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TheDailyScrapper:
Is it very popular now in the market?
Miss Mint:
It is. Hybrid is very popular right now. A lot of people are involved with it now compared to a year ago.

TheDailyScrapper:
Which would you consider more popular? The digital professional printed photo book or this hybrid?
Miss Mint:
It's hard to say because they are not really comparable. A professional photo book is like a coffee table piece, something that you keep and treasure, something that you could pass down through generations. Board books are only about 10 pages and they are more of a craft project, more artistic, a fun thing to do.

TheDailyScrapper:
You also offer CD burning services. Is that something that is utilized a lot?
Miss Mint:
Yes. I have a lot of people in the rural area that have poor or unreliable internet connections. I wouldn't say it gets used everyday but there are enough people who use it to make it worthwhile.

TheDailyScrapper:
When you design a product as a designer, do you feel right away this is going to be a big money maker or this is going to be nice but people may not like it that much?
Miss Mint:
Yes! And I am very often wrong! [laugh]

TheDailyScrapper:
Do you observe any trends and seasons?
Miss Mint:
They change a lot. Right now it seems hybrid is really taking off, seems to be a lot of doodling and realistic elements.

TheDailyScrapper:
You mentioned Peppermint Creative gives you the freedom to design. Is there any other satisfaction derived from it?
Miss Mint:
very satisfying.  I get a lot of e-mails from people telling me they love what they bought, they like the store and that they find it easy to navigate. People aren't afraid to tell me what they think, whether it's good or bad.

TheDailyScrapper:
Let's assume you would only be making 75% of what you are getting. Would you still say the reward, the satisfaction, the contact with customers is worth more than being back in the corporate job? Would you still feel as excited and satisfied?
Miss Mint:
No! Are you crazy! [laugh] Personally, it is really satisfying creatively. Before I was doing this I felt a very big creative void in my life because I have always been a drawing, crafting, something person and I hadn’t been doing anything creative for a long time.

TheDailyScrapper:
So it's the right balance and mixture between rational and pragmatic financial approach and the satisfaction to it. The corporate environment reduced you to a crafting engineer doing what they want you to do
Miss Mint:
Yes. I hated my job. I'm not the type of person that responds well to being bossed around. [laugh]

TheDailyScrapper:
Who are scrappers?
Miss Mint:
Generally we are looking at all women, probably 90% stay-at-home moms, 98% mothers I would say, mostly people with children that's because scrapbooking is always a family thing. Some of them have corporate day jobs, some of them have backgrounds in very uncreative fields but all of them have some sort of creative something in them.

TheDailyScrapper:
You are 29, you don't talk like a mom and you are at least 98% total opposite of what you have described of scrappers. How do you relate to them?
Miss Mint:
They are my people! I don't have kids yet, I'm not married but I am certainly headed that way. So I could understand where they are coming from. I have a lot of interaction with team and my customers and they tell me what they are looking for and what they like.  I look to the industry to see where it's going, what's coming. I infuse my own ideas into it. I don't know... I don't feel that different from my customers. I feel the same. In a lot of way, I am my customers.

TheDailyScrapper:
I would like to close this interview to ask "Who are you?" I know you like peppermint and I am talking to Miss Mint. Is there any particular reasons why nobody knows more about Miss Mint?
Miss Mint:
We know nothing about Miss Mint other than my personality through my blog and my work. To tell you the truth, I didn't really plan it this way.

I had the name Peppermint Creative from my freelance days, and I was thinking to myself of all the biggest companies in the world, a lot of them have a mascot, a character or something memorable about them. I thought of Disney and Mickey Mouse, Frosted Flakes and Tony the Tiger, Michelin and the Michelin Man,...all these companies have sort of an icon. I asked who can I be? Since I have Peppermint Creative, I thought I should make a character to host the website. So I came up with Miss Mint and I drew this avatar. I didn't intend to hide my identity but I didn't really put it out there. People started really poking and asking and I thought, "Well, I'm not going to tell them." And it sort of got a life of its own to the point where I was like, "Okay, now I’m really not going to tell them." Then it sort of became this whole big mystery. A lot of people think I am a man. [laugh] The funny thing is I'm not shy with personal details. In my blog I do talk a lot about personal things, my opinions, my thoughts, what I am doing, buying, all that kind of stuff. I just don't reveal what I look like, what my name is but that's all people really want to know. I'm not hiding anything. I am just a normal person, no secrets, no shady background. It just took on a life of its own - so I stuck with it.

TheDailyScrapper: So we should keep it that way for now with the unique design of Mystery Miss Mint.