Latest / Unstoppable You / Falling Behind Is A Fear. Not A Fact.
Transcript
- Susan Murray Carlock (00:00): Reinvention can be super scary, right? And we're right now as a world reinventing ourselves. And now with these new technologies, this AI boom, it's going to lead to growth. We have to open our minds to it, embrace it, educate yourself, and where can it help you be a better person? Bree Katulak (00:16): Hey, I'm Bree and this is Unstoppable You, the podcast for women ready to stop choosing between their dreams family and personal growth. A few years ago, I had a really uncomfortable realization. Am I getting left behind? Welcome back. Today I am talking with Susan Murray Carlock of Mercy's Corporation and a co-founder of Murray Mentor, which is a manufacturing leader and innovator working at the intersection of workforce development, AI, and the future of manufacturing. What I love most about Susan's perspective is this. She doesn't see technology as something that replaces people. She sees it as something that should absolutely empower them because if you've ever felt like the world is evolving faster than you can keep up with, you know exactly what I'm talking about. For most of my career, I built my success in accounting and finance by digging through transactions, understanding financial statements and systems and using business acumen to find the answers to the questions that the business had. (01:30): And honestly, I was really good at it over the period of time that I spent honing that craft. But then younger professionals started entering the workforce with data analytic backgrounds and building dashboards and pulling insights in minutes that used to take me hours or even days to uncover. If you've ever felt like the world is evolving faster than you can keep up with like it is today, you know exactly what I'm talking about and what was my first reaction? It scared me. I remember thinking, am I getting left behind? Am I still going to be relevant in the workforce or am I slowly seeing my way out the door? But what I eventually realized was this, technology wasn't replacing experience. It was amplifying it because data without judgment, business understanding and critical thinking is just noise. And once I stopped resisting that evolution and started learning how to work alongside it, it made me a stronger leader. (02:32): It helped me understand what questions I needed to be asking, which is why I'm excited for this conversation with Susan today. From starting her career in nursing to manufacturing leadership to workforce innovation and AI mentorship tools, she's helping redefine what the future of work really looks like and how we evolve without losing the human side of leadership along the way. So as we get started, I really do want to dive deeper into what having it all means to you. Susan Murray Carlock (03:07): Having it all, it's one of those phrases that means something different to almost everyone. So let's say agency over trade-offs rather than the absence of trade-offs. Most leaders, I would describe this way, they don't believe that they can do everything 100%, that they want the power to choose and that's huge and that is powerful. We get to choose what gets less of our time on any given day rather than having that choice made for us by circumstance. So I know you get that, but I ask for permission to redefine this term because we've evolved. We're in 2026 and it's no longer we are women. We're out to prove that we can take on the world and conquer it. We've rejected this original framing, arguing it was always a trap. I think of mom in the 60s and her life was taking care of the kids and the husband. (03:56): It was never about work. This implied a single static finish line, so career, family, health, marriage, self, all thriving at once in perfect harmony. And that's not reality, that nobody male or female actually hits that. So I push back on that saying that underlying ambition, wanting full participation in both a meaningful career and a very rich personal life is worth naming and fighting for. Bree Katulak (04:23): Yes. What Susan Murray Carlock (04:23): Do we call that today? So I put that back on you. What Bree Katulak (04:26): Do we call Susan Murray Carlock (04:27): That today? Bree Katulak (04:28): I love that you just said this. I'm clearly at the beginning of my journey where I'm thinking through how to phrase this and I've done a lot of reflection on this. I've come up with the term aligned ambition and I still don't feel like that is right. I really don't. But I think redefining success and having the courage to live that version of success, even if it's against what other people say it should be for you is very, very important. I love that you're throwing this back on me and I think I'm still in my journey of finding the right words to make it perfect. Words are extremely important in how we use them and I haven't come up with the right phrase yet, but I'm still on that journey to do it. Aligned ambition, the one that I've come up with the most. Susan Murray Carlock (05:22): I like it. I like it. Maybe we don't have to have a phrase for it. Maybe not. Maybe just live life the way it's best for us to live life. Exactly. Perfect. With symbiosis with ourselves, our families, our coworkers. Bree Katulak (05:34): I think it's so important to take the time to do the reflection or