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
#17 The #1 Mindset Shift You Need to Start Strong
In this episode of the Myo Life podcast, Carmen shares the number one mindset shift you need to make in order to start your myofunctional therapy business. If you've been waiting for the perfect time, the perfect plan, or the perfect certification before taking action, this episode is for you. Carmen breaks down why waiting for perfection is keeping you stuck and offers actionable strategies to move forward with confidence. Learn how to take messy action, overcome perfectionism, and start before you feel ready.
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 myofunctional therapist and entrepreneur. Here you will find all the things myo 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, my friend, and welcome back to the MyoLife podcast. I am looking forward to today's conversation.
Speaker 1:Does this sound familiar? You've been waiting for the right time, the right plan, the right certification, all of those things. Everything's perfect before you start your myofunctional therapy business, and now you find that it's been months or even years that have gone by, and you're still stuck. I see this all the time. There is no perfect time. Okay, it's a lie that your brain tells you to keep you safe, to keep you comfortable, and the longer you wait, the harder it gets. The number one mindset shift that you need to start strong is to get out of your own way and to start before you feel ready. So messy action is the name of the game, and today I'm breaking down exactly how to do it. So let's talk about why waiting for perfect? Okay, whatever. That is why this is going to keep you broke.
Speaker 1:So you're probably noticing um a theme with this batch of podcasts, and it's because I have so many coaching clients that are saying I don't know where to start, I don't know what to do, I don't know how to get moving. Okay, so perfectionism is alive and well, especially in the lives of dental hygienists. So remember, perfectionism is procrastination in disguise. You're telling yourself that you're getting ready, but what you're really doing is avoiding the uncomfortable, messy, sometimes awkward work of just freaking starting. So maybe you've convinced yourself that you need one more class before you can help people, or that your website needs to be perfectly polished before you can book clients. Let me tell you something that's a lie. Your brain is feeding you a line of BS that is trying to keep you safe. So perfectionism, my friend, is not about high standards. It's about fear fear of failure, fear of judgment, fear of putting yourself out there and hearing crickets.
Speaker 1:But the important thing that I want you to know is that nobody builds a business from the sidelines. You have to get on the field, and I am meeting myofunctional therapists who have taken their training years ago, months ago, and they're still staying safe on the sidelines. They got to get on the field. You have to learn by doing, not by thinking about it. Okay, I don't want you to spend months and years consuming courses, reading books, making plans. None of it is going to replace the actual experience.
Speaker 1:So one of the examples that I give to my students is think about the first time that you rode a bike. Did you read about riding a bike? Did you read about learning how to balance? Did you watch endless YouTube tutorials on how to bike? Okay, how to balance. No, you got on the damn bike, you wobbled, you wrecked, you fell, you figured it out, you put a bandaid on and you got back up. Okay, your business is the same.
Speaker 1:So I want you to stop convincing yourself that learning equals progress, because progress comes from action, and that is a real problem, especially for myofunctional therapists that have taken other courses. They just can't apply what they have learned because they took a program that did not teach them like a repeatable process or rinse and repeat process, a step-by-step process, so they just can't put it into use. It doesn't matter how many letters you put behind your name or how prestigious the program was, if you can't use the information, it's pointless, okay, so, so you have to take action. Now let's talk about confidence. So a lot of people think that you have to have confidence to move forward. Okay, and this is a myth. You don't wake up one day magically feeling confident enough to start. That's not how it works. Confidence is built. You take action, you survive it, you gain confidence, then you take more action. Okay, you hear me talk about this, uh, in in my social media or other videos. You decide, you, you know. So we make decisions, you take ugly and perfect action, you evaluate and then you take more action. Okay, we don't keep going back and making the same decisions. We don't change our prices. We don't change who we're working with all of that stuff. We just get better with the decisions that we have already made.
Speaker 1:So, like, think about. I think about the first time that I, you know, did, like an Instagram live or a Facebook live. Yes, it's awkward. Okay, your first client consult is going to feel clunky, but guess what? You'll be better. The second and even the 10th and the hundredth Confidence is just evidence that you've done something before, and the only way to get that evidence is to do the thing.
