**0:00**
Did you know that your brain can't tell the difference between a saber toothed tiger and a slow Business Week? Seriously, the same alarm system that kept our ancestors alive is the reason you're lying awake at 3am convinced that one quiet Tuesday means your entire business is about to collapse. Your nervous system is literally treating a launch that didn't go the way you wanted, like a life or death situation.
**0:30**
And the wildest part is this ancient survival mechanism might actually be sabotaging the very business it's trying to protect. So in this episode, you're going to learn practical techniques to calm that overprotective survival brain of yours and turn your business uncertainty into more confident action, ready to break free from the solopreneur struggle.
**1:00**
This is the ease and impact thriving as a solopreneur Podcast. I'm Frankie Jay, a surfer, a mom and an eight year solopreneur myself, join me as I peel back the layers to a thriving online business without the guru hype or the burnout. I'm going to show you the proven strategies and tools that I use so you can build a sustainable digital business without sacrificing your well being. Let's get you thriving as a solopreneur.
**1:30**
Welcome back to ease and impact. Thriving as a solopreneur. I am your host, Frankie Jay, and this is your weekly dose of practical advice for the solo business journey wherever you're at. If this episode resonates with you today, then hit that follow button, because we're diving deep into what's behind those before bed or middle of the night, money worries that we don't like to admit or talk about as solopreneurs, but everyone experiences.
**1:49**
By the end of today's episode, you're going to stop letting those money spirals control your life. Instead of every quiet week sending you into a panic mode, you'll have simple tools that actually work when anxiety hits. You'll learn a short phrase that I say that has helped me operate from a place of abundance. You'll also learn how to flip those disaster thoughts into what if something amazing happens instead. And most importantly, you'll remember something you've probably forgotten. You've already handled everything life has thrown at you so far.
**2:30**
So let's start with something most business advice gets wrong. Everyone talks about building financial safety nets, and yes, those absolutely matter. But what about the psychological safety nets, the ones that keep you from completely unraveling when your income fluctuates?
**2:50**
So here's what I've learned working with other solopreneurs, your financial stability and your mental stability are not the same thing. You can have money in the bank and still panic when a client cancels. You could have a slow week and convince yourself your entire business is failing. That's not a money problem, that is a mindset pattern.
**3:15**
Now the feast or famine cycle isn't just about a regular income. It's about the story your brain tells you when things aren't perfectly predictable. And here's the thing, your brain doesn't want you to know. It's designed to catastrophize. It's literally doing its job when it takes one quiet week and turns it into I'm going to lose everything. But what if we could train your brain to work with you instead of against you.
**3:45**
So first, let's build some psychological safety nets to match those financial ones. Think about this. You already have all the evidence you need that you're resourceful. You've already navigated changes, pivoted when needed, figured things out. You wouldn't be where you are right now if you hadn't, but when anxiety hits your brain, conveniently forgets all of that evidence.
**4:15**
So here's one way you can make it impossible for your brain to forget. I want you to create your figure it out file. This isn't a gratitude journal. This is like an evidence collection. Every time you solve a problem, navigate a challenge, or adapt to change in your business, document, it not just the big wins, but the small pivots, the creative solutions that you come up with, the times you thought you were stuck and then you weren't.
**4:45**
I first started doing this when I started making videos and started to get trolls online, I would keep screenshots of all the people who had good things to say how I had helped them, or how watching the video was what they needed today. Then when trolls did appear and comment on my post, I had this proof of how what I was doing by showing up was actually helping more people than the one person that had a bad comment.
**5:15**
But here's another practical thing for you to consider. If you're constantly stressed about where your next payment is coming from, it might be time to look at your revenue, your business model itself. So consider adding a membership component or other reoccurring revenue stream to your business if. Even if it's just 20 to 30% of your income, having that predictable monthly amount can dramatically reduce the feast or famine anxiety.
**5:45**
It's not about completely changing your business model overnight. It's just about creating some stability within the uncertainty. But let's talk more about those What if spirals your brain loves to play the worst case scenario game, what if no one signs up for my program? What if that client doesn't renew? What if? What if? What if?
