Unarmored Talk

Marine Corps Veteran Reveals Why Money Isn't Everything

• Victor Cannon • Episode 122

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What happens when a Marine Corps veteran says goodbye to his corporate job and follows his passion into the entertainment world?

Join us as Victor Cannon, owner of CAN-DO Productions, Inc., shares his remarkable 30-year journey from the Marines and trash industry to the entertainment sector. Victor talks about the mixed reactions from family and friends, the strategic seven-year plan he crafted with his wife and the highs and lows of his path to creating Can-Do Productions. Hear about his work as a DJ, where he spreads love and joy at weddings and events.

This episode is a heartfelt testament to perseverance, meticulous planning, and the undeniable impact of following one's true calling. Host Mario P. Fields celebrates Victor's unwavering work ethic and the genuine positivity he brings to people's lives.

Guest Links:
CAN-DO Productions, Inc. https://www.candodj.com/homepage
LinkedIn: https://www.linkedin.com/in/victor-cannon-442503a/

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Mario P. Fields:

Welcome back to Unarmored Talk Podcast. Thank you so much for listening and watching each episode and continue, please, to share with your friends and family members and colleagues, and don't forget to leave a rating or review if you feel this is an awesome show. And you can connect to all of my social media on the parade deck Just look in the show notes. Media on the parade deck just look in the show notes. Or you can put in the search engine Mario P Fields parade deck and get all access to my social media. Well, let's get ready to interview another guest who is willing to remove their armor to help other people.

Mario P. Fields:

Welcome back to the unarmored talk podcast. I'm your host, mario Fields. For you first-time listeners and viewers, if you're watching this on YouTube and if you have been a loyal fan since 2020, man, I appreciate you for my 5'2.5. That's 5'2.5 heart. Today we have another guest willing to remove their armor to help other people gain a better understanding. We're all humans and emotions. You can't really stop them, but you can think through some of these things, victor Cannon. He's a Marine Corps veteran, semper Fi, my friend Hoorah.

Victor Cannon:

Hoorah baby.

Mario P. Fields:

He is a Marine, he's a entrepreneur, a business owner. He's been a business owner for quite some time. I'm going to let you guys tell, I'm going to let him tell you all a little bit about what he does and what he has achieved, and more before we get to our guests. Again, guys know the deal. Thank you, Thank you so much. We just raised, I'm going to say, over $4,000, believe it or not through all of the platforms. You guys will see.

Mario P. Fields:

If you haven't seen it already, check out some of the social media posts on still serving incorporated LinkedIn, my LinkedIn, some of my social medias as we just paid for some students Ninth, 10th and 11th graders 10th, 11th and 12th graders to take their first first civic trip from early college high school and Pitt County civic trip from early college high school in Pitt County. We paid about $3,000 for them. We made it happen with some other folks and then we just adopted 10 seniors at Innovation Early College High School and totaling over $4,000 in charitable dollars. So thank you guys for listening, watching, sharing and keep doing it, because every time you watch, listen or share, you are helping us make a difference for the next generation of professionals in North Carolina. Done with the admin. Good stuff, Charitable stuff. Victor, my man, what is going on?

Victor Cannon:

Another beautiful day in paradise. Mr Mario P Fields, I like that name.

Mario P. Fields:

Hey, I like Victor Cannon, baby, I like that he's out in SoCal chilling, baby, you know what I mean. Can you bless our listeners and viewers with telling them a little bit about yourself, my friend?

Victor Cannon:

Well, I'm a proud husband, a happy husband, a very loving husband with a loving wife. I met my wife in high school. We've been together 40-something years. We've been married. 40 years We've been in high school, so I think we've known each other 48 years. I have two children. I'm very proud of my children. My daughter is running the NRG Center in Texas and my son is killing it. He wants to buy me a house Texas and my son is killing it. He wants to buy me a house. I don't want to take it. So I'm going to take it. Yes, and I've been in business. I'm an entertainer.

Victor Cannon:

I started in ministry. I was pursuing ministry for a while and I was in Bible college and it was a dare to go to be an entertainer and I was like I don't want to do that, I want to levitate. So during that time I was running Sound for Church and I saw a need for a recording studio. So sitting in Bible college, the opportunity came up for me to be an entertainer, take that money and put it into the ministry as far as the sound ministry and build a recording studio for Christian artists needed to build something, for I guess you can say God's kingdom, I guess because I was.

