The Burnout Breakthrough: How Play Restores Entrepreneurial Clarity with Alexander Phelps

0:01Boom!

0:02John Lee Dumas:Shake the room, Fire Nation. JLD here and welcome to Entrepreneurs on Fire, brought to you by High Level, the all-in-one sales and marketing platform. Today we'll be breaking down the burnout breakthrough, how play restores entrepreneurial clarity. And to drop these value bonds, I brought to Alexander Phelps in the EO Fire studios. Alexander, Xander, aka Z Play Coach, is founder of Hack I Do and The Path of Play, helping entrepreneurs overcome burnout and regain clarity by activating the play flow state through science-backed movement and play. And today we talk about the hidden threats, hacks versus sustainability, the power play, and oh, so much more.

0:39John Lee Dumas:And a big thank you for sponsoring today's episode goes to Alexander and our sponsors. Stop duct taping your business together. High Level runs your website, your funnels, email, automation, scheduling, payments, and memberships all in one place. And when you sign up at highlevelfire.com, you get a 30-day free trial plus my exclusive bonus stack that includes weekly office hours with me and much more. Visit highlevelfire.com, highlevelfire.com. Fire Nation, are you ready to build something special in the next 50 days? Check out my free YouTube series, 50 Days to Something, short and strategic step-by-step videos by me, JLD.

1:19John Lee Dumas:On day 50, you'll have a valuable asset. And the best part is it's completely free. Visit eofire.com slash YouTube and start day one today. Xander, say what's up to Fire Nation and share something that you believe about becoming successful that most people disagree with. Hey, what's up Fire nation, Gozoku. Love Avatar. But one of the things that I truly find that most people don't agree with is what success actually means. A lot of people think it comes from working harder, pushing more and grinding longer. But as an entrepreneur, I find out that kind of like breaks the whole system. So for me, it's not about time management.

2:07It's more about energy management and it's not getting exhausted. So that's been my focus for a long time now.

2:13John Lee Dumas:Well, we're talking about the burnout breakthrough today for a lot of reasons. But first, I want to talk about the hidden threat, which of course has to do with burnout. I mean, why do you think burnout is becoming one of the biggest yet silent threats that entrepreneurs seem to be facing on a day to day basis? There's so much pressure for being an entrepreneur. You have so much on your plate. You've got messaging, you've got to do some emails and worry about the growth process. So burnout is just, it locks you in what I call the three, the three things that destroy entrepreneurship is your creativity and your ability to think clearly and then decision-making fails because of that.

2:52So unless you're, you're a constant fight or flight mode basically as an entrepreneur. So unless you can get out of that, everything else suffers. So it's really, entrepreneurs don't fail because they stop working it. They fail because the brain stops having a chance to recover.

3:06John Lee Dumas:Well, we can't have that for sure. The brain has to have a chance to recover. So let's maybe move into hacks versus sustainability because there's obviously a difference between short-term productivity hacks and truly sustainable performance. So talk about that, maybe give an example of both, maybe a couple even, and we can talk about real world examples in some case studies. From my experience, hacks are really incomplete. They're very, as you said, short term solutions. Plus, it puts just another thing on the plate of what you have to do. So that's a problem. So what I just found out if you have a system designed that helps the brain out, because the brain goes from effort to recovery to insight and then into execution.

3:53So you have to build into that system, that recovery part. That's the key that most people are missing. So that's why play is so important because it brings something that you can do that's fun and that you'll want to do. And that gives your brain that time to recover and reprocess all the things that you're trying to do. So it really helps. It helps the brain just recover from these processes and the constant pressure. so um i mean simple examples um i like i carry around a little ball with me one of my one of my haki does if you will that these these self-made things but it's a way for me to squeeze it if i'm ever under stress i can do that or just toss back and forth that get my gets my brain to to rewire really quickly um like you can do something as simple as jumping up and down like if you get your body moving you can you can just get your your your things flowing and you can make a playful thing out of it which will also reset your brain in a different way so it's it's the movement plus the play, which gets your brain just to think that everything is safe because you're not under stress.

4:50If you're able to play, you're not under threat. So you're safe.

4:54John Lee Dumas:Now, one thing that I've heard too, that really helps people is sometimes even just like naming things in a room, you know, like looking and being like lamp, uh, water, um, window, uh, light, um, kind of brings us back maybe to some, uh, memories of the movie Anchorman for those who can remember that. Is that the kind of thing that can kind of maybe just help in the short term that gets people kind of through like maybe a panic attack, maybe, you know, feeling like they're burning out, maybe like they're kind of losing control. Maybe they're having like some kind of anxiety spike. For sure. Those are, those are simple things you can do.

