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Embrace the Fear, Own the Stage, Write the Book: How Vulnerability and Iteration Drive Success

Fighter pilot Kim Campbell reveals how to deal with uncertainty in the writing process.

Writing

Thought Leadership

Publishing

Getting booked

Josh

Staske

Chief Executive Officer

minute read

Published on

May 5, 2025

Kim Campbell, acclaimed author of Flying in the Face of Fear: A Fighter Pilot's Lessons on Leading with Courage, signs her book after speaking. Photo courtesy of Kim Campbell.

“I don’t know that the fear for me ever goes away. It decreases; my process helps me decrease it and deal with it,” says Kim Campbell, acclaimed author of Flying in the Face of Fear: A Fighter Pilot's Lessons on Leading with Courage. During our interview, Kim shared her experiences as a fighter pilot, author, and speaker.

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Her book about courage, resilience, and leadership in high-stakes situations is full of her stories of extremely nerve-wracking moments. From air refueling on her very first combat mission to the time her airplane got hit with a surface-to-air missile over Baghdad, Kim’s stories radiate bravery, composure, and authority.

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But she’s the first to admit she’s not fearless.

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“I don’t feel fearless. I feel the fear and do it anyway,” she says with a smile. “It’s okay to feel fear. When I feel it, it’s a reminder to me to put in the work and to be prepared.”

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She continues, “Over time, I’ve just learned how to deal with the nerves better. I don’t think they go away. I do feel more comfortable, because now I have a process.” In the face of uncertainty and fear, having a clear and proven process—both in her military training and thought leadership journey—has helped Kim overcome challenges and deliver extraordinary results.

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An Iterative Process for Speaking and Authorship Success

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Especially in the book-writing journey, having a clear creative process and putting in the work to achieve mastery can help aspiring authors embrace and overcome fear as they craft a lasting message to share with the world.

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After retiring from over 24 years of leadership and service in the U.S. Air Force, Kim started sharing her inspiring story with audiences across the nation. She came to HEROIC and learned a repeatable process for writing speeches that captivate, educate, and transform.

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“During my time in GRAD when I was working on my keynote, at the same time I was also working on my book. The book was always just kind of in the background,” she says.

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It was when she was working with a HEROIC writing coach that Kim had a breakthrough moment. She says, “I wanted to include some of the things that were really important to me in my keynote. But I just kept saying, ‘I don't know how they fit together!’ And there was just this light-blub moment with my writing coach. She said, ‘Kim, of course they fit together!’ And she kind of just walked me through, from somebody who wasn’t so close to it, to show me how it fit together.”

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Kim continues: “That’s the beauty of the way HEROIC works: you have different deadlines that keep you on your game, and you get feedback along the way.”

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Feedback is essential in the iterative process, and top leaders like Kim know just how much of a difference it can make. When you create tighter iteration loops and get quality feedback sooner and more often in your creative process, it’s much easier to improve and uplevel your speech, and your book.

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“As I continued to build out the keynote,” she says, “I had my book manuscript, without much shape or structure.” But she continued to write her keynote, and everything started coming together. “It really helped me refine what my big idea was, certainly for the keynote, but also for the book. It was a concurrent process.”

Full Transcript

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Through iterating and refining her transformational speech, Kim Campbell was able to craft a book that aligned with her core message and resonated deeply with her audience. Photos courtesy of Kim Campbell.

“Creating my keynote helped me refine the book.”

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It’s very common for thought leaders to wonder whether they should write the speech or the book first. For some, the speech can be the spark that ignites the desire to write and increases the demand for a book. For others, the book can lead to a thriving speaking career.

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Kim’s advice: “Focus on the keynote first, and really get that down. Then create the book. I really like the idea of refining your message and knowing who your audience is, and then that can parlay into a broader, bigger book.”

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Kim wrote her keynote and her book in a concurrent process. Building her keynote using The Foundational Five, a content-creation framework introduced at CORE | The Breakthrough Experience, allowed her to really think about her big idea, or Core Message, and what she wanted to convey to an audience. “That whole process really helped shape the longer book,” Kim says.

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Speaking and sharing concepts you plan to include in your book can dramatically enhance the quality and success of your book. Kim’s book has also now shaped her keynote.

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“My keynote has now evolved since the first iteration pretty significantly,” she says. “I have a contextual model in my keynote that’s not in the book, because it’s evolved so much over time. And if I had waited even a little bit longer to write the book, the book would have evolved even more because of the constant iteration of the keynote speech.”

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Overcoming Perfectionism in the Creative Process

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“There was that part of me that wanted the book to be perfect,” Kim admits. Like many authors, speakers, and high-achieving individuals, she felt the drive for perfection—but quickly learned that if we don’t give ourselves grace, learn from the mistakes, and move on, we’ll crumble under pressure.

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Focusing on consistent iteration rather than perfection will move you forward towards your goals faster. Because the truth is, if you wait until your speech or your book is perfect, you’ll never put it out there in the world.

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“We are going to make mistakes in our journey,” Kim explains. “But the way we get better is to learn from them, to grow and improve each time.” This powerful concept of “failing forward,” a principle Kim dives into in her book, has guided her in the cockpit, during her career transition into full-time speaking, and while writing her book.

Don't

wait until your book or speech is “perfect” to share it with the world.

focus on consistently iterating and refining your speech and making it incrementally better with each new iteration.

