Reade Milner is a great example of someone that truly loves his community and feels blessed to be able to serve people in it – both through his marketing business and also through The Faces Of. You can’t talk with him long before you recognize this person is real – he loves the people, the community and the area he lives in. What a joy to spend a few moments with Reade getting to know him better:
Question: What community do you represent for the Faces Of?
Answer: “Thefacesofbarrow.com in Georgia.”
Q: Please tell us about your family.
A: “I am married to Nikki, she is way too good for me. We have two little boys almost 5 and 2. We haven’t had proper rest for five years – we are exhausted all the time, but they are a joy! Having small kids has changed my perspective on a lot of things and certainly made my life brighter.”
Q: From where do most of your clients originate?
A: “I am a Marketing consultant – these days I am trending closer to 50% local and 50% nationwide. I’m not that far from Atlanta and a lot of my clients are from there, however, more and more, over time, are from my local community. I would like to continue growth in my local clients. I like the idea of working in my own community but I also like working with my virtual clients from around the country.”
Q: What is something unique about your community?
A: “We are geographically in the middle of Atlanta and Athens (which is a major college town). We are conveniently located by major highways. For that reason, there is a lot of migration from rural to suburban. We have the benefits of both of these types of communities. I know the leaders in the community from The Faces Of and I like these relationships. Also, because the county seat – Winder, was the denim manufacturer of the world in mid-century (booming clothing manufacturer) the railroad runs right through town. We have such neat history and infrastructure. We are currently having an impressive resurgence of downtown architecture – for example, a 100 year old bank was renovated and converted into a high-end Italian restaurant. This is drawing people in into the community but we are still maintaining the small town feel.”
Q: What are two or three of your favorite movies?
A: “One of my favorite of all time is the ‘Star Wars’ series. I fell in love with it when I was a kid. I also loved the 80s movies that my parents bought me up on – like all three of the ‘Back to the Future’ movies. I feel that if you enjoy your time while in a movie, it is a good movie.”
Q: Do you have a favorite sports team?
A: “Having lived about 20 minutes from the University of Georgia, that makes them my favorite team. They have a historically great football program and I’m also optimistic about the basketball program.”
Q: What attracted you to The Faces Of project?
A: “For a long time, I felt a pull to do business in this town that means so much to me. In September 2008 the town was really suffering and I wanted to help bring about a resurgence. When Brian (Weiss) told me about what Brad (Abernathy) was working on; I couldn’t avoid the thought that I wanted to do it in my community. I jumped in with both feet and brought on a real estate agent friend of mine. We complement each other quite well. This has really resonated with the people of our community. People will stop me and say how great it is – and I don’t even know them. I’d like to think it has helped to raise the community back up.”
Q: Who is the most famous person you have met?
A: “Tom Crean – he is locally very famous. He famously coached Dwayne Wade at Marquette University and is now the head coach for the Georgia Bulldogs. I ran into him in a bookstore in Athens and we talked for several minutes. He was very nice and it was pleasant experience.”
Q: What are two things or characteristics that you have that have made you successful in your career?
A: “I’ve learned to have very little to no fear of rejection. I recommend everyone learns this skill as soon as they can. No matter what you are doing, not everyone is going to accept your offer. The sooner you can build a thick skin and move on to the next one the better off you will be.”
Q: What makes you happy?
A: “The politically correct answer is time with family and that is true, that they truly provide peace for me – they just love me for being daddy and being Reade. We are very active in a local church, as trustee and Sunday school teacher and I get joy out of doing this. The kids are involved also and have their closest friends there.”
Q: What is the most beautiful place you have been in this world?
A: “Being a Northeast Georgia guy, I love being at the lake. My family once had a lake house on Lake Burton; it is one of the most beautiful places I know and is surrounded by mountains. The water, early in the morning, looks like glass.”
Q: What are two or three of your favorite books?
A: “I read a lot. It’s hard to say my favorite but I recently read a book by Mike Michalowicz called ‘Clockwork.’ It’s about how to organize and systemize your business so it can run without you. In essence, building a business like you build a machine. My all time favorite fiction book is a book I read as a freshman college English course. We had to pick a book to read and I read ‘Ender’s Game.’ It was the book that made me fall in love with reading. I have read it four or five times and still read it every few years.”
Q: What else should people know about you?
A: “A statement that has come to define a lot of what I do is ‘it means a lot to me to be a person that is useful.’ If there is a problem I want to be known as the person who is useful. If I touch things, that they are made better not worse.”
