Born and raised in Korea, Jae Joo relocated to New York to pursue a creative endeavor—though not the one that would ultimately keep her there. Initially, it was a passion for music that drew her to the city, specifically to obtain her degree in opera performance. But by the time she graduated, Joo was itching to find a new artistic path—preferably one that had more practical applications and opportunities to connect with others. At the same time, she got married and moved into a Brooklyn brownstone in need of a top-to-bottom redesign.

“Although I always loved decorating and obsessing over my college dorm, historic renovation felt like a different game,” Joo tells host Kaitlin Petersen on the latest episode of Trade Tales. “I learned a lot through this process—most of them being hard lessons—but importantly, I learned that I really have a passion for creating meaningful and memorable spaces.”

Joo soon joined online design platform Homepolish, which was still finding its footing as a lead generator for up-and-coming designers. Before long, she built up her own project roster and back-end systems, and in 2017, formally launched her own firm: Jae Joo Designs. In the years since, Joo has created a framework that allows her firm the freedom to take creative risks, centered on constructing a team of clients and collaborators who are ready to put full trust in her vision.

Elsewhere in the episode, Joo shares how she builds demand for her work by taking a strategic approach to getting published, how she’s structured her fees in the most digestible way for clients and why she now insists on building her own team of tradespeople to execute her visual vocabulary.

Crucial insight: Throughout her career, Joo has seen her fair share of power struggles in the renovation process, usually resulting from a project’s various tradespeople and design professionals each attempting to interpret the client’s wishes individually and unilaterally. “Everybody wants the client to like them the best, and I understand that, but teamwork is so important,” Joo says. “When you try to drive the bus and no one wants to be driven, you become the monster in the project.” Now she only takes projects where she can construct her own team of architects and contractors, and enjoys the dual benefit of a routinely smoother project process and a portfolio of work that she can embrace fully as her own.

Key quote: “There’s a lot of industry pressure, always,” says Joo. “You just have to focus on what you like and then see where it goes. If you try to control where the project will go or how it’s going to be perceived, it’s going to put limitations on your creativity. I just try to block it out.”

This episode was sponsored by Surya and Regina Andrew. If you like what you hear, subscribe on Apple Podcasts or Spotify.