I think about it like a car, you know, you want to put great fuel into your car, but you also need a great engine.

The fuel is the food you're eating, the engine is the microbiome.

So, you know, if you put shitty fuel into a great car, you're not going to get high performance.

And if you have, you know, the top of the line fuel, but the worst engine ever, you're also not going to get a great high performing car.

So, you need both of these components to really be successful in your hell.

Okay, welcome back, or welcome to the Finding Mastery podcast.

I'm your host, Dr. Michael Jervé, by trade and training a high performance psychologist.

And I'm excited to welcome Dr. Colleen Cutcliffe to the Finding Mastery community.

Colleen is the CEO and co-founder of Pendulum Therapeutics, who's on a mission to improve health through the first of its kind research and development in the gut microbiome.

She received a doctorate degree in biochemistry and molecular biology from Johns Hopkins University.

And then she spent over 20 years managing and leading teams in biotech, pharma, and academia.

So, Colleen, before we get started, I just want to say I'm honored to have Pendulum as a partner on the show.

I've been studying gut health and the microbiome for a long time, not at your level, but I understand the value of it.

And you're on the forefront of creating meaningful change for people, so I can't wait to take a deep dive and learn from you today.

So with that, thank you so much for being here. How are you?

I'm great. Thanks so much for having me. I'm also excited about our conversation today and getting to partner with you.

And, you know, gut health is becoming such a common word and everybody has maybe a little bit of different definition of what it means.

So, excited to dig in with you today and share thoughts.

I thought what we do is we would better understand some of the science and then better understand where that comes from for you and what you're trying to solve.

For two decades, just as a framework, you were working in biotech and pharma.

And then what was the impetus for you to pursue, you know, gut microbiome specifically?

I think there were two really key factors that made me jump in with both feet.

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