From Desperation to Director: Trent Cannon’s Journey Through Automotive

What does it take to go from rock bottom to leading innovation in the automotive industry? In this episode of Word on the Street, Andrew Street sits down with Trent Cannon to unpack his incredible journey.

From losing jobs during the recession and struggling to find his footing, to breaking into car sales “out of desperation,” Trent’s story is one of resilience, mentorship, and proving people wrong. He shares the pivotal moments that shaped his career, the mentors who believed in him, and the lessons that pushed him from selling cars on the hot Houston pavement to directing internet operations and driving product innovation at the manufacturer level.

If you’ve ever wondered what it takes to adapt, grow, and thrive in automotive — this is a story you don’t want to miss.

Episode Highlights:

[00:11] Breaking into automotive “out of desperation”
[02:34] The role of mentors in his early career
[11:13] Climbing to Internet Director and beyond
[19:39] Bouncing back from setbacks
[20:43] Marketing as the lifeblood of dealerships

Listen in to hear how Trent turned obstacles into opportunities and carved out a leadership path in the auto industry.

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Transcript

If you want to hear someone's story going from desperation to hitting in the, in the, if you want to hear one man's story from going from desperation to getting into a car dealership to growing in the ranks and finding himself unemployed in a rural market, and now driving product innovation with manufacturers in the car business, Really good story. Listen to this conversation with my friend Trent Cannon. I'm Andrew Street. This is Word on the Street. Enjoy.

