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From Finance to Farming with Bill O’Donnell
342 Plays9 months ago
Reblooming with purpose and passion on the farm!
What happens when you mix creativity with no fear—you get the best cocktail in the world called the “Blue Ash Farm Spirit!” Join us as Bill O’Donnell shares how he went from the Chicago Stock Exchange to a beautiful farm in Wisconsin making craft spirits, honey, and priceless great memories with his family and friends. His creative roots run deep and wide. The original Blue Ash Farm was his grandparents in Kentucky and the only thing left was an old sign and some special childhood memories. Bill is from a big family of creative risk-takers and his desire for a farm combined with a need for a more enriching life led him to take a huge risk and create a spectacular new professional life and restore not only his soul but the land that he farms.
Enjoy his story and learn more about Bill and Blue Ash Farm at https://blueashfarm.com/media/ or on Instagram at https://www.instagram.com/blueashfarm/
Links Mentioned in this episode:
https://whereareyougoinginthat.com/
Our podcast is proudly sponsored by Jet Creative and UrbanStems! Jet Creative is a women-owned marketing firm committed to community and empowerment. Looking to build a website or start a podcast--visit JetCreative.com/Podcast to kickstart your journey.
UrbanStems is your go-to source for fresh gorgeous bouquets flowers and gifts delivered coast-to-coast! USE: BLOOMBIG20 to save 20%!
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Transcript
Introduction to 'Rebloom' and Hosts
00:00:01
Speaker
Do you have a dream that is a small seed of an idea and it's ready to sprout? Or are you in the workplace, weeds, and you need to bloom in a new creative way? Perhaps you're ready to embrace and grow a more vibrant, joyful, and authentic life. If you answered yes to any of these, you are ready to re-bloom.
00:00:24
Speaker
Welcome to the podcast where we have enlightening chats with nature lovers, makers, and artisans as they share inspiring stories about pivoting to a heart-centered passion. Hello, I'm Lori Siebert, and I am very curious to hear from friends and artisans about the creativity that blooms when you follow your heart. And I'm Jamie Jamison, and I want to dig deep into the why behind each courageous leap of faith and walk through new heart-centered gardens.
00:00:54
Speaker
Each episode of Rebloom will be an in-depth conversation with guests who through self-discovery shifted to share their passions with the world. Get ready to find your creative joy as we plant the seeds for you to Rebloom.
Bill O'Donnell's Career Pivot Story
00:01:11
Speaker
Well, welcome, everyone, to another episode of Rebloom, where we talk to makers, artisans about how they have had one career and may be pivoted to another career. I'm Jamie Jamison. And I'm Lori Siebert. And we welcome you today. And we are so honored to have Bill O'Donnell here with us. Hi, Bill.
00:01:34
Speaker
Hey, gals, how you doing? Hi there. Nice to see you. Thank you. Likewise. Well, thank you for joining us, Bill. I guess I should in full transparency let everyone know that I've known Bill for a very long time. We went to college together. Yeah. Like, you know what, five years ago, Bill, I would say, you know, something like that.
00:01:54
Speaker
But we've had a whole lifetime of changes and pivots. But along the way, and thanks to social media and thanks to friends and everything, we've stayed connected. And so here we are today talking about your journey.
00:02:09
Speaker
Yeah, but real quick, getting back to that, it's amazing how when you know somebody, as long as I've known you, it doesn't take anything to reconnect at all. It doesn't. It's effortless. It really is. It's like you pick up and you're like, oh, it's 1980.
00:02:26
Speaker
That was you, not me. This is true. This is true. Well, let me let me introduce everyone to you, Bill. Bill grew up in in northern Chicago and he and his wife and their four kids still live in northern Chicago. And about about 20 years ago, he found a little slice of heaven in Wisconsin and he found a beautiful farm along there. And how do you say this, Bill? It's Pecatonica River.
00:02:54
Speaker
Exactly. Pecatonica. It's an Indian word. What does it mean? Do you know what it means? I do. And I can't remember off the top of my head, but it was all Indian country. It means beautiful, peaceful farm is probably. Probably because it is gorgeous. It is gorgeous.
00:03:10
Speaker
I must come visit, and so it's this special piece of land that he has made his dreams come true. Bill had a huge career as a trader in Chicago, and he was on the Chicago Mercantile Extrange, but he traded in that life for his new farm called Blue Ash Farm.
Life and Creativity at Blue Ash Farm
00:03:29
Speaker
And on that farm, he farms, well, I'm gonna let him tell you all about it, but there's orchards, there's beehives, and now he's making spirits. So welcome, Bill. Thank you. So glad to be here and share this with you guys today. So real quick, Bill, I read in your bio that your grandparents had a farm in Kentucky. Well, that's where I live. I'm in Kentucky. Oh, fantastic. I'm in bourbon country.
