Emi Wong: She was rejected for a $500 pay raise. Then she built a fitness empire

When I met Emi Wong, she had just wrapped up a workout class at Glow Festival by Prudential. She was dressed head to toe in white and still glistening from the session. And while most of us would probably be frazzled after an intense workout, she was anything but. 

Seeing her in person felt surreal, like being transported straight back to the COVID days when many of us were huddled in our living rooms. Remember the times when we were all following along to her home workout videos together on Zoom just to feel some semblance of normal.

But here’s the thing about Emi Wong. She’s not quite the same person you remember from those videos. And she’s completely okay with that.

It all started with a pay raise

Here’s something you probably didn’t know about one of Asia’s most recognisable fitness creators: none of this was planned. It wasn’t the channel, the fitness career, or the 7.4 million subscribers. The entire Emi Wong empire started because her company wouldn’t give her a raise.

“All I wanted was like $2,000 to $3,000 Hong Kong dollars,” she laughs. “That’s maybe $500 Singaporean dollars. They couldn’t give it to me, and that’s the only reason I started YouTube. Because I heard that filming YouTube videos, you can earn a few thousand Hong Kong dollars a month.”

At the time, Emi had spent five years in an office job after graduating from the University of Hong Kong with a degree in global business. She had recently gotten into fitness and was pursuing her personal trainer licence on the side, but couldn’t figure out how to juggle both with a full-time job. And at that point, YouTube felt like the easiest solution, despite her not knowing what she was getting herself into.

“I used to not work out at all,” she admits. “I used to only party and drink and did not care.”

And yet, somehow, here we are.

The living room that launched a global movement

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What made Emi’s content so easy to love, especially during COVID, was how simple it all was. No gym, no equipment, no fancy setup. Just her, a camera and whatever natural light was coming through her apartment window. “Even a few weeks ago, I did a dance workout, and it was still just me, my little camera, trying to see if I’m in frame,” she says. “I don’t set up lights. It’s super casual.”

For women in Singapore living in HDB flats or condos, that kind of accessibility was everything. You didn’t need a gym membership or a big space. You just needed to press play. 

But what makes Emi’s story even more interesting is that there was never a master plan behind any of it. “When people ask me about the business strategy behind my channel, there was never a strategy or plan,” she says. “I started with home workouts because that’s what I was doing myself. That’s what I shared.”

Staying real

So what keeps 7.4 million people coming back? According to Emi, it’s simpler than you’d think. “To have a sustainable social media presence, it’s really just about being yourself,” she says. “If you have to put on a front or a massive performance, it’s exhausting.”

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That honesty extends to the parts of her life that aren’t so picture-perfect, too. Emi has been open about going through a very public breakup from a 10-year-relationship in 2023, her struggle with depression, and her life now in Bali as she figures out her next chapter. And if you’ve been following her, you’d probably already noticed that her channel has shifted and changed alongside all of it. In fact, she’s transitioned from posting home workout videos to sharing more vlogs, dance workouts and yoga flows.

“My channel is my life,” she says. And somehow, that’s exactly what makes it work.

Having been featured in Forbes 30 Under 30 Asia, as well as in Cosmopolitan and Marie Claire, many might think that these milestones would feel monumental. But for Emi, it’s all just noise. “Sometimes I forget that I’m a YouTuber,” she says. “I’m just going through life like anyone else – heartbreaks, finding joy, finding peace.”

Movement as medicine

But what might have been the most quietly powerful part of our conversation was when Emi talked about what fitness really means to her now. And to my surprise, it has nothing to do with abs or the number on a scale.

“Even going through my depression, my dance, my movement really connected me to the power within me again,” she shares. “Within that one hour, it reminds you of how powerful you are.” She even got her parents, now in their 70s, moving regularly. That’s how much she believes in it.

It’s a far cry from where she started. “When I first got into fitness, it was more about getting abs and a slimmer waist,” she admits. “But I had to go through that journey myself. Now, if I have a belly, I have a belly. To me, it’s more about movement.”

For anyone in Singapore who has ever used “no time” or “no space” as a reason not to work out, Emi’s take is refreshingly gentle. “I don’t think of it as excuses anymore,” she says. “We all go through different phases. I wouldn’t want anyone to tie their worth to how active they are.”

What’s next for her

Ironically, it was the Glow Festival by Prudential event that gave Emi a new idea for her next chapter. Teaching a workout class here reminded her of something she has been quietly falling in love with, which was dance. “I want to do dance workouts where the whole 45 minutes we just dance to the beats,” she says. “But to do that, I need to get better at dance first. That’s my aspiration.”