Beilue: This time, thinking inside the box

A ‘people pleaser,’ former anchorwoman found her new role

For the longest time, Lisa Schmidt saw herself as a broadcast journalist, and for the longest time, she was.

Sharpened by a degree from West Texas A&M University in mass communications with an emphasis in broadcast, Schmidt spent almost 20 years at KVII in Amarillo as prime time anchor, morning host, reporter, producer, even a little sales – though not all at the same time.

A little of Dr. Leigh Browning went a long way. A lot of Leigh Browning went even further. The legendary WT mass communication professor drove her students to be better than they thought they could be.

“Leigh Browning put a focus in me,” Schmidt said. “She was also hard to please. You could never please that woman, and it drove me to do the absolute best I could. She pulled it out of you. But it’s what prepared me for the business.”

The hours for a morning anchor may suit a vampire, but not a wife and mother of two children — Miller, 10, and Leah, 7. She left a sleeping husband Nick Johnson at their Canyon home to drive to Amarillo as early as 2:30 a.m. five days a week, worked a 2 ½-hour show, drove home to help get kids ready for school, returned to Amarillo, worked until noon and remained tired the rest of the day and did it all over again.

The schedule, and the volatility that often permeates a TV station, convinced Schmidt there had to be a better way.

“I needed more time with my family,” she said. “It was very grueling.”

Schmidt left KVII nearly 15 months ago, in February 2020.  It’s one thing to leave a job, and another to find something else to fill the time and provide some family income. She did in kind of a happenstance way late last summer.

All The Things By Lisa is a monthly subscription box service for women that’s a complete departure from what had been her career, but not a departure from who the former anchorwoman is.

Schmidt and other family member spent much of 2020 in Wichita Falls where Noel Johnson, Schmidt’s sister-in-law and women’s basketball coach at Midwestern University, battled cancer. A friend of Noel’s told her about a subscription box service she had. Intrigued, Schmidt wanted to learn more. The more she learned, the more she liked.

“I thought this was some big corporate thing,” Schmidt said. “But after a while, I thought, ‘My gosh, this is something I can do.’”

Since September, she has provided monthly gift boxes to clients that are about 75 percent from the Texas Panhandle, but also from the Houston and Dallas area, New Mexico, Oklahoma and even one from Illinois.

“I’ve always been attracted to people who are creative and think outside the box,” she said. “I’m following that role. I like different. Different is good to me.”

Schmidt didn’t so much think outside the box as inside the box. She provides at least four items monthly. At least one of the items is personalized, be it a shirt, tote bag, tumbler. With that also can be jewelry and pampering/relaxing trinkets. It’s all a surprise with only a teaser photo and a theme of the month – “The Journey” is for May – as a hint.

For the gift boxes for May, Schmidt used the creative talents of WT student Amaris Contreras.

Contreras, a junior major of music education and flute performance, began her own business of creating polymer clay earrings about the time Schmidt began hers. She got good enough quickly enough through YouTube videos and Pinterest to turn a hobby into a business – Uniquely Shaped by Amaris.

Hoping to pay for school and other expenses, Contreras advertised her new business on a Canyon community Facebook page. Schmidt saw that, reached out to Contreras in February, and soon had ordered 90 stud packs for the May box. Fitting that around school and the WT symphonic band, Contreras took about three weeks to complete the order.

“For the most part, as a music major, I had to get away from music every once in a while,” said Contreras, who is from Alice, 45 miles west of Corpus Christi. “If I don’t have homework, I’m practicing. It’s important to have hobbies outside music. This is my ‘go-to’ escape. I hope it helps me with the cost of college too. I don’t like to ask money from my mom.”

For Schmidt, the act of giving and creating and the women her business serves is an extension of herself. At KVII, she was the one with the party ideas, the one with the birthday cake suggestions or the farewell gifts.

“I’ve always been creative and like to do fun things,” she said. “I like surprises. I like gift boxes. I believe I’m a great gift-giver. I’ll just put it out there – people love my gifts.”

All The Things By Lisa is designed to be a monthly pick-me-up, a gift box for busy women to let them know they are valued and important.

“It’s for women just like me, women who are trying to do all the things for everyone in their life,” she said. “It’s for the stay-at-home mom, the working mom. It’s for the women who run their kids to doctor’s appointments, to school, who do so many things for others. This is something done for them.”

Being solely responsible for a business can be a great teacher on so many levels. No offense to what she learned at WT, it has become clear to Schmidt what she’s discovered.

“I should have done this 20 years ago,” she said. “I worked so long for someone else’s dream. I really gave a lot to the TV world. Looking back on it, I went above and beyond so many times. It seemed like I lived up there and really did work hard.

“What if I had done all that hard work for myself and owned my own business all this time, where would I be? I’m a people pleaser and like to make people happy. It’s a good fit for me.”

Do you know of a student, faculty member, project, an alumnus or any other story idea for “WT: The Heart and Soul of the Texas Panhandle?” If so, email Jon Mark Beilue at jbeilue@wtamu.edu.