Adam Torres and Stephen M. Meade discuss EAF and Green Wave Funding.
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Show Notes:
The Earth Action Forum (EAF) announces plans to launch in Dubai. In this episode, Adam Torres and Stephen M. Meade, The Bullseye Guy, explore Stephen’s plans for EAF and Green Wave Funding.
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About Stephen M. Meade
STEPHEN MEADE is an American entrepreneur, executive and business founder who is passionate about creating companies that make a difference in the world. He has the ability to catapult an idea from pure concept to the creation of a thriving business. In the past 20 years, he has created, incubated and architected nine (9) successful technology-based companies. He is a seasoned business advisor and leader who frequently speaks on the art of networking at executive leadership conferences and startup communities (i.e. executives, entrepreneurs, start-up founders, co-founders, students) around the world.
In 2005, he founded Big Bamboo, LLC to serve as the incubator for ideas that are worth building a team around and bringing to market. Currently, all ideas come solely from the Founder and the company does not take on or incubate outside business or services.
He is currently the CEO of MonetaPro.IO, which is a FinTech Blockchain company for Global Companies to participate in Corporate Trade. MonetaPro.IO competed in and won the Silicon Valley d10e Global ICO contest, which to date was the largest ICO competition in the World featuring 32 companies. MonetaPro has placed in the following competitions: Fintech Zurich (1st Place), Los Angeles Crypto (1st Place), Malta (2nd Place), South Korea (3rd place), and more!
Full Unedited Transcript
I’d like to welcome you to another episode of Mission Matters. My name is Adam Torres and I am so proud and excited and happy to announce that we are shooting this today live from the Milking Global Conference 2023 in Beverly Hills, California. And for my long time, Time listeners and viewers, you might recognize the name.
Here we have Stephen Mead back on the show known as The Bullseye Guy. And let me tell you, we have some content to cover today. He’s covering, he’s got a new project working out in in Dubai. Last I caught up with him at the YM conference and also Greenway. I wanna make sure I’m saying this right, green Wave funding.
So we’ll get into that as well. But first off, hey Steven, I just wanna say welcome back on the show. So good to see you in person. Thank you. Thank you. Time. We were virtual. We were virtual and congratulations. I just heard 6,000 shows. Oh man. Which is amazing. I’ll have to go back. I was joking. I hope that I was in before there was a comma in all the shows that’ll make me legacy.
Oh, you, you’re definitely legacy. Yeah. And great running into you here and getting you on the show. Finally in. Thank you. In person. So lot of projects to talk about, but you know, we’ll start this episode the way that we start them all. Okay. You know the drill with our mission matters minute. So Steven, we at Mission Matters, we amplify stories for entrepreneurs, executives and experts.
That’s our mission. Steven, what mission matters to you? And, and it’s a, a great question Adam, and Mine’s gonna have two parts and I’ll get it within the, the 60 seconds. Number one, I like to build companies that. Nobody in the world’s ever done before. So a lot of my mission is around building things that nobody in the world’s ever done, which I is cool.
Underneath though, there is a tenant. I have 10 things that are the companies I want. One of the tenants is I want to build companies that help other people be successful at what they’re passionate about. Hmm. Not my passion. What can I build that can enhance what other people are doing? And so a lot of the companies we’ve started are really about empowering other people to be their best self.
Hmm. Fantastic. Love bringing mission-based executives on to share, you know, why they do what they do, how they’re doing, and really what we can all learn from that so that we can all grow together. So, great having ya. And thank you. Just to start out with, I’ve been asking people this question all day, and I don’t know this answer from you, even though we’ve known each other for a while, Milkin conference, milk and Institute, like, where did all that start for you?
Like how, how’d you get involved? I probably got involved. You and I have known each other a while. I probably got involved in milking longer than you’ve been alive. Not, not quite, but my first milk and I actually had to go look. I’ve been asked quite a few times. My first milkin was 2002. Wow. And I’ve been to, I’ve lost count.
I haven’t been to all of them because sometimes, you know, travel, I’ve been to probably 15, 16 of them since 2002. I don’t recall how I first got involved. I think it might have been through Dennis Levine. And you may not recognize Dennis Levine, any of the legacy Milken people. Will Michael Milken, Dennis Levine and Ivan Bosky were some of the guys that were involved in Drexel Long before.