00:03:58
Speaker
Oh, I love it. Well, we got to get together and we should be sipping bourbon right now. But what the reason that it all came about was I was on the floor for well over 30 years. It was a good career that I was good at. I just didn't enjoy it. I'm always been a much more creative person. And I'd come home to Amy and the kids. I'm like, I just need
00:04:22
Speaker
some outdoor living. We live actually, I grew up in Woneck, Illinois. We now live in Barrington, Illinois, which is very, you know, we're on an acre, we're on a lake. I'm looking out at the lake right now out my window. And it was more my style. But I kept telling Amy, we need, I need some place to really have some nature in the great outdoors. And I said, let's go buy some farmland.
00:04:49
Speaker
And I thought it was going to be one of those things where, you know, it'll be a two or three year hunt and we'll go together. We had two young kids at the time. And when push came to shove, I'm like, you know, trying to go see farms with, you know, one baby that can't walk and one that walks. But, you know, is too. I'm like, let me just go alone and do some homework. So I went up to the suburbs of outside of Madison and not too far out of Madison. It gets very rural.
00:05:16
Speaker
very country and southwest Madison, Wisconsin is also the unglaciated area where there was no glaciers and so it's real hilly and rock outcroppings and granite peaks. It's gorgeous. And I said, let me just go look and do some homework.
00:05:34
Speaker
And my job on the trading floor allowed me, even though I didn't like it, to have the resources to be able to buy something. And I went out one day on a Saturday, and I went and saw about six or seven farms, a couple of them I didn't even get out of the car.
00:05:49
Speaker
And the agent was like, you don't want to go see this one. No, this isn't it. It's just not it. I'm not interested. Anyway, last one we saw, I mean, literally jumped deer out of the woods, ducks off the river, pheasant out of the prairies. And I don't know if you remember the movie Funny Farm with Chevy Chase, where he's trying to sell his house in the country. And he's on a walkie talkie and he goes, cue the deer. And this like country guy.
00:06:13
Speaker
has a cage with a deer in it. And he opens up the cage and the deer prancing across their prairie. And these New York yuppies are like, oh my gosh, don't get too excited.
00:06:24
Speaker
And I was like, seriously, are these your buddies with their pets in cages? That's so funny. Anyway, I went home and Amy, my wife said, how was it? I said, I think I found the perfect place. And she goes, I thought you said this was going to take a couple of years. And I said, I did. That was Saturday. We went back up on Sunday, brought my wife and our two little kids, looked at it again, met the landowner and I bought it on Monday.
00:06:45
Speaker
I just felt it in my bones.
Challenges and Success in Bourbon-Making
00:06:51
Speaker
It's gorgeous. And you know what? You know, I think when you feel the right thing, you just know. You just know. And we were able to buy a second something and I said, it's the best stupid decision we've ever made in our entire life. And it's been everything to our family. And I
00:07:10
Speaker
I know that this has been everything to your family, this new farm. It's been great. You know, it was just a place to kind of go get away for the weekends and it's close enough to our home. It's two hours that we would go up there and we'd canoe or picnic or hike or.
00:07:23
Speaker
bird watch or whatever and then we drive home and so then I was like you know what I'd love to have a little place to stay with me and my hunting buddies if we want to go hunting. So I built the cabin that you may have seen on my website and I physically built that house myself. Wow. And I always tell people that's my creative side of me like
00:07:42
Speaker
I'm not a builder, but I built that house. I'm not a woodworker, but I build those beautiful wooden canoes. And I'm not a trained chef, but I've done all those cooking shows. And I'm like, you know what? I may not dice an onion the way they teach you in culinary school, but you know what? I can dice an onion. Yes, you can. I just do it my way. You knew it your way. Yeah. And so we built this house. And then it was always kind of like, God, I wish I could monetize this farm just to help with the upkeep and stuff.
00:08:11
Speaker
Oh, by the way, and the region, it's called Blue Ash Farm. My grandfather owned the original Blue Ash Farm in Paris, Kentucky. Oh. My mom's originally from Cynthia, Kentucky. But, you know, back then, my mom is going to be 88. God bless her. Yes. She she was born in Cincinnati because back in the day. That's where I grew up.
00:08:33
Speaker
Oh, OK. Well, and there's a town outside of Cincinnati called Blue Ash, of course. But anyway, my grandfather's farm was called Blue Ash Farm. And when they sold the farm many, many years ago, the only thing they took was this old wooden sign that was on the back of his old wooden truck. And they gave it to me because I have an old wooden truck.
00:08:52
Speaker
So when we bought the farm, I told my wife, not literally by the farm, that's saying about, well, he bought the farm. He's gone. But when we purchased with money our land, I said to Amy, I said, well, we got to call it Blue Ash Farm in honor of my grandfather and his original farm. But also we own a truck that says Blue Ash Farm on it. Perfect. So we just planted that you planted Blue Ash trees, haven't you? I did plant a few token Blue Ash trees. They do occur.
00:09:22
Speaker
in the wild around here, they're very prominent in the Ohio River Valley. And the original blue ash farm had blue ash trees on it. I took my kids there to go see it. The biggest trees, I couldn't even put my arms partway around the trunk of these things. But with the emerald ash borer that's killing a lot of ash trees, the blue ash is a little less susceptible than green ash and white ash and things like that. But mine are still growing. But again, when I say it's a farm,
00:09:50
Speaker
I don't grow corn. I don't grow soybeans. It's just called bluish yarn, but it's more of like a nature preserve. I plant native species. I eradicate invasive species. We planted an apple orchard, pollinator prairies, tall grass prairies, woodland restoration. We're getting ready to do a spring creek, a trout stream restoration that runs through the property.
