Michelle partied the night away with her family, friends and fellow beauty queens from across the state including Miss. Ft Walton Beach Teen USA Savannah Tanney, Miss Capital City USA Caitlin Harrison, Miss Coral Gables USA Linette De Los Santos and Miss Hollywood USA Ashli Marie Wright.

During the festivities, we caught up with Michelle to get the latest, as she prepares to head to West for the Miss USA pageant on June 16th. You can read the highlights and listen of our latest CYinterview with Miss Florida USA in its entirety below:

Listen to the entire Miss Florida USA CYInterview:

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Besides all of her preparation to win Miss USA while she is in Las Vegas, Michelle does admit she wants to walk down the strip in Sin City:

“Last year I went to Miss USA to watch the pageant. This year I’ll be on the stage in the pageant and I didn’t really get to know Vegas last time. So this time if I get some down time, I know we’ll be super busy, but hopefully will have some down time and I could just walk the strip and get to know Las Vegas. I want to see what it’s all about.”

In getting ready for Miss USA, Miss Florida tells us there are, at the very minimum, 45 outfits to pack for the entire affair:

“Getting ready for Miss USA, I leave in 12 days [as of Saturday May 18th]. The worst part about it is packing. Oh my gosh, I hate packing and for Vegas it’s two and a half weeks we’re there. So at least minimum I need 45 outfits. You can just imagine this Chris, this is like, I don’t even know what to, I need more suitcases and I don’t even know how I’m gonna travel through the airport. But I mean those 45 outfits are gonna be fabulous, we’re gonna work it, Miss USA here we come.”

Inside Miss Florida USA’s party with her best friend Stephanie Jacques

Michelle has already become a role model as the representative of the Sunshine State. If she wins Miss USA, she will be a role model for the entire country. In focusing on who are her role models, she says past CYInterview guest, Miss USA 2011 Alyssa Campanella [see here] is one of hers:

“Alyssa Campanella is one of my biggest role models. She is so down to earth. And what gets me is she posts about all these deserts and foods that she cooks and bakes and I love that about her and she’s such a sports fan. That’s so me. I’m like, we’ll be best friends. If we lived near each other we’d be totally best friends.”

CYInterviewing Miss Florida USA Michelle Aguirre

Beyond her beauty pageant desires, Miss Florida tells us about her desire to work with children, as a teacher:

“Ever since I was little I wanted to be a teacher and right now I’m studying early childhood education and I just have this passion for kids. Anything that I can do with kids, I would love it. My dream one day is to be a teacher, elementary teacher. And as my reign as Miss Florida USA, I’ve gotten to know kids much and much. Like I know their habits and I know how to talk to them and I just absolutely love them and I got to visit children’s hospitals and you know take them away from whatever treatment they’re getting and I love kids. So hopefully one day I’ll become an elementary education teacher.”

With Michelle Aguirre and her mother Esther Cabrera

People can start voting in for Michelle Aguirre in the Miss USA pageant by going to www.missuniverse.org. The contestant with the highest number of votes will automatically move on the round of 16. Michelle tells us what winning Miss USA would mean to her:

“If I win Miss USA, it’ll mean the world to me, just representing the country at Miss Universe pageant, that would be a dream come true, and being a role model and inspiration to young girls all around the world. I mean I’ve been an inspiration to Florida girls, now I get to be an inspiration to the whole world pretty much and it would mean the absolute world to me and I can’t wait for Miss USA.”

You can follow Miss Florida on Twitter here.

You can follow Miss Florida Michelle Aguirre on Facebook here.

You can find more information about the Academy of Glam at their official website here.

You can email Chris Yandek at ChrisYandek@CYInterview.com

You can follow Chris Yandek on Twitter here.

Please note that Ms. Clara was assisted by Mafe Quintero who interpreted the designer’s responses from Spanish into English for us.

