Keep It Clean! - A Pro Cleaning Industry Podcast

There are few people we meet in life that will stand out forever in our hearts and minds. Kenway Mead was one of those people in my life. Always positive, always kind and an absolute class act.

He was the face of IICUC and later IICRC as the Executive Administrator of the organization through his own company Kenway Consultants, Inc., or KCI. We called his office and spoke to his employees when we contacted headquarters office to deal with IICRC certification issues. Callers would never know that they had not called the IICRC directly.

He started like many of us, working with carpet. First as an installer and then as a cleaner and embraced and appreciated the service industry. He and his wife Pat, who ran the financial side of the office at Kenway's side, were a one-two punch of professionalism.

His son, Brad Mead gives us the industry story of Kenway Mead as only a son could. Through the eyes of someone who admired what his father had created and learned some of his own skills by watching Kenway work through the myriad of personalities and people brought together in the volunteer world of IICRC.

Keep It Clean was thrilled to have one great person (Brad Mead) talk about another great person (Kenway Mead).

Dr. Dan Bernazzani discusses his start in the carpet cleaning/building services industry beginning in the late 1970's. Starting small during his college years, his operation grew to two locations and worked for some of the most well established family names in the New England area, mostly in Vermont.
Dan spent years honing his craft by saying yes to many different types of clients and projects, all the while learning something new every day. His lifelong quest for knowledge also afforded him the opportunity to earn his Ph.D in his early 60's and work with some of the most knowledgable people on the planet in Environmental Science.
He has a philosophy of collaboration with all stakeholders in a project and used his collaborative skillset to lead the IICRC through one of most exciting times in that organization's history.
He is a world renowned consultant for large commercial losses and an author of numerous papers and articles on water and fire damage restoration. Sit back and listen to how it all started.

Reg Rogers shares with Keep It Clean! his transition from rock and roll drummer to carpet cleaner. No, we are not kidding. It really happened just the way Reg tells it! The music industry is just that, an industry. Just like any other industry, some talented folks struggle to monetize their dreams and search for new opportunities.
Reg tells a motivating story of his startup in the professional cleaning industry, cutting his teeth on empty, nasty apartments like most of us in the industry. Being someone what is quick on the uptake, Reg transitioned into management in a short time and learned how to handle a multi truck operation. Sensing his talents could find more out of life, he found a niche in the high end residential market and used his skills to leap to a franchise company directing the operations of the franchisees. Flooring sales followed to help round out the skills package and learn how to direct sales of products instead of services.
Economic downturn hit everyone in the late 2000's and Reg found himself searching for a new gig, but carpet cleaning called him back with the founding of Carpet Cleaner America. An Austrian carpet cleaning machine manufacturer needed talented people to help establish a beach head in the US and Reg found himself back in carpet care using dry compound and encapsulation for a new look at an old problem, dirty carpets. Hear the story as it unfolds in episode 20 of Keep It Clean!

Listen to this latest interview with special guest Barry Costa. Barry talks about his start in the cleaning and restoration world while working with his Dad in the 1960’s and 70’s as a helper and starting his own company while working as a school teacher in New Hampshire.

He is an award winning school teacher and if you have had the great fortune of taking any of his restoration or installation classes, you know that this is a true statement. He is an outstanding educator and is able to combine his passions of education and restoration work.

Barry talks about his entry into the industry and his time as an industry volunteer with IICRC. Barry has a passion for helping the education portion of our industry. He spent many years as the Education Committee chairman of the IICRC to help us understand the education challenges of adult learning and how to add a practical element to our training courses.

Give this episode a listen and hear from one of the most popular instructors in our world and his personal story of his startup. Barry Costa is one of the good guys that has spent a lot of energy to make our businesses better.

Keep It Clean! has Rob Hanks this week for a very entertaining story of an older brother convincing his two younger brothers to help him in his carpet cleaning business. They had little training and little support, but big dreams and a lot of drive. Those three brothers started one of the largest carpet and restoration supply businesses in North America.
Listen to how their partnership worked, how they planned and looked for, but also created opportunity after opportunity throughout their entire careers. Forty two years of hard work and dedication payed off with a sale to a larger firm and a well deserved retirement.
Rob's message of never giving up and finding ways to innovate and market to a wide audience is not lost today on successful people in the professional cleaning and restoration industry.