Today we’d like to introduce you to George Schmid

Hi George, thanks for sharing your story with us. To start, maybe you can tell our readers some of your backstory.

After growing up in a remote area in New Jersey as the younger brother of two successful and semi famous older sisters (one a repetitive World Champion in Quarter Horses, the other a top ten Model Worldwide), I realized that I wanted to be in the Entertainment business.

By the time I turned 23 years old, I was already running the third largest night club in the USA and putting on musical and variety acts and concerts weekly.

Then I invented the “Tube-N-It” Sports Tube, the first commercial tube to be towed behind speed boats and everything moved into a very high gear.

I also held some top executive positions in the corporate world and made a name for myself in that arena.

After taking a look at my life about ten years ago, I realized that my work in Entertainment, especially Music, was what really drove my passions and I focus mostly on that today.

Alright, so let’s dig a little deeper into the story – has it been an easy path overall and if not, what were the challenges you’ve had to overcome?

Not really. After Tube-N-It became a worldwide hit, I had a wealthy family member ask to invest and then stole the entire company and products (I invented a few others by then).

It tore our family up over his incredible greed and my Mom and I sued him.

We were in court for 7 years and I was living off of credit cards and help from friends.

That’s how I got involved with large corporations and was able to fight my way to the top.

We also Managed and invested in (my opinion) the best Pop/Rock group on the planet called Vesica Pisces with Kelly Fitzgerald on lead vocals/guitar and the amazing Brian Pothier on lead guitar/vocals.

They were so good (still are when they get together in Southern California), the industry was blown away.

It resulted with them getting signed to a medium sized record company and after an amazing tour, the label put them on the shelf……for no reason. Meaning they could not play under the band’s name, or even individually.

We were all devasted (especially them) and we saw our thousands of hours and thousands of dollars, go up in smoke. We came close to going bankrupt after that.

Thanks for sharing that. So, maybe next you can tell us a bit more about your work?

Having so many great opportunities where some thrived and others crashed, I realized that multiple sources of revenue that were sometimes unrelated was the way to go.

So, I worked hard and advanced in the corporate world, kept on inventing (The Card Tree, which held 72 greeting cards in the shape of a Christmas tree. We contracted with American Greetings to handle the product in the USA), kept working with bands and other artists through our company “Progressive Artist Management” (we are Cat Thompson’s, “out of Australia” personal managers and just secured her first record deal in Korea), and have invested in the up and coming Nozzleman Pizza restaurants, which devotes a % of sales to Firefighters and has a celebrity network backing the efforts and are also stockholders in the top celebrity talk show, Sidewalks TV, now available on Roku, Fire TV, Google, Apple TV and other platforms.

What am I most proud of? My family and friends.

What sets me apart? Honesty with others, creativity and one heck of a work drive!

Are there any important lessons you’ve learned that you can share with us?

You can’t always realize the outcome on life, projects, or dreams that you want. Not that you should settle, but be aware of the various forces that shape anything.

Do your best and encourage those around you to do the same.

Contact Info:

• Website: www.progressiveartistmanagement.com www.sidewalkstv.com www.nozzlemanpizza.com