Leap Academy with Ilana Golan
Emmy Nominee, Bastiano Ferrari: From Broke and Sleeping on Beanbags to Building Hollywood Success
Thu, 27 Mar 2025
Bastiano Ferrari’s journey is one of resilience and perseverance against all odds. At just 11 years old, he faced financial hardship when his father lost everything. Despite his family’s disapproval, he pursued his passion for acting, even when it meant sleeping on beanbags and struggling to eat. But with his mother to care for, Bastiano had to pause acting to launch a tech company that ultimately gave him the financial freedom to return to Hollywood, where he earned an Emmy nomination. In this episode, Bastiano joins Ilana to share how resilience and bold decisions shaped his success in both Hollywood and tech, bridging two seemingly different worlds. Bastiano Ferrari is an Emmy-nominated producer, actor, and entrepreneur. Despite setbacks, Bastiano leveraged his experiences to create a unique portfolio career that spans film, tech, and entrepreneurship. In this episode, Ilana and Bastiano will discuss: (00:00) Introduction (01:20) From Wealth to Hardship as a Child (05:11) Pursuing Acting Despite Family Opposition (06:36) Launching and Selling His Startup (07:38) Balancing a Career in Tech and Film (10:37) Overcoming Challenges Through Resilience (15:28) The Key to Thriving in Adversity (17:43) How to Build Valuable Connections (21:14) Thriving in Multiple Careers Without Burning Out (23:39) Hollywood vs. Tech: The Illusion of Success (28:20) The Power of Big, Scary Dreams (31:29) Why He Has No Regrets About Failure (33:30) New Film Project and AI Innovations Bastiano Ferrari is an Emmy-nominated producer, actor, and entrepreneur. After facing significant financial hardship, he took a break from acting and co-founded a tech startup that was acquired in 2013. Returning to Hollywood, he worked with major stars like Will Smith, earning Emmy nominations along the way. Despite setbacks, Bastiano leveraged his experiences to create a unique portfolio career that spans film, tech, and entrepreneurship. Connect with Bastiano: Bastiano’s Instagram: instagram.com/bastianoferrari Resources Mentioned: Bad Boys for Life: imdb.com/title/tt1502397 Leap Academy: Ready to make the LEAP in your career? There is a NEW way for professionals to Advance Their Careers & Make 5-6 figures of EXTRA INCOME in Record Time. Check out our free training today at leapacademy.com/training
Chapter 1: How did Bastiano Ferrari's early life shape his career?
Bastiano Ferrari, actor, Emmy-nominated producer, entrepreneur.
Chapter 2: What challenges did Bastiano face in pursuing acting?
My family looked down on acting. They were like, Bastiano, you cannot be an actor. we will disown you more or less. There was a year where I had no money. I was drinking protein shakes for food because I couldn't afford a meal. I almost lost my life once. So I promised myself that if I'm going to survive that, I'm going to do things differently.
Got Emmy nominated last year and I have a few projects with the biggest names in Hollywood. If you're given a big problem, it's because you can handle it. It's because that's how big of a person you are. Just don't wait for things to come your way. You create it.
How do you know there's something beautiful on the other side versus that's it?
I have a unique perspective.
Bastiano Ferrari, actor, Emmy-nominated producer, entrepreneur. It's just incredible. You've been on so many films. Thank you for being on the show.
Thank you for having me. I'm excited for this.
Tell us a little bit about how you grew up and how did that shape you, Bastiano?
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Chapter 3: How did Bastiano transition from acting to tech entrepreneurship?
I grew up in a multiple geography, if it makes sense. I grew up between Europe, Middle East and Africa. And I feel that just made me connect with people on a different level. I understand the different cultural nuances. I understand why people do certain things that they do. And I just relate to them more organically. And that helped me in my work and that helped me in my career.
And that just helped me with my end of work. And I feel my childhood tremendously shaped who I am today and why I do what I do.
Tell me about a story that you think maybe some people don't know or most people don't know that shaped you.
My childhood was a little bit unique. It was an incredible childhood up until 11. And then it went into a Hollywood movie, if it makes sense. I grew up with a father that was a farmer and entrepreneur, moved to the Middle East, to Kuwait, not myself, just him, before I was born, to work in gold, then traveled around to work in agriculture, farm and gold, among other stuff.
And we were very well off in my childhood. I'm the youngest, and we were very well off until I was 11. And then when I turned 11, my dad had a problem and he lost all his money and I never saw him up until I was 24. And that was the best thing that ever happened to me, to be honest, because my oldest sibling is about 10 years, even more age gap.
So I'm very young compared to my siblings and they lived a very comfortable life. Meanwhile, in the ages and days that are very critical to how I am shaped as a human, I had to go through certain difficulties. One example, my brother, I was begging him for new shoes at some point, and we didn't have the money to buy new shoes.
So I had to stick with my old shoe for a couple of years before we swapped it. And with that, it was a bit of a shock for me. Because coming from a lavish life where I was spoiled, very spoiled, anything I wanted, my father does it for me, to a, you have to go to school and you have to work and you have to do all of these things to continue your education.
