Michelle Li is a creative marketing and operations leader with 5+ years building campaigns, artist brands, and audience growth strategies at the intersection of music, media, and technology from independent productions to major-label campaigns and global brands.

Contact: hi@mishimode.com | Resume | Instagram

Click each photo below to learn more..

Services:

Social Media Marketing

Audience Growth Strategy

GTM Strategy

Brand Partnerships

Artist Management

Creative Production

Operations

Campaigns

Content Creation

Featured In:

Rolling Stone

Alternative Press

People Magazine

Hypebeast

Ones To Watch

Stereogum

Brooklyn Vegan

Complex

and more…

Clients and Experience:

AWAL

Sony Music

Nuuly

Aveeno

Spotify

Apple Music

Hemlocke Springs

Owl’s Brew

Toast Press

Mishi Mode

Lifestyle and Travel Content Creation · Sep 2025 - Present

Personal lifestyle and travel content across Instagram and TikTok (@activatemishimode) — shooting, editing, and publishing independently. Worked with hotels like The Graduate Chapel Hill. Since January 2026: 89K views, 5.3K likes, 276 shares, 117 comments, and 1.4K profile visits.

Hemlocke Springs

Artist Manager and Tour Operations · Jan 2024 - Dec 2024

Directed full operations for an internationally touring artist — coordinating across label partners (AWAL), booking agencies (CAA), DSPs (Spotify, YouTube), publicity (Sacks and Co., Align PR, Toast Press), legal, and vendor teams to drive strategic launches across territories. Negotiated 10+ contracts and partnerships valued between $300K–$1M across publishing, press (Dazed article), sync, and brand deals (OTM Music, Starface, Doc Martens, and more).

Designed and executed the artist's first ever fan activation, a meet-and-greet and Q&A series built into soundchecks across London and Paris during the Doja Cat support tour, boosting Laylo CRM subscribers by 30%.

Also managed Spotify for Artists, Apple Music for Artists, merch design and sales, and the artist's website hemlockesprings.net.

Hemlocke Springs x Nuuly

Photographer · Sep 2023

Photographed and captured behind-the-scenes content for Hemlocke Springs' fall ambassador partnership with Nuuly.

Hemlocke Springs

Tour Photographer and Social Media Manager · Sep 2022 - Dec 2023

Managed artist’s social media accounts for Lollapalooza, All Things Go, Mind the Gap Fest, and Ashnikko’s ‘Weedkiller’ Tour, capturing content in real time, resulting in a 100K follower and community growth in 6 months.

Photographed breakout hit song cover and Spotify Canvas for ‘girlfriend’. Also covers for ‘stranger danger’ and ‘sever the blight’. Just the social videos shown below have a total reach of 848K+ across platforms.

Work viewed in Rolling Stones, Ones To Watch, Alternative Press, People Magazine, Music Musings & Such, The Line of Best Fit, Happy Mag, Photobook Magazine, The Ramapo News.

Produced ‘stranger danger’ music video (402K views) , photographed ‘sever the blight’ music video, song cover and captured behind the scenes footage (1.5M views).

Mishi Mode x Inji

Captured concert photography across NYC and Washington, D.C., including live performance coverage, press assets, and behind-the-scenes documentation.

Created social-first video content reaching 2.4M views. Photographed and filmed BTS content for The One (951K views).

See more of Inji here.

Mishi Mode x Shallow Alcove

Photographer and Creative Director · 2024

Art directed and photographed the full campaign creative behind the campaign releases for Shallow Alcove’s singles ‘Mangos’ and ‘Music Box’.

Creative directed and photographed Shallow Alcove’s kickoff show at the Lincoln Center and created press images simultaneously.

Campaign reached 263K across social video.

Mishi Mode x Boyscott

Photographer and Creative Director · 2024

Shot and creative directed press imagery for Boyscott's sophomore album ‘Spellbound’ with visuals used across the full press rollout and release campaign.

Featured in Flood Magazine, Brooklyn Vegan, Topshelf Records, Northern Transmissions, and Talkhouse.

See more of Boyscott here.

Mishi Mode x Rachel Despard

Photographer and Creative Director · 2021 - Present

Long-term creative partner to Rachel Despard since her fourth-ever single. Help build her visual identity from the ground up across press photography, music videos, song covers, album covers, and live show documentation.

Led all visual creative for Rachel Despard's 2024 album ‘The Gardener’. From location scouting, prop sourcing, wardrobe styling to shooting the full campaign on film and Polaroid. Produced three Spotify Canvases on digital for the release.

