I love you, but I’m leaving
For those who don’t know my whole story arc, I lived away from Southern Illinois for about 8 years in total. I was a petulant 21 year-old Midwesterner who hated their small town - original right? Anyways, I truly didn’t go far…St. Louis, Belleville, Cape Girardeau.
While I will never regret the time I had in the Metro East because of how much I learned, changed, and the time I spent with my best friend, I do wish I had been here for the VAST changes that happened to Southern Illinois in those 8 years. I came back to a totally different area - for the better. Or maybe, just maybe, I had spent enough time away to appreciate it again? I think it’s important we sometimes get away from our homes to remember how much we love it, to feel the tug and pull of loyalty to the land. That’s why I started posting weekend trips!
About six months ago I shifted my focus to Midwest tourism instead of solely Southern Illinois, despite my name. I started sharing content from day trips to Cape Girardeau, St. Genevieve, Edwardsville, Evansville. I shifted from only trying to bring people to Southern Illinois to trying to get the people of Southern Illinois out into these surrounding areas. I accepted SHRPA trips to Arkansas. But why? Let me explain:
Sometimes the best form of advertisement is word of mouth. We can try to get our content in front of specific audiences in specific towns and hope for the best…but what if they don’t have social media? What if they aren’t active on it? When we start looking at some of our target audience for Southern Illinois - they aren’t actively on social media. Or they aren’t willing to just accept that something is worth visiting because the internet said so. They want recommendations from friends, families, the gal at work that is always going someplace new.
So, we go to them. When you’re on vacation, how many times are you asked or do you share where you are from? Talk about yourself a little? If you mention where you are from and talk about how great it - congrats, you have just advertised Southern Illinois!
It also gets our audiences in front of each other. I am going to Arkansas at the end of the month, and my audience will learn all about a town they more than likely did not know existed. In exchange, when I invited this tourism bureau and the businesses to collaborate, their followers will see the words SOUTHERN ILLINOIS SOCIAL MEDIA, they’ll check out my profile and they’ll see all the lovely parts of our area on my grid.
But I am just one person. And so if I have many people of Southern Illinois going out to these areas a few hours away, sharing their stories and how lovely Southern Illinois is, maybe, just maybe we get a few more folks from this strategy. After all, we invite influencers from Chicago and other regions down here, and people in Southern Illinois follow them, right? So why shouldn’t it work in reverse?You need to have your bubble burst sometimes. As a small town gal, I romanticized the heck out of St. Louis. I lived downtown for 10 months before promptly moving back over to the Illinois side where I knew the laws, rules, and could see trees on a regular basis. I also remember romanticizing NYC as 16 year-old, and one family trip to Manhattan quickly shattered any illusions I had there. So as much as we complain about not having things to do here, I think sometimes we need to go visit places that have less than us to feel fortunate, and also go see places that do offer all these things so we can experience them, and then return to the comfort of our home. With STL, once I lived in the area I realized I didn’t have the time or money to do all the things offered there. But by working and living in Southern Illinois, I could visit and experience these things on the weekend. So, perspective is why you should get out of town sometimes.
I’ve come to realize my place, so to speak, as a content creator in this area. Do I dream and wish of a sponsored Creator’s Weekend for the actual Southern Illinois creators? Yes. Will it happen without me arranging, paying for, and leading it? No, probably not (CREATIVE WEEKEND AT CAMP MANITOWA OFFICIALLY BOOKED FOR SEPT 2025 BTW).
But, I want to be paid to travel. I want to blog. I want to check out new towns and make content for their tourism bureaus and share why I truly think you should visit. I want to take stunning photos and videos for small business owners who would prefer to have a landline over a cellphone. I want to help. But I also need to get paid. As much as I love creating content, and as privileged as I am to get to be a stay-at-home-mom, I have a house in my name. Our property taxes went up like everyone else. I would rather have my husband at home than working overtime. And the uncomfortable truth is I am actually out money from covering these places. There are rarely free meals, free gas does not exist. With the current cost of living, some of my prices will go up at the beginning of the year.
With that being said, I do get paid for coordination in Southern Illinois. That is where folks need the most help, that is the most dependable and steady money. And I would truly rather have that than the occasional paid for weekend.
So, if you see me covering places outside of Southern Illinois, know that I am going there to spread the word; but also I’m a gal who loves paid travel and I go where they want me.
I love you Southern Illinois, but Mama needs a vacation.
