Hannah Kleinfeld, COO, Omni-Biotic USA
Hannah Kleinfeld is the Chief Operating Officer of Omni-Biotic USA, where she helped lead the U.S. launch of one of Europe’s most respected and clinically studied probiotic brands. A graduate of Yale with an MBA from Harvard, she began her career at McKinsey & Company and Boston Medical Center, specializing in healthcare strategy and operations. Her work bridges science and storytelling, rooted in academic rigor, shaped by personal experience, and elevated by a gift for making even the most complex health topics feel clear, relevant, and empowering.
Raised in Germany, Hannah grew up immersed in a culture of clean living, where food was medicine and prevention was the norm. But it wasn’t until her early twenties, when a severe case of Lyme disease left her physically depleted and emotionally unmoored, that her understanding of well-being fundamentally changed. She went from high-performing to barely functioning, facing symptoms invisible to the outside world but impossible to ignore. That unraveling led her to functional medicine, holistic healing, and the root cause at the center of it all: gut health. After experiencing a profound shift with Omni-Biotic, she recognized how limited access to this kind of support was in the U.S. and set out to change that.
Today, in addition to her role as COO, Hannah is a mother, a certified health coach, and a thoughtful voice in the wellness space. Through product innovation, education, and advocacy, she continues to shape a more honest and intelligent conversation around health, one that encourages women to step out of survival mode and into agency. Her story is a reminder that healing is not linear, balance is never static, and the most meaningful work often begins with the decision to advocate for yourself.
What does a vibrant, deeply fulfilling, and fully aligned life look like to you? What are the little or big things you do daily to make that vision a reality?
To me, a vibrant and deeply fulfilling life is one where I feel aligned in my actions, connected to my intuition, and supported by routines that nourish my body, mind, and soul. It means showing up with clarity, energy, and mindfulness — both for myself and for the people I care about.
After navigating the depths of chronic illness in my early 20s, I learned that alignment isn’t a luxury — it’s a necessity. A vibrant life for me means having the health and energy to be present with my daughter, my husband and friends, to walk my dog in the woods and actually feel the breeze on my face, to lead with clarity and heart, and to make decisions from a place of integrity rather than fear or ego.
It starts with being very clear on my priorities and making sure my actions align with those priorities. This can be something as big as a career choice, or as "small" (yet so Important) as prioritizing rest over social activities. Daily, I love including mindfulness practices such as meditation and journaling, time to be quiet and still so I can connect with my inner voice and intuition, and recalibrate if I feel like I'm off track. Daily movement, good quality sleep, and nourishing foods are also essential.
With so much going on in your life, from work to health, family, and personal growth, how do you keep it all in balance without losing yourself? What’s your secret to staying grounded while still going after big dreams?
This is a question I ask myself almost daily. If there's one thing I learned, especially since becoming a mom, is that “balance” isn’t a static state; it’s fluid. There are some weeks when I lean more into work, and there are other weeks when my family or even my own health takes priority. I also strongly believe in prioritizing and making sure I focus on the activities that will move the needle, and finding ways to delegate or outsource certain tasks, both at work and in my home/personal life.
A few things I've found really help me stay grounded and also aware of my current balance are:
Clarity of Purpose — I revisit my why often and make sure my actions align with my priorities. And yes, those priorities might shift and evolve over time, so it's even more important to do this regularly.
Micro-moments of presence — I may not always have an hour to meditate, but I can take three grounding breaths between calls. I can choose to step outside for five minutes, feel the sun on my skin, or put my hand on my heart and check in with myself. Those tiny resets make a big difference.
Rituals that nourish — I always try to incorporate some rituals into my day and week that are truly nourishing. This might be waking up earlier than my daughter, so I can have some quiet time to journal, meditate, or work out, cooking a nourishing meal, or monthly acupuncture sessions for overall wellness support.