00:10:16
Speaker
That's fantastic. It's in this river valley, and it's not huge. It's 55 acres, but I manage the whole farm, so it's all I can handle. But there's no power lines. There's no cell phone towers. There's no roads. There's no trains. There's no windows. There's nothing, and it's gorgeous.
00:10:39
Speaker
Gorgeous perfection back to nature. Go ahead. I ask a question. So in some of our conversations, it seems like a lot of people's passions loop back to their childhood somehow. Were you always an outdoor kid? Always. You know, my dad used to take me and my brother, John, hunting. But he was a golfer. He didn't stick with the hunting. I was always planting gardens and growing vegetables and
00:11:08
Speaker
Um, I, you know, I remember in eighth grade, I think I won, won an art award and I'm not an artist, but I'm creative and I'm not afraid to try something or do something like building the wooden canoes. People always say, how did you know how to build a wooden canoe? And I said, I had no idea how to build a wooden canoe, but I wanted one. So I'm like, I got to figure this out. And you tube it.
00:11:33
Speaker
You know what? I have tons of videos of them. I do have a YouTube channel, but I don't update it. There may be some videos on there. I don't even really know.
Reflecting on Career and Family Influences
00:11:45
Speaker
But I video all the maiden launches of all the canoes. So my goal was to build one canoe for each of my kids. I have four kids. Oh, how cool. I built three. And my daughter, Abby, who's my youngest and my only girl, she's always like, hey, dad, why don't we start my canoe?
00:11:59
Speaker
You need to do one with fur. I will, I will. Yeah. Well, and you have to see them, Laurie, because he's got them. Do you have them on your website? Do you have those? Yeah. There might be my social media somewhere there. There are people can find them because people come to the tasting room. So I have a tasting room on the farm now and they're like, can we see your canoes? So people see them. Beautiful. Yeah. And I harvest trees on the farm to make into lumber.
00:12:28
Speaker
to make these canoes so it's kind of yeah they're they're very special and you know what we'll we'll definitely get a couple pictures of those and put those in our show notes so people can see them because they're so special and you know bill it's it's a great question that lori asked about your background but you know the the other interesting thing that
00:12:49
Speaker
Women often find things that are very creative, but gentlemen need to be creative too. And I love that you tapped into that, that you knew enough, that you wanted to tap into your creativity. When did you decide that? When did that happen for you in your journey?
00:13:06
Speaker
So, you know, on the side, I was always creative or doing something creative, meaning like, again, I'm not an artist, but I like to create with my hands, whether it's a woodworking project or the gardening or I cook a lot. And when I did the Rachel ratio, I remember the producer called said, hey, send us the recipes. And I said, you've got it. And I hung up the phone and I turned to Amy, I go, holy
00:13:30
Speaker
crud I got to go to the grocery store because I don't have any recipes and they wanted me to do a pulled pork and you'd have to watch the episode to see it but I went and bought everything and then literally measured everything I did you know to my homemade barbie sauce my homemade rub how long I cooked everything I measured and wrote everything down and then I sent it to them because
00:13:54
Speaker
I don't have recipes. I just know what to do. And it was the same thing with building the cabin up there. I'm like, you know, I've seen enough of this old house that I know I can do it. And I did. But I was always creative. Even my siblings, I'm one of seven, they always say, how the hell does he know how to do that? In fact, my brother, Chris, who's a
00:14:20
Speaker
a celebrity actor, I guess you could call him. He was on a talk show once. I don't know if it was the Tonight Show or the whatever show it was. And they were like, oh, Chris, you know, you're really good at this, this, this and Chris goes, you think I am? He goes, you should see my brother Bill. He can build a house, you know, and he was talking about my cabin because they're just like, how did you?
00:14:41
Speaker
How do you do that? I'm like, I really don't know. I'm just not afraid to try. I've always been a little bit of a risk taker, scared. But just like if you don't do it, you're never going to know. And that was again. And why not try to do it? And why not? Chris, as you mentioned, like he gets to be creative all day long. I mean, you were you were doing money stuff, which is interesting. But when you've got creativity in your heart and your soul,
00:15:08
Speaker
then you want to express it, whether it be food, whether it be woodworking, whether it be art, whether it be any kind. Mine is in photography because I knew, I was so stressed and I'm like, I need to do something that just lets that stress go. And when you're creative, I think it just lets it go. So as you were
00:15:30
Speaker
As you were going down and you were doing the trading stuff, when did you decide to pivot to do the farm and now do what you're doing? Tell us a little bit about that. We bought the farm in 01, so this is our 23rd year of owning it. Wow. And it's interesting, I don't know if you've ever heard the old saying about the best time to plant a tree is today or 20 years ago.
