This week’s featured book is Your Way Back to you by Janelle Bruland, author, speaker, entrepreneur, business leader, and high-performance coach who inspires others to live highly engaged, impactful, and successful lives. She is Founder and Chief Executive Officer of MSNW, a company she started in her living room in 1995 with a handful of employees. Today, MSNW has grown under Janelle’s leadership into a regional facility management company, named one of the Fastest Growing Private Companies by both Inc. magazine and the Puget Sound Business Journal. Janelle has won numerous awards including SBA Washington Business Person of the Year and the Nellie Cashman Woman Business Owner of the Year.
Her first book, The Success Lie, was a bestseller. Janelle lives with her family in Birch Bay, Washington.
Author and speaker, Janelle Bruland, is an entrepreneur, business leader, and high-performance coach who inspires others to live highly engaged, impactful, and successful lives. She is Founder and Chief Executive Officer of MSNW, a company she started in her living room in 1995 with a handful of employees. Today, MSNW has grown under Janelle’s leadership into a regional facility management company, named one of the Fastest Growing Private Companies by both Inc. magazine and the Puget Sound Business Journal. Janelle has won numerous awards including SBA Washington Business Person of the Year and the Nellie Cashman Woman Business Owner of the Year.
She is an active community and industry volunteer, has served on the governing board of PeaceHealth, St. Joseph Medical Center, and is a founding board member of Whatcom Business Alliance, a local association dedicated to fostering business success and community prosperity. She is Past President of Building Service Contractor’s Association International (BSCAI), the largest international facilities trade organization.
Janelle is Co-Founder of Legacy Leader, a leadership development company headquartered in the Pacific Northwest, where she teaches business leaders how to build legacy, transform their leadership, and love their life.
Her latest book, Your Way Back to Happy , was published in mid-June 2025. Her first book, The Success Lie , was a bestseller.
Janelle lives with her family in Birch Bay, Washington.
An Excerpt from Your Way Back to Happy
No matter how many positive experiences you have had in your life, there is often a nagging issue from the past that holds you back from true freedom to live the life of joy and significance that you desire.
And here is the interesting part—you may not even fully comprehend it. I was certainly in that place for many years. You see, I did a superior job of looking like I had it all together on the outside—as the kind yet kick-ass boss, the inspiring leader, the award-winning entrepreneur, the woman with a perfect family—but inside was a very different story.
Inside, I had shut away trauma that was so painful and so deep I didn’t know it was there.
Until one day on a flight home from California.
It had been a fun and relaxing weekend getaway with a dear girlfriend and fellow entrepreneur. Living in different parts of the country, we didn’t get to see each other a lot other than our business meetings in various cities a few times a year. That made this in-person time, just the two of us, even more special. We had stayed in a gorgeous hotel on the Pacific Ocean and enjoyed a perfect couple of days of beachside walks, decadent food, and deep conversations. Sunday came around far too quickly, and it was time to say goodbye. The first leg of my flight was uneventful and had a layover in Seattle, Washington. All that was left was a quick thirty-minute flight home from Seattle to Bellingham. It was dark outside by the time our flight began to board. I remember walking onto the small plane and finding out that my seat had been changed at the last minute. I was seated in a window seat toward the back of the plane. As we waited on the tarmac the captain came on the overhead speakers letting us know the flight would be bumpy due to a storm in the area. Though I didn’t like the thought of experiencing any turbulence, I told myself, “It’s just a short flight. Then you will be home.”
Within minutes of takeoff the plane was whipped by the wind. The captain came on, reminded everyone to stay in their seats with their seatbelts fastened, and asked the flight attendants to stay seated for the duration of the flight. I could feel the anxiety building in my chest as the farther we flew toward Bellingham, the rougher the turbulence became.
At one point, the small plane dropped heavily, and you could hear audible gasps from other passengers. Looking around in the darkness, my fear escalated, my heart raced, and I gripped the sides of my seat. Meanwhile, the woman next to me, who just happened to be a flight attendant heading home, was calm as could be. She gazed at me and without saying a word reached up over my head to turn the fan on my face. I remember thinking simultaneously to myself, That was nice of her and Who would ever do this for a living?
After twenty minutes (that felt like hours), the captain reported it was time to descend. My anxiety lessened briefly as I knew we would soon be landing. Unfortunately, the ride only got rougher, and the plane pitched and weaved. After several attempts, the captain announced, “I am sorry folks, we are being asked to turn around for your safety. We are heading back to Seattle.”
When we finally landed and I got off the plane, my entire body shook in an episode of indescribable fear. I began to sob uncontrollably. Standing in the middle of the airport with people milling around me, I found I couldn’t stop—it was like the floodgates had opened, and pent-up emotions of many years poured out of me.
Looking around, I noticed everyone else that had gotten off the flight with me appeared fine, and I definitely was not okay.
Something was very wrong.
I thought, How am I going to get home? There is no way I am getting back on a plane. Through my tears, I called my husband to let him know he would simply have to come and get me. He was willing to make the two-hour drive. Then my
daughter came on the phone and attempted to calm me down and convince me to wait it out and take another flight home. I recognized in her voice the gentle tone I used with her when she was upset as a child.
With my daughter’s encouragement and the help of a kind agent, I finally calmed down and eventually got another flight safely home that evening. But the overreaction and high charged emotions I displayed were puzzling. I didn’t understand them at first.
What had happened?
What I would realize later was this: The trauma that I had buried for so long was making its debut. It not only had risen to the surface—it was boiling over. Whether I wanted to or not, it was time to deal with it.
As I sought and received help, I learned how common my situation was. That countless successful entrepreneurs and business leaders today, though their outer world appears picture-perfect, have an inner world of pain that has not been fully addressed…or addressed at all. And it’s holding them back from being all that they are called to be.
So, let me ask you this: Is it possible that you are missing out on your best life because of the pain of your past?