Meet Norma De La Cruz-Monterroza

We’re excited to introduce you to the always interesting and insightful Norma De La Cruz-Monterroza. We hope you’ll enjoy our conversation with Norma below.

Hi Norma, appreciate you sitting with us today. Maybe we can start with a topic that we care deeply about because it’s something we’ve found really sets folks apart and can make all the difference in whether someone reaches their goals. Self discipline seems to have an outsized impact on how someone’s life plays out and so we’d love to hear about how you developed yours?

Growing up, my household consisted of my mom (a single mother) and my grandmother. My mom came to the US at the age of 17 and a few years later, began working at a dry cleaners which she eventually became the owner of. Pretty much my entire family at one point in their lives, worked at my mom’s dry cleaners, including me. At the vey young age of 8, I learned what the meaning of hard work and dedication was. I learned that if a person wants something, they have to work hard and dedicate themselves to achieve the ultimate goal. I was pretty much raised by my grandmother since my mom was at the dry cleaners from 4am to about midnight most days. She had so much work that she then started working on weekends. My mom always told me that she did this to provide for me and my grandmother and she would not rest if she knew she was not able to provide for us both. Many people may see this as a bad thing, but I see it as a positive thing. Although I didn’t see my mom much at home, I did spend a lot of time with her at work. She taught me the importance of not giving up, the importance of providing great customer service, respect, honesty, and self-discipline.

Where does my self-discipline come from, my mom Maria, now happily retired and my grandmother in heaven, Nena.

Great, so let’s take a few minutes and cover your story. What should folks know about you and what you do?

I may be going a little all over the place with this but I think it gives more insight to how I got to where I am today. I have always been a “hustler” type of person. I mentioned earlier that I was introduced to the working world at a very young age by helping out at my mom’s dry cleaning business. In her business, she always sold things such as perfumes, snacks, candy, sodas…just other items to make her extra money. I quickly picked up on the idea that there are more ways than one to “make money”.

I started working with LA County Dept. of Health Services as a clerk back in 2007 and barely earned enough to pay rent and bills. I started selling random things on the side such as scarves and beanies to make ends meet. Fast forward to 2012, I purchased my first Cricut machine. Back then, the world of “personalized crafts” was not as popular as it is now so I started doing pop-ups at local events and my clientele quickly grew via Etsy and Instagram. I started getting orders for shirts, cups, banners, and at one point, I was even hired to decorate for birthday parties. Back then I was still going to school and trying to get into a radiology technologist program. It was not until 2015 when I began to work in Human Resources within LA County, that I realized Human Resources was my passion, specifically, employee relations. After applying to a few lottery based radiology programs and not being selected, I decided to go back to school in 2017 to obtain a Bachelors Degree in Business Admin. Human Resources Management. After graduating from CSULA in 2019, I decided that I wanted to keep going and obtain a Masters Degree. When I began grad school, I shut down my Etsy and Instagram account because I thought I was not going to be able to keep up with orders, full time school and work. I lost my followers and pretty much had to start all over again in a world where now personalized goods was super competitive. I began grad school in 2020 and finished within one year obtaining a master’s degree in public administration. My career continued to grow professionally but in my “crafting career” I had to figure out what will make me stand out to get to where I once was and then I thought, Grad Sashes! I had already personalized a few of my undergrad friend’s grad caps and sashes and so why not make it MY thing!

Since then, with the help of social media and many recommendations, my small biz, sorta blew up within the last 4 years. Although I love my HR job, I get that additional satisfaction in seeing grads happy with their personalized regalia. A few still doubt the outcome because I use heat transfer vinyl vs. embroidery to personalize but ultimately, all but about 2 of over 2000 customers have been happy with their sashes. The reason I decided to personalize with heat transfer vinyl is because as a former student, I know how expensive these things are and so I wanted to provide future grads and opportunity to be able to more affordably, personalize their sashes and look their best at graduation. This coming year, I am introducing personalized Kukui leis. Keep an eye out for those!

Looking back, what do you think were the three qualities, skills, or areas of knowledge that were most impactful in your journey? What advice do you have for folks who are early in their journey in terms of how they can best develop or improve on these?

I think that the three qualities/skills/areas of knowledge that were most impactful in my journey were perseverance, adaptability, and courage. I think that often times when we begin a new journey or path in life, there is doubt and a sort of fear of making moves without knowing what the outcome will be. There are times where we just have to take that leap to see where it will take us. I think the advise that I would give to those who are early in any journey is to take the time to really think about what the end goal is and create a path to how to get there while being open-minded and not giving up when “things block the path”. Like closed roads, there is always a way around. You will not get ahead if you stay there waiting for that road to re-open, what if it never does?

How can folks who want to work with you connect?

I first want to take this time to thank my co-worker and crafty friend, Sophia Mean (k80designco) for referring for this article. Since I met Sophia at work, we have constantly bounced ideas off each other on how to help our “side gigs” grow. Sophia specializes in many personalized items as well but has mastered the art of graduation ribbon leis. (I tried once and never again LOL).

We both recently partnered with another one of our co-workers who owns a non-profit. Sophia donated leis and I donated graduation sashes for kinder and high school graduates. I also partnered with a fellow photographer friend and provided discount graduation picture sessions. I am always looking to partner with folks. I am open to collaborations with other grad cap/sash artists and photographers. IG @bynorms

Contact Info:

• Website: https://bynorms.my.canva.site/bynorms
• Instagram: bynorms
• Other: https://www.etsy.com/shop/ByNorms33