About Dean | Masterclasses | Live Workshops | Challenges | Community | App | Popular Faves
Master every area of your life—inside Club 12
Club 12 with Dean Bokhari is like a gym for your personal + professional development. When you join, you’ll be stepping into an ongoing self-improvement arena where you’ll master a new pillar of success each month—habits, goals, productivity, relationships, health, and more—through actionable training, coaching, and an elite community of people dedicated to becoming their best.
What is Club 12?
Hit the Play button below to see how it works.
Why is it called Club 12?
The name comes from what I call the 12 Pillars of Personal Development (sometimes referred to as the 12 Pillars of Success) which are:
Goals & Values
Personal & Professional Relationships
Habits & Rituals
Productivity
Mental Strength
Health & Wellness
Communication
Leadership & Creativity
Purpose & Spiritual Success
Work-Life Harmony
Emotional Intelligence
Integration & Continuous Improvement
When you become a member of Club 12, you’ll master each of these pillars—and transform your life in the process.
Popular inside Club 12
Club 12 is full of research-backed personal development systems—including articles, in-depth guides, masterclasses, training workshops, and more. Here are some of our community’s favorites:
Goal-setting + productivity
Use this Rule to Beat Procrastination and Start Taking Action
You’ve Set Your New Year’s Goal, But Have You Put a Practice in Place?
Habits
Relationships
General personal development
Why you’ll love Club 12
Elevate every area of your life inside Club 12—the ultimate arena for self-improvement.
Masterclasses
Club 12 with Dean Bokhari offers a full suite of research-backed personal + professional development courses to support your growth – including: Month of Motivation, Master the Morning, Make it Happen, How to Win Friends & Influence People, The One Thing training program, and more.
Live training workshops
One new live training per month, focused on the month’s core personal + professional development theme. (For example, January: Goals, February: Relationships, March: Habits, April: Productivity). Note: If you miss a live meeting or training, don’t sweat it – you’ll always have access to the replay.
Actionable challenges
New actionable challenges every month to support your personal growth.
Club 12 App on Substack
Access to the Club 12 app for iPhone + Android (via Substack), giving you a simple and seamless way to watch, listen, and read everything I put out, no matter where you are.
A community of high performers
Club 12 members have access to a private community of people dedicated to becoming the best version of themselves.
Unlock everything with a membership
Get access to everything you need to level-up in life and work
Premium personal development masterclasses
Actionable challenges every month
Live training workshops
Deep-dive life guides
Take a peak inside
Use the clickable menu below to see everything Club 12 has to offer.
Club 12 Homepage
Your main feed. New posts and challenges show up here.2026 Monthly Agenda
The schedule lives here. Monthly themes, session dates, what’s coming up — all in one place.Live Workshops
Replays of in-depth monthly training workshops conducted on Substack Live.Courses + Training Programs
Your full library of self-paced courses. Go at your own pace, come back whenever.Monthly Challenges
Each month has its own challenge tied to that month’s personal growth theme. The current one is always labeled This Month’s Challenge so it’s easy to find. Past challenges are archived in tabs that include the word “Challenge” in the name — so if you want to revisit one, just look for those tabs.Notes
Short thoughts, inspiring insights, and quick updates about Club 12.Chat
The community hangout. This is where I drop in daily to answer questions and update our community about new content and challenges. Feel free to drop a question, share a win, or just check in — it’s a real conversation.
Club 12 becomes more valuable every month. And because personal development is a never-ending journey, it doesn’t end in December—we start each year with fresh new content, courses, and challenges. Plus, no matter when you join, you’ll always have access to the previous months’ content, courses, and replays. Hit the button below to become a member of the premier personal development training arena + community for high-performers.
Masterclasses + training programs
Club 12 includes a full suite of on-demand courses, allowing you to take a deeper dive into specific areas of your personal development.
The How to Win Friends & Influence People Course
Improve your communication skills.
Influence people without manipulation.
Develop a magnetic personality that people can’t help but be drawn to.
Make it Happen with Dean Bokhari
Kill procrastination, so you can stop putting off important tasks and start making progress.
Take action + achieve your goals, no matter how big or small.
Overcome lack of motivation + build strong habits.
The One Thing Course
Simplify your approach to achievement.
Activate full engagement + fulfillment, both at home and in the workplace.
Discover your purpose, and do the ONE highest leverage thing in each of the major areas of your life.
Month of Motivation
30 days of evidence-based strategies to gain + maintain your motivation.
1 new audio lesson delivered to your inbox every morning.
Fast + actionable: 10 minutes a day is all you need.
Master the Morning
Establish the habit of early rising.
Design a personalized morning ritual for daily success.
Accomplish more by 9am than most people do in an entire day.
