The Russell Brunson Show - My Tribute to Dave Woodward

Episode Date: January 6, 2023

Listen to my thoughts on the recent passing of my best friend and ClickFunnels' CEO, Dave Woodward. I wanted to do this podcast to remember him and let you guys know all the things that he did to affect your lives and change the world! Learn more about your ad choices. Visit megaphone.fm/adchoices

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Hey, everyone. This is Russell Brunson. And today I am recording a special podcast. This will be going both on my Marketing Secrets podcast as well as the ClickFunnels Radio podcast as well. And this is one I've been really nervous to record and talk about, and I've waited a couple weeks. But today I wanted to do a podcast talking about Dave Woodward, one of my closest friends ever, the CEO of ClickFunnels, and someone who, if you follow me or follow any of the ClickFunnels family, you know that he passed away a couple weeks ago. And that's this podcast about. I want to talk about Dave in a very happy, fun, exciting way, tell stories about him and his life in a way that hopefully all of us can remember him. I've been trying to think through this and write out notes and a million different things.

And as I keep trying to do that, realizing it's just delaying me from just doing this. And so I'm just going to jump into it without notes, which is kind of a outline of my head of where I want to go. Um, and a couple of things. Um, I had a chance to speak at his funeral, which was, um, just a really special experience, a moment for me. And, uh, I got permission from his family to be able to share that with you guys. And so I'm going to be taking my, I don't know, 10 to 15 minute presentation. I will, um, play that probably towards the end here. And, um, and so I'll probably leave out gaps and stuff I want to talk about because some of the things I talk about during that speech.

And so, yeah. So I want to start with actually a post I made on December 6th. So December 6th that morning. And obviously we've known. It's been 18 months that we found out that Dave had the tumor and he's been fighting this battle. And there were times of like high highs where we feel like we conquered the world and times where it was tough and back and forth and back and forth.

And, um, it's weird though. Cause like, I don't know, Dave's invincible. You know, I always thought for sure there was no way he wasn't going to win. And it's crazy though, the last month or so as we got closer, it always went from Dave always talking about, my goal is to get back on top and be better than I was before. I'm going to, you know, like just, you know, Dave at his core, always shooting for the stars and working towards it

and trying to figure out how to get there. And about a month left, he starts seeing things change. And it was interesting. Um, and actually very comforting for me is his, um, his messaging shifted and transitioned from like, I'm going to try to do this thing to like, it's okay. Like I'm getting things ready. And, um, and then he started almost getting excited. It was interesting.

Um, you're talking about like, you know, the afterlife and death and, and you could tell I'm getting things ready. And then he started almost getting excited. It was interesting. You're talking about the afterlife and death, and you could tell that he had gotten to the spot where he had accepted it. And in my mind, I was like, no, no, we're going to fight this. We're going to fight this. It was interesting to watch that transition, and it also gave me some peace as it got towards December 6th. In fact, we had one very scary moment that ended up being, for me, probably the biggest blessing in the matter.

I was at wrestling practice, and I got out of wrestling practice. This was probably a week prior. It was the first week of December. On my phone, there was a text from Dave's family saying basically, hey, he just woke up. During this time, he was sleeping 23 hours a day. He just woke up. He told us he has an hour to live. And if you want to say your final goodbyes, like now's the time. And I don't know how to, how do you react to something like that? Like I'm in rough, you get a wrestling practice,

I'm racing home, jumping in the shower, trying to get clean. And, you know, Colette and I are there and we're crying and then we're racing over to their home. And, uh, it was just one of the most beautiful, beautiful moments. Like everyone who was in the room, he had a chance to go and, and, and give them some closure. And, you know, during that time he'd been struggling to speak and struggling to, you know, and it was crazy because during that time he was able to look at each person and say something so profound and so, um, important for them to hear, I think. Oh, I was hoping this wasn't going to get emotional for me, but, um, anyway, what, one of the, uh, the thing he told me is he grabbed me close and looked me in the eyes and said, you changed my life. And then, you know, typical Dave humor. He's just like, all right.

When we got done, he's like, all right, guys. Like, I'm going to heaven. Love you guys. We'll see you. You know, and he laid down and he kind of fell back asleep. And all of us were looking at him and watching, you know, his chest breathe. And we're just like, is he going to stop right now? What's going to happen?

It was just like so much, so much fear, so much, you know, we sat there for probably 30 minutes or so. And then the family decided they want to have a prayer. And one of the most beautiful prayers I've ever heard in my life, um, basically saying it's okay. And like,

you know, we're so grateful for time with our father. And you know, if you're ready for him to have you back, like we're okay with that now too. And, and the prayer got done and we all sat there and I think part of us out during the prayer, you know, if you're ready for him to have you back, like we're okay with that now too. And the prayer got done and we all sat there and I think part of us thought during the prayer, he was going to pass away. And then we looked over afterwards and he's still breathing. And then

typical Dave, um, I see his little finger starts, starts moving and he's like, I'm still here. Like, I think it's a little frustrating. Ah, this is harder than I thought it was going to be. I want to go back to my room. So we get him up and we walk him to his room and, and lays back in his bed. And then we're kind of like, all right, well, I don't know what that means. Like, what do we do? And, um, you know, and so we, you know, Clint and I left, but it was like, for, for me, it was just such a, I was feeling like, it's going to be okay. And then a couple days later, you know, I had gone back, kind of back and forth, trying to visit him as much as I could, but also trying to be respectful of the family. And, you know, he'd only wait for 20, 30 minutes a day, and I didn't want to hog all his time, even though I wanted to hog all his time.

So I had another chance to go over and spend time between then. And then, um, I think it was December 4th or 5th or something. I was on a call or I was on a zoom call or something. I looked down at my phone and there was a call from Dave Woodward, which, you know, to me and Dave Vox, like we said in Voxers, we don't talk on the phone. I saw that my heart like dropped and I was like, so I got off the call as quick as I could. I called him back and his kids have the phone. They have big smiles on their face. Like dad wants to talk to you again real quick. And so I take the phone to him and he's in bed about to fall back asleep. The biggest smile on his face. Like I took a screenshot actually of my phone.

Biggest smile on his face. He's like, hey man, I love you. I'm going to bed. I'm probably not going to wake up. So I'm going to see you in heaven, but not too soon. And like, you know, just happy as can be. Typical happy Dave. And he was, much as he wanted to be here fighting

to when he knew there's time like he was okay he's like i'm ready to go like there's something i gotta do over here there's a mission there's there's work i gotta do um and so anyway december 6th when i got the the message in the morning he had passed it was just like you know we had that day a crazy thing we're filming all this stuff and everything's supposed to be happening it's just everything stopped and i don't know what to do and i was just like i just need to go home and write something i don't even know what i need to write i just need to go home and write something so i remember going home and i sat there on facebook trying to make a post um it took me two or three hours to kind of to know what you want to say and i don't know if it was the right thing to say but

um i want to read what i said and hopefully it'll be helpful for some of you guys um so it's on december 6th it said if you study the hero's journey there are seven character but I want to read what I said, and hopefully it'll be helpful for some of you guys. So it was on December 6th. It said, If you study the hero's journey, there are seven character archetypes. One of those archetypes is the ally. The ally is the character who assists the hero in their adventure, because any adventure worth pursuing is too difficult for one person to overcome alone.

Frodo had Samwise Gamgee, Joseph Smith had Hiram, and I had Dave Woodward. Dave entered my life at the very beginning of my entrepreneurial journey. Looking back now, I know that he was a gift from God to be beside me as I tried to climb an impossible mountain. Over the years, we've shared the highest highs. All the crazy ClickFunnels stories over the year have all involved Dave, but also the lowest lows. There were many nights at 2 or 3 o'clock in the morning, long after everyone else had gone home and gone to bed, that Dave and I were still at the office fighting battles

for a cause that we believed in. I remember one particularly stressful night around Christmas time during one of our super late night early morning work sessions telling him that if I had to go to war and I could only pick one person to go with me, it would be you, Dave. This morning, Dave passed away after an 18-month-long battle with cancer. 18 months ago, I walked into his office just minutes after he found out about the tumor, and this giant of a man was on his knees talking to his Heavenly Father. He told us that if this cancer brings more people closer to Christ, then I will do it. I had a chance to walk with him during his journey and hear stories about dreams and visions he had about Christ

and him spending time with others who had passed on before him. In his family's post today, they said that one of the last things he did was open his eyes and said, It really is forever. It's a party on their side side and I have work to do. I have no doubt that he had a chance to see a glimpse of eternity and if nothing else, came back one last time to help strengthen our faith and our Savior Jesus Christ and our ability to be together as families again someday. Dave is the greatest example I've ever known.

