What if the dream God gave you is already growing—just in a direction you didn’t expect?
In part 2 of my conversation with Andrea Olson, we explore how God often uses our past experiences, natural wiring, and even disappointments to shape something new in our calling. Andrea shares how a quiet season of listening uncovered a shift in her work, revealing a new mission to equip faith-driven entrepreneurs—something He had been preparing her for all along.
IF YOU’VE EVER FELT ILL-EQUIPPED FOR WHERE GOD IS LEADING, THIS IS THE EPISODE FOR YOU!
In this episode, you’ll learn:
🌱 Why your dream doesn’t have to look like everyone else’s
🙏 A spiritual practice to help you discern your next steps
❤️🔥 A freeing reminder that God’s will isn’t a tightrope but a wide-open meadow
If you’ve ever wondered whether you’re equipped for where God is leading you—or feared doing things differently than others around you—this conversation will remind you that God delights in reshaping our dreams for His glory.
Andrea Olson is a worship leader, songwriter, and the founder of Overflow Worship. In this episode, she opens up about doing things differently, trusting God's timeline, and embracing the freedom to walk forward without a clear roadmap.
✨ Need help discerning your next step?
Grab my free 7-day devotional: 7 Truths to Silence the Voice of Self-Doubt
It’s a short, Scripture-rich resource to help you refocus on truth and move forward in faith.
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CONNECT WITH ANDREA:
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MENTIONED IN THIS EPISODE:
Andrea offered her Creating Kingdom Culture Masterclass for all Devoted Dreamers listeners. Click here for free access.
Scripture:
See, I am doing a new thing!
Now it springs up; do you not perceive it?
I am making a way in the wilderness
and streams in the wasteland.
~ Isaiah 43:19
Enjoy This Episode?
Here are some others you might enjoy too:
Ep 326: Seeing Yourself as God Sees You—A Biblical Perspective Apple | Spotify
Ep 332: Want Clarity on Your Purpose? Get to Know Your Strengths with Clarity Coach Jill Felix Apple | Spotify
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The unedited transcript for this episode of The Devoted Dreamers Podcast follows:
Have you ever felt a quiet nudge to take your dream in a new direction—one you didn’t expect and maybe don’t feel quite ready for?
Hey dreamer—
This is episode 343 of the Devoted Dreamers Podcast. Today we’re talking about:
How to Uncover the Business God Already Planted in You
Today’s guest, Andrea Olson, is a distinguished worship leader, songwriter, and entrepreneur who has been faithfully building something with God—only to discover that He was planting seeds for a whole new dream all along.
This is part 2 of my conversation with Andrea, so if you missed part 1, you’ve gotta go back and listen to episode 342 on The Power of Surrendering Your Plans to Follow God’s Calling.
But today we’re talking all about how to discern when it’s time to pivot, what it looks like to trust God with your wiring and your past experiences—since He’s the one who made you—and why doing things differently than others might actually be exactly what He’s asking of you.
If you’ve ever felt ill-equipped for where God is leading, this one is for you.
I'm your host, Merritt Onsa, a Christian life coach. I'm kind of like the Joanna Gaines for women of faith who have big dreams about how God might reorder the second half of your life so you can use your gifts and life experiences to usher in beauty, redemption, healing, and service to others.
It's not a redesign of your home that we're working on. It's a brand-new way to live: in freedom. Free from fear, free from second-guessing yourself all the time, and free from the lies that the enemy has used to keep you quiet and playing small in the past.
Isn't it about time more of us who believe in Christ started living that way?
I'm on a mission to engage 10,000 women worldwide to start taking intentional and purposeful steps that will bring their God-shaped dreams to life. If you believe in Jesus and you see his work in your life and you're aware that you've been given gifts, talents, and a life story that could serve and benefit others, maybe you're among those 10,000.