Speaker 1:Now, one of the things I tell my students when they're trusting the process that I teach because, remember, in the Ditch Hygiene Academy I lay everything out, therapy templates, like it is definitely a repeatable process, okay, but they don't know that it works, they're just seeing what I teach. But I tell them, like, each time you do it, it just gets easier. Each time you do a free assessment, the next one is easier. It really is like riding a bike. I could I haven't done a complimentary assessment in years and I could do one tomorrow and blow their socks off. Okay, because it is like riding a bike. A bike, you just get better and better. So the same with your first exam. The first time you do an exam, the, you know it's not going to be beautiful, that's okay. As long as you accomplish what you've meant to accomplish, you're going to be better. The next time it's going to be the same. The same with therapy.
Speaker 1:When I first started my therapy business and I had my first client, I literally had a sticky note that had broken down the minutes, what I should be doing each minute, so that I stayed on time, and it also had a list of the exercises that I was going to teach, so I didn't know it. But once I did it, that first time, I had evidence that A I could do it. It wasn't as bad as I thought, and I was able to get better and better. So the thing to remember is that every successful business owner that you admire, myself included, started out being awkward. Okay, we all had that figuring it out phase. Nobody was handed a blueprint. Well, if you're in the Ditch Hygiene Academy, that's as close to a blueprint as you're going to get. But but, like me, my training program didn't teach me any of that stuff, so I couldn't wait for things to be perfect. I had to just get started.
Speaker 1:So if you are thinking that you're an uh, an exception, if you think you're that unicorn, you think that you need more time, you need more prep, you need more experience before you start. I just have to tell you that that is the exact mindset that is keeping you stuck. The only way through to the other side is going through it. Okay, the only way across the the river is over the bridge to get there. Okay, you have to be willing to be a beginner. You have to be willing to take action before you feel ready. So let's talk about this mindset shift, you know, to start thinking about hey, I'm going to get started and and to be willing to do something, even if it's ugly, so you can call it the ugly. First draft rule, you can talk, call it whatever you want.
Speaker 1:Every person that you admire had that messy, awkward what the hell am I doing? Situation Okay, embrace yours. You got to laugh about it. First of all, nobody's ever going to judge you, okay, um, clarity comes from movement, not from overthinking. So your web, your first website, it's not going to be perfect. Your first Instagram post is not going to be perfect. Your first client call is not going to be perfect, and that is okay, my friend, action is the antidote to fear. So the more, the more you wait, the bigger the fear gets, and the second you start, the fear loses its power. And when you take action, it creates momentum. So the more you do, the easier it gets.
Speaker 1:Success isn't about knowing everything, it's about taking the next best step. So, going back to therapy, you know, or, like my personal example, when I started my business, I had no idea what I was doing. I just started, okay, and guess what? I figured it out along the way, and you can too. Part of the challenge of starting your own myofunctional therapy business is actually implementing what you've learned. So this means you have to get out and work with clients. You have to get out and have conversations so that you can dial in your processes. You can't refine and get better if you don't have a human to do that with. Okay. So let's talk about practical ways to embrace this mindset shift, to get out of your own way.
Speaker 1:So the 24 hour start deadline. So right now, I want you to pick one thing that you can take action on in the next 24 hours. No overthinking, just do it. Next, you're going to lower the bar. So this is hard for us hygienists because we tend to be type A plus personalities. Okay.
Speaker 1:So done is better than perfect. Your first version of anything is just going to be practice, and that's okay. So I'm always pushing my students to accept B. You know to, to get comfortable with B plus work. I don't know about you, but I was a straight A student, okay. So accepting B plus work is not going to lie. It's kind of hard for me. Now I have gotten better, because there is times where I'm like I just got to get this done.
Speaker 1:Okay, that messy action. If we tried to get everything perfect, nothing would ever get done. You would never get your business started and you're never going to help anybody. And there's people out there like you're ripping them off. The longer that you are not in business, you're ripping people off because you're not helping them. Okay, they need you. So lower the bar and learn that having something done is better than having it perfect. I want you to commit to a messy action challenge, so challenge yourself. To post or reach out to somebody before you feel ready is very important. The only way to get better is by doing Okay.
