Ines Imdahl

Ines Imdahl | Psychologist (Dipl.-Psych.) | Entrepreneur | Speaker | Author | TV Host | Mom of 4

“Key” Facts:
 „40 over 40 – Germany’s Most Inspiring Women“ 2022
 Author of two books
 WDR expert/host on 5 Fallen 2 Experten
 Columnist at Handelsblatt (2012–2014)
 Founder of rheingold salon (2011)
 Co-owner of rheingold (since 2000)
 Married since 1999
 Psychologist (Diploma) since 1994
 Fired from her very first job at a small consulting firm (1994)
 Second-best Abitur at an all-girls high school (1986)
 Elementary school without a recommendation for high school (1977)
 Born in 1967 as a girl—though a boy was expected.


What drives me & what I believe in:
Understanding why people do what they do and feel what they feel. Why do people smoke even though they know it’s harmful? That very question took me from advanced philosophy classes in high school (to break the cliché: I also had advanced math) to studying psychology at the University of Cologne.
“If you really want to know why” is also the research motto of our market research agency. I, along with my team, have always been interested in more than the purely rational. After all, in everything we do, emotion and irrationality play a central role.
I don’t aim to persuade people to act differently or more “reasonably”—that rarely works. Instead, what matters to me is to inspire enthusiasm—for example, for sustainability and for diversity in companies.
And in my TV show, my goal is to help people understand themselves a little better—without feeling ashamed of what they do.

What I’m passionate about:
Always about the feminine—without ever being against the masculine. Especially empathy, emotionality, resilience, and even doubt—traits that were too often labeled weaknesses of the feminine. I never wanted to see them as such. And now, finally, the time has come when these skills are becoming more and more valuable. And it is precisely out of this idea that…