Intro: Broadcasting live from the Business RadioX Studios in Woodstock, Georgia. It’s time for Cherokee Business Radio. Now, here’s your host.

Joshua Kornitsky: Hey, welcome back to Cherokee Business Radio. I am professional EOS implementer Joshua Kornitsky, and I’m your host today. And I am excited to share with you a really, really unique guest that we’re going to talk to in just a minute. But I want to remind everybody that today’s episode is brought to you in part by the Community Partner Program, the Business RadioX Main Street Warriors defending capitalism, promoting small business, and supporting our local community. For more information, please go to Main Street warriors.org. And a special note of thanks to our title sponsor for the Cherokee chapter of Main Street Warriors. Diesel. David. Ink. Please go check them out at DieselDavid.com. And as I said, I’ve got a really, really special guest in the studio with me today, somebody that I’ve known for a while, but who really takes a different look at things. So I want to introduce everybody to Farrell Middleton. He is the founder of The Bell Curve of Life, a unique teaching program and author of A Performer A Environment, a Roadmap to Enhance Your Performance and Upgrade Your Environment. After a successful 36 year career in residential land development and home building, Farrell transitioned into his second career as a teacher, professional speaker, and discovery expert, and an author in 2022. His mission really is to focus, uh, in his mission and focus are to cultivate a level performers and a, and a level environments to drive personal growth and organizational health. If both can be achieved, success will follow and failure will be rare. A Georgia Tech honors graduate Ferrell brings decades of leadership experience to every session. Drawing on his real life insights to inspire meaningful change. Welcome, Ferrell, it’s really a joy to have you here.

Farrell Middleton: Well, it is great to be back. Josh, thank you so much for having me. I always love my time here at the innovation spot with you guys. I love it.

Joshua Kornitsky: There’s there’s a lot to talk about today. And I think it’s at a really good time because there is a lot of folks who need a lot of help. And I think you’re kind of uniquely positioned to help them. So only to help people understand sort of that background because we breezed through it. Tell us a little bit kind of the origin story of, of what brought the man to the table that’s here today. What, what led to that?

Farrell Middleton: Okay. Gotcha. Well, thank you so much again for having me out today. But again, as you said, I was a lifelong homebuilder, my primary career, but I’ve always wanted to be a teacher of sorts in my second career. Josh it’s been a lifelong desire. And I decided I’m only 61 years old and I’ve got a lot of years left. I just wanted to provide a different service to society. So in my early 50s, about ten years ago, I started deciding what it is that I wanted to do with my second career, and I developed the unique program again. It’s called The Bell Curve of Life. And the premise here relates to our. Everybody remembers from middle school the bell curve 20% in the upper category.

Joshua Kornitsky: Yeah, some of us weren’t so high up on that bell. But yes.

Farrell Middleton: You’re right. You know what? Everybody’s in the lower part. It’s something. Okay, let’s be clear. But 20% in the upper category, 60 in the middle and 20 in the lower. And from my program this relates to behavior skills, performance and results. And my goal is to get individuals in the top 20% of the curve in the areas of life that matter to them and those closest to them. It’s got to matter. It’s got to move your needle. I want people to spend time in areas that are going to provide value to them. And again, like I said, those closest to them, either family members, business associates, personal friends, whatever that may be. And so that was the that’s kind of the genesis of it. And basically when you have three people, you have a bell curve. Let’s be very clear relative to any particular skill or whatever the case may be. So that’s the general premise behind it. And so I’ve been doing this for a few years now. I love what I’m doing. I’m making an impact in people’s lives. I’m here to help people live a better life. Josh personally and professionally, that’s what I do.

Joshua Kornitsky: So let me back up and ask a few things. Question number one, which came first, the book or the the approach?

Farrell Middleton: The approach came first. Oh, yes. I never intended to write a book. I was not a good writer in high school. In college. Let me be very clear. I’m a math guy. Okay, let me be clear. So I never thought of myself penning a book. Uh, so the concept of everything came before the book idea. So.

Joshua Kornitsky: Okay, so so as you refined it and it’s important to help people understand this, right? I’m a, I’m a professional EOS implementer. I’m, I am a franchisee of a global corporation that’s using 25 years of accumulated knowledge to teach businesses a set methodology. You created everything you’re doing. I’m grateful to Gino Wickman. He he created everything I teach. Yeah, but you’ve created everything you teach. And and I’ve always kind of been in awe of that because that’s a whole different animal than than what I’m offering.

Farrell Middleton: Fair enough.

Joshua Kornitsky: Right. So, so what, you know, was 36 years.

Farrell Middleton: 36 years.

Joshua Kornitsky: 36 years in, in the building and, and, uh, residential development space. Correct.

Farrell Middleton: Yes.

Joshua Kornitsky: What did you take out of that that helped you build this? Is this based on, you know, I presume, were you managing people? Were you elevating people? How did how did the roots of this begin?

Farrell Middleton: Okay. Uh, no, that’s an excellent question. Thank you very much. Uh, yes, it started with that again. I started my career 40 years ago. I graduated from Georgia Tech in 1986 with a degree in building construction. And I’m one of those very few. I used my college degree the very first day of my professional career, which was with a company called Colony Homes back in June of 1986.

Joshua Kornitsky: Okay.

Farrell Middleton: But I was a manager at the age of 22. And aside from the physical nature of what we did with developing land and building houses, I’m a relationship guy. I you know, we all do a lot of reflecting at this stage in our life. Like I said, I’m 61, so I reflect back, but I’ve been a people person my entire life, and the product or service that we provided was a very necessary one, a very emotional business as well. Let me be very clear.

Joshua Kornitsky: Oh, 100%.

Farrell Middleton: Home building. It really, really is. But not only did I get valuable relationships and growth with my internal associates, but my external partners, the trades that helped us build the houses, bankers, mortgage professionals. I was exposed to professionals at a very early age with them running their own businesses. And how did it, uh, how did that work with my business and the services we provided back towards, you know, to each other? And so with regard to that, aside from what I call hard skills, which is the knowledge of what you do on a daily basis, the tasks that people perform, everybody’s got them. Uh, but I am now focused on soft skills. And you can take your soft skills wherever you go. And I think I learned with my, uh, again, being a manager at the age of 22, running a department and then having, um, negotiating abilities with trades and things like that. I was an operations guy. I got to know a lot of people really, really fast in my career. And I was also customer facing very early homebuilding is a pretty unique, uh, service, you know?

Joshua Kornitsky: Sure. And I think, I think it’s important that people understand the distinction. Right? You were you doing, um, like one on one custom home building or were you doing mass development, home building or both?

Farrell Middleton: Uh, I was a high volume guy, so I would put me in the mass, uh, side of that. I would not make a very good high end custom home builder. All right. I’ll just, I won’t get it out of the way right now.

Joshua Kornitsky: But the reason that I asked that is you still, you had to have those soft skills to make that resonate with people and to get people to want to spend money.

Farrell Middleton: Oh, absolutely. Yeah. Yeah, it was a big, big deal. And the other part of this as well, back when the customer interaction thing, and this is not what I was an operations guy. And so I wasn’t in the field, uh, you know, with a hammer and tool belt and all that kind of stuff.

Joshua Kornitsky: No, I understand, yeah, I understand.

Farrell Middleton: But what happens in residential construction is very young people, women as well, that are field superintendents, they might be engaging with their customers at the age of 22 or 23 in the biggest purchase of their life. Sure. So there’s an incredible exposure there. Just to human nature, uh, and how you deal with people’s emotions and very stressful situations making the biggest purchase of their life. Generally speaking, there’s a lot that goes into that. And so I was just able to learn and grow and absorb. And that’s the fundamental basis of my program now. It’s just like I’ve been alive for 61 years. This is 61 years of me being on the earth and how I can try to help other people live a better life.

Joshua Kornitsky: Well, so then then let’s, let’s ask, uh, let me ask a few questions about the bell curve of life and, and in particular, and I’m going to blend the line between the book and what you actually teach. So you, you may need to help steer me in one direction or the other because I want to give accurate information while I ask you my questions. My first question is, so let’s talk about what an A performer is. I know from from a set of standards that I was raised with and that I managed with what I consider an A performer. How do you define an A performer?

Farrell Middleton: I define an, A performer as someone. And I’ve identified in my main program eight traits of a performers. Okay, I’ve got 11 chapters in the book on a performer, but it starts with attitude. Uh, my first chapter in the book. And I lead almost every session I have with an attitude, uh, conversation. Josh, your attitude is the aspect or facet in life that has the most influence over your success and happiness. Other people and circumstances can influence it, but they can never control it. That is up to the individual. And so I start out with this. If you can maintain a positive attitude as often as possible, you can’t have 100% control all the time. You’re going to have good days and bad, all that stuff that makes life go around. But if you can do that, I believe most circumstances can have a favorable outcome. And so I start with that. But then I tell you my, my second topic, it’s chapter two in the book is wake up frame of mind. I am having unbelievable success and interaction with this topic.

