Former NFL long snapper turned magician and motivational speaker Jon Dorenbos has an incredible story that’s filled with unbelievable peaks and valleys. Fresh off of the PrimeTime Main Stage, Dorenbos sat down to dive deeper into his past, how magic saved his life, and the tools he uses to maintain his positive perspective on life.

Interested in learning more about Jon’s incredible journey? Check out his book Life is Magic.

---

 

Rob Stott: All right, we are back on the Independent Thinking Podcast, and it’s cliche for me to say I’ve peaked in podcast form, but this might be… I’m living a dream in real life right now, so this is pretty fantastic. Jon Dorenbos here with us at Nationwide Marketing Group’s primetime event in Las Vegas. And just coming off of a keynote on stage in front of our members, a couple thousand of our closest friends, former Philadelphia Eagle, current magician and incredible speaker, I have to say. Appreciate you joining us for the podcast. This is-

Jon Dorenbos: Rock On. Hey, let me tell you. So we met over a Zoom-

Rob Stott: We did.

Jon Dorenbos: … and I was genuinely excited to do this. So first of all, you, everybody in that room, it’s just great people. It’s amazing. You just want to be around good people, good energy, and usually, good things happen. So thank you for having me.

Rob Stott: Yeah, we try to bring it and you certainly did on that stage.

Jon Dorenbos: Well, plus we did have a deal. I was like, look, because he uses this for Zooms, this microphone, so his audio is like, it’s not even comparable to everybody else on these calls, right? So I was like, “Look, I’ll do your podcast, but whatever you’re talking into right now, you got to bring too, because that is crushing it.”

Rob Stott: Listen, you got to act the part. Just act as if and then someday it’ll happen for me.

Jon Dorenbos: Look good, feel good, play good. Let’s go.

Rob Stott: Let’s do it. All right, so this is actually not your first time in front of this group, in essence, right? You’ve done the FEI show a few months ago, I want to say.

Jon Dorenbos: I think it was a couple years ago.

Rob Stott: Oh wow, okay.

Jon Dorenbos: Yeah, I think it was-

Rob Stott: So it’s been a bit, but so FEI and now Nationwide Marketing Group. What’s it like to be back in front of this audience of independent dealers? What’s the vibe you get from them?

Jon Dorenbos: Anytime you’re in front of independent dealers, family-owned businesses, entrepreneurs, there’s just a spirit, that it’s unexplainable unless you live it, see it, feel it, hear it, and you’re around it. The people are inspiring, the energy’s inspiring, their visions are inspiring, and most of these people, they do things differently, and that’s what makes them cool and special and different. So anytime you can get on a stage and hold a crowd and hold their attention, knowing that that’s the group of people, and you can call them alphas, they’re independent thinkers, they’re independent go-getters, and if they don’t show up, they don’t eat. And so these are driven people, these are dedicated people, resilient people. And so when you can get in front of a group and inspire that group, it’s a cool thing. And for me, I look around the crowd and the game within the game. It doesn’t matter if it’s 500 people, 10,000, I look at phones. And so as I’m talking and performing-

Rob Stott: Who’s on it?

Jon Dorenbos: … I don’t want to see a phone. The only phones I’ll see are like a CEO or an event planner because there’s just a lot going on. Other than that, my goal is to keep every phone away. And so it’s cool when you can do that.

Rob Stott: Looking around the room, I didn’t see many today.

Jon Dorenbos: I didn’t see many.

Rob Stott: No.

Jon Dorenbos: It was pretty cool.

Rob Stott: It was good stuff. You had it pretty captivated. And there’s a word you mentioned in there, resilient. I know it’s a big theme we’ve talked about at Nationwide Marketing Group over the last year. It’s been a very challenging year economically from a retail perspective, just in general. So the connection between your story and theirs, what they’ve gone through, it’s one that I was really looking forward to seeing because I know part of it, Philly fanboy, know everything about what’s going on there, but to have that story be told to them, for those that weren’t here that didn’t experience it, how would you explain the connection between your story and just the resilient nature of these dealers?