Mm-hmm. Michael and the character Gordon Gecko on Wall Street’s based after Dennis Levine. Hmm. And, and Dennis and Michael go way back, and so I may have been introduced to it, but it was 2002 was my first event, and it’s been continual. So it’s safe to say you’re a veteran. I’m, I’m close to a dinosaur.
I think veteran might be somebody then five or six or seven times if you’re over a decade. Yeah. Yeah, I think I’m getting old. Yeah. So I in all seriousness though, what keeps you coming back? I know you traveled to a lot of conferences. I mean, you’re, you’re worldwide and we’ll talk about that as well in terms of some of the work you’re doing in Dubai.
But I know that this is one of the pillars, like you keep coming back, like look why. Yeah, there’s probably, I did a, one of my own podcasts a while ago, not the plug up, but I did the top 10 events and Milin always makes it, and it’s, it’s probably two and a half reasons. Reason number one is Michael, when he started, it really was mission driven for what he was doing.
It started around the medical side, it moved into education. It’s really turned in financial in the last decade, but a lot of what Michael was driven by was trying to make a difference and do big things. And because of that, he always got big thinkers. Mm-hmm. And so being around people who are also trying to do things that change the world.
Mm. You know, so number one, Michael and his mission was always a driver. Two, the crowd that he brought were people who were trying to really make a difference. And then the half is, it’s close. I live three blocks from here, but it’s only half because when I started coming in oh two, I was in Chicago.
Mm-hmm. And I came for, you know, eight or nine or 10 years in Chicago. And, and this is certainly a, an event that’s always worth coming. And now, not only just LA I was a milk in Abu Dhabi and mm-hmm. I think there’s been other ones around the world that I’ve attended also. Hmm. So one of the reasons why mission Matters is onsite and just one of my personal missions in this whole thing, is I wanna educate the greater population to participate, to get involved, to understand what the Milken Institute’s doing.
And also, you know, for the corporate leaders out there that are, you know, heads of corporations mm-hmm. In large. Businesses why they should get involved. And one of the ways that I thought what better way to do that is to bring on, you know, seasoned executives like yourself who are involved. So, you know, speaking to that, to that crowd of, of executives out there that have maybe kind of heard of it or they feel like they should or they don’t know if they, if they fit, like what, what would you tell them?
Is this the senior executive or the senior, the junior executive. Mm-hmm. The, the senior one is, is really easy. There are not many. Events that are going to be at the caliber of both attendees mm-hmm. And programming and speakers. Yeah. You know, sometimes you’ll get the, the temp pole speaker and you know, they’re friends of mine and they’ll be the, the headliner.
Yeah. And, and then the rest of the content and programming is weak, or you get that headliner and that brings out a raft of characters who. Don’t match up to what you’re trying to do. Mm-hmm. The, the equilibrium of the milk and events have always been great speakers, but the programming of the content, really the, the, the depth of conversation Yeah.
Is there, and then the attendees, and then what also what Milkin does well, well, the one thing they do challenging is they’ll overload on. On track. So you have to go, all right, where, where am I gonna go? Nine, 900 plus this year, I’m told. Yeah, there’s a lot. Now the good news is it’s streamed and you can go back.
You don’t have to be in all of them. They also do a good job though, of giving you time in between to breathe between sessions and, and meet people. And then the efficiency of the events always been spectacular too. So it’s something that if, if you haven’t been, it’s worth coming to. And everybody I’ve ever met that’s been once.
Has been excited about coming back. Yeah. Yeah. Same here. Like I, I’ve had the exact same experience and that’s why, you know, that’s why we were excited to come back and also to cover the event. Yeah. So, just switching up a little bit here. Mm-hmm. I wanna start on some of the, some of the new projects that you’ve been working on.
Okay. So let’s start off with GreenWave funding. So tell us a little bit about that and why you’re excited. And I tell you what, Adam. When I tell you what it is, the name will stick with you and it’ll be super easy. The first time you heard it, people are like, wait, wait, wait. And, and some of this we’ll give credit to milk.