You can read the highlights and listen to the entire CYInterview below:

Listen to the entire Rosa Clara CYInterview:

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Some have called Ms. Clara the Spanish Vera Wang. Her new store on Miami’s Miracle Mile is the first of its kind in America. Back in March she received The Best Designer Award at Miami Fashion Week. Rosa shared with us her thoughts on both subjects:

“They had actually a location open before where they had been selling to department stores, but for the first time opening their boutique here at Miracle Mile in Miami, she feels very proud and very confident that it’s gonna go extremely well. … For her, opening up the store in Miami, plus showing her new collection for 2014 in the U.S. as well as receiving this prize is for her a great dream come true. It’s almost as if you could say it’s the American dream.”

This time of year is considered wedding season for many. For the bride, the gown she wears will be one of the most memorable moments of her life. The designer tells us what makes a great bridal dress:

“She says the great difference between, for a great wedding dress is actually the fabrics. All of the fabrics are, everything is manufactured in Barcelona, but all of the fabrics come from all over Europe, especially Italy and Spain and that’s for her what makes a big difference in the quality of the dress as well as the price.”

CYInterviewing International Designer Rosa Clara

Beyond her brand, Rosa Clara has collaborated with some of the world’s biggest designers including Karl Lagerfield. Lagerfield has worked with everyone from Madonna to Lady Gaga. In speaking about what her contributions to the fashion industry are, Ms. Clara told us this:

“For her, the biggest accomplishment or the biggest contribution to the fashion industry is being one of the top five bridal groups in fashion. That for her, just that’s you know probably the biggest accomplishment there is after only 18 years of being in the industry. So it’s, you know, it’s a big achievement for her.”

In focusing on one of the celebrity clients she has worked with, Rosa designed not one, but three wedding dresses for music star Paulina Rubio. The Spanish designer reflects back on working with Ms. Rubio who has sold a reported 20 million records across the world:

“She says that she was very proud to design Paulina Rubio’s three dresses actually. That you know probably, she thinks that Paulina’s a fantastic woman, a beautiful woman. The only inconvenience that she thought, she found with this was that she had to basically chase her around the world because it was during her tour when they were making the fittings for the dress and Paulina was actually not going to Spain. So that was a little bit of an inconvenience, but apart from that it was an incredible experience for her.”

With Translator Mafe Quintero and Rosa Clara

Rosa Clara’s new boutique is at 365 Miracle Mile
Coral Gables, Florida 33134

You can find out more about Rosa Clara’s fashion at her official website here.

You can follow Rosa Clara on Twitter here.

You can email Chris Yandek at ChrisYandek@CYInterview.com Chris is available for interviews to comment on anything featured on CYInterview.

You can follow Chris Yandek on Twitter here

As a creative professional who works behind the camera, Angelo has found his own way to show compelling pieces of the human experience. He is a superb documentary filmmaker. Now, he desires to move beyond documentaries into that very competitive arena known as Hollywood. Currently, he is focusing on succeeding in feature films.

We spoke with Angelo at his apartment in Manhattan during our recent trip to New York. To learn more about him, you can read the highlights and listen to the entire CYInterview below:

Listen to the entire Angelo Guglielmo CYInterview:

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Speaking about why he wanted to put together projects as a director and producer, Angelo Guglielmo tells us this:

“I always felt like I had a lot of stories to tell and documentaries are a great, great medium for visual storytelling and real stories about the human condition and, of course, now as I’m branching out into narrative feature filmmaking, the documentary medium provides a great, great avenue to develop stories for screenplays. … I don’t really think I’ll be doing a lot more documentaries just because I want to work with actors and I want to have a broader sort of canvas to paint on. … I would love to do a comedy, of course, because my subjects have been serious so far and I would love to do a thriller, a horror film.”

Angelo’s rise to recognition came with his project, The Woman Who Wasn’t There. The documentary was shown last year on the cable channel, Investigation Discovery. The story is about a woman named Tania Head who claimed to be in the Twin Towers on September 11th. Later, she was found not to have been there. Her entire story was made up. For those not familiar with the film or book, Angelo provides us with a synopsis:

“The Woman Who Wasn’t There is a psychological suspense drama about the World Trade Center Survivor’s Network and their former president Tania Head. Now Tania was history’s most prominent 9/11 survivor. She had escaped the unimaginable on September 11th. She had lost her husband, she sustained life altering injuries and you know her suffering was epic in scale. The fact that she had walked out of the towers was a miracle. She approached me, we became good friends. She asked me to do a documentary based on her group. Once we started filming, we realized that she was never in the Twin Towers on September 11th.

