Back Room Talk Coach Spotlight: Attila Kortvelyessy
Connect with Atti on Instagram
This episode of Back Room Talk explores the unconventional journey of Atti Kortvelyessy, a former Hungarian Army officer turned Luxembourg gym owner turned business strategist, whose evolution demonstrates how questioning everything including your own success leads to deeper impact.
Atti's story reveals why most coaches struggle with business (hint: it's a mindset problem, not a marketing problem), how to build services clients are actually ready for, and why the future of fitness coaching might not involve a gym at all.
The Accidental Entry: Love, Deployment, and a Dream
Atti's path into fitness coaching began with zero intention of ever coaching anyone: "I absolutely did not want to coach anyone ever. I also did not want to or maybe I want to but I never thought about it like consciously or there was no intention."
His entry came through relationship: "I was almost for a decade in army and I was deployed for the second time in Kosovo and there I met a young lady from the Luxembourgish army, Sophie."
Sophie's Vision
They met in the gym on the base, fell in love, and Sophie had a dream: to open a fitness studio in Luxembourg. Her motivation came from personal experience: "She grew up in Luxembourg... her dream was that, I always wanted to have a gym in my region very close so it's accessible to local people and youth and teenagers."
The barrier had been accessibility: "When Sophie wanted to go and train, when she figured out she wanna take care of her own fitness, she always needed her parents to take her to the city and then pick her up and then take her home because with bus it would take like forever."
The Luxembourg Context: Rich But Unfit
Luxembourg presented a unique market: "Luxembourg is like top three, if not top one richest country in the globe, super well safe. People living really well, but having really bad level of fitness simply because they invest into good cars, holidays, wine, good meals."
The scale matters: "It's a very tiny country, so you can pass the borders in 13 minutes in any direction... it's 600,000 citizens."
This created interesting dynamics: "It's a few towns and many, many small villages."
The Founding Debate: Individual Design vs. Group Classes
Before even opening, Atti and Sophie had a fundamental disagreement: "We almost had like a break up conversation on this when we were driving to Luxembourg, how to run the place because we were discussing this individual design approach and I was like, this is just a hell of a of work, who gonna do that?"
Sophie was adamant: "No, but we have seen that you cannot give a group session to people and templated programs."
The OPEX Discovery
Their knowledge of OPEX came from the earliest days: "CCP. It was like maybe the not the first but the second version, really few videos, very poor quality videos where like really the kind of CCP where the content is amazing but the delivery it's like it's what's necessary to be there."
They found James through Instagram: "I found Marcus Philly and his coach, of them was an OPEX coach who worked next to James. So I found James profile and I was like, oh, there is a guy who shares random photos with very smart captions on it."
The Financial Non-Consideration
Notably absent from their discussion: money. "She was 21, I was 26. We, no one were thinking about finances. We just wanted to have a place where people get fit and we can teach them a muscle up."
The debate wasn't about business model viability: "It was really about how to give best service ever to people that make sense because we have seen what happens in a group class and that made no sense."
The Launch Reality: The Market Spoke Clearly
They opened in January 2018 with multiple options to hedge their bets: "Being shy, copy pasting the market, we were like, let's have PT, let's have ID, let's have group class on the offer."
The market response surprised them: "People came in and no one wanted group class. And most people wanted ID and a few people wanted PT moving into ID."
This created interesting conversations with other coaches: "I've seen so many times where coaches wanted to change because they evolved with service providing and they were always like, but our people like the group. And that's what I love that you say that it depends a lot on the market because in our market we have seen that no one ever asked for it."
The CrossFit Mistake: Wrong Brand, Right Service
They started as a CrossFit affiliate but quickly realized the mismatch: "We recognized that again, such a huge mistake because we had the license, we were passionate about it, we thought it's a fair way of fitness and none of our clients would enjoy a CrossFit style group class."
The problem was attracting the wrong clients: "We get many people who came for CrossFit. And for us, it was obvious that our proposal is much better. But for those people, it was a mismatch because they wanted to have the group, that kind of energy, that vibe, those kinds of exercises."
The Rebrand
"I think we had it from January to August. After all, continued just with fitness." They later rebranded completely, moving away from the confusing "Fitness Dionysos" name (the Greek god of wine) that had people coming in looking for wine, not workouts.
The PT-to-ID Innovation: Teaching Clients How to Be Clients
Atti developed a unique approach that addressed a fundamental problem: clients weren't ready for individual design. "Our client here was not really ready to get their own program. So you had to create like a very long onboarding process."
The Solution: Structured Personal Training
They created PT packages specifically designed to prepare clients for ID: "By us, how PT looked like was, this is how you breathe in your session. This is how you brace. This is when you exhale, this is when you inhale."
