WHOA That's Good Podcast - Ben Higgins and Preparing for Reality TV

Episode Date: September 26, 2018

Sadie visits with Ben Higgins, star of season 20 of ABC's The Bachelor. Ben dishes on the reaction he received from being on the show and how he is now using his love of coffee to invest in hope-filled, life-changing stories. generousmovement.com Learn more about your ad choices. Visit megaphone.fm/adchoices

I am sure most of y'all know who our guest is today, but if you don't know him, you better look him up right now. His name is Ben Higgins. Ben Higgins, I know all the girls right now, you probably screamin'. Oh yes, he was on the Bachelor. He's been on the Bachelor twice, but also he has a story to tell. Actually, the reason he is on this podcast today is because listen to this man's Instagram bio.

Be kind. For everyone you know, it's fighting a hard battle and every second we are creating our story. So obviously Ben has a huge heart to him and I cannot wait to hear all the advice he's going to give us today. Alright, what up fam, welcome to the WoW That's Good Podcast. Today we have a really special guest and I'm super excited. I know a lot of you know who he is.

We have, are you ready for a dumble? Ben Higgins, welcome, Ben to the show. This is great. Now I'm so excited to be talking to you. This is great. I'm so excited too. Okay, so this is the most simple podcast ever with one question.

And that is what is the best piece of advice that you've ever been given? You know, this is such a good question. And one that I've been thinking about a lot recently because there's one thing in life that I've never been good at, and so I'm an only child. Grip in Indiana, my family's got a little bit of grit to them,

not too much, but a little bit. There, we do have a background of agriculture, so it is a little bit of farming family. Nice. Getting advice is not something, and taking advice, is not something that we do easily Honestly, I was thinking back on like how many times in life have I readily accepted any type of advice from anybody that loves cares supports me in general and I think it's few and far between so one thing I want to start with was

Thank you for bringing to light an issue that I now have that I need to figure out why I cannot take advice. Oh, wow. That's actually, you know what? I'm actually really glad you said that because I bet a lot of people are age or in the 20s to 30 range, probably feel the same way. So thank you for bringing light to that issue. Yeah, yeah, so that I'm gonna work on that.

But there is a little piece of advice that I, you know, I was given and I think it's a culmination of a lot of love from my parents, a lot of love from friends and family, a lot of love from people around me. And I think because this, this advice was not given by a person, it was given to me through prayer. I was, I remember this moment very distinctly. I was going through a pretty tough time, just with just with my dad was super sick. I was questioning my motives and my purpose. I was questioning my passions and my desires and I was sitting at a

coffee shop. I remember this and I was praying and it was just a really cool experience where I felt like this clarity was given to me where this little small voice, I'll call it, the Holy Spirit others will just call it your mind, but I'll call it something special. And it was, live your life been like it could be written about in the Bible. And at the time, I was like, what does that mean? And I started to just sit there and pray through it and process it, and it was this clarity that,

you know, the Bible is a group, is a story of a bunch of people pursuing the one above in the best way they know how, with failures and faults. And so it's like little bit of advice that I think was a culmination of a lot of years of insights from my family. A lot of years of love from them, but then also culminating with this small voice saying, okay, this is what this is all meant. Gave me a purpose and a passion

far beyond anything I could, I thought I had. Well, that's so good. Oh my gosh, I think that it's really cool like that you said you got that in prayer and from the Holy Spirit because I believe that the Lord is so good with instruction and with teaching. I always say, God is my teacher. I don't know what I'm doing half the time. And so more than half the time. And so I need the Holy Spirit

to give me advice. And so to hear you say that whenever you're in a coffee shop, I'm sure you are being still. You were praying is really cool and really powerful. And also I feel like what the Lord did in that moment for you is really open up the door for you to receive a lot more advice because by saying like If you like live like a story that's worthy of being in the Bible then that means that like get to know the Bible I get to know the people in the Bible so that you can know what those stories look like and then not only that But if we're living like the people in the Bible then then we're also believing like the people in the Bible. So it raises your faith to like a whole nother level. And I think that that's super cool, especially saying like for a long time, if advice was

something that was rare to receive or rare to give, then that right there opens the door to so much more to be willing to spoke in. And that's super cool. So while I didn't even see that coming, I thought this was gonna be like farming a vice. And then next, you know, you dropped the Holy Spirit. I'm like, okay. That was awesome.

