Chloe Sue is a content creator, working as a food and fashion blogger, as well as the marketing manager for Regent Place Shopping Centre.
Learn how the most successful leaders, artists, founders, executives, writers and athletes structure and manage their days. Sign up and stay up to date!
1) To kick things off, could you tell us a little about your career background and current role?
I am first and foremost a content creator, and by the term ‘content creator’ I am a food and fashion blogger. I am a freelance photographer and I also model. I am often described as a social media influencer.
Typically I am engaged to help brands grow their social media following with content, whether for a restaurant, product, or a fashion brand
I also support small business as a social media management manager. To give you an example I do consulting work for Regent Place Shopping Centre as their marketing manager. My role is to help the businesses with marketing strategies and social campaigns, as well as to maximise the awareness and exposure of the tenants at the venue.
Regent Place is a good combination of my passions which include food and fashion. You can see some of my work and brand collaborations: food account and fashion account.
So I am constantly juggling the different projects I work on and of course looking to try and balance all of these different activities.
2) What does a day in the life look like for you? Can you take us through a recent workday?
Most days I would wake up around 7 am and get ready to meet with potential clients in the morning for coffee catch-ups.
From 10:30 am I am at Regent Place pulling together CNY social media campaigns and also PR and marketing campaigns for the tenants. I tend to have lunch around 2 pm.
In the afternoon I would upload all social content on Instagram and Facebook pages for all my portfolio of clients. I would arrange bookings for my client’s restaurants and online services.
I try and squeeze in meetings with PR agencies and brands to discuss upcoming collaboration opportunities and where I could add value.
After work, I tend to go out for dinner at around 6 pm. Then either attend a brand event or If it is a quiet evening I will try and squeeze in a workout in. I love golf, rock climbing, and yoga.
3) Does your current role allow for flexible or remote working? If so, how does that fit into your life and routine?
Yes. My consulting work with regent place allows me to manage my schedule and work remotely. Of course, I love this as it allows me some freedom in managing my project pipeline.
For example, I can allocate my time based on what activities I have planned during the week. This allows me to fit in a shoot for a fashion brand or attend an event as an influencer. I can also shoot for my other clients on my spare days of the week.
The flexibility of my working time is what I love the most with my consulting work.
4) What does work-life balance mean to you and how do you work to achieve that goal?
The most important work-life balance to me is, being able to ‘balance’ all my different clients and while also my food blogging and being a model and influencer.
It is very important for me to keep fit and allow enough time to recharge. It is also very important to me to spend time with friends and family. Therefore I love to share my food blogging/experiences with my close friends or those lucky enough to be invited out to accompany me for a food shoot.
As you can imagine food can be fashionable but if I was to get too ‘fat’ I would suggest my fashion work projects would dry up.
I love outdoor activities: golf, rock climbing, badminton, basketball are my favorites, but I am also willing to try new sports and activities as well.
They say if you love what you do, you will never work a day in your life. I’m proud to say I love what I’m doing so much, and my work is merged into my life organically.
Like every career, there are some frustrating times when I need to deliver content on a hard deadline and I am given zero time from the brand or PR agency.
I will of course endeavor to make the best efforts to deliver and pull out all stops to make it happen. I am lucky that I work with many talented people and we deliver exceptional results.
After a successful project, a nice celebration is in order. Followed by a nice rest. It’s very important to recharge and refocus.
5) In the past 12 months, have you started or stopped any routines or habits to change your life?
Yes, sadly I canceled my gym membership card for about 1 year now since COVID-19 happened. Initially, I was a little reluctant to stop this routine. I then decided to switch to outdoor activities so much because it felt like a better way to work out and also it felt like the ‘healthier’ option in a covid environment.
6) Do you have any favorite books, podcasts or newsletters that you’d like to recommend?
One of my New Year’s resolutions is to read more. I am originally from China and Dream of the Red Chamber is one of my favorites.
The Little Prince is one of my favourite books as well. The message is inspiring.
No matter how old I am and what I have experienced, you can always be young at heart and curious about the world. A lot of important things you can’t see with your eyes, you need to feel with your heart.
7) Are there any products, gadgets or apps that you can’t live without?
Camera, Instagram, Lightroom, Vsco. The first two I can’t live without. The second two apps are tools for me to edit my photos.
8) If you could read an interview about work-life balance by anyone, who would that be?
The mayor.
9) Do you have any last thoughts on work, life or balance that you’d like to share with our readers?
Life is all about balance, and balance is all about choices. You make your own choices to do things. I guess to be sure who you are and what you want and lots of choices are easy to make!
Before you go…
If you’d like to sponsor or advertise with Balance the Grind, let’s talk here.
Join our community and never miss a conversation about work, life & balance – subscribe to our newsletter.
