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

57: How to Use Your Myofunctional Therapy Training

• Carmen Ball – Dental Hygienist Career Change Coach & Myofunctional Therapy Business Mentor

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What if the reason you feel “stuck” in using your myofunctional therapy training has nothing to do with not knowing enough… and everything to do with not using what you already know?

Friend, this episode is your reminder that skills get rusty, confidence gets wobbly, and everything feels harder when you haven’t been seeing clients regularly. I’ve lived this in my own business — every time I take a break or shift into a big project season, I feel clunky, unfocused, and a little “off.”

But the good news? It is 100% fixable.

This conversation is for the trained-but-not-practicing myofunctional therapist who wants clarity, direction, and traction again. It’s for the burned-out dental hygienist who dreams about using this skillset but doesn’t know where to start. And it’s for the woman who’s tired of sitting on a certification that she invested in — but never fully implemented.

Inside this episode, I break down the three decisions that will immediately make your training usable, actionable, and profitable — today. You’ll walk away knowing exactly what hours you’re available, who you’re serving, and how to package your work in a way that makes you the obvious solution.

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:

I know what it can feel like when I go on vacation or spend a large amount of time away from my client facing work. It feels like I'm disorganized. It feels like I'm not on fire like I normally am. I feel out of sorts. So I know that it is going to be a problem for somebody who took their myofunctional therapy training years ago to get back on track to practicing. 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. 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. Hello, friends, and welcome back to the episode. I'm glad you're here because today I am going to be giving you some tools that you can use to start using your myelfunctional therapy training. So, really, the impetus for this episode is the Profitable Milefunctional Therapy Facebook group. This is a small but growing community, and when people apply to enter, if you will, they give us a little bit of information and we gather that and we use that to help inform what episodes we need to create, what workshops we want to do. And many of these students in there are, or any many of these community members in there are already trained myofunctional therapists. And some of them aren't even practicing hygiene, which I think is interesting. So I knew that this would be an important, helpful episode because I know that when I go on vacation or I spend a large amount of time away from client-facing work. So when I'm not working with clients, or sometimes when I just have like maybe, you know, a week or two when I'm not seeing clients because I'm working on a built uh on a big project, I feel really disorganized. I feel a little bit awkward, I feel clunky. I don't feel like I'm on fire like I normally am when I get back into that client-facing work. So I know to the very depths of my toenails that this is going to be a problem for somebody who took their training um years ago. So for those people, eventually you're going to learn that you're that you're gonna need some extra help. And I'm here for that. Okay, you know where to find me. And if you keep listening to this podcast, at some point my gut also tells me that you are going to be compelled to book your Get Unstuck coaching session and also jump into the training group because I compare this to like being an ER nurse. My sister is a nurse, and one of the reasons I know that that would be a problem is because I always told her, man, if I was a nurse, I thought it would be so exciting to be in the ER. And she just told me, like, it is so fast of a pace there. And because she likes to do travel nursing or she likes to travel a lot, so she doesn't work full time, she works what's called PRN, which basically means when she wants to and when they need her. She just felt like getting back into the ER every single time would be like such a strict learning curve. She just felt really like that would stress her out a lot. So that's what I'm thinking about. Um, for students, for those of you who have dreams of having a myofunctional therapy practice, but you took your training a long time ago, um, it that's likely going to be difficult. Okay. Um overall, the message I want you to walk away with from this episode is if you don't use it, you are going to lose it. So even those of you who listen to this and you are in the process of studying with me, just know that. Put that feather in your hat that if you do not take the information, if you don't implement it, you hear me say that all the time, you have to implement it to use it. Okay. Myelfunctional therapy, I wholeheartedly believe, is not something you just put in your pocket to maybe someday get into, because I think that you need to implement it and use it while the skills are really fresh. So we're going to be talking today in this episode about three decisions that you are going to make today that will have you using your training. Okay. Um, if you want to learn more about my thoughts on the decide and do process that I teach, you can uh go listen to last episode because I take a little bit more of a dive into that. Today we are getting right into the decisions. So the first decision