Cassie Yoder told us we should take our time and put thought into our social media posts; we don't have to post the same day. Well, we listened. This post is a week late*.

Cassie Yoder, Cass Concepts, is a tremendous marketing resource for Illini Prairie CEO and other CEO programs in Central Illinois. Between Banker Day and making the final edits to our Business Proposals for the board, we met with Cassie to help us think through our marketing strategy more effectively.

Last Monday, we met at Penn Station in Arthur, a local event space, theater, cowboy church facility, that Yoder helps run, in addition to her business - Cass Concepts.

One thing Yoder stressed was that social media marketing is a process that is more time-consuming than most people think. And it needs to be an intentional process, with purpose and goals in mind, matching our target audience demographics and social media channel user demographics.

"Post with purpose," she advises.

"Get our of your comfort zone," Yoder says. "It's really difficult being your own cheerleader," but it is necessary. It is our job to market our business and ourselves. And we need to do it with energy if we want our businesses to be successful.

"When you buy into passion, longevity doubles and triples."

Yoder advised to focus our social media content on who we are and who we are not. Our posts need to show off not just our products and services, but also our personalities. And we need to vary the types of posts - photos, videos, reels, customer feedback, etc.

We also need to "Strategize for the right now," Yoder says. Some people see the big picture, some people see the smallest details; we need to see both, or surround ourselves with people who can help us see both.

"Your business is not going to be successful just because you have a great business model. Your business is only going to be as successful as the time and passion you put into it."

And that's where our focus is now. Building the business and getting ready for our Trade Show in April.