Keeping In Touch With Your Intuition: Denise Shull Of The ReThink Group On How To Get In Touch With Your Intuition And When To Trust Your Intuition When Making Decisions
An Interview With Maria Angelova
Be willing. That’s always the first step.
Intuition is defined as the ability to understand something immediately without the need for conscious reasoning. Where does intuition come from? Can it be trusted? How can someone tune in to their intuition? To address these questions, we are talking to business leaders, coaches, mental health experts, authors, and anyone who is an authority on “How to Get In Touch With Your Intuition And When To Trust Your Intuition When Making Decisions.” As a part of this series, I had the pleasure of interviewing Denise Shull.
Denise Shull is an internationally recognized leader in market, investing and trading psychology. A renowned author, speaker, and frequent media contributor, Denise is a celebrated performance coach who specializes in working with hedge funds, Olympic athletes, and other high-octane professionals at the top of their respective fields. Utilizing her background in neuroscience and modern psychoanalysis to solve the mental mysteries of successful investing, trading, competing, and leading teams, Denise is an expert in resolving mental blocks and optimizing the X-factor of human performance.
Thank you so much for doing this with us! Before we start, our readers would love to “get to know you” a bit better. Can you tell us a bit about your childhood backstory?
Growing up, I felt I didn’t fit in. I was a tall, gangly redhead. I was adopted as an only child into a Protestant family in a neighborhood of large families. Surrounded by their loved ones, it seemed like they had a built-in support system.
My adoptive mother had a lot of insecurities. She ran away from dealing with complicated topics, including when I found out when I was adopted and when my friend MaryAnne told me where babies came from. In a way, she shirked those responsibilities. I think that increased my need to understand my own feelings. I felt like the conventional wisdom didn’t work for me, sparking my curiosity. I wanted to understand the world around me and why people “do what they do.”
I’ve found this curiosity in many clients as well. It seems that when a child’s basic needs are taken care of, but they don’t have much guidance, they become more curious about the world around them. And I think that’s been true for me. I had physical safety and a certain level of my needs met, but I wasn’t really given much information about the world. I believe that inquisitiveness led me to my current career.
Can you please give us your favorite “Life Lesson Quote”? Can you share how that was relevant to you in your life?
My favorite “life lesson quote” is “Anger is a misunderstood superpower.” This is actually a concept that I am exploring in my next book. At the crux of it is the idea that we need to rethink anger. Anger is misunderstood. It is actually an emotion that tells you that something is wrong. However, people tend to act out instead of understanding what their psyche is trying to tell them. If you can understand what is actually wrong, your chances of addressing the issue increase.
I have seen this concept be relevant in my own life when potential clients are a bit disrespectful– like when they expect us to respond immediately or ask me to lower my rates. I have even received messages like, ”Please call me today” and in fact, I recently was asked last minute to do a speaking engagement on the other side of the world! I love public speaking and private engagements, but I also have a packed schedule. I can’t drop everything at the last minute to hop on a plane.
I don’t get to the level of anger because, quite frankly, I’m used to it. Overall, I have learned to TRUST my annoyance when I encounter people with entitled attitudes. It’s often a sign that these are not people I should be working with or accepting as clients.
Anger is a spectrum, and if you are able to take a step back, your reaction of anger may be telling you that you are being treated with a lack of respect.
Is there a particular book, podcast, or film that made a significant impact on you? Can you share a story or explain why it resonated with you so much?
These answers might sound a bit unusual, but I want to spotlight two books that have been significant in my life.
The first is Hyman Spotnitz’s Modern Psychoanalysis of the Schizophrenic Patient. It’s a very powerful read, and his teachings were instrumental in curing paranoid schizophrenics through their becoming conscious of their own anger. Per my answer above, understanding anger is critical.
The second is Many Lives, Many Masters by Dr. Brian Weiss, which deals with reincarnation. It’s a bit of a long (and slightly convoluted story). Initially, I wasn’t particularly interested in the idea of reincarnation, but this book was referred to me by one of my mentors, Dr. Charles Bershatsky, who I (believe it or not) met through a psychic. This psychic also predicted that I would meet my husband down to the location. The book, suffice to say, is fascinating, and I highly recommend it.
Let’s now shift to the main part of our discussion. Let’s begin with a definition of terms so that each of us and our readers are on the same page. What exactly does intuition mean? Can you explain?
Intuition means expertise, the sum total of your knowledge about something. It ties back to unconscious pattern recognition or the idea that you recognize a pattern in the past because you learned things about that pattern. You can think of it in terms of sports — like tennis or golf or skiing, or even playing an instrument. The same applies to complex math. When someone who has an understanding of math looks at a problem, they have a sense of which math to apply, whereas someone with less expertise might not even know where to begin.
How would you define common sense? Are intuition and common sense related?
Common sense is anyone’s point of view of how things should be done. However, what is common sense to one person is not common sense to another person. If I am cooking, I will clean up and straighten up the kitchen as I go. Other people tend to make a giant mess and then clean up afterward. I believe that differences in common sense is why we have such culture wars, particularly when it comes to hot-button issues like guns and abortion.
Common sense is so individual and a reflection of your training about culture. Whatever your common sense is, you likely apply it using your own intuition.
How are they different from each other?
Common sense is more rooted in our cultures and how we are socialized — what we are taught is acceptable or not, what we value. Intuition is using our expertise to predict patterns and, by extension, outcomes.
What are the positive aspects of being in touch with your intuition? Can you give a story or example to explain what you mean?
It is my experience that when you are in touch with your intuition, you can often make better decisions more quickly. Ultimately, this gets you better results.
