Today we’d like to introduce you to Ryan Treadwell.
Hi Ryan, thanks for joining us today. We’d love for you to start by introducing yourself.
I grew up in Georgia and still very much claim being from “Atlanta”. The truth is I was raised in the suburbs, primarily Gwinnett County. I’m one of two brothers and was incredibly fortunate to grow up with two great parents who gave us both stability and encouragement while also letting us wrestle with big questions early on.
Those questions really came to the surface in college. I went through what I’d now call a crisis of purpose. This nagging sense that I wanted my life to make an impact, but no clear understanding of what that should look like.
Out of that season came my first real attempt at building something. Along with a small group of friends, I helped start a college ministry called The Real Movement. The goal was simple but ambitious: bridge the gap between Christian and non-Christian communities on campus. We felt that many campus spaces had become too exclusive, and we wanted to build genuine relationships with people who believed differently than we did. What started small eventually grew to seven campuses, and I led it for almost eight years. It became my first full-time job out of college and shaped how I think about leadership, community, and humility more than anything else in my early career.
Eventually, I felt a pull toward a new season and left that role to step into work at Orchard. I’ve always been drawn to building things that don’t exist yet, or joining organizations that are actively becoming something new. I enjoy the uncertainty of early stages, the problem-solving, and the long view it takes to build something meaningful over time. That creative tension has been a constant theme in my life.
Outside of work, my life is grounded by my family. I’m married to my high school sweetheart, Kaylyn, and we have a three-year-old daughter named Lennon who has completely redefined my understanding of joy, patience, and presence.
Can you talk to us a bit about the challenges and lessons you’ve learned along the way. Looking back would you say it’s been easy or smooth in retrospect?
I’m not sure anyone has a smooth road through life. Sure, some people road’s are smoother than others. But life, at least in my experiences, is a constant juggling act of fighting through struggles and hardships and learning to find the joy in the process.
Each season for me has brought different pain points and struggles
At 20, one of the greatest struggles was fighting through my insecurities of being in a leadership position for the first time.
At 26, it was grieving the death of one of my best friends
At 32, it’s fighting to be the best dad I can possibly be, while also juggling all of the other work and life responsibilities that come every single day.
Each year brings it’s own struggles. Each year brings it’s own joys. I’m slowly learning that both come with the territory of life
As you know, we’re big fans of Orchard Resources. For our readers who might not be as familiar what can you tell them about the brand?
I’m the Executive Director at Orchard. At its core, our work is about helping people live with intention in the places they already are. We exist to support individuals, leaders, and organizations who want their lives and work to genuinely reflect their values—especially when it comes to loving and serving others in practical, everyday ways.
What makes Orchard unique is that we don’t believe impact should be outsourced or limited to specific environments. Too often, purpose is treated like something that only happens through nonprofits, churches, or volunteer events. While those spaces matter, we specialize in helping people recognize that their greatest influence is often already embedded in their daily lives. through their work, relationships, neighborhoods, and communities.
Faith is a foundational part of who we are. Our Christian convictions shape our motivation and worldview, and pushed our work to be deeply relational and human-centered. And we also want to graciously call out the reality that there are 2.6 billion people in the world who claim to follow Jesus. If each of those people took just one step to loving their neighbors like jesus did, our world would look like a much different place. That’s not happening righy now. We believe it should be, and that’s the dream we’re running after.
Practically, Orchard works across multiple lanes. We support nonprofit leaders who are building meaningful work in their communities, help churches better activate their people beyond Sunday services, and create resources for individuals who want to live more intentionally without having to radically change their lives or careers. We’re known for blending clarity with compassion, helping people think strategically while staying grounded in why they started in the first place.
What sets us apart is our focus on sustainability and integrity. We don’t chase growth for growth’s sake, and we don’t push performative impact. Instead, we emphasize long-term health—of people, organizations, and communities. That often means slowing things down, asking harder questions, and redefining what “success” actually looks like.
Brand-wise, what I’m most proud of is that Orchard aims to build an ecosystem, not a platform. one that gives people permission to live faithfully and intentionally right where they are.
What I’d want readers to know most is this: Orchard isn’t about doing more, achieving more, or becoming someone else. It’s about seeing your existing life through a clearer lens and choosing to show up with greater purpose, consistency, and love. We believe faith is meant to be lived, not compartmentalized—and our work exists to help make that possible in tangible, accessible ways. We all have the opportunity to love and serve others, and if we start seeing service as a way of life and less of an event, then things start to really change.
If you had to, what characteristic of yours would you give the most credit to?
I was once told that you learn from either knowledge, insight or experience.
One of the greatest gifts I was given as a 20 year old was being thrown into the fire and learning leadership and organizational skills strictly through experience. At that time, work all about learning from our failures. I didn’t have a mentor or a parent organization helping point us in the right direction. We just ran in the direction we thought was best and dealt with our failures as we went.
So if anything, I think I got more and more comfortable with sitting in that tension longer: knowing something isn’t perfect, but continuing to slowly improve it as we go. It’s hard to sit in that obscurity, and the easiest thing to do is quit, but learing to stay there longer and longer i believe has lead to some incredible opportunities and end goals because of it.
Contact Info:
- Website: https://www.meetorchard.org
- Instagram: https://www.instagram.com/meetorchard/
- Facebook: https://www.facebook.com/meetorchard
- LinkedIn: https://www.linkedin.com/in/ryan-treadwell-9655515b/
