The Art of Conversation

The Art of Conversation

Many people think that, as financial advisors, we spend all day with our heads buried in numbers, following the movement of the markets. And it’s true – that is a BIG part of what we do. But the most important part of our job – and quite frankly, our favorite part – involves having simple, face-to-face conversations with other people.

We love meeting with clients both new and old, because we love getting to know people better. We love hearing their dreams, their needs, their fears… their stories!

Since we get to have face-to-face conversations every day, we consider ourselves some of the luckiest people around. Because we know these types of interactions are getting increasingly rare as the world becomes increasingly digital.

Simple, heart-to-heart conversations are not a day-to-day occurrence for some people anymore. More and more, we are using our phones or computers to connect with each other, or to comfort us in times when we are alone or to fill any lull of silence. We have heard stories where people realize, at the end of the day, they have not had a single conversation with another human being. Sometimes they haven’t even uttered a single word out loud.

We recently came across a story about a man who felt similarly. He believed the art of conversation would be the next victim of technology. He wanted to make a difference, so he started a global movement to keep conversation alive using just two chairs and a poster board.

His name is Adria Ballester, a Barcelona native who, after a rough day at work, found himself walking around the city wanting to see the beautiful skyline from the top of a nearby mountain. He was able to make it there by nightfall and saw an elderly man who was out doing the same. The two fell to talking. After a long conversation, the elderly man left, saying, “When you will become 80 years old, all your problems [that seem] huge will look so small.”¹

After the man left, Adria thought about what the man had said and realized he was right. Adria also realized how much he had enjoyed and benefitted from that one, single conversation with a stranger. All the anger he felt from work had vanished.

In some ways, that conversation was like an awakening for Adria. It opened his eyes to how important it was to speak with people with different life experiences. So he decided to do something about it.

It only took that one interaction for Adria to make the conscious decision to have conversations with people to see different perspectives. He took a poster board and carried two chairs with him to the heart of the city. He set the two chairs facing each other and sat in one, waiting. The poster board was set up where passersby could see the words “Free Conversation” written clearly. His goal was to provide a safe space, free of judgement, where people could express themselves in public. Whatever they wanted or needed to talk about, they would find a friendly ear in Adria.

Every weekend Adria would sit facing an empty chair until a stranger would walk up and take a seat. Over time, he heard everything from cheerful tales to heartbreaking stories. In fact, over the next three years, he had more than 1500 conversations with total strangers!² These raw, honest conversations gave him both perspective and confirmation he was doing the right thing.

Eventually word caught on as to what Adria was doing. This led Adria to start a new project that he calls the “Free Conversations Movement”, where people all over the world could do the same thing he was doing on Barcelona. The idea went viral over the pandemic, and others were inspired and today there are volunteers in multiple countries, on almost every continent, each offering “free conversations”. They’re having face-to-face, heart-to-heart interactions in any public space that would have them.

Reading this story truly made us realize how important conversations are in our own lives. It made us think about how many other activities that used to be standard are becoming rarer and more precious. Lately we’ve found ourselves thinking of the things we used to do growing up that we don’t do much anymore. Writing letters to loved ones, memorizing phone numbers, having new recipes updated in a family cookbook.

We think it’s these little things that make life special. Moving forward, we want to make sure to spend more time doing those things and appreciating them. We want to look forward to every conversation, whether it’s with a friend, family member, neighbor, client, or even a total stranger.

We hope you enjoyed and were as inspired by Adria’s story as much as we have been. As we finish the first quarter of 2023, we wish you many meaningful conversations with others – and we look forward to the next conversation we get to have with each of you.