She never had a husband named Dave. She never worked for Merrill Lynch. Her entire biography was a compete fabrication. … I learned that insufferably optimistic about people, you know to have a woman sit in front of my camera and not know that she was telling the truth the entire time. To really just hear this story and believe every word of it and not be able to detect that her story was a complete lie really made me think about, you know, how much I believe in people and how the wall between the interviewer and the subject was absent.”

The documentary was produced by Meredith Vieira Productions. Many will recall Ms. Vieira’s work as a host and journalist on The View, The Today Show and 60 Minutes. Angelo says the story of The Woman Who Wasn’t There is now in the process of being made into a feature film. He is currently working on the project with writer and producer Terence Winter. Mr. Winter wrote the screenplay for the upcoming Martin Scorsese film The Wolf of Wall Street. That Scorsese movie has a star studded cast including Leonardo DiCaprio, Matthew McConaughey, Rob Reiner and Jonah Hill.

“Terence Winter, the show runner and creator of Boardwalk Empire and his lovely wife Rachel Winter came to me and they loved the story. So they decided that they wanted to do a feature film version, a narrative feature film version based on the documentary and the book that I authored with Robin Gabey Fisher. So we went into discussions, we broke down the story and we are in the process of creating The Woman Who Wasn’t There as a narrative feature film. … I would love for Claire Daines to play the title role. I would love for Michelle Williams to play the title role. I would love for Scarlett Johansson to play the title role. I think you know the transformation of these very beautiful women into someone who could be part humanitarian and somebody who had a dark, diabolical side I think is fascinating.”

CYInterviewing Angelo Guglielmo

If as if a future feature film for The Woman Who Wasn’t There was not enough, the documentary is also in consideration to be nominated at the upcoming Primetime Emmy Awards:

“I was very flattered because the network [Investigation Discovery] came to me and they wanted to submit it for Emmy consideration. I was flattered that they believed in the project so much. Henry Schleiff and Debbie Gottschalk and Amy Rapp and Meredith Vieira, of course, and everyone who helped me on this film were instrumental in its success and the fact that the network was so enthusiastic about the project was a very, very, you know was the highlight of my career.”

Aside from his work in show business, Angelo claims to be a celebrity party crasher. He tells us one story in which he says he crashed a Madonna party many years ago:

“Well, you know I got off the subway one night and I was passing Roseland on West 52nd street and I saw a mob scene. I mean the line was around the block and I remember they had been waiting out there for days and it was Madonna was releasing a CD and this was the launch party. They were gonna do a live concert performance on everyone’s cell phone, Verizon was sponsoring it, there were you know lines around the block and I just at that moment just said, ‘I wanted to go.’ So I walked right up to the front and I just stared at the guy with the wristbands and then there were three other groupies next to me that were doing the same exact thing.

Now, apparently he had a stack of wristbands but Madonna, they were for Madonna’s guests. He was personally assigned to help Madonna’s guests get in. They went to the wrong door. They went to the door around the block and he got screamed at. So here he was with like 50 wristbands and here were four you know people just staring at him like a lost puppy and he looked like he just had gotten beaten up because he had just gotten screamed at by Madonna and her team and he just came over to us and said, ‘Put out your hands.’ And he badges us all up, and we thanked him and we ran right in. We even got commemorative posters and a bag of swag. So I mean you know the night wasn’t all bad.”

It’s only a matter of time until the author, director and producer gets invited to the big events like the Oscars and Emmys and the party scene that goes with it. But for now, he says he does not make any apologies for his party crashing behavior:

“Who cares if one other person is there, I mean, really you know. And you know I’m such a great addition to any party, so what the heck. I mean it’s, it really just comes from a desire. I just love people. So I, you know if there’s a party, sure. I’m there.”

You can purchase a copy of the book for The Woman Who Wasn’t There here

The Woman Who Wasn’t There is now available on Netflix. You can also purchase and watch the film here.

