Brazilian podcaster Joel Jota prints novel with advice from hundreds of book club members
A prolific author and social media personality in Brazil made history in December, after publishing a self-help book featuring testimonies from over 500 people about their personal development.
Named The Time Machine (“A Máquina do Tempo”), as a reference to all the things we wish we could do if we could go back in time, the book was created by Joel Jota (Brazil) – an entrepreneur with a sports background, who has over 15 million followers across his social media platforms.
The author asked 576 members from his popular book club to write advice to their 20-year-old selves, and assembled all their wisdom within his novel, which also offers guidance for navigating life, relationships, and professional growth.
The full crowd at Joel's event
And before the holidays, he met up with thousands of his fans (and co-authors) in Barueri, São Paulo, Brazil to unveil the book, as well as claim a unique Guinness World Records title for the most contributions to a published work of non-fiction.
“[I’m] very happy and proud,” said Joel to GWR at the event. “It's always been a desire to be a record holder... I've been flirting with this possibility since 2020.
“I'm very happy because it's all about me, knowledge production, reading, and writing – [so] there wouldn't be any other category that would make more sense... I'm very happy.”
Joel, who has a background as a professional swimmer for Brazil’s national team, found fame as a public speaker and podcaster who teaches about high-performance. He has published 16 books, with over seven million copies sold, and promotes “health, family, and work” (in that order) throughout his speeches and written works.
Yet on social media, he claims that The Time Machine is an entirely new venture for him, saying that “nothing compares to the power of a collective revolution.”
“This record is not mine. It is ours. It belongs to Brazil,” he posted.
“Our country does not need to be at the bottom of the list of those who read the most. And if it depends on me and everyone who believes in this same cause, we will change this statistic.”
And clearly, the entrepreneur has a lot of support – specifically from the two thousand fans that showed up to the lecture hall on 8 December, eager to hear Joel record his newest podcast episode and be awarded with his new GWR certificate.
Also present was Guinness World Records Adjudicator Camila Borenstain, who had the honour of giving Joel his award.
“It was very exciting to participate in this presentation because I got to see the podcast being recorded, and all the content was truly inspiring,” she said. “Beyond that, the moment of the presentation was also very emotional – there were 500 people on stage shouting my name! I confess I was a little nervous.”
Yet Joel was gracious and appreciative of the recognition, and he was sure to shout-out all his fellow contributors to the novel, inviting them up on stage with him to share in the ceremony.
Everyone in the audience was excited and emotional to see all their hard work pay off, and made a ton of noise as Joel lifted the certificate in the air and took a selfie with all those onstage.
Others also took to social media after the attempt, remarking how transformative the whole experience was, and thanking Joel for the opportunity to reflect on their lives and share their most influential lessons.
So if you want to find out what wisdom lies between the pages of The Time Machine, you’re just going to have to figure it out yourself – buy a copy of the record-breaking book today!