Dr. Michael Gannon of TalkDr Christian Counseling

National Religious Broadcasters Convention 2024

Transcription completed by AI software, please excuse any misspellings or typos present.

Leray Heyne  0:24  

Hello, I'm Leray Heyne, the founder of Windows of Heaven and our Jesus Christ's CEOs ministries. Today I'm here at the Museum of the Bible, an amazing tribute to the Holy Bible. Teresa and I are honored to be founding members of the Museum of the Bible. And I'm here to encourage Christian business owners to enroll in our Jesus Christ's CEOs Bible Institute. When you visit the Museum of the Bible, you will get to view biblical artifacts you will not get to see anywhere else. It is the same when you enroll in our Jesus Christ's CEOs Bible Institute. As a Christian business owner, you will learn things you have not and will not learn anywhere else, as it relates to your holy calling as a Christian business owner. The Museum of the Bible is all about the Holy Bible, Jesus Christ's CEOs habitually abide in the Holy Bible with their body, heart, mind, soul and spirit, business owners that are ready to do the same. Enroll today in our Jesus Christ's CEOs Bible Institute. And together as Authentic Disciples of Jesus Christ, let's transform the nation's public squares of business with the Holy Bible as our manual for life, and our companies.

Leray Heyne  1:40  

Welcome back to Jesus Christ's CEOs TV. We are recording live at the National Religious Broadcasters convention and exhibit in Nashville, Tennessee. And we are launching our new virtual technology. You're watching the studio pan and right now, it is this is virtual technology that we will have in our new studio to tell the world what Jesus Christ is doing in business. And we are here also looking for stories through business owners on how Jesus is living in and through business owners to tell you what Jesus is doing a business. And I have Dr. Michael with me here. Thank you for showing up and spending some time with us. 

Dr. Michael Gannon  2:20  

He read. Thank you so much for having me. 

Leray Heyne  2:22  

Yeah. So tell our audience a little bit about you and your practice and how you even got into that. 

Dr. Michael Gannon  2:27  

Well, I've was a drug addict. And I got saved when I was 28. Instantly off of 10 grams of cocaine and ended up flying to Hawaii within a week and going to Bible college. So I grew up Catholic in Los Angeles, California, and a week I'm in Bible college, they're looking at me, like, what are you? What are you doing here that you're in the wrong place, and I finished and then ironically, God put me in a police department doing crisis counseling, and I work for the FBI and, and did a lot of drug and alcohol counseling for the Department of Education in Hawaii, and then kept pursuing counseling. Because, as a I pastored, for over 20 years, I always had a secular job. And I just wanted to be in ministry, but I kept getting job offers that I couldn't turn down and, and and God put me in the marketplace, even as a pastor, and and then, over time, finished my PhD. And I started doing counseling for a living professionally. And so we own two Christian counseling practices. One in California and one here in Franklin, Tennessee. 

Leray Heyne  3:49  

Wonderful. Wow. That's, I'm sure there's a lot more to that story. So tell us we were talking off air a little bit how, how you live out your faith and give us your perspective, as a business owner, as a counselor and a doctor how you know business owners want to know how, right? Show them how to give us a little glimpse of how Dr. Michael lives out his faith and in your practice in your business. 

Dr. Michael Gannon  4:19  

Sure. And a lot of our clients are professionals, we people who, you know, would go to a life coach typically or a business coach, and then they want a deeper dive because they're having problems in their marriage. And so what I do is I bring the Holy Spirit with me everywhere I go, because he lives inside of me, 

Leray Heyne  4:42  

Amen. 

Dr. Michael Gannon  4:43  

And and have just learned over time how to be sensitive. He's either a still small voice, he's also the voice of the sound of many waterfalls. So you have to listen for both and and when you're being led by His Spirit. It's really easy to just let him do the work. And so that's what I try to do every time I'm in a counseling session. You know, even with CEOs and business owners praying for God's blessing, praying for increase, you know, helping them learn how to practically apply God's Word, to grow in prayer, growing their knowledge of Scripture, you know, renewing their mind. And, and, and the hardest part is being sensitive to the Holy Spirit, what He tells you to do, because sometimes it's not easy to do what he asked you to do. And but when you obey, he brings his blessing. 

Leray Heyne  5:41  

Yeah. 

Dr. Michael Gannon  5:42  

And it's very easy to find out if that was from the Lord or not. 

Leray Heyne  5:45  

Yeah. So I'm, you know, I've been around business owners my whole life, and you look like you're a seasoned veteran, right? Pastor and Bible College and all of that. So, you know, I haven't done all of that, that Michael has done? How so they are probably thinking, how? How did you get there? How did you start hearing Holy Spirit Probably a long time ago, but how did you start to know that you were hearing Holy Spirit? And how did you start stepping out in faith in your, in your, in your employment or your trade? And what happened? How did it grow for you?

