Speaker 1: I used to hate public speaking. I used to be
Speaker 1: very nervous when I performed. I performed a piano, I
Speaker 1: competed nationally, played tennis, like competing nationally, I used to
Speaker 1: get very nervous. Now I don't care. Two time cancer survivor,
Speaker 1: and I think I've learned to be so embarrassed or
Speaker 1: worried about things that that I am who I am,
Speaker 1: and this is what I bring to the table. And
Speaker 1: love me or leave me, Love her or leave her.
Speaker 1: Lydia Higginson has taken on the challenge of her career
Speaker 1: running a startup business in the Hudson Valley of New York.
Speaker 1: We'll meet her and one of Public Radio's most accomplished
Speaker 1: correspondents on this edition of On the Job From Hired
Speaker 1: to Retired, brought to you by Express Employment Professionals. Over
Speaker 1: the past thirty four years, Express Employment Professionals has put
Speaker 1: millions of people to work in meaning full and fulfilling
Speaker 1: jobs and careers. If you're looking for work or want
Speaker 1: to grow your workforce, go to Express pros dot com.
Speaker 1: Now here's Karen Michelle with Lydia's story. Her last name,
Speaker 1: Lydia Higginson is a presence and for the past year
Speaker 1: the head of Haunt Show at a startup business. We're
Speaker 1: at Duchess Spirits at Harvest Homestead Farm in Pine Plains,
Speaker 1: New York. Pine Planes is a tiny and somewhat remote
Speaker 1: hamlet in New York's Hudson Valley. Lydia Higginson isn't tiny,
Speaker 1: has bright red hair straight to her shoulders and a
Speaker 1: laser focus. I have a lot of talents. I mean,
Speaker 1: I think a lot of them. I learned when I
Speaker 1: was very young. My father used to have me help
Speaker 1: um whether he was doing catering before he had his
Speaker 1: own restaurant, so I was very used to the hospitality,
Speaker 1: welcoming people, greeting them, and I thought that was very important.
Speaker 1: Those skills are very useful no matter what career you're in.
Speaker 1: And the fact that I have a bunch of different talent,
Speaker 1: some of some of them are useful, some of them
Speaker 1: are not so useful. I think, just give me a
Speaker 1: broader understanding of other people and relating to them. And
Speaker 1: sometimes it wasn't so clear how our young talents would
Speaker 1: apply to making a living. Saying playing tennis and classical piano,
Speaker 1: or majoring in French and Spanish in college I had
Speaker 1: no idea. I just I had a passion for languages.
Speaker 1: I love to travel. My my family were big travelers.
Speaker 1: My father was from England, my mother's family was from Wales,
Speaker 1: so I spent a lot of time overseas growing up.
Speaker 1: When I was in college, I spent a semester abroad
Speaker 1: in France, and then I worked at my uncle's pub
Speaker 1: in northern England. My parents had had a several year
Speaker 1: honeymoon when they got married and traveled all around the
Speaker 1: United States, in Europe, and they settled in New Jersey.
