An Inspired Chat with Jon Mohr of Dayton

We recently had the chance to connect with Jon Mohr and have shared our conversation below.

Jon, a huge thanks to you for investing the time to share your wisdom with those who are seeking it. We think it’s so important for us to share stories with our neighbors, friends and community because knowledge multiples when we share with each other. Let’s jump in: When have you felt most loved—and did you believe you deserved it?
I can think of two standout moments in recent memory that I’ve felt the most loved.

The first is when my wife expressed her fears of me leaving her while her POTS symptoms were materializing. She mentioned this because she had read so many stories of husbands leaving their wives because of whatever diagnosis–cancer being a common theme–and letting them deal with it all by themselves. She expressed this fear to me either 2 or 3 years ago and now, she’s said she no longer has that fear. Being with her through a handful of intense lows–and of course, getting married in and of itself–has helped her a lot.

Do I feel I deserved it is an uncomfortable question for me because, to me, doing what I’ve done feels like a given. Why wouldn’t I be with her by her side through all the BS? Quite frankly I don’t think I could ever live with myself if I abandoned her during all of this. I really don’t. It’ll sound like I’m exaggerating but honestly it would probably be an act of self-destruction if I did that because of how much it would wreck me. We’ve been together for almost 10 years, married for almost 1. I am a very lucky man to have someone like her.

The second is when a friend was consulting my wife and I for some advice dealing with anxious thoughts due to a narcissist. I dropped a line to her about feeling manufactured guilt someone’s trying to impose on you because they suck, and it seemed to help so that was that. Well, the following day, she sent a picture of a notecard with what I said written on it on her desk, and said “you’re a really good friend and I’m glad I have you in my life. :)”

That kinda ties into what I hope to achieve with being loving towards my friends and expressing it, and expressing it honestly. Do I always feel deserving of this? Not always. Am I grateful for it? Absolutely.

There’s a quote I love from “Song of Myself” by Nightwish–“Still, given everything, may I be deserving.” I feel like I’ve been given everything–a creative calling, a lover, and very close friends. And I am grateful for it. I hope I can remain someone that could be deserving of the life I am so lucky to have.

Can you briefly introduce yourself and share what makes you or your brand unique?
I’m Jon R. Mohr and I produce music for brands, films, TV shows, and games. I am also a Person Who Stutters (PWS), and it has impacted my brand in a particular way–similar to how I tend to use roundabout strategies and ways of simply saying words, when I write music, I work to find the most meaningful/uncommon way to express what I want to in music. This results in intense, resonant songs that connect with people on an intimate level, and also helps brands find their true ‘sound.’ Everything I do is detailed, meticulous, and specific to the project at hand.

Right now I am writing trailer music for a handful of publishers, finishing up a cinematic cover of a gentle gospel song with one of my friend’s vocals on top of it, and I am finishing up a personal piece about Death and how intense the peak of love is in the face of death. This song is also inspired by a horror story I listened to earlier this year, and I am very lucky to have that story’s author’s blessing for the piece. I am very excited to release it later in 2025.

Okay, so here’s a deep one: What was your earliest memory of feeling powerful?
My earliest memory of feeling powerful has got to be imagining me singing some power metal song by Dragonforce or Rhapsody of Fire at my school’s talent show and nailing every note. I never ended up doing that (but I did end up performing on the piano at my HS’s talent show and winning first place!!) but that fantasy would follow me all throughout 6th grade and into a little bit of high school.

This was one of the ways I realized, years down the line, that I always wanted to do big, excessively ambitious stuff. In an alternate universe I was probably a theater kid and was in either marching band or orchestra, or both. But that “feeling powerful” has now become, “damn, this song I wrote/arranged/mixed actually sounds absolutely incredible.” I’ve reached a point in my music career where I don’t actually hate a lot of what I write anymore, and I listen to it decently often. I mean, really, if you write the songs YOU like, and you’re genuinely very proud of them and it makes you feel powerful and makes you think “wow, I DID THIS?”, why wouldn’t you?

Sure, I never sang Through the Fire and Flames at my school’s talent show to ear-piercing applause, but I’ve found that same feeling of “powerfulness” in writing songs that I’ve wanted to write for literal years.

What did suffering teach you that success never could?
Suffering has taught me that a lot of things really aren’t worth caring about.

Stop caring about what people will think when you dress up the way you want.

Stop caring about what people will think if you stutter more than you expected.

Stop caring about the opinions of people you wouldn’t take advice from.

Additionally, prioritize self-improvement and healthy boundaries. Don’t take crap from people that aren’t net positives in your life. Don’t take crap from people you wouldn’t take advice from. Prioritize loving the people in your life that have stuck by you throughout the years. Who’ve seen you at your worst. Prioritize living a life true to who you are. Prioritize living a life in such a way so that when death smiles at you, you smile back.

Suffering taught me to lean into who I am, and that success comes when you truly lean into who you are and quit living a life dependent on others’ expectations of you. We are guaranteed absolutely nothing. It can take a while to internalize it, but when it hits… well, things change. You change. For the better.

I think our readers would appreciate hearing more about your values and what you think matters in life and career, etc. So our next question is along those lines. What would your closest friends say really matters to you?
I’d like to imagine that my close friends would say authenticity, love, self-empowerment, and creativity matter most to me. I was lucky enough to have a very uneventful childhood with a very loving dad and I try to return what I experienced to others whenever I can.

In addition to that, of course, helping empower my friends and make them feel comfortable with setting boundaries and putting themselves first for a change is very important to me. It can be so easy for others to take advantage of you–especially narcissists–so you need to be ready for those people when you cross paths with them.

And lastly, tied in with all of these–being creative. It really is so much more fulfilling creating things than constantly consuming, and whenever a friend mentions wanting to try something creative I always do my best to encourage it. Creativity is such a pure expression of humanity and there’s no reason for it to be stifled.

Thank you so much for all of your openness so far. Maybe we can close with a future oriented question. What will you regret not doing? 
I will regret not telling the people in my life what they mean to me–I will regret not being honest with myself, honest with others, and honest in my art. Because of this fear, I’ve done everything I can to negate it.

I’ve gotten to the point where I’m not afraid to say “I love you” to my guy friends, especially one of my friends of 15+ years. I’m not afraid to, every so often, say how much I appreciate the friend group I have to their faces, especially knowing how uncommon it is to have such a group of friends as you get older. That’s another thing, you know–I’ve had so many assumptions about life based on my own and I realized I’ve been insanely lucky in so many ways. And because of all these realizations I’ve been working to express gratitude for what I have and who I have in my life, and expressing love and letting my friends/family know how I feel about them.

Regarding art– that, “being honest” in my art idea is something I’ve leaned into a lot more over the past few years. If you asked me to say, “how do you determine if a piece of art is honest?” I couldn’t tell you. I can’t look at a list of songs from artists I don’t know and determine “THIS is honest” with relentless conviction. So it’s more an idea for myself and MY work. If I put a song out into the world, intended to be something people resonate with on a deep level, and I did not–for lack of a better phrase–bleed to get it done, then I don’t see the point in releasing it.

Being honest, to me, involves facing the uncomfortable thoughts and truths about life–death being one of them. A song a plan to release later this year is an example of what I consider an ‘honest’ piece of art from me–it was born out of a place of intense, conflicting emotion

Contact Info:

• Website: https://jonrmohr.com/
• Instagram: https://www.instagram.com/jonrmohr/
• Linkedin: https://www.linkedin.com/in/jon-mohr-1612881a9/
• Facebook: https://www.facebook.com/JonRMohr/
• Youtube: https://www.youtube.com/c/jonrmohr