Transcript
Speaker: realized like, gosh, what if everything I've ever worked for happens? And that was as a young man, you never think that. You're like, drive, drive, drive, drive. drive And now it's going, you know, and the majority of things I ever dreamt about kind of have happened.
Speaker: But I remind myself I'm still hungry and I still want to push the needle and I still want to see how many things that I can personally do, my guys could do, the company could do above that expectation level because that brings in life. You know, I was at a funeral, unfortunately, last Friday and ah and it was a so interesting experience, but I ended up walking away from that, not sad, but and inspired because I was sad that someone's life so quickly could be summarized and everyone moves on and goes to dinner that night. So I went to the gym after that and pushed myself because I wanted to have the the antithesis of a funeral. I wanted to have the most living.
Speaker: That was a set of, I'm going to put a weight on my back that I haven't had on my back and I'm going to go until I can't. because there will be a day that either I won't be able to do this or I won't want to do this.
Speaker: Welcome to the Captains and Coaches podcast. We explore the art and science of leadership through the lens of athletics and beyond. I'm your host, Texan McQuilkin, and today we are live from the NSCA Tactical Conference, sitting down at the booth with Bert Soren, CEO of SorenX Exercise Equipment. Bert has spent decades building Sorenx into a staple of the strength world. Years ago, he recommended a book to me called Predictable Success.
Speaker: And today we use that as a roadmap as we break down its seven stages success, the cost of chasing your own goals, and why early struggles last longer than you think. This episode's a long time coming.
Speaker: We're kicking off Squattober with this interview with Bert. my and NSCA Tactical presentation all about squats, off axis, on target, reframing squat for operators, available on YouTube.
Speaker: Check that out here. Awesome presentation. If you want to see how I mix those squat variations and feel it, in a program, check out my Old Bull program on Train Heroic.
Speaker: Perfect for rebuilding and recovery following squattober, building back your body for a seven day free trial. Click the link in the show notes, Old Bull, Train Heroic.
Speaker: No further ado, let's go ahead and squat down, sit down with Bert at the booth. And he helps us raise game. Ready, ready, and break. Right into it. Action. Bert Soren, I appreciate.
Speaker: Everything. hot I mean, opening up the podcast room at Summer Strong. It's a beautiful new room and love every second of Looking forward to the content that comes out of that. So yeah, I saw you guys were in there a good bit. That was exciting. Yeah, it was good. It was good that was being used. It was awesome having Yes. Between you and Gunner, guys crushed it.
Speaker: I mean, we're blocking every single one. I love it. Yeah. I see all the the different people pop up like, oh, man, they they saw a lot of people. this It was beautiful room. That's great. I want to take us back to 10 years because we met 10 years ago at the CSCCA.
Speaker: Okay. Is that when it was? It's kind of like those people you know for so long, you're like, I don't know when we met. Probably in the 80s or something. Yeah, it was 2016. Okay. Actually, no, because I did an internship at University of Texas, and y'all did the Olympic Room.
Speaker: Yeah, like in 13 or? 2013. Yep, yep. And so we met during there. Yeah. So setting up all the rigs and that that's before I really knew anything. So we were asked to help. We helped forever. shit And there was a sandwich at the end of the day. So it's like sandwich at the end of the day. Yeah. And then Mark Henry came in and did pull ups, which is phenomenal because he's he's big man. He's pretty large. Yes. I was actually in that room about a month ago. OK. I checked it out and saw Jan.
Speaker: That's beautiful. Start center. ah Yeah, um I'm going to take this off, but we're at a conference. We are at the and NSCA Tactical Conference. Yep. um And I want to take it back to 10 years ago, plus some, because we connected at CSCCA, reconnected. Right.
Speaker: And then you told me two weeks later, hey, come out to Summershaw. It was Summershaw at nine. is Well, okay, it was at nine. Holy cow. And so it was like. Was John... Did he speak that year or he just, at ten okay. So y'all were just maybe hanging.
Speaker: I can't remember. Just hanging. John didn't get an opportunity to go to that one. Okay. It was, it was a ah quick and I was at USC. Oh yeah. Yeah. Because 10 was when we, our first one that we had back at Sorenx.
Speaker: So from, from there, it was like, uh, then got you on the podcast with the podcast had between CSCCA and then going out the first summer strong. And it's just like, okay, well now we're in it. Yeah. And rolling. Yeah. Um,
Speaker: You've done a heck of a job, man. It's been fun to watch over a decade. We're having fun. Just being in it, and I'll have to hand it to you. So many people want to make it or make an impact or do whatever, and...