The Woman Who Wasn’t There is on Facebook here.

You can follow Angelo on Twitter here.

You can email Chris Yandek at ChrisYandek@CYInterview.com

You can follow Chris Yandek on Twitter here.

Former Republican Congressman and House Administration Committee Chairman Bob Ney of Ohio was entangled in the Abramoff lobbying scandal and ended up serving 17 months in prison. In his new book, Sideswiped: Lessons Learned Courtesy of the Hit Men of Capitol Hill the former Congressman offers a candid portrayal of the conflicts of interest and corruption currently damaging America’s political system.

In a 50 minute CYInterview with former Congressman Ney, featured columnist Jay Bildstein and I spoke with him about what can be done to fix the system in Washington. He provided some interesting insight on the state of America’s politics.

You can listen to the entire CYInterview or read the highlights below:

Listen to the entire Bob Ney CYInterview:

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Former Congressman Ney provides solutions – some that he claims could be done in a matter of hours – to decrease the corruption and conflicts of interest in Congress:

“There are some things that can actually, literally be done in a matter of hours. Not days, but a matter of hours and that could be done by John Boehner and Nancy Pelosi together as the Democrat and the Republican. And what can be done immediately, first of all, internally the Congress and this happens with both parties, I’m only familiar with my party, the Republican Party I was in, but they will assess you know if you want to be a chairman of a committee, it is no secret that you will raise a certain amount of money.

My task was $150,000 to go into the Republican Caucus for elections. Some people have to raise half a million, a million. People who don’t comply with that really don’t usually succeed. So internally, they can just say, ‘Look, we’re not gonna assess people for positions anymore.’ I mean that’s the selling of positions. Let’s put it right out where it is. The other thing that could be done is to uncodified what they have done into law when it came to people like Jack Abramoff and I. All of the meals I had with Jack, the travel, any of the alcohol I drank, whatever Jack Abramoff and I did has now been put into law…

If I’m a lobbyist, you’re a Congressman, I can take you to Alaska, we can hunt, we can have a $3000 dinner, not Jack Abramoff’s $50 sushi. We could have a $3000 dinner, I could raise you a $100,000, take you then to Las Vegas, take a member of your family, some staff, have a $2000 dinner, raise you $50,000, that’s all legal. Everything I just talked about is done. That again can be stopped.

The constant practice of taking federally paid staff members, which happens, taking them across the street to the Democrat or Republican war rooms as I call them and raising money on federal time can instantly be stopped and the internal money raising machines. You know good people are in D.C., there’s some really good people in Congress, but the system itself is so money geared that good people that want to do their job are gonna find it quite impossible because the system’s corrupt.”

Congressman Ney is candid about his challenges with alcohol abuse in his book. In Swideswiped, he calls himself a functioning alcoholic. Asked whether poor lifestyle choices by members of Congress were commonplace – things like drinking, smoking and overeating – and if it impacted their ability to do their jobs, Ney said it was not the norm, but it did exist. He also notes that damage to one’s mental health exists in America’s political landscape through such things as intimidation:

“I don’t think every member, you know, is smoking cigarettes, drinking and gaining pounds. I think most of them are gaining pounds because their habits and their lifestyle right now out there. It’s just fast paced, lot of receptions, lot of different food and some bad living habits I think. So that in general is out there. … I not only think physically some people have gotten themselves into bad situations out there in the high lifestyle, which is not a good lifestyle, but also I think mentally the attitude is you know shut up or you’re gonna get run over.”

Former Congressman Bob Ney

Over the last year and half, Jay has put forward propositions to various members of America’s political elite on how to get the nation back on track. He has proposed that the president, vice president and Congress take a 50 percent pay cut to demonstrate leadership at this time of fiscal distress. He also proposes that there needs to be a lifetime ban on lobbying by all former elected officials and that lobbyists should have their meetings with members of Congress logged, videotaped and posted on the Internet. Last but not least, there should be term limits. Bob agreed with Jay’s propositions and had some extra things to add on:

“I like what you said first of all. It’s dramatic, it’s aggressive, it may be called radical, but it’s a wonderful, wonderful beginning and you could add in there no staffer can go through the revolving door. You gonna be a staffer on the hill, you don’t take a lobby job like a member of Congress doesn’t do it either. You can do that. On top of it, when members of Congress take trips, this is a little secret, they get a per diem, so much spending money per day that’s unaccounted for. It still happens today. That can be eliminated.

