Trading Secrets - Ben Higgins Pt 2: From the Almost Famous podcast to Generous Coffee, the BTS to his numerous ventures and the $$$ behind them

Episode Date: September 11, 2023

This week, Jason is joined by one of Bachelor Nation’s biggest stars and fan favorites, Ben Higgins! In 2017, Ben co-founded Generous Coffee, a company dedicated to raising money through its operation to create jobs, feed children, improve education and empower communities to eliminate poverty around the world. Outside of his socially conscious work, he maintains a connection to the one and only Bachelor Nation by co-hosting the Bachelor focused, Almost Famous podcast with Ashley I, which has accumulated over 80+ million downloads to date.  Ben gives insight to his interest in having a bigger role in the franchise, how to keep a positive outlook when not being chosen for an opportunity, his experience hosting Bachelor Live on Stage, the everchanging space of podcasting, the business model behind Generous Coffee, how Generous Coffee came to be, and why he doesn’t make a salary from Generous. Ben also reveals what gives him more joy, what keeps him grounded, the legacy he hopes to leave, his investments in restaurants, how he started investing in the restaurant industry, what other industries he invests in, and what he thinks the number one source of income will be for him in 10 years. What venture has been the most lucrative? What is his restaurant group?  Ben Higgins reveals all that and so much more in another episode you can’t afford to miss!  Host: Jason Tartick Co-Host: David Arduin Audio: Declan O’Connell Guests: Ben Higgins Stay connected with the Trading Secrets Podcast!  Instagram: @tradingsecretspodcast  Youtube: Trading Secrets Facebook: Join the Group All Access: Free 30-Day Trial 

Welcome back to another episode of Trading Secrets. I'm your host, Jason Tartick, and welcome to the pre-market trading segment. This is going to be a quick intro because this is the Ben Higgins Part 2 episode. We are going to kick it off right where we left, part one, where we talked a little bit about what his expectation was for his future career within the Bachelor Nation franchise, outside of being a lead and outside of being a contestant. We get into all the inner workings of his discussions internally about what his future would look like, possibly working in the Golden Bachelor, in some capacity, his time on the Bachelor live on stage. There was a group that worked

with, I believe, ABC that bought the rights of the Bachelor and then go city to city live events and they would do a mini Bachelor series that he was the host of with Becca. Talks about the inner workings of that. How much he got paid and some of the moving parts professionally and personally as it relates to his whole internal workings within Bachelor Nation. We talk a little bit more about what he earns on the podcast. We talk about generous coffee. We talk about some of the restaurants he's invested in. And he gets some massive, massive tips and tricks, not only on life, career, money, and outlook negotiation. I also think there's something about Ben's setbacks, which he owns so incredibly. He has like a pinball of a career where one things are

a grand slam and other things are complete setbacks and failures where he's not making a penny, but he finds the story to all connect. And each building block from either a setback or a home run brings him to where he is today. So this is an episode you can't afford to miss. Now remember, we are given away five bags of generous coffee. Stay tuned in the recap. All you to do is give us a five star rating last week. And we have five bags that we are given away in the recap. So make sure to give us five stars. Tell us what you think about the Ben Higgins episode, a takeaway and or a guest or theme you want us talking about. Now, something going into this week that you must know. Next week, we'll get the inflation readings for August. We'll also get the retail figures. And

and we'll get an interest rate decision from the European Central Bank. So these are some big figures here. We'll see how is consumers we are spending as far as all retail goes, which is a huge indicator of the economy in the United States. We will get the latest inflation readings for August. So that'll give us an indicator of what our expectations were versus what actually happened. And then, of course, it's always going to be interesting to see what happens

in the European Central Bank and what they do with interest rates. There's some really interesting things that are happening this week. Apple has their annual fall event. So if you use an Apple product out there like most of us, I'm using the iPhone, I got my Apple MacBook, they're expected to unveil their latest products. It'll be interesting to see what products that they have. And there's a lot of moving parts with Apple and their labor negotiations

and how that's going to impact supply, how long it might have to take for these products to get to our front doorstep. One last thing I want to let you know is just the total, year-to-date return on specific asset classes. When you think about investing in assets, if you're wondering how these assets are doing year-to-date in 2023, here's your answer. Bitcoin is up 32% this year. Stocks are up 14.2%. Oil is up 9.1 per gold is up 5.5%. Commodities, 5.2%. Cash, 3.2%. Investment grade corporate bonds, 2.1%. The dollar is up 1.38%. And government bonds are down two and a half percent. There's a lot happening this week from inflation reports to the retail

spending reports to Apple's new products. So more to come there. For me personally, this is my last week of being a nomad. I've been a nomad now for three weeks. My stuff is in storage. I have a new house that I'm moving into mid this week in Nashville. I am so excited. I will have the dogs with me for a couple weeks. As you guys know, Caitlin and I are both deciding to co-parent them. New York has been a blast. We got so many podcasts in. You'll hear about who those guests are in our recap. Got to go to the U.S. Open, the Yankees game, and just see and connect with so many friends that I haven't been able to see in quite some time. I think one of the big takeaways I've noticed is that with Caitlin and I, we work so hard. And then when we weren't working so hard, we'd work so

hard to try and be together. And I think there's just a lot of friendships that I had lost touch with at no one's fault, not the relationship, not myself, just life. And being able to to sit down with some of these people that I haven't been able to sit down in so long with and just kick it. Just connect. I actually made a comment on my Instagram. Great friends and great family are everything and there is nothing more important, nothing. The only thing I'd probably tailor in there, of course, is health. But other than that, I could go to the U.S. Open. I could go to the Yankees game. I could get to do all these cool things and interview these cool people. But nothing, nothing has filled my bucket more than sitting with a couple of beers or a dinner

or a lunch or a coffee, and just reconnecting with great people. You are who you walk with. And I know that is something that Ben Higgins lives by. So let's ring in the bell with the one, the only. Part two, Ben Higgins. I am surprised because of anyone from the franchise, in my opinion, over Wells, over Nick. But I think of anyone that's been on the show, you have received the most support, the most hype, and the most campaigning from others to take a larger role within the franchise.