Victor Cannon:

I saw a lot of talented people in our church and they had no way of recording what they were doing, so money was only needed to facilitate the project. It wasn't it had anything to do with anything else. So, like I told you when I first met you, I didn't it had anything to do with anything else. So, like I told you when I first met you, I didn't start this for the money. I started for to help people who couldn't, who didn't have the means to pay for recording services. That's very expensive.

Victor Cannon:

So I found out, mario, when I pursued it how much this stuff costs and I'm like, wait a minute. I'm like maybe I should DJ for another couple of years to see how this works out before I start recording. So it kind of spun off and I found out that my calling was people. Yeah, and I love people. So I was still working in corporate America and then this came up and I jumped on it and I was trying not to be as religious, but it's starting to come out of me, mario. I've been hanging out with this men's group on Thursday mornings and that preacher stuff is starting to come out again. I've been fighting for years, but but it looks like it's coming back.

Mario P. Fields:

But anyway, you, you know the deal, man, it's probably, uh, you're probably a best fit as a clergy. You know what I mean. If you're looking at, uh, probably, you know, not had the chance to get to talk to you. You know it's probably in your dna, but you, it's probably in your DNA. But you know it's funny, though. You mentioned it, if I may. You mentioned the word money and if you guys didn't catch it, you know he said hey, I believed, I had a belief that I could do this to help people, but then I realized it was super expensive. A lot of times I've heard people say don't chase the money, like don't do it for the money, do it for everything, but the money. I've never heard. My basic understanding, victor, is when you chose that mindset, it was a little painful what happened.

Victor Cannon:

Well, I had a corporate job making really good money. So this was not for the money, it was just to help people. Well, I realized that it took more of my time than my corporate job. So I had to make a decision that I want to pursue this career or that I want to stay where I was and not be happy. Or did I want to stay where I was and not be happy? Because when I got exposed to this world I saw the church got bigger. So a little back story I was an elder in the church and the entertainment was not even in my peer purview. Is that the word? Yes, it wasn't. I didn't see it. It wasn't something I wanted to do. But I love music. But then I was low-key saying I didn't like it. But I really do love music. I tell people I like music, I really do.

Mario P. Fields:

So you've been doing it because you've been doing it for how many years now this?

Victor Cannon:

is our 30th year in business yeah, everyone, everyone, 30 years.

Mario P. Fields:

I think Victor loves it. Yeah, I think so too.

Victor Cannon:

Yeah, I'll tell you one thing about what I do, mario, is I'm able to be a part of someone's life, in a very significant part in their life, and to be trusted with that. You have to take the money aspect of it and put it aside and focus on your subjects. So if you go into my world the DJ world let's go and use DJ to entertainment and you focus on the money, you're going to miss a tremendous blessing because there's emotion and we're celebrating love.

Mario P. Fields:

So to be a part of that is pretty, pretty big.

Victor Cannon:

So if you go there with the wrong mindset, you'll take somebody's life and something they've been working on forever. Most women dream about that day since when they were little, and I get an opportunity to be a part of that day. So when you have that opportunity, you can focus on monetary things. You have to really focus on the task at hand. The money came, boy, did it come for a while, and then, after lockdown, it just climbed.

Mario P. Fields:

Ladies and gentlemen, this is flight 165. I'm your pilot, Money and we're flying out of here.

Victor Cannon:

Yes, we flew out and I was chasing it down the runway, Michael Come back, come back, victor, would you say.

Mario P. Fields:

seatbelt signs are all beverages for being served. Here comes the pandemic. Ladies and gentlemen, we have turbulence. No more ginger ale.

Victor Cannon:

Yes, no more ginger ale, no more ice, no more cups, no more, nothing. Right, I'm sitting here. During that time I was able to reflect on my career the first time in my. At that time I had to be in the 20s because it had been a couple of years ago. I never had a day off. I had days off, but I was always working. My wife's a teacher, so our life is about people, right. So she teaches little ones and I entertain them after they got a guy person and that's when I get them. So we kind of have this thing. All my family, my wife and my two kids, we all have people business. Yeah, so we, we have been blessed with the gift of patience and the love of people. So that's my wife said the other day. She says when we chill, we chill hard because we just want to be quiet and sometimes you need that downtime. You know I do a lot of motion, a lot of motion, so but that's, that's, that's.