If you take a trip where you’re going for some public process reason overseas, you can take three extra days and do what you want to do. Eliminate that type of thing so the trips are purely of substance. So yes there’s other little caveats that people could really dig into the bowels of the government for all the excesses, leased cars, you know on and on and on that can be done that would be I think not just trite. I think what you’re saying is very good and it’s a point of substance that can help make a dramatic change.”

With millions of Americans still unemployed and the country going through challenging economic times, including things like an enormous federal deficit, some have questioned whether or not President Obama has gone on too many vacations and, thus, not shown true leadership. The former congressman gives his thoughts:

“He [President Obama] shut down the White House tours and at that time I told friends of mine that was the worst one. He shuts down the White House tours, almost shuts down the Easter egg hunt, but he continues to take multiple vacations. That’s not leading by example. Don’t shut down the tours of the once in a lifetime for the kids coming to Washington. You know instead of 17 vacations, take three, how about three instead of 17.”

In his book he makes numerous claims about current Speaker of the House John Bohner. One of those claims was that the Speaker had lobbyists pay for his bar tabs and golf games. Beyond that, former Congressman Ney also alleges that Mr. Bohner offered him a job and assistance on his legal bills if he would resign from Congress back in 2006. Bob would end up resigning from Congress because he claims he accepted Speaker Bohner’s deal. He states the current Speaker of House never kept up his part of the deal. He tells us his side of the story below:

“The amount of people that have seen John Boehner over the years sitting there at the Republican club drinking every night and eating it’s, you’d have to have a line if somebody decided to call them in. It’s just one of those things. It’s never been pursued. … I mentioned these things with Boehner not to pick on him, but in the context that he had a staffer Barry Jackson who went to work for Karl Rove, they wanted the appointment of Alice Fisher and that all tied into me because once I did my idiocy and my criminal behavior, they saw a way to go over my back to get Alice Fisher her appointment.

She had covered up the torture when the FBI came to her and she had worked in the criminal division of the justice department. Senator Levin was after her because she was close to Tom Delay’s defense team. Alice Fisher was also being yelled at because she wasn’t doing anything about Abramoff and along I came committing my crimes, but a very convenient tool so she could get her appointment. Now that was all inside baseball. Nobody pursued that because the justice department didn’t want to pursue it. So you know it’s whoever’s guarding the hen house decides which hen’s gonna be round up and have their head chopped off. …

I mentioned that part because at the time again if we want to talk about anger, you better believe I was angry and I was also drinking at that time and that fueled the self-pity and the anger and the resentments at that time. Now at the end of the day he probably did me a favor by crossing me over because I got into a rehab program so I kind of look at the bright side of what he did. But the fact remains John Boehner did nothing different than Rod Blagojevich who is sitting in prison for 14 years right now. John Boehner said to me, ‘If you stop running’ and he said, ‘You only have 24 hours and the deals off. If you stop running.’ I’d stay in Congress for a while, but I would pull out of the election.

He said, ‘I will find you a comparable job to what you make.’ He said, ‘I know you don’t have a lot of money.’ And he said, ‘I will raise you money to help with your legal defense fund to help you put this stuff behind you.’ He offered me money to leave just as Blagojevich was offering money for seats. He offered me money to leave. He did it. That can be backed up. There’s people that know this happened, people that we’re involved in trying to secure a job and he just went back on his word. So I don’t know what, if that doesn’t smell bad, I would think it’s surely illegal, but again it depends on who wants to pursue that.”

You can find more information and purchase a copy of Bob Ney’s book here

You can follow Bob Ney on Twitter here.

You can email Chris Yandek at ChrisYandek@CYInterview.com

You can follow Chris Yandek on Twitter here.