Speaker: They might get some wins, they might get some losses, but they lose interest three to five years in. And I think we've talked even, i think John and I have talked, I think we've talked about like, if anyone's any good at something, it takes 10 plus years, right? And it's cool because I see you, you're growing and you're doing things in the industry, you're tweaking, but you're staying true to who you are, what you're interested in, what your value proposition you're bringing, and you're becoming a staple And it's really fun to watch because it just shows you are who you are.
Speaker: So, you know, want to start off with commending you because I've been in this a long time and I've seen a lot of people come and go. So it's cool that you are still who you who I met the first time.
Speaker: That man getting goosebumps. Appreciate that. yeah No, it's cool. And sticking with tactical and appreciation because we we had a growth moment within Power Athlete with one member moving on. And then I stepped up into more of a leadership role.
Speaker: And I was like, Bert, I got questions for you. Oh, gosh. And you took the time, and then you recommended a book to me, and I dove right in, which I have here. I saw that on the ground. i was like, who brought that?
Speaker: Predictable success. And so I understand the life cycle of an athlete, and now there's a moment where we love coaching, we love development, but also there's this business side of things.
Speaker: Yes, and that's that I learned from Coach Fry, my college track coach. He taught me that a college team or really any team is a business.
Speaker: It's a business of how you run it. It's a business of the value that you have to bring. And so I saw it through a totally different lens after that experience in South Carolina. There's their salesmanship in there. There's delivery in there. There's marketing in there. And that's the first time I saw it in a team.
Speaker: So i like bringing that up, I think people probably need to look at it, in my opinion, a little bit more closely to a yeah to a a culture or a or company, because that's in fact what you're running as a coach or even an athlete.
Speaker: That and then that's what I want to explore a little bit today is your your own CEO yeah as an athlete. And then if we know what the highlight, it can truly prepare us for what is after sport.
Speaker: Right. Right. yeah Yeah. So I ah i mean, the the life cycle that's painted in predictable success. And this is going to guide our interview here. We have early struggle, fun, whitewater, predictable success, treadmill, the big rut and then the death rattle.
Speaker: Yeah. I haven't read it in years, but I remember those. Yeah. so that's that's going to help guide our questions here. Yeah. So the early struggle and. Dude, you have an amazing facility and then it's painted the history, the story of us. Yeah. It's painted on the walls of Sorenx.
Speaker: So what what were some takeaways of athletic endeavors? Congratulations on the Hall of Fame, by the way. Thank you, i appreciate it. That then prepared you for that early struggle that that that was Sorenx in the start. The early struggle, I think, is the preparation. Like if you survive the early struggle and are still, I think passion,
Speaker: Passion and excitement is the the fuel that carries you through early struggle. If you don't love it, if you don't maybe love it and delusionally love it too much ah enough, then you don't have the gas it takes you generally to get through early struggle. So like if you took it ah in SORNAX language, that was Pops loving to build things, loving to see athletes improve. And he was in the perfect, you know, he's 30 years old.
Speaker: He's training hard. He's been training hard for 15 years at that point. And he's teaching. And so i want to do this new thing. But there was no question if he loved it, if he was invested in it. And so those first five to ten years, I mean, those were getting us off the the ground. But honestly, the first.
Speaker: 20 something years were early struggle. And that was just because he wasn't a business guy. He didn't know he had passion and he had resilience, but that amount of passion and resilience and talent brought it, unfortunately, because he didn't have a lot else, the early struggle was a longer period than it should have been, but he was tough enough to make it.
Speaker: And so that's where I would look at with anything with an athlete, with me first year at South Carolina walking on, Early struggle was all over the place. and But I was too dumb to know it.
Speaker: And I loved it. So there's nothing else I would have rather done. So you wake up one day and, you know, you you realize that it's super fun. and That kind of takes you to the second stage.
Speaker: But that you people people don't understand that early struggle... if that seven step process, that early struggle might not be a proportional amount, a proportionate amount of time. Yeah. Early struggle might be a really, really long time, but it won't be a very long time if you're not tough enough to take it for that long.
Speaker: Does that make sense? Big time. So it's, ah I have to say anyone who's made it into predictable success or beyond, I commend them because it's really, really freaking hard. It's hard to get into fun.
Speaker: It's really hard because the good idea fairy leaves before that happens. So, yeah. So I like working with middle school athletes because there's a ah moment of switch where having fun with sports goes from playing grab ass with your boys to being really good and talented at something. yeah So at what stage does fun start to play with business when we have some success?
