Start With A Win - How to Set Yourself Up for Success in 2021 with Jon Cheplak

Episode Date: January 6, 2021

While the last episode of Start With A Win focused on recapping 2020 and gleaning lessons learned from past experiences, this episode jumps into setting yourself up for success in 2021. Jon Cheplak joins Adam again on this episode to share his insights and provide a bit of long-distance coaching to Win Nation at the dawn of the new year. Jon talks about the difference between innovation and mastery, saying that while innovators receive praise in our society, they are not known for consistency or follow-through. To achieve mastery, you must have the discipline to handle the monotony that comes with immediate action, personal responsibility, and consistency. He says freedom comes from putting restrictions on yourself to make you stay focused and not be distracted by novelty.To become excited about the process instead of the outcomes, Jon says you should be mission-based and have clarity on your relationship with money. When you understand these two things about yourself, you feel the weight of the requirement to perform, and you are well on your way to setting up micro-commitments to reach your goals. Tiny hinges swing big doors.When it comes to finding alignment and knowing where to start, Jon walks through three topics:What makes you happy? – Spend some time writing down your thoughts.What is the smallest step you can take to move yourself towards that happiness? – Be conscious of the positive triggers, including the things you should say “no” to reach happiness. If you are struggling to see the next step, extend love to other people and see where that gets you.What are the people, places, and things that do (or do not) support your mission? – Take inventory and let go of the judgment of others and the fear of their opinions. Trust is built on consistency. Leaders are the people who stand out regardless of the judgments of others. Jon encourages listeners to think of gratitude as an action word and to see everything as a privilege. Consider whether you are demonstrating gratitude in your daily life and interactions with others. Connect with Jon:https://cheplaklive.com/https://www.instagram.com/cheplaklive/?hl=enhttps://podcasts.apple.com/us/podcast/cheplak-live/id934537153 https://www.linkedin.com/in/joncheplakConnect with Adam:https://www.startwithawin.com/ https://www.facebook.com/REMAXAdamContoshttps://twitter.com/REMAXAdamContos https://www.instagram.com/REMAXadamcontos/ Leave us a voicemail:888-581-4430

Every day is filled with choices. You're here because you're choosing to start with a win. Get ready to be inspired, learn something new, and connect with the win nation. And welcome back to another episode of Start With A Win. This is your first of the year podcast here coming to you from Denver, Colorado. It's Adam Contos, CEO of Remax with part two of this, how are you going to kill it in a life episode, which we started last year. We closed out 2020 hard and I have on with me today, my good friend, my coach, mentor, my brother, John Sheplak. Welcome back to the show, my friend. Awesome to be with you, man.

Man, last year. All right. I feel like I ripped the rear view mirror off of the windshield. I don't have to look through it anymore. Kind of a good way to close that baby out, isn't it? Yeah, we got to look forward. Lots of great lessons, though. Yeah, totally. But you know, what's funny is all you and I talked about in 2020 was

I'm killing it right now. My business is blowing up. I'm in awesome shape. My friendships, my relationships, my health, my happiness, everything like that. I want to talk about how do we, you know, there are some people that need to be reprogrammed with this. You know, let's reintroduce this operating system of success into their computer, into their brain housing group, and figure out how can they have a killer 2021 themselves personally, their mind, their body, their business, and move forward strong. You down with that, my friend? I'm down. Let's do it. Right on. Well, John, you always talk about, and I want to just start

right here with the foundation for this. You always talk about stop doing the crap that you shouldn't be doing because you're distracting yourself from doing what you should be doing. Tell us a little bit about that because you have to hit the reset button on a lot of people in life, don't you? I do. It's innovation versus mastery. And where I have, I don't know, maybe I've siloed, slotted people. The innovators, you need to be cautious of because the innovators are typically avoiders. And because when you talk to them about their innovation, the next thing that they're doing, you always go, that's wonderful. That's really exciting. Is your business where you want it to be?

