Meet the President

The dream was simple; move to Charlotte armed with an electrical engineering degree and find a nice comfortable career building circuits. Though he played with the idea of running his own company, it wasn't until the negative turn of the American economy that forced Shelton D. Lewis into a position where he would have to make ends meet. Jan 2006, Shelton along with his business partner DJuana Fitzpatrick joined forces and began working on building an empire. They named it Modern Age Media, LLC.

A Rochester, New York native, Shelton moved to Charlotte, NC immediately after graduating from University of Buffalo. Like most college graduates, he thought the mere fact he had a degree would serve as his sure pass into the engineering world. "I was in Charlotte working at Fed Ex thinking 'whats really going on?' I had to change my situation and change it fast!" As the third son of five children, Shelton came from two who preached the importance of education. The only thing he thought was wise was extend his educational resume. In 2008, he now had a MBA and was positive that he would be great working material. Yet to his disappointment, with the combination of layoffs and high unemployment rates, the chances of landing a great engineering job became dim.

Meanwhile, he and his business partner slowly toyed with the idea of starting a multimedia company to help feed their secret desires to entertain. "I remember DJuana showing me an article in a magazine about podcasting, and making money from that. She said, we can start a multi-media company that would sponsor a podcast her and I could host. Sound like a great idea. She was telling me about charging for ads and things like that. Honestly, it did sound very good." As the two completed the business plan they decided to add different aspects to the company such as graphic design, video production, and audio production. Slowly, without any real direction the two started doing their podcast and generating a small amount of business.

"At the time she and I were doing phone tech support for a company and we weren't really into pushing Modern Age Media full time. It was sort of our hobby." That soon changed the day the two got fired ... together. It was at that time they decided that Modern Age Media could no longer be "just for fun". It turned into their only income.

"We struggled, and we struggled bad. It wasn't that we weren't making money, we just had no clue how spend it. The company wasn't growing because as soon as we made ten dollars we spent nine. We had no clue what we were doing." For the next year, the two barely made ends meet but continued to run the company. It wasn't until mid 2009, the two finally woke up with a plan. "I had to become a leader," Shelton explain. "I couldn't go another day just getting by. It was time to run Modern Age Media the right way".

Since that day, Shelton has worked tirelessly to change the face of Modern Age Media. New programs have been implements and new policies set. Since the change, the company has seen growth as well as small successes. "Organization is key. I also find it very important to appreciate our current client base".

"If its one thing I would like to say its, thank you Lord. Everything my business partner and I have been through has bought us to this point today. My advice not only in business but in life is to keep God first."

Want more information on Shelton Lewis, President of Modern Age Media email him at shelton.lewis@yesmam.net.