rock different, babe 🤘

Learning from the brands, founders and people who refused the standard playbook. Real stories. Real rebels. No playbook. Just progress.

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// what is this

rock different, babe 🤘 is an editorial project exploring the brands, founders and people who refused to follow the standard playbook and succeeded because of it.

It is not a podcast.

It is not a newsletter.

It is not a YouTube channel.

Those are simply formats.

The project exists to answer one question:

What can we learn from people who built differently?

Every article, podcast episode, video, interview and case study contributes to that single mission.

Produced by Cheryl Kahla for TechNation News — South Africa's first AI-native newsroom.

// Explore

Rebel Brands

Companies that challenged industry assumptions and won. TymeBank. Canva. Patagonia. Liquid Death. Notion. Basecamp.

Coming soon

Rebel People

Individuals whose persistence, creativity or principles challenged conventional thinking. Founders. Scientists. Artists. Activists.

Coming soon

Rebel Ideas

Movements. Business models. Design philosophies. Marketing campaigns. Community building strategies that broke the mould.

Coming soon

Build Log

Applying those lessons while building TechNation News into an AI-native newsroom. What worked. What failed. What changed.

Built in Public Mode On
// The Lens — Every Story Answers
01

What was the industry norm?

The playbook everyone else was following.

02

What did they reject?

The specific thing they refused to do.

03

Why did they reject it?

Conviction, constraint, or stubbornness.

04

What happened?

The results, not the mythology.

05

What can everyone else learn?

Evidence, not motivation.

Success doesn't care what the playbook says.

— rock different, babe 🤘

// Latest Stories
Rebel Brand

Canva: Designing Disruption

Adobe owned design for decades. Canva asked a different question: what if design didn't require a degree?

Coming soon 8 min read
Rebel Person

Maharishi Invincibility Institute

Dr Taddy Blecher built a university for students nobody else wanted. Education that defies the system.

Coming soon 10 min read
Build Log

Building an AI Newsroom from Zero

I got retrenched. I built an AI newsroom. This is the ongoing log of what's working, what isn't, and what I'm learning.

● In progress Series
// Collections
South African Rebels Women Who Challenged Convention Media Disruptors Education Rebels Fintech Rebels Impossible Marketing
// Voice & Philosophy

The Voice

  • Conversational
  • Opinionated
  • Curious
  • Journalistic
  • Occasionally Sarcastic
  • Transparent
  • Never Corporate
  • Never Motivational
  • Evidence Over Hype

Being different is easy.

Being intentionally different, consistently, until the market notices...

...that's rare.

This project celebrates thoughtful rebellion. Not performative rebellion.

We don't celebrate disruption for its own sake. We study which kinds of rebellion actually work.

PUNK. SMART. UNFILTERED.

Stories of people and brands who refused the standard playbook and won anyway.

rock different, babe 🤘