Daily Tar Heel article here.

Mishi Mode

Music Photography and Creative Strategy · 2018 - Present · New York, NY

Press photos, album covers, Spotify Canvases, TikToks, music videos, and concert photography for a roster of independent artists including Aidan Bissett, Ley Soul, Ele Ivory, Alo Ver, Yoke Lore, and Olivia Burnette.

Designed a replicable TikTok content strategy for Aidan Bissett song-matched video formats built for fan recreation, driving 200K+ engagements and 9K+ follower growth, directly contributing to his signing with Capitol Music Group.

Work seen in Frxday, Music Daily, Voyage ATL, Tracks Music Library, 360 Mag, and Tennessee Highlighter.

Declassified Media

Videographer · Nov 2022 - Apr 2023 · New York, NY

Directed, filmed, and produced street interview content for a TikTok channel focused on MBA programs and business education. From crafting questions to approaching strangers and managing shoots.

Attended SXSW to capture timely interviews with tech industry leaders and entrepreneurs on the latest innovations. Content reached 739K views across social.

Mythic Agency (Joyride Productions)

Creative Producer · Jun 2021 - Mar 2022 · Charlotte, NC

Pitched and fully owned two internal video projects, ideating the concepts and securing a $25K per video budget. Went on to direct, dp, and edit the videos. Both went from idea to screen entirely under my creative direction.

Also supported production on commercial campaigns for national clients including Lowe's, Paymentus, Huber Engineered Woods, and more, contributing across set operations, camera work as a 1st AC, and post-production editing for broadcast TV and online commercials.

UNC Admissions

Social Media Intern · Aug 2019 - Dec 2019 · Chapel Hill, NC

Ran the social media presence for UNC's Office of Undergraduate Admissions, shooting, editing, and publishing 3+ stories weekly across platforms to engage prospective students and the campus community.

Launched their IGTV channel, producing the first-ever video for the account which is a campus food tour linked below.

You can check out more @uncadmissions.

Tidal New York

Marketing Intern · Jun 2019 - Aug 2019 · New York, NY

Joined the marketing and creative team TIDAL New York, a sustainable NYC flip-flop brand, shooting editorial, fashion, and film photography alongside influencers and tastemakers from Teen Vogue, Man Repeller, and The Webster.

Rebuilt their Pinterest strategy from the ground up, driving a 159% increase in audience and reach and generating measurable traffic and conversions to the e-commerce store.

Photographed a rooftop influencer event in partnership with body-positive swimwear brand Kitty & Vibe. My work was featured in Hypebeast, Footwear News, Highsnobiety, and the Williamsburg Hotel.

Owl’s Brew

Photographer and Content Producer · Jun 2019 - Sep 2019 · New York, NY

Art directed and owned all product photography for Owl's Brew across social media and e-commerce, concepting and prop styling every shoot independently while working closely with co-founders Jennie and Maria to bring the brand vision to life. The image to the right established the brand identity for the next few years.

Photographed and styled celebrity Annaliese Puccini for the brand and covered activations including WeWork events and the Boozy Tea launch at the Surf Lodge in Montauk. Content shot during this period went live across their social channels and e-commerce store to support active sales and brand growth.

For more about Owl’s Brew check out theowlsbrew.com

Coulture Magazine

Digital Content Editor and Photographer · Sep 2017 - Nov 2020 · Chapel Hill, NC

Spent 3 years leading editorial and digital operations at UNC-Chapel Hill's only student-run fashion and lifestyle magazine, collaborating with writers, designers, and social leads on story pitches, content strategy, and the online image.

Grew content production to deliver a 13% increase in unique visitors to coulture.org. Also shot and modeled in multiple editorial spreads across print issues.

Round Earth Media

Social Media Editor and Photojournalist · Jan 2019 - May 2019 · Rabat, Morocco

Reported and photographed on the ground in Morocco as part of an international journalism program, managing social distribution across Snapchat and Instagram in real time. A single photo series from Bni Quolla drove 2,000+ likes and 130+ new followers, and was reposted by SIT Study Abroad (@sitstudyabroad) to their global audience.

The Daily Tar Heel

Photojournalist · Sep 2017 - May 2018 · Chapel Hill, NC

Shot and published photo coverage across campus news, sports, performances, and protests for one of the largest independent student newspapers in the country for print and online. View some of my online work here.