The Profitable Myofunctional Therapist™ – Start, Grow, and Simplify Your Business

52: Busy Isn’t Profitable: Why Your To-Do List Isn’t Getting You Clients as a Myofunctional Therapist

• Carmen Ball - Myofunctional Therapist, Online Business Coach, Passive Income, Online Courses

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Have you ever ended the day exhausted, busy, and surrounded by checked-off tasks… but still no closer to clients, income, or freedom?

In this episode, I’m diving into why being busy doesn’t equal being profitable and how myofunctional therapists often get stuck working on the wrong things. I share a very real story from my own journals that exposed years of frustration, false productivity, and unclear direction — and how that lack of clarity cost me both momentum and money.

This episode is for the myofunctional therapist who feels overwhelmed, unsure what to work on next, and tired of spinning her wheels. We talk about results lists versus to-do lists, aligning daily actions with big-picture goals, and why your business should support a life you’re bonkers about — not the other way around.

Grab your ☕coffee and your courage – and let’s dive in! 

Xo, Carmen

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Need help? Book a "Get Unstuck" call today: myofunctionaltherapytrainingacademy.com/discovery-call/

SPEAKER_00:

Just because you checked it off doesn't mean that it mattered. Myofunctional therapists don't struggle because they're lazy. They struggle because they're busy working on the wrong things. And if you're doing all the things, working hard, and still wondering why the results aren't showing up, my friend, this episode is for you. Today we're talking about why your business isn't profitable and how to start choosing daily actions that actually move your business and your life forward. If you've finished your myofunctional therapy training and feel stuck on how to start, grow, or simplify your business, welcome, my friend. I'm Carmen, a dental hygienist who once sat right where you are, trained, motivated, but totally unsure how to turn that training into a real profitable business. If you're ready to attract consistent clients, create predictable income, and simplify your business, grab your coffee and your courage, my friend. Let's make your Maya business make sense and a whole lot of dollars. Well, hello, friend. So very glad you're here, and the universe is watching out for you today because you are here and this podcast was placed on your path today. And I absolutely do not believe in accidents. If you have ever ended the day exhausted, busy as all get out with a long to-do list, with things checked off, and still felt like you weren't moving forward, you weren't getting clients, you weren't being profitable, you weren't a step closer to having a profitable myofunctional therapy business or being able to leave dental hygiene if that's where you find yourself. Then this episode, my friend, it is for you. So a little backstory. I had a moment recently where I stumbled across something from my past, and I immediately realized that I was meant to find that today. Okay. It was one of those days I was spinning my wheels. I just had this weird thing, and I found an old journal. Now, I don't mean like a dear diary, I journal every day kind of journal. This was a notebook, and it was more like the kind of notebook that you grab when you're frustrated, overwhelmed, or stuck. So as I flipped through these pages, which I was shocked to see was almost three years, I laughed, I cringed, I wanted to cry because I saw the same thing over and over. Now, let me remind you that this was the type of notebook that I just journaled when I was in a low spot. So it it is not lost on me that there was so much good stuff that was not uh in this notebook because it wasn't, you know, a day-by-day, blow-by-blow um journaling of my life. But the reason that it just kind of took my breath away and really made me more sad than anything is in those pages, I read the same complaints. I read the same excuses over and over and over again. I'm so busy, I don't have time, there's just too much to do. And here's the thing that really hit me hard. The problem never changed. I wasn't actually clear on what I was working towards. I didn't have any direction. And instead of choosing actions that moved my life and business forward, I kept choosing tasks that were easy to check off. Or maybe even I've already done them and I still go put them on the list because I check them off. We all know that checking something off of the list feels good. Okay. Please tell me I'm not the only weirdo that puts tasks on my list that I've already done just so I can mark them off, right? Uh, so that's what we are going to be talking about today. Now, if you haven't listened to episode 51, where we were talking about big picture goal setting and building a life your bonkers about using the life will and the eight categories there, I want you to go back and listen to that first, okay? Because this episode is going to build on that work. You cannot choose the right daily actions if you don't know what kind of life you're building, if what you're going after, okay, what those goals are. So when I started looking at these journal entries, what stood out is that I it wasn't that I wasn't trying, okay? I was trying really, really hard. And that probably explains why over the last few years there were times in my business where I just quit caring. I just quit being excited. I really felt burnt out. And remind you, I left dental hygiene because I was so burnt out. So I found myself in that familiar space again. And I just thought, uh-oh, what am I going to do? Now, according to my own words, busy from my journals looked like spending a ridiculous amount of time trying to fix my time management problems. I was obsessed with creating the perfect ideal day, the perfect calendar, the perfect schedule. But here's what I can see now that I couldn't see then. I wasn't planning the right amount of time on the right tasks. I didn't have a clear target. So instead of choosing better goals, I just kept rearranging my calendar. I just kept fixing it and something had like I thought that the problem was in my calendar. I was aiming in the dark. But meanwhile, I really felt like I was being productive and I was getting so frustrated. And the cost of that, my friend, a lot of frustration, a lot of stopping and starting, and a lot of losing direction. And eventually it caught up with me. I went from my highest earning year ever to making$200,000. Yes, you heard that right.