Leah Warwick: Hi, everyone. I’m Leah Warwick, and you’re listening to “The Admin Edge.” For the final episode of this season, recorded at EA Ignite in Louisville, we wanted to chat with one of our attendees about the event itself and to hear more of their personal story. Big thanks to Attendee Ryan Smith for sharing openly about his experience at EA Ignite and in the administrative profession. Let’s get into it.

Hi, I’m Leah Warwick, Senior Content Manager for the American Society of Administrative Professionals, and I am here at EA Ignite 2025 in Louisville with one of our attendees, Ryan Smith. Welcome to the podcast, Ryan.

Ryan Smith: Hi, Leah. Thank you so much. It’s an honor to be on, and I’m glad to talk to you.

00:00:53

Leah Warwick: Likewise. It’s been such a pleasure to meet you. So tell me a little bit about what brought you to EA Ignite and what your experience has been so far.

Ryan Smith: So my name is Ryan Smith. I am an executive assistant for a charter school in North Carolina. TMSA is the name of the school. And I assist the superintendent there, so specifically that part of my role is why I’m here at EA Ignite, from the EA perspective there. And then I’ve just been learning so much here at EA. AI is one of the sessions I know my boss wanted me to really go in and focus on, so I’ve been to two AI sessions so far. I do use AI regularly in my job, but I’m more of, as Melissa Peoples called it, an “AI tinker,” so I’m still tinkering in. After attending her session a little bit ago, I think I have a little bit more knowledge to gain from that, and I’m going to continue tinkering with my AI experience.

00:01:48

And then just getting to know the connections and people and build your network. I had a good brain date with a panelist this morning, Joseph Washington. He was a really good one, and another male from an executive perspective, and just getting to pick his brain a little bit in what he sees from his EAs. Yeah, just meeting all the people here, networking and being able to further my knowledge here. This is my first time attending EA Ignite, but not my first time at a conference, per se. But for this particular EA Ignite, this is my first time. It’s been a good time so far.

Leah Warwick: Good! And we love first-timers. It’s so exciting for us, too. Yes, Joshua Washington, who you did a roundtable with, it sounds like, is fantastic. I’m so glad that you’ve enjoyed Melissa Peoples’ session on AI. It’s great to have an opportunity for EAs to come together from all over the country, and different industries, too. Have you learned from other admins that you’ve talked to on-site?

00:02:47

Ryan Smith: Yes. Specifically, in the education realm, I was able to talk to a few CMOs or SMOs. That’s basically the difference between having a central office, which is where I come from, and if some educational admins don’t have a central office, they just have an SMO, which is basically someone who kind of oversees the schools directly, but not an actual central office in a way.

Yeah, like you said, so many different industries here. I’ve been able to connect with some people, more from — I think one person is over, I think, in the mayor’s office. Someone else is in pharmaceuticals, which is actually a previous job that I had. I can go into that a little bit, too. I was in the C-suite on that job. Yeah, a lot of different experiences, and networking is always important.

Leah Warwick: Yes. And doing it in person, too. We also encourage online networking. We have ASAP Circle, which is our networking community, but meeting in person, there really is a charge and a difference, and you remember people sometimes that you meet face-to-face, and then you keep building that connection afterward. So tell me a little bit about the difference between working in pharma versus working in education as you do now?

00:03:58

Ryan Smith: Well, there’s a world of difference. Pharma, I was working for a C-suite executive, vice president of procurement sales enablement. That was kind of her job. I was doing pretty much everything a normal EA would do, but in her role it was a lot more higher up to the CEO. I was like two steps down from the CEO with her position, so getting to experience some of the stuff in the C-suite that I don’t experience now, in my current education role, that’s obviously different. But pharma is such a big industry. There’s so many different companies. There’s drug trials and all these different things that go on in the pharma world.

And then you go into the education world, which is where I’m at now, a charter school is different from a public school, and you’ve got those differences. Our superintendent is over — we only have about 20 people currently at TMSA in the central office, so that’s a lot different than a pharma C-suite where there was like 20 of just alone in the C-suite, and the company was over 500 people.