Well, Trent, Trent, tell me what got you into the car business. Desperation. like most of us the the recession hit uh I was uh I was a director of uh marketing for a um information firm very very small like you know five people And we went under. We worked with huge companies like Experian, Equifax, Dun & Bradstreet. And during the two thousand eight, two thousand nine collapse, we went under in two thousand and ten. And then I went to a bank and that didn't go well. And then I went to a telecom company and they went bankrupt. A company called Clear. That didn't go well. And so. I was just looking, I needed to make some money at, you know, thirty, twenty nine, thirty years old. And I already had like a good career. And I ended up kind of mentioned a man named Jeff Johnson, who's who's passed away. A lot of people in Houston know him. Jeff Johnson was a recruiter in Texas, actually across the nation. And I went to interview at Joe Myers Ford, didn't get the job. There were seventy five people at the time because nobody could find a job. Seventy five people were interviewing for three positions and I ended up in the final five, didn't get the job at Joe Myers. And as I was driving home, he Jeff Johnson called me and said, hey, they there's they need help at an Acra store. I think that's more of a fitting of of of somebody like you, which was, you know, I appreciate Jeff. You know, we remain friends until his death. So, yeah, that's how I got in. It was by meeting Jeff and him taking a chance, seeing the potential. Jeff introduced me to John Eagle, Akra, Eric King, and David Cochran, and Dwayne Flynn, and Gary McClellan, who would all play a role in my later car life. Yep. In late two thousand and ten. And there was a bet, Ashley. There was a bet. Me and another guy started. And they bet that the other guy would make it through. They thought I was going to fail. They were like, this guy won't last. Well, Houston is weird. Houston is like, huh? did that like give you fuel to like, just. I didn't know about the bet until like six months after working there. I didn't know at the time that there was a bet. Then they told me like, you know, as you become one of the guys, they're like, oh yeah, we had a bet. We thought the, you know, we thought that guy was going to beat you. Cause he was like a former Marine is a big white guy, bald head. Like he was, he looked like, you know, something. I was like, you know, I thought he was going to be better than me too. And he lasted like three weeks. you know that pavement is hot in houston that pavement is hot yeah and when the price of oil is low houston has a lot of people looking for jobs it's a different market than most markets and it sounds like okay it sounds like you had some people who believed that helped springboard you uh into the industry you know feet first did you have a manager that was particularly impactful that you think of oh So many. Managers, sales managers. David Cochran, one of the best sales managers I've known, was very instrumental in my career. That's probably number one of managers. GMs would be different, but of managers, I'd say David. David was probably the most instrumental in my growth. And then you were selling cars. And I was, as, as I was, as, as being a salesperson, I only sold for a year and a half, two years. Um, but as, as being a salesperson, I'd say he was one of the best closers I've ever met. One of the best closers I've ever met with David Cochran. Was there a moment, like, was there a most memorable car that you sold? Like a most memorable transaction with the customer? Hmm. Oh, a lot of them. Most memorable trans action. Yes. Yes. it was a twins two twins um uh the scott family at at um russell and smith honda tanya scott still friends to this day tanya scott lovely I mean uh very successful um uh black woman black black family uh these are these some of my favorite people but the twins she has two twins they came in to buy um uh two cars they came and bought two cars at the same time one's a boy one's a girl and um the one of the cars we sold them the um the it was a stick shift and the clutch went out and The there's a, there's a side story to this. I won't go all into, but essentially the manager came out to try to fix it. And he did not, she did not like him at all. It did not go well at all. And, and David Cochran, who was the other, the used car director said, can you go talk to this lady and try to see if you can fix it? You know, and I did. It was like, OK, we need to take the car back and we need to get another car. They ended up buying two Accords for the kids instead of the of the of the used car. But she said she said to me, she said that first guy they brought out was your manager. And I said, yeah, she said. What's wrong with it? What's wrong? What's wrong with this picture? How is he your manager? And that that was such a she said it in front of like multiple people. And other people said, yeah, you really should be the manager. How'd that make you feel? How'd that make you feel? Well, I actually came there. It was funny. They didn't know this. I actually came to that dealership to be the manager. That's a whole nother story we won't go into. And I ended up doing quite well. I was selling twenty to thirty cars a month. So the fact that I didn't become the manager. While I was very upset about that, it drove me to really, really, really crush it. And I did. I did. And right after that, I went to Robbins Nissan and became a manager. But, yeah, not getting that management job left a huge chip, probably still to this day, a huge chip on us for it. I think we all go to do that. You know, you think you're going to get the job, Ashley, then they don't give you the job. You know, everybody likes everybody loves you. I don't want to go into reasons why they didn't give it to me. But I was I was very perturbed. And I wanted to show that manager ends up getting that manager. I was talking about he ends up getting terminated. And and, you know, that's that's that ends up being that. Proving people wrong is a much bigger, like motivator than a lot of people know to say like, okay, okay. I gotta prove this, that, that I'm right. It was there like, um, a moment in the, once you started selling cars, transitioning to management, was there like a, a moment you can think of that was like, I can do this. I got this. Um, I belong here. And you asking some good questions, Andrew, these are some fire. I went off your, I went off your script. Oh, I got a script? I didn't know I had a script. A moment that I knew I had... You know what? I was meeting with Michelle Malessio-Taylor. of AutoTrader at the time. She's now vice president for UVI. And there's a person that's been instrumental in my career as well. And she came in and she had her numbers from AutoTrader, right? But I already had my numbers from my internal numbers, and I was ready for her. Because, like, when I tell you when she comes – when I say she comes with fire, she came with fire. And I was able to – I don't remember what she