Mozart and Snoop Dog Walk Into a Bar…

I’ve always had eclectic music taste. Recently, I stumbled into a rabbit hole of mashups — not just songs remixed, but entire genres colliding. Rock fused with hip-hop. Pop blended with country. Even songs I never cared much for suddenly became exciting once paired with something unexpected. Hearing them through a new lens, with a new sound, changed everything.

That’s the beauty of a mashup: it takes the familiar and makes it feel brand new. Two tracks you know well, often from totally different worlds, combine to create something surprising, creative, and unforgettable.

We don’t just need to do this with music. We can do it with leadership and ideas. Too often, we think in silos, which limits us more than we realize. We put up artificial walls: finance over here, marketing over there, work separate from life. But innovation rarely comes from staying in your lane. It comes from blending across boundaries. It comes when we dare to mix what seems unrelated.

Think about it. When a Gen Z artist your kids are listening to today gets mashed up with a band you grew up with in the ’90s, you don’t just hear music, you hear a connection across generations. (For those of you without children, the same thinking works the other way with parents.) Leaders can do the same by bringing together perspectives that don’t usually meet. That’s where fresh thinking happens.

In fact, research shows that nearly 78% of innovations come from recombining existing ideas across disciplines, not from inventing something brand new. Innovation isn’t about pulling brilliance out of thin air. It’s about remixing what’s already there in surprising ways.

And here’s the magic: mashups surprise us. They take two things we thought we knew and show us something entirely different. When leaders foster that same energy, when they encourage their teams to remix ideas, mix disciplines, and collaborate across silos, that’s when real breakthroughs happen.

So, here’s your challenge: what can you mash up this week? A conversation between two departments that never talk? A fresh perspective from someone outside your industry? Even an idea from your personal life that could inspire a new approach at work?

Don’t settle for single tracks. Remix them. Surprise yourself. And lead with the energy that comes from creating something bold and new.

That’s how you get Inspired by LIFE.

I can’t wait to hear about you’re leadership mashup!