Is there a Woo Woo Working Woman, in your field or beyond, whose passion, purpose, and presence inspire you? What have you learned from her?
I love learning from women who are balancing a career, their families, and their personal well-being. And, more importantly, who are transparent about how they are doing that, where they’re asking for support, and the fact that we cannot do everything at once at 100%. It starts with my younger sister, Lena, who is also part of the Omni-Biotic team, as well as some of my close friends who are doing big things in their careers without losing themselves in that one role. I deeply appreciate the conversations Natalie Ellis from Bossbabe, Cameron Rogers, and Megan Roup are starting around juggling motherhood with successful careers, and what it means to show up in these different areas of life. I admire Melissa Wood and Lauryn Bosstick for what they’ve built and for their passion and purpose.
Was there a defining moment that set you on the path to becoming the woman you are today? How did it change the way you saw yourself and your future?
Yes — without a doubt, the defining moment came in my early 20s when I went from living a high-performance lifestyle to barely being able to get out of bed. At the time, I was ambitious, driven, and doing all the “right” things — and then, almost overnight, my body collapsed under the weight of an undiagnosed tickborne illness.
I vividly remember lying in bed, unable to walk to the kitchen, wrapped in pain, fatigue, and brain fog, while hearing people say, “But you look fine.” That disconnect — between how I appeared on the outside and what I was experiencing on the inside — forced me to redefine everything I thought I knew about health, strength, and success.
That season of my life led me to functional medicine, to deep research into gut health, to becoming a health coach, and eventually to discover Omni-Biotic. It made me so much more aware of the importance of mental and physical wellbeing, and how powerful holistic healing modalities can be for overall wellbeing.
Your journey from navigating Lyme disease and chronic illness to becoming a leader in the gut health space has required resilience, reinvention, and deep self-trust. What is the biggest lesson you’ve learned along the way that still guides you today?
One of the biggest lessons Lyme taught me is that healing isn’t linear. Some days I felt great, only to have a setback a few days later. This was extremely difficult and quite discouraging at that time. However, it was also a very important lesson for me. It taught me patience, resilience, and trust in my body and in the healing process. The more I reflected on this theme, the more I realized that this doesn’t just apply to healing. Many processes aren’t linear. Whether it’s reaching a new milestone with Omni-Biotic, personal growth, or growing in my role as a mom, you learn, refine, and hit roadblocks along the way. The key is staying connected to your North Star, being resilient, introspective, and asking for support when you need it.
Since healing from Lyme can be such a rollercoaster—with moments of progress followed by unexpected setbacks—how did you navigate the emotional ups and downs, and what helped you start to trust your body again?
That lesson about healing being non-linear showed up in a very real way throughout my recovery. For a long time, it felt like I couldn’t trust my body at all. I went from being high-functioning to barely able to walk around the block, and that loss of vitality was terrifying—especially when others couldn’t see what I was going through.
Clearing the tickborne pathogens was just the first step. My body was still coping with the aftermath of antibiotics, high inflammation, and a dysregulated immune system. It took time, but I gradually rebuilt my strength with holistic methods like acupuncture, nutrition, targeted supplements, and gut healing—which ultimately led me to discover Omni-Biotic.
Just as important was the inner work. I had to untangle my identity from the illness and begin rebuilding trust in my body and in life itself. I worked with an incredible life coach who helped me process the experience, shift my mindset, and get clear on the future I wanted to create. That emotional reset was just as essential as the physical healing.
When did you go from casually hearing about the gut microbiome to realizing it was the foundation of your healing? How did that shift the way you care for your body and the way you lead in the wellness space?
When I was done with the initial round of treatments to get the tickborne illness under control, there were still so many lingering symptoms, and I still felt so far from healthy. Once my practitioner and I started to really focus on my gut health, that’s when things began to shift.
I learned that 70–80% of our immune system lives in the gut, and that our gut bacteria help produce key neurotransmitters like serotonin. I started to see just how interconnected everything was — energy, mood, immunity, even inflammation. The gut wasn’t just one piece of the puzzle; it was the foundation.
