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Taming Hostile Audiences:
Persuading Those Who Would Rather Jeer Than Cheer
By Larry Tracy
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Speech - Taming Hostile Audiences
My experience with hostile and difficult audiences came later when the Department of State requested the Army to assign me to the Department for the specific task of speaking and debating controversial foreign policy issues throughout the United States and abroad.
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The speech on the following pages was originally delivered to the National Speakers Association (NSA) of Washington, D.C.
- Larry Tracy, author of The Shortcut to Persuasive Presentations, has been cited in various publications, including The Information Please Business Almanac and Sourcebook, (Houghton Mifflin), What to Do When You’re Dying on the Platform (McGraw-Hill, and Best of the Best (Insight Publishing) as one of the top presentation skills trainers/coaches in the country.
- A retired Army colonel, he formerly headed the Pentagon’s top briefing team, responsible for daily intelligence briefings to the Chairman of the Joint Chiefs of Staff. He was later detailed by the White House to the State Department to debate controversial foreign policy issues to hundreds of demanding, often hostile audiences, leading President Ronald Reagan to describe him as “An extraordinarily effective speaker.” It is that experience that is the basis for this speech.
- His objective in the speech was to inform professional speakers of NSA, many of them motivational and humor speakers, that presentations to business and government audiences, or those which are opposed to the position being advocated by the speaker, are more demanding than speaking to audiences wanting inspiration and motivation.
- The speech was selected for publication in Vital Speeches of the Day, along with speeches by President George W. Bush and Federal Reserve Chairman Alan Greenspan, and was then published as the cover speech in American Speaker, the top magazine on public speaking instruction. The Editor-in-Chief of American Speaker, Aram Bakshian, Jr. was formerly Director of Speechwriting for President Ronald Reagan.
From the July 2005 American Speaker Magazine
Letter From the Editor: Aram Bakshian Jr.
Dear Reader:
It stands to reason that a good speech should speak for itself ... which is why, when you get to this month’s “Speech Analysis” section, you will notice something different. As you know, in the ordinary “Speech Analysis” format, I give a running commentary on the speech throughout the text in bracketed italics. This time, it isn’t there.
No, it’s not because I — of all people — was suddenly at a loss for words! That has yet to happen. It’s because, for only the second time in 13 years of publishing American Speaker we’ve found a speech that’s so exemplary, such a model of its kind — and so self-explanatory — that I literally decided to let it “speak for itself.”
By the way, the speaker in question, Larry Tracy, is a former military man specializing in communication skills who had the thankless task of defending Defense Department policy to hostile campus and faculty audiences. He’s now making his talents as both a presenter and a presentations coach available to the private sector.
So, if you’re as impressed with the contents of this issue’s “Speech Analysis” selection as I was — and especially if you’re facing a big issue or public policy challenge in future speeches — you should consider contacting Larry Tracy Presentation Skills (telephone: (703)360-3222).
Aram Bakshian Jr.
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To purchase a copy of “The Shortcut to Persuasive Presentations” 