introspection, so to speak, and really understand what your core values are as an individual and what you want your family's core values to be and be incredibly intentional about your actions and your calendar to make sure you're aligning with where you want to go. I got so far away from what I wanted my personal values to be that I just kept going and kept trying to achieve. And then one day I woke up and was like, wow, I think I lost a litle bit of myself. I think it's time to do that reflection and then we can start getting more intentionality into my life and get back on track. Susan Murray Carlock (06:19): I love that, Bri. That's great. Bree Katulak (06:21): I want to learn more about your career too, because you started your career as a nurse and then you have made several pivots throughout your career. I want to start talking about if you ever felt like an outsider during those transition periods or how emotionally you felt in those moments. Susan Murray Carlock (06:39): So my passion through life was always taking care of other people. I always wanted to be a nurse. I wanted to be an ER nurse. I wanted to know just enough about medicine just to be able to be well-rounded and have a career always, whether it was day shift, second shift, night shift. The emotion really for me was excitement because I got to join my brother and running the family business, but how am I going to fit in? I'm a nurse going into a manufacturing plant, but at the time I was also teaching health and wellness and fitness classes and having the nursing background, I knew I could bring something to the people and to the business that wasn't currently there. And the transition, I felt like an outsider the first day I came in, my brother's like, "Oh, just go walk down on the floor, just go meet people and start talking to them." I'm like, "First of all, where's the logic of causing a disruption in production?" First of all, you really want me stopping at each machine and talking to people. (07:28): They need to be focused on their attention. But walked down there, no PPE, not thinking about anything safety because I didn't really know much. And the shipping manager stops me and he's this ex - military guy and he's like, "Young lady, can I help you really stern?" And I'm like, "I'm Todd's sister." He took me under his wing from that day. I mean, he was a hard guy to get to know and if he liked you, if you were in his court, you were in his port, but he walked me through the plant, just made me feel more comfortable. And as I grew in the company and my HR role, sales and business development, and now as the executive vice president, my confidence and understanding in the business world and manufacturing have really been the compelling reason I'm so passionate about what I'm doing. 10 years ago, I put myself outside of the company to work on the company and to surround myself with other Indiana manufacturers and manufacturers coast to coast. (08:15): So yeah, a little bit about the feeling like an outsider in my journey. Throw me in there. Hope she swims. Bree Katulak (08:21): Yeah, well, absolutely. And let's talk about the more recent shift with Murray Mentor as well. So what sparked the idea and then let's go from there. Susan Murray Carlock (08:30): Okay, sure. So Murray Mentor, my passion project, my unintentional startup 10 years ago of my 15 years with the company, I really started hearing the same, I call them therapy sessions within all my networking groups and it was just everyone was saying the same thing, workforce generation, retiring the newer generation, what are we going to do? And I myself was watching 10, 20, 30 plus years of knowledge walk out the front door upon retirement, knowing that we'd never get it back in our plants. Met the right person in AI software and we decided we had something that we could build for Mercyx, my family business. And lo and behold, it started working and it really was taking off. And I just said, I can't leave my colleagues out of this. They have to benefit because it's a true solution for the very real problem that we're all facing, not just in manufacturing, but especially in manufacturing. Bree Katulak (09:21): What do you think is at stake if we aren't able to solve this and get it out into the world like you're doing? Susan Murray Carlock (09:27): Our company's survival are at stake. It's a very real problem. If we don't have the people to do the work, we don't have a business. And with reshoring and manufacturing coming back to the United States, it's affecting Merck's growth by 20% in just two years, which is phenomenal, but we're fighting to get the people to stay. Using a tool like Murray has been really exciting for our customers because they get to use their device to help them get better at work. So it's really a pathway, a journey for them to get skilled up quickly, more quickly than they would because those skills aren't exactly being taught. They learn very differently. They learn by watching YouTube videos and reading on the phone instead of how we learn, my dad learned, my grandfather, great-grandfather learns. I think the excitement of using new technologies is going to help this next generation feel more confident in what can be a very intimidating environment in manufacturing. Bree Katulak (10:18): When I met you, it was through Connexus and you had already started the journey