From redundancy to reinvention and the creation of the Wing People Agency

For as long as I can remember, I’ve been the person making introductions, reading the room, and making sure people feel comfortable enough to connect. It’s second nature to me. I thought everyone did it—until I realised they didn’t.

Two years ago, I took a leap of faith and launched Tjena—with nothing but a big idea, no budget, and a gut feeling that networking could be better. I believed people needed help making meaningful connections, and that events could be transformed if someone was there to facilitate those interactions in the right way.

I didn’t have a blueprint. Just me, figuring it out as I went.

This isn’t just a story for you, the reader. This is for me too. A way to look back, take stock, and acknowledge everything that has happened in these two years—the energy, the pivots, the risks, the wins, and the lessons learned.

Because building a business is messy. It’s not the polished success stories you hear about—it’s real, raw, and often unpredictable.

And yet, looking back, I can see how every challenge, every connection, and every moment of doubt led me to this point.

So, here’s the unfiltered version—the behind-the-scenes look at what it’s really been like to build this business, what I’ve learned, and the insights you can take from it too.

🎢 The “Redundancy Rodeo”

Before launching Tjena, I became an expert at landing new jobs. If job-hunting were an Olympic sport, you’d see me draped in the Canadian flag on the podium.

Four redundancies in three years—each one knocking me off my feet, and each time, I bounced back faster. I had a knack for finding roles, securing great opportunities, and working with incredible teams. I always joke if you look at my LinkedIn, it’s like Pokemon - gotta catch em all.

But something was always missing.

I wanted to build. I wanted to break things and make them better. But every time, I found myself back in a structured environment where innovation felt limited. Friends told me I should start my own thing, but two things held me back:

1. I had no idea how to monetise what I did best—connecting people.
2. The next shiny job opportunity would come along, and I’d think, maybe this is the one that finally fits.

But after being laid off for the fourth time, I finally asked myself: “What if the universe is trying to tell me something?”

Then, right on cue, Annika called.

📞 November 2022: The call that changed everything

Over eight years ago, I met Annika Manns at an event at King, the makers of Candy Crush. We were both there solo, so I struck up a conversation. As we chatted, she confided in me that she really wanted to meet one of the founders of King, who was also at the event.

So, I took her over and got everyone chatting.

Just to be clear, I didn’t actually know the founders. But Annika didn’t know that. And he didn’t know that I didn’t know her.

It was a simple moment of connection, and I moved on, not thinking much of it.

Fast forward to November 2022, after my fourth redundancy, and out of nowhere, Annika called me.

She had an event coming up and wanted me to go with her and do exactly what I had done years ago—help her meet the right people, guide her networking, and make her feel at ease.

Then she said something that changed everything:

“Can you be my “Professional Wing Woman”.”

It was the missing piece of the puzzle. I had spent years bouncing between jobs, feeling like something was missing. Every role I took on felt like it wasn’t quite the right fit. I had ideas, I wanted to shake things up, but I was always stuck within someone else’s framework.

This was different. This was something I had been doing my whole life—and now someone was telling me it was valuable enough to be a business.

But I still didn’t know what to call it. So, I did what many of us do when we need answers: I turned to ChatGPT.

I typed in: “What is a Professional Wing Woman?”

And that was it. The moment it clicked.

I wasn’t a coach. I wasn’t a consultant.

I was a Wing Woman.

Not in a dating sense, but in a Top Gun sense—assisting a person to hit their target.

🤝 November 2022 - March 2023: The support that made it happen

I was lucky enough to have support from TRR.se and a coach named Chris Bysell Hamrin. She knew I had it in me to run my own business and encouraged me to explore it further. She set me up with five sessions with Lars Hedman, a business coach who helped guide me through the process.

With Lars' direction—and a little help from ChatGPT (thank you!)—Tjena was born.

The next few months were spent getting everything set up: registering the business, figuring out the legal and financial aspects, and getting approved to go through Starta Eget.

Why "Tjena"?

Tjena

(pronounced "shen-ah") is Swedish slang for "Hey!"—a casual, friendly greeting that perfectly captures the essence of what we do. Funny enough, whenever I introduce myself in Swedish conversations, people often think I’m saying

Tjena!

instead of

Shaena.

So when I launched my company, it only made sense to embrace the word. Not only does it sound like my name, but it also represents the art of saying hello—something Wing People excel at. After all, every great connection starts with a simple hej!

🎉 March 2023: The official launch of Tjena

By March 2023, I finally took the leap and launched Tjena as a business. But I didn’t want to just file paperwork and quietly step into this new chapter—I wanted to celebrate it.

So, I threw an event called Unleash Your Inner Artist - a spin on O. Madison Wright's Artball.

I invited friends near and dear to me and told them they had to bring a piece of art they had made themselves. This was human connection at its finest—not everyone knew each other, but they bonded over creativity. It completely shifted the way people interacted and formed connections.

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My piece of art? A blank canvas. The goal was to get everyone who attended to draw a line to how they connected—a symbol of what I was building.

That canvas still sits proudly in my office today.

💡 2023: The first clients & early believers

I started getting business right away, but it was Annsi Krol at Ventla who really got the concept. She saw the potential and we attended multiple events together throughout 2023 like Slush, TechBBQ, and Gothenburg Tech Week to name a few.

