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Debbie Dekleva is a recent recipient of the Innovator of the Year award from the Nebraska Business Development Council and the Wild Idea Cultivator at Monarch Flyway; a company that makes products out of milkweed. She also founded Sustainable Monarch in which she heads up Monarch Flyway’s habitat conservation and non-profit efforts.

In this episode, Debbie and I discuss how Monarch Flyway got started using milkweed of all things, how I’ve used milkweed balm to help sooth my own children’s pain over the years, how feedback from a cancer patient helped them create their milkweed balm, why they started Sustainable Monarch, how being part of my Voice of Influence Academy “turned on some light bulbs” for her and helped her develop her own voice of influences, how she has handled the many setbacks in her business over the years, and more.

Take a listen to the episode!

Mentioned in this episode:

• Sustainable Monarch
• Monarch Flyway’s Milkweed Balm
• Fascinate Assessment
• The Myers & Briggs Foundation
• Changemakers Act for Biodiversity Challenge

 

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Transcript

Andrea:  Debbie, it is great to have you here on the Voice of Influence podcast.

Debbie Dekleva:  Thank you so much for having me, Andrea.

Andrea:  All right, so why don’t you tell us a little bit about your role in your organizations?  I know that you’ve kind of get a couple and maybe you can tell us a little bit how they work together too.

Debbie Dekleva: Sure.  So, I am the Wild Idea Cultivator at Monarch Flyway, and what that means is we make products out of milkweed.  And so, since it’s a pretty abstract thing to be doing, you need to have a lot of ideas and try a lot of different things out.  So, we’re entrepreneurial; we create products and we conserve habitat while we do it.  So, after about thirty years in business, we decided… We do a lot of nonprofit activities.  And so, I founded Sustainable Monarch, and that took over the nonprofit activities that we did of research and education and conservation.

Andrea:  All right, so you’re using milkweed, which around here has never had a great reputation for being a really important kind of a plant.  And how did this get started?  How did you guys get started with milkweed, of all things?

Debbie Dekleva:  Well, I am second-generation of the business and my dad was a patent attorney for Standard Oil of Ohio in Cleveland, Ohio.  And they were trying to develop new usage for all kinds of different things.  And one thing they worked on was creating a bio-fuel out of milkweed, and they learned that was not very economical.  And so my dad took over the vice-presidentship of new ventures, and the milkweed project was one of those ventures.  And so they did all kinds of different inventions with milkweed and thankfully did a lot of the expensive research at Standard Oil of Ohio, but British Petroleum took over the company.  And if it didn’t have to do with petroleum, the project was eliminated.  And, obviously, milkweed is one of those things that did not make the cut for British Petroleum.  So, we decided to move the company out to where milkweed grows really well.  So, going from Ohio, we moved to Nebraska.

Andrea:  And what kinds of products do you make with milkweed?  What’s the possibilities?

Debbie Dekleva:  Well, the possibilities are vast, but when we started with just my dad’s savings account, we did high value, low volume products, which went into down comforters and pillows.  So, the milkweed fiber is hollow and it wicks moisture away from your body so it’s very breathable.  And we mixed the 30% milkweed fiber – which is, like, a soft fluff – in with goose down and that is also soft fluff.  But one obviously is a vegetable and plant material, and then the other one’s an animal byproduct.  And so that increased the natural properties of goose down, and it made it more breathable, and also made it hypoallergenic.  So, milkweed fiber is hypoallergenic by itself and it suppressed the dust and dander that people are allergic to in down.  So, people who normally couldn’t sleep with down products could use the hypo-down product, which is what that is.

So, that was our first value-added business.  And then we knew that the oil had a lot of interesting properties to it as well from the milkweed seed.  And we… actually, my dad, the inventor that he is – a chemist, patent attorney – is always experimenting, and he was scheduled for a hip replacement surgery based on osteoarthritis.  He put some milkweed oil on his hip that was really painful, and it felt better, and it helped him move it better.  And so, he was like, “Oh my gosh, I think this is working.”  And nobody believed him, but we did start asking other people to try to it, and they were, like, “Oh my gosh, this stuff is great.”  So, we learned that oil from the milkweed is a pain reliever.

We don’t really know how that happened or what the active ingredient is that makes that happen, but it is something that we’re going to be taking years and years to study.  But we do have a skin moisturizing milkweed balm that we create in Ogallala, Nebraska.  And we saw that and since we learned that we couldn’t really say it’s a pain reliever, we added some essential oils to it and have our original cream, which is the AnyTime cream; it’s the ClockWork Collection.  And then we’ve got DownTime, which has lavender in it; GameTime, which has a winter green kind of, Bengayish kind of smell to it.  And then we have GoTime, which is a grapefruit and mint scent.  So that is our new items that we have going on the market.