00:04:56

Big differences there, but there are good differences, too. I think working in education — this is my first job in education — and so seeing the important role that educators play in kind of making a difference in the lives of not just the students at the school level, but the people that kind of oversee operationally what we do at the central office, it makes me have —  my wife’s actually a teacher, so I can have both perspectives. So now, seeing what she goes through on a daily basis as a teacher, but then also stepping back into the central office and how are we supporting those teachers, how are we getting them in the best place to succeed, has opened my eyes a lot. I’ve been — this is my fourth year, I think. Yeah, fourth year of going into my role here in the educational realm.

Leah Warwick: That’s really good perspective to have, because we often find careers are not necessarily linear. We find some people start in one place and they want to go into another in a completely different industry. And that’s one of the great things about being in the administrative profession is that you do have a lot more opportunities, in some ways, than other roles, other functions, other job functions, to completely switch industries, and your skillset, your foundational skillset is valuable whether you’re working in pharma, construction, education, government, tech — there are different things that you can add based on the industry that you’re in, but there are certain skillsets that are important.

00:06:16

What would you say are some really, really important skills to have for the modern EA?

Ryan Smith: I think you need to be adaptable because, as you know, with AI, it’s coming and it’s here, and there’s a lot of things you need to be constantly being able to adapt [to]. You need to know your value, know your worth, as they were talking about and Joshua was saying earlier. That’s very important nowadays, being able to clearly explain to your executive (or to your superintendent, in my case) and everyone else in the organization, because he also expects me to be someone who kind of is the hub of the organization, and helps all the other people align.

00:06:52

And so being in alignment with everyone in the organization helps value your role and also helps people see you in a different light, as well. Just to answer your question, adaptable, someone who’s flexible, someone who is able to kind of think on their feet pretty fast, because things do change quickly, and you’ve got to be able to adapt whenever you can. And then I’d finally say, just be coachable. I think a lot of us aren’t coachable because we feel like our executives are just telling us what to do, and we feel like we are just kind of flying by the seat of our pants at times — which we are, but at the same time, we’ve got to be able to take that coaching not just from our executive, but maybe sharing the best practices with EAs here that you meet at conferences, like this, or wherever you are. Be coachable, because that’s where people are going to — people are going to notice the real you. If you’re not coachable, if you’re not being able to show who you are and being able to better yourself, people are going to notice that. Being coachable is such an important thing, and something I’ve learned over the past — especially the last few years.

00:07:59

Leah Warwick: So we do have community members who, especially at our other events, administrative professionals conference, will get together, have brain dates about being a male EA or a male administrator in a mostly female environment. What has that been like for you? What has your experience been?

Ryan Smith: It’s been different, but I think it’s helped that I’ve worked for both different executives — my pharma executive was a female, and then my current educational executive (superintendent) is male. So having worked with both genders, it’s been able — I can see how each one has a different role, but yet they also want the same thing, which is to drive success, drive results, and also just work efficiently and in alignment.

00:08:47

Here, especially at EA Ignite, I was able to talk with a few of the other males here, and it’s cool to not just be the only one, obviously. But at the same time, you can use your power to then — this is going to sound weird. It makes it easier for me to talk to females here because I am — there’s only like ten of us here that are males, and so if you’re in the same field, or if you can just relate to people, I don’t think it matters whether you’re a male or whether you’re a female. If you can be relatable to people, if you know how to network with others and just find those best practices, whether it’s in your field directly or you just share best practices in another field, you’re able to get past those awkward barriers, if you will, and just network and be friendly and be approachable, at the end of the day. So I think that’s helped me as a male in this female-dominated space.

00:09:41

But I’m not going to lie: It did help yesterday, the first day I got here. I walked into the room. There was a bunch of, obviously, mostly females. I was able to walk [in] and get to meet the one male that happened to be from where I was from, in the same area, so that did kind of help, too, as far as breaking that ice to start.

Leah Warwick: Yes. And also it seems like it goes back to what you were talking about with being flexible and adaptable. Working with all different kinds of people, right? I think an administrative professional has to be very comfortable working with a lot of different personality types, for one.

Ryan Smith: Absolutely. I could talk for days about this. My pharma executive and my current executive now in the education realm are completely opposite ends. They could not be farther opposite. I could go into a story if you want me to, but the way my current executive does things is just completely a 180 from where I was in the pharma realm. Yeah, like you said, being adaptable, being flexible. It’s been a learning curve, don’t get me wrong, with my current executive. It’s been a learning curve, but I’ve been able to get on a good pace with him now, and we’re kind of alignment now, which we were not in line probably the first two years. He’s definitely given me some grace there, and I’ve given him some grace back, and we’ve been able to kind of get on an alignment over the last two years, and that’s really helped our relationship.

