Purpose-Driven Leadership: Insights from Carrie Murphy
01:01
Carrie Aguilar
We're so excited that you guys are here to join us. This week we have another Carrie, Carrie Murphy. Say hello, Carrie.
01:08
Carrie Murphy
Hi, everyone.
01:09
Carrie Aguilar
See, so this is my voice and.
01:11
Carrie Murphy
Then this is my voice and we're both Carrie's, so hopefully you can tell us apart.
01:15
Mara Kamat
We're very excited to be joined with both Carrie's today. And before we get into it, I don't know Carrie Murphy at all, and I would love to start by just getting to know a little bit more about you and your background and sharing with the audience your story.
01:31
Carrie Murphy
Yeah, absolutely. Well, first off, thank you for having me. Excited to be here.Very excited for your podcast. Quick background about myself. So, born and raised in Cleveland, well, technically Shaker Heights, so I'm an East Sider. So everyone knows there's the big divide, east versus West. But grew up here when I graduated from high school, went to Syracuse University, and after Ig raduated from college, moved to New York City, which is where I started my career. And so I've had an interesting career, to say the least. A little bit of some twists and turns and ups and downs, but all of them ultimately have led me to where I am today. So I'm grateful for that path.
02:07
Carrie Murphy
And I'd say over the last 15 years, if you had to summarize, kind of overall,I've always been in the talent landscape, everything from talent acquisition toexecutive search. When I graduated college in 2010, the economy was still notgreat. And so I was just fortunate to even find a job and didn't even realizeat the time that I was going to a late stage kind of growth tech startup, ifyou. If you could call it that, essentially, but helped kind of build andlaunch a new program there and really there learned how much you can. Theability to move at a fast pace, to gain responsibility really early on in yourcareer, within a year or two from school.
02:49
Carrie Murphy
I had a team of 10 people that I was managing and launching a new product andsmall things that were really great opportunities and career opportunities forthere for me. And as I have navigated every career pivot and changed, it'salways been through just my network. And so I happen to be connecting withsomeone else that I knew from high school who was. You're a recruiter? I knowsomeone who does executive search for this really cool company. You should talkto them. And so after I would spent three years in my first job, I ended upgoing over to Diversified. Sweet.
03:21
Carrie Aguilar
Can I ask.
03:22
Carrie Murphy
Yeah.
03:22
Carrie Aguilar
Your first job, your title, what did you actually do?
03:25
Carrie Murphy
Great question. So I joined the Ladders as a what they called a talentspecialist.
03:31
Carrie Aguilar
Okay.
03:32
Carrie Murphy
So the Ladders was at the time a job board for 100k and above jobs. So similarto Monster and Yahoo. So we had job seekers, people were posting resumes andthen we had companies who were posting jobs to try to find talent of this.
03:45
Carrie Aguilar
I was actually a recruiter for my very first role as well in New York City.
03:48
Carrie Murphy
I don't think I knew that. Yeah, I feel a lot of people actually get intorecruiting unknowingly and it's usually a first time.
03:55
Carrie Aguilar
It's like a sales job. It kind of is, wait, what am I doing?
03:57
Carrie Murphy
And they're gonna trick you. They're like, oh, you wanna make some money?Great, come join us.
04:01
Mara Kamat
But I also think it's a good skill to develop in terms of talent assessment andassessment. Talent, no matter where you are in your career or what you decideto do, being an effective leader is so critical. And so I love that you kind ofdevelop that foundation and skillset early on. And for others I would saythat's a valuable experience, contrary to whatever you might do well.
04:22
Carrie Murphy
And I'd say in addition to talent assessment, it' also sales and relationshipbuilding, you know, so often. And I spent six years of my career actuallyhelping recent college graduates kind of pursue their new jobs. And everyonewas, I don't want to go into sales. I was like, especially if you want tobecome a founder one day. Getting sales experience the most important part. Andit's one of the best things you can do and it might be hard, but you're goingto learn and grow from it. And that's why I often tell people when they want togo into sales, you just have to ideally really believe in the product or theservice that you're selling and then it should come naturally and Be easy, butit's definitely good foundational skills.
04:58
Carrie Murphy
And then on the flip side, too, you have people in recruiting and sales thathave a bad reputation because sometimes they aren't genuine in their approach.So it goes. It goes both ways.
05:07
Carrie Aguilar
You mean you don't have 12 years experience as the CFO, but that's okay. We'llstill find your resume in.
05:13
Carrie Murphy
Yeah. So anyway, so I was there and. And basically they hired a bunch of us outof school to source resumes and to help kind of build talent pools. And thenthey're like, hey, maybe we can actually make money doing this. Let's test outif people would actually pay for us to pre screen source candidates for them.And so then that's what we ended up launching. And I'd say some of the bigtakeaways from that too. One in particular, one of my first managers. There isstill someone today who I have a good relationship with, a good mentor andfriend of mine. I followed her at another point in my career. So it was areally good first kind of launchpad, if you will.
