Episode 310: Top 5 Reasons Every Myofunctional Therapist Needs a Supportive Study Club

Hello friends and welcome to episode 310 of the Untethered Podcast. This is your host, Hallie Balkan and I wanted to jump into talking about Community today. I feel like it's one of those things that's like not so sexy to talk about, but it's the number one thing that I see help people thrive when they're looking to expand their skill set and really level up. So let's jump in. Quick Disclaimer all information, content and material of this podcast are the opinions of the speakers and is for the informational purpose only and not intended to serve as a substitute for the consultation, diagnosis and or medical treatment of a qualified healthcare provider. Welcome to the Untethered Podcast. I am your host, Hallie Balkan. I'm a certified myofunctional therapist, feeding specialist, podcaster, business owner and mentor. This podcast is all about getting your questions answered and collaborating with colleagues to bring you the most up to date information in the orofacial Myofunctional Therapy, Airway Tether, Dural Tissue and Pediatric Feeding Therapy space. If you're new here, I challenge you to keep an open mind and join my mission to spread this message far and wide. If you've been around since June 2019, thanks for being a loyal listener as we jump into today's episode. Remember to listen with correct oral rest Posture Tongue up, lips closed, teeth apart Breathe through your nose let's get started. Foreign. Dental Colleagues, the wait is over. The MYO membership doors are officially open and they'll be open this week, only closing at midnight Eastern time on Friday, March 14th. So join us. Are you ready to elevate your practice in orofacial myofunctional Therapy? I want to invite you to join us inside our really vibrant community and gain access to our monthly virtual CEU of events and our exclusive study club where there is just so much more. Each month you'll receive three and a half hours of fresh content which is worth 0.35 ashes. They cover Myo Airway and tethered oral tissues and you're going to enjoy the flexibility of accessing past CEUs at your convenience as well. This is led by myself, Hallie Balkan. I'm a certified myofunctional Therapist. Plus I've got an entire team of other myofunctional therapists inside of the membership and and while I am the founder of the MYO membership, everyone else will tell you that our program offers a supportive environment to enhance your skills, build a referral network and stay abreast of the latest Research. So whether you're just exploring Mayo, actively treating patients, or aiming to sharpen your expertise, the Mille membership is tailored to support your journey. Jump in and join us so that you can transform your practice and make a lasting impact on your patients lives. Don't miss this opportunity to join hundreds of professionals who have already elevated their Myo game. Go to the myomembership.com enroll today and take the next step in your professional development. Cannot wait to see you in there. Okay, so all my MYO enthusiasts, enthusiast. I can't talk enthusiasts or Mayo enthusiasts. You know, myotherapists to be wherever you are. This is the podcast. I just want to remind you where we dive into all things like orofacial myofunctional therapy, right. Airway health like we talked about last week, and even practice growth. I don't know if people realize, but inside the MYO membership, which by the way, doors are open this week@the myomembership.com you can grow your own practice. We have an entire business section in there. Anyways, we're going to talk about something today that really can make or break your success as a myofunctional therapist and that is a supportive study club. Whether you're just starting on your journey or you've been practicing for years, having a really strong professional community is so key to staying on top of like the research. Because yes, it does exist and plenty of it. You know, growing your skills, feeling confident in your practice, practice all of these things. And so I wanted to really hone in on this today and talk about the top five reasons that every myofunctional therapist, or even myofunctional therapist to be needs a supportive study club. And I probably don't even have to sell you on this, right? But I know it can be so hard for some of us to access and even achieve. And the reason why I even created the MYO membership was because I wanted to create an online community as an extent extension of what I had in my local area where I did have 12 or 13 of us sometimes sitting around my kitchen table because it's there's this beauty and collaborating with other professionals, whether they're in your exact profession and specialty, which we had at my kitchen table or in related professional communities, you know, other professionals who may also be working with the patients that you work with, which we also had at my kitchen table. But so many of you said, you know, it's hard to find those professionals in my area. It's hard to create a, a study Club. It's hard to create a study club that's ongoing and everlasting, right? And so we basically solved that problem by creating the MYO membership. And so, you know, here are the reasons why we've really kind of taken a dive into this topic. Because, number one, right? Learning never stops. We all know that myofunctional therapy is constantly evolving. There are new research, there's new research techniques, clinical applications that emerge all the time. And so a study club is going to give you regular access to continuing education, education, expert insights, case discussions. We do that every month. But you have access to hundreds of hours when you join a past case discussions as well, so that you can keep up with the latest advancements but also know how to work with your patients, right? So if you are serious about growing your expertise, you need a place where learning is ongoing because we're all lifelong learners, right? You may have taken that intro course or maybe you're just like, I want to dabble a little bit and figure out if Maya was right for me. It's still continuing ed, right? So get in. Figure out whether this is right for you or not, or get in and continue to grow your MYO skill set while you're working with patients or while you're starting to work with patients. Because you need a place where learning is ongoing and you need it to be in a group of individuals who are on the same journey that you desire or on the journey that you know. It's basically the journey that you may already be on. Okay, so learning never stops, right? Number two, you got real world case support. No matter