Technology is neither good nor bad. It merely expands our capabilities. How we use technology is either good or bad. To use it well we need to immerse ourselves in something called consequential thinking. Today, it seems the siren song of our devices is so powerful that we fail to spend enough time thinking about how to properly utilize them. We do not think about the consequences of our actions.

For example, if we are at a party getting inebriated does it make sense to take photographs of ourselves at various stages of drunkenness utilizing our smartphones and then post it to the Internet. When we apply for a job might this harm our chances of landing the position? Certainly, we can all agree that it probably will not help.

Are we so narcissistic that the most important thing for us is to broadcast ourselves to the world, under any circumstances? Where does this ultimately end? Is personal dignity of no value? Erring in judgment is one thing. Disseminating it to the world, however, sends a message that we think our bad behavior is perfectly acceptable.

We have so called reality stars who have come to prominence because of their bad behavior. Watching this, some of us might think that behaving badly and making the world aware of it is a reliable path to fame and fortune. Of course, that is not the case. Few people establish enduring fame, and make money from it, by virtue of subpar behavior.

More importantly, do we really want the kind of notoriety attached to not knowing how to comport ourselves? Does that really serve us or society in the long term?

Consider the following:

Smartphones and smart televisions are not smart. The social web is not social. Reality television programs rarely, if ever, present reality. How we use technology makes it worthwhile or not. True socializing takes place in person. If we cannot meet people in person, speaking with them allows us a much better interaction than exchanging fragments of text. If you want to experience reality – a positive reality – get out into the world and partake of enriching experiences.

Remember, technological advancement without philosophical evolution is not progress!

Image courtesy of [KROMKRATHOG] / FreeDigitalPhotos.net

*Authors note: You might see this column pop up online in a newspaper, under the name Both Sides. I am publishing this column here first at CYInterview.com. For a bunch of years, I have been writing newspaper columns. Since my columns have received a good response on CYInterview, I thought I would share it with you. Hope you enjoy.

You can reach me with your questions and comments at Jay@CYinterview.com Like today’s column? Check back frequently.

Set in Pennsylvania, the play focuses on two adult children, a brother and sister: Vanya played by Emmy winning actor David Hyde Pierce – best known for his role as Niles in the sitcom Frasier – and Sonia, played by actress Kristine Nielsen. Both characters spend their lives living at home and taking care of their parents for 15 years, until their folks pass away. They continue living in the home thereafter.

This leads Vanya and Sonia to not experience much joy or growth in their lives. Both are unemployed and sit around every day waiting to watch the birds fly by. They both believe their lives are over and that things will only get worse. Both David and Kristine received Best Lead Actor and Best Lead Actress nominations, in their respected categories, at the upcoming Tony Awards.

The play reaches a moment of crisis, when Vanya and Sonia’s famous actress sister Masha wants to sell the family home. Masha, as it happens, has been paying the upkeep on the house, which has provided a place for her siblings to live. Masha is played by three-time Oscar nominated actress Sigourney Weaver. Above you can see Sigourney after the show let out, along with yours truly.

Warnings of bad news for Sonia and Vanya were predicted by their housekeeper and psychic friend Cassandra, played by actress Shalita Grant. Cassandra interjects herself in everyone’s business and warns them of what lies ahead in their lives. For her performance, Shalita received a Tony nomination for Best Performance by an Actress in a Featured Role.

Though Masha might be more independent, successful and wealthy than her brother and sister, her level of insecurity about where she is professionally and personally come to the forefront. She must always win, and be recognized as the best, or she is dissatisfied.

With Tony Nominated Actress Kristine Nielsen

Masha has been married numerous times and now has a boyfriend many years younger than her, named Spike. Spike, played by actor Billy Magnussen, is in his 20s. He is young and physically fit, but he is disrespectful to all of the elders except for his girlfriend, Masha and Nina, the next door neighbor, who played by actress Genevieve Angelson. Masha is jealous of Nina’s youth, even as Nina looks up to Masha because she is a big time actress.

Vanya and Sonia and Masha and Spike is full of laughs. It is relatable to those who might feel their lives have passed them by, without accomplishing something or loving someone. The play has a humorous way of analyzing midlife crisis. The cast compliments one another, bringing out each performer’s strengths.

