Ep. 583 Connecting Leaders in the Green Industry: Highlights from the 2026 NALP Leaders Forum
Rancho Mesa's Alyssa Burley interviews Greg Garcia, Account Executive in the Landscape Group, as he recaps his experiences attending Leaders Forum 2026 in Santa Barbara, CA.
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Director/Host: Alyssa Burley
Guest: Greg Garcia
Producer/Editor: Jadyn Brandt
Music: "Home" by JHS Pedals, “News Room News” by Spence
© Copyright 2024. Rancho Mesa Insurance Services, Inc. All rights reserved.
Transcript
Alyssa Burley: You’re listening to Rancho Mesa’s StudioOne™ podcast, where each week we break down complex insurance and safety topics to help your business thrive.
I’m your host, Alyssa Burley, and I’m joined by Greg Garcia, Partner with Rancho Mesa. He specializes in providing insurance and risk management solutions to landscape companies.
Today, we’re going to talk about the recent National Association of Landscape Professionals’ Leaders Forum in Santa Barbara, California.
Greg, welcome to the show.
Greg Garcia: Hey, Alyssa, great to be back here in StudioOne, and thanks for having me.
AB: Of course, we're happy you're here. So Rancho Mesa has sponsored the NALP's Leaders Forum for eight consecutive years. From your perspective, how has the event evolved over the years and what continues to make it such an important gathering for you and the landscape industry as a whole?
GG: Yeah, Drew and I were talking about this. If you think about that eight consecutive years sponsoring this event, that's not something to just kind of scoff at. That's kind of a big deal. And it shows, you know, Rancho Mesa's commitment to the green industry and to NALP. And I think the longevity of that commitment is due to kind of the results we're getting from going to this event, especially Leaders Forum.
I mean, for us, Leaders Forum, it brings in all of these industry leaders from across the country within the green industry, also some other partners and vendors, you know, whether it be a software company or dash cams or something like that. And we get to go to these events and sort of just be a fly on the wall and learn about, you know, what's going on within the green industry, what are the issues.
And then also learn from one of the, you know, the biggest and brightest minds in the green industry of what makes their companies special and what makes them have good culture and profitability and all these things, obviously safety too. So we get to take away all these little things from these great industry leaders and get to network with them. And then ultimately, it's been nice because over these years, we've actually partnered with a few of these landscape companies, right? I think at this event, we probably had 10 clients in attendance. So that's fun too, because you get a chance to see your clients. They get to meet each other. So overall, it's just a great event to go and learn more, not only about the industry, but what makes good company's kind of tick, you know.
AB: Yeah. So now you recently wrote an article about the event where you highlighted a fascinating session on improving organizational meetings, which I thought was interesting, your comments in the article. So Gabe Adams made a point about encouraging more debate and diverse voices in meetings. What aspects of the presentation resonated with you the most?
GG: Yeah it was a super interesting seminar that Gabe put on. I won’t get into the details because we could get lost in a rabbit hole of what we did, but basically what we did, we did an activity to spark a conversation within our table. You're at a table and the activity was meant to, you know, create a conversation within your table and then ultimately everybody had to agree on a certain decision. And the goal was to see the effectiveness of the meeting, you know, and how effective this meeting could be. And I think about here at Rancho Mesa, we'll have meetings, you know, we have meetings with clients. And what resonated the most with me is she said, you know, sometimes debate is good in meetings because too often you'll get into a meeting where maybe somebody doesn't agree with what's being said, but it's too afraid to speak up. You know, maybe they haven't been there that long or whatever it might be. But Gabe was really saying that it's that debate is super important and super critical to making these meetings more effective. And you actually get more out of those meetings when people are kind of questioning what's going on, you know. So I thought that was super interesting
And something that I think, you know, we could take back to, you know, I have plenty of meetings throughout the year with my clients. You know, if they have questions, concerns, I want them to ask me. And we can, you know, strike up a conversation that way and ultimately have the most effective meeting that we possibly could have. So I thought it was super interesting. She was a great speaker. It was a great activity. And one of the many reasons why we feel like Leaders Forum is just such a great, great event.