00:15:54
Speaker
And when I bought the farm, one of the first things I did was planted a bunch of trees. I have some oak trees, you know, were maybe that big around maybe a three inch diameter that are now, you know, and they're oak trees, which are slower growing. They're big, giant, nice trees. And I'm still planting trees. But it was just like I said, a place to kind of get away and escape. But I was still at the floor on the trading floor. And every time I knew I was going to Wisconsin every Friday, I'd be like,
00:16:21
Speaker
I'm taking the last break of the day. I need to get out of here at noon. I could not get to that farm quick enough. And I still to this day, I'm going up tomorrow. I've got tastings all weekend and I'm doing some spring cleanup, some trees that fell and things like that. I work
00:16:39
Speaker
like manual labor all day long when I'm up there, literally from sunup to sundown. And I love it. That's great. And I was just, yeah. And I just was like, how can I,
Pursuing Happiness and Creativity
00:16:51
Speaker
I would always come home just beat down from the trading floor. You know, it was an hour and five minute train ride to the city every day.
00:16:59
Speaker
than a mile walk from the train station to the trading floor. And then the hustle and bustle of the trading floor from literally 7.20 till 2 p.m. and you don't stop. There's no breaks. I mean, if you really need to go to the bathroom, yeah, I guess you can run out of the pit and go to the bathroom. But it was, I mean, there was days when it was quiet too. But I was like, God, I hate this because it just wasn't me. And I'd come home every day and tell my wife,
00:17:28
Speaker
I need to get out of there. I need to get out of there. I need to get out of there. And I kept saying it. But in the back of your mind, I'm like, hey, I got four kids. I've got a mortgage. I've got bills to pay. It allowed me to buy this farm. But I couldn't. I just would be like, you know, we'd be on vacation. And the Sunday when we'd come home from vacation, I'd get in a bad mood. I was like, I can't believe I have to go back. And then I don't know what happened. But one day I just felt it.
00:17:56
Speaker
And I turned to Amy and I said, you know what? I feel it. I know it's time for me to go. And she, after all these years of her saying, you know, I don't think, you know, who's going to pay the bills? What are you going to do? She said, if you really feel it, then it's time for you to go. And having her support. Yeah. Jumping into the unknown where the paycheck's gone. Yeah. The insurance is gone.
00:18:23
Speaker
Everything is gone. And I've got four kids. That's scary. That's scary. Who were not in college yet at the time. No, no. Yeah.
00:18:32
Speaker
And I just thought, I've got to figure this out. And I was doing all those cooking shows, and they were pitching me to possibly host a show up at the farm. And it just really wasn't what I wanted to do. It wasn't working out. And I've always kind of thought, wouldn't it be fun to have my own bourbon company? I'm not from Kentucky, but I have Kentucky roots. I've always liked bourbon. My parents were not big drinkers, but occasionally they'd have a little bourbon. Yeah.
00:18:59
Speaker
And I thought, I'm going to try to start a bourbon company. So I was doing some experimenting, hooked up with a distiller, told him what I wanted to do. I brought honey from my beehives, maple from my maple trees. And I said, I'd like to do a bourbon. And then I'd like to do a honey bourbon with real honey and a maple bourbon
Future Plans and Seizing Opportunities
00:19:19
Speaker
with real maple. So all my stuff is 100% natural. There's no artificial flavoring or coloring.
00:19:25
Speaker
And it's high proof, really smooth. I've been winning lots of awards. I won gold medals at the proof awards. I've won medals from the SIP awards. It's getting a lot of traction, but it's a difficult business because of the regulation, the licensing, the distribution is a nightmare. I mean, it's tough. I'm still battling. So I started distributing.
00:19:50
Speaker
in December of 2019. And then in March of 2020, every bar and restaurant in the country shut down. Then you think like, oh my God, I made a mistake. My business relies on bars and restaurants and there are none open in the country right now.
00:20:09
Speaker
So I got through the pandemic and it was interesting. I was talking to the guy that prints my labels for me and I said, boy, you know, Brian, I said, it's just so tough. I just you know, the pandemic really set me back. He goes, Bill, he goes, I printed labels for other
00:20:24
Speaker
companies the same time I printed your labels before the pandemic. And he goes, they don't exist anymore. Oh, and you do. And I was like, you know what? I did make it through that. You did. And it was difficult and stressful. And it's still difficult and stressful. But
00:20:40
Speaker
That's part of the journey. In fact, you know, today's Valentine's Day that we're recording this. And I have I got my wife a card and it says, you know, risk is never fun. But you took a risk on me. And isn't it great or something like that? Yeah. And I don't remember. And I wrote in the car. She hasn't even opened it yet. I think I wrote. I said, you know, the journey continues. Risk is never fun. But yeah, you know, sure, you got to be prepared for it to fail. But
00:21:09
Speaker
The risk can just be, the rewards can be so satisfying, whether it's monetarily or mentally. You know, monetarily it hasn't happened for me yet. I'm, you know, knock on wood, I'm still working towards that. But I did this and I'm winning awards and people are talking about it online and I get new messages.