Jon Dorenbos: So when people want me to speak and we have these calls, I’m very clear that I’m not an industry speaker. I’m not going to go up there and talk about the markets and the individual businesses that people have and how the market affects their business. I am a life person. I’ve been through a lot in my life. I think I’ve overcome some things, but more importantly, I’m happy. I’m the happiest dude I’ve ever met. And so for me, it doesn’t matter what business you’re in, is that if you’re at peace within yourself, if you’re at peace at home, if you can find happiness, if you can have moments in time not define who you are, rather refine who you are, when bad things can happen, can you take those and find motivation in defeat? Can you choose to live in vision, not in circumstance? Can you choose to not make excuses?

When you do all these things, that is a message of life. And to me, if you can take these things, like for me, come to terms of your reality, find forgiveness, and when that happens, a piece of your soul opens that you see hope and happiness. And that’s the direction you go. So when you can take all these things, that’s going to hopefully impact your life, not just professionally, but personally.

Rob Stott: How do you get there? Because that’s an incredible message that you delivered on that stage. It’s not something that happens overnight. So talk about you personally, what do you do to keep that mindset or develop that mindset?

Jon Dorenbos: So it started when I was younger and I walked into an unfortunate situation where… I love both my parents. We lived in The Brady Bunch family, and my dad murdered my mom. He went to prison. My sister and I went into temporary foster care for about 10 months, went through really intense therapy, and then my aunt, who was my mom’s sister, ended up adopting my sister and I and got custody. The therapy for me changed my life. And I think what it did is it taught me… I wish I could remember what I said, but I remember a moment where my therapist said something and my answer was, “I knew it was jacked up. I knew it was wrong. I knew it was spiteful. I knew it was just wrong.” I forgot what I said, but I shouldn’t have said it. And I remember the moment I looked up and he didn’t care. And he goes, “Good for you.” And I was like, “Wait, what?”

Rob Stott: Right.

Jon Dorenbos: I thought I was going to get backhanded. He goes, “If that’s how you feel, good for you.” He goes, Jon, I’m not here to judge you. I don’t care what your thoughts are, I just want to get you to understand them, to feel them, and then to express them and say them, whatever it is, there’s no wrong answer in this room. And I just was like, “Wow.” It was like at the aha moment, right?

Rob Stott: Yeah.

Jon Dorenbos: I learned at a young age the power of manifestation. I’m a firm believer. I’ve manifested my life. I think if there’s any regret I have, I didn’t aim high enough, because I got to where I wanted to get to, all up into the house I live in right now. Dude, when I was 13 years old, I moved in with my aunt and they were like, “Hey, go down that street. 30 minutes, you’ll hit the beach.” Well, that was a 30-minute car ride. So I remember it was a weekend Saturday. I get on my bike, I pedal like four hours. I get down to Huntington Beach, California cruising around, these gates open. And I was like, “Oh, what is this world?” I went by this house for like 20 years, and as I was older, I would sneak in, hop the fence, the gate would open, cruise in. As I got older, I would find my way. My wife and I live in that house.

Rob Stott: That’s incredible.

Jon Dorenbos: Here’s my advice. If you don’t believe it and you don’t think it, then why should the world? And I believe this too, if you give up on yourself, don’t be shocked when the world gives up on you too. Now, just because things aren’t going your way, but if you show up, you believe in yourself, you believe in what you’re doing, you can manifest it, you see it, and you’re going somewhere, and you keep that attitude, the world is going to find a way to just keep you afloat.

Rob Stott: Speak it into existence.

Jon Dorenbos: It is.

Rob Stott: Make it happen.

Jon Dorenbos: Intentional living. I believe it. So it’s the old quote of the person that said, “I can’t,” the person that said, “I can,” they’re both right. So instead of getting down on yourself, instead of thinking negative thoughts and believing it, just try to constantly think of something else positive and just give it time and just do it for a period of time. And pretty soon, you believe it.

Rob Stott: Is this something you continue to work on every day?

Jon Dorenbos: Oh, every day. It’s funny because when people train their dog, they’re like, “Oh, I go out for an hour to train my dog.” No, no, no, no. It’s a lifestyle. Everywhere you go, you’re placing them, you’re sitting them. It’s just a lifestyle. So I believe that the way I think and the way I act and the way I do things, it’s not like you sit down and just, I’m going to… For an hour.

Rob Stott: It’s not a three-week training camp before the season, right?