of shaping an industry. I was always I think your biggest fan girl sitting in those Connexus meetings and seeing you take charge and making an impact, again, not just within your own organization, but across the state of Indiana, across the country, et cetera. And I sincerely and genuinely look up to that. But when did you get that feeling where you wanted to branch out outside of Mercyx and really make an impact on the industry? Susan Murray Carlock (10:52): I have to give credit to people like you and people within the organization that helped me grow professionally in Connexus. It made me understand that we all need to come together to help one another, not only just help one another in those pain points and be a shoulder for other people and companies, but I knew there was something more for me. I didn't start Mercix. My father bought it in 1990. My brother has been running it. I needed something that I could impact myself. Actually, AI's been around for quite some time, but really three years ago with AI really out there and growing so fast, I knew there had to be a solution with AI for this workforce challenge. I thought it was just going to be a solution for the family business. So once we started getting customers, my passion, knowing their pain points were the same as ours, it's just important to me. (11:38): It's important to you. It's important to everyone. Bree Katulak (11:40): Seeing the business environment in general, it's very, very competitive and you're always talking about the competitive landscape and everything like that. But I love this, I'm going to call it a newer thought concept of joining forces together and solving the similar problems that we're all facing and helping each other all elevate. I love what you're doing from that standpoint. Absolutely. Going back to your comments on having the power to choose and you have obviously raised a family as well and have been very successful in your career. What were some of the emotionally tension moments that you've faced over that time period? Susan Murray Carlock (12:23): Some things feel heavy in this season of life, if you will. On a personal note, I'm incredibly happy. I got divorced a few years back, been married almost three years and that has just been something that's really been a lift for me. I have two boys and a stepdaughter. They're doing great. I think about being 58 years old and how many years do I have left and with this great man who I have a second chance at life with and continue to make an impact where it matters with my kids, my husband, the months, the days, the weeks you know they're flying by. But professionally, I've built this AI tech company and it's all hands on deck. It's moving very fast. We landed our pre-seed round last fall. We're starting our Series A raise next month for $10 million. We have nine employees and three advisors. (13:08): They believe in our vision and our mission and we know we have a product that's a true solution in solving this problem, this retiring workforce gap. So that's heavy, right? That's a lot, but nine people right now are dependent upon me and my two co-founders. At my family business, Mercyx, we have a community here in Delaware County that counts on us and almost 200 people we employ who depend on our future growth to feed their families and pay their bills. That's heavy. These are the things that wake me up at night. These are the things I think about all the time that people are actually dependent on me. That's heavy, that's the word I think of, but it's rewarding. And I can't imagine a point in time I'll be in a job where I punch at the time clock and get to go home and things are not on my mind and waking me up at 2:00 and 3:00 AM. Bree Katulak (13:52): So how have you evolved over your career? What do you feel were some inflection points or stories that really caused you to develop? Susan Murray Carlock (14:01): I've always been type A. I've always wanted to be successful. We all do. But I think the journey I've been on is getting out of my comfort zone, getting in front of people, doing things that I typically don't feel comfortable doing. So it's allowed that continuation of my critical thinking skills to be more of an independent thinker that listens to others. I am all about empowering your people to help me and to help leaders in general make the best decisions and be better. Empowering people is what makes everyone a great leader and in turn makes it a great company. So I've been able to carry this over now to Marie Mentor as we built the company from scratch. I can honestly say my life goal was to take care of people. I'm still taking care of people just in a different way and they're taking care of me. Bree Katulak (14:44): Yes, absolutely. And I think some of the things that you have said are so incredibly critical. When you get comfortable and pushing yourself outside of the comfort zone is so important and so many people genuinely are afraid to do that. It's scary, but those moments where you take the leap or where you find new aspects about yourself that you didn't even know existed in the past. Susan Murray Carlock (15:07): You are right, Bri. And I always keep this Babe Ruth saying, never let the fear of striking out get in your way. It's a paperweight on my desk because that's what gets you out of that stagnant role. That's what helps you to grow. We were in China