Gilbert Broco, President of CI Group, joins us to explore identity, leadership, and optimism. From his roots in Puerto Rico to his rise in the contract furniture world, Gilbert shares how culture, courage, and community shaped his path—and how loving what you do means creating space for others to belong. This conversation covers inclusive design, servant leadership, imposter syndrome, and why optimism is more than a mindset—it’s a leadership tool.
Gilbert Broco grew up in Puerto Rico and graduated with a Bachelor of Arts in Environmental Design Architecture from the University of Puerto Rico in 2002. He moved to Florida in 2006 where he became NCIDQ Certified and a Florida Registered Interior Designer. Gilbert is the President for the CI Group, a Contract Furniture Dealership with 8 locations across the Southeast; he has been with the company for over 12 years and has led the design department and operations. He was the IIDA Florida Central Chapter President in 2018 and has been a Trustee of the International Interior Design Foundation for two terms. He is part of the Leadership Tampa Bay Board where he serves on the Executive Board, and is a member of the USF Leadership and Innovation Forum of Tampa. Gilbert has been recognized for his leadership and design skills, in 2021 he received the Professional Impact Award from the IIDA Florida Central Chapter, last year Gilbert received the COO of the Year Award from the Tampa Bay Business and Wealth Apogee Awards, and a Titan 100 in 2024. Gilbert brings a wealth of knowledge and insight to every project and collaborates with clients and business partners in developing the best fit product solution appropriate to the way people work and interact. His objective is to always create a harmonious work environment centralized in the health and well-being of people’s lives.
Welcome to The Love What You Do podcast. I'm your host, Doug Shapiro. These are the conversations that open doors to what's possible when you love what you do.
Gilbert, welcome to the Level You Do podcast. Thank you.
Uh, I'm excited to have you on Gilbert Brocko, president of CI Group.
You have, I don't know how many locations, a bunch of locations all over the southeast. So, um, you know, it's funny, I was. Namedropping people that I'd be interviewing just to build some interest and I. Mention your name and like everybody that knows you is like, I love that guy.
Aw.
And it's kind of like, what is this guy doing?
You know, what is his like secret sauce.
I appreciate it. Yeah. Thank you. Thank you. I, uh, for me, everything that I do, it has to be with human-centric, so I just. Treat people the way that I wanna be treated. Simple as that.
Awesome. That's a good recipe. Um, today, I know a lot of what we wanna talk about is culture.
Um, born and raised in Puerto Rico. Mm-hmm. Let's just get into that. How does, how does that upbringing come into your life today and your professional work?
It, it, uh, it actually does in everything that I do. You know, Puerto Rico being a, a small island, it's culture is derived from. The Spanish colonizers, the African slaves and the Taino, uh, native Indians, combine that with being a commonwealth of the United States for over a hundred years.
So the American culture is also intertwined in it. , It is very family oriented, the it, the bonds connect not only in your immediate family, but outside of it. Your neighbors and your parents friends become your uncles, your tios and ts. Their kids are your cousins. I, they, they love music. They are very creative.
Uh, love dancing, love, finding opportunities in the most difficult situations, um, and make fun from, from tragedy. . All of that is, is definitely part of, of who I am now. , I think that's, that's basically the, the sweet sauce for me for, for success.
I love that.. You know, the comment you made about finding opportunity in difficult situations, I think that's a really unique aspect of a culture.
Yeah.
That, you know, I don't know if that's commonly understood or maybe you've just taken the time to really understand where you came from.
Yeah, yeah, absolutely. You know, uh, going back to Puerto Rico when they go through strategies like hurricanes, like Hurricane Maria several years ago when it destroyed the island,
People were, were getting together in their communities with their families and having outdoor parties and gathering whatever they had to eat and sharing it with everyone and, and, you know, making long lines for gas. But everyone was either laughing or, or, you know, enjoying some type of music or, or something that will take them away from that situation and put them in the reality of we're alive.
