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SPEAKER_06: Hello, from Wonder Media Network, I'm Jenny Kaplan, and this is Encyclopedia Wamanica. This bonus episode is brought to you by Mercedes-Benz. Every Saturday this month, we are sharing the stories of women who excel in their fields and strive to push their industries forward. Today, we're highlighting two Mercedes-Benz brand ambassadors. These women are at the top of their careers. We're talking about actor Madelaine Petsch and tennis star Sloane Stephens. First up, meet Madelaine Petsch. Madelaine currently stars as Cheryl Blossom, the resident Queen Bee on the CW series Riverdale. For many of us, it takes years to figure out what we wanna do in life. But Madelaine knew what she wanted to do from an early age.
SPEAKER_07: I think the first time I was ever on stage, I was maybe four or five years old, and from that moment on, I just knew it was all I could do. Like, performing gave me such a sense of purpose and, like, the joy that people had and got from watching me entertain them in theater or in dance or whatever it was just was where I belong, and I knew that at probably five or six.
SPEAKER_06: Madelaine learned the value of hard work early on. Her family runs a business out of their home. This entrepreneurial spirit and a real passion for her work set Madelaine up for success. Even so, her big break came right as she was wondering if it was time to call it quits on acting. Three years after her first audition in LA, she was working nonstop to try to make her dreams a reality.
SPEAKER_07: I had auditioned so much that month, and I was working three jobs to pay my rent, and it was literally the day before I got the call that I actually booked it. I was still in the process of being cast for it, and I looked at my roommate, and I was like, I just don't know. Like, this is so hard. I mean, the rejection and all the steps you have to get through, and I was having a really low moment, and then the next day I got the call that I booked Riverdale, which I think is most of my friends' stories. Like, right when they're on that precipice of, like, can I continue doing this for the rest of my life? They get that big break.
SPEAKER_06: Tennis star and Olympian Sloane Stephens didn't know what she wanted to do quite as early as Madeleine did. Sloane entered the competitive tennis world as a teenager and rose through the ranks to achieve a career-best ranking of number three in the world after Wimbledon in 2018.
SPEAKER_05: I started playing tennis when I was nine. I lived across the street from a club, and I started playing summer camps. I really enjoyed it, so I continued to play, and my first experience was really fun, and that's how I got started.
SPEAKER_06: Sloane began competing at the age of 13. While others she was playing against had more experience on the court, that didn't deter Sloane. Instead, it encouraged her to keep what she was doing in perspective.
SPEAKER_05: Well, there was girls that had started playing tournaments when they were, like, six and seven, so I was very far behind everyone else that I was playing and competing against, so for me, I was like, OK, I'm already behind. I might as well just have fun and enjoy myself. It was more of just to have fun, not really like, oh, my God, I have to be super competitive, because I was already five years behind a lot of the other people that I was playing against.
SPEAKER_06: Though she may have started out behind, she jumped ahead to achieve great success. She went professional, won the US Open, won the Fed Cup, and played in the Olympics for the US team alongside Venus and Serena Williams and Madison Keys. She also made time to give back and started a foundation to help introduce kids to the sport. Still, tennis is a game of many wins and losses. Just like with acting, the path to success is not always linear. Sloane says it's vital to zoom out and look at the wider perspective when dealing with the ups and downs of professional tennis.
SPEAKER_05: The most important thing is you have to realize every week that there's a tournament. So there can only be one winner at the end of each week, statistic-wise, and it's not going to be you every time, and understanding that you just literally have to give it your all, do the best you absolutely can, and understand that competition is competition. You might play someone that's playing better than you that day, and you do everything you can, but you still might come up short, and that's just what sport is. And I think understanding the bigger picture of when you want to have your best results or when you want to peak at tournaments, things like that will help you understand, OK, I had a loss, but what can I do to get better?
SPEAKER_06: Like Madelaine, Sloane is driven to keep forging her path by a love and passion for what she's doing.
SPEAKER_05: I love to compete, and I love to play, and tennis has given me so much of my life, and I've gotten to meet so many cool people and do so many awesome things and travel. Madelaine and Sloane have something else in common.
SPEAKER_06: They're both Mercedes-Benz ambassadors. For each of these women, their love for the brand started in childhood. As they've gotten to know Mercedes-Benz as adults, that love has deepened due to shared values. Here's Madelaine.
SPEAKER_07: I've been a fan of Mercedes cars since I can remember. I mean, they're such a beautiful car. They're so well made, and it's also such an elevated brand. I was really honored that they would want to work with me. And they work with ambassadors all over the world that are in all walks of life, and I really like the values the company has. And I remember the first initiative they wanted me to be a part of was this No Limit story, which is about a bunch of young girls talking about gender roles in toys. And I just thought it was so cool and groundbreaking for such a large behemoth of a company to be tackling these kinds of stories, and that's something I've seen throughout I believe two years now that I've been working with them, is that they really champion women and strong stories and hard work and perseverance and breaking barriers.
SPEAKER_05: Here's Sloan. My mom has always had a Mercedes, and I just always loved their cars. And I thought there's nothing cooler than a black Mercedes. We had a silver convertible, and I was just always like, oh my God, this is so fun, being able to drive down to the beach in Florida, and to have the top down, it was always in my mind, like one day I'm gonna have a Mercedes. For Sloan, the company's values and interests
SPEAKER_06: align with her own.
SPEAKER_05: I think Mercedes-Benz over time, they've been super socially responsible. I think they're very inclusive. They're a huge supporter of American tennis, obviously. So being at the US Open and being able to see Mercedes over the years has also been super cool because everyone wants to go in the little Mercedes-Benz area and look at all the new cars and all the new stuff. I think them being a staple for American tennis has been really positive and something that I think we all Americans can connect to because they have been with the US Open for so long. What they believe in and their standards are always so high and they've always been huge supporters. So it's amazing to be aligned with a brand that you trust and that you recognize and you respect so much because it just gives you that connection.
SPEAKER_06: Madeleine Petsch and Sloan Stevens are stars in their respective fields. Their hard work has already paid off and still their paths continue. Mercedes-Benz and Encyclopedia Wamanica celebrate all those who are driving forward progress. All month, we're talking about women in the driver's seat. For more on why we're doing what we're doing, check out our newsletter, Wamanica Weekly. Follow us on Facebook and Instagram at Encyclopedia Wamanica. Special thanks to Liz Kaplan, my favorite sister and co-creator. Talk to you on Monday.
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