Daily Inspiration: Meet Farrell Middleton

Today we’d like to introduce you to Farrell Middleton.

Hi Farrell, please kick things off for us with an introduction to yourself and your story.
I embarked on my second career as a teacher, speaker, and author in 2022 at the tender age of 57. It has been a good transition, certainly with struggles, but I am making a difference in people’s lives. The name of my company is The Bell Curve of Life. This relates to the bell curve theory that we all remember from middle school – 20% in the upper category, 60% in the middle, and 20% in the lower category. For my program this relates to behavior, skills, performance, and results. The desire is to empower individuals to get into the top 20% of the curve in the areas of life that matter the most to them and those closest to them.

My first book is titled “A Performer/A Environment – A Roadmap to Enhance Your Performance and Upgrade Your Environment”. My mission and focus are to cultivate A Level Performers and A Level Environments to drive personal growth and organizational health. This is accomplished by focusing on positive attitudes, self-esteem, healthy relationship building, effective communication skills, and enhanced team dynamics. I provide simple, but highly effective, tools for individuals to live the best life they choose, personally and professionally. All of the principles in my program are 100% under the control of individuals and teams, adopt and embrace them and you will live a better life. This is a unique program delivering unique results.

I recently received an excellent testimonial from a client that sums up the impact that I am having – “We truly appreciate the leadership training you provided to our team, it’s having a positive impact on our Division leadership team. I was also able to finish your book “A Performer/A Environment” and would highly suggest that everyone read this book as it really has you focus in on those areas you or those around you could take for that step from a B to A and breaks down how to get there. You are making a difference in lives Mr. Farrell and it’s truly appreciated.”

I am a lifelong Georgian, growing up in Savannah and moving to Atlanta in 1982 to attend Georgia Tech. I graduated with Honors with a degree in Building Construction in 1986, and immediately entered the residential land development and homebuilding industry. I was a manager of other people at the age of 22, my 36-year career included working with privately held and publicly traded companies, I mostly held high level management positions, and have touched about 10,000 houses overall.

Personally, I married Kathy, my high school sweetheart, in 1986, we have two daughters, Pfeiffer and Collier, who are married and now living in the Atlanta area, and we have one grandson, with hopefully more on the way!

I’m sure it wasn’t obstacle-free, but would you say the journey has been fairly smooth so far?
It has been a fairly smooth road, but there have certainly been challenges along the way. My focus is now on providing personal and professional growth, development, and educational services, rather than producing physical products. With that, my three biggest challenges have been:

Messaging. This challenge has related to effectively describing the nature of the services and having clients agree to invest time and money for me to engage with them to share this valuable material. This messaging includes promoting the value and benefits that the material can provide to individuals at all levels of activity, authority, and responsibility.

Client commitment. Once the messaging has been successful and there is interest in the program, the next challenge has been gaining commitment from clients. With the nature of business environments that currently exist, several potential clients state that are just too busy with other priorities to consider the program. My response is generally that I specialize in uncontrollable and inconsistent external challenges, drinking through fire hoses, and managing chaos.

Coordination of small groups. The primary program offerings are 90 minute sessions with 8-12 people to explore the material. The challenge has been getting everyone assembled on the same day and time, so virtual engagements have become an effective part of the program. This has also led to the “60 Minute Saturdays” workshop program. They will be one hour workshops on each of A Performer and A Environment conducted on two Saturdays per month, at a Northwest Atlanta location, the days and times are set, and all people need to do is sign up and show up!

As the program advances, progress continues to be made in all of these areas.

Thanks for sharing that. So, maybe next you can tell us a bit more about your work?
As mentioned, my program relates to personal and professional growth and development. There is a wide variety of program material, including Leadership, Management, Customer Relations/Service and other personal directives. However, A Performer/A Environment has become my signature offering. I have developed four ways to share it:

The book. It is available on Amazon, Barnes and Noble.com, Kindle, and Audible. The fundamental advantage of the book is that you don’t need to finish it to gain the benefits, you just need to start it! Each chapter stands on its own and offers practical information to make improvements in your life, and it is an excellent long term resource that can be easily referenced at any time.

Keynote Speaking Presentations. This is an engaging and dynamic presentation that can last for 20-90 minutes based on the venue and desires of the audience. It is an excellent opportunity for Lunch and Learns, Offsite Retreats, Business Association meetings, and Trade Organization gatherings.

90 Minute sessions. These discovery sessions are for small groups of individuals to explore the material to find out what is working well and why, and what is not working well and why. The takeaways are immediate and focus on individual and team directives for improvements.

60 Minute Saturdays. This is a new initiative consisting of 60 minute workshops to explore the material. To start, they will be offered two Saturdays per month into early 2026, at a set location, with set workshop times, and easy registration through my website. This could not be any more convenient – just sign up and show up!

What sets me apart from others is the simple, but powerful, material that provides an immediate return on the investment in time and money. Each participant will walk away with actionable items that can be implemented as soon as they deem appropriate. Also, there is no advance work to do or any post-engagement work except adopting the principles to live a better life, just show up with a positive attitude and an open mind to new concepts.

I am most proud of the effect that my material is having on all types of individuals, in both their personal and professional lives. At the end of each engagement or getting comments from readers of the book, I am getting immediate feedback about what people are going to work on for improvements in the areas of life that matter the most to them and those closest to them. This is incredibly rewarding.

What do you like best about our city? What do you like least?
Likes – As mentioned, I am a lifelong Georgian, having moved to Atlanta in 1982, and we just love it here. We have raised our children in the area, and they and their families are now establishing roots here. We enjoy wonderful weather and changes of seasons, an awesome culture, the people are generally friendly and engaging, we have an excellent business environment, and the world’s busiest airport that allows us to get anywhere on the planet with relative ease.

When I have the opportunity to engage with people that have relocated to the area from other parts of the country, especially the Northeast and Midwest, they share that they just love it here.

Dislikes – TRAFFIC, TRAFFIC, TRAFFIC, especially in South Atlanta.

Contact Info:

• Website: https://thebellcurveoflife.com
• Facebook: Farrell Middleton
• LinkedIn: Farrell Middleton – personal, The Bell Curve of Life – business
• Youtube: @ The Bell Curve of Life