55: How to Stand Out in a Crowded Myofunctional Therapy Market

Have you ever felt your stomach drop the second you discover another myofunctional therapist in your town? 

In today’s episode, I’m diving deep into why competition isn’t the threat you think it is—and how it’s actually proof that your market is alive, thriving, and full of opportunity. 

I share the real story of how competition used to send me spiraling…and the exact mindset and strategy shift that changed everything. 

If you’re ready to stand out, stop shrinking, and finally embrace your power in a crowded space—grab your ☕ coffee and your courage. Let’s build a blue ocean offer inside a red ocean market. 

Xo, Carmen

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Chapters

• 0:00 Welcome And Core Promise
• 4:27 Reframing Competition And Pricing
• 7:55 From Scarcity To Positioning
• 12:50 Premium Experience And Waitlists
• 15:50 Blue Ocean Vs Red Ocean
• 19:50 Build A Unique Client Experience

Transcript

SPEAKER_00: 1:16

All right, friend, if you're already doing your myfunctional therapy business and the thought of competition makes your heart sink all the way to your tennis shoes, then you definitely don't want to multitask during this episode because I'm going to give you some ideas on how to make yourself stand out. Because, my friend, competition is healthy. It means that there's a desire for your services. And so rather than be afraid of competition, I want you to learn to embrace it.

SPEAKER_01: 1:47

If you're a burned out, bored dental hygienist who knows that you can't do this forever, or you've already taken myofunctional therapy training but feel stuck on how to actually start, grow, or simplify your business, welcome, my friend. You're in the right place. I'm Carmen, a dental hygienist who once sat exactly where you are: overworked, physically tired, mentally done, knowing that there had to be more, and wanting the fastest, simplest, most organized path forward with someone holding my hand along the way. This podcast is for women who don't want more information. They want transformation. They want clarity, consistent clients, predictable income. Without building a business that takes over their life, they also want support while they do it. So if you're ready to stop spinning, start moving, and finally make sense of what comes next, grab your coffee and your courage, my friend. Let's build a business that works for your life, not one that runs it, so that you can build a life that you're genuinely bonkers about. Because that's my superpower.