I hope that you are, because you're here listening to a podcast about dreams. Maybe you're looking for a chance to see if your dream has legs. You want to try it on for size and figure out if it's possible. You want to be inspired and encouraged that there's hope for what you've been dreaming all these years. Maybe you've been too fearful in the past, or someone dashed your dreams with a comment that hit too close to home. Or you just haven't had time to figure out how to proceed.
Well, my friend, this is your time.
This is your space.
If you have big ideas for how God could use the gifts he's given you and the years of your life that remain, and you have a dream that would serve others, let's figure out how to turn that heartfelt, hidden dream into real, actionable plans with impact for God's kingdom work in the world.
So we wrapped up our previous conversation, Andrea, talking about the swinging for the fences with your first conference.
I love how God just provided a place for those extra lunches, even though that was not what you wanted initially what you thought you wanted with that.
Will you talk a little bit more then about what has God done in this time that's led you to the—what did you call it?—the equipping-faith driven business owners and leaders. What has he done to kind of shift you into that and is that what you expected?
Andrea Olson:
No, it's not what I expected at all. I think because music is such a huge part of my heart and worship is just such a deep passion of mine. I've always thought that, you know, oh, worship leading and coaching worship leaders like that just fit so well.
But I would say so last fall, fall 2024, when we had, we come through some launches that didn't work out the way that, you know, we had hoped they would work out. And just a lot of things had to change. I had to make some changes and some hard decisions. And I just told the team, I'm like, I really feel like the Lord is just saying, hey, just nurture what you have and just listen. So like we just took the rest of the fall and paid attention to the worship leaders that we had in our ecosystem and nurturing them and loving on them because you know, the fall, I think everyone was on the edge of their seat anyway with all the things going on in the economy and the politics, everything.
And so I think it was God's perfect timing to just lean into, you know, we're not selling anything to anybody. We're just praying for them, encouraging them, supporting them. And that allowed me time to, you know, be quiet and be still and to…
We put together some, some really great videos that we launched on our YouTube channel and had an amazing response. One of them was a Christmas worship event and then the other one was a three-episode miniseries that was actually based around kind of like The Office, but it's in the church office at Christmas. And so it was this dramatic interpretation and it was just so fun and light hearted and gave me a breather to like enter into a different creative space.
And I think, you know, well, my husband and I always say a change of pace plus a change of place equals a change of perspective.
And that's what the fall was.
And so from that it was just like a matter of looking back and realizing that, okay, all the things that I'm doing to coach worship leaders with a couple language tweaks. It's the exact same thing I would tell a business owner. Like, when you're leading a team of volunteers, it's the same thing you would do leading your employees or your team that you lead. You might pay them, and you don't pay the worship leader, you know, the worship teams. But it's the same stuff. We're, you know, aligning ourselves around a target.
We're talking about values and goals and, you know, culture and how we lead with confidence and clarity, all of these things. It's the same exact thing.
And it's funny because, you know, my husband said that to me a few times, actually, throughout 2024, and I was kind of like, huh, I don't know. But then I'd think about it and come back and be like, yeah, yeah, you're right. And he's just like, I know. You know, he was so sweet and quiet about it as I was processing it, and he's just waiting for me. He was 10 steps ahead of me, just being so sweet and supportive. But so that's.
That was a realization for me. And so once we hit 2025, I was like, okay, here we go, Lord. Like, this is a big. A big shift for us, maybe from, like, a branding standpoint and a language standpoint, but not really, because I'm still doing everything that I feel equipped to do, and I'm passionate to do. The Lord was just like. Just like, lift the glasses off and take a look around and see that I've already equipped you to do this. And so that's been really amazing to watch unfold.
Merritt Onsa:
I love that saying about the change in perspective. It's so important because I think we get really in the weeds of our own. Just, like, we got our blinders on. There's. This is the only thing. And God doesn't have blinders on. He can see it all. Yeah, Yeah.
I always like to ask, is there a verse of scripture or a spiritual practice that has felt supportive to you along this journey?
