Hannah Oravec was still early in her design career when she discovered an element of the industry that would inform her future practice. She was reviewing LEED certifications for a hospitality firm in Boston when an entirely new set of guidelines called the WELL Building Standard made its debut. Suddenly, something clicked.

“WELL is how the buildings affect the people in them, and LEED is how the buildings affect the environment—and I felt more called to how buildings affect the people in them,” Oravec tells host Kaitlin Petersen on the latest episode of the Trade Tales podcast. “I started to see how all of the little decisions that we make can affect our lives and our well-being.”

It wasn’t long before she created an opportunity to bring that ethos to others through her own design projects. After cultivating e-design jobs on the side while working at larger firms, she decided to pursue solo entrepreneurship. In 2018, she earned WELL certification and launched Lawless Design, with health and well-being at the cornerstone of the firm’s design process.

In the years since, she has seen an interest in wellness become more mainstream—which, for the designer, has meant an increasing number of clients seeking out her services specifically to improve the health of their home. The past year in particular has been transformative for Oravec, leading to the growth of her team and the debut of a retail home decor shop. And amid all that change, she has embarked on an adjustment she never saw coming: the shift from a solo interior designer in total creative control to a business leader with the power to delegate.

“What’s really cool is, when you start bringing in designers other than yourself, you get a new perspective and a new outlook on design,” she says. “For a long time, it was just me doing it, and it’s fun to bring in someone else’s ideas.”

Elsewhere in the episode, she shares lessons from her first foray into retail, why the best new hires have their own sense of style, and how her careful approach to pricing a job avoids overbidding for the work without scaring clients away.

Crucial insight: When Oravec’s plate became full, she decided it was time to hire a team member to whom she felt comfortable handing off work. It was also a chance to inject new creative energy into the firm. “When you’re hiring, being able to see creativity versus just seeing a specific design aesthetic is important,” she says. “I don’t want to just hire another one of me, because that’s not interesting. That’s not coming up with new ideas. Being able to have other people on the team who have different aesthetics and can bring something to the table makes for a better project at the end of the day.”

Key quote: “We don’t need to force everything on someone. A big thing for me is reminding us that we are designing this home for our clients. This is their home, and our goal is to make sure that they love it—and not only do they love it at the end, but they also love the process.”

This episode was sponsored by Klafs. Listen to the show below. If you like what you hear, subscribe on Apple Podcasts or Spotify.