SPEAKER_00: 3:02

Well, hello, friend, and welcome back to the podcast. This is an incredible episode and it was placed on your path today for a reason. And honestly, the timing couldn't be better because we need to talk about something that sends a lot of myofunctional therapists straight into a panic mode. And that, my friend, is competition. If you have ever found out about another myofunctional therapist who's just opening up her business in your town or somewhere in your vicinity, and immediately you felt your stomach drop, I had a student reach out to me uh not too long ago in full-blown fear. Her first question was, Carmen, should I lower my prices? And listen, my first honest thought was uh that the person who was her competitor, I um thought her prices were not really at a premium level. So I thought, my gosh, if you lower, if you get them too low, you might as well roll out the red carpet to the race to the bottom Olympics because, friend, nobody is ever going to win that event. And nobody wants to win that event. I didn't build a business so that I could be the cheapest and barely get by. I built a uh premium practice and I did it on purpose because I would rather work with one$5,000 client who is all in and ready to transform instead of working with five$1,000 bar, you know,$1,000 clients who are bargain shoppers who um they they're hard, they're demanding, they just they're not your easy peasy dreamy customer. Okay, I would rather work with one versus five. I mean, it's less time, it's less effort, and um, and that$5,000 client is probably going to be uh very dreamy. So if competition is freaking you out, let me lovingly drop you some truth. Competition is not your enemy, my friend. Your mindset is. And no, you don't need to lower your prices, you need to raise your standards. How fun is that? Okay, so let me take you back to a less wise version of me. Okay, the version who used to spiral anytime that there was competition. So when I first started, anytime I knew that somebody else was doing myofunctional therapy, my brain went into full scarcity mode. Oh, great, every client that they get is gonna be one less for me. I felt like it was really this invisible tug of war that I really, quite honestly, never asked to be part of. And because I apparently love to torture myself, I added social media comparison to the mix. Okay, so I'd scroll somebody else's account and I'd look and I'd think, oh my gosh, there's more followers, or she has better content, or what if they pick her instead of me? Okay. Gosh, that version of me was tired. She was stressed. And really she was operating from fear instead of strategy. And then something shifted. I started noticing that some of the therapists who who I thought were, you know, they had the biggest followings, they weren't actually doing as good as I thought they were. Okay. And meanwhile, I was quietly building a multi-million dollar profitable practice with a fraction of the audience. So that's when it clicked for me. Follower count doesn't matter, competition doesn't matter, positioning matters. So instead of shrinking, I made myself unforgettable. Okay. I raised my prices, I elevated my client experience, I delivered more support, more guidance, and more hand holding than anybody else around me. And you know what happened? People waited on my waiting list because they wanted me. Not the cheaper option, not the influencer. They wanted me. And that really made me feel good. And that's when the truth sank in. Competition means that the demand is real. And if the demand is real, then there is room for you. Okay. So let's talk about um how to create a blue ocean offer in a red ocean market. So I teach about this in my programs. I you might have heard me talk about it somewhere before. And I also heard this from a recent business mentor of mine, and I thought, gosh, this is so very good. So I gotta tell you, the brilliant brilliance is not all mine. Um, but first, let's talk about what the blue ocean strategy is. So there's really two types of markets, okay? So I learned about this in graduate school. The red ocean, uh, and that's like your crowded, competitive, chaotic market. So in the myofunctional therapy world, everybody would be fighting over the same clients, okay? People lowering their prices to win. And then the blue ocean. So let me back up. So if you think of a red ocean, think of uh stormy waters, and like if there was a bloody limb in the ocean and all sorts of sharks swimming around in this red ocean, blood, blood, bloody shark-infested waters. Okay, how graphic is that? You're welcome. Uh, and then you have the blue ocean, which is just calm, okay? It is just calm, it's wide open, there's no competition, you're the obvious choice. Um, and in here in so in grad school, we learned, you know, you want to operate with a blue ocean strategy, you know, making competition irrelevant. And so the biggest thing with the blue ocean, red ocean strategy today is the business, business is different. Okay. Um, most of us are not creating a brand new industry. So, really, the only time that you're gonna have a blue ocean is if you're just very innovative, okay? You're you're creating something brand new. Okay, we are not inventing Uber, um, we are not funded by the Silicon Valley, uh, and you don't have millions to drop to do something that nobody else has ever heard of. Okay, so myofunctional therapy is already a red ocean. So the goal is not to eliminate your competition, it is to make competition irrelevant by creating a blue ocean office or offer that nobody else can compare to. Okay, so we're gonna talk about ways that you can do that. So the first one is what I call your unique myofunctional therapy experience. So this is where your magic lives, okay? Your competitors can copy everything about you, they can um learn exercises on the internet, they can match your price, but they cannot copy your support, your coaching style, your client experience, your personality. Okay. I um I tell my students that for every customer who waits to work with me, they wouldn't want to work with them because we they we were a good match, okay. So when you create a unique myofunctional therapy experience, I think it's very important that you're creating something that you can stand out, okay? Um, and this is going to prevent people from really being um like price shoppers, if you if if you will, because you know, like in dentistry, when people can