Maria Tedjamulia’s mission is to create experiences that change people’s lives, but it has taken years of schooling, life experiences, and hard work for her to realize this passion.
A self-proclaimed science dork, Maria came to BYU and earned her undergraduate degree in biology teaching. However, well into her undergrad, Maria discovered that her true passion was somewhere in the marketing and business world, so before she graduated, she completed a business management minor. After graduation, Tedjamulia followed her passion and worked for BYU Athletics marketing.
“It was probably one of my favorite jobs I have ever had because my job was essentially to help people have fun at events,” says Tedjamulia. “We planned and executed promotions that won national awards for the university, so that was a great accomplishment as well.”
Her search to pinpoint her passion continued as an MBA student. Her experience at BYU Athletics marketing influenced her decision to return to BYU to earn her MBA and initially focus her studies on leadership development and organizational behavior.
“My biggest challenge at BYU Athletics marketing was helping people understand my vision for a particular project and then trying to lead them towards collectively accomplishing the goal,” says Tedjamulia. “This is why I wanted to study leadership organizational behavior as an MBA. I wanted to improve.”
Tedjamulia expresses that coming back to BYU for her MBA was one of the best decisions she has ever made for many reasons—one being that it helped her on her journey to pinpoint her passion.
A summer internship at Microsoft where she worked on the executive leadership development team taught Tedjamulia that she prefers to be on the strategic and creative side of the business rather than human resources. It wasn’t until she was hired at Ogilvy & Mather a few years later that Tedjamulia finally found a job title that fit her passion.
“I was hired to work on the project management team,” says Tedjamulia. “It was a wonderful experience, but there was a team that worked just down the hallway, and I found myself constantly curious about the projects they were working on. This was the experiential marketing team.”
Tedjamulia had found her niche.
“When I transferred to this team, I found myself thinking, ‘This is it, this is the life,” says Tedjamulia. “I wasn’t counting the hours at work. I was truly passionate about it. This experience definitely helped me focus in on what I wanted to do when I came back for the second year of my MBA.”
Tedjamulia took a sabbatical between the first and second years of her MBA program. During that time, she married her husband, moved to Minnesota, and became a mother, a role that Tedjamulia says has helped her succeed in her academic and business ventures.
“Managing my time during the first year as an MBA was almost more challenging because I was trying to balance my social calendar and networking with my academics,” says Tedjamulia. “However, when I came back to BYU as a mother to finish my degree, I had a much clearer focus, and I was intentional with my time.”
Andrea Monfredi, Tedjamulia’s sister and business partner, observed the character shaping that Tedjamulia underwent when she became a mother. She explains that Tedjamulia had a consciousness about her and a true longing to be with her children as much as possible, which she believes strongly influenced her sister’s decision to become a stay-at-home mother.
“My greatest priority has always been to be at home with my children,” says Tedjamulia. “One important role as a mother, however, is being able to teach my children that the world extends beyond our home and that it is important to serve others. I want my children to grow up knowing that it is possible to make an impact on the world, while also making an impact within the home.”
Since Tedjamulia’s MBA graduation, she has embarked on numerous business endeavors while raising her family.
“My husband Patrick, and I are entrepreneurial at heart,” says Tedjamulia. “After we had gained work experience at companies such as Google, Microsoft, and Facebook, we decided to jump ship from corporate America and start our own company, ProductPeel.”
ProductPeel is a product experience network where users can connect through shared experiences and reviews of products. VideoPeel, which is a branch of ProductPeel, provides businesses with the software tools to collect, manage, and publish authentic customer videos to the right people at scale. Tedj Group Corp. is a consulting firm specializing in strategic experiential marketing and events.
Tedjamulia also helped create the Women of Light Convention with Monfredi. The convention provides a platform for women from different economic, social, and religious backgrounds to come together to connect, inspire, and learn from one another. The first conference was held last year and was extremely successful, with over fifteen hundred women in attendance. This year, a Women of Light podcast was launched in March and they are gearing up for another Women of Light Convention in the near future.
“Maria was an incredible help by materializing and creating the experiences we envisioned and wanted all in attendance to have,” says Monfredi. “This is where we saw the magic happen, when these women had these experiences that were memorable, empowering, and perpetuating. It wouldn’t have been possible without Maria’s help.”
Experiencing life through multiple facets such as motherhood and entrepreneurship has helped Tedjamulia realize that her passion fuels her life’s mission. “It is my goal in this life to create experiences for others that will positively impact and change their lives,” says Tedjamulia. “This is what I hope to do for my family and my community.”
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Writer: Kelly Brunken
