Know-it-all passport and our sister site, knowitall.ch, have partnered with the Living in Nyon website for many years. Catherine Nelson-Pollard now has one foot in Switzerland and one foot in the UK and was fortunate to come into contact with Mandy Bronsil last year. Mandy has jumped into the website and article-writing with her own style of enthusiastic dynamism... and after meeting with her, and finding out about her other company, we couldn't wait to introduce Mandy Bronsil to our readers.
Tell our readers who you are and your background
Although I am originally Dutch, I grew up in Spain and came to Switzerland originally to study at the Ecole Hotelière de Lausanne. After coming and going from Switzerland for a short time after graduating, I finally moved back here in 2009.
I have a professional background in career development and recruitment, mostly in the Swiss French part of Switzerland. In 2019 I founded my own company called B-inspired Partners where I support people positioning themselves clearly and confidently in their careers through an online course as well as creating individual “career roadmaps” with them.
I took over as the editor of Living in Nyon at the end of the summer due to the fact that Catherine, the website’s previous editor moved back to the UK with her husband.
What has been the inspiration for you to take over LIN?
Aside from working, I’ve always been active in committees and I really enjoy contributing to a community and connecting people or businesses. Living in Nyon does this wonderfully and I am very lucky to have the opportunity to take over a website that has been up and running for 11 years and was created with that exact same spirit. It really felt instantly like it was something I wanted to carry on with.
Have you been working on this idea forever, or was it something that came to you recently?
It depends how you look at it. I have as long as I can remember been “a foreigner” wherever I lived and I have always been attracted to providing the international community with information, connecting people etc without having a very specific idea…well I had the dream of a magazine in my head that I was never very serious about acting on directly. I just didn’t really see how it would work.
But then, when by complete coincidence I found out Catherine was looking for somebody to take over the site, it just immediately clicked and I felt excited about it. I was quite worried it wasn’t realistic time-wise but I really wanted to find a way to make it work and I firmly believe where there is a will there is a way!
What is the biggest obstacle you have had to overcome?
There were several things. I think the biggest one was that I had to understand our readers. What information they want from the site, what their expectations are and so on. This was of course foreseeable so quite quickly I set up a survey for people to give me the necessary information and what they wanted to stay, improve etc. I was really grateful to receive a lot of replies very quickly and that encouraged me as it showed there was a real interest and need for Living in Nyon in the area.
Another relatively big obstacle was simply organisational. I have only just started my own company, COVID-19 presented me with a challenge in that aspect too and I really wanted to provide enough interesting content for Living in Nyon. It took some time to set up a few stable organisational pillars but I feel the biggest part has been done. Now I am improving (there is always room for improvement) but the heavy lifting is over.
Where do you see LIN or B-Inspired going? What are your plans for the future?
I love the spirit Living in Nyon has. It’s local, easily accessible, provides information and connections and it’s a flexible site. I write about a large variety of topics and provide people the necessary links to delve further according to their interests.
The future developments lie mostly in reorganising the website somewhat and growing and developing our reader base through the quality content as well as increased social media presence.
B-inspired has been tested by Corona just as it was starting out! But I have to say; today I am grateful for the challenge. It has allowed be to create online courses that I would never have done otherwise. The course has already had a positive impact on people’s lives that are going through it, which of course is fantastic to hear and encourages me hugely. I want to grow and develop the courses further this year. It’s been an interesting start but it’s on the right track and I feel very positive toward the future.
What is your favorite product you offer and why? (if relevent)
Living in Nyon doesn’t really offer products if not a community and a source of information.
With B-inspired my favourite is really the online courses and the workshops. They are easy, practical accessible and also really good fun – I’ve recently included masterminds in the bootcamp too. It’s a positive and optimistic way of positioning yourself clearly toward your professional future and knowing your own worth well first and foremost.
What are readers saying about the Living in Nyon website?
“I like knowing more about the region I live in. I originally subscribed years ago just to have a link to fellow expats and listen to stories of how people transitioned and integrated into foreign life.”
“Living in Nyon is a clear website with information in English that keeps us who don´t speak French yet updated.”
Anything else you think our readers would like to know.
I’m always happy to hear feedback, questions or requests for something specific. Living in Nyon is a website for the community and I really encourage the international community to support me in that mission with their opinions and input. It’s for them and I want it to be fully relevant to the lives of the readers of the site.
Mandy has kindly offered a discounted price on her Live Mastermind "Find Your Key" on the 25th of March. A half-day quick and practical course that identifies where your potential lies right now and how to develop it. It is on her site for Fr. 77.- but exclusively Fr. 37.- for our readers with the discount code: KNOWITALL, valid until March 25th 2021.