Joshua Kornitsky: You can tell us a little bit about it.

Farrell Middleton: Absolutely. Your day starts when you pull your head up off your pillow. It’s going to set the tone for whether you’re going to have a good day, a mediocre day, or a poor day. And yes, other factors come into play with children and pets and traffic and weather and just all that stuff. And all the.

Joshua Kornitsky: Yellow crap in.

Farrell Middleton: The sky. That stuff? Yeah. This time of year, for three weeks that we get, uh, you know, uh, barraged by pollen. But it starts with put your head up off your pillow. And I believe it, actually, the stage is set the night before. Now, I’m not a sleep expert. I’m not a clinical psychologist. None of that stuff. I’m just a regular guy. And I believe if you can put your head down on your pillow at night in a good frame of mind, you got a pretty good chance of waking up in a good frame of mind. To me, that’s just common sense. And so when I engage with, uh, my, uh, you know, people in my, my classes and we get on this topic, everybody’s raising their eyebrows like, you know what? Yeah, yeah, yeah. And about a third of the people, um, comment when we get done that, that is one of the most impactful topics that we talk about. So a performer, you know, wake up ready to go. Um, next, you know, self-esteem, relationship building communication skills, if you can have a positive outlook and develop healthy relationships and communicate well on a routine basis, that’s a performer type stuff.

Joshua Kornitsky: And let me clarify on that one because the first two. Anybody can do meaning you can you can wake with intent. You can to some degree. Control your attitude. Right, right, right. But, but that relationship building, um. I would hazard to say, having known you for a while, something you’re pretty good at. But it’s hard when you look at a fully grown adult in the workforce to, to understand that. What you’re really looking at is an accumulation of skills and experience. Correct. Do you help people understand? Because not everyone has that innate skill. And the truth is no one has it innately. It has to be cultivated. Do you help folks cultivate and understand how to build relationships?

Farrell Middleton: Absolutely. Yeah, it’s a big part of it. Like I said, I’m a huge relationship guy. There are three types of relationships. Family, personal and professional, generally speaking. And there are tangents off of those, as we know. But those are your three main categories. And something somebody told me and again, family, you know, we all have family dynamics. Don’t need to get in all that. But I got, I got some Wackadoodle.

Joshua Kornitsky: Ain’t that long.

Farrell Middleton: Oh, I know, yeah, I got some wacky stuff. And then your personal relationships are your, you know, your church group, your friend groups, uh, athletic leagues, uh, you know, book clubs, things like that. You engage other people, engage with or outside of family and outside of work. And then of course, the professional relationships, which are obviously your work, uh, business associations, uh, you know, chambers of commerce, things like that. But someone told me years ago, and I have never, ever forgotten this. And this was mainly in my personal life. Relationships are a 60, 40 split between two people. And what that means is if each person can put in a 60% effort as often as possible, you have a chance of having a strong, solid, long term relationship. For example, my wife and I, we met in high school. We’ve been together for 45 years, married for 39 and we have a great relationship. But does it take work? Oh, you better believe it takes work on both of us. Everybody knows this. You’re going to have good and bad, but healthy. 60 over 40. If you can go into a relationship, no matter what kind it is, with that type of an outlook, you’ve got a chance of developing deep, strong, healthy relationships.

Joshua Kornitsky: What I love about that perspective of yours is, and I should clarify, I have a 23 year old daughter and a 17 year old daughter, and I’m very proud of both of them. But one of the biggest challenges as as I have gotten to know many of their peers. One of the biggest challenges is understanding, particularly when it comes to business, which is relatively new to my 23 year old. And my 17 year old’s not quite there yet, although she does have her first job.

Farrell Middleton: Excellent.

Joshua Kornitsky: Is that, um, when you are in a business relationship, people have, in my experience, um, Confuse that with the personal relationship from a perspective of if you want to maintain it, it requires effort. And you’ve just illustrated that because even if I’m not trying to sell, convince or, or get you interested in what it is that I do for a living, if I want to maintain that relationship, I can’t wait. I can’t take the approach of, well, you’ll call me.

Farrell Middleton: Absolutely. Yeah.

Joshua Kornitsky: You know, and I can share with you, and we know many of the same people, the people that immediately stick out in my mind are the folks who are very intentional. And like clockwork, about every 4 to 6 weeks, I get a check in just a yeah, just a ping, whether it’s a text, an email, or a quick phone call. Hey, just wanted to see how you’re doing. Um, but they stay top of mind.

Farrell Middleton: Absolutely. Yeah. And one thing on that, that’s an excellent perspective as well. And what my main tip for developing healthy professional relationships, this is very complicated. Whoever’s listening now. I hope you’re with me. This is a really, really tough one. Are you ready?

Joshua Kornitsky: I’m ready.

Farrell Middleton: Return every phone call, text, or email in an appropriate time frame. If you can do that, then you will be regarded as a trusted source. Someone that’s reliable, someone dependable people can count on. Return every phone call, text, or email in an appropriate timeframe and appropriate has. You have varying methods. Urgency is different from circumstances, that kind of thing. But if you can do that, people will know that you’re there and they can count on you. It is unbelievable how simple that is, but it is crazy, crazy challenging to get this to happen sometimes. You know what I’m talking about.

Joshua Kornitsky: So I joke with, uh, with a friend of mine that I’m going to, I’ve ready, I’m ready to write my book. And the title of my book is have the decency to return a phone call. And when you open it up, it will have one page that says have the decency to return a phone call and that’s it. That’s the entire book. Okay. Because look, I get it. We’re all busy. And I know now with all the different types of automated outreach that goes on, people get peppered and hammered. But a good friend of mine, another implementer up in Nashville, shared with me, and I’ve taken this approach. I answer every LinkedIn message I get, even if it’s just to say no, thank you. And you know, the number of folks that and I’m not gonna lie, I’ve got 3 or 4 kind of canned responses because some of them are offering me opportunities from previous careers that I’m no longer involved in. Fair enough. So I have a copy paste to say, hey, I’m not doing that anymore, but thanks so much. Um, you’d be shocked at how many. Thank you for responding that I get that. It’s just that because we all know most of that outreach is automated. We all know that most people don’t take the time to respond at all. Yeah. Uh, but I’ve also picked up some interesting opportunities from taking ten minutes out of the day to do that.

Farrell Middleton: Sure. No, I think that’s an excellent. I try to do the same thing. I might not be as good as you are about that, especially with like the unsolicited type stuff and that kind of thing. But, you know, we have to decide. Yeah. But I think it’s amazing because what I’ll do is, and I try to be very, um, considerate of this. If someone is reaching out to me in a solicitous, solicitous way, solicitous, soliciting, yeah, whatever it may be, I follow offering services. Yeah. I’ve got tongue tied there. Uh, I if I’m not interested, I’m going to thank them for reaching out. But I’m not interested so that they can move on to someone else that may be interested. I try to be considerate of that because I think it matters. And I think if people could do that, it’s a respectful thing to do and people get it.

Joshua Kornitsky: Courtesy has not yet gone out of date.

Farrell Middleton: I agree and I cannot explain AI, AI.

Joshua Kornitsky: Ai can fake.

Farrell Middleton: It, it can fake it.

Joshua Kornitsky: So so we have attitude. We have the wake up mindset. We have, uh, relationships and take us to number four. And I know there’s eight, but let’s get to number.

Farrell Middleton: We’ll go to number four. Communication. There are two halves to being a good communicator. Number one is delivering your message in a clear, crisp and concise fashion, no matter the makeup or size of your audience, especially if there is a performance standard or a requirement. I was a home builder. I had to communicate well, that kind of thing. The other half of being a good communicator is being a good listener. And this is eye contact, body language, lack of distractions. And if the deliverer of the message is not being clear, crisp and concise, what should you do? Ask for clarity so that you know what you’re supposed to do. Again, especially if there’s a performance expectation based on the engagement. And one thing that I tell people, I’ve had random people come up at networking events and they know I’m, let’s say I’m in the coaching arena, which is the right place to be. They say, hey, is there some kind of tip you can give me. You know, just off the cuff. Absolutely. Be a better listener today. Everybody can be a better listener. And whether you’ll be a better family member, you’ll be a better personal friend. You’ll be a better working associate, be a better listener today. And it’s something you can do it right now. That’s the free tip of the day.

