Get to Know Lina Johansson in Motillo Growth Team 🚀

Jakob Twedmark

CEO

Many dialects and accents are represented at Motillo. Dalecarlian, Norwegian, Östgöta dialect, Danish, English, and the Munkfors dialect can be heard throughout the day — and Lina Johansson is responsible for the latter. It's been a long time since she lived in Munkfors and a lot has happened since she moved away 20 years ago, but the dialect — that's still there.

From a small industrial town to the big apple

Lina was born in the lovely spring of 1983 and grew up with her parents and two sisters in the industrial town of Munkfors, 60 kilometres north of Karlstad.
– I think my upbringing was fairly typical for a smaller community. Most people my age were into sports, and I got into football and floorball — I also took dance classes for a few years. We had a tight group of friends who hung out a lot at the town centre (in Munkfors it's called "på") or the youth club. We used to cycle around town and get up to more or less innocent mischief. It was a fun time, says Lina.

During her childhood, Lina didn't think much about the future and had no clear career dreams. The focus was on what was happening in the here and now.
– What I liked most in school was writing, so I chose to study social sciences with a media focus at upper secondary school in Hagfors — I figured I could become a journalist or something similar. When it was time to graduate, however, I had no idea what I wanted to do, so I went to the US to be an au pair for a year. The family lived 40 minutes outside New York, and it was incredibly luxurious to have access to everything a city that big can offer. Quite a contrast to Munkfors, you could say, Lina notes.

World Championships but not a world champion

After returning from the US, Lina was no clearer about what she wanted to do career-wise. Over the following years she worked in healthcare, completed a bartending course in London, worked in telesales, and spent a season on the island of Hitra outside Trondheim cleaning crabs:
– When I came home from Norway I got a job at Stadium — where I also worked with Malin and Victor, incidentally — and stayed in retail for just over 8 years. I liked rearranging and styling mannequins, so I eventually became a VM, visual merchandiser, and worked at H&M, Gina Tricot, and Åhléns, among others.

"I like it when things happen — and they do!"

During the time I've been at Motillo so far, an incredible amount has happened! We've moved to beautiful new premises, had a fantastic 10th anniversary celebration, and been named a DI Gazelle. It's incredibly exciting to be part of the journey this company is on!

Jumping on whatever train was passing

When Lina was 32 and had just finished parental leave with her second child, it was time for something new. The idea of perhaps becoming a journalist had stayed with her, and she started studying Communication and PR at Karlstad University.
– It was really fun to start studying at that age. I had tried many different jobs and workplaces and felt ready to take the next step. The study years went by quickly, but it was at times quite tough having a 4-year-old and a 1-year-old alongside exams and essays. I didn't exactly live the typical student life with freshers' events and all that — it was more focus on studies and some work on the side. Ironically, "Journalistic Writing" was the course I performed worst in, so I set that aside, says Lina, laughing.

After graduating, Lina got a temporary position as a marketing assistant at Special-Elektronik. Nine months later she started working at Act Mediebyrå, a Karlstad-based media agency focused on digital advertising:
– I had no experience working with advertising tools before I started at Act. I learned an incredible amount about strategy and marketing during my time there. I didn't have any particular plan to work with digital advertising, but it just happened that way, and it turned out I liked it — a lot, says Lina. I realise I haven't had a plan for anything in my life, but so far it's worked out well anyway, she continues.

Clichéd but true

Fast forward just over three years to August 2022, and Lina joins Motillo — specifically the Motillo Growth Team. Today she works primarily with Paid Social, i.e. advertising on social media, as well as search engine marketing for several of Motillo's e-commerce clients:
– My role suits me very well. I like having clients in different industries and enjoy working closely with customers. We also work well together as a team — we draw on each other's knowledge and develop together. Because we work with e-commerce, we work with measurable results — the goal is to generate as many purchases as possible. I enjoy diving deep into numbers and customer behaviour to drive more conversions.

What about Motillo as a whole — what's it like as a company?

– Now I'll try not to say something others have already said, but that'll be difficult. I'm ridiculously happy here and it's an environment that is permissive, developmental, and — clichéd as it sounds — open and non-hierarchical. There's no prestige and it's generous, I like that. And I get to laugh a lot, both at and with my colleagues — that's important, says Lina.

In your free time — what do you get up to?

– I spend a lot of time with my kids Sigge and Poppy, of course. When they're at their dad's every other week, I try to socialise with friends and the rest of the family, pursue my favourite activity which is going to gigs, or continue with the ongoing renovation of my terraced house in Kroppkärr. I like working on the house, whether it's renovating or rearranging furniture, so it's more of a hobby than a chore, Lina concludes.