05:48
Mara Kamat
Can we talk about that for a second? I think one of the things we heard fromthe person that we had on Felicia, who is just fabulous, was the importance ofhaving sponsors and mentors. And so you talked about this individual being amentor for you. Can you tell us a little bit more? Like, how did thatrelationship evolve? How did you foster it over all these years?
06:10
Carrie Murphy
Well, I'd say there's actually, like, I view the two that are slightlydifferent, a mentor versus a sponsor. And I think both are really important tohave. And so from a mentor standpoint, it's that person who. In order forsomeone to be a good mentor, ideally they're taking the time, whether it's inthe workday or outside of the workday to ask, like, what are your career goals?What are the things that you want to learn and grow so they can actuallyunderstand how to create opportunities for you? And then part of you on theflip side is also being intentional about how you approach those conversationsand build relationships with the individuals to seek out the support and theadvice. And then when I think about a sponsor, that's really.
06:50
Carrie Murphy
You have someone that's advocating for you, who has a seat at the table in theroom when you're not there. And I think that's both as now that I reflect onit, both. Christina, at the time, she was an advocate for me, which helped mebe able to grow and have increased responsibility at my first job and then eventhroughout my career. I've had been fortunate to have some of those sponsorsthat have advocated for me that have created opportunities. And then I thinkthe other thing too, you want to make sure you always pay it forward. So nowit's my turn to do that for others.
07:19
Mara Kamat
I love that. And I think in her land, that's the spirit of it. Right. Andhaving guests like you and other people is sharing women's stories so we canall pay it forward and be there to support each other. And I love that you'redoing that in your daily work.
07:32
Carrie Aguilar
Can I just ask a very tactical question? And sometimes on this podcast, we'renot super tactical, but I'm just very interested.
07:39
Carrie Murphy
Go for it.
07:40
Carrie Aguilar
So you spoke about this woman, Christine, you said, hi, Christine.
07:45
Carrie Murphy
Christina.
07:45
Carrie Aguilar
Christina. Sorry, my bad. And you spoke about her basically being a mentor andin some ways a sponsor. How did you so, and I'm assuming, and I will just sayin my own experience, I've had mentors and I've had sponsors, and they're notalways the same person. Right. So how were you active in. And I'm sure you'vehad other sponsors besides Christina. How were you active in seeking out,potentially having a sponsor type relationship?
08:19
Carrie Murphy
It's a really great question. And I don't think I ever thought of it as being asponsor until honestly thinking about coming on this podcast. So it was not aproactive, oh, I need to go find a sponsor. I think it was more around myapproach to work, my communication and accountability, where it's, if she'sgonna give me something to do, I'm going to do it. I'm gonna deliver aboveexpectations and if I see an opportunity to create impact or change, raise myhand and do that versus wait to be asked. And so when you have a patternhistory of thinking that and at the end of the day, hopefully making thebusiness or your team better, then people will see, oh my gosh, this person haspotential and I want to create opportunity for them.
09:03
Carrie Aguilar
Great. So it becomes almost obvious for them that why wouldn't they mention,oh, Carrie would be wonderful at that.
09:10
Carrie Murphy
Right.
09:11
Carrie Aguilar
And in this case, that would be Kerry Murphy, not Carrie Aguilar.
09:15
Carrie Murphy
Yes.
09:16
Carrie Aguilar
Cool.
09:17
Carrie Murphy
Sorry.
09:17
Carrie Aguilar
Okay, so you talk about executive search. Can you, could you.
09:21
Carrie Murphy
Yeah, we kind of stopped my first three years. Yeah. So I ended up pivoting andwent into. So I went from sourcing candidates and kind of doing the initialphone screening and mind you as well, my mom had her own executive searchbusiness, so I actually spent several summ working for her and Always been inthis world. And then I went into executive search with Diversa Partners wherethey had a really interesting model and in some cases which worked out reallywell, they were LPs in a lot of the major VC funds were able to take equity inlieu of search fees. But really what were doing there was building outmanagement teams for venture backed startups. And so this was back whenSnapchat was still Snapchat and not Snap and got it Dropbox and Uber and all ofthose companies out west.
10:04
Carrie Murphy
And so I had an interesting experience there where again I kind of wasmultifaceted where I would go bounce from B2B B to C, all C suite functionallevels. Even in some cases did work on some of the very few private equity orpublic companies that we did support with and spent a couple years there. Andit was Christina, my former manager, who I stayed in touch with.
10:25
Carrie Aguilar
Thanks Christina.