00:21:31
Speaker
It's really interesting. Or you walk in a store and there it is on the shelves. So do you screw you to the Cincinnati area that I can buy some of it? So I will tell you, we applied to the Liquor Bureau of Ohio. We sent it in before, we had to send it in before the end of the year, which we did.
00:21:54
Speaker
And then we kept saying, where is it? Where is it? They lost it. They had it and lost it. So we literally just resent it. But they aren't backing us up to this date. They're going back to our previous date. So we're just waiting for approval from Ohio, because Ohio is a control state. So it's a little different than everywhere else we distribute. In fact, I have somebody who lives in Blue Ash, Ohio, who emails me. They're like, how come I'm on your website?
00:22:22
Speaker
And because we shipped to 42 states right from the website. How come I'm on your website and I can't ship to Ohio? I'm like, because you're a control state. So he was shipping it to- Can you ship it to Kentucky? Yes. So he was shipping it to Kentucky and then going to get it.
00:22:38
Speaker
from his friends. So, you know, it's a little great. But a lot of urban loving friends. That's why I would love to buy this for my because my one friend collects like he's got Pappy and Blanton's and all. I would love to get his feedback, too. I like all feedback, good or bad. But what's interesting is that so if this happens,
00:23:01
Speaker
I'm going to take a road trip all around Ohio to all of our friends from college, Akron, Cleveland, Rocky River, Avon Lake, Columbus. I'm going everywhere and I'm going to have little tasting parties.
00:23:16
Speaker
Absolutely. And I'm going to reach out to my friends that live in different areas of Ohio because Ohio is different where it's state controlled stores. So it's not like around here where I can go to a store and say, hey, I'd really like you to carry my stuff. They can just say, no, thanks. And it's over. Yeah.
00:23:34
Speaker
Ohio, I can say, well, I have friends in Youngstown, I have friends in Cleveland, I have friends in Columbus, I have friends in Blue Ash, I want to go to a liquor store there, a liquor store there, and I get to choose. So I got to travel the state and figure out where I want to be. Well, when you come this way,
00:23:52
Speaker
We'll have a little podcast tasting party. I would love to do a little tasting. Let's take a quick minute and thank our amazing sponsors. Our podcast is proudly brought to you today by Jet Creative and Urban Stems. Jet Creative is a women owned marketing firm committed to community and empowerment since 2013.
00:24:14
Speaker
Are you ready to Rebloom and build a website or start a podcast? Visit jetcreative.com backslash podcast to kickstart your journey. They will help you bloom in ways you never imagined. And bonus, our listeners get an exclusive discount when you mention Rebloom.
00:24:33
Speaker
And a huge thanks to Urban Stems, your go to and our go to source for fresh, gorgeous bouquets and gifts delivered coast to coast. Use Bloom Big 20 and save 20 percent on your next order. And don't forget to subscribe to this podcast and follow us on Instagram and Facebook at Rebloom podcast. Thanks to our sponsors and thanks to you for joining us today.
00:25:02
Speaker
I have a question for you. We talked a little bit before we press record. You see you have seven siblings. I'm one of seven. One of seven. Yeah. And a lot of them seem to be entrepreneurial. Yeah. Where do you think that comes from? I think that we we've all been outgoing. We're all not everybody, but I mean, everybody's outgoing, but not everybody has that.
00:25:32
Speaker
Like, I don't want to say risk, but some people are risk averse. We are to a degree, but we've always been kind of a creative family. I have a couple of sisters that were housewives and they raised kids. One that was in radio sales. I have a sister that's a real estate agent. I have a sister that was a teacher. I was always the financial guy that pivoted to this.
00:25:59
Speaker
John had the corporate job, just like everybody else, but he used to make commemorative golf shirts for he and his buddies when they'd go on golfing weekends. And they always loved them. And I'd grab boxes of them and I'd bring them down to the trading floor and I'd sell them for them.
00:26:14
Speaker
And I'd be like, John, I just sold that whole box of shirts for him. He's like, you're kidding. And so he was doing this while he had a full time job. And then it got to the point where he's like, I think I'm going to jump into this and really take a stab at it. My sister, Angela, has always been like a fashionista, great personality. She's got a site, WEGIT.
00:26:41
Speaker
W-A-Y-G-I-T, which is an acronym for where are you going in that? Because she used to help friends and family clean out their closets. And she'd come to our house, and she'd have Amy upstairs, and she'd pull a shirt out of the closet, look at it, and turn to Amy. And Amy's like, well, I kind of like that. And Angela would go, well, where are you going in that? Oh, that's funny. And if she can't answer, it goes in the goodwill.
00:27:07
Speaker
Oh, wow. And so, yeah, so if she's like, yeah, you'll have to look into her. But
00:27:14
Speaker
We will put that we'll put that link up. We'll put that link up for her. And the other one that he mentioned sort of subtly was is Johnny Oh, who created the Johnny Oh clothing line. And he took that big leap of faith. I mean, that's 100 percent, 100 percent. And now it's so big, you know, John's more of the face of it. You know, he's still involved, but, you know, they've got tons of employees. And I mean, people are constantly telling me, oh, there's Johnny Oh here. Everyone wears Johnny Oh.
