What if the key to finding purpose after 50 wasn’t about doing more, but about being still? In this soulful conversation, I sit down with Larry Weingarten, author of The Philosopher’s Wrench, to explore how stillness, curiosity, and perspective can transform not only how we work but how we live. Larry’s story — part contractor, part philosopher — reveals how fixing what’s “broken” on the outside often begins with quiet repair on the inside.
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Show Notes | TranscriptYou’ll hear practical and profound insights on:
- Why stillness is a radical act of self-leadership after 50
- How perspective can turn life’s breakdowns into breakthroughs
- What intentional living really looks like when you stop chasing and start listening
Larry also shares lessons from his cat – namely, what our feline friends understand about life that humans have forgotten.
If you’ve built, led, and served, and now feel called to redefine fulfillment on your own terms, this episode is your invitation to pause, breathe, and come home to yourself.
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Connect with Larry
Website: www.larryweingarten.com
Book: The Philosopher’s Wrench: Using Your Creativity, Heart & Tools to Fix the World
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TRANSCRIPT
Host: Gloria Grace, Founder of Align to Shine Academy
Guest: Larry Weingarten, Author of “The Philosopher’s Wrench”
Episode Focus: How problem-solving mindsets can heal spirits and transform businesses
Episode Introduction
Gloria Grace: Namaste. Are you tired of seeing problems as roadblocks when they could actually be doorways to deeper wisdom? Well, stay tuned as I chat with a master problem solver who’s going to share how the same mindset that fixes broken things can actually help to heal our spirits and businesses, too.
Welcome to Live Love Engage, especially if this is your first time joining us. I am Gloria Grace, the founder of Align to Shine Academy, and I empower women over 50 to step into their highest potential with clarity and confidence.
My guest today is Larry Winegarden, author of “The Philosopher’s Wrench.” He’s a contractor who’s been working with his hands for over 50 years, learning about fixing problems—both technical and human. He enjoys helping people and animals and respects the land that raised him.
From Physical Tools to Life Tools
Gloria: I’m really interested to talk with you because this has been a fascinating book so far. You’re not the typical contractor I’ve encountered—you’re much deeper. I’d love for you to share how you started making that connection between fixing physical objects and fixing human issues and emotional things.
Larry: Well, if I look at tools, the word “tools,” what comes to mind first is a pipe wrench, metal tools, power tools. But there are bigger tools if you think of it. Hope, particularly—very powerful tool. If you look at what hope can do versus what a pipe wrench can do? Hope can save lives. I’ve used it to prevent suicides. It’s a very powerful tool.
Acceptance is a tool. Being present or presence is a tool. So I had to step out of my comfort zone, which was just playing with pipes and metal things, and learn how to be of greater service. That’s where working with the bigger tools has let me do a whole lot more.
A Water Heater Story: Doing What’s Right
Gloria: Can you share a story about maybe fixing something like a water heater that taught you an unexpected lesson about life?
Larry: There was a client who had a gas-fired water heater in his crawl space. It was unsafe in so many ways:
- Not properly vented—the vent pipe just went up against wooden floor joists and stopped
- The temperature and pressure relief valve had been capped off
- Not properly earthquake strapped (I’m in California where this is important)
There were at least three different ways this water heater could kill the owner. I wouldn’t leave the place until I had fixed all of that. I wasn’t going to expose him to that risk. He wound up getting mad at me for basically not allowing him to be killed by his water heater.
Gloria: Why do you think he got mad?
Larry: Plumbers have a bad reputation—”what can I do to increase the bill?” But I like to be the plumber that goes around and saves people money by making their water heaters last five times the normal lifetime. I think he was scared, and justifiably perhaps. He may have been burned in the past by somebody else.
Using Hope as a Tool: Preventing Suicides
Larry: I was part of an investment situation where I lost a lot of money, and a number of other people lost all of their retirements. They were seriously talking about suicide because they had no idea how they could keep going.
So I gave them different perspectives to play with, different points of view, and said, “How about if we did this or went down this road?” I know for certain that I prevented four suicides in that case because I helped them figure out a way to see hope. Hope is a really powerful tool.
The Power of Quiet Mind and Business Success
Gloria: You mention in your book about the power of openness and a quiet mind. How can our audience—women entrepreneurs who watch this show—apply those principles to business challenges?
