Today we’d like to introduce you to Dayne Watkins.
Hi Dayne, we’d love for you to start by introducing yourself.
I went to Texas State University without really knowing what I wanted to do. I love screenwriting and wanted to find the closest thing to it. I took an “Intro to Advertising” class and learned all about the creative side of it. I then signed up to be an advertising major and heavily concentrated on copywriting but would always do the design part of the project if I could.
In senior year, I spent hours every day connecting with people on LinkedIn and applying to copywriting internships all over. Because of this, I landed an copywriting internship with a small B2C agency the summer after my graduation with The Fantastical. Later that year, I landed a full-time copywriting job at one of the largest B2B agencies in the world, Merkle B2B. I also started freelancing around this time. After a year at Merkle, I was offered a senior copywriter position at a leading cybersecurity company, N-able. I worked in their in-house creative team for about three years until freelance clients started to pick up and I completely decided to go all in on my own branding and marketing agency, Factory Settings.
I officially started Factory Settings in January of 2024. It only started picking up later that year and has really exploded this year without marketing it much. I’ve been able to work with big name clients like Cheesecake Factory, Flower Child, North Italia and more. This month, we plan to market the agency more and work with local Austin companies whether that’s in the food and beverage industry or something else. I’m super excited to officially come onto the scene this year.
I’m sure it wasn’t obstacle-free, but would you say the journey has been fairly smooth so far?
Success is never an easy road, otherwise everyone would be successful. I’ve had to really hone in on my craft and learn more about the marketing and branding world to not only get the clients I have, but start my own agency. I’ll never fake anything. I want my clients to know that I know what I’m doing. The only way for that to happen is hours and hours of work and study a day in multiple topics.
Not to mention the rise of AI. Now more than ever, it’s not enough for creatives like me to only be specialists. You have to stack skills, make your workflows easier, know what useful tools are out there, and more. The struggle is trying to make yourself and your offerings more as valuable as they can possibly be. You can’t just ask people to work with you. You have to prove why they should.
As you know, we’re big fans of Factory Settings. For our readers who might not be as familiar what can you tell them about the brand?
Factory Settings is a small creative agency in Austin that primarily focuses on the fundamentals, helping businesses get going or rebrand completely. Our tagline is reboot your brand because many companies tend to stick with image and process doesn’t work and don’t know where to go or what to do when they realize their image and process doesn’t work.
We’re a small team that is only getting bigger the more clients we get but we always focus on personal relationships with the clients and never treating them like a number. We also always aim to take an unorthodox approach to branding and marketing to always give our clients a competitive edge. We know creativity and strategy is a long process, but we want to make it as short as possible so our clients can make a bigger impact, faster.
In the future, we want to make educational and entertaining content. That way our audience isn’t only our clients, but people who want to get to know our team and how we work and maybe one day be apart of it. We want to be a staple of Austin, getting to know the community, throwing events, and cementing ourselves as THE go to agency for efficient work.
How do you define success?
Success has nothing to do with how much money you make or how many businesses you start. While money helps you achieve bigger goals, I believe success always boils down to making a positive impact in other peoples lives. Success is being surrounded by family, friends, growing stronger in your faith and speaking the truth no matter what.
Contact Info:
- Website: https://factorysettings.co
- Instagram: https://www.instagram.com/factorysettingscreative/?utm_source=ig_web_button_share_sheet
- LinkedIn: https://www.linkedin.com/in/dayne-watkins-7b9683156/