Mario P. Fields:

Yeah, yeah. And you know, victor, when you left that corporate job and some folks either close to you or not, when you made the decision to go hey, I'm going to leave this job and I'm assuming it was paying pretty good and you made the decision to go, I'm going to leave this corporate executive whatever job to go do this in the entertainment industry. Did you have any people look at you like that is awesome. Or did you have people go? What the hell are you doing Me?

Victor Cannon:

Me, including my mom, and my family.

Victor Cannon:

They're confused because, look it, I worked in the trash industry when I got from Marine Corps. I was in motor transport motor team, so I wanted to pick something that had longevity. So I went for trash food and waste like human waste, right, I figured those three things will never die. And I dropped the phone book and the trash company popped up. Really, what happened? I called the number. They told me to come down. I got hired the same day. So from that point on I was in that. But again it was mario. It was, it was. It wasn't still like, okay, I'm going off on a tangent, I still wasn't happy yeah, that like you weren't doing.

Mario P. Fields:

Like you, you said meaningful stuff, you know you were making money, but like you said, victor, we talked, you weren't going home, going man, I don't feel accomplished.

Victor Cannon:

No, I mean I had a job. I had a family to take care of, yeah, and it was important to me to make sure my family was well fed and that job provided that for me and my family and we did very well as a result of that. But inside I still wasn't content. I was content at home, but when I went to work I did it because in Marine Corps you're trained to take that hill and keep going.

Mario P. Fields:

Right.

Victor Cannon:

You know, just accomplish the mission. And I was again very tenacious. I got in a lot of trouble because you know how Marines are. We want it done, I want it done now, and civilians didn't see it that way, so initially it was a transition for me, you know again money was necessary, but it wasn't it still didn't fulfill me.

Victor Cannon:

I needed something to fulfill me, and that went on for almost 20 years before I even found this, and before it found me, because I wasn't looking for it. It had to be ordained by God for me to do this, because this was not my choice. This was my choice.

Mario P. Fields:

Well, they normally say you have your plans and then God has his plans, and normally they don't line up, they don't, they didn't.

Victor Cannon:

They didn't. But because of how I went into it not looking for something to replace something. I had. It kind of did it anyway because I was looking to replace my job initially. What happened? Trash got in the way Because the business took off. Now, when you mentioned about the fear, I married a very smart woman. I mean I married her. My family hates when I say that, but I really did marry her.

Victor Cannon:

Here's the thing she made me do a business plan save every penny we made from the trash company and lived off the business for one year, wow. So when I left I had a little bit, not a lot, because we didn't save it all.

Victor Cannon:

We tried our best, you know because we still had two kids and a busy family, so we had a little money tucked away. So when I left it wasn't like some people quit something and go into coal. I had an office. It took me seven years to leave after I made the decision to leave. So again, I got a smart wife. So we just leave today. What are we going to have Bene benefits? No, this or that, no, this. So I had to put all that in place before I made the transition. I gave three week notice and went to work one day.

Victor Cannon:

I planned for seven years for this, for this moment wow, so they didn't need anymore, because everything was done when I noticed I was going to my office every day and I was doing can-do my company is Can-Do Productions, by the way, and Can-Do my dad would always tell me. Growing up in Chicago, I grew up in Chicago. He says cannons, can-do and I hated it growing up because every time he said that that means he had to do something, that means there was a task. Following that statement.

Mario P. Fields:

I'm looking outside. We got a good snowfall. Cold front came out of Canada, so you know cannons can do, so you can get outside and shovel.

