The Intersection of Real Estate and Fitness w: Alec & Shannon Cheplak

Summary

In this episode, Shane Kilby hosts Shannon and Alec Cheplak, who share their journey in real estate and wellness coaching. 

They discuss the importance of generational health, the impact of physical fitness on business performance, and the role of accountability in achieving health goals. 

The conversation emphasizes leading by example, facing life's challenges with resilience, and the transformative power of community support. 

They also introduce an upcoming transformation challenge aimed at promoting health and wellness among participants.

Takeaways

Generational health is as important as generational wealth.

Leading by example can inspire family and team members.

Health and fitness directly impact business performance.

Mental health is crucial for overall well-being.

Accountability plays a key role in achieving health goals.

Sobriety can lead to significant life transformations.

Community support enhances individual health journeys.

Facing challenges head-on builds resilience.

The importance of intentional stress management through fitness.

Transformative challenges can lead to profound personal growth.

Sound Bites

"You can be the leader of your family."

"You have to choose to rise up."

"We believe in it, the habits."

Chapters

00:00 The Importance of Adaptability in Life and Work

00:19 Introduction to Alec and Shannon Cheplak

02:31 The Journey to Wellness in Real Estate

06:03 Generational Health vs. Generational Wealth

09:37 The Impact of Health on Family and Business

13:36 Transforming Lives Through Health and Fitness

17:35 The Role of Leadership in Health Awareness

21:10 Implied Accountability and Personal Growth

27:38 Coping with Stress in Real Estate

28:45 The Power of Self-Discovery

30:11 Intentional Stress and Its Benefits

32:00 Building Stress Tolerance and Discipline

34:56 Facing Life's Challenges Head-On

37:38 The Importance of Physical Health

40:29 Rising Up as Leaders

43:18 Transformative Challenges and Growth

50:43 R.E.A.L. Podcast outro.mp3

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Transcript

Shane Kilby (00:02)
All right, guys, today we are shooting another episode of Real Podcast, Real Estate Agent Life with none other than Alec and Shannon Ceplek. Guys, welcome. How are you guys doing today?

Alec & Shannon Cheplak (00:15)
We're really good, happy to be here. Yeah, super happy to be here. It's Monday, it's about to be the new year. I'm stoked, let's go.

Shane Kilby (00:22)
It's like what day of the week is it? day of week is it? So you guys want to just kind of give us a little bit of backstory, you know, to the listeners and the viewers out there. kind of walk us through how you guys got to this part of the real estate, you know, real estate world. What part of the real estate world you guys play a part in today.

Alec & Shannon Cheplak (00:44)
Yeah. So if we're where we're at now, it's wild to say where we're at, but we've had the opportunity the past couple of years to coach top team leaders, agents, brokers, even now people in the mortgage space, even a couple real estate attorneys, estate attorneys as well. of high operating high performer business leaders who are married couples and parents who decided, Hey, you know, my fitness is a priority and you know, I am worth it. And so is my family and my legacy beyond just

Someone said generational wealth is what you all pursue, but generational health is what you all should pursue. One of our top clients, Jamie, with Girls with Grit, and it really stuck with us. It's been cool because I've seen it show up in my family's life. My father's sobriety journey, my sobriety journey, my son having a sober father, and the business my wife and I have together, but it's really all rooted in that generational health thing and passing on a better life.

for a whole human being rather than just pursuing a next transaction or the next recruit. So it's been really cool. mean, so Alec and I have been doing this for a long time outside of the real estate space. And it was just something that his father thought was necessary to bring directly into this space because it was needed. know, people were, he saw the direct correlation with getting

your health and fitness and everything in line and also then doing better in your business because of the regiment, because of feeling healthier and all of those things. So we were like, yeah, let's just bring it directly to these team leaders, brokers and agents. And it's just been pretty, it's pretty, pretty cool. And so that's, that's where we're at now and you can be, Oh, it must be nice. Uh, let's rewind. It is nice now. Uh, it wasn't always so sweet. Um, a little bit of a rewind right before this company started.

Shannon and I were already combined in our business, training mostly in person, heavily on the competitor side. We had a pretty epic contest season, like two or three back to back. And we were just like winning every contest in Vegas on every NPC news online interview. If you don't know, that means you won the whole show. You won the overall. We're having a good level of success after many years, know, 20 years combined experience in the real estate space. And when we reached our pinnacle,

I don't know if anyone watching this knows my dad, you probably do. And if you do, you know, he's very much rooted in competency and you partner with experts and you bring forward experts and then kind of sort of, says, get out of the way of the talent. And so he allowed us to demonstrate our talent prior to even making a recommendation that we bring this forward. And once we were performing at the highest level, he calls me. It's really funny story. Some people know this, some people don't.

We're deadline dancers with the holidays, dude. I don't know about you, but it's like a joke. Like, all right, man, it's December 23rd. We should start thinking about Christmas shopping. Let's just think about it today. Yeah. You probably have to start thinking about, it's December 24th, 2022. I get a phone call from my dad. If you know my dad, he's a, he's not a small talker. He don't call you just be like, Hey bud, how you doing? You like he calls you with a, with an objective.

Duane Murphy (03:48)
you

Okay.

Alec & Shannon Cheplak (04:05)
So and so he calls me I'm like, what's up, dude? And he's like, I got an idea. And I'm like, what's up? And he's like, we're gonna bring a wellness company to the real estate space. There's a random call random idea he had, I said, Okay, I'm ready. Let's go. January 1. Like, a week later, let's do it. He's like, yeah, no, we're not gonna move fast. We're gonna move correct. So he's like, we're gonna do it. But we're gonna pump the brakes, right? Since she's all like, excited. I'm excited. It goes, we're ready. I'm like, our products ready right now. Yeah.

Duane Murphy (04:33)
Yeah.

