Founder's Note: The Working Practitioner vs. The Full-Time Speaker
Why I intentionally cap my speaking calendar to a few events a year, and the vital difference between a full-time speaker and a working practitioner.
An attendee at a recent conference walked up to me and said, "I swear, I see you everywhere on the conference circuit."
I had to laugh, because the reality is I only speak at about four or five conferences a year. But it made me realize how easy it is to confuse strategic visibility with being on a perpetual roadshow.
I keep my speaking calendar capped intentionally. In our industry, it’s easy to feel the pressure to say "yes" to every keynote and panel invitation in the name of building "thought leadership." But for me, I always want my talks to be an output of my work, not the work itself.
There is a distinct difference between being a full-time speaker and a working practitioner who occasionally takes the stage:
- Full-time speakers travel to inspire and share high-level macro trends.
- Working practitioners take the stage to share recent, real-world execution, boardroom scars, and structural realities—and then go right back to their clients on Monday to do the heavy lifting.
Limiting my stage time gives me just enough room to synthesize our frameworks for strategy, governance, and leadership, test new concepts with peers, and stay connected to the credit union community. Most importantly, it ensures my focus is never pulled away from the boardroom—which is where the actual work of building resilient institutions happens.
You do not need twenty lanyards a year to have something valuable to say. Sometimes, picking the right four or five rooms is more than enough.
What's on the Calendar
What conference do I actually have coming up? Check our Events page.
Tom Glatt