He has an amazing wife who loves him. He has great kids who adore him. He built a company that's changed lives of millions of people around the world, and he passed away true to his faith. He won. What more could you want in life? And now because of Dave, we all have a standard to live up to. I want to see him again. I want to be with him again. I want to be like him. I'm committed to growing closer to Christ because of Dave. It really is forever, and through him, Jesus Christ, we can be together forever someday. I started this post by saying that Dave was my ally.

But as I'm finishing it, I'm realizing that the whole time he's been my guide. I have some pictures of him and me having a pie fight at the office, collecting order forms, sitting together, hanging out all around the world, doing crazy things. And so it's interesting because, you know, Dave and I used to talk about the hero's journey all the time. And it's interesting because, you know, in my mind, like I'm the hero and I'm doing this thing and I'm going on this conquest. But everyone's journey, they're the hero, right? But it's interesting because in your own journey, you're the hero and you're trying to conquer this insurmountable path.

But in other people's journey, you're their ally or their guide. Sometimes you're the person that's the enemy. You're the person fighting against them, and it's just interesting. As I was thinking about the archetypes, yeah, Dave was the ally. He was there every single time. Every war I went into, he was there sitting next to me. Every hard conversation, everything that was struggling, he was there every single time. But also, at the same time, that was struggling, he was there every single time. But also same time, like he, many aspects was the guy that he was taking me where I was

supposed to go, like helping me to become who I needed to be, helping me to remember God and Christ in the middle of all these things. Right. Um, where a lot of times for me, I would get so caught up in, in other things. I would forget about that. You know, Dave, so many times it's like, Hey, this click from those things, like it's not just a a company. There's something bigger, something more important, something we're doing here, something special, something spiritual. And, uh, him and I both believe that our core, our souls, why we spent so much time and energy doing these things. Um, and so I just want to kind of share some more Dave stories. Um, I'm not going to share the story, how we met. Cause I talked about that at the funeral. So I'll share that at the end of this. Um, but initially, immediately we connected and, um,

and just became friends. I don't know what it was like. There's something about him. I was just like, I love this guy. Like I like talking to him. And I remember one of the first things that happened, we, um, I had done a promotion way back in the day called the online market of the year. And we got like 30 or 40 gurus or experts to interview. In fact, the first time I interviewed Dan Kennedy and Bill Glazer and all these people to be part of this thing. And I remember we got done, Dave or someone on his team, I don't remember, called us. He was like, this is awesome. I want to do it as well. And so he took the concept and he licensed it. He did like the online network marketer of the year. And he did a couple other ones using the same model, using the same thing.

We worked together. I think we made some money together on that project. By the time I remember, I think MTV Cribs was like the big thing at the time and dave's like i want to make mtv cribs but for internet marketers and so he started this uh this brand this company called legendary marketers and he got in a plane and he flew to all these people's houses i remember him fly to my house he showed the camera crew and they're filming us and interviewing me and telling stories about you know and my my twins now twins now who are 17 years old, little tiny babies at the time. And we're at my house and I don't even remember what I said. I'm sure I thought I was pretty cool at the time. And looking back now, this is dorky little kid who was interviewing

about our little business successes. We had that point and he had a chance to fly around the world and interview all these amazing, amazing people. Right. And again, for somebody that felt so connected to him, I wanted to do things. Um, uh, I remember I kept trying to pull them into some of my crazy schemes and ideas all the time. I remember I bought a company or bought a trademark body evolution about body evolution.com and the trademark. And I wanted to start a weight loss company. I was so excited about this. And so initially, um, we found some people from who were on the, who had been on the biggest loser who I really enjoy and connected with and wanted them to be the faces of the company. But I needed help running it,

so I asked Dave if he'd be interested. So he came in and he was helping me run this company. It was funny because these people, they're such great people, but they'd gained a lot of weight since the show was over. So every time we'd meet with them, I'm like, okay, you have to lose weight again because you're the faces of this fitness company.

They're like, okay, we're going to do it. They come back three months later, fly back out. They hadn't lost any weight. And I'm like, what are we doing? And Dave's like, we need to tell them they hadn't lost any weight and i'm like what do we do and and he's like we need to tell them they gotta lose weight i'm like how do you tell someone that like and he's like they're the head of a fitness company they gotta lose weight and i remember like i was too scared to say anything too nervous and sure if they flew out there and dave had the frank conversation like hey it's the deal you guys like you're heads of a weight loss company you have to lose weight or

we have to cut you and i'm like how do say that? But he would always have the hard conversations. I was too scared to have, like, again, as my ally, like, okay, Russell's too scared to have this. I'll have a brutal conversation. And that never worked with them. And it kind of fell apart. And then, um, later he actually, him and his wife decided to become the faces of it. So we went and filmed a whole bunch of products and courses with them as the face of the company. We tried that three or four times. We never were able to get that to really take off for whatever reason. And then a little while later, pre-ClickFunnels, Todd and I built a software called ClickFusion. And it was this webinar network.

And I remember calling Dave, like, I want you to run this. I want you to be part of it. You've got to move to Boise. I kept trying to get him to move to Boise. And he would never, for whatever reason, he never did it at the time. And he'd jump in, though. He'd try it. He'd help us work on things and all sorts of stuff. And, you know, but all these little companies never, they never took off. Like, I think he was waiting for like, what's something

that's going to take off. I can be part of bigger. And we tried that, we tried other things and, you know, probably dozen other things throughout the years. Um, and then, um, when ClickFunnels came about, um, that was when, you know, we had launched, it was taking off. And so I think we launched in whatever, September. And, uh, we launched earlier It was taking off. And so I think we launched in whatever, September. And we launched earlier in the summer, like a beta launch. And September was our official launch. And then it went through. And then January, we were at TNC.

And I had a chance to speak at TNC in one of the breakout rooms about funnels and all sorts of stuff. And I remember being so stressed out because I was like, I want these people to understand ClickFunnels and what it is. Like this is the most important thing in the world. And I think there was like four or five breakout rooms happening all at the same time. And I was like, um you know dave and dave was there he'd come as an attendee but you know we connected and we're seeing each other we're talking about click funnel stuff and i was like when you get people in my room i'm like i don't know how to get people in my room i was like what would be ideal it's like can you imagine if we had a whole bunch of like because you know some of the like you go to industries and they have like they have

the different booths and they they hire like i like, I don't know what it's actually called. This may be derogatory. So I apologize if it is, but they call them booth babes, like really cute girls who get people to come to the booths. Right. And so I'm like, oh, if we had a bunch of booth babes that could like push people into our room. And I remember Dave was like, how many do you need?

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I don't know, four or five would be amazing. So he jumps off and he's calling, I don't know who he's calling. He's calling person after person, place after place, trying to figure it out. And 20 minutes later, he comes in. All right, I got some booth babes. I'm like, what? He's like, they'll be here in 30 minutes. He's like, do we have Funnel Hacker t-shirts we can give them or whatever?

I'm like, oh, I think so. So we're trying to find stuff. And all of a sudden, sure enough, 30 minutes later, four beautiful women show up. He's putting these Funnel Hacker shirts on. I'm like, this is your job. Your job is to get all these people into Russell's, um, into Russell's breakout room. And he's coaching him and motivating him. And so, um, as you know, the last set main session happens, everyone comes out in the hallways for a little break. And then we're trying to try to go into the different rooms.

