Our Vision

July 3, 2025

Below is a vision of where Act Two is headed over the next several years. It’s been broken into three parts: this fall, one year, and three years. 

Fall of 2025

We’ll run the first season of Act Two this fall: six weeks with 100-150 participants. Each Act Two student will complete a creative project and share it on the Internet. The program will include: 

  • Live sessions focused on taking action + the META-mindsets required to thrive in our ever-changing world

  • Guest Practitioner + Mentor sessions based around creative domains 

  • Action Gyms, AI Labs, and Weekly Challenges to keep students accountable + making progress

Projects can draw from any creative domain, so long as they fit within pre-defined parameters (ex: well-scoped, measurable, shareable). Students will conceive and validate their project concept (Week 1), execute the project (Weeks 2-5), and share it publicly (Week 6). By the final session, every participant will complete their creative project and share it with the world. 

Writing will still be an indispensable part of the student experience. For example – on Day 1, every student will write a Letter to Self, explaining what type of Second Act they want to launch, and why. Week 2 will be a written Launch Announcement previewing how they’ll explain their project to the world. Drafts will be shared internally, and students will exchange async and live feedback. 

Writing will help participants clarify thinking while building connections within the community

One Year Vision

Within 12 months, we’ll build an ecosystem of offerings with an ever-expanding number of ways students can get value from Act Two. This will include: 

  • Low-cost starting offer. A first entry point into the Act Two ecosystem. This $99 offer may include a self-paced workshop to validate a creative project, a project blueprint template, a custom GPT for project refinement around specific parameters, and read-only access to the main Act Two community spaces. Potential students can test out Act Two by taking initial steps on their project.

  • Coaching + Mastermind offer. An advanced track to accelerate progress. After completing a season of Act Two, students could work with a 1:1 coach to build a custom roadmap, work through domain-specific challenges, and check in regularly. Small mastermind groups would also meet for bi-monthly check-ins and monthly guest speakers.

  • Season schedule: Act Two expands from a six-week sprint into three seasons per year. Each season runs for three months (with summer and winter breaks). Seasons include an on-ramp period, a focused sprint, and ongoing post-sprint programming to maintain project momentum. Seasons combine the vitality of a live cohort with the endurance of an always-on community.

  • Partnership network. We’ll work with creative communities and organizations to increase the flow of exceptional people into Act Two while improving the student experience. Philanthropic groups will sponsor reduced rate scholarships. Like-minded communities can create community-specific tracks within Act Two.

  • AI-driven student experience. As Act Two grows, AI embeddings will handle precise matchmaking at scale. We’ll offer an ever-evolving Smart Playbook LLM built on in-house data to shape custom learning paths and create interactive case studies for different project types. New tracks will emerge focused on AI-specific creative mediums. 

The ecosystem approach will avoid some of the key issues we faced at Write of Passage: cyclical, unpredictable revenue, diminishing returns from our marketing list, and key-man risk around an individual creator.

Three Year Vision 

Within three years, Act Two will evolve into a robust platform for creative reinvention. This will include: 

  • 10x Scale. Act Two builds momentum via organic growth, word-of-mouth flywheels, partnerships, and  increasing demand for creative project incubators with the growing impact of AI disruption. The ecosystem expands to serve thousands of participants across different ages, locations, and creative domains.  

  • Domain-specific programs. Seasons will become a bundle of parallel programs focused on different creative domains:

    • An online writing track , evolved for the new creative landscape while still preserving the original ethos of personal, conversation-driven writing. 

    • Vibe-coding, podcasting, YouTube, knowledge products, visual media, and AI-based creativity all have their own programs tailored to latest developments in the creative medium.  

    • All programs live underneath the Act Two umbrella, with a joint Season Kickoff, Act Two Showcase, and Second Act speaker series.

  • Partnerships with leading organizations. With our credibility established, Act Two secures long-term partnerships with top creative platforms on the Internet (Substack, Circle, etc). Act Two becomes the implementation wing for creative-adjacent communities, either co-branded within the Act Two umbrella or possible franchised white labeling for prominent groups.

  • Internet project accelerator. 100’s of micro-businesses or knowledge products are launched from the Act Two ecosystem. Act Two support top projects with distribution and partner access in exchange for case studies, safe notes, and future referrals.

  • In-person meetups around the world. Act Two moves from the digital into the physical world. As the number of worldwide participants grow, regular in-person meet-ups are organized in cities around the world.

Key Tests 

This fall is the crucial starting point that will take our concept from 0 → 1 and prove the business model. There are several things we must prove this fall, to ourselves, our students, and the world: 

  • Ability to serve a variety of creative domains. We’re expanding our scope from writing to creative projects across different domains. In Act Two, some students will write, but plenty others will launch podcasts, YouTube channels, knowledge products, or design portfolios. Others will build software products via “vibe coding”, and still others will use new AI tools to create artifacts on the cutting edge of what’s possible. We’ve developed parameters of an Act Two project as guardrails. But we expect to be surprised with the types of things Act Two members take on this fall.  

    Act Two will become a container for creative execution that’s able to fit the shape of everyone’s project, regardless of medium. Live sessions will focus on meta-principles, Guest Practitioner sessions will focus on domain-specific skills, and mentor groups will connect students with similar focus areas. Call it “Liquid Learning”. 

  • Ability to produce high-quality outcomes. We have a track record of student outcomes from Write of Passage. But Act Two is a new concept with a wider framing. We need to demonstrate that Act Two’s programming, support structure and community can help students progress and finish creative projects and share them with the world. We’ve created measurable success criteria across creative domains (ex: first true fan, first user, first customer) to ensure students have clear goals to target. Beyond these, successful participants will overcome mental roadblocks, build creative momentum, and make lasting connections that keep them moving far into the future. 

  • Ability to recreate a thriving community experience. Act Two needs to become a tight-knit community of curious, driven people, encouraging each other via candid feedback, constructive criticism, and celebrating small wins. We’ve seen firsthand when online communities click. Individual transformations occur, lasting bonds are formed, and exceptional creative work is produced. Our mission is to resurrect this “je ne sais quoi” feeling in Act Two. Live sessions. Mentor Groups. In-person meetups. Lasting creative friendships and co-working groups that endure long after the final session ends.