And we learned about this two years ago, last year, it was a little more on our radar in the world of sustainability and investing and funding. There’s debt instruments that are called green bonds. Mm-hmm. And blue bonds. Green bonds are just environmental bonds to, to fund projects that help the environment.
And blue bonds, as you would guess are mm-hmm. For, for blue and the wave. Mm-hmm. So green wave, green and blue. Pinpoint 5 trillion is estimated to be sitting in just four or five banks that are, you know, here at the event. There’s 10 and a half trillion dollars that is locked up and needs to go into projects around the world.
Hmm. And part of that sequence is the project needs certain qualifications, then it needs to get certified. There’s, there’s just a step of sequences and they’re all independent and there’s no. Thorough process. Mm-hmm. We know enough of the top players and parties we’re gonna put together the company called Greenway Funding.
Mm-hmm. And make a platform that’s going to help streamline and automate the onboarding and the process of taking a company, a country, or a government, and helping them get funded. To build things that, again, could change the world in a, in a simple way. It’s new airports in, in Egypt, it’s food security, it’s infrastructure, it’s shipping.
We just believe we funded 300 million in a solar car. Mm-hmm. Not an electrical vehicle. So no, ev, no impact on the environment. No lithium. Yeah. No. You know, mining in a foreign country, no plugging into the grid. When the governor tells you, don’t plug your car in, this is full. Solar Wow. In this kind of concept of future of mobility is things that are cool.
Yeah. So we are setting up Greenway funding. We’re gonna do a lot of the exchange through Bermuda. Mm-hmm. And syndicate and really try and move my, my goal would be, A, a trillion dollars. If we moved the billion, if we moved to $3 to help change the world, oh, that would all be worth it. Yeah. And I, and when it, when it comes to creating a platform like this mm-hmm.
Gimme a little bit of insight that’s, that’s big. Like to, to just the logistics and creating the platform to create that and to get people to plug in. Like it sounds, it’s big and you do big things and I, and I appreciate that it’s, I, I do big things, but then I can see ’em simply. Yeah. And then execute.
So I don’t wanna overeducate the, the crowd and give competitive advantage, but it’s, yeah. The, the first part is can you find a good project? And we’re fortunate, like even in, in the room here. Mm-hmm. You know, I ran into the, my friends at fourth, they’re like, oh, we did a 600 million bond. I ran into Sebastian at a core.
Who owns aor? Oh, we did a $700 million bond. I had no idea. These guys are like friend circles of mine. And they’re like, oh yeah, we did 400 million just as a test. Yeah. The aspect of a bond is very simple. One is there’s certain qualifications that the project needs. Mm-hmm. Two, it needs a prospectus and a, and a and a what’s called a ppm, a private placements.
Mm-hmm. And that’s not rocket science. There’s a lot of people do it, but there’s a process to writing that. Mm-hmm. Then it needs to get certified and, and in the, what I’ll call the old world, which is 10 years ago. There’s something called lead certified. Mm-hmm. If you’re a building, you can try and get lead certified, which says, Hey, do you have solar panels or glazing on you?
Mm-hmm. And it’s a checklist and the building gets audited and you get a badge that says you’re lead certified. Yeah. To qualify as a sustainable bond, it’s the same thing. You have to say, oh, we’re a country building an airport and it’s gonna do solar panels and. Water reclamation and there’s a qualification status, and there’s companies that do that.
Yeah. So we’re not going to do that. We’re just building the onboarding process to help them get qualified. Yeah. Then it gets listed on an exchange, and there’s two that are here. Luxembourg is here, we just met with them in Singapore. Mm-hmm. And then once it’s there, then it has to be what’s called syndicated and.
It’s syndicated out to investors and the investors have to be a hundred million and up. Mm-hmm. It’s pension funds, hedge funds. So each of these things kind of exist in auxiliary buckets. Yeah. To build a platform means are you in the deal flow of projects that actually are big enough to qualify? Mm-hmm.
Can you help get it certified with a legitimate mm-hmm. Can you get it on an exchange? And do you have access to syndicators? Well, almost all of that’s either relationship or automated. Yeah. So it sounds like a lot, it’s more the partner relationships. Mm-hmm. Because not everybody has the syndicators or knows.