5:32What I personally try to do is train people to go think of more playful situations. So I would, I would look at a lamp and I'd make up a little story really quickly in my brain about something fun that happen with the lamp or do something that combines the lamp with the clock, like make up something that.

5:47John Lee Dumas:Let's do it right now. Let's, let's, let's, let's have some fun with this. Like you want it to be fun. You want it to be playful. Let's do something fun and playful right now. Let's say if I have, I have a coffee cup or something. I have my cup period. I'm imagining just like jumping from here into the cup and playing around and clubbing and swimming around in there, which puts me into creative mode. Cause I'm just, I'm just imagining like different ways. You know, you can even imagine like people playing a little bit in there or just Charlie and the chocolate factory, like that kind of stuff.

6:12type of thing. But you really, if you involve your imagination with the whole process, that puts your brain into a whole other state of creativity. And so whatever stressful situation you're in at that moment, you can break away from it just by imagining something creative. And then you'll think of a different solution to the problem that you're having. That's the magic.

6:33John Lee Dumas:So you're kind of saying like, turn off the stress, turn on the play. Exactly. And maybe even a better way of saying that is by turning on the play, your body is going to automatically turn off the stress. Yes, 100%. Let's talk about the power of play. How does movement, how does play, how does it actually reset the brain and restore clarity for high performers? I mean, you just gave an example. You talked about it a little bit, but let's even dive deeper about the resetting of the brain part of that. Play isn't just fun. It's actually neuroscience for what it does for your brain. So, again, when you're in stress mode and you're in that position, your brain can't really think clearly.

7:18So, you know, your creativity goes away. And in order to reset your brain through play, you put your brain in a totally different situation. The neurons fire differently. They're in a creative mode versus the stress mode. So, again, it's an example of when you're at play, you're not being chased by a tiger. You're not in a state of stress because you're able to play. So that automatically shows up as your body as I'm safe. And when you start doing that, that's when the brain starts to relax. And then the answers come in. So if you're focusing on a problem, it's kind of like if you're, remember, like if you're trying to find your keys, you're trying to remember somebody's name, like, what's that thing I'm trying to do?

7:58You know, you're trying to force yourself to do it. But as soon as you switch away from that and like find something else that sidetracks you, all of a sudden it comes to you like, oh, I'll put my keys over there.

8:06John Lee Dumas:When you go take a shower, you're like, oh my God, my keys are literally right there. Yep. And the shower is a perfect example of stimulating your body in a different way. And once you get that water on, you're stimulating your body and all these different things. So your brain can't be focused on that thing that you're trying to focus on. It has to be focusless and all these other sensations are coming in. So that's like why play and movement help. If you start moving, your body starts like just flowing different things. Energy starts moving around your body and that gets you out of that stuck feeling.

8:34John Lee Dumas:So you know what this kind of makes me think about and i'm curious on your thoughts on this is You know for me, it's like humans are humans animals are animals, but we have so many similar traits and like I think about dogs and You know when when puppies are born, what do they do? They just play they just play with each other They tumble around they bite each other, you know playfully they nip each other's ear Sometimes it hurts sometimes it doesn't but they just like really they they you know they really just play and they rough house. And it's almost kind of like I can always tell a non-dog person, like when they get a dog for the first time, and maybe that dog's like two years old, three years old, and they meets another dog and those dogs just kind of go at each other.

9:12John Lee Dumas:And, and again, to like the untrained eye, it's almost like they're fighting, but they're not, they're playing, they're rough housing, they're, they're tumbling, they're doing the things. And like, for me, I grew up with dogs and I'm just like, that's what dogs do. Like they play, they have fun. Like that's just part of what it means to be a dog. And sometimes it clicks with the non-dog people after having their dog for a while. Like, oh, this is like a great release. Because in some ways, like, it's sad when you take a puppy away at eight weeks old from all of their brothers and sisters. Because now they're just, they're not doing what they naturally do, which is just playing roughhouse.

9:46John Lee Dumas:Which is why, like, we always tried to have at least two dogs in the house so that they would have that with each other. Is that the kind of, like, play? Like, are we just too serious as humans? Like, should we start like tackling and roughhousing each other? Just do that in the workforce. Just run up and tackle somebody. Let's do it. Well, there's a whole thing about like how we're born to play. I mean, that's how we learn things. That, you know, you're not learning an instruction manual of how to do things. You're actually, you play through it. And that actually gets broken down in our educational system.

