In September 2020, I was honored to be invited to be the featured speaker at a gathering of the Army and Navy Club in Washington, DC. My presentation was promoted as follows:
“80% of adults believe they have an amazing book within them. For military veterans, that number must be even higher. So why do less than 1% ever publish? The cause is fear of failure often based on childhood shame. Bruce Hurd reveals his own journey towards becoming a bestselling author, the challenges new writers encounter, and how we can overcome these obstacles on our way to creating and publishing our inspiring books. He explores the many benefits of becoming a published author: the credibility we achieve, self-confidence we gain, service we provide to others, and therapeutic benefits we give ourselves.”
I’m thrilled at how well my presentation was received. I was scheduled for an hour, my speech took 40 minutes, and the Question and Answer session went for nearly 40 minutes, as audience members continued to ask questions for well past the scheduled end of the event. Here’s the link to the full presentation and Q&A session: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=37KKfiptVkk
Great news! Recently (June 2020) I had the privilege of being interviewed on one of the top national podcasts dedicated to serving the veteran community: “Warrior Soul” hosted by Chris Albert, a Marine veteran.
Here’s the link to the podcast interview: Warrior Soul Podcast with Bruce Hurd
Chris’s podcasts are aimed towards younger veterans, often those who have returned from combat tours in Iraq and Afghanistan.
His focus is to help veterans heal themselves and to create the best lives they can after leaving the military through discipline, self-reliance, and seeking help when needed.
I was deeply honored that he invited me on his program. My one-hour interview focused on many topics, especially my “Make Your Book a Reality” writing program designed to help veterans and others write the book inside of them.
Our discussion revolved around the many benefits of my writing program, to include the therapeutic benefits of identifying the traumas in our lives and speaking honestly and emotionally about them.
In May 2018, I had the opportunity to speak onstage at a live event in Las Vegas. Along with that, I was interviewed by the host of the event (Kristen White of White Media Agency).
Highlights of the speech and interview are included in this link as a short video: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=MhdUPwwT1vQ
The full 20-minute Las Vegas speech, along with other video presentations, can be found on my YouTube channel: https://www.youtube.com/channel/UCOLR3fVa147stJ_pyhQDieA
I also had the privilege of speaking at a book signing in January 2020, graciously hosted by the wonderful people at the Barnes & Noble bookstore on Stevens Creek Blvd in San Jose.
Here’s a video of that speech (it’s about an hour long). Since the majority of the people at the book signing had already read my book, I chose to speak about a “d— close to being a midair collision” experience I had as an Air Force KC-10 instructor pilot over the night skies of North Carolina.
I was a major assigned to the 344th Air Refueling Squadron at the time and I learned a great deal from this event. I will be writing about it, and many other topics, in my upcoming book (title and release date TBD).
The link to the January 2020 presentation is here: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=EKjAlvhIZvg
I had the privilege of giving a presentation to Air Force Reserve Officer Training Corps AS 200 (Sophomore) cadets at San Diego State University on the “Five Lessons I Learned at AFROTC Field Training.”
The biggest single event in an ROTC cadet’s four-year training program is going through Field Training (similar to basic training for officers) in between their sophomore and junior years. Here I describe five important lessons I learned from my Field Training experience that I applied throughout my 30-year Air Force career:
Lesson #1 – Don’t fight the system
Lesson #2 – Plan ahead
Lesson #3 – Be decisive
Lesson #4 – Do the best you can
Lesson #5 – Don’t be quick to judge people
A question-and-answer session between me and the SDSU cadets follows the presentation. Special thanks to Detachment 075 Commander Colonel John Grimm and Director of Operations Major Madison Gilbert, who invited me to speak to the cadets. This briefing took place on March 4, 2021.