Join host Brett Gilland on the Circuit of Success as he interviews Dr. Craig Thayer, a surgeon, bestselling author, radio show co-host, and motivational speaker. Together, they discuss various topics related to personal growth and success. Dr. Thayer emphasizes the importance of taking a leap of faith and the logistical aspects of achieving one's goals while sharing his journey and the events that shaped him into the person he is today. Now, he is on a mission to inspire and motivate others to live their lives to the fullest which means finding your own thing and placing the bet on yourself. Tune in for an inspiring conversation covering perseverance, personal testimony, and an abundance mentality.



https://youtu.be/QylRClEHr3c

 

 

Brett Gilliland: [00:00:00] Welcome to the Circuit of Success. I am your host, Brett Gilland, and this week I've got Dr. Craig Thayer with me. Craig, how you doing? I'm doing great. Thank you sir. Good. Well, it's good to be with you today. You're calling, uh, you're videoing in from northwest Georgia. How's, uh, things cooking in Georgia right now?

Dr. Craig Thayer: Actually, it's a beautiful day today, so about 72. A little breeze and um, thank you. No rain. Yeah, it's beautiful.

Brett Gilliland: That's awesome. It's been windy as hell here. I don't know what's going on, but I look around, I'm looking at my kids' sporting events. I'm like standing there, you can barely stand up. It's so windy.

I say it's a two club wind, you know, for golf. So it's a little breezy lately. I don't know why, but, uh, so anyway. Well, Craig, you are, uh, you know, the, uh, surgeon, a number one bestselling author, a radio show, co-host, a motivational speaker. Man, you could have probably just, you know, laid low and just kept staying in a surgery room.

But you decided not to do that, huh? And take on all this other stuff. Is that

Dr. Craig Thayer: right? That's correct. Yeah, I just, uh, I've discovered a newer passion [00:01:00] and that is just, um, trying to get out to talk to people and, uh, and then obviously this book that was kind of almost 15 years in the works and was. My grandmother who said, you've gotta do this because of what you've been through in your life and this is gonna motivate people.

And, and, uh, she passed away August 7th, 2021, so it's been almost two years. But yeah, so, uh, and she left a couple miracles behind when she did that. So like a clock that stopped two days later at the time of death. Cause I was there for her last breath. And then, In a, a guest bathroom that I was staying in for the last two weeks that I was there staying with her before, uh, when she died, there was a book on this, this, uh, wicker chair that had a bookmark in it, her glasses on it.

And so it had been clearly read by her and that she was gonna come back and read it, but the title was gone missing. Oh, wow. [00:02:00] Wow. Coincidence. Yeah.

Brett Gilliland: Yeah, well, you've had a lot of stuff, um, in your life, and so you're a high level leader now, like I said, motivational speaker and all that stuff. But you, uh, I, I love here it says, your passion is to inspire and motivate others to live their life to the fullest.

So I want to get into that in a minute, but before we do that, if you can give us a little, uh, shed a little light if you will, on, on the things that you've been through in your life. Like you said, you do have a story, you've got your book. Um, but if you can just give us what's made you, the man you are

Dr. Craig Thayer: today.

All right. I'll give you the Reader's Digest version. So it really kind of begins before I was born, cuz my Naturaler mother was in Michigan and gonna be married to my natural father, but not going through catechism fast enough. So she, about three days before due, went to Monterey, California, had me, held me for 10 days, and then gave me up for adoption.

So I was an orphan for nine months and just saved by. Her belief in, uh, in, in, in Jesus. In, in God. [00:03:00] So, and then I, part of the adoption was that I'd Manor be raised by Catholic mom. And so who better than an Irish Catholic. My mom was 21, moved from Ireland to America and met my dad and they couldn't have kids.

And then there I am in their house. So, and they were my parents and had a strong loyalty to them growing up. They always told me that I was adopted from the beginning. It wasn't a secret. And then I think the next thing was just making me more empathic. And that was, One night my dad, my sister and I were coming home and my dad up in the front door and on in the living room, you could see my mom on the ground passed out.

And, uh, sh that's the first time I realized she had an alcohol problem. So, wow. I was about 11 when I went to an AA meeting with her. So I got to hear what people had to say about their, their alcohol and their addictions and kind of be a better empath. And then, then junior year in high school, I took anatomy, physiology, new man.