that you are going to make is business hours and you're going to block and protect them on your calendar. Okay. Now, eventually you're going to fill them all up. My friend, that's a hell of a problem to have. Okay. But right now, those blocks of time, that's your tiger time. Okay, that is your butt-in-the-chair business time. If you know, you know. If not, go back to last episode. Um, but this is where you're going to have time for clients and business building. Okay. So for me, in my current landscape, in my in IRL, in real life right now, that is Wednesdays from 10 to 6, and that is Fridays from gosh, now it's escaping me. I think 1:30 to 430 or something like that. I offer 10 hours a week to clients. So that's students and my functional therapy clients. Okay. So I know that I have those blocks of time. I I offer those 10 hours. So how are you going to find these hours? Um, first of all, you're going to come to February's workshop, which is going to be about time management, setting up your calendar, all of that stuff. And also if you did January's workshop, okay, then you know some of that, or listen to last episode, okay? So we talked about getting those on the calendar. Um, so how you find the hours though is you're going to go, so get a Google Calendar and it might be blank, it might not. If you already have life on it, that's okay. What's on the calendar first are your non-negotiables? Okay. If you're working full time, if you're part, what whatever you're working needs to go on there. Um, humaning time, okay. So many of you guys like you forget, oh, I have to commute to work, I have to have time to human, pack a lunch, get ready for work, drive to work, um, drive home from work, you know, those type of go to the bathroom. So those type of things are are harder and they're important. So I work full-time in myofunctional therapy. Many of the people that I coach are either retired from hygiene and they're full-time working in myofunctional therapy, they're and I'm working with them to grow and scale their business, or they're kind of doing that um, what I call building a side hustle. So they're they're slowly creating that transition from dental hygiene into myofunctional therapy. So, regardless of how you're doing that, you're going to be having uh you've got your hours, okay? Um, and you make sure that you're allocating for your humaning time. What I was starting to say just a second ago is those of the people that I coach, they forget, oh, I need time. So for me, my time in the afternoon, I forget that in there, I probably need to take a break, stand up, shake my my legs, shake my booty, do something, move around, have a snack. Okay. So those are human. So so that has to get worked into the schedule. So once you have these non-negotiables on the calendar, and I like to put them in color, okay. And so if you do a Google calendar, like you've got this fun color, and it's like bam. Now my husband laughs at me because I have sleep on my calendar. My daughter makes fun of me because I have sleep on my calendar. Um, some people live by the thought that you should only put like appointments on your calendar, but my life is a habit-oriented life, okay? And so I like to have the blocks on the calendar so I see white space. So if you're putting just your non-negotiables on the calendar, you might just see these blocks of work and Johnny's baseball, and we have church on Sundays or whatever. My calendar looks very busy because I have everything blocked to support my habit-oriented life. So at from seven to 10 every night, you know, is just my personal time, my evening routine. I sauna, I stretch, I journal, I do Bible study, I do a number of different things. I read. So all of those things happen in that amount of time. From five to seven, we make dinner, we eat dinner, we clean up after dinner. So all of those are in there. And the reason is is because I can see where I have white space. You get to do you. And if you attend the February workshop, my friend, you're gonna get to see exactly how I do it. So that's where you find the hours, okay? You find the white space. These are your business hours, your butt in the chair business hours. So I said earlier, eventually you're gonna fill those up, and that's a great problem to have because then kind of at that point, you're going to have to find some more time. And sometimes that's when you're making that transition out of dental hygiene or out of full-time dental hygiene into part-time. Okay, so many of my transitioners, if you will, they go from full-time, they cut back to part-time, and maybe if they need a little bit more than part-time, but they don't want to work full-time, then maybe they do some temp. And then a lot transition from part-time to completely leaving dental hygiene as an employee, and then they just temp, that's kind of the progression, and it's a beautiful progression. We'll talk about that another time, but um that's how you get more time for what I call back of office stuff. Honestly, you guys, if your business is bringing in less than a million dollars, 90% of what you do is going to be marketing in your business. And I know for a fact that your training didn't teach you that. Okay. So most trainings, your business training, your marketing training, the CEO activities, you know, selling your offer, doing all of those type of things, growing and scaling your offer, creating passive income, creating group projects, all of that kind of stuff, can guarantee you that was just kind of a footnote. So when you fill up those hours, so for example, I have 