11 Questions With Ben Higgins: Generous Coffee, Influencer Marketing, & Advice for Influencers

I had the pleasure of interviewing Ben to get his thoughts on marketing his own business, working with brands, and all things Generous Coffee. Learn more.

While you may know him as a former Bachelor, we know him as coffee connoisseur and Co-Founder of Generous Coffee. Since his run on ABC’s The Bachelor, Ben has used his platform to leave a positive mark on the world through his “for purpose” company as well as his meaningful relationships with other brands and products that he believes in.

I had the pleasure of interviewing Ben to get his thoughts on marketing his own business, working with brands, and all things Generous Coffee. Watch the video below, or keep reading to get the full interview, including Ben’s advice for other businesses and influencers.

Ben Higgins' Thoughts on Influencer Marketing

T: Tell us a little bit about yourself.
B: My name is Ben Higgins. You probably best know me from The Bachelor, but that’s not what I’m doing today. Today, my full time job is operating a company I co-founded called Generous Coffee Company.

T: How have you used influencer marketing and your personal platform to boost your brand, Generous Coffee?
B: Generous has used my brand and my platform to increase our following and our visibility in a unique way. We are a coffee company, and we sell products in the developing world - t-shirts, coffee, and leather goods. We have the highest-quality products, but we’re really selling our story. So for a consumer to actually buy Generous, they’re going to have to buy into the story we are telling. Becoming visible, promoting our products and promoting what we’re doing in the world is our most important piece. There’s no easier way to do that than through social media. With one click of a button, somebody can see a video or a picture, or read a caption and get the picture of what the business or person is doing.

T: What role does content play in sharing your brand story?
B: Generous is a story-telling company. We sell products with stories behind them. Our coffee is brought in from 9 different countries around the world - all single origins, all traceable, so you can go to the farms themselves and meet the producers and meet the people growing and harvesting your coffee. There are unique stories being told through each cup of coffee that you’re drinking from Generous. Our t-shirts are made out of plastic water bottles by single mothers in Haiti in an air conditioned facility, and they are paid well above minimum wage plus retirement insurance. Our leather goods are made in India by people previously incarcerated or homeless. So all of our products have stories behind them. There’s a reason why - because we believe that for-profit business can make the world a better place. So we have to tell these stories clearly and find ways to do that. We use our content to do that in the best way possible, especially on social media. We create short videos that are clear and concise and to the point.

T: Now switching over to the influencer side, how has your experience been working with brands? Can you share any particular experience or brands that you’re fond of?
B: So from an influencer perspective - way outside of Generous - my experience working with brands has been really positive. Since the beginning when I was given this platform, I made the conscious effort to only promote things that I really do believe in and that I know are good products. If not, I feel like I lose myself a bit, personally. I feel like I lose my legitimacy. T: Can you think of a specific brand that you really enjoyed working with?
B: Capital One was an incredible brand to work with. They bent over backwards to make sure that I knew what they were promoting and what they were doing. They also made it fun and exciting for me - they gave me the plan and the strategy way upfront, so I knew what I was walking into. They also had a team around me that never made me feel like I was doing anything incorrectly.

T: Can you tell me a little bit about the shoot you did with our Aspire team? What was your experience?
B: I recently did a shoot with Aspire, and it was the first time working with the organization. It was really fun! It was an afternoon that definitely felt like work - but it felt like a fun way to work! I think one of the pros of working with Aspire was that I was given the content way upfront. I was given the choice of how the content was going to be created. So I wasn’t walking into something blindly. I knew 2 weeks in advance what the shoot was going to look like, what the campaign was going to look like, what everyone was trying to get out of it.

T: Compared to some of the other shoots or partnerships you’ve done, was there a difference having a creative team onsite to help you shoot the content?
B: When I did the shoot with Aspire, there was a creative team onsite to create content. I remember at one point looking at the team, they were standing behind the camera and I was like, “I could have never done this alone. I could have never captured what you were hoping for, and what the brand was hoping for, unless your team was here to guide me through this.”
T: In general, how involved do you like to be in the creative process when you’re working with a brand?
B: I like to stay really involved, but kind of in an umbrella perspective. I don’t want to get the leads, I don’t want the details. I want somebody else to tell me what I should be wearing, kind of the non-necessities. But I want to know what I will be saying, and why I’m saying it. T: Do you feel that the Aspire team was a good partner to create authentic content?
B: 100%. I definitely do! I think it was refreshing. T: What are some things that brands can do to make these partnerships feel more natural for influencers?
B: If I was to give these brands advice, it would be to make sure to do your vetting upfront. T: If you were to give someone advice who’s trying to be an influencer or is already an influencer, what would it be?
B: My advice to anybody that wants to be an influencer or is an influencer - to make your campaigns the most successful and to make your career feel the most purposeful, make sure that you’re vetting the brands that you’re promoting.