Larry: I try to find at least 30 minutes a day to have quiet—meaning no outside noises, influences, or electronics. But also making my mind still, letting my subconscious come up. Getting rid of all the noise so that what’s been hiding in my subconscious can come up and be seen. My best ideas show up when I quiet my mind.
Gloria: How did you develop this practice?
Larry: As a five-year-old, I was told that my mom would very likely die of cancer. Before that, I was just a happy kid. After that, I couldn’t even speak—I had to write notes to people. I was so anxious.
I learned how to speak again by figuring out almost a little self-hypnosis trick of making things quiet inside so I could get past that block. Once I could do that, I thought, “Let’s see if I can be quiet for longer.” I found that if I could get that same quiet and expand it out for half an hour, all kinds of neat things happened. Things I forgot to do would pop up. My subconscious would present whatever I’d been missing—whether new business ideas or who I should be getting in touch with.
From Law to Trades: Following Logic
Larry: My father was a lawyer and really wanted his sons all to be lawyers. I saw what a messy trade that is—it involves people who make no sense at all. No logic. Everything is different. You can’t trust what judges do.
I thought physical things I’m pretty good at, and I like to deal with physics. It’s concrete—you know what’s going on. It all makes sense if you take the time to understand it. I can see corrosion processes in my mind or heat transfer going on. It just all makes perfect sense.
Living Off the Grid: Efficiency and Independence
Gloria: You live off the grid, which is something my daughter used to talk about doing. What’s that been like for you, and how does it inform what you do in your life?
Larry: I built this house you see around me and finished it roughly 20 years ago. It’s off grid. The way to make that happen is to make it really energy efficient. This house uses about a tenth as much energy per square foot as the standard American home.
I would have had to run 2/3 of a mile underground power line to get to the house—that would have been roughly $75,000 at the time. Instead, I spent about $5,000 to build a small solar system with battery storage. I saved $70,000, and my power doesn’t go out.
The going rate for housing in my area was around $250 per square foot. This house cost about $100 per square foot to build. Being efficient and off grid can actually cost substantially less.
Practical Energy Efficiency Tips
Gloria: How can we start moving towards being more self-sufficient and energy efficient?
Larry: Start with what you can do with your own house to make it much more efficient. [Shows thermal camera image] This is a cat walking on carpet, taken with a thermal camera—a little plug-in device you can add to your phone called a FLIR one. Those footprints you see show how sensitive it is to heat.
Imagine looking at your house with a camera like that, both inside and outside. You can see where the heat is leaking out and tell exactly what needs to be fixed—whether it’s air leaks, thermal bridges, or whatever.
For apartment dwellers, there’s been a movement called “Guerrilla Solar” where you put your own photovoltaic panels in a window or on a porch and create your own power. Also explore whether your power company offers energy audits and tool lending programs.
Life Lessons from Cats
Gloria: You mention cats in your book, and I can see you’re a cat lover like me. What lessons have you learned from being around cats?
Larry: I have a cat named Prince who teaches me all kinds of things. Whatever he needs shows up for him. If he’s hungry, food shows up. If he wants to play, everything is a cat toy. Life is real simple for him.
If he wants my attention, he zigzags in front of my feet as I’m walking. I’ve never tripped over him or kicked him—I’m careful that way. He acts on what can go right. Humans act on what can go wrong. We think the saber-tooth tiger is lurking around the corner, but Prince knows his basic premise: “What can go right? I want the human’s attention, so I’m going to zigzag in front of him.” Always works.
I’ve rescued kittens that were like a month old, bottle-fed them every three hours. These turned into cats that behaved like dogs—they followed me around, wanted to be with me, on me, on my shoulders. If you can get to them really young, they’ll bond with you completely.
The Art of Asking Good Questions
Gloria: You talk in your book about asking good questions. How does one develop this skill?
Larry: I think if you can put yourself in the person you’re talking to—if you can put yourself in their shoes and try to get their perspective first—then consider how that would affect the question you’re going to ask.
I remember my mother asked me a really good question when I wanted to do art as a child. She was an art major in college, so she’d had time to think about this. She asked me, “Will you be able to make a living?” I had to think about that. It seemed the only artists that ever made money were already long dead. Very good question asked at a very good time.
