Episode 141
From Passion to Invention: A Conversation with Larry Weingarten
This podcast episode centers around the profound influence of early advice on personal and professional development, with particular emphasis on the importance of nurturing curiosity and creativity. Our guest, Larry, recounts the pivotal guidance he received from his mother, who encouraged him to pursue his passions without the constraints of societal expectations. He elaborates on his journey as an inventor and problem-solver, revealing how a deep understanding of physics and a relentless curiosity have enabled him to devise innovative solutions to complex issues, such as enhancing energy efficiency in homes. Throughout our conversation, we delve into practical strategies for individuals seeking to improve their own energy efficiency, emphasizing the critical role of informed decision-making and proactive measures in addressing environmental concerns. Ultimately, we aim to inspire listeners to take charge of their choices and foster a mindset of continuous learning and responsibility.
Commencing with an engaging introduction, the host welcomes his guest, who embodies a spirit of innovation and curiosity. The episode delves deeply into the formative experiences that shaped the guest’s approach to life and work, particularly the invaluable advice imparted by his mother during his youth. This guidance, which encouraged him to pursue his passions without hindrance, serves as a cornerstone of the discussion. The guest’s anecdotes from childhood not only illustrate his natural inclination towards invention but also highlight the broader theme of the importance of supportive mentorship in fostering creativity. As the conversation unfolds, the guest emphasizes that children thrive when they are allowed to explore their interests freely, a sentiment that resonates throughout the episode and underscores the value of nurturing a child's innate curiosity and potential.
Transitioning from personal narratives to professional insights, the guest articulates his extensive knowledge in the field of energy efficiency. His dedication to sustainable practices is evident as he shares practical advice for improving home efficiency and reducing environmental impact. By recounting his personal experiences with building a highly efficient home, he provides listeners with a wealth of information on how to implement energy-saving measures. The guest addresses the contemporary issue of disposable consumer culture, advocating for a paradigm shift towards durable and efficient products. This part of the episode is particularly enlightening, as it presents a compelling vision for a future where energy efficiency is not merely a trend but a necessary standard for responsible living.
In the concluding segments of the episode, the guest shares profound reflections on legacy and the importance of personal agency. He encourages listeners to recognize their power in navigating life's complexities, emphasizing that individuals possess the ability to shape their realities through informed choices. The discussion culminates in a powerful message about the significance of continuous learning and the courage to confront challenges with a proactive mindset. By fostering a culture of presence and appreciation, the guest envisions a world where fear no longer dictates actions, allowing for a more fulfilling existence. This episode encapsulates a rich tapestry of insights, offering listeners both inspiration and practical strategies to cultivate a life of purpose and impact.
Takeaways:
- The most significant advice received in childhood was to listen to oneself, thus fostering self-discovery.
- Supporting children's passions without imposing limitations can lead to remarkable entrepreneurial growth.
- Curiosity drives problem-solving; one must seek various perspectives to uncover solutions.
- Energy efficiency is paramount in today's society; it not only saves costs but also benefits the environment.
- Understanding the physics of systems is crucial for practical problem-solving and innovation in any field.
- Taking proactive measures to understand one's energy consumption can lead to significant improvements in efficiency.
Links referenced in this episode:
Transcript
Well, Larry, welcome to the podcast.
Speaker A:How you doing today?
Speaker B:I'm good, I'm good.
Speaker B:I'm glad to be here.
Speaker A:Well, you say that now.
Speaker A:We haven't gotten to the questions yet.
Speaker B:So.
Speaker A:I love to ask my guest this question.
Speaker A:What's the best piece of advice you've ever received?
Speaker B:That's a bit of a tricky one.
Speaker B:I've received a whole lot of advice, but probably the best advice came from my mom when I was a kid.
Speaker B:She basically was asking me what I wanted to do, sort of encouraging me to follow my heart, which, you know, at that age, most people are telling you what to do or not do, and that's it.
Speaker B:But she was suggesting I listen to myself.
Speaker A:I love that.
Speaker A:And what did you decide you want to do?
Speaker B:Oh, I, at that point, I was very clear.
Speaker B:I told her, I'm going to grow up to be an inventor.
Speaker B:I'm going to create stuff.
Speaker B:And she thought, fine.
