MEET DEVIN HENDERSON
In-Demand Keynote Speaker. Award-Winning Magician. Seasoned Performer. Experienced Presenter. Multi-Talented Powerhouse.
In-Demand Keynote Speaker. Award-Winning Magician. Seasoned Performer. Experienced Presenter. Multi-Talented Powerhouse.
When I was 10 years old, I could juggle a soccer ball 250 times in a row without letting it hit the ground. I asked my dad, “Do you think I could ever get to 1,000?”
My dad – one of the most resilient people I know and a Marine who grew up during the Great Depression – looked at me and said, “You really want to know what I think? No, I don’t think you could.”
He wasn’t being cruel. He loved me. He was being honest because he didn’t want me wasting time on something he believed was humanly impossible. But I refused to believe it.
I kept on. At age 15, I hit 1,259 kicks. But I didn’t stop asking myself, “What else is possible?” My all-time record? 11,241 consecutive kicks over a two-hour period without dropping the ball.
People may call something impossible—not necessarily because they doubt you, but because they’re limited by their own idea of what’s possible. Sometimes it’s the people who love you most—and sometimes, it’s you.
My sister’s friend performed coin tricks. A magician at a school assembly made things vanish. I watched a VHS tape of Joey McIntyre making silk handkerchiefs appear out of thin air.
So I went to the library, then to a local magic shop, and suddenly my world expanded. What started as curiosity about one trick became something much bigger. My parents built props for me. I performed in talent shows.
By college, I was “the magic guy.” I performed at parties, landed my first paying gigs, and after graduating in 2003 with a degree in Family Studies and Human Services, faced a choice: pursue a master’s degree or go all-in on magic.
I chose magic, but getting started was not easy. I walked into 40 restaurants seeking work and got rejected 38 times. But I kept going, because I couldn’t imagine doing anything else.
Those two early gigs led to more connections, more performances, and eventually a career I loved.
Something meaningful was taking shape, one show at a time.
In 2014, after a decade of performing professionally, producers from America’s Got Talent invited me to audition in Hollywood. They flew me straight to the celebrity stage to perform for Howard Stern, Heidi Klum, Mel B, Howie Mandel, and 3,300 fans.
I delivered what I considered one of my best performances. The crowd erupted in applause. It was the highest moment of my career.
Then came the buzzer. I was voted off. The segment never aired.
I was devastated. I wanted to walk away from everything I’d loved since I was a kid.
But three years later, I was walking past a Vegas hotel where the AGT Season 9 winner was performing. Seeing that poster hit hard at first. But then something shifted.
I realized: if things had gone differently with my audition, my entire life’s path would have changed. I wouldn’t have my five youngest children. I wouldn’t have the life I’d built in Kansas City with my wife Lynn and our family: a life I wouldn’t trade for fame or fortune.
In that moment, those three letters – AGT – took on a completely different meaning: Always Give Thanks.
That’s when I finally put a name to what I’d always instinctively lived by: The Possibility Mindset.
It’s the practice of asking “What else is possible?” and never stopping.
My greatest failure had revealed my truest purpose.
But my message is about more than bouncing back from setbacks.
It’s about asking “What else is possible?” whether you’re celebrating your biggest win, facing uncertainty, or anywhere in between.
Because something greater is always possible—no matter what.
Through that darkness, I discovered that asking “What else is possible?” isn’t just a strategy for professional challenges—it’s a lifeline when you’re facing the devastating moments that threaten to break you completely. When everything you teach is being tested in the hardest way imaginable. When the only honest answer is “I don’t know what else is possible, but I have to keep asking anyway.”
That’s where profound hope lives—not in having all the answers, but in refusing to stop asking the question even when it feels like everything is lost.
When I’m not on stage or preparing for my next keynote, you’ll find me in the beautiful energy of a house full of incredible young ladies, where “girl talk” moments get recorded in my phone notes and dinner table conversations remind me what really matters. And the addition of child number nine in November of 2025, our first boy, has added greatly to our joy.
Kansas City isn’t just where we live—it’s home in the truest sense, close to dear friends and family, and exactly where we’re meant to be.