$200,000 less the next year. And that didn't happen because I stopped working hard. It happened because I wasn't working on the right things. Okay. I was lacking clarity. I was lacking direction. And so finding those journals really opened my eyes. Now, a few years ago, I changed how I do my end-of-the-year review and how I do my goal planning. And since then, my business and my life have become more aligned with what I actually want. And really at the at the heart of my superpower, what I do for women like you who are maybe listening to this is I help you build a life that you are bonkers about. Okay. It's not just about being able to leave hygiene and perhaps it's not just about earning money. Um, yes, money is important to finance life, but you know, the freedom of being in charge of your calendar and working less and earning more and being able to work from anywhere, everybody has really a um a different measure of success or what it is that they're after. And it's not just money. So when we talk about living a life that that your bonkers about, I want you to be building that life, that business around your life. Okay. So let's talk about how to fix this because most myofunctional therapists aren't stuck because they're lazy or unmotivated. Okay. You're stuck because you don't know what to work on and you end up doing nothing, but you feel like you're doing everything. And that's a very, very frustrating place to be. Okay. So, step one, we're going to start with the bigger goal. Okay. Your daily results list does not start with your inbox. Now we're going to talk about this results list here in just a minute. It doesn't start with your inbox. It doesn't start with checking your email. It doesn't start with your planner. And it definitely doesn't start with whatever feels urgent that morning. It starts with your annual goals across the eight categories of the life will that I talked about in the last episode. If a task doesn't support the life you are building, then it's not important right now. Okay. So that leads me to step two. Define the result, not the task. So tasks feel safe. Okay. Results create progress. If you've been with me for any amount of time, then you know I love me a results list, not a to-do list. I don't do to-do lists, okay? Because when you use a to-do list, you are just making a meaningless list of tasks, like I was just talking about earlier. You might even actually be writing down something that you have already done, okay? It's just busy work. So I stopped doing a to-do list because when you focus on the results list, like what I what is the result that I want by the end of today? Okay. Then that result that I'm after can help me figure out, okay, how am I going to get there? If I stop my day at four o'clock this afternoon and I want to get these three tasks done, how am I going to do that? Okay. So having things on your list like work on a website, that's not a helpful result because you're you working on your website isn't uh specific enough, okay? Or posting on Instagram is not a result. A result has a finish line. Okay. So if you can't clearly define what that done thing means, then it's not a result. Okay, so this is very important. So if you're multitasking, come back to me here for a minute. Creating creating your results list needs to be appropriate for the time that you have available that day or that week if you're doing it by the week. So, so going back to those journals, the reason I was getting so frustrated and seeing saying, you know, I'm so busy, there's so much to do is because I was not planning appropriately. And that's where I was getting in trouble and getting very frustrated. So let's use today as an example. I was creating my three item results list, and just a side note, that is what goes on my results list every day. There are some days where I might get 15 things done, but I start with my items off of my results list because they're the most important needle movers. And then, so as I was doing that this morning, I um I was just making that list and then I was like, hey, self, you better check the white space on your calendar as you're making this list. The white space is obviously your free time, okay? It's not white space if I've got back to back to back to back to back to back clients all day. So if you are creating your results list and it's not realistic, then it's an absolute waste of time and you're gonna be frustrated and you're gonna be having the same thing go on for, you know, years like I was. So when you're evaluating this, you have to pay attention to what you have available. Okay. You only have so much time, you only have so many minutes in the day, and you can't cram three hourly tasks into 90 minutes of white space on your calendar. Okay, my friend, don't be mad at math. So that was me this morning. I was looking at my calendar and I realized that completing a whole podcast episode, which includes, you know, recording, editing, all the moving parts, the social media, all of those things I plan realistically about two, two and a half hours for that. So when I looked at my calendar, I realized that I was not going to fit that into what I had available. So I had to break it down into a smaller piece. I looked at my calendar, I saw that I