Joshua Kornitsky: My dad used to tell me, don’t just wait for your turn to talk. Listen to what they’re saying.

Farrell Middleton: Absolutely.

Joshua Kornitsky: And it’s it’s a shocking fact that particularly in, in an engagement where there might business might be an outcome. Oftentimes people are telling you what they want or need.

Farrell Middleton: Absolutely.

Joshua Kornitsky: Often times, and my lifelong goal is to ask better questions. And as I’ve improved that skill, sure enough, people tell me what their challenges are or what their needs are so that we can find some common ground and whether or not business results is secondary. But at least I then understand them. And that’s the beginning of that relationship.

Farrell Middleton: Yeah, yeah. And one other thing as well that I’ve learned, I’ve gotten more comfortable with this. And I think you probably have as well. I tell people what I do, I’m a professional speaker as well. And you wouldn’t believe how many, uh, engagements I’ve gotten by just randomly saying I do professional speaking. Like, would you come speak to my group? Sure. I will let people know what you do. And they will. They’ll know it and they’ll be able to, you know, be able to connect with you on that. It’s amazing.

Joshua Kornitsky: As a host here on Business RadioX, almost all of my radio related discussions start with, you know, please share. Tell me what you do. Right. And the number of people from solopreneurs to multi-million dollar companies who talking to CEOs, talking to owners who can’t articulate well in a relatively short space, what they do always surprises me. And that’s to your point, that clarity of message, there’s truth to to rehearsal. There’s truth to practice. Yes. Come up with a short response to. What do you do? Don’t try to. You don’t have to be funny. You don’t have to be clever. Yeah, I sell, you know, elevator carpets, whatever it is, so that people can then understand clearly what it is that you’re offering and, and be as concise and direct as possible, because people do get lost because they want to tell you I do everything. It’ll take 30 minutes for me to read you this list.

Farrell Middleton: Yeah, I agree with you and I’ve subjected myself to that before. And you know what? I’ve gotten better at that as well. Let me be very clear. I’ve gotten better delivery. We’re all we’re all working on it.

Joshua Kornitsky: There is.

Farrell Middleton: No.

Joshua Kornitsky: Done. Farrell.

Farrell Middleton: That’s a great point. Just yeah.

Joshua Kornitsky: Today and how well I did today. And, and I think that that, that goes back to what you were talking about regarding confidence and in your program, helping them understand we’re human. You know, sometimes, sometimes I know I’ve, I’m still doing it today. I suspect you are as well. Sometimes I put my foot in my mouth.

Farrell Middleton: Oh.

Joshua Kornitsky: I say something stupid, and I don’t mean to. I’m not trying to be stupid. Yeah, sometimes stupid just happens.

Farrell Middleton: It just does. Well, one thing very quickly is when you meet someone, you have about seven to 10s to make that first impression. Make it count. Make it count. It is. It is unbelievably important and powerful.

Joshua Kornitsky: Ah, I believe it was, uh, the author, Malcolm Gladwell in one of his books, and I shared this with my doctor, uh, that some study somewhere that patients with a new doctor make their entire decision on whether or not this is the right doctor for them in less than 20s.

Farrell Middleton: Okay.

Joshua Kornitsky: Based on, you know, the the way and I’ll find that for you because that’s a good, a good stat, but basically based on the way that they walk into the room and the questions they ask and the attitude they have, hey, this sounds all very familiar. Uh, that that quickly they’ll decide whether or not this is going to be their doctor.

Farrell Middleton: That’s fascinating.

Joshua Kornitsky: And we probably have all at one time or another had very positive. And I know we’ve all had very negative experiences in that environment. And that’s an environment you got to be comfortable in.

Farrell Middleton: Yeah, absolutely. Yeah.

Joshua Kornitsky: And even if it’s just for a colder checkup, you still don’t want to deal with a jerk.

Farrell Middleton: Oh, absolutely. Yeah. Yeah. So no, that’s a that’s a great point.

Joshua Kornitsky: But so we’re halfway through your list and I want to stop and ask you before we get to the other four or if we’re going to hold this back so that people can find out or at the very least, reach out to you.

Farrell Middleton: Okay.

Joshua Kornitsky: How on earth do you get this information across to folks?

Farrell Middleton: Okay. All right. Great point. Well, I wrote the book. Of course, it’s available in all the right places, uh, audio versions out there as well. Uh, but I do, um, private sessions with companies. Uh, I will do, I like about ten people in a group is, is really optimum number, but it can go anywhere from 8 to 12, you know, that type of thing.

Joshua Kornitsky: Is it all senior leadership?

Farrell Middleton: Is it.

Joshua Kornitsky: Anybody.

Farrell Middleton: Can be senior leadership. It can be anybody. My a my a performing material can relate to any people of any level of activity, authority or responsibility. Okay. It’s just it’s life skills. It’s what I do well.

Joshua Kornitsky: And I think that’s a really simple way to express it, right?

Farrell Middleton: It is. Yeah. Anybody can get some benefit out of it.

Joshua Kornitsky: But I want to learn about what you do on Saturdays.

Farrell Middleton: Okay.

Joshua Kornitsky: Because obviously being being a coach and a teacher and a speaker, people can can reach out to you. But I want to know about Saturday.

Farrell Middleton: Okay. Well, thank you so much for asking. Yeah. I have developed a new part of my program and it is called 60 Minute Strategic Workshops.

Joshua Kornitsky: Okay.

Farrell Middleton: And my program and I was, uh, started out several months ago, late last year with two Saturdays per month. And, uh, I’ve switched to one Thursday and one Saturday per month now just because of scheduling issues and things like you learn as you go. Sure, we all know, but this is an opportunity for people to come explore concepts to drive personal growth and organizational health, which is what I do. So I have a 60 minute a performer workshop and a 60 minute a environment workshop. And in those we will review the eight components or the eight traits of my A performers. And I’ve got seven components to the A environment. In one hour. We will review each of those items in there, and everyone will develop a roadmap for how they can make improvements in their life that day. And I’ve got a self-evaluation form with a rating scale of one through five. Again, not very complicated.

Joshua Kornitsky: Keep it simple.

Farrell Middleton: Poor. Moderate. Satisfactory. Superior. Outstanding. As we move from topic to topic, rate yourself right there. And I believe initial gut instincts are generally fairly spot on. All right with us as individuals. So by the time we get done in an hour they’ve got a roadmap. What are the areas they need to work on if they have some twos and threes? Well, let’s work on the twos and threes. Everyone will have a different takeaway from this. That is the absolute beauty of this material is everyone that I sit with has their own takeaway because their own person with their own circumstances and things like that. And so I offer two of each of these on each day. I’ve got 9:00, 11:00, 1:00 and 3:00.

Joshua Kornitsky: Okay.

Farrell Middleton: They are in person, but I have now gone virtual with them as well. Okay. Every one of these is available virtually. And so I had my first one of those last week. Lady joined me from her office across town, and she joined us from 9 to 10 and then from 11 to 12. And it was fantastic. So from a convenience standpoint, this is really, really good, but this is going to be a game changer with this virtual access. Unbelievable. Immediate value comes out of these workshops.

Joshua Kornitsky: So the way you just described this is very different than any other type of coaching I’ve ever heard of because you’re. And I understand why now that you’ve given us some context, but you’re putting personal and professional into the same type of session. And I would have had you not explained the first four of of eight concepts on a performer, I would have said, no, that’s crazy, but I get it because I know that that wake up mindset, that attitude, that confidence, that relationship that absolutely applies to both sides of that of the coin and that you absolutely could have that conversation with six people in a room where half of them are talking about business, and half of them were talking about life.

Farrell Middleton: Absolutely.

Joshua Kornitsky: Because I don’t think you haven’t given me the understanding, and I don’t necessarily know that it matters which way you’re taking it, because it’s valid information and learning on either side.

Farrell Middleton: Absolutely, yes. All the principles can go into personal life as well. And one of the other main premises of what I do is there are so many outside factors that affect us every single day, the highest of level, whether interest rates, government influence and other people. Those are the four main ones. Every principal in my program is 100% under the control of the individual. Adopt and embrace them and you will live a better life. So, for example, government influence. We have two major things going on right now in the world. At least two, two. Yeah, two really big ones that are they’re sucking up all the news time. It is basically the war over in Iraq, which is having worldwide effects, obviously, that type of thing at our level. Right. Joshua, you and I, we don’t control that right now. There’s nothing we can do. We have to be aware of it. Yep. Got to be sensitive to it, whatever it’s going to be. But we can’t control that. We can control what we’re doing right now. That’s the key. The other is the government shutdown with TSA. I couldn’t imagine having to go to an airport right now. Un believable. I am so disappointed in our government leaders. It’s unbelievable. And I think probably 95% of the people might agree with me, right?