Alec & Shannon Cheplak (04:34)
we're already changing lives, but there's a lot on the back end. And there's a way to do it correct, right? Don't just move fast, move correct. I've learned that from my dad. And so over the next, you know, three, four or five months, Hey, dad, you ready? You know, like stuff like she's all hitting me like, she's, all right, are we doing this or what? Then he ends up having his wedding with Brit, you know, I love Brit and John. They invite us out to the wedding in Hawaii. And we had just won a bunch of shows with our clients. So we had a lot of

new people coming in to sign up, right? And so I purposely scheduled an onboarding call with someone who wanted to purchase coaching. And I scheduled it at 4 a.m. our time in Hawaii because me, my dad and Shannon were going to be driving 40 minutes to the gym to go work out at 4 a.m. on Hawaii vacation. If you want to know what our lifestyle is like. And I scheduled it so could do the phone call in the car ride in front of my dad. And I put it on speaker and

It was a guy I never met in my life, but he even followed us for a while. And he's like, let's do this. And he signed up with us and made a commitment and was ready to go. And we hung up and my dad said, all right, we're ready to launch. You know, I don't think he fully understood like what processes or level we were playing at with not only just results.

Duane Murphy (05:46)
Yeah.

Shane Kilby (05:47)
you

Yeah, because

what does he say? Done is better than perfect. I'm pretty sure that a minute.

Alec & Shannon Cheplak (05:55)
Yeah. Yeah.

Well, the cool part is like, you know, we had our journey decade plus each, but then that happened and he said, okay, we're ready. So next, the next weekend, he said, and I'll wrap it up here. So I don't take too much time on one topic, but he said, I'm hosting my inner circle mastermind at my house. It's like his top 40 clients that he coaches. He says it's like eight hours, whatever. And then you're going to speak for 30 minutes at the end.

And he said, I don't know what you're gonna say. He said, I trust you. Don't fuck it up. and so I just went up there, man. And it was my friend. You guys have seen us speak on stage now for big crowds. But he wanted to like lit mistest it with a smaller group first and see what the market had to say about us. See if his community would, you know, accept us and appreciate us. And I spoke for 30 minutes, we made people laugh, we made people cry, we made people

you know, ask questions and make decisions in their health and fitness. My dad's just standing with his arms crossed in the background like, crap. Okay. You know, like, it was like a proud father son moment. Right. And, that was the day we launched this company 20 months ago now. And, we were like, all right, guys, we got to go. Shannon's parents are in town. We got to take him to the airport. They were lining up at the door. Wouldn't let us leave. They're like, let's do this. Like, I'm like, slow down, slow down. We don't have contracts. Nothing. So

started getting name, number, email a days later we launched and since then, oh man, it's been a beautiful, beautiful thing. We've been able to fully go all in on our career in Chat Black Live Wellness. We run a whole coaching company all over North America together, husband and wife. I was able to retire from in-person training after a decade of 12 to 16 hour days back to back to back training clients on gym floors, in my backyard during COVID.

at corporate gyms and it's completely transformed my family's life one but two we've been making an impact in the real estate industry people get sober people reversing basically like treating diabetes like it's not a cure but getting from 11 a one seed of five a one see people losing weight you know Janae Daniels lost 90 pounds I mean people are transforming their lives and it's a really beautiful special thing that all just kind of came together at the right moment when we were ready.

And when my dad decided it was time to partner up, so.

Duane Murphy (08:18)
Yeah. I know, I can speak for Shane as well. We've been, you know, both of us have been following you since, know, since you had that, that, that living room talk with your dad and then, know, and then started to speak on the stages. We ran into you at some Maverick events and then right. then been, social stalking you and, and, and watching the journey and in it to say that you're impacting lives would is almost not giving it enough credit. I mean,

to see the transformation and it's great. And you can go into a way more than I can, but the, see the transformation on, on the people that you've worked with and even some of the ones that aren't even paying you that you're just giving free advice to. mean, you're always giving value, right? Anybody can pick up a piece of value just by following the two of you, like, you know, or subscribing to your emails or whatever the heck it may be, right? Your text messages, like there's value all the way through there, but to say that you,

that you're just impacting some lives or changing some lives. mean, almost, almost as selling it short. mean, I would almost go as far as with some of the individuals that you have have helped. I think you're almost like, it's almost a generational thing. I think that's a family tree thing because like the, lack of fitness and health, you know, potentially in their family lineage stops now with them.

which should write more than likely, right? It's going to get passed down to their kids, right? Because they're going to see what healthy looks like. They're going to know what healthy feels like, you know? And that's something that gets, that's something that potentially gets carried through generationally. And you're not just changing someone's life currently in their business and their relationship and all that other stuff through health. You potentially are even changing that next generation because they're seeing it, right? They're watching it.

Alec & Shannon Cheplak (10:15)
100%.

Shane Kilby (10:15)
Habit to habit.

Good or bad.

Alec & Shannon Cheplak (10:18)
Yeah, I mean, we talk about that, like you're the leader. Not only are you the leader of your team, which they see it too, which we've also started doing coaching sessions with teams, like whole teams once a month, because not necessarily everybody is ready to commit to that. But if we just sprinkle that seed every month and we do coaching sessions with them, then this habit start to form. But not only are you the leader of your team, but your family. Your kids watch your spouse.

watches everything you do, even if they're not ready, it's like infectious. As you start to do it, once you're really committed to it, and the way that you speak about it, that's the one thing like, man, I gotta go to the gym, as opposed to I'm going to the gym, I'm gonna start my day off right. If you speak that into your family, your spouse, the people around you, they see how happy you are, they see the changes that you're making, know, some people, their health is getting better, all of those things, and then,

they're more likely to do it as opposed to you saying, you know what, you've got to get in shape. Do it, be the example of it. Other people, we've seen it for years. I've seen it, know, people around me for years that would never even think about stepping foot in the gym, but they see how much you love it and how much better you are as not necessarily like just the way your body looks, but how you feel as a human being, you're happier. you know, like say, cause it helps.

depression, this time of year, go to the gym. We know that firsthand. And when we're having those difficult days with everything we have going on with our family, the first thing we do when we have time is we go to the gym that day, automatically afterwards he's like, I feel a lot better. I said, no, right? So it's just leading by example for your family and the people around you. It speaks more volumes than saying you're gonna do it. You actually have to do it.

