diff --git a/CMakeLists.txt b/CMakeLists.txt
index 4d0ceb9922df5db2921308e4551ab7a3fffd8f0a..44d51527bf2e44df231d6755330a53923bd67b46 100644
--- a/CMakeLists.txt
+++ b/CMakeLists.txt
@@ -43,10 +43,11 @@ SET_SOURCE_FILES_PROPERTIES(${PROTO_SRC} ${PROTO_HDRS} PROPERTIES GENERATED TRUE
 
 find_package(PkgConfig REQUIRED)
 
-add_subdirectory(lib/paho.mqtt.c)
+add_subdirectory(lib/paho.mqtt.c ${CATKIN_DEVEL_PREFIX})
 
-
-set(PAHO_MQTT_C_LIBRARIES "${panda_mqtt_connector_BINARY_DIR}/lib/paho.mqtt.c/src/libpaho-mqtt3a.so")
+# for clion (on maybe catkin-make) change the C library location to
+# ${CATKIN_DEVEL_PREFIX}/lib/libpaho-mqtt3a.so
+set(PAHO_MQTT_C_LIBRARIES "${CATKIN_DEVEL_PREFIX}/src/libpaho-mqtt3a.so")
 set(PAHO_MQTT_C_INCLUDE_DIRS "${PROJECT_SOURCE_DIR}/lib/paho.mqtt.c/src")
 
 add_subdirectory(lib/paho.mqtt.cpp)