Perspective as a Problem-Solving Tool
Gloria: We’ve talked about perspective several times. In our divided world, people seem unwilling to look at things from others’ perspectives. What do you think about that?
Larry: I don’t think we’ve been this divided as a nation since the Civil War, and we may be heading towards another one. But perspective is an incredibly useful tool for troubleshooting.
How many different points of view can you bring to bear on some problem? I deal with plumbing that messes up, so I have to look at it from multiple angles:
- How is heat transfer going on?
- How are corrosion processes working?
- How does water flow through it?
- How does the owner see it?
- What are they capable of doing?
The more perspectives I can bring to any problem, the more likelihood I can solve it. I’ve been the eighth plumber on jobs where everyone else walked off. You can’t assume anything. I once found a water heater plumbed backwards because I didn’t assume the insulated pipe was the hot line—I tested it.
What’s Next: Book Two and Current Curiosity
Gloria: I noticed this says “Book One.” Are you working on Book Two?
Larry: Yes, Book Two is essentially written—we’re editing it now. When I wrote this book, I had way too many things to fit without making it overly thick. Ideas keep coming to me steadily, even this morning. They just won’t quit knocking at the door.
Gloria: What are you curious about right now?
Larry: I’m a hot water nerd, and there’s this big push in the US to electrify things and get rid of gas-burning appliances. Heat pump water heaters are taking off, but there’s a dilemma no one has really addressed.
Heat pump water heaters work like a fridge—they move heat from one place to another. If not installed correctly, they can cool the space they’re in so much that you start getting condensation developing in or behind walls. This creates mold and makes people sick.
I’m working on better installation and training practices to avoid giving heat pumps a black eye, because they’re actually a good solution. Water heating is the second biggest energy user in the US, and in efficient homes, it’s the biggest.
Teaching and Mentoring: Building Future Problem Solvers
Gloria: You’re very active in mentoring folks. Can you talk about that?
Larry: I’ve been teaching at a local school for disadvantaged youth. Last year we built an 800-square-foot house and competed in the Orange County Sustainability Decathlon against colleges and universities from around the world. We were the only high school, and we won.
The kids went from mumbling at the ground in face-to-face conversations to public speaking—huge change in their ability and self-confidence.
I’m also teaching them financial literacy and how to mix it with fix-it skills. I gave them a process: Start by learning to fix things, make a business of it, put money together, buy a wrecked house, fix it up instead of tearing it down, rent it out, hold onto it, then get more. I gave them a plan where in 10 years they could add roughly a million dollars to their net worth.
Simple Practice to Start Today
Gloria: What’s one simple practice our listeners could start today to develop more of this philosopher’s wrench mindset?
Larry: What comes to mind first is that quiet time. It doesn’t need to be any specific time of day, but if you can set aside 30 minutes to simply exclude all the noise from your head and see what your subconscious gives you—that might be one of the most potent things to start with.
I also like being curious about basically everything. I like to know how everything works. If I understand the properties of everything from a physical point of view, I can use them and get away with it.
How to Connect with Larry Winegarden
- Book: “The Philosopher’s Wrench” available on Amazon
- Website: Larryweingarten.com (contact form available)
Episode Wrap-up
Gloria: Thank you so much for being with us today and enlightening us about tools—mindset and otherwise.
Larry: You have made it fun to be here. Thank you.
Gloria: Thank you all for watching and listening. I hope you received value from our conversation. You can find me on social media, and if you enjoyed this episode and you’re listening on Spotify or Apple Podcasts, I’d love a review.
Until next time, as always, I encourage you to go out and live fully, love deeply, and engage authentically.
Key Takeaways
- Expand your tool concept: Hope, acceptance, and presence are powerful tools for problem-solving
- Practice quiet time: 30 minutes daily of mental stillness can unlock subconscious wisdom
- Multiple perspectives: The more viewpoints you bring to a problem, the better your solutions
- Energy efficiency first: Make systems efficient before adding power sources
- Never assume: Test and verify rather than making assumptions based on appearances
- Ask better questions: Put yourself in others’ shoes to ask more meaningful questions
- Curiosity as a superpower: Understanding how everything works gives you creative problem-solving abilities
This episode of Live Love Engage was hosted by Gloria Grace, founder of Align to Shine Academy, empowering women over 50 to step into their highest potential with clarity and confidence.
