In this Business Blast podcast episode, host Tyler Wagner interviews serial entrepreneur Madeleine Wenthzel, founder of agirlcancope.com, a beauty‑focused platform that promotes self‑love. Madeleine shares a formative personal story about moving from Stockholm to Los Angeles after being inspired by a Red Hot Chili Peppers lyric, emphasizing the lesson “don’t take no for an answer” and the resourcefulness required to achieve big dreams. She discusses the ethical responsibility of influence in the beauty and digital media space, urging creators to uplift rather than diminish their audience. Her core business advice is to “start now” and avoid procrastination, while her advice to her younger self centers on patience and trusting the entrepreneurial process. On happiness, she highlights gratitude as a counterbalance to perpetual ambition. Madeleine recommends the book Self‑Leadership and the One Minute Manager, explaining how its metaphor of an elephant with a peg helped her overcome self‑doubt after a failed venture. She shares a favorite quote—“Never let success get to your head. Never let failure get to your heart”—attributed to Beyoncé. The episode concludes with her Instagram handle @agirlcancope for listeners to connect.
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All right, everyone, welcome back to another episode of the Business Blast podcast. I'm your host, Tyler Wagner. Today I have Madeline Wenzel with us. She is a self-proclaimed serial entrepreneur who is launching her latest project. It's a website called agirlcancope.com where she shares beautifying techniques that focus on self-love. So welcome to the show.
Thank you. Happy to be here.
Grateful to have you on. Um, so the first one we ask on this show is what is the best story from your life that has an underlying valuable message?
Okay. Um, not a small question, but, um, right in. Well, I think that a story that really shaped my life is, uh, when I was 13, I was living in Stockholm, Sweden, and I, spent a summer listening to the Red Hot Chili Peppers album, and on Californication, one of the first verses they sing, "And little girls from Sweden dream of silver screen," quotations. I didn't even know what that meant, but in that moment I decided I have to live in America. So I was 13 years old, I told my parents and my friends that I was gonna move to America, and Nobody believed me. And there was— that just sounded like an impossible thing to do. But 5 years later, I was attending college in LA. So I managed to do that. So once I got to LA, everyone told me that there was no way I was going to be able to stay in America. There was no way I was going to open a business here. And 15 years later, I'm still here. So I think The moral of that story is basically, well, don't take no for an answer. But also the fact that I got all those nos, it made me very resourceful in how to achieve my dreams and kind of putting it on my own shoulders that if I wanted something or if I wanted to get to the next level, I really had to bring it myself. So it was very valuable and I think really meant something for my life.
Absolutely. And the Red Hot Chili Peppers, great band. That's another lesson there. Great music right there. Inspirational, inspirational music. Um, love it. Um, so the next one I got for you is, what is the most valuable piece of information we should know that's within your expertise or industry?
So if my— if we say my industry is beauty and digital media and kind of in that sense, I would say that something that's becoming more and more important that I'm really appreciating is the kind— is that influencing, if we use that word, is truly a responsibility. I think that when we take on the role, whether it's as a brand or as a person to influence people in their purchases and so on, it goes deeper than that. So I think it's important to think of it as How are we affecting people? Are we encouraging them in a positive way? Are we teaching them anything? And I think it's important to stand out, but it's more important that when people have been in touch with you or your brand, that they leave feeling better and, you know, in a positive way rather than feeling worse about themselves.
Absolutely. Yeah, couldn't agree more. And then it could tie in, but what's your best piece of overall business advice? So not necessarily industry specific.
Start now. Don't procrastinate. Start wherever you are. It's not about having more money, more time. It's just about starting. And then from where you are, the rest will kind of— you'll figure it out as you go. I think there are no excuses. If you have a great idea, just start, and maybe it won't be a great idea later, but for now, just start. That's what I would say.
Yeah, I agree. I mean, build the plane while you fly it, in a sense, right? That's, that's—
It's scary, but—
Yeah, absolutely. Oh yeah, a plane without wings, that's scary, man. So next one I got for you: if you could give your younger self one piece of advice, what would that be?
To be patient. I think that we all, more now than maybe when I was younger, is we see the highlight reel of everyone's success or, you know, assumed success, and we're very impatient in how to get there. But there is a process, and I think that it's really important to follow that process and have faith that in the end, you know, you will get yours, but to be patient in that and don't be so hard on yourself. If you are an entrepreneur at heart, you are going to be hard on yourself.
Mm-hmm.
Yourself up really is a waste of time in many ways. And also I would have told myself that it only gets better because I think I needed to hear that when I was younger.
And so perfect lead way. So the next one, it's kind of going down a different path. In your opinion, what is the key to happiness?
I'd say the short answer is gratitude. But the longer answer for entrepreneurs that tend to always want the next bigger, better thing and kind of living half in the future, I think balancing dissatisfaction and wanting something better with gratitude, that I think will Finding that balance is what will bring happiness because as entrepreneurs, we tend not to just be okay with just being happy with only what we have because then there's no strive for the next. So I would say finding that balance is important and being grateful for what you have already achieved as well as the little things that we don't control, like being able to breathe.
That's a good— I think it— I think there is a balance. I, I totally agree, like being happy with the present moment and what you have, being grateful for it, but at the same time having goals and going after them. Um, a balance. And I agree too with entrepreneurs, like we can be very tough on ourselves. Um, just the way it is. So, um, the next one, because I'm sure you've read a good amount of books, um, what is the best book that you've read and what's the number one thing you learned from it?
So many great books. I would say one that was super fast read and very easy that really helped me was, um, I— the Self Leadership and the One Minute Manager. I highly recommend it, especially for entrepreneurs. I have always started businesses since I was a kid. It's what I love. And then for some reason, some years ago, one of my businesses failed, and I took it very hard. So I decided I was never going to start a business ever again, and I pursued a corporate career. And while grinding away, someone gave me this book as a little wake-up call. And the part that really got to me was about how— well, it was the elephant with the little peg. I'm sure we've heard of it. So the elephant is attached with a little peg. And the point of the story is that we tend to— when there's something we don't like, we try to fix it for a short amount of time and then we just give up. And I think we're very limited by our own beliefs. So that book really opened up my eyes to the fact that I was only limited by my self-doubt. And I, my business actually was not a failure. I learned a ton from that business. It just wasn't the right business at the right time. And I hadn't thought all the things through, but I learned so much from it. So from that, I started I quit my corporate job and then started yet another business. So that book was very meaningful for me.
Well, I'm glad you started another business because that's— you're meant to be in the entrepreneurship. I like it. And then what is your favorite quote and why?
Never let success get to your head. Never let failure get to your heart.
Oh, that's good. I haven't heard that one. Okay.
I think it's been said by a lot of people, but I heard it from Beyoncé.
Well, no, I've heard like, you know, never let success get to your head, but I've never heard it all together with never let failure get to your heart as well. So I like together. That's awesome. I like that.
Yeah.
So thank you for coming on. The last one I got for you, where can our listeners— I know agirlcancope.com, but is there Instagram or like, where's the best place to connect with you and stuff?
Yeah, Instagram is great. I love talking to people on Instagram. So Instagram is agirlcancope as well. You can just drop a line, send me a DM, or there's also all the other ways of contacting me through there. So that's a good one.
