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
#14 The 90-Day Survival Plan For New Myofunctional Therapists
In this episode of Myo Life, Carmen shares a no-BS 90-day roadmap for myofunctional therapists who are just starting out. If you’re feeling overwhelmed, unsure of where to find clients, or questioning if you’re truly ready, this episode provides the clarity and structure you need. Carmen breaks down the first three months into actionable steps to help you build confidence, gain visibility, and start booking clients. Whether you’re transitioning from dental hygiene or refining your business model, this episode is packed with real-world advice to set you up for success.
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. Well, hey there, friend, and welcome back to the Mayo Life Podcast. I am happy that you are here Today. I am talking about surviving the start of your business. So if you have taken a leap into myofunctional therapy now, what? Okay? If you're feeling overwhelmed, stuck, unsure of your next move, this episode is for you. You might be saying am I ready? Where am I going to find clients? How do I make this work? My promise to you is that by the end of this episode, you are going to have a no BS 90 day plan to get clear, confident and profitable without the overwhelm. Uh, before we dive in, last thing, remember, depends on when you're listening to this, but we are in the midst of a cross country move, so I am batching these episodes in an empty messy room, but I'm practicing what I preach with my clients and that's just doing it anyhow. Okay. So let's dive into this 90 day survival plan. So, for the first 30 days, essentially, uh, I call this step one laying the foundation. So this is where you're going to work on commitment, mindset, clarity and confidence. Okay. So, before you dive into marketing and networking, you really need a rock solid foundation. So this step is going to ensure that you don't just survive, but that you thrive. So I call these baby steps. Okay. So the first one baby step number one commit to the process. You are going to burn the boats. Okay. So you've probably heard me say it before storm the island, burn the boats. That means that you have no half an approach. Okay, if you're already thinking about, well, what if this doesn't work? Then you got to change that mindset. Okay, you need to shift from well, if this doesn't work, I will do this other thing to like hey, I understand that this is a marathon. It is not a sprint. This is not a get rich quick scheme. Yes, some people make money faster than others, but, big picture, you have to be committed. Okay. So commit to the process. Uh, I also think it's important for you to shift your mindset from I'm trying to be a myofunctional therapist to I am a myofunctional therapist. Sometimes that's challenging for my students because they're training, they're training, okay. My students, because they're training, they're training, okay. Um, you could say I am studying to be a myofunctional therapist, but I don't like the word trying. I am a myofunctional therapist. If you are starting your business, I'm assuming you've taken your training. Okay, so I am a myofunctional therapist.
Speaker 1:Next, set your non-negotiable work hours, otherwise life and excuses are going to take over. We go over this inside the total calendar control lesson. But setting your power hour, so that's a two hour time block, time block every day that you are moving the needle on revenue generating tasks or things that are going to really move the needle. You know massive action, not passive action. So that's really important, um, but, but the key is to follow it, okay. So setting your power hour and then any other time blocks, so you want to follow those again. These are in the total uh, total calendar control lesson. But those are work hours. Okay, so I teach my students to do business when they are supposed to be doing business.
Speaker 1:So what I mean by this is, let's say that you're a full-time dental hygienist and you're trying to start your myofunctional therapy business. So maybe you're seeing clients, uh, or you're seeing, you're. You're doing your dental hygiene job Monday, tuesday, wednesday, thursday. So Friday is business day. Okay, that's your non-negotiable work hours. You're not getting a massage on Friday, you're not having your car detailed, you're working and, yes, right up front, you're not going to have clients on Friday. So it's going to feel like you can be making a pot roast or emptying the dishwasher, but eventually you're going to have people and when you start having conversations and they ask you how do I work with you?
Speaker 1:What does this process look like? You want to be able to say currently I'm seeing clients on Fridays. Eventually you will have to expand the time that you have available because your business is going to grow, but you want to be doing business when you're supposed to be doing business. So, like in my case, I will see clients you know um to, currently on Tuesdays, thursdays and Fridays. Monday is my marketing and metrics day and then Wednesday is my personal day off. So whenever somebody asks me a question about therapy, I can tell them that I, you know, I see clients on those days. Now, even when I don't have clients, I am in my office. If I have all day Tuesday blocked out for client hours and if I don't have clients, I'm in my business, or I'm in my office working, I'm not out gardening, okay. So that is very, very important. So that's baby step number one.
Speaker 1:Baby step number two is getting your mindset right. So I've talked about this before, but imposter syndrome is big. You have to understand that. You don't need to know everything to get started. Okay, um, yes, being afraid of failure is something that holds many therapists back. So remember this that every expert started as a beginner. I started as a beginner. You don't have to know everything. There's a lot of stuff that you do need to know, um, but really, you're just a step ahead of these people. Okay, you, you know so much more than what your client knows. Okay, the biggest thing here, my friend, is you just have to get started. I can't help you steer a parked car, whether you come into my programs or you just consume my free content or listen to my podcast. I can't help you with your business if you haven't gotten the car out of park. Okay, so, super important, it's just like just do anything, just get started.