And sure enough, Dave's out there, all these women, he, you know, beautiful girls, he hired to whatever. And, and All of them were pushing people in. Sure enough, of all the breakout rooms, mine had the majority of people standing room only. Everyone was there because Dave had gotten everyone in there. I'm doing my thing and they won't let me pitch this thing. I'm doing my entire funnel hacker presentation. At the very end, I'm supposed to pitch. I'm not allowed to pitch.

Instead, I'm like, oh, well, I'm not allowed to sell anything. If you want more information, go back to our booth. What's crazy is the people who are in that room, I look I'm like, oh, well I'm not allowed to sell anything. So if you want any more information, go back to our booth. And, um, it was crazy. It's like the people who are in that room. Um, I look at someone like, you know, the, the person I know for sure, Alex Hermosi was in that room and he had a gym at the time and he was frustrated. And he told me years later, he's like, I was in the room. I heard what you said. I was like, I want that.

And that started him on this journey that came into our, our whole world. Right. Um, and who knows how many other people were affected because Dave was willing to like do the crazy thing to get people into the room. Um, and then that night after it all happened and we're just like, you know, at dinner talking about, you know, dinner with me, Dylan, Todd, like all the people that were there with us. And we're talking about this. And I remember Dave's like, I want to be part of it. How do I be part of what you're doing? I'm like, like, what do you mean? He's like, I want to be part of this. Like, I'm like, well, I don't like, do you want a job? Like, I'm like, yeah, I know you make's like, I want to be part of this. I'm like, well, do you want a job?

I'm like, yeah, I know you make a really good money. I can't afford to pay you a good salary right now. He's like, I don't care. I just want to be part of this. And so Dave had a great gig at the time. He was making insane amounts of money doing this real estate coaching, all sorts of stuff. And I was like, I can't replace what you're making now. He's like, I don't care.

He's like, mostly I'm doing this at the late, I'm doing this at the, um, you know, at the late hours of the night, um, or whatever. Um, or, you know, weekends I do this all the rest of the week, I'll work on ClickFunnels stuff. And so he was still in California. He'd work remote during the time and we pay him whatever we're able to. And he was just going there and figuring out how to serve, how to grow things. And, um, within a very short period of time, right. We needed to figure out a way to make him more of a partner. And so we brought him in and gave him equity in the company. Um, and, uh, you know, he would come fly out, you know, once a month to Boise to be part of like the energy and excitement and be part of it. They fly back home and you could tell he was so anxious. He wanted to be, he wanted to be in the heat of it all the time. And so

he would, um, uh, fly back and forth. And eventually after eight months or so, I think someone's like, I need to move to Boise. I gotta be there. This is the way everything's happening. I gotta be part of it. We'd be in the middle of the energy. Proximity is power. I got to be in the middle of it. And so he got his family and they, they uprooted and they moved here to Boise to be part of it, to be in the middle of all of it. Right. And there's a lesson alone, like proximity is power at getting, like being where the energy is at to create that. But one really cool experience before he moved out, and I wish we had video footage of this maybe it's somewhere on a lost hard drive but um we had i had rob cicada is one of my favorite designers he designed this really cool t-shirt for me it says we are not confusion soft and this is like year one of

click funnels i wanted to give it to everybody like make a big thing about it dave's like no like we need to work with confusion soft i'm like no but like they're the enemies like no they're like they're you know so um in fact the first, I think it's called InfusionCon, whatever the big event is, we wanted to go to it. And we knew there was already some weird heat because we were always kind of competing. My webinar was like, oh, we're like InfusionSoft, but we're simple. And like, plus you can do landing pages, plus, you know. I always kind of talk against them, but we realized we needed to become friends with them.

And so we made these t-shirts that said ClickFunnels loves InfusionSoft and had these big hearts on it. And it was like this big thing. And so we went to InfusionCon and brought like a, loves infusion soft and had these big hearts on it. And it was like this big thing. And so we went to infusion con, we brought like a thousand of those shirts and hand out to all the attendees. And so we're trying to like build this really good bridge with them. Right. So we kept doing that, kept doing that. And then I remember the next year for infusion con or whatever, this is state Dave was still in San Diego Temecula. Um, uh, we tried to go again to bring people and infusion soft told us, no,

like you are not welcome in our event. And, um, and it's funny cause the whole time I kept trying to launch this t-shirt. I want to talk about, I want to like fight against him. Dave's like, no, we have to be friends. And we had to be, you know, I remember we were on this, I think it was a Skype call with, you know, the five or six of us on the team at the time. And Dave has a click funnels, loves infusion soft shirt. He's like, Hey guys, I got some, I got some news for you or whatever.

And I'm like, what's the news? He's like, they aren't letting us to come. I've been going back and forth and they refused to let us come back to InfusionCon. And I'm like, are you serious? We're all frustrated. He's like, you know what that means? I'm like, no, what does that mean? And then he clicks a button and some music starts playing and his kids run in from the

other door. They come and they put boxing gloves on his hands and a boxing robe or something. I'm trying to remember the whole visual. I can't remember exactly, but he's like this. He's like, the gloves are off. And he throws his hands down, the gloves fly off. And then he like takes his click photos of infusions off. And I guess he's pre-cut it and he grabs it and he rips it open, like rips it off. And there's a click photo or funnel hacker show underneath it. And he's like, the gloves are off. He's like, you can print the t-shirt now. I was like, yeah, let's go. And so then like, you know, that next Fun Hockey Lives, we gave everyone that we are not confusion soft t-shirts and we stopped playing nice with them. Um, which who knows long-term if that was

a good or bad strategy, but, um, it was just a funny thing. And it was just, you know, again, another Dave thing where he's like fighting battles for me and like, try to protect me from being a stupid Russell. And then, you know, he's like, all right, well, fine. Go be your Russell. And then I was able to go and do that. It's such a visual of that day and just how excited he was. He also then sent me a video. I don't know if you can find this.

He sent a video later of his backyard, his pool. He had this little like a boogie board thing, and he put the, the ClickFunnels Loves Infusionsoft shirt on there, and lit it on fire, like, pushed it out to see, like, to symbolize the death of this relationship, and it was just, like, such a funny, interesting time of the, of the journey. I have that Dave Moodoboy scene, when we were together every day for, man, six, five or six years working on stuff. Anytime I'd go to any trip, he was there. He wanted to be there around the energy, around this stuff, everywhere that things were happening. And we were going to Genius Network.

And you guys know I wrote Dotcom Seekers book. I swear I would never write a book again. I refused. I'll never write a book again. It's the worst thing in the world. And he always wanted me to. He's like, this is so good. People need this.

He was so passionate about my work which was like how often you have someone who's like your biggest fan like your biggest cheerleader so passionate about what you're doing right and i remember we went to genius network and we were sharing a room back at times click phone still hadn't grown to the point where we felt comfortable getting two rooms but sharing a room and um remember that night i got invited to this dinner thing so i went to this dinner and dean graciosi i didn't know very well yet was sitting across from me we're talking and somewhere in the conversation i remember what we're talking about so we're thinking like i need to write a book it's called expert secrets and like this was going to be about and we're getting home that

night and dave dave wasn't at the dinner he was back you know he was out networking doing the the extroverted thing getting to know everybody and so at dinner i was like hey or we go back to our room i was like hey um when i was talking to dean today i had so at dinner, I was like, Hey, or we go back to our room. I was like, Hey, um, when I was talking to Dean today, I had, I had a vision. He's like, what was it? I'm like, I got to write a book. It's called expert secrets. And he's like, Oh, I got chills. Like, this is the great, like you, you know, just, he was so excited. He was like, all right, what do I do to make this happen? He's like, I got to move heaven and earth. I got to block everyone. Like you need to be focusing. This is the most important thing you possibly doing. And he was like this blocker and protector and making sure I had the time I needed to

be able to, to create this thing and to do this thing because, and he's like, I'll take care of everything else. Like you got to do this because this is the most, like this is like, again, a calling from God. Like you got to do this. I'm here to protect everything else. Block everything else. Take everything off your plate so you can go and execute on this thing.