10 hours a week right now. When I fill those 10 hours a week, I have two options. Number one, I can create more time for clients or I raise my prices. And that's what I do. When my schedule is so full, I raise my prices. And sometimes people will question about that, you know, because I have a range of prices on my website, which are absolutely accurate. Um, but somebody will look on my website and they'll see, you know, oh, it says that I could start for this. Well, the prices say, you know, for example,$3,000 and up. So the and up part buys me a lot of runway. And that's not to be deceitful or anything like that, but I tell people my prices are dependent upon supply and demand. If I have a big open schedule, you can bet your booty that I'm going to be having a lower price point to get people in the door. And then when it's so full, then I'm raising my prices. I would rather work with one$5,000 client instead of five$1,000 clients. If you study with me, you you're gonna learn that. Okay. So when you fill up all your hours, you have the option to create more hours or raise your prices. And and if I were coaching you, I would probably have you do both, especially if you're just starting a business. I had a student years ago who thought, well, she left hygiene and she was concerned about what she was gonna do when she when she filled up all of her 40 hours. And I was like, girlfriend, how much money do you want to make? Or like, are you building a life your bonkers about? Because that is not in alignment. There is not any scenario on on this earth where I would offer 40 hours a week. None. Okay. There currently is not a scenario on this earth where I would offer 12 hours a week to clients. I offer 10. And if I run out of those, then I would uh raise my prices. Now, with that said, those 10 hours, I don't use that time to do back of house business activities, CEO activities. So that's the difference. When you're just setting your hours, you're gonna kind of be doing all of those. So when it's butt butt in the chair business time and you don't have any clients, say you started out with, you know, three to five hours. In that time, you're going to be doing marketing, which might make your pit sweaty. And that's a that's an upcoming episode, too, where we're gonna talk more about getting clients. Okay, so we talked about finding the hours, getting them on your calendar. Okay, so that was step one. Decide your business hours and block them and protect them like tiger time. I as I'm recording this podcast, it is tiger time and I don't even have internet. My phone's not anywhere near this podcast studio, so I'm focused. Okay, then this the second step is to nail your who. Friend, you've heard me talk about this. You cannot be everything to everybody. So I want you micro, micro niching. Yes, if you're just starting your business or you haven't used your skills yet and you're just kind of feeling rusty and you're getting back into it, you want to be everything to everybody. I encourage you to think about this. It is so hard because it's it's going to inform your messaging, it's going to inform your irresistible offer. Okay. This is probably where I get the most pushback, still to this day from my students. When I ask them who they want to work with, they they want to work with both. They want to work with everybody. And they just they need to um they need to take the time to dial that in a little bit more. But in time that will happen. I think the biggest thing with my students, the one area that they know that right out of the gate is if they don't enjoy children. Okay. You'll always have outliers. The reason that I kind of want you to commit and go all in on a micro, micro niche, kind of your specialty, is so you can so you can specialize. Okay. My associate sees adults and children. Okay. But her specialty, if you called her up and asked her who she wanted you to send to her, she would want you to send children who have been diagnosed with uh sleep disordered breathing. So it's a very specific group, okay? So that's step two, okay. Know your who. The third thing that you can do is to create an irresistible office offer. So you have to know who your who is, okay? This is where you're going to create your unique myofunctional experience. I've talked about this before. Um, you're going to create this specifically for you for your who. You're solving her pain points. You need to teach her or him, whoever, what why you're the obvious solution. Okay. You um you're using wording that she uses, you're creating your entire package based on her. I use this example all the time. So my associate does see the kiddos. If I'm talking about my specific ideal customer avatar, this is a middle-aged woman who doesn't feel good. She's not sleeping good, she's gaining weight, she's um, you know, snapping at her kids, all of that. So it's a very specific person who reads that and says, Oh, this is for me. Okay. So you create your offer that's setting your prices, okay? That is kind of interchangeable. And then you're gonna sell it, okay? And this is you saying the words, I can help you. Okay, not in so many words. You're not just going around telling people, I can help you, I can help you, I can help you. You don't want to be creepy, but you want somebody who reads your information to be self-selected, saying, Oh, this lady can help me, okay? You already have attracted them. If they are reading your information, and especially if they read all the way to the bottom of say, let's say an Instagram post, if they read all the way to the bottom