10:26
Carrie Murphy
We would grab drinks, catch up every so often. Always her calling me, hey, doyou want to come work with me again? Do you want to come do this? And she hadactually gone to Goldman Sachs and I was like, no thank. But then she got me ata time where I was like, you know what, maybe I do want to see what it's liketo work in a corporate kind of more structured environment. So I ended uppivoting and went to work with her again at Goldman Sachs was doing recruitingfor their sales and trading division. And that was also a period where kind ofinflection point. So my husband and I had been married for a year. He's alsofrom Cleveland. We were living in New York.
11:01
Carrie Murphy
And that period of getting married, which meant me spending a lot of timecoming to and from Cleveland, I was just a happier person when I was here. Iwas more relaxed, I wasn't as high strung. And so were both kind of at thatpoint of hey, I think it's the clock's starting to tick. It's time for us tofigure out if we're gonna move back home. We should start trying to plant someroots and seeds to do that.
11:24
Mara Kamat
And that's a big decision to make. Right? One, pivoting to go inside ofcorporate when you've been part of these unstructured environments and now two,you're inside this corporate environment doing executive search and talent andI'm sure learning a lot from different perspectives and people there and nowit's okay, you kind of pause to evaluate. But what is serving me personally, Ithink that's a really important thing. And sometimes it's hard for people whenthey're caught up in the day to day and life to hit the pause button. How didyou hit the pause button and then have the courage to make the decision. ButCleveland aligns and that's what we're gonna do.
12:02
Carrie Murphy
Oh, good question. I think it was. And I worked with a great team of people andreally smart individuals when I was at Goldman. But it just felt different inthat I did feel a little bit more like a cog in the wheel. We're doing a lotof. It's such a well oiled structured machine and it was a lot of the samethings over and over again versus having realizing that maybe I do actuallybeing a little bit more of an ambiguous environment and being able to wearmultiple hats and see people develop throughout more than just that initialinterview and hire. So there was an aspect of career wise I felt ready to makeanother move and then it was really honestly it was just, it was a risk werewilling to take.
12:46
Carrie Murphy
I mean we, our lease was up, that was our date. My husband quit his job, wemoved to Cleveland. He didn't have a job. Moved in with my in laws then movedin with a good friend, one of my best friends from high school. She hadn't evenmoved into her house yet that she just bought and were in her attic. Oh, thatwas so.
13:03
Carrie Aguilar
What a nice friend.
13:04
Carrie Murphy
Yes, I'm very fortunate. So yeah, it was more of. Yeah, I don't know. That'skind of something we're just willing to do. Yeah, we knew we'd figure it out.
13:12
Carrie Aguilar
And then what did you do when you got here?
13:15
Carrie Murphy
So then I went back to the tech startup world and ended up working for aprivate equity backed data intelligence company that was based out in Sugar andFalls. And so I went in house and was doing all of talent acquisition and HRfor them.
13:27
Carrie Aguilar
Awesome. Yeah, it's exciting. And then I know that your most recent. Wellbesides what you're doing now, which we'll get into, your most recent positionwas at Venture for America. Can you correct talk a little bit about that?
13:41
Carrie Murphy
Yeah. So I had you know, most of my career as I've mentioned, has always beenin talent's been the through line. It's been always for at for profit, usuallyhigh growth companies. And when I moved back from living in New York,recruiting for companies basically mostly on the coasts to moving back toCleveland recruiting for a tech startup there, I saw drastically the change inthe talent landscape and the need for talent that was willing to work with asense of urgency, had experience with or a desire with new technologies andthis intellectual curiosity to solve problems. And even, I mean, were inChagrin Falls, so were kind of farther on the east side and people aren'twilling to drive more than 20 minutes. So as much as I thought it was a greatcompany, if you're living out in Westlake, you're not coming.
14:30
Carrie Aguilar
I'm not going to South Woodland. That's too far.
14:33
Carrie Murphy
So it hindered. And it's funny because in New York I was a mile away from myoffice, but it was still a 45 minute commute, of course. So something, youknow, these differences.
14:43
Carrie Aguilar
Right.
14:44
Carrie Murphy
And so that's when I actually discovered Venture for America, which is thisnonprofit organization. It was founded by Andrew Yang. Really, the premise andthe it kind of had a two pronged mission. One was how do we get more young,recent college graduates, smart people to go out and build things and pursueentrepreneurship as a career as opposed to some of the more traditional pathsthat are pushed out of school around finance or consulting, banking, becoming adoctor, a lawyer. And then also the second part, which would really resonatedme of the mission was let's actually help attract talent to smaller mid sizedcities where there is more of a need. And when you're dealing with a talentdrain. So were in cities like Cleveland and Detroit, Birmingham, Kansas City,St. Louis.
15:27
Mara Kamat
What year was this?
15:29
Carrie Murphy
So the organization was founded in 2011. I first learned of VFA in 2016 and Iactually participated in one of their selection days as I'm gonna hire someoneat our company. This is incredible talent. I love it. We hired someone in 2017and then in 2018 I joined the team.
