FEATURE STORY FINAL | FALL 2020
Written by: Shayna Sanders
Maija-liisa on stage after a
TEDx event with other
volunteers. (Photo
Credit/Maija-liisa Adams)
Maija-liisa's Speaker Caoch
logo. (Photo Credit/Maija-
liisa Adams)
MAIJA-LIISA ADAMS
REXBURG, Idaho – For years, Maija-liisa Adams has been teaching a skill in Madison
County that most say “can’t be taught”. She has been teaching the art of public speaking,
leaving leaders in her wake.
Now a middle-aged woman, Maija-liisa sat tall in her seat. She was wearing a royal
blue suit jacket, checkered earrings, a 100-watt smile, and not a hair out of place. This
was a woman, a leader, who was ready to take on the world, perhaps even change it. One
individual at a time.
Maija-liisa grew up on a ranch near Ashton, Idaho. She has roots leading across the
ocean, all the way to Finland. Actually, the ranch she grew up on was even named
“Finlandia Ranch”.
Hence, why her name is spelled the way it is: M-A-I-J-A-L-I-I-S-A, the same name of
her Finnish aunt.
 FEATURE STORY FINAL | FALL 2020
Her mother, an avid storyteller, taught Maija-liisa the
fundamentals of public speaking. As a young girl, Maija-
liisa practiced at her church pulpit. From enunciation to
presentation, she weaved her story so it would reach
even the ears of the aged folk sitting on the back row.
Maija-liisa was a success on the Speech and Debate
team in high school. She participated in student politics
and mock legislatures. When she attended Ricks College
to get an Associates in Business, she was Vice President
of Clubs and Organizations.
During this time, Maija-liisa glimpsed an inkling of
what she was going to do for the rest of her life.
“I love to think about ideas,” Maija-liisa said. “I love to
share ideas. I love to talk about it.” That love was
revolutionary and opened a new chapter in her story.
Top photo: Maija-liisa
during our interview in
October 2020. (Photo
Credit/Shayna Sanders)
Photo to the right: Maija-
liisa and other volunteers
applauding after a TEDx
Event. (Photo
Credit/Maija-liisa Adams)
While teaching at a local high school, one of Maija-
liisa’s students introduced her to TED talks.
“As soon as I heard it,” Maija-liisa said, “I was
passionate about it.”
TED, or Technology, Entertainment and Design, has
been inspiring and transforming the human world for
generations through normal individuals who have
incredible ideas. Speech topics range from the most
basic human associations to the vast incredibility of the
galaxy.
According to the National Center for Biotechnology
Information, there are many benefits to watching or
listening to TED talks. For one, they are available to all
members of society and inform the human population
while promoting active involvement from the audience.
In 2009, Simon Sinek presented on TED’s stage, “Start
with Why” and that talk ignited a passion inside of Maija-
liisa.
According to Sinek’s speech, great leaders understand
the “why” of their work, and Maija-liisa was a great
leader.
Maija-liisa started attending events near her,
including one in Idaho Falls, where the committee asked
her to be a speaker-coach for the following year. Then
they asked her to be a speaker-coach in Rexburg.
However, it is what she gets out of the coaching that
makes her passion thrive. Here is a hint: it is not moolah.
 FEATURE STORY FINAL | FALL 2020
BYU-Idaho campus where Maija-liisa teaches and
many students participate in TEDx Rexburg.
(Photo Credit/ Shayna Sanders)
Me enjoying a recorded TED talk at my home in
Willard, Missouri. (Photo Credit/ Shayna Sanders)
Maija-liisa giving her Education Week speech in
the empty I-Center on BYU-I campus. (Photo
Credit/ Maija-liisa Adams)
As a speaker-coach, Maija-liisa works with each
speaker individually. She listens to their message
completely, then offers feedback on how to make the
message briefer and clearer. As Maija-liisa would say,
how to make “something that will resonate with people.”
When something that special is being shared, there is
no room for nervousness.
“If you’re nervous,” Maija-liisa said, “you’re focused on
yourself.”
It is not the hair of the speaker, their colored socks or
lack of that will leave an impact. It is the message and
the way that message is presented.
What determines the success of the event
is the speaker’s performance. That is where Maija-liisa,
the speaker-coach, steps in.
According to Ideas on Stage, being a speaker-coach is
a voluntary position. The TED Program itself is a non-
profit organization privately sponsored by individuals,
organizations or institutions.
“Truthfully for me, it becomes like a part-time job,”
Maija-liisa said. “But, I love it.”
It’s not every day someone is that committed to their
passion and willing to share it. Not just anyone can do
that.
Just like not everyone can be a TED speaker.
Applicants go through a careful selection process that all
starts with a clear, articulate idea. After clearly
communicating that idea, applicants apply it. They
articulate it through their actions and demonstrate,
as Sinek said, the “why” of their idea. If they can
successfully do that, it is an idea worth spreading.
“If someone is a really great speaker but they don’t
have an idea,” Maija-liisa said, “I would much prefer to
have someone with a great idea and then help them feel
a little bit more comfortable on stage.”
Anyone can nominate an applicant to present their
idea on TED’s stage.
“People have lifetimes full of experiences and lessons
they can share to strengthen, encourage and inspire
others,” Peggy Hicks, a public speaking professor on
BYU-Idaho campus, said. “Everyone has something
valuable to share!”
 FEATURE STORY FINAL | FALL 2020