10:21Like first parents are trying to conform kids to society. and so you have like these rules and regulations of how to do things in the world. But then you go through a school system that sucks it down to you. Now you have recess time and that's your time to play, if not sit in a chair and shut up and listen to what I'm trying to lecture you. And then when we get older, as we get into like, you know, the high school years, play becomes dealing with sports and that's the competitive side and then beating somebody. But our childlike play doesn't like that. When we play as children, we try and balance out the team so the play lasts longer.

10:55So as adults, when we start associating competition with play, we lose that. And that's what we try to retickle in the whole reinventing play into your world is we find out what type of play type you are and then we start retickling it and starting to remind yourself that that childlike play can come out. It's safe to come out and experience that. So that's a whole process. But yeah, we're born to play. It's crazy that that's become a negative term in a lot of places.

11:23John Lee Dumas:All right, Fire Nation, we're going to talk about from burnout to breakthrough, systems for energy, survival to intentional growth, and more when we get back from thanking our sponsors. Fire Nation, ideas are exciting, but systems will allow you to create freedom. That is where High Level comes in. High Level allows you to build and run your entire business from one platform. Website builder and hosting, funnel and landing pages, email marketing, automation and workflows, calendar booking, payments and subscriptions, even course and membership hosting. everything works together seamlessly plus award-winning 24-7 support so you are never stuck and when you go through my link at highlevelfire.com you unlock my full bonus stack a 30-day free trial of high level with full access a private 50-minute coaching call with me weekly live office hours with me a digital copy of my book the common path to uncommon success my 50 days to something execution roadmap and more stop piecing tools together start building momentum.

12:21John Lee Dumas:Visit highlevelfire.com and start building your something today. Fire Nation, are you ready to create something special in just 50 days? If you just thought yes, then check out my free YouTube series, 50 Days to Something. Every video is short, clear, and built to move you forward one intentional step at a time. Clarity, offer, validation systems momentum. By day 50, you are not working on something. You have built something, something to be proud of. And this is completely free on my YouTube channel right now. If you're done letting weeks just drift on by, visit eofire.com slash YouTube. That's eofire.com slash YouTube and press play on day one.

13:08John Lee Dumas:50 days will pass in the blink of an eye. The only question is whether you'll still be thinking or finally building something special. Xander, we are back, my friends, and I want to talk about burnout to breakthrough. Take us through the journey from burnout to building Hikido. That's the correct pronunciation, right? Hikido. Yes, sir. And the path of play. Tell us that story. Perfect. Actually, that's my new book that's coming out. The path of play is the journey from burnout to breakthrough or to brilliance through the science of joy. So it happened for me like when I was in a very high intense job.

13:50I was working about 100 hours a week sleeping at my job and the pressure was on intense. And I just totally experienced burnout. I couldn't work on the computer anymore. My whole life was just ugh. and so I basically got rid of everything I sold everything and then got all my stuff down to a backpack and then right when I was about ready to leave on this journey one of my friends gave me his foot bag he's like oh keep this in your pocket it's gonna be the best gift anyone ever give you and he gave me his foot bag and that became my my my breakthrough so when I traveled I had this thing with me all the time and I could go anywhere in the world and go to a park somewhere and start playing with myself but somebody cool would come play with me almost every time and it was somebody was outgoing and fun loving they didn't have we need to speak you know the same language because play was our language and you find out somebody about somebody really quickly through play um so that became my go-to that's how I that's how I found people I can hang out with and and And, you know, those local people would tell me where to go or they invite me to a lunch or dinner or something.

14:59And even it's like, hey, come to my place. If you need a place to stay, you can play there or stay there because we already knew each other through that play environment. So this one simple tool became my thing. And that's where Hakido came from was I learned how to make these things. And so that became my gift to people who play with me. I would just tell people, keep it in your pocket. It's going to be the best gift anyone will ever give you. um so this is like i call these the ultimate play tool uh because you can put them in your pocket you can throw them at each other it doesn't hurt it's it's filled with hemp seeds and it's hemp fabric you can slap them around you can juggle them which i consider the ultimate brain exercise uh everyone's learned how to juggle john do you juggle no all right well we'll go i'll convince

15:40John Lee Dumas:you by the end i'm already convinced i really am i'm thinking about it i'm like why don't i juggle Bro, like literally it's my number one exercise. I'm like all humans should learn how to juggle because of what it does for our brains is off the charts. And it helps with everything. It builds that cross-brain communication, which is that the corpus callosum gets involved with the process. And that builds the communication for your whole brain to work everything. And it's simple. It's fun. You can always learn a new trick. You can challenge yourself. Build that yay feeling every time you complete a new trick and you're just telling your brain you're awesome all the time.