And twist and turn. Twist and turn. I really want to ask you about this too, because I thought this was so good. It was your pinned tweet, not that I was stalking, but I definitely went to your Twitter and saw this pinned tweet. And I ended up being so sucked into the message

that your pastor was preaching. And really just the advice that he had for the church. And he was basically talking about how like, you know, the church was so brutal whenever he went on the bachelor. And I experienced that whenever I was on dance with the stars and just stepping into that reality TV world and what the church response was to it. And he was just kind of talking about, listen, like that's what the world sees the church as. And that's a real problem. And just think

about that for a second. And to me, like it was such great advice to me and just how can I now be in the spotlight, being like, kind of shape the culture and like, kind of help speak into what it looks like for people going to reality TV and not just being like, this was what it looks like, but this is how we can help. This is how we can pray. This is what we can encourage. So, anyways, a sail out to say, I received a lot of advice from your pastor in that video and I was just wondering if there was anything somebody said to you and the process of wanting to go in the bachelor thinking

about doing this reality TV show that has really stuck with you or stuck with you through the process of that. Yeah, you bring up such a good point and it's also really nice to hear you say that you've been through it also not because I want you to suffer the pain and the feeling of criticism but to know that there is community out there that I wasn't the one lost Christian that felt the burden of the church or the burdens of believers saying, hey, this is wrong because it hurts. And it's really hard, especially at a young age. When I started this whole experience, I was 24 years old. It was hard

for me to process what was right and wrong. I was just trying to figure out life in general in my own world. So what I think, Denny Wilson at Warsaw Community Church and Warsaw and Diana was saying there was something that really spoke to me and gave me encouragement because he was in a place of leadership in my life and in the lives of a lot of others.

And he stood up on stage and he preached a message of hope and love and light preaching a message of perception. And for me, as I'm going through this journey, I needed it. And then I, you know what I did was I took a step back and I thought everybody needs this message. All of us have our spheres of influence. All of us are living a life of leadership at some level, either for the good or the bad. And all of us need to hear the message of, what kind of perception are we bringing off? Are we bringing off one that,

hey, we're too good for everything else? We're above everything else. We can't associate or commune with anybody of a lesser ethical standard or more standard or are we saying no we're gonna be like Jesus and we're gonna get down in the grit and the weeds we're gonna be within the light and the darkness and and for me I walked out of that sermon that was one that you know was kind of like how often is it where your preacher actually kind of preaches to you and

actually how often is it where your preacher actually kind of preaches to you and actually preaches to you. Yeah. And I walked out of that and I just remember this feeling of hope and also this feeling of conviction even in my own life on what am I judging people for? Like what am I, what percent, what am I perceiving and assuming their lives are bringing about that I'm saying, no, that's wrong. It's allowing me to see people's stories a little clearer. And for me, that's a good thing. That's so good.

That's awesome. I think that a lot of people need to hear one of the things you said specifically. I think you said that we all have influence. Like that message was for everybody. It wasn't just for the people who have been on some crazy reality TV show. It's for everybody. It wasn't just for the people who have been on some crazy reality TV show. It's for everybody. And you, especially with Instagram and social media,

you know, people, a lot of times we can dog it. And yeah, there are certainly some negative side effects social media. Don't get me wrong. But there are so many beautiful ways that we can be using it. And there's also a way for every single person to have influence. Whether you have 10 followers, or you have 100 followers, or 100,000 followers, you have people that are following your life and learning from your lifestyle.

And so I just wanna say that to everybody listening that, you know, you may be listening to this and be like, oh yeah, y'all we both have this major spirit of influence, but you do too. You know, my friends and I joke, we're like, oh yeah, y'all we both have these major spear of influence. But you do too. You know, my friends and I joke, we're like, it's funny with Instagram, like everybody's a model. Everybody's a blocker.