Um, I never had someone do that. You know, like, I guess that's not true. My dad was that way with wrestling. Like, like he protected me to make sure that I could focus on the thing that was most important, like the calling, the mission, the thing we were trying to do. And Dave was the only other person that had ever done that for me. He was just blocking everything to make sure that I can do what I need to do. I remember every day at work, he'd be killing himself over here.

And the last thing he'd come into the office, like, okay, you know, he'd return a report back. Here's everything I did today. And he's like, what can I take off your plate? What can I take from you? What can I do, like, every single day? And no one else has done that for me. You know, none of my other report back. Here's everything I did today. He's like, what can I take off your plate? What can I take from you? What can I do for like every single day? And no one else has done that for me. You know, none of my other partners, none of their employees, no one else does that every single day. Despite the fact he had a million things on his shoulder, he'd come in every single day, not once in a while, every day. Like, what can I take off

your shoulders? Like, what can I get to take off your plate? Most of my team, I don't even see them. They just disappear at five o'clock. They're gone. Whereas Dave's here till eight o'clock at night and coming in, Hey, what can I take off the plate? What can I do? What can I do? And like, anyway, another funny story from that actual night at the, at the genius network event. Um, I can't believe I'm telling the story, but we started. So here we go. Maybe we'll have to edit this from the video. But, um, uh, I remember we were getting ready in the morning. I had Q-tips. I was cleaning my ears. And I was like, I was like, oh my gosh, this is like literally the second greatest feeling in the world is cleaning your ears with Q-tips. Like, I don't know, just dorky thing. I'm like, oh my God,

this is like the greatest feeling ever. And he was kind of laughing. And then, uh, three days later I get, I would get home and there's this big box in the mail, like not small box, a huge box, like size of a microwave. And I open it and there are like 40 boxes of Q-tips. And he's like, I know your wife's the only one that can give you the greatest feeling in the world, but I wanted to give you the second greatest as often as possible or something. And it was just like tens of thousands, hundreds of thousands of Q-tips, which I still have to this day. Today I was cleaning my ears out. And thanks to Dave, I was able to experience that again. So just funny things that he would always pay

attention. It's funny because his love language is not gift giving. He didn't care about getting gifts, but he was always listening. And like like he'd pay attention he'd be like proactively sending gifts the second he thought of something like i say this q-tips are like amazing he's buying it in the moment i remember we were at um we were at in vegas with uh jenna kuchar and drew and or no drew wasn't there uh as jenna's husband uh but jenna was there and we're trying to get her speak at fun hockey live and she's like oh what You know, she just didn't want to do speaking gigs. She's like, the way to get to me is my husband. Like, uh, whatever you, you know, if you can get him to see us and I'm in.

And then Dave asked like, well, what is your husband like? And she was joking like, oh, he loves Red Bulls. And so while we're sitting there, Dave orders, um, I don't know, a pallet, like probably four or 500 Red Bulls and ships them to Drew. Uh, and Jenna gets home from this, this event we're at. And she's like, I get home and our entire kitchen is full of Red Bulls and ships them to Drew. Uh, and Jenna gets home from this, this event we're at. And she's like, I get home and our entire kitchen's full of Red Bulls. And she's like, Drew actually doesn't even like Red Bulls. And, uh, but Dave and Dave's listening, paying attention, like what does someone want? What are they like? What do they need? And then boom, instantly it's

like sending it, shipping it. Uh, James, um, Tramco, I remember we were trying to get him to be ClickFunnels affiliate or whatever. And again, but Dave was like just listening and he's like, he was trying to get a surfboard or something. So Dave like buys a surfboard, drives down like three hours to get it to him before he takes on a plane and fly back to Australia. And just, he's just paying attention, like serving all the time, listening, paying attention, serving, doing these things. Because he knew that, because he knew that, that I don't know what he knew. He just knew, he just knew that's like how you help people, right? And it was never about him. It was always about like how to help other people,

how to help other people. He was always just caring more about you than he cared about himself. It's just one of the magical, magical things about Dave. Man, there's like so many, I don't know, this could be a three week long podcast if I let it go too long. It's like so many, I don't know, this could be a, this could be a three week long podcast if I let it go too long. It's just so many cool Dave stories.

I wanted to kind of just tell someone to hopefully encapsulate just the feeling of Dave Woodward and some of the things that I wish we could all learn from him. I remember he always wanted to learn. Like he wasn't the most, and I could say this to his face. He wasn't the most talented in most things. Like he, he knew like he, like as I was writing the expert seekers book and talking about story, he loved, he's like, I want to become a better storyteller. I want to become better.

So he would tell stories and he would like, he would do these Facebook lives at first where you tell a story and then he's like, ah, like it didn't work. It wasn't good. Like what was wrong? I'm like, Dave, you have to tell people not just the facts, but you have to tell about how you feel. He's like, what do you mean? I'm like, like you have to open up and like you have to, when you're telling a story,

tell the feelings behind the story. And that was so hard for him. He's like, I have you mean? I'm like, like you have to open up and like, you have to, when you're telling a story, tell the feelings behind the story. And that was so hard for him. He's like, I have to learn. I have to learn. So he would try so hard to like open up and like, and like get to the feelings of things. Right. Um, and, uh, we had so many funny experiences where he would be teaching or talking or something. And, and, um, and it was just like the, the facts and be like, no, like you got to tell the, like how you feel. He's like, I don't know how I feel. Like, I don't feel stuff. He's like, I just do stuff. I and like no like you got to tell that like how you feel he's like i don't know how i feel like i don't feel stuff he's like i just do stuff i'm like i know you have to get back and like talk about that so you tell good stories and he would work at it and work at and work at it and you get better and better he'd be so proud of himself coming like he's like

did you watch my facebook live time like of course i did he's like how was that like dude it was way better like the way you told your story how you felt about this like those are things that people need in story and why do you come better and better at it, right? Same thing like when he was coming, like first he was, his first role at the company was like an affiliate, like to run the affiliate program. And he'd never done that before. He was like, I gotta figure this out.

So he would like call people and talk to them and interview them and try to figure it out and be like, hire coaches. Like how do I find a coach to coach me to become the best affiliate manager in the world? So on his own, out of his own pocket, out of his own money, he would go and he would hire other people

who are great affiliate managers and study them and learn from them and get coached by them so he could become the best in the world at that role. And he got to the point where he was so good at it, he went to the next thing. Then he was like, I want to be head of business development.

He wanted to be CRO, chief revenue officer. I'm like, what does that mean? He's like, I don't know. So he'd go out and he'd find the people who were doing that. He'd interview them. He'd get to know them. He'd find out their process, their systems. He'd fly out to them.

He coached them. He was so coachable to try to learn it. When he eventually became CEO, he's like, I've never been a CEO before. I don't know how to be CEO. So he found people that are great CEOs and he hired them and paid them for coaching. And like, like he figured out what he wanted to do and then didn't have the skill set to do it. So when he got the skill set, most people are like, oh, I don't know how to do this or I'm not qualified.

Or they just do a crappy job where they've never did that. It was like, let me figure out how to become the best at this thing. Right. And, um, it was just always growing and growing and growing. And he was never sitting on his haunches, right? Like I watched him as like, he was struggling in different things. Like he would hire a coach.

It was like he hired Jarek Robbins, Tony Robbins' son to coach. And he hired other people. Like every time I would tell him about something great, like we talked about water fast. He's like, I'm in. I talk about, you know, crazy things. Like I'm in.

Like he always trying to figure out how to make himself better in every single aspect all the time. Um, you know, I look at a world of people where 99.9% of the people in the world are just content and lazy and just, they are who they are. Where Dave was always trying to figure out, how do I become better? A better version of myself. Like I want to grow. I want to become better.