three years ago and climbed the Great Wall and I'm definitely afraid of heights. I was basically convulsing the whole two hours we were on there, but I went up the way I went up convulsing. I went back the way I came up because I was not going to take a shortcut because that's not in my DNA. It's not in my character. I'd rather keep persevering and be scared, but I did it and unfortunately I didn't cure my fear of heights, but I put myself out of that comfort zone. Bree Katulak (15:48): I'm very impressed and I'm very proud of you for accomplishing that and not giving up. I am deathly afraid of heights as well, so I know exactly what you're talking about. I think my chest tightened up a little bit as you were telling that story. A great experience. It was really crazy. And you're so grateful that you did persevere through that for the solely that you saw. Susan Murray Carlock (16:08): Absolutely. I've failed in the past. I've made some bad business decisions. I had an intentional startup that didn't work out, but it doesn't mean I'm going to quit. It just, again, never let that fear of striking out get in your way. You got to persevere. And if there's an opportunity on the horizon, you've got to go in with, call it skeptical optimism knowing that you could fail, but knowing the risks upfront will help you make the best decision. Bree Katulak (16:32): One question that I have because you mentioned wanting to be successful as you progress throughout your career. This is a question that I keep coming back to a lot, specifically within the last couple of months, defining what success is. In my mind, success historically was always achievement and I framed it as it meant winning. And I think I'm redefining what success looks like right now and it's more about presence and about self-trust and it's not necessarily about winning, but making advancements and betterments of either myself or other people around me. Susan Murray Carlock (17:15): Absolutely. So act as if what you do matters because it does. Bree Katulak (17:19): Yes. I Susan Murray Carlock (17:20): Love that saying. And I have that plaque in my office here because everything you do does make a difference either to yourself, to someone else, and hopefully you can impact people in a positive way. Bree Katulak (17:31): Right, right. But Susan Murray Carlock (17:33): I understand your analogy about success. It's not, "Oh, I have a great company and we're going to get $10 million for a Series A race." It's not about that. The success part is we're helping people. We're helping manufacturers businesses stay alive. That's the success. That's the legacy that I want. Dad was in manufacturing his whole career and our product is named after my last name, my maiden name, my father, Steven Murray, Marie Mentor. That legacy matters and that's what is important to me, that this learning and this journey with this next generation continues in manufacturing. Bree Katulak (18:06): So we have to bring this up since it's part of the title. Let's talk about being unstoppable and you brought it up with the story of the Great Wall of China and persevering through. So when you hear unstoppable, what does that mean to you both in your work life and in your personal life? Susan Murray Carlock (18:24): Having goals in mind and knowing how to achieve them. So everything I approach in life, it's so business-like, but what's the mission? What's the vision? Like with Murray Mentor, we're not going to just keep going. We need our mission and our vision and everyone needs to buy in. So at Murray it is honor the skill, build the future. We're honoring the past generation of skilled workers and helping the next generation to become better and more skilled up more quickly. Unstoppable to me is goal-oriented. What value are you going to get? Is your family going to get? Are your colleagues going to get? It's just staying aligned with your core values and how you're going to reach those goals in the most ethically and morally responsible way. Bree Katulak (19:07): I resonate with that answer so much and I really do agree with you. I approach everything in my life with a very business-focused mindset. The mission, the vision, the values is all so important to drive towards that goal and making sure it all aligns. I love that answer. What do you think happens, whether it's to people or to organizations when they stop learning and stop adapting? With AI coming at us so quickly and it's literally changing every day, how do you think people are feeling and taking that on? Well, Susan Murray Carlock (19:39): I think there's a big mix out there. I think there's a lot of people that are really excited with the right understanding of what this new technology can do. There are people that are not so excited about it because I think they just don't understand it. Reinvention can be super scary. And we're right now as a world reinventing ourselves. We see this happening 2020 on the verge of COVID and after we're in this reinvention and now with these new technologies, this AI boom, it's going to lead to growth. We have to open our minds to it, embrace it, educate yourself and where can it help you be a better person? How can AI help you be a better thought leader? How can you use AI in the most productive, ethical way to make you better at what you do to prepare you better for what you're going to face? (20:23): The