15:49
Mara Kamat
Great.
15:50
Carrie Murphy
Yeah, so it's one of those things where I just, I loved the work and alsointeresting career pivot where I basically had two options on the table. One, Icould have gone to kind of be the number two to a chief people officer at asmaller company here, or take this unknown pivot to a nonprofit organization.Just doing work that I like and care about and see where it goes. And I tookthe unknown path.
16:16
Carrie Aguilar
So talk a little bit about the unknown path.
16:18
Carrie Murphy
Yeah. So spent six years at Venture for America and when I started, I was ourdirector for Cleveland. So a lot of it, same skills, but different positions. Iwas helping to all of the startups in this region, making sure I couldunderstand what were their talent needs and if it was appropriate, help connectthem and have access to our fellows. And then also for the fellows once theycame to Cleveland, helping connect them with other leaders and members of thecommunity, do some light programming for them to get acquainted and thenfundraising as well. So working with local nonprofits and individuals.
16:51
Mara Kamat
So I was a chr of a company for six years and left and I didn't know aboutVenture for America at all. And I'm sitting here thinking, oh my gosh, I wish Iwould have known about this. We were expanding. This would have been such anamazing partnership for any company based in Cleveland, no matter the size forsure.
17:09
Carrie Murphy
And that was something that was a challenge for us. We were the best keptsecret and not intentionally. For the people that knew about us. It was great.It was really good talent. Yeah, just Cleveland's the best kept secret.Exactly. And there was so much more. I wish we could have had the opportunityto get more companies to realize that this was a great opportunity to recruitjust really smart individuals from across the country. And if you in VFA, Imean, over the 12, 13 years that it was around, launched 1600 careers. Ofthose, about 30% of our alumni went on to start over 350 companies whichcollectively raised almost a billion dollars in capital.
17:50
Carrie Aguilar
Holy smokes.
17:51
Carrie Murphy
And even when you look at Cleveland alone here, several founders came out ofCleveland and have since started and sold companies. And you have people thathave also stayed at their company for the last six, seven years and they're nowon the leadership team.
18:04
Carrie Aguilar
Wow.
18:05
Carrie Murphy
So really. And these are people that are from Connecticut, New York andCalifornia that would have no other reason to come to Cleveland.
18:12
Mara Kamat
For you as a human, it's so beautiful to have had that experience and to knowthat you impacted so many people's careers. And whether it's a moment in timefor them or now they're in the most senior leadership position, you had a partin making an impact. And I think it's really important that as humans in ourwork lives too, we recognize that, hey, you can make a difference. Even thesmallest things make a difference. And sometimes we get so caught up that wedon't step back to recognize the real impact that each of us make.
18:44
Carrie Murphy
Well, it's funny you say that. I have one story and fortunately of many, but wehave what we called, we did these selection days, which are day long kind ofrigorous interview process, group activities, individual interviews, andsomeone that I gave feedback to at that selection day. So before they became afellow, I was like, hey, you're super talented, you're super smart, you're likedoing all these things. Just have more confidence in yourself. You don't haveto be as hesitant or Whatever it was, I said something and I think it was twoyears later he emailed me back and he was just like, I just wanna let you know.And he became a fellow and was great. And he's like, I want you to know, like Istill remember those words.
19:19
Carrie Aguilar
Oh, I love that.
19:19
Carrie Murphy
And like what you said and I carry it with me today. So it's like you justdon't know that one conversation you have with someone can change thetrajectory of their career perspective, which is really cool.
19:31
Carrie Aguilar
So I know you didn't fully call him out and say it, but you. So you were theCEO at Venture for America. Can I ask what taking that position was like foryou and I suppose for others who may be listening who have the opportunity oftaking that co type position, how did you approach it? This is a huge, it was ahuge position. Highly visible, incredible position.
19:58
Carrie Murphy
Yeah.
19:59
Carrie Aguilar
Talk to us a little bit about that.
20:00
Carrie Murphy
Yeah, so I had the opportunity. I'd been at VFA for about five years and solast year had the opportunity to step into the CEO position. And it was boththe incredibly rewarding but also incredibly challenging opportunity. And forthose who don't know and just to kind of summarize, like beloved non profitorganization, as I've talked about, incredible impact, incredible people. Butunfortunately there were a lot of tailwinds that were facing over a series ofyears. Everything from COVID to a down VC market to just sustainable fundingsources all scaling too fast. I mean, you name it, there's so many things. Andso when I stepped into the position, I stepped in at a time where as anorganization were navigating a lot of these challenges and needed to kind ofget through and survive.
