Meet Laurel Oetken, Vice President of Operations @ Open Range

What inspired you to become an entrepreneur or support other entrepreneurs?

For me, I had an opportunity to get to work with some of Omaha’s most incredible founders. In my first job out of college, I got hired on in a role that really didn’t exist yet at Flywheel. As a recent college graduate, it felt risky to take the startup path for my first job. But it turned out to be one of the most unique and exciting experiences that I could have asked for professionally. It opened so many doors for me.

The opportunity to get to work at a startup and see the life that founders bring to their businesses was exciting and ignited something in me that I didn’t even know existed — a desire to build things that had large scale community impact. Some of the roles that I had after that experience at Flywheel really kind of led into that. I had a unique path to get there, but I got the opportunity to shape what programming and what ecosystem building looked like at the Greater Omaha Chamber. That’s where I started to see the passion for this space.

I adore a lot of the founders that I’ve gotten to work with. Getting to see their passion for the businesses that they’re building — the passion for the solutions and problems that they’re trying to solve — makes me excited and eager to continue to do this work and be of service to those founders and to the business community in that way. 

What advice would you give yourself if you could go back in time to when you were just starting out?

It’s advice that I still give myself which is, be open to taking risks. I think that goes for both professional endeavors and also personal endeavors. We live in a very risk adverse culture, especially in Nebraska. But saying yes to the bold idea, saying yes to what seems to be the more risky job opportunity or saying yes to something that doesn’t exist yet — sometimes proves to have the biggest value in your life and can really challenge you to think differently or to approach situations [and] relationships differently. 

I would tell myself that it’s okay to take the risky path. And I still do today in the endeavors that I’ve most recently taken.

How do you stay motivated when things feel overwhelming — or stagnant?

It’s finding people that you can trust to have candid conversations with, both about what’s happening in your personal life and professional life — at a global and local scale. When things get hard, it’s important to have a trusted support system. It’s also okay to take a step back and recognize what’s happening both in the world and in your day-to-day life. 

When things seem hard, or an email comes through that is challenging to respond to, or maybe a problem comes up that you didn’t expect, it’s okay to take a step back. Recognize that it is challenging and address it in a way that makes the most sense for you and your team. That’s a lesson I’m still learning honestly.

We all struggle with the day-to-day challenges of just being on 24/7. It feels like there’s not as much of a separation between work and personal life. Setting boundaries is really important for your professional life — just work-life balance generally speaking, too. But I’m not perfect at that. It’s something that I work on every day. I think it’s something that, again, having that strong support system can always help keep you in check and also help you manage expectations around that too.

What is the biggest challenge you’ve overcome and how did you overcome it?

One of the bigger challenges that I’ve experienced, candidly, in my professional tenure is being the youngest person in the room and also being the only woman in the room — especially coming from a more recent position leading the state’s first technology trade association (Tech Nebraska). I think reckoning with that and understanding the role you can still play in conversations and in leadership, is incredibly important. It’s something that I feel very passionately about — making sure that women feel like they have a seat at the table and that age is not something that should prohibit you from taking on opportunities or having experiences to lead. That’s definitely something that many women that I kind of interface with have struggled with at times, and I think it’s important to recognize that.

It’s also important to find your own voice and define the way that you lead and really lean into that. For me, that’s something that I still struggle with from time to time. It’s also something that being vulnerable about it and having conversations with peers and mentors really helps, and has helped me hone in on how I want to show up in conversations. And how I want to be viewed in those rooms where perhaps I’m the only person with that perspective.

It’s really important when it comes to framing your leadership style that you bring others into the conversation and make sure that there’s always a seat at the table for someone that doesn’t look like you, doesn’t sound like you, maybe has a different perspective from a different generation. That’s incredibly important when we think about community building as well. 

How can the Nebraska community support you?

Being open-minded to our new organization, Open Range, and what our vision is. That in and of itself is support I would tremendously value, especially as we go through building this new endeavor and structuring this new organization to then support the wider community.

Personally, it’s always important to find individuals that you can add to your network of advisors — your personal board of advisors and professional board of advisors. I’m always excited to get to know more people and to get to understand their story and their perspective. I welcome putting that back to the community at large, if I can be of service or be of help to anyone, especially as they start their business journey. I’ve often found that when you lend a hand, that hand also is reciprocated.

I’m open to any and all conversations with potential business leaders and current business leaders. I’m excited to continue to serve the community in this new capacity, and I’m hopeful that I also get support through that process.