It wasn’t Grace Start’s idea to follow in her mother’s footsteps—at least, not at first. Despite developing an early appreciation for design as she watched her mom, Jean Stoffer, launch a kitchen design–focused firm in the Chicago suburbs, Start herself went on to pursue a career in education. Then, shortly after college graduation, her young family purchased a house in Michigan and began renovating it. Stoffer relocated to Grand Rapids, where three of her children now lived. And before long, her daughter had a change of heart.

“I was like, ‘Oh, houses are very interesting, and my mom’s job is very, very interesting all of a sudden,’” Start tells host Kaitlin Petersen on the latest episode of the Trade Tales podcast. “I asked my mom if she would hire me part-time, no experience. She [did so] out of the kindness of her heart and I think nothing else.”

But to hear Stoffer tell it, Start was more valuable to the business than she knew. While the designer had made a name for herself specializing in kitchens, she saw that her daughter could help the business expand to new horizons.

“I thought she had a lot of talent naturally, and I periodically had kitchen clients ask me to please design the rest of the house—all of the furnishings and finishes—and this was what Grace was particularly interested in,” says Stoffer. Instead of saying no to whole-home projects, they made a pact to try saying yes. Within a few weeks, they had landed two large jobs.

The firm’s growth didn’t stop there. In the years since going into business together, the mother-daughter duo have grown the enterprise into a veritable design empire, encompassing a cabinetry business, a home store, a cafe and a show on the Magnolia Network. More recently, their reflection on their rapid upward trajectory has sparked a reworking of the firm’s leadership structure—namely, the addition of a CEO, a role that has not only transformed Stoffer Home’s systems and processes, but brought a renewed sense of purpose to Stoffer and Start’s design work.

Elsewhere in the episode, they share how they’ve kept their relationship healthy amid rapid growth, how they’ve been able to scale several different design-related businesses, and what it takes to protect their creative spark.

Crucial insight: A few years ago, Stoffer Home seemed to have all of the components of a thriving firm: a solid team, budding new ventures (including a TV series), and a full stable of projects. Still, Stoffer and Start felt they were constantly treading water. As it turned out, bringing on a CEO paved the way for a sense of structure they didn’t know they were missing. “I now am free to enjoy my family, my husband and the work itself,” says Stoffer. “I have space in my head for new ideas, for listening to the kids’ ideas, and actually processing what that could look like. It’s been one of the best experiences—I feel like my life was given back to me, honestly.”

Key quote: “We just happened to love houses and the way that they look, and people somehow trusted us,” says Start. “Then the cart started going at a million miles an hour, and all of a sudden we realized we needed some wheels underneath.”

This episode was sponsored by Joon Loloi and Serena & Lily. If you like what you hear, subscribe on Apple Podcasts or Spotify.