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

53: How to Get Your First Myofunctional Therapy Client: Even Without Confidence

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

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Are you trained in myofunctional therapy but still wondering where your clients are supposed to come from?

In this episode, I’m breaking down the biggest misconception I see with newly trained myofunctional therapists — that confidence comes first. It doesn’t. Action does.

This conversation is for dental hygienists and trained myofunctional therapists who are stuck in planning, Googling, and waiting instead of building momentum. I’m sharing exactly why getting your first client is far simpler than you think and walking you through the four-step process I used to build my own multi-million-dollar practice.

If you’re ready to stop overcomplicating business, create real momentum, and finally turn your training into income, this episode will give you clarity, direction, and very specific next steps.

Grab your ☕coffee and your courage — and let’s dive in!
 Xo, Carmen

Join The Profitable Myofunctional Therapist™ Facebook Community: https://www.facebook.com/groups/1295968461846242

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

SPEAKER_00:

If you have finished your myofunctional therapy training and you are still wondering where all your clients are or where all the people are, then this episode is for you. Because getting your first client, my friend, it's not about confidence. It's about clarity and it's about action. So today I am breaking down exactly how to get your first myofunctional therapy client. Step by step by beautiful step. Even if you don't feel ready yet. 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. My friend, I am so happy that you are here and the universe again is watching out for you today because this podcast was placed right here in your earbuds. Now, I want to start this episode by saying that I am seeing something over and over again, and that's exactly why this conversation needs to happen. If you are listening to this in real time, this is the first episode of the new year. So happy new year to you, my friend. And as um, as part of our transition into the Profitable Myelfunctional Therapist brand, a few months ago we opened a free Facebook community. And so when people join, we get uh some information about where they're at, okay? And what genuinely surprised me is how many of you have been trained and you are doing absolutely nothing with it. Now, let me say this to you clearly and lovingly, my friend. But myofunctional therapy is not something that you learn and just put on a shelf, okay? It has to be implemented. If you took your training two years ago and you never used those skills, it is going to feel much harder to jump in now. Now, you can happily prove me wrong, my friend, but I kind of compare it to practicing dental hygiene and giving injections. I used to give thousands of injections a year, okay? That is not a skill that I'm actively working on anymore. So I wouldn't expect to just jump in without some sort of preparation. I honestly don't know if I ever could. So, like so many of you, you have taken your training and now you were Googling the same question over and over and over again. Where do I get clients? Okay. So today we are talking about how simple it is to actually get your first or your next myofunctional therapy client. Now, when I finished my training, I honestly felt like I would have to figure it out. Okay. My 12-week training that I took gave me the clinical skills, but it didn't give me much in the way of business. And so I knew one thing for sure is that I wanted out of hygiene. So I had to figure out where I was going to get people. Okay. So I didn't sit around waiting to feel ready or simply Googling where do I find people? I started taking action. I raised my hand, I educated people, and I showed up anywhere that I could genuinely add value. So I remember it like it was yesterday. It was May, and I made the decision to run a May Day special where I offered complimentary exams. That gave me a clear, non-salesy way to start conversations and to get people in the door. And my friend, it worked. The hardest part of that time was figuring out really where I was going to find people. Okay. Now, the thing that surprised me is getting my first clients really came quickly. Okay. One client turned into six, turned into 12, and pretty soon I was actually having to double and quadruple my prices just to slow things down. But looking back, it wasn't, it wasn't confidence that made it work. Okay. It was action. It was boots on the ground work. It was me gagging and going through the discomfort, feeling the sweaty pits, the sweaty palms, the butterflies in my belly, and doing it anyhow. Okay. So that's why this episode matters because so many of you are waiting to feel ready and you think people are just going to show up when actually what builds your business is not the confidence, it's doing the work. But first, got to give you some tough love. And I say this with love, you know that, but man, I am seeing this show up so much in my coaching. First of all, my friend, you cannot build a business without margin. You have to have time to do