Dr. Michael Gannon  6:17  

So I worked for a secular clothing brand in Hawaii when I was in Bible college at a secular job. And as the General Manager, God just started speaking to me, I am so I grew up Catholic originally. And so I didn't know that God, like, talk to you. I thought he used other people to talk to you, you know, and, and, and so it was trial and error, like he would say something to me, and I would test what he said and apply it and, and just over time, I learned to be sensitive to that voice. You know, it's kind of like an inkling when you're walking out of the house, and you have that thought, you know, grab an umbrella. And you don't have pours rain that day. Right? A lot of times, that's the Lord talking to you. And it's just being sensitive. And then testing is, is that a directive? Like, am I supposed to follow that? What am I supposed to do with it? So I kind of liken it to, you know, your GPS, if you're asking, you know, for directions and your GPS says turn left. Well, you know, just keep going. There is another direction after that. And so when you're talking to the Lord, it's asking for continual direction. And, and God is faithful to always speak to us. You know, sometimes his comment is to wait. And so he's he's not answering always right. And you have to just ask the right question.

Leray Heyne  7:58  

Right. So let's talk about discernment a little bit. So in a CEO realm, maybe discernment can be 100,000, a million dollar decision, that I believe that the Lord is leading me to go, that's risky. I'm not sure if that's the Lord, you're dealing with people's lives, that's even more risky than a million bucks. Can you give us an example of one of those risks that you took? And you got it? 

Dr. Michael Gannon  8:26  

Yeah. You know, I think, you know, some clients that I have, like, one client is a CEO of mine, who is a $20 billion company. And it was during COVID, they were, you know, shutting down things. And he, you know, he had an idea to market more online and, and, and to rebrand in certain ways, which they did, and I can't share the company, but it's a it's one of the famous luxury brands. And in doing that, and being obedient to what he felt the Lord to do, instead of losing money during COVID, they actually gained a huge market share down. And so that's kind of where when you're talking to people, and as you said, you're testing if that's the Lord or not, right, it's very hard when it's, you know, 100 million dollar billion dollar decision. 

Leray Heyne  9:23  

Yeah. 

Dr. Michael Gannon  9:24  

But God is always faithful and always will meet you in faith, I believe. 

Leray Heyne  9:29  

So when you're, you know, how do you prepare for your meetings or you're preparing and you're not only on a medical side, but you're preparing on a spiritual side, for your days in your meetings with your patients and clients? 

Dr. Michael Gannon  9:44  

Yeah, I typically tend to just be more relying on the Holy Spirit.

Leray Heyne  9:48  

Right. 

Dr. Michael Gannon  9:48  

It's very hard for planning people and you know, people who want you know, especially business owner, I don't have detailed plans and things like that. So I plan more in prayer, I hunt and try to get a word for you know, each client, I typically see about 10 clients per day. And so if God can give me a nugget for each person, and then he can water that seed, right, as I plant that in somebody's life, he meant that I, I believe that the Holy Spirit kind of has a lab after our sessions.

Leray Heyne  10:26  

Right.

Dr. Michael Gannon  10:26  

Do that work for that person and confirm his word to them. 

Leray Heyne  10:30  

Right as an interesting analogy. I like that. So practicing this way, has the Lord blessed your business this way? 

Dr. Michael Gannon  10:40  

Oh, absolutely. We, my wife and I just finished our second workbook. So talkdoctor.tv is one of the new programs we're launching. And it's an interactive on demand online resource for people who can't afford to pay me $200 an hour to come to my office, right? And then you just look at it anywhere where they're at. So we've we've done two now, and it's God has blessed us our first month of launch. And we had 15,000 views. 

Leray Heyne  11:13  

Wow. 

Dr. Michael Gannon  11:13  

And I did the math. And I found that it would take me two years at 10 hours a day to reach that many people as I did in 30 30 days. So God's really blessed us. It's been awesome. 

Leray Heyne  11:25  

Yeah. Well, you sound like a man that truly is letting Holy Spirit lead you and guide you. Just any last thoughts and encouraging other business owners in that way? 

Dr. Michael Gannon  11:35  

Yeah, I think you know, when you're first practicing, start small, you know, the great golf term, they say, aim small miss ball, you know, I wouldn't maybe go launch into, you know, 100 million dollar deals when you're just first practicing hearing from the Lord. But as you rely on that relationship, he is so faithful to guide you and lead you and every aspect of your life, your marriage with her kids, and not just in business, but in every area of your life. 

Leray Heyne  12:08  

Amen. 

Dr. Michael Gannon  12:08  

Yep. 

Leray Heyne  12:09  

Amen. Well thank you for sharing some of your wisdom and experience with our audience and thanks for taking some time here. That your busy schedule with NRB so God bless you.

Dr. Michael Gannon  12:17  

Thank you so much, really appreciate it. 

Leray Heyne  12:19  

Awesome.