Beyond The Lens: Recent Episodes
Marlana Semenza
My entire photography career, I have approached image creation the same way...by asking 'what's the story?' Everyone has a story. But, I have found that there is often more to a story than what lies on the surface. A story beyond the lens of what we think we see or know.
It is these stories I tell in images. It is these stories that you will also find here. People we know, news we have seen, situations we think we understand. But, do we? Our stories shape who we are and when told can be a powerful part of our personal brand. We can also inspire others by the lessons we've learned and draw the cords that unite us all a little tighter.
Join me as we take a look Beyond The Lens.
Hans Struzyna talks about training for and competing in the 2016 Olympics in Rio and the after effects of the results of that competition. He also talks about how all of his experiences and training give him an advantage in his new career and the importance of relinquishing control of the things you can’t control. ‘I grew up in the Seattle area and that’s one of the hubs of rowing.’ ‘The way that I generally viewed my rowing career was trying to make the next jump.’ ‘You have a group that need to gel and become greater than the sum of their parts.’ ‘It’s very individualized up until then, then it becomes how does this group of 8 rowers come together to be a team when just a month or two before they were trying to beat each other.’ ‘You have to get invited or qualify to be part of that training center or you can go to the trials.’ ‘There were three boats within a quarter of a second of each other.’ ‘In international competition…once everyone is locked in and ready, they go through the lane progression…in international competition, it’s country names. It has a different gravity to it.’ ‘It’s quiet. There’s no sound. The red light turns to green and it’s like an explosion happens.’ ‘When you’re in the Olympic Village, you’re surrounded by people that are at the same level as you in their given sport and everyone is just trying to act normal.’ ‘It’s pretty spartan and boring until you go to compete because you are looking for those 1/10 of a percent advantages.’ ‘I could barely let anything or anyone in because I was focused on this thing.’ ‘There is an overwhelming sadness and disappointment along with that relief that is hard to describe.' ‘It took me a long time to get to the point where that result did not need to define my whole 12 year career…but for a long time I saw that as a total failure.’ ‘Personally, I never conceptualized September of 2016 hitting the calendar, because everything was building to August ’16.’ ‘When your identity was tied up in your performance…and you do what you perceive as a failure, that rattled me to my core.’ ‘I have since learned I have a lot of offer.’ ‘I’ve decided what the experience meant to me and I’m not letting it be defined by the results of 5.5 minutes of competition.’ ‘I’ve traveled to 30 countries and competed in many of them, I’ve lived in all different parts of this country, I’ve met some amazing people and built some unbelievable relationships. I was the best man in the wedding of a guy from Serbia…when would that have ever happened?’ ‘You have to be willing to accept all of the amazing stuff that happens even if the one goal at the end you don’t realize because the journey along the way was awesome.’ website: www.hansstruzyna.com instagram: chiefsnah podcast: Another Way To Play
Landon Turner had a vision of success that meant one thing. Playing in the NFL. He achieved that, but sometimes things do not work out the way we want them to. Here he talks about the changing face of success and the mental shifts it requires. “I think I knew I wanted to play football before I can remember.” “When I could start walking and running, I was about a year old and I had this pastime where I would tackle my mom. My grandmother would hear me coming and have to warn my mom.” “I started playing contact football when I was 7.” “I always enjoyed the competition from a high level, the warrior mentality, the camaraderie, the us and ours vs you and yours…the easy answer is I just love hitting people.” “I did not get drafted, but I did get signed by the New Orleans Saints.” “There are a lot of years of football and a lot of really cool experiences. Most of the favorites that come to mind are the things done off the field with my teammates.” “Those table side conversations were really cool. You got to hear a lot of stories. Those were some of my favorite moments.” “No one had noticed the four buses pulling up…we all went to the movie theater in football pants, cleats, shoulder pads…” “I would be remiss not to mention running out of the tunnel in the Superdome." “I say this out of pure gratefulness. I never let myself take anything for granted. Maybe its because I was un-drafted, but mostly because I try to have a heart of gratitude and thankfulness.” “I’m going to absorb every little thing about this moment that I can.” “Success looked like ‘Am I playing football? Am I on a team? Am I getting on the field or not?’ My success was rooted very much in how often am I ‘in’ and how am I stacking up to others around me?” "I do get frustrated with a reduced over-simplified approach to success. My belief and my experience says it’s a very incomplete picture. I did everything that I needed to do and then some. The reality in life is there are going to be times when you did everything you could, you put your mind to it as hard as you could and you’re just not going to make it.” “If I keep pushing, what about the other things in my life?” “I think you should approach it with that invincible attitude but temper it with wisdom and reality of if I don’t make it it doesn’t mean it’s the end all be all.” “There are so many doors out there.” “The root of that whole issue is identity. I had to shift my mentality to the fact that I can be successful at more than football.” “Success now is more fluid. It looks like ‘what’s the next things that I want to do?’ and I will be great at that until I decide on the next thing. Then I will be successful at that. Not settling, but flexible.” “I have a more grounded view of what success is.” “Chase everything down as fervently as possible. Approach it like you cannot be stopped, like you are invincible in those moments that it matters. Life is not guaranteed. Keep chasing your dreams with the same passion but don’t let it consume you take a step back and enjoy everything.” www.marlanasemenza.com
