🤪 Weirding The Normal
The Creative Art of MoneyBalling Multipotentiality
4 min read
This article shares a battle-tested multipotentialite framework for going viral.
There are only two creative philosophies to stand out:
Normalising the weird
Weirding the normal
Weirding The Normal
Competition is savage in saturated markets, whether you're an artist, freelancer, creator or business.
Weirding the normal cuts through the noise.
Example #1: Niching Up
Niching up means stacking your skills and passions to create a unique niche.
Take James Politti, a freelance logo designer in a sea of logo designers.
To stand out and get more clients, he launched a TikTok series, “Logos for Presidents if They Were NIKE Athletes,” gaining 44.2k followers and over 3.5 million views posting just six videos.🙀
He didn’t even have to show his face. Click the image if you want to his TikTok video👇
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Ask yourself this:
If you were looking for a new logo design would you employ a designer who posted bland LinkedIn content?
Or James?
Being weird gets more clients.
Embracing Your Weirdness
We’re weird — it’s who we are!
Society shamed us for it, pushing us to conform to fit in and be average.
Our innate talent for weirding the normal gives us an unfair advantage in a world of average people churning out bland content.
Example #2: Nitrobar
Coffee is one of the most saturated markets.
Nitrobar, an artisan coffee chain in Rhode Island, stands out by weirding the normal.
Their unique flavour combinations, like blueberry lattes and strawberry matcha lattes with lemonade and double expresso shots, have gone viral, earning them over 400k social media followers and $250k in annual merch sales.
They have four packed-out coffee shops and distribute their beans to 70 locations.
All because they take the normal and make it weird.👇
Their “What’s the weirdest drink someone’s ever ordered?” video got 16 million views 🤯 👇
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Weirding the normal is not a new strategy.
✅ Ben and Jerry’s made ice cream weird with unconventional flavours.
✅ Liquid Death made water weird by packaging it in a can to look like beer.
✅ David Bowie made glam rock weird by niching it up with avant-garde theatre and performance art to create Ziggy Stardust.
Moneyballing Multipotentiality
Moneyball wasn’t just about finding undervalued players it was about weirding the normal.
The Oakland Athletics disrupted Major League Baseball by placing athletes in unconventional roles, like using a former catcher who had never played as a first baseman.
They ignored high-velocity power pitchers for those with weird throwing styles, ignoring conventional baseball wisdom.
Being weird gave them an unfair advantage.
How to Weird Your Normal
There are a few frameworks to do this:
You can use the SUCCESs framework from the New York Times bestselling book “Made to Stick: Why Some Ideas Survive and Others Die!”
Their SUCCESs framework goes like this:
Simple: Identify your unique skills.
👉 Example: James Politti is an unconventional logo designer.Unexpected: Combine your skills in surprising ways.
👉 Example: James’s TikTok series “Logos for Presidents if they were NIKE athletes” was massively unexpected!Concrete: Make your ideas tangible.
👉 Example: James showcased his logo designing skills through viral videos.Credible: Build trust with testimonials and anecdotes.
👉 Example: James’s videos provide social proof of his creativity and logo-designing skills.Emotional: Creative authenticity resonates.
👉 Example: James inspired others with his originality and creativity.Stories: Weave narratives into your brand.
👉 Example: James invited audiences to imagine presidents in NIKE ads highlighting his creative thinking powers.
My Creative Hackers Newsletter is Four Years Old Today!
I published my first article on Oct 5th, 2020.
It was a 4-week experiment.
I was stuck, burned out, and depressed feeling I was letting my family down, especially my daughter!
I needed a creative outlet to process my emotions.
One of my first subscribers was Michael, and four years later, we co-founded Niche Creator to help the younger versions of ourselves stop overthinking and be more weird.
Life is weird, huh?
I used to believe I had to have everything figured out before starting.
This need for a perfect decision kept me stuck.
I was scared of wasting my time.
Everyone wants to go viral. Everyone wants to reach their creative potential.
But the truth is, we just need to start.
When I started writing, I didn’t know I was neurodivergent. I have never heard the term multipotentialite.
I couldn't predict any of the things I’m doing now.
We aim for home runs, but we should focus on getting to first base.
The key to winning major league baseball games is not relying on the home runs but simply getting on the bases.
Perhaps this is a good metaphor for our lives too?!
Like the players from the Oakland Athletics, we all have undervalued unique skills that society ignores—skills we might not even know we have.
Niching up those diverse skills is the creative art of moneyballing your multipotentiality.
Thanks for reading!
Stop overthinking, and be more weird! 🙏
Peace out ✌️
Very nice article. I'm a multipotentialite myself, and I was struggling about what to post on social media. I'm acting, directing, writing, busking on the street, I do magic and voiceovers and I'm living in a camper with my cat. Full of possibilities to share my story but ...
Where do I start I was wondering? I just started from the last thing I was doing (busking) and I want to keep going with the rest! Thanks