Joshua Kornitsky: I would I would say at least 95%. And no matter a politically, it’s just bad for everybody.

Farrell Middleton: It’s bad. It’s just bad. And luckily I don’t have to go to the airport.

Joshua Kornitsky: Yeah. I’m grateful I don’t have any immediate business for myself.

Farrell Middleton: Yeah.

Joshua Kornitsky: And so because driving right now wouldn’t be an option either.

Farrell Middleton: Yeah. That’s right.

Joshua Kornitsky: The price of a plane.

Farrell Middleton: Yeah, exactly. So. Anyway, so, you know, part of that is what I do with that is, and that’s where everybody’s gonna have a different takeaway. And the thing is, if somebody comes to see me in on my next one, which is in a couple of weeks on Thursday, they could come back in a year and get a totally different takeaway. Sure. Because their life circumstances have changed. This is a snapshot. Where am I right now in my life, and what are some areas that I can focus on right now to make improvements in areas that are going to matter to me and those closest to me? That is the key.

Joshua Kornitsky: Yeah, I can see that.

Farrell Middleton: Yeah. Yeah.

Joshua Kornitsky: And it makes sense to me that it’s going to be a perpetually moving target.

Farrell Middleton: Mhm. It is. Um, people are always growing. They’re always changing.

Joshua Kornitsky: So Saturdays and Thursdays and in, um, where do people learn more about that?

Farrell Middleton: Uh, my website, the bell curve of Life.com.

Joshua Kornitsky: Which we publish all, you know, all your links, but I still wanted people to know and you have the schedule there.

Farrell Middleton: Got the schedule there. Yeah. I’ve got three months on the website. Uh, and actually I’m going to be updating. I’ve got, um, just finished March last week. I’m doing two per month, just one Thursday and one Saturday per month. That’s it. Uh, and so I’ve got, uh, April dates on there may dates. I’m going to be adding June in the next couple of days. So there’s plenty of opportunity to look in the website register right there through Eventbrite. It’s very easy register either for in-person or virtual right there on the website.

Joshua Kornitsky: Oh that’s good.

Farrell Middleton: And we’re setting up and we’re done. Yeah, it’s just the world is so easy these days with stuff like this. It is so easy. And what I like to say is from a personal growth development and educational standpoint, this is a layup. Me and my team have done all the heavy lifting. All you have to do is sign up and show up, and you will not be disappointed with the results.

Joshua Kornitsky: And how long are the sessions?

Farrell Middleton: 60 minutes. One hour.

Joshua Kornitsky: That seems like a pretty, uh, disposable amount of time. People can find an hour.

Farrell Middleton: They can. I think they can find an hour. And you know, part of this, it takes you an hour to go have lunch. It takes an hour to watch a news program, which none of us want to watch based on what we just.

Joshua Kornitsky: Talked.

Farrell Middleton: About. Yeah, but I know that that’s what it is. One hour. It’s a one time visit. And one of the things that I talk about, I do a lot of networking like you do, and I’m out there, you know, in the world with what I’m doing. We commit lots of quality hours every week and every month for repetitive things like business association lunches, BNI groups, powercore, uh, you know, um, providers, all the great stuff out there.

Joshua Kornitsky: Right?

Farrell Middleton: It’s many, many hours per month. I want 1 or 2 hours in your entire life and I promise you’ll leave with stuff you can do better.

Joshua Kornitsky: And if I’m there for Thursday or Saturday or both, I presume I’m going to be learning different things every time.

Farrell Middleton: Uh, yeah. Well, it’s just a one time thing. It’s a performance. It’s one do a.

Joshua Kornitsky: Performer, one.

Farrell Middleton: A environment. I’ll do them over and over and over again. It’s just repetitive. This is it. This is the only material. It’s just 1 or 2 hours and that’s it. And you’re done. Unless you want to come back and see me in another year or so. Whatever the case may be. But no, this is it. This is so simple, and I believe that this is just the best. And it’s $80 per session per year, 80 bucks. It’s a no brainer.

Joshua Kornitsky: A whole lot cheaper than than what most people would even even if it was just a personal, uh, consultant consultation. Absolutely not be that that inexpensive.

Farrell Middleton: And, you know, of course the math has I got to get people in the room. Let me be very clear. I’ve got people online. I mean, it’s, it’s, it’s a numbers game like everything else is. So I am hopeful that this will provide value and people will see that in one hour. And for $80.

Joshua Kornitsky: Have you gotten pretty positive feedback?

Farrell Middleton: I’ve gotten excellent feedback on it. That’s excellent feedback on it. Uh, I’m making a difference in people’s lives. They’re standing up, they’re walking out. They’re thinking, you know what? That was worth it. That was really worth it. And so that makes it that makes it that much more beneficial. Yeah.

Joshua Kornitsky: I’m really happy to hear the impact that you’re making. I, I will tell you, having known you for as long as I have now, I’m not surprised at the impact you’re making, but I am. But I am happy to hear it. And I know that it’s coming from your heart that this is, uh, this is not you trying to build a self-help empire. This is you just trying to help people.

Farrell Middleton: That’s it. That’s what I want to do. Like I said, I’m 61 years old. I’ve done a lot of stuff in my life, done a lot. I’ve been a successful career, the whole thing, good family life, all that kind of. We’re grandparents now, which is wonderful.

Joshua Kornitsky: Congratulations.

Farrell Middleton: You’re maybe not too far away from that. And let me be clear, it is better than anything anyone has ever told you. It’s wonderful. A little, a little little. You said she’s 23. You know, you got a few years. But I hope when we have our second grandson on the way, we’re so excited about it. But, uh. But no, uh, it’s just it’s where I am. Like I said, I’ve got so many years left professionally that, uh, this is what I do now. And I just, I’m a practical guy with practical experience. I just want to help people live a better life. It sounds kind of corny and cheesy, but. Josh, that’s what I’m about these days. I’ve done a lot and I have a lot to share.

Joshua Kornitsky: I think that that’s a fantastic life mission. Mhm. And you said that you, uh, you use a five point scale for self-evaluation, self evaluation. Where would you put yourself?

Farrell Middleton: Uh, let’s see. Well, overall, overall, I would probably put myself at about, uh, about a four. I think overall, we can always do some work here and there in that type of thing. And I’ll tell you, one of the things that, uh, one of the other eight is starting the day consistently. This is, I’m getting a lot of traction out of this. If you’re supposed to start your day at 8:00, it’s 8:00. Yeah, not 9:00, 930. And I’ll tell you, that’s one thing I’m struggling with right now. I was a very I lived a very structured life for 36 years, up early at the office at 7:00, home by 6 or 7:00 at night, whatever avail on the weekends, very, very structured. Now I’m doing stuff on Saturdays, um, here doing this on a Tuesday morning. I’m struggling with that in my new career.

Joshua Kornitsky: Yeah, weirdly flexible in ways that you just haven’t had to account for.

Farrell Middleton: I never, I never had to do this. And sometimes I have early meetings, sometimes I don’t have my first meeting until noon. And so I’m.

Joshua Kornitsky: It’s a funny thing.

Farrell Middleton: I tell you, I’m struggling with this. I’d give myself a two on that right now out of five. Yeah, so I look I work on these things all day every day as well.

Joshua Kornitsky: And I think that’s very humanizing for you to say. I’m a five on everything because I created this well. Yeah, good luck to you. But yeah, I imagine that the, the one thing that you that’s sort of in between the lines that, that you said and it touched on something we talked about sort of before we started, uh, the broadcast is, I think it’s interesting the way that you give permission to people to understand it’s just not always going to be a five.

Farrell Middleton: It’s not no, the world doesn’t work that way.

Joshua Kornitsky: And, and I love that aspect of what you’re coaching people on because that’s just reality. It is. And you will be set up for perpetual disappointment. If if again, leaning into the learnings that my children have taught me. If you believe what you see on social media, no matter where you’re seeing it, you’re seeing a highlighted, edited highlight reel of somebody pretend life.

Farrell Middleton: Good point.

Joshua Kornitsky: You will always be disappointed because it’s not limousines and private jets and yachts, because that’s just not realistic.

Farrell Middleton: It’s not.

Joshua Kornitsky: And to understand that nobody’s living at a needle buried on five, because that’s just not how the world works.

