MEET GREG CANNON
Whose definition of success have you been working toward?
For more than four decades, Greg Cannon built businesses, developed people, and pursued the milestones he believed defined success.
Then he reached them.
And discovered they weren't the whole story.
The Rest of the Story
Greg began his career in funeral service in 1978, at eighteen years old, living in an apartment at the funeral home where he worked because he did not own a car to get anywhere else.
Over the next four decades, he built Cannon Cleveland Funeral Directors, Southern Crescent Crematorium, and Companion Care Cremation Services. In October 2021, he sold all three.
By every measure he had spent his life pursuing, he had succeeded.
But sitting in that conference room after the sale, Greg felt something he had not expected.
Empty.
What Greg discovered was that success and significance are not the same thing.
The businesses, the accomplishments, and the milestones mattered. But they were never supposed to be the destination.
The deeper story was about the people he had developed, the lives he had influenced, the lessons he had learned, and what he could do with all of it next.
That realization changed the direction of his life.
Today, Greg uses more than four decades of leadership, business ownership, and real-world experience to help others examine the way they lead, the way they define success, and the legacy they are building along the way.
SPEAKER. AUTHOR.
LEADERSHIP DEVELOPER. STORYTELLER.
Greg is a Maxwell Leadership Certified Team Member and a graduate of Mikki Williams Speakers School. He has spoken for the National Funeral Directors Association and state and regional associations across the country.
Through AG Associates and OwlVision, Greg provides keynote programs, professional education, leadership development, and experiences designed to help people challenge old assumptions and see new possibilities.
He is also the author of multiple books, including Cultivate Your Ideal Life, The Twelve-Year-Old Boy, The Empty Chair, Breaking the Silence, and The Gears of Leadership.
His writing, like his speaking, draws from a lifetime of experiences, and the lessons found in ordinary moments that often turn out not to be ordinary at all.
Greg lives in Toccoa, Georgia, where there has almost always been a Labrador retriever in the house.