I want to become the best at this thing. Even till like a month before, um, before his passing. Like it was like, my goal is to come back and be better than I was before. I want to be smarter. I want to be, I want to be able to retain these things. Like he was always pushing and striving to become better. Um, where most people are complacent with where they are. Um, and that's what made Dave great in so many aspects. It's what, um, what I think everyone loved about him so much, um, was just his excitement. And so he was there serving other people and trying to grow so he could serve people more. Um, not out of a selfish thing. And that's was there serving other people and trying to grow so he could serve people more.

Not out of a selfish thing. And that's the way I think a lot of people, they serve selfishly. Like I'm doing this because I'm trying to get something. And Dave wasn't trying to get something. He just knew there was something bigger. And for him, it all tied back to God, tied back to Christ,

tied back to the things that matter the most. He loved having his family involved. I've seen his wife build funnels and launch programs, watching his kids do the same thing. Like, um, it was, the things were never about him. It was always about the people that he, that were around him, starting with his family and then with the community and with other people. Um, he was just so good at it. Um, you know, after the whole cancer stuff started happening, I think again, it was one of those things. In fact, I remember I was sitting in this room.

Right there is where, in the office right there is where I first saw it. I went in there and he was head down praying as soon as he found out. Next day, we sat right here. I was sitting in this chair. He was sitting right here as we were talking about it. He was so scared. He didn't want to go in. He's like, I remember he's like, I want to be here for the library that we're building right here.

Like all these visions. All of a sudden, we're talking. He's like, we're building towards it. I want to be here for the library that we're building right here. Like all these visions, all of a sudden we're talking like, he's like, we're building towards, I want to see ClickFunnels 2.0. I want to see all these things. Um, um, I remember how, how scared he was. And then the thing he said, he said it so many times throughout the years. It's like, if, if me going through this will bring more people to Christ that I'm willing to do it. All right. Final hackers, listen up. It's 2025. And let me ask you, are your B2B ads actually driving results or are they getting lost in the noise? You and I both know the pain of running campaigns that fall flat because they aren't seen by the

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In fact, my wife and I, we literally saved over $1,000 a month when we started using Rocket App. Now, their dashboard is amazing, and you get a clear view of all your expenses across every account you have. You can even create a personalized budget with custom categories and track your monthly spending trends to stay on top of your goals. You want to save for that dream vacation or pay off some debt? Their new goals feature automatically saves money for you so you don't even have to think about it. So cancel all your unwanted subscriptions and reach your financial goals faster with Rocket Money. Go to rocketmoney.com slash Russell today. That's rocketmoney.com slash R-U-S-S-E-L-L. That's rocketmoney.com slash Russell. And, um, which is like, I don't know if I could have said that. I don't know if I, you know what I mean?

Like, um, you give a Dave saying, I'm willing to take on this pain. Like in the company here at Russell, I'm willing to take on this pain so you can do your mission. So you can write your books, you can get it out there. I'm willing to take on this pain. I'm going to take things off your plan write your books, you can get it out there. Um, I'm willing to take on this pain. I'm going to take things off your plan. I'm willing to stay late so that you can do what you're supposed to do. Um, I'm willing to take on this pain and suffering of going through cancer and these horrible things and losing, um, these things, because if it helps you to be able to do what you're doing, I'm willing to take on that pain for you. Um, like that's such a rare characteristic in a human, right? Like, um, I talked about this

at the, at the funeral, like Dave wasn't a good man. Like Dave was one of the best ever, um, who's ever been on this planet, ever walked to this earth. Um, and I know that because I saw it every single day, day in and day out, day in and day out. I saw it as he lifted the burden off my shoulders and took it upon his shoulders so that I could do what he thought was, um, was important. Um, I remember one last story and then we'll, we'll, I'll share it. He has my presentation on his funeral, but, um, you know, I always had a goal. I wanted to be a New York Times bestseller. And that's like, that was the goal. And, um, I didn't hit the.com secrets, extra secrets. I didn't really try cause I was so bitter about it and traffic secrets. I wanted to be a New York times bestseller. And that's like, that was the goal. And, um, I didn't hit the.com secrets, extra secrets. I didn't really try. Cause I was so bitter about it and traffic secrets. I wasn't planning on trying. And he was like, no, he's like, you earn

this. You deserve this. Like you're better than the other. You're like, you were going to get it where no matter like whatever it takes. And he wanted that more than I wanted it. Um, so much so I tried multiple times just to give up and then stop trying. Cause it's not easy. Like in case you're wondering, he knew your times list. It's not an easy process easy process first off you gotta write a really good book and then you have to market it really really well and not in a traditional sense like you know we sold 80,000 copies in a week but it didn't hit the New York Times list because you can't just sell 80,000 copies in a week through a funnel you have to do a whole bunch of other things so for me to do I had to get on tv and radio and interviews and all sorts like just it was insanity um and it was expensive and it was

hard and it was like um and I went about so many times, he's like, no, we're going to get this, you have to get this, like, you earn this, like, you, you are going to be New York Times bestseller, I'm like, ah, I kept trying, kept trying, and we missed the first week, and the second week, and the third week, the point was, like, I was, I was beyond giving up, he's like, no, and after, I think, the fourth week is when we the list and, um, and then he came, he celebrated me. I was like, dude, like we should celebrate you, Dave. You're the one that, that made it possible. Um, but he didn't want to celebrate himself.

He didn't want to talk about himself ever. He wanted to talk about everybody else. He wanted to be the one, the ally, supporting, serving, giving, and then giving the credit to other people. Um, he never want to talk about himself. He'd be so annoyed that I'm talking about him this much right now. But Dave, if you're listening, I love you. This is your chance.

I want people to know how amazing you are because I know it. I know your wife knows it, your kids know it, but the world needs to know it because, again, we had the opportunity to be around greatness every single day. And even if people didn't see it, they felt it. I have, I had a handicapped sister who passed away and first person, you know, super, super close to me to passed away. And it's interesting because you look at someone who's handicapped,

it's like there's this burden and this pro you know, and after she passed away, like I had the realization, I was like, man, I had a perfect celestial person living with someone who was, who'd never sinned, who had never made a mistake, who was flawless, like literally an angel sitting in my house. Every single day of my life, I had a chance to grow up and have her sitting there every single day. Like how lucky was I to be able to see someone who, who was as perfect as you can be on this planet. And yes, she was handicapped, mentally handicapped, physically handicapped, but she was perfect human being. Right.

Um, it was with me every single day and you take it for granted when they leave, you're just like, Oh, like I miss that spirit. I miss that feeling of just like perfection sitting here. And I think it's the same thing now with Dave not here. Like, man, like I miss that. Like being around greatness every day, being around someone who can in the middle of like the hardest times, like times where it's just like would crush any normal human walking with a smile on his face. Like, Ooh, I remember we'd come in here and we talk after work and he would talk about all the

things that we're working on all the things. And I just get so wrong. Like, how are we going to do this? Like, I can't handle this weight anymore. He just smiles like, we'll get it. We'll get it. Let's keep moving forward. We're going to get it. And I think that those are times I would have broken under the pressure and under the stress. And because of him, I was able to keep going because he had faith. I'm just like, no, like this isn't us, Russell. This is from God. This is something bigger than us. Like he's going to take care of us. It's going to be hard. He's got to prove that we can, that we want this. He's got to prove that he's going to improve, like improve our capacity by giving us this pressure and the strengths we can handle whatever the next obstacle is, but we're going to be fine. We're going to do it.

He's had perfect optimism every single time. Like, no, like we're going to do this. And sometimes they'd come on, like, I don't know, like sometimes I write the book of the story and he doesn't know all this stuff. I mean, there's, there's the legal pressures. There's the technical pressures. There's the, the, the people who are once your friends who leave you and then attack you pressure. There's just so many people attacking you from all angles and all directions when you get to the top. You think like, when I get to the top, everyone's going to love me. And it's interesting. They love you on the journey up.