fear of the unknown is scary, but you have to educate yourself and put yourself in there. Just get in there and learn and do it. We took our leadership team to Cancun. We had never done this before. And so there were 12 of us. It was so fun. And there was a karaoke night one night at the resort and I wasn't going to do it. It's not happening. No one else wanted to do it in the group either. So I'm like, "I'm going to go up and get a glass of wine." And there was this young college girl there with her mom and she just didn't look very happy. And I just started talking to her and I just said, "Are you going to get up there on stage?" She's like, "Oh no, I'm not going to do that. " All of a sudden there's something that compelled me. (20:59): I was like, "Would you do a duo with me? " That's what I said. And she had the biggest smile on her face and she's like, "Let's do it. " I was just like, "Oh my gosh, what did we just do? " And so we went up and we sang, Don't Go Breaking My Heart with Elton Jean and Kiki D. I Bree Katulak (21:14): Love Susan Murray Carlock (21:15): That. And had the best time and I'll tell you what, I saw her two days later with her mom and she said, "You have just made an impact on my daughter. She can't stop talking about you. " I wasn't trying to help her. I wasn't trying to do anything. Something in me said, "Let's get up there and do it because I'm fearful of this and I can tell you are too. We can do it together." Bree Katulak (21:33): You always need that first person and then everyone starts to trickle through. Everyone's afraid of being the first for sure. Going back to the fears though, what fears do you hear most often from other people in the industry regarding AI? Susan Murray Carlock (21:49): It's always a lack of trust, data privacy and security. Those are the biggest adoption is also something that comes up and I can't disagree because culture change or change management in manufacturing is so challenging. You bring in a new piece of software and you expect people to use it. You've got to have the champion, you've got to have the leadership on board. The biggest fear I hear is really based around trust. Bree Katulak (22:13): That is interesting. And I'm glad to hear that it's different than just it's going to replace my job. And Susan Murray Carlock (22:20): People are Bree Katulak (22:20): Getting over that. I think it's grown out there all the time, but I like the different perspective of the trust and the data privacy because all of that is very important. And so many times, not just in manufacturing and business in general, you see these new things being pushed out and it's like, well, this might just be another flavor of the month. Do I really have to do that? Or if I ignore it, is it going to go away? AI is not going away and we all need to start embracing it and seeing how it can really elevate and revamp our lives. Susan Murray Carlock (22:52): Our toolmakers, when we rolled Murray out at Mercy's, they were, I call them the carmudgets, the ones who were not going to use it. I don't need to use it. It's going to replace me. Forget it. Once they started using it, they're like, "Oh man, if I had Murray three years ago, I'd remember how I fixed that tool. Now I got to start all over again." So all of a sudden they want to train the model because they know it's going to help them in the future. So it's been pretty cool to watch the older generation catch on. Bree Katulak (23:19): That's great. That is really great. You have given a lot of examples and you spend so much time helping other people grow and adapt. What do you do when someone doesn't yet believe in themselves? How do you get them to overcome that? Susan Murray Carlock (23:34): It's just staying in front of them. It's education, it's exposure. The example with a girl at the karaoke, let's just do this, just putting someone outside of their comfort zone and going along the way with them and showing them it's okay to be afraid, but look at how far we can go together. I really think that's important in helping people. I'll be there with you. I roll these sleeves up. I have no problem going back there and sorting parts. I will do whatever I need to do. I'll help you do it. Bree Katulak (23:58): Right. And I mean, experience really does enable all of that confidence to just come full force. You just get your first win and then you're like, "Oh, maybe I can try a little more." And none of that is rocket science, but sometimes I think people forget that. Susan Murray Carlock (24:13): Right. I agree. Bree Katulak (24:14): What gives you the most hope for the future about manufacturing and the next generation that is entering the workforce? Susan Murray Carlock (24:22): I would have a very different answer to that four years ago than I have today. I was really scared a few years ago, but today these generation has the tools to help them be better at their job and skill up faster than the past generations ever had. I always go back to Murray because I'm living and breathing not every day. It really allows that les experienced worker to use this app on any device to help them learn more quickly and skill them up in a faster amount of time. So we've taken that years of tribal knowledge that resides within a business and instilled it so that the next generation of workers can learn. I think the future for them is so limitless. I