Available - Remote & Utah

About Me

I make complex work clear enough for people to use.

I'm Mary Rietz, a communications strategist with 17+ years of industry experience across corporate communications, brand systems, graphic design, web design, UX, and AI-enabled content workflows.

At Vivint, I supported communications that connected leadership priorities to 5,000 field employees. That experience shaped how I think about messaging: good communication is not just polished language. It needs structure, timing, audience awareness, and a clear path from decision to action.

Mary Rietz seated by a window
The throughline — Intentional communication: the right message, in the right format, for the people who need to act.

Personal

The person behind the work is people-centered, curious, and intentional.

The same practical human lens shows up at work and at home: notice what people need, reduce the noise, and make the next step feel clearer.

Home base

Wife, mom of three, and very aware that clarity has to work in real life.

My favorite team keeps me grounded. It is a constant reminder that people do not need prettier noise. They need communication, structure, and care they can actually use when life is full.

What I study for fun

People, behavior, trust, and momentum.

I am naturally curious about why teams thrive or disengage, what causes emotional buy-in, and how small communication choices shape the way people experience work.

Creative fuel

The small things that keep me making.

Music, painting, pottery, board games, sushi, Philly sports, mint chip ice cream, a white Monster, and Take 5 candy bars all belong somewhere in the creative process.

Wife + mom of three

Real life keeps the work honest.

My favorite team is why I care so much about people feeling clear, supported, and capable in the middle of real life.

Curiosity

I study what is happening under the surface.

I am fascinated by human behavior, communication dynamics, trust, friction, and the tiny cues that tell you whether people feel clear or quietly overwhelmed.

peopletrustbehaviorculture

Ideas I keep close

The books and frameworks that shape how I see people and work.

Leaders Eat Last, Start with Why, The Coaching Habit, Brand Flip, Zag, Permission Marketing, POP!, and systems-thinking ideas all shape the way I solve problems.

whyattentionsystemstrust

Creative recharge

A few small things that keep me human.

Mint chocolate chip ice cream, pottery, painting, music, board games, sushi, Philly sports energy, a white Monster, and Take 5 candy bars all belong somewhere in the creative process.

  • Mint chip
  • White Monster
  • Board games
  • Sushi night
17+
Years across communications, design, digital, and brand systems
300+
Annual comms shaped, written, planned, or shipped
75+
Initiatives moved from strategy to execution each year
AI
Workflow layer for synthesis, QA, planning, and adoption

Thinking in public

Notes on leadership, comms, AI, and intentional work.

These are my LinkedIn posts, written in my own words as I keep shaping the way I think: clearer systems, better communication, and work that respects the people using it.

  • All
  • Leadership
  • Communications
  • AI
  • Design + UX

Leadership | LinkedIn post

People-first leadership is still operating discipline

A reflection on leadership that creates clarity, trust, and growth without losing the human part of the work.

LeadershipPeople-first

Read post

Leadership + comms | LinkedIn post

Communication is organizational design

Why strong communication is not just the message. It is the system that helps people understand what matters and move together.

Org designComms

Read post

AI workflow | LinkedIn post

AI works best when judgment stays in the loop

How AI can support synthesis, message testing, planning, and QA while human judgment keeps the work accurate and useful.

AIWorkflow

Read post

Communication design | LinkedIn post

Clear communication is a design problem

A practical look at how messaging, hierarchy, visual structure, and audience context work together to make communication usable.

DesignStrategy

Read post

Human UX | LinkedIn post

Human UX belongs inside internal communications

A comms perspective on why internal tools, updates, and rollouts need the same care for human experience as customer-facing work.

Human UXComms

Read post

What makes the work different

I am strongest where strategy has to become usable.

The page, deck, message, rollout, or system is never the whole point. The point is whether people can understand it, trust it, repeat it, and act on it without needing the work explained three more times.

  1. 01

    Translate

    Executive priorities into field-ready language.

    I can hear the leadership intent, find the audience reality, and turn the gap between them into plain, useful communication.

