Feld Entertainment CEO Juliette Feld Grossman Talks Monster Jam’s Global Growth, Ringling’s Reinvention and Building a 365-Day Brand
“Nothing will ever replace a live experience because you’re there in person. You have an emotional connection that can’t be replicated by watching something on a screen. It is hard to know what’s real these days with AI-generated content and CGI. What I hope audiences know is that when they come to Ringling, what they see is completely unfiltered. There’s only one take. There is only one try. What you see is actually just incredible human talent.”
I had the pleasure of talking with Juliette Feld Grossman. Juliette grew up inside one of the most recognizable names in American live entertainment, but her path to leadership followed a steady, deliberate course shaped as much by observation as by inheritance. The daughter of Kenneth Feld, she is part of a third-generation family enterprise that helped define touring spectacle in the United States and abroad. From an early age, her surroundings were less conventional than most. Summers were spent inside rehearsals for Disney On Ice, winters alongside the development of new productions for Ringling Bros. and Barnum & Bailey. The rhythms of show creation, travel, and performance were woven into daily life.
She and her two sisters were introduced to the business not through formal instruction, but through proximity. “We were immersed in the business from a very young age,” she has said, recalling childhood days spent backstage. One of her earliest jobs involved appearing in Ringling as a clown during performances in Washington, D.C., where the family lived. It was demanding work, requiring participation in all three shows on a given day. The experience left a lasting impression, not only of the scale of the production, but of the culture behind it. Circus life, she observed, was built around trust, discipline, and continuity across generations.
Grossman formally joined Feld Entertainment in 2010, after completing her education and beginning graduate business studies. Her entry coincided with a turning point for the company. While she was earning her MBA, Feld Entertainment acquired a motorsports business, an unfamiliar world for someone who had grown up with performance rather than competition. “I certainly didn’t know anything about motorsports nor had I ever seen or experienced any of it,” she said. Soon after, she returned to Chicago, where the newly acquired division was based, and began working directly inside that operation.
The learning curve was steep. Grossman worked first on two-wheel motorcycle properties, including Nuclear Cowboys, a high-energy touring show built around elite riders, pyrotechnics, and electronic music. While the production was ambitious, it struggled commercially. The experience proved formative. She later described it as a lesson in strategy, noting that even strong creative work needs sustained audience connection and a broader ecosystem to succeed. The failure helped shape her later emphasis on brand, accessibility, and long-term engagement.
From there, she moved into Monster Jam, a property that would become central to her career. Under Feld Entertainment’s stewardship, Monster Jam expanded into a global franchise, staging hundreds of events each year and reaching audiences through live shows, digital platforms, and consumer products. Grossman played a role in scaling the business, helping guide it from a touring attraction into a year-round brand with a strong retail and media presence. The company eventually consolidated operations in Florida, where she took on increased responsibility across the organization.
In 2024, Grossman was named chief executive officer of Feld Entertainment. Her father remains chair of the board, a dynamic she has described as both supportive and grounding. She has emphasized collaboration over authority, saying effective leadership requires listening, preparation, and openness to expertise across disciplines. She has also spoken about the difficulty of decision-making at the executive level, where choices often involve competing priorities and long-term consequences.
As CEO, Grossman has overseen a renewed push to modernize legacy brands while preserving their core appeal. Ringling Bros. and Barnum & Bailey, which returned to touring in recent years after a hiatus, now emphasizes human athleticism, music, and technology-driven presentation. Grossman has been clear about the physical demands placed on performers, describing them as among “the hardest-working people in show business.” The risks remain real, she has said, but are mitigated through training, repetition, and rigorous safety standards.
She has also argued for the irreplaceable value of live performance at a time when digital entertainment dominates daily life. “Nothing will ever replace a live experience because you’re there in person,” she said, pointing to the emotional connection formed between performers and audiences. In an era shaped by computer-generated imagery and artificial intelligence, she believes unfiltered, one-take performances carry renewed meaning.
Beyond live touring, Grossman has supported efforts to extend Feld Entertainment’s reach through digital content and partnerships aimed at families. Projects like Ringling Kids and character-driven storytelling are intended to meet audiences where they already are, while reinforcing awareness between live events. Monster Jam, meanwhile, continues to grow across platforms, including livestreaming and licensing, and is in development on a feature film with Disney.
Despite overseeing large-scale operations, Grossman often frames her work through a personal lens. She is a parent of three young children and has spoken about the challenge of balancing leadership with family life. Her approach centers on presence and routine, focusing on one role at a time and maintaining habits that support focus and health. Looking ahead, she expresses optimism rooted in younger generations, whose creativity and resilience she sees reflected in the audiences Feld Entertainment serves.
Asked what idea she would most want to spread, Grossman has answered simply: compassion. “See the human side in other people first,” she said, describing it as a principle that applies as much to leadership as to daily life. In a business built on spectacle, her outlook remains grounded in people, both onstage and off.
Yitzi: Juliette Feld Grossman, it’s such a delight to meet you. Before we dive in deep, our readers would love to learn about your personal origin story. Can you share with us the story of your childhood, how you grew up, and the seeds for all the amazing work that has come since then?