call around and say, hey, what do you charge for a three-surface filling? They're gonna get, you know, a bottom line answer. But if somebody calls me and they ask me for a price on therapy, I don't give them a price on therapy. They get what I call the unique myofunctional therapy experience. So in my trainings, I call it a one-sheet. So this is already created so that I don't have to reinvent the wheel every time. But first of all, I stand out. I don't just turn around and send somebody an email. I send them a personal loom video where I talk directly to them. They get to feel the warmth of my personality, they get to see my smile, they get to see the sparkle in my eye and how much I love what I do. This is where clients are really going to feel personally cared for by you. Okay. So your unique myofunctional experience is the whole container. I've talked about it in previous podcasts where I never, not in a million years, do I ever think that you should have uh uh try and have a business where you charge for one-off sessions, okay? And that's a whole nother conversation. But you want, you don't want people to be able to compare again for that bottom line. But this whole container is, you know, how how much hand holding, how much time do they get with you? In my practice, you know, they get um, they get their therapy sessions recorded. I get they get them sent to them, they get detailed emails. I have met people who have worked with other myofunctional therapists and they get zilch zero Zed. Nada. They get nothing from that therapist. And so when they come to work with me, they're just blown away at the red carpet that we deliver to them so that when they're in their session with me, they just get to focus. They're not writing, um, but I am always shocked. So your unique myofunctional experience is gonna be what makes that package worth it. Okay. Now, the other thing that I that comes to mind when I think about the unique myofunctional therapy experience, that is such a mouthful, is um, gosh, I'm trying to look at my notes that you um that's also going to be, you know, in the delivery, you know, how much, how often, all of those things. So again, make that your signature thing, okay? I think I've beat that to death. All right, the next thing. I think another way that you can do better, you can um create a blue ocean offer in a red ocean market, if you will, is to micro micro niche down. Now, I learned this from one of my business mentors, so it is not my phrase. Um, but when competition feels scary, and I want you to sit back and determine if you're trying to speak to everyone, okay? Because if you narrow your niche, you instantly are going to become the obvious choice. You are not going to be a myofunctional therapist for everybody. You are going to be the myofunctional therapist for tired moms with mouth breathing or adults with TMD, um, athletes that are trying to overcome mouth breathing, kids with sleep and behavior issues, um, maybe adults post-orthorapse, that kind of stuff. So, this doing something like this, which I know is really difficult, especially here at the beginning for you, when you just want somebody with a pulse and a and a paycheck, a purse, okay? Because you you just want some money. And it is really hard. But if you really dial in who you're trying to build your practice for, then you're going to be able to come up with your micro, micro niche. And then you're able to make an irresistible offer or a package that is very easy for you to sell, okay, when you know who your who is. So it'll be easier for you to create your myo uh unique, uh, your my unique myofunctional therapy experience if you know who you are doing that for. Okay. Um, all right. And then last, my friend, is you gotta get your mindset right, okay? Competition means that there's demand. Okay. Um if the market were dead, nobody would be doing this work. So competition is not a threat, it is validation. It means that there are clients that are actively looking for what you offer. Okay. People who shop on price, they're not your people anyhow. Let them go. You stay premium, you stay confident, you stay committed to the transformation, not discounts. When people pay, they pay attention. That is so important. And I trust me, trust me on this. I know if you're at the beginning, you don't have this kind of confidence. But the higher I have raised my prices, the better clients that I have gotten. And I and at this point, I would much rather work with premium clients than clients who um want discounts for everything. Okay. So gotta get your mindset right. Stay premium, stay confident. All right. So I don't want you to shrink because of competition, okay? It is a sign that you are in demand. People are shopping for your services, okay? So stand out, find a way to do something different, maybe niche down. You're gonna hear me continue harping on that, harping on that, harping on that. Um, if you're still struggling with this stuff, you have a couple things you can do. Join the Profitable Myofunctional Therapist Facebook community. Again, say that 10 times fast. Um, inside there is where you get support, structure, accountability, all of those types of things. This is a new group. We're just building it up. And that is where you can get some help. That's where you can hear about what others are struggling with. Also, I am doing monthly workshops in there, and you're only going to get the workshop if you are in that Facebook community. So we already have one scheduled for January. So if you're listening to this in real time, you want to make sure that you join the Facebook community. You can find that wherever you're listening to this. Um, and then last, book your unstuck a call. Okay, this is the next step. We're going to talk, we're gonna figure out like what is hold, what's keeping you stuck. Um, we're gonna try and come up with a clear path forward. I will be trying to give you a few tactical steps that you can put to use right away. So, and if it makes sense, we'll talk about you coming to study with me or doing coaching with me or something because my friend, nothing changes if nothing changes. Okay, so do one of those things. Get in the uh in the Facebook community, book your call. And most importantly, until I'm here next time, go continue working on building a life that you are bonkers about. I will be back soon. We will talk about more ways 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.