Check Out Karin Bulman’s Story

Today we’d like to introduce you to Karin Bulman.

Alright, so thank you so much for sharing your story and insight with our readers. To kick things off, can you tell us a bit about how you got started?
I started my career as an Executive Assistant in healthcare over twenty years ago and fell in love with the profession immediately. There was something super satisfying about creating order from chaos, anticipating what executives needed before they even asked, and watching them succeed because I’d cleared the path. Working at multiple health systems and one of the country’s largest privately owned radiology practices, I became that strategic right-hand person who just makes things happen for busy executives.

My performance opened doors, and eventually I was promoted to manager, then senior manager, and ultimately, following my completion of my MBA, a director-level position. It was a great opportunity to see the business from different angles and understand organizational leadership from the inside, but I soon realized how much I missed being an EA. I missed that direct partnership with leaders, the intimate knowledge of a company’s strategic vision, the daily puzzle-solving, and the hands-on satisfaction of making someone’s professional life run like a well-oiled machine.

Sometimes the best career move is returning to what you love, so I made a deliberate choice to come back to executive support, but this time in an entrepreneurial fashion. I now work as a fractional strategic business partner to healthcare executives, bringing to the table both my EA expertise and the leadership perspective that only comes from having sat in those seats myself.

Would you say it’s been a smooth road, and if not what are some of the biggest challenges you’ve faced along the way?
Not entirely smooth, no. One of the biggest struggles was reconciling my professional identity with my title during those management and director years. I’d worked so hard to get promoted by completing my MBA, proving I could lead teams, manage budgets, etc…. From the outside, it may have looked like success, but internally I felt increasingly disconnected from the work that energized me.

There seems to be real pressure in our culture to always climb the ladder (I often heard “Why don’t you want to be more than an EA”?, “You could be so much more than an EA!”, etc.), so admitting I missed being an EA felt like I was somehow moving backward or wasting the investment I’d made in my education and development, and letting down those who had been rooting for my professional advancement.

The turning point for me was realizing that ‘career success’ doesn’t have to mean a traditional upward trajectory. It took courage to step away from a director-level position and redefine my career goals. Some people didn’t understand the choice. But what looked like a step back was actually a step *toward* work that fits who I am and leverages everything all of my natural skills and talents.

The other challenge has been building a fractional business model in a field that’s traditionally full-time and employee based. Healthcare organizations and executives aren’t always familiar with the fractional support model, so there’s education involved in helping them see the value: not everyone needs a full-time assistant, so the ideal solution is to engage a high-quality assistant for a fraction of the workday or workweek – at the fraction of the cost of a full-time hire.

Those early struggles taught me to be resourceful, trust my instincts, and bet on myself – which, ironically, are exactly the qualities that make me good at what I do now.

Alright, so let’s switch gears a bit and talk business. What should we know about your work?
What I do:

I provide fractional executive support to healthcare leaders – typically C-suite executives, physician leaders, and senior directors who need strategic partnership but don’t require or want a full-time EA. I handle everything from complex calendar management and stakeholder coordination to project oversight, meeting preparation, and serving as a trusted thought partner on organizational initiatives. I think of myself as an extension of their leadership capacity – someone who knows their priorities, protects their time, and ensures nothing falls through the cracks. Through my services, I save the executives I support at least 15 hours a week, enabling them to spend that time focusing on company strategy.

What I specialize in:

Healthcare is my lane, and that industry-specific knowledge matters. I understand the regulatory environment, the unique pressures of clinical leadership, and how health systems operate. I also specialize in supporting leaders through transition periods, including new roles, organizational restructuring, and major initiatives, when the demands are highest and they need someone who can hit the ground running without a steep learning curve.

What sets me apart:

Most EAs bring excellent organizational skills and reliability. What I bring in addition is a leadership perspective. Having been a director myself, I understand budget constraints, board dynamics, stakeholder management, and strategic planning from the inside. I don’t just execute tasks blindly – I anticipate downstream implications, ask the right questions, and think several steps ahead because I’ve been in those strategy rooms. I can read an organizational chart and understand who needs to be involved, who holds influence, and how to navigate internal politics effectively.

What I’m most proud of:

I’m proud that I had the courage to step away from a safe place to build something unconventional – a fractional model in a field that’s traditionally full-time, because I believed healthcare leaders needed this kind of flexibility. But more tangibly, I’m proud of the relationships I’ve built. I have clients who consider me an indispensable part of their team, who trust me with sensitive information, and who’ve told me they’re more effective leaders because of our partnership. That trust and impact is what gets me up in the morning.

What I’m known for:

Calm in chaos. My clients know that when things get complicated, whether it’s multiple competing priorities, tight deadlines or high-stakes situations, I’m the person who brings order and clarity. I’m also known for being discreet, perceptive, resourceful, and having the ability to anticipate what’s needed before it’s asked for. After twenty-plus years, I am quickly able to discern an executive’s style and needs and flex my approach accordingly.

What matters most to you? Why?
What matters most to me is the business partnership with an executive; it’s a unique, trust-based relationship where I become so dialed in to an executive’s way of thinking that I can anticipate their needs before they articulate them.

There’s something almost intangible about this that’s hard to explain to people outside the EA profession. It’s not just about being organized or efficient, though that matters for sure. It’s about developing such a deep understanding of how someone thinks, what their priorities are, and how they operate that you become an extension of their decision-making process. You know when they need space to think versus when they need options presented. You know which stakeholders require extra attention and which meetings are going to be a waste of their time. You can look at their calendar and immediately spot the conflicts or gaps that will create problems three weeks from now.

All of this matters to me because it’s where the real impact happens. When you have that level of partnership, you’re not just managing schedules and doing tasks – you’re protecting someone’s capacity to lead well. You’re creating the conditions for them to be strategic instead of reactive, to focus on the decisions only they can make while you handle everything else. I’ve watched executives transform when they have that kind of support: they’re calmer, more present, more effective. They make better decisions because they’re not mentally juggling umpteen competing priorities.

To me, the EA role is intellectually satisfying in a way few other roles are. Every day brings unknowns. How do I make these ten impossible things fit together? How do I navigate this politically sensitive situation? How do I protect this leader’s time while still maintaining the relationships that matter? I love being in the organization’s “inner sanctum”, understanding the strategy intimately, and knowing I’m indispensable to making it happen.

That’s why I came back to this work after my time in leadership. The satisfaction of that close partnership, that daily problem-solving, that feeling of being truly essential to someone’s success – nothing else compared, regardless of fancy title or higher income.

Contact Info:

• Website: https://karinbulman.com
• LinkedIn: https://www.linkedin.com/in/karin-bulman-mba-b4b99111/