Speaker 1: But they were very good about every year. We had
Speaker 1: some big trips, so we were very well exposed, not
Speaker 1: only the United States. We drove around the United States, Canada, Mexico,
Speaker 1: and primarily the UK. But it was just ingrained at me,
Speaker 1: you know, to travel and experience what of cultures had
Speaker 1: to offer, And somehow I thought the Spanish and French
Speaker 1: was going to tie into that. I knew I didn't
Speaker 1: want to be a teacher, but I found that those
Speaker 1: things translated well in tourism because I understand what a
Speaker 1: visitor wants and I understand what people are looking for
Speaker 1: when they're traveling. After graduating from college, in Lydia, started
Speaker 1: working for nonprofits in New Jersey, and after a few years,
Speaker 1: I decided to move up here to be closer to
Speaker 1: my family. And I moved up here without a job,
Speaker 1: and I started out at Berkshire Schools the associate director
Speaker 1: of the Annual Fund and from that I learned about
Speaker 1: how big the area that Berkshires and the Hudson Valley
Speaker 1: were for tourism. I then had a brief stint at
Speaker 1: the Hudson Valley Guide, which was a tourism guide, and
Speaker 1: loved tourism. That was really my passions. Start the movie Welcome,
Speaker 1: Where did you come from? Uh, well, we live in Brooklyn,
Speaker 1: but where you have a place in Milleritot. She parlayed
Speaker 1: that passion into a gigus director of development for the
Speaker 1: Samuel Morris Historic Site, you know the guy who came
Speaker 1: up with Morris Code. And then she spent ten years
Speaker 1: as the vice president for Duchess Tourism. Duchess County is
Speaker 1: less than a two hour drive north of New York
Speaker 1: City and it's full of farms with the freshest eggs,
Speaker 1: the plumpest poultry, and truly gorgeous produce. And about five
Speaker 1: years ago I saw that this new distillery was opening
Speaker 1: and they were doing a tasting at Arlington Liquor, and
Speaker 1: I went and I met Ariel Schlene, who was the
Speaker 1: founder and the president, and said to him, you don't
Speaker 1: know me, but you're going to know me. You're going
Speaker 1: to be working with me. And five years later, here
Speaker 1: I am Olidia is the is definitely the face of
Speaker 1: the place. Ariel Schlene looks more like a slick, hip,
Speaker 1: dark haired New Yorker than a gentleman farmer or distiller.
Speaker 1: The co founder of Duchess, he had been a banker.
Speaker 1: I never wanted not that I never wanted to run Duchess,
Speaker 1: but I'm much more of a developer a builder. So,
Speaker 1: you know, having built it kind of to this level, um,
Speaker 1: it was then up to me to find someone who
Speaker 1: could then bring you know, those people who could bring
Speaker 1: that that network or that community that they already had themselves.
Speaker 1: And Lydia was certainly that. And you know she she's
Speaker 1: absolutely the face of Duchess, because that's what you called
Speaker 1: me when you hired me. I can't recall your retirement plan. Yeah,
Speaker 1: my retirement plan, Yeah, Lydia is my retirement plan, you know,
Speaker 1: not like I said before, whether Lydia was working here
Speaker 1: or outside of here, She's always been our biggest advocate.
Speaker 1: She's the one that's out there. And you know, I
Speaker 1: heard you say she knows everybody. She knows everybody. She
Speaker 1: knows everybody. Everybody who knows her to know where is
Speaker 1: to love her. Like you know, I'm I'm a big
Speaker 1: fan of no brainer decisions, and Lydia was probably the
Speaker 1: ultimate no brainer decision. You know. She she likes to
Speaker 1: think that that was her idea. You know that five
Speaker 1: years ago. You know, you don't know me yet, but
Speaker 1: I knew. I knew then, you know, So it just
Speaker 1: took it just needed to set the stage and I
Speaker 1: needed to really I had to make sure that this
Speaker 1: place was ready for Lydia, you know, sit the other
Speaker 1: way around. After we come back more about Lydia Higginson's
Speaker 1: job change from working for a local government agency to
Speaker 1: private enterprise and Booze. You're listening to independent producer Karen
Speaker 1: Michelle with a profile of one of her unique neighbors
Speaker 1: in the Hudson Valley of New York State. On the job.
Speaker 1: From Hired to Retired is brought to you by Express
Speaker 1: Employment Professionals one company is on a mission to put
Speaker 1: a million people to work each year. Sounds like a
Speaker 1: big number, doesn't it not to Express Employment Professionals seeking
Speaker 1: a skilled labor position or administrative order. Maybe you're an
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Speaker 1: com to find a location near you and welcome back
Speaker 1: to on the job from hired to retired once again.
