Toll positions...lots of them.
 

I think you might want to contact Howard Cossman directly, if you can, that site doesn't look OK to me. Try linked in or maybe he has retired or sold off the assets, I don't know.

2009. That project fell apart. Harvey is on upper gears today, for sure. I'm not at liberty to discuss things from back then.

A good look at a Toll Position similar to the wheel barrow, is the EdenPure space heater, with over a BILLION dollars in sales. That too, was gotten via an exclusive distribution agreement, and in my mind is the modern version of the Cossman stuff.

One thing I would encourage anyone to do who is interested in Tolls is know the marketing part. Having control is great, but does you no good if you don't have distribution.

Gordon

And now, Page 2 and the rest of the story. (Apologies to Paul Harvey).
 

Connecting the dots via GJA. Brief summary.

At 10 introduced to ELMERS, Wheeler and Leterman, via their books on selling...wrote about in SPIDERS, SNAKES AND MICE, OH MY.

15, Fran Renner, KRISTEE PRODUCTS and OLSON Electronics all intersected. Gary Halbert and Dennis Haslinger at Kristee Products.

19, long summer in Newport News VA, many a weekend at Edgar Cayce center.

20-22 Reading and practicing all things METAPHYSICAL, including Astral projection and Eastern "thinking".

70's. While in college at Golden West, met Joe Karbo, he "introduced" me to Melvin Powers, Jerry Buchanan and Jim Straw, also Dean F.V. DuVall. These were active MAIL ORDER businesses of the day. Actually met Melvin, and talked to Jerry and Jim. Also Gil Turk in New Jersey and some others.

So that is my foundation background on all this. Add in 15+ years of Social Work, 25 years of teaching golf, and dozens of jobs and there you have MY whole story.

I think it was around 1978 that I bought the big Harvey Brody course, if memory serves, it was hundreds of dollars. By that time I had accumulated a decent library too. The promotion for it was a booklet, I think over 50 pages, or something like that.

Also from 76 for a decade a member of Akron Writers Club and local Toastmasters. Now you all know more than you ever wanted to about me.

I've always had several irons in the fire, due to ADD or ADHD or extreme curiosity, as I prefer it.

Along the way, I saw 4 very different paths that people took. Here in Akron, OH, at the time, many chose to work for the rubber companies, they employed tens of thousands of people. These were divided into two groups, blue collar and white collar. White collars were more likely to be COLLEGE educated and were on salary, and earned more.

So WORKER bees of 2 varieties was one group.
Social workers. They might be a sub group of WORKERS, or in their own group BECAUSE they had a tendency to be less about making money and more about (in their minds) doing good work for others.

Business people. Mom and Pop. Pizza shop, dry cleaner, barber shop, beauty shop. Small little business. BIGGER ones, and very big.

INDEPENDENTS. Now this is my classification, explaining how I saw things as a young man. After the Navy and a four year retirement/adventure, I knew I wasn't cut out to work in a rubber company or any other cog business.

I went into social services, and always had a side hustle going too (sometimes several at a time),

Enamored with MAIL ORDER, this was my first and ongoing choice of a side business, easy to do from home and I followed directions, creating and selling information products, reports and getting writing gigs, often ghosting for businessmen in the area.

Here is what I learned from all this, so as to connect the dots.

See, after WW II, the returning GI's went to work, and housing boomed, marriages and KIDS B O O M E D, thus, we BOOMERS. The Happy Days of the 50's (for White America) had arrived.

The thing was: DISPOSABLE INCOME. Massive advertising, TV...and magazines where things were sold in hundreds of classified ads.

There was a decent sized Mail Order business from 1864 on, which had the first boom with the continental trains, which allowed delivery anywhere. But the sheer number of people with money to spend exploded after WW II for the Western world, especially USA.

So, guys like Joe Karbo, who were of an INDEPENDENT nature, started buying and selling surplus. As did the OLSON Bros in Akron (electronics), as did Mace Levin in Erie, PA. Joe Cossman was one of those guys who also was an INDEPENDENT, and I think most of these guys just didn't want a boss, and wanted to do their own thing.

Cossman and Karbo saw the huge potential of mass markets and how easy and cost effective it was to reach them, via ads in magazines, newspapers and even in comic books. I want to point out, there were HUNDREDS of Mail Order companies, we just talk about those who went on to sell

information

as to how to sell via Mail Order. So, we have a lot of WW II Veterans returning and falling into one of those paths, most being workers...Autos, Tires, Steel, Mfg. with retail booming.

Harvey Brody left the Air Force, went to college, then being of the INDEPENDENT spirit, started his career, and one of things he did was work with Joe Cossman as a consultant/per diem type. Now Harvey had already created the zoom spout oiler in college while repairing typewriters for extra income.

So, back in the 1950's, there was a time of disposal income and a lot of Entrepreneurship.