The curriculum was comprehensive: "This is the equipment. This is how you save your scores. This is movement phases. Up, down, eccentric, concentric. This is tempo... This is how you read your program."
The Journey Options
"We built this out on a journey of 36 sessions and we built this out on a journey of 90 sessions based on the willingness of the person to engage."
The results were dramatic: "They were always like, this session was kind of boring because we were just hinging. We were like, yeah, give me, know, three more boring sessions like this, but you will be more successful than our clients who spent five years with us."
The Magic Number: 25-30 Sessions
Through observation, they identified a pattern: "We have seen that total beginner clients walk in shy, no confidence, lost. And around session 25, 30, they are like, oh, you still didn't finish with the other client. I start to warm up. I know what to do."
This became their transition point: "That's the time when there is a chance that they start to do things on their own while you still meet them every week or every second week."
The Accountability Challenge
They tested a 12-week intensive: "Those people, I think we made that for like six months and everyone who joined that, they are still there... we give you this offer if you show up for 12 weeks, three times a week."
The frequency mattered: "I already know that just based on biology, like we really need frequency."
The Lifestyle Integration Timing
Atti had strong opinions about when to address nutrition and lifestyle: "In this first 36 sessions, we don't even address that. But once we are there, you have enough exercise selection plus competence, confidence to show up alone."
Then the real work begins: "The next thing we can do is to sit down and, you know, discuss actually those things which will make the real change for you."
The Personal Transition: Falling Out of Love
Despite building successful gyms, Atti experienced a profound shift: "I absolutely don't enjoy anymore, you know, to work with clients. And you have coaches who are excited about teaching a squat again and again. And I was like, I just teach this so many times and I can do this again. I will just not enjoy it."
The Professional Standard Dilemma
"When you are a professional service provider, you learn how to deliver on a high level. But I think people still start to sense it once you are not just super happy when being with them."
His conclusion: "It's like, it's just time to go and do the next thing because there should be a next thing."
The Career Limitation Problem
Atti identified a fundamental issue in fitness: "I think it's very rare to find a position in fitness which provides you a real career."
He contrasted it with corporate: "You go to corporate and people will throw around this C level and juniors and they won't be too and career paths... But you come into fitness coaching and you're like, okay, what do I do?"
The Progression Dead End
"Let's do personal training and okay, I'm starving. Let's raise prizes. And once you did that, you are like, what's next? Okay, let's do semi-private. So I gain more time, get more people done and you are done with that. And you're like, what do I do? Do I go online?"
The paradox: "I think it's very difficult to find a position... And then I was thinking of army and it was the same. I was a combat unit officer, but once you reach the level of captain and you lead a company, you're going to go to stuff... you're gonna do paperwork as a mayor and all combat unit officer hated it."
The Bold Step: Choosing Yourself
Making the transition required confronting limiting beliefs: "I was in this defensive mode that, I have to stay. I should save this, I should only do my own things once this is safe."
The Realization
"Once you see you don't do what you wanna do, you can really change. You really do not owe anyone anything."
His partners supported him: "Once I named the things I wanted, both of them were like, yeah, of course you should go. Like, number one thing is that you are happy."
The Confidence Calculation
"I made a business age 26 with no ID that was successful within 10 months. So I'm like, if I go out now on zero, just like I did eight years ago, seven years ago, likely I can repeat it at least on the same level, if not better."
The scarcity trap: "We became this scared person with a scarcity mindset that no, it will not work. It's such a big word, why would I be good enough? And you look back your own story and you are like, I was already good enough. It's like people bought fitness from me when I did not even know what I'm talking about."
The New Direction: Working With Coaches
Atti discovered greater fulfillment working with coaches: "After almost a decade with working with clients actually it's much more exciting to work with other coaches and trainers."
He identified the real problems: "I think the fitness world has two huge problems and one is it's rooted in communication. Coaches don't know how to talk about their services, but they don't know how to talk to clients actually."
The Industry Communication Problem
"The industry itself makes a huge disservice on a global level because we all say the same. Like if you are a global gym, you do the same service for people like if you are an OPEX coach and you do the same if you are a bootcamp trainer."
The confusion compounds: "We can understand that it's confusing for the market, but then the expectations go to the wrong direction."
The Copy-Paste Problem
"Many people who come into business, they just come with passion, but they never really take the most simplest, purest marketing frameworks how to develop a good service and then they just look around... make a copy paste and then they are confused why their business is not working."
The Business Coaching Resistance
Atti observed something counterintuitive: "Coaches feel offended once you start to speak about business. They even refuse it. It's not for the business."
The victim mentality: "They don't want to charge, they don't want to keep the business healthy. It's all about passion and become a victim in this whole process instead of recognizing that, actually, if I do this as a business, I will have a huge impact and that will be great."
