Flagship programme

Fluency doesn't create authority.
Eight weeks to close the gap.

Most senior executives operating in English as a second language are communicating below the level their expertise deserves. The Executive Communication Accelerator is built to fix that, in the rooms where it actually costs you something.

Eight weeks  ·  One to one  ·  Remote, worldwide  ·  $3,750 USD

Start with the Diagnostic

$250, and credited in full if you go on to the Accelerator.

Who this is built for

You are not trying to learn English. You are trying to be heard properly in it.

You already run meetings, present to boards and negotiate in English. The problem sits somewhere else: the decision arrives three sentences late, the answer runs longer than it should, the language softens just as it needs to hold firm.

None of that is a language problem, which is why language tuition doesn't shift it. It is a performance problem, and it usually shows up only when there is pressure in the room. That is the thing this programme works on.

The method

Fluent isn't the same as authoritative. Here's what actually closes the gap.

1

Diagnose the challenge

Name the exact pattern costing you the room: delayed clarity, over-explaining, softening language, or lack of structure. You can't fix what you haven't named.

2

Structure the message

Decision first, context after. In meetings, in email, under pressure. The point lands before anyone can cut you off.

3

Hold the room

Structure is easy when no one's pushing back. This is what happens when they do: meetings that drift, presentations under challenge, negotiations that test you.

4

Sustain it alone

The pattern named in week one is gone by week eight, without a coach in your ear.

Benjamin Sporton on a broadcast camera feed at a UN climate conference, moments before going live

Benjamin Sporton · Founder, Apex English

I've had to do this in rooms that weren't friendly.

I'm the person senior executives come to when they need the authority to make a complicated story land in their second language. I did that for coal and cement, two industries that have been under significant international pressure, for a decade at global level.

Former CEO of the World Coal Association and first CEO of the Global Cement and Concrete Association. UN negotiations, government ministries, boardrooms across more than 50 countries, and live interviews on Bloomberg, CNN and Sky News.

What's inside

Eight weeks, built in a deliberate order.

Each week takes on one situation you are likely to face within the month. Nothing is generic, because everything runs on your own meetings, your own materials and your own upcoming pressure points.

Week 0Diagnostic

An unscripted three-minute recording shows you the pattern in your own delivery, not a hypothetical one. Most people are surprised by what it actually catches.

Week 1Executive presence

Say the decision first and let the context follow, not the other way around. It sounds simple until you try it under pressure and revert to the version you were taught at school.

Week 2High-impact meetings

Taking the floor when no one hands it to you, and bringing a meeting back on track without making it personal.

Week 3Storytelling for business

A structure for turning a complicated situation into an argument someone can act on in under two minutes, instead of a wall of context they have to sort through themselves.

Week 4Presenting with authority

Openings that hold the room in the first ten seconds, and a way of using a pause so a hard question doesn't rattle you.

Week 5Negotiation and stakeholder language

The language of a concession that comes with a condition attached, so ground never moves for nothing.

Week 6Email and async leadership

What has to sit in the first line of an email for it to be read as a decision, not a suggestion someone can quietly ignore.

Week 7Cross-cultural communication

Reading whether the room in front of you needs everything spelled out or almost nothing, and adjusting mid-conversation rather than after.

Week 8Capstone: run the room

An unscripted presentation under real pressure, measured directly against the recording from week zero.

Throughout the programme, you'll build a practical communication system you can use long after the eight weeks are over.

What you take with you

Eight principles you'll still be using in five years.

These are the part of the programme that outlast it. Each one is short enough to recall in the moment, which is the only place it is any use.

The First Sentence Rule

Lead with the decision. Never with the context.

The Drift Principle

When attention drifts, the room shifts. Own both.

The Pause Principle

The pause is not empty. It signals control.

The Meaning Principle

Facts inform. Stories move people to act.

The Leverage Principle

Every concession has a condition. Every silence has a purpose.

The Visibility Principle

People judge your leadership even when you are not in the room.

The Interpretation Principle

Communication fails when people attach different meanings to the same words.

The Alignment Principle

Clarity tells you they understood. Alignment tells you they will act.

Built for rooms where the other side is also working in a second language.

Most executive communication advice assumes a native-speaker audience and a shared set of conventions. Very little of senior international work looks like that.

Week seven exists because the person misreading you may be doing it from their own second language, across a different set of cultural defaults. Getting that right is usually worth more than any amount of accent work.

Benjamin Sporton presenting to an international audience

Pricing

One way in, and it costs you nothing extra to take it.

Everyone starts with the Diagnostic. It stands on its own, and most people find the report alone is enough to act on. If you go further, the fee comes off the Accelerator.

Step one

Apex Communication Diagnostic

$250USD
  • Written profile and self-assessment beforehand
  • A live 45-minute diagnostic session
  • Your written Individual Diagnostic Report

Step two

Executive Communication Accelerator

$3,750USD total

You pay $3,500 after your Diagnostic credit.

  • Eight weeks, one to one, built on your real work
  • Week 0 baseline recording and pattern diagnosis
  • Feedback on your actual meetings, emails and presentations
  • The eight ECA Principles, applied to your situations
  • Priority support between sessions
  • Week 8 capstone and a 90-day plan you keep

The $250 Diagnostic fee is credited in full against the Accelerator. Take the Diagnostic, read the report, and decide afterwards. If you go on to the programme your total is $3,750.

Start with the Diagnostic — $250

45 minutes, a written report, and the fee comes off the Accelerator if you go on.

Common questions

Things people usually ask.

How much time does it take each week?

A session plus the work you were already going to do. The material runs on your real meetings, emails and presentations, so most of the practice is happening anyway. What changes is that it gets reviewed.

Do I need to be preparing for something specific?

It helps, and most people are. If there is a board presentation, a negotiation or a set of stakeholder meetings in the next two months, the programme gets built around them. Without one, week 8 supplies the pressure instead.

What if the Diagnostic tells me I don't need this?

Then the report says so. Sometimes the answer is a shorter piece of work on one specific thing, or a different kind of support altogether, and the report will say that too. I would rather tell you that than sell you eight weeks you don't need.

Can this run for a team rather than an individual?

Yes, and the shape changes when it does, so it is priced on scope rather than listed. The Diagnostic also runs across a leadership group, with an individual report each and a summary of the patterns that show up most.

Will you try to get rid of my accent?

No. The goal is not to sound like a native speaker, and I think chasing that usually costs senior people more than it gains them. Your accent is not what is getting in the way.

Next step

Start with the Diagnostic.

Forty-five minutes, a written report, and an honest read on where your expertise is not landing the way it should. If the Accelerator is right afterwards, the fee comes off it.

Book the Diagnostic — $250

Payment is taken at booking. Remote, worldwide.