Everybody's a writer. And we kinda joke about it, but it's actually a beautiful thing that we have in this generation, this time that we all get to do something really cool and really special, because we get to create whatever that's gonna be for our page that we wanna put out into the world And so I love that you said that and then I also want to hit on one more thing because I think this is so cool

And I want to hear your heart behind it and I would love for Everybody to get a chance to hear your heart behind it But this generous coffee thing. What is that all about? Yeah, it's it's such an interesting world wind of life from here right now So for years I was a software salesman in Genesee, Colorado, and then the bachelor happened, and then everything following the bachelor. And I got off the show, and there's this weird thing

with the bachelor, and this is, I'm gonna condense this story as best as I can because I know your listeners only wanna hear your voice, but I'm gonna condense this as much as possible. We wanna hear it. I went on and this, and this bachelor thing is crazy because at first it's this euphoric feeling of fame and, and, uh, attention and the bachelor's crazy because literally everybody giving attention to one person, the, the wheat. And I was getting ready to go on the plane to fly out to LA and I was calling my family

and calling my friends and saying goodbye Before the show started one of my buddies who runs an organization called team meeting hope united rally folder I was on the phone with them and he's like all right. How you doing? I'm like I'm not doing good man I'm struggling. I'm starting to feel really selfish. I'm starting to feel like this isn't gonna do anything for me I'm starting to like carry a bunch of weight With what's about to come and he goes, okay, so how do we fix it? What can we do?

What can I pray for? I was like, all right, well, I don't know. And he's like, what if? What if, Ben, you've prayed the whole time and you knew this that God closed any door that's supposed to be closed to make it clear that I shouldn't do this because I'm not smart enough and I to make the right decision on my own. So I've been closing this. He's like, God has opened up every door for you.

So obviously this is supposed to be, right? I mean, you would trust that and have faith in that. And he goes, what if you pushed all the attention onto something bigger and better, something bigger than yourself? What if the whole time in mind, yes, you're pursuing a love story, but you're also having the direction and the intention of pushing this to something bigger, something greater. I was like, all right, sounds good.

Let's try it. I get on the plane of flat L.A. we do this whole thing. Obviously, it led the story then completes itself on television. I get off the show and I'm in Honduras about four or five months later with Riley and we're traveling around and we're looking at all the communities that you know, he made in Hope United has helped out. And we're with a group of people and one of the guys asks us a question and I'm on the board if you made in Hope United. My job on the board is fundraising and so I'm down there and he's like, okay guys, what if all your fundraising runs out?

What are you going to do? How are you going to leave these people? And we're like, we'll ask for more money for more people, right? And he's like, no, no, no. What I'm saying is what if that avenue shuts down? What if something happens that just doesn't allow you to gain any type of fundraising from any individual donors? And we're like, we have no answer to this.

But yet we're a mature organization that is believes in sustainable change. And if we believe in sustainable change, we also get to believe in sustainable fundraising. And so we came back to the United States, and we started to think over what could we do? Could we partner with a corporation to fund us or what? And we came up with the idea of starting

a for-profit business that donated all profits, to nonprofits and social causes, to support their efforts and whatever avenue or they're operating in. So generous coffee company was born with the idea that we could sell products with stories behind them, starting with coffee because it's what we need best. We could sell that coffee online to eliminate our overhead. We're going to open up a few coffee shops here this year based on some of the cool opportunities we've had.

Wow. But we could sell this, then donate to support and fundraise for the organization. So now, see, this is my full-time job. I wake up every morning, and I operate generous coffee company. I sit down at my desk, and it is my sole responsibility to kind of help manage this.

But we have some great employees now that are really making this thing move and groove. And I'm just kind of along for the ride to get to see you see the action. But yeah, generous coffee exists to sell coffee t-shirts, whatever products have story behind them to then make the world a better place. Make sure you go to generouscoffee.com

to check out anything coffee related that you wanna check out. Wow, okay, come on. I feel like everybody in their car right now I don't clap and drive but clap because that was that's so cool Ben like that's super encouraging for me to hear um, you know, I feel like I feel like I got very similar advice actually From what the man said to you like during the time that you were on the show whenever I was like I remember being a danceman of the stars and thinking like this isn't reality like this is not real life like as far as like the way people are looking the way people are treating you and it gets to that point where you do start to feel like I got to do something else like way like bigger than

this than myself and than this and I actually ended up going to Maldova the month after Dance with the Stars. And it sparked a lot of passion to me for a lot of things I'm doing now. And so I think it's really cool that you went to Honduras, I went to Maldova, it would go to these places and you just kind of see the world for way bigger than your own little circle.

