, who had thought a Bostonian martial art instructor would, would be one of the most powerful voices on the planet.
00:46:00.920One day, this is preposterous to think this is even a thing, right.
00:46:05.400Or even like, you know, okay, Jocko wanted to be a seal.
00:46:08.280Like that's a pretty extraordinary thing, but it's not like he's the only seal ever.
00:46:11.920You know, there's always like, always that stuff.
00:46:51.680My dad's mom used to yell at my dad's dad because he didn't make my dad get a job during the summertime.
00:46:59.940As long as he was training and lifting and old pops would say, no, that is his job.
00:47:06.060He's doing, she was like, what's that ever going to get him?
00:47:07.880What's weightlifting ever going to get him?
00:47:10.100And, but because he was training and weightlifting, he was, got introduced to the discus throw.
00:47:15.880The discus, he became one of the top guys in the nation that got him a scholarship, which he was the first Soren ever to go to college that changed your trajectory of his entire life.
00:47:25.500So it was, what's weightlifting going to get him?
00:48:46.180Well, then you've just decided it's not going to work right there.
00:48:48.860Like you, the person has decided right there that that's never going to materialize into anything.
00:48:54.220And so what I've realized is there's a lot of, how do I say this?
00:48:59.840Relatively dumb people, in my opinion, and I'm probably one of them, or are not super talented people that are very successful that just because they believe they could be successful.
00:49:11.280And there's a lot of really smart people that don't have the nuts to show up and get in the ring.
00:49:15.760So they get beat by the dumb dumbs who showed up.
00:49:18.860And it's kind of mean to say it that way.
00:49:23.020But I've seen a lot of guys with room temperature IQs that are millionaires.
00:49:30.480And he comes out full of bravado and fully getting after it.
00:49:34.520And he's just going to, if he works hard and believes he can, he's going to be all the people who didn't think they couldn't and didn't work hard for it because those guys ain't showing up.
00:49:42.560And so it's kind of fun as I've watched this whole thing.
00:49:46.500I'm like, man, it's not always the geniuses pulling this off.
00:49:50.580You know, it's where I heard they said the highest percentage of millionaires are one standard deviation above average IQ.
00:50:00.360So that'd be like what average is 100.
00:50:10.940But they have the highest EQ, which means they read situations, they read people, they know how a crowd feels.
00:50:19.940And so that is the highest combination.
00:50:23.560One standard deviation higher than IQ with as high of EQ as you get.
00:50:28.260And it was like, wow, that's a really interesting way to put it.
00:50:30.900And I would even say that EQ is probably more important than IQ because I've seen a lot of, like I said, knuckleheads living on the lake before I did.
00:50:40.940They figured it out, like, because they just went after it.
00:50:44.620Well, and even from a marketing perspective, you know, I think that your marketing is incredible.
00:50:51.380You know, Sornex's marketing is next to none.
00:50:54.740Like it's amazing from the way that your stuff looks to the way you present it.
00:50:59.020And I think that's a representation of EQ.
00:51:28.340And I hate to say it, hire cool people.
00:51:31.860Like, they have to be able to work hard.
00:51:33.840But if you get a bunch of dorks that don't know cool stuff, like, sorry, I'm not going to buy fashion from a guy that dresses like a clown.
00:51:40.640Like, you're telling me right there, like, you don't know what's cool.
00:52:01.420You don't, how are you supposed to take my vision as an owner and the vision of my company and the vision of our tribe and amplify that and magnify that to the masses if it looks like you get dressed in the dark?
00:54:03.300But the key to those specific people with that harmonics are they make you feel something.
00:54:08.720And a great brand, a great band, a great person, always, in my opinion, I've kind of started calling it, calling them like the Roy Schott people.
00:54:18.640It's like, oh, they're going to make you feel something.
00:54:21.540And like, you know, you run into someone, especially in my generation.
00:54:32.700I think there's just certain people on a certain harmonic vibration that, hey, man, just you better make people feel something one way or the other.
00:54:42.300And if you do, and it's enough people, and you're amplified enough, you're going to have your following.
00:54:46.980You know, there are certain people that love what you do, and some people don't.
00:56:31.740Well, let the guys know where to get a hold of you, where to connect with you, where to learn more, and, yeah, how to find out what you're all about.
00:56:56.600And so, if it hits me and something is interesting enough that I'm excited about, I'll post about it.
00:57:04.960Or the other thing is, if I'm not so engulfed in actually living the thing, you know, and usually a lot of times I'll post two or three weeks later because it's like, I want to live the thing.
00:57:16.240I want to do the thing versus every 10 seconds stop because it's been 12 hours and I haven't posted and all that stuff.
00:57:23.460So, that being said, you could follow at Bert Soren on Instagram, SorenX on Instagram.
00:57:30.240If you're into the outdoor kind of stuff, the SorenX Outdoors, if you're into squatting and deadlifting, we have Squattober and Deadcember.
00:58:06.220He got into powerlifting and then sports and everything else with the dynamic of our situation.
00:58:11.860So, you know, he's still staying active with sports, but that's about where his – that and the attention of one particular young woman that he's got his eye on occupies most of his time.
00:58:47.600My conversation with Bert Soren found – excuse me, president and co-owner – there we go – of Sorenx exercise equipment and a great friend, a good human being and can tell a really, really good story as you heard.