It has been an exciting churning of events that have coalesced over the last year leading up to the birthday bash for the one year anniversary of The DYOJO Podcast. The first of these elements was an early 2020 interview with Ed Cross, then the inaugural chair for the recently formed Advocacy and Government Affairs (AGA) committee of the Restoration Industry Association (RIA). The Restoration Lawyer graciously agreed to a discussion that would be the core content for an article that was released as the April column for The Intentional Restorer. These words were drafted to carry the reader through vignettes of Mr. Cross’ legal journey which includes involvement in many of the key evolutions of the property restoration industry standards of care.
Source material for this article included previously written pieces from Michelle Blevins, Jeff Bishop, IAQ Radio, and a name that kept popping up, Pete Consigli. Mr. Consigli collaborated with Michelle for her article, A Brief Walk Through RIA History, while also composing one of the industry’s legacy pieces published in Cleaning & Restoration titled, The Four Faces on Mount Restoration (often referred to as The Founding Fathers article). Pete has long been referred to, by those who had front row seats to the early innovations of property restoration into a professional industry, as Restoration Google. Over the nearly nine months of our interactions, as well as my efforts to dig into the bowels of the emergence of our profession, I have learned that a good test of whether your source is credible would be whether they ask, “Have you talked to Pete about this?”