Perhaps you’ve identified the powerful tool intuition truly is. Maybe you’ve even seen firsthand how your life can change when placing your trust in your intuition. But now you’re ready for more—you’re ready to really hone in on your intuition and use it to your advantage to make important decisions, shape your future, and skyrocket your success. Well, you’ve certainly come to the right place.
For the following 17 successful female leaders from the Dreamers & Doers collective, trusting their intuition is not just a hypothetical or backup method they use occasionally when making business decisions. On the contrary, intuition has become a critical tool in their arsenal. Now, they’re sharing their top pieces of advice so intuition can also play a similarly important role in your life.
If you’re ready to graduate from relying only on the facts and figures you can see and shift to letting intuition be your guide, then you won’t want to miss a single piece of advice from the women who have done just that.
Lisa Weiss
Founder of Storybeat Studio, helping purpose-driven organizations craft content to recognize, represent, and retain their brightest stars.
“Start by destigmatizing the concept of intuition. Set a timer for 10 minutes and ask yourself how you feel about the concept of intuition. Do you believe in it? What do you think it is? Notice your answers. Give yourself space to have your own thoughts and answers to the challenging questions that come up.”
Devanshi Garg
Founder and CEO of Motif Beauty, a science-backed beauty brand that makes clean, uncomplicated, and enjoyable skincare that is made to work.
“Contrary to what most people believe, our instinct and intuition are not always the same. So don’t be reactive. Take a step back, think through the options, and pay close attention to how your body feels. Try to find tangible and measurable ways to validate and fine-tune your intuition.”
Elizabeth Entin
Founder of Why Get Wasted, helping events go low-waste.
“Here is an exercise: write down, without self-judgment, what you actually feel the first time you meet a person or situation. Do this with small cost situations such as someone you meet at a party or a co-working space. Notice how accurate you were and pay attention to what that intuition felt like.”
Myka Harris
Co-Founder of Highbrow Hippie, a conscious lifestyle brand for people who live with awareness and care for themselves and their surroundings.
“Spend some time thinking back on any situations where you ignored your intuition. What were the outcomes when you made a choice that was in conflict with your gut intuition? What were the feelings that arose in your body when you knew something “wasn’t quite right” but didn’t have a clear way to communicate the why? Once you have identified the ways that your intuition speaks to you, start becoming aware of it during the day. Commit to one day of doing things from your gut without the need to justify and watch the outcomes.”
Kay Allison
Founder of Juicy AF, a program and community for women who are experimenting with an alcohol-free lifestyle and transforming their alcohol-free experience from boring to full of life.
“Get quiet for a few minutes right when you wake up. Take several deep breaths, relax and close your eyes. Ask for guidance in the form of an image or a knowledge on an issue you are struggling with. Pay attention, not to the old chatter that might spring to mind, but to the images, ideas, and feelings in your body. Do not talk yourself out of what you saw, knew, or felt. If you saw it, say it by writing it down. Throughout the day, ask for more guidance on what that image means.”
Gwendolyn Osborne
Founder and CEO of Lady Gwendolyn, empowering women across the globe with her infectious enthusiasm through acting, speaking, wellness coaching, and podcasting.
”Start by being mindful of how you are currently dealing with decision-making, then check in with yourself to see how you’re feeling inside your body about it. If there’s any type of uneasy feeling, honor that. Try a different way the next time and check back in with yourself again. Eventually you’ll know when the trust you have in your intuition makes you smile.”
Molly Rodau
Founder and CEO of Collectively, a leadership development and change management practice that is transforming the future by preparing people to thrive in the midst of complexity.
“Figure out what activates your brain, heart, and body. When do you come alive? Is it when you’re moving? When you’re still? When you’re in a relationship? When you’re alone? You don’t have to look far to find advice that points you to the virtue of stillness as a means to access intuition. But we’re not all the same, and that one-size-fits-all solution is reductive. Pay attention to your own body, your nervous system, your joy and and your excitement—follow it wherever it takes you.”
Sheela Gonsalves
Fractional COO and Business Coach at Prism Brand Advisory, providing business coaching and fractional COO services to help small businesses and startups.
“Start by confronting your fears and being aware of your own roadblocks. Fear is like static or poor internet connection—it’s disruptive and can make it difficult to hear the signal. Your intuition is innate, natural, and responsive. It’s a constant flow of information that tells you what’s right for you at any given moment.”
