The Best Laid Plans of a Guy Who Thought He Could Do His Own DNS

So. Funny story.

You know how sometimes you have a plan?

Like, a really good plan?

A plan with a timeline and a countdown and marketing materials and a whole campaign built around a metaphors and you spend a lot of time hyping an audience up like a European DJ about to drop a sick beat – even though they are clearly just randomly pushing buttons on a pre-recorded track but still get paid millions of dollars to push said buttons that don’t do anything?

And then your website looks at that plan, laughs directly in your face, and says “absolutely not”?

Yeah. That happened.

Here’s what my big beautiful blueprint looked like:

Do Good YOUniversity was supposed to launch on Monday. The doors were supposed to open. You were supposed to click a button, angels were supposed to sing, confetti was supposed to rain from your screen, and you were supposed to be onboarded into the greatest nonprofit training community the world has ever seen.

Here’s what actually happened.

I got into a fight with DNS settings.

And lost.

Badly.

For those of you who don’t know what DNS settings are - congratulations, you’re living a better life than me.

For those who do know, please enjoy a moment of silence for my Sunday afternoon, Sunday Night, Monday Morning and every moment in between speaking duties at a conference I’m currently at which I spent staring at a screen full of letters and numbers that may as well have been ancient Sumerian, whisper-cursing “why won’t you just POINT to the right server” at my laptop like it was my dog I caught chewing on something from the garbage.

It did not point to the right server.

It’s currently pointing nowhere. Or possibly everywhere. I’m still not entirely sure.

I’d like to express my feelings about this experience in the most emotionally mature way I know how:

The site is not live

I whisper to the DNS gods

They do not whisper back

Poetry. Healing. Growth.

I didn’t know my week would begin like a tragic Robert Burns quote, but here we are.

So, like most things in my life currently, I look to my kids.

Kids (let’s just refer to them as 5^th Graders as a random example that has no link to anything I’ve ever done or written) don’t quit when the plan falls apart.

They don’t send a formal apology email.

They don’t convene a committee to discuss the implications of the setback and develop a 88-slide deck about lessons learned.

They just… adjust.

And keep going.

Kid can’t sell lemonade because it’s raining? Cool, now it’s hot chocolate.

The K-Pop Demon Hunters poster fell off the wall? Tape it back up. Upside down, apparently, but it’s back up.

The bake sale cookies look like abstract art instead of puppy faces because they wouldn’t let mom or dad help because they know how to do it? “They’re MODERN ART cookies and they’re FIVE DOLLARS.”

That’s the energy.

That’s what nonprofit professionals do every single day, by the way.

You don’t get the luxury of perfect conditions. You get a broken copier, a board member who “forgot” about the meeting, a donor database that looks like it was organized by a cat walking across a keyboard, and a major gift deadline that was yesterday.

And you figure it out. Because that’s what you do.

So that’s what I’m doing.

First, A Brief Word About My Borderline Toxic Positivity

People who know me well know that I have a… let’s call it an “aggressively optimistic” approach to problem-solving.

Some might call it inspiring. Others might call it delusional.

My wife calls it “that thing you do where you say ‘it’ll be fine’ and then it’s not fine but somehow you still think it was fine.”

She’s not wrong.

So when I decided I could handle the technical side of migrating an entire learning platform to a new system while also running a consulting business, parenting three children, traveling for conferences, and maintaining the general illusion that I have my life together…well.

That was very on-brand of me.

And very, very optimistic.

What I’ve learned, for the four hundredth time in my life, is that just because I CAN figure something out doesn’t mean I should be the one figuring it out.

I am a fundraising expert. I am not a web developer.

These are different skill sets.

I know this intellectually. I simply choose to ignore it every six to eight months and then act surprised when the consequences arrive.

Here. Have another haiku:

I can do it all

Said the guy who can’t do this

Leah, please help me

Seriously, Leah.

If you’re reading this in between the 1,000 fires you are putting out for me today, this is a plea for help and I need you to call the tech guy I swore off because I’m pretty sure he doesn’t like me anymore and you’re a whisperer of people and they all love you and I’m overwhelmed, and possibly need a beer at 7:30 in the morning…or a hug…or a kick in the ass while you say “I told you so.”