20:54
Carrie Murphy
And it was a great opportunity, but it also made me realize that and someonehad kind of taught me about this concept that I didn't even think about it. Butoftentimes women and underrepresented minorities end up getting the opportunityto lead. When an organization is in some sort of turnaround or rebranding ornot in the most stable position. When I think about going through that and whatI learned and again, fast forward, I ended up having to wind down the nonprofitsix months later. So where the conversation's happening, going into that role,things I did, but also advice I'd say for others going into it is one beforeyou step into anything, ask the hard questions, really make sure you understandwhat are the expectations of you, what does success look like?
21:41
Carrie Murphy
What are the resources and support that you will have or you will need and makesure there's alignment between you and whoever else is leading or you'reaccountable for. And then I think the other thing is like. And something that Iwas able, fortunately able to do is build your support network. And so that isboth a mix of having someone external to the organization who can ideallyprovide you unbiased, unfiltered, see it as it is, feedback and advice. And Ihad a family, a distant family member who also had just retired from running anonprofit in a similar model. Took that business from 5 million to 25 millionand great track record. So I had someone to talk to who could kind of providesome coaching and feedback, connected with him on at least like a monthlybasis.
22:26
Carrie Murphy
And I'm so grateful for all of that. And then you also need to build yourchampions inside because you're going to have to make sure that there'salignment in order to be able to move quickly. And in those scenarios, you'reoften faced with having to make some really hard and difficult decisions andnavigate complex scenarios and while also having a clear strategic directionand vision and all those things that can be challenging personally, like,that's.
22:53
Mara Kamat
A lot to go through, right? Like, from a professional standpoint, you're tryingto do the best that you can. You're trying to make the right decisions, followyour strategy, align with the key partners. But inside, there's like this wholeother situation happening where you're like, oh my gosh, how am I gonna getthrough the day? What did that inner dialogue look like for you? And how didyou amass the energy to kind of push through those challenging times?
23:22
Carrie Murphy
Yeah, great question. And the inner dialogue was meaner to myself on some daysthan I should have been. I also had a coach that I met with on a regular basisbefore this enduring. So she was able to really provide some good frameworksand foundational thinking. And part of it was giving myself grace and givingothers grace. And then I also, I just. And I think the reason I was one of thereasons I was able to have this opportunity and even my time at vfa, I had helda lot of roles. I was promoted on a fairly frequent basis. And I think part ofit's because I just believed in and cared about the work so much that it madeit easy for me to wake up in the morning and put in all the time and effort todo it.
24:06
Carrie Murphy
And I had a post it note on my laptop that said, nothing beats the will tosurvive. And so it was just this, like, okay, we can keep doing it. We can keepDoing it. And I had great people. I mean, the people that I was working with,the fellows, the people that I was doing it for were motivation to keep going.
24:26
Mara Kamat
Yeah. So winding it down was a hard thing to do. What did you do after? What isthe plan after that?
24:34
Carrie Murphy
Yeah. Yes, it is. It's a hard thing. I hope no one has to go through it if theydon't want to. And. Yeah, so in terms of that, I took some time off just tolike, be a human again, spend time with my family. My daughter had just startedkindergarten, so it was nice to like, help her through that transition. And Ihave never, of, you know, five, six companies I've worked at, I never took timeoff in between jobs. I was always the Friday's my last day to the place onMonday, and.
25:05
Carrie Aguilar
So it was like flying to the place on Sunday. So you have less time.
25:10
Carrie Murphy
And that's actually also what happened with VFA. And I found out with VFA thatI was pregnant before I started. And so I took some time off, which. Which forme is also hard.
25:20
Mara Kamat
How much time off did you take, if you don't mind me asking?
25:22
Carrie Murphy
So in total, three months. And then so we just.
25:27
Carrie Aguilar
We. So today is our launch day. That's like what we're like of today. And inour launch day, in our interviewing each other, we talk about taking some timeoff.
25:39
Carrie Murphy
Yeah.
25:39
Carrie Aguilar
So I'm glad you took some time off.
25:41
Carrie Murphy
Yeah.
25:41
Carrie Aguilar
That's so needed.
25:42
Carrie Murphy
And there was a part. No, it's fine. There's a part where it was. It wasn't mejust sleeping in and watching TV all day. It was busy all day. There wassomething to do, but it was nice to be able to go to the gym, go for longwalks. I also got so many house projects done, I feel like my house lost tenpounds because I was selling all the baby stuff, cleaning out the closets. Andso that felt good.
26:03
Carrie Aguilar
If you put up Marketplace, I'm just interested.
26:05
Carrie Murphy
Yeah. Yes, it was. Yes, it was. Facebook Marketplace. Okay. Some people didn'tshow, some people did. It was a whole mix of things. But yeah, so I did that.And then I also. Another thing that I'm. I'm not good at and I'm working onbeing better at is taking time to do self reflection. And it's something evenmy coach has been telling me for years to do and I just don't do it as well.It's hard for me. And so I took. I did buy a journal when I stepped into theCEO position. And so I was Trying to document some things and. And then I tookthe time to reflect on what have I learned, what are the key things that I wantto take with me, what do I care about, what's important to me, what do I wantto do next?
