Recently dubbed “The King of Hearts” by a friend, Tom Ballard, “The Heart Rock Guy,” puts heart into everything he does. Tom is the founder of Heart Rock Reminders Foundation, a non-profit organization dedicated to saving lives by sharing hope, kindness and compassion with others. Since 2019, Tom has personally hand-carved over 25,000 heart-shaped rocks — that’s over 8,000 hours of carving! He now has “a little army of stone carvers” who have helped him make an additional 240,000 heart rocks to hand out to others. When he’s not cutting rocks or speaking to audiences, Tom is likely walking with his wife, Becca, (they’ve walked and hiked over 3,200 miles together since they started dating), filling one of his nine bird feeders or reading a new book.
Dealer’s Choice A typical day is as follows: I eat breakfast, then refill my nine bird feeders. I make heart rocks, write letters of encouragement and mail them to strangers to remind them that they matter. I go to a school and do a kindness assembly and give each child a heart rock. I teach them to create kindness in their own little way. Then I take an afternoon nap, followed by a four-mile walk with my wife (and sometimes our cat, Heyda). Then we have dinner, watch the Great British Baking Show, play Wingspan and read until we fall asleep.
Shuffle the Cards In 2019, my brother-in-law ended his life. At the time, I was living with undiagnosed bipolar disorder — it was the darkest time. I found a naturally-shaped heart rock on the beach and it helped me remember my worth. Soon thereafter, I had the opportunity to pass the heart rock on to someone else. I wondered what would happen if I made and handed out 100,000 heart rocks. Would people keep them, or pass them on? That started my social-experiment-turned-kindness movement.
Ace Up Your Sleeve I can spin pillows, books, basketballs, mattresses and many other things on my finger.
Tomorrow’s Bets With Becca and our baby boy, I’d like to backpack Cornwall, or The Cotswold Way, in England.
Ace Eats Waffle Love is my go-to. Having a bad day? Waffle Love. Good day? Waffle Love. I usually order two entrées.