Jon Dorenbos: No. It’s a lifestyle. It’s a lifestyle of believing that happiness is not an emotion, happiness is a decision.

Rob Stott: Oh, that’s incredible.

Jon Dorenbos: So make the decision. Amazing quote. Well, I was listening to a Robert Downey Jr. Oprah Winfrey, and it was going around social and it was about when he got sober, and this is powerful Oprah’s like, “Was it hard?” And he was like, “No.” She’s like, “Stop. Was it hard to get sober?” And he was like, “No, making the decision was the hard part.”

Rob Stott: Yeah. Coming to grips with it mentally.

Jon Dorenbos: Once I made the decision, it was easy. We have to get out of our own way sometimes. Sometimes, we’re our own worst enemy. So make the decision and the rest will fall.

Rob Stott: Yeah, your positive can-do attitude is so infectious. I love it, first of all. What I also noticed watching you deliver the keynote is that anyone that doesn’t know you from your football career, the America’s Got Talent. It felt like a series of that connected into a 45-minute America’s Got Talent presentation, which was pretty cool.

Jon Dorenbos: So my three influences for my presentation were Carrot Top, Mike Tyson, Garth Brooks. So Carrot Top-

Rob Stott: That runs the gamut.

Jon Dorenbos: That’s it. So if you’ve never seen Carrot Top, his name’s Scott. He’s the nicest dude in the world. His show’s phenomenal. His use of little soundbites to keep an… It’s phenomenal, it’s brilliant. So if I am shuffling cards at a table, when I stand up, all of a sudden, you hear (singing). Brilliant. Mike Tyson, if you’ve never seen his one man show, he’s self-deprecating. He’s funny. So Brad Pitt can’t tell ugly jokes. It’s not funny.

Rob Stott: No one’s going to believe it. They know.

Jon Dorenbos: So know who you are, know your audience and be self-deprecating. And then Garth Brooks, if you’ve never seen him live, you don’t have to be a country fan, there’s nowhere else he wants to be. He’s there for you, make the audience feel that way. So it’s my life story and the magic one along the way.

Rob Stott: Now I love too, you have a phenomenal sort of origin story with magic to share that.

Jon Dorenbos: Well, so I got adopted by my aunt, Susan, and I moved down to Southern California, and I saw this kid do a trick, blew my mind. He bought me the trick. And then my aunt’s friend, ex-boyfriend was a magician and owned a magic shop. And so what happened was she called her friend and was like, “You need to call Ken.” And she’s like, “I’m not with Ken anymore.” She’s like, you need to call Ken. She’s like, “Okay, I’ll call Ken.” So he kind of became a mentor. And then I saw this guy Bill Malone on TV and he was shuffling cards and he did a trick called Sam the Bellhop, where you take a deck of cards, shuffle, tell a story. But the idea of shuffling, that’s kind of what took it to a different level for me.

And for me, it wasn’t about being a magician, but I could sit at a table, I could shuffle cards. The sound of the riffle, the world quieted. And it’s funny, so if you’re into music, your instrument never lies, and you’re going to have this love affair with a guitar or piano for the rest of your life. If you shuffle cards, it’s the same thing. And if I need to make a decision in life, I sit down, I shuffle. Could be 10 minutes, could be all night. But when I stand up, the cards didn’t lie to me. I know the decision that needs to be made, I know what I did right or wrong, and I know where I’m going. That’s cool.

Rob Stott: The mindset thing, I think… So I get to coach wrestling for a local high school, and we do a lot of mindset training. It sounds a lot like that. You think about the routines that someone goes through. First thing that pops in my head as a baseball player, you see they don’t have as much time these days with the pitch clock and everything. But the guys that would step out of the box kind of reset themselves, check the gloves, adjust whatever they need to do, adjust just to get themselves in that zone again.

Jon Dorenbos: Get in the zone baby.

Rob Stott: It’s the same sort of practice for you.

Jon Dorenbos: Yeah, I love the idea. So that might be where I had successes along snappers. I love the idea of doing something over and over and over in search of the perfect rep that you’ll probably never hit. But the idea of just, I always say this and I almost feel bad saying this, but I’m very thankful for our service members, the military and the sacrifice they make. But if I had gone into the service, if there was a draft or if my life went that direction, I think I probably would’ve gone to be a sniper because just that anal retentiveness, if you will, just sit there for four days until the perfect opportunity. I like that.