Andrea Olson:
Yeah. You know, I mean, initially, the first verse that comes to mind is Isaiah 43:19. And that's. That's actually the name. The name of my, like, legal entity, the LLC, is Isaiah 43:19. And then it's, you know, an Overflow Worship. Because it's like, see, I am doing a new thing. And I feel like that's what Overflow Worship has been all along. The Lord is like, I'm doing a new thing. And everything that we've done along the way has been against the norm. And I ran my event. I mean, it was different than the way other big events are run. And I did that on purpose because it's just the way God's wired me and so I leaned into that. And so it's allowed us to like, have some, some really cool connections with people because we're willing to go deep and be really relatable and relational.
So “See, I'm doing a new thing” has been just a life verse for me and I would say a spiritual practice that I've really worked hard to put into place over the last several years has been taking time to pause and really just sit and listen because I always come with like, my list of things like, okay, I gotta pray for this person and pray for this person, and then I gotta, you know, whatever.
And I think it's really important, especially as women, to put into practice slowing down our minds and like not having the phone. Like I sit on the floor in the dark, like in the hallway outside our kids rooms because they're sleeping, you know, it's nighttime. It's usually like later at night. And so there's no distractions there. And I just try to sit there. I mean, even if it's like five minutes, it doesn't have to be long, but just let my mind, let my mind quiet and just ask the Lord, okay, what do you want me to.
What do you want me to know? What do you want me to pay attention to? And that practice has been so good for me because it's a way to quiet my mind at the end of the day, but also to make sure that I'm not just running to him with my list of things, but also coming to him just for. For. With no agenda. Right. Just because I. I want to be there. So that's been a really good practice for me.
Merritt Onsa:
Thank you for describing that with such specificity. It helped me kind of see how that's easy and possible to do that, to just take those few minutes. I even like the sitting outside the bedroom door of your kids. It's really special.
Andrea Olson:
Yeah. It reminds me to pray for my kids then too, like before I quiet the mind down, to just pause and pray for them and then. And then sit down.
Merritt Onsa:
Mm. You mentioned a minute ago specifically related to the conference about doing things differently because that's how you are wired. How do you kind of battle the pushback on that? Like, oh, well, this isn't the way it's done. Whether that's internal or external, how do you manage that? And what has been the value of doing things differently?
Andrea Olson:
Yeah. Yeah, it is difficult to manage because I have this tension within me, and I don't know if anybody else out there listening can relate to this. I've always thought it's because I have this creative side of me that wants to bring something, obviously, as an offering to the Lord, but also that is a blessing to other people and that they want. Like, they're encouraged by, that they want to listen to. Right? And so there's that desire for acceptance, for lack of better words. And so, I battle that. But there's always been this spark inside of me that God put there that's like, I like to take that creativity over to, you know, business and conferences and stuff.
And I guess probably the best thing that I had going for me was naivety. Like, it's just like, I didn't know any better. Like, and I remember. I remember asking somebody because I would love a system. Like, someone's got a roadmap. Like, could you give it to me? But nobody would. And so I'm like, I'm just. I'm building it. I'm taking the road, so I'm going to do whatever I want.
And I asked somebody one time who was an expert in the music industry and conferences, and I said, hey, like, what should I charge sponsors? You know, like, is there a threshold? Like, what's the equation of, like, this many people equals, you know, this much money for a sponsor? And he looked me straight in the eye, and he was like, just pick a number and deliver it with confidence. I was like, are you kidding me? Like, that does not help me at all, because it could be $75 or $15,000. Like, that doesn't help me. And so I think early on, it was. What I took away from that, though, was he was just saying, girl, be confident. Like, just.
You got this. And so that's what I'd say to anybody listening, too, is like, man, when you take that step out, I think your best superpower is that you don't know. That you don't know what's next. It really is, because we can lean on the Lord and we can try stuff.
And I mean, I have spent so much time, like, berating myself over failure, but then I look back and I'm like, it was actually kind of helpful, you know? Like, I learned way more from that than I would have from winning every single thing I tried. So that's what I would say.
