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**Rhiannon Michelson, senior in advertising**

If someone told me a year and a half ago while spending my semester abroad in France, that I would meet my favorite artist Ingrid Michaelson, I would probably pause her song about the south of France that I was listening to and laugh hysterically. No way. That’s impossible!

Fast forward to this summer: I land an awesome marketing management internship with [Tikly](https://tikly.co/) under the entrepreneur and CEO Emma Peterson. She was only 21 years old when she founded the Des Moines-based, online ticketing platform in 2011, and has been growing it ever since.

My internship has basically been figuring out how to make Tikly’s reach go farther. I’ve looked at all current market trends and other websites to see what Tikly needs to keep on ticking. My job has been to write new marketing and advertising strategies for my boss Emma.

This time though, Emma wanted me to branch out and get some hands-on field experience. We always need new business and bands to join with our company to sell their tickets. That’s where I come in to pitch our story with whoever I can. She gave me free tickets to the Nitefall on the River, Ingrid Michaelson concert with Hope Country to hopefully spread our message!

The concert was absolutely beautiful! It was a special acoustic version from both her and the band Hope Country. Its backdrop was the sunset and the Des Moines River at the Simon Estes Amphitheater. I was reporting pictures and videos live to Tikly and Emma was posting images to Instagram and Twitter.

At the end of her concert, she came back to play an encore. That was my chance to sneak away to where the top of the stairs were. She came down on the left side of the outdoor theater and I knew that was probably the way she would exit. And she did! I was able to get her attention coming up and tell her that my favorite song was “You and I”. She replied, “Oh my gosh, I played that one tonight! I thought the audience seemed like that type of vibe!”