🥁 The OffBeat #85: Being, And Doing, Enough

Stop overproducing the track

This is The OffBeat, where music meets leadership. I’m Allison Stadd—jazz drummer, marketing leader, and very tired/highly caffeinated mom of two—and each week I deliver a fresh take on work, creativity, and connection, like how to hire like Duke Ellington. It’s like HBR, but with better taste in music.

Every other edition of The OffBeat is a think piece structured like a jam session in jazz (naming the tune—a punchy idea; soloing—exploring different takes on a central theme; outro—a thought-provoking closer).

I had a stretchy black T-shirt in middle school with a rhinestone-encrusted, silver-scripted "Perfect" emblazoned on the chest.

It was the heyday of cheeky shirts: "Bacon makes everything better,” "Geology rocks," “I like big brunch and I cannot lie."

But I wore mine in all seriousness. Because I was perfect. I needed to be. It was a standard I imposed on myself with relentless devotion.

In middle school each year I found superhuman brawn to beat the required mile time, flexibility inches, and number of pull-ups and sit-ups to qualify for the Presidential Physical Fitness Award.

For half of high school I took lunchless eight-period-days, scarfing tinfoiled sandwiches and baggies of carrot sticks in the hallway between classes, to take an extra AP course and two music periods.

My parents bought a basketball hoop for the end of our driveway, and I stayed out there all goddamn night shooting until the bumpy orange Spalding ball swooshed through the net.

In both music and leadership, we (especially women, and especially women balancing intense careers with caretaking responsibilities) often chase an impossible standard—perfection, precision, or simply the feeling that we’re "doing enough." But just like a song doesn’t need endless layers of sound to resonate, neither does your life.

In fact, overproducing a track—adding too many effects or layers; basically trying too hard musically—drowns out its essence. And it just sounds junky.

A great musician doesn’t play every note at once; they choose what to emphasize, what to leave out, and when to rest (rest… what a concept!).

Leadership—and life—works the same way. Like we’ve talked about before, silence between the notes matters as much as the sound.

🎬 ACTION: If you feel like you’re falling short at work, at home, or both, ask yourself: Am I overproducing this music?

» Am I trying to play too many instruments at the same time?

» Am I cranking up the volume in every area?

» Am I adding layers just to fill the silence?

» Am I sound-mixing without taking breaks to actually listen?

» Have I let other producers (bosses, colleagues, society) take over the track?

Remember “enough” is sort of bullshit; when you impose that standard on yourself, you’re making it up. Enough for who? On what terms? In what circumstances?

The best leaders, like the best musicians, understand dynamic range. They know when to push, when to pull back, and when to let others take the solo. Maybe right now, your career is playing the background bassline while your family takes the main melody; or vice versa.

That doesn’t mean you’re failing, or you’re not doing “enough.” It means you’re being intentional and self-aware.

Instead of measuring yourself against some undefined “enough,” consider this: You don’t have to play every note at once to make an impact. You just have to play the right ones, right now.

In music, "enough" is about balance, not excess. It’s the point where a piece feels complete; where every note serves the song without overcrowding it.

"Enough" in music means knowing what serves the song and what doesn’t. The same applies to work and life: not doing everything, but doing what matters most.

On my high school dance team, when rehearsing endless reps of a routine in preparation for a big competition, sometimes our coach would declare that we’d “mark it” for the next rep as opposed to going “full out.”

“Marking it” meant going through the movements with minimal energy, without full extensions or sharpness. We used marking to focus on spacing, timing, or memorization without exhausting ourselves. It was a way to conserve energy while still mentally engaging with the choreography.

“Full out,” on the other hand, meant performing the routine with complete physical commitment, the way we’d do it in a live performance.

We needed both: the marking-it reps to routinize the moves and spacing; the full-out reps to improve our leaps, jumps, and stamina.

Same thing in music, and in life.

Sometimes good enough isn’t just good enough; it’s exactly right.

Have a great week,

Allison

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