00:27:42
Speaker
Colleges everywhere and then athletes, presidents, politicians, everybody wears it. It's unbelievable. And then Chris is your brother who got into acting real young and he's definitely doing. I mean, that's that being an actor is risky, too. I mean, that's a lot of risk. Well, you know, it was funny when we were all younger, we all did like commercials and modeling, nothing really extensive. In fact, when I got back from college and I lived downtown, I was still doing a little bit of print stuff. Yeah.
00:28:13
Speaker
And nothing great but I said you know what I got out of work at two o'clock I can ride my bike to these auditions and looksies or whatever it was and you know what the heck make a little money here well after seven kids Chris was the youngest my mom had more time to kind of
00:28:29
Speaker
get him to the city to auditions. And I remember his first audition, like Sirius, you know, he had done some commercials and things like that. And his first one was he had to go to LA for a screen test. My parents were out of town. He was 17. I think I was
00:28:45
Speaker
21 or 22. And he's like, I got to go to LA for a screen test. And I need a chaperone. I said, I'll take you because we lived out in LA as kids. And so we went out there and he had a screen test, I dropped him off the studio and he got the job and it just snowballed from there. And it's, you know, he's had a very long, good career.
00:29:03
Speaker
He sure has. But I love that there's creativity in your whole family. And that certainly probably came from your mom and dad and then transferred to all seven of you. And yeah, I mean, maybe it's a little, there's some risk involved, but it sounds like that the creativity is taking the center stage and that's really causing you to pivot.
00:29:28
Speaker
And I don't know if my parents were so much creative. They would ask me, I used to fix stuff in the house. Even when I was a kid, my dad would be like, hey, you know, that thing doesn't work. Take a look at it. And I'd fix it. But I think my parents, they had great personalities. I think the seven of us, we're talkative, we're outgoing. We're not afraid to, you know,
00:29:56
Speaker
speak up or whatever. And I guess there's some creativity. I mean, I think you also just got to have the guts to go for it. You do have to have the guts. A lot of people don't have that. I mean, it's scary.
00:30:13
Speaker
But it's what you got to do. How did you end up on the trading floor, though? You were creative your whole life growing up. How did you end up there? I was in eighth grade. I was on a field trip. Or maybe it was freshman year in high school. I don't know. And we went to the trading floor, and I looked down through the visitor's gallery, and I saw my next-door neighbor. So I was, what, 14 or 15? I don't know. And I was like, wow, there's my next-door neighbor.
00:30:42
Speaker
I remember calling them that summer and I knew nothing about it but I knew it was they hired a lot of young people to be what they called runners and they would take the orders in and out of the pit and I called them out and said, hey, can I come work for you as a runner?
00:30:57
Speaker
And he goes, oh, let me call you back. And then when he called me back, he's like, well, I was 15. He goes, how old are you? I go 15. He goes, well, you need to be 16 to be on the floor. But back then, there was no computer, anything. It was, I just filled out a piece of paper and backdated my birthday. Yeah. And I was there. Kind of like we did at John Carroll, but we won't talk about that. Right on.
00:31:20
Speaker
But I was there every summer through high school and college. And then when I graduated college, I mean, I was out at John Carroll for one week and my dad goes, so when are you starting work? And I was like.
00:31:31
Speaker
Oh my gosh, really? And so I just thought, I'm going to just go back to the trading floor and see if this is for me. Because it was a job. And again, like I said, I was young. There weren't a lot of people my age that owned memberships to the floor. And I just kind of got thrown in it. And that's where you're just like, oh my gosh, can I really do this?
00:31:52
Speaker
But you have to when you're thrown into it and you have to do it. You you can't run and hide. I was scared to death. I was a pipsqueak. I was 21 or 22 with all grown men. And I just went in there and just I just like do what you got to do. And it was nerve wracking. But I and then I just kept growing from there and
00:32:19
Speaker
Which is probably why- How long did you say that? I was a member for 30 years. And I've been gone from there, I think, eight years, almost nine.
00:32:29
Speaker
And the business has changed a lot. I mean, I was there in its heyday There's not much of it left. I still have some friends down there There's one pit left and you know, they're making some money but you know, I I just I don't know if I'd be alive today if I had stayed I was so stressed and unhappy and I was like, you know just for my sake of life and
00:32:53
Speaker
happiness. You know what, I'd rather have less money, but do something that I want to do and try to grow it into something. I mean, my farm is spectacular. It doesn't make me money. But what I built and created is so gorgeous. And now when we have tastings up there, so I have tastings this time of year in the little house I built. And then I have a big timber frame outdoor pavilion, which
00:33:17
Speaker
I've got to get pictures of that on the website and in the summer I have the tastings out there and it's just surrounded by prairies. And last year I remember there was a tasting and the whole tasting butterflies just kept flying through the pavilion and people were like, do you grow butterflies? It was funny. Did you say cue the person letting the butterfly? Cue the butterfly. Cue the caterpillar.