Speaker: like When the phone comes this phone calls go this way. Okay. it's probably i just thought of that, but that's the change. Yeah. Right? When you go there and you have some phone calls on voicemails and you're like, so-and-so university wants us to call back.
Speaker: Or you pick up the phone and it's, you know, University of Kentucky for us it was. University of Tennessee, you know, 1992. A guy named Garth Brooks calls us on the phone. And, I mean, he was the hottest artist in the world. And you're like,
Speaker: The answer for you like, you gotta to be kidding me. This is freaking Garth Brooks. Right? So that those are the days that are fun. Cause you're like, holy crap, we're making a chip. We're making a difference. We're still struggling, but it's now like, oh, we saw a couple balls go in the basket. like This is cool. i I get this a little bit more. And that's the start of fun.
Speaker: They're acknowledging your hard work. They're telling you you're not telling them anymore. Yeah. that That's when it starts. When when it's not just cold, call cold, cold, cold. That's early struggle. And all of a sudden, when when the when the calls hit the tipping point where there's more calls that come in than out, then then that's when you're kind of that last stage of fun. And you know you got to start figuring some crap out at that point.
Speaker: Yeah. And so me within fun, it's almost referencing like a small unit, a team we're sacrificing together. Yes. How do you then grow fun with that team?
Speaker: Are they still willing to sacrifice? Yes. Less will be. It's interesting. Less will be willing to sacrifice. And it's not always the ones that were with you in early struggle.
Speaker: Those in fun. Everyone's loving it at that point. You're putting points on the board. Your growth curve is like this. you know, like if you sell a hundred, a hundred dollars a first year, which is nothing, you sell two hundred dollars a second year, which is nothing. It's a hundred percent growth curve.
Speaker: So you can look really, really good at it early days, right? Yeah. It's kind like young, young kids that go from a barbell squat to a 135 and you're like, I tripled my squat. You're like, yeah, well.
Speaker: Just wait, buddy. Yeah, just wait, right? um So that fun stage is the addictive phase that many businesses many businesses or teams or athletes stay in um because they they don't they can't grow past it. Because inadvertently, you always get better until you have to take the next step. yeah And the fun stage, there's people that are going to, a lot of employees specifically or teams are going to want to stay in fun because it's exactly that. It's fun. Which leads us to Whitewater.
Speaker: Leads us to Whitewater. I spent a lot of time reframing conflict is good for a lot of teenage and college athletes. Like we want conflict. Storming is going to bring you closer together. Correct. Show that your teammates, they can take it when there's an opponent that's coming after.
Speaker: So what what was Whitewater for you in learning that this is going to be good for us coming together and reaching our goals? It's interesting. I would say Whitewater really, I mean, we were,
Speaker: Just like the book says, we we fluctuated between whitewater and fun for probably a so a strong decade before we really decided to try to brave into the whitewater because we just didn't know. Right. Because it's very easy to say fun is fun.
Speaker: Let's back off a little bit or do things how we used to do it because, man, remember, that was badass. That was fun. And when you realize your success and your growth, much like an athlete, okay, I'm a high school athlete. Well, guess what? You're moving to the phase where you're going to have to probably maybe go to college.
Speaker: That's going to turbulent. And you might blow right through that turbulence, or you're going to get to the point where you got to, everything gets shaken up. You're not the the big fish in the small pond anymore. yeah And that's kind of that fun stage. here You're an established fish in a small pond, right? Mm-hmm.
Speaker: go to whitewater, you realize if you're going to truly grow, you need to get into a bigger pond and it's going to be turbulent. It's going to be dropping that minnow that's lived in your, your're your, your fishbowl at home into the lake. And you're like, Hey man, there's a lot of opportunity, but there's a lot of detriment that could happen. And so that's that phase.
Speaker: um It feels terrible. It feels like you're losing it. It feels like, and unless you have some guidance or some forethought, or maybe even the book saying, hey, like this is supposed to happen.
Speaker: This is because of your success that you're experiencing this. um That's a hard one. That's when you, a lot of time you lose the the true believers or the ones that helped you get there.
Speaker: And they sometimes can't see that things do have to change for everything to get better because they liked it how it used to be. Yeah. And one of my favorite stories that I want to throw into the whitewater you shared during a presentation that I've since stole with my high school athletes.