But when you get there, man, they're all taking shots at you, especially the people who you think are the closest. I'm not sure if you guys have been watching the TV show, the chosen, if not, it's the greatest thing ever put out there by Daryl Eves, one of our funnel hackers spoke funnel hacking live, but it's a, it's a TV series about the life of Christ. And so the, the goal and the mission that Daryl had was like, I want to make, um, um, a movie of Christ that makes Christ relatable to us. Right. And so that was the mission is they made that. And so they're in season three right now. And it's like, if you want to change your life, go and watch the chosen. You gotta get two or three episodes in and then, then you'll be hooked.

But like, like it's the greatest thing. Every Sunday, just block out an hour every Sunday to watch it. And that'll change your life. Even if you don't believe in Christ and you just want to like hear the story of a man who did some amazing things, like it'll, it'll change you. Um,

anyway, I, I started sharing that because, you know, in, in this, like, it's also like one of the perfect examples of the hero's journey.

Like Christ is the ultimate architect or archetype of the hero's journey. He's the hero going out there and he's anyway. And, and as he's going out there in this, this journey, um, he hero going out there and he's, anyway, and as he's going out there in this journey, he starts going and getting his apostles. And what's fascinating

about the chosen is he picks each of his apostles. It's not like, I find these perfect people who are the greatest preachers in the land. He goes and he finds people who are fishermen

and other things who aren't doing good things. He finds them typically in their sins and when he finds them, he redeems them of their sin and says, come follow me.

And he sees, are they going to follow him or not follow him, right? These people he and says, come follow me. And he sees, are they going to follow him or not follow him, right? And these people he's getting to come follow him. But one of the people who he brings in is Judas. And obviously we know the story of Judas. Judas betrays Christ. He gives him up for a handful of silver, which is crazy. But it's interesting. It's like we felt that in a little way, not the same way, obviously, but we felt that a little way. People who, who came to our world broke and we taught them the systems and the processes and taught them funnels and they had success. And then we put them on our stage and we like, you know, we do all these amazing things for people. And then, and then

they turn on you and then they, they talk trash about you. And they, and like those ones that hurt the most, you're just like, like, I've loved you like every single step along the way. Like, and then you turn and fight against me. And like, those ones are always like every single step along the way. And then you turn and fight against me. And like, those ones are always the hardest, you know? And so we dealt with those kinds of things. We dealt with people who were struggling. We gave opportunities to, and then the opportunity didn't work out and then are suing us. You know, people who literally like give us these glowing testimonies, post on our Facebook

group about how we changed their life. And then some of our team takes a screenshot that runs as an ad and that person sues us. And we have to go to court because we changed someone's life. And then their public declaration of how six of what they came. Cause we shared that ad. They saw opportunity in suit. It's like, it's just thing after like,

you have no idea thing after thing, after thing, after thing, after thing where I just wanted to walk away so many times. And it was Dave coming in and saying, no, this is not your mission, Russell or my mission. This is God's mission. What we're doing is bigger than just a funnel. We're changing people's lives in so many areas and so many aspects. You cannot stop. You have to keep going. We'll get this. I'm here for you. What can I take

off your plate? What can I take off your plate? And he literally, you know, come look at my burden and take more off pile on his own shoulders so I could keep doing what I'm supposed to do. And, um, anyway, um, people like Dave, friends like Dave are rare and, um, I'm eternally grateful for him. I'm grateful, um, that I bumped into him. I'm grateful for every reason we connected. I'm grateful that he believed in me. I'm grateful that he believed me more than I believed in myself. I'm grateful that he stepped up to bat for me over and over and over. And I am grateful that when I was drowning, he would pull me out of the water where I couldn't. I struggled to move forward when I couldn't. I lost faith in my own mission, my own self.

He was there reminding me who I was and what my calling was. When I would forget about what was important in life, he'd remind me of God and of Christ and why all this stuff we're doing doesn't actually matter, that he was, you know, these are all things that we're doing to bring more glory to him. And even him during his darkest time,

he's going through suffering and pain and not just the physical suffering. I can't even imagine suffering to tell your wife and your kids if I have a brain tumor and like my life's going to change and like all these things, like all the suffering he had to go through

and saying, but it's okay. I will do it if it brings one person closer to him. Anyway, I was blessed to have him to have greatness around me every single day and I will miss it until I have a chance to be reunited with him again someday. And I just hope for all of you guys that first off that you can find something like that

in your life to have around you. And number two, and probably more importantly, is to be that person for somebody else. Um, again, we're all on our own hero's journey, but at the same time, there are times when you're called to be the ally in someone's journey. Sometimes you're called to be the guide in someone's journey sometimes. Oh, and you know, heaven forbid that you get called to be the, the, the, uh, the enemy in someone's don't be that person ever.

But just understanding that, yeah, like all of us want a day, but also all of us can be a day for somebody else. And so when you do that, like it's crazy. Like we had, for Dave's funeral, I mean, the chapel was, I think it was seated for 700 people, 750 people, and it was packed. The chapel was completely packed. All the sub rooms were completely chaplocked and then we zoomed on zoom there were well over a thousand people who watched his funeral live which is amazing for for a man who who lived his life of service who wasn't the face of it all who wasn't out there but people knew him because um because what he did um resonated and changed so many other people's lives. So I'm going to end with that.

Just let you guys know how special Dave is and was as a human. And again, I was so honored that his family asked me to speak at his funeral. I was hoping and praying that they would ask, but obviously I didn't want to volunteer that either. And I was so grateful when they asked me. Um, and so, um, with their permission, I'm going to play my little session. I think it's 10 or 15 minutes long. Um, at the funeral, um, kind of tell us today's stories. You know, let's try how we met. We'll hear stories, um, some of the fun, crazy adventures, um, that we had along the way. Um, and, um, as I was about to click record this morning, there was this talk that popped in my head and there's this quote, and I don't know why I need to tell you this quote, but I've heard it in my head a bunch of times. I think it probably has to do with, um, those who are struggling with this. Um, and I understand that like death is hard,

it's scary. And there's always the question of like, why and why not? Like if we did all the things right, like Dave was healthy, Dave was following God. Like, why does this have to happen? And, um, anyway, this is the quote that is from a talk. Uh, one of my favorite talks, actually, it's, um, a guy named Jeffrey R. Holland. And, uh, this is a talk when I was on my mission 20 years ago that changed my life. The talk is called a high priest of good things to come. And if you want to Google it, you can watch the whole talk. It's, um, it's powerful. Um, in this talk, he tells the story about how, when he was, you know, a young newlywed guy, him and his wife, and they had one or two kids at the time, and they were driving from Southern Utah up to Provo and they were driving it in the middle of nowhere. His car breaks down and

he has to get out of his car and walk back. I'm going to get emotional again. Dang it. Sorry. He has to walk back 10 miles to the gas station, and they get a tow truck. They come back out. They tow the car back, and they look at it, and the car's fine. It starts back up again, so he jumps the car, starts driving again. The car breaks down again. This process happens three or four times when a car broke down in the same spot over and over again. And, you know, he's scared because he has a wife and his kids and he's trying to get to this mission. He keeps breaking down. And eventually they get there and they get, you know, they get the car working and they get it driven up to where he's trying to go. And in this talk, he's telling a story of, you know, 40, 50 years later, he's with

his, with his wife. Now his kids are all, this part's not supposed to be emotional. His wife and kids are all grown and, um, or his kids are grown. His wife and him are older and they're driving that same road he drives past um this spot where the car kept breaking down and and um he says that he sees his mind's eye like him as a young man and um i'll read this part he says um in my in my mind's eye for just an instant, I thought perhaps I saw on the side of a road an old car with a devoted young wife and two little children making the best of a bad situation there. Just ahead of them, I imagined that I saw a young fellow walking around Canaryville with plenty of distance still ahead of him. His shoulders seemed to be slumping a little.

The weight of young father's fear evident in his pace. In the scriptural phrase, his hands didn't seem to hang down. In that imaginary instant, I couldn't help calling out to him. Don't give up, boy. Don't you quit. You keep walking.