16:15It's so many levels to it. So juggling is the ultimate brain exercise, and kicking one around for me is the ultimate physical exercise because you can do it by yourself, your core crunching, balancing your body as you're lifting up one leg, and that's incredibly good for your brain. And kicking something out of the air is a whole other level of being able, what it does for your brain, the three-dimensional alley of that, off the charts. And you can play with the group. There's no violence. It's cooperative competition. You can play on grass, the beach, on a parking lot, anywhere. You can kick around one of these things and make friends anywhere you want to go with something that you keep in your pocket.

16:50You don't need special equipment and another great cross trainer. And you can kick around this thing in your cross training for any other game that you play.

16:57John Lee Dumas:Let's talk about some other simple systems for energy because I'm loving this idea of juggling. I'm already thinking about like, what do I need to do for my next steps here? So we'll talk about that. But what are some simple systems entrepreneurs can use to restore their energy, to restore their focus on a daily basis? Start off, start off your day well. So you want to get your brain engaged almost immediately with, with good intentions. One thing I do every morning, I'm also a laughter coach. So before, before I get up out of my bed, I train my body to do this exercise and I start laughing. So I will get myself laughing three times hard before I even get out of bed.

17:37So set my brain up for that, for that, that chemical reaction and, and have my brain look out for things that make me laugh more throughout the day. That's a win. During the day, you can also just do things, little simple things to, to remind you of that playful moment or in the way you interact with things. Like there's so many different ways to trigger yourself, smile more. I mean, that's a simple thing to do, but if you just all of a sudden smile for no reason, like you just, you just even force yourself to smile. You're going to go through the muscle, um, the muscle memory of smiling and your brain automatically dumps those feel good.

18:14Yeah.

18:14John Lee Dumas:Here's a little hack, by the way. Um, I have a to-do list and you know, we all like typically have to-do list. Mine's on, you know, an app on my phone at the top of my to-do list. And it never leaves because it's actually what the, the, the to-do list is called is smile. And so I see it every day. And by the way, I don't smile every time I see it. I'm not going to lie, But a lot more times than not, I do. I just smile because it's just right there as like a daily reminder. It's easy to do. You know what I mean? I mean, you know, I can get it if you're really bummed down. I don't want to smile.

18:47But if you can force yourself to do it, you will change your brain chemicals. But again, laughter is why I love about laughter is that's one of the most powerful medicines we have. You can't overdose on it and you can regulate it. But your brain doesn't know the difference between real and fake laughter. You're going to get the same benefits. Your cortisol levels are going to plummet immediately when you start laughing. You're going to get dopamine and all the oxytocin, all these beautiful brain chemicals start releasing into your body as soon as you start laughing.

19:18John Lee Dumas:Let's talk about going from survival to intentional growth, Xander. I mean, how can someone shift out of survival mode, which is where a lot of people are, especially entrepreneurs, and step into intentional growth, step into creative leadership? The foundation for me for creative leadership is play. It's one of the most underrated leadership skills. But when you're stuck and you're having this burnout or you're having your feelings where you're not progressing, by simply changing up that pattern to be changing up this, disrupting that mode, it'll do magic for you. I found the best way of doing it Versus just, you know, forcing things is to develop a system of play.

20:03But if you can regulate that and be in that system of play, you're going to unlock your creativity. You're going to build a group that's going to want to work together, especially if you're a leader and you're doing that thing and you invite play into that thing. People are going to relax more. They're going to be able to feel like they can express themselves more. It really engages a room of people in a whole other level. It builds resilience and teams tend to recover quicker and adapt to new ideas with play. And play really allows like lateral thinking. So if you're stuck hitting up the wall and you're just like, I can't get think, because as soon as you start playing, you figure out ways to get around that wall, you know, and come up with creative ideas.

20:49John Lee Dumas:Xander, you have a book. Give us two things. the biggest takeaway from our conversation today obviously is play so let's maybe go a little bit deeper than that but what would you want fire nation to walk away with from our conversation today and how can we connect with you how can we get our hands on your book and then we'll say goodbye first of all the main thing is that you can control your system you like our our world is constantly trying to get us to look externally and put us in these states of yuck about everything that's around us and things that we can't control. The one thing you can control is yourself.

21:30The one thing you can control is your state. So if you can manage that, then you take care of all the rest of the things and it spreads. So that's why I'm a big proponent of playful states because when you play, you give other people permission to play. And that's how you can make the world better and keep your own state secure. Because if you're in a playful mode, the negative just can't stick to you. Your energy is at a totally different vibration. So that's the one thing I'm hoping people can grasp is that play is not a negative thing. It's ultimately the most positive thing we can do for yourself and for our world.