About Shane

         It’s 2:00pm on a Tuesday, and Shane Williams strolls into the restaurant.  At 6’2” with shoulder length blond hair and a goatee, dressed in jeans and a loose, casual shirt, Williams could pass for any number of working Joes—a building contractor, a computer technician, or the guy selling you windows at the local hardware store.  But don’t let the look fool you.  He’s every bit as sharp and knowledgeable as the businessmen and women dressed in suits and skirts huddled over their laptops at the tables surrounding us.  And having been born and raised in the area, many of these people he knows.

         “Hey, Shane, man.  How you doing?” asks one of the professionally attired men.

         “If I was any better, it wouldn’t be right,” Williams answers with a warm smile and a handshake.

         It’s this down-to-earth, positive attitude that draws people to Williams and compels them to seek his expertise.  In addition to his own projects, he’s helped over twenty people start businesses.  Schools, companies, and corporations seek him out as an exciting motivational speaker.  If his energy and motivation don’t clinch the deal, his background will.  Williams started his own karate business in 1991 at the age of nineteen and has worked for himself ever since.  “I know business and economics,” he says.  He knows because he has lived it for the past two decades.

         That karate business, Karate International, starting with only seven students taught at a local aerobics studio, grew to two hundred in 1993, to over five hundred students currently with twenty instructors and ten management employees.  Williams, a 9th degree black belt in American Karate, sold his first school in 2002 and has since opened and sold thirteen schools to date, making Karate International one of the largest karate chains in the state.  All the schools use his formulas for marketing, advertising, and teaching.

         Williams compliments his street smarts with a formal education, having received his bachelor’s degree in business administration from High Point University in 2003 and his M.B.A in 2005.

These accomplishments might be enough for someone with less drive and more patience than Williams, but he’s not the type to slow down and rest on his laurels when new challenges loom on the horizon.  So in April of 2006, after helping various acquaintances with their businesses and after a brief stint as a marketing consultant for RJ Reynolds Tobacco Company, Williams teamed up with Ginger Gallagher, a marketing professional, and Michelle Soyars, a creative strategist and branding expert, to create the strategic marketing and advertising firm, MediaFit.  Launched with no customers and a modest amount of capital, the company quickly attracted a solid clientele of local and national businesses and sports athletes, notably many NASCAR drivers looking to establish a brand and garner sponsorship.  Success is in the numbers.  Today MediaFit is a million dollar company.

Williams, the company’s founder and vice president, is also its general manager responsible for attracting new clients and pitching them the firm’s ideas.  The skills he uses to excel at this job are ones developed since childhood. 

     Born in Winston-Salem in 1972, he grew up in a working class family.  His father was a mechanic, his mother a telephone operator, and this upbringing exposed him to the hardships and entertainments of the time and place.  When you sit and talk to him, you get a sense he isn’t only reading you but really listening to what you have to say.  Although this isn’t the type of education he brags about, it clearly has an impact on his ability to identify and manage the needs of his clients. 

At age six, his entry into the martial arts world provided another key experience, laying a foundation for his personal and professional philosophies.  After repeated bullying by a bigger kid, Williams started taking karate lessons.  The school and its instructor emphasized personal toughness.  “They had one firm rule.  No matter how hard you were knocked down, you had to get back up.”  The training proved difficult, but when he confronted the bully with a good front kick, he decided it was worth it.  “I thought, there’s something to this.  I think I’ll stick with it.”  He’s been sticking with it ever since.  Even through the lean years, he got back up and persevered. 

     At one point, while trying to expand his karate school, money was so tight, he ran a student of the week contest for the kids with the prize being dinner with Sensei (teacher).  It ensured him at least one square meal.  “The parents all knew what I was doing,” he says with a chuckle.  “They’d make this big meal and then send me home with a doggie bag of extras.  They were really great.”   As proof that good deeds come back ten-fold, Williams still receives letters and emails from former students thanking him for being a positive influence in their lives.  Many say they owe a part of their success to the values taught in his schools.

     The value of friendship and loyalty rank high on his list of core beliefs as does working for the benefit of children.  Williams still strives to champion youngsters whenever he can.  Much of his karate school’s success comes from the devotion he inspires in children and in their parents.  He even spent a year working with special education kids in the classroom—an experience he calls one of the hardest but most rewarding of his life.  It’s something he’d like to return to one day.

     For the present, Williams enjoys the challenges of being a businessman and entrepreneur.  In addition to Karate International and MediaFit, he owns parts of a martial arts supply company and clothing line.  He also relishes speaking to groups whenever he can, especially to other business people.  When I ask him whether his unconventional look ever causes a problem, he fiddles with his bracelet and laughs.  “People like to prejudge me on the way I look.  I know that.  I not going to lie, I kind of like it.  I like trying to convince people—thwart their misconceptions and prove I know what I’m talking about.” 

     As the founder and VP of MediaFit, a million dollar advertising firm that encourages its clients to dare to be different, you get the feeling Williams really does know what he’s talking about.  Once you meet him, he’s hard to forget.  Americans admire the ability to be an original, a one-of-a-kind individual.  Shane Williams epitomizes this value.  He’s his own unique brand.

Biography written by: Carrie Graves