Speaker 1:Next, stop consuming and start creating. You do not need another course. You don't need another book. You don't need another podcast. You need execution. So important. Okay, build accountability. So get a business buddy. You can have a coach. Your audience you can tell your audience what you're doing. So public commitment makes it real. Now, one thing that we do inside the Ditch Hygiene Academy is there is the Ditcher Lounge, and so that is. That is a community of all of the students. So that is really, really helpful too. So you might have a situation like that.
Speaker 1:Next, I call it developing your MVP. So this is your minimum viable program. So this is getting just enough done to get your doors open for business, so that you can continue to improve on everything. So this is exactly what I did, and I have a five lesson course on it, called Ignition Implementation Lab. It is part of the Ditch Hygiene Academy, but, in a nutshell, so I took my training. It was just okay. Okay, it was.
Speaker 1:The problem was is it didn't really help me figure out what I was supposed to do. So I was left in a situation of going, okay, well, I have this knowledge, but I have no way to apply it and I have no way to implement it. So what am I going to do? So I really, every single day, was asking myself like, if a client contacted me today, what would I have to have in place? Okay, so those are, those are the massive action things that I talk about, because if somebody contacted me like they're going to want to pay me money, so what do I need in place?
Speaker 1:So when you build your minimum viable program, you're not getting everything perfect. Okay, you're going to need a kit, you're going to need a way to get paid, and everything else can come after that. Yes, you're going to build a website, but you don't have to have it perfect. You do not have. You don't even have to have a website. You could build a business if you wanted without a website, and that's not going to keep you from delivering your therapy to a client, but having a kit and being able to. You know, however, you're going to meet with them. If you're meeting with them online, you have to have a way to do that. You have to have a camera, microphone, earphones or something like that. But you can just get started and then you get better and better. So when you build an MVP, you are just continually iterating. You're continually getting better, you're continually moving the needle, but your door's open. So that's really what I teach inside the Ditch Hygiene Academy is really to take you from knowing nothing to getting cash right away so you can start recouping your investment.
Speaker 1:So think about your own MVP. You don't have to have beautiful letterhead to start seeing clients. You don't have to have letterhead. You don't even have to have a logo. You don't have to have a business name to start having conversations with people and to offer your services. Hey, I can help you. Okay, if you know your price, if you know what your package looks like, if you know when you're seeing clients I'm seeing clients on Fridays. My therapy services are $2,000 for 12 sessions of therapy then you're you're ready to rock and roll, okay. So those are ways that you can embrace the mindset shift. And that mindset shift in case I've already lost you is getting started before you're ready. You're never going to feel ready, but you have to start. Think about the first time you cleaned teeth, but kind of cracks me up because it was so long ago. Uh, I, I don't know that I was ready. Or how about giving an injection? Let me tell you, I learned how to give injections into an orange. So when it was all of a sudden a mouth, whoo, I didn't feel ready. Okay. So I've given you some practical ways to embrace that mindset. So here's your challenge Pick one thing that you've been avoiding because you don't feel ready and do it today.
Speaker 1:So I call this swallowing the toad. If you've been with me for any amount of time I talk it's kind of like kissing a toad. Nobody wants to do that and definitely nobody wants to swallow a frog. Uh, but the things that I am just avoiding, just do it Okay, like tear, tear the bandaid off.
Speaker 1:When I have a day that I call swallow the toad, I am doing the things that I don't want to do and I am, in fact, I'm doing the worst things. First, because, what you know, our brains are funny. Once you accomplish that little task, then your brain's going to be like woohoo, okay. So think about the one thing that you can do and get it done. Don't overthink it, don't perfect it, just start Okay. And just remember that the longer you wait, the harder that it gets. So start today, start messy and figure it out as you go.
Speaker 1:You can find me on social media. You can tell me about what you're committing to working on. I want to be able to cheer you on and I want you to imagine where you're going to be six months from now if you just start today. Okay, imagine where you're going to be if you keep moving. Super exciting stuff. So that is a wrap, my friend. If this episode lit a fire under your booty, then please share it with a friend who needs to hear this. And if you were loving the show, leave a review. It helps more people find us Now. Stop waiting, go make moves and get busy building a life that you are bonkers about. I'll be back soon, my friend, with some more myo-business. Goodness, bye for now.