Speaker B:She didn't say, well, how are you going to make a living doing that?
Speaker B:Or anything like that.
Speaker B:She no, didn't let reality get in the way at all.
Speaker A:I love that.
Speaker A:I just had a guest on my podcast talking about how do you raise entrepreneurial kids?
Speaker A:And her biggest takeaway from interviewing a bunch of entrepreneur as parents was, when your kid has a passion, no matter what that passion is, support it.
Speaker A:Don't try and, you know, explain it away or steer in a different direction.
Speaker A:Just let them go and find their passion and live out that passion.
Speaker B:That's.
Speaker B:And I really like that.
Speaker B:I was the kid that in school I would rather fix things than go out on the playground.
Speaker B:The teachers, through various grades actually asked me to fix things.
Speaker B:Say, Larry, the bell is too loud.
Speaker B:Can you do anything?
Speaker B:Yes.
Speaker B:I'm just a little kid and yes, I could figure stuff like that out.
Speaker B:I could see it.
Speaker B:So that was really fun.
Speaker A:I've had kids and my own kids who like taking things apart.
Speaker A:They don't put it back together, but they like taking them apart.
Speaker B:Well, it begins with taking things apart.
Speaker B:Later, they might go back together the same way.
Speaker B:Or not.
Speaker A:Yeah, I try to encourage.
Speaker A:It's like, if you're going to take it apart, at least try and fix it.
Speaker B:I, I started with like, I'd go to the dump and find things like old clocks and take them apart.
Speaker B:It didn't matter if I couldn't get them back together, but I learned how they worked by, by doing that.
Speaker B:So after a while, it became clear that there's a system for man made things.
Speaker B:If you can take it, if you can build it there.
Speaker B:At least with the old stuff there was a way of taking it apart and putting it back together.
Speaker B:It always followed those rules so I could figure it out given time.
Speaker A:I love that.
Speaker A:I'm curious, Larry, think about your life.
Speaker A:Who were some people that served as mentors for you along the way?
Speaker B:Oh, that's, I've got a, there, there was a guy, Stan, sort of like my second father.
Speaker B:He just appreciated what I, what I did and helped me to, you know, he, he put challenges in front of me.
Speaker B:Okay, figure this, this one out or can you help me with this?
Speaker B:You know, and I, I wasn't going to let him down.
Speaker B:You know, one of the simple things he gave me, Larry, I've got, He had an apartment house and had tenants that were going to move out because water heaters were making noise and said, Larry, can you quiet the heaters down?
Speaker B:Oh, okay.
Speaker B:I, I figured out how to do that.
Speaker B:I made a tool and vacuumed the sediment out of these gas fired heaters that quieted the heaters down.
Speaker B:Tenants were happy and that led to a whole career in hot water.
Speaker A:I love that.
Speaker A:Your curiosity just inspires me.
Speaker A:So tell us about your journey in building industry and what led you to specialize in hot water.
Speaker A:Energy efficiency.
Speaker B:Okay, well, energy efficiency to me seems like a no brainer.
Speaker B:It's a, People want to save money, they want to do right by the environment, they want to be good stewards.
Speaker B:Being more efficient with our energy is, is a direct path to doing that.
Speaker B:So, okay, I mean you can get more efficient, equip equipment or you can simply need less.
Speaker B:Being efficient makes it so you can, can use less.
Speaker B:For instance, I built the house that I'm, that I'm in.
Speaker B:It uses roughly a tenth of the energy per square foot that a normal house does and it's more comfortable than most homes and it's off grid.
Speaker B:So okay, that, that, that's a good start.
Speaker B:But I figured if you build something that's efficient, it's durable, you're not going to have to change its batteries or, you know, it, the insulation isn't going to need to be replaced periodically.
Speaker B:So there's a lot you can do to, to make, to make things work more efficient, efficiently.
Speaker B:And when, when you do that, suddenly supplying what energy you need becomes quite simple.
Speaker B:Even more savings there.
Speaker A:I love that.
Speaker A:That's really interesting.
Speaker B:Good.
Speaker A:So, so in today's society though, we don't like the, or should say companies don't like things that last as long as they used to last.
Speaker A:I remember when you buy a refrigerator, you may buy two in your lifetime.
Speaker A:Now you're buying more, which is creating more waste in society.
