Jane Grote Abell: Love Your Way Through It

Jane Grote is the founding family member, Chief Purpose Officer, and Executive Chairwoman of the Board of Donatos Pizza and Jane's Dough Premium Foods, a $275 million family-owned restaurant operator, franchisor, and manufacturing company. She is the author of The Missing Piece:

Doing Business the Donatos Way, was featured on CBS's Undercover Boss, and co-founded The Reeb Center, which raised $14.5 million and now houses 14 nonprofits focused on education and workforce development on the South Side of Columbus.

Jane grew up behind her dad's first pizza shop, where customers waited for their pizzas in the family living room, and she earned her first Donatos paycheck at 11. After her family sold the company to McDonald's, she stayed on through the transition and slowly felt herself lose the courage to speak up. When the chance came, she led the effort to buy Donatos back while it was losing $7.5 million, and she credits the turnaround to one thing. "Our people just really truly started caring about what they were doing again."

Brett and Jane talk about what it costs to lead with love when the pressure is on, why she stepped into the chair role so she wouldn't miss her daughters' games, why she calls family business "really messy and really magical," and the question her dad asks whenever things get hard: did you love your way through it?

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Instagram: @janeabell

LinkedIn: linkedin.com/in/janeabell

Facebook: facebook.com/janemabell

Web: janegrote.com