These experiences were invaluable. They helped me refine what a Professional Wing Person could really be—not just for individuals, but for event organisers and companies attending events.

There were wins, but also plenty of challenges. Some companies loved the idea but struggled to understand how to integrate a Wing Person into their existing event strategy. I had to experiment, iterate, and find ways to prove the value of what I was doing.

🌐 September 2023-April 2024: Love, loss, and the path to The Wing People Agency

In September 2023, my friend Tammy Lynn Gilmore introduced me to The College of Extraordinary Experiences, which sent me down a digital rabbit hole—straight into the world of Claus Raasted.

In December 2023, life threw me a different challenge. My mom was diagnosed with terminal cancer. I made the difficult but necessary decision to pause my business and move back to Canada to be with her in her final months. From December to April, I stepped away from everything I had built, choosing instead to spend every moment I could with her.

It was a heartbreaking time, but also a powerful reminder of why I do what I do—because human connection is what truly matters.

While I was in Canada with my mom, Claus and I connected, and in early 2024, he became my coach. His insights were invaluable—he saw what I was doing, but more importantly, he saw what I was doing too much of.

I was spreading myself thin, trying to be everything to everyone.

With his coaching, I started to redefine my focus.

In April 2024, on the same day I stood on stage at Women in Tech Sweden, my mom passed away. It was one of the hardest days of my life, but I knew she would have wanted me to keep going. So I did.

Returning to Sweden after that was tough. I had to rebuild momentum, reestablish my business, and figure out how to move forward while carrying grief. But through it all, one thing became clear: Tjena wasn’t just a business—it was something worth fighting for.

And in October 2024, I truly took Claus’s advice to heart—I finally let go of matchmaking services and officially launched The Wing People Agency.

🌐 October 2024: The launch of The Wing People Agency

As Tjena grew, I realised that this role wasn’t just about me. Being a Wing Person is a skill, a mindset, and a profession that more people could step into. But to scale impact, I couldn’t do it alone.

So in October 2024, I launched The Wing People Agency—a collective of trained professionals who help companies and event organisers foster meaningful networking and create high-value event experiences.

📢 The clients who believe in this vision

Since launching, we’ve had the honour of working with some incredible clients who understand the power of strategic networking and human connection. Companies like Deel, Jobylon, Berghs School of Communication, Svenska institutet, Women In Tech Sweden, Gothenburg Tech Week and others, have trusted us to enhance their networking experiences and drive meaningful results at their events.

Each collaboration has reinforced our mission—that when networking is intentional, it doesn’t just feel better, it works better.

Why The Wing People Agency matters

The biggest challenge with professional networking isn't lack of opportunity—it’s lack of intentionality and facilitation. Too many companies attend events without a clear networking strategy. Too many attendees leave events with missed connections. The Wing People Agency changes that.

We work with:

• Event Organisers → Inserting Wing People on the floor to help with facilitations of connections and also designing networking strategies that enhance attendee engagement and increase event ROI.
• Companies with Booths → Ensuring they connect with the right people instead of relying on random foot traffic.
• Companies Attending Without Booths → Helping them network effectively, navigate events, and maximise connections.

This isn’t just a business—it’s a shift in how networking at events works. We’re proving that great networking doesn’t just happen—it’s created.

📢 The Reuters connection

Meanwhile, another game-changing connection was forming.

Back in the summer of 2024, I had been featured in a Skift Meetings white paper commissioned by Cvent about networking. It was just a brief mention, but that’s all it took.

Paula Shillito from Reuters Events read it.

She reached out, curious about what I was doing. That one mention turned into a conversation. That conversation turned into a collaboration. And before I knew it, Reuters became a client.

A single sentence in a report turned into one of my biggest commercial partnerships. Proof that even the smallest connections can lead to massive opportunities.

Here’s what I’m learning as I’m building:

📢 The Wing Person model: A remix on a proven concept

The idea of a Professional Wing Person might sound new, but what we do isn’t. Event organizers want better networking, and companies want to get more out of the events they attend. The problem? Networking often feels random, awkward, or ineffective. That’s where we come in.

Think of Wing People like PR agents, but instead of managing headlines, we manage real-life connections:

• We position our clients in the best light, just like PR pros shape a public image.
• We create the right opportunities, making sure our clients are in the right rooms and conversations—just as PR agents secure media placements to maximize exposure.
• We build long-term relationships, ensuring connections don’t just happen but actually lead somewhere—just like PR pros cultivate ongoing press relationships, not just one-off stories.

Networking at events has been broken for years. We’re not reinventing the wheel—we’re just bringing a PR mindset to an area that desperately needs it.

📢 The future of Wing People

Looking ahead, The Wing People Agency will continue to expand, training and equipping more professionals to become Wing People. We will:

• Grow our team so more events can experience the impact of having Wing People.
• Refine our methodology to create even stronger, data-backed networking strategies.
• Expand internationally, helping businesses around the world leverage Wing People to make meaningful connections.

Networking is about more than just showing up—it’s about showing up with purpose. And as more companies and event organisers realise this, Wing People will become an essential part of every event strategy.

So here’s to the next two years of growth, connection, and proving that networking doesn’t have to be awkward—it can be fun, strategic, and transformative.

And lastly…

Happy anniversary to the best boss in the world—me! 🎉

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