Roxy Jacenko is one of the busiest women in Australia, with four businesses under her direction, two kids and a social media presence that requires constant updates.
So you could understand if she missed the odd email or two – or even if she had a limited response policy.
In fact, as the Sweaty PR founder told Mamamia’s Lady Startup podcast, she does the exact opposite: she replies to every single email she receives.
“You respond whenever you get an opportunity to respond, you have an open door policy for everything and everyone,” she told host Rachel Corbett.
Why? Well, it’s simple really.
“Everyone you meet, everyone you talk to is potentially going to be of benefit to you in the growth of your business and the growth of your career.”
The 38-year-old said a reputation for quick response was also great for “brand awareness”, as she can attest to.
“If you were to ask 20 people who Sweaty Betty PR is, at least eight of them would know. You can’t say that about that many PR companies. Why? Because I’m quick, I’m fast, I never let an opportunity pass my way.”
The Ministry of Talent founder said that in one of her earliest jobs, at fashion company Diesel, she decided that she was going to be the person who responded to an email in 30 seconds. And although that may not quite be the timeframe she keeps to now, she still replies to everyone, no matter who they are.
“You know how many interviews I do for uni students? Do I want to really do it? No, I don’t. Do I have time to answer 25 long-winded questions? No. But if you don’t have an open door policy, I think it’s a big mistake.”
When asked how she finds time to reply to the dozens (if not hundreds) of emails she receives daily, she said she has a “good team to back and support” her.
‘I had a nervous breakdown’
However, Roxy Jacenko admitted there was a time in her life where she spread herself too thin and ended up having a “nervous breakdown”.
It will come as a surprise to no one who’s followed the savvy businesswoman’s personal life that this came around the time her husband Oliver Curtis was in jail for insider trading and she had been undergoing treatment for breast cancer.
“That was a culmination. I got cancer, my husband went to jail, I got caught doing what I shouldn’t be doing and things toppled down. And obviously I had at that time three businesses and I was like ‘oh my God, what the hell’.
But the mum-of-two said she thought it was these events and not her workload that caused the breakdown.
“I think that if I hadn’t have had the issues of cancer and my husband going to jail I wouldn’t have been in that position where I had a nervous breakdown. I just wouldn’t have, I don’t think. I think it was those events that got to me.”
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