In terms of examples, we can look to Stanley Druckenmiller, the famous portfolio manager. He is worth many billions of dollars, but he is low- key and private. In fact, he’s rarely interviewed. His central idea is that if he had an intuition about the market, he would put the trade in and then analyze it afterward, because if he didn’t act quickly, everyone else would get to it first.
Another example is when I was paddleboarding in Miami with my husband Bill, who is also the EVP of my company, The ReThink Group. Bill’s sunglasses fell into the water and sank toward the bottom of the ocean. He instinctively paddled in, reached into the water, and found his sunglasses. It was all intuition. I sat on my paddleboard and watched while he intuitively knew where to locate his glasses.
People talk all the time about intuition, like feeling someone coming up behind them. Or how a business idea might be perceived in the marketplace, like Mark Zuckerberg knowing how Facebook would evolve. He saw how people sharing their lives would lead to advertising opportunities. Some might call that vision. He put together pieces of how people would behave and what they would like.
Are there negative aspects to being guided by intuition? Can you give a story or example to explain what you mean?
It can be frustrating because with intuition, you can often see things before other people see them. Additionally, you need to be able to differentiate between intuition and impulse. If you don’t develop the skills to know the difference between these two feelings, you may think you’re acting on intuition, when you’re really just acting on what you want to avoid or what you’re afraid of. The risk is confusing intuition with impulse.
Can you give some guidance about when one should make a decision based on their intuition and when one should use other methods to come to a decision?
You should use other methods to gather data. You should always decide based on your ultimate feeling about the data. Analyze your feelings. I’m not sure anyone makes a decision based on what they think is intuition.
From your experience or perspective, what are some of the common barriers that hold someone back from trusting their intuition?
One of the common barriers is not taking the time to learn about your intuition. People often feel guilty about it because perhaps they have been told their intuition is not strong and/ or is not a worthwhile source of information. And perhaps others believe they aren’t going to be able to connect with their intuition.
Here is the central question of our discussion. What are five methods that someone can use to become more in touch with their intuition?
- Be willing. That’s always the first step.
- Learn to answer the question, “What am I feeling without any judgment?” (This is very difficult for people because we are taught to not feel certain things.)
- Parse out the feelings that are NOT intuitive. The more you can shine a light on these feelings, the more they will become illuminated and you will begin to see what you really think. I often ask my clients the deceptively simple question, “What do you really think?” And while their answer might be “wrong,” it usually helps them realize what they should do. And it’s hard to answer these types of questions without a lot of filters and caveats or guilt trips, especially when making a proclamation like, “My colleague is not very smart.”
- Examine the symbolism in your dreams AND the feelings you experience in your dreams. Look outside of the narrative story in your dreams. (This might sound woo-woo, but it’s important).
- Reflect on your decisions. Think about 5 recent good and bad ones. What feelings preceded these decisions? Did you have a sense about what was going to happen? What did that sense feel like?
You are a person of significant influence. If you could inspire a movement that would bring the most amount of good to the most amount of people, what would that be?
Change your opinion about your so-called “negative feelings” like fear, frustration, and disappointment. Seek to understand them instead of ignoring them and pretending they don’t exist.
Is there a person in the world whom you would love to have lunch with, and why? Maybe we can tag them and see what happens!
Hillary Clinton because I think she’s brilliant. Although I identify as an independent, I would love to make my own assessment of what makes her tick.
How can our readers further follow your work online?
I’m very active on X (Twitter) and increasingly active on LinkedIn. You can also read my first book from McGraw Hill, Market Mind Games, available on Amazon and wherever books are sold. My company, The ReThink Group, also has both a newsletter and an elearning course (with rolling enrollment). You can connect with me and follow me (and my company) on all of the platforms below:
Website: The ReThink Group
IG: The ReThink Group🧠 (@rethink.group) • Instagram photos and videos
LinkedIn: The ReThink Group Inc. | LinkedIn
TikTok: The Rethink Grouphttps://twitter.com/denisekshull
Twitter / X: https://twitter.com/denisekshull
My first book, Market Mind Games: Market Mind Games: Profiting from the New Psychology of Risk, Uncertainty, and the Convergence of Trading with Investing: Shull, Denise: 9780071756228
Elearning Course, Introduction to the Trader Brain: Intro to the Trader Brain: A Unique, Comprehensive Trading Psychology Course to Elevate Your Performance | The ReThink Group
Thank you so much for sharing these important insights. We wish you continued success and good health!
About The Interviewer: Maria Angelova, MBA is a disruptor, author, motivational speaker, body-mind expert, Pilates teacher and founder and CEO of Rebellious Intl. As a disruptor, Maria is on a mission to change the face of the wellness industry by shifting the self-care mindset for consumers and providers alike. As a mind-body coach, Maria’s superpower is alignment which helps clients create a strong body and a calm mind so they can live a life of freedom, happiness and fulfillment. Prior to founding Rebellious Intl, Maria was a Finance Director and a professional with 17+ years of progressive corporate experience in the Telecommunications, Finance, and Insurance industries. Born in Bulgaria, Maria moved to the United States in 1992. She graduated summa cum laude from both Georgia State University (MBA, Finance) and the University of Georgia (BBA, Finance). Maria’s favorite job is being a mom. Maria enjoys learning, coaching, creating authentic connections, working out, Latin dancing, traveling, and spending time with her tribe. To contact Maria, email her at angelova@rebellious-intl.com. To schedule a free consultation, click here.
Keeping In Touch With Your Intuition: Denise Shull Of The ReThink Group On How To Get In Touch With… was originally published in Authority Magazine on Medium, where people are continuing the conversation by highlighting and responding to this story.