Rob Stott: Yeah, no, that’s incredible. I want to talk about the NFL career, because it’s one that I have the chance right now. I’m able to do it. You’re in front of a microphone with me, right?

Jon Dorenbos: Yeah.

Rob Stott: Did you know you were going to be a long snapper?

Jon Dorenbos: No.

Rob Stott: What’s the origin story there?

Jon Dorenbos: So this is a great story. So I thought I was a great high school player. I snapped my senior year in high school. I long snapped, because I was the only one that could do it. And I was good enough. I then go to a junior. I didn’t get any scholarships. So I go to a junior college that was 0 in 30, they’d lost 30 games in a row. So I went there, we lost another 10, 0 in 40. My best friend that I went to high school with was at University of Texas, El Paso. And they needed a long snapper. I hadn’t done it in a while.

So I took my highlights and I took the highlights of our snapper in junior college who was better then than I ever was. And I put those on my tape. And as long as we’re all white guys-

Rob Stott: That’s great.

Jon Dorenbos: No HD, one camera. Here’s the deal. It’s my story. It happened. It is what it is. So I sent the film, they vetted it, and I knew I was good enough, but I definitely wasn’t good. And so they offered me a full ride and I was like, “Holy cow, we’re doing this.” And so I went there and I snapped at UTEP for three years. And then I did 14 years in the league. And I will say this, I don’t promote lying even though I fudged a little bit. I knew I could do it.

Rob Stott: Was his number at least close to yours?

Jon Dorenbos: No, he was 88. I was 47. I was 6’4″, he’s 6’6″.

Rob Stott: They didn’t look close enough at this tape?

Jon Dorenbos: No, I cut it as soon as he stood up. But I do think this, don’t lie, but for me it’s believe in yourself more than anybody will ever believe in you, and show up to show the world and the people around you that you do deserve to be there.

Rob Stott: There’s something to be said too about early career. It was a couple one year stints before you land with the Eagles and go on and have an 11-year career there. So fighting, that’s adversity, I have to imagine, a team that you get there for a year, you think you’re solidified as a starter and lo and behold, you’re onto the next team.

Jon Dorenbos: Yeah, I learned in the NFL, every roster changes so much. I think as I progressed in the NFL, I really learned, come to terms with why you were fired, because sometimes it has nothing to do with how good you are. It could be a salary cap issue. It could be we got a new head coach and he was with a snapper for 10 years and that snappers up and he’s going to take him. There’s so many reasons that you could not be the right fit at the right time, that if you let that affect your confidence, that it’s not a good thing. But if you’re not good, look in the mirror and say you weren’t good enough.

Rob Stott: What do I got to do to be better?

Jon Dorenbos: And get better.

Rob Stott: Yep, exactly.

Jon Dorenbos: So just be truthful about yourself. Understand that there’s reasons why you can get fired or cut that have nothing to do with your production. Just move on. And the other thing, this was a valuable lesson for me, I actually don’t want to be anywhere that I’m not wanted. I don’t care who you are, I don’t care what the situation is, I don’t care who you think you are, I’m good. I don’t need to beg anybody to ever hang out with me. I’d rather either go… Because being alone ain’t being lonely. Two different things. And I’ll go find a group of people that want to hang with me.

Rob Stott: What worked in Philly? What do you think made it a situation that resulted in an 11-year career?

Jon Dorenbos: Great story. So I’m on the street, which means I didn’t have a job. Mike Bartrum had a career-ending neck injury. So Bob Stoll was the athletic director at UTEP. He gave Andy Reid his first coaching job at UTEP.

Rob Stott: Wow.

Jon Dorenbos: I went to UTEP, that was my athletic director. He called Andy Reid and says, “Andy, you’re not going to believe this, but we got a guy, he has a few years in the league, but your locker room will I love him.”

Rob Stott: Did he send the same tape you sent him?

Jon Dorenbos: Yeah, right? But this gets good. So now Philly calls, Andy calls me, I walk out to work out for the team, and there’s a guy named Adam Johnson. It was at University of Buffalo. I was with the Bills and I would go work and help Adam as a snapper. And I remember looking at him going, I can’t lose to-

Rob Stott: This guy.

