Joe Schmit switched gears after spending 28 years in the broadcast industry. He left KSTP-TV last July and joined Petters Media Group, part of Minnetonka-based Petters Group Worldwide. Petters Group is an investor in and manager of dozens of companies, including YFly, a social network for Gen-Yers; uBid.com, Inc., an online auction site; Fingerhut, and Sun Country Airlines.
“When I changed careers, it was
for a combination of factors. My contract at KSTP was coming up, and Tom
[Petters] had been trying to talk me into joining the company for 18 months. It
was also a priority-setting thing for me—I wanted more control of my schedule.
Being in the news means working nights, weekends, and holidays, so if your son
has a hockey game or your daughter has a softball game, you can’t always be
there.
“I’ve learned that the pace of progress is different in the business world. In TV, we had five or six deadlines a day. The business world isn’t as fast, but you still work as hard. In business, you go through the process of examining things, looking at your tactics and strategies, and then acting. I was worried that leaving the exciting world of TV and going into the business world would be kind of boring—it isn’t. And I learned that what you learned as a kid—your work ethic, the way you look at problems—is how you operate as an adult. The other thing I learned about myself is that thinking can be exhausting.”