You keep trying. There's hope and happiness ahead a lot of it 30 years have been held it's still coming you can keep your chin up it'll be alright in the end trust God

and believe in good things to come and he goes on to say some blessings come soon some blessings come late and some don't come until heaven but those who embrace the gospel of Jesus Christ they come. And so, um, to kind of end this part before I hand over to the, to the funeral,

um, that was my thought. It's just, you know, I think all of us were hoping and praying for a blessing that Dave was going to be healed and be back to normal. And it's going to be amazing. And I think, again, I kind of started by like dave was invincible of course he was gonna be fine and when it wasn't as hard but like i think it's understanding like it says here some blessings come soon some blessings come late and some don't come into heaven for those who embrace the gospel of jesus christ they come and uh that's the message i want to leave with you guys. Again, Dave said, if it brings one person closer to Christ, it was worth it.

It was so cool when he came out with cancer. It was amazing. People from every faith, every denomination reached out. David told me, he's like, my Muslim friends messaged me. They're praying for me. My Jewish friends are doing it. He's like, I had friends who were agnostic, who were praying just in case.

I had friends who were atheists, who didn't believe in God, who came back and started. I had friends who hadn't prayed in years who started praying. He's like, um, he's like, this, this is what it's about. And so for all of you guys, like, so David goes through this in vain. Um, let this experience bring you closer to your God. Fall on your knees, say a prayer. Remember him, remember your mission. Remember that we're not just here for us.

We're here for something bigger. We're here for a mission. And you're here to serve other people who have missions. And so be the ally in their journey. Take the weight off their shoulders. And in your journey, pursue it, even though it's hard. And when it gets too heavy, fall on your knees and pray to God, ask him for help. Um, and sometimes when the trials don't go the way that you want them to, then, um, again, remember this quote, some blessings come soon,

some come late and some don't come into heaven. I know that can be frustrating and, and hard, but, um, there's the, there's a bigger, there's something bigger than we understand or see, obviously. But for those who embrace the gospel of Jesus Christ, they come. Thank you guys so much for listening. I know this is a different than traditional podcast, but I hope you got some value from it and got something. I appreciate you all. I'm grateful for the opportunity to have to serve you as a community. I'm grateful for Dave who helped build what we have here. Um, most of you guys wouldn't be listening to this. You wouldn't be here. You wouldn't be part of this community. You wouldn't be successful entrepreneurship.

Wasn't the fact that Dave sacrificed so much, um, for all of us. And I'm grateful for him. I love him. I miss him. I miss him. I cannot wait to see him again someday. With that said, thank you guys. And here, you have a chance to listen or watch, depending on where you are, to my thoughts and my talk from his funeral. Thank you guys so much. And I hope you enjoy the rest of this episode.

First off, what an honor to be here with you guys and to have a chance to talk about my best friend. Dave wasn't just a good guy. I believe he was one of the best people who's ever been on this planet. I don't mean that lightly. I've had a chance to see the ripple effect of what's been created and happens because of the life he lived. We see it in this room here, but it's felt literally by millions of people around the world. And, um, if Dave heard me say that he'd be super annoyed that I was bringing attention to him. Um, and so just to make sure, um, it reminds me of a story a couple years ago he broke his neck and he was in his bed with a big neck cast on and so he was away from the office for like a week or two

and then he came back in and his big neck up cast on big smile on his face he's running in and first thing we're in the middle of something we're always in the middle of something and he grabbed his phone he started facebook live and started talking to all these people. And he's going on talking for two or three minutes and people are popping in from all around the world. And they're seeing Dave with the neck brace on. He's talking and so excited. And the comments are like, what's wrong with your neck? What's going on? And finally he notices that everybody's so concerned about him. He's like, oh, I broke my neck. I'm fine. Let's go. And it kept going. And I feel like that's probably how Dave would feel about a lot of this it's just like you guys let's go come on keep moving forward um i'm gonna quote some superhero

movies twice in this talk uh we talked a lot about superheroes meet him um we all wanted to be superheroes he got to dress up at one you guys have seen the uh the shield and the cape and everything or the captain america but um i was putting my thoughts down last night. I kept thinking about the movie Avengers Endgame. At the end of the movie, I don't want to spoiler alert, but Iron Man dies. But one of the coolest things about that is that Iron Man captured himself on a hologram, and he came back after his funeral to talk to his kids and stuff. And there's a quote from that that he said that sounded like something Dave would say if he was here.

And he said, don't feel bad about this. Part of the journey is the end. And as hard as that is, it's true for all of us. And so I was thinking about Dave's journey, specifically the journey I was able to have with him, which was so special for me. And I just want to share a couple of things that, um, that I learned from him. Um, the first thing is that, uh, those who know Dave, if he saw something he wanted, he just went and got it. Um, he has shared the story about Carrie earlier.

As you guys know, she was engaged and he said, call me when you're not. And, uh, and, and the rest is history. Uh, the way I met Dave was kind of similar. We were, it was a seminar out in California. We were doing in, um, me and Stu McLaren doing this event. And we had a couple of speakers and Stu had this great idea, like, Hey, we could get all the attendees to pay for all of our meals while we're here. And so he put these signup sheets in the back of the room. And the first thing he said, day number one, the event is, Hey, if you want to go out to eat with the speakers, go to the back and you can sign up, take them out to lunch or dinner. And I had never met Dave this time, but he ran to the back, grabbed my sheet and filled out breakfast, lunch,

and dinner every single day of the event. And so I had every meal with Dave and, um, that's, that's how I fell in love with Dave. Um, and, uh, really quickly found him. He shared so many common things and beliefs. And, um, for some reason, I don't know what we just started a friendship. Um, that was amazing. And, um, and just continue on that line of just like, he saw what he wanted. He wanted, he'd just go for it. We had these crazy conversations. We'd be in a meeting one day and I don't know, I'd have a stupid idea. Like, Hey, we should change the name of my street from clear view court to, um, funnel Avenue. Cause we do funnels. And instead of like just rolling and laughing, Dave runs out of the room,

calls city council. And he's trying to figure out how in the world to change the name of my street. And he comes back like a couple hours later, he's like, we just need to get these petitions signed, so much is going to cost. I was like, this was not like a real thing. He's like, no, if you want that, we need to do it. And I'm like, okay. But it was like that with everything we would do. Like I remember we were on ClickFunnels, we were getting close to like being at 50,000 subscribers. It was a big with everything we would do. I remember we were on ClickFunnels. We were getting close to being at 50,000 subscribers. It was a big number we were all striving towards. And we'd hired the Harmon brothers to make this video. And we're like, we should do a big launch around the video.

So we're just brainstorming. And again, I'm just throwing dumb ideas against the wall. I'm like, hey, we should follow these influencers here. And we could rent out Boise State Football Stadium. We'll play football. And then, oh, what if we got bubble soccer balls? And Dave's like, what if we like set a Guinness book world record, had the biggest bubble soccer ball game in the history of the world. And I'm just like laughing and laughing. And three weeks later, we set the world record

for the largest bubble soccer game in the world. Um, it was amazing. And, um, the best thing about Dave, like being around around him like he gave me the ability to dream big because I knew whoever we came up with he would figure out a way to make it happen um which is just the kind of person he was one time we went to this event in Colorado we flew down there we drove like an hour to get to the event and we showed up and um and Dave was just my biggest supporter he's always there like helping me and we get to the event and I'm supposed to speak for 90 minutes. They're like, we only get 45.

And he's like, no, you don't understand. Russell gets 90. And like, we only have 45 minutes. He's like, okay, we'll take 60. And, um, because there was like a wedding party coming afterwards. So he'd like talk to the wedding people and move their whole wedding. It's like 15 minutes. So I can go longer.

