From the Green Velvet Couch |A Conversation with Liza Graves and Susan Griffin
Can outward beauty support mental health, or does it chip away at it? Can a female-led business protect the women inside it from burning out? Can a marriage survive, and even thrive, when two spouses run a company together?
On her podcast, From the Green Velvet Couch, Shelly sat down with two powerhouse Nashville entrepreneurs to explore all three questions. Liza Graves leads StyleBlueprint, a publication curated for Southern women, and has been named Most Stylish by Southern Living and Most Beautiful in Nashville. Susan Griffin co-owns Nashville Cosmetic Surgery with her husband, running both the surgical and non-surgical sides of the practice. Their conversation was warm, funny, and full of the kind of wisdom that only comes from running real businesses while raising real families.
Here are the moments worth holding onto.
How Outward Beauty Shapes Inner Confidence
Susan opened with a perspective few people hear from someone inside the cosmetic surgery industry. People often assume that choosing a cosmetic procedure is vanity or shallow, but her daily experience tells a different story. The human condition is to seek beauty in things, and we are not exempt from that search when it comes to ourselves. When someone feels confident in their own skin, it changes how they relate to everyone around them.
She was also quick to name the flip side. Her team spends nearly as much time consulting patients on healthier ways to see themselves as they do helping them pursue aesthetic goals. Some people walk in looking for a surgical solution to an emotional wound, and the best gift a reputable practice can offer is honesty about what beauty work can and cannot fix.
Liza added a crucial layer. We all know those people who walk into a room with their shoulders back and a quiet sense of ownership, and their confidence has almost nothing to do with how they look. Comparison is a thief of joy. Real beauty lives in how a person thinks about themselves, and that truth transcends size, shape, and age.
Shelly, as a therapist, has watched this principle play out for decades. When clients begin to heal emotionally, the first thing that shifts is their physical presence. Their posture changes. Their voice steadies. They take back power they did not even know they had given away. This whole-person transformation is exactly what Shelly focuses on in her wellness specialist work with founders, executives, and high-profile clients, where confidence is built from the inside out.
Leading a Team Without Burning It Out
Both Liza and Susan have built companies in female-dominated industries, and both have had to think hard about what a healthy culture actually looks like. Liza pointed out that company culture is not a goal you ever reach. It is a moving target that has to account for generational differences, shifting expectations, and the very real tension between productivity and rest.
The choice she puts in front of every leader is simple. Are you going to build a company where busyness is the badge of honor, where 2 a.m. emails get rewarded and weekend work is celebrated? Or are you going to build one where downtime is protected because you know rested people give more back? That decision has to come from the top, and it has to be modeled, not just announced.
Susan shared her version of the same principle. From the beginning, she wanted to make it easier to be a woman and a mother in her workplace. That commitment shows up in small moments, like the way she responds when an employee needs a mental health day or wants to attend her son’s Thanksgiving celebration at school. The answer is almost always yes, and the trust that grows from those small yeses is the glue that holds her team together.
Shelly shared her own memories of being the mom who came in hot on two wheels to every school event, often delayed by an emergency mental health evaluation she could not abandon. The judgment that comes with those moments is real, and the grace that Liza and Susan extend to their employees is exactly what every working parent needs.
Hiring for Fit, Not Just Skill
One of the most practical parts of the conversation centered on hiring. Both women use a behavioral assessment tool called Predictive Index to make sure they are placing people in roles where their natural wiring can shine. Susan explained that she intentionally hires people who complement her rather than mirror her. When she feels frustration rising about a team member, she pulls up their PI profile and often realizes the issue is not them. It is her communication style that needs to adjust.
She told a wonderful story about her office manager, Stacey, who walks into the office every morning and physically touches each person on the team. A hand on the shoulder. A look in the eye. A quiet acknowledgment of “I see you, how are you today?” That kind of presence cannot be rushed, and Susan has learned to celebrate what Stacey brings rather than wish she were faster at other things.
Liza echoed the same wisdom. Getting the right person in the right job from the very beginning prevents an enormous amount of downstream stress. An employee who spends their day fighting their own natural inclinations will burn out no matter how much they like their coworkers. This kind of thoughtful hiring is central to Shelly’s performance mentoring work with leaders and high performers, where the goal is always sustainable fit rather than short-term fixes.
Environments That Heal
Both women believe deeply in the power of physical space. A patient’s first impression of a practice is not the clinical work. It is the feeling they get when they walk through the front door. Is the space calm? Is the front office warm and attentive? Does the environment make you feel safer, or more anxious? These questions matter just as much as the service itself.
Shelly agreed, and added her own observation. Mental health offices for years did not spend much thought on what a healing environment actually looked like. A beautiful, intentional space can lower a person’s nervous system response before the session even begins. It tells them they are worth the care.
Wellness Practices That Actually Stick
When Shelly asked what wellness practices they use personally and with their teams, both women offered gems.
Liza’s company recently rolled out the Headspace meditation app to every employee. Just eight to ten minutes a day can shift burnout and put people back in charge of their own day. She also started a six-month step challenge, where everyone who hits the goal earns a pair of sneakers from Fleet Feet. The six-month timeframe is long enough to turn movement into a habit that outlives the challenge itself.
Susan is a fitness enthusiast who has been meditating for eight years. What changed for her this year was realizing that meditation does not have to be a long formal session. It can be a sixty-second pause. A set of ten deep breaths. A box breathing exercise in the middle of a stressful afternoon. She also pulls her team away from their desks for walking meetings and walks to Starbucks, because movement grounds the body and clears the mind. She even gifted her office manager an under-desk treadmill so she could get steps in during long phone calls.
Susan’s husband gave her one more tool that has shaped how she navigates stress. When something feels huge, he asks her a simple question. In five years, how much is this going to matter? That reframe alone has saved her from countless reactive decisions.
What It Really Takes to Work With Your Spouse
The conversation ended on one of its most honest notes. All three women run businesses alongside their husbands, and each had something powerful to say about it.
Susan has worked with her husband for 24 years. She described it as roughly 80 to 85 percent positive, with the other 15 to 20 percent being a real challenge. The gift is that she gets to see his professional brilliance in a way most spouses never witness. The hard part is that there is no off switch. Boundaries around when you talk about work, when you let it go, and when you protect your marriage from your business have to be intentional and constantly renegotiated.
Liza put it beautifully. No one knows you like your spouse does, for better and for worse. Building something together is one of the most rewarding things a marriage can do, but it requires both people being fully committed to each other’s wellbeing, not just the business. When she had a rough bout with COVID recently, her husband’s steady positivity pulled her through. That kind of partnership is a gift, and it does not happen by accident.
Shelly, who runs her own healthcare company alongside her husband and son, laughed in recognition. Teaching professionalism to companies through her wellness work takes on a whole new dimension when you are practicing it in your own home before walking into the office together. It is humbling, it is hard, and it is one of the most refining things a person can do.
This kind of layered, real-world leadership challenge is exactly the territory Shelly holds with her executive advising clients, where the personal and professional never truly separate.
🎧 Join the Conversation
If this post sparked something in you, the full episode is waiting with even more warmth and thoughtful insight.
✨ Listen to the full conversation on the From the Green Velvet Couch podcast. Visit the Podcast page to discover more episodes focused on resilience, leadership wellbeing, and holistic wellness.
Let this be your invitation to slow down, breathe deeply, and step into a well-grounded life full of growth and intention.
