At Kingstowne Lawn & Landscape, we have always emphasized hiring based on factors like work ethic and people skills as opposed to industry experience. After all, we are able to teach the Green Industry skills that are necessary to succeed in many roles within our company—but we can’t teach someone to want to work hard or become a “people person” if that’s not who they are.

Over the years, we have a lot of team members who have come from other industries and found a lot of success here in the green industry.

Steve Reggio, our new Account Manager, is a great example.

For many years, Steve owned his own CrossFit business (CrossFit Lorton). But when he saw that Kingstowne Lawn & Landscape was hiring an Account Manager, he felt that he had the people skills that would make him a good fit—and he was ready to try something new.

“I have always said that I was in the ‘people business, doing fitness,’” Steve shares. “For any fitness business, it really is all about the people who come to your gym. I really do enjoy working with clients and felt that I had that part of the role as an Account Manager already down.”

Steve says that learning the rest has been a learning curve but that he has definitely had support from the rest of the team.

“Having come in with no industry background, I’ve been happy that the team has been so willing to help me out and help me to get over the learning curve,” he says. “It feels like a family here and everyone has really welcomed me.”

Since starting with Kingstowne Lawn & Landscape, Steve says that the autonomy of the schedule has been something he has appreciated. He is also thrilled to have a career where he can be outdoors and work with people.

“I can’t imagine being in a role where I’m not working with people or where I’m just sitting at a desk all day,” Steve adds. “So, this career opportunity had a lot of things I was looking for.”

At Kingstowne, we appreciate that Steve does have such a friendly, warm, and welcoming type of personality. For these reasons, he’s just the type of person who will work well with our clients and represent the company in a positive way.

Life Outside of Work

Outside of work, Steve says that he keeps busy with his family and his dogs. He has a brand-new Catahoula Lab mix that recently joined his family from a rescue organization. He also already had a five-year-old Catahoula Lab mix.

“Having already had a dog from this breed, when we saw the puppy, we knew it was the right fit for the family,” he says.

Family is important to Steve and he has both 20-year and 8-year old sons.

Though he doesn’t own the CrossFit gym anymore, fitness is also something he will always value. Steve says that he really got into CrossFit after a personal transformation back in 2005.

He lost 70 pounds from hard work and dedication.

Though Steve says he’ll likely never compete in a CrossFit competition again, it was life-changing in many ways and staying active is something he continues to value. Good health can never be taken for granted, Steve urges.

Choosing a Career with Kingstowne

Steve says that for other folks who might be looking for a career in the Green Industry that the support is available at Kingstowne Lawn & Landscape to make the transition successful.

“There’s honestly a lot more involved in a career in the lawn and landscaping profession than I initially would have believed—there has been a lot to learn—but the support is there,” he says. “The team here has really embraced me and helped to make it easier.”

If you’re also someone looking for a landscape sales job, or perhaps another role within the company, then we’d love for you to consider Kingstowne Lawn & Landscape, as well. Whether you are from within the industry or not, there are opportunities available.

We pride ourselves on being a company that offers a positive work environment and a family-like team that help to build our strong company culture. We also offer great pay and benefits so that our team can support their families and interests outside of work.

At the end of the day, we know it’s our people that have helped us to grow over the years. That’s why we care deeply about doing what we can to help support our team in any way that we can.

We’re all here for each other—and we all know that when the company succeeds, we all win.

If you’d like to consider lawn care or landscape industry careers, we invite you to learn more about Kingstowne Lawn & Landscape by visiting our Career Center and learning more about our open positions and our company culture.