You know, and I've been taking mental notes and I want to address a few things that came up. I'll start with the funny one, the joke. He said, you've been social stalking us. can't escape us on that. You open the newsfeed and it's the first thing you see 15,000 a day. You don't to stalk us. might feel like it's the other way around. That's one part. second part is what you were saying about generational. My eight year old son has a sober dad. I didn't have that at eight years old.

period. And my dad's my best friend now we're in business together where it's a childhood dream. It is very much so generational and you might not notice it until 1020 30 years from now when you're looking back like whoa my kid had a completely different childhood than me. mean that's that's big dude I know it in it through the generations and then with her. Yeah, I got to give credit to Shannon for really going above and beyond these past couple months.

Shane Kilby (13:03)
you

Alec & Shannon Cheplak (13:13)
With everything that's gone on, know, 73 visits to the ICU with my sister, back and forth from my dad's or whatever, we've been rallying as a family. And I got to give credit to Shannon for really stepping up to the plate. And the reason I go there is because those days where I rested and didn't lift weights because maybe it was high stress or lower sleep or, you know, she had her 27th heart surgery, whatever it was.

Those days I felt noticeably worse than like the days where it felt like the world's on your shoulders. And then you go do your workout and you walk out of there and you feel like you are, you can bear the burden. Like you can, you can carry the load. And it's like literally that big of a deal. Those days you exercise your stress tolerance is through the roof. Like you feel.

Shane Kilby (14:01)
Well, it's like

you guys are adding life expectation, know, the life existence, you know, naturally speaking, you know, because what's the saying? I mean, you spend all your life building your wealth, but you'll cash it all in, you know, at the last moment, you know, or those last dying days to get that health back. Yeah, it's, it's, know, and DeWayne, you know this too. It's like,

Going all the way back to agents, like when agents starts, like they're so far behind, you know, with class and just getting traction. You know, the last thing that they ask for is systems processes, structure, accountability. Like it's like, I don't have time for that. I'll do that as soon as I get some business right now. I just, I've got to go make some money. And it's like, that's where we all get caught in that trap. And we turn around in a year's past, two years of past, we used to go to the gym.

We used to eat healthier and now everything's convenient, convenient, convenient, convenient. Then we get in this mindset that whole foods and clean foods, green foods are too costly, right? No one looks 20 years down the road at the medical cost, right? So you guys are making a huge impact. I've seen Shannon from a distance having a conversation with someone at a Maverick and just be bawling.

Duane Murphy (14:59)
Okay.

Shane Kilby (15:24)
And I knew exactly what I knew that she was having that conversation with another individual that needed needed that. I'd say, I mean, I guess it's a intervention and intervention, you know, because we get so addicted to, know, and I look at this like everybody has an addiction. Not one human being on this earth is an addicted to something right. It's success. It's work. It's income. It's, know, and they're all toxic. They can all be toxic.

Right? So it's like, it takes an intervention. It takes that moment. Whether you just, like you said, like when you're, when your family's in need and there's a health crisis, you got to be at your best to be able to go 18 hours, 24 hours, 36 hours, the long drives, the flights back and forth. You know, you guys have to be there, right? You know, and so that's

It's just very impactful to see what you guys are doing. know, just like, just diabetes and just like everything you touch. Perfect example. I've got a nine year old that suffers from chronic migraines and like we have been to every specialist, every children's hospital because they're debilitating, right? And then I'm not ever going to put that up there with any.

Duane Murphy (16:23)
.

Shane Kilby (16:40)
any terminal illness, but therefore, wow, we were going to have all of the sleep studies, having all of the MRIs, everything to make sure like we didn't have anything internally that we were going to have to be focused on. And so we're going down the list and you know, we found the dyes and the chemicals and stuff and all the processed food like toxic. Now we're trying to do away with gluten and stuff like that. So we're having to check these boxes along the way.

just to be able to try to give this child a comfortable opportunity, just a day-to-day education. Like, her schedule's like yours, like ours is crazy. That's the household we have. And when she has those migraines, she's like debilitated for 24 to 36 hours. And like school today is like, we don't allow anything less than the best. Even if it's, missed three days of school, we've got to get back in there and be at the top of the class.

Alec & Shannon Cheplak (17:14)
Yes.

Yeah.

Shane Kilby (17:38)
And it's like the school that she's in, it's just like they're relentless. Like you're out three days, you got three days to catch up. Right? you guys are you guys are, helping so many people make such a, such an impact. Even the ones that aren't, aren't clients yet. Like, like Dwayne said, just the free stuff that, that everything that, that CHEP-like name stands for. Like, I mean, you guys are just making a great impact. And the hell twist is something it's just, you don't see it in our business.

It's always how to get the next buyer, how to get the next seller, how to get the next agent, how to retain the next agent, right? How to take the next agent to be a superstar. And the health side of things, that's just so powerful. Just so powerful.

Duane Murphy (18:19)
Yeah.

You can almost tell a realtor's timeline over the years, right? Like when they join and then five years down the road, 10 years, 15, 20 by like the amount of pounds that they put on and just how obese they've gotten because right that.

Alec & Shannon Cheplak (18:32)
Yes.

Head shot.

Shane Kilby (18:37)
No.

Alec & Shannon Cheplak (18:38)
Our

favorite joke is, it time to update your realtor photo? I don't want to sleep. I don't want to sleep the very, the very like heartfelt stuff you were saying under the rug, Shane. I appreciate you sharing it and being, vulnerable and look people there. It's unfortunate. It's a double-edged blade. There's people that have lifestyle related health concerns and it's very unfortunate. I don't wish my wish it on them, but the good news is we could help them turn it around.