Right around this time, a practitioner friend of mine in Germany started talking to me about a new probiotic brand that was taking the European markets by storm. She was so excited about the science and clinical studies behind these products. As a naturally curious person, I began looking into Omni-Biotic myself. I was intrigued by Omni-Biotic’s unique approach to probiotics – targeted formulations for specific health needs, rather than a “one size fits all” support. So I decided to run a little experiment on myself. I took Omni-Biotic rather than one of the probiotic brands from the US for a few weeks. Within a few days, I saw big changes. My digestion felt better, my energy improved, and my brain fog began to lift. I searched around in the US to see whether a similar product existed in the market here, but couldn’t find anything. After months of asking family members in Europe to send the products to me, I asked myself, “Why is Omni-Biotic not here in the US?” This was the beginning of bringing Omni-Biotic here.
How do I approach wellness today for myself and my family? Keeping our gut healthy is key. I know that if the gut is off, this will have ripple effects throughout the body. This includes taking Omni-Biotic daily (for the whole family), limiting exposure to toxins we ingest via our food and water, and eating a good range of nourishing, gut-friendly foods (including fiber!).
So many women today are struggling with gut issues like leaky gut, SIBO, candida, histamine intolerance, and more. What do you think is really happening to us? Why are these imbalances becoming so common?
This is such an important question and one I think about often, both personally and professionally. From my perspective, there are several layers to what’s going on.
First, we’re living in a world that’s increasingly stress-inducing and gut-disruptive. Chronic stress — whether from pressure at work, overpacked schedules, emotional burnout, or even unprocessed trauma — plays a massive role in gut health. When we’re constantly in fight-or-flight mode, digestion is deprioritized. Over time, this creates inflammation, weakens the gut lining, impairs nutrient absorption, and disrupts the microbiome. And the truth is, so many women are running on empty and not even realizing how normalized stress has become.
Second, we’re exposed to more environmental disruptors than ever before — pesticides, antibiotics in food, chemicals in skincare, microplastics, and highly processed diets. All of these create an inflammatory load on the body, particularly in the gut, which is our first line of defense. It’s like our systems are under siege, day in and day out.
Third, there’s a real disconnect between conventional and functional medicine. Conventional medicine often overlooks these complex “whole body” symptoms. Functional medicine looks at the root cause — the subtle imbalances, the dysbiosis, the hormonal and immune links — and gives us a more comprehensive map to healing. Too often, women are told “everything looks normal” when they know deep down that something’s off.
And lastly, and encouragingly — awareness is growing. More women are speaking up, researching, asking questions, and finding communities where these symptoms are taken seriously. As a result, more diagnoses are being made and more people are getting the language to understand what they’ve been feeling for years.
If you had to start your gut healing journey all over again, but with the wisdom and experience you have now, what would you do differently? Where would you begin?
I would focus on more specific gut support a lot earlier. Yes, my doctors recommended a probiotic when I started the antibiotics to kill of the Lyme, but it took a while before we took a closer look at my gut. If I were to start again today, I’d start from the beginning with a good stool test to assess the presence of pathogens, inflammation markers, and the overall state of the gut. In addition, it’s so important to be conscious of any food sensitivities or irritants, especially during a healing process to ensure you’re not taxing the body even further.
What’s in your current wellness rotation of rituals, routines, and non-negotiables? What’s actually making a difference for you right now?
Recently, I’ve been a big fan of going back to basics. There’s so much noise out there about all the latest health hacks. Some of which are very interesting and based on science, while others are really just the latest fad.
My current wellness rituals include:
Daily movement (usually a walk with my dog) and some form of exercise a few times per week. I’m currently loving strength training thanks to all its amazing benefits for metabolic health and just feeling strong so I can keep up with my daughter.