Showing your humanity—weaknesses, fears, failures, and all—and bringing it into your work onstage and on the page can be a catch-22. Sharing those moments of vulnerability, or as Kim says, moments of “failing forward,” is really personal. And challenging.

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“It’s hard to put it out there and say, I failed at this,” she admits. “But I think it makes you more human. It makes you more relatable. Sometimes we see these amazing bios of people and the incredible things they’ve done. But what’s behind the bio? What’s underneath? Where are the failures and mistakes? For me, I realized that those were the moments where I learned the most, where I improved as a pilot, a leader, a speaker.”

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“That’s the whole point,” she says. “I guess for me, it’s helping others on their journey.”

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For most people, vulnerability is not something that comes naturally. Kim shares an experience of learning how to show vulnerability while performing part of her speech during a virtual HEROIC Masterclass. She was telling the story of when her airplane got hit with a surface-to-air missile over Baghdad.

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“I’m landing the airplane and I’m terrified. But I just kind of told the story almost like I was telling somebody else’s story. Michael Port just looked at me for a moment and was like, ‘Can you relive that moment for me?’”

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When she heard that, she immediately felt the fear that often comes with being vulnerable. What if people see my emotion? What if people see the fear?

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“And I did that. I relived the moment, and it was so powerful, in so many ways. I got very emotional, and I was like, ‘How the hell am I ever going to do that onstage, in front of an audience?’

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“And Michael said, ‘Because you just did it. You did it right in front of us. And now that you’ve done it, the more you rehearse, the more you go through that vulnerability, that putting it out there, that letting people see you for who you are, the more you’ll connect with the audience. That is for the benefit of the audience.’”

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Learning how to take advantage of the power of vulnerability was a key turning point for Kim. When she realized just how deeply it helped her connect with her audience, it changed her performance forever—and it also helped her craft her book.

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"Something I learned through my time at HEROIC was being in the moment, being present. That has helped me probably more than anything. I’m a big believer that you’ve got to put in the work. But when you get to that moment onstage, you can’t really prepare anymore. What’s done is done. So relax, have fun, be in the moment."

Kim Campbell

Retired Air Force Colonel, Keynote Speaker, and Author

Showing authentic vulnerability and focusing on her audience helped Kim determine what content to include and which to leave out of her book. While writing and editing her book, Kim often asked herself these three questions:

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Is this in benefit of the audience?
Is this in line with the Core Message?
Or is this just a story I love?

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Focusing on the audience and being of service to them helped her craft a reader-focused book. And it helps her before stepping onstage as well. Kim’s advice for those pre-event jitters is to shift your focus.

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She says, “Tell yourself, ‘I’m nervous because I’m really excited to make a difference for the audience. This is for them. I’m here to share a story, and it’s all in benefit of the audience.’ Just relax. It goes back to being in the moment. It’s okay to feel that fear, that doubt, but stay in the moment and share the story.”

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How a Book Can Impact Your Speaking Career

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Writing a book can make it easier to market yourself as a speaker, make you more appealing to event organizers and meeting planners, and become an additional source of income in your thought leadership business. Becoming an author has helped Kim expand her impact. “People learn a little bit more about who you are, what you have to say, and the value you can bring,” she says.

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Sometimes speakers can struggle to sell their books at speaking events. But there’s one ultra-effective way to sell your book that both increases profitability and simplifies logistics: selling in bulk.

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Kim’s a pro at this. She includes 100 copies of her book as part of her full speaking fee. She says, “I think it gives some negotiating power in terms of fee range. And I’ve found that sometimes if there are 200 or 300 guests in an audience, a lot of times, because I’m already providing 100 copies, then they’ll go on and order an additional couple hundred copies, which is great.”

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She also offers a book signing as part of her keynote fee. ”It gives me the opportunity to have that interaction with people, which is a great opportunity for potential referrals and stageside leads as well.”

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“After I published my book, I’ve had my biggest speaking year ever.”

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Since publishing her book, Kim has seen both personal and professional rewards. “From a speaking side, it’s opened up tremendous opportunities,” she says. “After I published my book I’ve had my biggest speaking year ever in terms of the number of gigs booked.”

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And the benefits of being a published author don’t stop there. What Kim has enjoyed most is a deeper personal connection with her audience, and knowing that she’s made a difference in their lives.

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“I got to connect with people that I never would have been able to connect with.”

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One of the biggest personal rewards of publishing her book has been connecting with people she never would have been able to connect with otherwise.

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“These were soldiers on the ground that I had supported. These were children of soldiers that said things to me like, ‘I wouldn’t be here today if it wasn’t for you and what you’ve done.’”

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Kim has received personal letters from her readers, who share the specific chapters that have made a difference in their lives. Her words, her story, and her work are changing the world, one person at a time.

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Watch the full interview with keynote speaker and author Kim Campbell here.

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“Creating my keynote helped me refine the book.”

‍

Speaking and sharing concepts you plan to include in your book can dramatically enhance the quality and success of your book. Kim’s book has also now shaped her keynote.

‍

Overcoming Perfectionism in the Creative Process

‍

Dont

wait until your book or speech is “perfect” to share it with the world.

focus on consistently iterating and refining your speech and making it incrementally better with each new iteration.

‍

“That’s the whole point,” she says. “I guess for me, it’s helping others on their journey.”

‍

When she heard that, she immediately felt the fear that often comes with being vulnerable. What if people see my emotion? What if people see the fear?

‍

Don't

Kim Campbell

Retired Air Force Colonel, Keynote Speaker, and Author

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