Blonde Ambition
Page 18
Roxy had also always been exceptionally good at two things—at selling herself and making money. As had become clear in recent times, there was good money to be made from narcissism. It could be argued Roxy, a quintessential Sydney product, was just cashing in.
By October 2016, her Instagram account @roxyjacenko had 131 000 followers. Based on this figure, Roxy was now more watchable than Pixie, Sweaty Betty and The Ministry of Talent, and her brand, whatever it had become—fashionista, Insta-mum, convictee’s wife, cancer patient—was the best recognised of the four. For a PR professional, this could pose something of a dilemma as she had now eclipsed her own business and the clients she was meant to be promoting.
Her PR rivals believed she had gone too far. ‘PR has never been about the messenger, it has always been about the message,’ said one.
The rest of us are horrified at what she has done. The shamelessness of her becoming bigger than the brands she represents. We don’t want to be tarred with the same brush. She’s a very, very good publicist and she has done a great job publicising herself, but once you step beyond the velvet rope, as she has now done, what mystery do you have left? How can you represent the clients faithfully and prioritise their brand over your own?
Media and marketing publisher Tim Burrowes saw it from a different perspective:
It feels to me that she’s very much on the rise as a social influencer. She has been very close to fashion—what she now does is epitomises the glossy, flashy, slightly transient world around her. It’s a very different and blurry world to [the] one she started out in but I wonder if that hasn’t been her plan for awhile—to distinguish and assert her own brand over Sweaty Betty’s.
On 17 June 2016, some of Roxy’s Sweaty Betty clients and sponsors were out of hiding and on show at Sydney’s Shangri-La Hotel when she presented her seminar ‘In Conversation with … Roxy Jacenko’. The seminar was being held, she said, to address the 20-plus emails and personal messages she received per day asking for PR advice from PR hopefuls, predominantly women. Close to 700 women had paid $180 to hear Roxy talk about her career as a leader in Australian PR and receive a generous goodie bag.
The date was booked months in advance and would happen to arrive on the day of Curtis’s sentencing hearing. A lunch for ticket holders paying a premium ticket price would be cancelled following the seminar due to ‘personal circumstances’. She would head to court instead to be with Curtis.
The promotional board positioned behind Roxy at the talkfest featured the names of the Sweaty Betty affiliates sponsoring the event—Dr Tavakoli cosmetic plastic surgeon, Nader Jewellers, Donut Time, Avon, Dietlicious, Shangri-La Hotel, PopSugar pop culture blog, Daily Press design agency, New Directions aromatherapy and photographer Jason James.
Missing were the sponsors of the inaugural 2015 seminar: Trivett Bespoke Dealers, an automotive agent for Aston Martin, Bentley, McLaren and Rolls Royce; InterContinental Hotel Double Bay; and Brett Whitford, the multi-millionaire boss of a collapsed ‘education firm’ and a failed ecommerce business, and sometime business partner of Roxy’s who had once also had an association with Evan Hansimikali, Roxy’s neighbour in her Double Bay building. In 2015, Hansimikali been listed as a mentor for one of Whitford’s education businesses.
For two hours, Roxy—wearing a playful pink jumper with the motif ‘L’Aveugle Par Amour’, which translated means ‘blinded by love’, and a silver Gucci pleated skirt together priced at $5000—would discuss ‘the tips, tricks and trade secrets to building your brand and integrating social media and PR’. Media was banned from the event due to Roxy’s exposure at Curtis’s trial.
She would declare to her captive audience that she was so hot she could be in Barbados. ‘I’m schvitzing!’ she exclaimed, throwing some Yiddish into her new stage routine. Her work, she said, was about providing for her family: ‘The reality is my job is to provide my family with a nice lifestyle. Ultimately you’ve worked to provide a lifestyle, to provide for their school needs, to make sure they can do their ballet and gymnastics.’
Her PR philosophy reflected Roxy’s life philosophy—be fearless, work hard, be unapologetic and don’t be afraid to fail.
At a 2015 seminar, PopSugar recorded Roxy giving the audience her ‘tips and tricks’ to PR success:
• ‘Work harder than the rest.’ She had done ‘whatever it took to ensure my company was a success. It involved sleepless nights, working seven days a week—and often still does! If you have a passion and drive to succeed, you do whatever it takes.’
• Be tenacious: ‘Tenacity, commitment, ambition, perseverance and creativity—daring to do things differently, do them consistently well.’
• ‘Never stop aiming for perfection.’
• Learn and move on: ‘When I started, everything was a learning curve but that’s okay. I think that’s where you make mistakes, you learn, you move on. But one of the things I didn’t really think too much about initially was the “business” side of things, like legal and accounts. While it may seem tedious, getting that stuff right is important.’
• Learn about the money and legal business contracts of PR before you start: ‘Even though you will figure things out along the way, my advice to anyone starting their own business would be to learn ins and outs of money and legal contracts before starting.’
• Don’t rely on luck: ‘Don’t think that success has anything to do with luck; it’s all based on your commitment and the effort you’re willing to put in.’
• Be original: ‘Don’t try and be like someone else. Play to your own strengths and talents. Trying to emulate someone else’s path to success isn’t going to work for you. Be inspired by successful people you admire but ultimately you need to create your own success story.’