00:11:02

Leah Warwick: That’s a great example. I’m glad you shared that because there are so many factors that go into it. There’s organizational style, when you change organizations. There’s the communication style of the executives you’re working with or colleagues. There’s different ways. People are coming from different backgrounds of all kinds. Gender is just one element. There are so many other elements, and a really successful EA or administrative professional, I find, is very flexible and adapts to different needs. But at the same time, shows up as a leader, and a leader is someone who brings everybody together, regardless of where you came from or what your job was before, or what you’re bringing to the role. How can we all align, even though we’re all different?

00:11:46

Ryan Smith: Yeah. What was the question on that? I’m sorry.

Leah Warwick: Oh, no. More of a comment on how aligning with different styles — you were talking about how one executive worked with was completely different than the other ones, and so I think EAs are very familiar with that. They’re very familiar with having to, especially when they change roles. And even not that. If you stay at an organization for 30 years, there’s a lot of change that happens in that time, so being able to adapt to change is also something that’s really important, because change — even good change. Because sometimes a change happens that is very positive, like an example for us is we’re moving offices and it’s great, but we’re also [like], oh, it’s a move, so how do we get everybody comfortable with that? How do we transition?

Ryan Smith: And we actually just did that. We just moved offices last August, actually, so it’s been almost a year now. That was not easy. With only 22 of us, it seemed like it would be a little easier, but we were moving to such a big space and it was like 20 minutes down the road, which was not hard, but the amount of stuff that you have to do when moving an office absolutely chaotic. I was the one who was obviously coordinating all of that and being kind of behind the scenes but also in front of the scenes at the same time. So, yeah, moves are chaotic, and I can totally understand how you guys are going to go through that. It’s a lot.

00:13:04

Leah Warwick: Yes, and lots of questions and things like that, and that’s something that administrative professionals are often very good at. Okay, how do I — like you talked about, behind the scenes and in front of the scenes. Company culture, making sure everyone’s on the same page. You alluded to strategic alignment. I think at EA Ignite especially, in addition to the AI, we’re also really focused on: Okay, so you use AI for these things. And then what other kind of value can you provide? Because an AI is not a person. It never will be a person. You’re a person and you’re working with other people, so let AI handle stuff that used to take you all day, that you used to get really frustrated over, right, and just do in a few clicks. That you can do.

00:13:41

But you can’t give everything to AI, so the stuff, like a move, you can’t just click an AI and say, “Okay, we’re…” Well, not yet anyway. Maybe in ten years AI or all the robots will do the move for you. But for now, this is very much a people-focused profession still. So how are you showing up? How are you making people feel comfortable, while also maintaining the boundaries and parameters that you have? It’s always a delicate balance, and so being able to do some of this in person, too, to talk about communication skills, talk about how to show up as a leader, it’s really important.

Ryan Smith: Yeah. And I’ll even give you an example of that. For confidentiality reasons, I will not name the people and the company, but when I was working in pharma, I was able to — I got laid off due to — COVID was right around the corner and it happened. My boss at the time, who was very understanding and very — it was not her decision. It was very quick, very sudden. I had been there less than a year and all of a sudden — go on the call with her and HR, the whole thing happened. I get laid off.

00:14:54

Not even two minutes later, I receive a phone call from this executive, and she tells me, she’s like, “Ryan, I’m not supposed to be talking to you, but I am. I just wanted to let you know just how valuable you have been to me over this last year, and this was not my decision. If this was my decision, you would not be fired.” But it spoke to me in how someone like that, who is very busy, very powerful in a pharma-type organization, did not have to do that at all. She did not have to reach out to me after that kind of transaction was made, if you will. And this is someone I keep in contact with still today, because she was someone who took me kind of under her wing. It was actually my first job initially in this EA environment. And so she kind of took me under her wing. So I wasn’t with her very long, obviously, before COVID, but what I did learn under her was just invaluable. The things that she taught me, I still take with me today. Again, we have that relationship today. We still connect, obviously. I think that just speaks volumes to being approachable, being someone who is personable, being someone who does — kind of putting an ego, if you have one, aside and really connecting with your executive. What can you do to make their lives better and easier? Being in alignment with them.