26:44
Carrie Murphy
And was tried to be really intentional and thoughtful about where do I go fromhere?
26:50
Mara Kamat
Yeah.
26:51
Carrie Murphy
So yeah, exactly.
26:52
Mara Kamat
Thank you for sharing and sharing so honestly and openly because that's a hardthing. It's hard when you've been in this mentality of achieve, achieve andjob, job, to then kind of be like, all right, I need to pause and ref. Take abeat. And with that, when I did that, there's actually this really great bookand I promise to bring it back to the podcast and also to send it to you orpost with this podcast for people who are in transition to kind of break downlike what they love, what they don't love, what they're thinking about. It's agreat self reflection book that when I started my journey, I picked up atfirst. I was almost overwhelmed by it though, if I'm honest with you, because Iwas. I don't know.
27:31
Mara Kamat
I don't know if I have the answer to these things. But. But for anybody who'sthinking they need a pause and they need some reflection and maybe they want tomake a.
27:38
Carrie Murphy
Pivot or a transition, the big leap is another one. I don't know if the bigleap is as much around reflection, but that was a big one during thisreflection period for me as I was thinking about what to do next, that spoke tome in really creepy but beautiful.
27:53
Carrie Aguilar
Ways that I loved was designing your life is a really good one. It's about,it's from my never know authors, but he does a designing your life class atStanford and it's incredible. He has a workbook, but it's super helpful. Andthat was super helpful for me too when I was kind of creating my next chapter.So I guess the next question is, let's talk about your next chapter.
28:21
Carrie Murphy
Yeah, yeah, I'm really excited. So again, kind of continuing the conversationaround the reflection, I. Some of the things I really love doing and where Iget a lot of like what fills my cup is helping others, helping people, helpingcompanies solve problems, helping people find career opportunities that canchange their life in so many different ways. And then when I realized I likedthat, I'm like, oh wait, that's what recruiters do. And it kind of brought meback to this full circle of thinking back around this world of executive Searchand I, I happened to go to an event with a bunch of executive recruiters andwho are about to or retired and they're like this is the most meaningful thingand blah, blah, blah.
29:07
Carrie Murphy
So I was like, oh man, maybe this is a calling and a sign that there'ssomething around getting back to this world and this work. But then also whatwas really important to me was doing something that ideally had some sort ofimpact or connection to Cleveland and this region. I, I worked remotely for sixyears and had people, our team, were in 13 different cities across the country.But I found when I was at vfa, my most favorite job was when I was theCleveland director and just bopping around town, meeting all these people,having those face to face interactions and relationships and helping to buildwhat could be here. And I think also being in the stage where I have two kidsand I'm raising a family, I want them to this region and city to createopportunities for them.
29:53
Carrie Murphy
And I do think we are uniquely positioned as a region to excel in a lot ofdifferent areas. So I was like, okay, how do I find something that's here? Howdo I find something that is in the recruiting space? But also I want to havesome level of purpose and independence too, having just come from being the CEOof an organization. And very fortunately, while I was at vfa, I got to meetAndrew Rising and the team over at Encore Venture Labs and so was reallybullish on what they were doing, was actually trying to get him involved withour VFA fellows before everything had kind of gone down and we just had somereally great conversations around talent and the importance of talent, both interms of the region and these industries.
30:35
Carrie Murphy
And so to kind of rewind a little bit, Encore Venture Labs, the venture studiojust launched August of last year. And essentially what that studio does isthey're a startup factory, so creating businesses 0 to 1 and they take anactive co founding role in starting those companies. So it's not an incubator,not an accelerator. And the industries that the studio is really kind offocused on are the industries that as a region we have a unique opportunity toexcel in and to really kind of compete on a global basis. So we're looking atso exciting. It is.
31:07
Mara Kamat
And I didn't even know. It's like sitting here in our backyard in Cleveland.
31:12
Carrie Murphy
And so we're focused on advanced manufacturing, freshwater ecosystems andtechnology and advanced power and energy. And so, and so I find myself pivotingindustries. I went from tech, then I went to finance. And I went, you know, allthese different things, but I think that challenge is actually helps is goodfor me to keep just learning new things. And so we had some great conversationsaround talent and for these regions like how to. Or these industries. LikeCleveland was a major manufacturing hub and it still is a major manufacturingcity. And so how do you reposition this region and the talent to be. Besuccessful and thriving in that. And, and so that is where I joined them inNovember as an entrepreneur in residence.