  2. 02

    Design

    Systems that look polished and work hard.

    I bring visual judgment to operational communication so the asset does not just look good; it makes the next action clearer.

  3. 03

    Move

    Calm structure for fast-moving work.

    I build the plan, message architecture, workflow, stakeholders, and feedback loops so complex work can move without becoming chaos.

Operating model

The way I think is as important as what I make.

My default pattern is simple: find the signal, translate by audience, design the system, then refine it until it works for the people using it.

  1. 01

    Find the signal

    Separate the real decision, audience need, and business priority from the noise around it.

  2. 02

    Translate by audience

    Shape the message differently for leaders, managers, field teams, customers, or stakeholders.

  3. 03

    Design the system

    Build the deck, page, plan, template, workflow, or channel rhythm that makes the work repeatable.

  4. 04

    Refine the human part

    Test for clarity, tone, friction, trust, and whether the next action feels obvious.

Leadership operating system

I lead by creating clarity, trust, coaching, and confidence.

My leadership style is people-first, but it is not soft or passive. It is disciplined. I use clarity, emotional intelligence, and systems thinking to help teams understand the why, remove friction, build trust, and move with confidence. I can hold the title or lead from the middle of a team, but the point is the same: leadership is not the label. It is the behavior and character people experience when someone creates safety, earns trust, removes friction, and helps the room know what to do next.

Myers-Briggs personality style: ENFJ

People and performance are not competing priorities.

People perform better when they understand why their work matters, feel trusted enough to ask questions, have clarity instead of confusion, and operate inside systems designed to support them instead of overwhelm them.

  1. Listen
  2. Clarify
  3. Coach
  4. Remove friction
I do not believe leadership is being the loudest voice in the room. I believe it is creating the conditions where people can bring their best thinking forward and know what to do next.
  1. 01

    Safety before speed

    People do better work when they are trusted.

    I try to create the kind of environment where people can ask the honest question, name the real blocker, and contribute without fear of being dismissed.

  2. 02

    Coach the why

    Direction lands better when people understand purpose.

    I connect work back to meaning, audience impact, and the larger mission so teams are not just completing tasks; they understand what the work is meant to change.

  3. 03

    Lead from any seat

    Influence is not limited to org charts.

    Even when I am not the formal leader, I naturally help organize the room: clarify the goal, connect people, surface gaps, and make the next step easier.

  4. 04

    Systems that support people

    Healthy teams need less friction, not more pressure.

    I look at what the system is rewarding, repeating, confusing, or slowing down, then build communication rhythms and workflows that make execution feel more sustainable.

Philosophy

Purpose

People do better work when they know why it matters.

Trust

Emotional safety creates stronger performance than fear or control.

Clarity

Communication should reduce noise, not add to it.

Coaching

Questions and alignment often move people farther than authority.

Books that shaped me

  • Leaders Eat Last
  • Start with Why
  • The Coaching Habit
  • The Art of Impossible
  • Freakonomics
  • Brand Flip
  • Zag
  • Permission Marketing
  • POP!

The personal lens

Useful is personal to me.

I am a wife and mom of three, and that part of my life absolutely shapes how I work. It has made me practical, direct, empathetic, and aware that people do not need prettier noise. They need clarity they can use in real life.

I genuinely love studying people: leadership psychology, communication patterns, culture, trust, and why teams either thrive or quietly disengage. That curiosity shows up in the way I build: I am always looking for the emotional experience behind the message and the system behind the behavior.

Calm

Steady when priorities shift.

Coach-driven

Questions, clarity, and encouragement before control.

Intentional

Every channel and asset has a job.

Small joy
Mint chocolate chip ice cream.
Fuel
White Monster energy drinks and a great playlist.
Favorite challenge
Turning messy problems into meaningful solutions.
Human thing
I love celebrating people and seeing what makes them light up.

Need someone who can make the work clearer and easier to move?

I can step into a leadership role, a freelance scope, or a messy communication challenge and turn the message, system, visual direction, and workflow into something people know how to use.