Myo Life
Myo Life is a podcast for bored, burned out dental hygienists (and myofunctional therapists) who are ready to work less, earn more, have total control of their calendar, enjoy geographic freedom and most of all - make a bigger impact for their patients - while ditching the long hours, constant aches and dreaded Monday's. You will learn simple and effective strategies and tools to start and grow your profitable myofunctional therapy practice. Make sure you subscribe so you don't miss a thing!
Myo Life
#10 Free Assessments: Turning Leads Into Loyal Clients
In this episode of Myo Life, Carmen dives into the power of free assessments and how they can help new myofunctional therapists build confidence, establish trust, and turn leads into loyal clients. She shares practical strategies to start conversations, screen potential clients, and create a smooth, professional assessment process. Stick around until the end to hear about Carmen’s course, Free Assessments That Convert, designed to help you transform free assessments into paying clients.
Hey, I'm Carmen and welcome to Mayo Life. That's short for my outrageous life, which is exactly the kind of life I get to live since I found the courage to ditch dental hygiene and build a life I'm bonkers about as a Mayo functional therapist and entrepreneur. Here you will find all the things Mayo business and how to build a life that you, too, are bonkers about. I'm very happy you're here. Shall we dive in. Hey there, and welcome back to the podcast. I am so excited you're here today because we're diving into a topic that I know can feel overwhelming for many new myofunctional therapists Free assessments. So when you're fresh out of your myofunctional therapy training, knowing how to get started and build momentum can be intimidating. Many therapists feel stuck, not knowing how to confidently dive in and start conversations that will end up with them helping people. That's why I'm dedicating this episode to free assessments and stick with me until the end, because I have an exciting course for you on this exact topic that I will share with you at the end. So let's dive in.
Speaker 1:What is a free assessment? So, free consults, complimentary. You get to decide what you want to call it. Many of my mentors said that free devalues it, so they encouraged me to use consultation or complimentary. But let's face it, nothing perks up somebody's interests like the words free. So throughout this, I will probably just call it a free assessment. Okay. So why can it be helpful? So it can be helpful for several reasons. Is this person right for you? It will help you screen out somebody who is just a personality mismatch. That is one of the biggest things and one of my biggest regrets as a therapist is when I was a young greenhorn, I worked with people that we were just like oil and water. Okay.
Speaker 1:So your free assessment is going to help you guys determine if you're right for each other. It is also going to give you a headstart on the exam material, which will streamline your exam. Now, this includes my paperwork, all of that stuff. So when I'm doing an assessment with somebody, they're helping me further along in the process. And then it's also a great way to gain practice educating your community. So the more people that you have a conversation with during a free assessment, you're going to get better at explaining what you do, who you work with. You'll get better at knowing who your ideal customer avatar is. You will get more polished, all of the things. So practicing, practicing. Practicing is really important. So obviously the more free assessments you do is going to be better.
Speaker 1:So we're going to talk about three ways that you can turn leads that are probably cold or maybe lukewarm, how you can turn them into loyal clients. So number one start conversations. You know I'm a big conversations girl. So screening in your dental hygiene chair is going to allow you to start conversations with people who have likely never heard of myofunctional therapy. So starting this conversation with them will allow you to get your foot in the door to tell them how you can help them. Remember, the biggest, most important words that you can tell somebody is I can help you. So how do you start these conversations? I call it dangling the carrot and yes, I know that always kind of has a like you're baiting somebody or you're dangling the carrot, like it has a negative connotation, but I used that as the opportunity to kind of guide the conversation where I wanted it to go. So in the dental hygiene chair I would kind of dangle that carrot. It also gave me the opportunity to kind of gauge their interests.
Speaker 1:Now, what do you do if you have imposter syndrome? So this is, first of all, it's totally normal. We all have it. I still sometimes get it.
Speaker 1:Um, you have to feel confident in the material that you have learned to be able to start conversations. So if you have taken a course that you don't feel prepared to have these conversations, it happens. I have met tons of students most of which who end up in the Ditch Hygiene Academy that took another course and it just it did not give you the knowledge to start practicing. Okay, you know that, you know that in your gut. If that's the case, then you just have to take another course, and might I shamelessly suggest the Ditch Hygiene Academy. But that's the biggest thing. So if you aren't confident, you have to. You have to get up to speed. Okay, I've already said this before, you can't have fast myofunctional therapy. So there's that.
