Stay-at-home Moms Drive Totally Dazzled

Natalie Mounter is a stay-at-home mom and entrepreneur. Her company, Totally Dazzled, sells craft supplies for weddings and creative projects. She says the business has prospered due to other stay-at-home moms — her employees and affiliates.

She told me, “Being a stay-at-home mom and hiring other stay-at-home moms has been key to our success.”

Mounter and I recently spoke. She shared Totally Dazzled’s origins, its affiliate marketing success, and the value of smart, hardworking moms.

The entire audio of our conversation is embedded below. The transcript is edited for length and clarity.

Eric Bandholz: Give us a rundown of what you do.

Natalie Mounter: I’m the owner of Totally Dazzled. We sell sparkly craft supplies, mainly for weddings and creative projects. We launched in 2012 with an Etsy store. We are now 100% Shopify. It’s a lifestyle business for me. I started it when I was pregnant with my first kid.

We experienced huge growth during the pandemic because everyone started buying online and was looking for things to do at home. The crafting market took off.

We ordered much more inventory and ended up being overstocked. We had to do a lot of discounting this year to get back to a healthy inventory position. We’re in a better place now.

I started the business because I was looking for something to do at home and work the hours I wanted. I read “The 4-hour Work Week” and thought it sounded perfect for motherhood.

As the business grew, I was fortunate to find key people who were independent and hardworking, who I could offload stuff onto and keep my hours to a minimum. Being a stay-at-home mom and hiring other stay-at-home moms has been key to our success. I get quality employees for an affordable price. Moms are the best team members because they’re smart, hardworking, and very efficient.

Bandholz: How do you find stay-at-home moms?

Mounter: HireMyMom.com is a great resource for stateside help. I also use local networking.

My cousin was my first team member. That was 10 years ago. She had recently had a baby and was looking for a stay-at-home job. I was shipping all of my products from Canada, where I live, but most of my customers were in the U.S. My cousin is in California. So I sent her all my inventory to fulfill for me.

She also handles customer service and social media dialog. My other key team member, another stay-at-home mom, is like a one-woman marketing agency. She does all of our Facebook ads, email marketing, and SMS. I do the planning and the vision. We meet monthly. It’s very hands-off for me. They both do an amazing job.

We have a couple of time-sensitive tasks, such as sending texts to our SMS list when our affiliate brand ambassadors go live on Facebook. We rely on an assistant in the Philippines for that.

Bandholz: Are affiliates your primary marketing tactic?

Mounter: Affiliates are our top traffic source. I love working with them because they’re less stressful and risky than Facebook ads, where we spend money and hope and pray the ads will work.

We recruit affiliates by sending them a free product and then incentivize them with a commission. We’re not out any cash until they make a sale. I would much rather pay female content creators than Mark Zuckerberg!

When I first began looking for affiliates, I typed “DIY broach bouquet” into Google and contacted the creators making those types of videos. You can find people’s contact methods on their YouTube channels. I emailed them and asked if they would promote us and earn commissions on sales. We’ve had a lot of success with that strategy.

Initially the outreach felt daunting. It took a lot of time. But once we had a network of affiliates, the word in the community got out. Other creators saw the videos promoting Totally Dazzled and wanted to do the same. We still do some outreach, but not nearly as much as in the old days.

We use affiliate management software to track performance. We can see how much traffic each drives and whether they are making sales. If they’re doing well, we’ll send them a bunch of free stuff. We keep tabs on our affiliates and spoil the high performers, but we keep the others engaged because they’re still talking about us. Those additional touchpoints eventually drive sales.

We offer a 20% commission and a 30-day cookie window. Both are pretty generous. I believe in generosity because sometimes affiliates are not rewarded for their referrals. Someone might see their content and then go straight to our website.

Success in affiliate marketing requires building long-term partnerships versus being metrics-driven. Many sellers fail with affiliates for that reason.

Plus, audience size is not the only sales predictor. One of our top-performing affiliates generated $30,000 in one day. She has 1.7 million followers on Facebook. Another high performer has about 200,000 followers on Facebook, but her audience is highly aligned with our product.

Bandholz: How do you stay engaged in the business after 12 years?

Mounter: What helps me stay motivated is remembering the why and focusing on gratitude. I’ve been able to raise my kids, never miss their events, and avoid stress when they’re sick. I take time off when I want.

Bandholz: Where can listeners support you or buy your products?

Mounter: Our site is TotallyDazzled.com. We’re on Facebook, YouTube, and Instagram.