Having the site live has put more pressure on getting all the content together for Sort Yourself Out, which is always good as that part of the site has been neglected in the last couple of weeks. Kirk came over last night and knocked up some good stuff which you can find on the site.

Have spent this morning putting together the powerpoint presentation for Ruth tomorrow, using this guide. Looking forward to getting a foothold within the chamber of commerce, and using it to springboard GYO off the ground. The product is so conceptually good now that it is only a matter of time before the businesses start falling over themselves. (Self motivational )

Have a meeting with Wellington Tennis at the Renouf Centre next week, and am about to call iPlay. Actually will do that now then continue blogging;

Good, meeting tomorrow 9am. Brent sounds like a good guy as well so should be a good meeting.

Had my friend Andrew Baldwin compose a really good intro to the Cooking with Kirk video series. It’s pretty cool, really cheesy and take the pissy. Heh.

Ok all blogs are now going to be at http://www.gyo.co.nz/kieran-s-blog

See you there!

In GYO news, I have a meeting with Ruth McDavitt on wednesday, programme manager for export Wellington. Ruth is, according to Tim, the woman I need to speak with to open doors.

 Did a walk-in to different businesses in Wellington and got met with blank stares from the highly intelligent sales/student workers. Have reverted back to phone calls/emails to contact appropriate people. The challenge, however, is finding out who these people are. Through a mixture of Google and the companies office website you can generally find who you need to be talking to but it’s an uphill battle. Business owners obviously think that they have heard it all before with a discount/loyalty kind of scheme, so getting them to listen to the entirely new concept of GYO is proving to be a real hurdle.

What I really need is a high profile Wellingtonian to back GYO and be able to take that to businesses. Someone of the likes of Rod Drury or Terry Serepisos.

Off to play cricket today with Dad out in Paraparaumu, apparently there is 100 there to be scored. Back into town afterwards to get back into it. I’m sure I have something on on Sunday but I can’t remember what.

Had Brady over and we discussed a bunch of stuff including the most effective way to launch for GYO. Came up with some really good ideas that will not only help spread the word about GYO but also allow us to directly sign up students. Looking forward to implementing these ideas and more.

Sky digital got installed this morning with component cables so that we get an improved picture quality. Seems pretty sharp – definite improvement over yellow white red cable.

Other news, sent out the first invoice, confirmed Bungy extreme’s involvement in GYO and meeting owner John Saunders on wednesday. Brady Dyer of Duplico Media is coming to my flat/home office tomorrow to discuss our plans for world domination how we can both mutually benefit from an strategic alliance, and then we will go to tribal council.

The view from our brooklyn flat is out of control.

Flatmates are great, office is looking good – need to pack away some stuff then I’ll post a pic.

Everyone went back to uni for the first day and it was a really good feeling not having to sit through lectures I wasn’t interested in, learning about stuff I will never use, racking up a student loan in the process. It really hit home that this is what I’m doing this year and I feel so full of motivation and anticipation for launch. I really believe in GYO and how strong the product actually is. Each day it becomes clearer that there isn’t actually a product this good on the market currently, and all there is to do is not stuff it up! The key, however, is to plan the launch in areas to maximise student reach, and convert that to signups. This is what I will be talking to Brady about, among other things. The plan is to target large areas, nail them, then include the smaller areas of New Zealand. First up, Wellington. Walk and talk this week on thursday/friday – look forward to walking into the businesses and coming out with a signature.

Had an absolutely rubbish phone call with the advertising manager of The Mill Liquorsave – he absolutely tore me to shreds on the phone and I was unprepared and tripped on my words. Will not make that mistake again – need to slow down and ensure I am fully prepared for any phonecall. Have assigned task of sales flow diagram to myself and action plan during sales process.

Redesigned the bebo skin for GYO – and have made a note to make time to improve bebo visibility. Set up facebook group for GYO – “Join this group if you want student discounts!”

Tidied up the house a bit more, started painting the fence, and my favourite show Lost is on in a minute so all is well in the end.

Tonight am working more on a spankingly good pdf for sales and sourcing the contact details for wellington businesses to go and sell to.

Having trouble with my gaming mouse , seems the USB cord has a connection problem, only recognises in a certain angle. Nyeh. But I got my digital camera working again, it wouldn’t charge for whatever reason but some tinkering fixed the problem.

 All in all, more positives than negatives today.

 Anyway, my name is Kieran Donnelly and I am the owner of a startup company called Get Yourself Out. (Website launching very soon – target March 1). The main goal of GYO is to be the hub for everything student related in New Zealand. To begin down this road I have been approaching companies to provide either a deal or discount to New Zealand students. Last week I travelled to Auckland and had a lot of success in signing up some very well known New Zealand businesses, and so it is armed with this success that I am going to approach national companies in the next two weeks to become part of GYO.

I will try to keep these blogs as medium sized as possible – and update regularly.

Feel free to leave a comment or thought, I always reply.