The Choose Yourself Channel

About The Choose Yourself Channel

Hosted by Hakeem Bourne McFarlane, author of Choose Yourself to Be Chosen and founder of the Choose Yourself Community (CYC). Welcome to The Choose Yourself Channel : where personal growth gets real, faith gets practical, and healing comes with humor. This isn't your average self-help talk. It’s the CYC-GYM - where we flex the dorsal cortex, roast our old habits, and build foundations stronger than our excuses through accountability and innercise. We talk discipline, desire, detoxing from dysfunction, and designing a life that actually feels good based on balance ... from cold showers to calling yourself out. One episode might sound like therapy, another like stand-up, and the next like church with better playlists and preachers. Here, we don’t fake peace for followers. We face our triggers, evaluate our environments, and invest in our evolution. Because choosing yourself isn’t just a slogan ... it’s the daily sport of self-respect! 🐬 Expect truth. Expect laughter. Expect to be uncomfortable - in the best way. Join the movement every Tuesday at 10 a.m. with the Choose Yourself Community on zoom to meet other self choosers virtually hosted by Hakeem. This is The Choose Yourself Channel. Raw. Relatable. Real as growth gets.

Publisher

Hakeem Bourne Mcfarlane

Category

education · society & culture

Language

en

Explicit

Yes

First episode

29 Oct 2025

Latest episode

15 Oct 2026

Latest episodes

49 episodes in the feed.

1. 

   15 Oct 2026

   🧠🔥 John Borden : Your Mindset Is Your Reality

   What happens when the person everybody knows isn't the person you actually want to be? 🎙️ In this episode of the Choose Yourself Channel, we sit down with John Borden, AKA Johnny Be, founder of Get Psyched Fitness and author of Your Mindset Is Your Reality, for a raw, hilarious, and transformational conversation about addiction, identity, validation, conscious expansion, relationships, and choosing yourself. 🔥 From straight-A student to fraternity president to a lifestyle of booze, bags, and bodies, Johnny spent years chasing acceptance while losing connection with himself. After years of destructive habits, a series of profound experiences challenged everything he believed about who he was and who he could become. 🦋 We explore Johnny's personal experiences with psychedelics, the science of self-awareness, the loneliness of outgrowing your environment, and how establishing personal values helped him build authentic relationships, find love, and prepare for fatherhood. Because sometimes the greatest transformation isn't becoming somebody new. It's finally having the courage to be yourself. ✨ Takeaways ⬇️ 🧠 Validation vs. Values: Stop becoming who others expect and start living by what you believe. 🔥 Triggers Into Transformation: Recognizing destructive patterns can become the beginning of personal evolution. 🍄 Conscious Expansion: Johnny shares how his experiences with psilocybin influenced his self-reflection and choices. 🌱 Environment & Solitude: Outgrowing your old lifestyle can feel lonely before your new community emerges. ❤️ Authenticity & Connection: Choosing yourself creates opportunities for relationships built on genuine alignment. 💪 Foundation & Fitness: Exercise, mindfulness, reflection, and consistent commitments help strengthen self-trust. 🌎 Creation & Contribution: Johnny turned his transformation into a book, fitness movement, and mission to help others grow. 🐬 Johnny went from chasing attention to living with intention, from searching for validation to establishing values, and from seeking the next high to discovering a higher purpose. Are you becoming the person you truly want to be, or the person you think everybody else wants you to be? "Just wait. You just wait. We're about to do big things." — Johnny B 🧠 Connect With Johnny Be 💪 Get Psyched Fitness (https://www.getpsychedfitness.com/)— [Add Website Link] 📖 Your Mindset Is Your Reality (https://www.amazon.com/dp/B0FV11KVC5?lv=shuf&channelId=500&plpRedirect=mhFallback)— [Add Book/Audiobook Link] 📲 Johnnie Be on Instagram (https://www.instagram.com/johnniebe/) — [Add Instagram Link] 🐬 Grow With The Choose Yourself Community ⬇️ 🐬 Join the CYC (https://www.skool.com/choose-yourself-community-1430/about)

2. 