Shane Kilby (18:45)
All right.

Alec & Shannon Cheplak (19:04)
But then there's people with like non-lifestyle related health concerns, things they were born with or things that happen regardless of lifestyle. And I don't wish that on people either. But the reality is it's like, you could have a thousand problems in life until you have a health problem. And then you only have one problem. And so we've just seen it time and time again. And it's like, things usually have to get worse before they get better. But maybe if we remind people enough, someone might choose to change their path before it has to get to that rock bottom point. Right.

Mm-hmm. Yeah, I mean in thinking about it and I talk about this a lot, if you have the ability, like you said, people that are born with things, but if you're someone, you have the ability to be healthy, you have the ability to work out, you have the ability to eat foods that fuel your body correctly and do those things, you better take advantage of that. And like you said, nobody thinks about it until it's to the point where it's a problem.

Duane Murphy (19:34)
Yeah.

Alec & Shannon Cheplak (20:04)
Instead of, I'm all about, you know, I'm in my 40s. I will scream it from the rooftops. I want to feel good in my 70s. You know, lot of people will be like, I don't want to, I'm not going to, I'm not only want to be alive in my 70s. No, I want to be alive at a hundred. And on the cover of a magazine with a dumbbell, like this is me at a hundred years old. You know, we don't think about the things that we can do that will make you feel. Cause we, we see it firsthand, you know,

Shane Kilby (20:20)
Yeah.

Alec & Shannon Cheplak (20:34)
um, people around us, whether it's family members or friends or people that we've known when you, you don't take care of yourself, how you feel as you age, you know, the contrast. Kids are comedy. So I have an eight year old son who I love dearly. Um, and he said, how old are you guys? I said, um, 29. He said, Oh really? I thought you were in your thirties. And then he looked at Shannon and he goes, how old are you Shannon? She goes,

I'm 42. And he goes, what? He goes, you guys look the same age. I was cracking up. Eight year old. Yeah. And so your kids man, they look at you as like confident and strong and high energy and youthful and someone they want to emulate and follow or do they look at you like you're always sore or tired or complaining or low energy or in pain or overweight like

Duane Murphy (21:21)
Thank

Alec & Shannon Cheplak (21:31)
You're always coming home to drink after a long day and stressed out. Like, are you bringing that energy forward that they need and that encouragement and that example? And there was a question I asked on stage one time. said, do the people around you look at you like I want to be like them? And if they do, would you be proud if they became like you?

Duane Murphy (21:48)
Hmm

Wow. Yeah. I don't think, I don't, I don't think a lot of people in our position, right. That, people like Shane, myself, right. Others that, that lead companies and lead large organizations or large teams. I don't think you always,

Alec & Shannon Cheplak (21:56)
It's super powerful. Go ahead.

Duane Murphy (22:19)
recognize or maybe appreciate how much you truly impact everyone else around you. Right? Like there's no doubt that we impact them financially, right? We impact them career wise and with opportunity and in so many pieces like that. then when you, when you factor in health and lifestyles, right? It, it, I think most leaders

truly don't put enough weight on how much they impact those around I know when I've gone on my health journeys and write people jokes sometimes you know and I even on my firefighter buddies when I was on the fire department right there they're like well we miss fat Dwayne we miss fat Dwayne right you know and and what like I'm just as fun as that guy you know but

you but they're just like, Oh, you know, you're all healthy now and eating right. And, um, but it, but it was funny. So even though they joke with that, right, it was all of a sudden, next thing you know, right, there's two, three, four of them that are like, Oh, well, what are you eating? What are you doing? Right. And, and all of a you see them getting in better shape. I've seen the same thing with my agents and my, know, in my, in my company and, know, and all of sudden, you know, it's I've gone down that path and

gotten a lot healthier and a lot more fit and all of sudden, you you have a few of them stopping you off is like, Hey, you know, I've been, I've been working out every week, every morning with my son now, or I've been doing this. I've been going to the gym. I've been watching what I eat. Hey, what's this? What's this macro thing you talk about? And I'm like, I have no idea, but I'll give you a, I'll give you a chat. Gbt definition of it. Cause I'm not, I'm not smart enough to explain it, but I can.

Alec & Shannon Cheplak (24:00)
I love it.

Hahaha

I

Duane Murphy (24:11)
I can put it into chat GPT and give you a definition, right? And it's in it's right. And then also that light bulb will go off like, like, right, ooh, they're making an impact on them. Right? Without even right without chastising them saying, Hey, you need to start getting in shape or Hey, you need to take care of your health, right? Or, or you need to watch what you're eating.

Alec & Shannon Cheplak (24:31)
Yeah,

my dad calls it implied accountability. Implied accountability is when you're around other people who demonstrate what excellence looks like, whether it's in professional or personal life, then it's implied that by being in that room, it's expected of you as well. And so people will either rise up to that. Nick McLean said this, you have two options with the people in your life. There's only two options. Either become like them or stop hanging out with them.

That's your only two options. And it happens whether we directly intentionally acknowledge it or not. And so we don't have freedom of choice of how others influence us. We have freedom of choice of who we choose to surround ourselves with.

Shane Kilby (25:17)
That would explain

why my circle is pretty small.

Alec & Shannon Cheplak (25:20)
Yeah, yeah. Yeah, I mean, as you go through it, your circle definitely gets smaller as you start to make decisions that will improve your life and you create those boundaries. I mean, we've we've seen it for years. And I've seen the direct correlation with only surrounding myself with like minded people. Or my thing is, I do not want to be the smartest person in the room ever. Like if you're in the smartest person in the room, you need to get in a new room.