Keira Kotler
Founder and CEO of Everviolet, creating functional, sustainable, and beautiful intimate apparel that is adaptive and inclusive of all women.
“Think back to times when you trusted your intuition and times when you ignored or disregarded it. How did those moments pan out? And how did they feel emotionally and psychologically? Can you remember questioning yourself or feeling a little sick because deep down, you knew you might not have made the right decision? We all have situations in which we didn’t speak up or honor our inner voice. But what’s amazing is that the body and mind retain these experiences. Becoming aware of our own intuitive process can help strengthen it. And the stronger this process becomes, the easier and more second nature it will be.”
Seisei Tatebe-Goddu
Founder and CEO of Tandem Consulting Group, providing strategy and operations consulting.
“Flip a coin. I know it sounds preposterous, but the reality is that by giving yourself an immediate decision to react to, you will be forced back into your primal self. Rather than making pro/con lists, which research shows are really not that useful, flip a coin. The coin does not tell you what to do. But your gut reaction to the result of the coin flip absolutely should inform your decision. Be careful to check it against what your typical comfort zone reaction would be. In many cases, you’ll realize how much of decision making is about giving ourselves permission to pursue what we subconsciously wanted to do all along.”
Erin Tarr
CEO of Be the Benchmark, LLC, providing empowerment programming in the form of one-on-one coaching, books, events, and workshops for girls aged 8 to 28.
“Get curious. Ask yourself: When did I stop trusting my intuition? What was happening in my life at that time? Who in my life is good at this, and how can I spend more time with them? What are some areas in my life where I do trust my intuition? How can I build on my successes in that area? What can I learn from those situations where I have trusted my intuition in the past?”
Allyson E Cote
Founder and CEO of Ocean State Shields, a public health innovation solutions provider who launched at the onset of the Covid-19 pandemic.
“Stop following your competitors online. Not only does it waste valuable time, it can alter your ‘gut feelings’ for your own enterprise. You know your business better than anyone and why you started it.”
Jamie Ruden
Founder of Be Spotted, helping pet businesses attract their ideal customers resulting in more sales and long-term success.
“Keep going. Imposter syndrome is real. You’ll compare yourself when looking at your competitors Instagram, TikTok, or LinkedIn. But they started from zero, and behind each accomplishment were tears, doubt, and frustration. Just keep going, or as Dory from Finding Nemo profoundly sings: ‘Just keep swimming.’”
Dr. Melissa Barker
Founder and CEO of The Phoenix Project, a caring digital community that supports mental health and wellness—anywhere, anytime.
“Find a daily ritual or practice—something that speaks to you and allows you the opportunity to just listen to yourself. A micro practice is something I love because it feels sustainable. For me, it’s doing my daily morning pages first thing while I have my coffee.”
Liz Arnold
Head Tech Career Coach at Digital Orchards, a tech career strategy firm that helps ambitious and innovative professionals successfully pivot into the tech industry.
“Try testing a bite-sized hypothesis first. Rather than trying to decide whether to change your entire career, develop instead a small hypothesis that you can test out. Considering if you want to work in fintech? Challenge yourself to read two to three fintech articles every day for two weeks and see if you learned something and enjoyed it.”
Maggie Love
Founder of SheFi, empowering women and non-binary folks to unlock financial freedom through crypto education, experimentation, and a global community.
“Intuition often first starts out with curiosity on a topic or interest I am drawn to learn more about. Something you are curious about is likely something you’d enjoy spending a lot of time on. If that curiosity keeps growing the more you learn, follow it. The best inspirations come from things you find fascinating and have an endless appetite to learn more about. Get close to what you find curious and fascinating and keep listening to that internal nudge to go deeper.”
Anja Skodda
CEO of HAPPYBOND, a pet care company that delivers a 360-degree approach to keeping your best friend healthy.
“One big thing for me is reading about other female founders’ success stories—the whole story. In most cases it was not an easy path. And seeing those role models succeed makes me more confident. Additionally, surround yourself with a group of people who support you, cheer you on, and actually want you to succeed. We all know the problems and issues in our businesses inside and out. Have people around you who point out the wins!”
All individuals featured in this article are members of Dreamers & Doers, an award-winning community and diverse ecosystem amplifying extraordinary entrepreneurial women through PR opportunities, authentic connection, and high-impact resources. Learn more about Dreamers & Doers and subscribe to its monthly The Digest for top entrepreneurial and career resources.