It happens to be Mint & Birch’s sixth birthday, so what better time is there to talk about this incredible jewellery company? (Happy birthday, M&B! Congrats, Jess!)

I originally came across Mint & Birch in late 2016 or early 2017 on Instagram. I absolutely loved the necklaces, so when Travis asked me what I wanted for Mother’s Day last year, I requested a Mint & Birch bar with William’s birthday on it without hesitation — and that’s what I got (in rose gold, of course)! He also got our wedding anniversary on the other side, and I’ve worn it almost every day since.

It was funny, because he had ordered it when Jessica (owner, operator, mastermind, and creative guru behind the brand) had opened up local orders, but between when Travis placed the order and Mother’s Day, I got pregnant with Isla (that April fertility, tho). We knew baby #2 would have a similar due date to William’s, so Travis (jokingly… ish) suggested I book my RCS on William’s birthday so that both of their birth dates would be on one necklace.

1. WHY would I want to be in the hospital getting sliced open on our kiddo’s third birthday?!
2. January 6, 2018 was a Saturday. I checked.
3. Isla didn’t really care about my jewellery dilemma, anyway, and showed up a whole five weeks early.

I knew that I’d obviously need to get a new necklace with Isla’s birth date on it, since I can’t be playing favourites with my Kids Who Can’t Read Good* (*at all). Turns out Isla was either a) conspiring to ruin the necklace that only her brother’s birthday was on, or b) is a normal baby who likes to grab things; regardless, she ended up pulling incessantly on the chain for several months, and it ended up breaking! I messaged Jess on Instagram in a blind panic, asking her if she was able to somehow fix it, and she said she could replace the chain for me.

As it were, she was doing a pop-up at Little Bean & Co. shortly thereafter (she had also just given birth to her fourth bub, Willow, who is a few months younger than Isla — she is srsly a goddess) so she fixed my chain at the pop-up, and in just a few hours, my necklace was fixed!

And then, only a few months after that, she did another local order opening (yay!), and I raced to my laptop to order another necklace with Isla’s birth date and both kiddos’ names on it. Now I wear them both everyday, and I love the layered look!

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Jessica uses her platform on Instagram (@mintandbirch) to advertise her business, but she also uses it to bring awareness to mental illnesses — specifically, postpartum anxiety and depression that she has been dealing with. If you need to read a supportive, relatable post (or twelve), check out her IG! She’s also a super sweet human being (and complete superhuman), and we’ve become insta-friends through bonding about our small humans who keep us up all night (thanks for the 1 am messaging, Jess!), and postpartum mental illnesses. So, I asked her if she’d be willing to do an interview for when I inevitably wrote about her wonderful brand, and she said YES! So, here are some questions — asked and wonderfully answered — that I had for Jess:

1. You mention on your website that you started making jewellery for friends. What ultimately made you decide to start Mint & Birch?

I loved making jewellery as a child, and I would go through stores with beads and trinkets, and take apart clothes for embellishments to make jewellery for myself! But what got me to start making jewellery again as a mama was because I wanted to make Mother’s Day presents! When I gave my mother-in-law her nest necklace, she teared up and cried. I was so touched because I could see how something I made with my very own hands touched her heart. Ultimately, I wanted to start Mint & Birch because I wanted an excuse to buy more supplies to make more jewellery for all of my friends. As I started going deeper into jewellery making, the equipment and materials began to be more and more expensive. At the time, we were living paycheque to paycheque, and I simply needed an excuse to fuel my outlet!

2. When you were young, what was your dream job?

When I was young, I dreamed of being a lawyer. I almost got my Bachelor’s in Psychology. (I’m just missing those little elective courses!). I wanted to get into grad school and become a counselor for girls with eating disorders. Those dreams are not completely off the table yet. 😉

3. What do you think is the biggest challenge when it comes to running your own business?

The biggest challenge, as cliche as it is… is the balance of being a mama and an entrepreneur. However, for me, it’s not really the practical side of balancing things that is the hardest for me. (That part IS hard, but my husband is super hands on and is super involved with tasks that involve caring for children and around the house).

