I recently listened to a Russell Brunson podcast episode, and I was shocked and saddened to learn that he had spent a couple of years in hell.  

During my year as one of his 2CCX momentum coaches, I watched this well-known and respected entrepreneur from the wings, admiring his generosity and his pioneering spirit in online marketing.

But over the last couple of years, his world cracked open.

You must earn the right to be hopeful

It reminded me of this quote by the Canadian psychologist, Dr Jordan Peterson.

You have a moral obligation to be hopeful, to be optimistic about the future. But only after you’ve been through the valley of nihilism and are no longer naïve.

This is not a call to airy-fairy positivity.

No, this is an appeal to let hope be born from the ashes of your deepest despair.

In this candid podcast episode, published in January 2025, the details of Russell Brunson’s recent valley of nihilism become clear. The ClickFunnels 2.0 launch collapsed under record traffic, ruining funnels and leaving customers out of pocket. Then, his business partner died suddenly.

Another crisis… his 18-year-old son disappeared

And then, his eldest son vanished the morning after celebrating his eighteenth birthday with his twin, igniting weeks of frantic phone calls and desperate searches before he was found safe.

While searching for the lost son, another catastrophe struck. At a youth wrestling tournament where Russell had gone to coach his younger son, tragedy and instinct collided. Mid–match, his boy found himself trapped in an illegal chokehold that threatened serious injury.

Without pausing to weigh the consequences, Russell leapt onto the mat and yanked the opponent off his son. This five-second lapse of bad judgment had a big fallout. Officials banned Russell from coaching youth wrestling ever again and from attending tournaments for two years. And if you know anything about Russell Brunson, it is that wrestling is his happy place.

Then all hell broke loose online

Within hours, a video recording of the incident was posted online, and random strangers recast it as evidence of assault. Death threats landed in his inbox, former mentees publicly denounced him, and millions in revenue vanished as outrage swept social media.

Most of us would have buckled in that maelstrom. But Russell found himself again. At the end of the podcast episode, his old optimism, now forged by the fire of suffering, shines through.

He reminded himself of a mantra we had all heard him repeat time and again: “You’re just one funnel away.”

Reconciled with his son, and funnels for the software and the coaching side of his business rebuilt, he refused to let the noise drown out every whisper of possibility. He reclaimed the calm and released the shard of doubt and despair.

Real hope is never blind.

It’s a muscle we strengthen by leaning into our darkest doubts until they lose their power.

It’s the stillness we cultivate in the eye of our own storms. And it’s proof that wisdom is always available under the noise, if we’ll only allow ourselves to get quiet enough to hear it.