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✨ Individual Certification ✨

Smart Brevity Communicator

For any sharp leader, aspirational employee, or do-it-all comms team of one who is ready to be a clearer, more effective communicator

Learn to communicate with greater clarity and brevity — without losing personality.

Get certified across three weeks of intensive sessions.

To earn the "Smart Brevity Communicator" badge, you'll first learn to execute Smart Brevity effectively in day-to-day work — then practice applying it in all sorts of contexts, like speaking, emails, and presentations. The outcome: Your ideas break through more clearly, your messages land more quickly, and your audiences are a lot more likely to stay aligned and take action.

How it works: Each week, you'll learn a foundational skill in a self-guided video — the first arriving Oct. 22 — then practice it in a trainer-led coaching session on a live Zoom call. All three live sessions are mandatory to earn your certification:

  • Wednesday, Oct. 29 @ 12-1:30 pm ET

  • Wednesday, Nov. 5 @ 12-1:30 pm ET

  • Wednesday, Nov. 12 @ 12-1:30 pm ET

Axios HQ Smart Brevity CommunicatorWe cap classes at 18 seats so you are sure to get hands-on time with our trainer. Register today 👉

Interested in getting your whole team certified? We offer private certifications and group rates for companies that want to bring training in-house! Inquire here. 

Meet your trainers

Each week, you'll see Phil and Reed in your instructional videos, and then
get hands-on with Kate in live sessions to sharpen your Smart Brevity skills

Phil Dufresne

former Presidential Briefer

Phil Dufresne

former Presidential Briefer

Phil is an Editor and Trainer, teaching corporate leaders, communicators, and professionals at organizations of all sizes how to improve critical communications.

  • He’s helped teams across industries, including major financial institutions like JPMorgan Chase and HSBC, reimagine how they inform stakeholders and engage staff.
  • He has led engaging training for both new Smart Brevity adopters and those working to expand and operationalize it across their organization. 
  • His insightful sessions and real-time feedback help customers quickly understand the methodology so they can apply it, feel its benefits, and continue to improve their craft. 

Prior to Axios HQ, he was a CIA analyst, writing and editing in a style not far from Smart Brevity. He also served as an editor for the President’s Daily Brief.

1 fun thing: Phil is an actor on the side. Most recently, he played Claudius in a production of Hamlet. 

Reed Tucker

former New York Post writer

Reed Tucker

former New York Post writer

Reed is an Editor and Trainer at Axios HQ and has helped hundreds of customers — like Takeda and UPS — learn Smart Brevity through customized strategy and training sessions.

  • He builds a deep understanding of customers’ communication goals, then works with them to advise on and develop programming that addresses it.
  • He leads hands-on, tailored workshops that connect the dots between unique customer communications — like emails, articles and narrative pieces — and the principles of Smart Brevity to help folks pave a strategic path forward.
  • His insightful sessions and real-time feedback help customers quickly understand and apply the methodology so they can start to feel its benefits. 

Prior to Axios HQ, Reed was a Google content editor and a senior features writer at the New York Post.

1 fun thing: Reed is the author of Slugfest, a 2017 book about the rivalry between Marvel and DC Comics.

Kate Samano

former corporate strategist

Kate Samano

former corporate strategist

Kate is a Lead Editor at Axios HQ who is passionate about helping professionals at all levels understand how Smart Brevity and AI can make writing and editing easier.

  • Kate delivers hands-on edits and Smart Brevity guidance to enhance customers’ content production and editorial processes.
  • She helps them reduce their volume of communication while boosting open rates through routine consultation on critical, recurring staff and stakeholder outreach.

Prior to Axios HQ, Kate was the head of content for a financial start-up and a director of content marketing in the higher education space where she led a team of writers, editors, and strategists. 

1 fun thing: Her former colleagues dubbed her the “Grammar Hammer,” and she has the insignia on a real hammer in her toolbox.

Explore the curriculum

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Week 1 — October 29

Smart Brevity's Fundamentals

🎥  Watch: This week's video introduces Smart Brevity — both the data behind its distinctive style and practical techniques to bring it to life.

✍️ Practice: During your live session, you'll get hands on with an expert trainer, editing 2–3 pieces of content into Smart Brevity, getting real-time feedback, and sharpening your understanding of the style.
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Week 2 — November 5

Smart Brevity's Applications

🎥  Watch: This week's video explores how Smart Brevity shows up differently in different formats, like emails, presentations, and speaking.

✍️ Practice: During your live session, you'll practice applying Smart Brevity to a broad array of communication types and get actionable feedback on how to be even more effective across mediums.
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Week 3 — November 15

Smart Brevity's most common questions

🎥  Watch: This week's video explores the most common challenges communicators face in adopting Smart Brevity and how to tackle them.

✍️ Practice: During your live session, you'll dig in on next-level exercises, like how to synthesize complex, but necessary details; how to build your own Axioms; and how to identify "why it matters" when it isn't obvious.

Your seat also includes...

Smart Brevity workbooks

Three workbooks — to refine your audience and optimize messages — so you can keep practicing.
Example library

Real-world examples of Smart Brevity across different formats and in different industries.

Secure your seat today

Take the first step toward being a Smart Brevity Communicator

Our next cohort begins October 22, and we hope to see you in it! Use the registration form to the right — and the payment page that follows — to secure your spot. 


Regular pricing:
$3,000

Insider pricing:
$2,500

Frequently asked questions

What is Smart Brevity?

Smart Brevity® is a communications formula developed in the Axios newsroom. Based on brain science and data, this formula has defined the media organization’s success. 

Today, Smart Brevity is helping leaders and other professionals style and format their communications to be clearer and more effective. 

— The Axios newsroom invented it.
— The world’s busiest readers embraced it. 
— Then Axios HQ productized it.

We analyzed over 1 million examples of Smart Brevity updates, developed an algorithm that can execute it just like a journalist, and made that the DNA of Axios HQ so any communicator can access it. 

Now, we’re building online tools like this one so you can use Smart Brevity to improve communication in all sorts of contexts — from a simple sentence and a short email to a full article and beyond.

I want to certify my whole team. How can I do that?

We offer custom training and group certification programs for teams that want to bring us in-house! You can learn more about them, or reach out to hello@axioshq.com to get in touch!

 

I am having trouble processing my payment. Who do I contact?

Reach out to us at hello@axioshq.com and we can help you out. 

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