Jon Dorenbos: What is it? A protege? I can’t lose to my apprentice. This doesn’t work, right?

Rob Stott: No.

Jon Dorenbos: So long story short, we work out. Jon Condo was there. He ended up playing 14 years for the Raiders. As I walked off the field, I didn’t know if I got the job or not, Andy Reid came out and he said, “Bob Stoll said you’re my guy.”

Rob Stott: That’s incredible.

Jon Dorenbos: And he just looked at me and he goes, “Welcome to the team.” And I was like-

Rob Stott: Holy crap.

Jon Dorenbos: He goes, “You want to work out? Work out. You want to run, run. If you don’t, don’t. But if it’s not there on Sunday, you’re fired.” And I was like, “I’m in.” He goes, “Follow me.” So we go in, and I’ll never forget this, we had a defensive coordinator named Jim Johnson, legendary, legendary. And he was kind of like that, just tough, but kind-hearted love. Just everybody respected and loved him. Here’s what happens. He’s sitting at the table. So Andy looks at me and says, “Bob Stoll said you’re the magic guy and you could steal watches.” He goes, “You steal that watch right there. You’re going to have a good career here.” And he was pointing to Jim Johnson. So I walk over to Jim, “Jim, hey, what’s going on?” I do the pat, da, da, da, take the watch, hand it to Andy. Jim has no idea. And Andy just looked at me and goes, “You’re hired kid.”

Rob Stott: That’s incredible.

Jon Dorenbos: “You are hired.” And so we gave him the whole cafeteria. Everybody’s there. They’re like, “Oh my gosh.” And then word spread, right? “Dorenbos just took Jim Johnson’s watch.” But that was one of my first interactions. I think I made it in Philly, and I believe this, I wasn’t the best. I wasn’t the fastest. I wasn’t the strongest. But I truly believe in this little phrase I came up with, it’s be the one that’s always invited. So even when you’re not invited and you show up, you’re still invited.

So for me, what that meant is you got to be an energy and you got to be a person that the people around you want to see you succeed, because you ain’t going to do it by yourself. And so when I was off a little bit, or if I missed a little bit, they made excuses for me. And then we found out how to get better. But I think Andy saw me and said, “Hey, look, I know the range of how good and how bad, we’re going to execute in that range. He’ll never go outside that range. And I want to see this kid succeed.” And so yeah.

Rob Stott: Made an incredible impression on the city fan base, NFL.

Jon Dorenbos: Even when we signed Michael Vick and Andy’s like, “His locker’s next to you for a few,” I was like, “Dude, let’s go.”

Rob Stott: That’s incredible.

Jon Dorenbos: I was a locker room guy for sure.

Rob Stott: Culture hire.

Jon Dorenbos: Yeah, man. Hey, you know what? I’ll take it. Hey, whatever-

Rob Stott: It’s awesome. Whatever keeps you there.

Jon Dorenbos: So here’s another secret. This was another secret. I remember, I’m a long snapper, league minimums go up, salaries go up. So eventually, you get outpriced, right? And so three years, two games I think is the average, because at three years, three games, the pension kicks in. So they cut you right before they got to pay your pension. So I remember going, “Okay, I make money for the team here as a snapper, but over here, there’s all these advertisers and there’s all these donors, and it’s okay, how can I contribute here?” So I would go into that office and say, “Hey, look, all the events from our sponsors, I want to emcee them, perform at them. I’ll do anything.” So I made such a name that companies would call and request that Dorenbos hire. Well, all of a sudden when everybody’s sitting down, they’re like, “Okay, he’s making this over here. We could get a snapper cheaper, but”-

Rob Stott: All this stuff.

Jon Dorenbos: “We’re making hundreds of millions over here. And he’s a big force. He’s helping.”

Rob Stott: Your ROI just made sense.

Jon Dorenbos: Yeah. So now whether that’s the truth or not, that’s what I tell myself, but I learned that the more you can do and the more you can be wanted in different areas and needed, and fix problems in different areas, then probably the longer you’re going to stick around.