Speaker: mirror, when guys give me an excuse, yes pulling it out. This is my hotel key card, but not a mirror, but have a pocket mirror and then use it so much that I gifted my team captains mirror. So and that gives me chills to know that it It resonated. Yeah. So it stuck a helmet decal on there so it's not as feminine.
Speaker: And the guys don't have to answer questions when they find this. and the The girlfriend finds this mirror in their truck. So the yeah that that that is an ah an essence of growth in whitewater where people stop looking for if there's something on the ground, they say, oh, that's not mine.
Speaker: No, this is a place that we have pride. If we're all in, we got to all be in. Yeah. And I'll always love the line. We didn't come this far just to come this far. You know, it's yeah. If you you keep bumping into fun and you hit whitewater, you back off and hey white more oh you back off in it you end up staying there. Yeah. And you kind of stay in that weird purgatory of.
Speaker: Of six, a falsified success, because I don't think success is necessarily a monetary or a or a a numerical. It's it's it's percentage of your potential.
Speaker: And that is my opinion where you're, are you a success? I don't know. if If the expectation level for your life was here, how many times did you go above it? If it was here, I don't care how much you made, how strong you were, whatever.
Speaker: Kind of a failure if if you didn't. bump that ceiling a little bit. And that's where blowing through whitewater or enveloping in whitewater and then realizing getting out of whitewater as soon as possible. And that's what hurt Sorenax for years is we didn't know it.
Speaker: mr So we fluctuated between between fun, whitewater, something would happen, we'd almost be back to early struggle and you just fluctuate in this early continuum and you you just, and then sometimes you lose focus. you like yeah I was training a lot then. So the training, my personal training was probably one of the things keeping us between whitewater and fun back and forth because I was focused not on the business as much. I was focused on my personal
Speaker: ah growth and and competition. Now, later that paid off because of the relationships I made, what I learned, what I was able to bring into the business from a design and application standpoint.
Speaker: But at the time, it was costly. You know, had i not been training 30 hours a week or 40 hours a week and competing on the weekends, we would have probably gotten into and through Whitewater faster.
Speaker: I just have to realize that. The other side of that is we might not have made it 15 years past Whitewater. right Because the base that we built during those times, being in it and really understanding training, I'm still monetizing that now, but it was a risky move. It was a risky move. Was there a moment where you had your hold the mirror up to realize, okay, we're we're fluctuating all over.
Speaker: Yeah, 2004. I didn't make the Olympic team for my second crack at it. And I'm sitting here in a hotel room in Sacramento going, okay, did I waste the last five years?
Speaker: ah have And then, of course, immediately you're like, no, I didn't. I learned all this stuff. I did this and this. It's like, yeah, but... how much more of your life and your stress would be reduced? How much better would your life be socially? Wasn't married, didn't have kids like, and the things I wanted, but I wasn't certainly wasn't chasing, you know, and i I was very interested in the business, but I was still going to train that day at five o'clock and I was going to compete on the weekends that I could compete.
Speaker: And so I had to come to realization where that probably wasn't the best long term plan if I was going to choose to do this. And so I hung up my throwing shoes after, you know, not making the the the finals there.
Speaker: um and then a year later my dad got sick with cancer and then so like you're in this just big you're then then you go from almost whitewater back to our struggle and then it's and i and i i wonder had i been more focused on that side of the business would the timing have been better we were would maybe be past that of course can't change it now but i had to look at myself a few times and go I could have done better by this business.
Speaker: And even two years later, i get into Highland Games. I chase that dragon, you know get to the amateur world level, professional level, competing and you know doing all the things.
Speaker: And i get hurt, which was probably a good thing because it made me stop for a minute and go, Wow, I kind of pushed us right back into whitewater fun again because, again, I was chasing my goals and I was chasing and the business was still relatively small, but smaller than it should have been based on what our potential was.
Speaker: So I finally retired from that and I had to look myself in the mirror saying that I screw my company, but also screw myself. in my, maybe my lineage that'll come, maybe my customer base, because I was interested in what I was doing.
Speaker: that So that mirror had to come out. And you know and then I was, then interestingly enough, once I got out of, by passion, passion being competing.
Speaker: We said, okay, well let's turn that passion in. You know, i had a couple other mentors and different people come in that saw it not as emotionally connected to that side that I was. And then we started truly going through, trying to go through whitewater, not just kept finding ourself in it. Right. so that would have been like,
Speaker: 2010, 2011, 2012, somewhere in there. Okay. And then now we're into this predictable success. Well, I would say the predictable success, I mean, you know, I don't like to think we're even in it now. I still think we're, I think we bounce between predictable success and whitewater at times because we're ambitious and we want to try things. And just, you know, when you're on hyper growth for over 10 years, it's like you can you almost like,
Speaker: I think just the velocity pushes you back into whitewater because you're you're breaking systems and you're having to create systems. And so you grow great. You grow 28% this year. Well, you're going to need a bigger boat.