Speaker 1: Here's Karen Michelle from her youth Lydia Higginson has been
Speaker 1: unafraid to take on a challenge as she grew up
Speaker 1: and went out into the workforce. She worked hard, always
Speaker 1: looking for the right fit. It just took me time,
Speaker 1: like the trying trial and error different jobs, like yeah,
Speaker 1: this is close to what I want to do, but
Speaker 1: each time figuring out. I mean, you know, ten years
Speaker 1: ago there were no distilleries in Duchess County, so I
Speaker 1: wouldn't even have conceived of it. I knew I didn't
Speaker 1: want to be at a winery. Winery wasn't my passion,
Speaker 1: but booze is you know, bourbon, moonshine, brandy, and this
Speaker 1: distillery connects with another of Lydia's many passions history. My
Speaker 1: parents had a seventeen twenty in my uncle's pub in
Speaker 1: England was over four years old. I grew up in
Speaker 1: a hundred and seventy five year old converted barn, and
Speaker 1: I now live in an eighteen fifties carriage house. So
Speaker 1: by nature, I know appreciate it. I also feel very
Speaker 1: strongly about using history. I'm not of the let's just
Speaker 1: look at it and walk by it. Like the fact
Speaker 1: that people can go in our bunkers and do things
Speaker 1: makes me really really happy. And I think people get
Speaker 1: a real kick out of being in a place and saying, wow,
Speaker 1: I'm hearing a lecture or I'm watching a movie where
Speaker 1: Dutch Schultz was. I mean, we're living that history. Dutch
Speaker 1: Schultz proved quite willing to violence himself and to kill people.
Speaker 1: I mean, it's not like he was a mechannibal or something.
Speaker 1: I mean he was, yeah, he was a bad guy.
Speaker 1: But I think people, just like you know the popularity
Speaker 1: of the um Godfather movies and stuff, there is a
Speaker 1: certain romance to the mobsters and the gangsters, but we
Speaker 1: don't glorify anything he did other than making the booze.
Speaker 1: Dutchess Spirits is a distillery with an unusual history. Briefly,
Speaker 1: during Prohibition, Dutch Schultz and his men lived and made
Speaker 1: moonshine right here. Most visitors go on a tour many weekends.
Speaker 1: They're led by Lydia's wife, Cameron Anderson. Um. Here you
Speaker 1: can see the top of one of the bunker's and
Speaker 1: all the exhaust pipes. And here's another bunker. Right here
Speaker 1: you can see um. You can see how easily it
Speaker 1: pointed into the environment. Visitors canna walk or crawled depending
Speaker 1: through the tunnels and into the bunkers where the hooch
Speaker 1: was made and the mobsters hit. Though the distillery Slash
Speaker 1: High Out Slash Farm was a big producer, it was
Speaker 1: in business for less than a year. Lydia reads from
Speaker 1: an account of the final raid in October. This is
Speaker 1: from the local newspaper after the farm was rated by
Speaker 1: the FBI. Was rated twice and they didn't find anything.
Speaker 1: Third time they came back. They reached the farm at
Speaker 1: six o'clock, finding two stills in operation. And in the
Speaker 1: charge of the two men arrested. They seized to two
Speaker 1: thousand gallons stills, columns and condensers, too, high pressure boilers,
Speaker 1: gallon vats of mash. This iteration of the distillery started
Speaker 1: eighty years after that bread and while it's unlikely the
Speaker 1: activities back then, we're of a very social nature. It's
Speaker 1: now part of Lydia Higginson's job to devise and host events, speakeasies,
Speaker 1: paranormal explorations, mom themed movies and on this afternoon, Hi,
Speaker 1: how are you? Are you here for the book signing? Great?