And my brother was a kid also, so it was tough on him. He didn't know how to handle it the best way. So he was very mad at me, if it makes sense. And that gave me a bit of perspective about life. And then at the age of 16, I accidentally was in the middle of war, which is a second story that shaped my life, and I almost lost my life.
In those few minutes where I really thought that I'm going to use my life, it kind of changed who I am forever. I realized that fear is temporary, but regret is permanent. So I promised myself that if I'm going to survive that, I'm going to do things differently.
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Chapter 4: What lessons did Bastiano learn from his failures?
That said, I studied computer science in university because my family wanted me to be an engineer, which I love engineering. However, my family looked down on acting. They were like, Bastiano, you cannot be an actor. We will disown you, more or less. And what happened is I landed an acting gig when I was 18.
And I was like, if I'm not going to study acting, if my family is not going to let me study acting, I'm going to just do it for fun because I believe that I can do it. And I landed a lead role. It was support. Then they moved me into a lead character. However, reality hit. Life happens. And I wasn't making money as an actor. And I needed to support my mother. So I faced reality and I left acting.
And I thought that was the end of it. I'm never going to go back into acting ever again. And I started tech, worked in McKinsey, which I learned a lot of strategy there. Started, you know, the corporate life and corporate career, which is tremendous, to be honest. Met, brushed shoulders with magnificent people, very smart individuals. And I started a company with my brother. a tech company.
We got acquired in 2013, which got us some funding, some liquidity. Granted, we tried, I don't know how many hundred ideas that didn't work before that one worked, but that's another story. So the one idea that worked and we made it work, got me enough money to do things with less pressure. I started choosing what I want to do in life.
So I started advising more and I started in 2020, I had a role offered to me in Bad Boys for Life. I was consulting for Carnival Cruise Lines, building Syncros. It's an $8 billion product. Revenue-wise, not for me, for them, just to be clear. And what happened is on set, seeing Will Smith do his thing, I just ignited something. I was like, you know, I love this. Why don't I just do both?
And I started thinking about it. Hollywood is so good at storytelling. Tech is great at strategy and execution. Tech is not great at storytelling. Hollywood is not great in business and tech and execution. So there was a gap where I could be the bridge in the middle of those two things. Granted, both of them rely on vision. Both of them rely on aspirations and big goals.
So I found a lot of commonalities in both. I moved to Los Angeles. landed an acting role, and I positioned myself in a way, you know, in tech, we're problem solvers. And that's the key to everything, I believe, finding a problem to solve. And I started looking at opportunities where I can help people solve key problems even before they realized that they had a problem.
And I feel that helped me bridge a huge gap in Hollywood and become, you know, people are really having high regards for me. People really wanted me to be part of their projects, worked on honing my talent with resilience. Got Emmy nominated last year, and I have a few projects with Jenny Ortega, with Terence Howard, with Dove Cameron, the biggest names in Hollywood.
And tech still, I'm very passionate about tech. I'm starting an AI project right now. I'm doing a lot of AI work for eBay, and I'm doing an AI project for myself as well. So I'm very, very happy to do both. Still challenging, nevertheless. Failing every day, which is why I'm succeeding.
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Chapter 5: How does Bastiano balance his career in Hollywood and tech?
When I first finished my master's degree here in the States, There was a year where I had no money. I was drinking protein shakes for food because I couldn't afford a meal. And one of my good friends hosted me in his dorm room on a bean bag for a year. I was sleeping on a bean bag. Imagine. And my family were pressuring me. They were telling me they cut off funding, which they did that priorly.
And they were telling me that I need to go back to either Europe or anywhere else. And I didn't want to. I really believed in America. I really believed in this country. And I really believed in the people here and the possibilities in America. The American dream, pretty much. And I stayed... consistent and resilient for a year of everybody telling me that it's not going to work.
Very few people telling me, hey, there's a possibility. And every maybe week or so trying something that it's not working. And then eventually, even I got somebody that wanted to put me in touch with Meta for an acquisition. And then he had a tragic event in his family and I lost that connection. So every glimpse of hope and then going back to even below zero.
And it's just my mindset was, I've really positioned myself all my life to be here. And this is what I actually want. And I'm not going to stop. I had that vision and I really had that aspiration. And I just couldn't let go. So I kept trying different things and pivoting until it worked. We started the tech, my brother and I, and started getting some positive feedback around it.
Found another person that put me in touch with some people in tech and it worked. We developed it. It's a massive project that was built with $20,000 and a team of engineers that helped me do it for free. So just people believed in it and we have a lot of speculation. So for that year of struggle was the building block of my entire career until today.
It doesn't mean everything afterwards was success. No, I still get punched every day, you know, and you stand back up. And this is true for both the tech world and Hollywood. If you think about it, Picasso, the painter and the artist, he created, I believe, 20,000 pieces of art before he got recognized as a genius. Oprah got fired as a news anchor. Now she's a billionaire.