Speaker: So you're back into whitewater immediately. yeah And you kick ass. You do all these great things and you grow 32% the next year. Well, we're going to need a bigger boat. So you just, your success pushes you backwards into whitewater again. okay And so that's where I think the success pushes you into whitewater forward and it could pull you back into whitewater unless you have the right people in play. And I believe there will always be that whitewater during the turbulent times, during growth periods. And that's much like training. Whitewater is kind of like, like,
Speaker: like stressors on the body or like, or like doms. Like you're going to get sore when you're growing. yeah You're going to get sore when you're training hard, when a new training is like, like that's going to happen. And that's, that's just where you have to realize that turbulence is going keep coming back. Yeah.
Speaker: And then one thing you've done a good job is, Josh Dobby's become a good pal, is grow leaders within that so you can trust them in their own little boats. That is, that is, I had to,
Speaker: realize that I can't do it all. My dad realized he couldn't do it all. We had to trust. We got burned sometimes trusting people. We got very rewarded trusting people.
Speaker: And so I'm kind of in the realization now is
Speaker: I might lose every single person that has ever worked for me. And I had this like cherry thing of like, Hey, they're going to come here. They'll be here forever. And this is going to awesome. And we're going to do this fun thing for a long time.
Speaker: then you realize the reality is, is everyone's on their own voyage and they have their own life. And so now the goal is to do as best for them as possible to put them in the best situation to succeed, to pull their,
Speaker: their aspects that can make the company as successful as possible, but realize that unless their last name is Soren, they have a choice. and I kind of don't, right?
Speaker: And so i my goal is to recruit them every day, is to keep them how do i How do I keep them where they're wanting to continue to be on this team?
Speaker: And when they start doing it, the managers start doing it, then it becomes, that's when everyone says, oh, you guys have such a great culture. Well, that's the culture. The culture is we believe in this stuff. And we'd rather not be, we'd rather not do anything else. Yeah. um You know, everyone wants to make more money. Like all of us were like, oh, i wish I made that. Okay, great.
Speaker: Money aside, do you really love what you're doing? And are you do you realize that your hand is on the wheel a little bit, some more than others, that can steer it closer to what you want? And and youre and that's where culture comes in.
Speaker: Everyone has a hand on culture. Do I drive the culture? Dobby drives the culture? We're the top. Yes, where we have the our hands are on the wheel the most. But the reality of it is a guy that got there this year can still drive the culture.
Speaker: yeah and And once they realize that, Of course, you got to make sure that they're aligned. And so that's where the communication comes in. Once they realize that they start to take ownership.
Speaker: Yeah. And once they realize that we are all in this and the culture is all of us, we are the culture. Then you start cracking in that predictable success because everyone's aligned. And I've seen companies come and go and.
Speaker: You know, there's there there's one that was like, oh, well, Sorenix has such an amazing culture. And I asked literally talking about someone yesterday, i go, well, what's that specific company's culture? And they go, I don't think they know. And they keep switching horses.
Speaker: And so that tells me that leadership doesn't really know what they want. They can't convey that to anyone else. And so everyone else is going to have a different idea of what the plan is.
Speaker: Commander's intent hasn't been worked into the baked into the pie. And you get turnover, you get failed plans, you get incomplete missions and all that stuff starts happening versus with us in many cases. I'm not trying to like say compare and contrast, but Most everyone knows what the what we call it just the deal. We just joked. I was like, got to know the deal. Like, what's the deal?
Speaker: I don't know, but you know when you know it. like or Like, live the code. What's the code? Well, the code is have integrity, try hard things often, be a great teammate.
Speaker: I mean... you know, even working out. I want people who who understand the the whole mantra of struggle well and are not afraid of it. Like that's living the code. are you Are you in this? Or is this something you do nine to five?
Speaker: And when you find people that are in it, then you're like, okay, we could build something together with this person. And then as you the admin systems build up and everything like that, then you mesh that culture.
Speaker: with the systems the binary portions of the systems and then you hit that beautiful term predictable success you realize that if this group of folks goes and does that mission it does it how we know how to do it Customers are going really happy.