We can't handle anything, we should be good. , Wow. And that, that is, is definitely the heart of Puerto Rico. I don't know if people realize, fully realize it,, but it, it is ingrained in everyone.
Is it like in, you know, like, I'm trying to, I'm trying to understand the, the layers of that. Yeah. Like is it rooted in appreciation?
Is it rooted in, like, love for your neighbor or what is like a fundamental to that? So that basically like how does anyone access that? Mm-hmm. Let's say I'm, I'm not from Puerto Rico, but I'm inspired by that. Like how do I access that inside me?
I would say that. It, it all boils down to treating people the way that you wanna be treated.
And, and being upfront with, with who you are and being authentic to who you are.
Uh, I think it, I think that attitude is gonna carry you.I mean, obviously it already has. I. You mentioned a little bit about identity. Mm-hmm. Let's talk about embracing identity, like what does that mean to you? How, how does that become a, a tool for you?
I, I usually say that I was born twice. Huh? I was born August 28th, 1980 in San Juan, Puerto Rico. And then I was born, uh, summer of 2000 when I was just turning 20, and I came out of the closet and became an open, gay, young man, kid, whatever you wanna call it.
Yeah. I think I was a kid of 20. . That moment where, , that happened for me was key for actually for the first time feel feeling free to be myself, , completely myself, fully authentic, without fear of, of any negative situation happening to me. It was happening. There's racism, there is homophobia, all over.
But by being able to be myself, , in front of the people that I love,, made me fully love who I am and embrace who I am. , And I, I bring that back to. Design. I bring that back to my personal life. I bring that back to as a leader, , as a designer, , all I think it's important for designers to, create spaces using inclusive design.
I think when you're creating spaces that people can relate and be part of it, , you are, you are creating a space for everyone. , You are not only inspiring the people that are using the space, you are empowering them, , to be their fullest potential. And in my personal, uh, or in my, as a leader I, I truly create, uh, or believe in an environment that everyone has a seat at the table.
Everyone in a. In accompanying ours at CI Group or, or anywhere else is, is important, right? Uh, every aspect, every department, every position is important for the overall success of the company. , By understanding that, yes, there's hierarchy in positions because. There's rules and things that you have to follow through.
But understanding that it doesn't matter about that hierarchy, hierarchy, everyone, it's equally important, , that opens the door for innovation. That's opens the door for new ideas and for people that are in, in a position that are not necessarily the position that they're gonna be passionate about, but they have the opportunity to find another position or create another position that will embrace who they are, but also what the company needs.
I, I love this. There's a, there's a bunch of questions Yeah. Right in my head right now. So I, I wanna ask you about strategies around inclusive design strategies around helping others in your organization feel important. Before I go there though, yeah. I wanna go back to 20-year-old. Yeah. Okay. Yeah, because you kind of, you know, this idea of being born a second time, I mean, that's not a.
A light statement, right? Mm-hmm. I mean, this is literally embarking on a second life. Mm-hmm. Like, take me there. Yeah. What's that story? What, what's the most memorable part of that?
Um, it was a difficult time. , I was going through college. I was at University of Puerto Rico in the School of Architecture at the time.
Again, Puerto Rico is a hundred miles by 35 mile Island, so it's a small island. My parents lived. Half an hour from, from the university. So I was still living with my parents. , And situations in the family happened where actually, uh, uh, a family member found out that I was, I was gay and instead of actually coming and talking to me, went to my parents and told them.
So my parents confronted me, uh, about it and I. Felt that I, I was against a wall, so I, I, I accepted it. , And it was a hard, hard process. , It took me a long time to accept myself. Mm-hmm. Um, to get to that point where I could say that I was, I was gay. I. Um, was raised in a, a Catholic conservative family, as I would say 90% of the families in Puerto Rico.
So that, that time that it took me to understand and accept it, I understood that I had to give it to my loved ones to understand and accept it as well. Mm. So it was a, it was a difficult, tumultuous time, , to be able to find that, that happy medium. Um, where, where they, they understood that nothing changed, that the, the person that they, they knew was exactly that same person, , but that Yeah.
