A CONVERSATION ABOUT COMMUNITY, RESILIENCE, IDENTITY, PURPOSE, AND THE KIND OF GROWTH THAT ONLY HAPPENS WHEN YOU DECIDE TO COMPLETELY REBUILD YOUR LIFE.
Some guests enter the studio with a story, and some enter with a whole journey; the kind that has grit, humour, heart, and a level of honesty you don’t often see on camera. That was Matt Gamble. He arrived at the table still recovering from the aftermath of his own Christmas party, holding a drink that could only be chosen by someone who has lived through a heavy weekend and come out the other side with a sense of humour intact.
Before we unraveled gyms, childhood, family, adversity, ego deaths, spiritual awakenings, franchising, identity, and the Colombian jungle, we started with the drink that said everything about him before he said a word.
THE DRINK OF CHOICE: DIET COKE WITH LEMON
Matt didn’t choose anything glamorous, curated, or cocktail-bar fancy. His drink of choice was Diet Coke with lemon. Sharp, cold, quick, no fuss, no fluff, and exactly the kind of thing you order when you’ve had thirty vodka sodas over the weekend and “just come good.”
Matt Gamble
Soli summed it up perfectly. A Diet Coke with lemon drinker is refreshing, zesty, fast-moving, and allergic to bullshit. Someone who gets straight to the point and doesn’t pretend to be anything other than who they are. The whole table agreed it was pure Matt energy, and that simple little drink set the exact tone for the conversation that followed.
THE MAKING OF MATT GAMBLE – THE BEGINNING OF THE STORY
Matt grew up in housing commission, raised mainly by his mum, figuring life out as he went, and navigating an environment that wasn’t easy but taught him everything he would later need. He wasn’t a school lover. He left in Year 10, not because he didn’t care, but because his world made more sense outside the classroom than inside it. But he always had heart, humour, and this instinctive ability to connect with people.. something that would later become his superpower.
A knee injury sent him to the gym for rehab, and that gym became the turning point. It was the first place he learned that he had the ability to change something about himself through effort and consistency. It clicked. He fell in love with bettering himself. He felt what it was like to move forward. And from there, everything began to shift.
THE SETBACK THAT TURNED INTO THE GOLDEN TICKET
Matt tried to apply for TAFE and was rejected because his Year 10 wasn’t “on file.” Doors closed. But life had other plans. His mum picked up temp work for a man who just happened to know the person running the exact TAFE program Matt needed during the exact four-week window applications reopened, and he was slid into the final spot. The start of his career wasn’t luck. It was alignment. It was timing. It was meant for him.
He threw himself into study, stayed back late, worked harder than everyone because he knew he wasn’t “supposed” to be there. That work ethic is the thing that has stayed with him through every season of his life.
THE RISE OF G3 FITNESS – FROM ONE TEENAGE TRAINER TO A MULTI-SITE MOVEMENT
After getting qualified, Matt started as a cleaner at a gym, then built a full personal training schedule, then ran bootcamps, then had clients lining up specifically for him. He wasn’t the biggest trainer or the flashiest, he was the one who cared the most. The one who remembered people’s stories. The one who made every client feel important. The one who genuinely loved seeing people become better versions of themselves.
Eventually, he created G3 Fitness, named after the trio of surnames (Gamble and Ghazi) and the idea that it held a “third space” feeling a place where people went not just to train, but to transform. One accidental double-booking turned into two women training together and loving it, and that single moment became the blueprint for the G3 model: small group training with the feeling of one-on-one connection.
From Penrith to multiple locations, then into franchising, and eventually back to independence, Matt built a community-first brand that became a cultural staple in the area, the place where people felt seen. The place where they felt believed in. The place where Matt’s presence changed the room.
THE BREAKING POINT AND THE SPIRITUAL AWAKENING
Then came COVID, closures, pressure, financial strain, responsibility, and a sudden confrontation with identity – who am I if my gym is shut? Who am I without the title? Who am I beyond the grind?
This spiralled into the self-development journey that changed his entire life. Books. Rituals. Meditation. Reflection. And eventually, the jungle. The medicine. The ego death. The reset. The moment that separated Matt-the-businessman from Matt-the-human. He came back different – slower, present, grounded, deeply grateful, less reactive, and more connected to who he actually is.
He speaks openly about handing over control, about trusting what is greater than him, about the peace that comes from surrender. It’s the kind of growth that can’t be faked.
THE MAN WE MET AT THE TABLE
If you strip everything away; the gym, the franchise, the business model, the ayahuasca ceremonies, the mentors, the near-death ego dissolution.. you’re left with someone who has done the internal work most people spend their lives avoiding.
Matt is family centred. Community-built. Purpose-driven. Humble. Self-aware. Grateful. And deeply invested in being present with his daughters, his partner, his members, and the people he loves.
He’s the man who made something from nothing, then learned to detach from the thing he built. He’s the man who teaches his gym community how to grow physically while he’s quietly doing the emotional and spiritual lifting behind the scenes.
He’s the man who knows where he came from and where he’s going, and he owns both.
WATCH THE FULL EPISODE
It is raw, deep, funny, surprising, and one of the most transformative conversations we’ve had on this show.
