EP29: Unfiltered: Contacts, Boundaries And Burned Bridges With Irene Iancu RDH

UNFILTERED: Contracts, Boundaries & Burned Bridges with Irene Iancu What happens when you stop playing nice, stop asking permission, and finally start saying the things everyone else is thinking? 🔥 Irene Iancu, aka Tooth Life Irene, joins The Unhinged Hygienists for one of our most unfiltered conversations yet. Irene is a restorative dental hygienist, practice owner, educator, speaker, podcaster, creator, entrepreneur, and myofunctional therapist. And in this episode? The filter is officially OFF. We get into the side of dentistry, speaking, sponsorships, entrepreneurship, and content creation that rarely makes it onto Instagram. Irene opens up about restrictive brand contracts, what creators need to know BEFORE signing away their name and likeness, partnerships that fell apart, being ghosted by brands, turning down speaking opportunities that didn't value her work, and why sometimes saying NO may cost you opportunities but protect something much more important. We also talk about: 🔥 Building Tooth Life Studio from the ground up 🔥 Going from hating dental hygiene to creating a career on her own terms 🔥 Funding her practice through her Tooth Life retail brand 🔥 Why changing jobs isn't always a failure 🔥 Creating a practice based on standard of care instead of insurance 🔥 Myofunctional therapy and building systems that actually work 🔥 Irene's new myofunctional therapy app 🔥 The reality of speaking contracts and corporate sponsorships 🔥 Why follower count doesn't equal influence 🔥 Knowing your value as a creator and speaker 🔥 Why hygienists need to stop being afraid to say NO 🔥 Building something when the system you're working in no longer makes sense And perhaps Irene's biggest message: Creators, speakers, and clinicians: stop saying yes to things that don't value you just because you're told you should be grateful for the opportunity. Sometimes the opportunity isn't the opportunity. Sometimes saying NO is. FIND IRENE Instagram & social platforms: @toothlife.irene / Tooth Life Irene Practice: Tooth Life Studio Podcast & everything Irene: Search Tooth Life Irene FIND THE UNHINGED HYGIENISTS Instagram: @theunhingedhygienists Website: theunhingedhygienists.com 🎧 Listen on Spotify, Apple Podcasts & Amazon Music 📺 Watch full episodes on YouTube 🚨 YOUR TURN If this episode made you laugh, think, question something, or yell “FINALLY, SOMEONE SAID IT” at your phone, we want to hear from you. 🔥 Follow The Unhinged Hygienists 🔥 Subscribe on YouTube and your favorite podcast platform 🔥 Share this episode with someone who needs to hear it 🔥 Leave us a comment or send us a DM Tell us what you loved. Tell us what pissed you off. Tell us what you want us to talk about next. We read your comments and messages, and we genuinely love hearing from you. Stay curious. Ask better questions. Question what doesn't make sense. And maybe say NO a little more often. 😏🔥