Speaker: They're going to tell all their friends. We're going to do more weight rooms. We're going to work, and our designs will be better. And, like, it's pretty predictable what happens at that point, as much as life could be predictable in 2026. Yeah.
Speaker: And then, i mean, and some are strong. So I've seen it over this 10-year span. Sure. And we get to running the play. Now we got predictable success in Home Run Derby, dude.
Speaker: Pun intended, what a hit. Dude, yeah, yeah that that's a perfect example of predictable success. the The team, the staff, those guys know they know, they know the mission, they know the play, they know the drill.
Speaker: You know what conversation was prior to that? AB, b I think we're gonna, I like to do a home run derby. Oh, that's cool. Yeah, the boys are pumped about it. You got it? Yeah, we're good.
Speaker: That was the conversation. Where y'all going to do it? Oh, well, we did the shot put this year. Oh, yeah. Crouser can't come this year. That'd be cool. Try it. And I was like, I think I added something in.
Speaker: Hey, maybe we'll put pallets along the back wall and maybe some throw some banners on that. That would be cool for the sponsors. All right. Dope on it. Yeah. Like Big Green Monster, but it was the 18-wheeler. That was the conversation. yeah And I was like, a month later, how's it going? It's going great. We're going have popcorn. We're going to have hot dogs. It's going to sweet. Big league Love it.
Speaker: You know, and and and big league, too. And so that was where those guys going, no, we know the drill. What is the drill? What is this code? We want to be passionate. We want to include people.
Speaker: We want to do something extraordinary and different. We want to have a lot of fun. We don't want to take ourselves too seriously. This is right up the alley of this, and we we think that it'll work.
Speaker: And I'd already cleared them hot. Like, you think it's going to work? you'll you'll You'll fall on that sword. And, hey, here's my dad what my dad always told me. He's like, if you bring me into the conversation early, if it goes to shit, I'm on the same side of the table with you helping you fight out of that hole.
Speaker: Because if you don't tell me about it and you you just do some cowboy stuff, if it goes bad, I'm going on the other side of the table grilling you what went wrong, yeah and I'm going to be up your ass. And so he's like, just bring me in early.
Speaker: Bring me in early in the conversation, and then we'll go fight the world together if we have to. yeah And that's what, you know, try to tell the guys and the the gals. It's like, hey, just, I'm not all right, but I'm on your side if we decide that that's how it's going to go down.
Speaker: And so, but then when you get a number of folks that they just, they know the feeling. They know what Summer Strong is supposed to feel like. They know what SorenX is supposed to feel like. They know our customers because we're friends with our customers.
Speaker: people are like, man, how did you guys think of doing all this? It's easy. It's what we would want to do. If I went to a party, what would I want the party to like? This. yeah So we just did it. It's not that hard.
Speaker: And and and it's just it amazes me that, I hate to say, like people do some stupid-ass events, and they're just weak. And you're like... Is this what you wanted to do? Or is this just they're like, well, you got to know. I was like, that's where you screwed up.
Speaker: You did what you're supposed to do. You didn't want do what everyone would want and what you would want. And if this is what you would want, then that's pretty dumb because then you're not very cool because you want dumb crap.
Speaker: Yeah. Sorry. It's just kind of how I see it. But I mean, but that being said, but there's a couple of leaders there that, you know, we we orchestrate, we DJ the whole thing. And it's like, all right, I trust you for this. I trust you for this. I trust you. And then every it's like a potluck dinner.
Speaker: Everyone wants to bring their best. yeah Oh, I'm going to bring this this venison cheese dip because it's to blow people's socks. And if 100 people are all saying that, then everyone's bringing their best. They're not like, well, Bert told me to do this. I don't know. I don't know why we're doing it, but he just told us we're doing this.
Speaker: No, not no. No, if you don't believe in it, come in and ask me and I'll try to explain it to you. But if you're not bought in, I don't want you on the project. No, because then you're going to half acid.
Speaker: So that's where we've just kind of realized like, OK, I take care of things that only I could take care of or best suited to take care of. And then you delegate in the ah in the directions and then just trust them that they're going to bring their best dish to that party. Oh, yeah. And and that we're all watching each other. And we all know, like, if you didn't bring your best dish, you're like, kind mailed that one in, didn't you? No one will say it, but you know that you don't want to be the guy that mailed it in.
Speaker: No. And so if everyone sees it that way, it's awesome. Yeah. And then, I mean, that's so similar to a college athletic locker room. You got it.
Speaker: And your backup is pushing you, and that's going to make you better. Of course. There's no resentment there. No, I want that guy to be better because I know if I go down, we have a chance of still getting a ring. Yeah.