this. Okay. If your calendar is so packed and you are unable or unwilling to change anything, then you are choosing the outcome. You are choosing stagnation. You're choosing being in the same place next month, next quarter, next year. Okay. So many of you are coming to coaching and having so little margin to build your business. You've got to have some hours. You have to have some white space. Okay. Second, you are not entitled to success without doing the work. Training does not create income. Okay. Action does. It's got to be the right action, not busy work, not Freddy Cat work. You got to be working on the stuff. And basically today I'm going to be giving you the stuff that you should be working on. But just because you took some training and you say you're a myofunctional therapist, doesn't, you're not entitled to just be successful. Okay. You've heard me say that time and time again. I've had to have this conversation with some of my students in the past, just because they learned from me does not guarantee their success. You've got to do the work, you've got to take the action. Okay. And then last, my friend, I have learned that some people don't actually want a solution. They just want to hear themselves complain. And if that's you, nothing is going to change until you take responsibility, until you stop the excuses, until you stop saying that you can't do this or you can't do that. How about you think about what you can do? Okay. Um, and stop fighting for your limitations. All right. I'll get off my soapbox now. Let's talk about how you're going to get your first client and how simple it really is. This is a four-step process. Step one, you're going to get clear on your offer. Step two, you're going to go where your people are. Step three, you're going to educate them. You're going to give, give, give before you ask them to take out some dollar bills to pay you. And then the last one is you're going to tell people that you can help them. Okay. So let's dive into these a little bit more. Okay. Step one, getting clear on your offer. So this is how you're going to get paid. Okay. Your offer. So it's going to be very important that you know who you're going to help so that you can create an offer. Anyone who coaches with me or comes into my programs knows and understands that you have to have something that is uniquely different. Okay. Many new myofunctional therapists, they just want somebody with a pulse and a purse. Okay. You are just a myofunctional therapist, and therefore you are going to help men, women, um, children. You're going to help them with mouth breathing and tongue posture and mouth posture and swallowing, all of those things. Well, when you try and be everything to everybody, that make that dilutes your message. That makes it very difficult for you because how do you create value and educate on all of the things? So it's really important, in my humble opinion. And I feel like I'm qualified to make that opinion after having built a multi-million dollar business. But I think you need to have it narrowed down a little bit more. For example, for me to get very clear on my offer, I have to know who my who is. Okay. So my who, my ideal customer, is a middle-aged woman. She's educated. She has disposable income because guess what? If you're selling your services, somebody got to have some money, okay? Um, she feels terrible. She's not sleeping. She's she has poor digestion. She is um just really bottomed out. Like her fatigue severity score is is likely a 63 out of 63, a 59 out of 63, something like that. Her quality of life scores are all over the place, many of them a 10. Okay. So um, so I know very intimately about Shelby. Okay. Name your ideal customer because when you go to get clear on your offer, you have to know who it is you help, what problem you're gonna help them solve, and then really um what your unique myofunctional experience is going to be. You don't want this to be a situation of uh people calling around price shopping for you know a what's the cost of a porcelain crown? You don't want that to be the case with you. So when you have a unique myofunctional experience, what that this offer is the whole container. How how much are we gonna work together? How often are we gonna see each other? How long are the sessions? Okay, what's your price? All of that stuff goes into your offer. What is going to change for them? Why working with you is different, okay? Now, in determining your offer, my friend, I want to be very clear here. Packages matter. You've heard me say this again. If you are build, if you're trying to build a six and seven-figure business off of single one-off appointments, it's going to be extremely difficult because basically you never know what's going to happen. You never can budget. Okay. When you sell a package, that gives you the ability to have the income. You um create some commitment for your client. I always give the example of me saying I'm going to get a massage every Friday. If that massage therapist is planning on paying her mortgage by my promise to come every Friday, she might be living under a bridge because I'm not going to follow through on doing it every Friday. And when you have a package, that is a little bit different. So, all right, that's all I need to say about getting clear on your