Didn't like girls, like boys. Made sure happens. Yeah. Yeah. But, uh. Going through that and actually, you know, through, through that process my biggest fear was you know, making my parents disa be disappointed about me. Um, you know, raised with my sister. We were straight a's good students all doing things right?
Yeah. Yeah. As going through or growing up in, in Catholic private school, I, I knew I was different since I was like four years old. Oh, wow. But I, I pushed that back and, uh, you know, I, many nights I will go to bed praying that I will wake up different. And, you know, hearing, uh, the, the, the information that we were being taught as this was wrong, so.
I go to, I, I go to university. And when I start going to college is when I actually am, I'm more open to different people. Right? Yeah. Different mentalities and different ways of, of, uh, of living. And it took me, it took me a while to I. Research and actually learn about different religions and different cultures.
And, , understanding that at the end of the day, everything is about love and and respect. And that it doesn't matter who you are as a human. , As diverse as we are, we all want the same thing. We, we all want to feel, uh, sense of belonging. , So by, by accepting that. It actually gave me the, the strength to just.
Be proud of who I am and, and not hide it. There's nothing that I needed to hide, uh, about which for my first 20 years I was. , So that's, that's why the main reason why I, I, I say that I was born again because I was for the first time, again, free, truly free to just being who I was. Um, when, when, uh, my now husband and I, moved to, from Puerto Rico to, , Florida, um, we moved to Jacksonville, , and.
That movement, that was a culture shock first. , But also, , we promised each other that we were not gonna accept a job where we felt that we had to go backwards and, and not. Show who we really were. , So we both did, uh, intentionally, uh, whenever we had an interview for, for work. We will mention the, our other half.
I will mention him, he'll mention me. If there was a weird, negative reaction, I was not gonna accept the job no matter how much money, no matter what the position was. I have to say I was very lucky. First job, uh, wasn't a problem. Uh, I was at a another contract there, uh, furniture dealership there, which is another crazy story 'cause I had not worked in contract furniture before.
I was working in architecture and interior design back in Puerto Rico. And I lied through the entire interview to get the job. And, , after the interview. I stopped out of Barnes and Nobles bought a book about office furniture and read about pedestals and cantilevers and panel systems. Uh, oh my gosh, was a Friday and I was starting Monday.
So the whole weekend I was reading this book to know what mobile pedestals were. Uh, and that's how I started then. But, uh, but again, by being able to fully. Fully feeling comfortable in my own skin, gave me that, that opportunity to just not miss on things that were happening around me that normally I would have thought it twice, , or be cautious about it.
I stopped being cautious.
Wow. Um. I mean, that really touched me, everything you've gone through. , Thank you for going there. No, thanks. It's an inspiration. Thank you. Thank you. You said something, you said, we all want the same thing, and that really stuck with me and it's, I I kind of feel like sometimes we forget that like every, every time I'm reminded of that, everyone feels so similar, like I feel closer to other people.
Mm-hmm. Knowing that we all want exactly the same thing. Yeah. You know, you want validation, you want acceptance, you know, that is sort of the code to the world.
Mm-hmm. No, absolutely. You were talking about, uh, the other day I saw a post that you were talking about, uh, imposter syndrome. Oh, yeah. And I, I, that's, it's real.
I think everyone has it. And if you don't have it, then. There's something wrong with you. Yeah.
It means you don't care.
Right. Right. You know, if you care, you, you will feel, you will, you will doubt about what you're doing and you will doubt that you can do it. Um, I think the, the key to it is just knowing that that's there and then I.
Keep going and passing through that and going through the difficult process.
Yeah. And, and I think, I think that's a huge point coming from someone like yourself as a president of a multi-location dealership saying, you know, you're gonna doubt yourself. And that that's okay. You know? Yeah. It just means you care.
Right. Right. Yeah. I, look, I didn't, I didn't start in this company as a president.
