The Content Framework I Wish I Had 10 Years Ago: Emotion → Problem → Solution → Evidence

A big mistake I see many coaches make is treating social media like a textbook. Post educational content, share research, and explain methodologies. You think, “If I just provided enough value, people would naturally want to work with me.”

The engagement says otherwise.

Spend hours crafting detailed posts about training principles or nutrition science, hit publish, and get maybe three likes from other coaches who already know this stuff. Meanwhile, some random trainer posts a 15-second video of themselves eating a sandwich and gets ten times the engagement.

That would fucking frustrated me. Doing everything the "experts" said to do—providing value, educating your audience, establishing authority. But you’re missing the most important piece: nobody cares about your information until they care about you and they know you care about them.

Why Educational Content Fails

The problem with leading with education is that you're starting at step three of a four-step process. You're trying to solve a problem before your audience even knows they have one or cares enough to pay attention.

Think about the last time you stopped scrolling and actually read something. I'm willing to bet it wasn't because someone led with "Here are three evidence-based strategies for hypertrophy." It was because something made you feel something in the first place. Maybe it pissed you off. Maybe it resonated with a struggle you're dealing with. Maybe it made you laugh. Whatever it was, emotion came before information.

That's the framework I finally figured out after a decade of doing this wrong: Emotion, then Problem, then Solution, then Evidence.

How the Framework Actually Works

Start with emotion. Not manufactured inspiration or fake vulnerability - a real human connection. "Your family needs you" hits differently than "here's why dads should prioritize fitness." One makes you feel something. The other makes you scroll past.

The emotion creates the pause. It stops the scroll. It makes someone think, "wait, this might be for me." That pause is everything. Without it, nothing else matters because nobody's reading.

Once you have attention, name the specific problem. Not the general one, the specific one. "You want to be there for your kids, but you're too tired to play with them after work" is infinitely more powerful than "many people struggle with energy levels." Specificity creates recognition. Recognition creates engagement.

Now, and only now, do you provide the solution. This is where most coaches want to start, but if you lead with the solution, you're solving a problem nobody thinks they have yet. The solution has to come after the problem is clearly identified and emotionally resonant.

Finally, back it up with evidence. Show them it works. This could be your own results, a client transformation, data, whatever. But the evidence comes last, not first. It reinforces the solution; it doesn't replace the emotional connection.

Implementation Looks Different Than You Think

I had a coach on one of my mentorship calls who was struggling with content. He was creating educational carousels that nobody engaged with. I asked him what he would actually stop and watch if he were his target audience… so, as a busy dad trying to stay in shape.

His answer: "Probably something showing me it's actually possible to eat well without spending three hours preparing meals."

So that's what we built. A reel titled "Your family needs you" showing a full day of eating for a busy dad. Real food, real schedule, real life. Emotional hook, identified problem, demonstrated solution, personal evidence. That video got more engagement than his last twenty educational posts combined.

The Shift

This framework works because it mirrors how humans actually make decisions. We feel first, think second. We connect with stories before we trust statistics. We need to see ourselves in the problem before we care about the solution.

I wish I'd understood this ten years ago. Would've saved me a lot of time creating content nobody gave a shit about. But that's the thing about building a business in public - you learn what works by doing what doesn't work first.

If your content isn't connecting, you're probably starting in the wrong place. Lead with emotion. Everything else follows.

Keep Raising the Bar,

Paul Oneid MS, MS, CSCS