Speaker A:How do we get back to creating things that are efficient but also last a long time?
Speaker B:Okay, a couple of simple examples come to mind.
Speaker B:When I built my house, I needed to put metal flashing around the roof in various places.
Speaker B:Standard thing that we use for this is galvanized steel.
Speaker B:That means zinc coated steel.
Speaker B:They put molten zinc on it and the zinc corrodes away before the steel can rust.
Speaker B:Once the zinc is gone, then the steel rusts and now you have to put new flashing up or else it's going to leak.
Speaker B:So I didn't do that.
Speaker B:I used copper.
Speaker B:I bought the copper at the wholesale house and took it over to a sheet metal shop and had them bend it to, to my shape.
Speaker B:I helped them do it.
Speaker B:It wound up costing a little less than it would have cost if I had bought pre bent galvanized steel.
Speaker B:So it's a little cheaper and it will last 200 years easy.
Speaker B:Okay, that's, you know, that kind of thing.
Speaker B:Another, I don't know if I'm really on, on point here, but if you can make a home efficient.
Speaker B:In the east it's real common that boilers are used for house heating for hot water and steam.
Speaker B:If you make the house efficient enough, you can use a water heater to do the very same job.
Speaker B:Modern boilers called mod cons, modulating condensing boilers, you might last 15 or 20 years.
Speaker B:The old cast iron ones could last 80, 90 years.
Speaker B:But those aren't efficient enough.
Speaker B:So we're moving over to the modcon style so I can show you how to get 50 years out of a standard glass lined water heater.
Speaker B:If you make the house efficient now, you can use a simpler heating source and life's good.
Speaker A:That's interesting because our hot water heater just died actually after we'd only.
Speaker A:We only had it for three years.
Speaker B:And we should have talked a lot sooner.
Speaker B:We should have reason for.
Speaker B:There's some reason three, three years isn't cutting it there.
Speaker B:We can figure this one out.
Speaker A:Well, I'd love to have you come over here and figure it out because when I contacted a company it's like, well that's just.
Speaker A:We're not going to replace it after that because once this one we get the rest of the warranty from the previous one.
Speaker A:But we don't get a new, a new warrant even though we have a new water heater.
Speaker B:Right.
Speaker A:But our heating system at our house is actually fed through our hot water heater.
Speaker A:We have a hot water heater system that kind of keeps our house warm in the winter, so.
Speaker B:Well, you know, at some point, we should talk.
Speaker B: actually wrote a book back in: Speaker B:It's how to get 50 years from your water heater and make it efficient.
Speaker A:Wow.
Speaker A:We should talk.
Speaker A:So I love the fact that you find solutions to people's problems.
Speaker A:What in.
Speaker A:How did you get to the point where you.
Speaker A:I know you like to be curious, but is there some other skills you learned along the way to help you kind of pour into those situations and find more ways to help people?
Speaker B:Well, yeah, I.
Speaker B:I guess we start with what's true.
Speaker B:What's my foundation?
Speaker B:What can I stand on?
Speaker B:What do I know for absolute certain is true, no matter what anybody says or does?
Speaker B:So let's start often with physics, what's.
Speaker B:What's true, and then can I use that to help people?
Speaker B:I've learned over and over, if you help somebody, you always somehow, in some way get more back than you give.
Speaker B:It's just another one of those pieces of physics.
Speaker B:It's, it's.
Speaker B:It's really, really nice.
Speaker B:If I can combine these things, okay, I've.
Speaker B:I've learned what's true.
Speaker B:How can I use that to help people?
Speaker B:How can I troubleshoot?
Speaker B:How can I look at the situation differently than most people do?
Speaker B:How many perspectives can I get on it?
Speaker B:If I look at it, any problem from enough different points of view, a solution will show up.
Speaker B:Always happens.
Speaker B:I'm not sure if I'm answering your question very well.
Speaker B:I go off on tangents too easily.
Speaker A:No, you are.
Speaker A:What I am curious, though, is that approach to life is unique.
Speaker A:How do you.
Speaker A:So give me an example of a problem you solved.
Speaker A:How did you approach it and tell me kind of how you worked through that.
Speaker B:Well, say the water heater problem that Stan gave me all those years ago, water heaters making noise.
Speaker B:No.