31:55
Carrie Murphy
And so have spent a couple months really trying to understand what are thedifferent challenges and opportunity that exist at the intersection of talentand re industrialization. And while, yeah because we had the fourth industrialrevolution is it's here, it's not coming, it's here. And when we look atindustrial manufacturing companies, there are talent needs and shortages acrossthe whole spectrum, everything from production line workers to highly skilledtechnicians up to the leadership level. And so what I'm doing right now is I,I've just launched Aelia, which is a new executive search business to helpbuild leadership teams for industrial manufacturing companies. So I'm reallyexcited.
32:38
Mara Kamat
I love doing this for you. Yeah, it's amazing.
32:40
Carrie Murphy
Yeah.
32:41
Mara Kamat
Do you interface or work with Magnet in any way?
32:44
Carrie Murphy
Yeah, yeah. So Magnet is. They're a partner of Encore and hopefully will be astrong partner of Aurelia's as well.
32:51
Mara Kamat
And they have a beautiful new, beautiful building on Chester.
32:55
Carrie Murphy
Yeah. So what's one thing that Magnet is doing? And I think it's reallyexciting. I think they launched, helped 500 people get careers inmanufacturing. And a lot of where there's a key focus is actually on. Onbuilding, changing the perception of what a career in manufacturing means andlooks like. And starting with children at the elementary and high school level.And so they'll bring students in, like actually work with these big devices androbots and build and test things. Which is a huge part of the challenge too ischanging the story and the landscape of what was traditionally these.
33:30
Carrie Aguilar
Because what we did was, yeah, we told everyone that they had to get collegeeducation and now everyone has walks around with these college educations, butthey don't have jobs. And turns out that what you can actually learn is a tradeand make a ton of money working in these incredible like if you learn robots orif you learn engineering on that end.
33:56
Mara Kamat
And yeah, it's interesting because so much of my career, I was in aviation forfive years and then I was in the healthcare space for four or five years andthen in food tech, food manufacturing, I would say for the last six to 10.Because in my consulting work I work with a lot of food manufacturingcompanies, distribution companies. Yeah. And so working with these, with thesepeople who incredible people who are so dedicated to their work. And some ofour highly more technical jobs were machine operators where they had to have alevel of skill sets and gaming knowledge and ability to program these massivepieces of equipment. And I was always amazed one at it took us over a year plusto train people in this very specific role, but it was critical to running thebusiness.
34:50
Mara Kamat
And so what were willing to pay and the investment were willing to make inthese individuals was extremely high. And Covid taught us that. Right.
34:59
Carrie Murphy
Well and so that's exactly why at the like and that's why I'm starting withexecutive search at the leadership level because you have to have the rightleaders in place that wreck recognize that you need to make these investmentsin both upskilling, reskilling, building the talent pool. And it's not going tobe cheap, unfortunately. But if you don't, I mean, how many of those machinesare operated by someone who's close to retirement, if not past retirement? Andif you don't have a pipeline, that's your business.
35:27
Mara Kamat
And if you're thoughtful and strategic about it too, like up until a couplemonths ago, there were also a lot of government incentives that existed tosupport.
35:36
Carrie Aguilar
Training programs and now tbd.
35:38
Mara Kamat
Yeah, I just don't know where that's going to be in our current administration,but I do.
35:42
Carrie Murphy
I mean at least there is a emphasis on reshoring and creating manufacturingjobs in our country. So hopefully that's is able to happen.
35:53
Mara Kamat
So as we look forward into 2025, what does success look like for you personallyand professionally? I would love to hear the personal side too.
36:02
Carrie Murphy
Yeah. So I think one business is off and running and booming and we've got somegreat clients and are bringing great whether it's recruiting talent or helpingtalent grow in these sectors. There's exciting things that we're doing as aventure studio. So I'm excited to see how some of that evolves. And thenpersonally too, I think there's I, I learned the hard way how when you getreally burnt out and you push too hard, what it does to you as a person and asa spouse and a parent and a friend. And so I'm really excited to approachleading and starting and growing a business in a way that also recognizes andkeeps time and space for the things that are important to me and my family.
36:45
Mara Kamat
Can I like Dig into that. I've experienced burnout twice in my career, and itwas not fun. And the way I think about it for myself is like, I was a shell ofa human.
36:55
Carrie Murphy
I say that all the time.
36:57
Mara Kamat
I didn't bring that confident, happy mom. That is the essence of who I am inany part of my life. Right. And so now I actually do research with Universityof Michigan on and London School of Economics on burnout and workplacewellbeing. And it's something I'm personally very passionate about because Ithink there's just not enough support and education around the topic. But asyou think about that for yourself, what are some interventions or practicesthat you're gonna put in place to kind of stay in that place where you're notburnt out or catch yourself before you burn out? What does that look like foryou?