Juliette Feld Grossman: Well, I’m part of a third-generation business, so I had a pretty unique childhood. I grew up around Ringling Bros. and Barnum & Bailey Circus, Disney On Ice, and a number of other spectacular entertainment properties. As a family growing up — I have two sisters as well — we spent all of our summer holidays in Disney On Ice rehearsals, and we spent our winter holidays around the creation of a new Ringling Bros. and Barnum & Bailey every year. So, I had a pretty unique childhood where we were immersed in the business from a very young age.
Yitzi: Amazing. Could you tell us the story of how you took this position and the backstory behind how that developed?
Juliette Feld Grossman: Sure. I joined our company, Feld Entertainment, in 2010. I worked in a number of different areas of the business, but it was a unique time to join. While I was in business school getting my MBA, my dad called me and said we acquired this motorsports business. You have to know that I grew up in a family with three girls; sometimes my dad watched golf, but otherwise, I never watched sports, and I certainly didn’t know anything about motorsports nor had I ever seen or experienced any of it.
When I came into the business, I moved back to Chicago where that new part of the company was based. I immediately started working in that office and getting immersed in that side of the business. It was a huge learning experience for me, first working on two-wheel motorcycle properties and then moving into Monster Jam. Since we acquired the business, we’ve substantially increased that part of the company and grown Monster Jam into a massive, dominant entertainment property.
Eventually, as we consolidated the business into one facility in Florida, I moved down there and had the opportunity to take on more of a role within the business. I became CEO in 2024. I’m lucky that I still have the benefit of my dad’s guidance as he continues as chair of our board and as a mentor to me.
Yitzi: Amazing. Being the head of so many amazing properties, especially Ringling Brothers — which I grew up seeing — you probably have some amazing stories. It might be hard to single out, but can you share a story that stands out most in your mind from your career?
Juliette Feld Grossman: Goodness. I think one of the things I think about is what our earliest jobs were. My first job as a kid was actually going into Ringling as a clown. When I was a little girl and Ringling was in Washington D.C., where we grew up, we would go down on a Saturday. There were three performances, and my dad said, “If you’re going to come on Saturday, you have to be in all three,” which was a pretty demanding day.
We would go into the show, get dressed up head-to-toe as a clown, go into the clown car, and join the performance. It was a pretty wild way to spend the weekend. It always felt like Ringling — the environment and the people — was really an extended part of our family. When you look at the circus historically, not just Ringling Bros. and Barnum & Bailey but around the world, it’s about families. It is multi-generational. The people you trust, train with, and build the business with are your family. The expectation and continuity of Ringling as a family business was always very clear.
Yitzi: Amazing. Beautiful. There’s a saying that sometimes our mistakes can be our greatest teachers. Can you share a story of a humorous mistake that you made when you were first starting your career and the lesson you took away from it?
Juliette Feld Grossman: I don’t know if I think any of them are humorous, but I certainly made a lot of mistakes. I can talk about some of the biggest learnings. When I started, I was working on a property called Nuclear Cowboys. It was a two-wheel motorcycle property. We had the best riders from the X Games and all the competitions. It was an incredible show with pyrotechnics, amazing stunts, lasers, and loud EDM music. However, the thing we didn’t have was brand recognition and a daily presence.
We ran that show for five years, and despite the fact that it was a remarkable product, it wasn’t commercially successful. The lesson for me was that everything must have a broader strategy around it. You have to know who your audience is and meet them not only with the product but also with a broader ecosystem.
As we look toward what we’re doing now with Ringling Bros. and Barnum & Bailey, and what we continue to do with building Monster Jam into a 365-day franchise, it’s about putting those other avenues of connection into place. With Ringling Bros. and Barnum & Bailey, we’ve launched this great Ringling Kids channel with fun, premium content that exposes families to circus arts and our characters, like Bailey Circuit, our robo-puppy. This creates demand. We are also working with partners who support families, like Chick-fil-A, to be an affordable entertainment partner alongside an affordable, healthy meal. We want to connect there and create that 365-day awareness for our market.
Yitzi: Have you seen the movie The Greatest Showman? How is it similar to real-life Ringling Brothers today?
Juliette Feld Grossman: I haven’t seen it in some time, but I will say the thing that is true about the circus, and particularly about Ringling Bros. and Barnum & Bailey when you’re at the level of “The Greatest Show On Earth,” is that it is remarkably demanding. It is always dangerous. The only way to mitigate the danger is through practice and work. The hardest-working people in show business are Ringling performers. They are incredible in their training, their diligence, and the risks they take for the sheer entertainment of our audience.
Imagine getting yourself vaulted into the air and doing a quintuple somersault into a mat with no cables for the amusement of the crowd. Or being launched 60 miles an hour out of the Ringling Bros. and Barnum & Bailey rocket across the arena floor. Or going up on the world’s tallest unicycle at 36 and a half feet tall. It is just incredible — the innovation, talent, and daredevilry that goes into everything our performers do.