**6:15**
But here's a patent interrupt that works for every negative what if that your brain serves up, you're going to train it to offer the opposite possibility. So this isn't toxic positivity, it's actual possibility. Thinking, so what if no one joins my program becomes, what if this is my biggest launch yet? What if I can't pay my bills next month becomes, what if money flows to me in ways I haven't even imagined? What if I made the wrong business decision becomes, what if this leads to exactly where I need to be.
**6:45**
And another tip for you here is the tone in which you present your positive what if is important? Look, your brain is going to resist this at first. It's going to tell you you're being unrealistic. But here's the truth, your worst case scenarios are just as much speculation as your best case scenarios. The difference is one set of thoughts moves you forward and the other keeps you paralyzed.
**7:15**
Now, speaking of money flowing to you, let me share something that shifted my relationship with financial anxiety, and I've done this for years now every single time I pay a bill, and I mean every time I say out loud, I am grateful the universe gives me an unending supply to pay for this, and I really lean into feeling that when I say it.
**7:35**
Now, this isn't about pretending money problems don't exist. It's about training your nervous system to associate paying bills with abundance instead of scarcity, because when you're constantly stressed about money leaving your account, you're essentially programming yourself to see every expense as a threat, instead of evidence that money moves through your life. Honestly, if you implement nothing else from this podcast, please start doing this.
**7:54**
But when panic strikes, and because I know it will you need practical tools. So here's a three part technique that can really help, or sometimes you might just use the first part, first, the 54321, grounding technique. Now this was originally developed by psychotherapist Betty Alice Erickson, and has become more popular recently through Mel Robbins using it as part of her five second rule, take a deep breath and count down from 554321, you could go slower, if you like.
**8:02**
Then once you've done that name, five things you can see, four things you can touch, three things you can hear, two things you can smell and one thing you can taste. This pulls you out of future, catastrophizing and into the present moment, the reality.
**8:21**
The next step is to ask yourself, What's actually happening right now versus what story am I telling myself about what might happen most anxiety lives in the gap between your current reality and an imagined future. So ask yourself again.
**8:35**
Then third, take one small action that moves your business forward. Not a massive overhaul just one thing, send one email, make one connection, update one piece of content, action interrupts anxiety every single time.
**8:50**
The goal with all of this isn't to eliminate uncertainty from your business. That is, I'm sure, literally impossible. The goal is to get comfortable being uncomfortable knowing that you've developed the skills to adapt and respond rather than just react, and every time you navigate something you've never done before, you're building evidence that you can handle the unknown.
**9:15**
Before we wrap up, I want to recommend two books that will fundamentally shift how you think about money and your business and can help alleviate some of that anxiety. First, dollars flow to me easily. Now, while the cover of this book honestly makes me think pyramid scheme, the book itself is honestly amazing, it will help you identify and shift the unconscious patterns that keep you in that scarcity thinking.
**9:45**
It's not about manifesting money out of thin air. It's about removing the mental blocks that prevent you from receiving what's already trying to reach you. It's an easy read, honestly. Just get the book and get into it.
**10:00**
The second is profit, first by a guy named Mike. And I can't even, don't even know how to pronounce his last name, but it starts with an M and. Everyone in business should read this book. This book will change how you manage your business finances, but more importantly, it will give you a system that really reduces the financial anxiety by creating predictability in an unpredictable business.
**10:20**
Both of these books work together. One helps you shift your internal relationship with money, and the other gives you external systems that support that internal shift.
**10:30**
Now here's what I want you to remember as we finish up, you have handled 100% of your difficult days so far. That's not luck, that's skill, that's resourcefulness, that's evidence that you don't just survive challenges. You actually grow from them.
**10:45**
Now the feast or famine cycle only has power over you when you forget your own track record, but you're not the same person who started this business. You've learned, adapted and figured things out more times than you probably give yourself credit for.
**11:00**
And your anxiety isn't a character flaw, it's information. It's your nervous system trying to protect you, but based on old programming, but you get to choose new programming. You get to choose to see uncertainty as a possibility instead of a threat.
**11:15**
So if this episode resonated with you, drop your questions or biggest takeaways in the comments. Thank you so much for trusting me with your time today, and remember as you navigate whatever comes next in your business journey, keep creating that impact with ease.
