The Truth Is in Your Numbers: How Accurate Records Drive Your Success ft. Joel Weldon

Numbers don't lie, people lie, but numbers don't. That quote from humorous author and social critic Mark Twain set the stage for today's talk. Numbers measure reality. They reveal patterns, expose truths, and point to decisions you might miss if you rely only on opinions or guesses. In fact, as W. Edward Demings, the management guru who helped rebuild Japan, once said, without numerical data, you're just another person with an opinion. That's why keeping accurate records, whether in business, health, or even in your daily life, can be the difference between your success and your failure. This is what Joel Weldon will ask you to do: start recording your numbers. And here are some of his numbers. Joel has been a member of Genius Network for 11 years. He's been a Hall of Fame professional speaker for 51 years. He's been paid to speak at over 3,000 events and has coached more than 10,000 speakers using his ultimate speaking system. At age 84, he's the oldest 35K member, and he's coached well over 500 different people in Genius Network members on their 10-minute talks over the years. Joel's title for you is The Truth Is in Your Numbers: How Accurate Records Reveal Patterns and Drive Your Success. Please help me welcome who I consider one of the most amazing humans on the planet, Mr. Joel Weldon.

Thank you, sir.

Thank you.

Numbers. Numbers just don't measure the past, they really shape your future. And that's what we're going to talk about. You're going to know why numbers are important and what kind of numbers that you should have in 3 different areas: for your business, for your body, and for your joyful moments in life. That's what this is about. And if you feel excited about this, then hopefully you're going to start a numbers journal where you can record the numbers in your life. Because when you measure it, you can improve it. So hopefully that's what this is going to be about for you. So come back and imagine you're at Monticello, Thomas Jefferson, third president of the United States, and you're struck not only by the architecture, his inventions, but his numbers. Piles and piles of books and records We recorded everything, and you can see on this slide, this was 1776 and the temperature. And all of these numbers were used for crops. Well, I was there at age 17, and that was the day my life changed because I started my first book, my first recording of numbers. And it was a caddying experience. I caddied from the time I was 14 through 19, and this was the money I made. And you can see if you can— See that first date up there? What would happen if that was you? Well, I saw the numbers starting to accumulate, and I realized I could earn money even though it was my mother and I. I had no dad. We were poor in a little apartment. But I bought a boat with the money that I earned caddying. You know, when you measure something, you can treasure something. So what important numbers for you should we be focusing on. So let's talk business. When it comes to business, you know about profit, loss, sales, how many things you get from marketing. You're going to hear Paris following me talking about different numbers that are important. We have those. But do you know how much time every week you spend at meetings or every quarter or every year or how much time on telephones? Or how many hours do you work? Do you really know? I have a friend that told me, "I go to the gym 5 days a week." I said, "Keep a record book." He started a record book, he called me up, he said, "I go 2.5 times a week." [LAUGHTER] Numbers don't lie, but people do. Unless you have them documented, it's not going to work. So in my business, the numbers that I started recording from those 3,000+ engagements were the feedback cards from my audience. Everybody critiqued me. In 1974, my first professional speech, that year I averaged a little over 8. And I didn't have a great closing percentage. 79% said it was over 7. For the last 25 years, however, it's gotten better. Because when you measure it, you can improve it. So for the last 25 years, my average has been 9.52, and as a result of that, 97% of the cards are positive. The truth is in your numbers. So what about you? Would you start a quarterly business journal on something you've never done before? Now let's go to your body. What could you do? What about your weight? Well, maybe, Dr. Denise, you would have other things that we should be measuring, but in 1991, I started a weight book. And every morning, I'd weigh myself and write it down, and this is a summary of all of those years from the time I— every one of them was written out, 12,418 entries. And look at the difference.

Hey, I hope you're enjoying this video, and I want to let you know that I have a new book that's come out, and if you'd like to get it absolutely free, there's a link below in the description, or you can wait till the end of this video, or you can simply go to JoePolish.com and you can get a copy there.

