The Second Tour Cohort

Apply for the cohort.

A selective program for senior enlisted (E-8 and above) and senior officers (O-5 and above) making the move into civilian senior roles. Ten to twelve peers, six months, the curriculum and the room.

Engagement Context
The Second Tour Cohort
Ten to twelve senior peers. Six months. Monthly group sessions with Dakhalfani Boyd as facilitator, monthly live office hours, and a private community of senior peers making the same move. For senior enlisted (E-8+) and senior officers (O-5+) transitioning to civilian senior roles. And for new GS-15s, new SES, and new VPs in their first year at altitude. Same room. Different paths in.
The Founding Cohort · Ten Seats · One-Time
$4,997 Per seat · Six-month cohort
Cohort 2 at $7,997 · List $8,997 · Founding members receive testimonial rights and alumni access to future sessions
Cohort 2
$7,997 Per seat · Six-month cohort
List $8,997
$8,997 Per seat · Six-month cohort

The cohort is

  • A peer audit. Twelve senior leaders reading each other's transitions.
  • The curriculum, surfaced through the room.
  • A six-month working commitment, not a passive course.
  • Calibrated for the senior inflection: military E-8/E-9, WO, O-5+, and new GS-15, SES, or VP.

The cohort is not

  • Group coaching.
  • A network referral pipeline.
  • A passive lecture format.
  • Calibrated for the TAP-class transition.

How the cohort actually works.

Four moving pieces. Six months. One room of senior peers running the same play at the same time.

01.

The Cohort. Ten to twelve senior leaders.

Capped at twelve seats. Every seat is filled by a senior NCO (E-8/E-9) or a senior officer (O-5/O-6 and above). Selective by design. The room is the program.

02.

Monthly group session. Facilitated by the principal.

One ninety-minute working session per month for six months. Dakhalfani Boyd facilitates. Each month covers one piece of the operating system through a peer-audit format, not a lecture.

03.

Monthly office hours. Live transition questions.

One additional sixty-minute live office-hours session per month. Bring the offer in front of you, the email you need to send, the conversation you are about to have. The principal works the live question.

04.

Private community. Senior peers making the same move.

An asynchronous private space available across the six months. Senior peers running the same transition reading each other's situations in real time, between sessions. The room outside the room.

Who the cohort is for.

Two paths in. Same room. Senior enlisted at E-8 and above, or senior officers at O-5 and above, transitioning to civilian Director-and-above roles, federal GS-14 through SES positions, or board seats. And new GS-15s, new SES, and new VPs in their first twelve to twenty-four months in role. The cohort is calibrated to that altitude. The work, the language, and the peer audit operate at the same register regardless of which path brought you in.

This is not the TAP-class transition. It is not the first-job-after-uniform conversation. The cohort is built for the leader who has commanded, briefed flag officers, run programs of consequence, and is now translating that into an entirely different operating environment.

Enlisted Floor E-8+ 1SG, MSG, SGM, CSM, SCPO, MCPO
Officer Floor O-5+ LTC, CDR, COL, CAPT, and above
Cohort Cap 12 seats Selective by application

What's included.

The specific deliverables across the six months. Concrete, not vague.

Six monthly group sessions.

Ninety minutes each. Facilitated by Dakhalfani Boyd. Recorded and made available to the cohort for review.

Six monthly office hours.

Sixty minutes each. Live questions, real situations, immediate reads. Bring what is in front of you that week.

Private cohort community.

Asynchronous space for the full six months. Senior peers reading each other's situations between sessions.

The Second Tour: Self-Paced.

The eight-module self-paced track is included with every cohort seat. Work through it on your own time, in any order.

Working templates and frameworks.

The negotiation worksheets, the ninety-day operating plan, the structural-read template, the network build tracker.

Capstone peer audit.

At month six, each participant presents their twelve-month operating plan and receives a full peer read from the cohort.

What you walk away with.

By month six, every participant carries the same operating equipment. The cohort sharpens it. The room makes it survive contact.

  1. A working register that lands in civilian executive rooms without dulling the directness that got you the rank.
  2. An internal model of how senior civilian decisions actually get made, and the discipline to use the slower cycle rather than fight it.
  3. A specific second-network build plan with named firms, named directors, and a working timeline.
  4. The three questions to ask of any first civilian offer and the seventy-two-hour conversation that captures the leverage most senior leaders leave on the table.
  5. A ninety-day operating plan for your first civilian role with the listening period, the pattern-naming move, and the first structural read built in.
  6. A back-half-of-year-one framework that compounds into the next decade. The continuing document. The two-way mentor. The visible bet.
  7. Ten to eleven senior peers who will read your situation in real time for the next decade. The room outside the room.
Apply

Apply for the next cohort.

The application is the first reading. Take your time with it. We respond to every application personally.

The application is the first reading. The questions below are how we assess fit, calibrate the room, and decide who sits next to you for the six months.

All responses are confidential. Some questions are required, the rest help us understand the read. Take your time.

01 · Identity

Who is applying.

The basics so we can route the response and so you know who is on the other end.

Used only to schedule, never shared.
If you have one. Helpful but not required.
02 · Rank & Career

What you bring across.

The cohort is calibrated to senior NCOs (E-8/E-9), warrant officers, and field-grade officers (O-5/O-6 and above). Tell us where you served and where you are now.

03 · Where You Are

The transition stage you are in.

The cohort is most useful for senior leaders inside the eighteen-month window or in the first year of the civilian role. Select the option that fits.

04 · The Read

Why this cohort. Why now.

The cohort is a peer audit, not a course. These questions are how we read whether the room will work for you and whether you will work for the room.

05 · The Target

Where you are headed.

Where you think you are going. Even if it is still loose.

06 · Commitment

The six-month working agreement.

The cohort meets bi-monthly for six months. Approximately ninety minutes per session, plus thirty to sixty minutes of preparation. The room only works when every seat shows up.

07 · Closing

Anything else.

Final notes. Optional, but useful.