The Paradox
"Really resonates with OPEX coaches that if your client tells you this, you're gonna be honest and tell them that I cannot do this... That's why you have your personal program. That's why we do things custom. That's why we check in."
But then: "Once they step out from the consult room and they look at their business, they forget this and they expect the exact same thing that, no, just can you please tell me how I'm going to make more money, how I'm going to get more clients."
Project One: The Mindset Work
Atti's first new venture focuses on how coaches think: "It's mindset rooted, but you know, it's not hypnotherapy and it's not this very like crazy mindset work. It's more like how they can position themselves in their own head better so they can have better conversations."
The Sales Shift
"The client is selling themselves, not them selling the service to the client. How it should be in fitness."
His logic: "If the client would not need you, then they would not sit in that room. Or they would be likely coaches already. And if you take a step back from there, you are like, so why is it you would try to convince them how good you are instead of them pitching you that I have a problem which I really want you to solve?"
The Pilot Success
Testing with gym owners' youngest staff: "They were like, oh, these people are like on team meetings, they show up differently. But like when it comes to sales and working with their clients, they are like just super confident. The guy who could not lead a sales conversation is not selling PT packages of eight, 16, 24 easily."
The Group and One-on-One Mix
Atti uses both formats strategically: "I do a lot of one-on-one. And I do the one-on-one because... those who don't dare to speak in front of the group or they don't think their problems are valuable enough to be addressed there, they dare to speak up."
The Tactical Value
"In the unknown ones you have the chance to give them the very tactical thing which feels like the holy grail at that moment for them."
The progression: "What is my three go-to question I ask from a client, but I'm sure 99 % they will sign up because it boosts their thinking the right way... If you are a beginner, are like, can you repeat it? And you will write and you go and you start to try it."
Eventually: "Once you tried it 25 times, you are like, what he's talking about, it's not about this trick question, it's the thinking behind this trick question."
The Real Problem: Behavioral, Not Physical
Atti articulates a profound insight about gym population clients: "Many people are not ready for what they truly need. So then they sign up for the thing they believe gonna help them. But if you think about it for two minutes... people really don't come to you for exercise."
Who Comes for Exercise?
"Those people who come to you for exercise, they work with the proof-three coaches. They work with Sam Spitz or Henry Torano. They don't come to the average, and this is not an offensive, I'm an average ID coach."
The Real Issue
"You have a huge conflict there because the person sitting there telling that, I have not done this for the last 20 years. I don't really care about my food. I'm overworking. I'm stressed. And I want you to solve this for me in weekly two times 75 minutes when I show up or not."
The diagnosis: "You have a behavioral problem and your behavioral problem is rooted in that you do not believe you can change. And so my biggest help should be helping you to change the way how you think."
The Program Writing Resentment
Atti describes a phenomenon many coaches experience: "Any CCP coach, they love to write a program. At the same time, we know how irrelevant the program is if someone is not doing it."
The Instagram torture: "I scrolled Instagram and in the caption, Marcus Philly or James Roth, what was their daily program?... this program just looks really good. Like I wish to do it in my training."
The Breaking Point
"Then you meet people with a behavior problem and it you into resentment. You are just not happy programs anymore because you see that they don't benefit from it because they don't know how to use it."
His solution: "If I can work with people who put the mindset first in shape and order, I'm still excited to write a good program because I know they will do it in the right way."
The Philosophy-Attitude-Action-Results Chain
Atti references "Slight Edge": "Your philosophy creates your attitude. Your attitude creates your actions, your actions create your results."
The coaching application: "When we do actions towards results with our clients, it just gonna come to a point to stop because we didn't change attitudes and we didn't change their philosophy."
The Packaging Problem
"Today it sounds like mindset coaching and when people come to a gym, no one is excited about mindset coaching, I can get that. So you have to package it in a way that they don't recognize it."
The Alcohol Example: Information Isn't the Problem
Atti uses a perfect illustration: "If you go on Instagram today... what you see that Alcohol is bad for you. You should not drink alcohol because and then science science science science. And your clients will be like, fuck this. You know you give me science, but I have emotions."
The Real Barrier
"The issue they have that they cannot imagine a life without alcohol. So if you have a client who thinks that not drinking alcohol takes away from their life, that's a thinking you should really question."
The identity problem: "You thinking that alcohol equals fun is the problem... Now if you identify as someone who has to drink every day, that's something we should really seriously think about."
Why Science Fails
"I think most coaches never get that. And we see this on social media because everyone shares all the science. But we have seen science never had any, I have never seen anyone changing life because of science."
The Content Strategy: Useful and Offensive
Atti's social media approach has a clear purpose: "I want to be useful. So you see that most of the things I, it's useful on a level that it really comes with one thing you can implement."