AB: Yeah, it sounds like it could have been useful for any industry.
GG: Exactly. Absolutely. Yeah, a lot of parallels there for sure.
AB: Yeah. All right. So Rancho Mesa actually hosted a dinner at the Elwood for both our clients and industry leaders who attended. And I heard the food was really great. And the conversations and ideas sharing were even better. So for those considering attending in the future, an NALP Leaders Forum event, what made that evening such a valuable experience and why do you think events like this are worth being part of in the future?
GG: Yeah, you know, us hosting the dinner at the Elwood, that's something that we've started to do probably the last three or four years now at different industry events based on kind of what we talked about earlier that we have a volume of clients at these events. And it's something nice for us to do for them, take them out to dinner, show them our appreciation for their partnership that they trust us to kind of handle their insurance. And we also sprinkled in some industry leaders to this dinner at the Elwood as well.
I didn’t mention this but the first day I actually got to go play golf with two industry leaders, Dan Krems and Mike Bogan from Landcare. Two of the most respected people within the industry and also my client Shane Newman from Yardscapes. So, being able to rub shoulders with them, learn from them was awesome.
It's the same sentiment here when we're at the Elwood just kind of breaking bread at the dinner table a lot of learning about people their families what they like to do with their other hobbies but then you know it also quickly turned into business and what makes them successful and it was all different ideas and people were there was just so many great takeaways and I think when you get into a setting like that, you really can let your guard down.
And we've always thought within the landscape industry, it has such the ability to share the knowledge, whereas other industries I don't think are as willing to share what makes them successful. The landscape industry is so unique in that sense that they're so willing to share to their neighbor what made their landscape company successful to try to help someone another landscape company. So, you know, it was just such a wonderful event to have to host these professionals at this dinner.
And I think if anybody's on the verge or on the, you know, do I go to Leader Forum or not, I would say it's something that you definitely need to try at least once. And I can promise you, you won't be disappointed. I mean, the networking ability at these events is unmatched where you get to just kind of, like I said, rub shoulders with, I got to play golf with Dan Krems and Mike Bogan at Landcare. I mean, it's pretty special and something that I don't take for granted. And there's opportunities like that all throughout the week. And NALP does a great job. You know, like I mentioned, at Gabe's seminar, they kind of mix up the tables. So you're kind of assigned a table. So it kind of forces you to network where you can't just kind of clique up and sit with who you're comfortable with.
So overall, you know, leaders form did not disappoint. It being on the West Coast and Santa Barbara was great for us. Just a nice, easy drive for us. But, you know, we're excited for next year, excited to continue to support NALP and the green industry.
AB: Yeah, I think it's really unique that all of these competitors essentially can get together for a few days, talk about what's working, what's not, and really encourage each other. That's just an amazing group of people that are willing to help people who are their competitors. So this is great.
GG: And you don't find that. Like, you really don't find that and other trades, you know, we obviously insure other contractors here at Rancho Mesa. I don't think it's the same. I don't think there's that same synergy. And we definitely had competitors in the same state. You know, there's two landscapers in California and no one was holding secrets or anything like that. You know, I think they all know that there's plenty of good work to go around within the landscape industry. And you kind of pay it forward. I think they've all been, you know, given some lessons by another landscape company and they kind of just pass it down. So I think that's a healthy organization and a healthy industry for sure.
AB: Yeah. So that's a shout out to NALP that have kind of created this environment where people feel comfortable to share.
GG: Absolutely.
AB: So Greg, if listeners have questions about the NALP, Leaders Forum or their risk management, what’s the best way to get in touch with you?
GG: Yeah a couple ways. You can, you know, shoot me an email at ggarcia@ranchomesa.com or you can call me at (619) 438-6905.
AB: Alright, well Greg, thank you for joining me in StudioOne. And I hope our listeners take a few minutes to read your article.
GG: Awesome, thanks for having me Alyssa.
AB: Thanks for tuning in to our latest episode produced by StudioOne™. If you enjoyed what you heard, please share this episode and subscribe. For more insights like this, visit us at RanchoMesa.com and subscribe to our weekly newsletter.