The hardest part is to balance my hopes, dreams and aspirations as a business owner with my heart as a mama. I’ll start off by saying that my kids will always, always come before my business. However, I am ultimately a stay-at-home mama even though I work just as much as my husband does. I am never, ever away from my children and even when I work from home, I am always available for my children. I choose to always be available for my children because they come first. However, it can be hard on the heart when I run a six-figure-business, and I sometimes daydream about what Mint & Birch could be; a retail store would be one of my dreams. However, the reality is that I am the parent that my children prefer. I’m the one that knows most what makes them tick. I guess the biggest challenge when it comes to running my own business is that whole heart-balance thing!

4. How do you find a balance between working at home and family life? From my personal experience, working outside of the home is often easier for me than working at home. Do you feel this way, too?

I think that the word “balance” is a tricky one! For me, it’s all about realizing that my personal balance is always going to change. Some days, I’ll have more energy to do more. Some days I will have less energy because the baby was up all night. Some days my kids will need me more than others. Some days, my business will be busier than others. The lovely thing about owning my own business is that I am able to welcome the ebbs and flows. So for me, there isn’t really a “balance.” But one thing that I do try to do is that when I do the cutting and stamping, I lock myself away in my home studio. Cutting and stamping into expensive precious metals can require a lot of concentration, because it will be expensive if I make mistakes! However, because I work from home, I still choose to be available to my children if my husband needs a hand from me with the kids. It just means I can pause what I am doing, close my office door and put on my mom hat without having to put things away. Working from my home office is one of the best things!

So I guess the short answer to this is that the key to this balance is to be as efficient as I can be with my time, to only spend time on focusing on the positives. Being wise with how I spend and invest my time is key to making sure I prevent burn out!

But…. Having said that, I’m going to be getting office space this Fall because I’m SO craving the face-to-face connections with customers, and customers who become my friends (like you!); I’m not 100% sure what my “schedule” will look like, but I’m going to remember that balance is like an ocean. It’s never still, and will ebb and flow with the weather and the moon as it pulls the tides. (That’s always my analogy when I have a hard time with balance!)

5. How often (days/hours) do you usually work a week?

This one’s a hard one! Sometimes I work from my office, sometimes I work on my countertop. Sometimes I attempt to work, but have to get up 10 times to nurse. When I do have my dedicated work days, I pull 12-14 hour days. During this time, I will wear the baby for part of my work (when I’m not doing the dangerous stuff or the part that needs full concentration). I also come in and out of the house to play with the kids, but I will spend probably a total of 12-14 hours that day, working. They’re very, very long days but I find that if I dedicate at least 2-3 long days in one week, that I can lighten my load for the rest of the week and I can work on things in the house and be with my children (like emails or paperwork).

6. What’s your favourite thing about Mint & Birch?

Mint & Birch is my creative outlet. It’s a business and it ultimately supports my family. Before I had Mint & Birch, I would have wished my story was different. (In a nutshell, I had a very interesting and eventful childhood). However, as orders poured in, customers also emailed me to tell me the meaning behind their necklaces. I get requests to celebrate, memorialize, and symbolize so many beautiful stories. It still gives me goosebumps and butterflies to think that I get to make something to celebrate these very special things. Because of this, I’ve been challenged and inspired to embrace my own story, and to find healing and beauty within may own story.

7. What’s your favourite thing about being a small business owner?

What I love about running a small business is the community and the people I get to connect with. The small-shop world is a tightly knit group and I couldn’t be more lucky to be a part of it. Some of my closest friendships have started here!

And my ABSOLUTE favourite thing about running my own business is that I get to make my own product, and because of this, I have an opportunity to give something to people. This business started off because I wanted to make gifts for my mother-in-law and my friends, and that essence of my business hasn’t stopped. I love gifting necklaces!

8. When you first started Mint & Birch, what did you expect in terms of growth? What were your goals? What are your goals now?

I had absolutely NO idea what I was getting myself into, let’s just say that! 😉 Taxes, paperwork, lawyers, trademarks, insurance… what?! I am still learning every day!

