Tássia turned culture shock into a passion-driven venture

Tássia Rebelo took a leap of faith when she moved to Finland and transitioned her successful UX writing career in São Paulo, Brazil, to a remote role. She had already started working from home during the pandemic and the time felt ripe for a change. As her partner was already established in Helsinki's gaming industry, Tássia seized the moment, packed her bags, along with her dog, and headed to Finland.

Initially, the transition was smooth. Tássia arrived in Helsinki in July 2021 and was greeted by the best of Finnish summer. She had left her previous job but was quickly headhunted for a remote role with a Brazilian company. However, as the summer turned into winter, Tássia found herself struggling. The combination of Finland's long winters, lack of close friends and the challenges of remote work led to burnout, prompting her to resign. But Tássia chose to confront her discomfort, visited Lapland and witnessed the magic of the Northern Lights. Soon after, she secured a new job with an American company, and things began to improve.

Yet, as autumn returned, so did the realisation that she still lacked the close social connections she craved. Tássia felt she needed to do something about it and started a social community for immigrant women to provide a space for friendship and support. The initiative soon gained momentum.

Life was back on track for Tássia. She made friends, learned to embrace Finnish winters and started to understand the quirks of the local culture. A year later, Tássia started to think there could be a potential business in running the community she loved. She had always been drawn to entrepreneurship and now saw a chance to build something meaningful. Now, as she develops "Secret Club" into a vibrant community for all women, Tássia is fully embracing life in the city she has grown to love.

I started the community… because I felt I needed to do something or otherwise I didn't know if I would be able to stay here. I wasn't looking for a network but people to hang out with, have a drink, be social and talk about everyday stuff. I felt my work life was suffering because the social aspect of my life was missing.

I created this simple Google form, kind of a mix of an invitation and a survey, and first sent it to the Spouse program [a support programme for international spouses in Finland] and then shared it on my Instagram. Over 50 women replied and shared a lot of things about their lives. They had faced challenges similar to mine, and they needed to talk. That's how the Secret Club started. I messaged those people, booked a table in a cafe and people showed up. We didn't know each other, but I made lasting friends that very first day.

It was a social thing,it wasn't about becoming a business or anything like that. It helped me. After a year, I had many friends and started feeling I didn't need to run the community anymore. But something was still off with my career, so I quit my job again and did some freelance gigs.

I’ve always wanted to become… an entrepreneur. In Brazil, finding a job was easy for me, and I always worked in companies. But I also feel that at some point, we can't run from what we are supposed to do anymore.

I knew about the Spark Academy, applied there and was accepted. I had interviewed for some jobs, but when I started at Spark, things really clicked. I had a different idea then, I was thinking about a creative space for workshops, but I knew I wanted to be an entrepreneur and build stuff.

We had so many classes on branding and brand personas, and I often used the Secret Club as my case example. At some point, I saw in my notebooks that I may have something here. I was pretending it didn't exist, but people told me that I was doing something meaningful to people and that I should turn the Secret Club into a company. At first, I thought, don't touch my community, I didn't want money involved in it. But then I realised if I really like this idea and want to help people struggling with similar things, I need to make [the community] feasible, which requires money. That’s how I started turning it into a business.

I’m super passionate… about doing everything for the community. [Secret Club] touches all my skills, I'm able to do all the things I like. Most of the time, I write, but I also draw things on my iPad. Sometimes I'm creating something that feels, at least to me, entirely out of the box. Now we are planning a sleepover party at a hotel. Before, I was gathering people in a cafe, now I'm creating more tailored events. It's like a playground for adults.

We also do things to learn more about Finnish culture. For example, we went mushroom foraging.

The amazing thing I’ve found in Finland… is all the many programmes that help people create businesses. It's a fertile place to develop new things. I now feel that I'm in the perfect space to build my career in a way that matches my skills and lifestyle.

For some reason, when I came here for the very first time, I felt that people could do and be whatever they wanted here. It could be that the country's structure provides you with something so you can dream and not just survive. Of course, as an adult, you also have responsibilities and bills to pay, so you always need to take that into account.

There are a couple of things you need to consider… if you want to turn your passion into something profitable. First, pay attention to your passions. Some people don't even know what they can do, so you need to take the first step and start doing what you love. Don't judge whatever it is. For a while, I bought craft stuff, like paints and materials, and played with them like a kid. And now what I'm doing with the Secret Club connects with what I was doing then. So, do silly things.

Second, you don't have to have a brand or anything to start something. It can start with a message on WhatsApp. Sometimes, all you need is feedback from one person. It doesn't have to be an MVP [minimum viable product] or anything like that: just start doing things. You'll learn from that. It's not only about a product or a service, it's about you and how you feel about whatever you are doing.

Also, you need to have some savings or someone to support you. I have an MBA in business innovation, so I know a lot about business, which has helped.

There is a [Secret Club] testimonial… that is kind of tattooed in my mind. It's like someone translated into words what I was feeling. They said the Secret Club helps them to create their own circles. So you don't feel like you came to Finland to be part of something else, a company or a spouse, but you have your things and your people. It makes the community special for immigrants because we need our friends and circles to feel we belong here.

The name Secret Club,… started as a kind of my own internal joke. I had this feeling that people here hang out in these secret clubs that they created with their old friends or family, and I'm not invited. People don't really mix friends from different circles. At some point I was like, I'm going to break that, I'll create my own secret club and invite everyone. I used the name as a placeholder in different places, and then it kind of stuck. Now, it feels perfect.

We have more Finnish women joining… and I've been learning about the other side of finding friends as an adult. Initially, I approached the idea only from my perspective because I'm an immigrant and didn't have friends here when I came. Now what I see is that sometimes people have friends from school, their own secret club, but then they move to another city and don't know anyone there. Their lives change, and they become interested in different things than before and want to find people who fit their new lifestyle.

I didn't plan the community to be only for internationals, it just happened at the start. We have people from over 20 countries. Today, it isn't about being international but about being a woman looking for friendship.

The entire environment here felt so different… when I moved. I didn't know how to dress for winter. My husband told me you just need a coat, and that's it. I was like, "One coat? You don't know me". I had long hair and cut it super short because I couldn't handle the hair, scarves, and cold. I thought something needed to go, so I cut my hair.

I didn't know the practical stuff, like how to go outside when it's -5 or -10 degrees. In Brazil, if it's a colder day, you just stay inside and ignore that one day. Here that isn't possible. My dog saved me, I brought her with me from Brazil, since I had to take her out for walks. She is old and calm and likes the winter.

All the practical stuff was occupying a lot of my attention. Even when I was going somewhere, a new place, I didn't know exactly how to behave. So you are paying attention to everything you say and can't relax.

Now I love living… in Helsinki. It's tiny [compared to São Paulo], safe and it's easy to go from one place to another. Nowadays, I think Helsinki is the perfect city.

Winters are fine as well. I've learned all these things like how to make my home cosy and nice in the winter. The hardest part was to figure out all these things that people here have been doing forever, but they don't tell you because it's so obvious to them, and they don't even think about it.

In Brazil, it's always summer, bright and light, and there is maybe one day of winter. But now I like the changes [in the seasons]. At the end of this summer, I was already waiting for autumn to come and the colours to change. I love paying attention to the colours [in nature].

I really like it here. I just needed to figure out how things work, because if you aren’t adapted to the way of life, then you’ll leave.

I love this thing about having… a winter hobby. I really like needle felting. I always wanted to try it in Brazil, but for some reason, I didn't. Here, it's kind of a winter hobby. Every winter I come up with something new.

And my lifesaver is hot yoga. It’s something that has really helped me to cope with winters.