• ‘Failure isn’t an option—if you make mistakes, learn from them and move on.’
• Don’t overthink it: ‘Once I’d made my decision that I wanted to start my own PR company I just knew I had to make it work.’
By October 2016, flush with the proceeds of her successful seminar, Roxy could be seen ripping up the streets of beachside Bondi in an unmissable new McLaren 570GT sports car.
There had been talk, after a year that had left her feeling ‘cursed’, she might give the PR game away. She had told news and entertainment website News.com in 2014 she didn’t want Pixie to follow her into the business: ‘To be frank, I probably wouldn’t want her to go into PR. I fell into the industry when I was 24. Would I do it again? I probably wouldn’t. It’s completely consuming.
‘Let’s hope, unlike me, she studies her schoolbooks and can become a doctor or lawyer. While publicists work extremely hard, it’s a funny industry; it’s cutthroat and people aren’t particularly nice, and I wouldn’t want to subject her to that.’
The future, at 36, was uncertain for Roxy. Her husband’s three-hour insider trading appeal hearing on 19 October in the NSW Court of Criminal Appeal was only ever going to bring him home from jail sooner, not persuade the court of his innocence in the conspiracy.
Curtis had appeared via video link from Cooma jail, giving his attendant parents Nick and Angela Curtis a much-wanted glimpse of their son, who was dressed in green prison garb. Roxy had stayed away from the appeal court and missed his new lawyer, Bret Walker SC, argue that Curtis was convicted on insufficient evidence.
Roxy did not explain to enquiring media her decision not to attend. Neither did she open up about the state of her marriage or her relationship with her in-laws. To attend would merely shift focus from her husband’s case to herself again, and she had come to realise at last that that was in no-one’s interests. She was still learning, still adapting to a world in which white collar criminals, privileged society and the families of colourful underworld identities might all on a splendid summer’s day park their thongs under the same beach umbrella at Bondi—possibly one Roxy had kept as a souvenir from a successful PR campaign.
She had something else to ground her: her children—her �
�best friends’ as she now called them.
‘They’re like the best things about life now,’ she told Letitia Rowlands at Essential Baby in 2014. ‘I’d give the business away for the children. They’re actually the best part of life.’
She had contemplated following her reality TV dreams to Los Angeles—and then scotched the notion. Los Angeles was terribly smoky and she had rather enough smoke here to contend with.
ROXY’S CHARACTER REFERENCE FOR OLIVER CURTIS
Source: Court documents
Picture Section
Roxy Jacenko, in Grade 1 at Kambala Church of England Girls’ School, 1987.
Roxy, 24, drafting some lingerie designs for a Sweaty Betty concept range, August 2004.
Warren Clarke/Newspix
Roxy with some of the young Sweaty Betty staff, showing samples kept at her Beaconsfield office, 2006.
John Fotiadis/Newspix
Roxy’s younger sister Ruby and mother Doreen Davis, both periodically estranged from Roxy, at the Rose Bay Flood Relief dinner on 17 February 2011 in Sydney.
Don Arnold/WireImage
Roxy Jacenko and soccer player Dwight Yorke at Hugo’s Lounge 10th birthday bash in Kings Cross, 25 January 2006.
Noel Kessel/Newspix
Roxy Jacenko and Oliver Curtis watching their baby daughter Pixie Rose Curtis, left, during their marriage at Quay Restaurant, Sydney, March 2012.
Justin Lloyd/Newspix
Roxy Jacenko and Stephanie Rice had a seismic falling out on the set of The Celebrity Apprentice. They are pictured here during a challenge to run a fish and chip shop to raise money for charity at Bondi Beach in Sydney, February 2013.
Justin Lloyd/Newspix
Roxy arrives at work in her white Ferrari, May 2013.
KHAP/Banjo/Splash News
Roxy is interviewed by Alison Rice at the ‘In Conversation With Roxy Jacenko’ event at the InterContinental Hotel in Double Bay on 23 June 2015 in Sydney.
Don Arnold/WireImage
Roxy and Pixie Rose at the Maticevski opening show at Mercedes-Benz Fashion Week in Sydney, 15 May 2016.
Brandon Voight/Splash News
Roxy’s father, clothing manufacturer Nick Jacenko, and designer Lisa Ho, at the Perpetual Loyal Boxing Day Bon Voyage in Sydney, December 2015. He alleged that he was assaulted by Roxy in May 2016.
Dylan Robinson/Newspix
Roxy (in Louis Vuitton laced lambskin dress) and husband Oliver Curtis smile as they enter St James Road Court, Sydney for his insider trading hearing in May 2016.
Peter Kelly/Newspix
Immaculate and showing a united front, Roxy (again in Louis Vuitton) and Curtis return to court for the three-week trial.
Daniel Munoz/Fairfax
After a rare visit in July 2016, Roxy carries personal effects as she leaves Parklea Correctional Centre, where Oliver Curtis was held after being charged with insider trading.
Peter Kelly/Newspix
Walking with her ex-lover, property developer Nabil Gazal, in Sydney’s Potts Point in October 2016 in the days prior to Curtis’s appeal.
Peter Kelly/Newspix