
Email writing workshop:
How to write business emails
that drive action
Bring our trainers in-house — to teach your team the email writing methodology that powers communications at Fortune 500 companies.
Write shorter, clearer emails that respect your reader’s time
This workshop is designed for organizations looking to upskill teams.
The 2.5-hour workshop teaches the Fundamentals of Smart Brevity® and how teams can apply them for more effective email communication. When communication is sharper, clearer, and more focused, the whole organization is able to be a lot more effective.
What you'll learn:
- Fundamentals: A Smart Brevity trainer will guide you through the fundamentals of Smart Brevity, including the research behind the methodology.
- Execution: You will practice Smart Brevity through a group exercise of up to 25 attendees using communications from your day-to-day work.
- Advancement: An Axios HQ trainer will give your group live feedback, answer questions, and discuss where you can apply Smart Brevity in your broader workplace.
The workshop is highly customizable. We'll work with your team in advance to understand your organization, its goals, and your team's unique areas of opportunity. Then we'll fine-tune the session and exercises to match.
Meet your trainers: a former Presidential Briefer and a New York Post writer
Phil Dufresne
Smart Brevity Trainer
Phil Dufresne
Smart Brevity Trainer
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
Smart Brevity Trainer
Reed Tucker
Smart Brevity Trainer
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.
On the agenda
We start with an introduction to Smart Brevity
and end with an exercise to apply Smart Brevity to the group’s work.

Intro to Smart Brevity
An Axios HQ trainer will share:
-
The science, principles, and impact Smart Brevity has on an organization's communication.
-
Examples of Smart Brevity in action at other global organizations.
-
A before-and-after Smart Brevity sample prepared by our trainer.

Group exercise
Participants break into groups of 3-4 and do a Smart Brevity edit of real content from your organization.
-
Groups use the same content to see different solutions to the challenge.
-
They consider the audience, goals, and context of the communication.
-
They consider what information is worthy to include and what to leave out.
-
They determine “what's new,” “why it matters,” and how to style and structure the email.

Expert feedback
The groups reconvene and share their results, with live feedback and facilitation from our trainer.
- What was hard and what felt new and exciting?
- How did you decide on your "what's new"?
- What impact would this style have on your org?
- What barriers are there to writing this way?

Intro to Smart Brevity
An Axios HQ trainer will share:
-
The science, principles, and impact Smart Brevity has on an organization's communication.
-
Examples of Smart Brevity in action at other global organizations.
-
A before-and-after Smart Brevity sample prepared by our trainer.

Group exercise
Participants break into groups of 3-4 and do a Smart Brevity edit of real content from your organization.
-
Groups use the same content to see different solutions to the challenge.
-
They consider the audience, goals, and context of the communication.
-
They consider what information is worthy to include and what to leave out.
-
They determine “what's new,” “why it matters,” and how to style and structure the email.

Expert feedback
The groups reconvene and share their results, with live feedback and facilitation from our trainer.
- What was hard and what felt new and exciting?
- How did you decide on your "what's new"?
- What impact would this style have on your org?
- What barriers are there to writing this way?
After the workshop
All participants will receive special resources to help them stick with Smart Brevity in their email communications moving forward.

bp's network of
Smart Brevity “Ninjas”
Axios HQ built a Smart Brevity training and editing program to define a new style of communication, train the entire function on it, develop “Smart Brevity Ninjas” to expand the skillset beyond central comms.
How bp transformed its global communication
Takeda's bespoke storytelling training
Axios HQ developed and led a series of in-depth workshops for Takeda’s global communicators, aligning lesson plans, hands-on exercises and workshop cadence around its core goals.
How Takeda modernized its storytelling
USC's shift in style
Axios HQ’s team led in-depth Smart Brevity training sessions with USC communicators — helping them understand how the style works and ways it can be useful to any campus update.
How USC keeps its campus connectedProfessional email writing workshop FAQs
What is Smart Brevity?
Smart Brevity® is a communications methodology created in the Axios newsroom. The formula is based on years of research into brain science and data. It has played a pivotal role in the success of the Axios media organization.
Today, Smart Brevity is helping leaders and employees 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 are making the Smart Brevity framework available to professionals and organizations across the globe through highly customizable workshops and the Axios HQ software.
Organizations such as JP Morgan Chase, HSBC, bp, Calvin University, and Johnson & Johnson use Smart Brevity to maintain effective communications.
How does this training improve company communication?
Axios HQ’s professional email writing training is focused on Smart Brevity, a communication methodology that formats information in a way that is shorter, clearer, and more memorable.
The training teaches your team how to identify the most critical piece of information in your communication. You then learn how to format your emails to ensure those details stand out.
92% of organizations that use Smart Brevity have seen their internal processes improve, and 90% have seen staff engagement increase.
How long is the training?
The Axios HQ email writing workshop is 2.5 hours long and built for in-house.
Our Smart Brevity experts will take your team through the fundamentals, give you a hands-on exercise, and do a Q&A session with you to provide real-time feedback.
How many people at my company can join the training?