And it felt like from 2016 to 2000, let's call it, 21, it was 100% going to happen. Yeah. Did you two feel that? Did you think career-wise you were going to have a place larger than you ended up having, looking back at it now being 2023, almost 24? Yeah, yes, I did. One, people kept telling me I would. But you're not saying external.

you're saying internally too externally mostly okay internally i really haven't had any conversations with the show in years and i tried i never knew how to put my name in the ring when chris was asked to leave i thought that if they were going to make a transition there would be i didn't think they'd pick me for a lot of reasons but i thought if they were going to pick somebody like jesse then i would at least have gotten a phone call i think jesse's great i think he stepped into a really impossible position. But if they were going to pick somebody like Jesse, I thought at least I would get a phone call also. Just to say, are you interested? Do you want a bigger role? Are you curious about this? I never did. And then when Wells picked up Paradise and it makes so much sense, like I don't see

Paradise without Wells, but then at that same period of time, they didn't make Wells really the host of Paradise. I was like, what is going on here? There's some really great talent that are invested in the show that want to see the show succeed that aren't being used, especially from this most recent kind of chapter of The Bachelor. So the writing was on the wall for me that I was not going to get those opportunities. I would have been very interested in those opportunities. We've had a lot of people come on this show from billionaires to pro athletes to sharks from shark tank all over the place. And a lot of things we hear over and over are if you want it, you got to go up there, direct eye to eye and be like, give it to me. Did you ever do that? And just as a learning lesson to anyone

back to regardless of their career is, do you wish you would have done that if you didn't? I did not do that when Chris was asked to leave because in my mind, like I said, I really didn't believe that I had a say in the matter. I thought, honestly, that Emmanuel Acho was going to step into that role. I thought it was his. I thought it was clear. I thought it made sense. And he did such a great job hosting that after. I thought it was his job to lose. I don't know what happened there. Again, I don't have any idea. So I was, this isn't my, this is not my role. This is not my job. Chris is a friend of mine. I'm interested if they were to ask me, but it's not something I'm going to fight for because I just don't think I'm the right fit right now. Now, I did always

believe that they would ask me to do something more. I think if we flash forward a little bit with the Golden Bachelor, which I thought and still think, and it's really the only time I've ever asked to show for anything or confidently said out loud, hey, I want this. It felt very weird for me to do, but it didn't work the first time. And so for this one, I did campaign hard. I sent emails. I made phone calls. I went out to LA for dinners. I, Ashley, I, who's obviously just a great friend of mine. She started a whole petition saying, hey, Ben should be involved in the going bachelor. I did not expect. I think it's a big ask to go in and be the host of that show. I think that's a big ask. If they thought I could do it and wanted me to do it, I would have gladly accepted it

and said, I'm going to do my best. I just wanted to be involved. I just wanted to be there. I want to be amongst that scene. I think it's a beautiful idea. And I think if done well, you don't know if it will be or not. It can be a show that captivates many. But that didn't work either. But I did. I pushed hard. What was the response you would get when you asked for stuff like that? Not a good fit? Not now? No, it wasn't even that you're not a good fit. It was mostly, yeah, not now or above my pay grade. Can't make those decisions. Or it was stuff just, it's what the bachelor uses as an excuse is there's so much chaos. We can't make a decision right now. So you're going to have to at some point. And I'm just telling you I'm willing and able and I'm very

cheap. I'm not expensive. And so it was mostly just, it felt like kicking the can down the road until I hear that it's airing and filming. And I don't get it. Yeah, I saw a ton of push for Caitlin and I saw an insane amount of push for you. And I'm bummed that didn't work out. I want you to give a piece of advice for people back home, though, if they see the trajectory, if the whole world is saying, that's their job, that's their position, that's where they have to go. It all makes sense. It makes sense to them to everyone else, but they don't get picked. What type of advice do you have for them as they try and navigate the next career move? Yeah.

For me, I have worked really hard since the show to build an identity, which everybody wants to. You listen to any pitch, you listen to any person that comes off the Bachelor. The first thing they think, and they think it's revolutionary, it's not. I want to do something and build my identity outside of this show. Different, right? Because there isn't those opportunities to necessarily catapult yourself into, a career from this show. There's never there's very few that have done it. And so for me, I've worked really hard actually using those words by saying it and doing it and taking some ownership in it

myself. So if the golden bachelor didn't work out, which it hasn't up to this point, maybe one day it will and we'll be laughing about this and being like, yeah, it all worked out for how it's supposed to. Yeah. But right now it's not there on the table for me. I'm fine. My life, I'm going back to what it was before, which is something I'm excited about and something that I enjoy doing. I think for anybody that's not picked or not maybe promoted or isn't seen as valuable in the eyes of their superiors and the eyes of the people of power, I think for me, what I've learned is, who am I as a person, what do I believe my skill sets are, what are my intentions by asking for these things or pushing for these things? And because I'm somebody that is sensitive and

somebody that has deep insecurities, giving myself tools to not let myself get to a place that doesn't believe in myself again. I think for me, since they didn't ask, me, there's been 50 new business calls and 50 new opportunities that I've pursued and talked through and worked on. This hasn't paralyzed me into saying, hey, this was my big shot. It wasn't. I'll be all right. If they asked me or not. Got it. I love that. I think it's a good piece of advice for people. I got the last thing on Bachelor. I've never had something from the show on that I've talked this much about the show, but you are such a big part of the show for so many years. Last thing I have is Bachelor live on stage. You do that. You do it with Becca. I think you got injured dancing.