And you begin to dive into that and get passionate about what that world view looks like. And so the fact that you've decided to take this not just for North America, but really have a more world point of view on how can I make the world a better place? It's so encouraging for me to hear. And I think that everybody can jump onto that, to that passion, that vision. And so I would encourage everybody to look at Jenner's coffee, look at what Ben's doing.

I think it's so awesome. I would love to support in any way I can, whether that's word of mouth, telling people on the street, telling people on the podcast. And so Ben, thank you so much for sharing all your good advice. Thank you for sharing your heart and being real. I know people love getting to know you and probably are super inspired after this.

So you're awesome. Thanks so much for spending time with us. Oh, this is, I mean, what a cool podcast would a cool set up and thanks for the questions and you said a best. Um, you know, I think if anything from anything I've learned is that everybody has their sphere of influence and everybody's a leader in the owner. And so for me, it's just cool to get to see everybody else pursue their dreams and I get to pursue mine and talk to cool people like you.

So thanks a lot. So good. Thanks, Ben. Hey, thank you all. All right, y'all. You know what time it is? Time to call Mama. So we're going to call Mama with our best piece of advice and our worst piece of

advice. Let's see what she has to say. Hey, dear girl. Hey, mama. How's it going? It's good. What you doing? Actually, Jessica done talking to Ben Higgins. Awesome. Do you know who Ben Higgins is? Yes. The Bachelor. The Bachelor. Right? That Ma.

So wrong. It was Ben Higgins. He was a Bachelor. Oh no, the fellow is the other preacher of passion. No, let's do it. Oh, whoops. Hey, I'm glad that you, you know, you're mine that turns. A podcast not live.

We're live on witness edit because I wasn't so sure. Oh, you know they've got on the podcast. It's not. Mom, yeah, yeah, let's go on on the podcast. Bachelor nation is going to be an uproar. I don't even hate it. I don't want the what's the bad word. Well, he is one of the most

no-patchler people, like really ever. Yes, like, um, and he's also a Christian mom. Oh, I'm gonna get to know him on your podcast. Yeah, you will. He's really great. Okay, so are you ready for the bowl? That's good bowl. That's bad. Let's do it. All right. I Personally love this one. I think it's so hilarious. Okay.

If you're stressed about school just quit. Join the circus I will attest to that you really do keep your word with that that was about because I begged you literally begged mom to get my GD like so many times is like mom's is like what? It's let me drop out. I can't do this and you know Because there is something to finishing you've heard the speech a lot of these speech literally a thousand times There's something really important about finishing.

I get that there are things in school that you're never going to use, you're never going to like remember the chemistry or whatever, but is there important lessons that you're learning in that, in that you can do hard things, that you can learn things that you didn't think you could, that you can finish a project, even whenever you don't like it and you don't care about it. There's all important life lessons, lessons that you need as an adult, and finishing school is one of those things that helps you to learn all these lessons. That's true.

Don't quit. Keep going. All right, all of your school goers, don't quit. Y'all got this. That's true. Don't quit. Keep going. All right, all of your school goers. Don't quit. Y'all got this. That's right. Okay, now I'm going to take a detour. Here we go. Like, I'm throwing one on you. So Ben was talking about how something that was really good advice from him was actually something that he felt the Holy Spirit say during a prayer time that he was praying.

And the Lord said basically, challenge him with the thought is your life like worthy of being in the Bible? Like would your life story be worthy of being like a Bible story? Does it like reflect my glory? All these things and so for you, I would love to ask you on the top of your head who's somebody from the Bible or a Bible story that like you've personally received advice from that like you go to a lot or you've been like man that has that person I relate to so much. That's actually kind of an easy one for me because I talk about this sometimes whenever I speak because those is which is weird I guess that that just is the one that I connect with but it's because when I was little, I actually