The Passive Aggressive Truth
When called out on his tone: "Those who ever felt offended about my content, those were a few clients and those were those clients who needed it the most."
His conclusion: "Actually when they feel offended, it's about them. It's not me being too aggressive. It's them understanding that this is a message for them, which they don't like."
Project Two: Marketing and Business Strategy
The second venture addresses hardcore business needs: "It's really like more hardcore on marketing and business."
The Coach Resistance
"Coaches freak out that, oh, there is another coach coming to me with business. So he's just going to scan me for $5,000 for six weeks with a, you know, with a script, which will not work for me."
The Education Gap
"Most certification they teach you fitness, but they never teach you business."
His former misconception: "I taught seven years ago that marketing is a boosted post on Facebook."
The reality: "Marketing is about getting something from your head down to the market where they understand that it's good for them and they start to buy it."
The Reverse Engineering Problem
Atti identifies how coaches approach business backwards: "You are undercharging. So I give you a formula how to charge properly and you are like, This is fucking high, I don't dare to charge this."
The layers revealed: "So we have a mindset problem in your head about money, but we also have a service problem in your business because it's not valuable to charge this amount."
More layers: "Can I improve my service? I still cannot sell. because we have a communication problem."
The Ideal Path
"Ideally the client should recognize that, Ati, could you not start this with who and why and who I am and my mindset so we can put the whole journey perfectly. And I'm like, yeah, I could, but you were not ready."
The Best Practices Trap
Atti sees coaches seeking shortcuts: "I spend the time on Reddit to see the market and I just see people are so lost. It's like, what are your best practices to?"
His Luxembourg example: "I can tell you in Luxembourg, flyers work so well... I don't think we could repeat this anywhere in the world, but our Facebook ads underperformed constantly."
The frustration: "If you just ask best practices, if you don't tell me the details of your business, if you don't tell me where you are, who you work with, you, no one can tell you if it's."
The Marketing Parallel
Atti points out marketing suffers the same issues as fitness: "The mass market, sharing whatever is the diet of the day, the movement format of the day. And those trends ebb and flows and everything is cyclical."
The solution: "If you know the principles and you know what you are delivering and the value it has, the problem it solves, who it solves that for, you are able to look at the set of tools in front of you from a marketing standpoint."
The Skill Differentiation Strategy
Citing Steven Bartlett (Diary of a CEO): "His biggest lesson is that you are really good in your field. If you wanna beat the market, find a skill set no one else has in the market."
Atti's application: "If you work in marketing, go and learn whatever, something really unexpected and you know in if you come into fitness and you say okay I just understand marketing better than any other fitness coaches you have a service no one else has."
The Bold Suggestion
"I would say to OPEX coaches, learning financial advising would get them a lot of clients because they could remove all the people who have money objection."
The Ultimate Advice: Start Without a Gym
If Atti were starting over with all his current knowledge: "I would not rent, I would not buy equipment, and I would only work from an office as a health consultant to help people fix the main issues they have."
The Philosophy
"You just have to listen to people and so you recognize that your real power is not in the program."
The vision: "I would just work out from an office. Online or in person up to the point where I have 15 to 20 clients who are ready to exercise like flawless."
When to Add the Gym
"Once I have that pool of people I'm like okay now I extend my business to have a gym. But I will not make make people believe that their health and fitness is about the gym."
The Partnership Advantage
Atti works with his ex-girlfriend, a digital marketer: "She's the same story like you like I'm a digital marketer for corporate and large-scale companies banking insurance finance but I love to do fitness as a person."
Her revelation after looking at fitness businesses: "There are so many things we could improve for them, which for them is a huge thing. And for you, it's like, you are like, this should be already done from the start."
The Journey Forward
Atti's evolution from Army officer to accidental gym owner to strategic business consultant demonstrates that the most impactful coaching careers often involve multiple iterations. His willingness to:
Question his own success and happiness
Leave something working to pursue something meaningful
Address the uncomfortable truths about coach business struggles
Build services that prepare clients for success rather than just delivering workouts
Recognize that behavior change precedes physical change
These qualities separate coaches who build sustainable, evolving practices from those who plateau in comfortable but unfulfilling careers.
Connect with Atti
Those interested in Atti's approach can find him:
Instagram: @cc.atti Content focused on practical implementation and uncomfortable truths
Focus: Business strategy, service design, and mindset work for fitness coaches
Philosophy: "Intention should come before action" and "Your real power is not in the program"
Specialty: Helping coaches build services clients are actually ready for
Atti's story reminds us that sometimes the most important thing you can do for clients is not coach them in fitness it's help them change how they think about themselves first.
Next Steps
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