on the show. Did you see that as an opportunity? And what was that like financially? Did that pay well? Yeah, it did. It was a really good opportunity financially. And obviously, it's a big ass to go on the road. I think at the time it was 47 shows and you're living on a bus. They would have had to pay me well to do that. 47 shows on a bus. Yeah, on a bus. 125. It was broken down by episode. It was probably closer to the first number. Yeah, it was definitely closer to the first number. Okay. But did you finish the tour, right? No, no. So that's the wild part. So COVID hits. I blow my knee out. We're the show's going great. We're packing our houses. There's a massive amount of momentum. At this point in time, Chris Harrison is still the host of The Bachelor, but there's rumors that Chris Harrison is looking to maybe

step away. Sure. Retirement might be in his future. And he was tongue in cheek about it, but it was never a clear answer of like, I'm going to do this thing until I'm 70. I think I don't know what was really going on there, but there was a rumor going on. And so then they asked me to host Bachelor Live on stage and I'm like, this could be my, the road, the test, right? And then COVID hits. And it ends the show. And it ends the show for obviously a long period of time. The show did come back for a second season. It was a lot different than it was before. And Becca was really made to handle that and lead that well. But that was something I said yes to really as a business decision. I was with Jessica at the time of my life. She was not living in Denver yet. We were not married. And I thought,

hey, this could be a home run for us as we move into the next chapter. Gotcha. Then COVID hits, you fall, you slip, you tear your ACL. Does the show cover surgery when you tear your ACL on live on stage? I didn't get surgery until a year later. Okay. So no, I actually blew, I dislocated at playing basketball. I was like, I need to get surgery now. But no, I never did. But yeah, Salt Lake City, there's great clips of me just doing a dance move and then you just going, Oh, it's brutal. Gone. And since then, you have not been contracted or done a cameo or anything with the show professionally.

No. Like, when on Matt James' season is the last time. So that was afterwards because it was coming out of COVID. Matt James' season was the last time I had been contacted by the show to do anything with the show. All right. Let's keep that campaign alive. Let's get Ben Higgins back in the Bachelor game. Post show, you've done a lot of things.

You have written a book. You've hosted different shows, different awards ceremonies. You have a huge podcast. what has been the most lucrative play you've invested in restaurants you have invested in your coffee brand generous which we'll talk about here what has been the most lucrative for you where have you made the most money definitely the podcast like not even a question not even a podcast not even a question as you mentioned i think 80 million was the last time we actually counted i think if you predicted it out it's 100 million downloads at this point it's been

eight years of consistent programming through iHeart it's a well-followed podcast bachelor Nation is loyal and they've been really great to our show. But yes, I think we are, we were IHeart's really first podcast. So we used to record podcasts by calling on our phones and talking to each other. That's changed a lot nowadays. But that has been the most consistent and that's been the thing that's definitely allowed me to do generous. Generous is coming up. The last thing I got on the podcast front, you've seen a lot of people, myself included from Bachelor Nation that have had podcast. Some do great. Some flop. Some take over the world. Do you have an overall take on just bachelor people pursuing podcasts as a profession and stance on it? A little bit. I think I get asked

every once in a while from people of all different backgrounds if they should do a podcast or not. I think for me, I would only tell them to if they have writing a book, if you have a story that you just have to tell. Or if you have a topic that you just have to get out into the world. I think podcasts at its best, obviously Almost Famous doesn't fall into this category, so you can read through the lines there. I think podcasts at its best are a place for education, relatability, healing, help, insight, knowledge. I think with Almost Famous, we fall into a category and a little bit of the healing side of, hey, we're just getting your mind off of the craziness that is going around you at all times. But I don't think we do it consistently. I think we're

a breakdown of a show that we both care a lot about, that we believe in, that has a really special place in our life, and I want to make that clear too. I look at the show with a really high regard. It changed my life for the better. It's a huge part of my story. I don't want to be a part of my legacy. I don't want it to be my identity, but it's a huge part of my story. And it changed a lot of things in my life. And so I really respect the show. And that's why I fight so hard to still do things with the show when the opportunities present itself. But today, I think the podcast world looks a lot different than it did when we started eight years ago. We were on the cutting edge. We new people were pouring money into marketing on podcast. I still think that happens at times.

I think it's a really hard journey. In fact, I started a podcast two years ago called Hope Still Wins, which was one where I was interviewing leaders. You'd been on it. I don't know if you remember that. I do. It was to hear stories of people that I looked up to, people that I respected, mostly in the faith realm, it flopped. It did. It didn't work. We had a very loyal following. We just didn't have a very big following. And so I have experiences where here as of recent, I guess I tried to start one that I thought was going to be really good that I put a lot of time into that just didn't work. It's interesting.

