Can you explain the difference yet relatedness between messaging and positioning to me like I’m a 5yr old?

Positioning is the framing of the house - it defines the structure and heavily influences the overall style (for instance, low and long like a midcentury modern or up and down like a townhome)

Messaging is the design choices you make once the structure is built. If your messaging feels very discordant from your positioning, it will be confusing. But, you can make certain unexpected choices in messaging that are not purely defined by your positioning.

I'm not sure this analogy fully works for the "5 year old" described in the question, but hopefully it is illustrative!

I think the jelly fish approach articulated here does a great job of articulating the nuances b/w messaging and positioning: https://www.linkedin.com/pulse/what-does-great-product-marketing-look-like-marcus-andrews

At the bottom is the "Raw data/research Layer" - This foundation contains intelligence, data, customer insights that are collected, cleaned, and combined to create positioning insights

Think of the middle layer as the positioning layer - Here, product marketing teams work together to position products and craft the story that marketing brings to life. This layer transforms the raw data into a strategic narrative.

Finally the top layer acts as the messaging layer - Where marketing tactics "erupt" from a single company story that is consistently in various messaging formats across all channels.