EP.27 - How to Manage Financial Anxiety When Your Income is Unpredictable

If you've ever found yourself worrying about a slow week in your business, this episode is for you.

This isn't about positive thinking or pretending problems don't exist. Instead, Frankie offers real strategies for working with your anxiety rather than against it, including techniques that have helped her move from panic mode to a more grounded approach to business ups and downs.

Key Takeaways

🧠 Your Brain's Ancient Alarm System

• Why your nervous system treats business uncertainty like a life-or-death situation
• The difference between financial stability and psychological stability
• How catastrophizing is actually your brain doing its job (just not very helpfully)
  
  

🛡️ Build Your Psychological Safety Net

• Create a "Figure It Out File" – your personal evidence collection of problem-solving wins
• Document every pivot, creative solution, and challenge you've overcome
• Use this proof when anxiety tries to erase your track record
  
  

💰 A Different Approach to Money Stress

• Practice saying "I am grateful the universe gives me an unending supply to pay for this" when paying bills
• Not about pretending money problems don't exist – it's about reducing the stress response
• How associating bill-paying with abundance instead of scarcity can shift your nervous system

🔄 Working with "What If" Thoughts

• When your brain spirals with worst-case scenarios, try offering the opposite possibility
• "What if no one joins my program?" can become "What if this is my biggest launch yet?"
• Both scenarios are equally speculative – one just helps you move forward
  
  

🎯 The 5-4-3-2-1 Grounding Technique

• Pull yourself out of future catastrophizing and into present reality
• Name 5 things you see, 4 you can touch, 3 you can hear, 2 you can smell, 1 you can taste
• Take one small action to interrupt anxiety immediately
  
  

Episode Highlights

[1:49] What you'll learn by the end of this episode – stop letting money spirals control your life
[2:52] The feast or famine cycle isn't just about irregular income – it's about the stories your brain tells
[3:45] Your "Figure It Out File" – why gratitude journals aren't enough for solopreneurs
[4:32] Consider recurring revenue streams: even 20-30% predictable income dramatically reduces anxiety
[5:18] The pattern interrupt technique for "what if" spirals
[7:00] The bill-paying affirmation that shifts everything (implement this one thing if nothing else!)
[7:54] The 3-part panic response technique when anxiety strikes
[10:30] Remember: You've handled 100% of your difficult days so far

Resources Mentioned

📚 Book Recommendations:
Dollars Flow to Me Easily – Identify and shift unconscious scarcity patterns (Amazon link: https://amzn.to/3AMbiTM)
Profit First by Mike Michalowicz – Create financial predictability in unpredictable business (Amazon link: https://amzn.to/3AR1nw2)

Action Steps

Try one or all of these: 

• Try this first: Start a Figure It Out File with one exam