Clark tells the story of the Birmingham boardroom moment that changed everything - when he closed a $17 million deal by telling Alexander Shunnarah the truth, then got fired for "insubordination" two months later. This is the origin story of choosing honesty over safety, competence over comfort, and why being fired for being too good at your job is better than being kept for being mediocre.
Key lesson: You are the product - your ability to see clearly, speak honestly, and deliver results that software can't replicate.
This episode explains why Clark operates the way he does now and why competence is revolutionary in a broken system.
REACH_Ep3_Unfuckwithable
Clark Barron Have you ever been in a meeting? Maybe a stand up, maybe an all hands,
maybe a glorified zoom call that somebody is trying to pass off as community? Have you ever
had that moment where you've said to yourself, oh wow, this person has absolutely no clue
what they're talking about? There's a moment in every marketer's career when you realize the
game is rigged, and you understand that there are tons of people that are performing expertise
when they don't actually have any. And along the way, you start to realize that competence is
often punished. It's not rewarded. And for some reason, the most incompetent people are the
ones in charge. Getting the most attention have the biggest followings. What's that all about?
So what would happen if you ever said anything about it? What if you finally said the quiet part
out loud? What would it look like? What would it feel like to truly be unfuckwithable? Well, let
me take you back. Back to a boardroom in Birmingham, Alabama. I was working at a digital
agency. It was a medium shop, and even though we had Exxon and Jimmy Buffett rest in
peace, King, it was still trying to punch above its weight. I was the director of media marketing,
whatever, which at a place like that meant I did everything from strategy to creative to client
management to making sure the coffee machine worked. The call came on a Tuesday.
Alexander Shunnarah wanted to meet. If you've never been to Alabama, you don't know
Alexander Shunnarah But if you've driven I-65 between Birmingham and Montgomery, you've
seen his billboards. Hell, you've probably seen them as far as Atlanta, Nashville, everywhere.
The biggest personal injury attorney in the southeast. His annual budget for billboards alone
was $17 million. Yes, I said Jimmy Buffett earlier. And yes, the office was more enamored with
Alexander Shunnarah They put me in the conference room with nothing but suits everywhere.
President, VP, account directors, senior strategist. Everyone in their best client meeting attire.
And there was my hungover ass ripped jeans, two wristbands still in my arm in the faint hint of
love spell wafted from my everywhere. Yeah, this was a while back, if you know, you know.
Because, of course, nobody had told me that this was happening until five minutes before it
started. So Shunnarah walks in bigger than life. The kind of presence that fills a room before
he even speaks. The suits start their presentation, slides, data, market analysis, competitive
positioning, the whole dog and pony show. Okay, I'll just get to the embarrassing shit. They
were asking for more budget to keep doing the same thing that they'd been doing. That's all it
was. Nothing jumped out, nothing connected. And you could feel the energy draining from the
room by the second. Alexander stops them mid-sentence, and this was one of the most
hilarious moments in my entire career. I want to talk to somebody else. That's what he said.
Every single head turned. Who else is there to talk to? Well, then he looks at me, at my greasy
hair, my single bloodshot eye, my blatant disregard for brogued oxfords and unlit Cuban cigars.
You must be the creative one. Oh, what gave it away? He, of course, laughed. It's the first time
anyone had smiled in the room that entire day. Hell, first time anybody's asshole unclenched
for even a second. They were terrified of Shunnarah So what should I do? Every single head
turned to me. Silence. Pin drop. At this point in my career, I had reached the point where I was
just done. I was done pretending that wearing a suit meant you knew what you were talking
about. I was done acting like it was okay to relegate marketers to creatives instead of strategic
weapons. And I was done. Abiding. Weaponized incompetence. You know what, Alex? You
should do whatever the fuck you want to. You could hear the suits collectively hold their breath.
I knew I had him at that very moment, I was unfuckwithable. And I swear on my life that I was
this close to actually lighting a cigarette right there in front of everybody in that boardroom.
Alexander leans back. Explain. Because I clearly don't know what I want to do or what I should
do. That's why I'm here and I'm not impressed. No, you're not impressed with them pointing to
the dipshits in suits whose asses were currently so clenched again they could crush diamonds.
You're not an attorney. You're a celebrity. Act like it. Turn your billboards upside down. Get a
booth and make appearances at the local Comic-Con. Who gives a shit? You're Alexander
Shunnarah lol. Services aren't the product you are. When I said whatever the fuck you want to,
I wasn't just giving you advice, I was telling you what your audience is going to say when
they're not talking about the man, they're talking about the myth. Start acting like one.
Everything else will follow. He stared at me for what felt like forever. You're smarter than all of
them, aren't you? When I need to be. Closed, Won Not because of the slides or the market
analysis or the competitive positioning. Because someone finally told him the truth about what
business he was actually in. I led his campaign. We threw out everything the suits had
proposed, made Shunnarah the hero of his own story instead of just another lawyer with
billboards. Who needs another one of those? Good Lord, turn him into the character he
already was, but had been too afraid to embrace it. Crushed. Client was thrilled. Agency was
making money. They'd never seen before. I was the golden boy for exactly two months.