Speaker B:1 until that time, everyone said if a water heater makes noise, you have to put a new water heater in, Period.
Speaker B:There was one outfit, a Navy housing facility close by.
Speaker B:They would take a water heater out, turn it upside down and shake it up and up and down and hope the sediment would fall out.
Speaker B:That's a lot of manpower.
Speaker B:That's.
Speaker B:So that's not a practical solution for most things.
Speaker B:But I understood that it was sediment in the tank that was making water overheat and boil.
Speaker B:And as those bubbles of steam formed, when they would hit Cooler water.
Speaker B:They would collapse suddenly and make noise.
Speaker B:That reverb reverberation caused by the collapsing of steam bubbles was, was what made noise.
Speaker B:Oh, okay.
Speaker B:If I can get the sediment out of the tank, the noise, the steam can't be formed in the first place and the tank will become slightly more energy efficient too.
Speaker B:So I thought about it and thought, well, no one's figured this out.
Speaker B:Tanks are domed up at the bottom, so there's not a place for the sediment to fall down to.
Speaker B:There's this ring of sediment that builds up.
Speaker B:How do you get that stuff out?
Speaker B:So I made a water based vacuum cleaner that basically sucks water and sediment out from the top of the tank.
Speaker B:I'd make a wand that goes down to the bottom and pulls the stuff out, runs it through a filter, returns the hot water to the tank, and I keep moving the wand around until I can't feel any more sediment.
Speaker B:When I'm done, the tank's quiet.
Speaker B:Because I understood enough about the physics of things and I researched it.
Speaker B:Then, you know, I became real curious after quieting a tank down.
Speaker B:What are all these other things?
Speaker B:What's this inch and a 16th hex head on top of the tank?
Speaker B:Turns out that's a thing called a sacrificial anode rod.
Speaker B:It prevents rusting in the tank.
Speaker B:I talked to all the water heater manufacturers.
Speaker B:I'm really driven when I'm curious, I want to know.
Speaker B:So I talked to everybody.
Speaker B:Eventually they said there is no one in the United States you can talk to.
Speaker B:But they referred me to a man, Alan, in Canada, who worked for Ontario Hydro, which leased water heaters to their clients.
Speaker B:So they had an interest in maintaining electric water heaters to make them last.
Speaker B:So they understood a lot.
Speaker B:He taught me a lot in a while because I'm out in the field playing with heaters.
Speaker B:I was teaching him stuff.
Speaker B:So it, it was a wonderful back and forth for many, many years.
Speaker B:And I was curious.
Speaker B:So we both wound up sitting or being members of the national association of Corrosion in Engineers, weird stuff like that.
Speaker B:So that I could learn in detail how things happened there.
Speaker B:And that's how I learned how I could get so many more years out of.
Speaker B:Out of a water heater.
Speaker A:As you think about maybe the most challenging problem you tried to solve.
Speaker A:What was that and how did you solve it?
Speaker B:Challenging problems are.
Speaker B:Aren't physics.
Speaker B:They're always, they always deal with people.
Speaker B:People are much hard.
Speaker B:Harder than physics.
Speaker B:Physics has rules.
Speaker B:People do sometimes don't.
Speaker B:I don't know that well.
Speaker B:It, it's a story.
Speaker B:Years ago I was in involved in a.
Speaker B:An investment company that invested in real stock state and it turned out they, they were, they were lying to, to people and I and a lot of other people lost a whole lot of money and there were four people that were suicidal in all of this.
Speaker B:They had lost their retirement.
Speaker B:They had no idea what they were going to do.
Speaker B:So I dealt with personally with each one of one of them.
Speaker B:I had lost more than they did.
Speaker B:But I went around and dealt with each one, stayed in touch and got them off the suicide train.
Speaker B:Showed them other ways of looking at it, other perspectives.
Speaker B:And with that they all kept going, keeping on on ongoing still.
Speaker B:So they, you know, it was challenging to basically show them a different way of seeing the world.
Speaker B:For me it's important.
Speaker B:You know, we're, we're sort of driven by genetics.
Speaker B:We're always looking for that saber tooth tiger lurking behind the next street corner.
Speaker B:We know he's out there to come and get us.
Speaker B:But I make a point of looking for what's right as, as well and keeping some balance because I can, you know, there's so many things that are right in the world if we just are present and can see them.
