Today we’d like to introduce you to Daniel Daughtridge.
Hi Daniel, thanks for sharing your story with us. To start, maybe you can tell our readers some of your backstory.
I first got interested in working with music and in studios in my early twenties. I had tried business school and it wasn’t for me. I was living in a house with a couple of friends and working in a restaurant. My friends and I were always really into music, so we decided to buy a Mac G4, which was amazing at that time, Pro Tools and Reason audio software, and decided to build a little home studio at the house. Just like with anything, we didn’t know what we were doing at first, but we learned the basics and started building on that. I started falling in love with the idea of being able to create something that never existed before. Regardless of how good it was, I could say ‘I made that!’.
It was then that I decided that I wanted to learn more than I could teach myself, or at least faster. So, my friend Jason and I packed up and headed to Full Sail University, an audio engineering school in Orlando. Full Sail was a blast. Unlike business school, I was learning about things that interested me and was surround by like-minded people. It was an accelerated school system where we’d have classes around the clock, so I got an Associate Degree in Recording Arts in just over a year.
After graduating, I moved back to Atlanta and pretty quickly got an internship with a really big artist. I was also able to get my friend Jason an internship with them. I remember thinking, ‘wow! This is crazy! We were just fumbling around in our little home studio and now we’re here!’. That being said, if you’ve ever been an intern, you know that it isn’t always very glamorous. But I had a good time and was just happy to be around that type of atmosphere with people that were at the top of their game. I could fill an entire interview with stories from that internship from going on tour to almost being on MTV Cribs to some of the people I got to meet.
My internship ran its course and then it was time for me to move on. I then applied for another internship with Soapbox Studios, a large media studio that did everything from music to audio post-production to video editing. I got hired on as an intern and before too long was promoted to a studio assistant. I helped manage interns and daily operations, helped with the technical side of the studio, and eventually got to start engineering music sessions. Soapbox was great because they gave me the opportunity to learn and be involved in all of the different areas that make up a professional studio.
I was in that role for a while and, then one day, I was told that because of studio cutbacks they could no longer keep me on. I was obviously upset about it but there were no hard feelings and I understood. So, I went back to waiting tables until I could figure out my next move. But what would turn out to be one of the most important decisions in my life, I asked the studio if I could continue coming in and helping, just unpaid. You might think, ‘Why the hell would you do that?’. I wanted to do that because I honestly just liked being there. I liked the people, and I was continuing to learn new things about the things I wanted to learn about. It was an opportunity to continue building on the foundation that we started back in our little home studio. And I’ll be honest, Full Sail taught me a lot, but being in it, in the real world, is where you really learn the most. My thought was also that if anything opened back up, if I was there and showed my commitment to the company, maybe I’d get back in. In this business, being in the right place at the right time and staying relevant is so important. Stay connected and don’t give up if things seem to not be working out because at anytime a door could open.
And luckily for me a door did open back up. After about eight months of waiting tables and helping out at the studio, some things changed and they were able to hire me back on. I was ecstatic because that is exactly what I was hoping for. I was able to leave the waiting job and go back to working at the studio full time. I continued in my role of helping with daily operations, IT, and recording music sessions. Things were going great and over the next couple of years, I continued to progress in the company and really enjoyed where I was and being a key part of a studio that I really loved.
Unfortunately, after a couple of years the studio had more setbacks and had to drastically downsize. This time I was kept on and took over a studio manager role. That lasted for a while, then it was clear that the studio would be shutting down. At that time, because I was in the right place at the right time, I was given the opportunity to take over the lease on the building and attempt to run my own business out of there. My thought was that I could either go back to waiting tables again until another opportunity became available, or I could give this opportunity a go and see what I could do with it. So, I made the decision to take over the lease on the studio and give it a go. Luckily, I had a couple of mentors in my corner that really helped me get up and running. Another lesson to learn: have mentors. If you can build great relationships with people that have been where you want to be and can help guide you and give you advise when you need it, you’ll realize that those relationships are invaluable to your success. If I didn’t have those relationships with my mentors, then who knows where I’d be right now. I most certainly wouldn’t be where I am.
So, I started my business, Watership Studios, in the studio that I started out as an intern. The first couple of years, I was able to make it by but was far from successful in business terms. Maybe if I had stuck to business school, it could have helped me in that regard but also maybe if I had, I wouldn’t be doing what I really loved. Just as I said earlier, with anything, you start with the basics and build on that foundation. I knew how to engineer sessions and wire up studios but getting clients wasn’t something I knew a lot about. So, I built a website, Google profile, social media accounts and sure enough eventually people started calling.
Fast forward seven years later and here we are, still in business and continuing to grow. In that time, I’ve learned so much and have grown with the business. At the start, I didn’t know if I could run a successful business and now we’re doing well and our clients include ESPN, CBS, Turner Broadcasting, FOX Sports, The New York Times, The Arthritis Foundation, The BBC, VH1 and more. Sometimes I think about how I got here and remember that it all really started in that little home studio.
Can you talk to us a bit about the challenges and lessons you’ve learned along the way. Looking back would you say it’s been easy or smooth in retrospect?
The road has definitely not been smooth, as probably most people can say that have made it and/or are continuing to try to make it in this industry. From deciding to leave home and go to school, to going through a crazy internship, to finding a studio I loved and working my way up there, to getting laid off and deciding to stay around unpaid hoping that I’d be able to prove my worth and get another opportunity, to then getting hired back on, to then being there when that business went down, to then making the decision to start my own business there, to barely making it by for the first few years, to finally seeing real growth and profit. The road has been far from smooth, but I’m happy where it’s taken me.
Alright, so let’s switch gears a bit and talk business. What should we know?
I own and operate Watership Studios and sister company Atlanta Podcast Recording. Watership Studios is a studio rental, audio post-production, and music recording company. We’ve done work for ESPN, CBS, Turner Broadcasting, and FOX Sports to name a few. Atlanta Podcast Recording is a full-service podcast recording and production company. We help clients take their podcast ideas from conception to full on professional podcast release. We’ve worked with clients including The Arthritis Foundation, The New York Times, The BBC, Crooked Media, among others.
We like to think we’re different from other companies in our industry because of our personal approach to all the projects we work on. We don’t want to have a client come in and feel like just another client. Every single one that decides to work with us is treated like part of our family and our purpose is to serve them all as so. Our client retention rate is phenomenal because once they start working with us, they see the level of commitment and dedication we put into their projects. Our goal is to go above and beyond our client’s expectations of us so that they can concentrate on their projects and know that we will take care of our part in their project.
Is there a quality that you most attribute to your success?
I feel like the most important quality in anyone that wants to be successful is resilience. I don’t know anyone, personally, that’s had an easy go of it and hasn’t had a lot of downs before they saw the ups. That’s just part of building a successful business or really anything in your life.
Contact Info:
- Email: contact@watershipstudios.com
- Website: watershipstudios.com, atlantapodcastrecording.com
- Instagram: instagram.com/watershipstudios, instagram.com/atlanta.podcast.recording
- Facebook: facebook.com/watershipstudios, facebook.com/atlantapodcastrecording
Image Credits:
Tom Griscom