Small Mail Order companies expanded and smaller shops like KRISTEE PRODUCTS added employees and lines. OLSON Electronics, a mail order house, opened up a retail store. And the 50's saw the rise of the Strip Shopping Centers, Montgomery Wards (a mail order co), JC Penney's, Sears (original big mail order catalog company).

The 60's and 70's saw the INDOOR mall era, and this curtailed some of the bigger mail order houses, like SEARS, but there arose the specialty shops, and mail order catalogs contained everything from jewelry to food.

OK, are you bored yet? So what? Right?

I believe that by looking back and seeing what happened, the so called footprint in the sands, that we can predict and project where the footprints of the future are going to be.

No one needed an Ant Farm. I had one.
No one needed a hula hoop. I had one.
No one needed a frisbee. I had one.

No one needed a BB gun. I didn't have one, my parents were sure I would shoot my eye out, ala Ralphie of Christmas Story. I did get a Daisy air rifle, and would stick it in the dirt and YES, I shot myself in the eye.

I worked hard, because if I wanted anything, I had to buy it myself, but as a teenager, coming into contact with both KRISTEE Products and OLSON Electronics, I was given opportunity to make a lot of money for a kid, or had access to mail order products.

See, REMOTE DIRECT MARKETING really took off post WW II, mainly because of TV, and in the early days, before they were banned, all those infomercials. YES, they were banned for a long time, which made magazines and newspapers the go to mail order marketing media.

There were pioneers in Remote Direct Marketing, Ben Franklin being one of the first. The 20th Century ushered in a new era too. Along with World Wars, we got world commerce, or the start of it.

Then there is a period, where the people born before WWII NOT boomers, or peace time military, like Elvis, came of age. These became what we now call our modern masters. Gary Halbert, Ben Suarez, Bud Weckesser, Dan Kennedy (although he's a boomer), Jay Abraham etc. et al.

These were all PRE INTERNET, ALTHOUGH computers were a thing, certainly not home computers. Harvey Brody, Ben Suarez were of the computer ilk.

But MAIL ORDER was still a way, the path anyone who wanted FREEDOM and to be their own boss, could find their way

Now, if there are questions, ask now, before I continue.

Gordon

Tangent, side bar...down a different alley.
 

Someone posted a link at the Gary Halbert Facebook group to an interview Ben Suarez did in 2018. I commented it was a terrible interview.

So, what questions would I ask? (And it is one I HAVE asked to scores of successful people).

KNOWING what you know today, starting over, what would you do?

That is my magic million dollar question, or a variation of it.

I asked Melvin Powers that question twice, 20 years apart, and he said the same thing both times. He'd start with one self help book and build his business from there. Of course, he would do it much faster.

Jim Straw said he probably wouldn't have written so much, but he was referring to the Internet and doing affiliate marketing.

What would your answer be to that question? I'll tell you mine a bit later.

Gordon

"KNOWING what you know today, starting over, what would you do?"
 

Hi Gordon,

Great question!

I think one question I would ask back is, am I allowed to have my past experiences? Or would I have to imagine I was (say) 18 years old (but with my current skills), and what would I do if I was starting then...

The reason I ask that question is, I now believe, it is easier to "parlay" one success into another success. So if you've had past success, it is easier to have more success...

People believe a "winner" will remain a "winner"... So you can use that to help build your success, if you've had any success in your past (in any area) that would lend itself to that...

(I think this is also the basis of "fake it till you make it"... But it's always better if you don't have to fake it...)

I'll assume I'm starting with no past experiences... But maybe with my present skills...

Wow, this is a tough one for me, because I've lived my life trying to build what I call my "urban survival skills." I wrote about this on Sowpub a long time ago... I still take the same approach...

So, I (intentionally) have a lot of different skills. The idea is to always be able to "survive" if required. In an urban environment... I'm not talking about Bear Grylls type stuff. (Or Les Stroud, for those who know of him...)

I would definitely, first, establish a toll position, in ideally a high-demand product.

I would be open to both creating and acquiring one. I would start creating one, while keeping my eyes open towards acquiring one.

In my case, I'd probably stick to the info-product area, as it's one I love.

One thing I would do is focus on an area of knowledge/experience that I know well. (I've made the mistake before in acquiring an info-product toll position in an area I didn't know well - it makes it a lot harder to succeed when you do that...)

Best wishes!

Dien

Sure, including your past experience.
 

Variations of the questions and sure, knowing what you know and your past experience too.

About 90% of the time I got: "I'd do the same thing, only it would happen much faster."

I think "success" is satisfied with their choices. They could do it faster, or more efficiently due to not having to make the same mistakes. Today, many say they would do something similar only using today's technology to do it.

I like your being able to survive in Urban areas. If you have a rat recipe, or cockroach stew recipe, that might help you too. He he.

Gordon