Yeah, that whole podcast realm is a wild industry. You started almost famous. 2017, you also co-founded generous coffee. So I think what's cool about this company is that it's a hell of a product. It's not an actual non-for-profit, but you do donate a huge portion of not only your time, but profits. Talk to me about the business model and the concept behind it when you started in 2017. Yeah, so 2017, I was still working in italic. And I was starting to become really tired of that work. And I did not feel like it was a career

path for me that I was going to be passionate about. And at that point in time, new opportunities started to present themselves. New things started to come into my life. And I thought, hey, maybe I don't have to be in financial services forever. I called my buddy up and I said, hey, I really want to leave talysis. I just don't know what I'm going to do. And I don't think I can go back to an office. I don't think I can clock in nine to five. I feel like a robot. I need a breath of fresh air. So he and I packed our bags. We went to him. Honduras, which is a place that means a lot to me personally. And we just did a big old road trip through the country, visiting people, sitting in restaurants, sitting in bars, sitting in

coffee shows. Just to get grounded? Just to get grounded. Just to learn, I think, a little bit more about the country that we were investing so much of our time into already through Humanian Hope United, which was a nonprofit that I've been involved in since 11. And we just wanted to get grounded. And on this trip, we had dinner one night in this beautiful location. I'll never forget it with a family who'd invite us in and the guy across the table from us invited to his coffee farm. And when he invited us to his coffee farm, we showed up the next morning, and it was the most beautiful place in the world, but the people that were working, the producers were incredibly poor. No access to school, no access to clean water, very little access to infrastructure or

transportation. Yet coffee was being grown in this beautiful place, and it was being sold and exported by people who were making millions, because I also know the exporter in Central and South America. I said, there's got to be something we can do. This feels like something we can do. And I'd already been working in poverty relief for, again, since 2011. So we had some experience in that realm. Came back home, processed our thoughts. And what we ended up coming up with is, what if we started a for-profit business that we could take on personal and capital investment into? We build this business out and then we donate 100% of the profits to nonprofits. Because of almost famous, I don't have to take a salary from generous. I don't get paid from

generous, but it is my full-time job. It's what I spend. So still, 2023, you've never taken a salary. In fact, I've obviously put up my own money to start the business and keep the business afloat for the first few years of operations. And so we're out of place now. We're profitable. We've really entered into the promo space where we allow companies that are wanting to gift clients or their employees. We can do customized bags for them.

We can tell a story. Then that money, they can pick where that money goes from their purchase. So 100% of the profits, which ends up being about 10 to 15% of revenue, is donated to nonprofits at the end of each quarter or at the end of each partnership. Wow, that's incredible. A hundred percent of net profits are donated. Wow. That's remarkable. That's unbelievable. When you started it to where you are today, did you at least recoup your investment back? Starting to. I have not to this point. We paused that. We had to do a massive amount of reinvestment, right? We were never roasting our coffee until three years ago. We were white labeling from a different coffee roaster. So we had to buy a building. We had to buy a roaster. We had to set up production lines. We had to set up packaging facilities. We had to hire on new staff, more staff. All of these things had to exist. And so the money that was probably at that time able to be, I was able to recoup,

we just kept it in to make that investment. And then I brought on, as a man of faith, I was praying for somebody to come help me because this was coming a massive load. And it was weird to be working for and with a company that I had started that I believed in, but not getting paid by it and actually losing money at the beginning from it. It was becoming a very big burden on my life and a confusing piece of my life. So I started praying for some help and some assistance. And I ran into a guy who grew up in the same hometown as I did. He's 40 years old. He was a CEO of a massive insurance company that he grew to just be at the way with at the time when he left. It was the United States biggest crop insurer in the United States. He had a midlife crisis at 40 and said, I can't do this anymore. I don't want to do this to my family anymore. So he sold out of the business, which obviously means that he did pretty well. But he wasn't done creating his life. legacy. And so I'd ran into him and I said, do you ever want to come and be the CEO of

generous? I need to hire somebody on top of me. This is this weird dynamic. I'm trying to balance is getting too hard. And he said, yeah, I do. And so we've been working together now for three years and it's been an incredible partnership where we've built this business, but we're both fortunate enough where I still have almost famous. I still have other revenue streams at this point, like the restaurants and those things so that we, neither of us are taking a salary from generous, even though it is our full-time job. Interesting. Yeah. It's your pursuit of different careers and options and then the result of those careers and options like the podcast failing but the other podcast crushing this being more of purpose and impact in finding any way

to make it float and work even praying and then finding the CEO it's really interesting when you look at your entire professional world do you have a model that you're following are you like I need to fill the purpose bucket I need to fill the financial bucket or is this just like a collage of Ben's life work? I think a lot, none of it would make sense without my faith. And I'm not saying everybody of faith needs to work for a company for free. That is not at all I'm saying. This was not a vision and it still is not a vision where I think, hey, I'm going to

never recoup my initial investment into this business. This is not meant for me to lose money on. It's meant for us to be a platform to give money away. But I think there's different pools in my life. But I do firmly believe that if I've been given a lot in my life, which I believe I have, and a lot of that is due to The Bachelor, then there's an opportunity, I would call it, to try to give something back. Very cool.