Unless you're holding a mastermind or something like that, that's a little different. That's what people are there for. But if you're the smartest person in the room, get in a new room. since we've been on that path, life completely changes. And the things you do change. And I want to share something with you that's kind of funny, but it's also reflecting kind of like the real estate space. We get on calls with people all the time, discovery calls, whatnot. Just let me help you.

right now, regardless of whether you're going to be our client or not, we're going to get out on a call and we're going to tell you, we're going give you the sauce on how you can change things. A conversation we had, we always say, well, do you drink? And someone was like, well, I'm a realtor. That was their response. I'm a real estate. Of course I drink, you know, like I drink and I have to take pills for anxiety and this and you know, this and I've got all these problems. And we were like, that is, that is a

powerful response that because that's that's like an identity thing you go to these events and that's what's different about our events is like we're People aren't going crazy and drinking and all of those things. It's not something that we talk about you can drink This is not an AA meeting. We always want to say It that's your choice, but you know, we try to show a way of

Look how much better you feel and you perform when you And I love to piggyback on that one moment. This is like...

We're biased towards sobriety. I'm not going to tell someone you need to stop drinking or I don't like you. That's not what's going to happen. What I'm going to do is stroke curiosity, right? I'm going to open a loop of curiosity any chance I get on the topic because it's changed my family for generations. Okay. I'm in real estate, of course I drink and then a couple, you know, a couple of minutes before that it was, I'm taking this prescription drug to help me sleep at night. I'm taking this prescription drug to help me use the restroom. I'm taking this prescription drug to give me more energy.

And I said, it sounds like you're taking three different prescriptions that if you just, it sounds like you're treating the symptoms of alcohol abuse. So if you were to eliminate the alcohol, you may not need those other three drugs.

Shane Kilby (27:57)
Mm-mm.

Yeah, I mean, I've, you know, I mean, I've seen both sides of it I'm like, that's not, that is not an accurate statement. Like that does not fix anything. It makes it all worse. It's not, I mean, the, the, the heavy drugs stuff, the alcohol and stuff and at events and, know, I mean, I frequent a lot of events and we have some of our own events and, and, and there's some times when we, we, you know, have some drinks and stuff, but

Duane Murphy (28:28)
Yeah.

Shane Kilby (28:36)
I'm that money. I mean easy or hard which it always seems to be very difficult to come by I Look at those events as an investment. All right. I've been to those events where nobody remembers anything past the first day I'm like this isn't bachelor trip. This isn't a bachelor When you get back to your camp like what'd you bring back what what 10x value did you bring back? How are you gonna make a positive impact on the people around you?

Alec & Shannon Cheplak (28:53)
Yeah!

Shane Kilby (29:04)
if you remember nothing but the first day. So those folks out there that like, I'm an agent and I hear it in my own camp, like, yeah, I'm an agent, I have to. And I think what they mean to say is like, I'm lost and I don't know how to cope and it's stressful and this is not what I thought it was gonna be. And I don't see my kids, I don't see my spouse, I don't enjoy my hobbies and I'm just trying to cope. Just trying to cope.

Alec & Shannon Cheplak (29:30)
Mm-hmm. Mm-hmm.

Shane Kilby (29:32)
And if they need someone like you guys to go, no, no, you can do both and actually feel a lot better and get the time back with your spouse and get the time back with your hobbies and get the time back with your children of what you originally started down this path for. You know, it's, it's crazy when you try to make that impact.

Alec & Shannon Cheplak (29:48)
Yeah. Yeah. And so like,

try to be observational without judgment. Yeah. And I allow other people to have self discovery and I'll plant the seed and I tell you what our events aren't vacations. They're, growing experiences and you see people and you see it. Proof is in the pudding. The people who keep showing up, keep getting better at from event to event.

Duane Murphy (30:14)
Mm-hmm.

Alec & Shannon Cheplak (30:15)
I mean, in all areas in personal and professional life. Like, it's so cool when someone walks up to me and like, dude, I saw you speak six months ago, shakes my hand. like, hi, I've been following you. I haven't had a sip of alcohol since I watched you speak. like, Whoa, like I had no idea, you know, like that stuff makes my day. And it's so cool to see that. Like maybe not. We don't need to be on a mission for everyone to be sober. That's not what it needs to be, but we're going to stay rooted in it.

And even if you can influence people to just do a little bit less of the things that are limiting them, like less or none at all. But like really, can we just use some of that reserved energy and use it somewhere productive? Like that's the dialogue is like, it's not like you're bad. If you do this, it's like, how much better could you actually be if you removed limitations on your abilities? Well, I would like to think of it as so you have these stressors in your life and

You know, I worked the high level corporate for years. I know what stress is, you know, and the, but we were putting a bandaid on it. So I want people to actually start fixing the problem and working on the problem as opposed to putting a bandaid on it. Now, some people are like, hey, you know, they, like the taste. Like I want to sip a whiskey. That's, know, this, you know, a hundred dollar shot of whiskey or something like that, because it's something that they're appreciating. And I'm never going to say, take that away from you. What I do say is,

count the calories in it so that you can see how much you're actually, I put it in a logical standpoint when someone's like, I'm gonna go out and have a couple drinks. I'm like, well, you're about to have 300 calories less carbs that day. So just count that so you can think about it in a logical standpoint. But I want people to work on, let's get away from the fact that you don't drink at all, off the soapbox. But I want people to think on actually working on tolerating stress better.

Duane Murphy (31:57)
You

Alec & Shannon Cheplak (32:12)
so that you don't have to say, okay, I'm stressed, I'm just gonna drink and band-aid it, when actually it's gonna give you more anxiety when you drink. As soon as that alcohol is out of your system, you're gonna wake up with crazy anxiety. So when you strength train or when you go on a walk or do cardio or these things, you put your body under intentional stress so you can learn how to deal with stressful situations better. So that's one thing that, that's why I advocate

you know, strength training so much, especially as you age, because life gets lifey and things come up. And that's when we're talking about when we have our worst days, we go to the gym and we're like, wow, we feel so much better after that, because it's intentional stress. And so to piggyback on that, the two biggest benefits to exercise that are completely overlooked, it's not six pack abs or a better butt. It's

Stress tolerance, developing your stress tolerance and the discipline to do what you say you're going to do. Yes. There is no version of life where you develop your tolerance to stress and you develop your discipline to follow through with your word that life gets worse. Like there's no version where your life gets worse if you develop those two things. It is an automatic guaranteed path to have a better experience in every other area of your life when you develop.

your stress tolerance and your discipline to follow through with your word. I mean, it's impossible not to get better in your life if you do those two things.