00:33:40
Speaker
But and it's just there's so many prairies that they were just there all over the place. And then people started saying, hey, can we get married here? And I was like, sure, why not? So now we have we just booked another wedding for this summer. And it's just scenic and gorgeous. And that's a lot of fun. But your family. Oh, go ahead. I was going to say that same risk that you took when you were in your 20s, though, Bill,
00:34:08
Speaker
probably was, you know, what gave you the courage to take that same risk towards the farm and just say, you know what, I've got to do it. And I think, you know, when you know, you, you know, all right, I'm going to try the, I'm going to do the responsible thing, do the, do the, the.
00:34:24
Speaker
the money thing or do the job thing, but there is a point where you gotta go. But then there's also peace of mind and happiness. Yeah, mental health. Yeah. And you know what? I work my ass off up there, and it's only for personal gratification. I don't get any money for it. I mean, I have transformed what was once
00:34:41
Speaker
beautiful native prairie, river bottom, Indian country that then was drain tiled, became cornfields, then neglected pastures. And I turned it all around and brought back the wetlands and brought back the prairies. And 23 years later, it's unbelievable the transformation. It really is. Is that your legacy? That's incredible. Does your family love it? Do they go up there? Yeah. Amy will go with some girlfriends.
00:35:10
Speaker
They'll have wild girl weekends. Over the years, if it was one of my kids' birthdays, I would take that kid and a bunch of their friends and they'd have a camp out outside. I'd cook for them. We have big family camp outs there now with people that I've known since first grade.
00:35:29
Speaker
And all of our kids know each other literally from the family camp outs up at the farm. Or there's times like my oldest son, he'll go last two summers, he's gone up there with a group of friends. And now, granted, this is a little house. It's got a lot of beds and a bunk room. But he's like, oh, we had 26. I was like, oh my god. I go, where did everybody sleep? And he goes, I don't know. Or did they sleep? Yeah.
00:35:54
Speaker
But they just, you know, you pull in and you, it's like you have 55 acres to yourself. There's nobody. That's amazing. And you can explore. We probably three miles of walking trails. It's gorgeous. So yeah, my kids love it, but they're also, some of them are at the point in their life, you know, FOMO. Too much going on at home. I mean, hey, if I go this weekend, you know, there's a big party. I can't go, you know. Yeah. And we went through that with our summer house in Michigan. I remember one,
00:36:22
Speaker
My parents were like, well, we're just going to sell the house in Michigan because none of you guys ever want to go. They got through it. And then, of course, as you get through it, then you get older. It's like, oh my God, I can't wait to go to the house. Right. Yeah. Yeah. So it'll come around. It's a country making tons and tons of great memories, great memories. And you know, it's funny that one mother point, I know I talk too much, but I have a good friend. He and his wife had bought a timeshare. And you know, when you buy a timeshare, they always say, hey, do you have any friends that might be interested in this timeshare?
00:36:52
Speaker
And of course, he gave him our name. And so the times your company was calling us and I said to Amy, I said, you know, yeah, these guys get to go to all these cool places. I said, but I want to go to one place and have history and plant the trees that, you know, now my kids are climbing those trees and all of our pets are buried up there and. Yeah.
00:37:11
Speaker
you know have some consistency and like we had to rip out our apple orchard and replant a few years ago and our first orchard with nice big trees um and I remember my son Patrick helping me I go you and your kids are gonna love these apples you know yeah you're planning for the
00:37:29
Speaker
for the future. Well, and you're making huge family memories for now and for the future. When we talk about reblooming, it's reblooming to find
00:37:44
Speaker
your passions, but also making the world a better place. And you've made not only this land, I mean, you've made this land a better place, you're creating something. My health a better place, or my mental health. I mean, I'm still stressed because starting a business at this late in your life,
00:38:00
Speaker
And especially in the liquor world, it's difficult and I'm still struggling. But I don't think I would have lasted any longer on that train and commuting to the city and fighting on the trading floor and doing my thing. So it was a risk. I had to rebloom for myself. You know what I mean? And I'm still reblooming because, you know, I had a big meeting this morning.
00:38:24
Speaker
And it's like, okay, you know, we're figuring this out and then you hit a roadblock. It's like, okay, now how do we get around this and keep moving? And so I'm constantly reblooming like, okay, there's got to be another way to do this. You know, how do I think in a different sense, you know?
00:38:41
Speaker
Yeah, there are there are always weeds. I mean, that's the thing. There's weeds, there's challenges. But yet I think when you're doing that heart centered passion, to your point, how do I figure my way around it? It's not like stop. No, I'm done. It's like, OK, well, this is just a little roadblock. I'm going to figure my way around it. Exactly. And things on their journey, things present themselves to you. And either you take it or you don't. And it's like with the place.