It’s just Yep. It’s moving parts and all we want to do is just streamline that process. Mm-hmm. Well, it sounds exciting to me. I’m excited to see this continue to evolve and continue. This is a big one. It’s one of the bigger ones we’ve done, but it’s actually Adam, one of the more simple ones for people to understand, especially at Milk, and again, which is why we’re here.
Mm-hmm. Bond funding is not anything new or unique or exotic for sure. I mean, you know, we’ve spent years in blockchain and crypto and FinTech. Mm-hmm. And you’re trying to do exotic things around the edges. Yeah. This is traditional finance, just qualified as green or blue. Like, oh, we can do this. Awesome.
Another project I wanna talk about that you’re doing, so Earth Action Forum. Yeah. That one will be fun. How did, interesting, how did this come about? Like gimme some. So we’re going with the acronym e aaf. Mm-hmm. Because I want to compete with all the other acronyms. Of course, the Milk milk’s the only one that’s not really an acronym, but Anthony Scaramucci has salt, which isn’t a three digit acronym.
Mm-hmm. But it’s close. You have wef, right? Davos. You have Ted Clinton Global Initiative, cgi I, Richard OTAs F fii. Mm-hmm. I’m going to Doha the end of this month for Q E F, which is the Kata, all of these three digit acronyms, and they’re like, all right, let’s come up with one. Have to have to but back into the world of sustainability, COP stands for Climate of the Parties, which is the United Nations Big Global Sustainability event.
This is mm-hmm. The biggest, biggest milkin is, and we think Milkin is great. Yeah. It’s dwarfed. Compared to Cop Cop 27 was in Egypt. Mm-hmm. A hundred world leaders, 2000 celebrities, 35,000 people. Yeah. Cop 28. Dubai is estimated to probably be 150 world leaders, heads of state. Wow. Presidents of countries.
Probably 3000 celebrities. Almost every celebrity has a cause. Mm-hmm. And probably 80,000 people. Wow. Right. So you have this massive convergence of people that are going, mm-hmm. And then unfortunately a friend of mine called me and said, Hey, I wanna do a, a sustainability film there. Can you find me a movie theater and can you find me a hotel?
And I’m like, why do you need a hotel? Cause he wanted free hotels. And what happened, Adam, is my mind started collapsing and, and to move forward. Mm-hmm. Earth action form is earth action form most of the panels or pontification panels. Mm-hmm. So what we’ve done first time history of the world, again, I like to do things.
Nobody in the world’s ever done. Yeah, and I’m clear. Nobody’s ever done this and nobody’s tried, but it sounds complicated. I don’t think it’s, it is hard in scale number one, for three days, we’ve rented in Dubai an 80,000 square foot building in Dubai called the Vox Megaplex. Hmm. Five and a half stories tall.
80,000 square feet. That’s huge. What are you doing? A 80,000 square foot building? Well, what’s already in there? Number one. There’s 12 movie theaters. This is a massive movie cinema. So now there’s 12 theaters. The biggest one’s 460 screens. Wow. Six of ’em are 3D one’s 40. The big one’s got a stage, it’s got a green room.
Private security, like these are massive. There’s three restaurants. One of the restaurants is 11,000 square feet with an arcade bowling alley. Two bars. Yes. You can sell alcohol and drink in Dubai. Mm-hmm. And a five and a half story Ruley Pulley Jungle Gym that goes up and over the entrance. Wow. I mean, this is a massive standalone building.
Taking that and turning it into a private label popup. Mm. For companies and countries that want to showcase what they’re doing and don’t want to spend millions of dollars in cop. Yeah. And have big content like nem. When we were there, they, you and I were there. Big screen. Absolutely. Pretty content. The line is outside.
Yeah. That in a movie theater would be amazing. So, ah, you’re right. I can, I can see it. And, and the, the theater, the, just the hallway alone where the 10 main theaters are 65 feet long, three or wide, 300 feet long marble, 12 feet tall. Now you’re in a hallway where a brand of a country like Bermuda can have their own theater, their own step and repeat.
Mm-hmm. Their own exhibitor booth have their own people in the theater. But when they come out, there’s 10 other companies in countries, so now you’re mingling and networking. In a closed environment, Davos, it’s all up and down a promenade. Mm-hmm. Sundance is all in a promenade. South buys all over the place.
