In this episode of Getting Raw, host Richard Mark Toutounji interviews Kent "Pumper" Pumpa, the driving force behind Bootcamps Australia. Kent recounts how he took over the brand from its founder, revamped the website, systems, and programs, and aggressively expanded the network to over 60 locations across Australia, with a goal of reaching 100+. He explains the affiliate model that lets personal trainers keep their own brand while adopting Bootcamps’ curricula, systems, and community support, contrasting it with traditional franchising. Kent emphasizes the importance of comprehensive trainer education, a strong culture, and diversified program offerings (kids, seniors, kettlebell league, performance training). He stresses that fitness is a lifestyle, not a job, and remains hands‑on by training sessions and leading 20 km runs with his team. The conversation also covers why some affiliates fail—lack of system adoption, disengagement from community, or personal reasons—and how the model aims to mitigate those risks by providing multiple income streams and robust support. Overall, the interview showcases the strategic, system‑driven approach Kent uses to scale a functional‑training brand while maintaining personal involvement and a passion‑focused culture.
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Welcome to Getting Raw. It's Richard Mark Toutounji, and today I'm here with Kent the Pumper. Kent Pumper, how you going?
Good, mate. How are you?
Now, for those who don't know Kent Pumper, you may also know the term Bootcamps Australia. Bootcamps Australia started in Brisbane, and Kent is aggressively, aggressively getting it nationwide. He's here in our office in Sydney where he's relocated to continue the aggression to dominate boot camps around Australia. So I wanted to get Ken in today because I've known Ken for a little bit now, a couple of years, and there's one thing that comes to my head when I speak— when anybody talks to Ken, anybody knows Ken, it's all about passion. You've got a lot of passion in what you do. Thank you. And I believe that passion is moving mountains fast at the moment. So at the moment, you've got 60 locations, is that right? Yep. Not moving another one today or anything? 60 is good?
We just did one yesterday in WA.
Okay, so 61 are we up to now, I think? So we've got around 60 locations, so 60 bootcamp locations. And I'm assuming the goal of a lot of people is to get that 3-figure mark, is it?
Yeah, pretty much. I don't care, Richard. I want to drive 100 plus. For the model that we've got, it's just It's a numbers game. So yeah, I'd like to hit that 100 by the end of the next few months or the next year and then keep pushing from there.
All right. Your background, and this is where I really want to get interested because a lot of people, it's like they have a studio, they have boot camps, they want multiple locations. This is what I really want to talk about today. It's like people struggle just to have one location and then they'll get their second location, then their third location, everything starts to get hard, falls apart, they can't find clients, they think, do I go franchise? Do I do it myself? What are the options? So I want to sort of hear your story, and because I know recently over the last, I think, 6 months, 10 months, you've really grown, like change growth skyrocketed. So just take me back to, I guess, the growth stage for you. The fast growth.
The fast growth. Well, obviously I sort of took over from the original founder, was Corey Gibson, Bootcamps Australia, and I saw the potential in the model that he created and the culture, but I saw the potential that it did have Just following the systems and stuff like that. So I guess 2 years ago when I took over, I started with the website, systems, programs, products, you know, and from there, and then just, I ditched franchising 'cause I just, I was a franchisee originally myself. And, you know, when you get to that certain stage in fitness, you know, we all know that PTs are about, you know, when you become a good PT, you know, we start to think, you know, I don't need anybody. Yeah. But at the same time, you know, they just swap time for money too much, you know? and they don't create a membership base for themselves or a client base and they can't replicate themselves and they don't have the systems or the business background to sort of drive. And, you know, I hate to say it, but, you know, there's a lot of people out there not really helping these guys go to where they should be. And when you're on your own, I guess, you know, when you think you're doing a good job, but we can always do better and grow. So it's about being coachable and never becoming that uncoachable person.
Yeah.
So, you know, just willing to keep growing and learning and progressing. And I guess my program's taking all that hard stuff out for people because I'm I'm the one doing all that stressful stuff and they're sitting back going, thanks, Ken.
And the difference too, you're actually doing the training as well, the physical training, not just the business, but you actually continue to train them your style, your method, boot camp method.
Yep. So, like, our big thing is education. So, you know, like, we take every aspect of fitness and train trainers in not just being good at one thing and having that niche, because if you have a niche, you've got to be, you know, you've got to be fantastic to be successful if you've got a niche. You know, you've got to be the guru, the duck But at the same time, you know, you can teach people to be excellent at everything or good at everything and then still have their niches so that they're adaptable to this industry. You know, like, we, you know, our markets of, you know, housewives and ladies and, you know, 80% females these days and, you know, men and education. Like, you know, there's not many people actually doing health and fitness. So the industry's, you know, as far as I know, it's growing rapidly and it's going to continue to grow.
