I've owned and operated New Concept Media in Cornelius and now Huntersville, North Carolina, since 2010. A native of Syracuse, I spent my first 24 years in Central New York before relocating to Charlotte in 2008 about a year after earning a Bachelor of Arts degree in English from SUNY Oswego. I arrived in North Carolina to work in racing, and that's about all I knew. I remember having a sense that my career could go in any number of directions. Never much of a mechanic, I gravitated to the marketing and public relations side of the racing industry.
"I was both nervous and excited when first driving around Charlotte and Mooresville. Compared to where I came from, things were booming and people were moving here left and right from around the country. I realized the area had loads of opportunity. I wanted to create something that I owned and managed; I just wasn't exactly sure what that was."
I spent about a year working with a motorsports PR firm, mainly writing and emailing press releases, writing web copy, and helping design marketing proposals. A close family friend was running the World Karting Association (WKA), and in 2009 I utilized that connection to get a full-time job with the organization. At the time, WKA was the leading sanctioning body for kart racing (karting) in the country.
I started in membership services. That soon led to a number of other duties, including press releases, email newsletters, event promotion, and eventually social media. It was around the time when Facebook was beginning to take off, and social media marketing was a new phenomenon.
WKA had a full-time creative director who maintained the company's website and online magazine. While managing the site wasn't one of my responsibilities, it intrigued me, and I convinced my co-worker to teach me how to edit the html so I could help make updates when he was off. Looking back, that was the first time I ever worked on a website.
I wasn't getting paid a ton, and with my manager's blessing, I was able to pick up some contract work with other businesses in the motorsports industry. I'd write articles and press releases for a few different teams and drivers, and people kept asking me if I could build them a website. After saying 'no' about a dozen times, I figured it was time I learned the trade. It didn't take long and I had about a half-dozen website and PR clients, and it turned into a nice side-hustle. I got an LLC, and named it New Concept Media. My dad has always been self-employed, and one of his business' was New Concept Design. So that's where the name derived.
When my tenure at WKA ended in 2015, I elevated New Concept Media into a full-time occupation. About a year later I picked up ButlerBuilt Motorsports as a client, and I was soon offered a full-time sales position, in addition to managing the motorsports safety equipment's online store and internet marketing. I took it.
The ButlerBuilt opportunity came along right when I was starting to gain my footing as a full-time entrepreneur. I didn't necessarily need to take the job because I knew I was starting to make it on my own. But it was a good enough opportunity to where I figured I could make a full-time salary and revert New Concept Media back to a side-hustle. This lasted about four years, and overall it was a good experience. I learned a lot, but I also wanted to get back to building my business. It's tough to do that working nights and weekends.
In spring 2020, the time had come. I moved on from ButlerBuilt and was back working as a full-time business owner. Fast forward about five years and New Concept Media continues to grow each year as a reputable, affordable and professional digital marketing agency serving clients in Charlotte and nationwide. We still service many motorsports clients and that remains our niche market. However, we also provide services for a number of clients outside the racing industry, including website design and maintenance, ecommerce, SEO, Local SEO (Google Business Profile services), social media marketing, and print and digital graphic design.
We're not only motorsports. New Concept Media is really tailored for any type small business — we have clients in probably 15 or 20 different industries. I think our broader target market ranges from start-ups to small business owners who want to expand their reach on the web, or improve what they already have. We can help with that, and make it easy and affordable. The results will show almost immediately after we finish a project.
While I still personally oversee all of New Concept Media’s web-based projects — and I handle most of the work myself from my home office in Huntersville, NC — in recent years I've also built a trusted network of skilled web and SEO professionals. These partners assist with daily tasks like content creation, technical optimization, and design work, allowing NCM to take on more projects without sacrificing quality or personal attention.
Does NCM sound like a solid fit for your business? If so, message me today, and I'll be happy to schedule a free discovery meeting to learn more about your goals on the web!
- Keith Shampine
