Family business legacy takes center stage as Motz Engineering President and CEO Suzie Engel sits down with her father, business partner, and Vice President of Sales Mike Murdock. The two trace his path from a civil engineering degree at the University of Cincinnati through milestone projects like the Bell Atlantic Tower and the Kentucky Speedway, and the mentors who shaped him along the way.

Selling professional engineering services, Murdock explains, comes down to trust rather than price. He breaks sales down into three value propositions: relationship, cost and quality, and credits a teamwork, integrity and commitment framework borrowed from Turner Construction for keeping Motz Engineering top of mind with architects and owners long after a project wraps.

Strategic planning for engineering firms drives the second half of the conversation, as Murdock walks through why Motz Engineering deliberately chose markets like industrial, aviation, data centers, and healthcare instead of drifting into commoditized sectors. He and Engel also touch on how technology, from Revit and BIM to modern building controls, has reshaped the industry, and why the firm is already planning for life after the data center boom.

Engineering firm legacy planning closes out the episode as Murdock reframes legacy beyond the next project, pointing to his children, grandchildren, and the employees who will carry Motz Engineering forward. He and Engel reflect on nine years spent building repeatable processes inside the firm, and wrap with a few personal, quick-fire moments on flying, fishing, and family.

Key Takeaways

• Selling professional engineering services is about trust and relationships, not being the low bidder; clients need confidence in the team delivering the work.
• Every firm competes on some mix of relationship, cost and quality, and Motz Engineering leads with relationship first.
• Teamwork, integrity and commitment, a framework borrowed from Turner Construction, drives how Motz Engineering approaches every client relationship.
• Strategic planning means choosing markets deliberately- industrial, aviation, data centers, and healthcare- and planning now for the day the data center market cools.
• Legacy is bigger than the next project, it is the employees and their families the firm supports, which is why market pay and real bonuses matter.
• Repeatable process, not one-off effort, is what lets an engineering firm find mistakes, fix them and keep improving project after project.

Connect withMike Murdock, Managing Principal, Motz Engineering:

https://www.linkedin.com/in/michael-murdock-96757b15/

https://www.motzengineering.com/

Connect with Suzie Engel, President, Motz Engineering

https://www.motzengineering.com/

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Engineering process improvement rarely starts with a perfect system. It starts with one team admitting their manila folders and whiteboards were not cutting it anymore.

Sarah Lubell, Vice President of Engineering Services at MOTZ Engineering, joins host Suzie Engel to talk about how MOTZ built its internal process from the ground up, one small win at a time. Sarah walks through the thinking behind homegrown tools like the Project Database Manager and the Deliverable Database Manager, why she resists turning process into a checklist, and how explaining the why behind a decision to both clients and design teams is what actually builds trust and buy-in.

In this inaugural episode, Suzie and Sarah also cover what strong coordination looks like from the client's side, how data can surface problems a team did not know it had, and why higher standards depend on teams that do not need a hero to hold everything together.

For AEC leaders building or refining their own internal process, this conversation offers a practical way to think about where to start and how to get a team on board. Sarah's approach favors small, useful wins over sweeping overhauls, proof that the best process improvements often come from asking a simple question: does this make it easier?

Key Takeaways

• Process works best as a mentality, not a rigid checklist, so teams can solve problems quickly without getting bogged down in bureaucracy.
• Small, easy wins build the buy-in that gets an entire team actually using a new process or tool.
• Explaining the why behind a decision turns pushback from clients, contractors, and design teams into cooperation.
• A single source of truth, such as MOTZ's Project Database Manager, keeps design data consistent as a firm expands across offices and disciplines.
• Higher standards depend on teams that do not rely on any one person's heroics to keep a project moving.
• Getting engineers out into the field to see their designs installed builds a much sharper sense of constructability.

Connect with Sarah Lubell, Vice President of Engineering, Motz Engineering:

https://www.motzengineering.com/

Connect with Suzie Engel, President, Motz Engineering:

https://www.motzengineering.com/

Rate, Review, & Follow on Apple Podcasts:

We hope you’re finding value in The Higher Standards Better Results Podcast. Your feedback is important to us, and we’d love to hear from you.

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Higher Standards. Better Results. is a monthly podcast for commercial and institutional building owners, architects, contractors, and engineers focused on measurable project performance.

Hosted by Suzie Engel, PE, President of Motz Engineering, each episode is a practical conversation with leaders across design, engineering, construction, and facilities about what it really takes to deliver quality, consistency, and operational excellence. Expect clear examples and usable takeaways on defining “done,” managing deliverables, reducing rework, protecting schedules without cutting
corners, and building accountability that holds up when projects get tight.

New episodes drop monthly. Follow the show to catch the next conversation.
Higher Standards. Better Results. is presented by Motz Engineering.

Company website: https://www.motzengineering.com/

Suzie Engel Host LI: https://www.linkedin.com/in/suzie-engel/

Rate, Review, & Follow on Apple Podcasts:

We hope you’re finding value in The Higher Standards Better Results Podcast. Your feedback is important to us, and we’d love to hear from you.

Here’s how you can help. Scroll to the bottom, rate our podcast with five stars, and select “Write a Review.” Let us know what you found most helpful from this episode!

And if you haven’t done so already, give the podcast a follow, and you'll be notified when new episodes come out.