Any of those options work.

By the way, this is not even close to the chaos that you nonprofiteers in the field deal with every day.

I have a client who made the mistake of overselling their golf tournament by 6 teams.

Literally yesterday.

So, you’re going to tell me that my little website hiccup is more challenging than trying to find 12 extra golf carts in a rural town that has no extra golf carts?

No. No I am not going to tell you that.

Fun fact, after realizing they sold out PLUS 6, they simply made calls to a bunch of folks they know have privately owned golf carts – and one street legal not-really-a-golf-cart-but-I-guess-works-like-one – and solved it.

In 20 minutes.

No panic. Just a “Welp, better makes some calls…” attitude.

Like a boss.

Soooooo…

Do Good YOUniversity is still coming. It’s not canceled. It’s not on life support.

It’s just… fashionably late.

Like that friend who shows up 20 minutes after the reservation but buys the first two rounds of drinks so can’t even be mad.

Everything is built. The courses are loaded. The pathways are mapped. The community is ready. The 90-day onboarding system is locked and loaded. The welcome video is filmed and I only said “um” eleven times, which is a personal record.

The ONLY thing standing between you and the coolest and most awesomist nonprofit fundraising membership on the planet is a DNS setting that refuses to cooperate and a man who refuses to admit he should have called a professional three days ago.

One of those things is getting fixed this week. (It’s the DNS thing. I’m still not admitting anything.)

You know what?

Screw it. I’m going to lean into this. Toxic positivity be damned!

Because I’m gonna assume this delay accidentally created more anticipation and more buzz.

I assume more people asking “when is this thing opening?” which is literally the best marketing problem you can have.

You WANT people leaning forward. You want them checking their inbox. You want the launch to feel like an event, not a Tuesday.

And if I’m being honest (ok, maybe I’m always too honest with you. Sometimes annoyingly so??) this is exactly the kind of thing I coach my clients through every single week.

Plans change.

Timelines shift.

The gala venue floods.

The keynote speaker misses a flight and sends a text at 5:07 PM, 14 hours before she is supposed to hit the stage.

The printer misspells your presenting sponsor’s name on 3,000 programs that was clearly not your fault because you sent it for review to the committee 8 times and not even one of them caught it, even though it was on the front page.

You adapt. You adjust. You make the modern art cookies and charge five bucks.

That’s what we’re doing here.

The Doors Are Opening. Just Not Today.

When they do open - and it’s going to be very, very soon - it’s going to be worth the wait. 50+ courses. Six personalized pathways. Weekly live coaching. A community of do-gooders who actually get it. Templates, workbooks, scripts, and a 90-day game plan built around YOUR biggest challenge.

All of it. Ready. Waiting.

Just as soon as the internet decides to cooperate with a guy from West Fargo who definitely should not be touching server settings.

One more haiku for the road:

The launch is delayed

But my optimism is not

Stay tuned, do-gooders

That’s it. I’m submitting these to the New York Times and hopefully they use one to draw one of their sassy political cartoons. Haiku’s away!

You’ve freaking got this. And so do I.

Probably. We’ll see.

-Patrick

Frequently Asked Questions I’m Assuming You’d Ask

Wait, so is Do Good YOUniversity still launching?

Yes. 100% yes. Everything is built, loaded, and ready. We’re sorting out a technical issue with the website and it’ll be open very soon. Think days, not weeks.

What is Do Good YOUniversity?

DGYou is an on-demand training and community membership for nonprofit professionals. 50+ courses, weekly live coaching, downloadable templates, peer discussion boards, and a personalized 90-day action plan built around your biggest fundraising challenge. It’s $50/month or $550/year.

How do I know when it’s open?

If you’re on our email list, you’ll be the first to know. If you’re not, head to dogoodbetterconsulting.com and sign up. We’ll send you a note the second the doors open.

Can I still get on the waitlist?

Absolutely. And when we launch, waitlist members get first access plus a bunch of freebies to make myself feel better about my technical gong show.

What went wrong with the launch?

DNS settings. If you know, you know. If you don’t know, cherish your innocence.