Speaker B:So that perspective shared with these four helped to get them off the path of suicide and seeing that there could be a brighter future.
Speaker B:That, that was important and tricky.
Speaker A:Yeah, that's also.
Speaker A:It's so important.
Speaker A:You poured into people's life that way.
Speaker B:Yeah, yeah, yeah.
Speaker B:I mean, yeah.
Speaker B:I mean I can talk about plumbing and how I've been up to the eighth plumber on the job, but, but that's pretty simple stuff compared to dealing with people.
Speaker A:Yeah, that is neat.
Speaker A:People, especially homeowners today, are looking for energy efficiency and we talked a little bit about that.
Speaker A:I'm curious, what advice do you have for people who want to make their homes more energy efficient?
Speaker A:I keep getting a note from my electrician, my company every month saying you're the least efficient home on the block or so.
Speaker A:What are some keys you have for people who keep getting those letters?
Speaker B:Okay, couple I start by looking at what are the things, you know, let's do this with a, a hot water story.
Speaker B:If say you, you want to make your, your hot water use better, more efficient, use less and still be happy.
Speaker B:You start with fixtures, you know, and you get a bucket on a stopwatch.
Speaker B:How many gallons per minute is your shower head putting out?
Speaker B:Actually measure it.
Speaker B:Figure that, that, you know, don't just guess, measure.
Speaker B:I've found 8 gallon per minute shower heads out there when they should have been 2 and A and a half.
Speaker B:I in my own house have one and a half gallon per minute shower heads.
Speaker B:And if you get the right shower head, it can be a very comfortable, nice, nice shower.
Speaker B:So start with, with fixtures and then.
Speaker B:Okay.
Speaker B:If I have efficient one and a half gallon per minute fixtures, if I ever needed to re plumb, I could and, and, and I had adequate pressure like £660, I can plumb the house in quarter inch tubing.
Speaker B:That's ice maker tubing.
Speaker B:Instead of the standard pipes up to three quarter inch, you know, three quarter inch or half inch pipes that we use.
Speaker B:Which means now I'll get hot water in seconds.
Speaker B:So I'm using even less.
Speaker B:I'm wasting less water waiting for hot hot water.
Speaker B:Everything becomes smaller and more efficient.
Speaker B:In the hot water thing, FL water flow rates through the pipes are a little quicker.
Speaker B:So biofilms in the pipes get scrubbed off so you get healthier water as well.
Speaker B:Cases of Lee, of Lee Janella have been going up in the US because we have oversized pipes for, for the, for the flow rates.
Speaker B:So biofilms and bugs live inside of the plumbing.
Speaker B:So that, that, that was just one story.
Speaker B:But if we start with most homes, look at the shell of the house, the, the floor, walls and roof.
Speaker B:How can we make that better?
Speaker B:Is ins.
Speaker B:You know, everyone thinks I'll insulate more, but really the thing to do first is to get a diagnostic tool called a blower door, which is just a big fan with measurement built in.
Speaker B:And it will measure how much air leakage you have in the house and it will help you to pinpoint where these leaks are.
Speaker B:In my neck of the woods, I'm on the west Coast.
Speaker B:PGE has a tool lending library.
Speaker B:They'll lend you a blower door so you can test so it doesn't have to cost anything.
Speaker B:Once you know where the leaks are, you can fix them.
Speaker B:You know, reducing those leaks.
Speaker B:Now you can dramatically cut your energy bills just with air leaks.
Speaker B:Insulation is next, but never insulate before you air seal because then if you insulate, you got to pull all that out so you can get to where the leaks are.
Speaker B:It's messy.
Speaker A:That makes sense though.
Speaker B:Yeah, yeah.
Speaker B:And as far as electricity, well find out what are the big uses.
Speaker B:And I've helped people with this and it turns out having multiple old refrigerators or freezers is one of one of the biggest uses.
Speaker B:Look for what's always on.
Speaker B:Sometimes TVs or did you know televisions use more energy when they're not being watched than when they're being watched.
Speaker B:I know that's a slightly misleading way of saying it, but, but if, but televisions are watched a couple of hours a day, which means like 20 hours a day they're not being watched.