of that, they have already raised their hand saying, I think this person can help me. Because let me tell you, if I was reading something and if it caught my eye, okay, so hooks and stuff, you know, they're there to catch your eye in in social media or in a title of something. But if I start reading it and they start talking about somebody who suffers from, we'll just say acid reflux. At that point, I'm saying cyanara because I don't suffer from acid reflux. It doesn't matter what they're talking about. I'm not gonna keep reading because I'm not gonna get to the bottom of that Instagram post and them suddenly say, Hey, do you need good recipes for um easy dish chickens on Wednesdays? No. Okay. So um I I know that I'm out. So anybody who is assuming or who is consuming your content, they have already self-selected. So it's going to be easy for you to sell. We will be talking a lot about selling, but it it is not creepy. I no, I don't want you to sound like a used Subaru salesman. Okay. You're not trying to sell somebody a four-door sedan. You're trying to help them solve the problem that they have already raised their hand saying, I need help with this. Okay. All right, friends. So those are three decisions that you're that you can make today to start using your myofunctional therapy training. So here's your homework. Okay. Number one, are your hours blocked? Okay. So remember, the first thing I wanted you to do is decide your business hours and block them and protect them on the calendar. Okay. Protect them like, gosh, what do I protect? Um, protect them like I protect my portion of really good chocolate. Okay. Ain't nobody gonna get their hands on my pieces of chocolate. So what are those hours? Are they blocked out? Can you spit them out when somebody asks about them at a dinner party? Can you spit them out when you're uh talking to somebody in the operatory and they say, hello, I am your ideal customer. When can I work with you? I want you to be able to say, I work with clients on Wednesdays and Fridays. I work with clients on Wednesdays from, you know, 10 to 6 and Fridays from 1:30 to 4:30 or whatever that is. Okay. If those hours don't work for somebody, they can always ask for a custom appointment. That is one thing that I do coach my students on quite often, is that they um they can always ask for something different, but you don't have to feel like you have tons of hours to offer to be able to help somebody set your business hours. Next, who? Who's your who? Okay. So when the local chiropractor wants to refer to you, who do you want? Okay, this is gonna help them. I want you to know everything about your who because when you are marketing, you need to know where your who is. It is so funny. Total side note, um, total shiny squirrel moment, actually. It's so funny for me to always be talking about your who because you know it's it's right after the holidays, and everybody watches the Grinch, and so it seems like everything is so who heavy, and then I'm always talking about your who, your who, your who. Okay, my apologies. You're welcome for that. Um, you have to know who this is, okay. So spend some time. Yes, this is where you're gonna give me some pushback because if you're trying to just get back into using your skills, you're having this mindset of if I cast a bigger net, I'm gonna catch more fish, and that is not the case, okay? So is there somebody you and a personality you enjoy working with? So if you haven't had any clients yet, I want you to think about somebody who you enjoy as a hygiene patient. If you've had clients but they're just not as plentiful, or maybe you started seeing clients and then kind of let your business go to the wayside and now you're trying to revive her. Um, think about who you enjoyed because I bet you can also identify personalities that you don't want, okay? So so many of my students, they want to just work to make their hardest clients the happiest. And you will always hear me say, you know, you want to be speaking to and attracting, you want, you want to use all the universe woo-woo to bring in your easy, peasy, dreamy customers, okay? All right, the next part of your homework is let me see what what I told you. I want you to know your irresistible offer. So I want you to, A, you have to have your prices set, okay? And remember, your prices aren't just your prices. I don't want you to be able to be compared to somebody else. I want you to have a package and and not just a package. I want you to have the whole enchilada, okay? When somebody asks you a question, I want you to be able to say, my exams are 200, my exams are 150. My please don't tell me your exams are 50 or I'm gonna come shake your shoulders. Uh, I want you to know my exams are 275 and my packages range from 3,000 to 7,000, reminding, uh, reminding depending on your needs. Uh, how depending on your needs, how much hand holding you want, how much accountability you want, all of that stuff. And then now remember, so if somebody's asking you via email, you're gonna send them your one sheet. Your one sheet is kind of like your real estate document that you have put together about how you're gonna sell the house at one, two, three mile functional therapy drive. Okay, you're gonna highlight all the things. Have you ever looked at a house that was butt ugly and the countertops were orange and it looks like it came from the Brady Bunch house, and they have made up the most ridiculous stuff to say good things about that house. Yeah, that's what you are. Of course, it's not gonna be ridiculous, it's gonna be