Myo Life

Transcript

Hey, I'm Carmen and welcome to Myo 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 myofunctional therapist and entrepreneur. Here you will find all the things Myo 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, friend, and welcome back to the Myo Life Podcast. I am happy that you are here. Today, I am talking about surviving the start of your business. So if you have taken a leap into myofunctional therapy—now what? If you're feeling overwhelmed, stuck, unsure of your next move, this episode is for you. You might be saying, am I ready? Where am I going to find clients? How do I make this work? My promise to you is that by the end of this episode, you are going to have a no-BS 90-day plan to get clear, confident, and profitable without the overwhelm.
Before we dive in, last thing—remember, depending on when you're listening to this, we are in the midst of a cross-country move, so I am batching these episodes in an empty, messy room. But I'm practicing what I preach with my clients, and that's just doing it anyhow.
So let's dive into this 90-day survival plan. For the first 30 days, I call this step one: laying the foundation. This is where you're going to work on commitment, mindset, clarity, and confidence. Before you dive into marketing and networking, you really need a rock-solid foundation. This step is going to ensure that you don't just survive but that you thrive.
I call these baby steps. The first one, baby step number one—commit to the process. You are going to burn the boats. You've probably heard me say it before: storm the island, burn the boats. That means that you have no half-in approach. If you're already thinking about, well, what if this doesn't work? Then you have to change that mindset. You need to shift from, well, if this doesn't work, I will do this other thing to, hey, I understand that this is a marathon, not a sprint. This is not a get-rich-quick scheme. Yes, some people make money faster than others, but big picture, you have to be committed.
Commit to the process. I also think it's important for you to shift your mindset from "I'm trying to be a myofunctional therapist" to "I am a myofunctional therapist." Sometimes that's challenging for my students because they're training. You could say, "I am studying to be a myofunctional therapist," but I don't like the word "trying." I am a myofunctional therapist. If you are starting your business, I'm assuming you've taken your training.
Next, set your non-negotiable work hours, otherwise life and excuses are going to take over. We go over this inside the Total Calendar Control lesson. Set your power hour—that's a two-hour time block every day where you are moving the needle on revenue-generating tasks or things that will make a significant impact. The key is to follow it. Set your power hour and then any other time blocks, and follow those. These are work hours. I teach my students to do business when they are supposed to be doing business.
So what I mean by this is, let's say that you're a full-time dental hygienist and you're trying to start your myofunctional therapy business. Maybe you're working Monday through Thursday as a hygienist. Friday is business day. That’s your non-negotiable work hours. You're not getting a massage on Friday, you're not having your car detailed—you’re working. Right up front, you won’t have clients on Friday, so it will feel like you could be making a pot roast or emptying the dishwasher, but eventually, you will have people. And when you start having conversations and they ask you, "How do I work with you?" you want to be able to say, "Currently, I'm seeing clients on Fridays." Eventually, you will have to expand your available time because your business will grow, but you want to be doing business when you're supposed to be doing business.
In my case, I see clients on Tuesdays, Thursdays, and Fridays. Monday is my marketing and metrics day, and Wednesday is my personal day off. So whenever someone asks about therapy, I can confidently tell them when I see clients. Even when I don’t have clients, I am in my office working, not out gardening. That is very important.
Baby step number two is getting your mindset right. Imposter syndrome is big. You have to understand that you don’t need to know everything to get started. Being afraid of failure holds many therapists back. Remember that every expert started as a beginner. I started as a beginner. You don’t have to know everything. There's a lot that you do need to know, but really, you're just a step ahead of your clients. You know so much more than they do. The biggest thing is that you just have to get started. I can’t help you steer a parked car. Whether you come into my programs or just consume my free content or listen to my podcast, I can’t help you with your business if you haven’t gotten the car out of park. Just do anything—just get started.
Baby step number three is getting clarity on your business. What type of business do you actually want? Are you going to build a virtual practice? Are you going to do something in-office? Are you going to do a hybrid? Are you trying to work this into your current employment situation? I don’t love that option because my zone of genius is helping women build a life they are bonkers about, and that includes building a business they own, not building a house on rented land.
When you try to integrate it into your current employment, things can go south. You might not get compensated fairly, or you might have a great boss who supports your business, but if they’ve paid for your training, they have leverage over you. What if you get injured and have to leave that office? You’ve built a business on rented land. I have consulted on many situations where someone built a business in their practice, loved their boss, and then the boss retired or passed away. A new owner came in, changed things up, and suddenly, they had no business to take with them.
If you’re going to rent office space somewhere, you should pay your bills and keep things separate. If your boss offers you a free room, I believe you should pay rent to keep things professional and separate. Likewise, if you plan to work in an orthodontic office a couple of times a month, that’s great, but it’s harder to build a business in someone else's practice because other doctors may not want to refer patients to you if you’re associated with another practice. Some of my students work in an ortho office to help their patients, but they’re not building their business there.
So, in the first 30 days, you're going to commit to the process, get your mindset right, clarify the type of business you’re building, get confident in client conversations, and define your dream customer. The next 30 days will be about building your network and getting visible. The final 30 days will be about taking action and refining your approach as you go.
That’s a wrap, friend! I just gave you the roadmap to get through the first 90 days. If you feel like your training wasn’t very good and you want a better roadmap to fast-track your profitable myofunctional therapy business, then check out the Ditch Hygiene Academy. It is designed to get you clients and cash without figuring out all the moving parts—I’ve already done that for you.
Until next time, go take action, work on building a life that you are bonkers about, and follow the steps I laid out for you. That’s a wrap, and I’ll see you again soon!