Zach Benson talks about his love of dance, traveling the world, the letter R, why hearing 'No' is a good thing and building an empire with Assistagram. I was born in Korea, adopted and grew up in Iowa. I got teased, made fun of and couldn’t say the letter R. I didn’t talk to anyone or participate in class. I did got really bad grades, was always getting in trouble and my parents thought I was going to be a juvenile delinquent. I was a very quiet, shy guy. I was afraid of being made fun of or saying something wrong. Your voice matters and your ideas and opinions need to be heard. I was gifted this break dance cd. I watched the dvd and fell in love with it and eventually made it to 'So You Think You Can Dance'. It was a way for me to express myself. 200 dancers, each gets 20-30 seconds to dance. We drove 6 hours to get there. They never called our names. So I ran out on stage in front of everybody and said 'Wait! I haven’t danced. I just want to dance.’ I was so glad that I put myself out there to do something I’ve been training so hard to do. I just try to do things that I’m scared about and see what happens. The more times that you hear ‘no’, it’s somebody challenging you. The more times you hear ‘no’ the closer you will be to achieving something really great and achieving true success. Dance has taken me to 50 countries, orphanages, schools, I’ve danced on the sand in Morocco, taught a national dance competition in Grape Vine, Texas, it’s been really fun. I hurt my back in India and was never able to dance again. Do you have a back up plan? You have to have a plan B. With no plan B I became depressed and I was lost. I didn’t know what to do. Same guy that got me into dancing said I have a great new opportunity for you. So, with my last bit of money, I invested in an instagram account. Fast forward, today we have a huge empire. I think life is all about people. How you treat people and serve people and give people amazing experiences. It’s a lot of fun. I lived on $2 a day, found my birth mom, became a personal trainer, pursued dance, I became a residential advisor or a Christian school in Korea, and on the side I was growing Assistagram. We pair up our clients with similar content and get them to shout out your account. It’s a slow and steady approach. Everybody is important and everybody has something special inside. Entrepreneurship is a lonely road..you can hear ‘nos’ and haters and people that try and bring you down but know that it’s all worth it in the end. Put your head down, seek advice, work on your craft….stay humble, stay hungry and keep learning every single day. One day you will look up and be like “Wow. I made it.”
'The Genius' Lanny Poffo talks about his career in professional wrestling with WWF/WWE, poetry and his famous brother 'Macho Man' Randy Savage. (Did you know Randy didn't want to go in the Hall of Fame?) "Actually, I wanted to be a baseball player. But I couldn't run, hit, field, throw or think. So, it was either go on welfare or become a wrestler." "Randy really helped me because he was really OCD on every little minutia of wrestling." "Many years ago, he wasn't good at interviews. That was the missing piece of the puzzle." (The evolution of 'Oh Yeah') "He was the alpha, but he was always on my team. I wouldn't have gotten as far as I got if it wasn't for him." "He thought you were like a shoplifter if they charged money at the door and you didn't give them the whole experience." "We did 6 vignettes and then all of a sudden 'The Genius' was born." "The bad part is the travel, the good part is...you get to Travel." "I was lucky enough to have met Shel Silverstein...about an hour into dinner I realized who he was." "I thought you were a smart guy but I guess I need to reclassify you. We have freedom of speech. SPEAK!" "You gotta stand for something or you'll fall for anything. Don't worry about being an odd-ball because that's the best thing about you." "My 59th Birthday I realized I had done something Randy had never done." "I took more than I gave from the business and I took more than I gave from life. I'm very lucky." www.beyondthelenspodcast.com
Ryan Miller tells us his first hand account of the events from the Route 91 Harvest Music Festival in Las Vegas, NV when a gunman opened fire on concertgoers. He tells us about his friend who was one of the 58 killed that day. He also tells us how the events affected him and what he learned from them. "In the middle of the final set we heard some noises that we thought were firecrackers." "One of our good friends was one of the 58 that was killed…my wife noticed our friend was bleeding…My one friend stayed out over the top of her for quite a while longer." "The whole entire city felt like darkness." "I know there are people that are still having a hard time getting out of their house." "An 8th of an inch. I mean we are talking millimeters and my life is so different" "Taking the time to understand people has become a big big passion of mine. even the man who took all those lives…at some point he was a human being." "Seek joy…Find joy in even the smallest moments." Ryan is a coach for high performers, helping them to achieve all that they want out of life and business as well as a consultant to industry leaders, creating strategic sales and marketing plans, developing leaders, and ensuring great culture. He also host The Exsellence Mindset podcast. www.ryanjamesmiller.com www.linkedin.com/in/rjmsalespro www.marlanasemenza.com www.beyondthelenspodcast.com