Speaker: But if if he's coming up, that's going to press me to be better, and I want to be better. Yeah. and and that's and But if everyone brings their best, their best covered dish to the party,
Speaker: That's their their secret. I'm bringing my secret recipe because I want to blow y'all socks off. It's like, eh, you know who brought the freaking Doritos and the napkins. You're like. Or nothing at all. just showed up to eat. And there's a lot of that, too. They showed up to eat or they picked up.
Speaker: Oh, you brought paper plates.
Speaker: Forgot about it. You got it. Went by a dollar general on the way here, didn't you? I got you. Yeah. Some of the other phases in predictable success is an amazing. Like visual job of this.
Speaker: They get into the the treadmill, the big rut and the death rattle. Yeah. Were there any projects or moments where you felt on either of those three that you found your happy medium and path as a leader?
Speaker: Um, I think treadmill is easy to get into. We haven't really been in it. And if we have, it's been for like a week, you know, when you just get kind of worn out and everyone loses or some of the key people lose their pizzazz for it because they're just CNS is fried.
Speaker: You know, so if it chronically happens, that's where I think you're truly in treadmill, where you're drivers of the whole culture. They're not hungry anymore. They're not hunting for the next job, the next innovation, the next experience, and it becomes mail in. Yeah. And, and the young ones don't know it enough to know they should be still hunting. And I think that's where the problem that the, where the problem ah could lie. Yeah. When you still have that, that piss and vinegar in you and you want to go after, I think it's almost impossible to go into treadmill.
Speaker: Um, if you still, i think treadmill is, less of an administrative problem and more of a passion problem. Yeah, and we see this in athletics. If some freshmen come together, they're a great team, they build up the program. Yeah. And then they they take off that next class in that didn't suffer and go through the whitewater together.
Speaker: They think they got it easy and they didn't. They don't come with the drive and the passion. Then we start to get on. Yeah. They never had to to drink out of the mud puddle. Like, and they're like, well, it's always great. And then then after a while they lose their focus and their, their mission set because they never had to go on the mission. They just know they got the, you know, if you look at like ah back in the Patriots days, like no, they just got to become a Patriot. Yep.
Speaker: if you weren't help who helped build the patriots maybe it's pretty easy to get in your in your feelings about like well i'm not getting mine no dude yep no dude like these guys over here and we've had we've had some youngsters come on and maybe have little that attitude but then you have a guy like dobby who i i sing his praises like he'll stand up in a meeting and he's like You didn't have to go through what through those two men went through like Tom on Pops and I. He's like, until you have done that, until you have changed the industry, like all those things that he's like, like check yourself at the door because you're not the guys that got us here.
Speaker: Maybe those two guys and about five or six other dudes that bled through that 2010 through know, and again, know, you know and again you know, not downing guys that weren't there, but but but like that hyper growth period where we were in a single wide trailer and and out for blood, like that set up that that phase. And, you know, and so I appreciate Dobby respecting that going, hey, man, if you're not, it's not a part of like, you know, you don't you don't really get a voice right now on that scenario.
Speaker: But then that's good for those youngsters to see because then they're like, oh, Okay, maybe it wasn't how I thought it was. yeah And they only know what they know. and but then and in in it But then it comes back to me to mentor to go, you only know what you know. Let me give you a little history. Let me show you how we work through these problems.
Speaker: And then when that problem set comes to them, and everything will at some point, something will blow up in their lap. and they go, hey, man, remember what we talked about? Here's your time. Here's your coming of age right now. ye And so we're going to work through that.
Speaker: Yeah, and that's where the true standing on the shoulders of giants becomes the opportunity because we learned the the past, the history, of the lessons, and now we can grow yeah together and keep it rolling.
Speaker: So now mean what's next? Winter Strong is now open. We got Summer Strong is doing great. Coming on 20th year Summer Strong, which is wild.
Speaker: Yeah. what's What's next for Bert Soren? What's next for Soren X? What can we look forward to? Oh, well, it's ah it's a personal I mean, I'm still driven. I'm still passionate, but it is a personal checks and balances to not get into treadmill um because the reality of it is, is as we all get older and as your dreams are realized, you have to keep dreaming or you become an old man.
Speaker: And i've I've kind of realized that I realized, like, gosh, what if everything I've ever worked for happens? Well, at some point i mean and that was as a young man you never think that you're like drive drive drive drive drive and you know it's going you know and the majority of things I ever dreamt about kinda have happened and But I remind myself I'm still hungry and I still want to push the needle and I still want to see how many things that I can personally do, my guys could do the company could do above that expectation level because that brings in life. You know, I was at a funeral, unfortunately, last Friday and ah and it was an interesting experience.