had about 45 minutes. So I could just get the podcast ready for recording. Okay. So I hope that's clear on the results. Now then the next step three, it's important to tie every result to a bigger goal. So in store, instead of saying, hey, I need to get clients, okay, you got to get specific. I need, you know, if if you're thinking how many free assessments, uh, or if you're thinking I need to get clients, I I would encourage you to be thinking more like, okay, how many free assessments do I need to do to get somebody to book a comprehensive exam? And how many exams do I need to do to convert to paying clients? So when you know the math or you're very specific, then your daily results can stop being random. Okay, so you're not guessing it anymore, you're executing. And if you're just starting out and you don't know those conversion rates, then you just have to get started maybe with smaller, simpler goals. Um, you know, if I want to complete five free assessments this week, if that's one of your results, then clearly you have to be finding said humans to, you have to be creating value for them, you need to be educating them, you need to be building that no like and trust factor and getting them to book those free assessments. Okay. If it takes you 20 free assessments to get one person to book an exam, and you're trying to book five exams, then you can kind of back up into that and do the math saying, hey, this is what I need to be doing to get there. The same with something like work on a website. Remember, I said like that's not a result, but you could say, like, if the end goal, the result is to have a website, then working on it isn't specific enough. But you could say, hey, my goal today is to get the home page done, but only if you have enough time for that. So that is the important thing. Which leads me to that dopamine hit. So everybody it feels good to check things off, okay? So before you commit to a result, ask yourself, am I choosing this because it moves me forward? Is it tied to a bigger goal? Or because it it like it's gonna feel good to check it off, okay? Busy does not equal profitable, my friend. Checking boxes off does not equal progress. Direction creates momentum. It's so hard for us, I know, because most of us are type A plus personality humans. Um, but at the end of the day, you should be able to say, I planned intentionally, I chose results that matched my goals, and I followed through. Okay. So this is where that shift happens from somebody who plans or spends a lot of time being frustrated, like I used to do, to somebody who accomplishes. And let me tell you, friend, I am by no means perfect, but in the last few years, I've gotten better and better and better. And that's where I really take the work that I do from planning those goals to uh executing. If you listen to the last episode, you know that my evaluation of last year, my health score got a two. Everything else in my life was amazing, seven, eight, or nine, which I'm never gonna give anything a 10 out of 10. But everything else was really good. And it happened at the expense of my health. So now when I have my goals for um now going forward, when I am looking to create my results list, it's like, is that moving me forward? And there's plenty of times where there's something that I know that I need to do in my business, but it is not a priority right now because my priority is working towards my goals. So, like it's easy for me to put something on my list that allows me to lean into improving that health score. So getting out from my walks and getting my workout in that kind of stuff. But there's been plenty of things that I've had to take off the list of like, oop, that's not that, that's busy work. And busy work has a whole different spot in your life. And we'll talk about that in another episode. But I want you to work on this, okay? It's almost a new year if you were listening into this in real time. So I want you to really think about getting away from that to-do list and get to a results list. Three items, they might be the tiniest items, okay? If you have a busy Monday and you're trying to build a business, but you and you're still working full time and you just don't have a lot of bandwidth, you might be choosing three 30-minute tasks. Okay. Um, but I really want them to be tied to your goal. Now, last thing I want to say, if you want support applying this and you want to stop spinning your wheels alone, then make sure that you join the Profitable Myofunctional Therapist Facebook group. We have free monthly workshops that are starting in the new year, and group members are the ones who get the invitation to the workshop. So wherever you are listening to this, you can find the link to join that Facebook group. Okay. My friend, here's what I want you to remember. It's not that you're not working hard, okay? It's just that being busy doesn't equal being profitable. Okay. When your tasks are not tied to a bigger goal, you end up exhausted with nothing to show for it. And many of you guys, I oh, I know this because I listen to you, I talk with you. I know that you're not moving forward in your business. You keep waiting, you keep trying to figure it out, okay? Clarity changes everything for you. It really does. All right, my friend, that is all I have for you today. Until next time, go build a life that you were bonkers about. And I will be back soon to teach you more business goodness on how to start, grow, and simplify your myofunctional therapy business. I hope you loved today's episode, friend. I pray that it lifted you up, motivated you, and taught you something. If so, would you stop right now and go to Apple Podcasts and leave us a review? And lastly, make sure you've joined the profitable. Myelfunctional Therapist Facebook community. Links to all the goodies can be found wherever you're listening to this podcast. That's it for now. Cheering you on, my friend, and we'll chat soon.