New Blog, First Edition
- Tara Lehman
- Aug 18
- 4 min read
Moving on from my previous blog-style to something that reflects me and how I, probably like you, believe humour and professionalism deserve to mix and mingle
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If we haven't officially met, I'm Tara, a former Chamber Executive Director who did something fairly different after leaving the Chamber world:
I started a business exclusive to helping Chambers of Commerce.
Sometimes I get that quiet pause on the other end of the phone after I introduce myself as a Chamber Consultant, followed by the expected question:
What's a Chamber Consultant?
Most people don't know, and I don't blame them, because I've yet to meet one myself.
In short: I've built the version of a consultant I wish had been around to help me back when I was a Chamber Executive Director.
Someone who understood Chamber life without needing the 45-minute explanation first.
Someone who could be an extra set of hands when I needed them, and knew that “just hire another person” isn't helpful advice when the budget says otherwise.
No consultant worked solely within that niche, at least not in my neighbourhood, so I became one instead, building a suite of Chamber-specific services and tools that, while I'm of course biased, make chamber-life easier for so many of you.
And now that the business has grown into working with Chambers across the country, one province to the next, I keep half-expecting someone to tell me their Chamber is the exception, that their struggles look nothing like everyone else's.
IT HASN'T HAPPENED YET.
No matter the province, the budget, the staff size, it's always some version of the same struggles.
Which brings me to this new blog: Chamber Life, Unfiltered.
Every Tuesday, I'm going to write about real Chamber life.
It'll be:
Professional yet unfiltered.
Humorous yet thoughtful.
Not the polished sponsor-deck or board-minutes versions.
The version happening somewhere between renewal reminders, grant applications, and wondering whether enough members are in town to attend the summer mixer you've been planning for three months.
It's fuelled partly by: coffee, what I hear from Chambers, and memories of my own Executive Director days.
Running it entirely on my memory isn't sustainable, because coffee does not always help my memory. If anything, it just makes me forget things faster, with more enthusiasm.
AND THIS IS FOR CHAMBER LEADERS
Who enjoy reading about the hustle and heart it takes to run a successful chamber.
For those in need of a creative reading break from the 47 emails that say “just a quick question for you” that you haven't answered because rarely is something quick, and from the strategic plan sitting on the corner of the desk whispering “Is today the day you'll read me?”
*Unless you don't have a strategic plan. Many Chambers don't because planning a year or more in advance is tough when it's already a chore to regularly meet quorum at monthly board meetings. And yes, strategic planning happens to be one of the ways I help Chambers.
SO, HERE'S OUR FIRST CONVERSATION.
Fun Fact:
If you work 40 hours/week and put systems in place that save you 20% of your time, that's equivalent to an extra 35 hours/month. A FULL WORK WEEK SAVED.
So, if you make the work you already do just 10% more efficient, you're still doing pretty darn good.
Now that you're wondering what you'd do with those extra hours (aside from vacation) here's the question worth asking:
What are you doing over and over again that could be made easier?
Pick one to start with. Maybe it's something you're starting from scratch like a social media calendar, meeting agendas, sponsor decks - I know first-hand the list goes on.
Or, maybe it's fixing the spreadsheet someone created in 2019 to hold the entire organization together or the strategic plan you don't know how to implement.
Building capacity is about getting some of the hours you've been spending back, and that's a big part of what Hello Chamber is about. I show you ways to save those hours, especially those running a Chamber with one employee, a tiny team or a volunteer board, because even getting one or two of those hours back matters.
Preferably before anyone burns out.
WHY FOLLOW ALONG?
Because learning about the chamber life should be done through stories and lessons learned that make you smile, feel connected, and dare I say, laugh. Maybe not the bust out laughing loud kind that makes you spill your coffee, but at the very least roll your eyes in understanding and forward one of these to another Chamber person with:
THIS.
I want you to recognize yourself in a story and be reminded other Chamber people are dealing with the same combination of big-picture community leadership and very-small-picture questions like:
“Who has the password for that?”
Don't subscribe if you're looking for deep dives into tariffs, trade policy or whatever is happening at the border this week. There are excellent people covering those things.
I'm staying over here with the behind-the-scenes realities of running the organizations expected to know about all of those things while simultaneously figuring out who's bringing the name tags to Business After Hours.
That's my lane.
And you can always unsubscribe. It won't hurt my feelings, promise.
SO, IN SUMMARY, HERE'S WHAT I DO.
I help chambers take care of themselves and their members.
And mostly, I show up full of ideas because no two Chambers are the same despite being on the same mission of making Canada an amazing place to do business.
IF YOU'RE GOING TO KEEP READING THIS…
Know that it's coming from someone who gets your day-to-day realities.
Things like how you're fighting the fact it's time to close out Q3. And how the board will soon ask what event you're planning for Small Business Week, but you don't know because you're still working on last week's tasks.
How you're someone juggling ten plates that feel equally important and stop you from getting that extra hour of summer sun everyone else seems to be getting.
If that's not exactly your life right now, I suspect it's close enough.
Chamber Life, Unfiltered publishes here every Tuesday, on LinkedIn, and teased on Facebook.
Thank you for being here,
Tara Lehman
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