The Action Brief:
Your Time Is Now with Bonnie Wan
Move from reflection to declaration – because insight without action is just a nicer kind of stuck.
Rising Circle Ranch, Santa Fe, New Mexico
January 31 – February 4, 2027
Is a partial scholarship for you?
We believe in making personal growth and education accessible to everyone, which is why we offer partial scholarships on a needs-aware basis for many of our programs.
These scholarships support individuals facing financial challenges, including — but not limited to — members of underrepresented communities. If financial stress might prevent you from attending a workshop, we encourage you to apply.
Partial scholarships, provided through the Association for Growth and Education, are limited to 2–3 seats per workshop and reviewed in the order received. We recommend applying as soon as possible, as scholarship decisions are typically confirmed 90–120 days before the workshop date.
Early enrollment rate:
Book by December 2, 2026 and save 10%
You know you need change. Heck, you might even know what you want.
Yet you’re still stuck. Standing still.
Reflection, direction, and intention are good starts. But they aren’t enough to drive movement or momentum.
You need a Brief: a sharp, sticky, singular, let’s-do-this declaration that vibrates in your bones, making action irresistible.
The Action Brief is a five-day, four-night workshop with Bonnie Wan – award-winning brand strategist and bestselling author of The Life Brief – designed to break through your stall and get you going.
With Bonnie’s guidance, you’ll put what you want into words and turn those words into action, supported by a community ready to hear you say it out loud.
Clarity in action is the shortest path between where you are and where you’re ready to go.
Let’s do it.
A working ranch in the New Mexico high desert
Just outside Santa Fe, Rising Circle Ranch gives you nearly 2,600 acres to step out of your usual routines – and back into your body. Between sessions, you’ll hike arroyo trails beneath wide New Mexico skies, ride through open high-desert terrain, and pause at ancient petroglyphs.
Then there’s room to recover. Settle into a shady courtyard. Take in the mountain views with a drink. Spend time with the resident horses and donkeys. Evenings bring chef-prepared meals, fireside conversation, and a sky crowded with stars before you return to a comfortable room.
The Experience
At Rising Circle Ranch, you’ll spend four days with Bonnie Wan, the brand strategist and author behind The Life Brief, whose approach has been taught at Apple, Google, and Airbnb. She brings three decades of helping brands find their boldest direction to a more personal kind of brief: What do you want now – and what are you ready to do about it?
Expect candid conversations, hands-on creative work, and permission to want what you want before explaining how you’ll make it happen. Bonnie will push you to get specific, ask bolder questions, and find words that make you eager to act.
The conversations continue over chef-prepared meals and walks through the high desert. You’ll get to know people who’ve heard what you want and will ask you about it again tomorrow.
Your Action Brief takes shape in that company: a sharp, sticky, singular declaration you’ve given real thought to and said out loud. You’ll leave with small daily actions you’re eager to begin—and a clearer idea of who to ask for support
The Action Brief Method
Get Messy.
Get nakedly honest about what you want. Gather the ideas, desires, and possibilities, and reframe the stories holding you back.
Get Clear.
Name what matters most and why. Shape it into a sharp, sticky declaration, then push it for honesty, boldness, and inspiration.
Get Active.
Choose tiny, daily actions you’re eager to take. Prepare for what could get in the way, and name the people who will help you keep going.
What You’ll Leave With
- Your one-page Action Brief. A bold, personal declaration of what you want, specific enough to help you decide what to say yes to, what to decline, and where to put your energy.
- Priorities you can act on. A clearer understanding of what deserves your attention now, with choices you can begin making in your everyday life.
- A stronger say in what happens next. Practice questioning the stories you’ve accepted about yourself and writing versions that give you more possibilities.
- Your first moves. Small, specific actions that put your Brief to work when you get home, while your commitment is fresh.
- Language for the beliefs that have kept you cautious, playing small, or following an old script – and more expansive ways to meet the same truths.
- A plan for when resistance shows up: name the blocks, doubts, distractions, and detours before they ambush you, and learn new ways to move through them.
- Your Dream Team. Identify the people you want beside you as you act on your Brief, and the support you’ll ask them for.
What People Are Saying
Who This Is for
- You’re considering a change in your work, relationships, or how you spend your time, and want to give that decision your full attention.
- You have an idea you’re ready to take seriously, from a creative project to a different way of living.
