 everyone and welcome to staying young at heart. I'm your host Maria Mera and I'm also the financial advisor with Edward Jones. Today, I'm super happy because we are bringing new beginnings we are after COVID and seeing so many negative news and we are finally bringing a new business to our so and my guest is the owner of Paradise Monarchs. So without further ado, welcome Henry Fang, the owner of Paradise Monarchs. Hello, Maria. Maria, how are you? Good, thank you. I'm super pleased and I'm excited to have you here today. Likewise, thank you and I appreciate Think Tech Hawaii for hosting me as well. Thank you very much. And I think because I'm a very visual person, I think that I would show a video of a little video before we get started if you're okay with that. Yeah, sounds good. Thank you, Maria. Let's go ahead. Okay, so I wanted to start with that because she's so beautiful and also on the Paradise Monarchs website you define as the chance to witness the final transformation of the Monarch butterfly. So tell us a little more about the concept of your business. Yeah, so we sell a line Monarch butterfly chrysalis boxes where people get a chance to take home their very own chrysalis and witness them going through the metamorphosis. You know, so cool when you first receive it, it's very fresh green and you'll see the color changes to translucent and eventually catch a butterfly come out of the chrysalis. And once that emerged, you get to release your own Monarch butterfly. So walk us through how did you, how did you get to this concept and the creation of the business. Yeah, absolutely. So, like a lot of people last March I became furlough. And then one day I would just lay in bed serving the internet. And I discovered that the Monarch butterfly is on the verge of becoming endangered species. And also I learned like fun, like facts, such as like life, while caterpillar have less than 5% chance of survival. So I just started doing tons and tons of research, you know, being a furlough, I would just honestly bore at home. I just started raising Monarch butterfly, just a fun passion project online. I can already see that you are one of those people who cannot get bored, right? You need to have a project always in your hands. I definitely enjoy staying productive and busy and I just don't like lounge it at home. So tell me, did you ever, did you grow up with butterflies or how is this like completely out of the blue? Yeah, it's very out of the blue. So growing up, I never took any special interest in, you know, learning more about butterfly. But I did. So growing up in Taiwan, in elementary school, I actually raised silkworm. So I thought, oh, it's very similar, but it's not butterfly. I thought, okay, maybe I raised silkworm before, you know, with my, maybe I can try raising the butterfly. I think we, or at least I can relate, because so we had those projects, myself and my sisters, we had the project of growing them. I think in Spain, they were milkweed, or I don't know if there's any difference between the different butterflies. So is this butterfly specific of Hawaii or tell us where else could you find that? The Mono butterfly is the species mainly in North America. So they're across, you know, across US, there's the Western Mono butterfly and also the Eastern Mono butterfly. The Eastern Mono butterfly, they migrate to Central Mexico for the winter and then travel back north the rest of the year, you know, as far as Canada. And the one I'm raising is actually just a local Hawaii Mono butterfly. It's still the same species, but the weather here is so good. They stay here, you know, all year long, like, you know, the weather here is so good, they don't want to leave vacation so they stay here. So, did you know the count of how many butterflies in Hawaii? Ooh, that's a great question. It's not even possible. Yeah, it's not even possible to count, right? I haven't come across any study that shows the exact count, but I do know that, you know, and talking to a lot of people, you know, back in the days people always raised Mono butterfly and there's Mono butterfly everywhere. Over the years, also, you know, they're definitely their population on a fast decline. You don't really see Mono butterfly just flying freely anymore. So what is the, what is the life? And again, bear with me and my ignorance, but what is the life between when the butterfly is an adult, for lack of a better word, how many, how long is that life? Yeah, so an adult Mono butterfly here in Hawaii, they live about three to four weeks on average, and then they meet the female with legs about three to four hundred eggs in her lifetime, which is only within three to four weeks. Eggs on the milk replant, yeah, and start a new cycle. So how do you differentiate between the female butterfly or so if someone wants, once we see the adult butterfly, how do you differentiate if it's a female or if it's a male? Yeah, it's actually quite easy to tell. So if you look at the back of the wings, when the wings are completely spread out, you will notice that there will be two dots. If there are two dots, so like this in the picture, this one has no dots. So this one's a female Mono butterfly. There is the thicker wings and usually female butterfly has a darker color, whereas a male Mono butterfly is lighter, and you will notice that it has the thinner wings, so the lines of the wings, and then plus it has got two dots in the back of the wings. Okay, now I'm going to be checking. Yeah, I will say I think I'll need a little more training. But you