Shane Kilby (33:43)
Yeah, it's almost like, mean, and I know you guys probably or maybe still do follow Andy Fersella and Ed Mylatt and stuff like that, but it's always about that self-induced stress. know, it's like, you know, today's too comfortable, like going to the gym, like something's you got to, you have to intentionally put something in that path that you can control the variables to an extent that causes you discomfort because you're going to get punched in the face.

Alec & Shannon Cheplak (34:10)
Mm-hmm.

Shane Kilby (34:13)
Probably today, if not today, it's probably tomorrow. And if it doesn't happen pretty soon, it's going to really punch you in the mouth. You know how life can be. It's so abusive. And if you don't put yourself in those self-induced stressful moments of being uncomfortable day in and day out, then there's just a minor pothole in the road, a speed bump just completely derails you. And it's like when everybody drinks and does what they do to cope, it's like,

When you really reverse engineer, it really comes down to planning and prepping, just like the meal planning and prepping. Yeah, it's interesting that approach, and you do hear that a lot. I always think, what else are you trying to get out there that you don't know how to get out there when you hide behind like...

do this and to do that. And then making it a joke. I'm in real estate, I do a lot of production, yeah, I drink a lot. So I'm always like, what do you really want to say?

Alec & Shannon Cheplak (35:14)
Yeah.

Yeah. And that's what

I believe is by default happening. We are developing more capable and confident human beings. It's what's happening and not capable and confident because you produced X amount of revenue. Cause there's some people in this industry that are Titans on the finances and everyone has their own different financial situation, but the human being.

Duane Murphy (35:42)
you

Alec & Shannon Cheplak (35:49)
Like when you walk in your team meeting, when you step on that stage, when you walk through adversity, when you got to go to the hospital because the family members down and out, like when you, when, when real life stuff shows up, how capable and confident are you there? Because in that moment, how much revenue you produced isn't what's going to give you confidence in the sense where you could be insurance for a family member who needs finances to survive. Yes, for sure. I do. Finances are obviously important, but how are you going to handle that mentally, emotionally and physically?

That's what I'm talking about when I talk about being capable and being confident. And are you going to have to mask it with an external substance to create a false confidence? Or are you going to be able to face it and look in the mirror and really deal with the external circumstances that you don't have control over and be able to respond appropriately instead of react and crumble under pressure? And the only reason I say it, mean, dude, you know, our family has been going through it, but

I've never seen my family rally together stronger than I have the past eight weeks. I mean, in eight weeks, I've learned more about life than I've learned in the past eight years, right? With my sister literally battling heart failure and the way that my father has shown up for her, the way my wife has shown up. I mean, I'm blown away impressed by my wife. You know, this I am because this this like heart condition something my father and my sister and my whole family have dealt with because she was born with it. She had 27 heart surgeries.

but this next one, 28 is going to be the biggest one. so Shannon, this is her first experience with one of these like in my family. And she just, I mean, she is so capable and confident and zero hesitation. And what do you need? Like peer class, peer class, not crumbling under pressure, just very impressed. And I'm not saying this to say we're better worse than anyone else. We're not immune. No one's exempt. Life's going to kick us in the teeth sometimes, but it's how we're going to respond in those moments.

Duane Murphy (37:36)
you

Alec & Shannon Cheplak (37:46)
And that's the biggest part of making your physical health and wellness a top priority is it's as crazy as it sounds. It'll completely shift your identity when life does what life does. Right. I think it's interesting. Thank you. And I love you so much, but I think it's interesting because we coach so many coaches and they're like what you're doing in this time. I'm learning how to coach other people from that and not saying that we're, you know, better than anybody else.

But we have to be there. This is the one thing I see, because we have all these things coming at us. We could shut down. We could be like, I'm not doing check-ins. Your problems aren't that big. No, no, no. We bunker down and we do more. We give more during this time, because I feel that's what people need to see is when the craziest things are happening in your life, you don't hide. You don't shut down.

That's when you give the most and you show the most so that you can show people, this is how you can get out of this situation or this feeling or this day or this, know, it's the winter. People get super depressed in the winter and we have something going on in our family. The holidays are hard for people. So we're showing like right now, this is what you can do to help yourself. Let's, you can sit in that feeling for a minute, but let's snap out of it and let's say, what do I have to do in this moment to get better?

Cause sitting, longer you sit in it, the worse it's going to get. Yeah. Bottom line, fight or flight. Fight or flight is a survival mechanism. And are you choosing flight every time something doesn't go your way? That's the question. And fight or flight can be in the small moments, like, you know, little stuff, or it can be with the big moments, like the life or death stuff. And we've chosen our fight responses ready and we're ready to do what it takes and what's required and what the next necessary step is.

to ensure that my sister has the best possible chance, that our clients have the best possible chance of success, and that our community knows they can rely on us. And it doesn't matter through the storm, we're gonna continue to be a lighthouse. And I hope that other leaders get inspiration from this because through our arguably greatest challenges my family's ever faced ever, we've also done some of our greatest work ever.

It's there can be dualities in life where both the greatest of the great and the worst of the worst can be simultaneously real and present in your life. And I think that if we're unwilling to accept the dualities of life, it's going to be real easy to crumble. And our disciplines and standards around our health and fitness has allowed us to stay stable mentally, emotionally, and physically through the storm. And it's like an anchor that keeps you steadfast so you don't get swept out to sea.

A lot of people are gonna drown if they're not prepared emotionally.

