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
#24 From Burnout to Booked Out: How Myofunctional Therapy Can Change Everything
In this deeply personal and unscripted episode, Carmen shares the raw truth of what her life looked like before launching her myofunctional therapy business—and how taking that leap transformed everything. From her breaking point in a toxic dental office to the financial and lifestyle freedom she enjoys now, Carmen walks listeners through the emotional, financial, and logistical journey of building a business she’s bonkers about. If you've been wondering what’s really possible with myo, this episode paints the clearest picture yet.
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, and welcome back to the podcast. If you are here listening, I think that you're probably in one of two categories. One, you might be a dental hygienist who is considering adventuring into Mayo and you're just not real sure about what it can mean in your life. Or maybe you've taken a course already in whether that was like at CE or just out of curiosity, or a seminar that you just happened to be at and you're thinking about the possibilities, but you're not sure what that looks like for you. Then you are in the right place. So normally, when we prepare for our podcast batching which I do six at a time we, you know, start with an idea and then just kind of narrow it down, we outline it and then we script it. So when we came out with a list of questions for me to answer. I just thought, well, why not just let me answer these without having a script, because then I can answer them as raw and as honest as possible. So I'm going to do that. Hopefully, you're good with that. So we are talking about the possibilities with a myofunctional therapy business and how it can really change everything for you. I just want to dive into these questions and then I think it'll create a beautiful conversation. So my team, we kind of broke these down into what we call your before picture and your after picture. So we're just gonna I'm just gonna start with them and then I think that will be plenty, okay?
Speaker 1:So the first question said what did your life look like before you started your myofunctional therapy business? So, wow, it looked so different. So at the time when I learned about Mayo, I was working full time, I was traveling, uh, or I was working three 12 hour shifts and I was traveling about three hours round trip every day. So I was having long days. Okay, so that's what my schedule looked like. My income was probably I don't know 70, 80,000 a year.
Speaker 1:I did not love A the office that I was in and I think, um, we get to that at a different question, but it was just it was starting to really be stressful and, even worse, I started to have heart palpitations on the way to work, so I knew I had to get out of there. The next question is what was your breaking point or your moment of clarity where you said this? This is it. So I have shared this before, but I worked in an office that really, the first year that I worked there, was lovely. I could do no wrong. I was the superstar of the team, Like it was awesome. It was a big office. There was two dentists there, two female dentists, um, there was four hygienists, like something like six dental assistants. So it was a big off, a big practice, um.
Speaker 1:But what I loved is that we were getting a bonus. Like every month we were getting a production bonus, and so sometimes that was $800 to $1,000. So my boss decided she was going to hire a dental consulting firm to come in and kind of shake things up. And about that same time she also hired a new practice manager, and that practice manager's opinion about dental hygienists was that we earned too much money that we were such a cost to the office you know like. Did she forget? We were producers. You know we were producing money for the office. So, long story short, that lady came in and she changed our bonus structure. So what went from being a team bonus we all got it and we all split it to now it was kind of a segmented bonus. So dental hygienists were pulled out, we were put into our own category. And let me tell you so, first of all, not only did they pull us out on our own, but then the boss got a cost of living allowance, a COLA raise, so she was getting more money. So essentially, that office manager laid out in a spreadsheet, excuse me, what the boss needed to earn and then what we needed to pay for.
Speaker 1:So that kind of gave me a little bad taste in my mouth when the boss was getting a raise and now we were having to cover that. So basically, the number, the production number that I was going to have to come up to, was very unlikely, okay. So I had a little bit of an attitude about that and everybody else got to just be one big team bonus. So I thought, well, carm, you can't have a, you know, a crappy attitude about this until you try it. So that first month I killed myself.
Speaker 1:I tried to meet that production number so that I could get a bonus. I fell $17 short, so I got zero. Okay, um, but mind you, that was $17 short of this new inflated number because the boss got a raise and so I got nothing and I was a little bit like, ooh, okay, I gave it my all, I crushed it, I really tried to meet it and it wasn't going to happen. The rest of the team now that they didn't have to share it with four dental hygienists guess what? They got hundreds of dollars in their bonus. So it was very, very frustrating. So that was really the breaking point of me deciding that I would get my own bonus. You know, like I'm going to go do something that'll earn me so much money, I don't have to worry about your stupid bonus structure. So that was really the breaking point.
Speaker 1:I was killing myself to help her build her business, her golden parachute, because, think about it, a dental practice is somebody's saleable asset. She's going to sell that someday and when she's got a dental practice with hygienists that earn so much money per year, that is going to be appealing to somebody else who's buying it. Okay, so it's a profitable business. So there was that. There was also the moment of clarity when I was experiencing this frustration and also I was starting to hear the boss telling people about her $100,000 Lexus and how she liked to go to Disneyland twice a year and Disney World twice a year with her kids and I started to just feel like wait a second, this is not okay. And then you just can like.