Farrell Middleton: Yeah. Well, one of the other topics in my program, I’ve got a bunch of material, but one of them is there are five work days in a week. One’s going to be really, really good. You wish you could just bottle it up and open it whenever you could. Doesn’t work that way. Three you’re going to be good enough and one’s going to be kind of crappy. And sometimes that crappy day is just getting home through the front door is going to feel like an enormous victory that day. But hopefully you put your head down on your pillow in a good frame of mind. You wake up the next day in a better frame of mind and you go, have a better day. It’s a bell curve.

Joshua Kornitsky: It’s the biggest takeaway that I get from this discussion and something I’ll certainly take home to share. Uh, let me ask last question. What is one takeaway you’d like people to know about the bell curve of life?

Farrell Middleton: Uh, I think my best takeaway here is that I have not created or invented anything. All I have done is taken principles that were all aware of that we all live our life through every day, and I have packaged it in a very crisp and concise way that’s easy to share. I’ve got the book. Uh, you know, I’m a professional speaker, so I’m able to deliver it well. And I’ll say that with all the confidence in the world, I deliver this message very well and people receive it very well. Come spend some time with me. And my promise is the material will be delivered in a way that you can walk out of there, and you can make improvements in your life personally or professionally that day. That’s my promise.

Joshua Kornitsky: You don’t even have to get in the car. You just do it over Zoom.

Farrell Middleton: Do it over Zoom. That’s right. Yeah, do it over Zoom. Just like, sign up and show up. That’s all you got to do.

Joshua Kornitsky: I can’t thank you enough. And. And I have to tell you that I’m leaving here with a whole lot of new thoughts in my head.

Farrell Middleton: Well, that’s awesome.

Joshua Kornitsky: Thank you. And that’s the to me, that’s that’s the best ingredients for success. Anytime that you can help somebody think about things in a new way, that’s a win.

Farrell Middleton: I think it is as well.

Joshua Kornitsky: Um, my, my guest today has been Pharrell Middleton. He’s the founder of the Bell Curve of Life. It’s a unique teaching program. And he’s also the author of A Performer a Environment, a Roadmap to enhance Your Performance and Upgrade your Environment. After a 36 year career in residential land development and home building, Pharrell transitioned into his second career as a teacher, professional speaker, discovery expert, and author. His mission and focus, as we heard today, is to cultivate a level performers and a level environments to drive personal growth and organizational health. If both can be achieved, success will follow and failure will be rare. Farrell, thank you so very much for sharing your knowledge and your wisdom with us. I also have to thank today’s episode. Or excuse me, I have to take a moment to thank, uh, the Cherokee Business Community Partner Program, the Business RadioX Main Street Warriors, defending capitalism, promoting small business, and supporting our local community. For more information, please check out Main Street warriors.org. And a special note of thanks to our title sponsor for the Cherokee chapter of Main Street Warriors Diesel David Ink. Please go check them out at diesel davidk.com. My name is Joshua Kornitsky. I am a professional EOS implementer and your host here on Cherokee Business Radio. Thank you so much for joining us. We’ll see you next time.

Intro: Broadcasting live from the Business RadioX Studios in Woodstock, Georgia. It’s time for Cherokee Business Radio. Now, here’s your host.

Joshua Kornitsky: Welcome back to Cherokee Business Radio. I’m your host, Joshua Kornitsky professional EOS implementer. And today we’ve got a great show that I can’t wait to get to. But before we get started, I want to tell you that today’s episode is brought to you in part by our community partner program, the Business RadioX Main Street Warriors defending capitalism, promoting small business, and supporting our local community. For more information, please go to Main Street warriors.org. And a special note of thanks to our title sponsor for the Cherokee chapter of Main Street Warriors diesel. David Ink, please go check them out at diesel david.com. My guest today is Zach Walker, a chiropractor and functional neurologist. He is the founder of BrainSpine Chiropractic based in Marietta, where he works to improve performance and address the root causes of pain and dysfunction. His approach goes beyond traditional chiropractic care, focusing on the connection between the brain balance and movement to uncover what’s really driving symptoms. Welcome, Dr. Walker. Thank you for being here.

Dr. Zach Walker: Thank you. Joshua. I need you on my. Every time I’m meeting someone, I need just. I need you to be with me every time. That was awesome.

Joshua Kornitsky: I’ll just. I’ll be your herald. I’ll announce you. I’m happy to have you here. Um, before we get into the the BrainSpine chiropractic and all that you’re doing there, will you tell us a little about yourself? Kind of your origin story. Where where you started from to get to here.

Dr. Zach Walker: Yeah. Um, so, you know, most chiros and anyone you talk talked to? They had like a big. I was adjusted once and it changed my life. Mine’s not that drastic. Right? Um, but the big thing that comes to mind. My senior year of high school, we’re filling out r a c t s a t. I’m not even sure if that’s a thing anymore. It is. And before you do that, right, um, it asks, what are your interests outside of school? What do you like doing? So once you got your results back, um, it would give you, hey, maybe you should look into blah, blah, blah. And my first 3 or 4 was like physical therapist, athletic trainer massage therapy. But the last one, uh, was chiropractic. I had never heard of chiropractic. This was, I’m not gonna date myself. This was a while ago. Right? Um, this was about 0405. Um, but luckily I was able to do a senior project and kind of mentor a local chiro. And it was just, it was really cool being able to see even traditional neck pain, back pain patients get to come in feeling a lot better or at least feeling better without, um, a lot of medications. And these things, once they left, that really piqued me of the, the anatomy and physiology and just the human body in general. Um, and then ever since then, I’ve did my bachelor’s, um, and exercise science master’s in positive psychology, and then my Dr.ate in chiropractic. Um, the human body is, I love it. Um, I think it’s so, so fascinating and even more so the brain. Um, and then, you know, since Dr. chiropractic getting my what’s called the Dach-dnb diplomate accredited chiropractic neurology board, just a fancy word for being able to look at the brain a little bit more. Okay. This fascinates me. Um, and just since then, just delving into it and helping as many people and patients as I can.

Joshua Kornitsky: All right, so then let’s jump in. Um, I’ve been to a chiropractor a number of times throughout my life. I’ve always had positive results. But what’s brain based chiropractic mean?

Dr. Zach Walker: Yeah, it’s, it’s a really good question. Um, so most chiros and if you’re going to a chiropractor, massage therapist, acupuncturist, um, they’re very good at looking at what’s called the musculoskeletal system, your muscles, joints, tendons, ligaments, all that fun stuff, right? The super, super important system, right? But there’s three systems that our bodies always using to navigate the world. One being. Reception. What’s that?

Joshua Kornitsky: I was saying, what are those?

Dr. Zach Walker: Yeah. Well, uh, so one being what we call proprioception or I call it your spidey sense, right? Spider-man. There’s actually a new Spider-Man, you know, coming out, right? Um, and you have those alert signals, right? We could be having conversations like this, and you kind of always know what’s going on in the background, even though you’re not, you know, we’re not owls, right? Kind of. You’re right.

Joshua Kornitsky: But that pain in my lower back from sitting up straight, that type of thing.

Dr. Zach Walker: Uh, yeah, in a way, I mean, that’s that’s your muscles and joints kind of fire and the brain’s like, I’m having a hard time communicating. Um, that’s, that’s system one. System two is eye movements. You should be able to follow this and go here, follow this and go here. We’re doing those almost 300,000 times a day, quite a bit, almost like you’re reading a book. That’s a lot, right? Um, and the other one’s going to be, I should be able to look at you and turn my head with my eyes shooting off or feeling like I’m going to that side. Right. So I’m saying all this to say brain based chiropractic takes all three of those, right? And sees which one is dysfunction, which one is the communicating right. And how can we allow those systems to work better to allow you to be the best athlete in you?

Joshua Kornitsky: Okay. That’s, uh, that seems much more comprehensive. And because it’s looking at all of the systems, not just one.

Dr. Zach Walker: Right? Um, and it is, it is another specialty. And it’s these three systems that feed into other systems. They feed into the pain to balance for posture, uh, concentration to, um, many different aspects of life that you wouldn’t think they would feed into. Right. But at the end of the day, if your brain and body can communicate, right, that’s huge because most chiros look at the spine, which is super, super important. We do that each and every day, even twice on Sunday, right? Right on Sundays. Right. Um, but again, we’re saying, as most chiros, all the nerves originate from the spine. They don’t originate from the spine. They actually originate from the brain. Right? We have what we call different nuclei in the brain or fancy word for kind of like hubs or that’s where everything starts, right? Okay. Starts hearing kind of fires down. So if we’re not looking at the brain, we’re missing a big piece.

Joshua Kornitsky: So in the world of chiropractic, are you a super specialist that people get referred to or do you see all sorts of patients? Who do you see in your clinic?

