Jul 23, 2026 · 56 min · 15 segments
What does it actually take to win luxury clients? Chris Howell, CEO of SPX Gym Design, has designed gyms for some of the wealthiest hotels in the world. In this episode, he breaks down the art of…
Chris HowellGuestAlex GarciaHost
The moment I said, "We're only doing luxury," we broke a million dollars, then we were scaling from there.
I go, "Alex, we did that gym." He goes, "It's the only hotel I stay at when I'm in LA, and it's because of the gym." You go to a hotel, could be aces, and then you go to the gym, and it's just, [sighs] what happened? You have a sick hook, and then the payoff is, like, not what you promised.
So I wanted to get right into, uh, your approach to world-building because some of these gyms that you have built for the highest-end clients in the world look like a dream.
Every single one of them seems like someone's endgame, right? Like, you made it, and then this is the place you're gonna work out.
So I wanna talk about, like, what is your approach to world-building and where do you start and how do you arrive at that finished project?
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The moment I said, "We're only doing luxury," we broke a million dollars, then we were scaling from there.
I go, "Alex, we did that gym." He goes, "It's the only hotel I stay at when I'm in LA, and it's because of the gym." You go to a hotel, could be aces, and then you go to the gym, and it's just, [sighs] what happened? You have a sick hook, and then the payoff is, like, not what you promised.
So I wanted to get right into, uh, your approach to world-building because some of these gyms that you have built for the highest-end clients in the world look like a dream.
Every single one of them seems like someone's endgame, right? Like, you made it, and then this is the place you're gonna work out.
So I wanna talk about, like, what is your approach to world-building and where do you start and how do you arrive at that finished project?