– Life as a Marketing Strategist –
Michelle Lyons is a UK-based designer and marketing strategist specialising in Japan’s travel market. As founder of the branding firm, Point North, she helps brands and destinations to attract inbound and domestic tourists in Japan by uncovering their unique value, creating competitive advantage, and crafting compelling brands.
Current Initiatives
In 2023, Michelle embarked on a mission to promote Japan’s 34 national parks through a project named Parks & Japan.
In response to the impact of uneven visitor distribution across the parks, Michelle plans to generate funding to support conservation efforts and local communities through the sale of fun park-inspired products.
She is currently developing a series of collectible pins & patches under an educational adventure brand called Poketto, and a trading card game called Parklander. Both are expected to launch on Kickstarter in 2024.
Love for Japan
Having been designing for almost 10 years and receiving a first-class honours degree in Graphic Design, Michelle is a highly experienced creative, but her love for Japan came more recently.
After being introduced to Japanese culture by a friend around 2020, she felt entranced by the emotionally raw anime, deep respect for nature, quality craftsmanship, and the visually stimulating city streets. At the start of 2022, Michelle began studying the language with the goal of making Japan the main focus for Point North.
Career Transition
Despite the challenges of establishing herself in this niche whilst living in the UK, Michelle has already signed clients including Atelier Japan, a luxury Japanese retail store, and Japan San, a consultancy with expertise in Japan’s travel trade. Her networking efforts on LinkedIn have been instrumental to making these valued connections.
Reasons to Listen
This will be a talk worth listening to for:
- those interested in learning what it’s like to be a marketing strategist and designer
- those looking for unique insights on building one’s personal brand and network
- those who are searching out helpful tips and strategies related to establishing their own level of professional success
Listeners will come away with insights on:
- what being a marketing strategist is fundamentally all about from Michelle’s perspective
- an inside look at Michelle’s business Point North
- the value of self initiated projects as a young person in the creative design and strategy space
- the value of having an effective workflow
- Michelle’s pathway into marketing strategy and design
- what attracted Michelle to hyper-specialize on the Japanese inbound tourism market
- how Michelle uses LinkedIn as a tool to build and promote her business and personal brand
- what it’s been like trying to build a presence and name in the Japanese market
- a meaningful story related to her work
- a belief Michelle holds which helps guide her in her quest to build her business and career
- Michelle’s feelings on AI and its potential impact on the marketing and advertising space
- much more!
A Memorable Quote from the Episode:
“Everything that you want to achieve is downstream of your beliefs. Your beliefs are the lens through which you’ll filter everything and that will determine how you think and feel, which will determine how you behave, the actions you take and to a larger degree it will determine the results that you get.”
-Michelle Lyons
Check out the Video Conversation:
For those who desire to view video highlights from this conversation can do so via Youtube.
Discover More
For those interested in learning more about Michelle and her work, you can check out her company website here. Further, you can find and follow her on the following platforms:
Keep Listening!
I hope you enjoyed the episode. For more, check out additional episodes here!