Well, no, not really. And certainly, people are always striving to grow. But when you start inspecting and looking for holes, here's what's happened is mastery has not taken place. People are so caught up in this being innovative. And I think it's less of wanting to be on the cutting edge. And I think it's more of a psyche of avoidance, not being a finisher, not mastering. And that's the one thing that is most critical going into 2021. And as I look at the leaders that I work with, it's like people say, what is the difference between these high-performance leaders? I said, it's like people say, you know, what is the difference between these high performers leaders? What is it? I said, it's like the craziest thing in the world. What do you mean? Like when they hear something, they do it immediately. And then they don't do it once

they do it consistently. And the final piece is they own every single outcome. So it's immediate action, personal responsibility, and consistency. Those three critical principles going into 2021. And I'll tell you what, now more than ever, because people have options and there's people that are standing out and above, and there's people that are kind of on the wayside so those people on the wayside you're talking about they're the ones who are chasing the squirrels right yes they are yes and and then you've got those that are just continuing to do their push-ups themselves instead of trying to find somebody else to do them for them and they've got the discipline to handle that monotony and it's it's it's funny when you when you look at like a professional athlete, for instance,

and somebody who's a professional business is exercising their brain. Somebody who's a professional athlete is exercising their brain and their muscles. But both of them are doing over and over again what the amateurs stop doing. Everyone wants to get paid like a pro athlete because all they see are the highlights on the spn you know the home run that the walk-off home run the the the hail mary touchdown the the long run the they see all that but what they don't see are the hours upon hours upon hours of preparation running the same play over and over and over again. And so what happens is practicing like a pro is almost non-existent, except for that elite group of agents, team leaders, brokers, it doesn't matter where you're at, but you look at the small percentage is that they understand that everything that looks sexy is a result of doing things that

aren't sexy. All the freedom we desire in our lives is a result of putting restrictions and boundaries on ourselves, pure and simple. That's fascinating because it takes me back to this Machiavellian philosophy. When you look at how the human mind works, the Machiavellian saying is that the successful favor a novelty just as much as the unsuccessful. The difference is the successful ignore the novelty. That's right. Yes, they really, you know, again, it's taking, we're in this, it's fortunate and unfortunate. Everything has its duality. We're in the world of memes, right?

And if everyone took the memes and went down below them, the quotes, right? We've heard trust the process detached from the outcome emotionally, because what you can control is this moment right now. And then talking about focus and distractions, the minute the process is abandoned, there's one distraction, that concern about the outcome, it's over and the efforts get diluted. Whereas those that stay focused in doing the unsexy, the boring over and over and over again, it just compounds for them. It's like, gosh, you came out of nowhere. No, it didn't come out of nowhere. You were an overnight. No. Back three years ago, four years ago, five years ago, I was doing this. And then I did this and this, but here's what I didn't do. I just didn't stop. I think that's, that's fascinating. I,

it takes me back to, I was just on a mastermind earlier today. And one of the, this is a mastermind of, you know, people like you deal with. In fact, I think you coach this guy and he was showing us his calendar and maybe, no, you don't coach this one. He, he works with another high performance coach, just like you in the space, but he pulled up his calendar and every single day it had the same stuff, every single, you know, the same hours every day. And, and then you look at his goal, the goals has said, I'm doing 300 transactions a year. And, and you look at it and you go, well, that's a lot in real estate. Yes, it is. I mean, it's, it's a huge amount of real estate. And I mean, you have people, you've got one of your groups just finished 2000 transactions plus in 2021 or 2020. You've got others that are doing, you know, a thousand plus things like that. But the reality is those things don't happen because people get distracted easily. Those

things happen because they go to the, to the workplace, wherever it is, it's in their basement, it's at Starbucks, it's in, you know, an office somewhere, wherever it is. It's in their basement. It's at Starbucks. It's in an office somewhere, wherever it is. And they're willing to do the same thing they did the day before, the day before, the day before. And they're not going, oh, what should I change today? Because I want to do something more. No, they just get a teeny tiny bit better every day and they do more business. But all of us would look at it and go, this is the most boring television program I've ever seen because it was the same as the last episode, right? I mean, how do you, when I observe you, John, this is how you live your entire life. I mean, you'll post a picture on social media and it's your food and it's all like boxed up and it's

the same stuff you had last week because it just showed up from our buddy Todd's Icon Meals. It showed up at your front door. You're like, why deviate? This is what's working. And then you're at the gym again and you're like, why deviate? This is what's working. And then we're on a mastermind call and you're like, stop screwing with what's working. How do we program ourselves into getting excited about this? Because you talked about the process versus the outcome. And it's the first of the year, everybody's like, I'm going to set a goal, which is outcome-based, right? Shouldn't they be setting, what am I going to do each day? Is that the better way of looking at it? A hundred percent it is. I think that the first thing that you do

