He's spent eight years convincing nonprofits to believe in themselves. The harder sell has always been himself.

Patrick is one of those people who walks into rooms radiating certainty. But the version of him that wakes up before a keynote, quietly running through every reason it could fall apart, is just as real... and he thinks that version is actually the better one.

Patrick Kirby is a fundraising consultant, speaker, and author based in Fargo, ND. Over nearly a decade, he has helped hundreds of nonprofits raise more money, build better cultures, and stop doing things the way they have always been done.

In this episode of Never Been Asked That, we get into:

• Why the most confident person in the room is usually fighting the hardest internal battle
• How theater, Les Miserables, and a hallway at Anne Carlson Center permanently rewired how he sees the work
• The moment a new boss asked 'Is this a bit?' and accidentally handed Patrick his exit ramp
• Why donors are exhausted by tragedy and what joy has to do with fundraising
• What Rick Rubin got right about audiences, and why Patrick stopped writing for anyone but himself

Key moments:

• (01:00:00) Intro
• (01:00:40) Presence Over Pitch: What people get wrong about Patrick first
• (01:03:08) The Introvert Few People See: The reset time behind the stage
• (01:09:02) Story Is the Strategy: Theater, musicals, and learning to be uncomfortable
• (01:13:10) Losing the Race, Finding the Gift: From sales rep to healthcare recruiter to nothing
• (01:19:24) The Humor and the Edge: When personality became the differentiator
• (01:23:36) The Discipline Behind the Energy: Standards, curiosity, and letting clients go
• (01:47:58) The Hallway Moment: Anne Carlson, the kid who wasn't supposed to walk, and the boss who asked the wrong question
• (01:55:00) People Are the Real Work: The obsessive balance between care and business
• (02:01:38) The Audience Comes Last: Joy, storytelling, and why sad isn't a fundraising strategy
• (02:14:53) Audacity and Self-Belief: Rick Rubin, unreasonable confidence, and what happens when you stop caring what people think
• (02:35:45) Leading beyond motivation into action

Curious what you think we should have asked.

Follow Patrick Kirby:

• Patrick Kirby’s Website
• Get one of Patrick’s Books
• Patrick Kirby on LinkedIn
• DoGoodBetter on YouTube
• Patrick Kirby on Instagram

He built one of the most recognizable brand universes in his city... but nobody asked him to.

Nathaniel Navratil is a designer, creative director, and equity partner at Drekker and Brewhalla in Fargo, ND. He's the hand behind the identity, the merch, the labels, and the culture that turned a hotel and brewery into a destination.

In this episode of Never Been Asked That, we get into:

• Why "follow your passion" might be the worst advice you've ever been given
• What it actually feels like to walk into a room and know you've outgrown it
• The difference between building your castle and building someone else's
• How he landed one of the most creatively ambitious projects in his city before anyone else even tried
• Why the through line across everything he's made isn't skill or strategy. It's fun.

Key moments:

• (00:00) Intro
• (00:42) Identity Before the Work
• (00:20:09) Skill Over Passion
• (00:57:29) The Work Ethic Origin Story
• (01:00:17) When Effort and Skill Weren't Enough
• (01:04:38) Misalignment & Environment
• (01:07:22) The Reset Year
• (01:28:41) The Craft Behind the "Goofy"
• (01:33:31) Alignment
• (01:37:06) The Universal Lesson
• (01:48:26) The Brewhalla Moment

Curious what you think we should have asked.

Follow Nathaniel:

⁠https://www.instagram.com/nathanielnavratil/⁠

⁠https://www.instagram.com/studio.foley/⁠

⁠https://dribbble.com/nathaniel-navratil⁠

⁠https://www.behance.net/nathaninavrati⁠

He reaches a billion people a day from a small town in North Dakota… but most of them have no idea he exists.

Marlo Anderson is the founder of National Day Calendar, the platform behind nearly every national day you've ever seen trending, shared, or celebrated. They've grown from 20–30 national days in 2013 to over 1,700 on the calendar today, with a reach that's been featured on CBS Sunday Morning, cited by the Today Show, and built without a single dollar of outside funding.

In this episode of Never Been Asked That, we get into:

• How a curiosity about National Popcorn Day became a billion-person platform

• What the "school of hard knocks" actually taught Marlo about failure, risk, and timing

• Why AI has completely reinvigorated him and what it means for small business

• The real reason people celebrate national days (it's not about the food)

• What it felt like to get a late-night call from someone in crisis who dialed National Day Calendar

Key moments:

(00:00) Intro

(00:49) Who is Marlo? Curiosity, failure, and the “can-do” spirit

(10:39) Artificial photosynthesis, AI, and the falling cost of big ideas

(27:22) How National Day Calendar started and almost didn't survive

(53:39) What celebration really does for people in a divided world

Curious what you would have asked.

Follow Marlo Anderson:

⁠National Day Calendar⁠

⁠Marlo Anderson on Instagram⁠

⁠Marlo Anderson's Website⁠

⁠Marlo Anderson on LinkedIn