Mm-hmm. This is a closed container. Wow. Then with the restaurants, we’re looking at a couple big liquor brands who wanna showcase what we’re doing with the content. The morning is going to be dedicated to kids. So if you’re a brand, if you’re a Unilever, if you’re a Nestle, if you’re an Accenture, if you’re a an an L V M H, you know Christian Dior, if you’re a Bermuda, if you’re a carnival cruise, which we talked to here, and they’re like, wow, we’ve never thought of this.
We want the morning from eight to 12 to be dedicated to kids. So what can the brand do to showcase kids? Yeah, and I’ve had some say, this is amazing. We don’t usually have that Milkens not. Formatted to kids. Of course. Yeah. We’ve had two brands said, well, we don’t have kid content. Mm-hmm. Said, well, why? But again, there’s not an opportunity at a Milkin or a DAVO For sure.
And, and so now they’re thinking creatively, what can they do? So eight to 12 is kids. One to five is panels and keynotes that the brands bring in their own. That’s where the difference, Adam. I’m not formatting something like milking. Mm-hmm. I’m not trying to bring in speakers and figure out content. It’s like, here are Bermuda, David Premier.
Who would you like to invite on stage? Who would you like to show? This is your private theater. Mm-hmm. Six 30. We’re doing a sustainable film festival where we’re showcasing film. Because it’s a theater, of course, half bringing in celebrities who are in the films, who also then can be on stage and meet the kids.
Wow. Nine o’clock we’re opening the theater to public, showing of the documentaries of the sustainable films. And then we negotiated with Vox to show the film. And the panels and the morning content across all 54 cinemas in seven countries and 600 screens across U eight. Oh. Never been done before. And when you show the film, we negotiate, I’m pretty sure we did.
By the time this shows before the film. Normally there’s trailers of the next movie. What we’ve negotiated is for the, not to show trailers, but to show the commercials and the content of the brand. So now that brand. Gets showcased across the entire Saudi Arabia, Bahrain, Qatar. Oh, wow. Oman. Yeah. So all of those theaters.
All of the theaters, it’s broadcast across before the film. And Vox is going to run a contest for filmmakers. Mm-hmm. Where now the filmmaker gets to. Win a contest. Wow. We’re trying to get Lego where Legos are. Target to rent the Rollie Polley five Story Jungle Gym run a global contest for kids. Now kids can be in a theater or in a Rollie Polley doing Lego interactives with their parents and kids.
Or the parents can be networking on stage while the kids are there. There’s not a single event that I’m ever aware of a that’s formatted to educational for kids at that level and that parents and kids can do together. So that’s the three day Earth Action Forum. And then we end up on the Friday with a global red carpet event.
Hmm. Sustainability awards. We’re partnering with anga, the Youth United Nations. They’re gonna use our platform. We’re calling it Oscars for Impact. Hmm. So we’re gonna let them use it as an awards platform to give away an award to their two celebrities that are they, they’ve got different awards. Mm-hmm.
These are major, major stars for the United Nations Awards. We’re in discussions with a few other media companies for them to do their awards. And then I’m almost done. I don’t want us to run outta time. No, I’ll again, never been done. These are all moving parts. Princess Diana had a very famous Sapphire necklace.
Mm-hmm. Very, very famous. Like I’m looking around the Yeah. People are, was a 71 karat sapphire. Used to be a choker. A friend of mine, I put her in business in Dubai doing fancy, high-end, fancy jewels got this idea. She wants to do iconic collections to, to, for women. Mm. Wants to, to represent and honor homage to iconic women.
Hmm. Ended up getting access to and acquired 151 Kara Cushion and cut Cashmere Safari. It’s the largest GIA certified cushion and cut cashmere stone in the world. Mm-hmm. It’s incredible. 31 Kara Cashmere. Cut ring. Yeah. Says, oh, I think I wanna do some for Princess Diana. What, so what we’ve done is we’re creating a, a Princess Diana tribute collection.