The human body's amazing. I, I love working with my hands. I [00:04:00] gotta be a surgeon. I was cocky and said, oh, that's, I'm gonna be a cardiac or a neurosurgeon cuz they are the really super cool ones. And then, um, and then I had a twisted intestine, so just like a week before finals my junior year. And uh, so got over that.

Got back, back into the pool. I was a water polo player and a competitive swimmer. And, uh, then headed off to college in freshman year. My mom passes away sophomore year. I'm in a bicycle accident, cracked my head. I have spinal fluid coming outta my ear. Um, these are stories in the book. They're just, how kind of God worked through my life to.

You know, my mom dies all my, I was on an all male floor of my all, all my, uh, floor mates said he is not coming back. He won't be back. There's no way. And they knew I wanted to be a surgeon. So same thing, sophomore year, I'm in the hospital, uh, uc. Davis is a quarter system, so, Two weeks is 20% of your class.

They're like, you'll have to make it back. You, you, you [00:05:00] can't catch up. And if I get off series, you know, 1 28 organic chemistry, now after, take that the next quarter, I'm not gonna graduate in four years and that's gonna screw everything up. So, um, then junior year, my dad gets diagnosed with lung cancer stage four.

And that year I was an off-campus dorm in this for. If there's folks that don't remember about dial phones and long distance phone call costs, um, it had one phone jack against this one wall. It was a suite for five students. I was one of the two in the back. It was one room up front and I plugged that in and would call my dad, and I never got a bill.

And I'm like, can you even check with the front desk? Are you guys getting charged for the, and there was never a bill. It was, I mean, you can't explain how I had. You know, two, three hour conversations with my dad every night and not have to pay for any of it. So, and then my dad passes away between junior and senior year.

My goodness. Yeah. And then, uh, [00:06:00] then, then, then I, um, I applied to med school. And I get, um, I get this, you know, if you get, I, I think I played about 18 and I could wallpaper my room with the projection notices and, uh, I finally got one. And you know, if you get a thin one that's just like a dear John letter.

You, sorry, you know, looked at you and you're not, not a, you can't come. So I got a thin one and it says, congratulations, you've not been accepted. And I'm like, what? Yeah. What kind of a letter is this? Yeah, you're on a wait list, so you still have a chance of getting in. So, and then, uh, during the summer I get this phone call and I think it's my friend who I'm gonna pick up from one of his classes.

So I answer Craig's taxi service. And it's a lady uc, Davis Med School, and she says, well, it's Craig Thayer there. And I said, oh yeah, just a second. I covered the phone. No change in voice. Not enough time to really go [00:07:00] get somebody. I'm back on the phone. I wonder what she thought and said, yeah, well, she says, you're in.

So I got into uc, Davis' Med School and then, um, yeah, and then, um, From there, I, I, it matched at uc, Davis's general Surgery program. And, um, I was the last resident, which that's a six year program to hang my own shingle as a business. I had to get seven different insurances, malpractice, dental health, uh, Renters cuz I had an office, uh, workman's comp.

I mean, you, you just keep going and, but it's a business and I never, you never really get caught into that. When you're a resident, you just learn medicine and taking care of people. So, you know, uh, you have to come up with a p and l plan for a business loan. And I'd had some business experience with my, my dad's death.

So my mom died. She had like a $25,000 life insurance policy. My dad invested in the fourth [00:08:00] mortgage on an eight unit apartment complex, and after he died that foreclosed, so we made a, we put in the eight of us. Uh, there were eight that were on the fourth put in, um, an offer for I think the first and just ours, and we got it.

So we kept it for years so that no one could come back. If we've approved it, we would've lost whatever we want, putting the money in and improving it, and then, uh, sold it for a big profit. So I was, you know, I was 21, 22. Wow. Yeah.

Brett Gilliland: That's pretty crazy.

Dr. Craig Thayer: So, accelerated business program.

Brett Gilliland: So you, you didn't go off and do your, you know, get your doctorate, your, your medical degree and you become a surgeon.

You do all those things and, and I'm not fast forwarding through that, but I'm always curious about how when people have a nice, successful career, And, uh, you know, I don't know this to be true, but I would assume that you've done, you've done pretty well, I would assume, uh, in your career. Yeah.

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