Speaker and team builder, Stephanie Hester made her living getting on stage in front of large groups of people. That is, until her past caught up with her and she found herself in her closet sitting on her hands so she would not pull out her own hair. This is a story about coming to terms with abuse, and moving past it to a place where you not only learn to survive, but you learn to thrive. "I was around 6 or 7 when the abuse started. It immediately taught me that I had no value. It really robbed me of my voice." "I had such shame and self disgust…I felt so unworthy that I couldn’t interact. It set the stage for those relationships from that point forward." "I constantly felt like I had to prove myself because I had such shame and such self disgust and I felt like when everybody looked at me, that’s what they saw. So, I really wanted to prove them wrong…..But along with that came such fear that if I would succeed at something they are going to find out I’m a fraud." "I literally at one point I was sitting in my closet on my hands because if I let go of my hands I would start pulling out my hair. And I had been making my living as a speaker prior to that and I couldn’t be around people." "I want women to know there’s hope. We take on so much from other people and take on these burdens that aren’t ours. I want them to know that they don’t have to do that. There’s hope." Follow Stephanie: website: www.stephaniehester.com Instagram: https://www.instagram.com/stephaniemhester/ FB Biz Page: https://www.facebook.com/SpeakerStephanieHester/ Follow Marlana: website: www.marlanasemenza.com Instagram: https://www.instagram.com/marlana.semenza.photo/
Michelle Newman was a successful entertainment executive working with networks such as Disney, FOX and CBS and celebrities that included Betty White, Neil Patrick Harris and Sharon Osborne. She was a self-confessed bachelorette and thought she knew exactly what life held for her. That is, until a brain aneurysm changed everything… “I worked in the entertainment industry from Entertainment Tonight to Telepictures, to Extra to Fox, I did an Iron Man, crazy adventure races. I was single, on the fast track with my career. I had just been appointed director of on air promotion at CBS daytime.” “I was that single woman, determined, working on my career to see how far I could go.” “It was a lot about me. I was working and training as hard as I could.” “I had a brain aneurysm watching The Apprentice. It was like a gun shot went off in the back of my head….I was single and home alone in my apartment.” “When they wheeled me into the ICU, there was this nurse who looked like Snow White…At that point I was like ‘Wow. This is it…I’m gonna die.’ And I’ve never felt more peaceful in my life. I felt I had lived 36 awesome years.” “The small things in life, I didn’t think of any of that. It didn’t even come into my brain. When I thought I was going to die, lying in my bed, looking at Snow White, I just felt love and joy and peace.” “I feel like I was given a gift. I was so grateful to see people again. I feel like I was given a second chance.” “Only 2% of people survive what happened to me.” “I met my husband a month later. I don’t think before my accident I would have given him a second look. My priorities changed.” “I am now helping women in their mid life and it’s taken me all the way back to the 6 months that I had after the accident, learning not to sweat the small stuff anymore, learning to be appreciative.” “Life is so precious…slow down and show the gratitude for what you have. Realize we don’t know how much time we have on this earth so the time that we do have, let’s make it worth while.” “I always wind up coming back to gratitude.” To follow Michelle: https://www.thenewmid.com/ Facebook: facebook.com/thenewmid Instagram: @thenewmid YouTube: youtube.com/thenewmid Pinterest: pinterest.com/thenewmid
After suffering a brain injury as a teen, Britini Hester was fortunate to be alive. She was also told that she would never go on to live her dreams, never do the things she had planned and never even graduate high school. She answered all of the 'you can'ts' that were thrown at her with a resounding 'Actually, I Can!'
Jesse Everett talks about her experience on the Discovery Channel's Naked & Afraid. Jesse successfully completed a 21 Day Challenge in Brazil. The episode is called Stalked on the Savannah and it is in two parts.
A woman in the world of aviation is rare. Once that successfully walked away from an accident? Even more rare. Listen as Heather Nicholds tells us how she fell in love with being in the air, the accident that she was fortunate to walk away from and why she will never give up flying.
Learn how Alice Fuller took a chance, and a step backward in her career, to follow a dream to work in Hollywood. She went from being a credited producer in NC to serving breakfast in LA, showing that sometimes it takes humility to find the blessing in situations. But doing that, coupled with knowing who you are, will put you in line for the right opportunities as well as let you know what to walk away from. This episode is a must for anyone starting a career. The pearls of wisdom are wonderful. To contact Alice: https://sheersocial.com https://www.facebook.com/SheerSocial/ To contact Marlana: https://www.marlanasemenza.com
Elyse Archer helps her clients build strong personal brands and become known in their space. She has experience from having to re-build her own. She went from 'known' to 'non-existent' and has forged ahead with purpose and power. If you want to be known in your space, give a listen.
As a photographer, I have had the privilege of hearing and helping tell some amazing stories. I have had incredible conversations with amazing people. This is another way of sharing some of those stories. Beyond The Lens Podcast is a collection of stories that educate, entertain or inspire. This episode does a little of each. Wes Harper is the owner of Lightwire, an IT company in North Carolina. But, you may recognize him from the Discovery Channel show Naked & Afraid where he successfully completed a 21 challenge in Brazil. Here, we talk about that experience and his take-aways. To contact Wes: wes@lightwireinc.com https://lightwireinc.com/ https://www.facebook.com/LightwireRal... To Contact Marlana: https://www.marlanasemenza.com