Meet Amy Ellis-Oldendorf

We were lucky to catch up with Amy Ellis-Oldendorf recently and have shared our conversation below.

Hi Amy, really happy you were able to join us today and we’re looking forward to sharing your story and insights with our readers. Let’s start with the heart of it all – purpose. How did you find your purpose?

There is a lot of talk in the world about finding your purpose in life and I moved through life without any purpose for a long time. About 7 years ago I found myself in a relationship with someone who started to define my purpose for me. After a few years of someone else defining me, I started to feel restless and an urge to create my own purpose. Through that journey, I realized that finding purpose was not something I could do on my own, but through a relationship with Christ. In Christianity, finding purpose is often described as aligning one’s life with God’s will and recognizing your unique role in God’s plan. For me, this process involved seeking God through prayer, trusting His perfect timing, and identifying my given gifts and passions, all while serving others and reflecting God’s love. Ultimately, I learned that purpose is found in a relationship with Jesus Christ and in fulfilling God’s purposes for the world. In the social climate today, Christianity is not well received, due to the loud disdain for alternative lifestyles. I want to be a light in the world that shows people who Jesus truly is and that it doesn’t matter who you are, how you life, or what you are doing. There is space for you. I am learning to ask God to reveal to me what He is calling me to do. Learning to wait and trust God’s plan for my life has given me the purest purpose of my life.

Let’s take a small detour – maybe you can share a bit about yourself before we dive back into some of the other questions we had for you?

Right now, I am a full time student pursuing a degree in accounting, a full time entrepreneur, and a part time bookkeeper. After an unexpected job loss in October, I realized I had an opportunity to go back to college full time. I struggled in college my first try, and I was unsure if I would be able to be successful in the academic environment. After a lot of thought and prayer, I rushed to enroll for the spring semester in the middle of December. I enrolled in the Bookkeeping program at Gallatin College, started in January, and the semester flew by! I ended with a 4.0, a Quickbooks Certification and several other professional certifications related to bookkeeping and ended up in a great part-time job with a local electric company. I am so excited to be back in a space where I can feel creative and self-driven to be successful on my own, rather than working for a large corporation. I restarted my jewelry company, Funk On A String, this spring after a 5 year break. I was working 50-60 hours a week in frontline retail, and that sucked the creative juice right out of me. Additionally, I am working on starting independent bookkeeping services and business consulting for small businesses in the community. Right now, my main focus is restarting my jewelry company, and I am in the middle of rebranding. Initially, I was just shooting from the hip when it came to creating and selling my jewelry, and now, after working in structured business environments, I have learned that strategy will carry you a long way. My goal is to have my jewelry in several local stores by the end of next year, and create seasonal lines each year. I love outdoor markets and am participating in several great events through the summer, fall, and holiday. Right now, I am currently selling weekly at the Manhattan Farmer’s Market, occasionally at the Tuesday Farmer’s Market in Bozeman, and I will be popping up at several independent markets this summer. I am most excited about July. On the 19th I plan to be at Hidden Gems Market in the Cannery District and then on the 26th I am participating in the Peace of Paradise Art Festival. I love to meet new people, create connections, and be involved in the community.

If you had to pick three qualities that are most important to develop, which three would you say matter most?

1. Learning to lean into difficult situations and feelings has been an amazing shift for me. It’s natural to try and shift away from something that is hard, or will cause feelings of discomfort. The discomfort is where we grow the the most though.

Here’s a great quote from psychologist Susan Jeffers on the power of feeling your fear and doing it anyway:

“Pushing through fear is less frightening than living with the underlying fear that comes from a feeling of helplessness.”

Keep leaning into your difficult emotions and facing your fear, and you’ll find a powerful way forward.

2. Learning to trust God, even when it doesn’t seem to make sense. Proverbs 3:5-6 says “Trust the Lord with all your heart, and do not lean on your own understanding. In all your ways acknowledge Him, and He will make straight your paths.”

I tried to create my own path for so long, and even still, I push forward with my own plans sometimes. But when I trust God, the heaviness that weighs in my heart goes away, and the path forward is always so much clearer and easier.

3. Shifting my mindset from a FIXED mindset to a GROWTH mindset has impacted my life in so many positive ways. For so long, I believed my abilites were innated and I could not change. I felt like I was destined to be a certain way, and nothing could change. After a lot of internal work with my therapist and through prayer, I learned that intrinsically, my talents and intelligence could be developed through hard work, dedication and a willingness to learn from my mistakes. Once I adopted a growth mindset, everything in my life started moving in a positive direction.

Thanks so much for sharing all these insights with us today. Before we go, is there a book that’s played in important role in your development?

About ten years ago I read the book “How People Change.” At the time, I was angry, lost, and feeling like lasting change was not applicable to my life. Early on in the book, the authors paint the big picture by stating simply, that “making us holy is God’s unwavering agenda…God is not working for our comfort and ease; He is working on our growth” (p. 6). This book explains how the pattern for change is rooted in the Gospel, and lays out a clear and practical way that I could apply to the challenges of daily life. It’s more than a Biblical formula though, and I was able to see how God is at work to make me the person He intended me to be. That a powerful, loving, and redemptive relationship with God is at the heart of all positive change I have experienced, and continue to experience. I continually lean back into the chapters I read so many years ago, to continue to seek God in a way that will help me stay in the growth mindset.

Contact Info:

• Instagram: Funk On A String Jewelry / amradio
• Other: Stay tuned for my Website Relaunch and Shopify account to open!!