true. Um, but never do I just send and tell somebody my price is$7,000 or whatever it is. They're learning about the whole experience. Okay, when I work with somebody, I don't want just the bottom line coaching. I want, like, I'm bougie. I want it all. I want you to help me do all the things if I'm making that investment. So, so you're gonna have that, some sort of information that you can send them or do a Loom video, stand out, let them see your personality, let them see your beautiful face, let them see your smile and feel your warmth. Okay. Um, when I am in person, when somebody asks me, I will put less emphasis on the fact that that I just said prices range from three to seven thousand. Mind you, I don't grimace, I don't give them anything to make them think that that is not an absolute bargain. Okay, that goes back to belief. I put more emphasis on bridging the gap between where they are, okay, where they are feeling like poop, not sleeping, buyer, buying bigger jeans, uh, snapping at their children. Okay. I emphasize where they're currently at, their current situation, to where they want to go. They want to be more patient, they want to be more zen, less stressed. Um, they want to support their nervous system, they want to be a more present mama, a happier mama. Um, maybe they want better digestion, less bloating, they want to be healthy and strong and fit and not sleeping and is causing them to uh gain weight, not be motivated to work out and they're getting flabby, you know, whatever they're saying. Maybe they want good mental health, maybe they want a better hormone balance, which by the way comes from sleep. If somebody comes to me as a nutrition client and they want to work on hormone balance, guess what the place we start? Sleep. And then we go to nervous system. So uh, fun fact by the way. Maybe they want to be a better spout, a better spouse or a better mom or employee, friend, or whatever. Okay. So again, I never hide my my prices. I don't know specifically what that price is gonna be until I know when they booked their exam. Okay, because remember, my prices may fluctuate with with uh supply and demand. Also, you guys, you have no idea how how and when, how long it's gonna be until they booked that exam. I have literally had people book an exam four years later. And for the life of me, I can't believe that they still remember that therapy was$1,200. Well, therapy hasn't been$1,200 since I was, you know, six months into my business. So I also remind them of that. Like things change. You can't, so so it's always a range. And then um my focus and your focus should always be getting the exam. You can't determine anything, you can't pinpoint price. The only thing for sure that you know is your exam price. And I always just let them know like just book your exam. That's the first thing that's gonna help us determine your needs. Also, during that exam, it is your job. What you're going to be doing is helping them understand how you're gonna help them with their pain points. Okay. Once you do a good exam, you are helping them see. Okay, they've got blind spots, they can't see it. You are helping them understand why they might need to work with you for a year. Okay, somebody might come into an exam with me and think that they're gonna do my teeny tiny cheapest package, or they might bring their kid in for an exam and think that their kiddo is gonna do the mini Mayo program once a month for a year and be fine. And once they get into their exam, I spend so much time educating them. Mama's eyes are now open to the fact that there is no way that their kiddo is a simple case with the needs involved and all that stuff. Then you're then you're spending the whole comprehensive exam time selling and educating mom on why you need comprehensive. Okay, nobody ever gets to the end and says, I don't understand why I need this. Because I tell people during every exam, my job when we get to the end of this is that you have no questions and you a hundred percent deep into your bones know and understand why you need malfunctional therapy. If not, I don't want you to accept therapy with me until you know and understand that. So um, so that is really why I focus on getting the exam. I cannot wow them with my knowledge and helping them create a step-by-step, very tactical, very well-organized plan if I don't know all the things, which is also why I don't ever quote a price, unless I'm quoting a soup, my my highest price. If I know that somebody is an absolute hot mess soup sandwich, I will tell them the only way I will work with them what is in a comprehensive fashion, and here's my price for that. So they get the most expensive. Um, but otherwise, I am always focused on getting them to the exam because you can't, you can't wow them if you don't get them to that point, okay? All right, so that was your homework. You're making decisions on your hours, on your who, on what your offer is, okay? And then if you are not part of the uh profitable myelfunctional therapist Facebook group, friend, you better get there because the February workshop is gonna be bomb diggity. So that's it, my friend. That's all I have for you today. I have given you your homework. So go do it, make those decisions. More importantly, until I'm back next time, thank you so much for letting me be part of this incredible journey for you, getting back in the saddle, building a life that you are bonkers about, and and starting that myofunctional therapy business. So I will be back soon, friend. See you then. 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.