The play is highly entertaining, but it will make you think about the state of your life. All of us have the potential to be our very best and it is never too late to make a change for the better. If you are looking for endless laughs while in New York City, as well as food for thought, this the show for you.

You can find more information and purchase tickets to Vanya and Sonia and Masha and Spike at their official website clicking here.

You can email Chris Yandek at ChrisYandek@CYInterview.com

You can follow Chris Yandek on Twitter here.

We spoke with three time winner of The Indianapolis 500, racecar driver, Helio Castroneves, as well as retired baseball star Sammy Sosa. Above, you can see Helio, his lovely partner Adriana and yours truly, at the event. And, of course, you can read the highlights and listen to the CYInterviews below:

Listen to the Helio Castroneves and Sammy Sosa CYInterviews:

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When asked if there is anything better than winning the Indianapolis 500 three times, Helio had this to say:

“Well, professional no. Personal, it’s being with this gorgeous lady, which is Adriana and she is, gave me great pleasure, which is my little girl Mikaella. So other than that, it’s very difficult to beat winning the Indy 500.”

CYInterviewing Helio Castroneves at Lea & Roy Black Present The Blacks’ Annual Gala with Flo Rida

The Indy racer won season five of Dancing with the Stars. He reflects back:

“Great memories, certainly winning Dancing with the Stars season five was just awesome. We went last year for the season 15 for the all-stars and I had a great time. Hopefully they’re gonna continue doing well.”

With Sammy Sosa at Lea & Roy Black Present The Blacks’ Annual Gala with Flo Rida

Besides being supportive of The Blacks’ Annual Gala, baseball great Sammy Sosa told us he has his own foundation in the Dominican Republic. The MLB great also shares what he’s been up to in retirement:

“It’s made me feel great. I never forget where I’m coming from now. I give back to my people. … I have two companies that I’m moving forward with and everything looking pretty good.”

CYInterviewing Sammy Sosa at Lea & Roy Black Present The Blacks’ Annual Gala with Flo Rida

The former Chicago Cub says he would do Dancing with the Stars. Perhaps, we are looking at another sports star turned dancing champion in the making. He is just waiting for the invite:

“If they invited me (laughs).”

You can and find more information about The Blacks’ Annual Gala and contribute to the Consequences Foundation at www.theblacksannualgala.com .

Helio Castroneves’s official website is here.

You can follow Sammy Sosa on Twitter here.

You can email Chris Yandek at ChrisYandek@CYInterview.com

You can follow Chris Yandek on Twitter here.

I suspect that most of us want to see a certain weight on the scale. We also want to fit into clothing of a certain size. Sometimes we meet our expectations or standards, sometimes we do not. Often, if we do not meet our self-imposed expectations for a while, we change our standards. This can be bad or good, depending on whether our standards were realistic to begin with.

It is likely that we do not think about the weight we want to see on the scale or our pants’ size as personal standards, yet they are. We need not call something by its name for it to be what it is. We might name our cat Dog, but in the end it is still a feline.

If you take a personal inventory, I am sure you will find areas of your life in which you maintain standards; maybe not in the area of bodyweight or body size but likely in other areas. I wonder, though, how many of us maintain personal standards when it comes to self-improvement, lifelong education and achievement in the workplace.

How many of us end up with jobs, which we stay in for years if not our entire lives, and stagnate in them. Every morning we head to work, just looking to make it through the day. We come home, only to begin the cycle the next day. Is there passion for what we do? In many cases the answer is no, and therein lies the challenge.

I believe we can develop passion for our work, by doing a couple of things. First, we need to expand our horizons and look at what we do for a living differently. Instead of complaining about the drudgery of work we need to develop creative approaches to instill passion within ourselves. And, of no less importance, we need to have personal standards when it comes to our jobs/careers.

When we have no standards for our performance, we are likely to have no passion as well. Having personal standards gives us goals to strive for. In turn, this can help instill passion in us for what we do.

Image courtesy of [worradmu] / FreeDigitalPhotos.net

*Authors note: You might see this column pop up online in a newspaper, under the name Both Sides. I am publishing this column here first at CYInterview.com. For a bunch of years, I have been writing newspaper columns. Since my columns have received a good response on CYInterview, I thought I would share it with you. Hope you enjoy.