Andrea:  Oh man, I love it.  And I have taken a look at your website since you’ve done some work in the recent months, and I love the new rebrand.  And I’m so excited to try the new way that you’ve packaged this because even the way that you used it in the past with the milkweed balm by itself, you know, we would use it with our kids.  So, if our kids have an ache or pain – or sometimes they have growing pains, that sort of thing – it’s not something you always want to give your kid ibuprofen for.  And so, I’ve had them try the milkweed balm, and they’re like, “Oh, this is really helpful.”  It really is.  It’s very interesting how… I don’t know exactly how it works, like you said, but it seems to work.  It really does help.

Debbie Dekleva:  Right.  Well, thank you so much.  It’s always great to hear stories from people on how they use it.

Andrea:  And I know that you’ve had a lot of people who have other kinds of aches and pains that use milkweed balm, and it felt like it really has made a difference for them.  Can you tell us a little bit about what other kinds of uses there are for it?

Debbie Dekleva:  Yeah.  So, when we first started, we were mixing the milkweed oil with a couple other carrier oils.  And we put out a rollerball, so it’s like a liquid and you had to roll it on – I don’t know if you can envision like a deodorant, but they were smaller – and we had a cancer patient contact us and say, “Okay, I love your products, but it actually hurts to apply the roller ball.  So, can you please put together a cream for me that I can apply easier?”  And, you know, first off, it was shocking that it would be painful to apply.  But cancer patients end up with a lot of bone, muscle, and joint pain from chemotherapy as well as like neuropathy issues.  And so, of course, we’re like, “Oh, it’s gotta be difficult.”  So, we worked with this patient and put together a cream and she was like, “This is it – this is perfect!”

And so, you know, what we wanted to do is have it be effective, but also in a creamy mixture and that’s where the new milkweed balm cream that we have came from.  The genesis was from actually a cancer patient’s request.

Andrea:  All right, and then you have Sustainable Monarch, which is a nonprofit.  How did you get started with that nonprofit and how did they work together?

Debbie Dekleva:  So, we were doing a lot of non-profit activities with Monarch Flyway, which is our business.  And we decided that in order to propel our mission further – which is to conserve monarch butterfly habitat while helping rural communities – we really needed a non-profit arm and take the non-profit activities that we were already doing of habitat, conservation, education and social justice of rural economic development and underserved communities to an actual nonprofit.

And so, that is what we have been working on now in conjunction with the for-profit business.  But our goal is really to help rural communities, and the vision is to have twenty unique milkweed businesses along the migration path of the monarch butterfly, which runs from Mexico to Canada.  So, across North America and have these little cottage industries or even very big businesses that the pipeline is fed by wild harvested milkweed.

Andrea:  Okay, how does that happen?  So, wild harvest with milkweed.  I already kind of know and I feel like that is really interesting piece of what you guys do.

Debbie Dekleva:  Yes.  So, milkweed is a slow-growing perennial, and you just plant it thinking you’re gonna get a harvest like most farmers would; it really doesn’t operate that way.  The best milkweed standards are at least a decade old for production.  So, we find milkweed, and we create value from the milkweed that’s already in place.  We’ve identified a lot more milkweed than we can actually sell, and so what we’re working toward is creating more businesses that will utilize more milkweeds so we can protect more habitats.

So, we would really love to take some of these communities that we’ve been working with, say, in Michigan, and create a business that not only can they go out and collect milkweed as families, it’s actually hand-harvested – just like they did in World War II, where they collected milkweed pods for the war effort, and they used to milkweed fiber in life jackets and flight jackets.

So, it was warm and it also kept servicemen afloat for over a week if their boat sunk or their plane was shot down.  So, it’s really important, almost like the war hero… one of the war heroes from World War II.

Andrea:  Hmm.  That’s so cool.  Okay, so you have recently won an award.  Can you tell us about the Nebraska Business Development Council and the Innovator of the Year award that you just won?

Debbie Dekleva:  So, we were really excited about this.  This is a project that actually started at Standard Oil of Ohio, had its beginnings there.  We knew that you could turn the milkweed fiber into a non-woven.  So, instead of going… like the down that we have is 70% goose down, 30% milkweed, and the non-woven product that we’ve created, it’s actually 80% milkweed fiber and 20% a binder.  And so it’s very thin insulation material. Look for it in a clothing; and it’s probably the first place that it will be.  It’s really thin so maybe sleek clothing, but it would also keep you warm.