was saying. I wasn't trying to counteract what she was saying, but I just wanted to make sure that I had my numbers ready, right? Because when you go into the general manager's office and the vendor's saying one thing and you're saying another, it doesn't go well. And we got on the same page, right? And we went into the general manager's office. And when we came out, she says, you're smarter than you look. Yeah. I'm gonna be okay. But yeah, yeah, that's probably, that was probably it. Have your numbers ready. Yeah. And have like a, it's, it's transformational to have like an aha moment of like, I belong here. Yeah. This is, this is my place. Do you have like a really strong mentor that was helping you look? Cause going from sales to management's a big transition. Ooh. Ooh. I've had so many. And now, you know, maybe mentors is a bad term. word for me, because I can't say that there's been somebody like guiding me along the whole thing. Michelle Melissa Taylor. I mean, you want to talk about been instrumental? Yes. A guy named Charles Thornton, formerly of Nissan, who's I was an Internet director and he pulled me into the OEM at Nissan. He's now with Mazda. But as you know what? One of the best ones I've had. George Suggs of Clay Cooley. He was the CTO of Clay Cooley, helped Clay become what he is today. He worked with his wife, Karen. And as I want to talk, Andrew, when I talk about wonderful people, I'm talking about wonderful salt of the earth people. They worked like here to there right like across the room from each other every single day they started when clay had two dealerships they built him up to the twelve or fifteen that he had uh in a short amount of time uh and he is the one who I was with nissan oem had it had a great job and he's the one who called me and said um I'm going to retire soon. And I would, you know, I know Clay has called you about, you know, coming over here and, you know, you know, taking things over. But I just want you to know I'm the one who told him to call. And I there's nobody else other than you that I you were the first person I thought of that should be able to take on this challenge. And it's just coming from. First of all, I got to tell you. In Dallas, Texas, right, in Texas period, for, I'm just going to say it, for a white person, older white man, to call a young black kid and tell him to take on his life's work, you know, I'm going to get teary-eyed. You know, that in itself was something I will always remember. And then helped guide me, you know, didn't just... Throw it at me like the constant calls every single day. Hey, did you look at this? Hey, did you look at that? So stuff I use today. You know, how did you start? How did you start today? How did you finish your day? Do you know where everybody's at? Because you're managing multiple stores, multiple Internet directors, a lot of number. You know, you're managing millions of dollars and his his mentorship. I can't I can't forget. But then there's other guys, Joe Garcia. of Tom Peacock, Nissan general manager over there. Absolutely instrumental in my career. His mentor, Randy Faust at IPAC, who I had a lot of time chance to spend a lot of time. Randy Faust. I mean, when you want to talk about one of the best pure car guys, not on social media, getting a whole bunch of hoopla, but best pure car guys came out of David McDavid and Ashbury. Randy Faust is at top, top notch. If you, he's like Bill Parcells. If you look at the coaching tree that he's got down with like Joe Garcia and BJ Banamar and all these other guys down the line. I mean, the, the, The guys that are now General Motors GMs, OC, OC Brooks, that were Randy Faust's managers. It's incredible if you know Randy Crowe, who's at Sterling McCall Ford. Randy Randy Faust is like one of those guys when you step back and look at it, especially in Texas. It sounds like you can't think of any names of people who believe in you. Or at least believed in you, which goes a long way. And rest in peace, Gary McClellan. Gary McClellan was another one. He died recently, but he was the corporate GM for Finnegan. He and just... really gave me opportunities before anybody else was. So I got to mention his name too. Go ahead. It sounds like you've worn a lot of hats on the dealership side. Where's the grass the greenest? What was your favorite role? Internet director. Why? And the role I'm in now. I work for an undisclosed company. You were on the manufacturer side. You ever work on the vendor side? Yeah, no, never been on the vendor side. It's the best. Yeah. I don't know. They're all different, but they all work together. So tell me why Internet Director. The role I'm in now in product, The role I'm in now with innovation as a product development is awesome. I love it. It's probably been my favorite role. But inside the retail dealership, the internet director, because I was at the forefront before we were the cool guys. We're still not cool. We're still the nerds of the dealership. Okay. Rob Malinowski. Rob Malinowski, you know what I'm talking about. Ashley Cavazos, you know what I'm talking about. You know, shout out to my internet directors out there that are now national speakers doing big things. But yeah, we were used to be like, you know... I know a guy, Bert Ogden, the only reason he became the internet director is because he knew how to use email. You know what I mean? It was like, you know, email, you know how to use CRM? Okay, you be internet director. You know, like, that's how things used to be. But to see where that position has gone from to now essentially controlling the store. I mean, it's the scorekeeper for the store. It has to do with the marketing. And, you know, different people have different titles, BDC director, internet director. But I'm talking about internet directors that have both marketing and store responsibilities. That's the position. So that and then being corporate marketing director, there's probably nothing more fun in a dealership. Nothing more fun. I remember like twenty thirteen ish. The marketing directors oftentimes were like, you're the guy. They grab the I.T. kind of person and be like computers can oversee our digital marketing to know. Like I just set up the like when I meet him, they'd be like, I just would set up the DMS for the new, you know, and help set up computers for the new employees and Okay, let me try to help you look good to your boss. Let me help you just get some foundational stuff with analytics and stuff. Ashley just sneezed and tried to play it off. Play it off, Ashley. No, she's a pro. She hit mute. Ashley, were you ever in the internet department? Ashley was at a dealership for over twenty years. Yeah. I started in a BDC... like handling leads at night because I was going to college during the day. So I would work off hours and respond to leads at night and then started helping with email campaigns and updating like website specials and all those things. And then when Facebook came around, they were like, there's this thing called Facebook and we don't really