37:36
Carrie Murphy
So part of it on the work side is around getting really good. And it takes. I'mstill not good at this. But setting clear and realistic goals, sometimes we'relike, oh, I'm going to do this, this and that, and then you don't. And then youfeel horrible that you didn't get those things done, and then you're superbehind, and then it all piles up. So it's. First you just got to set realisticgoals and be clear about them and. And then when you don't hit them, learn fromit. But I think on personal, on the more personal side, like, I liken it to,like, just creating space for some sort of movement or exercise or meditation,ideally on a daily basis. And it can be as little as 10 minutes, at least forme.
38:16
Carrie Murphy
Whereas I felt like before when I was so burnt out, it was like, no, no, Ican't do that. I have too much to get done. I don't have time to go for a walkor. Or whatever it is. And what I learned is that when you do take that walk,all of a sudden your best thinking happens and you're that much better at yourjob and you're a happier human. I remember I used to drive to and from Detroita lot for work, and that's when I had three hours to just think, whatever. AndI would call our head of development afterwards, like, so what if we do thisand that and that? She goes, you need to drive more often. So part of it isaround making sure I carve out that time. And I'm also prioritizing sleep. Youknow, there's.
38:57
Carrie Murphy
I have no problem getting work done and doing some. Knocking some things out inthe evening. But I don't want it to be every evening and I don't want it to beall night. And I'm unfortunately the type of person who does need a good sevenor eight hours of sleep.
39:11
Mara Kamat
Listen, that is like I need eight to 10. There is no apology.
39:16
Carrie Murphy
And if I want to work out, that means that before the kids it means I'm wakingup at 5:30. And if I'm waking up at 5:30, then I really need to be in bed by10, 9, 30. It's exactly so. So it's a mix of that and obviously there's timeswhere that doesn't happen, but trying to stay focused on that.
39:32
Mara Kamat
Is there anything that you've done that helps you kind of refocus when you findyou're out of balance and out.
39:38
Carrie Murphy
Of whack, Go for a walk and listen to music. I literally did it like yesterday.
39:43
Mara Kamat
Yeah.
39:45
Carrie Murphy
Either it's a lo fi chill thing or sometimes I'll actually listen to morehardcore like edm and just like the fast paced, like somehow like slows medown. I don't know, it's weird. A very eclectic taste in music.
39:59
Mara Kamat
Love that for you.
40:00
Carrie Aguilar
Well, Carrie, thank you so much for taking this time to talk to us. I feel likethis was renewing incredible. I learned so much not only about you, but it wasa good check in for me. I think my main takeaways were the difference betweenmentorship and sponsorship and making sure that as I continue in my career andalso as I work with businesses that I continue to hone and create both. Thinknumber two, I love your idea or the piece around and I use the term rainmaker,but like to me you're very much a rainmaker. You're connecting people and youreally love the idea of reinvigorating Cleveland and pouring more brain trustinto Cleveland and bringing more resources into Cleveland. Hopefully more womeninto Cleveland.
40:51
Carrie Murphy
Yes, of course. And in manufacturing.
40:54
Carrie Aguilar
Exactly, exactly. I think that's incredible. What about for you, Maura?
40:59
Mara Kamat
So I mean for me, giving back to the community is so important. And this wholeidea around talent, I love that. I'm an HR professional by nature, by training,by education, but also in my life. I'm always looking for like, how do we learnfrom things, how do we grow? I certainly have a growth mindset personally. AndI think as we bring that into the world and bring that into people, even in themanufacturing space and think about talent and help people think differently,that careers aren't linear, they can be dynamic. And you're a great example ofthat in terms of the pivots and the changes and even the industries that you'vemade, that makes us better as humans. It makes us better as a city ofCleveland. It also makes manufacturing stronger.
41:42
Mara Kamat
If we can all learn that, hey, we're not one dimensional, we're multidimensional humans and that means we can learn new things and we can advanceand pivot and have different interests.
41:54
Carrie Murphy
Well, and also there's a difference between a job and a career too.
41:57
Carrie Aguilar
I love that.
41:57
Carrie Murphy
Exactly as well.
41:59
Mara Kamat
So before we end though, one question I love to ask the people that we have onthe podcast is if you could give your younger self advice, what would it be?What would you tell your younger self?
42:12
Carrie Murphy
Honestly, if I could tell my younger self advice, and this is gonna soundreally cheesy and corny, but I think about if I did what I say to my daughterevery day. It's about if you just be kind to people and try to solve problems,I feel like things can work out.
42:28
Mara Kamat
I love that. Honestly, our family motto. I say this to my girls all the timeand it's like if they need energy or whatever, be smart, be kind, be confident.If they can take those three things into their lives similar to what youshared, we'll all better and the world will better.
42:46
Carrie Murphy
So agreed.
42:49
Mara Kamat
Thank you for tuning in to In Her Land. If you love this conversation, pleaseshare it with a friend. Leave us a review and keep followingalong@inherland.com where we highlight more incredible women making an impact.Until next time.