   5 Oct 2026

   📝 Jess Simonds : The Next Chapter is Yours to Write

   A lot of people are still trying to be the version of themselves that somebody met three chapters ago. But what happens when you finally give yourself permission to turn the page? In this episode of the Choose Yourself Channel, Jess Simonds of The Next Chapter 888 shares her journey through addiction, an abusive marriage, corporate success, motherhood, sobriety, and ultimately learning how to choose herself. For Jess, recovery wasn't simply about putting down alcohol...it became the first time she realized she had permission to make different choices for her life. Pasted text We get into the connection between personal and business transformation, nervous-system regulation, boundaries, identity, recovery, and the uncomfortable in-between where your old life no longer fits but your new reality hasn't caught up yet. Jess describes how small acts of choosing herself built the confidence to reclaim her voice, while her personal transformation eventually became part of how she serves others. Pasted text Takeaways ⬇️ Addiction can become a form of escape when a substance or behavior begins consuming your thoughts, choices, and daily life. Pasted text You don't have to completely reinvent your life tomorrow. Sometimes transformation starts by doing one thing differently today. Pasted text Filling your own cup isn't abandoning the people you love. Jess realized that choosing herself allowed her to show up differently for her children and demonstrate a different blueprint. Pasted text Personal development and business development aren't separate. How you lead yourself can influence how you lead your business, team, and mission. Pasted text Your Foundation matters most when life gets difficult. Build your systems while it's “75 and sunny” so they're available when the storm comes. Pasted text Growth has an uncomfortable in-between: you're grieving the person you were while learning how the person you're becoming actually lives. Pasted text Boundaries aren't only about keeping people out. They're also instructions for how someone can remain in your life while respecting who you're becoming. Pasted text Your story can explain how you got here without getting to decide where you go next. You can acknowledge what happened. You can learn from what happened. You can even appreciate the strength it forced you to develop but eventually, you have to take the pen back. As Jess explains, choosing herself started with leaving the life that had kept her trapped—and three years later, virtually every part of her reality had changed. Pasted text Learn more about Jess, Next Chapter Solutions 888, her workshops, speaking engagements, recovery groups, and transformation work: 🌐 Explore Next Chapter Solutions 888 (https://thenextchapter888.com?utm_source=chatgpt.com) 📲 Instagram (https://www.instagram.com/jsimonds1_and_only/) If you aren't going to write your story, whose life are you living? Pasted text 🐬 Grow With Us ⬇️ 🐬 CYC Zoom (Tuesdays 10 a.m.) (https://www.skool.com/choose-yourself-community-1430/about?utm_source=chatgpt.com) 🏝️ Annual CYC Retreat (https://info.chooseyourself.life/cyc-resources?utm_source=chatgpt.com) 📖 Choose Yourself to Be Chosen (https://a.co/d/3aqQJxw?utm_source=chatgpt.com) 🎙️ Choose Yourself Channel

3. 

   28 Sept 2026

   💫 Stop Consuming. Start Choosing. 🐬

   Season 3 Starts Here: The Stories Change. The Process Doesn’t. We’ve spent two seasons hearing stories from athletes, entrepreneurs, parents, creators, health professionals, and self-choosers navigating everything from heartbreak and trauma to identity, nutrition, money, faith, relationships, and purpose. Now it’s time to connect the dots. Welcome to Season 3 of the Choose Yourself Channel. In this solo episode, Hakeem looks back at the lessons from Seasons 1 and 2 and breaks down the framework underneath so many of these transformations: the Choose Yourself process. ..because the circumstances may change, but the process doesn’t. We break down Trigger Points, Environment, Foundation, Investment, and Create & Contribute - from recognizing what life is trying to reveal through our triggers to changing the environments reinforcing old patterns, building commitments when nobody is watching, investing in the person we're becoming, and eventually turning our growth into something that contributes to others. This isn't just a podcast... This episode gives an inside look at the Choose Yourself ecosystem—the weekly CYC GYM, online courses and webinars, in-person workshops, health resources, the book, and the annual retreat. Different entry points, same mission: stop simply consuming personal development and start putting it into practice. Takeaways ⬇️ Everybody has a story, but your story doesn't have to become your permanent identity. Your triggers can become signals showing you where there's still work to do. Your environment includes more than people and places—it's also your screens, food, conversations, relationships, and daily cues. Your Foundation is built through the commitments you keep when nobody is watching. Investing in yourself is about becoming different over time—not simply feeling different right now. Choosing yourself isn't about forgetting everybody else; it's about becoming capable of contributing without constantly abandoning yourself. The podcast gives you stories. The process gives you structure. The community gives you accountability. You still have to make the choice. cy-chann-season-31 The podcast might inspire you. The book might educate you. The workshop might introduce you to the process. The retreat might put you in a completely different environment. But eventually, you have to go home and that's where the real work starts because choosing yourself isn't something you listen to. It's something you practice!! Welcome to Season 3. 🐬 🐬 Grow With Us ⬇️ 🐬 Join the CYC (https://www.skool.com/choose-yourself-community-1430/about?utm_source=chatgpt.com) 🏝️ Annual CYC Retreat (https://info.chooseyourself.life/cyc-resources?utm_source=chatgpt.com) 📖 Choose Yourself to Be Chosen (https://a.co/d/3aqQJxw?utm_source=chatgpt.com) 🎙️ Choose Yourself Channel

Reach and audience

Public platform figures. Ratings count people who left a rating, not total listeners.

Apple Podcasts (US)

5.0 / 5

4 ratings

Spotify

5.0 / 5

1 ratings

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Guest appearances

Books guests

Based on episode analysis; this does not confirm that the show is currently accepting guests.