So, it’s been tested up against Thinsulate and Primaloft, which are two leading insulators that are 100% synthetic, made out of petroleum-based materials.  And this is obviously 80% natural material that also conserves butterfly habitat and helps people in rural communities.  So, we’re excited to get this launched and have it be readily accepted within the outdoor retailer industry as well as – eventually, when we can get into wider widths – the bedding industry.

Andrea:  Hmm.  Awesome!  Well, congratulations on this award.  That’s fantastic!

Debbie Dekleva:  Thank you so much.  It was a process, and it’s one of those things that we’ve been dreaming about for over thirty years and have finally gotten to the point that we could act on it.  And that was partially true in Nebraska about Business Development Center, where they encourage us to apply for a prototype grant from Department of Economic Development so that we could get this launched – because the more we can use, the more good that we can do in the world.  So, we’re really excited about it.

Andrea:  Cool.  So, this is a podcast about influence, and we bring on people like you, Debbie, to talk about their voice – the things that they really care about.  But sometimes we get to dive a little bit deeper into the person themselves.  And I would love to do that with you because I think that you have gone through a pretty big transformation.  Even though you’ve always had this very strong voice, you know, I know that there have been some shifts in you in the last few years.  Could you share a little bit about how you have seen yourself develop in your own voice of influence?

Debbie Dekleva:  Sure.  So, I really have enjoyed being able to do what I want to do and giving other people credit for a lot of the different ideas and things that I have done.  And actually, I went through the Voice of Influence Academy, and I joined the first master class of Voice of Influence, and that was something that really turned on some light bulbs for me; not only like where I am uniquely capable of doing the different things that I do, but also where I could stand for some major improvement.  And I did the Fascinate Assessment with you.  And what that brought out was my archetype is actually the mastermind.

And first off, I was pretty shocked that my number one was power.  And then my second point was mystique.  So, I do a lot of thinking and background, but I’m trying to develop these really elaborate, complex plans, but I’m more than happy to give other people credit for it, which is really good.  I think sharing credit is really important.

But being second-generation of our family business, I just kind of hit the wingman position so that I was more in the background, but I was working at it all so that it worked out.  And going through that class really gave me the wherewithal to say, “Okay, I’m at a transition point in our business because I’m second-generation.  I’m the one who’s coming up next.  And instead of being the wingman, I actually need to take a leap forward and be the face of the business.”

And so that has been a huge point of growth.  And one of the other things that we did in that was to really focus our message, our core message.  And so, it keeps evolving because I went through it maybe three years ago, and where I am on that now, I always think of the arrow.  Like, “What point am I trying to get people to?”

And what I have come up with is I’m working on profitable prairies that help communities and create value out of biodiversity.  And one of the things that I’m really excited about right now is having that competence to go forward and saying, “Yes, I am actually applying for a Changemakers Act for Biodiversity contest.”  And yet in the past, I’d ever put someone else’s name in it or I try to divert the attention from me and what I do to something else.

And this time, I’m really owning it and I’m going for it, and it’s a global contest.  So, I’m really excited about that.  If anyone wants to go to Changemakers Act for Biodiversity contest, I’d love your vote.

Andrea:  That sounds good.  Yeah, we’ll link to that in the show notes, Debbie, so that people can do that.  I really love that you have been able to kind of recognize the qualities of your voice, and who you really are, and step forward into that even more fully in the last few years.  Of course, you’re in a position where your dad has done so many amazing things with his company and with his ideas, and yet you also have your ideas, and you’ve been able to utilize those and utilized your gifts to really help the company move forward from here.  And that is so exciting because when we step behind and diminish our voice and diminish our gifts and what we’re doing, then it makes it really hard for us to move forward.

Debbie Dekleva:   Right.  And I think learning about yourself and what makes you tick and seeing maybe some of your blind spots – or really, let’s call it what it is, insecurities – it’s like, “Okay, I need to fail more.  I need to go out there and not be so afraid of rejection, and not be so afraid of putting myself out there.”  And one thing that I always hear you say that I love is what do you have to offer to the world and you need to present.  And people can either take it or run with it or they can refuse it; but having it offered gives you the opportunity, and then the opportunity to grow and do better and make more things happen.

Andrea:  Yeah, because if we don’t offer it, most of the time, people don’t know that it’s there.  I know that that’s something that I have seen over and over again is that people want other people to pick them.  They want to feel like they’ve been discovered, but the truth is that we can’t be discovered if we don’t put ourselves out there, which therefore means that we’re going to get rejected at some point or at a lot of points.

I loved your statement that you want to get out there and fail more at more stuff.  You said that to me earlier, and I was like, “Yes, get out there and fail at more stuff.”  Not because you’re trying to go fail, but because it’s inevitable that you’re going to be rejected a bunch of times in order to get to the win a few times.  It’s just the way it goes.