00:16:22

And then if an unfortunate thing happens, if you happen to get laid off for whatever reason, or if things happen and you have to move on, you can still have that relationship with them going forward. It’s obviously not going to look the same, but you can still have a relationship with them that kind of goes past your initial work environment and kind of — whether it’s best practices, whether it’s checking in on LinkedIn, whether it’s shooting them a text every now and then, “How’s the family?” Whatever. You can build that relationship. I just use that as an example, but you can build that relationship with people that you can —

00:16:53

As long as you’re approachable, as long as you’re coachable, and just be personable. I think that was the reason why, I think, she ultimately kept in touch with me, because I was so — I built that relationship with her. She trusted me. I trusted her. But we allowed each other to be coachable through the mistakes, through the minutia that happened because, again, I was only there for less than a year, but there was so much that I learned in that year that enabled me to build that relationship in such a short period of time.

Leah Warwick: Yes. I cannot stress enough the importance of relationship building, no matter what role you’re in, but especially in an administrative role. Let’s face it. You’re not sales. You’re not bringing in revenue directly, so what is the value that you’re adding? Now, you can do calculations and we have templates for this, where you can calculate time saved equals money saved. We have that in our toolkit. There’s that and then there’s also: What are the intangibles? What are you bringing to relationships where you’re helping promote psychological safety, you’re helping to help someone grow and you’re empowering them? You’re helping an executive do what they need to do to run the business, and they don’t know what they’d do without you.

00:18:03

Finding ways to make these things tangible is vital, but also knowing that your value is not just a dollar sign. Your value is so much more than that. And in the long run, people are going to remember how you made them feel, and that’s everything.

Ryan Smith: That really is it. And then even just — for someone like me, I find networking easy, but that’s because I’m an extrovert. I like to talk. That’s just it. It’s easy for me. But for those who are introverts, I would just say, get comfortable with being uncomfortable. I know that sounds bad, but you’re only going to get better at networking if you just practice. You just never — this world seems so big, but the world is small. You never know the type of relationships that you’ll build, and someone you meet at a conference you might five years down the road need them for something in your career or you might join up with them. Who knows? There are so many different ways. You can just make memories with people, but then you’ll never know when you might need that contact. It’s amazing.

Leah Warwick: Yes. And I like that you said that because not thinking of networking as a sort of transactional thing. I think that’s a general perception of, “Oh, I have to do this so I can do that.” Sometimes you form a genuine relationship and you’re helping each other grow and build skills. Then when an opportunity does arise, they think of you. They naturally think of you and it feels very organic.

00:19:28

It’s not like you’re having to ask them for a favor. They’re like, “Oh, this opportunity came up. Because I made this connection with you at this conference or wherever, I think you’d be great for it. I thought of you immediately because I know you. We’ve gotten to know each other. We’re in the same field.” So it’s so valuable to make connections here, to make connections in the community. Because like you said, it’s actually pretty small when you think about it.

00:19:53

I love that you’re here and you’re experiencing that, and we still have time today for you to continue to meet people.

Ryan Smith: Absolutely, yeah. We still have another day and a half of this or so.

Leah Warwick: Exactly. It was really, really great to have you on the podcast. Thank you so much for coming on.

Ryan Smith: Thank you, Leah.

Leah Warwick: Where can people find you outside of the podcast?

Ryan Smith: So TMSA is my full-time job. TMSA Public Charter Schools is where I work. You can find me. Search TMSA Public Charter Schools. You can find me. I’m with central office there, so that’s where you can find me professionally. And then I actually have a podcast of my own as well, which I can — if there are any sports fans out there, you can search it on wherever you get your podcast. It’s called “Winning the Division.” It’s an NFL football podcast. So you can find that wherever you get your podcasts and also on YouTube as well.

00:20:42

Leah Warwick: Well, that’s great because I am an NFL fan, as we were talking about earlier. I just love listening to NFL podcasts. It’s a way for me to flex a different part of my brain than I normally am flexing. So I can’t wait to listen to more of your episodes. Thank you for joining us.

Ryan Smith: Thank you, Leah.

[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.