How To Get Better With Books - Jim Mullane - #177

**Chris Williamson** (0:00)
Hello, my friends. welcome back. My guest today is Jim Mullane, the man behind Get Better With Books, the fastest growing self-help and bookstagram page on all of Instagram. And today we're talking about reading. A lot of you may have a reading habit you want to improve or want to start getting into reading books more effectively. And I wanted to get a hold of the number one man on Instagram to find out how to do it. So yeah, expect to learn how to start a reading habit. Some of the common errors that Jim sees when people begin reading. A whole bunch of his favorite books, both from fiction, non-fiction, biography and other stuff that he runs us through. It's really good. I love this episode. And every book that Jim mentions is linked in the show notes below on Amazon. So follow those. If you find one of the books that you think is interesting, just go into the show notes, click the link, and it'll take you straight there on Amazon. In other news, the response to me saying that we might start a Patreon was pretty overwhelming. So me and VideoGuideen have decided that we're going to do it. We are going to start a Modern Wisdom Patreon. It will allow you guys to support the show. It will mean you can have direct contact with us. You can vote on future topics, guests that you want us to see. We'll have a discussion board as well, so we can talk about every episode. We can do live Q&A's. We can do behind the scenes stuff. We can do exclusive content. We can literally do whatever you want. So yeah, that is going to launch within the next few weeks. So if you have any ideas or suggestions for what you think we should feature on Patreon, I would love to hear them. Message me at ChrisWillX wherever you follow me. I absolutely can't wait to start this community and also to get you guys involved in the way that the show operates. Oh, we made it. I've got to go and set up an entire Patreon. So I'm going to go do that. But while I do, let's get better with books, with the wise and wonderful Jim Mullane.
Jim Mullane, how are you, my friend?

**Jim Mullane** (2:25)
Pleasant, doing well. Enjoying my lockdown and style here in my sweatpants and my sweatshirt. Doing well.

**Chris Williamson** (2:33)
Enjoying that new mustache?

**Jim Mullane** (2:35)
It's not new. Unfortunately, it's all I can grow.

**Chris Williamson** (2:37)
That is, that's some serious tash going on there.

**Jim Mullane** (2:41)
Yeah, so I like to tell people I'm a little follicly challenged, so I like to overcompensate with the mustache because it grabs people's attention, and then it veers the attention away from the fact that's all I can grow, so. Focus on your strength.

**Chris Williamson** (2:55)
I get it, man. Peacocking, but only above the lip.

**Jim Mullane** (2:58)
Yes, eyes up here.

**Chris Williamson** (3:01)
Yeah, up top, up top. So your Instagram account, which is what a lot of people listening might know you for, Get Better With Books, how would you describe, what is that? What is Get Better With Books?

**Jim Mullane** (3:12)
Get Better With Books is currently the fastest growing Instagram page, focused specifically on self-help, personal development, business-related books. It really just started as a creative endeavor where I could combine my interest in photography and my interest in reading, and have something to do outside of my day job. But I've been doing it for almost two years now. May 15th will be my two-year anniversary running the page. I think as of today, I'm a little over 85,000 followers. So I'm a little dumbfounded of how quickly it's grown and the fact that people enjoy seeing content specifically around books. But it's been a fun journey so far.

**Chris Williamson** (3:51)
Why do you think it is popular?

**Jim Mullane** (3:54)
I think it for a couple of different reasons. Number one, it speaks to the attitudes of a lot of people out there, not just in the US, but internationally speaking, if you take a look at some of the data that I get to pull from the Instagram account, I'd say a third of my audience is US-based, but the third's in Europe. I'd say an overwhelming majority of people are from India. And I think it speaks to the psychographic of certain people who are just focused on developing themselves as an individual, right? They use books as a tool to better themselves. And I think it speaks to a lot of people who love reading, but more importantly, improving themselves.