Shane Kilby (40:39)
Well, and also

too, that fight or flight, you're not always going to have the opportunity to leave, to leave that situation. I mean, that hurdle, like there will be a crossroad where you're going to be like, man, I'm getting the out of here. And it's like, nope, you're boxed in. You got to, you have to face this head on. And we've all been there. If we haven't been there, we're to be there. Like, it's just like, you know, like, like Christmas, Christmas is great. Christmas holidays.

Duane Murphy (40:41)
one.

Alec & Shannon Cheplak (40:52)
Yeah

Right.

Mm-hmm.

Shane Kilby (41:08)
But as a child, it's a fantasy. Then you get to provide that fantasy for your children. And if you live long enough, you're going to be that person that faces the cold, dark holidays. Like, you're like, damn, I never knew this was a thing. this is depressing, right? So you're not always gonna have that opportunity to fly the coop, to run from it, right? So you narrow it with that. And look, every,

Alec & Shannon Cheplak (41:13)
Yeah.

Mm-hmm.

Shane Kilby (41:35)
The greatest coaches in the world and on every playing field always have great coaches around them, right? They have the greatest coaches around them that lift them up and elevate them to another level. Very, very, very insightful, very, very insightful. Man, this is a good one, this is a good one.

Duane Murphy (41:42)
Mm-hmm.

Alec & Shannon Cheplak (41:52)
Yeah. love that's

the one, you know, and I think it's so deep and true for our avatar. those 35 to 55 year old married couples and parents who are big business leaders because they're at that point in life where they're going to have a lot of those things you can't escape. Yeah. The only way out is through you got to go through, right? Like once you get in later stages of life and you've got other people depending on you, it's different when you're in a position of leadership.

Like I love that you said that because there are some where you don't get to choose flight. You can either fight or you can just crumble. I mean, there's no escaping. There's no escaping right now. We're getting up and fighting and putting our best foot forward every day. And so I love that you put it in that perspective because I don't say this to say we're better than anyone else. I say this to have empathy and understanding for someone else who might feel like they're getting their teeth kicked in right now.

But it's time for you to rise up. That's what you signed up for when you chose to be husband or wife. That's what you signed up for when you chose to be mother or father. That's what you signed up for when you chose to be a business leader. And so just taking ownership in that role as a leader. And that means in every area of your life, your mental, emotional, physical, financial, all the above, like you got to choose to rise up. And that's been the biggest blessing in our life. And sharing that with you and all of our clients, it's been very special because

Not only have we built closer relationships with all of you, but people have unpacked some things that they felt vulnerable enough and comfortable enough to share with us that we've been able to help walk through with them. Where maybe if we didn't have that human to human connection, we're like, life's kicking you in the teeth too. We might not have had those constructive conversations. And so being an open book through it has not been a woe is me. It's been a very beautiful opportunity for us to build relationships and also

serve other people who may be going through their twists and turns right now as well. I mean, there's no

Shane Kilby (43:49)
We gotta find

where the bomb button, like the Bradley bomb, we gotta find where that bomb button is. We could have been dropping bombs for the last.

Duane Murphy (43:55)
The last thing

we need is Jane Kilby with yeah, with buttons. Animation.

Alec & Shannon Cheplak (43:57)
Yeah, I mean, there's no growth and comfort, you know, so if you're the I said this, I've said this before and we heard someone else say it recently, if you're not growing, you're dying, you got to grow. And whether it's sometimes it's it's not the best situation that forces that growth upon you. But

I always believe the same thing is going to be thrown at you a million times till you change your reaction to it, until you grow from it. You're never going to get past that same obstacle. It's going to keep showing up until you change your response to that because that's what you can control is how you respond to things and what you do with it. So, and through that, through the years, you know, not necessarily only in this coaching space that we're in right now, but in other coaching spaces, that's how you see these people

go on to have these completely transformative lives is because they've tried a program a thousand times. They tried a different program. And instead of just saying the same things, you know, doing it and not sticking to it for long enough, or it doesn't work, or things like that, because it goes with everything in your life, I'm gonna stick to one thing finally for long term because...

we focus on changing habits as the human and not like, we call ourselves strategists. Like it's not like we're just coaches. We're going to make a strategy for you to actually make this fit into your busy life and like all the things that you have, cause everybody's so dynamic. And you know, going through that, it's making those changes long-term and now we've made different choices this time so that it sticks and that we can grow from it. So, yeah. And so two parts, there's, I'm going to piggyback on that one saying that I love,

If life just got harder, congratulations. You just leveled up. that's one. And two is, showing up in the storm with the people in the trenches, going to bat side by side. We've realized it's not us against the client. It's us and the client against the obstacle. And we've taken an initiative and made it a priority to talk with our clients. Every single.

Duane Murphy (45:50)
I'm

Alec & Shannon Cheplak (46:15)
day. It is a non-negotiable requirement to be in our coaching program to onboard is that you text us every single day. And the beauty of that is we're in the hospital while my sister's in heart surgery and we're texting and taking calls. It is every day we are in the trenches with you going through life with you. And when the crisis shows up, that's when people need that pattern interrupt. And a lot of people will

recluse and hide away and try to sweep their problems under the rug. And that daily conversation has become a mirror that like you said, Shane, there's no escaping. like, the purpose of the program and the purpose of the daily check-in is that it's a, you chose a mirror to look in every day. And so instead of like being able to sweep things under the rug, cause some problems you can flight from Shane, some of them you can for years until you can't.

But what we've done is we've taken what you've said and we've created it by design where they can't escape it. And the beautiful part of that is when you face it, that's when you can grow through it. Yeah. And so they're like, no, like I know you guys are going through a lot. I didn't know if I should send my check. And I said, you better send it right now. Christmas Eve? Christmas day? Christmas Eve? Where's your If our eyes are open, we're responding.

Duane Murphy (47:31)
So.

So now on raising the, raising that bar and what you do for your clients and those around you, like, um, maybe a segue into this a little bit. Maybe, maybe you want to talk about, maybe you don't, but like you just issued like another level of like challenge to your clients as well. Right. Like just a couple of days ago or a day ago, or it's starting.