Speaker B:And because there's this remote, the TV is always on, waiting, it's using energy at a low, at a low rate all the time waiting to get a signal.
Speaker B:So if you simply put it on a power strip and turn the thing off when you're not you using it now those electronics are shut down, you're not using power.
Speaker B:You know, basic simple things like, like that can go a, a long ways.
Speaker B:There's a thing called a kilowatt meter.
Speaker B:It's a simple device you plug in into the wall and then plug your appliance into it and it will tell you what the energy use instantaneous or over time is for, for that item.
Speaker B:So you can tell what is using the bulk of your, of your power.
Speaker B:If you look at your power bills, look at the difference between winter and summer, that difference is going to tell, tell you okay, how much is going for heating and cooling.
Speaker B:You can tell now because you know in winter you're probably not using much cooling.
Speaker A:Right?
Speaker A:Not in Iowa.
Speaker B:Yeah, yeah.
Speaker B:So, so there are these ways of, you know, it, it.
Speaker B:It's all about gathering in information first instead of guessing and then okay, where's the power going with this?
Speaker B:And oh, and another.
Speaker B:There's a cute little tool.
Speaker B:In fact I've got one sitting right, right, right right here.
Speaker B:This is a fun little toy.
Speaker B:It's called a FLIR one.
Speaker B:It actually is a thermal camera that plugs into my phone.
Speaker B:I can plug this thing in and then I can get an infrared picture of whatever it is I'm looking at.
Speaker B:I can see heat, which is a really neat way of looking at things.
Speaker B:In fact, if you use it with a blower door, you can see heat getting pushed out of your house.
Speaker A:Interesting.
Speaker B:Pulled in.
Speaker B:Here's another photo of a cat walking on carpet.
Speaker B:Those are the cat's footprints on carpet.
Speaker B:These things are that sense sensitive.
Speaker B:It, it can show that kind of, of, of tiny detail.
Speaker A:Wow.
Speaker B:So very, only a couple of hundred dollars, you know.
Speaker B:So a great tool to, to have and a great way to gather in information that you really couldn't get any other way.
Speaker A:Wow, you have so much information.
Speaker A:Where can people find out what you're writing about and the things you focus on in your writing?
Speaker B:Well, I've got a website, just my name, LarryWeingarten.com should I spell that?
Speaker A:Sure.
Speaker B:Okay.
Speaker B:It's W E I N G A R t e n larrywingarten.com and I have a blog that I periodically post stuff.
Speaker B:There's a lot of other information up there.
Speaker B:There's a contact form there as, as well, you know, so those are, that's, that's a simple, simple way.
Speaker A:So with all those blogs, when's your book coming out?
Speaker B:Well, which book?
Speaker B:Okay, here I.
Speaker B: In: Speaker B:Philosopher's wrench.
Speaker B:But notice that's book one.
Speaker B:I'm, I'm working on the, on the next copy.
Speaker B:We're editing book two now because there's, I have apparently too much to say.
Speaker A:So tell us about book one.
Speaker B:Book one is a mix.
Speaker B:It's.
Speaker B:I like to look at life as, or you know, part of it is tools.
Speaker B:My definition of tools is a little broader than many people.
Speaker B:It's, you know, tools can be pipe wrenches and metal tools and things like the flir one and all that good stuff.
Speaker B:But tools also can be things like acceptance and appreciation, presence, hope.
Speaker B:Very powerful tools.
Speaker B:Even more powerful than that three foot pipe wrench I'm holding on the COVID of the book.
Speaker B:So I like to mix them up.
Speaker B:And if you can find ways to use both of these tools together, you can make stuff happen.
Speaker B:So that's what I'm showing telling stories in the book.
Speaker B:And perspective is such a powerful tool if you ever want to troubleshoot anything.
Speaker B:Perspective lets you do it.
Speaker B:You can see that thing from different points of view.
Speaker B:You can see it from the cat's point of view or the redwood trees point of view and learn something that you wouldn't figure out otherwise.
Speaker A:Where can people find your book?
Speaker A:They want to purchase it?
Speaker B:Amazon is the place right now.
Speaker B:It's just sitting there.
Speaker A:And how is it being received so far?
Speaker B:Reviews have been very good.
Speaker B:You know, it, it actually was bestseller for a little while.
Speaker B:And the reviews, people like it.
