An Elvis impersonator, a licensed teacher, a youth leader at Faith Lutheran Church, a church school coordinator, an antique seller, an eBay seller and a DJ, Kenny Opsal hopes to see success in his new store, Music and More.
Music has always been Opsal’s main inspiration throughout life. His father was an Elvis fan, collecting many of his records. At a young age, Opsal looked up to his father and began collecting Elvis records.
Later in life, faith became a motivator for him.
“I would say that I was a very troubled youth early on, and then I was inspired by faith at the age of 19, and that kind of gave me a little more direction in life,“ Opsal said.
Originally, Opsal intended to pursue a career as a policeman, working at a prison in corrections. However, he became motivated to return to school to become a teacher, leading him to move to Bismarck 20 years ago.
During these drastic changes, Opsal was facing financial destruction.
“I had hit the bottom,” Opsal said.
Searching for another source of income, Opsal turned to garage sales, flipping the pieces he found and reselling them. He eventually found a groove and discovered a market for these repurposed items he had collected.
Although he may have never been an artist or participated in a band, Opsal found other ways to express his passion. Reselling vinyl, becoming an Elvis impersonator, and DJing helped him to get back on his feet.
“As I’ve gotten older music has only continued to shape me,” Opsal said.
As a teacher and youth group leader, Opsal can reach a younger audience including children and teens. He realized that life isn’t always a given, inspiring him to affect people’s lives while he can positively.
“I’m not given tomorrow, right,” Opsal said, “so I realized that I only have so much time to make a difference in people’s lives.”
His newest development is Music and More. He bought his space to sell CDs, cassette tapes, vintage hats, vintage clothing and vintage books.
The genres of music include rock, pop, folk music, country music, and much more. There aren’t many people who don’t enjoy music, but what varies is the style they like. Opsal takes pride in having a wide variety of music choices.
“I don’t think there is anybody that isn’t affected by music in some way,” he said. “The only difference is your age might determine what kind of genre of music you listen to.”
Running the store has come with its own set of challenges. Personally installing shelving, providing furniture, and finding help to work the store has been demanding.
Nonetheless, by saving for years and buying the space outright, Opsal has achieved one of his goals.
“I would say that Music and More is the byproduct of all those hard years of saving,” Opsal said.
Through tumultuous years of trial and error, one of Opsal’s main takeaways was money management.
“One of the things that I like to stress to youth is you have got to start saving today if you want to succeed in life,” Opsal said.
Being knowledgeable of successful financial practices enables free will and offers opportunities. If Music and More had taught Opsal anything, it would be the rewards of hard work and grit.