I think for me, there was a period of my life where I became really excited and addicted to the fame and to the selfish pursuit of how fast and how much could I stay relevant. During that season of my life, when that was unfulfilling, I learned that what really brought me joy and what really fulfilled me and what really allowed my life to feel like there was a purpose behind it was to invest into other stories and to invest in. to other people's life experiences and to listen well, to speak less, and to try to find different niches in my life where I could do something good. And generous is really the avenue that we fell into to do that with. And so I think my philosophy when it comes to where I spend my time and my

efforts, I just want to have a purpose. Selfishly, I get a lot more joy out of investing and being able to be a part of really gritty, real stories that are affecting people who are facing injustice than I do going to a club and making $10,000 to shake hands and dance on stage. I would much rather have the life I have. I'd much rather choose less money, but more purpose than I would more purpose and less money. So that's me personally. Just based on because I hit rock bottom when I was just pursuing my own relevancy in pursuits and how I could make headlines and how I could keep my name in the world, that was unfulfilling to me. It was very empty. I think it's empty and it's like it's the grind and the way it will wear and tear.

you down is just inevitable. And I think one takeaway I have from your journey, whether it's generous, investing other companies, it's The Bachelor, it's the personal struggles of heartbreak to finding the love of your life. It's that your foundation, although at times often rocked to its core and beat the shit out of, that foundation was still that bottom layer of faith and direction and purpose and impact never got touched. And that's always been, it feels like your core compass as you've navigated all these different directions. I've always had this feeling, Jason, and it could be my ego and people could describe in different ways. It's been really healthy for me. I just always have believed and I believe it about each person or at least try to. I don't

always do a good job. I've been called to something really great or that I have breath and I have life and that I'm here on this earth. And as a result, like, I get the opportunity as a healthy 34 year old now to do really cool things. That doesn't just mean because I was on the bachelor. It just, it would have meant the same, I would hope that I'd be feeling the same way even without that show that I'm just being called to to really cool opportunities and really great things and to invest in the people. For me, that's kept that foundation alive. I believe, obviously, that comes from my faith too, of knowing that each and every human is loved and trying to believe that the best I can, even when people piss me off. But because of that, because of my faith, it's kept me grounded and it's kept me on a pursuit that is far bigger than myself. My leg is. see, I hope, is far bigger than myself. I don't think people will remember the name Ben Higgins in a hundred years. What I hope they remember is maybe just something I did, or maybe there was a life changed and a kid born who will be here in a hundred years because of the work that we're doing. I love that. I think that's beautiful. You are a bright light, Ben, and I think people back at home,

if you find that you're just lost in any direction personally, financially, professionally, I think just even taking your advice of knowing that you, no matter what level it is, you are here for a reason. There is a bigger purpose finding that purpose and pursuing at all costs and finding in the good and what you do have. Maybe right now you're broke, but you do have your health. I think just finding the optimism and an area of really darkness will help you continue to find your light. I think when we say this stuff, it oftentimes feels like it has to be grandiose and really big. Sure. That is not what the last seven years of my life has looked like, right? Maybe from a distance it has.

Maybe from a distance it has. On the ground, I'm in my office at my house on a computer, losing money to a company that I really still believe in, trying to figure out what avenues I can use in my life to continue to do this business and not take a salary from it. A lot of my life in the last seven years when it comes to reminding myself, what is my purpose, what is my value, how do I do something bigger myself, is just taking the step to the neighbor, to the person. At generous, we have a saying internally because our employees get oftentimes bogged down by work and confused by purpose because we do so much is if one person's

life is bettered because of the work that we've been done and the business closes, it's still all been worth it. And I think that's a good message for anybody that I've had to remind myself of many times is it doesn't mean that you have to start this new nonprofit or this new platform. It just means that maybe your neighbor is hurting and they could use a little gift or a hug or a glass of wine or somebody listened to. It just means taking a step outside. Some of those like inmeasurables or those things that you don't really focus on that aren't in the P&O or the balance sheet. Those are the things that could drive the biggest impact and could justify everything you've done and why. And before I get your trading secret, I'd be so remissed. I was thinking, yeah, maybe I'll just ask

Ben and I'll talk about in the recap, but I just got to quickly get it. Not only are your investor in others, not only your investor in purpose and impact. We're actually going to go have dinner at one of the restaurants you invest in. Can you give everyone a brief summary for those that may not know how you invest in restaurants, the restaurants you have, and the success rate you've had, or failure rigs? It's a tough business. Our restaurants have been very successful, and that's not because I work for them. It's because we have an incredible team that leads them. We've hit some home runs and really have grown after COVID. We have about 20 restaurants now. 20. Yeah, 20 restaurants, eight different concepts. We have some in New Orleans and some in Denver. We're going to expand

outside of this area here fairly soon. It started with me not having any friends out here and the guy that owned the bar that I used to belly up at most nights because I just wanted community. One day said, hey, I want to start a second restaurant and I want to do it with friends and family and regulars who believe in this and me. And he goes, do you have any money? And I was like, I have no money, me. I have zero dollars. Now, this is before any of the shows. Okay. Okay. I was like, I have zero dollars. But my grandmother had just passed away and she'd, I think, give me $10,000 or $15,000 at the time. And I said, I have $15,000 in my bank account. And that's all I have. And he said, that would work. And so I did it. I'd give my money. And that restaurant blew up. It did so well.

And that spiraled into the second and the third. And now we have this really cool group called Culinary Creative Group. You can look it up online that is exploding around Denver right now and exploding in the U.S. It's operating at the top 2% of any restaurant group in the country right now. We have a concept there where we want to feel local. We are local. We have local investment, but they're smaller in size, really great in food and really great in atmosphere. And so that was there. I say all this and I almost feel weird about talking about generous and it is my full-time job. But there has been other opportunities in my life that I've invested into. It's not like I don't like making money. It's not like I don't like having an income.