You can reach me with your questions and comments at Jay@CYinterview.com Like today’s column? Check back frequently.

Where and how we live, combined with the type of work we do and the type of leisure time activities we partake in determines what kind of lifestyle we have. A good style of life may aid our general happiness with life itself. This is not always true, yet if we live lives with many unfulfilled expectations, it is reasonable to assume that our level of satisfaction will not be where it could be.

Most people fail to achieve the lifestyles they want because they fail to make concrete plans to achieve them. Lack of planning is the single biggest reason preventing people from getting what they want out of life, that and a failure to work their plans. To a greater or lesser extent, all of us have been there.

Calculating the lifestyle you want can help bring things into focus. To do this, it is necessary to create a list of those things which are important to you in order to achieve the lifestyle you desire. Additionally, your lifestyle desires must be tempered with where you are starting from in the first place.

If you have just left university and come from a family of modest means, it would be unrealistic to calculate a near term lifestyle that approximates that of a multi-millionaire. Does this mean that you shall never achieve great wealth? Not at all; you simply need to know that wealth, generally, is built over time.

Assuming you created a list of realistic near term, midterm and long term expectations, you can now get to the process of calculating how much money you will need to accomplish your goals.
How much will a reasonable home cost? What about a car? What kind of vacations would you like to take? By calculating costs you can begin to make choices and prioritize what is most important to you. You can also develop a savings plan to meet your needs. This is a far better way to achieve your goals than just wishing. Calculate a lifestyle and then work and save for it. You can do it! (Digression: I wonder what kind of planning Rob Schneider does.)

Image courtesy of [jscreationzs] / FreeDigitalPhotos.net

*Authors note: You might see this column pop up online in a newspaper, under the name Both Sides. I am publishing this column here first at CYInterview.com. For a bunch of years, I have been writing newspaper columns. Since my columns have received a good response on CYInterview, I thought I would share it with you. Hope you enjoy.

You can reach me with your questions and comments at Jay@CYinterview.com Like today’s column? Check back frequently.

We saw Michelle earlier this month at the Miami Heels store opening [see here] and we now bring you our CYInterview with her. You can read the highlights and listen to it in its entirety below:

Listen to the entire Miss Florida USA CYInterview:

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Browse CYInterview.com while you listen – Click here

Discussing her preparation for the Miss USA pageant, Miss Florida told us this:

“I’ve been mentally preparing and physically preparing, of course, because we all know that the gym has to become our best friend and my strategy is just to have fun and show the judges what I have out there and I’m not gonna stress it at all. I’m just gonna go out there and show them what I got and represent Florida to the best of my abilities.”

The pageant dream started for Michelle when the 20 year old went to shop for her prom dress two years ago:

“It was kind of a last minute thing. I started beauty pageants about two years ago. I was actually shopping for a prom dress and the designer told me that I should enter the Miss Miami USA pageant and I was like, ‘I don’t really do pageants, but sure I’ll try it out.’ So I started with Miss Miami, placed third runner up and from there I went to Miss Florida USA. In my second year of Miss Florida USA, I won and now I’m going to Miss USA. So it’s all surreal and crazy.”

CYInterviewing Miss Florida Michelle Michelle Aguirre

Though Michelle never expected to win the Sunshine State crown, she admits the nine month reign as Miss Florida USA has led to growth and confidence for her:

“A lot of people don’t know that I’m actually Hispanic. I am Cuban. That can come up very surprising because of the blonde hair and blue eyes. … I’ve grown as a woman and I never thought I’d get to this point where I’ve been just so confident about myself. I’ve found who I really am and I can’t wait to show the judges that and to show my family and to show the audience. … June 16th, Miss USA, vote for Florida and hope to be representing our country at the Miss Universe pageant.”

You can follow Miss Florida on Twitter here.

You can follow Miss Florida Michelle Aguirre on Facebook here.

You can email Chris Yandek at ChrisYandek@CYInterview.com

You can follow Chris Yandek on Twitter here.