7 pounds over all of those years, because when you measure it, you can control it. And as a result, 186.5 was my average weight for all of these years. It doesn't change much. So what about you? What can you measure? Now, we talk about body. Joe, I have an F-bomb book for Joe. Yes, I mean, this is very important. And he had— 2016 was your high, Joe. And this year, you're doing really well. Now, what about your joy? What about your joy numbers? Your joy numbers. What brings you joy? What do you love to do? There's a list of things up on the screen. What brings you joy? So if you know your joy numbers and you started a journal writing them down, amazing things could happen. Well, you saw that first boat I bought when I was 17. I've had 17 boats total for water sports and fishing. If you had one day left to live, Where would you be? Where would you be? Well, the question is, why don't you be there more often? When I heard that statement, I realized it wasn't the beach, it wasn't the mountains, it wasn't on the golf course, it was at Lake Powell, northern Arizona, southern Utah. And in 1987, I bought my first houseboat and spent many days with family and friends, every one of those logged in a logbook. And as a result of June 12, 2000, 25, it was my 2,000th day on that houseboat. What if you had records like that? And look at those numbers. That averaged 53 days houseboating for 38 years. And of course, one of our trips was with Genius Network people. And whether it's water skiing or fishing here, and here's a picture on that 2,000th day. They got me a shirt. With the 2,000 on it. Your life is your choice. What do you want to choose to be? Well, water and boats is part of that. So in 1990, we invested in a house on a water ski lake about an hour from where you're sitting, out in the middle of the desert, where I can bring my granddaughter, who's now a sophomore at ASU, 1,473 days on that ski lake. I didn't learn to slalom ski till I was 50 years old. But I've averaged 42 days a year at that lake. So you add those two numbers up, time at Lake Powell, time at Dead Sea Lake, how much joy would you have if you spent over 90 days a year doing what you loved? People say, why are you always happy? Because I'm doing joyful things. What are you doing to keep those up? If you had the numbers, you would see it. The truth is in your numbers. And here's a number that's going to come up every year: your birthday. Why don't you do something on your birthday? Numbers can measure and bring you pleasure. So on your birthday, what if you did a physical thing? What if you set a goal to represent the number of years you've been around? If you've been around for 39 years, run 39 miles or walk 39 miles, or 52 push-ups. Or if you play golf, that many holes. For your birthday? Well, at age 70, I decided to ski my age on a competitive water slalom course at our ski lake. And I remember I didn't learn to ski till I was 50. So then from 70 to 79, every day on my birthday, I would ski. It'd take me most of the morning to do it. Then when I turned 80, turned to sky skiing. And as a result, takes me 30 miles about skiing. I don't let go of the handle now. And it takes about 2 hours plus. And then we— this is what a sky ski looks like. If you decide to record your birthdays, and I have a birthday book of what I've done since I'm 70. What if you did the same thing? Well, last week I kind of cheated, and I decided to do it a little early. Sound? Can we go back? All right. So this is at our ski lake, and this is what a sky ski looks like.

All right.

And then take a picture of that number. So imagine when you— I mean, I'm 84. I'm an old guy. But if you think young, if you look at your numbers, and see what you can— imagine what you could do if you decided to do something on your birthday to challenge you. The truth is in the numbers. How many of you do something on your birthday that represents the number in a physical challenge? Anybody doing anything like that? Well, why don't you start that? You know you're going to have a birthday. You know what number it is. Barry, what's coming up for you? I'm 68. 68. And you swim 2 miles every morning, right? Okay, so could you do something with '69 coming up, but it has to do with the water? Now wait a minute. All right, Joe, you better get up here and make it a great day. Joe! And here are all those logbooks. That you saw. I'm going to have me— if you want to look at them. And this is the biggest book we've got.

Yeah, Joe Polish, profanity, use of F-bombs.

Yeah, well, you're really doing better, but this is today's list.

I remember that one. Yeah, this is the day.

You want to see today? Yeah, yeah. You gave your first one at 9:18. Okay, then 9:28, 9:48, 9:50, 10:16, 10:39, 11:26, 11:46. From 9 o'clock this morning to 12:48 when we broke for lunch, you had 8 F-bombs averaged out for 3 hours and 48 minutes. One F-bomb every 28 minutes.

Well, when you were up here, when you were up here with Hauser, that was approximately 1 minute and 17, uh, or 1 hour and 17 minutes ago, you used your first 2 F-bombs here.

No, I didn't say that. I used your words.

This is great. But no, by the way, how, how inside— I mean, let's leave this out so people can go look at it. Um, but this is— and steal it if you could, because this is kind of like, um, this is unbelievable. I mean, this is truly, um, bike rides with Spencer. Wow.

Oh, that's my dog. Yeah, on the golf course. And how many balls does it say?

It says 2— 28 1,017 balls?

Yeah. So I take my dog on the golf course.

You've got a lot of balls, Joe Polish.

Yeah, this is—

Yeah, you know, good thing you never became a cocaine addict because it would be a lot worse. Okay, I hope you found that video awesome and useful. So if you want to get a free copy of my book, I want you to click here. And if you want to watch some more videos that will be useful and awesome, click here.

Go ahead, they're over here. Do it now.

Come on. Thank you. Watch them.