It's not like I don't like some of the finer things in life. I started a company a few years ago and we invest into businesses, mostly in the startup stage, we have about 30 companies that we're invested into right now. Some of them have a purpose. Some of them are just really great. And I've seen some ability for them to grow in size and the markets they're operating in. That little fund that I guess I operate on my own, if we call it a fund, has done really well. Restaurants are a part of that. Skin care is a part of that. Apparel and golf apparel and blankets are part. There's many different realms. And I would say, to go back to your question, how I get involved in things is I read a book. I don't know if you've read it. The Secrets

of on Sand Hill Road. It's an incredible investing book about the stories of it. It's a really great book and it brings out some great concepts. So you look for a great people. You look for the market capabilities of the new business that's being started or the business that already exists and what kind of innovation they're coming into or what kind of new story they're going to be telling. And then the final piece that I've added into that, that they spoke to a little bit in this book that I read, that I really believe in and that's worked for me. So you get the people, you got the opportunity with generous and just things I've learned. I then look for the story, not only from the founders, but the story of the business. When you hear their story, are they

passionate about it? Do they believe in it? Does this story captivate me personally? Do I believe them when they tell me this story? And if those three things check off, then we're on a road now to say, okay, what do you need? What do you want? And how can I help? Very cool. Last question again on the restaurant. When you invest in a big company, the way you get paid out is having equity in an exit. When you invest in a restaurant, I know they return to shareholders pretty quickly. They have a schedule to do. What has been the time period on average that you're receiving at least your investment back? Oh, man. Our restaurants crushed at 18 months. 18 months. Wow. Okay. So if you had to look at everything that you put in, let's say you invested 100K, have you gotten 2x return at this point or more?

We changed our model about six months ago. So it used to be that you would invest into all these restaurants individually. We've wrapped all those up into one group now. And it's hard to answer that question because what we did was say, hey, we have a restaurant in town called Ashkara or the one we're going to tonight is called Mr. Oso. I was involved in both of those restaurants being formed and investing into both those restaurants. There are other restaurants at the beginning in our group that I maybe didn't invest into based

on my own life situation or maybe the concept didn't fit for me. But now they're all in one. And so because of that, we've delayed distributions so that we can grow quickly. Got it. Go into new market areas. And so right now there's a value that's vapor, right? It's a vapor value on what my shares would be worth. But there's really no cash value to those because I'm not pulling out anytime soon. They've been too good to me. And I said, in 18 months, I got my principal investment back. I'm sitting in a good place that I feel like a good place, but I'm also betting on the restaurants being more successful down the line than they even have been up to this point. Pretty freaking wild. Ben Higgins, small business investor, entrepreneur, author, podcast

host, television personality, reality TV star. The list is truly endless. This is my last question before you get your trading secrets. In 10 years from now, it's 233. What is the number one source of income for Ben Higgins. The number one source of income for me in 10 years, I hope, is these investments that I've done and continuing that. I enjoy it. I get to meet cool people. I get to be a part of cool things. Right now I get to sit on the board of a huge amazing organization called Project Hope, which is one of the country's biggest nonprofits doing incredible work. I'm obviously sent on the board of Humanian Hope United. A lot of this came because of my involvement in some of these businesses and because of I hope the way that I, again, listen well, speak less. So I hope these

investments work out for me because I still want to work for Generis and I don't believe I'll ever take a salary from Generis. It's in our operating agreement that if Generis ever sells, that money is actually going to have to be donated. I can legally recoup my investment, but then everything else will be donated. So it keeps a purity of heart. It keeps the intentions. It protects me from ever starting to lose, if I start to lose money and be like, no, I should just pull some money from Generous. I can never do that legally. And so I hope it's an investment so that I can work for generous and that we can continue to tell a story with Generous where a for-profit business has gone out of the way to donate to really incredible nonprofits that are affecting and healing

humans who have been affected by injustice. It's incredible. We all know Bachelor Ben. Some of us and most likely most of us didn't know about board member Ben or business Ben, but wow, there's some serious depth there. That's why I love this show. We get to see a side. that we don't technically always get to see in every other interview. So, Ben, thank you for being on trading secrets. However, we got to wrap with one trading secret. So it's a trade secret. You can only get from Ben Higgins. You can't find a textbook. Can't Google, can't YouTube. It's one trading secret, life, career, or money. One thing you can leave us with, Ben Higgins, the one and only, what could you leave us? Have a healthy view of yourself. If you have a healthy view of yourself,

you're going to realize you're awesome and you're great, but you're not the most important person in the room. And so surround yourself with people who you believe are talented, who you believe in, who you believe can do great things and listen to them well. I absolutely love that, especially at a time because even if you do have that, there's going to be life setbacks. It will question that. Like right now, I've never questioned like my self-worth more than I ever have. But when you have it, you can go find it again. And when you go find it, you can prosper from that. Ben, that was an unbelievable trading secret. Where can I want to start with this. Where can you? people find Generous Coffee.com.

Okay. You can go to Generouscoffee.com. We do retail, obviously, bags to home. We also, a majority of our business right now is in the more corporate space, in the promo space, helping businesses give good gifts that aren't like your typical swag to clients or employees. So yeah, Generous Coffee.com. Okay. We're buying trading secret teams buying five bags.

We are going to give them away to you guys. Just go give us five stars. Tell us your number one takeaway from Ben's episode. and we will give all the five of those away in the recap, Ben, where can everyone find everything else you have going on? Yeah, the very awkward website that is the benhiggins.com. Is that two E's or one? No, one E. Okay.

Benhiggins.com was taken. So the benhiggins.com, you can find out maybe if I'm doing some speaking, where I'm going to be speaking at, mostly that talk is around loneliness and connection. And I always enjoy when people from The Bachelor come to listen to that app. You can also find out about generous. You can find out about where my Instagram. and I'm not super active, but active enough on there, the book, and all those things at debenhiggins.com.