Dr. Zach Walker: Yeah. I mean, it’s, um, it’s a good question too. I mean, it is a subspecialty. I mean, chiropractic has a lot of specialties, if you will, from geriatrics, older people to pediatrics to, um, more. I just want to look at X-rays all day, but the neuro is kind of its own thing, right? We do see a lot of neck pain. Back pain, right?

Joshua Kornitsky: That’s okay. So you do traditional chiropractic care as well.

Dr. Zach Walker: Yeah. Um, but a lot of times with neck pain and back pain, if I were to tell you that the pain you’ve had in the last six days, six months, six years, right, isn’t from your neck. You’re like, I don’t what? Yeah. It is. It hurts right here. Right? Um, but again, unless you just had a big accident and even with that, there’s exceptions. But unless you’ve had a big accident, your muscles and joints, tendons are only going to respond to what the brain tells it to do. Right? Um, so kind of go with that. Yeah. So kind of going back to the eye movement, right? If it’s hard for you to look from this target to this target with just a quick eye movement that brings, I don’t like that I get dizzy every time you do that. So I’m going to kick in a neck mechanism to look over here, which is fine to an extent.

Joshua Kornitsky: So that’s a compensation when compensation exactly.

Dr. Zach Walker: Um, this is where compensations aren’t necessarily good or bad. It’s allowing you to get throughout your day, right.

Joshua Kornitsky: But it’s typically not how, how the system was designed to function, right?

Dr. Zach Walker: You, you nailed it, right? Because again, we just said these eye movements, we’re using those with say 250,000 times a day, right? Your neck isn’t designed to move that many times. If you do that even remotely, you’re going to have neck pain, right? We could adjust you. We could give you all the best manual therapies, which is important, right? But again, once you go out in the real world, you’re going to keep doing this. We keep doing something over and expecting a different result. Insanity, right?

Joshua Kornitsky: Fair enough. And that makes sense to me though. But I’d never considered it from a perspective of my body compensating for a challenge, right? It’s just because I gather that it’s almost autonomous, that it’s kind of like when you twist your ankle and your body starts to limp, you don’t consciously decide to limp. You just limp.

Dr. Zach Walker: Yep. No, I mean, that’s a perfect example because you’re your body and brain doesn’t like being tired, doesn’t like being in pain, doesn’t like being dizzy, right? No one does. So it’s going to try to do everything it can compensate, right, to allow you to get throughout your day. But eventually this compensation is another compensation. And it just it spirals, right?

Joshua Kornitsky: Different level of clarity for me than I’ve had before. So I want to talk a little bit more about the brain because you said that all the nerve endings start there. Not in the spine. So is the spine in some cases. I’m going to use my terminology, not yours. Is it where the nerve ends or it just winds through? And tell us more about the brain side of this.

Dr. Zach Walker: Yeah. Uh, so with the spine, right, the spine is super, super important. It’s, you can think of it as a conduit or like we’re in Atlanta here. It’s, it’s 75. It’s 285, right? Everyone’s using it, right? Do you want to or not? Right.

Joshua Kornitsky: Sometimes it’s real slow.

Dr. Zach Walker: Oh you’re. Yeah. Right. Um, you can think of the brain as kind of your house, right? That’s where you where you live. That’s where you reside, right? Um, with the spine, right? In chiropractic and really in neuroscience, before you do any movement, before you pick a coffee cup up or you go to the gym and do squats and deadlifts, your spine has to be the first thing that is stable and fires. If it doesn’t, it doesn’t matter what you do. We’re going to have injuries, right? We all know someone that can squat to him or not even two. They can squat 600 pounds of deadlift 800 or a bench. All this. But yeah, they go to Costco, Walmart and pick up groceries and I think I slipped a disc.

Joshua Kornitsky: Okay, that’s not funny, but it’s true.

Dr. Zach Walker: Well, we hear it a lot. And if you don’t know that person, you probably are that person, right? Um, but I’m mentioning that to say the spine, when we’re working out, we’re embracing core stability. We’re, we’re getting organized, right? But if we’re not having that same mentality each and every day, we’re being the best athlete and you comes into play, we’re going to have issues, right? So that’s that’s the spine, right? The brain though is the CEO. It processes everything right. It’s the one that’s processing the eye movements, the head movement that proprioception or spidey sense, right? The the spine isn’t processing it. It’s just taking in information, right? It’s gathering information and then sending it to the brain basically.

Joshua Kornitsky: Okay. Fair enough. So it’s, it’s, it is more the even though we think of it as, oh, I hurt my back. It’s sort of the forgive the expression, sort of the tail end of of the loop because your brain sent the if I’m following correctly, your brain has sent the command and you’re feeling it in your spine. That’s not it doesn’t go the other way around.

Dr. Zach Walker: I would say you’re actually filling it in the brain. The brain? Yeah. The brain itself, um, doesn’t have pain receptors, but let’s say you, you, you have low back pain, right? It’s just that area, that receptor that, that area is firing, right? But it’s the brain’s job to know where the pain is, what type of pain is, how long has it been there? How are we going to compensate? Right. Um, then it fires down to, hey, I’m going to make that area a little tighter, right? Because I don’t know when you’re going to injure it.

Joshua Kornitsky: Okay. So that’s, it’s, it triggers the response of the tightening up of the muscles.

Dr. Zach Walker: Right? Yep.

Joshua Kornitsky: Okay. So now take me deeper into the brain because we talked about different parts of it and I don’t want to mispronounce them.

Dr. Zach Walker: So, um oh, sorry. Go ahead.

Joshua Kornitsky: No, no, no. You had. There was one particular part that you had shared with me is particularly crucial to this. The homunculus.

Dr. Zach Walker: Ah. So yeah, so the homunculus, um, is not necessarily part of the brain, but there are parts of the brain that require that homonculus. So what I mean by that.

Joshua Kornitsky: So yeah, back it up and explain it because I sort of understood it and now you can help me understand it.

Dr. Zach Walker: No, it’s another really good question. So your brain has maps of the entire body. It knows where your nose is. Your ear is your big toe, right? This allows you so you’re not bumping into stuff, right? You can have coordination of movement, right? We, we have this, what we call frontal lobe that allows us to ski, to jump gymnastics, play soccer, whatever it is. Right? But this homunculus is allowing us to move better. Um, I mentioned this because if you look up brain homunculus, right, um, you might get nightmares, but what the brain homunculus, um, looks like it’s essentially what your brain thinks your body looks like. So when you look at this, you’re going to have big lips, big eyes, big nose, big hands, big feet. Because we’re always grasping stuff. We’re always typing. We’re always we should be always moving. So, you know, uh, talking, eating. So these areas need to be super, super, uh, specialized because we’re always using those, right? They need to be super, super quick.

Joshua Kornitsky: Right?

Dr. Zach Walker: At the same time, if you look at the homunculus, you’ll see the spine. It’s a lot smaller and essentially skinnier than everything else. But yet we just said the spine and core is the first thing that has to fire before you fire anything else. So we’re already as amazing as the brain and body is. We’re already at a deficit of not knowing where our spine is compared to everything else.

Joshua Kornitsky: Because unless it’s hurting, I don’t really feel it.

Dr. Zach Walker: That, and also we don’t have just as good of a representation as everything else.

Joshua Kornitsky: Okay.

Dr. Zach Walker: Um, but yet this is where a lot of neck pain, back pain. This is where chiropractic really comes into play, especially adjusts in these areas because the adjustment, right, the, the cracking and popping um allows better ranges of motion to occur, but it sends better signals. It updates that homunculus, right? Um, so we can move better. If we can move better, we have decreases in pain. We trust movement more. So at least here in the office when we’re adjusting, I, I care about your pain, but I don’t care about your pain. You having pain tells me nothing. It’s just another sign and symptom, right? I’m more focused on the making sure your maps are updated, making sure eye movements are good, making sure balance is good because these are the systems that feed in so you don’t have pain, tightness, discomfort, dizziness, all the above.

Joshua Kornitsky: Okay, I’m following it so far. Um, so just because I want to, I want to better understand is the humongously the homunculus. That’s a great word for Scrabble, right? Uh, is, is that part of your. It’s part of your sense of not self, but self. Your. It’s sort of the. The inventory of the anatomy is that.

Dr. Zach Walker: And yeah, I mean, so in order to know.

Joshua Kornitsky: The impact that. How how does it tie into the the brain based chiropractic.

Dr. Zach Walker: Yeah. So in order this homunculus needs to be updated every millisecond of the day, right? If not, then that’s going to create pain, tiredness, discomfort, vertigo and all this, right. So the there’s three other aspects that the, the brain and body need each and every day, one being oxygen breathing kind of why it’s important.

