Welcome to My Net Worth, our regular column on the lives and motivations of our country’s top business, legal and political people in their own words.

Julie Christie is one of New Zealand’s best-known media executives. She studied journalism at Wellington Polytechnic and worked for a decade as a subeditor, but found her way into television after the newspaper she was working for closed and she lost her job. In 1991, she set up her own company, Touchdown Productions, and went on to create a string of hit documentaries, quiz programmes, and reality-TV shows. Her productions, including Changing Rooms and The Chair, were sold around the world. After selling Touchdown in 2006 to Dutch group Eyeworks, she spent several years in non-executive roles, including spells on the board of MediaWorks and on the organising committee of the 2011 Rugby World Cup. She was made a Dame in 2017 for her services to broadcasting, and she returned to the TV this year after acquiring Dunedin-based natural history documentary maker NHNZ Worldwide.  

I grew up in Greymouth, the fifth of seven children. My father died when I was five. I had a loving family and a strong mother with a great work ethic, but one thing’s for sure, there was not a penny to spare. You could definitely say we were poor, and when I was 17, I left home.

My journey into the media was accidental. I wasn’t a kid who loved school. I wanted to leave in the sixth form. I applied for teachers’ college, which was three years, a two-year graphic design course, and journalism, which was one year. I tried to cover all bases. I got into all three but chose journalism as I didn’t want to be a poor student for long.

A big accident in my career happened in 1988. The Auckland Sun, a tabloid I worked for, lasted only 333 days after its launch. I was made redundant and couldn’t find a job at another newspaper, so I ended up in TV. I then started working for production company Communicado with TV legend Neil Roberts. After about two and a half years, I realised that I was bringing in a lot of the work. I was only getting $45,000 and asked for more money. I didn't get it. I spat my dummy and started Touchdown.

The biggest show I ever sold overseas was The Chair, in 2002. We would always celebrate our successes and would have champagne and sausage rolls when we got great ratings. Now, most people don’t have the time to celebrate, and TV has become so much harder.

A pivotal moment in my career came in 1996 when TVNZ took my shows off me and brought them in-house. I realised that the thing to do was to own my own intellectual property. It turned out to be the right move. When I sold Touchdown later on, I got good offers because I owned so much IP.

The 2006 Dragons' Den team: Bob Jones, Barry Colman, Paul Webb, Julie Christie, Annette Presley. 

The biggest influences on my career include Peter Pace of the Sun and the Auckland Sun and Neil Roberts at Communicado. Other people, such as rugby league legend Graham Lowe, have also influenced how I do business.

I’m not someone who likes to look back on things. But one of my biggest business regrets was retiring too early. That’s why I came back to TV with NHNZ.

I have learnt more from my failures than my successes. TV took probably too much of my time when my children were young, but I hope I have made up for that now. They say I have.

I was on the government-appointed flag consideration panel in the lead-up to the 2016 referendum. I regret that we didn’t take the chance to come out from under the shadow of Australia and our lookalike flags at a time when our light was shining so much brighter than theirs on the international stage. We should have taken our chance and embraced the silver fern for all the world to see.

I’m very passionate about the need for New Zealand to be more patriotic. I like to take on governance roles that promote New Zealand. We’re way too humble as a nation, and we need to put ourselves out there. When you go out into the international market, you need self-confidence, and we need to build more of that as a nation.

Friends and colleagues would describe me as loyal and tenacious. I don’t give up easily, and if I’m passionate about something, I tend to stick to it.

I walk relentlessly, whether I’m in Auckland or down in Dunedin. I listen to podcasts and love Business Wars, as well as some New Zealand true-crime podcasts. 

I’m not a big jewellery person, and I’ve been through my flash-car stage. I drive a Lexus Hybrid now. I’ve decluttered my life.

The last thing I splurged on was probably the same item as everyone else in lockdown – an air fryer. I’ve never been a big online shopper and don’t tend to splurge now. I made a big investment in NHNZ, and that has occupied most of my time in the past year.

As told to Daniel Dunkley.
This interview has been edited for clarity.