And we didn't even get into influencing and social media monetization. It is without a doubt, Ben Higgins will have to come back on this show. Ben, thank you so much for being on trading secrets. Thanks for having me, man. This was awesome. Ding, ding, ding. We are ringing in the closing bell to Ben Higgins Part 2. Now, if you caught the recap in Ben Higgins Part 1, you know we addressed a lot.

The numbers, their inner workings of his businesses, the restaurants, A to Z. What we said in that recap was that we had five bags of generous coffee to give away. So as always, I got to turn it over to the one and only the curious Canadian who's here with me right now. But David, usually when I turn it over, I let you just go for it. Give me your take on part two. But if you're okay with it, I'd like to just start with giving back. Give some bags of generous coffee back. Yeah, I mean, part one was juiced.

The recap was packed. To start the recap for part two, like you said, generous coffee means we got to be generous ourselves and you know our listeners we go through every single review top to bottom and i know for a fact the ben higgins episode yielded the most reviews we've ever had all of them super positive so on the heels of that jay you got to pick out five usernames we got to send some coffee out that's how we're going to start part two recap today i love it let's give some generous coffee away to all the generous money mafia listeners putting reviews out there number one nicky Goodridge. Just shoot us an email, Trading Secrets at jason tartick.com with your address and we will send you a bag.

Nikki Goodrich has won. And I'm not going to read each one of these reviews, David, but this Nikki Goodridge, I have to read it because she said, more Bachelor, more Bachelorette people, please, please. How about Jojo Fletcher? You ask you will receive because, wow, this week in New York City, we have had some really, really good interviews from the Bachelor franchise. guys. The second winner is Brit 0491. Britt 0491. The third winner. Now, when you put in your name, you can put in any name, David, for your review. You can make up a name. The name on this one is addicted but annoyed help. And I read this review before picking it out. And it was actually a really good review. So that name doesn't have anything to do with the review. But that's number three. number four is going to be Kim D-70, Kim D-70. And the fifth is going to be just from many. You five have won five bags or one bag each of generous coffee. Please send us your address and we will

send it to you. And for everyone out there, please give us five stars. Give us a review. And every single episode, we pick one winner in the recap that I send something to. Usually it's something from the influencer closet. Today, it's a bag of coffee from generous. coffee. Being generous. It feels good to support one of Ben's small businesses, but my God, he has a whole lot of them. I mean, let's do a really quick just synopsis of what you thought in part two, David. We heard all about his pursuit of trying to work further in Bachelor Nation. We heard about him tearing his ACL doing the whole Bachelor live on stage and some of the dollars and cents behind that. We heard about his restaurant portfolio on the success he's had, one of which David,

right after the show, we went to go eat at Mr. Ozo. If you're in Denver, go eat at Mr. Ozo. Do you have any thoughts, whether it's part one or part two? I just love his mindset on life. He doesn't let the highs get him too high where his ego gets inflated and he thinks he's figured it out. And he doesn't let his lows just weigh him down and be lows, whether it's not getting the bachelor hosting job or having a podcast that fails or having, being a top 2% of

restaurant group or anything that he's done, he's just like, oh, that's good. That's rewarding. This feels right. That didn't work out. On to the next thing. I think that is just my biggest takeaway with him and why he's been so wildly successful in so many different areas. I just love his mindset. And it adds to the purity of who he is. I love how he owns it. I think a lot of people have a lot of setbacks and failures and they kind of steer clear. They won't have the conversation. They might position or pivot to something that has only done well. He clearly stepped into it. He clearly stepped into every single one of his failures. And then when you heard about all of his successes, you became that much happier for him. You were rooting at a deeper level for him, right? And I think

that also ties to part one when he talked about, you know, a perfect Ben. There is no such thing as a perfect person. If you think there is, it's going to set you up to fail. And that's just an overarching theme. It lives, it breathes not only in this episode, but in Ben Higgins. David, I got to ask you this. Do you know some of the people I've asked? With this week or not? Well, you know what? I do know some of them, but I did see on Instagram that you were podcasting with Craig from Southern Charm and obviously on Summerhouse.

And I immediately texted Evan during the interview. I almost called Evan. And I was like, what the shit? I didn't know we got this guy on the podcast. Huge Craig guy over here. And not to get too far into the reality TV weeds, but a very interesting season of Summerhouse coming up with some of the things in the news. But run me through some of the guests.

that you interviewed for the podcast that we can look forward to coming up. You talk about a guy who wears his heart on his sleeve but just tells it how it is. That's how the Craig Conover interview went. I mean, it was amazing. David, it was so good that he said, oh, shit, man, like after he goes,

listen, I'm one of the few people at NBC and Bravo that doesn't have to get approval to do press. I think I'm going to have to relisten to that one before I let it all go and decide what can and can't go out. So that's how good it was. But we had him, we had Gina Kian from Real House Housewife's OC. We had Carrie Burke on. Carrie Burke, David, 20 years old, over 4 million followers, has 22 books credited to her name.

Wait for that episode. We have never really stepped into someone with Gen Z vibes either, so we do step into that. You know, the biggest and hottest wedding out there right now, Joe and Serena, we have Joe and Serena coming on talking all about the wedding costs, how they manage money as a relationship. That was a good one. Kit Keenan, you know Kit Keenan from The Bachelorette. She is the youngest contestant ever to be on The Bachelorette. And as Chris Harrison said, she has the best style of anyone that's ever touched the franchise, her mother, symphony, Raleigh, a very, very famous fashionista.