Joshua Kornitsky: It is important.

Dr. Zach Walker: Yes, a little bit. Right. The other one being glucose, glucose essentially, um, why we should be eating healthy, right? Um, glucose being like sugar, right. Uh, but it’s one of those where if you’re at 100% of the glucose a day, then just the brain itself, nothing else, just the brain itself uses about 40% of that.

Joshua Kornitsky: Just as fuel to.

Dr. Zach Walker: Fuel, just to just to not even do its job, but to just be alive. Just basic level, right? The other one, and alluding to what your question was, the other one is, uh, stimuli. This is why movement is key. We need to, we keep talking about updating these maps, right? If these maps aren’t updated, the brain’s not going to know where you’re at. They can lead to tightness, stiffness, bumping into stuff if these maps aren’t updated. Um, then the brain’s not getting good feedback. You have a homunculus for the entire body. You also have a munculus for eye movements. Super important. If you can’t use proper eyes, if you can’t go from one target to another. And so the eye is going from here to here and we see these beats. It’s letting us know you don’t really know where your body is in space, and or you don’t know where different objects are in space. Super important because you can’t communicate to your surroundings, right? Um, One example I would quickly give people listening, or just in general, if you put your fingers right here, your skull, and do these quick eye movements, you’ll feel muscles contract. Those aren’t your muscles of the eye muscle. The eyes are here. So how could I movements cause the spine to fire? It’s the same system.

Joshua Kornitsky: Okay?

Dr. Zach Walker: If you have eye issues in some form or fashion, you’re going to have a spine issue. Especially in the neck.

Joshua Kornitsky: Something I definitely would not have connected. So that that makes sense to me. So for the folks that come in for treatment with you. Is it clearing the pathway for better communication that that I’m oversimplifying obviously, because everybody’s going to be different, but clearing that communication pathway is what leads to better updating.

Dr. Zach Walker: Yeah. I mean, there’s yeah, to make it as simple as possible. There’s three things that the brain and body is doing. One being it’s taking, It’s getting information from light, sound, pain, things you’re touching. Okay. The brain has to make sense of it. Oh, what are you doing? How are you doing? Or what’s going on? And then some type of output. So what we’re doing in the office is like you just alluded to and mentioned, the better that communication can be. Homunculus is being updated. Eye movements are better. Spine is better. Balance is better. So whatever you’re doing outside of the office, not only can you do better, but you can trust the movements. Um, and even if when you do have injuries, it’s not as severe because again, everything is more there.

Joshua Kornitsky: They’re talking it’s an optimized system. It’s going to be performing at a higher at a higher level. So that brings me to the question. Is this something for an elite athlete? Is this for my mom? I mean, is this everybody that can benefit from this? Or where does where does this type of treatment, uh, how is it most effective? For whom is it most effective?

Dr. Zach Walker: The short answer is to answer your question. Yes. So what I mean by that is quickly go back to what is being an athlete, right. So our big thing, our motto in here is being the best athlete in. You have to.

Joshua Kornitsky: Explain that so that I know that I follow.

Dr. Zach Walker: Perfect. So we have to break down what an athlete is, right? The most simplest form an athlete is being optimized at whatever your sport is. So we can see high end D1 athletes, the NCAA athletes on the field for injury performance prevention, helping with concussions on the field, but also off the field. If there’s I’m going to want to ask you a question, Joshua. So what is one sport, no matter who you are, if you’re eight years old or 80 years old, right? There’s one sport that we’re always coming in contact with each and every day. It has the highest highs and the lowest lows. What sport would that be?

Joshua Kornitsky: Running?

Dr. Zach Walker: I would say the sport of life.

Joshua Kornitsky: Okay.

Dr. Zach Walker: Right. As kind of out there and as silly as it sounds.

Joshua Kornitsky: No, I mean, it’s. Unless you don’t have the ability to have movement, which sadly some don’t. But if you’re able to move around, it is lovely.

Dr. Zach Walker: If you can move around for sure. Right. But even if you can’t move around, um, we’re still doing something with eye movements. You’re still taking in information in some form or fashion, right?

Joshua Kornitsky: So what’s the best athlete in you?

Dr. Zach Walker: So the best athlete in you is no matter what you’re trying to do on or off the field, can you do whatever it is you’re doing optimized? Going back to those three systems, right? Can we have proper eye movements? Can we have proper head movement for balance? Can we update that homunculus? Right. If we can, no matter what you’re doing, um, you’re doing it to your best ability. It doesn’t mean you’re never going to have pain, tightness and discomfort, right? But if you do have those, that doesn’t last as long. It’s not as severe because your brain is more optimized.

Joshua Kornitsky: So if I’m hearing this as, as just someone listening to the. To the broadcast and I’m thinking, well, you’re saying it’s your for. Everybody. But is there. What are the things that should make someone. Think, hey, maybe I need to look into more brain based chiropractic or. Are there specific things outside of, of, you know, rapid eye movement concerns or neck concerns, the things that normally bring someone to see a chiropractor. What would make somebody seek out brain based chiropractic?

Dr. Zach Walker: Yeah. Uh, so like we said at the beginning, a lot of patients that we do see are still have chronic neck pain and back pain, right? But again, why do we have neck pain and back pain? That’s, that’s kind of what we’re delving more into. But it could be neck pain, back pain. It could be a lot of headaches. Migraines is a big one. Uh, dizziness, balance issues, uh, some vertigo. Right? Um, concussions. Now, this concussion could have been two days, two weeks, two months are well over two years ago.

Joshua Kornitsky: Okay.

Dr. Zach Walker: Because it’s going back to those conversations, we can compensate, keep compensating until we can’t. Right? Um, and the other one would be again, just, I don’t have a lot of pain, tightness and discomfort, but I want to be able to trust movements more. I want to be able to, um, you know, a lot of us are on a computer screen for six, seven, eight hours. Then we want to go and work out. Those are two different things, right? Right. We got to make sure your body and brain can communicate no matter what you’re doing.

Joshua Kornitsky: That that gives some clarity there. And I want to ask you, because you mentioned it specifically, and it’s something that’s, uh, occurred in my family about vertigo. I thought vertigo was just an inner ear thing.

Dr. Zach Walker: Um, do you want the short answer or long answer? So short answer. Right.

Joshua Kornitsky: The one that makes the greatest clarity.

Dr. Zach Walker: Um, so we see this a lot where things like vertigo or my sciatica is acting up, right? We hear that a lot. Well, again, sciatica, right? Sciatica is a huge, huge nerve. It’s actually the longest nerve in the body for you to have true sciatica. It kind of starts in the low back hip, but it has to run all the way down to the foot.

Joshua Kornitsky: Okay.

Dr. Zach Walker: And the same concept for Vertigo, right? Vertigo is almost like a catch all term. I would say almost 80% of people that have vertigo. It’s okay. What is what does that mean to you? Well, I just stand up real quick and I kind of get lightheaded. Okay, well, that’s different than vertigo. Vertigo actually has a spinning component to it. Either you are spinning or you’re staying still. But the world is spinning.

Joshua Kornitsky: Many years ago, I experienced it. No alcohol was involved, but I sure felt like it had been.

Dr. Zach Walker: No. And that’s what it kind of feels like, right? So yes, you can have it from your inner ear, right? So if I’m looking at you and I do this, it’s almost as if my eyes go to the left. Okay.

Joshua Kornitsky: Right.

Dr. Zach Walker: Since what can happen though is there’s in the inner ear, there’s different stones or crystals that can get dislodged. And they go into these different canals that allow you to do different head movements. But if they get dislodged in there, it’s like you’re doing this over and over, but yet you’re just staying still. So the brain again, homunculus is like, wait a minute, I’m getting information as if you’re doing this. But the neck is saying, no, I’m chilling out. I’m doing nothing. There’s a disconnect. Right?

Joshua Kornitsky: That and the fact that you said that 80% of that of rough number, a large percentage of them may not be that inner ear imbalance, but in fact, something else that’s very telling. And that’s, uh, I enjoy when I learn new things, I learn something new just there.

Dr. Zach Walker: Yeah. Um, and vertigo, I mean, that’s largely in the air, but you can have vertigo even from like eye movements as well. Uh, a lot of times if we’re seeing eye movements in your slowly going, we’re seeing these beats. Every time you do a beat, it’s almost as if the world is like going past you. You do that over and over. Wait a minute, I don’t my eyes aren’t moving, but yet they. I’m getting signals that they are.