offer. So that is step one. Okay, so now what you you know what your offer is. Now you gotta go where the people are, okay? There is no perfect recipe. So many of you guys come to me and say, Hey, Carmen, where do I find my people? Like, well, I don't know. Who are your people? Okay. You know more about your human than I do. Your marketing strategy should be dictated by your human, okay? Not what other therapists are doing or what's trending, because what I do to reach my ideal customer is different than what somebody who specifically works with children, what they're going to be doing, okay. So this dives a little bit deeper into knowing who that ideal customer is. If I was building a brick and mortar store or practice, and I was working with middle-aged women who weren't sleeping, and we all know that when somebody doesn't sleep well, they very likely are struggling with um poor digestion and also weight management. You might find those people at a health club. So then you might be doing um something like a lunch and learn or a workshop or just an you know a meet and greet get to know you type of thing. Um in my case, my ideal customer, my Shelby, is middle-age. So I'm gonna be wasting my time uh on social media and doing TikTok videos because my analytics tell me that my ideal customer is on Facebook. Okay. Cool fact, it also tells me exactly what days and what times she's on there, too. So you have to go where your people are. Okay. So you got to think about what kind of business you're wanting to start and and where you will find them. Okay, building a brick and mortar store obviously is gonna be different than you know, building something online. Okay, so now for step one, you know what your offer is. Okay, that's what you're gonna be selling people. Two, step two, you're gonna go where your people are. Step three, now you are going to give them something. Okay, you're gonna add value before you ask them for anything. I always tell my students, you need to give, give, give before you ask them to take. Now, most people, just because you do a post on social media, most people aren't just gonna say, oh, hey, here's you know, three, four, or five thousand dollars. Most people aren't going to do that. Most people have to be dated. Okay, you got to court them. Some people take one to two years before they really hit rock bottom and want to make a change. They want to feel better. That is my experience. Now, yes, I have plenty of people who find me on social media and they just reach right out and they are ready to go. Um, that is not the case. So, so you have to educate them, you need to help them understand why their problem matters. Again, this is why I think being very niche specific or very specific in the problem that you solve or in the very little teeny tiny category that you work. Because if I'm a tired woman struggling with her weight, I'm not looking at your social media content that has information about men, women, and children. Okay. I'm going to be looking for content that specifically is speaking to being a middle-aged woman who doesn't sleep well or being a middle-aged woman who struggles with their weight. So letting them know why they're particular, what what the particular problem that you solve, why that matters to them, and also letting them know that you understand it. You're going to help them feel seen and feel heard. So then you're going to be creating that value in educating them that builds trust. Okay, it builds that no like and trust factor. Social media can absolutely be a part of this, but I want you to know, my friend, that those posts disappear quickly. So you're going to just always be on that hamster wheel, struggle, struggle, struggle. When I work with students inside my programs and in my coaching, I encourage them to create long-form content like podcast blogs or YouTube videos, something like that. Um, I would say YouTube videos and blogs are probably the best because you can have them continue working for you long after you have created it. For example, I have blogs on choosing a uh phrenectomy provider. I have blogs on questions to ask an orthodontist to determine if they're airway focused. Okay, those blogs continue working for me long after I have published them. And even to step it up the to uh to the next level, uh, in my report. When I write a report for somebody, it will say, Hey, here's some more resources if you have further questions. Okay, so that just builds that no like and trust factor a little bit more. So I want you to think of the value as like planting seeds, okay? You don't get to harvest right away, you got to plant the seeds, you got to grow the crop. So you're teaching, you're explaining, you're answering questions, you're helping people understand their problem. Again, are you seeing, are you seeing a pattern here? This is why knowing a smaller specific niche is helpful. When you're helping somebody understand their problem, is their problem mouth breathing? Is their problem sleep? Now we know that they tie in together, but they don't necessarily know that. So in this step, you're going to give, you're going to teach, you're going to help. You're doing all the things. And then step four is when you invite. Okay. This is when you invite people to work with you. This is when you make an