Leslie Martinez on Building an Executive Assistant Career with Intention and Purpose

Not every career begins with a carefully crafted plan. Sometimes, the most meaningful journeys start with an unexpected opportunity, one that gradually reveals a greater purpose. For Leslie Martinez, becoming an Executive Assistant was never the original destination. Yet over the past 15 years, the profession has become a platform for leadership, personal growth, and meaningful impact. Today, as a Strategic Executive Assistant, career coach, and founder of the Elevate Your EA Career Summit, Leslie inspires Executive Assistants worldwide to move beyond task management and embrace their potential as trusted partners, confident professionals, and intentional architects of their careers. In this interview, Leslie reflects on the experiences that have shaped her journey, from her Latino roots and childhood move to New York, to supporting senior leaders in investment banking and building a thriving global EA community. She shares why self-awareness is the foundation of career success, how spirituality influences the way she leads and collaborates, and why today's Executive Assistants have more opportunities than ever before to build careers filled with intention, purpose, and lasting impact.

Leslie Martinez | C-level Executive Assistant | EA Career Coach & Mentor | Founder, EA Career Summit | New York, NY, USA | LinkedIn

Leslie Martinez is a Strategic Executive Assistant, EA career coach, and founder of the Elevate Your EA Career Summit. With over 15 years of experience supporting senior leaders across investment banking, asset management, alternative investments, and high-performance business environments, Leslie brings a rare blend of executive support, business acumen, intuition, and mentorship. Her work centers on helping Executive Assistants see themselves as more than task managers and step into greater confidence, visibility, and strategic partnership. Through her coaching, summits, and development resources, Leslie creates spaces where assistants can grow, lead, and build careers that feel aligned, respected, and expansive.

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Elizabeth Sutkowska: Leslie, you’ve built a remarkable career supporting senior leaders across some of the most demanding industries, from investment banking to alternative investments. What first drew you into the Executive Assistant profession, and what has inspired you to stay and keep evolving within it for over 15 years?

Leslie Martinez: I was pulled into the Executive Assistant profession, honestly.

I came into it with a much narrower view of what the role meant. I had studied business and marketing and had been exposed to Wall Street, accounting, finance, and business from a young age, but I had not originally imagined myself building a career as an assistant. I was very interested in marketing and creative work.

Then a friend introduced me to an opportunity at Merrill Lynch, before it became part of Bank of America. At the time, it was this incredibly high-energy, top-tier global investment and wealth management environment. I ended up in M&A, and as a young woman, I found that kind of atmosphere exciting. It was fast, demanding, and full of people operating at a very high level.

It also was not my first exposure to Wall Street. I had interned earlier at AIG on Wall Street, around 70 Pine Street, and had already felt that energy of finance, business, and big decisions happening all around me. I had also experienced marketing and advertising, so I had a taste of both worlds: the creative side and the financial/business side. I loved both.

At first, the EA role became the practical path. I was working full-time while going to school, and assistant roles were available to me. They matched skills I already had: organization, communication, intuition, problem-solving, and being able to read a room.

But even when I did not fully understand the long-term value of the profession, I never treated the role as “just an assistant” work. I respected the rooms I was in. I respected the exposure. I saw it as a real-world classroom.

Over time, what kept me evolving was realizing that the EA role is not only about support. It is about proximity to leadership, decisions, business patterns, trust, and influence. When you understand that, the profession becomes much bigger than tasks. It becomes a place where you can grow into a true strategic partner.

Elizabeth: As the creator of the Elevate Your EA Career Summit, you’ve created a space where Executive Assistants can gather, learn, and grow together. What moment or realization sparked the idea to build this summit, and how has it changed the way you see your role as both an EA and a leader within the community?

Leslie: The summit did not come out of nowhere.

Before I created the Elevate Your EA Career Summit, I had already been coaching for a couple of years. My work was rooted in intention-setting, self-knowledge, values, and helping people stop living from the outside in. I have always believed that before you can fully extend your gifts to other people, you have to understand yourself first: your values, your natural strengths, your energy, your patterns, and what is actually true for you.

Originally, I had an idea for something called “the Know Yourself Summit”. It was going to blend astrology, human design, personal development, and values-based coaching. But at the time, the production side felt too heavy. Recording videos, editing, organizing all of it. I knew it would take a level of time and technical skill that I did not have capacity for.

Then, when I was home with my baby and not quite ready to return to work, I came across AI and video editing tools that completely changed what felt possible. I tested one tool for something unrelated and suddenly thought, “Wait, I can actually do this.” Later, I found Descript, which allowed me to edit video from the transcript, and that was a game-changer.

Around the same time, I was attending workshops and listening to people whose messages really resonated with me. There was one woman in particular whose work felt so aligned that I immediately thought, “She needs to be part of this.” I reached out; she said yes, and from there the summit started to take shape.

By then, I had already been on a podcast and had seen how strongly other assistants resonated with my message. I knew I had a point of view. I knew I had lived experience. I knew I had seen my own role shift as I changed the way I viewed myself and my contribution.

The summit confirmed something for me: leadership does not always mean waiting for permission. Sometimes it means hearing the conversation that needs to happen and deciding to create the room for it.