Speaker 1: If anybody would like to have a seat, We're gonna
Speaker 1: have Debbie start in a couple of seconds. There are
Speaker 1: more than two dozen guests milling, buzzing, clearly looking forward
Speaker 1: to what's it? Thank you all for coming today. I'm
Speaker 1: Lydia from Duchess Spirits. This is the site of Dutch
Speaker 1: Schultz's underground bootlegging operation during Prohibition. At the end of
Speaker 1: her talk and after she sells some books and you
Speaker 1: eat a little taste, we're going to take you on
Speaker 1: a tour and you need to go in the bunker
Speaker 1: with dutchell as bootlegging operations. Later that night, there'll be
Speaker 1: another event again prep for and hosted at least partly
Speaker 1: cleared up by Yeah, so how many hours you think
Speaker 1: you word? Friday was fourteen, Today will be about fourteen.
Speaker 1: Tomorrow I'll be ten of taking Monday off, then I'll
Speaker 1: be working six hours Tuesday, my other day off, and
Speaker 1: then back to eight and nine hour days just Wednesday, Thursday, Friday,
Speaker 1: than another twelve hours next Saturday. That's the hospitality biz.
Speaker 1: But yes, I came in. I started at nine this
Speaker 1: morning and I'll be here until about one in the morning,
Speaker 1: so I will sleep well tonight. A few hours I get.
Speaker 1: But so do you feel um differently motivated because you
Speaker 1: have a stake? No, I did the same kind of
Speaker 1: hours for tourism. I mean I would go from event
Speaker 1: to event plus work my normal work day um to
Speaker 1: be a part of the community and active at other events.
Speaker 1: So you have to have that drive, though you have
Speaker 1: to be willing to say, Okay, you know sometimes I'm
Speaker 1: giving up things. Lydia's committed to making Duchess spirits rise again,
Speaker 1: whatever it takes. Well, would you like to try today?
Speaker 1: You love that? I mean, if I could tell my
Speaker 1: twenty two year old self you know, to be I'm
Speaker 1: not so afraid of what's out there and just go
Speaker 1: for it and try. I mean, I'm I mean, it
Speaker 1: was a big risk to move up here and leave
Speaker 1: a job that it had for six years in New Jersey,
Speaker 1: to move up here without a job, But I had
Speaker 1: confidence in myself and and and being able to find
Speaker 1: something that would suit me. And it may have taken exact,
Speaker 1: you know, a little while you have to pay the
Speaker 1: bills in the meantime, but each step gave me some
Speaker 1: mother's skill or skill set that helped me get to
Speaker 1: where I am now. I will probably work until I'm eighty.
Speaker 1: Something I gives me meaning, you know, to get up.
Speaker 1: I mean, I don't have children, so my legacy will
Speaker 1: be what I did for tourism, what I did for
Speaker 1: these different sites. Um, and that's what gives me my
Speaker 1: little legacy. Hello, how are you good? Are you just
Speaker 1: getting here? I have a lot of friends that work
Speaker 1: for very big corporations, and none of them are happy. Yeah,
Speaker 1: they're making good paychecks, like they are not happy. There
Speaker 1: are times here, yes I'm sometimes weed whacking, sometimes I'm
Speaker 1: scrubbing the floor, But in the same token, I'm creating Marketing.
Speaker 1: I'm working with partners to create exciting events here and
Speaker 1: and it's all part and parcel of being willing to
Speaker 1: do anything and pitching in and it makes me happy.
Speaker 1: Now they literally just started. They should be in the
Speaker 1: corner of the distiller party, so they're that's Lydia Higginson,
Speaker 1: CEO of Duchess Spirits and Harvest Homestead Farm. I'm producer
Speaker 1: Karen Michelle in the Hudson Valley, New York. That's all
Speaker 1: for this edition of On the Job from Hire to Retire,
Speaker 1: brought to you by Express Employment Professionals. Find out more
Speaker 1: at Express prose dot com. This podcast is produced by
Speaker 1: Steve Mencher for men'sh Media, Red Seat Ventures and I
Speaker 1: Heart Radio. Find us on I Heart Radio and iTunes,
Speaker 1: where we hope you'll leave a nice review that helps
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Speaker 1: listen and subscribe wherever you get your podcasts. That's all
Speaker 1: for this season. See you on the Job.