understand it. Do you want to do it? Yeah. And did you learn more at the BDC than you did in college? You feel like that's helped you for a year? Yes. Oh, yeah, for sure. I bet. Trent, you wrote this down, but what do you have? April Simmons of the world. Yes. As a good operator. Do I have a what? You were thinking, like, what is a... These are all highlights, high highs. Was there a moment that was, like, you had headwinds that was most challenging in the car business? Oh. Yeah. Yeah. Um... Yeah, in all honesty, when I got separated from Burt Ogden, it was probably the most challenging. One, because I was on the border. It's not like there's a whole bunch of opportunity down here. And like... Prior to that, my career had been like a comment, a rocket ship, just up. Every position I had been in had gone up. I just always, always more money, always more responsibility. And fully, I was making the decisions on what we did and what happened. And I had just gotten married, right? And now I'm out of a job on the border of Texas. You know what I mean? And I don't speak Spanish. So it just, it was a shock, right? But strangely, right after that, the pandemic hits and it ends up being, I started doing consulting, which is what everybody needed at that time because a lot of people got sick and were reorganizing towards digital marketing and selling cars online. Remote work was more accessible. You could do it from your home. Yeah, which which was my which was my specialty, essentially selling cars online, which is the reason I came to Birdogden in the first place. And so then now everybody needs to sell cars online. And so, you know, for six months. Right. You know, whenever whenever you get whenever you get lose a job. right or it doesn't work out um you know you tend to and so it is your fault right you're the common denominator um but sometimes we tend to to blame ourselves too much and not know that maybe we just weren't on the right team for us. Nothing wrong with the team, right? Sometimes it's just not the right team. Like, look, there's been a lot of players that have played for the Raiders, my Raiders, like Devontae Adams and Randy Moss, that are great receivers. but we didn't have good quarterbacks. And sometimes you just kind of realize that you might still be a great player, but you're not on the right team. I feel like it takes a while. It takes a while to realize that, too. yeah yeah personal at first and then I I hope looking down looking back a few years later a few months later it's like okay without that having happened I wouldn't be doing this same yes like if I if I hadn't been laid off from facebook I wouldn't be here I don't know what I would be doing There you go. And you were one of the, I'll tell you, you were one of, I remember when I first heard Andrew Street's name, working with Alex Flores down there at Capital Chevrolet. And this, this guy is on, you know, this guy's doing, he's got this secret sauce to Facebook. It was like, and he's blowing up all these dealerships. And, you know, you know, and now you are who you are. You never know what position you're going to be in. You've got to keep moving forward. I will say this, though, because I was talking with David Long, Brian Kramer, Kevin Deutsch, Thomas Sertano, and Shane Wood, all these guys on all things car biz, the clubhouse call in the morning. There is still – we have this going back and forth. There is nothing more important than marketing. Right. You can do all the sales training in the world. Right. If the marketing is not together, nobody comes into the store. Right. And with with AI and where things were moving, that's what the call was about this morning, where AI and things are moving. It's I hate to say it, but human interaction is becoming less important. And it's the marketing drivers like social media, like TikTok, like Facebook, the things that you have to be an expert on to be great. You are one of the people who've made those people great. But I don't think you can do all the sales training in the world. There ain't no customers in the store. It don't matter. Last question. I got to go. What's the last one? Do you have a funniest moment in the car business? Funniest moment? Oh, man, I got a lot. I don't know if I can. I can't tell them. I got a lot of fun. I wish I could tell them. And people have fun. And people get a lot of steps, too. What I've noticed is I'd go help dealers make content. One of the questions I'd ask a lot of the staff is like, how many steps are you at today? And they're like, seventeen thousand. I'm like, it's not even lunch. And you've got seventeen thousand steps. Like, I have to put in a lot of effort to get steps. Like, I get three hundred steps if I don't put effort into it. So I'd walk a lot at the dealership, but when you're not at a dealership, you're kind of flat footed. But while I'm there, I can like see everyone has energy. There's like a lot of energy in so many of these stores and the parts departments and like everybody's got like a cool culture. I just wonder if there's something that stood out as like this is a funny environment there are there are moments that stand out but for legal reasons because you know a lot of these people are still working well trent how do I I can't I I wish I could I have to come back because we'll do that do it in your memoir someday when you're writing yeah when you're sitting on your ranch and writing your book you could you could do a tell-all I'll tell you what uh one of my I tell you what this is this is before I got into the car business but you're talking about mentors one of my other mentors was a man a man named mattress mac jim mckenville uh and And the so I was working for his his store. Right. And my birthday is the same as the store's birthday. And my mom bought me cookies. OK. And Mattress Mac. I mean, when I talk about a gym of a person, you want to talk about something that's helped me in life and marketing. It is it is Mattress Mac, Jim McEvoy. And so my mother buys me these cookies. Right. And. And I get the cookies, right? I'm holding the cookies. Matt comes up, takes the cookies out of my hand, right? They're wrapped in like pretty balloon things. I've just turned twenty-one. And he takes out a knife and he cuts open the cookies and just starts eating them. He's just like, yeah. And everybody's, I'm looking, I don't say anything. Everybody's just looking. I'm like, And they're like, Matt, those weren't for the stores. Those were for Trent's birthday. And he goes, oh, I thought these were my cookies. And he reaches in his pocket, gives me a hundred dollars. My man, happy birthday. But that's it. That's not a Carver's story. That's the story. It is good to see you as always. Ashley, it's great to see you. I will come back one day. We will talk some more. Is LinkedIn the place to follow you? LinkedIn is the place to follow you? LinkedIn, LinkedIn, LinkedIn, LinkedIn and Facebook, you know. Let's talk. All right. Trent Cannon, man. Thank you. Enjoyed talking to you. My man. Thank you. All right.