Hi there! My name is Amanda Cordell and I just wrapped up an internship with the coolest musical duo ever! As a Communication major, I love the fact that my degree will apply to a lot of different fields. Even though I’m going into my senior year, I’m still figuring out what I’m interested in as far as a career. I also have a minor is Cultural & Creative Industries, which has encouraged me to think about the specifics of a number of professions. One industry that has always interested me is music. Unfortunately, I have no musical ability or talent, plus I think I would be much too nervous to ever perform on a stage. However, artists need a team of people to work with them so they can promote their image and build a fanbase.

The ROAMies consist of husband and wife duo Rory Partin and Alexa James who have both received awards for their music. This semester, they were looking for interns for many different areas, from promotion to content creation to editing. During my interview with Alexa she asked me what I wanted to learn from the internships and the experiences I was hoping to gain. I told her that I was basically interested in everything and would love to take on any task she had to give me. From there, she offered me the spot and I began an experience where I feel like I truly learned a lot about myself and my own interests. Alexa guided me along the way, giving me all of the resources I needed to succeed in my role and being there to answer all of my questions.

I started out by editing press released and bios that were already created. My favorite part of writing has always been rewriting sentences until I can find the perfect wording, so this was easy and fun for me. I also began researching publications that might be interested in promoting Alexa and Rory’s music. I used the website HARO (Help A Reporter Out) which I highly recommend for anyone doing PR work. Journalists will upload information about articles they are working on and qualifications of people they’re looking to interview, which makes it easy to find relevant publications that will publicize the clients you’re working with.

Another task that I really enjoyed was all of the research I did into travel. Alexa and Rory love travelling and live their lives “on the go”, which they’ve created an entire podcast about. I researched interesting places where they could walk around and film for a possible television show in the future, and I did some research into setting up a tour. While COVID restrictions have kept The ROAMies from touring for over a year, I made and maintained connections with people who have venues where they host concerts. When touring becomes an option for them again, they’ll have plenty of people ready and excited to host them.

The header that I designed for the month of April!

My biggest and favorite assignment was writing the monthly newsletter which got sent out to over 4000 people. Each month revolved around a different theme, which started with the same prefix, re. The theme was consistent in the newsletters, their social media sites, and podcast episodes for the month. My favorite theme was March’s re-energize. I wrote a section in the newsletter about how it was the perfect time to re-energize ourselves after a year of lockdown and discovering new hobbies or rediscovering old ones. I also loved being able to play around with the designs for the newsletter’s header! My favorite was the April one, which was Easter themed.

The all intern meeting + their manager Brad!

I also got the chance to (virtually) meet the other interns for The ROAMies in March! It was cool to get to make those connections and add a section in the newsletter about the hard work each of us were putting in.

Through this experience working with The ROAMies, I think I’ve grown skills that are very useful for PR, Marketing, and Artist Management. Branding and keeping up with an image is essential to growing an audience, and I think I was able to manage that well through my writing. I’ve also realized how important it is to be consistent on all platforms, due to the success of the monthly themes. Lastly, I had an incredible time getting to know two hardworking individuals who want to truly inspire others through their music and other endeavors.