Raised in a small town in the Netherlands, Marjolein Groot Nibbelink knew early on that she wanted to travel. At the age of 19, Marjolein took her first trip to Australia. She later followed that with a volunteer project in Costa Rica, followed by a year-long stay in Central America. Marjolein returned to the Netherlands to complete her studies, only to leave again, this time for South America, where she spent two years before moving to and settling down in the United States.
Marjolein’s career trajectory has led her to travel to over 30 countries, across multiple continents, especially to developing countries. These experiences have shaped her leadership style. “Traveling abroad, especially to developing countries, is essential for people to recognize how fortunate they are and to be open and accepting of people and their ways,” she says. “If you spend a significant amount of time traveling, you have to adjust, you have to try and fit in. This requires a level of understanding and empathy that could make the world a better place.”
For Groot Nibbelink, these are also the qualities that make for good leadership because it forces an understanding of what people want and what they’re passionate about. In other words, it requires a willingness to adjust one’s own ideas. This is a lesson Marjolein Groot Nibbelink put into action every day in her leadership role at MultiLingual.
Groot Nibbelink was put in charge when the publication made the change from MultiLingual Computing to MultiLingual Media. Her first role was to ensure a smooth transition under new ownership. She was not looking for change, but the opportunity to step into a larger role soon came up. Although ambitious, Groot Nibbelink reveals that she did not consider herself to be capable of being the main leader, of heading a team and of managing and transforming a then-struggling company into a success.
“It’s an interesting dichotomy that happened because I’ve always been very ambitious, and wherever I show up, I try to outdo what the task set is and try to do better,” reflects Groot Nibbelink. “For a lot of women in their thirties, if not throughout their entire career, when they show up and show ambition, they are put back in their place. People will say it’s not the right time, it’s too much, we don’t want to do this, it’s a stupid idea.”
When she was first given the opportunity, the insecurity of ‘being put in her place’ under male leadership still hovered. She recounts that “Tucker [Johnson] and Renato [Beninatto] from Nimdzi put me in this role. This went way beyond my ambition. It was perfect timing because it was during Covid, so I didn’t have much else to do. I wanted to tackle it, and it’s been a great life-changing experience over the last three years.”
Self-described as impatient by nature, Groot Nibbelink admits that the biggest lesson leadership has taught her is patience. She has learned to be very tolerant of people and their ways. “I can work 12 hours a day, but it doesn’t mean I can expect the same from people in different places and positions,” says Groot Nibbelink. “Stepping away and letting people do what they need to do, giving them independence and letting them take ownership of the result, instead of just doing what someone else says. It’s a leadership style I learned from Renato Beninatto, and it’s really satisfying.”
Her hard work is beginning to pay off. Over her tenure as CEO and Publisher, Marjolein grew MultiLingual from a team of two to a team of twelve, including both part-time and full-time employees in Poland, Argentina, Colombia, Mexico, and the West Coast of the United States. “It’s not a big team, but a lot of people consider MultiLingual to be this massive publication, and it’s really cool, but we’re doing it with a very small team,” says Groot Nibbelink. Thanks to this very small but mighty team, subscribers have increased, as have editorial contributions, so much so that they are able to turn things down or move things online instead of print. Under her leadership, readership grew from 20,000 to 47,000. The ultimate milestone? To get to half a million subscribers by expanding the magazine into other markets and delivering a product deserving of that readership.
But this year’s goal is to reach 100,000 readers. To achieve this, Groot Nibbelink’s plan was to include new writers with the hope that they would become ambassadors, sharing the issue with their network and helping grow the magazine’s following organically. All profit is invested back into the company, so any time the magazine can be introduced to more readers is a huge support.
As for personal goals, although she has contributed to a couple of articles to the magazine, writing more is a personal ambition of hers. It is the most consistent goal she’s had. “Writing has been a passion since I was eight,” Groot Nibbelink admits.
She strongly believes in the importance of having goals outside of work. In fact, when she’s not working long days, Groot Nibbelink is into cycling (which she herself admits is stereotypical considering that she is from the Netherlands). Although she hated exercising as a child, she discovered bike racing at the age of 16 and never stopped. For anyone who spends long hours in front of the computer, exercising is key to maintaining both physical and mental well-being. For Groot Nibbelink, it’s important to set other goals in life so you don’t feel like you’re only working towards someone else’s goals: maintaining physical and mental health and developing yourself and your connections with others. And having the self-discipline to attain these personal goals, for that, you have to learn to balance work and personal life. “You can’t just focus on one or the other, it needs to be a balance.”
Want to hear more? Check out the full interview here: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=VJ09HxZ0L5w