Merritt Onsa:
That's really beautiful. The thing about failure, we like so resist that. Right? We run from it if we can, and yet God is always going to use it. And what you said about be being naive and not knowing the difference, it's like that's actually a huge asset that and freedom, I think too from the Lord that yes, there may be a way, but there's not just one way that these things can be pursued. So I love that; that's so precious that we have that like just opportunity to be yourself and go do it in the way that would feel aligned with who he made you and then trust him. Just trust him. Sometimes easier said than done, but.
Andrea Olson:
Oh my goodness. Yeah, so much easier said than done. And you know, it's interesting. I was a part of a coaching group for a long time as a, like I co-coached with somebody, a bunch of worship leaders. And there was this one phrase from a book, I can't even remember what book it was, but it was: God's will is not a tightrope. It's a wide-open meadow.
And I cannot tell you, like, how much freedom that gave me just in my own life because I felt like I was walking on a tightrope all the time. And one wrong step was like death; it's just certain death. And it's just it's not true. Like, and I have used that in so many.
I mean, I keep getting met with people in transition. It's crazy. My husband and I are just like, how do you end up at our dinner table? Like, here's someone else in transition and we use that phrase every time that God's will is not a tightrope, it's a wide-open meadow. Like, as long as we're surrendered to him and walking with him, he gives us the freedom to choose. And I think that delights him. And then he walks with us through it and it's a beautiful thing.
Merritt Onsa:
Yeah. I just imagine him like as a father, you know what? Like, like dad as we know dad, like watching your young kid like learn to ride a bike or pick up skateboarding or whatever it is like delight, like, what joy to see my kid pursuing something that they're curious about or interested in. And gosh, don't we need practice seeing our Father in heaven that way? Yes.
Andrea Olson:
Yes.
Merritt Onsa:
Well, I want you to talk a little bit more about the master class and training videos that you're working on and the offer that you want to give to my audience. It's so generous and I'm really excited to hear more about that.
Andrea Olson:
Yeah, absolutely. Well, I'm excited to share it with you all as well.
And you know, over the last decade I have spent a lot of time coaching people about developing culture and when it comes to developing culture within their teams. And so how does that relate to whether, you know, it's worship teams, work teams, like your staff as a business owner, what does that look like?
And I find that there's a lot of people I've talked to in the past and they're like, we don't have a culture. And I'm like, well, yes, you do. It's just, it's maybe been neglected or it's not super healthy because it's not been paid attention to. Right? So I am doing a series of masterclasses on some different topics as it relates to being a faith-driven entrepreneur and leader and specifically this one on cultivating a kingdom culture within your team and within your business.
And even if you don't have a team yet, it starts with you. And that's really where we begin in this training is it's got to start with you and you've got to think about, well, what do I want to be known for? What do I want my business and team to be known for? Because if you're known for like, oh, that's a really toxic place to work or that's a, you know, that person's really domineering or you know, controlling. That's your culture, you're creating that.
And so it takes intention on the front end. And if you're just beginning, that's the beauty of it. Like you have all the time in the world to think about that and begin implementing that now, just in the contractors that you work with, the conversations you have with your clients, how, what do you want to be known for? Right? So for us at Overflow Worship, we want to be known for generosity. We want to be known for relationship and people feeling like they know they're worth our time. Right? And we want to be, be known for kindness, friendliness and then also for joy.
Because when we make videos and release them on YouTube, we like to put joy in there too because funny stuff happens to us as leaders and if we don't laugh about it, we're missing an opportunity. And so, culture is key. And so that's what this masterclass is going to be all about. Just giving you really practical tools to lay foundations, whether you have a team, you're leading a team or you want to someday. It starts with you and things that you can do, Naming the things you want to be known for and building from there.
Merritt Onsa:
Sweet. So I'll put links to all of that in the show notes how people can get access to it. That's really wonderful. I'm excited. I would like to engage in that little masterclass that you have.
Wow. What a lovely little journey God has been taking you on.