So. So your tricks are helping the industry.
Yeah.
Getting on board and actually helping them train them. Giving the systems and continually giving the systems. I was, last year I did a lot of flying to Brisbane and I always catch up with Ken if I can, see where he's around. And every time I seem to catch up with him, he's always on training days. So, Richard, I've got 10 minutes for you, but now I'm gonna do a 20K run with my team right around Brisbane. And I find that really inspiring because here you are, you've got 60 locations, but you're still hands-on. You're still in the works with these guys and actually continually teaching, teaching, teaching.
Fitness is a lifestyle, mate. You know, it's not a job. It's a lifestyle and people treat it like a job. They, you know, oh mate, you know, come in and, you know, here's what we do. And they're just like delivering sessions. I call them session deliverers.
Yeah, I'm just—
Yeah, well, you know, I care about my clients. I care about my trainers. I care about the people in my business. And, you know, and people that want to say that I don't, or, you know, look, I'm not worried about what other people are doing. Like, my thing's about helping the people that are in my business and just driving good things and making sure that it's successful and people are successful. I take it personally when someone in my business isn't successful because I put so much education and time and effort into them.
Let's stop there for a second. You take it personally when somebody doesn't, like, you know, an affiliate of yours, a bootcamp location doesn't get the success. Why do you think they don't get the success? Is it the systems? Is it them? Is it not passionate enough?
It's a combination of everything. You know, they don't use the systems that are provided for them. They don't follow the model. They don't get involved with the culture the community. It's a community thing. Bootcamps Australia is a whole community thing. We work together. We've got great guys, some of the leading guys in this industry. We've got athletes and we've got other people coming on board and different things. It's just fantastic to see what it's come from 2 years ago to what it is now. We've got Steady Steps for kids, for older adults, bootcamps for kids. We cater for everyone. We're the IKFF in Australia now with Steve Cotter. So I bring I bring Steve out a couple of times a year now and stuff. So we're doing performance kettlebells. We've got Australian Kettlebell League here in Australia that's involved, and they're doing great things in that as well. And they're our Parramatta affiliate. We've got, you know, involved with crank and suspension training with Arwen Bowling. You know, he comes in and trains our guys. And so I'm bringing all these great synergies and great coaches in and just giving that to my staff, you know.
So why would they want to leave for then?
Well, they don't.
That's good. The ones that do want to leave are the ones that aren't getting involved. Yep. Thinking they can run the show themselves.
I've probably lost 2 or 3 I've had 2 affiliates in the last 2 years. One I tore up because they just weren't working out, and the other one just left for personal reasons and traveling overseas.
I want to talk about the model though, the affiliate model. You mentioned affiliates. The affiliate model that you provide is basically they can actually run their own business. You actually want them to run their own personal training business, right? Yep. And they basically have, I'm an affiliate of Bootcamps Australia, slap it on their business as well. So I've got my I've got my business and I've got Bootcamps Australia business. Now, that's where I think maybe the success for you and the speed of growth can happen because it's like you don't have to actually leave your whole business and say, I'm just going to be a Bootcamps Australia, because in this industry, personal trainers know we're very passionate, we've got our clients going, we're not going to give that away for somebody else. So it's putting the 2 things. Is that where you think the growth has happened?
Yeah, pretty much. A lot of people get scared because we work so hard, like even myself, you know, I still run, pump Personal training. I train a lot of
pumpers. Personal
training, you know, catchy. You know, obviously my last name is we pump you up. Yeah, yeah. Oh, well, you know, just use my last name. But you know, like rebranding is very scary for someone that spent so much time and effort building a personal training business. You know, and a lot of people don't want to give up that brand. You know, it's the it's their heart and soul. You know, it's what they've created. So I took that away because I don't want to restrict people's income either. You know, like you know, win for one person's win for everyone in my business. So you know, we we've come up with corporate stuff, everything so that these guys can have a good successful business but good programs. I don't know how to explain it. I've turned Bootcamps Australia into the Les Mills of the functional training world, I guess. We provide systems and programs and products so these guys can create streams of income for themselves and different types of membership bases and give them stability so they can have a holiday and build a team of trainers under them quicker and just have leads and a great website and people like meet yours and stuff like that, we pay for and provide for our guys, you know. Like, we're there to help people be successful. They've just got to be, you know, like we all know, like it takes a special person to be really successful in our industry. And it's the ones that actually live the lifestyle and care about their clients.
Mm.
The ones that do, mate, I've never seen anyone that's been passionate not be successful in this industry, you know.