Uh, I started 15 years ago as a designer when they were opening the third office in Jacksonville, and I've had eight or nine positions in the company. Wow. Um, the majority of them were, we created them because the company had new needs, and most of them, I, I. We had no idea what it really had to be. So I just designed a job description based on the, the specific needs that we had at the moment, and then just went with it and, and was able to grow with the company as the, as the company grew as well.
So again, it's, it's just being able to do what you see that needs to be done in order to make things better. Yeah.
I, I love that attitude. All right. I want to get into some of the, the questions I left hanging. You talked a little bit about inclusive design. Mm-hmm. Are there some shining examples to you?
Because I think it's, that's one of those things that's hard for our industry to always put a finger on. Like, we, we know what, what we want. I. We know how we want it to feel, but like what, what are some strategies that maybe you have or your team has when you talk about inclusive design?
, One of the key things that we have, uh, at CI Group is.
All in, which is ask, learn, and lead. You asking the right questions, um, whenever you're with a client, taking away your preconceived notions of what, uh, what design should be or what you've done in the past that is, comes natural to you and actually hearing, , what the client really need. And being able to learn from that and then lead in order to create a project that substantiates and, and, and follows through the goals of the client.
We are the experts on workplace. , They are the experts on what they do, so we have to understand and, and learn how to translate that.. And inclusive design, basically, you always have to have people in mind, , who are the users what's the functionality of it, and also where it is the, the, the community around it.
Each space should have language that actually talks about the, the, the surrounding environment, but also provide the right tools for, for the users to be able to do whatever the function is. Whenever you're approaching design, you should be,, always moving forward and thinking ahead.
You see what the needs are right now, but being able to use strategic foresight and, and think I. Actually in the future and be able to predict more information that the client actually doesn't even know that they need, and provide those, those tools at the end. , That's, for me, that's what basically makes, uh, successful project, uh, and using, uh, inclusive design.
I, I love the, the all in, and I actually, I think the key thing that you're hitting on is that inclusive design is not. About an outcome, it's more about the process. Right. And I think that's where, um. Sometimes when you, when you hear that question, when people ask the question about like, well, what, like, what is, what are examples of it?
Like, you're thinking more about like, well, what does the finished product look like? Mm-hmm. And how do I take that Right. And use that on a different project. And it's not about, it's about a copy paste. Yeah. It's a, it's, it's all about. The process. Mm-hmm. And that's the stuff you don't see. I, I love that.
All right. Another thing you talked about was creating a sense of importance in your people. Mm-hmm. And again, I'm gonna go back to strategies. Are there some things, you know, as, as you've looked to build that into your culture and how you work, are there some things that you do specifically for that?
We do. We went, I think now it's like seven or eight years ago, uh, we went through the process of. Learning who we really were or who we have become as a company. , We had grown really fast, added a lot, several, a lot of locations, different locations, and a lot of new employees. And we truly had not taken the time to pause and see who we have become.
We, , partnered with a third party that specializes in culture and helped us. Creating one-on-one meetings with all the employees on animal surveys and, and a bunch of other initiatives. We didn't want to like check the box of like, oh yeah, we care about culture and that's it. Um, we wanted to really leave it.
And from there, um, we created a group of culture champions. Um, they represent all locations, all departments. Um, we continue to do the anonymous surveys. Uh, throughout the year, every year. And we are measuring employee engagement employee satisfaction culture, socials procedures. And from there we've, we've created a bunch of new initiatives and they all come from the employees.
So we're giving them a voice and, and it's valid. And we, we showcase all the results on every survey. We go through them with the culture champions, we extract the, the information and create initiatives. Wow. Uh, things as simple as. An employee manual to things as complicated as changing our entire way of onboarding, uh, uh, performance reviews, uh, all the ben employee benefits.
All those things are coming from the employees as, as a leader, as I said before. Um. Everyone has a seat at the table. My, our doors are always open. If you have an idea if you think of a, a different way of doing things, there's no dumb, dumb ideas. Yeah, we will, we will look at it and if it makes sense, if it actually will be a positive impact to the overall of the company, we we'll implement it.