need to do and have it just be embedded in you, and I think it's very simple, but you'll ask people is you must be mission-based. And I don't mean the thing you put on the wall. It's these big words that are written out that no one in the organization has ever read or even pays attention to what is your mission. And so where I go to is real simple, sort of lead, inspire people that want to have a positive life experience in the real estate business. It has the greater good in mind and I can just, it just rolls off. And it's not just something I wrote down one day or went through an exercise. It's something that I thought through. And then, then the next piece that needs to be bridged to is what we talk about and very few do is what's your relationship with

money. See, many people don't have a true defined relationship with money. We've got to bring these things to consciousness and clarity. So clarity is at the top of this thing. So being mission-based, I'm crystal clear on mine. Then, well, okay, well, what's money, right? Money is a vehicle for me, my friends and family to experience freedom and to extend the message of change until the day I fall over. I am mission-based and I have a relationship with money. All of them have the greater good in mind. All of them require me to perform. See, now I know that's what hovers over me, right? And so I just know that. And again, this is where you trust the process because if you look at those things that I just declared, I'd argue with anyone that really great things

won't show up in my life if I do that. And what I trust in is I trust in that if I take those micro commitment steps, you know, everything's big, everything big is built on the back of micro commitments, everything big. And so those things I'm talking about, they are big freedom for my friends, my family, myself, serve, lead, inspire people. You know, I mean, all those things that are really important, but I understand that it's the tiny hinges that'll swing those big doors. And so have that thing, some call it the big why. I don't know. For me, it's more mission and theme-based and that's what works for me.

And then every single day, keep that in front of you, but then know, okay, it's there. It's in front of me. It's here. What are the steps, the tiny steps I need to take today? That's it. Awesome. So let's break this down a little bit because I think people are going, okay, where do I go from here? We talk about business, but ultimately, business is a function of essentially outreach and experience that customers have with you. And when they feel valued, they are willing to do a transaction with you. But that's not really what holistically gives you life satisfaction. There are other things. There's relationships, there's your health,

whatever it might be, your hobbies, you're giving back, what fulfills you. Can you give me an idea as to somebody who's been, they've been through 2020, they're confused. How do they find alignment and someplace to start? Because we're about to, when we air this, we're about to wrap up the first week of 2021. So this is, air date is January 6th of 2021. Everybody, welcome to the new year. Do you have your shit together is the big question here. So John, if they don't, how do we get it in a pile form? Sure. So the first thing that I would ask yourself is, and this is the toughest question on the planet because I get the pause, whether I have a hundred agents on a zoom 50 leaders, or one-on-one,

you've got to get clear on this. And you may think it's simple, but find some white space and sit with yourself. What makes you happy? A lot of people can't answer. It's the simplest question. And sit in it. Sit in it. Like, write about it.

I don't know what makes me happy. I don't know what makes me, you know, what I was taught in journaling and in writing and pen to paper is take what's stuck in your head and get it on paper because it allows space for more to come in. It's also important for us to see our thoughts instead of think our thoughts. And you may say, well, that's counter. You're looking for what makes you happy and you're going to write. I don't, I don't. Well, actually it's proven to stimulate you to open up and figure out what makes you happy. See, doesn't matter what I can say, go out and hit the gym. And I can go say, go backpacking or go skiing or go this or go that. But the single most important question you got to ask yourself is what makes me happy? Number one. So define that. Number two,

with that, once you discover what makes you happy, what is the tiniest little step that you can take moving yourself towards that? What is one little thing that you can do? Maybe it's a commitment that you need to make that causes you to stretch a little bit. I mean, but not something outlandish, but something that, see, what we've got to have is triggers. We want to create triggers. We hear about triggers, you know, be careful of the negative triggers. Well, there's positive triggers. What's one thing that can trigger you into action, moving yourself towards what makes you happy? Maybe it is, here's the other thing too, that I think you need to look at finding happiness, you know,

picking what it is, but I don't have time. Well, everywhere you're saying yes means you have to say no somewhere else. So your most powerful word and thing that you can choose to do is picking where to say no. And I'll throw some things out there. If you're not happy and life isn't where you're at, turn off TV. Turn off TV. Yes. And I'm not even getting into the news. I'm just talking about TV. Ready? It's called a TV program. Program. Because it programs you. And so now you're just in this spin cycle see i don't want people to spin circular i want people to spiral upwards and the only way we can spiral upwards is know

something that makes us happy move away from the things that that are programming us outside of our actual self. And then we're forced to move forward in the things that are going to support our happiness. So true. So it's interesting. I can't tell you the last time I turned on my TV, John. I don't even, I think I have a Netflix account, but I've never ever logged into Netflix.

