In Memory of Karl Bessey

This past Sunday my phone/email started lighting up, with people asking if I had heard that Karl Bessey had passed away. 

I was, I remain, in shock. I have heard from a great many that feel the same way. Please allow me a few minutes to honor my friend.

Karl and I met in 2000 at an event in Cancun. Karl was a leading, direct marketing superstar in a company called IGP, who was putting 2000 people in the seats at back to back events, with world-renowned freedom speakers like Ron Paul and G. Edward Griffin, wrapped around a business model for entrepreneurs. IGP would serve as an early model for the company that Karl and I would start together, in 2005, Wealth Masters International. WMI would go on to have many thousands of members globally with the business taking Karl and I around the world. Karl built the marketing side…I built the product side…and we had an 8 year run that was an absolute whirlwind of a blast. We met and worked with so many wonderful people, many that became close friends for both of us. So many great things happened in those few, short years. 

And it was Karl that made the business go. Karl that made it fun. Karl that had the drive. We started our days together and often ended our days together. Our early morning call always started with Karl saying…and I can hear his voice as clear as a bell:

“What’s up, ya ole sack?” 

Karl spoke with an “Ephraim drawl”, an accent that you’d only detect in people from the Ephraim, Utah area. It was as interesting as it was endearing. No doubt he had his own thoughts about my East Texas redneck-speak.

After knowing Karl all these years…18 in total…I never met a single person that had a bad thing to say about him. Never. Likewise, I cannot remember hearing him say negative things about others. 

That was Karl. Positive, high character, hilariously funny and just a down-right happy, salt of the earth guy. A better person than I deserved to call a friend. 

My funniest memories with Karl came from our travels together. Our hotel check-ins were a kick. As we walked in and approached the sign-in desk, Karl would announce, with conviction and glee: “you can wipe those worried looks from your brow, cause we're finally here”…

The desk clerks would look at us in the most interesting of ways, with some thinking that with Karl’s good looks he must be a known, global celebrity…some with confusion...but always, with these big smiles on their faces. "Here comes a guy that loves life…how can we not smile ear to ear at that."

Karl’s personality was infectious. At our events, Karl didn't shake hands. Karl hugged. Everyone. If you’re in investment circles you probably know the name Harry Dent, a global macro-economist and best selling author. I happened to walk in as Karl and Dent were meeting for the first time. I had a direct line view as Karl gave him a hug that was almost certainly one of the most uncomfortable moments in Dent's life. Priceless. 

But it was something that happened at an event in Las Vegas that was the epitome of Karl Bessey. We struck a deal with a real estate group with the understanding that they would present their opportunity if they agreed to give away two homes to our attendees.

As it turned out, this group knew the singer/entertainer Marie Osmond, who along with her brother Donny had the #1 show in Vegas. Next thing we know, Marie Osmond is taking photos with us backstage, having agreed to draw the winners names and present the homes to their new owners. 

As we were walking onstage, Karl leaned over to me and said “I’ve loved Marie Osmond forever. What do you think she’d do if I kissed her…in front of God and everybody?”

Yep. The balls on this guy. He did it. Karl and Marie made eye contact, and as he leaned over to kiss her, she actually embraced it. The event center went crazy. She blushed. He smiled, confidently. Another bucket list item checked off. Few could say no to him. Karl fed off of letting others know they were special. He was pure love. We all felt it. 

Karl didn't start off as a marketing rock star. He was a coal miner, from his teens. He raised an amazing family, starting at a young age, working his butt off driving 60 miles + each way, in the worst of weather conditions. I didn’t know Karl then…but man, I know those car pools had to have been an absolute blast. 

This past Sunday, Karl was taken from us after an 8 month fight with cancer. A big part of the shock that many of us feel is because we did not know he was sick. From speaking to his son-in-law, Karl wanted us to "remember him the way that he was". We will and we do, Karl. 

The other big part of the shock that I feel is that Karl and I had not spoken in a few years. I’ll never get the chance to say a proper good-bye to my brother from another mother. That’s on me. Something I need to deal with. But I do have an opportunity to say this, knowing with certainty that if there is a heaven, Karl is up there making people laugh and doing the “Karl dance”, as he jams to classic rock; My friend, thank you for being in my life. Thank you for such amazingly great memories that I would not have had otherwise. Thank you for being yourself. Thank you for the impact that you had on me, and on so, so many that are reading this right now, each with their own unique memories of their time with you. You will be missed, greatly...ya ole sack.

 Karl Bessey 1957-2018