Great Marketing Idea!

I watched the movie "Matchstick Men" a couple weeks ago. It was about a con artist who gets conned and then finds true happiness by losing all his ill-gotten gains. I like those movies. Saw the "Grifters" years ago. I read in Reader's Digest about the fellow who was an airline pilot with no training and how he fooled all those people with very simple counterfeit credentials. (movie was "catch me if you can") That story helped me get into lots of places for free as a highschool and college student.

I'm always been fascinated by people who can convince other people to give them their money and be happy about it.

I've been puzzling over the whole issue with Dad and the OSHA training manual from J.J. Keller. I think it is a scam. But, a beautiful scam, one that is actually legal, but gets you to pay a lot of money for something you could get on your own, but with a little work. My brother brought me a post card. You are offered a free training manual for truck drivers with the promise that you will want to subscribe to the whole training program once you see what valuable materials are in the free notebook.

We have a good idea what happened with the OSHA materials. Dad sent for the free notebook, the saleslady called and talked him into the whole program. The regulations are enforced by fines and you do have to have this material so it is not difficult to put this into a hard sell. It is not illegal or probably unethical, but it is smooth salesmanship.

The whole JJ Keller website is full of these training programs and promotional materials that you think you might need but really don't. You buy them because you think you are providing yourself with training security. "If I have all the OSHA requirements and training updates I will be protected," of course you have to actually read the foot thick manual. And when you go to an OSHA training meeting you often get a CD with all the training materials in PDF format. So I could just print the whole thing out myself. I don't need the stuff because we go to training sessions every year and we don't really implement what we see anyway. What good does a 50lb manual and $500 training materials do if you never read it. Kind of like buying a good luck charm.

It is amazing that mindset has made many many $$$ for J.J. Keller and associates.

I wish I could think of something like this myself!!!

Would anyone subscribe to, "how to look like a farmer but not really do anything in 10 easy steps for $500," I'm not so sure...

Edit: I forgot to add one big point about the JJ Keller training materials. I know the OSHA stuff is just public domain info. I imagine they have staff researchers who put together all these different government laws that are on .pdf and availible to the public and then they send you the updates. Probably make it a little more readable.