And then we didn't have any order forms and we thought they were gonna have order forms. They didn't have any. And so I'm like, let's just not worry about it. i'll just teach and we'll go home it'll be fine he's like no we're here to change people's lives we can't change their life unless they take action so he went on his computer and he made a fake order form like he's typed in name credit card whatever he ran the business center printed him and he came out okay we got order forms now and okay and so i'm like trying to like back out of things I'm so scared and Dave's like no we're here for a mission we're doing this and um and um we went out there and I spoke and Dave's running out handing out these order forms he made up and more than half the people in the room ended up um signing up for the thing it was just the way Dave was like you just make sure that

you like he saw something wanted and figure out how to get it done um in fact I think if he was here today he saw this many people in the room and all the people on Zoom, he'd be annoyed that we weren't trying to sell something. So with his permission, I'm just kidding. I remember one late night a few Christmases ago,

it was a time of just like like things were really, really heavy with a lot of things. And it was like 2 or 3 in the morning. We were both there trying to figure out how to fight for this thing that we believed in so much. And he didn't need to be there. He was there.

He didn't want to leave. And I remember just sitting there, and I remember telling him the specifics. I said, David, if I had to go to war, and I could only pick one person to be there, who could be by my side, who I know would protect me, would be you. He was always my protector. He was there supporting me, loving me, just like he has for so many of us. Next thing I knew about Dave is he was always up for anything. Some of you guys know

the crazy things that we did. I always had crazy ideas and he'd always just say yes to everything. I remember one day, I'd been like planning for like three or four months to do this long water fast.

I was only going to drink water for a week and he found out about it like Sunday night and I was starting Monday and instead of like preparing or asking any questions, he showed up Monday.

He's like, I'm doing it with you. I'm like, have you thought through this? Like, this is not, he's like, no, I'm in. And we, he did a five day water fast with zero, like not a 30 seconds notice, just started and went with it and did the whole thing. One day he showed up. One of our friends, Eric Cafferty challenged us this thing called the one chip challenge. And he brings you this chip in a coffin, one chip in a coffin, because it's so bad. Dave shows up at our house, like five or six of these things. And we sat there and we ate this chip. And I remember like, it hurts so bad. Mike, I was dying and he

just wanted to beat me. And so like, well, I'm on the ground crying and like my mouth hurts so bad. My guts and my, and my, my kids, a couple of us all did. It was crazy. And he sat there and waited until we all tapped out and gave up. And then he like finally at the end won. And just all the time, one day we were in the middle, it was right before a big event and we were so stressed out and so anxious. And then I see him walk out of the office, the biggest, you know, Dave smiled, but this was bigger than normal. And he walks in the kitchen and they like text me, hey Russell, we need to meet you in the kitchen. And I walk in and they'd set up a pie duel. And there was plastic on the ground and they had pies and we dueled. We stood back to back and we walked in.

And I was like, why are we doing this? He's like, it's March 14th, it's pie day. We have to have a pie duel. I'm like, of course we do. And so we had a pie duel. He was always up for just anything and he made life fun, even in the most stressful, crazy, crazy times. Third thing I learned from him is that he showed up consistently for everybody.

I remember being sick at home, having the flu and also hear the doorbell ring and Dave's there with some of the kids and he's got a box of supplements and things and all this stuff. And just showed up then over and over and over again. When Todd and I were trying to plan ClickFunnels 2.0, I flew out to Atlanta and I was in there, I was there meeting with Todd and Dave found out we were meeting and he jumped in a plane and like a few hours later, he's there with us, like there to like, to be part of it. He always showed up. He was always there to support, to lead, to guide, uh, and to be part of it. Um, and the last thing I want to share is, and this is one that's probably the thing that I'm most impressed with him of all things,

but Dave was a man of values. And I know that all of us, especially Dave, has so many things that we value, right? We value our family, our business, our work, our health, like all the things we value. Yesterday, I was listening to something and Jordan Peterson said something interesting. He said that, um, all of us have a hierarchy of values and he says that the thing that you value the most becomes your God. And for most people,

it's, it's usually not God. It's something else. Um, but if you look at Dave's life, the thing that he valued the most was God. Um, which is so rare today. Um, and you saw in every part of his life, it's the way he made decisions. Like I, prior to him coming and moving to Idaho and assuming stuff, I pitched him on a million different crazy ideas that were, um, may not have been, you know, just idea after idea. And I kept trying to like move to Boise, come hang out. Like we work on these projects together. Um, and it wasn't until we talked about click funnels and he said, I remember him telling me, he said, there's something special about this.

I think this is being led by God. What we're doing, like this is something bigger. And because he believed in that, then he was willing to go all in and be part of this thing. And I watched him grow with us over the years from coming in at one level where he was helping the affiliates to becoming head of business development and becoming a partner and then becoming our CEO and running the entire operation. His number one value in life was God. And he saw it in all aspects of his life. Shortly after was Carrie and then the kids. And it's just so powerful to see a man who believes that way and lives that way.

And I still remember the day when he was in the office after he got the call. They found out he had the tumor. I knew he was on a call. And afterwards, I looked over and I couldn't see him. And so I stood up to walk over to see if he was still there. And this giant of a man was on his knees. He could have been running, crying, hiding, whatever. And the first thing he did is petition his heavenly father.

And then afterwards told us, we've heard him say so many times today, he said, if cancer brings more people closer to Christ, then I will do it. To be able to submit himself and his will to God's will is why I respect Dave so much. It got closer and closer to the end, and he knew things were kind of turning. We had an amazing night. We had a chance to spend and talk to Dave and pray with him.

And it was amazing. And then two or three days later, I was on a Zoom call or something. And all of a sudden my phone lit up and it was Dave. And I was like, I saw he was calling and I was so scared

because I didn't know just all the emotions and fears and everything. So I quickly got off my call and I called him back. And the boys answered the phone, handed it to Dave. And he looked at me, and he looked in his lane's bed biggest smile

on his face he's like i'm about to take a nap i'm like okay he's like i'm probably not gonna wake up um i just want to know i love you and i'm gonna see you in heaven but not too soon and i was like what and he said good night i love you and hung up and i got a snapshot on my phone of that that last moment and the smile and just knowing that like, I'm going to see him in heaven again, but not too soon. To kind of close, I was thinking about ever since, especially the last two or three weeks, like I've been thinking about this and Dave and just everything, a lot of scriptures and go to my head.

And the scripture I was thinking about today was the principle of the, of the parable of the talents. I'm sure most of you have heard where, um, the master came and gave, um, one person, five talents, one person, two talents, one person, one talent and had him go out in the world and see what they would do with it. And Dave was, Dave was the guy that got the five talents. He took these things, and he went out there, and he multiplied them.

He came back to the master, and what the master told this guy in the scriptures is I'm sure the exact same thing that our Savior Jesus Christ told Dave. We saw him again last week. This is what he said. He said, well done, thou good and faithful servant. Thou hast been faithful over a few things. I will make thee ruler over many things. Enter thou into the joy of the Lord.

As this got closer and closer, I kept thinking in my head, like, I'm not ready. I'm not ready for this. All you guys felt the same way. And, um, that brought me to one more superhero story and then I'll be done. Um, in Dr. Strange, there's a moment in that movie. If you've seen it where, um, Dr. Strange was his mentor. She's about to pass away and she's frozen time, slowed it down as slow as she possibly can and Dr. Strange says I'm not ready and the mentor says

there's no one ever is we don't get to choose our time death is what gives life meaning to know your days are numbered, your time is short the only reason for our lives the only reason our lives have meaning is because there's an end if it wasn't for the end there would be no purpose

in the scripture there's an end. If it wasn't for the end, there'd be no purpose. Um, and the scripture that rang in my head, as soon as, um, I got the news about Dave, um, it's in the book of Corinthians and when Paul wrote the Corinthians, he was talking to these people about Christ and how he had won the victory over death for them. And the quote that kept, I kept hearing in my head, the moment I heard about Dave passing was this. I guess it was Paul writing to Corinthians, and he said, Oh, death, where is thy sting?

Oh, grave, where is thy victory? Because of Christ, we know that we will have a chance to be with him again, to be together again as families, as friends. If I could say one last thing to Dave together again, his family, his friends. If I could say one last thing to Dave right now, before I go see him again in heaven, it would be thank you for being my example, for being my ally,

for being my guide and being my friend. Dave, you did it, man. I love you. Can't wait to see you soon. I say these things in the name of Jesus Christ, amen.