Brent Brown: A natural in sales.

• Author: Haraldsen, Tom
• Position: Around Utah: Spotlight

He never intended to be the owner of a car dealership, much less one of the nation's best. But for Brent Brown, who's been nominated for the 2018 TIME Dealer of the Year award, it's just the latest in a long list of accolades that Brent Brown Toyota in Orem has earned.

In March, Brown was named one of four national finalists for TIME Dealer of the Year, a prestigious national award for auto dealers who stand out in their community. The award is presented by TIME in partnership with Ally Financial, and Brown was selected from a pool of 47 dealer nominees across the country. There are 16,500 automobile dealers nationwide.

"I never guessed that in my career, I'd receive an honor like this," the native of Cottonwood Heights says. "It's very much a tribute to our entire great team we have at the dealership."

Brown, 58, graduated from Brighton High in 1977, but by his own admission, "Just barely. I was so focused on being a musician as a teen." He was lead singer/guitarist for a rock band called Road Works. In the mid-70s, they were the hottest local band in Utah. Road Works opened for several national acts, including ZZ Top at the Salt Palace when Brown was just 17.

"I was living my dream as a kid--rock-and-roll, but my first life lesson came after that performance with ZZ Top. The reviewer for The Salt Lake Tribune said we were good but not distinctive.' I decided at that moment that I'd never not be distinctive," says Brown.

Two years later, Brown made a critical life decision. He shifted his priorities completely, giving up the rock band and deciding to go on an LDS mission. "I looked at where my lifestyle in music could take me, then realized it was time to make a change. I decided to go all in."

His two-year stint in England took him, ironically, to the hometown of the Beatles. "We knocked on doors of people who knew them personally." By the time his mission ended, he'd served as an assistant to the mission president, Ellis Ivory (founder of Ivory...