From Occupational Therapist to RA's Merch Manager

Stories from behind the merch booth with Lil Meesha!

To say that this past year has been wild would be an understatement . Just over one year ago, I was graduating with my Masters in Occupational Therapy, ready to start my career working in a hospital. Fast forward 3 months and I was… living on a tour bus with 7 dudes, traveling all over America for 4 weeks selling merchandise at RA concerts?! Crazy, I know. If you’re curious about how this came to be for me, these next 3 minutes of reading may be of interest to you.

First off, my name is Michele, (but the band+ some fans know me as “Lil Meesha.”) If you’ve ever been to an RA concert and lined up to buy some merch, well, I was likely the one selling it to you! This story starts in March of 2022 when Jamesy Boy asked me if I would come on RA’s first USA tour to run the merch booth. At the time, I was on a shift-based job, which meant I could technically work as much or as little as I wanted. So, I said to myself, “What the heck! Why not?” and jumped head first into an adventure that would ultimately alter my career path entirely. I remember that first ever RA show in Portland, Oregon so vividly. There were nerves in the air, but also so much excitement. How many people were actually going to show up?! Would anyone even buy our merch?! The band had been planning for this moment for months, and it was finally show day.

Pictured: First ever RA merch booth set up in Portland, Oregon at RA's first ever concert

We set up the stage + merch booth and we were ready to go. As some of you may know, we had various “bundle” options to choose from, one of which was the “I heart RA bundle”: The ultimate fan bundle that included pretty much every piece of merch that we had with a $140.00 price tag. The band and I played a game of “how many fans will actually buy the I heart RA bundle?” and the group consensus was ZERO! Fast forward 30 minutes, the venue doors open, and a rush of fans come inside. The first fan from the line outside comes straight to the merch booth and says, “I’ll take the I heart RA bundle.” Out of pure shock, all I managed to respond was, “Really?!” The fan let out a giggle and said, “yeah! I’ve been waiting to see RA in concert for so long. I made sure I was the first in line so I could come straight to the merch booth once the doors opened.” I looked behind this first fan to see a line of people running across the venue, waiting to buy merch.

“Beginner’s luck,” I thought to myself. “No way every show on tour is going to be like this.” But as I would soon find out, I was very, very wrong.

Show after show, the RA fans lined up by the hundreds to get their hands on some tour merch and I was both overwhelmed and overjoyed at the same time. I couldn’t believe how many of you cared to buy RA merch and support the band! That month on tour in the USA was by far one of the best experiences I’ve ever had in my life. I learned so much so quickly about merch inventorying, customer service, how to set up a merch stand and so much more.  So, come June when it was time for RA to tour Europe, I decided I’d come along again!

Pictured: First merch booth set up in Europe at tour stop #1 in Vienna, Austria

Pretty much from there on out, the rest was history! Jamesy Boy offered me a job to come work for RA full time to run both touring merchandise and online merchandise. I immediately took the plunge and said yes. The amount of change and career uncertainty I experienced over the last 2 years definitely weighed on me, but I wouldn’t trade where I am at right now for the world. I am so thankful that Lil Meesha from two years ago decided to say “What the Heck!” and went for it. Those 3 simple words turned my life into the ultimate adventure, traveling across North America in a tour bus two times, selling RA merch to fans in 12+ countries around the world and so much more. I am really excited to see how far RA’s merch business can go and I’m super excited to show the world how cool our merch truly is. I cannot wait to meet so many more of you at our upcoming RA shows this spring, but until then… Here’s a link to our online merch store :

https://merch.rareamericans.com

(Hey, you guys gotta help me keep my job!)

-Lil Meesha