Chapter Forty Six: Remix Culture

Lately, I have been thinking a lot about remix culture, and it has been coming up more and more through the interviews I have been doing on the channel. A released one with Philip D’Souza from High Rock and an upcoming one with Heliohara from the Conservation Trust Fund in Brazil both touched on this idea in different ways. The shared thread was marketers discussing borrowing ideas from other industries, regions, and cultural contexts, then adapting them for spaces not traditionally seen as creative or experimental.

I believe in this deeply. There are so many good ideas already out in the world. With the right perspective or a small shift in how they are applied, those ideas can feel completely new again. That is often how culture grows. Remixing is not about copying. It is about adaptation, translation, and context.

When people hear the word “remix,” they often think of music, but the idea is much older and broader than that. Food is one of the easiest examples. Rice has travelled across continents and cultures, becoming something slightly different everywhere it lands. The same goes for noodles and pasta. Trade routes like the Silk Road did not just move goods. They moved flavours, techniques, and ideas. Over time, those ideas became local, shaped by the people who adopted them. What we now think of as traditional food often started as a remix.

I think the same logic applies professionally, especially in marketing. I remember watching an episode of The Bear where the chefs go off to do stages. They spend time working in other kitchens, learning how different teams operate, picking up new techniques, and seeing how standards shift from place to place. It sounds intense, but it also feels incredibly practical. If you want to grow, you go spend time with people who are doing things well and learn from them directly.

Professional athletes do something similar. They might only compete a few hours a week, but they spend dozens of hours training. The ratio of practice to performance is completely flipped. In most professional careers, it feels like we spend the majority of our time performing and very little time training. I do not think that serves us as well as it could.

That is where remix culture becomes a mindset, not just a tactic. It requires curiosity and humility. It means looking outside your lane and being willing to say that another industry might be doing something better than yours. I have been playing with the idea of asking to do a stage myself. It feels slightly strange to even say out loud, but the more I think about it, the more it makes sense. Why not spend time learning from teams I admire, even if their work looks nothing like mine on the surface?

I want to learn from fashion and how they create desire and identity, then bring that thinking into home services. I want to understand how banking builds trust and a sense of security and apply that to retail. I want to look across sectors and pull ideas from places that are not usually in conversation with each other. That kind of cross-functional learning does not happen by accident. It takes intention and time.

Even something as simple as colour shows how industries influence behaviour. Fast food leans heavily into reds and warm tones. Finance often defaults to blues and greens. Retail has more flexibility, but even there, patterns emerge. These choices are not random. They are learned over time, reinforced by what works. Remix culture asks what happens when you disrupt those expectations just enough.

I am also very interested in where innovation actually comes from. Big brands with massive budgets do incredible work, but some of the most interesting ideas are happening at the grassroots level. Small teams with limited resources are often forced to be creative in ways that larger organizations are not. Learning up and down the spectrum matters. It just requires being proactive, asking questions, and paying attention to work that does not always get the spotlight.

There is also something powerful about looking backward. Remix culture is not only about borrowing from other industries. It is also about borrowing from other time periods. Nostalgia works because it is familiar, but it becomes interesting when it is reinterpreted. The early 2000s are having a moment right now. Even 2016 is somehow being treated like a cultural reference point. These cycles say a lot about how people process change and comfort.

All of this feels especially relevant now. Technology is accelerating. Generations are overlapping in leadership and influence. The ways we communicate, create, and build trust are shifting quickly. Remix culture offers a way to move forward without pretending everything has to be invented from scratch. It values learning, adaptation, and evolution.

For me, it comes back to wanting to work in spaces where creativity is encouraged and curiosity is rewarded. Remix culture sits right at the center of that. It is not about being loud or flashy. It is about being thoughtful, observant, and willing to try things that might feel unfamiliar.

The Good
Warm weather. It is hard to argue with the sun and the energy it brings.

The Challenge
Figuring out my goals for the year and being honest about what I want to prioritize.

What’s Next
The ticking clock of the program coming to an end and deciding how to carry these ideas forward into whatever comes after.