offer to help them. Okay. You know your offer. You know your people. You know where they're at. You have educated them that you're helping them understand. It's kind of like you cast your reel and you're just reeling them in, or you cast your hook and you're just reeling them in, pulling them closer and closer to you. And now you're ready to invite them to work with you. So this is the step that most of you guys avoid. And it is the simplest. A lot of you don't do it because you don't want to be salesy. If somebody is telling you that they're already struggling, my friend, they're already confused, they're already frustrated, it is not your job to stay silent. It is your job to raise your hand and say, I can help you. Okay, this is not pushy. This is not salesy. This is being in service to them. And people cannot say yes to an offer that they do not know exists. Okay. Hoping that somebody figures it out on their own and happens to come across your um your social media page, your profile, and just do business with you. That is not a business strategy, my friend. Okay. This gets to be simple. You don't need fancy funn funnels, you don't need to perfect anything. You don't have to have your language perfect. You just need to be clear and you need to be able to invite them to work with you. Okay. So before I let you go, I want to give you some very specific homework. Okay, we're not gonna do everything all at once. We're gonna just do the right things. Okay, so first you're going to get clear on your offer. Who do You help? What problem do you solve? What does that package look like? How long are you going to work together? What's going to change for them by the end of doing therapy with you? Okay. If you cannot explain it, then it's not clear enough to you. I have told you before about the packages that I offer in my practice. They have a six-month and a year. Everybody doesn't get two options. They get what's best for them. I have many people that I wouldn't touch for six months. I will only work with them for a year and I tell them that right from the beginning. And I tell them why. Okay. Also, I can tell you everything about my offers. I can tell you the prices. I can tell you how long the payment plan is. I can tell you how long the sessions are. I can tell you all the details about what the therapy session looks like, how long it is, that I'm going to record it, you know, all of that stuff. So know everything about your offer. Next, you're going to choose a place to show up. One spot, okay? Not everywhere. One platform, one environment, one room where your humans are. Because I want you to get good and consistent about being in one place before we add anything else. The next figure out how you're going to bring value to them. I know that this is where many of you guys are stuck. Okay. And if that's the case, then you absolutely need to be in my programs because we work through all of this stuff. We work through it in my programs. We also work through it in the one-on-one coaching. So you gotta teach them something, okay? Answer a question, explain a problem, help somebody understand what's happening in their body, in their situation. Okay. Value builds trust, and trust builds clients. You, my friend, are in total control of how many clients you have. You just don't even realize it. And then the last thing is, my friend, you got to make the offer. You have to invite people to work with you. You have to tell them I can help you. If you do not invite them, they can't say yes to you, my friend. And you're not going to be in business for very long. Okay. So this is simple. Growing your business, getting clients is simple. Now there's a couple other nuanced things. Like you got to believe in yourself, and you have to believe in your people, and you have to believe in the services that you provide and believe in your offer. But it does. It gets to be simple. Let it be simple. Okay. Get very clear on your offer. Go where your people are. Add value. Educate, educate, educate. Give, give, give before you ever ask them to get out their credit card and offer to help. Okay. Simple steps. Okay. So there's your homework. Also, if you are not in the Profitable Milefunctional Therapist Facebook community, you want to get in there. Okay. This is where we continue these conversations. Also, in the new year, we have monthly workshops, and that's where you're going to get all the goods. Okay. And then, second, if you are stuck, book an unstuck call. So this is something new. This is for dental hygienists and also trained myofunctional therapists who know that something needs to change. So we're going to really get specific on what's keeping you stuck. And then I will help you map a simple and doable path forward and give you some tactical steps that you can get started on. Okay. And if it makes sense, then I will make you an offer to work with me in my programs or maybe private coaching to support you. Because, my friend, without clarity and action, nothing is going to change. Okay. So that, my friend, is a wrap. Go do your homework. And until I see you next time, go build a life that you are bonkers about. And I will be back soon to teach you 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 myofunctional 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.