We were lucky to catch up with Emily Chiang recently and have shared our conversation below.

Hi Emily, thanks for joining us today. Do you think your parents have had a meaningful impact on you and your journey?

My parents were the typical high-expectation Asian parents. A lot of people are surprised when I tell them that my parents were one of my biggest supporters in the beginning and to this day. It wasn’t because they were big advocates for art or entrepreneurship. They were big advocates for my happiness and health. I had a full-time 9-5 job before my art business. However, 2 years in, I was miserable, stressed, and unhappy to the point I was physically sick every other month. It got so bad that my parents were the ones to ask me to quit and take a break. During my break, I took my ‘hobby’ selling hand-made plush keychains on Etsy more seriously. My break time ended up being a one-person factory of creating endless tiny plushies. My parents were happy to support me because I was happy, not stressed, and passionate about this newfound work. They were even there for my first in-person vending event, my first pop-up at Macy’s, and my first wholesale trade show. The biggest thing they did right was focus on me, my happiness, my health, and not my work.

As always, we appreciate you sharing your insights and we’ve got a few more questions for you, but before we get to all of that can you take a minute to introduce yourself and give our readers some of your back background and context?

My name is Emily and I run a small business called Emii Creations where I sell gifts and stationery of my own art and specialize in tiny travel-friendly plush keychains. I started this adventure as a hobby. My nights were filled with hand-sewing 3-4-inch plush food, dog, dragon, and pony keychains. Now, I specialize in my best-selling foodie sushis, boba, bao, and ramen keychains. They’re intentionally made tiny so it’s easy to carry around in your pocket, on your keychain, and on bags of all sizes. It gives people an un-intrusive, soft, sensory-friendly, tiny friend to accompany them through life’s stresses.

In your view, what can society to do to best support artists, creatives and a thriving creative ecosystem?

Honestly, there’s been such an exciting shift in recent years with supporting small businesses. I believe this is the right path forward when it comes to supporting artists and creatives. I do want to remind people that local gift shops are also one of the best ways to support us, creators. Small artists and businesses like myself work very closely with a lot of local gift shops. Their success usually means the success of all the amazing brands they carry. One gift shop can often carry up to 40 different small artist/creative/product brands. Therefore, look around your city or town for a local small gift shop and think about buying your next gift there!

Can you tell us about a time you’ve had to pivot?

One of the scariest times for a lot of businesses was during Covid. I was especially affected because, during that time, I had 90% of my income from selling at in-person markets and conventions. It literally all shut down overnight. However, I had the blessed luck of tapping into selling wholesale to small retailers right before COVID-19. Although the wholesale side of my business was still young, it was able to carry me through some of the toughest months of COVID-19. This was because malls and stores were able to open almost 1 full year before in-person events were approved to start up again. Now, wholesale is almost 50% of my business income and growing. I am super thankful to have pivoted when I did into this new avenue.

Contact Info:

• Website: https://www.emiicreations.com/
• Instagram: https://instagram.com/emiicreations
• Facebook: https://facebook.com/emiicreations
• Twitter: https://twitter.com/emiicreations
• Youtube: https://www.youtube.com/emiicreations
• Other: https://www.tiktok.com/@emiicreations