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Training
Smart Brevity® Workshops
Interactive, customizable sessions that help teams move past theory and put Smart Brevity into practice.
Turn Smart Brevity principles into practice.
Workshops are designed for organizations looking to upskill in-house teams.
This 2.5-hour interactive workshop, designed for up to 15 people at your organization, helps your colleagues apply Smart Brevity to critical workplace communications in a group exercise with real-time feedback. Clarity isn’t just theoretical — it’s operational.
What teams learn:
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Axios HQ’s trainer will share the fundamentals of Smart Brevity, including the research behind our method and its proven techniques.
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Attendees practice Smart Brevity through a group exercise using communications from their day-to-day work.
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Axios HQ’s trainer will give each group real-time feedback, answer questions, and guide a discussion about how they can use it at work.
They’ll walk away with:
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A clearer, stronger version of your actual communications
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Practical techniques that immediately improve clarity and structure in any communication
- A repeatable editing process your team can put to work right away
The workshop is customizable. We work with your team in advance to understand your org, its goals, and your team's unique areas of opportunity. Our trainer will ask for sample content from your team, too. Then, we'll fine-tune the session and exercises to match your day-to-day needs.
Meet your trainers: a former Presidential Briefer, a New York Post reporter, and our "Grammar Hammer"
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.
Kate Samano
Smart Brevity Training & Editing
Kate Samano
Smart Brevity Training & Editing
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.
💡 Example workshops
Our workshops can be customized for your team's function, goals, comms challenges, or key focus areas to ensure the time is spent where it matters the most.
Reduce inbox overload
Teams practice turning day-to-day emails into purposeful and powerful messages — respecting readers’ time, improving their understanding, and accelerating their ability to take action.
Turn strategy to action
Teams practice editing leadership memos to clarify intent, prioritize what matters most, and make next steps unmistakable — so leaders keep teams aligned and moving forward with confidence.
Structure strong stories
Teams practice editing real articles and learn the most effective ways to surface important ideas, tighten structure, and guide readers through complex details with speed and clarity.
Earn your audience
Teams work hands-on with timely press releases to sharpen headlines, focus key messages, and cut jargon — helping reporters and stakeholders quickly understand what’s new and why it's newsworthy.
Power up presentations
Teams learn how to organize their ideas, prioritize key points, structure slides for clarity, and eliminate unnecessary detail — to better inform, persuade, and drive outcomes from their audience.
Reduce inbox overload
Teams practice turning day-to-day emails into purposeful and powerful messages — respecting readers’ time, improving their understanding, and accelerating their ability to take action.
Turn strategy to action
Teams practice editing leadership memos to clarify intent, prioritize what matters most, and make next steps unmistakable — so leaders keep teams aligned and moving forward with confidence.
Structure strong stories
Teams practice editing real articles and learn the most effective ways to surface important ideas, tighten structure, and guide readers through complex details with speed and clarity.
Earn your audience
Teams work hands-on with timely press releases to sharpen headlines, focus key messages, and cut jargon — helping reporters and stakeholders quickly understand what’s new and why it's newsworthy.
Power up presentations
Teams learn how to organize their ideas, prioritize key points, structure slides for clarity, and eliminate unnecessary detail — to better inform, persuade, and drive outcomes from their audience.
After the workshop
All participants will receive special resources to help them stick with Smart Brevity when communicating.
Smart Brevity checklist
Presentation slides
Smart Brevity books
Smart Brevity 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 long is the training?
The workshop is 2.5 hours long and built for organizations to bring 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?
Each workshop is designed for up to 15 participants. We maintain small groups and break them into even smaller 3-4 person teams during the practical exercises to ensure active participation. Every participant gets an opportunity to practice.
Do participants need prior Smart Brevity training?
No, prior training isn’t required.
That said, teams who have completed Smart Brevity Fundamentals often find workshops especially effective for deepening application and alignment.
How do we book a workshop?
Use the form on this page to request a workshop. Our team will follow up to confirm format, focus areas, and logistics.
More programs to explore
Smart Brevity Fundamentals
Learn More
Smart Brevity Certification
Learn More
Smart Brevity and AI
Learn More
