Roxy Jacenko reveals how she plans to survive the coronavirus recession

Sydney’s PR queen Roxy Jacenko is facing an uphill struggle to keep her Sweaty Betty empire operational and profitable during the COVID-19 recession.

As local public relations firms face plunging profits amid the pandemic, Roxy decided to get creative in order to stay afloat.

The 40-year-old is now relying more on her personal brand, which includes her online courses for would-be social media and marketing professionals.

‘I do an online course, which is sort of half a million dollars a year in revenue for me,’ she told The Australian on Monday. 

‘Because of COVID-19, we had to pivot the 700-person seminars and make them online. That has been a really good one for me,’ she added.

Roxy is currently working on her second online course, The Marketing Bootcamp, a five-week program comprising Facebook Live chats and social media and event training.

The new venture comes after Roxy revealed in July that losing ’85 per cent’ of her clients due to COVID-19 had made her reassess her career.

‘It’s been a realisation for me. I hated my job. I didn’t like what I was doing,’ she said on The Kyle and Jackie O Show. 

‘I’m now semi-retired,’ she added, explaining that she wanted to focus on her family during the economic downturn. 

However, Roxy has managed to keep busy by launching a new business with her longtime friend Jessica Ingham last month.

The entrepreneurial pair have created an event brand called XRJ Celebrations, which creates fun and unique table settings and centrepieces for parties.

‘It’s become a very, very profitable business,’ she said of her new company.

The mother of two is also set to star in Channel Seven’s upcoming reality series SAS Australia, which sees celebrities take part in the Special Forces selection program.