Mm. Necklace earring working with, we believe it’ll be finished. My friend Steven Ball runs Queens Commonwealth Trust. Mm-hmm. There’s discussions for some of the Royals to be at the Friday Night Award. Mm-hmm. Along with the opportunity for the winner to get knighted. A portion of the proceeds goes to fund the Queen’s Commonwealth Trust.
Wow. Which is the charity that Princess Kate has to help kids and, and, and charities and things like that. So we’re gonna try and have an auction of the largest sapphire in the world in connection with the royals, but proceeds going to fund their charity. Oh man. Talk about, talk about, that’s the Friday night capping off at an event.
Yeah. You’re kidding me. Yeah. And so it, it sounds like a lot, the harder part, which is somewhat easier for me, but difficult is I have those relationships mm-hmm. Of people who are looking for a venue and could bring that content. If it was me trying to bring. Celebrities and trying to get speaker. Mm-hmm.
That’s not me. Yeah. But formatting something that would help, again, back to my mission. Mm-hmm. This will help other people be successful at what they’re passionate about. Mm-hmm. And one of that’s the goal. One of the things I love about the, about the format too though, is that like, You know, there, there’s different ways to do things, but in this way, like they’re, you know, the content in the program, like they’re gonna come with their best stuff, right?
Like there’s a huge, this event, huge undertaking lots of individual, lot of eyeballs. I mean, broadcast, you said, I think 50 plus screens. The branding, like all the things that are gonna happen, like the thoughts, the ideas, the networking, the like Yeah. The level, the ability, the access. Yeah. All of it. So when you put all that together, the programming and who you put.
Forward as a company or a corporation or, or a country that’s looking for to, to have a screen or to be part of the event. I mean, yeah, I have a presence at cop. This is their presence. Yeah. Yeah. It’s awesome. Well, Steven first off, it’s been great reconnecting with you. Thank you. Good seeing you. Milking and just catching back up on call me back on the next 20, after 20,000, 25, whatever, you know, the century, mark.
Oh, come on. You’re a regular there. But if, if somebody’s watching this and they’re listening in and they’re tuning in and they want to, you know, learn more, Follow your journey and also follow the event, follow, you know, some the Green Wave Fund, like how do people connect? Like how do they, yeah.
Appreciate that Adam. The easiest way is the bullseye guy.com, which is my sort of personal brand. We have Big Bamboo and our incubators, but the bullseye guy is where. I do my podcast, it’s where we make our announcements. It’s where we have all the companies listed. Mm-hmm. And it’s just like, it sounds the bullseye guy.com.
Yep. And then you, you know, I love podcasters talking about podcasting. So you gotta do a plug, I mean, talk about the podcast. I want my audience definitely to go over, check it out and subscribe. Like maybe mine’s just the Bullseye Guy podcast and, and mine is, I do different things. Like I put one out on green bonds for education.
I’ve done a lot on blockchain education. And then I interview. You know, friends of mine, my last podcast interview was Richard Quest from CNN Quest on business, who’s, you know, his audience, 125 million people and he travels around the world and yeah. Thanks. So I, I, but it’s, those are fun because just like, like you, this one’s a little more formal and I like and appreciate it.
Sometimes mine and with Richard, I’ll give Richard a plug. Richard Quest was fascinating. Mm-hmm. Because we got through the, the, the normal podcasts and he looked at me and anybody that knows his story will know this. If not, it’s okay. Richard said, oh, is that all you want to ask me? I go, well, what do you mean?
What don’t you wanna ask me about? And he’d had some prior discretions that got arrested. There’s some things in his background that I guess most people sabotage him on. Hmm. And I’m like, well, why would I have said I’m, yeah. I want to know about how you got to be Richard Quest. Yeah. What your motivation is not.
That, but he actually wanted to talk about it. Mm mm-hmm. You know, and so sometimes podcasts allow you to bring out something different cause you have a little longer. Format and a little more intimacy. So con yeah, congratulations to you. Keep up the great work and, you know, awesome. Onto your next 6,000.
Awesome. Well for everybody tuning in, we’ll definitely put all the links into the show notes so that you can just click on the links, go check out the Bullseye guy and all the co, all the, all of Steven’s content and definitely go subscribe to that podcast. So all good there. Steven, really thanks Kim for coming the show.
Yeah, thanks. Great seeing you.