My goal for growth: This is a tough one. I feel like the standard business model is steady, upwards growth. This is great for businesses and companies where outsourcing can be done well, or where manufacturing is an option. So what I have to say below, only applies for me and may not be the same for other businesses. Plenty of businesses outsource and manufacture, and this only improves their business. But for Mint & Birch, it would do the opposite.

For Mint & Birch, outsourcing and manufacturing is never, ever going to be an option. I have a lot of business friends cringe at this because they know the income potential of Mint & Birch — they’ve seen the numbers, and the numbers show an incredible potential for a multi-million-dollar enterprise. However, that’s not where I want to take Mint & Birch. I want to stay humble and true to my roots.

I’ve spent a lot of years perfecting my trade and I have it down to a science: down to the angle at which I file my necklaces, the speed that my drill hits each blank to drill the hole. Years and years of practice that won’t be able to be replicated by another employee. That, and I’m not sure if anyone is willing to sacrifice their nails for me because cutting and filing these bars leaves very unsightly callouses!

In 2015, Mint & Birch grew substantially, and I had to face a fork in the road and decide whether or not I was going to outsource. I decided not to, so I committed myself to focus on enrichment, rather than growth. So for Mint & Birch, “growth” is equivalent to “enrichment.” Growth happens naturally and organically for Mint & Birch!

So, my goal for Mint & Birch is this: continued connection with people. Every time I get an email from someone who just received their necklace saying that they love their necklace, my goal is being achieved.

Having said that, my new office space opening up with The Heart is also part of my goal… I’m missing the human face-to-face connection. And part of my goal is to be able to do last minute necklaces and have a place to meet customers to pick up their necklaces in person, or have it made on site! So this new office space will really help me with what I want to do with Mint & Birch!

9. How did the name “Mint & Birch” come to be?

Ok, embarrassing moment here: Mint & Birch used to be named Woodland Owl Trinkets. Yep, it’s a mouthful. I thought it was cute and unique. One summer, I gave my son a white canvas and taped it up with painters tape. I put vertical strips of tape up and down the canvas and let him paint all over it with some green, blue, mint and white paint. After it dried, I peeled off the tape and it looked like there were birch trees on a mint background.

10. What’s your favourite Mint & Birch piece to make? To wear?

I specialize in bars and my favourite thing to make are bar necklaces! I just love the feeling of cutting and filing! The transformation from a large sheet of precious metal into pretty, shiny little bars is something that I take pride in! My everyday piece has my kids’ names on it, with Forever Mama stamped on the back! I usually layer it with either a triangle or a heart that has my initials and my husband’s initials on it!

11. Why did you decide on the phrase “Forever Mama®”? What does that mean to you?

A little bit about my Forever Mama® phrase… My childhood was quite interesting… because of trauma and abuse in the family; my own mother was neglectful but also emotionally abusive. After I started having children, I decided to protect my children and we became estranged. It hurts to have a mom-shaped hole, but it also makes me so much more aware of how important a mother is to her children. Being a mother is the best job security in the world because our children never stop needing us. Even as a 29-year-old, estranged daughter, I crave motherly love. I know firsthand the depth that this need reaches down. “Forever Mama” is something that I stamped on my own necklace to remind myself that I am my children’s safe space, unconditional love and that there will always be a home for them with me. I’ve posted a little about this on social media, but my PPD and PPA this time around has stemmed from a loss of a motherly figure, the abuse and neglect that happened in my childhood. But the beautiful thing about the pain is the realization of just how fundamental and important a mama’s love is to her children. Forever Mama can mean a lot of different things to other mamas, but for me, it means this: “You are safe here. You are unconditionally loved.” That’s a quote I wrote for myself to go with the phrase Forever Mama!

I just want to thank Jess so much for taking the time to answer these questions! I learned so much and I shed some tears. If you have any additional questions for her, she’ll be doing a Live Q&A on her IG about running a small business — you can pop by there and write any questions you have in the “ask” box in the Q&A Highlights.

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If you have a piece by Mint & Birch, let me know the story behind it! If not, what do you have your eye on? I’d like to get a rose gold choker so that I can complete my layering with a third necklace (that Isla hopefully won’t be able to get her hands around); this 90’s kid is a sucker for choker necklaces!