Speaker 1:The cherry on the top was me having a conversation one day with one of the dentists about myofunctional therapy, why it's so important, and we talked about tongue ties and you know she told me about how knowledgeable she was with tongue ties and yada, yada. So the very first patient that I saw after that was a nine-year-old kid who had been coming to the office every six months since he was a year and a half old. He had one of the worst tongue ties that I had ever seen like, to the point that his family called it a butt tongue. And the doctor came in, did the exam and walked out of the room and did not say one word not one word about this kid's tongue tie. So if you're in this world and you're listening to this or if you've taken a training. You know that that tongue tie is causing a lot of issues, not only structurally in his body but with his speech, with his facial development, with his airway development, all of that stuff. So I was really disgusted. So that was the point where I was like I am done.
Speaker 1:Initially I had set a five-year goal to leave dental hygiene and ultimately I did it in 13 months, and I think some of that was because I was so desperate to get out of there. I just I couldn't wait Now. I worked in that office for two months after opening my business and then I my business was growing so well that I was able to cut back to part-time just two months later. And then I worked part-time for um for that next year. So that's kind of a little bit of the timeframe.
Speaker 1:The next question says did you hesitate after training? What were you scared of or unsure about? So I have talked about this before. I took a 12-week training by somebody who is pretty well known in the industry and I don't think it was great. I got to the end of the training and I was like, okay, now what? So I mean it was good enough that it taught me what I needed to know, obviously to get started, but there was no step-by-step. You do this Like nothing was created. I had to create everything. I had to type everything, all of that kind of stuff. I had to come up with my own therapy templates, that kind of stuff. So I hesitated therapy templates, that kind of stuff. So I hesitated, yes, but I also was so desperate to want to get out of dental hygiene, so I was willing to figure it out and, yes, I was scared, yes, I was unsure, but I also knew that if I stayed in where I was, I wasn't going to be able to leave hygiene. Okay, so that was kind of the before question.
Speaker 1:So now it says what does your life look like now? So I have been practicing since 2017 and teaching since 2018. My life looks wildly different. Freedom let's talk about that. First thing that I will say is not everybody desires the same thing. Okay, maybe we all go into it just thinking about money, which is what I did. I went into it just purely for, um, for the financial gain of it. And, boy, I am coming out, or you know, now I just have such a wildly different opinion, because now it's about the freedom, so the freedom of my calendar to be able to block out my day exactly as I want it to be able to set up my ideal day and then build my business around that life. So that is really amazing.
Speaker 1:Geographic freedom so I'm currently in Colorado, we're moving across the country, I have a daughter in North Carolina, I have family in Montana, like all over the place, and that geographic freedom allows me to work from anywhere. I have a place in Mexico. I can go there and work at any time. So the first year that I was in business I traveled like 72 or 76 days that year, like that was really big for me, so I wanted to be able to travel. The income again I thought that was the biggest thing and now it's just more so about the freedom.
Speaker 1:Income wise, I earned six figures my first full year in business. So I started my business in May, so I had just the part year and then my first full year, I think I was at $125,000. So six figures. And then it just grew from there. So it's been multiple six figures every year. I mean at 125,000. So six figures, and then it just grew from there. So it's been multiple six figures every year. I mean record breaking years and and I even had you know, on my way to multiple six figures, I had a year where I was already in six figures by like April, in six figures by like April. So it was crazy.
Speaker 1:So that's what life looks like now. I don't talk about my income to brag. I talk about my income to show what's possible. Some months I might have 30, 40. I haven't hit 50,000, close for a month. And then I'll have some other months where I have 4,000. But guess what, when I have a $4,000 a month, I'm probably closed. I'm probably not working or seeing clients because I'm traveling. So that's what life looks like Now.
Speaker 1:The next question says what's something surprising or delightful about your life now that you couldn't have imagined before? And this is the life of my dogs. When I was still in dental hygiene A, I only had little, so I had two little six pound dogs. They had to be in a kennel all day while I worked the life. Now that my dogs get to live with, we have adopted a 70 and 80 pound dog, so I get out with them every morning to hike. We get out every afternoon for a walk. Their life is something. I could not go back to a job, because their life and I absolutely love being here, working from home, having my dogs sitting around me and having freedom Okay, so I think that answers that.
Speaker 1:Okay, what part of your transformation do you think others would resonate with the most or find the most unbelievable? I don't know. Do you think others would resonate with the most or find the most unbelievable? I, I don't know. I think probably for a lot of students who come into my program, they resonate with being burned out. They resonate with not wanting to start over. They resonate with not wanting to start over. They resonate with not wanting to take a program that doesn't offer any support. Most of them, you know, don't know the possibilities with Mayo. It's hard for them to believe in themselves because they don't have evidence that this works. So I think that's the biggest thing. Probably what they find most unbelievable is that I started a business and retired from hygiene 13 months later. That I have made, you know, had turned it into a multimillion dollar business and I went from being broke when I went through my divorce in 2010 to, you know, building this multi-million dollar company. You know. To go from not having enough money to have Fidelity agree to work with me to having my own finance team of three that manages my money day to day. So I think for some people that can seem unbelievable, but I wasn't special by any means. I just had to figure it out, and that's the cool thing is, I teach you exactly what I did. Like there's no gatekeeping, all right.