Mario P. Fields:

You can't do snow 's why I left chicago what you know and everyone, if you guys haven't caught it. I mean, you know the, the, the, the emotions of fear. You know the folks in your network going. What are you doing? And here you have victor. What are you doing? And here you have Victor taking seven years, not not one year, not seven months and then the power of your lovely bride and the power of your network to not allow you to be paralyzed by your emotions and to follow your passion. You know, whatever that may be and it may not be what you believe, you know, victor, you are doing amazing things. You know how I always do. I could talk to every single 120 plus guests forever, but you guys know what to do. I don't ever want to be in a way of wonderful humans that are doing great things for mankind. Looking back, victor, looking back on what you shared with us, on on how you didn't chase the money, even though it was painful, but you did not chase the money, you chased the impact on people. If you could do anything different or give anyone a piece of advice matter of fact, let me change it If you could tell yourself, give yourself a piece of advice. Looking back, what would you tell yourself to do differently, if differently.

Victor Cannon:

Nothing, nothing. I'll tell you why. Because everything that happened, even to this day, happened for a reason. It wasn't by chance, it wasn't anything I forced. And if I tried to force it, okay, here's my rule of thumb when I run roadies or helpers if you have to force it, it's not right, it doesn't fit. If you have to pull a cable out and you have to struggle with it, ball out and you have to struggle with it, it's wrong.

Mario P. Fields:

So anything in life if it's a struggle nine times out of 10, there's a reason.

Victor Cannon:

So I'm kind of I pay attention. Sometimes I miss it, but when it's you know, I kind of like wait a minute. Example I went to the store yesterday and there was a guy in the parking lot. He looked shady.

Victor Cannon:

I have a van that has my name wrapped around it. So I said, let me try this and go to a different aisle and see where he followed my van. So I said, hmm, young me would have just parked and got off the van, like 61-year-old me says wait a minute, this is shady. My point is there's flags all the time, we just have to pay attention to them. To another store some told me I have to go in that store so I didn't go, you know so yeah, I try to go through life like that and not push too hard, because when you do it always comes back.

Victor Cannon:

It's like I play racquetball for many years. You hit that racquetball and you hit it into the wall. It comes back fast and if you're not careful it hits you in the face. That's the same way, life's the same way. You have to hit that ball hard and make sure you hit it where it's not gonna come back and hit you. I love it. I've been running this, this journey like that, with my lovely bride and we we're best friends. We're only two friends we have in the world sometimes and for all the time. To me, because you know, that's ask me how do you stay married for 40 years?

Mario P. Fields:

she. She's the commanding general.

Victor Cannon:

You're just the private. I don't want to argue with her. I don't want to cause Mario. That's my best friend.

Mario P. Fields:

Yeah.

Victor Cannon:

If I piss her off, who would I have to talk to?

Mario P. Fields:

me, so I'm just joking and we haven't talked.

Victor Cannon:

No sidebar. Love your work, man. I've been following mario guys for a minute. I made my first youtube comment to mario p phil's. I'm a youtube junkie and I never made a comment. And I looked at one of your posts and I'm like, oh man, I gotta say something. And when I realized I did, I I said this is the first time I've ever made a comment on youtube since I've been watching it and he actually did that everyone, by the way.

Mario P. Fields:

So I appreciate it. But but you guys heard, victor, you and again, wonderful, wonderful advice life will happen. Every, every experience is a learning experience. Like, like Victor said, I wouldn't change it, I love it. I wouldn't change a thing. Every experience is for a reason and, like they say, if it takes like you know I'm going to paraphrase a little bit, victor If it takes a Philip head screwdriver and you got a hammer, it might be a reason why you're struggling. But, victor, before I let you go and continue to inspire folks out in SoCal and around the world, how can people get on your website, like, how can they find you so they can check out some of your productions, man?

Victor Cannon:

My website is candodjcom. Can do C-A-N-D-O-D-J dot com and just check me out. I do a lot of weddings. I celebrate love for a living. That's what I do, no matter if I do a backyard boogie, a corporate event, no matter what it is. My job is to, one, bring the thunder and, second, bring a separate atmosphere where everybody is enjoying the fun. So when I leave, it's like when I cut the music off. I want to feel like you've been on a drug for the time I've been working and I'm just dropping you off. You're like you know that's how hard I, that's how much work I put into what I do. I pray for everything. If I'm just going for a birthday party, I'm going to call you and say let's do this. If you don't give me nothing, I'm going to walk around to every person. Hello, my name is Victor. What can I play for you? Because now we're we're we're engaged.

