If I see an online coach telling me that their “system” will lean me out, get me faster, improve my strength, I lose interest.

I don’t believe you can have a system without the structure that underpins it or the strategy to implement it. Maybe this is just a linguistic thing and they really mean structure but for me:

Structure: The building blocks. Recovery, Nutrition, Movement, Load, Anatomy, Physiology. The real, tangible elements that make up a human and their environment. Without all the structures in place, you don’t have a solid foundation.

System: Using the elements of the structure together to achieve your strategy. The interfacing layer.

Strategy: Developing the way of using the system to achieve the objective

Objective: What you want to achieve.

Task: A sub unit of the objective that contributes to the forward progress.

So if we are looking to rehab an athlete back from injury, we need to ensure that the structure of their rehabilitation is in place before we start working on the strategies to get them there.

Similarly, weight loss, the great target of the moment. There is no point selling system that will get your clients to achieve great heights if they don’t have the structure in place to allow them to deal with the stress caused by your strategy.

So have a look at the whiteboard. Work out where you are, and how you can support your clients. Do they need you to provide a structure or are they after your expertise for the strategy? Its a partnership.