When shrunken heads were hot...

[GordonJ]

Thanks Dien,

Oh, my. I had all that stuff as a kid. I loved the JOHNSON-SMITH Nolveties catalog.

Anyhow, Cossman. He actually sold the company to his brother in law, and it wasn't until Dan Kennedy, got involved via Guthy-Renker.

Well, it was a hot day in Indian Springs, where Cossman was and where Greg Renker met Bill Guthy at a club, racket ball, I think.

The magic happened when Dan Kennedy came in, and BOOM, Cossman made millions, Guthy-Renker exploded to astronomical heights.

Although he did OK in business, he became really wealthy selling courses from infomercials.

Selling the tools to the miners, if you will.

Gordon

And Guthy-Renker got rich, I believe, just off of all the stuff I bought from them, I was a cassette course addict.

Originally Posted by Dien Rice

Some of the scariest true tales I'm aware of are the stories of headhunting cannibals...

Tribes which practice headhunting may still exist today in the highlands of Papua New Guinea... And maybe also deep in the jungles of Borneo...

One of the most gruesome modern tales is that of Michael Rockefeller, who was the grandson of John D. Rockefeller. He was an anthropologist, and disappeared on a trip to New Guinea in 1961... He is believed to have been captured, cooked, and eaten by one of the then still-cannibalistic tribes.

Which brings us to this...



This is a shrunken head! E. Joseph Cossman (Joe Cossman) tells us in his books that when he was selling them, they sold like crazy!

It was probably more plausible at that time... the death of Michael Rockefeller would have still been fresh in the public consciousness...

Makes you wonder... what "crazy" items would be "hot" today?

Best wishes,

Dien

[Dien Rice]

Hi Gordon,

Thanks for sharing that!

The book "Making It!" by E. Joseph Cossman and William A. Cohen (published in 1994) was the very first book I bought about entrepreneurship. (I would have bought a copy around 1995 - I still have my copy, and it's right now sitting in front of me...)

I feel the following are probably some of the biggest "take-aways" those who are studying Joe Cossman can come away with to turbo-charge their business ventures...

They are his ideas and experiences on what were later called "toll positions" (though Cossman doesn't seem to use that phrase)...

Instead, Cossman talks about ways to "protect your ideas," and also how to get "exclusive rights" to products. These are all examples of "toll positions" or of "toll booths"...

He applied these ideas too.

He got exclusive access to a product with his contract for "Fly Cake" with the manufacturers (the actual contract he used for Fly Cake is in "Making It!", pages 86-88).

He had effective exclusivity by buying the tooling for the spud gun... (A version of the "spud gun" story is in his book, "How I Made $1,000,000 in Mail Order," chapter 10...)

He used trademarks (such as for the "Ant Farm")...

Using these strategies cuts out your competition!

This is very valuable knowledge to know - even years later... The principles are still the same!

- Dien

Originally Posted by GordonJ

Thanks Dien,

Oh, my. I had all that stuff as a kid. I loved the JOHNSON-SMITH Nolveties catalog.

Anyhow, Cossman. He actually sold the company to his brother in law, and it wasn't until Dan Kennedy, got involved via Guthy-Renker.

Well, it was a hot day in Indian Springs, where Cossman was and where Greg Renker met Bill Guthy at a club, racket ball, I think.

The magic happened when Dan Kennedy came in, and BOOM, Cossman made millions, Guthy-Renker exploded to astronomical heights.

Although he did OK in business, he became really wealthy selling courses from infomercials.

Selling the tools to the miners, if you will.

Gordon

And Guthy-Renker got rich, I believe, just off of all the stuff I bought from them, I was a cassette course addict.

[GordonJ]

We need to have more discussion here about tolls, and maybe we focus on Intellectual Property to get started?

Sure, finding molds, dies, stored value assets is cool, but creating or ACQUIRING IP, and building a toll booth, may be the best thing for SowPubbers.

IP, Gots some???

Gordon

Originally Posted by Dien Rice

Hi Gordon,

Thanks for sharing that!

The book "Making It!" by E. Joseph Cossman and William A. Cohen (published in 1994) was the very first book I bought about entrepreneurship. (I would have bought a copy around 1995 - I still have my copy, and it's right now sitting in front of me...)

I feel the following are probably some of the biggest "take-aways" those who are studying Joe Cossman can come away with to turbo-charge their business ventures...

They are his ideas and experiences on what were later called "toll positions" (though Cossman doesn't seem to use that phrase)...

Instead, Cossman talks about ways to "protect your ideas," and also how to get "exclusive rights" to products. These are all examples of "toll positions" or of "toll booths"...

He applied these ideas too.

He got exclusive access to a product with his contract for "Fly Cake" with the manufacturers (the actual contract he used for Fly Cake is in "Making It!", pages 86-88).

He had effective exclusivity by buying the tooling for the spud gun... (A version of the "spud gun" story is in his book, "How I Made $1,000,000 in Mail Order," chapter 10...)

He used trademarks (such as for the "Ant Farm")...

Using these strategies cuts out your competition!

This is very valuable knowledge to know - even years later... The principles are still the same!

- Dien

[Dien Rice]

Gordon wrote... "Would it not be safe to say, J. Cossman taught Harvey Brody about tolls?"

There's no doubt Harvey gathered these principles from those "money making geniuses" he worked for (like Cossman).. He put a name to it, and clarified it, and even expanded it...

As the saying goes, "If I have seen further it is by standing on the shoulders of Giants." (Isaac Newton)

I think that also goes for you and me, and for all of us here...

- Dien

Originally Posted by GordonJ

We need to have more discussion here about tolls, and maybe we focus on Intellectual Property to get started?

Sure, finding molds, dies, stored value assets is cool, but creating or ACQUIRING IP, and building a toll booth, may be the best thing for SowPubbers.

IP, Gots some???

Gordon