Leonardo “Leo” Gomez has worked for himself since he was 16. He has owned restaurants, sold cars and now runs a commercial insurance agency, and the thread through all of it is simple. “The one thing that I don’t like is working for somebody.”

When he sat down for the BCC Spotlight at the end of 2025, American Pro Insurance was five months old, and its Fontana office had opened the month before.

The restaurant years

Before insurance, Gomez owned several restaurants. His favorite was a vegan Mexican restaurant in Upland, a unique concept that caught the wave of people moving toward healthier eating. Eventually sales hit a plateau, and he tried to grow by adding vegetarian items such as dairy and eggs.

The vegan community did not take it well. The restaurant was hit with negative reviews, and Gomez says he was being canceled. To protect what he had built, he reverted the menu. Not long after, in 2023, he sold the restaurant at a profit, reasoning that the best time to sell a business is when it is at its best.

Learning to sell

He planned to open another restaurant, but it did not work out, and he decided it was time to try something different. He had been listening to entrepreneur Patrick Bet-David, who built his fortune in insurance. Before jumping in, Gomez wanted real sales experience, so he took a job at a Hyundai dealership. From his first month there he was the top salesperson, selling 25 to 30 cars, and he stayed for a year and a half.

Even with good money coming in, working for someone else did not fit. Once he had learned the skills, he got his insurance license and opened his own business.

He is honest about where things stand. No business makes money right away, he says, and insurance is the hardest of all: he cites a figure of 98% of agents failing within their first year, higher than real estate or restaurants. He describes himself not as thriving but as content, with the business moving the way it should.

Only businesses

What sets American Pro apart, Gomez says, is focus. The agency writes commercial insurance only. “We’re not trying to do everything,” he says. And it is run by someone who has been on the other side of the counter. “I know exactly what coverage a restaurant needs.”

He knows the leaks a restaurant owner deals with every week: payroll, workers’ comp, groceries, overhead and the expenses that come out of nowhere. For that owner, he says, “the last thing you want to do is have to worry about something else,” or spend more on coverage than the business needs.

Trust before the close

Gomez trained himself in sales on the dealership floor and through books. The one he recommends to anyone in sales is Dale Carnegie’s How to Win Friends and Influence People. His takeaway: if you earn someone’s trust, you can sell them almost anything, and you do not earn it by being the biggest shark in the room trying to close right away. You earn it little by little. To break the ice, he either cracks a joke or offers a genuine compliment, then lets the conversation start.

The host put that to the test with a live elevator pitch. Gomez opened with a compliment on the host’s shoes, learned he was a podcaster, and asked for advice on starting a show. The role-play flipped into a lesson for Gomez himself: interview your ideal clients on camera, build rapport, share the clips, and stay top of mind. When those business owners need commercial insurance, the host asked, “Who are they going to think of first? American Pro.” The exercise ended the way a good pitch should, with a request to put a meeting on the calendar.

For Gomez, that is the appeal of the work. Some people love books and some love movies. He loves listening to people’s stories, because you get to know someone quickly.

Getting involved

Joining the Bloomington Chamber was his first step into the community, on the recommendation of someone he knows. The goal now is to help the surrounding area, including Bloomington, Fontana, Colton, Rialto and Rancho Cucamonga, in any way he can, starting with volunteering. He says that is something too few people make time for today, and he wants American Pro to be part of changing that.

Key takeaways

  1. Gomez sold his restaurant at a profit, on the idea that the time to sell is when a business is at its best.
  2. He got real sales experience first, as the top salesperson at a car dealership, before getting his insurance license.
  3. American Pro writes commercial insurance only, run by someone who knows what a restaurant owner deals with.
  4. Earn trust little by little. Open with a joke or a genuine compliment, not a hard close.
  5. No business makes money right away, and insurance has one of the highest failure rates, so plan for the long game.