how much you study on your own or take one off courses, there's always going to be cases that kind of leave you scratching your head. And that's where having a study club becomes gold. Because you've got a group of like minded professionals that you can bounce ideas off of. You can troubleshoot any challenges you're having. You can get second, third or fourth opinions. It can really just help you build your competence, which helps in turn make you feel more confident and more supportive, recorded in your clinical decision making. And so, you know, like inside the Myo membership, for example, we've got your 247 access to a group of mentors on our, in our community group, you also have weekly office hours where you can come and discuss cases. We present cases on a monthly basis. So there's just like a lot, a lot of support and access, which is so hard because there's so much gatekeeping in the MYO space for some Reason. Okay, now number three, right? Reason number three, why I believe we all need a supportive three study club is because of networking and referrals. Like building a strong referral network is a huge in this space. And being in a study club means you're connecting with others, other SLPs, OTs, PTs, dentists, other specialists. Right. Who might become referral partners or who might help connect you to one. So if not referral partners, maybe they're collaborators in some way, shape or form in business. The more that you network, the more opportunities are going to open up for your daily practice, whether you own a practice or you work for somebody else. And so, you know, I get asked all the time, hey, do you know somebody here? Do you know somebody there? Do you do I'm referring a patient or I'm looking to connect with a professional. And I will tell you, I go to the MYO membership to ask about that because or I have my team ever ask about that. Or I can go into our group and I can search past discussions and it'll pop up like by city name or state. It'll pop up individuals. And I can then take that information and share it with people who are messaging me. So really, really cool resource to have. We also have, for those who have taken my MYO Method course, the MYO directory dot com, which we. It's newer, but we're building it out. It has some individuals that you may be able to refer to. So, hey, side note, if you're someone who's taken my MYO Method course or you're in the, you know, you know, in the MYO space with us, definitely inquire about that, that directory. Okay? Number four, staying motivated and avoiding burnout. This is a big one that, you know, I feel like everyone's talking about self care these days and all that fun stuff, but let's be real, okay? Practicing Mayo, especially if you're out on your own or you don't have like local support, it can feel really isolating. It's kind of like being on an island, especially if you don't have professionals in your space who even get what you do. Okay? So the study club is going to bring some accountability, some encouragement, a sense of community so that you don't feel like you're figuring this all out on your lonesome. Right? Having colleagues who understand your challenges because they experience them as well or they've been there, done that, it really makes a huge difference in staying passionate about your work. And we see that. We see that especially in some of like the Feedback we get from our members, some of their favorite parts of the MILE membership is just having that community aspect so they can connect with others and it keeps them motivated and they just really love and value that access to community. All right, so reason number five, which kind of builds on some of what I've already shared, but that's exclusive access to expert mentorship. Many study clubs offer the opportunity to learn from highly experienced individuals in the space. Now here's the thing, right? Other people have maybe created learning spaces, but are the individuals who are running that, are they highly experienced in mentoring? Because my mentors are. They have truly been there, done that, as have a lot of our members. And so we've got members who are new to Mayo. We've got members who just took an intro course. We've got members who haven't taken a course and are dipping their toes in. But then we also have mentors who have spent, you know, or not mentors, but members who could truly be mentors because they've spent years in this space and they're in there answering questions too. It's a really, really cool, versatile community and it's open to everyone regardless of where you are on your Mayo journey. So instead of spending hours so searching for answers on your own, you get direct access to expert guidance that helps you advance faster in this specialty arena. All right, so that. There you have it. Those are the five powerful reasons, in my opinion, why everyone needs to be in a supportive study club. It is an absolute must for myofunctional therapist. So if you're looking for a place to learn, get case support, build your referral network, stay motivated, get, you know, expert mentorships, CEUs. What else? We have so many marketing materials. I don't think I've mentioned that, but we've got a whole library of marketing materials that you can use. So much goodness. Business trainings. So, so much goodness. Then yay. Doors to the MY membership are actually open right now. It is a one of a kind study club. It's all online. It's a CEU program as well, designed to help you grow your MILE skills with monthly virtual trainings, case discussions and a built in support of fellow a support system of fellow professionals. So time to level up your Milo game. Go to the my membership dot com. Enroll today. Join us inside. Because the mile membership is only open for five days only from March 10th to 14th at midnight Eastern time. I had to take a peek at the calendar, make sure I have my dates right. Those are correct, but that's it. That's all I've got for today's episode. Thank you for tuning in if you found this helpful. If you, as always, share it with a friend, subscribe and, you know, help fellow myotherapists. Join us over here on the podcast. Until next time, keep learning, keep growing, keep changing lives and join us inside the My membership@the myomembership.com I'll see you guys inside. Thanks for listening to this podcast. If you found value in this episode and want to hear more of these myotots, Airway and Feeding related episodes, be sure to leave a review on Apple Podcasts and share this episode on your social media platforms. You can access free resources and all I offer@halliebalkin.com or pop over to Hollybulcken on Instagram to get all the latest updates.