We had the good fortune of connecting with Daniel de Boulay and we’ve shared our conversation below.

Hi Daniel, do you have a favorite quote or affirmation?
Lately, my favorite quote comes from Paul Graham. I came across it from the Founders podcast, which is hosted by David Senra. I think the podcast is excellent, and I tell everyone I meet about it. The set-up of the podcast is simple: David Senra reads a bunch of biographies of history’s greatest entrepreneurs. They run the gamut of artists, inventors, company founders, and political icons. In each episode, he summarizes their life stories, and extracts lessons after noticing that history’s greatest founders encounter similar problems that often involve similar solutions.

The quote from Paul Graham is, “Ambitious people are rare, so if everyone is mixed together randomly, as they tend to be early in people’s lives, then the ambitious ones won’t have many ambitious peers. When you take people like this and put them together with other ambitious people, they bloom like dying plants given water. Probably most ambitious people are starved for the sort of encouragement they’d get from ambitious peers, whatever their age.”

What I love about this quote, is that it reminds me of how I felt prior to moving to Los Angeles. I was born in Queens, but I grew up in the suburbs of Long Island…which I like to call, “New York’s Trump country,” because it’s a bit more homogenous and conservative than the city.

LA is a city full of transplants. To upend your entire life, and move away from your friends and family in pursuit of entertainment, is a big decision. Sometimes we forget why we decide to make such a big move. The reason we all did is because we were hungry to come across other likeminded people who were similarly obsessed with the arts the way we were. In other words, your success, beyond career but also your own happiness, demands interacting with a community of peers who share your passions.

Lately, as I’ve been thinking about this quote, I’ve been humbled by the reality that your success depends on relationships. You can’t do anything of note by yourself. I owe a huge debt to my mentors, Elizabeth Grave, Alex Zahn, Joe Matukewicz, and Lakshmi Iyengar for spotting my passion when I was hired as an intern, and overseeing my growth into my current executive role. But I also owe a huge debt to co-workers I worked alongside, like Katie Anderson, Fassa Sar, and Eric Charles. They have all influenced me, tutored me, and shaped me to be a better person, and a better executive.

My biggest challenge, in the transition from assistant to executive, was realizing how important it was to become a true team player. In prior positions I’ve held, my success may not have depended on being the most social and collaborative employee. In this role, those instincts were failing me and I can admit, with great humility, that it was stunting my own ability to learn and grow. However, I’ve done my best to adjust my own working style, communication style, and process, so that it gives me the space to work with others more. After all, that’s why I moved out here. It wasn’t for the palm trees and warm weather, though I love all of that. It was for a community of ambitious peers that can give me the encouragement and wisdom that I need to succeed.

Alright, so let’s move onto what keeps you busy professionally?
I came to Los Angeles to study film and business administration at Loyola Marymount University. During college, I prioritized working as many internships as I could, alongside being on set every weekend. In entertainment, your internships matter more than your grades although being a great student helps you become a great worker. The biggest challenge, being someone from New York, was establishing a community within Los Angeles. What’s worked for me, is trying to be as proactive as I possibly can. My first two internships, at Dichotomy Creative Group, founded by Adam Goodman, and Bold Films, which produced some of my favorite films like WHIPLASH and DRIVE, were opportunities I came across by simply cold-calling and cold-emailing these companies. I think Los Angeles is a city where if you show a lot of passion, and you follow through on reaching out to people you want to work with, you’d be surprised by how accessible they are, and how they are eager to help you. Because they can see themselves in you.

If you had a friend visiting you, what are some of the local spots you’d want to take them around to?
My favorite place in the city, where I’ve started to meet a lot of filmmakers and producers for coffee, is the restaurant at the Bel Air hotel. There’s a swan lake on the property that I love. I often joke that walking past it makes me feel like the “black Tchaikovsky.”

Another favorite venue of mine is the Delphi Hotel in downtown Los Angeles. As a New Yorker, I’m very comfortable in the downtown area because it feels like a “real city” to me. The Delphi hotel is beautiful. They host jazz nights every Thursday night, and they’re launching fashion events in February. It’s an amazing place to meet executives and creatives across different industries. I’ve become a regular there, and the manager of the venue, Bridgette, is amazing at what she does. She comes from the world of Miami nightlife, so she’s curated an immaculate ambience for professionals and creatives to dine together and talk about their work.

The Shoutout series is all about recognizing that our success and where we are in life is at least somewhat thanks to the efforts, support, mentorship, love and encouragement of others. So is there someone that you want to dedicate your shoutout to?
In my last answer I mentioned a lot of the colleagues that have shaped me along the way. I’d like to reiterate it again: Elizabeth Grave, Joe Matukewicz, Katie Anderson, Lakshmi Iyengar, Alex Zahn, Fassa Sar, and Eric Charles. But I’ve also had the pleasure of meeting some amazing producers in my time who have also become good friends of mine. One of my favorites would be Matthew Zamias, from Astral Future pictures, and Jordan Dykstra from Film Bridge International.

Instagram: @mrdeboulay

Linkedin: https://www.linkedin.com/in/mrdeboulay

Image Credits
Logan Anthony Williams is the photographer for one photo, and Danielle Spires is the photographer for another.

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