🚪 Be the weirdo in the room
What if being noticed means disappearing first?
Hey 👋 … It’s been a while since my last email. I f***ed up.
I did exactly what I hoped I wouldn’t.
Launched this newsletter, sent 3 emails, and then... I froze.
You trusted me enough to sign up for this. Apologies!
I ran out of ideas. I started writing 4 other posts, but none of them felt right, so they’re still sitting in my drafts. I wanted to deliver real value, but something wasn’t clicking. It wasn’t real. Add to that a few stressful months at Pony, and I was completely stuck.
Those moments of struggle led me to this post.
I grew up in an ex-communist country in Eastern Europe, where sticking to the norms was ingrained in everything - school, home, friends - even me.
Everyone had a clear idea of what was “good” and what wasn’t, what was normal and what wasn’t. We were wired to be normal, to be "good." And, to be fair, it worked - you stayed out of trouble, people liked you, and all you had to do was follow the rules.
Crime rates in communist countries are typically low, and Bulgaria was no exception.
It felt safe. But it was also boring.
Now, 30 years later, my son goes to a pretty good school in London. A totally different world, but we’re still dealing with grades and rules for how kids should act and speak.
Then, one day you’re out of the system, looking for work, and it’s a total grind.
One of the biggest headaches recruiters face right now is the flood of applications from AI tools that let people mass-apply to thousands of jobs in seconds. Recruiters are getting hit with tens of thousands of applications daily, and a huge portion of them aren’t even close to being relevant.
It’s turning the job market into a mess of noise and clutter.
There are a couple of major problems here - everyone’s doing what everyone else is doing, and, second, you’re invisible.
We quickly shifted to a time where being the weirdo actually makes you more visible.
Yet most of what we see is still the same normal stuff. People are scared to be seen as odd.
Brands are even more scared because they might look unprofessional. Stakes are high!
Social ads have gone up by about 40% in the past 5 years, and that trend’s only expected to rise.
Here's a more detailed look at the average CPM for each year:
2019: $5.44
2020: $5.79
2021: $6.10
2022: $6.48
2023: $7.01
2024: $7.57
Using an average growth rate of 7%, the projected CPM for 2029 is $10.62.
Markets are getting more and more competitive and still - so many young and established companies want to be the professional ones.
You serious!
When speaking with clients we often hear keywords like “trust“, “reliability“, “professionalism“.
We don’t need to talk about this any more.
Every single customer out there knows that there isn’t a single company that wants to look spammy or unreliable. Especially the bad ones.
So what do you do?
You do what most don’t have the guts to.
You go out and become the weirdo in your niche.
You’re the one competitors make fun of.
The brand that team members and board directors call a terrible idea.
You take the leap.
You don’t listen to everyone, and you don’t try to please most.
To show you what I mean, look at property agents. You’ll easily spot them in London on weekends, all in fancy suits and ties, even if they’re showing you a shithole studio in the middle of nowhere. Adam greets you in polished shoes and a suit, looking more like an investment banker.
Adam is trying too hard.
Across the street, there’s Edna. 10 years older than him. Flashy, colorful, real.
She doesn’t care if there’s hot chocolate on her face.
She smiles because you look funny.
She shaved her head because she thinks her skull is bloody sexy.
Her skirt’s too short for “your posh liking“.
She says what she believes, even if you don’t like it.
She’s the weird one.
And this culture of being “normal”? It always comes from the top.
Parents, schools, bosses, investors, the board.
And then there are the brave ones who say, F**K OFF. They see it as a chance to stand out in a world full of sameness and hypocrisy. Habito is a perfect example.
They took a totally different approach with their identity. Their visuals feel like a trip to an insane, delusional world - somewhere between heaven and being high on ecstasy.
They went for something none of their competitors would dare to touch.
Another one - Surreal. A small cereal brand with a massive following and insane engagement. Their social game is brilliantly “unprofessional.”
They say what you’re not supposed to say.
Their tone of voice is way ahead of their visuals, which still feel a bit generic.
Next up to learn from you probably guessed it, the guys that own “cheap“ and they don’t pretend anything else, Ryanair.
This is tough to resist.
I won’t say much - just sharing a few gems (which many of you have probably seen already) that’ll give you a good laugh.
… and the list goes on.
And of course, there’s no way I can wrap this up without a bit of self-promotion, right?
Gotta pay the bills somehow.
We recently rebranded Butane.
At the core of their brand is this beautifully bizarre dragon—totally unexpected for the finance world.
Think of an elegant, exaggerated tail, vibrant colours that almost hurt your eyes—something so striking it makes you do a double take.
The kind of thing that’s weird at first but impossible to forget.
So next time you talk about their platform, that surreal, majestic tail on the homepage will be the first thing that comes to mind.
Here’s a quick guide to help you break away from the same old stuff we've all seen a million times.
1. Clarify your purpose - figure out why your brand exists and what real impact you want to make.
2. Identify your ideal audience - not everyone, just the special ones that will truly connect with your brand.
3. Audit the market - understand what your competitors are doing and find the gap where you can stand out.
4. Differentiate through actionable values - show your difference through real actions, not just words.
5. Refine your messaging and storytelling - craft a clear story that speaks directly to your audience's emotions.
6. Redesign your brand identity - align your visuals to match your core values and brand’s new direction.
7. Create experiences, not just products - make every interaction with your brand memorable and emotionally engaging.
That’s it from me for now.
Catch you in a few days, weeks, months, years... or maybe never. Who knows.
Either way, hit me up by replying to this email if you’ve got something to share.
I’m all ears.
Stef.