And we will try things and if they don't work, they don't work. But we tried it. As a leader, if, if people are, are, there's, there's different type of leaders. There's the ones that have a lot of experience, know a lot. They can be inspirational, but they have the way of doing things and people then follow that person.
I believe in servant leadership. I work for the employees. Uh, my main focus is to be able to provide the right tools for them to succeed professionally and also the right space for them to succeed personally. If the employees are, are well taken care of, they're gonna take care of the business and they're gonna take care of our clients.
So, I, I. I truly believe that as a leader, you have to take care of your, your family, right? Your, yeah. Your core of employees.
Yeah. Uh, I think this, I love that you had such a deep answer to that question of how do you, you know, what are the strategies to help others feel important? Because I, I actually think, and you even said something like, well, some things where some things don't, and I think the point is, is like, well, one of the things I'm taking away is you're sending these cues, you know, to your people.
That they're important just by the work itself. It's like it's less about, it's less about whether the work worked, it's the fact that you're doing the work. Yeah. That's that in itself. I think is is a big difference maker.
Yeah, no, absolutely. And when, when you give the liberty for people to actually be able to do their job they're naturally gonna be, feel, uh, responsible for it.
And you are not going as a leader, you're not going to have to make people accountable for it because they are feeling that they have to be accountable for it. Having a sense of that sense of belonging, that they belong and that what they do is important, uh, gives them that responsibility and you inspire them that way instead of, you know, giving them a gold star.
And that's the strongest form of accountability, right? Right. Is just deep care, right. For the outcome. I mean, that is. Like, if you can build that. Yeah. You don't, you don't ever need to have metrics, you know? Right. I, I, there's, um, I, I wanna talk about transitions mm-hmm. And challenges because, you know, I, I look at your career, your personal transition that you've gone through your professional transition, geographic transition.
I mean, I. There's a lot of change. Mm-hmm. You went to Barnes and Noble? Yeah. To learn an industry. Amazing. Amazing. Okay. Uh, that's a lot. You know what, what's the, out of all that, and maybe it's not, maybe none of that is it, but what was the biggest challenge of all that you've faced?
There was a big culture change moving from Puerto Rico to the states.
First. Spanish is my first language, still my first language. Uh, we speak Spanish at home every day. So that changing that mindset of actually thinking in Spanish at the time and translating while you're, then you're speaking English, um, was really difficult at the beginning. I was working in Puerto Rico, I was working, um, in interior des in interior, mostly in interior design, uh, and residential.
And my bachelor's was in environmental design architecture. So it was very, um, I. Connected with the environment. Very, uh, tropical architecture with natural light environments, you know, connected throughout they indoors with the outdoors. And when I moved to Jacksonville, um, the contractor, uh, furniture dealership that I, that I started working with, they specialized in government work.
So it was very traditional, very square cookie cutter kind of environments. Uh. Set in specific ways. So that culture shock combined with a design difference, um, was a hard process. Yeah. It was one of the greatest, uh, uh. Faces in my life to learn. Um, because I, I, that's actually when I learned that everyone at the end of the day just want to feel a sense of belonging.
Um, that it didn't matter we were speaking English or Spanish, or if we were talking about, you know, a, a, a structured environment versus a, a more liberal environment. We all want the same. So that, that thought then broke the, the barriers that I was putting in my mind, uh, to be able to tackle whatever was in front of me.
Uh, that's a, it's a great answer and uh, I can relate to the language one a little bit, and this is gonna sound ridiculous. That moving from a Google company to a Microsoft company, which just didn't, it is right. It was like learning a whole new language. It is so true.
And so in a way I'm like, gosh, I feel like I went, I just went through this.
Okay. I, uh, I want to get into your work a little bit. As a leader of a dealership, what are some assumptions about your work that you feel like are, are probably out there that you want to challenge?
I would say that one of the, the, the most important things for me, uh, is that the wrong idea that contract furniture designers are not real designers.
