We’re excited to introduce you to the always interesting and insightful Austin Ardrey. We hope you’ll enjoy our conversation with Austin below.

Austin, thanks for taking the time to share your stories with us today We’d love to have you retell us the story behind how you came up with the idea for your business, I think our audience would really enjoy hearing the backstory.

I got a phone call in January of 2021 from two college football officials that wanted to take themselves to the next level. They reached out asking for help learning how to improve their running mechanics and get into shape specifically for their upcoming football season.

We met in person and I took them through what a college athlete would do within an on-field conditioning session, catering it to what they do as officials.

I took them through
– Soft tissue prep, teaching them how to prepare and recover
– Dynamic warmups they could do before trainings or games
– Running technique drills they could implement on a regular basis to improve their technique
– A conditioning session devised specifically for a football official, the movements they go through on the field, & the rest times between snaps

We stayed in touch and got other officials involved locally around the Dallas/Fort Worth Metroplex. I had always loved programming during my time as a college strength & conditioning coach and wanted to create an online training program to give myself the ability to impact more people than just in my local area.

There was nobody else in the market doing this for officials, let alone not much training available for officials.

The unique approach to Runnin’ Ref is that it is a year-round strength & conditioning program that takes into account
– Time available for training
– The most common injuries that Officials face
– On-field or court demands of an Official
– The age bracket of most Officials

Austin, love having you share your insights with us. Before we ask you more questions, maybe you can take a moment to introduce yourself to our readers who might have missed our earlier conversations?

I was a college strength & conditioning coach for 9 years at various colleges where I spent my time deeply studying
– Return to play from short/long term injuries
– Speed development, multi-directional movement, & multi-sport conditioning
– Strength training

Our program is an app-based training program that Officials can access through a mobile device anywhere in the world.

What sets us apart from other options for Officials is that we are dedicated to the official. We are solving the problems that officials face (injury prevention, specific movements).

We provide Officials with advanced strength & conditioning programs that are specific to their sport on the field.

I want Officials to know that we are out there, and trying to make an impact on as many Officials as we can. We want our brand to be recognized in all Officiating circles as the Worldwide Leader in Referee Fitness. We are not just a “Running Program” as our name may suggest. We are the total package.

I’m most proud thus far of how our team is constantly improving in every aspec of the business, but with the Official in mind first and foremost. What will make each Official better? Because this will be our biggest growth opportunity.

We’d love to hear the story of how you built up your social media audience?

We have built an audience on social media through a few key principles
1. Relevant and helpful content to Referees. We don’t care necessarily if a soccer player sees our content, we care that a Soccer Referee sees it and can apply something to make themselves better.

2. Quality information. We aren’t hiding any information – we give it all away on social.

3. We watch and pay attention to the best creators and keep improving our content production day after day.

4. We try to get Referees to share our content with other referees so that we grow within our niche.

5. We realize that social media for us is about branding. We use it to create a positive outlook on our business, which in turn will have more Officials that want to join our program!

Can you tell us about what’s worked well for you in terms of growing your clientele?

Having a great product. In my opinion that is the most essential part of running a business. Do you actually have a good product that can help people.

If the answer is yes, people will tell people about you and will stay loyal to your business because they are getting value from it.

Contact Info:

• Website: https://runninref.com
• Instagram: @runninrefs
• Facebook: @runninrefs
• Linkedin: Austin Ardrey – CEO at Runnin Ref
• Youtube: @runninrefs