“Those small moments that speak to my intuition are like life’s little signals that something glorious awaits, if I’m willing to take an unexpected path.”
- Emily Chang
Emily Chang has spent more than two decades operating at the intersection of global brands, cultural nuance, and human-centered leadership. Her career spans Procter & Gamble, Apple, IHG, Starbucks, McCann Worldgroup, and VML, with leadership roles across North America, China, and APAC. Today, she is the Chief Commercial Officer for CHAGEE North America, shaping the next chapter of a modern teahouse brand rooted in ritual, presence, and community.
Beyond titles and boardrooms, Emily is also a writer, a speaker, and a deeply reflective observer of life in motion. Her bestselling book The Spare Room explores generosity, intuition, and the unexpected richness that comes from opening both physical and emotional space for others.
At Sotiyo, we are drawn to people whose lives are defined not only by where they go, but by how they move through moments, transitions, and choices. Emily’s story feels especially aligned with our idea of Human Flow. Not as speed or ambition, but as intentional movement. A life lived with awareness, grace, and curiosity.
In motion, but never rushed
Emily is in Los Angeles as we speak. Sitting on a cloud couch. White tea in hand. Jet lag slowly fading. Her recent weeks have been a study in contrast: a wedding, family time, Nordic winters, the Northern Lights, Shanghai leadership meetings, and now a long weekend to recalibrate.
What stands out is not the distance covered, but the rhythm she describes. Travel, for her, is deeply relational. Experiences are richer when shared with loved ones. And just as meaningful is what comes after. The quiet return. The permission to nap. To slow down. To enjoy the ordinary texture of daily life again.
With time, she has learned to extend grace. To herself and to others. To recognize that recalibration is not a weakness, but part of moving well through the world.
A daily rhythm built on intention
When Emily talks about movement, she does not start with geography. She starts with time.
Time, in her words, is life’s ultimate resource. Something to be planned, protected, and invested wisely. Each day begins quietly, with meditation. Before the day unfolds, she asks a simple but grounding question: what does success look like when I return here in twelve hours?
The answer might be professional. A milestone launch. A meaningful conversation with a team member. Or deeply personal. An hour of uninterrupted time with her daughter.
This clarity becomes an anchor. Knowing what matters most today allows everything else to find its place. Unexpected issues still arise, but they are met with perspective. Some things can wait. Some can be delegated. Some no longer deserve the urgency they once did.
She emphasizes “today” not because she lacks long-term vision, but because she has one. A longer horizon makes it easier to let a single day be just that. Seven intentional days become a purposeful week. Weeks build into years. Years into a life shaped by conscious investment.
The power of intuition in the in-between
The moments that stay with Emily are not the obvious milestones. They are the moments when she followed intuition.
She is careful to distinguish intuition from emotion. The heart, she says, can be wounded, euphoric, or bitter. Intuition is different. It is the quiet convergence of lived experience, empathy, wisdom, and insight.
One of those moments happened in Rochester, New York. A young girl, huddled in icy rain. Emily followed that inner signal and brought Lia home. Lia was the first of eighteen children Emily and her family would care for through what became known as their “Spare Room”. Each time they listened to intuition, they were rewarded in ways they never could have planned.
Intuition also guided a pivotal career decision. When choosing her next role, Emily received three offers. She accepted the lowest-paying one: CEO of McCann Worldgroup in China. The deciding moment came during the interview, when her future boss spoke about generosity. Emily glanced at her tattoo, 恩典, meaning grace or spirit of generosity, and knew.
That choice led to unexpected abundance. Professionally, creatively, and personally. Small sparks, followed bravely, became defining paths.
Cities as quiet teachers
Emily speaks candidly about choice. Her family chooses to invest in people and experiences rather than things. Much of their resources have gone toward supporting their Spare Room kids as they build stable, thriving lives. Travel, for them, is not consumption. It is education in humility and possibility.
Moving through different cities reinforces a sense of shared humanity. A smile exchanged over coffee. Giving way on a crowded street. These small gestures transcend culture and language.
She loves wandering neighborhoods. Shopping in local grocery stores. Noticing flavors, rhythms, and ways of living. And when nature enters the picture, when landscapes stretch beyond comprehension, it becomes a reminder of how much there is still to learn.
Cities, environments, and journeys do not shout their lessons. They offer them quietly, to those willing to notice.