Speaker 1:Then, practice makes perfect. So, whether you do mind mapping, whether you write scripts, whether you record yourself, I will tell you that, depending on when you're watching this episode, we do have a course called Confident Client Conversations that's coming out and that's where you learn how to master your mild conversation. So it's going to help you with having those conversations with confidence, how you master the art of client conversations and then build trust with potential clients. So, depending on when you're hearing this, that might be out, but either way you have to get so that you can have a conversation. So practice makes perfect. Mind mapping, scripting, recording yourself I had one student who would record herself and then she would replay it while she mowed the lawn.
Speaker 1:So however you want. So that's the first one you have to start the conversation. The second one is offering your time. So not everybody is just going to jump on board to pay a couple hundred dollars for an exam. They probably want to learn more about Mayo, so offering a free assessment is a great way to start. So the wording that I always used to use was you know that I offer everybody 30 minutes of my time. Now I did this, even if the odds are they wouldn't do therapy with me.
Speaker 1:A great example was parents of children who were too young to do therapy. As you know, a child needs to be old enough to comprehend, comply and cooperate with therapy, and oftentimes parents find out about the dangers of mouth breathing or incorrect cranial facial development. They might find out about that and their toddler might be two and a half or three. So what used to happen is I would have lots of parents that would ask if they could book that assessment, and I would tell them to do that because a couple of things that can happen. I got to practice when I talked with those people. So remember, the more warm bodies that you talk to, the better you get. This is a numbers game, my friend. So when I would have them make an assessment, I was educating them, but I was also practicing my craft. I was getting good and polished, so that was to my benefit.
Speaker 1:The other thing that was to my benefit is these people. Maybe Susie made an appointment for her son and he was three. Well, by the time he's four or maybe five and ready to start therapy. She probably doesn't want to start over. So oftentimes I will have parents reach back out to me and say, hey, we met a couple of years ago. Um, you know, he's old enough now Can we get started? So it's kind of like I call it like getting your claws into them. You start building that know that, that know like and trust factor. They're going to remember oh, carmen helped me back when she didn't get any money from me and I want to go back to her again. I liked her, I trusted her, she seemed like she knew what she was talking about. So that's really helpful. So it's a win-win. You're getting to practice and then they're probably going to come back.
Speaker 1:The other thing is is they're going to share information about you to somebody else. If you appeared knowledgeable, if they had a connection with you. That's free advertising. So that is the biggest thing when you have conversations with people that are just genuine, from the heart hey, I want to help. You do not realize how small the world is. I used to have people call my office on Monday morning saying hey, I met Susie at a soccer game this weekend and she was telling me something about mouth breathing is bad and I have a kid who's a mouth breather. So that was the biggest thing. Now I don't do free assessments anymore, um, but definitely when you're starting your business. This is why you should do them is it helps? It helps in so many different ways. All right.
Speaker 1:So the third one and I've kind of alluded to this is building that know like and trust factor. So you're going to turn these people who book a free assessment into a loyal client by building that know like and trust factor with them. So they're going to trust you, they're going to love. Your personality connection, being knowledgeable and building that know, like and trust factor is so important. I have so many people that say I want to work with you. I've had a connection with you since I started following you on social media. I feel like meeting you sometimes is like meeting a celebrity, which is really nice to hear, but they just really have a connection. On the flip side, I have also had plenty of people that I met and it was like absolutely not, this is not a good match. We will not work together well, so there, I think that is really about all I need to say those three things. The biggest thing is is having the conversations. You can't play a numbers game if you're not having a conversation with people.
Speaker 1:Okay, so in getting ready to wrap up, I told you I had something exciting to say. So first, let me just tell you that free assessments are a fantastic way to build your clientele, gain trust, get better, but also remember that it is just the first step in the process. So you have to plant the seed and then encourage them to kind of take that next step towards being a actual client of yours. So, like I said, I had something exciting. So if you're struggling with this concept, then I encourage you to dive into my course Free Assessments that Convert. So this course is designed to help myofunctional therapists confidently turn those free assessments into paying clients. So, whether you're just starting out with your myofunctional therapy journey, um, or you're looking to really refine your client acquisition strategy, this course gives you the tools to um to create a streamlined, professional and effective free assessment process. So you're I'm going to help you build that process. You're going to build it once and then you're just going to get better and better and better. So you can learn more about free assessments that convert in the show notes or wherever you're watching this video.
Speaker 1:Thank you for tuning in today. I will ask you this if you have a friend or a colleague who would benefit from this podcast, or one who is just starting out their myofunctional therapy journey, please share it. That's super important in the podcast world. And until next time, keep building a business and a life that you are bonkers about. I will be back soon, my friend. See you then.