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✨ Level 1 Certification

Smart Brevity® Communicator

Built for in-house teams, this Certification gives your people the skills they need to execute Smart Brevity effectively, confidently, and consistently — every day.

Get your team certified See the curriculum

The big picture

Smart Brevity can make any communication — work emails, board reports, press releases, presentations — stand out, stick with, and drive action across your audience. In a Level 1 Certification, your team will become experts across Smart Brevity's four North Stars.

1. Authority

You are a trustworthy source of information, and only an expert can understand an issue, evaluate what’s new or important, and distill it in an accurate, interesting way.

Be, or find, the expert. 
2. Brevity

You stand out for being respectful of a busy reader’s time — giving them exactly what they need to stay productive, without leaving them hungry or unfulfilled.

Stay short, not shallow.
3. Humanity

You can communicate with the full spectrum of human emotion, sophistication, and nuance, but present it in a way that's familiar and conversational.

Write like you speak.
4. Clarity

You present share updates that are approachable, clear, and easy to act on — rather than information that leaves folks confused and headed indifferent directions.

Style information for impact.
What is Smart Brevity

What is Smart Brevity

Smart Brevity is a communication method based on brain science and rooted in decades of data — proven to help teams:

  • More clearly structure their thinking.

  • More effectively style and present their insights.

  • More memorably engage their audience.

It works for any format, like emails, Slacks, presentations, executive updates, and any other channel your team touches.
Why teams get certified

Why teams get certified

This program sets a new standard for communication at your organization — shared, rather than set by individual instinct. Through hands-on practice and group discussions led by an expert coach, your organization gains:

  • One clear foundation for how your team communicates
  • Consistent, intentional standards across teams
  • A reliable structure for high-stakes communication
  • A clear signal that clarity and respect for time matter here

You move from “This could be better” to “This is how it's done.”

Designed for 15 colleagues

The second you decide mediocre communication has no place at your organization, your teams will unlock an entirely new operating rhythm. Clearer communication. Stronger cross-functional organization. Better business outcomes.

How it works

Across a two-to-three months of immersive learning, your team will develop their Smart Brevity skillset in hands-on workshops with our expert trainers and a series of ongoing coaching sprints.

Phase 1: Learn
Phase 2: Practice
Phase 3: Apply
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Learn the fundamentals

In a 2.5-hour, hands-on workshop, participants learn the method and principles of Smart Brevity — including ways to identify what's truly worthy of someone's time, techniques to structure it for stronger comprehension, and how to boost clarity, recall, and action.

In a hands-on exercise with real communications from your organization, participants practice turning dense drafts into focused messages.
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Practice the applications

In a 2.5-hour, hands-on workshop, participants practice applying the method to a broader set of high-impact communications — like executive updates, staff-wide announcements, or whatever is most critical to your organization.

Axios HQ trainers provide live feedback and real-time edits to sharpen structure, tighten language, and strengthen your execution of Smart Brevity.
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Perfect your execution

Across six weeks of hands-on coaching, an Axios HQ editor works directly with your team to refine up to two high-priority communications per week — reviewing your drafts, providing advice and feedback, and sharing our own Smart Brevity edits.

In a 60-minute call each week, we review edits with your team, answer questions, and share live and written feedback they can take with them.

Meet our Smart Brevity trainers

One worked at the CIA, editing the President's Daily Brief. One spent years translating technical documentation. Some have spent decades in a newsroom. All are the reasons customers trust — and return to — Axios HQ when teams are ready to embrace Smart Brevity.

Phil

Phil

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

Reed

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

Kate

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. 

Tim

Tim

Tim is a Lead Editor at Axios HQ. As the first editor on the services team, he has helped define how organizations can apply Smart Brevity to their internal communications.

  • He’s worked with Fortune 100 customers like bp to help key editors adopt Smart Brevity, and build expert-level confidence in executing it.
  • He’s worked with leaders in nearly every industry, with deep specialization in finance and healthcare.
  • Tim studies his customers’ communication goals and challenges, advising on editorially sound solutions, and moving at the pace that works for their organization.

