Yea there are a few general pathways I go down depending on what someone reports their goal is. If I'm getting the vibe that body composition is what motivates a person and their current body composition is not what they hoped it would be- I ask them "What have you tried", "Why do you think it didn't work?", "What would you do differently?", and "What are the biggest obstacles to your success?". A lot of this stuff is probably self awareness in that people who email or call me start to realize obvious flaws in their approach. Then with a little guidance, accountability, and tweaks based on evidence people tend to improve readily.
Occasionally there will be holes in people's logic and questions like "Why do you believe doing X will help you get Y?" and then providing rationale for a different approach tends to work well. In short, empowering a person to help themselves is probably the biggest thing I do.