Different conference rooms this time. President, VP, and you guessed it, HR. The holy trinity of
corporate execution. Today will be your last day with us. Why? Uh. Insubordination. We just
need somebody who's a better culture fit. Culture? What? Strategic impotence. Weaponized
incompetence. Let me translate this for all you listening. I made them look incompetent in front
of the biggest client they'd ever had. I closed a deal that they couldn't close, and I was a
marketer. I understood a client that they couldn't understand, and I delivered results that they
couldn't deliver. That was unforgivable. I didn't sleep for a week. I kept wondering if I'd ever
work again. Mainly, I was worried about getting thrown out of the loft I'd just rented On the top
floor corner of the Wooster Building in downtown Birmingham. Spoiler alert I 100% did. But
that's the thing about knowing your right. You can only lie to yourself for so long. See, here's
what I learned in that Birmingham boardroom. The game was never about being good. It was
about protecting the people who weren't. The suits didn't get fired for failing to connect with a
$17 million budget. I got fired for succeeding where they failed. They'd rather lose the client
than admit that they didn't understand the assignment. Because in corporate America, there's
nothing more dangerous than competence that makes incompetence obvious. This story isn't
unique to me. It's the pattern that repeats everywhere in marketing. The person who tells the
truth about attribution gets fired. The person who calls out the broken lead qualification gets let
go. The person who creates content that actually serves the audience instead of covering up
dysfunction, gets shown the door. The person who says whatever the fuck you want to do
instead of performing strategic expertise, gets labeled insubordinate. The system doesn't
punish failure. It punishes honesty. And that's the problem. Wall services aren't the product you
are. That line changed everything for him, and it should change everything for every marketer
listening to this. Because most of us are selling the wrong product. We think we're selling
tactics and campaigns and strategies. Nope. Absolutely not. We're selling ourselves our ability
to see what others can't. and our capacity to cut through the bullshit and identify what business
they're actually in. Whatever the fuck you want to. That's not just what I told Alexander. It's
what I'm telling you. You don't need permission to tell the truth. You don't need permission to
call out broken systems. You don't need permission to be competent in a room full of people
that are performing expertise. Wear ripped jeans to a board meeting. If that's who you are.
Who cares? You don't need permission to be the person who actually understands the
assignment. I'd spent years thinking that they, being the established authority in the corporate
world knew more than me. And yet, the more and more experience I gained, the more I started
to think that the vast majority of senior leadership in corporate America are absolute buffoons.
And of course, that revelation is table stakes for anybody over the age of 30 nowadays. But
getting fired from that job was the best thing that ever happened in my career. because it told
me one thing I needed to hear in order to become dangerous in this industry. I was right at that
moment. I was 100% unfuckwithable. Which doesn't mean confident. It means you've stopped
performing, you've stopped asking for permission, and you've remembered what you're
capable of. And it terrifies the people who forgot what real competence looks like. But
understand this. Let me be the first to tell you there will be consequences. The suits will try to
fire you for insubordination. The system will punish you for making others look incompetent.
The people who can't close deals will resent you. Especially if you're a marketer. Your
competence will be labeled as arrogance. Your honesty will be called unprofessional. Your
results will be dismissed as luck. And eventually, they might show your ass the door. So you
have a choice. You can play it safe. Wear the suit. give the presentations that don't offend
anyone. Ask for more budget to do the same shit that isn't working. You can perform expertise
instead of demonstrating it. You can be forgettable, tame, and keep your job. Or you can be
the person that walks in the boardroom and tells the truth. You can be the one that
understands what business your client is actually in, and you can be the one who gets fired for
being too good at the job. Because trust me, if that happens, you didn't want to work there.
Because here's what Shunnarah taught me. You are the product. Not your agency, not your
company, not your tactics or strategies or your slide decks. You. You listening right now? You
are the product. Your willingness to speak honestly and your courage to be different in a room
full of sameness. That's what clients are really buying. And that's what the market really, really
needs right now. And as it turns out, oddly enough, that's what the suits can't replicate, no
matter how expensive their presentations get. I got fired from that Birmingham agency.
Seriously, best thing that ever happened because it taught me that playing it safe is, quite
honestly, the most dangerous thing you can do sometimes. It taught me that being fired for
being too good and speaking truth to power, and just being honest, is better than being kept for
being mediocre. So to every marketer listening to this, who's sitting in a conference room full of
suits, remember that you are not there to make them comfortable. You are there to deliver
results. That is your job. You are not there to perform. You're there to demonstrate. And if that
gets you fired for insubordination, if somebody doesn't like you, if somebody tries to weed you
out, if you get put on a pip. Good. The revolution was never going to come from the people
with the most to lose. That's not how change is affected. Real change. It's coming from the
people who understand that competence is more valuable than comfort from the people that
would rather be fired for being right, kept for being wrong. And Sonora, well, who he became
that myth, let me tell you. Not because of the suits, but because somebody finally told him the
truth about what kind of story his audience wanted to believe. I never saw Alexander again
after I got fired. I heard through the grapevine that he kept running variations of that campaign
for years. The one that positioned him as a celebrity, as an attorney in Alabama, instead of just
some ambulance chaser. The one that understood what business he was actually in. And the
one that the suits couldn't have pulled out of their ass if they had a hundred years. An old
friend recently sent me a picture of an upside down billboard. Recently still there. And me?
Well, I'm still here, still wearing ripped jeans to important meetings, still telling clients what they
need to hear instead of what they want to hear. Still believing that honesty and conviction and
competence is the foundation of all great marketing. Because that's what this voice is for, for
the people who understood the assignment. For the people who deliver results instead of
excuses. Because in a world that punishes competence, the most revolutionary thing you
could do is whatever the fuck you want to.