Melissa Guitron: Serving her clients, her coaches and her own life

Melissa Guitron used to lie to her clients. Or at least she pretended she could help them when she kind of knew she couldn’t.

“Someone would come to the gym and they’d tell me what they were looking for, and then I’d throw them into a class alongside a mom of two kids and someone else who wanted to be competitive in CrossFit,” Guitron remembered of her days coaching group classes. 

The 32-year-old Guitron discovered there was a better way to administer fitness when she went through the OPEX Coach Certificate Program (CCP). What she learned from CCP has changed her life completely, she explained.

“It’s nice to be able to tell someone the truth, versus getting them all hyped up about something you may not be able to deliver,” said Guitron, the owner of OPEX Kura in San Mateo, California, a gym that became licensed in April 2017.

Guitron’s clients are much better served today than in the group model, she explained—evidenced by her 96 percent client retention rate.

“Everyone looks healthy now. Nobody comes in looking beat up anymore like they need a rest day. They look fresh when they come in to train,” she said. 

Guitron added: “Their victories happen a lot more frequently, too, and it’s more fulfilling for the coach. Before, clients would tell you all this stuff about their lifestyle and their problems, and then I’d have to go coach a group class, and I’d give a workout that I knew would crush the person, but I’d be like, ‘I guess I’ll let them do it.’”

Not only is she better able to serve her clients today, Guitron is also better able to serve herself, too. 

“(This system) allows me to actually have a life. Beforehand, it was hard to even consider what that would look like,” she said. “When we were running the CrossFit-style model, I was burning the stick at both ends, wearing every single hat and didn’t have good systems in place. I thought I did, but I didn’t. I was working double what I am now, and my body physically took the brunt end of over-extending myself.”

Today, Guitron has a manageable schedule that involves coaching around three hours a day, which leaves her plenty of time for programming and business development. She also no longer has to spend every single evening on the floor coaching anymore. She works just one evening a week. Learn the same coaching model that has changed Guitron’s career here.

“And I have time to train myself. I train five days a week at 10:30 in the morning. I block that time in my schedule and my phone goes on airplane mode. Before, if something came up or I needed to do a pt, that would always take priority over my own training,” she said.

A big reason it’s possible for her schedule to be so manageable is because she has other full-time professional coaches on her staff, who Guitron trusts to take care of the clients and the business. 

Currently, she has two other full-time coaches, one who has 40 clients, and the other is a new addition to the team but already has 30 individual program design clients, both of whom have the opportunity to make a good living in the fitness industry without running themselves into the ground.

“The coaches understand this will be a sustainable thing for them, so they’re able to have balance in their lives too, which is good. And I have the time to help them in areas where they feel inadequate and need to be more confident,” Guitron said.  

“They also have more autonomy,” she said, adding that it’s also a better system to cater to coaches’ specific strengths.  

“We can figure out what types of clients they thrive with, whereas in the group model, you just work with the group. Like now, if someone wants to work with competitive athletes, then I can be like, ‘cool, let’s send all those people your way,’” she said.

Guitron concluded: “This is the first model where everyone gets to win.”

Get an introduction to the same professional coaching education that has helped Guitron become the coach that she is today by signing up for the Free Professional Coaching Blueprint.

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