I am joined by Carina Chiodo, the onboarding dietician for MetPro. We are going to be discussing the process of matching MetPro coaches to clients. Carina, you have been matching coaches to clients for some time. I know you have a lot of experience getting it right.
That is right. Thanks for the intro, Crystal.
Thank you for being here. I am so excited for our conversation to get some details about this matching process. Can you start by telling me what it means to be an onboarding dietician at MetPro?
What that means is right after someone books a sales call and decides they want to go forward with it, I do the onboarding call with them. They land on my calendar, I give them a ring, and I always look at the clients about a couple of days beforehand to get an overview of what was taken note of in the session and what they are trying to accomplish with MetPro. I also can see any other things that are side logistics that are important like any underlying health concerns that I might have to ask a few more questions about.
By doing that, by looking ahead, I might have a better idea of which coaches at MetPro might have more experience working with the specific goals that person is trying to achieve. Having background knowledge as a registered dietician, I am able to see where there are any health concerns or nutrient medication interactions that someone else might not be able to spot. That is what I do. I give them a ring, get to know them a little bit, and as long as they pass go, I match them up with the appropriate coach.
The clients are meeting with you first after they have done the sales process, so why do you feel that it is important to match a client to the right type of coach?
Matching a person to the right type of coach can help make a relationship cohesive in a way that the client is able to achieve what they are actually trying to. When the right coach is paired with a client, there is a cohesive relationship that helps better results overall. I also think that the right type of coach can help motivate the client in a way that makes them want to keep going. Sometimes, getting to know a bit more about what that person is trying to achieve is a key part or at least in the matching process on my end.
You are looking at what their goals are. What else are you looking at when you are taking all of this into consideration?
One of them is personality type. Little backend logistic but MetPro does account for individual personality type as well as coaching style. Those are big pieces, and I try to make very strong efforts to match the right personality type with the right type of coaching style. As an example, some people need someone that is going to push and challenge them. Somebody else wants a mentor. For a lot of people, fitness journeys can be lonely depending on who their peer group is. They are looking for somebody to feel like they have an accountability partner or an ally in the process.
For other people, they need someone who is going to explain the why behind everything. They need someone who talks to them, “Why are we doing this?” All different personality types do well with very different coaching styles, so I look at that. Another thing that I consider is dietary preference. During my call with them, I ask for a lot of details about their dietary preferences as well as their usual daily intake.
There is a right or wrong answer. I do always begin with that. I hear everything. Hearing what a person’s dietary preferences are, as well as what they are regularly eating, gives me the background knowledge that I need so that I can go through and figure out, “Which coaches have more experience working with this than others?”
As an example, some of the MetPro clients that we bring on are vegan. Some of them have very specific food allergies. I might pair those clients with a registered dietician. Other clients are frequent travelers and have to rely on restaurant and on-the-go options all the time. I know the coaches that have specific strengths working with that. Those are a couple of many examples of when that does come up.
It sounds like you are looking at a lot of things. You are looking at a whole bunch of stuff. You are juggling a lot of different factors into this. Can you tell us about a time that this approach has been successful? It seems, to me, like it is going to be successful not only for the client but for the coach.
It is hard to think of one individual successful instance because there have been hundreds, if not thousands, of successful pairings at this point. What I think is cool to see is that we never run out of success stories in MetPro. I know backend, and behind the scenes, all the MetPro coaches share their Wednesday wins on weekly basis. It is hard for each coach to choose just one to share because there are so many. My answer to that question would be that it is hard to find a specific instance because I think that successful pairings happen all the time, every day.
Describe what it looks like when it is successful, your favorite type of success.
My favorite type of success is when somebody might be what I would call a chronic dieter. With the help of their coach, they feel like they have finally broken free from that. They feel like they do not have to rely on the chains of a diet for the rest of their life or they feel like they keep hitting a wall and hitting plateaus time and time again for years. Those are the success stories that I love reading about like someone who feels like, “I have finally been able to hack my metabolism, and I do not feel like I am in chains anymore.”
Another is people who have specific fitness goals and who have been able to hit PRs, marathon records, and whatnot. They attribute it to the guidance from their coach and have explicitly stated, “I have never tried anything like this before. It was absolutely what was stopping me. It is a barrier to me achieving these milestones for myself.” I like reading about fitness-related successes as well.
Interestingly, you bring that up because when a person first hears MetPro, they assume it is all about weight loss. That is a key component but there are so many off-the-scale things that MetPro does that are stunning like energy, sleeping, hitting PRs, hitting new fitness goals, being able to hit a new low on your body fat if that is a goal for you. There are so many things that MetPro does. Sometimes, I forget to mention that to people.
Even bouncing off of that, hearing people feel like they have a better understanding of their body is a huge win. Weight aside, some people feel like it is all mystery, and they finally are able to know what works for them. That is a huge win.
I still am a MetPro client, so I feel like one thing that I have learned so much about is that eating a little bit differently week to week can make such a huge difference in whether I am successful in my goals or not. Tweaking how I eat at night or if I eat like a snack can make such a huge difference. I did not realize that before. Since everybody is different, I used to think, “If my husband can eat that, then I can eat that.” That is not necessarily the case.
It is truly individualization.
Is there anything else about the matching process you feel we should highlight that we have not shared already?
One thing is our coaches at MetPro are all extremely strong. Even when there are circumstances where I might pair a client with a specific personality with a coaching style that would not be the first and foremost choice for them, all of the coaches are selected so well that all know how to adapt to whatever that client needs. Something that is an important thing for anybody considering MetPro to take into account is that MetPro is about individualization, and all the coaches go through rigorous training and are extremely excellent at what they do.
They know, “That individual is important and their needs to be honored.” All of the coaches, every single one of them, will work for each person’s individual needs, lifestyles, and taste preferences to make sure that they put all their best effort towards making it work for them. That is the beauty of the concierge service. That’s the last lingering thing that would be important.
Carina, when does the personality matching not apply?
There are instances health is always a priority. Every once in a while, there is an outstanding health condition that I might say, “This person has this type of personality. It typically pairs best with this coaching style but if they have a specific health circumstance that I feel a different coach might be better equipped to work with them, I might make an exception there.” In those instances, I still have seen it always end up being a successful pairing. Some other things would be very specific food allergies or dietary preferences that I know in the back of my mind some coaches are more comfortable working with certain needs and circumstances in that way.
The example that you gave about being vegan, I can totally understand. If you are not a person who has experience as a coach, eating vegan yourself, it can be hard to tell other people because there are so many nuances to getting proper protein from vegan sources. It can be a different kind of challenge. That makes sense.
Carina, thank you so much for sharing your experiences with me. I enjoyed our conversation. Readers, that is all for this episode but there is always more to learn more about MetPro. You can jump over to MetPro.co to find out more. You can also find The MetPro Method show anywhere that you get podcasts, Apple Podcasts, Spotify, Stitcher, etc. When you find us, please follow us so you never miss an episode, and be sure to rate and review. Until next time, remember consistency is key.
Category: The MetPro Method
