ROANOKE TIMES
Copyright (c) 1997, Roanoke Times
DATE: Wednesday, March 5, 1997 TAG: 9703050060
SECTION: VIRGINIA PAGE: C-1 EDITION: METRO
COLUMN: A Cuppa Joe
SOURCE: JOE KENNEDY
Motivational speaker Gary Coxe appeared at a meeting of Century 21 real estate agents last week at Hotel Roanoke, but the star of the show was his pet tarantula, Princess Di ("that's D-I-E"). So I interviewed her. This is what she said:
"Take it from me, it ain't easy being a princess - not when your palace is a clear plastic box and you face the same royal diet of live crickets every week. You travel from airplane to airport to hotel conference room and back, never stopping to sting anyone or catch a cricket on your own.
"A month or two of this, and you begin to think airports and hotels are all this country is made of.
"Worse, I have to go on stage in front of Realtors, car dealers or insurance sellers, while Gary, my owner, brings someone out of the audience, someone who'd rather lie down in front of a train than sit next to a big, beautiful Mexican Red Leg Tarantula like me, and tries to sell them on my virtues.
"Did Princess Grace do this?
"Gary spends 45 minutes convincing the person to pet me and then hold me while the audience goes wild, all to prove his point that with the proper mental approach you can accomplish anything - as if cuddling a genuine member of royalty is no better than holding a rattlesnake."
What are you afraid of?
"He's a motivational speaker with a twist. I'm the twist. Instead of just mouthing platitudes, he uses me to demonstrate that the thing that terrifies you the most can be overcome.
"Give him credit. He's good. Just look at what happened here, before more than 200 Century 21 agents from Virginia, West Virginia and Maryland.
"Gary was on stage in his dark suit with his brown hair and mustache, talking 90 miles a minute, trying to get to the key part of his show, namely, me.
"The real estate people, middle-aged, mostly, and tired from lunch, were waiting for him to finish with the truisms and get on with the program - me.
"I'm sitting off to the side, dozing in my palace, when, like clockwork, 35 minutes into the gig, Gary tells people I'm there and starts cruising the audience for a victim. He gloms on to a woman from Richmond who is petrified by spiders - same to ya, honey - and brings her up on stage, sits her down and tells her that whatever he suggests, she is to reply, 'No problem.'
"Obviously, a lie.
"Then I, in my box, am on his knee, and she's looking like she wants to run, but he's got her by the hand. 'No problem,' she says.
"Then I'm out of the box. He puts her finger on my back once, twice, three times.
```No problem.'
"Then he's picking me up and setting me in her palm without letting me go. The audience is screaming, and people are standing, and the poor woman - Tammy Glenn, I caught that much - is shaking like that little airplane Gary bumped us up here in.
```No ... problem.'
"Yeah, right."
Conquering your fear
"Then he sets me in her hand and leaves me there. And Tammy looks down and realizes SHE'S DOING IT, SHE'S HOLDING THE TARANTULA, and tells herself she'll never be afraid to do anything again, because if she can hold this awful spider, she can certainly face the rejection of cold calls, broken contracts and other realty nightmares.
"Music rises. The crowd goes berserk. Radiant, Tammy carries me, in my palace, to her seat. People crowd around and congratulate her. They shrink from me, but no problem.
"Gary, with $4,000 to $8,000 in his pocket, and I, with my crickets, will climb in the plane and bump home to Florida to wait for another performance.
"At these prices, it can't come too soon.
"No problem."
What's your story? Call me at 981-3256, send e-mail to joek@roanoke.com or write to me at P.O. Box 2491, Roanoke 24010.
LENGTH: Medium: 80 linesby CNB