Joshua Kornitsky: But I’m feeling like there’s motion, Right?

Dr. Zach Walker: Exactly.

Joshua Kornitsky: Okay. Well, then I’ve got a few folks with, uh, in my immediate proximity that’ll be coming to see you. Um, what’s it look like to come in for, uh, an evaluation? Is it. Do you have big, scary machines that, you know, scan the brain? How does it how what does it look like to to come for a visit?

Dr. Zach Walker: Yeah. So this is where being a functional neurologist comes into play. None of what we do is invasive or not taking the brain out and looking at it and dissecting it.

Joshua Kornitsky: Well, thank goodness for that.

Dr. Zach Walker: I know right. Um, so each visit, the first visit, right? Can go anywhere from 4 to 5 minutes to almost an hour and a half long. The big reason for that is the first visit is where we’re getting all your information. You’re coming in. I’m not going to assume anything. You could be coming in with. I’ve had three concussions in the last two days. I’m getting super, super dizzy. I’m nausea throwing up or. Hey, I just have some pain here. Okay, I’m not going to assume anything. Again, we have to break those three systems down. We have to look at balance reaction time, eye movements, and definitely with the chiropractic part. Looking at the spine, looking at differences from left and right range of motion. Again, it all gives me and it gives us a bigger window in picture into what’s going on, right? Because you can have these signs and symptoms, but you have these signs and symptoms aren’t telling me anything. It’s just letting us know that there’s something wrong but not what’s wrong.

Joshua Kornitsky: So you’ve got to work to kind of get a deeper understanding.

Dr. Zach Walker: Correct. Yep. So once we have that information, then we have kind of our care plan of X, Y, and Z, which should always be getting better. I’m a big proponent in not just patient education, but also giving you at home exercises.

Joshua Kornitsky: Okay.

Dr. Zach Walker: Because we could see you for 45 minutes each visit or 20 minutes or 30 minutes, whatever it is. But what are you doing the next week, week and a half, two days or whatever it is between now and our next visit. If you’re not, we’ve all played sports, right? So we’ve all heard practice makes perfect, right? Should we practice makes permanent. It’s March Madness right now. Right. If I’m shooting a free throw and I do that 99 times wrong and I don’t change anything, but yet I’m expecting that 100th time to be perfect, right? That doesn’t make sense at all. It’s the same thing in the body and brain, right? If we’re not us, the stuff we do in the office, if we’re not in some form or fashion, giving you that same thing outside of here to keep working on. Right? Practice, right. We’re not going to get better.

Joshua Kornitsky: So let me ask this because I think specifically the the field of medicine that you’re in, there’s a lot of this. And I want to ask, what are what are 1 or 2 of the biggest misconceptions people have about the work that you do?

Dr. Zach Walker: Um, well, that’s a really good question. Um, I would say one is I have to have some form of pain, tightness and discomfort to come in.

Joshua Kornitsky: Ah. So if it’s not broken, don’t try to fix it.

Dr. Zach Walker: Right? Now I will say we just said pain, tightness and discomfort is It’s just another sign and symptom. Interesting with pain is pain is the last thing to come on. So before you have pain we got to look at dizziness balance issues again, everything we’ve been talking about, right? Because once you have pain, it’s letting us know you probably had whatever this is for a while. And the pain is just that alarm signal. Okay. I need you to help me, please.

Joshua Kornitsky: Right. Okay. And that’s a really good way to illustrate it, that it’s sort of the last flag up, right? That. Right. I’m trying to compensate for this every which way. It’s time for you to do something about it.

Dr. Zach Walker: Exactly. Um, so that’d be probably one, uh, two would be, um, again, money is money, right? It probably costs arm and a leg. That’s all relative, right? Um, sure. Trying to again, this is where we blend the Cairo and the neuro right. No matter who you are. Um, the biggest thing is I tried to attack it as hard as we can first, as long as it makes sense for your body. Um, I’m a big proponent in everyone being a lifelong patient, but again, a lifelong patient doesn’t mean it’s two times a week for the next three years. For doing that, we’re probably doing something wrong.

Joshua Kornitsky: Well, and you used a term that I wanted to ask you to clarify, and I’ve heard it in in the distant past, you used the term care plan. So what’s a what is a care plan as opposed to just a regular visit?

Dr. Zach Walker: So a regular visit is what we’re doing that day. Okay. So every time, once I get done seeing a patient, always email them what we did today, what we’re doing next, next week, right? And kind of what our, what’s our first big or two goals, right? Um, because we need to have goals in some form or fashion, and that goal needs to be more than just, I want to get out of pain. Everyone does. That’s going to be, we’re always going to get that better. Right. And look at it. Right. Other than that. Right. Is it um, allow you to ski more? Is it allow you to just pick up your little one on your right without pain coming on? It’s, that’s where these functional goals come into play. But we can’t do that if we don’t have a care plan, right? If we’re just trying to see, oh, let’s just see when you have pain. Now we’re just chasing pain, right? We’ll get you better. We’ll get you out of pain. But we just said pain’s the last thing to come on.

Joshua Kornitsky: Right. Well, you don’t bring your car in for an oil change once and say, that’s it. I never have to do this again.

Dr. Zach Walker: Right. And that’s what I mean. Exactly with that, right? That’s where maintenance comes into play. My goal is maybe once or twice a month, once we get you to where we need to be, because in a month span, we’re doing a lot, right. We’re if it’s work, working out stress and anxiety, so can we at least maintain that? But always try to get to optimization?

Joshua Kornitsky: Well, and that makes sense to me. So if I come to see you because my neck hurts and we work through however long it takes to work through whatever the issue is, chances are unless it was a once in a lifetime occurrence, it’s probably the way that I live my life that led to my neck pain. Yeah. And, and if I don’t have some type of ongoing maintenance planned for it, I’m likely to be back there. I imagine, in some period of time when it starts to hurt again.

Dr. Zach Walker: Right. And we’re going to keep doing the same thing over and over, right? Just like you’re working out, you have a workout. If I want to squat 300 pounds, you get to it. Are you just going to stop working out for the rest of your life?

Joshua Kornitsky: I’m done.

Dr. Zach Walker: I did it. Done. Right.

Joshua Kornitsky: Yeah, that that makes sense to me. It does. Um, I can’t thank you enough because as I said, I enjoy learning new things. And I feel like I learned quite a bit here today. Um, any words of guidance to leave people with that, that they should think about just as they’re going about their daily life? As someone who’s an expert in all three of the systems that they should be aware of.

Dr. Zach Walker: Um, and last thing I’ll say is not even talking about the systems, but I, I live kind of by a motto, if you will, and I actually have this on if you can see it here.

Joshua Kornitsky: I can see that there are words.

Dr. Zach Walker: Right? So it’s, it’s a phrase. Um, I think Mark Twain said this, or at least it’s credited with saying this is there are two important events in your life the day you were born and the day you find out why. That’s pretty. My last thing would be find your why, no matter what that is.

Joshua Kornitsky: I like that that’s that’s a great way to end it. Uh, Dr. Walker, what’s the best way for folks to get Ahold of you and BrainSpine chiropractic?

Dr. Zach Walker: Yeah. So we, I mean, Instagram, there’s BrainSpine underscore chiro. Uh, you can give us a call or even text actually better at texting, honestly. A4704079752 or our website at BrainSpine chiropractic.com.

Joshua Kornitsky: And we’ll publish all of those links just so that if somebody didn’t hear it or didn’t grab a pen in time, so that everybody will be able to find that. I can’t thank you enough. As I said, it’s always a joy for me when I get to learn something new. Um, and you really, really opened my eyes on a number of different subjects. Thank you.

Dr. Zach Walker: Thank you. Joshua.

Joshua Kornitsky: My guest today has been the incredible Dr. Zach Walker, a chiropractor and functional neurologist. He’s the find excuse me, he’s the founder of the BrainSpine of BrainSpine Chiropractic in Marietta, Georgia, where he works to improve performance and address root causes of pain and dysfunction. His approach goes beyond traditional chiropractic care, focusing on the connection between brain balance and the movement and movement to uncover what’s really driving the symptoms. Thank you again, Dr.. And also, I do have to remind everybody that today’s episode is brought to you in part by the Community Partner program, the Business RadioX Main Street Warriors defending capitalism, promoting small business, and supporting our local community. For more information, go to Main Street Warriors dot. And a special note of thanks to our title sponsor for the Cherokee chapter of Main Street Warriors Diesel David Ink. Please go check them out at diesel Davidclark.com. My name is Joshua Kornitsky. I am a professional implementer of the entrepreneurial operating system and we just can’t thank you enough for listening. Please join us again next time.