Rob Stott: A message I think all of our dealers can resonate with the many hats that they wear on a daily basis as independent business owners. But I’d be remiss too. One more question for you. The team this year, you look at the Eagles roster, I don’t care if you’re a Dallas fan watching, we got to ask it because I’m sitting here, what’s ’24 look like for those birds?

Jon Dorenbos: I think I’m super excited about Trotter, beyond.

Rob Stott: Yeah. Young Trotter. I had to watch him at St. Joe’s Prep.

Jon Dorenbos: He’s a beast.

Rob Stott: Yeah.

Jon Dorenbos: I got to play with his dad, Axe Man.

Rob Stott: Yeah, you did.

Jon Dorenbos: Which I don’t know if people know, it’s out there, but Jeremiah Trotter Snr was a teammate of mine and his wife passed away a year or two ago. And so to see Junior come up-

Rob Stott: His other kids too, right behind him.

Jon Dorenbos: All of them, they’re all stars

Rob Stott: It’s incredible.

Jon Dorenbos: And now he’s wearing his dad’s number.

Rob Stott: I know.

Jon Dorenbos: Trotter back in the middle. It’s just full circle, man.

Rob Stott: Feels right.

Jon Dorenbos: Yeah. So I think the additions that they added was Saquon Barkley. I think you added some big strengths on the defensive side. And look, no matter what, every year, your quarterback is going to get better. Your core positions, your tight ends, your receivers, everybody’s going to grow and get better. And if you can keep that core together for just a couple years, the difference in one year is insane. So I’m excited. I love Jalen. I’m a big fan, so I’m excited to see him come out this year.

Rob Stott: Yep. Healthy too.

Jon Dorenbos: Healthy.

Rob Stott: Hopefully. They never talked about it, but something was off last year.

Jon Dorenbos: Well, I think this is something that the fans don’t see. I don’t think anybody is ever healthy.

Rob Stott: It’s fair. That is a fair point.

Jon Dorenbos: And some people are like, they don’t even know the injuries that people play through. I remember Jon Runyan, legendary in the Eagles world, dude. He played with a half inch gap in a broken tailbone.

Rob Stott: Oh, man.

Jon Dorenbos: Think about-

Rob Stott: Yeah, that’s not small.

Jon Dorenbos: He couldn’t sit.

Rob Stott: No.

Jon Dorenbos: So we played San Fran, he stood up the whole way there, the whole way back. The dude didn’t take a rep out of practice. I’m going to tell you guys right now, I love football. I love playing. I love being a part of it. If I got a half inch gap in my tailbone, I’m going to shut it down on Tuesday, Wednesday, Thursday, Friday and Saturday.

Rob Stott: Sunday, do the thing.

Jon Dorenbos: Runyan, every rep in practice, he took. So I remember going up to him, I’m like, “Yo, dude, how are you doing this?” And Jon Runyan looked at me and said, “It’s easy. Just don’t fall.” His mentality was, “Don’t fall.”

Rob Stott: If you get knocked back… That’s incredible.

Jon Dorenbos: Drink a beer, punch them in the face, and let’s go. I’m like, holy. So yeah, I don’t think anybody’s really healthy, but coaches are great. A guy that I played college ball with is now a coach there, which was kind of cool. So I was with the team last week. I’m a Sirianni fan, so I think everybody was hoping Kelsey would come back.

Rob Stott: I know. Just one more.

Jon Dorenbos: But it’s probably smart he doesn’t. Right now, he’s transitioning, just crushing every aspect of life.

Rob Stott: Sunday, this will be new heights.

Jon Dorenbos: You know what I mean?

Rob Stott: You’re too good.

Jon Dorenbos: He’s an amazingly wonderful human being. One of my favorite people I’ve ever met. So I’m excited for the team.

Rob Stott: Cool. Well thank you for humoring me with that. And thank you for, again, stepping in and sitting down with us. This was a lot of fun. It was great to have you here. Great to have you on the podcast. Oh, you got it. You want to pull it in?

Jon Dorenbos: We’re going to have to end it the same way we started it.

Rob Stott: You want to ring me?

Jon Dorenbos: There you go. There you go, my friend.

Rob Stott: That’s awesome. Thank you so much. Appreciate you being here and look forward to getting this published, man. This was a lot of fun.

Jon Dorenbos: Keep changing the world.