Yitzi: As the movie industry goes through huge shifts and it becomes harder to fill a theater, do you think live performances like Ringling have a new opportunity because people have a craving for live, non-synthetic art?
Juliette Feld Grossman: Nothing will ever replace a live experience because you’re there in person. You have an emotional connection that can’t be replicated by watching something on a screen. It is hard to know what’s real these days with AI-generated content and CGI. What I hope audiences know is that when they come to Ringling, what they see is completely unfiltered. There’s only one take. There is only one try. What you see is actually just incredible human talent.
Yitzi: Please tell us about any new exciting initiatives, projects, or new shows that you would love our readers to hear about.
Juliette Feld Grossman: We’re excited that our new Ringling Bros. and Barnum & Bailey tour just launched in the beginning of January. We’re coming into the Newark area in the next few weeks and continuing that tour for a little over another year across the United States. That tour has a live DJ for the first time ever, incorporating a lot of popular music that drives energy. We have some remarkable acts, including the Henan acrobatic troupe from China, who have never performed in the United States before. They do amazing acrobatics on bicycles that are pretty jaw-dropping.
We are also at the height of our Monster Jam season. It’s been an exciting season, and we continue to see mind-blowing stunts from our drivers. Just a couple of weeks ago, we had more than one truck attempting to balance on one wheel, which is an incredible innovation in performance. It’s also been fun to see how our Monster Jam fans have rallied around Bailey Circuit, our Ringling robo-puppy that we’ve introduced as a Monster Jam truck as well.
Yitzi: For those of our readers who aren’t familiar with Monster Jam, can you tell us a bit about what it is and what’s unique about it?
Juliette Feld Grossman: Monster Jam is an entertainment franchise about enormous monster trucks that do incredible feats — the trucks actually fly. We are the leading motorsport for young families, doing about 350 events per year around the world. We also live stream every one of our events on YouTube, so accessibility is one of our primary initiatives. Monster Jam is also an $800 million retail business, and we’re the number one licensed vehicle in the toy category worldwide. It’s an exciting business because we have a live component, a big retail toy and apparel component, and media. We are also working on a movie with Disney and Dwayne Johnson that will be coming out in a few years.
Yitzi: This is the centerpiece of our interview. Juliette, you’ve been blessed with a lot of success as a leader. Can you share five things you need to be a highly successful CEO or C-suite executive?
Juliette Feld Grossman: I read your articles so I can learn from other people! (Laughs)
- I’d say the first thing is a willingness to listen and learn. I work with a lot of experienced people, and every day I learn from their new information, analysis, and expertise.
- Second, I would say preparation. I try to take in as much as I can to be prepared to use my time in the best way possible.
- Third, open-mindedness is important. I can’t do everybody’s job around me. What I have to do is be open-minded to hear them and create the right kind of environment to get the best information from the people I work with.
- Fourth, good routines and habits. If you can’t stay well, I think it’s really hard to be focused when you come in each day.
- The last thing is a willingness to make hard decisions. A lot of times I have to decide things that perhaps are not the call other people would make, but I have to do what feels right in the best interest of the business.
Yitzi: We are going through a turbulent time in our country, what makes you optimistic about the next 10 years?
Juliette Feld Grossman: You always look to young people. We’re in a business where we engage young people, connect with them, and provide them and their families with a break from the stress of daily life. When you see the innovation and spirit of young people, it’s always inspiring. In any generation, that’s really the thing that always brings the most hope.
Yitzi: On a more personal note, can you share some of the self-care routines that you do to help your body, mind, and heart to thrive?
Juliette Feld Grossman: I’m a parent with three young kids, so my biggest thing is that I only do one thing at a time. When I’m with my kids, I’m really focused on being with them. Sometimes I have to step away to do a work call, but as much as possible, I try to be present in the moment and make sure they know how important they are to me. That’s probably one of the most important ways that I manage all of my roles. Otherwise, I do the best I can to get the sleep I need.
Yitzi: Totally get it. (Laughs)
This is our final aspirational question. Juliette, because of your amazing work and the platform you’ve built, it’s not an exaggeration to say that you’re a person of enormous influence. If you could spread an idea or inspire a movement that would bring the most amount of good to the most amount of people, what would that be?
Juliette Feld Grossman: It’s always seeing other people as people. See the human side in other people first. Remember that whether you like them or not, or whether you like what they do or not, they are always people. Put that compassion at the center of everything you do.
Yitzi: How can our readers continue to follow your work, attend your programs, or support your work?
Juliette Feld Grossman: Thank you for that. I hope they will go to our websites — Ringling.com, DisneyOnIce.com, MonsterJam.com, and SuperCrossLive.com. You can sign up for emails there to find out when we are coming into your area. I hope people will enjoy and get to spend time with their families.
Yitzi: Amazing. Juliette, it’s been an honor and a delight to meet you. I wish you continued success, good health, and blessings. I hope we can do this again next year.
Juliette Feld Grossman: Thank you very much.
Feld Entertainment CEO Juliette Feld Grossman Talks Monster Jam’s Global Growth, Ringling’s… was originally published in Authority Magazine on Medium, where people are continuing the conversation by highlighting and responding to this story.