HERBusiness, HERStories

The Entrepreneur Series – Yuki Wong, COO, Mermaid Federation International (MFI)

Who is she?

A natural beauty underwater, she is spectacular, stunning and charismatic. Only being in water, Yuki can express her feelings and emotions.
Ocean is her home, where she performs, dances and chases for her dream. Yuki is the Chief Operating Officer of Mermaid Federation International (MFI). Yuki is a mermaid and a professional underwater performer, that spends all her entire life trying to inspire people around her community.
You can also call her as an Ocean Advocate who wishes to influence everyone to love and conserve more for our beautiful Ocean.  
 

“Let’s go plastic free! No more straws, evermore!” is one of the sentences that Yuki says the most. She is a well-educated individual in studying United Nation’s goals, from MDGs to SDGs, graduated from Master of Science. Also has been invited to do numerous MDG/ SDG trainings in the past few years.

She engages herself mainly in two main fields: women empowerment and environmental protection. For her, Mermaids, are aquatic creatures with the upper body of a human and tail of fish. We are the bridge between ocean and human, as an Ocean Ambassador to raise awareness in ocean conversation. As well to promote woman’s independence and pursuit of self-awareness. 

 

Her role at Mermaid Federation International (MFI)

Yuki manages and oversee all daily operational matters of Mermaid Federation International, including but not limited to Admin, Finance, Marketing, Overseas Business Development and Customer Relations. 

 

What made you decide to start Mermaid Federation International (MFI)?  

“MFI was founded by a group of enthusiastic aqua-lovers in 2015, we are the first organisation writing for professional underwater
mermaid courses, with levelled structure. We hope that Mermaiding will be treated and seen as “A Sport” but not any other speciality deviated from others and to be widely known and recognised by public. Transforming the Sport of Mermaidingis just “Swimming like a Mermaid” as a leisure sport 
but a professional tier for other career developments. 
 
We are a group of like minded people who jumped out of the box and comfort zone, hoping to create a sustainable underwater performance industry for all, from a leisure sport, professional underwater performer, professional instructors, underwater photographers, safety teams and managing a school.”

 

What’s a typical morning at work? 

“I would take 5-10 mins to review what are the tasks need to be done for the day and write down a 
checklist according to its urgency and priority. Then have a decent breakfast with a good coffee 
and kick start my day.”

 

What are some of the challenges of the job?

“The biggest challenge as being the COO of MFI is that our mermaid schools and instructors are from all around the world,
where they all have different cultural background and language barriers. As the COO, I am responsible in taking care of each
school and instructor’s development path and relationship management, where in order to make effective communications,
I often need to switch around with different accents and communication channels, which takes quite a lot of time and effort.
For example, during COVID19, we cannot meet physically, and I had to communicate with our instructors via different apps, like 

WhatsApp, WeChat, Kaokao Talk, Line, etc. 

 

What were some of the life lessons which you have learned along the way in your career?

“Never say never because you never know what will be coming forth. Be open minded to 

challenges and hiccups, because they are all there to train us up and better prepare ourselves.”

 

Best advice someone has given you in life?  

“Treat the people surrounding you and yourself well, be thankful of what you have now.” 

 

As an entrepreneur yourself, what motivates you personally? 

“Seeing others grow and advanced.”

 

Do you ever face biasness in your work and position because of your gender?

“Well, actually usually male are the ones who are biased in our industry as the stereotype of a 
mermaid is often a female. So I would say we are trying very much to foster true gender equality, 
where we nurture both genders to be themselves underwater.”

 

If I were not an Entrepreneur, I would be a..?

“Working for my family business.“

 

Any inspirational quote for all the women in business & leadership out there?

“Initiative is doing the right thing without being told. Trust yourself, trust your gut feeling and go give it a try!“

 


Check out Mermaid Federation International here. 

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