Rancho Mesa's Alyssa Burley interviews Account Executive of the Landscape Group, Greg Garcia. Greg specializes in providing commercial insurance and risk management to the lawn and landscape industry. During this episode, we will learn how he got into the commercial insurance industry and his niche market.

Show Notes: Subscribe to Rancho Mesa's Newsletter

Director/Host: Alyssa Burley

Guest: Greg Garcia

Producer/Editor: Megan Lockhart

Music: "Home" by JHS Pedals, “News Room News” by Spence

transcript

[Introduction Music]

Alyssa Burley: Hi! This is Alyssa Burley with Rancho Mesa’s Media Communications and Client Services Department. Thank you for listening to today’s top Rancho Mesa news brought to you by our safety and risk management network, StudioOne™. Welcome back, everyone. My guest is Greg Garcia, account executive in the Landscape Group with Rancho Mesa. Greg specializes in providing commercial insurance and risk management to the lawn and landscape industry. Today, we're going to discuss how he got into commercial insurance and his niche market. Greg, thanks for joining us.

Greg Garcia: Alyssa, thanks for having me. Always great to be back in StudioOne™ and I think this is gonna’ be the last time we're in this studio, for me.

AB: Yeah.

GG: Because our next podcast will probably be over in Mission Valley coming up in April, I think. So, excited about that.

AB: Yeah. So, you and I both work at Rancho Mesa Insurance, and before joining the team, neither of us were actually in the insurance industry. So, what were you doing prior to joining Rancho Mesa?

GG: Yeah, so before joining Rancho Mesa, I was- actually had a career in baseball and growing up ever since I was a little kid, it's always something that I wanted to do and wanted to try to pursue. And with a lot of hard work and a lot of help and a lot of luck, I was able to carve out about a six year career in the Major Leagues playing for the Cardinals and the Padres.

AB: Yay, Padres!

GG: So, yeah, exactly. The hometown team. So, had a lot of fun doing that, met a lot of really great people. But yeah, that's kind of what I was doing before joining Rancho Mesa and this team.

AB: All right. So, what led you to commercial insurance as a career path?

GG: Yeah. So, at the end of 2020 year, which was a crazy year for everyone, the COVID year, I was playing baseball for the Padres and after the season ended up getting released by them. So, that was a little hard to take because it's the hometown team. But my baseball career kind of came to a crossroads where there just wasn't many major league opportunities out there for me. And then I had to make a decision with my family to either go back to the minor leagues to continue to pursue the dream or maybe go and try to do something else. And for me, it was easy because I was able to fall into this organization, Rancho Mesa, which is an organization run by my dad, and something that I'm really lucky to be able to kind of fall into and really enjoying myself here at Rancho Mesa.

AB: All right. So, how does your background in baseball translate into success in the commercial insurance industry?

GG: Yeah, baseball taught me so many things. And I think one thing I can I really can lean on is it taught me a work ethic, at a young age. I was never the biggest, strongest or fastest kid. So, I really had to get a work ethic quick and really work hard at my craft. And I think by doing so, it's going to translate over into the commercial insurance side because you're coming in here every single day ready to work and to put the hours in to try to be successful. What's nice about Rancho Mesa is we have such a great team here that I'm falling into just such a great system and a great organization with a lot of really, really good leaders with a lot of knowledge. So, very fortunate to fall into this to this place.

AB: Yeah, and we do really have individual teams that we're all working on. So, that's very similar to your baseball team. So, why did you choose the landscape industry as your niche?

GG: Yeah. So, for those of you that don't know, my brother Drew also works at Rancho Mesa. He's my older brother and he's been working at Rancho Mesa for about eight years now. And when he got in, he kind of established the niche into the landscape industry. So, when it was my turn to kind of join Rancho Mesa, I think Drew thought it'd be a great idea for us to kind of team up together for a couple reasons. One, he was having so much success focusing on the landscape industry. I think he needed another- we needed another producer here to help with some of the business that we were able to obtain. And two, it was a great way for us to kind of link up again together and have him kind of teach me the roles and how to go about my business here and to be a professional in the landscape industry. So, I was very fortunate to be able to lean on Drew because coming up he also played professional baseball and we had many off seasons together that we trained every single day together. So, we work really well together. It's very much of a big brother, little brother dynamic where it's Drew says, “Jump,” and I say, “How high” type of thing? So, I'm not sure if that's a good thing or if I'm proud of that, but that's just kind of how it is. But-

AB: It seems to work.

GG: Yeah. I mean, Drew has been really successful here. He is- he's one of our leaders here at Rancho Mesa. So, I've been very fortunate to kind of, you know, just be with him every day and him teaching me the ropes. So…

AB: Yeah, it sounds like you guys are working really well together.

GG: Yeah.

AB: So, when you're talking to business owners, why is it important for them to work with someone who specializes in their industry?

GG: Yeah, I think for us, we're finding success by focusing on the landscape industry because we can speak the language, we know the equipment, we know the problems, and more importantly, we know the coverage that is necessary for the landscape industry. Where as if, you are a generalist broker, kind of just insuring every kind of industry, I don't really think you dive into the to the coverage aspect as much as we do. I mean, that's what we're looking at every single day. We have a great team behind us and all of our client managers also just focus on landscape too. So, when they're looking at policies, they're just looking at landscape and tree policies day in and day out. And if you're doing it enough, you're kind of becoming a specialist and kind of becoming an expert.

AB: Yeah.

GG: So, that's kind of how our little green team is formed. Again, we all play a little role in it, but it works and we've been having a lot of success here lately.

AB: Yeah, and it shows. The team seems to work really well together.

GG: Absolutely.

AB: So Greg, if listeners have questions about their commercial insurance, what's the best way to get in touch with you?

[Outro Music]

GG: Yeah, you can give me a call at 619-438-6905 or shoot me an email at ggarcia@ranchomesa.com

AB: Greg, thanks for joining me in StudioOne™.

GG: Yeah, thanks for having me, Alyssa.

AB: This is Alyssa Burley with Rancho Mesa. Thanks for tuning in to our latest episode produced by StudioOne™. For more information, visit us at ranchomesa.com and subscribe to our weekly newsletter.