Nourishing foods: I am such a big believer in nourishing our bodies with the food that we eat. Food should make us feel good and give us energy, rather than making us feel tired and sluggish. Of course, I also indulge here and there, but the baseline is to focus on healthy nourishment.
Hydration: Keeping the body hydrated is so important for feeling good, supporting our organs, especially our detox pathways. I love to add electrolytes to my water at least once a day for optimal hydration.
High Quality Sleep: I’ve really worked on improving my sleep hygiene over these last few months, and it’s made a big difference in my sleep quality. This includes: Blue light blocking glasses and dimmed lights/red lights in the evening, reducing screen time before bed, and mouth taping.
Meditations/ Grounding practices/ Journaling:Finding ways to create stillness and really tuning in with myself. Some days this is a 10-15 minute meditation, others it’s just sitting outside in quiet or journaling.
Who are some of the experts, practitioners, books, or podcasts that have deeply shaped your understanding of gut health and healing? Whose work do you return to again and again or recommend to the women in your life?
Every practitioner I worked with during my Lyme recovery journey has profoundly impacted my understanding of gut health and healing. I read many books on various health topics, and love to dig into the actual scientific evidence behind topics that are of interest to me. It’s about hearing different perspectives, learning about different treatment approaches, and then figuring out what approach works best for me, in the current season I’m in.
I love diving into podcasts that feature health and wellness experts and thought leaders. Oftentimes, I will listen to them in an episode and then buy their book or consume more of their content.
With regards to books and thought leaders in the space:
The Adrenal Reset Diet by Dr. Alan Christianson
Alisa Vitti’s work on hormone balance
I Contain Multitudes by Ed Yong
Bite Me by Ally Hilfiger (Ally’s personal account of navigating her own Lyme disease journey)
The Spark Factor by Molly Maloof
Super Human by Dave Asprey
Awaken the Giant Within by Tony Robbins
Breaking the Habit of Being Yourself by Dr. Joe Dispenza
If you had to start your gut healing journey all over again but with the wisdom and experience you have now, what would you do differently? Where would you begin?
I would focus on more specific gut support a lot earlier. Yes, my doctors recommended a probiotic when I started the antibiotics to kill of the Lyme, but it took a while before we took a closer look at my gut. If I were to start again today, I’d start from the beginning with a good stool test to assess the presence of pathogens, inflammation markers and the overall state of the gut. In addition, it’s so important to be conscious of any food sensitivities or irritants, especially during a healing process to ensure you’re not taxing the body even further.
Personal Mantra?
I love personal mantras. They’re a great tool to anchor a specific mindset. Some of my favorites include:
“Life is unfolding for me, not to me. It is my choice.”
“I get to do this, I don’t have to.” Oftentimes, we go through our days just thinking about our to-do list. It all becomes about what we “have to” do. Rather, I like to think about things as “getting to” do this. It’s a privilege.
“Don’t let perfection be the enemy of good.”
What’s the one lesson you hope every Woo Woo Working Woman on her own journey learns about herself?
Trust your gut — in every sense of the word. If something feels off in your body or your life, even if you “look fine” on the outside, don’t ignore that inner knowing. Your body is wise. Your intuition is real. Advocate for yourself. Find yourself a practitioner who believes you, and who can be your biggest advocate in helping find real answers. You deserve to feel well, to feel whole, and to keep asking questions until you get the answers you need.
And just as importantly, know that the curveballs life throws your way can become your greatest teachers. My journey through illness felt like a detour at the time, but it was actually a redirection — one that led me to my purpose, to deeper self-awareness, and to the work I do today. What feels like a breakdown in the moment might just be the beginning of something more aligned and meaningful than you ever imagined.
Want more Hannah? You can follow her on Instagram at @hannahkleinfeld for more insight into gut health, healing, and behind the scenes of building a wellness brand. To explore the full line of Omni-Biotic products or shop online, head to omnibioticlife.com.