00:39:09
Speaker
hosting weddings. I didn't build this farm in this pavilion to be a wedding venue. But that came to me and it was like, hey, this could be an opportunity. I mean, we're not like booking out weddings constantly. They're very
00:39:25
Speaker
you know, I think we're limited to like 150 people, which is decent. But we're not booking like every single Saturday, we're gonna kind of pick and choose and things like and you'll appreciate this one, Jamie. So one of the weddings we had last summer, all of the flowers
00:39:42
Speaker
And including the wife's bouquet all came from our prairies on the farm. I love it. That's fantastic. That is fantastic. And I always tell people that, you know, the last couple that booked a wedding, I said, you're welcome to the wildflowers. I can't guarantee you anything's going to be blooming.
00:39:59
Speaker
you know because wildflowers and they don't last like your flower arrangements are gorgeous and they last a long time you pick a wildflower you know you pick it an hour before the wedding and by the end of the wedding it's gone it's gone but it you know we have you know can put ferns in it and you know red twig dogwoods and you know columbine and you know whatever happens to be blooming at the time um you know and make a wildflower
00:40:29
Speaker
Do you think it's been helpful for your children to see you make this pivot to be living more heavily? I think so. Some of them are not in the business world yet and don't
00:40:44
Speaker
quite get it. My older son Billy, he called me one day. He goes, wait a minute. She goes, you had your own business when you did this. Then you had your own business when you did this and your own business when you did this. Now you started this business. You've always worked for yourself. He goes,
00:40:59
Speaker
Have you ever had a resume? And I go, no, I've never had a resume because I, you know, I remember one time like, God, maybe I should put together a resume and see what other kind of work I can do. But, you know, and he just goes, that's amazing. You know, because so I was like I said, there were times where
00:41:22
Speaker
When I was doing my own thing on the trading floor, I was like, I just want a boss so that he can handle it or she can handle it. I don't want to have to deal with this. You know, you do what you have to do as the boss. So.
00:41:36
Speaker
You think they'll be, do you think they have that entrepreneurial bug then? I hope so. Billy is working hard downtown Chicago and he's got a great career path going. He's very smart and with it. Patrick's my most recent grad and he's a little bit of a free spirit trying to decide what he wants to do and he's more like me where he kind of wants to work for himself.
00:41:58
Speaker
But he's trying to find that niche right now. My son, Jake, is a freshman at Miami of Ohio. And yeah, so he's not there yet. And Abby is a junior in high school. But Amy's a hard worker. She's a school teacher. She retired for 15 years to raise our kids and then went back.
00:42:20
Speaker
she works her ass off. Oh, she does. They, you know, they always say teachers are underpaid and there's no doubt about it. And Amy is so in tune with kids. That's great. She just, you know, even with our, my 24 nieces and nephews, it was always like, you know, at family parties, they'd be like, Amy, you know, do something. And Amy would play on events or
00:42:44
Speaker
things for the nieces and nephews to do. She just knows how to talk to them. She's reinventing herself. She just got a side little insurance gig just because with the kids in college, she's like, I'm after it. Well, there you go.
00:43:01
Speaker
Another rebloomer another rebloomer and it doesn't mean she's still doing her teaching. She's just like Yeah, it's it's so fun though, but I think what you've shown us and thank you for sharing your story with us because
00:43:16
Speaker
I think it's so important whether you're a man or a woman that you find your passion, that you find what you want to do. And whether it starts out as a hobby, it starts out as maybe just driving down the road and finding a farm that you think, hey, this is just where I'm going to go so I can breathe the good air. But because you never know how that's going to grow. And look where it has grown
00:43:40
Speaker
Your whole life and it's taken your family in a different direction. It's taken you in a different direction But it's taken you in a beautiful direction that you right are growing your own business another business, right? Tasty business mind you I know We need to get it. We need to get on the on the district ships in Kentucky. It doesn't ship to Ohio, but we're you're in worry now Jamie down in
00:44:07
Speaker
I'm in South Carolina right now. We ship there. Oh, there we go. Bill, thank you so much for joining us on this episode of Rebloom. Do you have any advice for our listeners if they want to Rebloom?
00:44:21
Speaker
You know what? One thing I would say is sometimes opportunities are there. Maybe they're not obvious or sometimes they're just staring you right in the face. But you got to look for those opportunities and decide, do I have the guts to do this or not? But you know what? It doesn't hurt to take those opportunities. So what if you fail? Who cares? No one's going to know about it. Yeah, just take a chance on yourself.
00:44:49
Speaker
You know, take a chance on yourself because we've got one short life to live. Follow your passions, enjoy what you're doing, and go after it. And say yes. Absolutely. Say yes. Absolutely. And there really is no failure. It's just all learning. Exactly. That's what I mean.
00:45:07
Speaker
Failure is subjective. You know, if you fail to yourself, nobody else is going to see that. Right. Exactly. So everybody get out there. Rebloom, bloom, rebloom. Thank you so much. Peace, love and rebloom, everyone.
00:45:21
Speaker
Thanks guys. Have a good day. Thank you. Life is too short not to follow your passions. So go out there and let your heart plant you where you are meant to be and grow your joy. We will be right here sharing more incredible stories of reinvention with you. Make sure to subscribe to our podcast so you never miss an episode of Rebloom. Until next time, I'm Jamie Jamison. And I'm Lori Siebert. Peace, love, and Rebloom, dear friends.