Shaped by moments of discomfort
Some of the most formative transitions in Emily’s life were not proud ones.
She recalls a moment at Starbucks, when she was CMO of China. A marketing director from Lay’s had requested a meeting. Emily knew the partnership would go nowhere and resented the time. She was dismissive.
Almost immediately after, remorse set in. Who did she think she was? Titles do not grant permission to diminish others. The other woman was simply doing her job, just as Emily would have done in her place.
Emily reached out to apologize. But more importantly, she sat with the discomfort. Those moments of self-awareness, when we do not like what we see reflected back at us, have the power to reshape us. If we let them.
Moving lightly through the world
When it comes to objects, Emily prefers to carry very little. Just her phone. With a Bandolier strap, it keeps her hands free.
There is something symbolic in this choice. Moving lightly allows for touch. For experience. For responding to what appears along the way. Free hands, open posture.
It is a form of physical and mental availability.
Recognizing good design
Emily could talk about design for days. What captivates her most are products and services that reveal a desire she did not yet know she had.
She speaks with affection about driving a BMW M2. The weighted precision of the stick shift. The engine’s confident restraint. Seats that seem to know you rather than simply hold you.
In the digital realm, she admires Google Search for its radical simplicity. Complexity stripped away in service of human need. WeChat, in contrast, impresses her for its prescience. An entire ecosystem designed early on to anticipate how people would live digitally, seamlessly integrated through mini programs and a unified gateway.
Different expressions. Same principle. Deep understanding of human behavior.
Comfort as grounding
Comfort, for Emily, is multisensory.
Scent comes first. Portrait of a Lady travels with her. A small ritual that grounds her wherever she is.
Sleep follows. She brings a small Samsonite foam pillow on her journeys. Familiar texture. Familiar support. A way to feel at home in unfamiliar beds.
And then, tea. White or chamomile in the evening. Easy to pack. Effortless luxury. A pause at the end of the day that signals safety and rest.
Comfort is not excess. It is continuity.
Heightened senses in transit
Travel opens something spiritual for Emily. In new places, curiosity rises and judgment falls away. She approaches people and environments with fewer filters, more openness.
There is a sense of wonder. A willingness to connect. To understand rather than categorize. This unguarded state is one of the reasons she continues to seek movement. It reintroduces her to herself.
Choosing discomfort over autopilot
Emily is clear about one thing: she loves discomfort.
One of her TEDx talks, titled “Killing Chickens”, recounts a 24-hour survival course in the mountains of China. Including, quite literally, catching, killing, and cooking a chicken to eat. She loved every minute.
Knowing this about herself has shaped how she lives and leads. If you thrive on discomfort, you must seek the unfamiliar. A new route to work. A different way of framing a business problem. A survival course. Or reimagining your own home as a shared workspace.
Noticing the long commutes her team faced, Emily calculated nearly one hundred hours of collective drive time each week. The solution was not policy, but creativity. Her West LA home, with its organically grown layout, became an office. Conference rooms, strong Wi-Fi, good tea, and shared presence.
Discomfort, when chosen intentionally, becomes fertile ground.
What comes next
Emily is already looking ahead. Not to a destination on a map, but to a new creative chapter.
She is inspired to write a second book. While The Spare Room helped readers identify the intersection of their offer and offense, this next project will explore creative ways of living together. Sharing space. Finding win-wins. Embracing arrangements that may feel uncomfortable at first, but reveal abundance over time.
Her recent experience hosting a young couple in her home has reinforced this belief. We only have one life. Why not live it with vibrancy and generosity?
Listening to Emily, we are reminded that Human Flow is not about speed or scale. It is about intention. About noticing the signals that appear between places. About carrying lightly, choosing deliberately, and allowing discomfort to teach rather than harden us.
At Sotiyo, we believe movement is not something to optimize away, but something to design for with care. Emily’s way of living offers a quiet blueprint: move with clarity. Invest in people. Let intuition lead. And treat comfort not as indulgence, but as grounding.
Because how you move through the in-between moments is, ultimately, how you shape your life.
If this conversation resonated, you may enjoy other conversations about how people move through life with intention, each exploring their own relationship with Human Flow. For example this conversation with Marco Guadarrama, a Mexican designer who has been living in 5 different continents and his experience leading Multicultural Inclusion at Ikea. And you can subscribe to our newsletter to receive future conversations and essays directly in your inbox.