Speaker B:They're.
Speaker B:I think we're 4.8 or something out of five stars.
Speaker B:So people are getting something from it.
Speaker B:They're, they, they like that.
Speaker B:I'm, I'm sharing ways of, of, of, of doing things that a friend that wrote the for the forward to the book, Dan Holohan tells a story about how he said, Larry, whenever I ask you anything, you're always quiet for a little, a little bit.
Speaker B:And why is that?
Speaker B:And so I said, well, I'm asking myself if what I'm about to tell you will help.
Speaker B:There's this question I have always will it help?
Speaker B:And if it won't help, I need to figure out something else to say.
Speaker B:And then he goes back and talks about himself and how he has been quick to react and how could someone ask such a stupid question, quest question and things.
Speaker B:But the, the will it help?
Speaker B:One helps me.
Speaker B:You know, it's, it's my.
Speaker B:One of my guiding lights.
Speaker B:You know it.
Speaker B:I don't want to be snide.
Speaker B:I don't.
Speaker B:I'm not interested in going out of my way to hurt somebody or make them feel bad.
Speaker B:So I need to imagine how they might receive what it is all thinking.
Speaker A:Second favorite question I have to ask my guests is this one.
Speaker A:What do you want your legacy to be?
Speaker B:That's, that's a tricky one.
Speaker B:But I really just want to show people that being, you know, if we can get rid of fear, that would have such a huge impact in the world if people didn't act based on fear or fear based habits.
Speaker B:How, how can, can we, can we do that?
Speaker B:So if my legacy is helping to just be present, you know, like it's easy to be afraid but I'm sitting in a comfortable chair, the sun is shining.
Speaker B:I'm not carrying with me the mon.
Speaker B:The monsters from the past or the imagined monsters in the future.
Speaker B:You know, what if, if we can have less, less fear, be a little more present, find what's right in the world to help balance what isn't.
Speaker B:And you know, I like to be helpful.
Speaker B:I have found always I get more back than I give every single time.
Speaker B:It may not come from the same place.
Speaker B:Doesn't.
Speaker B:Doesn't matter.
Speaker B:So there's.
Speaker B:I just have this trust that things will, will go well and they do.
Speaker B:So if there were some main points for legacy, I think those would be it.
Speaker A:I love that.
Speaker A:As we wrap up our conversation.
Speaker A:What do you want the audience to take away from our conversation today?
Speaker B:They're in charge.
Speaker B:They are in control.
Speaker B:It's their choice.
Speaker B:They're not at the effect of somebody else.
Speaker B:You know, learn enough.
Speaker B:You know, keep, learn every day.
Speaker B:Always be open to learning things and trust your instinct.
Speaker B:If you are curious about something, stop.
Speaker B:Take the time, learn it.
Speaker B:I promise you within a week that information will be of some use.
Speaker B:Always happens to me when I, when I see some.
Speaker B:Anything I don't know anything about and I take the time to figure it out and under understand it better.
Speaker B:I with within a week I get to help somebody with that know how.
Speaker B:But I think you know, don't let anyone whether it's in financial or medical or any other field.
Speaker B:Be the boss.
Speaker B:Don't give your power over you're in charge.
Speaker B:It means a lot of work.
Speaker B:It means you take and oh respond.
Speaker B:Responsibility is not a bad word.
Speaker B:It's a gift.
Speaker B:So when people give you responsibility they're giving you trust.
Speaker B:They're saying you're good.
Speaker B:I trust you with my life even I've had people say say that to me so those sorts of things.
Speaker A:I love that where can people find you on social media and connect with you?
Speaker B:I'm about as unsocial on media as anybody could be.
Speaker B:I, I, I, I do have my website and a and a and a contact form that there but I don't spend time on normal social media channels.
Speaker A:That's very energy efficient of you.
Speaker B:May maybe time efficient I'm not not sure the cat just wants more more to be dealt with more so I that.
Speaker A:That'S my social well Larry, thanks so much for sharing and for what you do.
Speaker A:It's encouraging to know that you have this mind where you can pour into people and pour into solutions and ideas and I appreciate your curiosity because I think the curiosity makes you so unique in what you do and what you bring to the table.
Speaker A:So thank you for the unique way God has created you.
Speaker B:Thanks for noticing.