About Dean Bokhari
How it all started — A brief story about my personal development journey
I picked up the phone.
It was my cousin, Rabia, and she could barely get her words out.
I still remember her shaky voice on the other side of the line:
“Your mom…”
“Your mom, she—”
After pushing past her tears and hesitation, she finally said it:
“Your mom had a stroke.”
My heart dropped.
I got in my car and drove from Richmond, VA (where I lived and attended college at the time) straight to Inova Fairfax Hospital in Falls Church, VA.
Tears were streaming down my face for the entire 90-minute drive.
I had no clue what to expect.
I remember running down the hospital halls, frantically looking for my mom.
When I finally got to her room, there she was, laying in a hospital bed with tubes and IVs and all sorts of things hooked up to her.
I immediately broke down crying.
I gently kissed her on the head, and then pressed my forehead against the pillow my mother was resting on.
I was at risk of losing the single most important person in my life. And honestly, I couldn’t handle it.
Then she opened her eyes, and looked at me…
And in a struggled, raspy tone of voice, she said:
“Ey Akhmakh…”—which means “You fool” in Uzbek—“why are you crying?”
(In the Uzbek language, “Ey Akhmakh” is the English equivalent of saying something like, “Oh gosh, don’t be so silly!”)
I didn’t respond.
I was just glad to hear her voice.
My mother had suffered a brain aneurysm, which led to a stroke, all while simultaneously experiencing a minor heart attack.
It happened to her while she was on a phone call. And to this day, more than 20 years later, we still don’t know who she was talking to.
That night, I prayed harder than I ever had.
I prayed for my mom’s life. I prayed for her to recover.
And I made a promise – a promise that, if mom makes it through, I would turn my own life around and make her proud.
After two long years of painful, patient, and persistent rehab, my graceful momma was BACK.
She could walk, and talk, and joke around just like she always had prior to the stroke.
And most importantly: she was with us; she’d made it through.
Fast forward a couple decades, and here she is, picking lemons and pomegranates at my house here in SoCal with my daughter:
I wasn’t always the Dean you know and love…
Or love to hate, ha.
Prior to getting into the Personal Development industry, I was a clueless, careless young man who was unhealthy, overweight, and completely unfulfilled with my life.
I lacked purpose.
I had no goals.
And the people I surrounded myself with didn’t exactly inspire me to be my best.
I was a stereotypical “frat boy” – a kid who tried to be cool but felt deeply insecure on the inside.
In short: my future looked bleak.
My “wake-up call” was a literal phone call telling me my beautiful mom might not make it.
During my mother’s recovery, I began building myself into the kind of man she could be genuinely proud of.
I went back to college more determined than ever—quickly pulling myself up from almost getting kicked out, to graduating with honors.
I quit the bad habits that were holding me back. I began setting goals. I lost the weight, got in shape, and even had a brief stint as a fashion model.
Then, right as I was about to start my first semester of Law School, I tore up the acceptance letter and decided to pursue a completely different path.
I didn’t know exactly what that path would be, but I knew that becoming an attorney wasn’t the right fit for me (no disrespect to the lawyers out there—you do crucially important work and you know it).
I just knew I wanted to do something meaningful with my life.
Something that “fit”.
So, I started a learning journey in hopes of “finding myself.”
I began reading Self-Help books—one after the other.
I attended Personal Development seminars—as many as I could find.
I’d even fall asleep each night listening to audio programs by Earl Nightingale, Jim Rohn, and Tony Robbins.
And all the while, it still hadn’t occurred to me that I would eventually be writing and teaching the type of material I was consuming…
Until, one day, I was talking to a buddy of mine, sharing everything I was learning about.
I told him about how I was writing down my goals; about how I was learning to shift my mindset. I shared how I’d built strong habits and took small steps daily to eventually turn my life around.
And that’s when it hit me: I was actually good at this stuff.
I had a knack for telling stories and simplifying complex ideas.
This, then, eventually led to me starting a website to share my ideas.
Then came a podcast. Then came the speaking engagements.
Then came the training programs, the books, the coaching, the productivity tools, and all the other businesses I’ve had an opportunity to start…
All guided by a single, simple unifying mission:
To help people improve their lives and achieve their goals.
And I haven’t looked back since.
I often tell folks I don’t believe in luck.
I say this because I don’t want you to rely on it; because luck isn’t a reliable strategy for anything.
But the truth is, I’ve gotten lucky in ways I’ll never know but will always feel grateful for…
At the same time though, nothing about me was handed over on a silver platter.
It was earned and built and constructed – over years of hard work and painful failure.
Before I made my first million, I was on the brink of bankruptcy.