Mm-hmm. That they're not interior designers per se. This is a, a viable professional path for design students. Interior design on the studio side is, it's extremely important. It's creating the, the, all the space itself. And there's so many things that they have to be, uh, thinking of from, you know, from the surfaces to the lighting, to the wellness, to everything right?
In, in the space. In the contract furniture side, we are the, the workplace consultant experts. So we can, we are, we're a, a branch of, of the interior design industry. Dei most of, or a lot of the designers in contract furniture went through, uh, interior design school, um, have the same education as, uh, interior designers in the a and d market.
And they continue have to do cu and continue to, uh, keep up with, with what's what's. Out there, what's the next thing? What's the greatest and latest? And use the same tools AutoCAD and all the other softwares. So it's, it's a, it's a misconception to think that it's less than or, or not. Part of the, the, the ones that thrive and that actually are most successful in contract furniture are the ones.
That can partner with the a and d and the a and d partners with the, with the dealership, uh, from the beginning of a project. Because when they are meeting with the clients and they're thinking of the overall, what their client is telling them, the contract furniture designer is thinking of the specifics of the furniture.
And the furniture itself is where people sit, is where people interact, is where people work. So it was what people touch every single day. So, having that partnership understanding that the contract furniture side are the masters of complexity of. Of the workplace. Uh, I like that space, uh, of the furniture and the, uh, architecture walls and all those things helps the a and d side with the overall of the success of the project.
I like this Masters of complexity idea because the Lord knows it is complex.
It keeps getting worse and worse.
It's amazing. Uh, and, uh, I, I mean, I, I could not agree more. With that misconception, and so I'm really glad you addressed it here. Thanks for going there. Yeah. Let's talk about love, what you do.
I picked you because I feel like you represent that saying and gosh, it shows and how you've brought your own culture, you know, into your work habits and your work life. Let's talk about love. What you do though. On days when it's really hard. Mm-hmm. How do, how do you do that On days when it's hard?
It's hard and there's gonna be days that you don't love that much, what you're doing at the moment.
But every. Every situation, you can learn a, you can learn from every situation. Difficult, difficult times are the best times for growth. If you tackle them directly, it, it is the best time for torture if you don't tackle them directly. Yeah. And if you're afraid, so I think the first, it's, it's human nature to.
Try to distance yourself from difficult situations I, I, I always try to be in, uh. Come to everything in an empathetic way and also thinking that everyone has a positive intent. I think that a lot of the times we have preconceived notions and ideas in an era where technology is how we communicate the most.
And text and emails don't really have emotions and you actually put emotions into what you're reading based on what you're going through at the moment, based on your past experience based on exterior, uh, stress stressors. But. Using the positive intent, always thinking that everyone that is coming to, uh, to me with something, a situation or something, um, they're coming from a place of trying to fix a situation or trying to find a better solution.
It then gives me the opportunity to take that stress out, put myself in their shoes and see, okay, this is a real situation. We should address it and just address it directly. Hard, hard, difficult conversations are needed, always. It's, it's part of life. Pivoting, being able to, change the course of what you're doing at any given time because new information arises or, um, or something happens.
Being able to be open to, to mold yourself as situations arise. That at the end of the day then puts things in perspective. And also at the end of the day, I just go home. I'm with my husband, with, uh, our dog, uh, in our, in our home environment surrounded by people I love. Uh, then, then makes it worth it.
Yeah, I, I love your response to this. You know, how do you love what you do on hard days? Because I actually think that this golden nugget of assuming positive intent, I. Is such a great life hack. Yeah. And I, and I feel like more than anything, that doesn't have to be some innate thing inside you.
Like this is a habit you can create. I.
And I, I, I wasn't like that for a long time. At this, actually, I learned it from my, from my business partner now, um, drew Marshall, the CEOI, I wanted to fix things, but I was reacting to what was happening at the moment. And he was the one who, who showed me that just calm down.
