Leah Warwick: Hi, everyone. I’m Leah Warwick, and you’re listening to The Admin Edge. This episode was recorded at the Administrative Professionals Conference 2025, in Seattle, and this episode features host Debra Coleman, Founder of The Seat Upstairs, and guest Dr. Mary Ritz, President and Founder of Almenta International and a trainer at this event. If you’re looking to improve your presentation skills, take some quick tips from this conversation between Mary and Deb, straight from the busy show floor at APC. Deb speaks first.

00:00:43

Debra Coleman: I have to say, really quickly, that I attended Mary’s session yesterday on presentation skills—fantastic. It really was a gamechanger, so you definitely know your material when it comes to presentations, so I’m excited to talk a little bit about that with you more, to go from being an attendee in your session to now sitting down with you as a guest. This is going to be a great conversation.

Through Almenta International, you are training leaders across different types of organizations. What’s one presentation mistake you see even experienced professionals make that admins can easily avoid doing themselves?

Dr. Mary Ritz: Oh, wow. This one, even I have to catch myself when I’m preparing my decks—I have to catch myself doing it—is making them condensed, making the slides so condensed. You just want to pick everything. Slides become paragraphs. You want to put everything in a slide deck. No, no, no, no, no. Let’s not do that.

00:01:52

So you want to put high-level bullets and then you want to speak to your slide, not read your slides, so to speak. So, that’s one mistake that I see a lot of presenters making. I was even training a group of engineers and their argument was, “Mary, we need the details in there. We need to cross the I’s [sic]. We need to cross the T’s.” And I’m like, if you’re doing that, if you [don’t] make it so condensed, you’re taking away from you, the presenter. Your presentation is not the presenter. You are the presenter. Therefore, if you [don’t] make it so condensed, people will start to read and try and catch everything that you’ve got on the slide. They have taken their focus from you—the speaker, the presenter, the knowledge powerhouse—and now they’re focusing on that.

00:02:52

So, again, minimizing, making your bullet points very succinct so that you can speak about them, not through them, so to speak.

Debra Coleman: Yeah, excellent point. As an attendee, when someone does do that and there’s a lot of information on the slide, you’re right. I tend to focus on reading the slide and I tune them out—maybe not entirely, but I can’t help it because I can’t do both.

Dr. Mary Ritz: You’re right.

Debra Coleman: So, yeah, big mistake that people make. And do you think that maybe plays into their fear of presenting, so they’re leaning more heavily onto the slide to sort of be that cue card, if you will?

Dr. Mary Ritz: Mm-hm. It’s your clutch point. It’s your comfort zone, so to speak. Again, we are so fixated, so much about being perfect. I feel presentations is not about that. It’s about you giving enough information and knowledge in a way that is authentically you, right, in a way that resonates with the audience.

00:03:59

Because before you even craft your presentation, your deck, you must understand who the audience is, what their needs are. So, once you do that, you realize that there are certain things that you can leave out so that it can fit your audience.

The other thing that I also want to mention, in terms of what we could do better as professional administrators, on our presentations, is not to make the presentation about us. Sometimes we want to make it about us and what I want and how great I am. Really, the presentation is about the audience, so making sure that your slides, your delivery style, you’re moving people along with you in a way that resonates with them.

00:04:51

Debra Coleman: Spot on. And you did say that in your presentation. This is why Mary is here, to help guide us through this presentation journey. It is really important. And can I just say, it doesn’t always mean presentation skills to an audience of 20 or 30 or in a venue like this. It could even be in a one-on-one with your boss, having that confidence in how you present—like you said, knowing your audience—all of what you’re saying can even come into play in a smaller setting.

Dr. Mary Ritz: It does. Every time you are speaking with somebody, you’re presenting. You are presenting. It just matters—what you have to be cognizant of is what environment you’re presenting in. When do you project? If I’m talking to you like this, in an intimate setting, I don’t need to project that much, but I can use my voice in a way that is still very engaging, unlike in a bigger group setting.

00:05:49

So, your ability to be able to use your gestures, to use your voice, the eye contact that we’re making, it makes a memorable conversation. So, for those professionals that are saying, “Well, I don’t really have space to present to a bigger audience,” rightfully so. One on one, if you’re engaging the people, practice that. Practice that, yeah, because you want to move people to action, right?

So, when you have a conversation, easy-going, you show passion—authenticity is one thing that I say a lot—people will resonate with that. People will resonate with that. You don’t have to be anything else, but you’ve got to believe in the subject matter that you’re presenting.

Debra Coleman: I love that, believe in the subject matter. That will have no choice but to shine through as you’re presenting.

Dr. Mary Ritz: Right, on it.

Debra Coleman: Wonderful advice. Thank you for that. For those who are listening who may want more of what you are sharing with us and learn more about what you offer, where can we find you?

00:06:56

Dr. Mary Ritz: Easy, easy. I’ve got two spaces that I’m really prominent, my website, www.almentainternational.com, and then LinkedIn, Mary Ritz, PhD. That’s how you find me. You’ll find a lot of my body of work in all the other areas that I do in professional development, including presentation skills.

Debra Coleman: Wonderful. I love that. And one more time, your website?

Dr. Mary Ritz: www.almentainternational.com.

Debra Coleman: Fantastic. Mary, thank you so much for sharing your busy schedule, which I know you have today. We appreciate you sitting down with us for this conversation on presentation skills.

Dr. Mary Ritz: Thank you very much, Debra, for having me. It’s been such a pleasure.

[music playing]

Leah Warwick: Thank you for listening to The Admin Edge, produced by the American Society of Administrative Professionals, original music and audio editing by Warwick Productions, with audio and video production by 5Tool Productions. If you liked this podcast, please leave us a nice review, five stars, and subscribe. If you’d like to submit a listener question, you may do so on our website at ASAPorg.com/podcast.