Alec & Shannon Cheplak (47:53)
yeah.

Yeah. Chepblackchallenge.com.

Duane Murphy (47:58)
SheplacChallenge.com. So tell us, we got a few minutes. I know you have another call. got some clients to check in with.

Alec & Shannon Cheplak (48:01)
Yeah, now you go there.

Yeah, I appreciate

you. I just want to give you guys the location, but I do appreciate you mentioning that. So what's going to happen is January 6th through March 31st, we're hosting our next 12 weeks transformation challenge with the $12,000 cash prize to one winner. $12,000 cash. Our last winner, Nick, signed up and thought that he was going to lose 10 pounds. He lost about 30 and said, wow, I'm happy you guys didn't let me stop at 10.

Duane Murphy (48:22)
12 grand.

You

Alec & Shannon Cheplak (48:36)
So Nick Hildebrand

$1, $12,000. I still remember that phone call and I called him and he cried and we cried and we laughed and 40 year old father and husband.

accomplished something he didn't think he had accomplished. And it wasn't the money, it was that he became the best version of himself in his 40s that he never thought was possible. And he's a super genuine dude. So we had a cup, shared a couple of tears together. I'm going to call one of you on April 3rd, three days after the challenge and say, congratulations, you just won $12,000. And we might cry a little too on that And then collectively, if the $12,000 doesn't motivate you,

The group lost 413 pounds combined body weight in 12 weeks. Yeah. people got.

Duane Murphy (49:21)
Wow. Wow. And then, by the way, that, that

Shane Kilby (49:22)
Amazing.

Duane Murphy (49:25)
413, right? That 413 pounds of body weight that people lost. You're, you're also doing strength training. So, I mean, they're losing, right? You, so you're losing fat and replacing it with muscle and still melted off 413. Well, who knows how many pounds of muscle was added in addition to that, right?

Alec & Shannon Cheplak (49:38)
building a school.

Yeah.

So just our participant

lost, just the participants lost combined 413 pounds. Households lost more than that. So like just coaching the husband, text me and said, I lost 30 pounds, but my family and kids lost a combined 200 pounds. That's just one of the families. So like thousands of pounds potentially were lost because just the people paying lost 413. The spouses, the children,

Shane Kilby (50:14)
And again,

not alone the extended lifespan, know, again, like the years they have come up.

Alec & Shannon Cheplak (50:20)
One of our clients,

just got her CT scan or CT update and the doctor said your liver is back to normal in your 50s. What'd you do? She quit drinking alcohol.

Shane Kilby (50:33)
That's awesome.

Alec & Shannon Cheplak (50:34)
we had clients with 11 a one C who are now down to five a one C if you don't know 11 a one C is life threatening. We have people getting sober. We have people changing healthier habits in the household. mean, it's been a beautiful thing. But check out the website, chep black challenge.com. You can schedule a free call with no obligation to buy. Yeah, just sign up. mean, literally, it's my favorite thing because I'm like, just to get you to do this, I will give you 12 grams to do it for 12 weeks. We believe in it. the habits. Regardless.

Duane Murphy (51:01)
at the bare minimum

they have to follow you guys like I you know I know we don't have time but I I stole Alex guilty pleasure of cereal and and and adding protein and adding protein milk to it and now I'm like okay I got a little guilty pleasure with protein milk

Alec & Shannon Cheplak (51:07)
See you then.

Protein cereal, Every day. We're ready to go. Ready to go. I do it too. I do do it too. Yeah. Like

I want a snack. It's protein cereal. It's great. Yeah. So if you want to, if you're anything like me, maybe some of you are crazy people like me and you want to go all in, jump in the challenge. And if you just want to test the waters, get a taste of what we're about, find us on Facebook. We give all our best stuff away for free. Yeah, absolutely.

We super appreciate both of you. Thanks for having us here today. Love it.

Shane Kilby (51:46)
Yeah, so I know you guys gotta hop on another call. how can everybody besides the Chep Black Challenge, know, where can everybody find you guys and connect with you guys?

Alec & Shannon Cheplak (51:55)
Facebook's the spot. a L E C first name, last name, C H E P L A K. And mine is Shannon S H A N N O N and it's Lynn L Y N. But also because it's a really common name, you can go on his page and find me. tag her on mine. So you find me on everything. Yeah. Cause Facebook won't let me change my last name to Chemlac. So you'll have to find me on his page. So

Duane Murphy (52:21)
you

Alec & Shannon Cheplak (52:23)
Yeah, we super appreciate you guys. Thank you so much.

Shane Kilby (52:25)
Yeah, thank you guys so much for being here. It's been another outstanding hour. We could go on for hours. I know you guys have to go. We definitely appreciate you.

Duane Murphy (52:32)
Yeah, we didn't even get into macros

and strength training and going right to the point of failure, all the different things that, you know, the tips, there's not really any tricks, right? It's all tips, right? There's no trick. It's doing the work. Yeah, yeah.

Alec & Shannon Cheplak (52:46)
We just give you action steps. If you want practical

action steps, literally just go on Facebook and we'll literally tell you exactly what to do to get it. We about it all the time. of those topics could be its own hour. to know. I'm going to go Facebook live today on lifestyle change.

Duane Murphy (53:00)
Yeah, yes, yes.

Shane Kilby (53:05)
We to do a follow up to this. We had to do another call, another podcast, a follow up to this.

Alec & Shannon Cheplak (53:10)
I'm totally down.

Love it. Yeah, thanks for having us guys.

Shane Kilby (53:13)
Yeah,

absolutely guys. It's been a pleasure. Thanks so much for being here and the value. I mean the value from this hour alone like is 10x, 100x, right? Just thankful and humble to have you guys here today. Thanks so much. Appreciate you guys. And it's a, that's a wrap.

Alec & Shannon Cheplak (53:32)
Yeah, thank you so much. both of you. Have a good day, y'all.