I saw Joan
Detz @joandetz speak at a financial professional convention in DC two years
ago. Is she a financial expert, a numbers specialist or a metrics expert? No;
she is an incredible lady who has devoted her life to training and coaching
people for all corners of the world and trades in different fields on the art
of #PublicSpeaking. And after seeing how she did it and what she accomplished I
needed to meet her, but I could not do it at the convention.
But wait; I
am a simple guy living in a foreign country who happened to be in DC at that
time. How will I meet her? Come possibilities: I contacted her with the
advancement of technology. So after getting in touch I sent her some of my work
(I am sure she needed to find out who this crazy person form Venezuela was). So
back in late 2014 we started exchanging emails, got on a phone conversation and
as they say, it was the start of a beautiful friendship; and indeed it has
continued to be.
Fast
forward two years, I have had incredible phone conversations with Joan, I have
interviewed her on my internet radio show on two incredible subjects, public
speaking tips and social media tools and how you can boost your life and
careers using them and both are on the top list of my all time shows. And best
of all, I was able to visit with Joan last week in New York to what I call a
wonderful afternoon. We had lunch, we went to the New York Public Library, we
saw old maps, and we strolled down Bryant Park. But best of all, we had an
amazing but very short five-hour conversation; and it was incredible.
What do you
speak with such an experienced, traveled and fabulous person? We talked about
life’s journeys, we talked about the change in technology, age, knowledge, wisdom,
politics, and life again and we talked about dreams, those fuzzy things you can
actually convert into reality. We talked about peace and quiet, life on the
countryside and on the complicated city life; and we talked about how we take
things for granted, yes we all do. It was a deep thoughtful powerful
conversation.
And this is
what friendship is all about. It is a different kind of friendship, a beautiful
one. It is not your friends form high school or college whom after a while you stopped
seeing; it is the new friends you met along the path you cross, that you allow into
your life, and what an incredible idea is it to invite new friends into your
life. And we choose those friends, people who like us want better, look for
nature’s beauty, who engage on interesting conversations which are very
meaningful, important, thoughtful, wonderful and all together transformational.
This and
more was my NY afternoon with Joan Detz. What an honor, what a pleasure. I flew
in from Venezuela; she took a train ride from Pennsylvania. Was it worth it? Indeed
and it was too short of a conversation on life’s journeys, on health,
opportunities and future, with passion and vision and ideas and thoughts and
dreams and why not, a touch of reality here and there. And what a wonderful
friendship it has become.
Joan, keep inspiring people, keep being a wonderful friend.
Luis Vicente