Speaker 1:Baby step number three is getting clarity on your business. So what type of business do you actually want? Okay, are you going to build a virtual practice? Are you going to do something in office? Are you going to kind of do a hybrid? Are you trying to work this into your current employment situation, which I don't love that option. I will just tell you that right now, and that's just because my zone of genius is helping women build a life they are bonkers about, and that includes building a business that they own, not building a house on rented land.
Speaker 1:So what happens is, when you work it into your current employment situation, oftentimes things can go south. Okay, you don't get compensated fairly, or perhaps you just really, really like your boss and your boss is really supportive building the business, but the boss has something over you, especially if you let them pay for your training. But what happens if you get an injury and you have to leave that office? Now you have built a business on rented land, or I have consulted on a lot of situations where, uh, somebody built a business in the practice. They love the boss, the boss died, the boss brought in an associate that you cannot stand, you know something like that. Or maybe they bring in a management company, a dental consulting company, and they change things up and suddenly you're not happy. You don't have a business to take away, okay.
Speaker 1:So I really want you to think about that. If you're trying to do it in your current employment situation, I can help you through that fear. It's a fear-based thing and a lot of students think that it's just easier and safer to build it in an office. But really it isn't. So think about that. Another thing you have to think about is are you going to rent office space somewhere? Some students they want to work in somebody else's office so it's cheap or free. I think that you need to pay your bills and keep things separate. So if your boss tells you, hey, there's a room that you can use to do your myofunctional therapy in, then I think that you should pay rent and then, like, the profit from the business is yours. Okay, keep things very professional and very separate.
Speaker 1:Another thing to consider is you know when you're thinking about the type of business you want is are you going to work in a local orthodontic office a couple times a month, which is great? I think it's harder to build a business in somebody else's practice because other doctors don't necessarily want to refer to you if you're working in somebody else's practice. So I have several students who you know they'll go to a local ortho office a couple times a month or they'll, you know, go to certain offices so that they can help those that office's patients, but they're not building their business there. So I hope that makes sense. So you're going to get clarity on all of this stuff. That's part of it. That's maybe step three. Next, you're going to get clarity on all of this stuff. That's part that's maybe step three.
Speaker 1:Next, you're going to get confident in your client conversation. So if you can't explain what you do in under 10 seconds without a bunch of ums and uh or long, confusing explanations, you need to work on your shtick. So if that's the case, you need to get your butt into our our mini course confident client conversations and do the work, because that's going case. You need to get your butt into our mini course Confident Client Conversations and do the work, because that's going to help you. You need to practice your conversations, okay, record yourself. This is part of why I got so good about talking about what I do and having conversations and seeming very confident is because I practice. Okay. So your message should be very clear and confident. So you want to be able to say I help blank.
Speaker 1:So whoever your dream client is, go from you know whatever their pain point is, to their desired result Okay. So you want to be really clear on that. So, speaking of dream client, let's talk about that. So, in this first stage of laying the foundation, in your first days of business, you want to know who you're. Who is your easy peasy dream customer and you want to learn everything about them. Know who is your easy peasy dream customer and you want to learn everything about them. So who is this person? Not just anybody with a pulse and a visa. Okay, that is one of the biggest mistakes that I made as a new therapist is I just wanted to work with everybody, which, yes, it gets some money in the bank and it helps you start practicing, but it makes it difficult for you to grow and scale your business because you you just don't know who that person is.
Speaker 1:So when you take a deep dive into their pain points and their fears and their desires, you can figure out how your offer is going to be a solution to their problem. Okay, you want to know where they hang out. You want to know everything about them so that your marketing message can speak to them. Okay, um, one thing that I will tell you is that when you're finding these people, you you want to be focused on whatever their pain point is. Okay, you want to know that if somebody is contacting you about their digestion and you're focusing on their sleep, that's going to be a mismatch. They want to be heard. So what I would do if somebody came to me about you know pain point of digestion, I would be. I mean, you can't ignore, you know all the sleep apnea red flags, but you're going to make sure that you listen to them and hear what they're saying and maybe you can find a way to tie in sleep, disordered breathing and their digestion. And, fun fact, we all know that upper airway resistance syndrome has a huge digestive component and it's more common in women. So that is is really important, because that is going to help my messaging be clear.
