Life & Work with Karen Cruz of Downey

Today we’d like to introduce you to Karen Cruz

Hi Karen , can you start by introducing yourself? We’d love to learn more about how you got to where you are today?
Hello, my name is Karen Cruz. I grew up in the city of Cudahy and lived there for 18 years. I grew up with both of my parents for the most part since my dad wasn’t in the picture for a year or so. We hardly went out and spent most of our day inside the house. Money was very tight growing up so we couldn’t afford going out. I would always hear the stories of my friends going camping or going to fun places and I always wished it was me. Once I had my first daughter I promised myself that I would do everything in my power to give her the best memories I could. We were able to do lots of fun stuff and both my husband and I worked full time so we had the money to do so. After I had my second daughter I ended up loosing my job as a medical assistant manager in Anaheim because our boss had gone to jail for workers comp fraud. Once I lost my job with 2 kids my husband told me to just stay home and be a stay at home mom to be able to raise our kids. Money was definitely tight but we still managed to always do fun activities and keep them away from any electronics. We found any free fun events in our community and we hit up all the free museums too. We found any way possible to have fun without spending much money. As my girls got older we continued finding fun stuff appropriate for their age. With 3 daughters things could add up really fast, specially theme parks. We took a trip to Las Vegas during Covid and while searching through social media for affordable or free fun activities we could do that are family friendly we found a page that had everything I needed to know. Las Vegas Parent Zone was the page and once we came back home to California I searched and searched in hopes to find a similar page that I could use to find free fun affordable things to see and do in SoCal with kids. I couldn’t find one. Therefore, I decided to create one. After a few other names that we were never really satisfied with we decided to partner with Las Vegas Parent Zone and we became SoCal Parent Zone. After sharing so many perks, events, and fun places to visit for families our page grew and grew. We now get partnerships and invites to visit some of the best places in SoCal. We feel so blessed and honor to have the privilege to see some of these events before they open to the general public. We are now considered media and content creators something that I thought would never happen. We currently have 13k followers in Facebook and 1.5 million account’s engaged. We got on the Instagram boat a little too late and with this new generation we have got turned down a lot since most companies want to see Instagram influencers. But I have faith and I know if I keep sharing fun and affordable family events we should grow in Instagram too. We do have a separate name in Instagram just because we want it to be a bit more fun for the new generation. Our Instagram is Relentless.family. We have visited so many places that we would of never otherwise been able to visit thanks to Social media and everyone that chose to follow our page. We are grateful to everyone 😊

Would you say it’s been a smooth road, and if not what are some of the biggest challenges you’ve faced along the way?
It has never been easy. We started during Covid which was definitely hard since everything was closed. For events there wasn’t none either so we had to start sharing some of our old content. Followers would come but not as many. We did get some help from our sister page. Even now having the followers we have most companies only work with Instagram influencers therefore, it’s like we have to start all over. It is definitely hard but not impossible.

Can you tell our readers more about what you do and what you think sets you apart from others?
I am a content creator primarily in Facebook but transitioning to Instagram too. I specialize in creating fun lists like pumpkin patches, summer chill zones, public playgrounds, and gathering events throughout the year. We post our reviews to family friendly places for others to discover as well.

What has been the most important lesson you’ve learned along your journey?
Family comes first. No matter what happens your family will always be there and social media should not take over your day. Sometimes I would get so caught up with social media answering messages or replying to comments that before I knew it, it was time to go to sleep. Always set a time and schedule for everything so you won’t forget the important things in life which is family to me.

Contact Info:

• Instagram: https://www.instagram.com/relentless.family/profilecard/?igsh=MzRlODBiNWFlZA==
• Facebook: https://www.facebook.com/CruzFamilyAdventures?mibextid=LQQJ4d
• Youtube: https://youtube.com/@relentlessfamily?si=ae5iONbPJkKUqnVd