And I just love that you are pouring into Kingdom-focused entrepreneurs and what a need there is out there. Because I know for me, at least, I could go find dozens, hundreds of resources that don't have a Kingdom focus. And sometimes I think that it's not that big of a deal. This is a marketing class or this is a whatever writing course or coach.
But it really does matter because all of a sudden, you start to realize, like, we don't actually speak the same language. We're not actually. We don't have the same goals. And so just applauding you for the work that you're doing and pouring into people who are leading Kingdom-minded businesses.
Andrea Olson:
Thank you. Thank you so much. It's a really special journey, and I'm excited to see what's ahead.
Merritt Onsa:
Yeah. Yeah. Well, I'd love to have you close us out just bringing the glory to God and sharing how you feel like he has transformed you. Taking you from who you were when you thought you were just gonna sing music and go on tour to what you're doing today with your dream. Just go ahead and wrap it up for us with that.
Andrea Olson:
Absolutely. I would say that how I've transformed has honestly been just in every way. And we talked about it a little bit throughout the last interview, but it's been a process of surrender and me realizing that there are things that I wanted and I thought I needed, but it really wasn't in line with where God was taking me. And there have been parts of the dream that I've had to lay down. And that's really hard because I feel like there's parts of the dream that I am waiting on and wondering, okay, what's he going to do with that? Because I know that he put that there in addition to where I am now.
But it's so much better than I could have ever imagined 20 years ago. If you would have asked me when I was, you know, 20 years old and just, like, about to get married, if I. You would have said, you know, is this where you're going to be? I never would have imagined in a million years that that's what it would be. But it is so much better than I ever could have dreamed up.
And so then I know, looking back, that it's the Lord, and I just give him so much glory. I can't tell you how many times I've said over the last few years that, my goodness, Lord, that was so kind. You didn't need to do that. You didn't need to show me that kindness. You didn't need to, you know, give me that little vote of confidence or whatever, answer that prayer.
He's just shown so much kindness to me along the way because he knows that I'm human, and he knows that sometimes it's really hard. And he's been so kind along the way.
And so I just am so grateful for the way that he's transformed me completely from somebody who was insecure and scared to take leaps of faith to someone who is, you know, still white knuckles sometimes, but more quick to say, “Okay, I trust you, because I know that, you know, I know that you're going to see this through, so why not let's close our eyes and take the leap!” And so I just give him all the glory for all that he has done.
Merritt:
Such a freeing conversation! I feel a little lighter after it, don’t you?
Andrea’s story reminds us that God is always doing a new thing—even when it doesn’t look like the plan you had in mind. The dream He planted in you might not fit into a perfect mold, but it will bear fruit when you surrender it back to Him.
Before you go today, I want to give you a question that you can spend some time reflecting on this week. Here it is:
What has God already planted in you that you may be overlooking?
It might help to start by asking a good friend or mentor what they see in you, what gifts or talents you might be taking for granted because they’re so deeply ingrained in who you are that it’s hard to even see it for yourself.
I want you to go get that feedback and then come back to the question I asked:
What has God already given you, already planted in you that maybe you are overlooking?
If you’re navigating uncertainty, doubt, or a shift in your God-shaped dream, I invite you to download my free 7-day devotional: It’s called 7 Truths to Silence the Voice of Self-Doubt
It’s a short but powerful way to reset your heart and mind on what’s true when self-doubt and imposter syndrome start to elbow their way in.
You’ll find it at https://www.merrittonsa.com/devo
Finally….
Daughter of the King,
You were made for a beautiful purpose, your identity and security rest in Him, as does your dream because the Lord is good and His ways are always good! No weapon formed against you will prosper because you belong to Him.
Until next week, stay faithful, keep dreaming and remember: trusting God with your next step doesn’t mean it isn’t going to be scary. It means taking the step anyway. That’s what faith is.
You’re welcome here among women braving those scary steps in faith, knowing our dreams matter because they are His.
Until next time,
I’m Merritt Onsa, your dream coach and sister in Christ, walking by faith, with you, in the dream.
Have a great week!
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