Speaker 1:If you don't know who your ideal client is, then how are you going to attract them? Okay, so niching down is something that is important. If you talk to everybody, you will attract no one. There needs to be an ideal customer avatar that you build your business around. Yes, you might attract outliers, but everything that you do should be centered around your ideal who? Okay, yes, my practice works with children. Uh, I also. My practice is a little bit different because I have an associate who is my pediatric specialist, so she works with the kiddos. But when I'm doing my own marketing or I'm working, you know, to get my own clients, I'm focused on my easy peasy, dreamy client.
Speaker 1:Okay, so for me that's Shelby. She is a middle-aged woman who is focused on optimum wellness. She believes that myofunctional therapy is a piece of the puzzle. She seeks me out. She trusts my expertise. She is motivated to get the results that she desires. She can tell me what transformation she wants and she's willing to get the results that she desires. She can tell me what transformation she wants and she's willing to pay for the recipe to get the transformation. She might be interested in improving her digestion, sleep quality or stress levels, but that's part of the optimum wellness. She doesn't beat me up over price. She doesn't ask for different payment terms or special treatment just because she's poor or single or going to school or raising children. She doesn't expect me to operate outside my business parameters that I have set. She doesn't send me five emails a day or expect me to answer them on the weekends. She is a dream client, so I focus all of my messaging around her and I assume that every client that I meet and that I do an exam with is somebody like her, because that's who I'm talking to.
Speaker 1:Okay, uh, now, if you haven't had a client, think about your preference from hygiene, what type of people did you enjoy working with? Some of my students know right from the very beginning that they want to work with children or they only want to work with adults. This is part of the process of defining your ideal customer. Okay, so that was the first 30 days. So that's a lot. You're going to commit to the process. You're going to get your mindset right. You're going to clarify what type of business you're building. You're going to get your mindset right. You're going to clarify what type of business you're building. Um, you're going to get confident in your client conversations. You're going to know who your easy peasy dream customer is. You're going to learn everything about them. You're going to know where they're at, where they hang out at. Okay, then next. So then the next 30 days. We're going to be working on building your network and getting visible.
Speaker 1:So the first baby step is to research and make contact with referral partners. So who is your ideal client going to already trust? Okay, um, you want to introduce yourself, you. You want to have a goal of setting up, you know, maybe start with three to five referral conversations. So this also is going to depend on the type of business that you're building and this is going to dictate how easy that it is to make connections. So, as a practicing myofunctional therapist, you know that you need somebody who can adequately complete a frenectomy. Okay, so, somebody who's highly trained. You need somebody. You might need a speech therapist, you might need an allergist, you might need a sleep specialist, you might need ENT. You're going to need all of these different people. So you might as well start working on these referral partners Now.
Speaker 1:I will tell you that, me having a global business, this was harder because I can't reach I mean, take a city like Denver how many dentists are there? How many orthodontists are there? How many specialists are there? So that was a little bit different situation for me because I was practicing on a bigger scale, so I had to do things like, uh, social media. That was a big thing for me building an email list, having lead magnets and then developing my referral network from conversations that I had with clients. So you're going to just kind of have to dig into this for you. If you're building a local business, it's going to be easy for you to identify all the orthodontists to reach out to and introduce yourself. You're going to be able to contact the sleep doctors or, you know, get to know these people locally versus, like in my case, it's globally. So you're going to be doing that. You're going to be having conversations because you want to be telling people you can help them, and when you find out that somebody has a tongue tie, you need to also be able to say, hey, I know exactly where to send you, okay. So you're going to be doing some research.
Speaker 1:If I am researching somebody in a local area so say, I'm helping a client in Michigan, look for a provider I have specific parameters how I'm finding people. First of all, I start with an internet search. I might search, you know, airway orthodontist in Michigan. Then I start narrowing it down. I go to their website, I study it. If somebody is telling me that they're an airway focused orthodontist and there is not a single word about anything on their website related to sleep apnea, sleep study, sleep disordered, breathing you know anything like that? Then they're very likely not, because that's such a big piece of the puzzle. Okay, if I find a website of a doctor that talks about tongue ties, that talks about myofunctional therapy, airway, that kind of stuff I know, oh, I have had, I have found a great option, so I will reach out to them, okay.
Speaker 1:So that's the first step. You're going to be building your network. Next, you're going to be finalizing your offer and having conversations. So, this is your prices. This is your package. This is what, everything that goes into it. So what is your offer and exactly what does it include? Is it six months? Is it a year? Is it 12 sessions? Is it unlimited sessions?
Speaker 1:Okay, so you need to know exactly what that is, and then you will get clear on how you talk about your services. Okay, you're going to. You have to be confident with this. You um, if you do not believe in your, what you're selling, if you don't believe that anybody's going to pay for it, got to work on that, okay. Um, so once you know this, then you can post Instagram, facebook groups, all of that stuff, even if it feels messy and imperfect.
