Propaganda and the Shocking Science and Psychology of Persuasion | #Marketing - Ep. 101

The Russell Brunson Show

Russell Brunson

Marketing, Business, Entrepreneurship

4.8 • 982 Ratings

🗓️ 31 December 2025

⏱️ 49 minutes

🔗️ Recording | iTunes | RSS

🧾️ Download transcript

Summary

I want you to listen to this episode of The Russell Brunson Show with a different level of awareness. This is not just a breakdown of a video sales letter or a history lesson. It is the story of how persuasion actually works, where it came from, and why almost everything you see in marketing, politics, and media today traces back to a single hidden lineage. This episode walks through the uncomfortable truth behind influence and why understanding it is no longer optional if you want to build, sell, or lead in a world driven by attention. Key Highlights: ◼️How Sigmund Freud uncovered the unconscious drivers of human behavior and why those discoveries terrified him when they were used at scale ◼️How Edward Bernays weaponized Freud’s work, shifted advertising from logic to emotion, and created modern propaganda through desire and identity ◼️Why Bernays believed democracy required manipulation and how his book Propaganda openly explains the engineering of consent ◼️How Dan Kennedy took Bernays’ ideas even deeper, refining persuasion into systems that influence high level decision makers, not just the masses ◼️Why these same psychological frameworks still drive webinars, VSLs, funnels, and buying behavior today, whether people realize it or not The reason this matters is simple. These tools exist. They have shaped the last century of buying, believing, and behaving. You can either stay unaware and be influenced by them, or you can understand how they work and choose how to use them ethically in your own business. This episode is about pulling back the curtain so you can finally see the system behind persuasion and decide what role you want to play inside it. ◼️If you want to watch the full Bernays presentation I reference in this episode, you can find it here: https://secretsofpropaganda.com◼️And if you want access to the event I mention at the end, including the Propaganda book bonus, the link shared in the episode is: https://secretsofpropaganda.com/buy ◼️If you’ve got a product, offer, service… or idea… I’ll show you how to sell it (the RIGHT way) Register for my next event →⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠ https://sellingonline.com/podcast⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠ ◼️Still don’t have a funnel? ClickFunnels gives you the exact tools (and templates) to launch TODAY → ⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠https://clickfunnels.com/podcast Learn more about your ad choices. Visit megaphone.fm/adchoices

Transcript

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0:00.0	Olivia Culpo here to tell you all about the launch of the new Abercrombie spring denim collection,
0:05.5	made the way denim should feel. Their denim has always been a staple in my wardrobe and has a wide range of fits,
0:11.4	styles, and washes. Every jean is available in both their classic fit and viral curve love.
0:17.5	Shop in the app, online, and in stores.
0:30.1	Do you have a funnel, but it's not converting?
0:35.2	The problem 99.9% of the time is that your funnel is good, but you suck at selling. If you want to learn how to sell so your funnels will actually convert, then get a ticket
0:38.9	to my next selling online event by going to sellingonline.com slash podcast.
0:42.9	That's selling online.com slash podcast.
0:47.9	What's up, everybody?
0:48.9	This is Russell Brunson.
0:50.0	Hope you're doing great.
0:51.2	Hey, did you see the Bernays VSL that I launched a while ago?
0:57.0	I'm going to tell you guys a little of the backstory.
0:59.0	I took my Atlas group out to to Agora.
1:02.0	The company does $1.5 billion a year selling info products and they taught us how they do their
1:07.0	Vsls and I got home and I wanted to do a VSL like them.
1:10.0	And so I started using AI, I got some things together, to do a VsL like them and so I started
1:11.2	using AI I got some things together I wrote this VSL it ended up 50 50 50 minute
1:16.2	long VsL we animated it we launched it we did all sound engineering sound design
1:21.1	plus video design and it's insane in fact if you want to go watch it you should go
1:24.0	watch it go to secrets of propaganda.com to go and watch it if you want to see the entire thing. But you know what? The other day I was playing with it, I was playing it on the video on the side while I was working on something, I could hear it. I was like, this is just as powerful to listen to the audio because the sound engineering they did and the story is so vitally important. So yeah, so I actually just wanted to play the video for you guys. I get it's long, but it's gonna teach you guys about propaganda, where it came from, all the way from Sigmund Freud to Edward Bernays, to Dan Kennedy to Russell Brunson, directly to you, and I think you're gonna learn some cool things, and it's a lot of fun. And at the end of this, as you will know, as you will listen to, I will pitch you on getting
2:01.2	tickets to next Selling Online event, which if you haven't done the event yet, you need to do
	...

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