Uh, think positive intent is, is what everyone is, is bringing to the table. And, and go at it and in an empathetic way. And it, it made a huge difference.
Now there's, there's something else you said about like how, how when you struggle, that's when you grow. Yeah. There's a, there's a Dawn Stanley quote.
So she's the uh, uh, coach for South Carolina women's basketball and she says, uh, you know that parents are stealing the struggle from their kids. Mm-hmm. I thought that was kinda interesting. And I kind of look at like, if you're in a leadership position. At work, you know, maybe, maybe that's something we need to look out for is like, not to steal a struggle from those that we're mentoring or coaching and to let them let them have that opportunity to grow.
Yeah. And it's, uh, it means, you know, maybe some things get. Aren't done quite the way you would or, or whatever. But I mean, I, I like this idea of thinking about that not just for yourself, but maybe for those you're mentoring.
Yeah, no, absolutely. I, again, we, we, we don't learn from others. We learn, I. Through actions.
And I know that as leaders we want to solve things and move to the next thing and, you know, uh, take fires out, uh, constantly. But if you are fixing every single thing for everyone, they're not learning and they're not actually. Finding ways to, to resolve the situations and grow, uh, professionally as well.
So you have to let people do, you have to, you have to trust the people that you put in place. You have to trust the process, uh, and training process and everything that you've set for your company. Uh, but then you have to let people do their thing.
I love it. I have a couple other love what you do. Questions. I might, I might hang onto those for a second. Is there, is there a question maybe that you were hoping I'd ask you or, or let's see, or something that you wanna put out into the universe?
We. We were, we were taught, our generations were taught to not talk about specific things. Like you don't, you don't talk about politics, you don't talk about religion, you don't talk about certain things because everyone has their opinion and it can be, uh, misconstrued. I think that's the reason why we are where we are right now because we for forgot how to communicate.
Uh, what I love the most about my, my circle of friends is that everyone is from different walks of life and everyone has a right to have their opinion. But they also have to be open to hearing every everyone else's opinion. And if people were. More like that, more open that you don't know everything, uh, that there's other ways of doing and living.
Then I think we'll probably be at a better world and a better place. Uh huh. I,
I think that's a brilliant statement. Um, you know, yeah. I, I, I've, I've even. Kind of said that to my, my kids. Like, Hey, these are subjects you want to avoid. And it's like, you know what? Maybe, maybe that. The lid needs to be taken off that a little bit.
Yeah, I feel like that. And encourage more dialogue.
Yeah. I feel, yeah. I feel like now, now we're, we're in a very black and white, uh, mentality. It's one side and the other on every, every little thing. And we're not, the reality of it is we are, we're humans are diverse. There's everything that happens in our.
In our lives shapes who you are and shapes how you see reality. Um, your reality is, is, is completely different than mine. Right now we're sitting in the same space. But your view is different than mine.
Yeah.
Um, what you're thinking through is different than what I'm thinking through. So why, why, why, why would we think that we know everything and we are in the right side of everything?
It's, it's knowing how to compromise and learning.
Maybe you should have gone into politics. I mean, the world needs more of you. I can tell you. Uh, you're, you're fantastic. Uh, all right. Finish this sentence for me. Yeah. Or actually, let's do it this way. Answer this question. Uh, what changes when you love what you do?
Hmm. What changes what you love? When you love what you do? Everything, everything. When you love what you do, you are clear in what fills you as a human. Mm. And. What you're good at, what, what your talent is.
If you, if you are able to embrace your talent if you're able to be passionate about what you do day in, day out you have a better life.
I love that. I'll tell you what, thank you. Thank you for coming on. Thank you for coming on the show. Um, I'm gonna give you one, one little plug here for you to, to drop in with CI Group. What is it that you're most proud of with CI Group?
I would say that at the, my, my proudest, uh, part of, uh, of CI group is, who we are, where we are, and how we give back. I love it. Yeah. All right. Thank you Gilbert. This was really fun. You were fantastic. Oh, thank you. It was great. Thank you so much.