Debbie Dekleva:  Exactly.  And that is a fear of failure, fear of rejection.  It has been just a mainstay of my life, really.  And the more I go out there and the more I say, “Hey, if this is what I have to offer,” I’m actually getting accepted more, right – probably because I’m trying.  It makes it like you said.  If no one knows what you have to offer, they can’t accept it or they’re not going to discover you because, you know, I’m hiding behind the rock of protection.  You know, what am I protecting myself from?

And in some ways, you know, I’ve been struggling at this for thirty years.  And it’s almost like, “Oh, my gosh, what am I gonna do when this hits and it’s successful?”  And we are at a tipping point right now that I have to make myself keep going out there and keep going out there.  And partially, it’s because what really inspires me are the communities that we work with and the meaningful impact that we have in the lives of underserved communities.  Like I said, the more that we can use milkweed and commerce, the more habitat we can protect, the more people we can help, the better the environment’s going to be.

Andrea:  Hmm.  You know, you just brought up a really important point, and that is what’s the point of putting yourself out there and offering who you are and everything if it’s just about you?  If it’s about the bigger picture, if there’s a deeper sense of purpose behind what you do, then you’re going to be more willing to put yourself out there.  If you remember that – if you keep that in front of you – and so that’s what you keep doing.  Every time we talk about this, you have those people in mind, those people that are going to harvest the milkweed, the people that are going to be helped by the products and the habitat and the monarch butterflies that are going to be able be sustained – their habitat that will be sustained because of what you’re doing.  And when there is that deeper purpose, man, it just makes it a lot more meaningful, doesn’t it?

Debbie Dekleva:  It does, it does.  I would do what I do for free because I feel so strongly and so convicted about how we can make the world a better place through market-based solutions, which is just using the natural resources around us; not in an extractive way, but in a regenerative way.  So, we can regenerate these communities that, you know, most of the businesses in those communities are boarded up because the people are leaving the area.

And that’s just so many, so many different ways that we can help in a very holistic way.  And we always have talked from the beginning, “How many wins can we create?”  You know, like, we want the win for the customer, the win for the people picking the pods, the win for our company, the win for the environment.  How many ways can we touch people that makes them better for being part of what we’re doing?

Andrea:  Yeah, that’s very inspiring.  Debbie, I know that there have been some setbacks over the years.  Can you tell us about how you handle setbacks?  I mean, you just keep going.  You’re the energizer bunny.  You keep going.  You know, you have an idea, you put it into play; maybe it works, maybe it doesn’t.  If it doesn’t, you just keep finding the new thing.  You find something else and keep going.  How do you keep going?

Debbie Dekleva:  Well, one thing that helps me is I’m an idea person.  So, I’ve never had a lack of things that I feel like could happen.  The world is full of possibilities.  If you don’t like that idea, I’ve got ten more right behind it.

Andrea:  So, the “world is full of possibilities” kind of thing.

Debbie Dekleva:  So, setbacks are really, really tough when I’ve gone after an idea and after an idea and after an idea, and I’m – like you said – very persistent with that and then realizing, “This is not going to work.”  And so you have to go, I call it drop back fifteen and punt. Like, “What’s gonna come next?”  But you’re right, it’s more about an attitude of, “Okay, we’re gonna get up and we’re gonna do our best and move forward.”  We’re the longest-standing milkweed company – where, like, that’s our purpose, it’s milkweed – in the history of the world.  And one of the things that we have found are a whole lot of things not to do.  And I think that failure is just part of the process.  So, when you’re doing something that no one’s ever really successfully done before, tenacity is probably the biggest contributor to success.

Andrea:  Hmm, love it.  So, Debbie, if you could offer some extra last word for the listener who wants to have a voice of influence, what would you say to them?

Debbie Dekleva:  Well, I think that, first, knowing who you are and what makes you tick, which a lot of people take for granted.  I think that a lot of people don’t do the deep dive in themselves.  And really, until I did the Fascinate Assessment and we delved into the Myers-Briggs kinds of things and learning what makes me tick, I’m like, “Okay, this is why I gravitate toward this.”  I really feel like if you want to make a difference and you want to use your talents to the best of your ability, self-discovery is critical because you can see so many more blind spots or so many ways that you might be able to improve upon what you’re doing that you wouldn’t have seen if you didn’t have the knowledge of yourself.

Andrea:  Hmm, love it.  Well, thank you, Debbie.  Thank you so much for your voice of influence in my life, and for your nudges along the way, and for just demonstrating for us what it looks like to be tenacious and go for it.

Debbie Dekleva:  Thank you so much, Andrea.  It’s been my pleasure.