don't know that they all see that yet. The job market's tough for them, but they need to take advantage of the opportunities that are in front of them and it may not be what they studied in school. (25:06): They may very well end up in a place that has nothing to do with their major and happy as can be. So I think they just need to open their mind a little bit and not be afraid to take a leap in a different direction. Bree Katulak (25:20): Absolutely. Again, I'm going to go back to it is where you learn the most and taking that leap can honestly be one of the most eyeopening and enjoyable experiences that you never knew you needed. Susan Murray Carlock (25:32): Exactly. Bree Katulak (25:33): Exactly. So you had made a comment about not knowing how many years you had left and everything along those lines. At the end of your career with obviously how much you've talked about wanting to make an impact and helping others, what do you hope will say you changed? I Susan Murray Carlock (25:50): Hope that the legacy of manufacturing is alive and we're on a trajectory to get manufacturing back here in the United States and there are jobs being created. Things are being made, like I said, in America and people are feeding their families, paying their bills, making good wages and living life in a very content way. Personally, I've got my goals and what I hope to see at the end of the day on my deathbed. But with my business, I just hope that it leaves the legacy that manufacturing is relevant and it matters. Bree Katulak (26:24): It matters so much. And I agree with you. I hope we continue to see the reassuring efforts take place. People get excited about the manufacturing jobs that are presented to them and see all of the opportunity that can provide to them, their community, the economy as a whole. It's so critical to our ecosystem. Susan Murray Carlock (26:44): Absolutely. Bree Katulak (26:45): Yeah. Awesome. Susan Murray Carlock (26:47): Very good. I think this has been fun. I love that you made a career change for yourself too at this point in your life. I know you've got a lot of kids and you're very busy, but you're taking a leap and I commend you for that. So congratulations and I wish you the best. I appreciate the opportunity to talk to you to talk about Mercyx, to talk about Murray Mentor and I just wish you all the best in your adventure. Bree Katulak (27:10): Thank you so much. You have no idea how much of an impact you've made on my life. And I know we haven't known each other for very long, but you really are a force of nature and I mean so inspirational. So you are achieving your goal and I want you to know that. Thank you for taking the time to be on here today. Susan Murray Carlock (27:29): Awesome. It's been great. Thank you so much. Bree Katulak (27:31): Awesome. Well, I hope you have a great rest of your day. Susan Murray Carlock (27:33): Thank you so much. Have a good rest of the week. Bree Katulak (27:35): You too. Bye. All right, here's my challenge for you over the next two weeks. I really want you to think about one area of your life that you have been resisting change. Maybe it's been with technology or leadership, maybe it's with parenting, or maybe it's stepping into a new version of yourself that feels incredibly unfamiliar. The reality is growth is exciting in theory, but in real life, evolution can feel extremely uncomfortable and sometimes the hardest part isn't learning something new. It's letting go of the version of yourself that felt safe capable and successful before. That's why this conversation with Susan resonated with me so deeply because a few years ago when I saw younger professionals pulling insights and building dashboards faster than I ever could, I thought, wow, I am really getting left behind. And underneath that question was something incredibly deeper. Do I still matter in this version of the world that's coming next? (28:43): But what I eventually realized and what Susan's work reinforces so beautifully is this, technology does not replace human value. It reveals where human value truly exists in judgment, adaptability, in leadership, in creativity and critical thinking and mentorship. The scariest part of change is not the technology itself, but it really is the fear that you might stop mattering in a world that is changing so quickly around you. But becoming unstoppable isn't about resisting change. You heard it from Susan today. It's about being willing to evolve alongside it, to stay curious, to keep learning, to challenge yourself instead of shutting down in fear. So this week I want to ask you to ask yourself, where am I resisting growth? Because I'm afraid of feeling behind. And instead of avoiding it, take one step, just one step towards it. Learn the thing, ask the questions, experiment. Don't be afraid of striking out because the people who continue to grow aren't the ones who know everything. (29:57): They're the ones willing to keep evolving and That's how you stay relevant. That's how you keep growing and that's how you become unstoppable. This is your life. Define it, live it, and become unstoppable. (30:13): Thank you for listening to Unstoppable You. If this episode was helpful, I'd love to know. Connect with me on LinkedIn at Bree Katulak. That's K-A-T-U-L-A-K on LinkedIn and shoot me a message. This show is for you. Be Unstoppable. I'll see you next time.