I just, I don't have the capacity for the garbage that is on these different programs. And I mean, you know, hopefully if somebody from one of these networks or whatever is listening to this, it's possible, but I mean,

here's the thing. Give me something that's going to make me happy, make me positive, make me productive and I'll watch it, but don't lure me in with negativity. No, no, absolutely not. And that's where, Adam, it's like people, places, and things, and really look at this. Okay. So what makes me happy, right? And, and, you know, be mission-based. Okay. But, but first you need to know what makes you happy. See, it makes me happy to see people. I can't change anyone.

I can facilitate the best condition for someone to change because I know what's on the other side of challenge, of heartbreak, of drama, of trauma. And so, you know, one of the things that's really important is to go out and extend love out to other people. Actually, it was one of the first things I was taught when I was at a space in my life where I was very, very challenged. And my mentor said to me, go find someone to help. I go, I'm helpless as it is right now. He says, no, someone needs you more. Ooh, that's strong. There's always someone that needs you more. That's a giving. And I was, I was rock bottom. Right. And, and he says, and then when you do it more, when you start exercising love, you start feeling that for yourself. Well, love for yourself

is let's use, you know, more of, you know, love is kumbaya. No love is confidence for yourself. There's no confidence in fear. Remember there's two emotions. So really look at that. And what's interesting is you look at going into 2021. One of the things that we know with our friends and, and, and your, your friends outside of who we know too, there are freaking laser beams. Nothing's going to take them off. You're not going to see them. You're going to see them the last person at the bar. No, you'll probably always see them with a bottle of water and you'll probably see them at the gym and you'll probably see them not participating in riffraff because here's the toughest thing that you got to get your

mission-based what makes you happy okay what's one action step but you know what you need to do you need to stop doing so you can do and it's people places and things do an inventory who are the people places and things that don't support my mission now let me say this to you don't discard people what i'm saying is what's the mission The mission is someone that's either, or excuse me, the people, person, place, or thing that supports it is someone that supports you. It makes you better. It inspires you. Or it can be someone that is challenged that you can support and is willing to do the work. Don't be a codependent.

When we talk about, people say say you only need to hang around these people. No, that doesn't mean, listen, you know who a high performer is? A high performer to me is someone, I don't care where you're at or what you've done. I care about where you're going and what you're willing to do. Make sure you find those people, but anyone else, they don't support your mission. See, what makes people unhappy is in what keeps people from their results is they have these people, places, and things and programming that are fillers. And the soul knows whether it aligns to really who you are and what you want. So powerful.

So it's interesting because you talk about making these decisions. They seem like they're unpopular decisions a lot, don't they? Yeah, right. Oh, yeah. You said it on stage in Nashville when you presented fear of other people's opinions. It's pretty interesting. Yes. It's interesting because when you leave the bar, if you order the water or the iced tea or the diet cola or whatever instead of the beer or the cocktail, I mean, you and I both know it.

Neither of us drink. And you just belly up to the bar and you order, I'd like a water with a slice of lemon in it. And they look at you like you're crazy. But you go, I'm proud of what I am and who I am. And I don't care about your judgment. It seems like that's like the first, that's like one of the first things you cut. But I think it helps you mentally say, you know, screw it. Just do it when it comes to the distractions and getting into the monotony, doing the things that you need to.