- You want a process that takes you from the threads worth following to a living statement you can carry into the decisions, invitations, conversations, and days ahead.
- You’re curious about what a brand strategist’s approach could reveal about your own ambitions.
- You’re drawn to the space between focused work sessions: the walk, the hike, the horse ride, the massage, the quiet moment when something clicks and you finally hear yourself.
Who This Isn’t for
- You’re looking for someone to hand you the answers, tell you what you should want, or map every move in your life from here.
- You want a vision-board afternoon or a motivational reset that feels good in the moment but asks nothing of you once you’re home.
- You want to stay safely in analysis. This retreat asks you to write before you know what you’ll say, notice what your body is telling you, test old stories, make things, and share openly.
- You’re not interested in looking at the scripts – family, culture, work, or your own – that may still be directing choices you’re ready to make differently.
The Schedule
Day One Sunday, January 31
Day Two Monday, February 1
Day Three Tuesday, February 2
Day Four Wednesday, February 3
Day Five Thursday, February 4
*Not all session time takes place in the classroom.
**Times are estimates; this agenda is intended to show the general flow of each day.
Meet Your Host
Bonnie Wan
Bestselling Author, Leadership & Life Strategist
For 30 years, Bonnie Wan has helped iconic companies like Adidas, Nest and Pinterest define who they are.
In 2010, her own life stopped making sense. As mother of three young kids, her family’s primary breadwinner, and on the brink of divorce, she turned her strategist’s tools on herself, writing her first Life Brief. That Brief saved her marriage, centered her parenting, and transported her family from its darkest chapter into its golden one.
Today, The Life Brief framework is being applied to relationships, community, work, wealth, and self, helping thousands of people create alignment across every dimension of their lives, proof that this practice works for life’s messiest, most uncertain moments.
The Life Brief methodology gives you permission to get messy, get clear, and get active about the life you want. And Bonnie doesn’t just teach this practice, she lives it.
In 2024, she launched The Life Brief: A Playbook for No-Regrets Living, a bestselling book translated into multiple languages, inspiring her to make the leap from career to vocation. She now teaches The Life Brief full-time – to leaders at Airbnb, Apple, Chief, and Google, and on the stages of Cannes Lions, SXSW and Jane Goodall’s Activating Hope Summit.
She serves on the board of Yale’s Experience Leaders Initiative alongside Chip Conley. And has been named an Advertising Icon, Chief Strategy Officer of the Year, and one of 100 Women to Know in America.
At MEA, she’ll help you write the Brief for what comes next.
Supported by
Mary Hofstedt
MEA Lead Facilitator in Santa Fe
Mary Hofstedt is an experienced leader of mission-driven organizations and initiatives that strive to advance a more hopeful, caring, and connected world. Prior to joining the MEA team, she coached leadership teams and f …
View Full BioMore Kind Words
Bonnie left our team inspired, empowered, and ready to tackle the year ahead.
Clayton Ruebenstaal
Chief Creative Officer, Comcast
In a world awash with competing priorities, unlimited choice and daily time pressures, The Life Brief is the tool that we all desperately need to navigate today’s over-stimulated world.
Eric Ryan
Founder of Method Home, Olly, and Welly Health
Bonnie’s talk was full of clarity, soul, and the kind of resonance that lingers long after the meeting ends. It sparked meaningful conversations across the team and reminded many of us why we do the work we do—not just for the outcome, but for the intention behind it.
Keltie Spano
Head of Integrated Marketing, OURA
Bonnie combines the candid self-reflection of the therapy room with the warmth and humor of a hard-won personal journey, then harnesses the executive power of a top industry professional to create a wholly unique guide to living that is both practical and accessible, moving and deeply meaningful. It will transform the lives of everyone who reads it.
Lori Gottlieb
NYT Bestselling Author
Eat, Rest, Explore
At Rising Circle Ranch, settle into beautifully appointed rooms, Pueblo-style spaces, and nourishing meals inspired by the flavors of northern New Mexico. After a day on the trail, rest in a shaded portal, soak your tired legs in the hot tub, or gather around the fire.
What Makes This Experience Unique
- You’ll create an Action Brief: a set of declarations that puts your desires, decisions, and days on notice that things are going to change around here.
