Money Talks: Spark CEO Jolie Hodson on finding a work-life balance

Spark CEO Jolie Hodson. 24 August 2022 New Zealand Herald photograph by Dean Purcell.

Spark chief executive Jolie Hodson might be one of the highest-paid people in the country but her attitude to money is very down-to-earth.

In fact, her first memories of money take her back to a jar of coins her grandfather kept in his garage and the joy of earning a few for helping him collect seaweed from the beach for his garden.

“At the end of that little trip, you got to pick a couple of coins out and could go down to the local shop,” she says, talking on the Money Talks podcast.

“And it’s sort of one memory that sticks with me about money in terms of that visual connection of saving it into that jar.”

Thinking about money now, Hodson reflects on how her own children have so little connection to physical cash in the modern world of e-commerce.

Broadly though, the rules of money have stayed the same.

“Clearly it provides opportunities to think about things and get involved in things that perhaps you wouldn’t if you didn’t [have it].”

“What I mean by that is the ability to invest in some things that maybe I wouldn’t have been able to, and that exposes you to new ways of thinking.”

“And in my life, the ability to travel because of what I do.”

But while a big corporate job can pay well it can mean time - and especially time with the family - becomes the most valuable commodity.

“Everyone works hard and I think trying to find those balances,” Hodson says.

“How do you actually create experiences on the way. You don’t want to get to the end of life and think: I spent a lot of time working, what actually happened around that?”

“I think about my children, my parents, they’re only with you for a period of time. So how do you actually make sure you make the most of the experience of travelling? Something that we like to do as a family as part of that.”

Beyond the travel with family, money and her senior corporate role have afforded Hodson some opportunity to get involved in charity work that she might not have otherwise.

“The giving back part is also important to me. I’ve had people that really helped me in my career. And so things like OnBeingBold, where we come together to really help women in business, that is one of those areas. But also through our [Spark] foundation, as that digital equity side is really important to me as well.”

Access to the internet is now so crucial to people’s financial well-being and there has been a lot of focus at Spark around how to help support that, she says.

Spark’s not-for-profit has gone from helping 500 households to 28,000 households achieve internet connectivity in the past three years.

Ultimately Hodson describes wealth and financial success as an outcome of what she does, rather than a goal in itself.

“It’s the ability to be able to create change, to be able to have an influence on what’s happening, to build great teams,” she says.

“The curiosity to keep learning and being able to make a difference in what you’re doing is what really drives me. And clearly, there’s a reward for that. But it is more the outcome than it is the driver.”

“I think it’s about trying to find the balance and accepting that some days you get it right. Some days you don’t,” Hodson says.

“You can spend a lot of time worrying about that. I certainly did earlier in my career. Now I’m more comfortable with the fact that you can only do your best on a given day. That’s all you can ask of yourself.”

Money Talks is a podcast run by the NZ Herald. It isn’t about personal finance and isn’t about economics - it’s just well-known New Zealanders talking about money and sharing some stories about the impact it’s had on their lives and how it has shaped them.

Money Talks is available on IHeartRadio, Spotify, Apple Podcasts, or wherever you get your podcasts.