Elizabeth: You often speak about excellence, connection, and energy, values that seem to reflect not just professional mastery but also a spiritual and personal grounding. How does your spiritual perspective influence the way you lead, collaborate, or even handle challenges in your work?

Leslie: Spirituality has played a big role in my personal journey, but not in a rigid way.

I grew up Catholic, and I am grateful for the foundation it gave me. I have beautiful memories of being a little girl in youth leadership spaces, listening to songs about peace, love, connection, and community. There were parts of that upbringing that gave me structure, discipline, and a deep sense of belonging.

At the same time, as I grew older, I began to question and reject some of the pieces that felt rooted in guilt, shame, or fear. I believe there are more compassionate ways to look at ourselves, our faults, and our growth. That curiosity led me into meditation, which became one of the most important practices in my life.

Meditation helped me quiet some of the noise in my mind. It helped me release conditioning, reconnect with my own thoughts, and create more space between what I was feeling and how I responded. I have also explored other spiritual practices, including Buddhism, chanting, temple visits, hypnotic therapies, and various ways of understanding the human experience.

For me, spirituality is less about having one perfect belief system and more about staying open, staying connected, and continuing to grow. I try to find the common thread between traditions. I have always been drawn to peace, collaboration, and the idea that we are all sharing this world together.

In my work, spirituality shows up in intuition, energy, discernment, and the way I collaborate. I do value information and logic, of course, but I do not rely only on my logical mind. I also listen to my intuition. I pay attention to what feels aligned, what feels off, and what the energy of a situation is telling me.

As a coach, I do not tell people what to believe. But I do believe that having some form of inner practice matters. Creativity, resilience, inspiration, and clarity often come from that inner place. We can honor where we come from without being limited by it.

Elizabeth: Your journey is deeply inspiring: from your Latino roots and childhood move to New York, to becoming a respected professional voice; how have your cultural background and early life experiences shaped your resilience, your work ethic, and your definition of success today?

Leslie: I love this question because I do believe our childhood shapes so much of how we see ourselves and what we believe is possible.

For me, I cannot talk about my resilience or ambition without talking about my parents. My mother created a very nurturing, loving, and accepting environment around me. I grew up feeling deeply cared for, but also like people saw something in me. There were high expectations, but not in a harsh way. It was very soft, more like a positive view of me. It was almost like, “Of course Leslie is going to do something meaningful.” They are still waiting. :)

I was a quiet, introverted child, so sometimes it felt like people saw a higher potential in me than I could see in myself. That has been a theme in my life: other people recognizing something in me before I fully embody it.

From my mother, I learned the power of relationships. She has incredible social skills and this beautiful ability to build community. She knows how to show up for people, and she has built deep, loyal, tight-knit relationships throughout her life. She is the kind of woman who knows someone for everything, and I admire that so much.

My father shaped another major part of me. I came to New York as a child, and much of my later upbringing was shaped by him. He is a true leader: disciplined, caring, visionary, and deeply committed to education and service. He has continued to learn, earn credentials, lead projects, and do meaningful work in education across Central America and the Caribbean.

He always treated me as capable. He valued my intelligence. He encouraged my dreams. And in many ways, I became someone he trusted with his own visions and ideas. I held space for his leadership dreams, and he held space for mine.

My mother taught me the power of relationships. My father taught me the responsibility of leadership. Together, they shaped my definition of success: not just achievement, but using whatever access, skill, or influence you have to contribute something meaningful.

Elizabeth: If you could leave one message for the next generation of Executive Assistants, those stepping into the field now and looking up to EA leaders like you, what would you most want them to remember about this profession and about themselves?

Leslie: What I would want the next generation of Executive Assistants to remember is this: there has never been more access than there is right now.

There is so much information available. You can research companies, learn new tools, connect with people, interview from home, build a network online, and find mentors in ways that simply were not as easy before. You do not have to wait for someone to hand you every opportunity.

If you are already in the EA seat, do not treat it like a waiting room. Ask yourself: “What would make this the ideal role for me?”

That question is important because the EA profession can exist in almost any industry and touch almost every part of a business. You can be an assistant in finance, entertainment, tech, startups, nonprofits, operations, marketing, people, events, strategy, and so much more. The role can connect to your natural gifts, but first you have to know what those gifts are.

Take the journey with yourself. Pay attention to what lights you up, what drains you, what you are naturally good at, and what kind of environment allows you to thrive. Sometimes you figure it out by reflecting, but often by taking action and noticing what feels right.

For me, I know I am entrepreneurial. I do well in environments where I can take ownership, think ahead, use judgment, and contribute beyond tasks. I would not thrive in a role that only asked me to execute with no room to think. Knowing that has helped me choose better roles and make stronger contributions.

I would also tell them to invest in themselves. Mentorship, coaching, training, and community can shorten the time you spend spinning in circles. You do not have to figure everything out alone.

This can be a meaningful, flexible, and financially rewarding career. But you have to participate in making it so. Do not just ask whether this profession is enough for you. Ask how it can help you build a fulfilling life.

Thank You!

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