had a speech and spediment. And whenever it got to see happen and everything, like, I think I don't see myself as like a speaker and all this, but I felt like God called me to this and he put me in this position. So I had to just like say yes, even when it was scary and maybe nervous and all that. So that whole point where that whole moment like about the burning ghost whenever God saying that I was just like, I'm sending you a message like no, no, no, not me. Like, what? I like, I don't have the words and God's like, I'm going to give you the words and it's

like, yeah, but I can't speak. I have a speech problem. Like, I'm not good at this and God's like, I will help you. I'm with you. I'll be there for you. And he's like, and he just says, go, you know, and so eventually, and he's like, I'll send a friend. So I was like, God's since friends for me too, like he's been dating with me or then he'll see since, um, he's since Aaron with Moses to help him, but he's like, no, you're not off the hook. You still have to go. You're not so, he's tough to go. And so, I always really related to Moses at that moment and feel like every time I get asked to speak or do things that make me nervous or I feel like I'm not particularly like good at or whatever that God's like, nope, I still need you to go. I need you.

That's so good. Wait, tell them about the dream though. This is like the coolest thing ever. Okay. Okay, this is weird. So I had a list as a child and I went when I was like in third grade to try to like speak therapy and I didn't fix it and I just like, I kind of like it was weird. I kind of like didn't care that I had a list. I actually know where that's so your personality. Yeah. I was like, back. of like didn't care that I had a list. I actually know. That's so your personality.

Yeah. I was only back. So I didn't really care. Well, then when I got to high school, at 15 years old, I had a dream that I was on the tonight show. And I had a list. And I didn't like it. I was upset that I don't live on the tonight show.

And I woke up the next morning. And I was like, OK, I was upset that I don't like it. I'm like, show. And I'll go to the next morning and I was like, okay, I need to fix this list. I'm gonna go to the, I'm gonna go to the SP therapy and I drove myself to therapy and I got rid of the list for like a year of like really hard work to get rid of it. And the crazy thing is after the pregnancy happened,

I actually was on the tonight show. Crazy. Crazy. It was insane because at 15 years old, living in Western North Louisiana, there was no like indication that I was necessarily going to be on the night show. I didn't really have any particular talents or kids. So let's get that.

We need to be on the night show. OK, she says that, but she totally knows she was gonna be a supermodel. Don't you laugh? She was in the modeling game hardcore. She was like, no, you know, she was like, I might be on the night show, being a supermodel. I don't want to be a supermodel on the night show and have a look. Oh, that's kind of true. I was really tall and really skinny.

And so my mom was like, oh, you could be a model. So I did do a little modeling here at Bakon Landball then. I did do some modeling. At the time, like, supermodels were kind of, you know, really famous. I mean, they could just say so now, but I think it was just like the beginning of that. And I did see one of the supermodels I loved on the tonight's show. And perhaps that'sred on the dream. I don't know.

Or, perhaps God was preparing me for something that I did not have any idea. I think that that's probably the case that God was preparing me even next year. I think that's awesome. That is just the coolest story ever. I love how like you related that to Moses in his life. I think that there's somebody in the Bible that everybody can relate to in some sense. And you might even relate to Moses in a million different ways than my mom can. But it's cool to seek advice from people like that because they were not perfect. Most of the Bible characters had many, many, many problems, but you see how

God was perfect throughout the whole thing. he always provided. Just like he didn't give Moses necessarily everything that Moses needed. He didn't change his voice, he didn't do anything to that, but he prepared the way. And he brought forth provision every single step of the journey. And that's what he's doing for my mom. So he's done for me. That's what he does for all of his children. So great advice, mom. Absolutely.

Good advice. Love you, girl. Love you girl. Love you. Bye. Bye. Thanks so much for listening to the world that's good podcast we got a lot of good nuggets today. Don't forget to follow me on all the social media platforms online I? Instagram, I'm at legit Sadie Rob, Twitter, Sadie Rob, and follow our live original Instagram. Also, I'm Sadie Robertson on Facebook. Head over to liveoriginal.com and subscribe to this podcast, and while you're there, you can see the tour dates that I'm coming to a city near you. Don't forget, please leave comments

in the iTunes section and leave reviews. This podcast is produced by Steve Strauss and Peter Hartzel, so huge shout out to them, and I thank you to my L.O. team. You guys are the best. We love y'all and we appreciate you listening. I'll see y'all soon! you