The Christmas Framework Episode

As you watch your Christmas movies and think about your relationship with God, I hope that this will give you something interesting to think about.

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---Transcript---

Hey everybody. This is Russell Brunson. Welcome back to the Marketing Secrets Podcast. And actually we're like a couple of days before Christmas. Instead of "Hey", maybe I should say, "Ho, ho, ho, Merry Christmas." And welcome to the Marketing Secrets Podcast. All right, everybody, we are getting ready for the holidays. I hope you are as well. I know this year has been nuts for pretty much everybody. And so I hope that we are, like me, looking forward to a time where we get to stop thinking and stressing and just think about our families for a little bit. I'm looking forward to it, and hopefully you are as well.

Anyway, I'm telling you a story happened last night. It was kind of interesting. So I was, we were going to, my wife was actually, we were with the kids, it was after church and we're kind of getting the kids settled in. And we had a Christmas program at church, which was really nice, but kind of the tone in the house, hasn't been Christmasy and my wife, Colette, was just like, we need to do something so it feels like Christmas in here. And so she went and put in The Polar Express, which, obviously we've seen that a million times. It was kind of fun as a family to sit and watch it. And it was interesting as I was watching this, the whole concept is believe, and it's talking about believing in Santa and things like that. And I'm not going to talk too much about that, but I think that obviously all the things that are happening in the Christmas holiday are symbolic, right? It's the symbolism of gifts. And Christmas is representing Christ and him coming and him bringing the ultimate gift of his life to us and how amazing it is.

And then our job is to believe in him and believe in that gift to believe in these things. And again, I know that there are different faiths and denominations listening to this, and if you're not Christian, that's okay. This is, if you were telling me some of your beliefs and no matter what you had, I would respect that and listen, and it wouldn't be offensive to me. So hopefully it's not to you either, but as a Christian, as someone who believes in Christ, I think that Christmas is all symbolic, obviously of him and this gift he brought and our job is to believe in him and then having a belief that our belief actually leads into actions, right? Like if you do believe him, then what does that mean about you? How are you going to try to change your life? How do you become a better person? How are you going to try to live?

And it's interesting, as I was thinking about that, I was thinking, Christmas is such a type and shadow of Christ. And I started thinking about just how many other things throughout life are types and shadows of that, right? For those who read the Old Testament, you have the story of Abraham and Isaac and how he had to sacrifice his son. Right. And that is the type and shadow of when our heavenly Father had to sacrifice his son Christ. And throughout the Bible and through other scriptures, like there's all these types and shadows where things are happening and it's foreshadowing events that are happening later in time. Right. And it's so interesting.

And I think that, I feel like we have this consistent, I don't know how to explain this correctly. Hopefully I don't mess this up too bad, but throughout our lives, there's these patterns that repeat themselves for us to see and to notice. Right. And it's interesting because my goal is not to get sacrilegious with it. So hopefully I'm not, but it's interesting, you guys are here listening to this podcast because you're entrepreneurs and you're trying to figure out how to market your business and things like that. And so what's the correlation for us, right? And you think about that, in the movie, The Polar Express, these kids are getting on a train and the train's moving forward. And one of the lines of the end is your job is not to think of the train, try to decide if the train's real or not, your job is just to get on the train. Right?

And they go through the whole process and talk about how important is to believe. And you've got to believe in this thing you can't see yet and there's kind of the guy in the top of the Polar Express, who's like the opposite. He's the naysayer. He's like, if you can't see it, you can't believe it. You know? And there's kind of the light and the dark and a pulling in both directions. Right? And so obviously there's the spiritual journey that that's symbolizing, right? This is life. We're on this train. We're going towards something... You believe, you don't believe, there's people holding you away and all those kinds of things as you were going to this destination.

But I think about it with business, how similar it is too. We come on this business and it's like, okay, the train's moving, right? All you guys were here, either you're on the train now, or you're watching the train go by. You're seeing stories of a person after person after person having success. And you're like, "I don't know what to do. I'd get on the train ride. I get off the train. Is that train even real? Like, is this stuff real what Russell's talking about? Is a fake? Are people actually having success? There's all these things, right. And the first step is your goal is not to try to believe that the trains real or not, it's just to get on the train, right. And so if you're not on the train, that's the first step. Then you get on the train and then it's like, I still think there's so many people that are skeptical. Oh, is this real? Is it not real? Like, do I believe, do I not believe?

And it's like, you've got to believe, because if you don't believe, if you don't have faith first then your actions aren't going to follow. I think this might be real but I'm not really sure. The way that you pursue that is going to change, right. It's a reason why when we have faith in God, or in Christ, wherever you have faith in, right? If you have faith and you actually believe, you're going to do things differently. You're going to live differently. You can become someone different because you have belief in it. And if you're like, "Ah, this may or may not be." You're more skeptical, you're not going to take the steps you need to do. And the same thing is true in business. Like in business, if you're getting on this train and you're, "I think it's true, but I'm not really sure. I'm kind of going back and forth. Maybe it's a scam. Maybe it's not, maybe I'm successful, I'm not going to be able to be successful." All the things, right. If you don't have belief, you're not going to take the steps necessary to be successful. That's just, it's an eternal principle in anything, and it's true in...