were saying that this is something that I love, that in the video we say just give the give some theory of positivity and hope. Tell us more about that mission. Yeah, so the butterfly release is super symbolic. So it's with a release, you know, it symbolizes hope, beauty, a new first star and positivity. So, and with many cultures, you know, they have different interpretation of the butterfly release, but it really just, it's a very beautiful gift, not only is such a breathtaking site to when you release a butterfly, it's super symbolic, and yeah, it brings some hope with each release. Does it help? Like, you know, I hear people with mental health issues that work with horses, and it helps them, or even having dogs, it helps so much to just fill in the companionship. Do you know if this is something that has been tried with the butterflies? Yeah, absolutely. I actually, in fact, I have one of my friends who also shared the same passion as me, you know, raising a butterfly. She's actually a therapist herself. And she actually used a monobotafile transformation and then the journey and incorporated to her practice to help with her patients. Yeah. And did that work or she had to come back? Yes, absolutely. I need to experience myself personally, but I know on some of her patients, I definitely love the experience also. So, what about, what about, like, for other uses is for, because I could see I was looking at your website again and I saw for weddings and gifts and birthdays. How do you do that? How do you, how do you apply that concept on their wedding? Totally. So with the Christmas boxes, you know, you essentially get a chance to witness the butterfly transformation. So it makes a really great gift for any special occasion like weddings, for example, birthday, baby shower, anniversary, engagement. And yeah, it can, because all these special celebration, it's definitely there's a symbol of hope, you know, happiness also. So it's really fitting for any special occasion. I think who wouldn't want to get a live pristiless and, you know, get to release a butterfly as part of the celebration. Is there, for me that I tried with one of yours, it's definitely a cute feeling, you feel like a kid, you feel like a little child. Totally. Yeah, you'll be surprised. A lot of my customers like, you know, mom will buy it for the kids, but you will be surprised after they take it home, the parents, the mom, they are more excited. They are all engaged, yeah. So Henry, what is your vision in five years? How do you expect the business to grow and to, where do you want to see it? Yeah, that's an excellent question. So in five years, there's a few different ideas I have. One, I would love to in a perfect world, mono butterflies are no longer in endangered species, you know, but to get there, we'll need to get as many people involved as possible, with helping raising the mono butterfly, you know, us doing it alone is not enough, the more that they're married, you know, you've been partnering with the University of Hawaii, partnering with local organizations or, you know, Department of Architecture, anything you can do to help with moral conservation, but yeah, we'll love to also like just continue to grow and share this experience and feel that Chris is moxess. So you said you're partnering with UH, but you're a for-profit company, right? There is no funding from any other company. Correct. So we are still a for-profit organization just with a mission to help with the mono butterfly conservation. Currently we're not working with the university yet, but I'll love to in the future, you know, research program or any program that can help with the conservation there. Yeah, we'll love to get involved. So for those of us who still don't know, how much is one of their boxes? Yeah. As you can see in my backdrop, so we sell the set for $35 and it will includes all your care and also release information, so you don't have to worry if you don't have any experience in handling the cases of or, you know, exactly what to do, and it will include a wooden keepsake tag too. So the day that you release the butterfly, you can just find the date and you can have something to keep forever that you release the butterfly. And do you sell, what do you sell if someone wants to buy one of them or a number of them? How would they approach it? So best to go visit our website to order, so it's our paradisemonarchs.com, or so we offer a pickup in our ever beach private home residence, or on the weekend we do a farmer's market. So currently we do the kakaako farmer's market on every Saturday from 8 to 12, and then every other weekend we do the Kailiwa town farmer's market from 8 to 12 also. We always do pop-up shops around the island regularly, so best to visit our website to find our apartment location, or visit our Instagram page, where we just Instagram page paradisemonarchs, we always pose our upcoming pop-ups. Okay, what about online? Can we buy online? Yeah, so just visit our website, paradisemonarchs.com to order. Either we can offer pickup at one of the pop-up locations or we also offer delivery on island as well. Okay, so right now it's just Oahu. Right, it's Oahu, correct. We hope to expand to neighbour islands soon. People can actually buy it and hand carry it to neighbour island. But right now we're not shipping just yet, because it's still alive inside, they're very delicate, so we still need to figure out the perfect packaging and to safely transport them. Maybe that's at the least of projects for five years from now. Yes, I