Well, and I'll tell you, whether you're a real estate agent, individual agent, you're leading a team, a brokerage, everyone's a leader. And here's what's very interesting is this. You know, we're afraid of other people's opinion so we fit in. Yet marketing, which is the industry we're in, is about standing out. And if you pay really close attention to the magnetism, it's the people that stand out. Because here's what will happen and I've watched it happen to the person that sits in a bar that maybe drinks water or goes to a function and drinks water. There's someone, many, but a few admitted that will always approach that person, notice you drink water. And the person that brings

that up to you is actually the person that's seeking inspiration or guidance. I know I've done this thing for long enough. It's that person that goes to the gym consistently people reach out to them see truth excuse me trust is built on consistency trust is diluted by inconsistency strong so is success right i mean it's all right weird how those go together. I mean, it's trust, success, consistency. I mean, if you're going to write down three traits to have in 2021, there you go right there. And it will change who you are and how you are. That being said, you got to be consistently a kind human being, a giver, a somebody willing to put in 12 pushups instead of 10 when it comes down to it, because we're always looking for the easy way out. We're not looking for, how can I give a

little bit more? But you know, what's funny is as, as much as I've hung out with you, I look at it and I go, you know, that guy's, he's the one more guy. And I mean, it's, it's one more phone call, one more customer interaction or relationship, one more smile and greeting to somebody, one more compliment, one more bottle of water, whatever it might be, one more day of getting up early. It's interesting, John, because I always look at what's John doing? I got to go do one more. I mean, how do you get to that mindset? Because a lot of people are like, how can I get away with just a little bit less? Uh, it's interesting. I think the, the, um, people talk about gratitude. Gratitude is not

a feeling. Gratitude is an action word. And I think people get amnesia and, and what I know is, and so what I would ask everyone to do is look at whatever you do is an absolute privilege. And so for me, what's, what's pretty neat is that, um, how I can do one more is I look at my calendar for the week and you know, who's on that roster. I know them all very well. Yeah. And if you, if. And if you weren't humble enough to look at it and go, holy smoke, this is what I get to do tomorrow, you better bring it. The reason I do one more is because leaders need to do everything as well or better than everyone they get the privilege to do it for. I just truly believe that you can have skills all you want.

But I've also learned that commitment and consistency will trump skill sets all the time. So, A, it's looking at what I get to do and who I get to be in relationship with and who trusts me as a privilege. And, you know, you'll see people post that, you know, we're so thankful for the people that trusted us. And I would challenge you. I'm not saying you do or you don't, but do you hold that with conviction? Do you demonstrate that in your habits? Do I demonstrate that my alarm clock went off at 1 30 AM today? First call at 2 55 AM. I will be off the phone at 4 PM and in my personal trainer's garage at 4 30 PM. And you know, I'm in at 4 30 PM. I want to be healthy, but you want to know why? Because I

have responsibility to the people who trust in me to walk the talk. Powerful, powerful. John, this has been an amazing two episodes we've had together, my friend. And you know what? We've just begun. Right. I love it. I love it. We're going, my friend. And you know what? We've just begun. Yeah, right? I love it. I love it. We're going to get, you know, I encourage everybody to reach out, you know, go to startwithawin.com, you know, check out everything on there.

John, where can we find you on social media? Because you have a huge presence. You do such a great job there. Where can our listeners find you? Best place to go is to my personal page, John Cheplak. And we can hang out there and see I'm a grandpa and a pops. And I like to work out, talk a little business and a little bit of inspiration. Hopefully I can pass them on to people. I love it. And John, I have a question I ask everybody on this program. And I know how you start with a win, my friend, but this is something that everybody wants to know that can translate into their lives. And John, that is how do you start with a win that they can do as well?

I tell myself every day that gratitude is not a list that you write down. It's not an emotion. Gratitude is defined by my actions and what actions am I going to take today, period. Gratitude is defined by my actions. And what actions am I going to take today? Period. Gratitude is an action word. And if you are grateful and you look at every moment and every experience as a privilege, you're never going to have a problem with taking action and action solves everything. Awesome. John, I have just an immense amount of gratitude for you, my friend. You're a great, great friend, great mentor, great coach, a brother in this world. And I'll tell you what, I look up to you. Thank you so much for joining us on Start With A Win.

And we look forward to having you on the show again and on our big stage in Las Vegas. Not Las Vegas. We're going to Florida. We're going to Orlando this year for our convention. So with gratitude, my friend, thanks for being on Start With A Win. Thank you. And thank you so much for listening to Start With A Win. If you'd like to ask Adam a question and tell us your Start With A Win story, give us a call and leave us a message at 888-581-4430.

Don't forget to go into iTunes and subscribe, write a review, rate the show. It helps us get the word out and reach more people. And for more great content, head over to startwithawin.com. Follow Adam on YouTube, Instagram, Facebook, and Twitter. And remember, start with a win.