Balancing the Grind with Shardae Mazzeo, Chief of Staff at CreativeCubes.co

Shardae Mazzeo is a HR professional with 15 years of experience in people management and operations. Her experience spans global upscale, luxury hotels to thriving start-ups.

1) To kick things off, could you tell us a little about your career background and current role?

My career background starts from major hotel chains in Las Vegas, with roles centred around customer relationships and operations. I moved to Australia from America in 2016 and was introduced to Tobi and his vision for CreativeCubes.Co.

I helped open our first location in Richmond, and soon after, I graduated in a people and culture role, then spearheaded the people and culture department, moving into the position of Head of People & Culture.

I am currently sitting as Chief of Staff. I help more on the strategic side of people, customer experience, and operations, assisting the business strategy with scaling throughout Melbourne and interstate. 

2) What does a day in your life look like for you? Can you take us through a recent workday?

Every morning I jump on a leadership call at 8:45 am sharp to kick start our day. Communication is vital in our organisation with so many moving parts! We are scaling the business, so my focus can be on many areas.

My day can range from operations meetings, some focused project time, team meetings with different departments, and 1:1s. No matter what my day might take me, it ties back to ensuring everything is tied back to our overall business strategy. No day has ever been the same in over six years! 

3) What does work-life balance mean to you, and how do you work to achieve that goal?

Work-life balance, I believe, is a choice. If you don’t create discipline for yourself to have a balance, then it won’t be done. I try to spend my time wisely and always listen to my body. Making sure I master my hectic schedule and balance my work expectations. This is so important to me because, without a balance and understanding of work and life, you can easily head into burnout. 

4) In the past 12 months, have you started or stopped any routines or habits from changing your life?

Yes, making sure to listen to my body more and be very dialled into my nutritional habits. Building and growing a business depends on how you show up day in and out. It helps me perform at my best. 

5) Do you have any favourite books, podcasts or newsletters that you’d like to recommend?

The Daily Stoic and Huberman Lab! 

6) If you could read an interview about work-life balance by anyone, who would that be?

This is a hard one because I think you can learn from anyone and everyone! Hence why, I love listening to podcasts. 

7) Do you have any last thoughts on work, life or balance that you’d like to share with our readers?

Once you understand that it takes hard work to build a department, business, or team, and you expect it will be hard, it oddly starts to make things much more manageable. You then begin to build habits around the ‘hard’ parts of the job and also learn to enjoy the uphill battle you can face in business.

Such as, if you had a ‘hard day’, you then go on a run or eat a healthy dinner because you just know the habits to put in place to balance it all out. That discipline allows you to operate differently, and also, you can show up better for those around you. 

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