Applicants can range from dumpster divers

to billionaires. Anyone can have a brilliant message
that deserves to be shared, no matter what they
smell like. Sometimes the messiest things can
contain the most beautiful message.
“Our mess sometimes becomes our message, our
pain becomes our purpose,” Maija-liisa said. “And in
that message, we become the messenger.”
Nevertheless, messes are not always fun to
clean up. Since COVID-19 has raged rampant across
the globe, Maija-liisa has found that she has had to
adjust this year.
In March, Maija-liisa was days away from
launching a TEDx event in Rexburg when the
pandemic hit. The event was cancelled.
Maija-liisa sitting in the audience of the Romance
However, even a global pandemic could not theater, helping in a TEDx Rexburg event. (Photo Credit/
stop Maija-liisa. She did not lose hope. She found Maija-liisa Adams)

ways to share her passion with others and is still

making plans for future events.
Through live-stream, audiences from all
over the world can tune into a message that will
resonate with people. Without the audience, there is
no message to be shared. Without the audience,
there is no story worth telling. They are the heroes in
the story.
“We’re a mentor when we’re on the stage,” Maija-
liisa said, “and the heroes are the people in the
audience.” Some people are both.
Maija-liisa did not just want to inspire people, no.
She did not want to say a few great quotes and call it
good. She wanted to do something bigger than that.
“Just hearing something that gives us a good
feeling doesn’t really transform us,” she said. “So, I People of all ages enjoy TED events. (Photo Credit/Flikr)

would love to spend more time trying to find ways
that the message will pierce people and they’ll
be excited and see ‘this is possible’ to make this
change.”
Change starts with education and it begins
in the audience. With ages ranging from nine to 99,
many enjoy viewing TED talks.
“I choose to watch TED talks,” Corrienne Thedell,
an undergraduate student at BYU said. “It doesn’t
really benefit my formal education, but it benefits me
personally.”
TED talks themselves do not change people, but
they can include messages that motivate action,
which is exactly what Maija-liisa aims to do. And boy, does
she aim high.
She may have grown up in the dirt hills of Idaho, but the
world is her stage and she owns it. Another thing, she invites
all to join her.
Maija-liisa is the change she wants to see in the world. All
who meet her are inspired and motivated to make something
better of themselves because that is the way she lives.
Like her mother before her, Maija-liisa is a storyteller. She
leaves a little advice for all of us as she continues to teach
that which cannot be taught:
“Be authentic. Don’t be afraid to tell your story.” And don’t
we all have a story worth telling?