Spielberg got rejected from three acting schools. And now look who he is. Michael Jordan, another industry, 9,000 missed shots before he's the GOAT now. And maybe a more recent example is Mr. Beast had around 440 or 450 videos before he went viral for the first time. So all of these great people, it's not about having the best idea because guess what? Your first idea is going to suck.
Your second idea is going to suck too. Your third probably going to suck as well. It's just how resilient, how can you learn from all of those? Do you have a vision? Do you have a goal? Do you know what you want? Do you want it enough to get all the punches? And sticking to that, learning, agile, you know, and then just trying to go for it and keep resilient and stay at it and execute.
It's not about the best idea. It's about the great execution strategy. Bring everybody on board. Don't wait for people to make you feel positive. Be the person that makes people feel positive. Just don't wait for things to come your way. You create it. And Eliana, there was a great example, if I may share with you, that somebody mentioned it. And I'm going to phrase it my words.
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Chapter 6: How does Bastiano maintain resilience in the face of adversity?
Don't be mad at it. Just create it. Create something for others. You know what I mean?
Oh, I love that. And for the audience, if you didn't catch this, if you can't get in the door, maybe you need to build your own door and just carve your own door and get in. Right. I mean, I just love that. Right. But Bastian, sometimes, and I think for many of our listeners, sometimes you Life gets so hard, right? It's like you're trying so hard. Things are still punching you.
Things are not falling into place. You slept on a beanbag. Maybe some people here lost their jobs. Some of them are in some kind of financial stress. How do you train that well enough to just keep on going, keep on believing, keep on taking one step at a time? What works for you, Bastiano?
So that's a very good question, actually. There's two aspects of it. The harder your problems, the more you are shaped to face bigger ones. And if you're given a big problem, it's because you can handle it. It's because that's how big of a person you are. You're not going to be given a problem, a small problem, unless you are a person that can only handle small problems.
And that's how I always think about it. If my problems are large, it means that's what I can handle. It means I'm doing things great. I didn't have money multiple times in my life, not just once. I almost lost my life once. A lot of things happen. And each time, I just think sometimes you don't get what you want because you deserve better.
And sometimes whatever it is, I'm saying that in the term where the example you mentioned, if somebody lost their job, maybe they didn't get what they want because they deserve something better. It's true. And sometimes the hardship is there just to shape you for something that is as great as you want it to be.
Because, and this is key, if you're getting successes in small doses and that's it, it's like a drug that keeps you mediocre. But if you're challenged, then that's what builds you to become great. Because when you overcome all of these things, you develop skillset.
And it's true, you develop certain skillset, resiliency, that lets you face the final boss, if you want to call it from a game perspective.
So just understand what you're working with, your network, shape yourself in a way that once that door is created by you or once that door opens, you're ready to take the reins and you've been shaping yourself and training yourself and gaining that knowledge to be able to take the reins.
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Chapter 7: Why is networking crucial to Bastiano's success?
And I love the example of public speaking. For me, public speaking changed my life. It's just such a great way to... Be, on one hand, more of a thought leader. On the other hand, give a lot back. Just love all of this, Paciano. And I think we both share kind of what we talked about, these portfolio careers. You don't have to do just one.
There's like an element of multiple things that can actually create a ripple of the value that you bring, of create this like incredible snowball. How do you juggle all of this? Because sometimes it gets daunting. It can get a lot of work.
I get asked that a lot and I don't spend my time in avenues where it doesn't bring value to my life. That's number one. We have a lot of time. Time is the most valuable resource out there. It's not money. We have a lot of time though. Time box, it's a tech term.
If you time box correctly and if you prioritize, so identify what is the key things that you can focus on in a lean way and eliminate waste. So activities that don't matter, just don't focus on them and focus on activities that matter on both sides. So prioritization and eliminating waste is key. And on the ground, you don't have to do everything on your own.
In Hollywood, for example, I know what my key skill sets are, and I know what I want, and I know certain avenues that people are better than me at. So I focus on the areas that are important for me, and I delegate some avenues that other people can help me with. So as a team, we're succeeding. And then tech takes most of my time, to be honest. And it's very similar in tech.
I feel film is more of a passion to me. Film... Acting, producing, all the above is more of a passion for me. It's like somebody playing tennis. You spend time maybe every day sometimes or three times a day playing tennis. I spend that time doing film, if it makes sense. But prioritization and eliminating waste, I would say, are the key aspects that allow me to diversify in both avenues.
Ooh, I love that, Bastiano. And for you, the audience listening to this or seeing us on YouTube, I love looking at this as bread, B-R-E-A-D. So batch, reduce, eliminate, automate, and delegate. So if you can look at your life and decide what can you reduce, what you can eliminate altogether, what you can automate, what you can delegate, it's going to make such a big difference.
Bastiano, that was amazing. And I love that acting on one hand is your fun area, but that's maybe also why, you know, in such a short time, you've been able to be Emmy nominated. And like, it's probably because you're having a blast. Can you give us a glimpse into this world? So I come from the tech world, but I think Hollywood is this thing that we just see on the screen.
Can you give us a glimpse of what does that feel like? What does it look like? And what's next there?
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