Prior to Axios HQ, Tim was a reporter and editor specializing in biotechnology, publishing his work in both English and Russian.

1 fun thing: Tim is an accredited investor and has actively managed his own investment fund for over a decade.

Jacob

Jacob

Jacob is a Lead Editor who works with some of Axios HQ’s longest-standing customers — and he hasn’t met a piece of writing he couldn’t Smart Brevitize. Just ask Delta.

  • As an editor, he helps teams launch and polish vital staff newsletters, from advising on audience engagement strategy to delivering hands-on edits for each edition.
  • As a coach, he works hand-in-hand with writers to help hone their craft, master Smart Brevity, and navigate change-management.
  • He’s helped some of the world’s biggest companies reimagine stale jargon, revise complex details into clear insights, and rethink how they engage their people.

Prior to Axios HQ, Jacob was a team lead at a global PR firm and a boutique copywriter for nonprofit organizations like Doctors Without Borders.

1 fun thing: One time Jacob biked across the U.S. — pedaling over 4,000 miles from the Oregon coast to his hometown, Virginia Beach, VA. It was awesome.

Frequently asked questions

Who should participate in Level 1 Certification?

Level 1 is ideal for internal communications teams, HR and People teams, Chiefs of Staff, and leaders responsible for high-impact messaging.

Cohorts work best when participants regularly write or review communications that influence priorities, alignment, or change.

How much does Level 1 Certification cost?

Level 1 Smart Brevity Certification starts at $55,000 per cohort.

The program includes two hands-on workshops and a six-week coaching sprint for up to 15 participants, led by Axios HQ trainers and editors. Pricing reflects the depth of instruction, real-time editorial feedback, and sustained coaching that ensures Smart Brevity becomes a lasting capability — not a one-time training.

For larger groups or custom engagements, pricing may vary.

How is certification different from a one-time workshop?

A single workshop introduces the framework.

Certification builds mastery.

Level 1 combines hands-on training with six weeks of coaching and real-time feedback. Participants apply Smart Brevity to active drafts, receive detailed edits, and build the habits that make the approach stick.

How much time does the program require?

Level 1 runs over 2–3 months and includes:

  • Two 2.5-hour workshops
  • Six weeks of coaching sessions

Participants apply Smart Brevity to their existing work — so the time investment improves the communications they’re already responsible for producing.

Why is Smart Brevity Certification worth the investment?

Smart Brevity Certification builds a shared communication standard across your organization — not just better individual writing. It equips participants with a transferable skill set that strengthens clarity, judgment, and structure in any role. These are fundamentals that matter in every job, at every level. The result: clearer messages, faster alignment, and communication people actually read.

What are the next levels of Smart Brevity Certification?

Level 1 builds the foundation: a shared standard and core Smart Brevity skill set.

Level 2 focuses on advanced application — strengthening strategic messaging across complex, multi-channel, and high-stakes communications.

Level 3 is a train-the-trainer program designed to develop internal leaders who can teach and scale Smart Brevity across your organization.

Many teams begin with Level 1 and expand as they deepen adoption and scale the methodology more broadly.

✨  Get your team certified

Axios HQ Smart Brevity Communicator

See how our certification program can help employees — in any department — become clearer, more confident communicators. <br />

We'd love to talk   👉

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More programs to explore

Begin with the basics or advance into specialized training — explore the full range of Smart Brevity programs.

Smart Brevity Fundamentals

A foundational training that introduces teams to Smart Brevity — its principles, purpose, and practical application.

 Learn More
Smart Brevity Workshops

A hands-on workshop where small teams apply Smart Brevity directly to their real communications — through group editing, live feedback.

 Learn More
Smart Brevity and AI

Learn how to use AI as a true creative partner — guided by Smart Brevity — so speed doesn’t come at the expense of clarity or judgment.

 Learn More
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