Dan le Man: Field Notes: Lessons from 20+ years on stage and in startup rooms. What works, what doesn't, and why it matters - no guru stuff.
On April 17th, I'll be in Riga for the 3rd International Conference on Circus Education.
I'm part of a World Café session and a panel, and the question we're tackling is simple but massive:
What do circus artists need to turn their creative ideas into sustainable careers?
Circus schools produce highly skilled artists. People who can do extraordinary things with their bodies, things most of us can't even imagine attempting.
But here's the problem: skill alone doesn't build a career.
The Drop-Off
When I graduated from circus school, I left with a fair amount of talent, training, and an act I was proud of. An act that got me an offer to perform the following summer.
What I didn’t have, what the great majority don’t have, is a roadmap. And it hurts. I know just how much it hurts. I even repeated the experience after my Physical Theatre Studies for good measure.
Not having a road map - that is a pain I know.
Artists and recent graduates, often don't know how to position their act. They don't know how to pitch their work to festivals or producers. They don't know what the actionable next steps are on Day 1 after graduation.
So they drop off.
Some struggle for years trying to figure it out on their own. Some give up entirely. Some end up doing work that has nothing to do with what they trained for because they can't see a clear path forward.
And it's not their fault.
The gap between education and career is real, and most institutions don't address it.
Filling the Gap
This year, I've been working with second and third-year graduates at the National Centre for Circus Arts (NCCA) in London to prepare them for what comes next.
Not just "here's how to write a CV" preparation. Real career planning.
We talk about:
What kind of act do you actually want to do?
Who is your audience?
What's your first actionable step the day after you graduate?
How do you use the work you're doing now as a launch pad instead of treating university as separate from your real career?
The goal is simple: when they leave, they don't spend the next six months going, "Well, what do I do now? How do I get work?"
They already know. They've got a plan. They've got next steps.
Idea → Act → Career
This is the framework I'm building through Creative Combinator: Idea → Act → Sustainable Career.
Most circus artists (and honestly, most creative professionals) get stuck somewhere in that progression.
They have the idea. Maybe they even develop the act. But turning it into a sustainable career? That's where it falls apart.
Because sustainable careers require more than talent. They require:
Knowing how to pitch your work
Understanding how to position yourself in the market
Building the right networks
Being able to communicate what you do clearly and confidently
Knowing which opportunities to say yes to and which ones to walk away from
These are learnable skills. But nobody's teaching them.
So I am.
Why This Matters Beyond Circus
If you're reading this and thinking, "I'm not a circus artist, why does this matter to me?" fair question.
Here's why: the gap between education and career exists everywhere.
Designers graduate with a portfolio but no idea how to find clients.
Developers build projects but don't know how to pitch them to investors or collaborators.
The pattern is the same: skill without strategy, talent without a roadmap, potential without a plan.
And in every case, the solution is the same: clarity, positioning, communication, and next steps.
That's what I work on with circus artists. That's what I work on with startup founders. It's the same problem, just different stages.
What Happens in Riga
The World Café session at the conference is designed to explore this question with circus educators, artists, and industry professionals from across Europe.
We'll talk about what practical skills, mindsets, and industry connections actually help circus graduates move from idea → act → career.
And the panel will dig into different pathways within circus education, what's working, what's missing, and what needs to change.
I'm going because this conversation matters. And because the work I'm doing with NCCA and Creative Combinator is proving that when you give artists a roadmap, they use it.
They don't need someone to hold their hand forever. They just need someone to show them the first few steps so they can start moving.
After that? They figure it out.
The Bigger Picture
Creative Combinator is designed to work with educational institutions like universities and circus schools, but also with artists who've already graduated and are struggling to build sustainable careers.
Because the gap doesn't just affect recent graduates. It affects anyone who was never taught how to turn their creative work into a livelihood.
If you're an artist, a performer, or a creative professional trying to figure out how to make this work long-term, this is for you.
If you're an educator or institution trying to support your graduates beyond just teaching them the craft, this is for you too.
And if you're a founder, entrepreneur, or startup person wondering why I'm writing about circus artists in a newsletter that's supposed to be about pitching and communication, now you know.
It's all the same work.
Business for the Culturally Bold,
Dan le Man
Following along?
If you want to hear more about what comes out of the Riga conference, or if you're working on bridging the gap between what you do and how you make a living from it, stay tuned. I'll be sharing more from this work.
And if you're preparing for a pitch, a performance, or any high-stakes moment where you need to communicate clearly and land it book a 15-minute discovery call.
No guru stuff. Just practical tools.
More info on the conference: https://cirks.lv/en/news/rigaconference2026/