Speaker: But I ended up walking away from that, not sad, but and inspired. because I was sad that someone's life so quickly could be summarized and everyone moves on and goes to dinner that night.
Speaker: So I went to the gym after that and pushed myself because I wanted to have the the antithesis of a funeral. yeah I wanted to have the most living. And so that was a set of, I'm gonna put a weight on my back that I haven't had on my back and I'm gonna go until I can't.
Speaker: because there will be a day that either i won't be able to do this or i won't want to do this and i remember dad telling me that about the last year of his life he and i were talking and he and i asked him about hunting or asked about lifting and he looked at me he goes i'm scared because i don't want to anymore
Speaker: Not at the level he did before, still to most, i mean, he lifted the day he died. But when i I knew what he was saying, when it was not a burning passion that he would walk through a wall to get to anymore, he didn't know what that was like and he was afraid of it. So my goal is seeing that and saying, I wanna keep that away as long as possible, because if I do that, I can continue to be valuable. The company could be valuable to the industry.
Speaker: We could stay in predictable success as long as possible. pulls us out of that treadmill. And maybe the day it turns into treadmills, the day I put up for sale, maybe.
Speaker: I mean, that sounds like failure to me. Some people say like, what's your exit plan? Like sell, blah, blah, blah. To me, emotionally selling feels like failure because it tells me that I'm no longer wanting to fight.
Speaker: I'm an athlete, I'm a competitor, I wanna compete. yeah And I stopped competing because my body didn't let me compete anymore. um But that's why I wanna make sure that that doesn't occur.
Speaker: ah and hold it as long as possible. not saying Not saying that I won't change in some way, but that's the thing I try to remind myself. Yeah. Is no keep fighting because the fight is the fun.
Speaker: And be getting everyone together is the fun. Oh, yeah. And they keep showing up to fight alongside you. That's something special. It's good. Yeah, man. It's just fun. that That's standing on the shoulder of a giant. Yeah. And that that's not standing in the shadow. That's why I always appreciate it about you, man. and Thank you. Your dad always hanging out.
Speaker: Yeah, the old man was something. And, you know, I told him one time, I said, you know, we've created this thing. And, you know, what we might see as Soarnex is a five-lane highway right now. I can never go back and, with a machete, hack the trail that he hacked.
Speaker: And he didn't have the age or the capacity at the time in his age to make the five-lane highway that I was able to do with my guys. Mm-hmm. We couldn't do what each other did, but that's the beautiful part about it. We didn't need to.
Speaker: We didn't need to. So that was, we all remembered like, this is my phase that I'm here. I'm gonna do the best I can. He did the best he could to take it from a woods to a trail, to a dirt road, to a paved road.
Speaker: And then I said, okay, Let's do this and together we built in a five lane highway and now there's like a city there. yeah And it's like, cool. Where is gonna be after that? I don't know.
Speaker: I don't know. I mean, maybe, i don't know, maybe my employees will buy me out and they'll take it to some level that I've never even considered. Maybe, it'd be cool. But as long as as I keep wanting to do it, my goal is to keep us in that sweet spot. If I can.
Speaker: Yeah. You're working for it. Sweet. All you can Well, thanks for your time. Thanks for everything. It's always fun, dude. It is. And I'll hold core memories, the sandwich reward after a 10-hour day just installing that weight room.
Speaker: And I i saw Donnie Maeve got coffee with him. Yeah. Every time I pop down the weight room, I'm like, You're welcome. Appreciate it. Thank you for your support. Thank you for your integrity.
Speaker: Thank you for being you, unapologetically you. And I think all those people out there that watched how you've done it, it may be how I've done it.
Speaker: do it your Do it your way that you want to do it. You didn't do it how I did it. John didn't do it how i did Like, everyone's done it different way, but just be willing to do it your way for a long freaking time. Because the reality of it is that early struggle is probably going lot longer than you think.
Speaker: yeah And when you get to fun, realize it's going to be fun, but realize that you're still like on step two. Yeah. A lot more to go. A lot more to go. Sweet, dude. Thank Well, a lot more conversations we'll have, man. I would love it. ah It's always fun talking with you. Always. So we'll get back to the conference, dude. Thanks for tuning in. Appreciate it. seen sweet. Thank you very much. Yeah, that super fun.