Obviously this is a business podcast, but is true in all aspects of life, right? With marriage. When you meet your spouse, your significant other, the person that you're going to marry, it's like, "Ah, do I get on the train? Do I not going on the train. Is this the right person?" It's like no, like you have to believe this is the right person. Right. You have to have belief in it. And then if you believe like this is your person that you're going to marry, this is my spouse, you do things differently. Right. You become someone different.

And so it's true in all aspects of life, same with if you're going to school, if you're going into, I don't care what it is. And so I just, as I was watching, I was just like thinking how interesting it is. How we have these types and these shadows, that the process is the same though over and over and over again. Right?

And so in this Christmas season, I just, I don't know, this is kind of a weird podcast to do, and I'm just nervous recording it. Maybe it makes no sense to you. But I think that these principles, as we use them in the Christmas thing, they're kind of funny and they're cute. We watched all the cartoons and the TV shows and there's that version of it. But if you look at it through the lens of like, this is a type and a shadow of my beliefs in God, or my beliefs in my business, or my beliefs in my spouse, my beliefs in myself, my own identity, my own... I can start looking at that.

There's these really cool patterns that happen consistently over and over and over and over and over again. And maybe the movies talking about belief in something that may not actually be real, but it's, again, it's a fable, it's a story to illustrate something differently. Right. And so, I don't know, that's kind of been my interesting thing for me as I've been watching this and just looking at... I used to watch Christmas movies just for an enjoying thing, but I'm trying to look at them now, at least as of yesterday, like as a personal development seminar, right? Like what are the principles here? They're talking about belief, they're talking about faith, they're talking about, if you do have belief, like how does that change? If you have real faith, how does that change your actions? And then what's the fruits of that? Like what happens because of it? Right.

And so, anyway, it's kind of interesting. So my challenge for you guys in this Christmas season, you guys are watching these things and having fun with your family is just start looking at it because it's something that you can use in different areas of your life, again, from your business, to your spiritual life, to your family life, to relationships. The pattern is there and it repeats itself over and over and over again.

It's interesting. It's like when I was geeking out and doing all this study on the hero's two journeys, if I've done some episodes on that, but if you read the book, The Hero With a Thousand Faces, right, he talks about Joseph Campbell in that book, talks about if you look at all a story from like the beginning of time, until now, it doesn't matter what society, what language, what time, what era, the story frameworks are the same.

And you see them over and over and over again, right? Almost all successful movie, book, folklore, myth, story, like they all follow the same pattern. I think for a lot of us, at least for me, I look and I'm like, that's really cool. I'm going to, this is the pattern that George Lucas used to build Star Wars. Like, it's really cool. There's the pattern. I see it. I'm going to go back and replicate it. But it's like, why is that pattern everywhere? Why has it been in our DNA as a society from the beginning of time till now? It doesn't matter what language, what society, what time, what era you live in that, that thing is there. And say, maybe it's just not a storyline that someone invented and taught everybody back way back in the day. Maybe it's a framework. Maybe it's true. Maybe it's something there. In fact, if you start looking at just The Hero With a Thousand Faces, right. That book or that framework, it's like, oh my gosh, like the reason why this storyline has been used so many times, it's because it's our storyline, it's your storyline. Right. You start looking at that and that's why we really connect with those movies, because we start seeing this over and over and over again, it's like, this is my story.

And so, I don't know, maybe I'm overthinking things. Maybe it's out of place when we talk about this on a marketing podcast. But I just want you guys to, as you're watching movies and things, is just try to put yourself in that, how does this relate to your business, how does it relate to your life, how does it relate to your spirituality? How does really through relationship with a God? Because it does. And even though the stories may be goofy, maybe a reindeer with a red nose and maybe, whatever, the frameworks, the stories that you guys are hearing are based on true principles and there's there's truth in all these things.

So anyway, there you go. I'm sure it offends someone. For you, I apologize. For everybody else, hope you enjoyed it. And if you got nothing from this, then just skip through it and listen to next episode after Christmas. But that said, Merry Christmas. I appreciate you guys all. I'm grateful to be here. Grateful, honestly, for your attention. The fact that you listen in this podcast means the world to me, hopefully you get value from it. And we have some new things coming up in the new year and moving forward to make the podcast even better, more exciting. So I'll keep you guys loop on that. With that said, if I don't talk to you before the end of the holidays, have a great holiday and we'll talk to you all again later. Bye, everybody.

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