Speaker 1:The next question why do you believe myofunctional therapy is one of the most powerful career pivots out there? I think the reason that I feel so strongly about it is because if you're a dental hygienist, you already have these skills. You already have this knowledge. You don't have to go back to school. I went to graduate school and got a $50,000 graduate degree, you know, a master's in business, because I thought that was going to be the ticket that I could support myself after going through my divorce and it wasn't. It wasn't the golden ticket, and so the pivot is such a natural pivot because, especially the way that I teach you in an easy, step-by-step framework, you get to be in control of the gas and the brake.
Speaker 1:How fast do you want to leave dental hygiene? Okay, you could do it as fast as I do. I mean, I have students who are earning money 12, 16 weeks into the program. So that's why I think it's so powerful because you don't have to break the bank. Yes, it might seem just for a minute like it's a lot of money to invest in yourself, but remember the investment that you make into the Ditch Hygiene Academy, like it is the gift that keeps on giving that money. You're talking three clients, you're talking two clients. It depends on where you set your prices, but I'm teaching you a skill and a system and a revenue framework and all of that stuff that is going to keep giving, giving, giving to you for years, for the rest of your life, and you're making the investment of you know, a few students. So I think that's why it's so powerful. It can be as big as you want it to be, all right.
Speaker 1:What have you seen it make possible, not just for you but for your students? So all of my students are different when they come into the program. Most of them, I would say, don't want to do hygiene anymore. Okay, and for whatever reason. Some of them have injuries. Some of them have had surgeries. Some of them are just flat burnout. Some of them are like me and just didn't like dental hygiene. I've had a few students who love dental hygiene and they're just adding, you know, wanting to add to it. But it has made Mayo has made so many different things possible for the students. Whether that is fully retiring from hygiene, which I've had several do that. A lot of them are still in the phase of doing kind of the hybrid, where they um, have cut back in hygiene and maybe they're doing temp work and they're doing Mayo. And then, you know, the other thing is is, again, it's not always just about money for people Some some it is, but I have lots of students who want to be a more um, a more present parent. They want to have the flexibility to participate in the classroom. They want to have the flexibility to, you know, pick their kid up from school, that kind of stuff or homeschool their kids, that kind of stuff. So it's what's possible is different for everybody.
Speaker 1:The last one said the last question says if you could shout one belief from the rooftops to every dental hygienist who's stuck right now, what would it be? I think probably the biggest. The biggest belief that that, I would say hygienists who are stuck right now could be two things they have to believe in themselves, they have to believe in their people, their pricing, their product and believe in what's possible. A lot of them don't have that, so they have to believe in that and that, like I said, that includes pricing, all of that kind of stuff, but I think, also boundaries. So many of my students have a hard time setting boundaries because they are yes-mams, they're people pleasers, they are perfectionists, they are having a hard time creating time for their business. So, like I always tell them, I can't help you steer a parked car. If you want this, you've got to get doing the work and that's the biggest thing. So if I was shouting one thing, I would be saying get your car and drive, take ugly imperfect action and get started. All right. Well, I kind of liked that. That was easy, definitely raw and personal and off the cuff. I hope this shows you what's possible.
Speaker 1:Whether you're just getting started and haven't taken any training which, if that's the case, might I suggest the Ditch Hygiene Academy or if you've taken another course but you haven't really done anything with it, this might be your sign to get back and pick it up. If you don't feel like your course delivered, then don't stress about it, just make the investment, get another program. Whether that's joining me inside the Ditch Hygiene Academy. We will have the Mile Business Accelerator. Just get again. You got to get that car moving again. So, if you know, I always say don't let a bad investment burn you twice. So if you took a course and it sucked, the longer that you keep having an attitude about that is, the longer it's keeping you where you're at. So you got to get over it and you have to make another investment, and that's okay because you'll earn it back. I think that is really it.
Speaker 1:Wherever you are listening to or watching this, we will have links to all the things. Okay, I would be very honored to lead you and and show you what's possible, because my biggest regret when it comes to Mayo is that I just didn't do it sooner, because I learned about Mayo in 2004 and it took me till 2017 to actually be brave enough to to want to do it, and now there's no place I would rather be. So I hope you enjoyed this episode, my friend. I will see you next time when I will be back with more my own business, motivation, marketing, all the good stuff. So until then, keep living a life that you are bonkers about, or keep trying to build a life you're bonkers about. I'll see you next time.