Speaker 1:That's how I got started. I started, I took my training in January and then I think I was done by April, may. I already had paying clients, and so anytime there was like maybe a holiday or anything like that, I would post on social media hey, I was having a special, or I would introduce myself. Here's the people that I'm looking for. Here's the people that I help. Okay, your first client is likely going to come from your network of family and friends or conversations that you have in the chair. It's not going to be random strangers on the internet, probably Okay. And a total side note, that means that it's very important that your family and your friends know what you're doing.
Speaker 1:So many of my students. They're struggling to grow their business, but nobody knows what they're doing. It's like they're hiding behind this dirty little secret of building. You know I'm doing this little thing. I'm selling Avon over here. I'm doing some multi-level marketing that I'm shameful for. No, you're helping people, and the longer that you keep it a secret, you are like people are getting shortchanged because you're not there to help them.
Speaker 1:All right, next baby step is to set a goal for consults and book them. So how many do you want to do this month? Okay, this is a numbers game. You have to talk to humans, to get the opportunity to tell them that you can help them, and every conversation should have the goal of getting them on the book. So another thing that I see with my students is you know they're ready to go, they're excited to go, but they're not really having conversations because they're scared shitless about where that's going to go. Well, if you know your process, if you know your business hours, if you know all of that stuff, you know your offer. I charge $3,000 for six months of therapy. This is what it looks like Boom, boom, boom. If you know that stuff, then you can have conversations about it. Your whole goal is to talk about what might be their pain point, and they can, you know self-identify, say oh my gosh, that sounds like something I need. Perfect let's. You know, I'm going to give you 30 minutes of my time. That is the goal. It is a numbers game, all right.
Speaker 1:And then for your final 30 days, you're taking action and you're refining as you go. So at this point you finally have the car in motion and now you're going to be improving as you grow. So you're going to continue refining your process as you start working with clients. So you're going to be looking at what's working, what's not working. Okay, you will adjust your intake forms, you will adjust your client onboarding, you will adjust your session flow, you will excuse me. You will get um feedback and testimonials. I mean, you're going to get information.
Speaker 1:Okay, this is your paid R and D, your research and development. Somebody is paying you to refine and perfect your process. You're going to just get better and better. In my own situation, I, like you're never going to be the same. Okay, now, I haven't changed my process in the last handful of years because I finally got it dialed in. So it's just perfect and it's efficient and it delivers great results. But in the meantime, you're going to be working with clients and you're getting paid to do this. So don't think you have to go into it being perfect because you don't. Okay, you just have to show up and take imperfect action. So stop waiting for perfection. Okay, that's just high level fear, um, post, talk, offer, invite. Okay, consistency beats perfection. Every time, if you don't show up, nobody will know that you exist.
Speaker 1:I had a student recently who posted um a question about where other students were finding clients, and my question was well, what are you doing? You know, because she had done her marketing introductory pack and wasn't getting the number of clients that she thought should be coming. My question was what else are you doing? Because marketing is never a thing that you just check and then it's done. It's just continual, on and on and on. So you have to consistently be gathering data.
Speaker 1:Okay, you have to do it. You have to see what works. You will want to gather data for 90 plus days. Stop tweaking your offers, stop changing pricing, stop making all these different decisions. You need to decide, take ugly and perfect action, and then you'll evaluate your data and then you'll decide what's working, what's not working, what do I want to do differently, and then you're going to take more imperfect action.
Speaker 1:So one of the things that my students always want to do is if they're not getting clients, they want to change their price and that's not the case, okay, so you're going to. I don't want you to change decisions prematurely, you have to give it some time. Don't want you to change decisions prematurely, you have to give it some time. So the biggest thing, that the biggest mistake new therapists make is that they quit before momentum kicks in, and you don't want to do that. So I think that is it, you guys.
Speaker 1:So first, first 30 days, you're going to lay the foundation commit mindset, clarity, confidence. Okay, the second 90 days, you're going to be building your network and getting visible. You're going to know everything about your dream client. You're going to start referral conversations. You're going to book consults. You're going to know everything about your offer. You're going to know when you do business, all of that kind of stuff. And then the last 30 days is when you're taking action, you're refining so you're working with clients, you're staying consistent. You're doing all the things to be able to reach people and say, hey, I can help you, and don't change your strategies too soon, okay.
Speaker 1:So that's a wrap. I just gave you night how I gave you the, the roadmap to get through the first 90 days. I will tell you this If you feel like your training wasn't very good and you want a better roadmap to fast track your profitable myofunctional therapy business, then you should check out the Ditch Hygiene Academy. It is designed to get you clients and cash without having to figure out all the moving parts. I've already done that for you, so now that I'm going to try and lose my voice, let's land this plane and, until I see you next time, go take action, work on building a life that you were bonkers about and doing these steps that I laid out for you. That's a wrap, friend, and I will see you again soon.