We get into so many details behind that lifestyle, that industry, and how to work within it. Then, Michael A, we know Michael A has had a wild road from America's sweetheart to almost being the bachelor to turning it down to a lot of setback. here and there. And he steps into all of a debt. And when I say all of them, I mean, even personal setbacks, not just professional. So that is going to be a really, really, really good one. The other one, David, I got to tell you about that I think our listeners will be super excited about. Your rich BFF has blown up in the personal finance space. And your rich BFF is coming on a lot of action, a lot of things. It's been a good week. I've seen people from left, right,

center. I tuned into an electric trailer of trading secrets for a preview for fall of 2023. So I'm definitely here for it. If you could accomplish all that in a week and you're looking for relocation places, you know, New York City for you, for you, big picture thinking, I love it for you. Let me ask you a question, Jay. You did all that in six days. You've had the interviews. You've crushed it. Any fun? Any jay time? Any jay time in New York City? It's how you're at the U.S. Open. Went to the U.S. Open. I did a full day Saturday. Did a, did a night the U.S. Open Sunday and did another night grocery store Joe said, hey, Serena's not feeling so well. Do you want to come with me? And I was like,

let's rip it. Did that. Went to the Yankees game. So there's been a lot of fun, a lot of entertainment. I mean, when you're in the city that doesn't sleep, there's just always something to do. And it's so good to reconnect with friends that I haven't reconnected with in quite some time and just catch up and have a couple drinks and really just like see what's new in their life. Obviously, we're talking about my. life and what's next and just I don't know you know how it is it's so good to reconnect with good friends and to do it over a Yankees game US open all that shit man it's been it's been a really good time but Evan as everyone knows producer of this show and my business partner he has got me

David moving 8,000 miles an hour I'm like shot like bring me back to Nashville where I can get up early get a workout and go to bed by 9 o'clock I don't know it's I feel like I could live in New York for like one week a month yeah I don't think you need Nashville for the workouts I've been seeing you lately. You're in trim shape. I'm getting a little jealous over here. Not going to lie, not going to lie. I got to ask you, I saw you at the U.S. Open with Joey, is his name, the next bachelor? Really quick. How do you know him? Is he a good guy? Do I have to watch a season? Give me some insight here. Dude, he's the best guy. You would absolutely love him. So, good golf, by the way. So I met him, you know, Dr. Ian Mort. Ian Mort went to Geneseo

with both David and I. He is a soccer player. And he is a dentist, actually, in Nashville. His older brother, I was in his wedding, Joe Mort. And so you might have seen Joe, Rachel, they're on my Instagram here and there because I'll babysit their kids or I'll go have dinner with their family. They are like family to me. So Ian asked me to go golfing. We got connected with one of his dentist that he's buddies with and his dentist brought Joey.

So all of us were in a foursome together. We played the whole time. And I was just like, this dude's energy is unmatched. it's awesome positive having fun i feel like when i was getting like mad over golf like throwing a club or something he'd be like you're good man let's go let's keep having fun and then it was at the very end of it like we had a drink after and he's like hey man like i'd love to connect with you like you see you know great guy da da da da da i was like that'd be awesome gave him my number we exchanged numbers kept in touch since and then the fun this is like the behind the scene story of it

joey reached out to me and was like uh he's like hey man i like do you you This is, I feel like even weird reaching out to you about this, but there's this casting director that reached out to me. And I don't know, I can't tell like if it's real or not. Like, is it legit? And I was like, well, who's the name of the casting director? Because I know most of the people there, right? And he said this name. And I was like, I don't, I was like, hang on, man. I don't think that's right. So I called the casting director I knew who had been there for a while. I said, is this person a casting director? I have a friend who's asking. And they're like, oh yeah, we just hired them not too long ago. So their brand, I was like, that's why I didn't

know their name. And I was like, yeah, man, that's legit. Fire away. Get after it. Give it a go. And you know, the rest is history. Our next bachelor, Joey G. Dude, do you want to know what else is crazy? Because a lot of people are like, you guys look alike. And I was like, damn, we actually do. They're like, you look like his older brother. What a compliment for me, because he's a stud. But his mother is Jewish and his father has Middle Eastern. And my mother's Jewish. And my father has Lebanese in him. So his father has Armenian in him. Now, he also has Italian in him.

So he has Italian, he has Armenian, and his 23 of me, we had a lot of similarities. And I was like, damn, all right. Maybe we're brothers, man. Maybe we're long-lost cousins, dude. Best friends? That's awesome.

It looked like you had a great time. One of those weekends, I wish I could have been there for. But I'm back on the road, recapping from a hotel in Rhode Island, ready to kick some ass this weekend. But it's good. It's good to recap. to connect with you as always and you know closing the book on ben higgins i don't think this

would be the last time that we have them on but definitely someone who is very deserving of a part two so we hope you guys all enjoy it and keep leaving those reviews and david good luck with the hockey season i know you're going full force thank you guys for listening to this episode hopefully it was the side of ben you haven't seen before that is the goal with every single guest that we have on in our next recap we might have a few stories to tell why because david and i will be together this week. I am coming to David's charity golf tournament for Bishop Carney Monday, September 11th.

We'll be playing, we'll be hanging out, spending a couple days together, so the recap next week might be a little extra juice. I love that. I forgot all about that. That's how busy I've been. I'm fired out for that live recap in person. Can't wait. Let's go. Give us five stars. Let us know your biggest takeaway

or guest that we should have on or anything else topic you think we should cover. And thank you for tuning into another episode of Trading Secrets. One, hopefully you could afford to mess.