Victor Cannon:

Yeah, life is about making relationships and, and, to me, loving people, and I never met a person I didn't know. I'm going to have to tell you. I go places, look for people I know. We're going to a store we've never been in. I said somebody here I know, or, if not, I'm going to make myself. You know that's what I was. You're gonna say then, even if you don't know if you're gonna make a friend by the time, you leave, I'm gonna make a friend, because you know you can see somebody on the street, mario and I can feel something.

Victor Cannon:

They need a hug. They'll never need a physical hug. At least give me to say hey, you know how you doing, how you feeling today. Yeah, you know, or?

Mario P. Fields:

they ask me how you doing. I say I'm feeling pretty sexy.

Victor Cannon:

You smile, see, and you smile. So now I get you. So now you're gonna say something back and when we leave, you're gonna leave different. That's what I said, what I do. Money came, but it wasn't for money. I wanted to love God's people. I need a venue or avenue to do that, where.

Victor Cannon:

I was it was too small. It wasn't enough people for me to love, Because after those 200 people, okay who's left? I saw you last week. I need somebody else to love. So God put this in my lap, Can Do Productions, and it's been a beautiful ride, dude.

Mario P. Fields:

Yeah, and I've been on the website everybody candodjcom and it's just a pleasure enjoy meeting someone who just has and I can see it, I can feel it through the virtual platform that has a passion for helping people. I believe we have more folks like you, victor, that had a passion for helping people through their talents and gifts. Again, the world would be a little bit better. I don't know what that means, but I'll define work on it over the next year. You know what I mean. But that's.

Victor Cannon:

That's beautiful man. I you're a good dude. I love your work. I have not let you keep me off this thing and I'll tell you how good you are at your work. I've been looking at your interview. I like your rhythm, I like everything I didn't prep today.

Mario P. Fields:

I usually prep for everything.

Victor Cannon:

I had some notes here.

Mario P. Fields:

Look I, I had notes and I didn't look down at all. I said to myself.

Victor Cannon:

I got to say one more thing. I'm always nervous before an event. Anybody that knows me knows and I'm like sometimes I throw up, I get sick. My wife is like you do the same thing every weekend for 30 years and you act like a insert adjective every weekend. Right, you know? And what it is to me. This is a big deal to somebody. People come from all over to celebrate this couple.

Victor Cannon:

80% of it relies on me. If I hit a wrong song, if I do something bad on me, if I hit a wrong song, if I do something bad, the love turns into. It turns a little different. So now I make sure that I make sure, I make sure, sure that all the I's are dotted, t's are crossed, so when I fire up in any event, it's going to be flawless. My goal is to be flawless every time. That's pressure, that's a lot of stress, but it's worth it because at the end I don't chase you Again. I'm not chasing you. I go out my door, you go out your door. You have to chase me and say thank you, because to me, when I play that last song and nobody's throwing anything at me, I did a good job. No one ever threw anything at me.

Victor Cannon:

So I don't need you to pat me on the head.

Mario P. Fields:

Well, I will say, after watching, you know, going on your website and getting to know you and watching your productions, if someone threw anything at you it would probably be a $100 bill, my friend, but everybody, and this is a nice video, but you know everyone. Thank you again for tuning in if you're listening or viewing, and I truly appreciate everyone. But, victor, you know I love talking to you but I do not want to go to jail for stealing time from folks. So, with that said, please, and we'll talk off air. But everybody, again, victor Cannon, check out his website. It'll be in the show notes Again.

Mario P. Fields:

Passion for people. Whatever your passion is, think through it, use your network, think through it, use your network, but follow, even though it you may not believe. That's what you really want to do. Follow. It took victor set years and look what he's doing now, including inspiring mario p fields. I'll see you guys in a couple weeks or you can hear me. Until then, you guys know the deal. God bless you all. God bless your friends, your family members and anything that any living being in between. We'll see you soon. Take care, victor, take care Mario. Thank you for listening to this most recent episode and remember you can listen and watch all of the previous episodes on my YouTube channel. The previous episodes on my YouTube channel. The best way to connect to me and all of my social media is follow me on the parade deck that is wwwparadecom, or you can click on the link in the show notes. I'll see you guys soon.

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