love this, so yes, it's ready. Maybe Amazon will drone them with them. You always talk about we, you're talking about the company but you talk about we, and I know you define yourself as the proud dad of the butterfly, of the Monarch butterfly. So tell me who else is with you in this project and what does that do, tell me a little bit more about, because I see that in your business career, the proud dad, so I'm very interested to see how you see yourself. So I started it and then I was very fortunate that my brother Justin, my younger brother Justin, also have moved here in April to help me do this full time as well, help me enjoy my mission to help raise the Monarch butterfly. So currently right now just us two doing full time. And then my parents, they still have to be visiting right now so they of course they they're volunteer they are involved in helping out on raising them help with the day to day watering plants. It takes a village right like they say family family business you know just just need my brother my parents and that's it. So where are you originally from Henry from Taipei Taiwan originally and so you still have family there. I do so except you know with the exception of my immediate family that's in in US everyone is still back in Taiwan. Yeah. Do you do you visit frequently or not as often as I would like you know with my busy schedule before school and then work not as much but I tried to go back as as frequent as possible. So what brought you to Hawaii if I may ask. Yeah, so actually, prior to Hawaii I actually was in my family we immigrated to Vancouver. So I grew up I'm born and raised in Taiwan, you know, and then kind of grew up in Vancouver Canada and, and then I moved to Vegas for college. Okay, after after living in Vegas for six years I'm like, I'm done with the city I need something new too much parting I need. I said no one too much too much parting said no one. And then so prior to like starting my business I actually work in the hotel industry. So I work in hotel industry in Vegas and it's like I need a fresh change I always want to work for a resort. So I actually joined the four season Oahu resort in Colina. Yeah, that's what brought me here five years ago and now I recently quit that, you know, position and now I do this full time. So what, what were you doing and I know a little bit about that but what were you doing at the four seasons in Colina. Yeah, so I started originally as the assistant guest experience manager handling VIP guests. And then eventually I was doing catering and comfort services doing a lot of events. So majority is all weddings a lot of weddings. I love it. So how has that fast and experience helped you with the business now. Absolutely. I think, and that's how I, it gave me, you know, having luxury, you know, hotel background really made me think like how can I make this to like personalized and how can I connect this crystal box to each guests. And how can I make it a very special experience. Yeah, I think definitely helped with my background in hotel. And for what I saw, I mean, there's so much care in each one of those boxes. There's, there's so many details in each one of those boxes. So who do you partner with? Is it a company, Hawaii, who also does the packaging? No, just me and my brother. So we kind of order a lot from China vendors we are trying to invent vendors in China or we have Amazon, like a lot of people is for their best friend. So a lot of stuff is all order online and everything's all separate. We said to you just DIY and arts and craft we put everything together ourselves everything's all handmade. It's really awesome. So once or twice a week, well me and my brother will kind of get out and get our scissors and the hot glue and we start doing DIYs and put together all the packaging. So do you do you guys have a physical location right now or are you mostly working from home or how does that work? So we work from home. So right now we just we're in Ewa Beach and currently we raise everything in our backyard, our home garden. And then we don't have a physical store, physical store. Hopefully that's something in the future. But currently right now we just do a lot of markets and pop ups. Okay, excellent. Okay, well, is there anything that you want our audience to know and that we haven't covered so far? Yeah, something really exciting. Also, I haven't publicly announced it yet, but I would love to share this in, you know, with you Maria this platform. So recently my family and I we have recently acquired a one acre property in Makaha because of my our new phone project to help with the monobotaflight conservation. We're going to be utilizing that property to, you know, grow a lot more milk we a lot more crown flower and continue to help with monobotaflight conservation and hopefully develop a really beautiful butterfly garden in the future right now it's still in design phases so it's going to be a long project. Congratulations on that. That is not easy. Thank you so much to even just get the property. Yes, but I hope you're a successful. The love and the hope and the joy that that you're bringing. If you receive it back, I because I can you you're an inspiration. Thank you so much. Thank you Maria. It's a pleasure talking to you. Congratulations on the project. Thank you very much for bringing this to Hawaii and I'm looking forward to seeing you grow. Sounds good. Thank you so much. Thank you everybody for staying with us in another episode of staying young and hard and we'll see you in a couple of Tuesdays. Aloha.