Before I became healthy and fit, I was overweight and out of shape.
Before I had the confidence to speak in front of an audience, I was shy and timid.
And before I decided to help others for a living, I had to help myself…
I’ve been in the personal development industry for over two decades now.
I’ve spent that time researching and personally testing what actually helps people improve their lives and achieve their goals. I’ve coached hundreds of people, trained thousands of people, written multiple self-improvement books, narrated over 300 audio titles, read well over a thousand self-help books (yes, seriously), published over 400 articles (without AI), and worked with some of the world’s largest organizations.
My work has been featured in Forbes, Lifehacker, Inc., Huffington Post, Elite Daily, and more. And I’m known for publishing evidence-based self-improvement content that I first test on myself before sharing with others.
I’m not sharing any of this to puff up my ego.
I’m a human being just like you and everyone else.
I’m not perfect. Nowhere near it. And any so-called “guru” that tries to position themselves that way is lying through their teeth.
We’re all a work in progress.
And that’s what Club 12 is really all about:
Making progress…
Progress in life. Progress at work.
Progress with your health, your goals, your sense of purpose and personal power.
And if you’re willing to take small steps daily, that progress will compound…
Into the kind of progress that leads to the outcomes you actually want out of your life.
Then, one day, you’ll look back and realize you’ve transformed your own life—in a profoundly meaningful way.
If you’re open to progress, keep reading…
Club 12 is the premier personal development training platform + community for high-performers…
A training platform, website, and app (inside Substack)—all rolled into one—that delivers powerful, actionable, research-backed training to help you master every major area of your life.
I’ve organized it around the 12 core areas of personal development, which I call…
The 12 Pillars of Success
Goals & Values
Personal & Professional Relationships
Habits & Rituals
Productivity
Mental Strength
Health & Wellness
Communication
Leadership & Creativity
Purpose & Spiritual Success
Work-Life Harmony
Emotional Intelligence
Continuous Improvement
Now you know where the name comes from :-)
The 12 Pillars are based on the very same principles and frameworks I’ve used to transform my own life.
And each of the pillars above is supported with live training workshops, actionable challenges, and premium masterclasses — all of which you can dip into on-demand, on your own time.
We cover a new pillar every month.
And because personal development is a continuous journey — it doesn’t end after we’ve covered all 12 pillars.
We keep going…
After going through the 12th pillar, we go back to pillar one—with all-new content, fresh training, and new actionable challenges.
If you’re serious about mastering every area of your life — personally, professionally, physically, mentally, emotionally, financially, spiritually, and more — then Club 12 is for you.
Take a moment to envision what it would look and feel like if you had each of the most important areas of your own life handled…
Your goals.
Your habits.
Your productivity.
Your mental strength.
Public speaking. Work-life harmony. Career success. Personal fulfillment. Health. Emotional wellbeing. Purpose. Leadership.
The whole shebang…
How much of a difference could mastering these pillars make on your life?
Don’t just read my story and sit with it.
Stand up and start writing your own.
What Club 12 members are saying
“I love the short and sweet and to the point trainings, so many (so many!) great ideas. Just even implementing and tweaking a few have helped me to stay the course on my goals, because I’m waking up at 5am now (most days) thanks to your morning masterclass. Getting a lot done before everyone else rises, and exercising consistently now. Improving my health, my results and my belief in myself. Thank you Dean”
— Amy Wong, Club 12 Member
“Hey Dean, great class today on building high leverage habits!”
— Todora Millington, Club 12 Member
“I like that you provide a video of the content, but you can also read. Of course, more inspirational to see your videos. 😊 Definitely will make a live event too. Thank you for the warm welcome!”
— Susan B. Gilder, Club 12 Member
Club 12 is an ongoing self-improvement hub where you’ll master a new personal or professional development area each month—habits, goals, productivity, relationships, health, and more—through coaching, community, and actionable training. It’s tightly organized, easy to use, and designed to bring you a world-class personal growth experience.
Here’s what’s inside:
New live training workshops every month, focused on the month’s core personal development theme. (Note: if you miss a meeting or training, don’t sweat it – you’ll always have access replays.)
Full suite of masterclasses – premium research-backed personal & professional development courses you can take at your leisure to support your growth.
Club 12 App via Substack (available for iPhone & Android), giving you a simple and seamless way to watch, listen, and read everything in Club 12, no matter where you are.
New actionable challenges every month, so you can implement each pillar of success into your own life, easily (even if you’re short on time).
Private community chat for accountability. Which I jump into daily to engage with you and answer questions personally.
Note: I don’t use AI for my writing, even if my love affair with the almighty em-dash says otherwise. I’m a human being, just like you—so please excuse any writing errors you may have run into on this page.