- Apply a strategist’s discipline to your life. A strong creative brief gives people a clear direction and something worth acting on. You’ll use that same discipline to articulate what you want for yourself.
- Put your imagination to work. Collage, body mapping, writing, and partner interviews invite you to express ideas you might never reach through conversation alone.
- Give your decisions sustained attention. Four nights at Rising Circle Ranch let you stay with an idea, test it in conversation, and return to it the next day. You have time to go beyond your first answer.
- Developed by hotelier Chip Conley, our Santa Fe campus pairs spacious rooms and chef-prepared meals with nearly 2,600 acres of trails, arroyos, and open sky. Between sessions, head out for a walk or settle in and enjoy being taken care of.
What’s Included
- Four nights of lodging at our world-class retreat center near Santa Fe with all of your meals, snacks, drinks and other amenities included
- Daily sessions and experiential activities to help you connect with your inner self, envision your desired experience, and release what no longer serves you
- Mindfulness practices to soothe your nervous system and help you cultivate greater calm and presence in the moment
- Movement to get your energy flowing and build your strength and agility as you chart your course forward to the life you want to live
- Incredible bonding experiences with a remarkable group of people
- Intimate gatherings to cultivate connection and celebrate the joy and beauty of life
Book Your Spot Today
The Action Brief:
Your Time Is Now with Bonnie Wan
The Action Brief moves people from reflection to declaration. Because insight without action is just a nicer kind of stuck.
Rising Circle Ranch, Santa Fe, New Mexico
January 31 – February 4, 2027
Is a partial scholarship for you?
We believe in making personal growth and education accessible to everyone, which is why we offer partial scholarships on a needs-aware basis for many of our programs.
These scholarships support individuals facing financial challenges, including — but not limited to — members of underrepresented communities. If financial stress might prevent you from attending a workshop, we encourage you to apply.
Partial scholarships, provided through the Association for Growth and Education, are limited to 2–3 seats per workshop and reviewed in the order received. We recommend applying as soon as possible, as scholarship decisions are typically confirmed 90–120 days before the workshop date.
Frequently Asked Questions
You may be wondering what it looks like to spend four days turning a hunch, a want, or a long-postponed possibility into words you can live by. How much you need to have figured out before you arrive. How personal the work gets. Whether there’s room to rest, wander, and let the whole thing sink in. Here’s what to know about The Action Brief.
What makes The Action Brief different from a typical retreat?
Bonnie brings 30 years of brand strategy to a deeply personal question: what do you want now—and what will it take to act on it? You’ll use writing, movement, body mapping, partner interviews, story work, and collage to move past the first safe answer and create a Brief you can actually use.
Do I need to know what I want before I arrive?
No. You don’t need a polished goal or a major decision already made. Come with the question, the feeling, the half-formed idea, or the part of your life that keeps asking for your attention. The process is designed to help you find the words.
What will I leave with?
An Action Brief: a set of declarations that names the life you’re no longer willing to postpone. You’ll also leave with small daily actions, a plan for the barriers that tend to show up, a letter for moments of doubt, and a Dream Team to help you keep the promise you made to yourself.
Is there time to rest or be outdoors?
Yes. Free time is built into the experience. Hike, ride horses, book a massage, rest, or spend time beneath the enormous New Mexico sky—then return to the work with a little more room around your thinking. MEA Santa Fe sits on nearly 2,600 acres of high desert, with trails, arroyos, wildlife, and wide-open views
Is this only for people making a big life change?
No. You may be considering a new role, a move, a relationship shift, retirement, or a long-held dream. Or nothing may look different from the outside—you may simply be ready to stop spending your time and energy according to an old script.
What’s included in the investment?
Your tuition includes all sessions, workshop materials, accommodations at Rising Circle Ranch, chef-prepared meals, snacks, drinks, and access to nearly 2,600 acres of high desert. Travel to Santa Fe, personal purchases, and optional activities are additional.
What if I'm not sure this is right for me?
Book a call with one of our advisors. They’re all MEA alumni who’ve been through the programs themselves, and they’ll tell you honestly if this isn’t the right fit for where you are.
Still Have Questions?
Our online concierge is standing by to help.
Want to Speak with a Person?
Schedule a call with our advisors. Our Advisors are all MEA alumni who can offer genuine insights into our programs. They’re passionate about helping you find the right fit to make your next chapter the best one.
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