🌍 My First Tether with Google

Well, 2 years ago I had a date with destiny, and I was going to release my first ever try at a community site — a space to express community values and ideas that could connect tech with community.

I’ll never forget the amount of ideas I had back then. But it was the fact I could now tell the world directly — with only Google’s help — that made me thrive. It was this Google fact that increased my passion and creativity at an outstanding rate.

Anyway — enough about how a cheeky window cleaner has the cheek to think he knows stuff about Google and websites, ha!

And maybe I’ve said tech a bit too much already?

🚀 Let’s Call It “Tether”

Let’s swap tech for Tether. I love the word tether — it’s very useful for achieving and setting yourself real big goals in life.

The best and fastest way I can describe our tether is to take us back to childhood — when we were boys with a cardboard box. And we turned that box into a spaceship with super rockets. We jumped in the driving seat and took off.

No matter what anyone said — we were on our way to the moon. Nothing could take my 3-year-old imagination away from being in space.

That’s the tether.

💡 So You Had an Idea…

Now It’s a 40-year-old lady — and she woke up one day and decided to pull a team together for an end goal: To make one of the most used services on the internet — one that would one day outshine Google, Facebook, and your tickytocky.

Everyone in her life says: “Come on girl, are you for real?” Which normally ends in a laugh. But if everyone takes time to look at the lady… The lady is not laughing.

She knows that one day, she’ll make a platform no one else can rival. : ) That’s the tether.

📜 My First Breakthrough

So here’s my little tether moment. One of the first stories I ever developed — and generated as a website creator.

This story has a mega timestamp, and I’ll admit — I was a bit naive. Maybe because it was one of my first ever big breakthroughs working with Google.

I literally woke up one day with an idea — and the means to build it. This was a bold idea, but I had proof of my capability. The world could now see it.

🏦 Enter the Bank…

“Ooooo, what’s this idea then?” I hear you ask.

Well, I already told you — my idea was to make a community platform. : ) But I let my tether get in control a little too fast.

Because after building the website, the next stop was the banks. I needed to see a local business bank manager.

“I need to see the business bank manager because I have an online idea that can help the Wirral community so much.”

They replied: “The only way you can see the business bank manager is online or over the phone. Sorry.”

And just like that — my first massive online story was formed.

🧓 The Silver Surfer & The Big Question

If you’ve read my first website, then you’ll know I wrote a script about a wise Silver Surfer — an older man with an idea for the Wirral. But he would never use the phone, and never go online.

I bring this up because this is when I first raised the embarrassing question:

“Can you get someone to help you read and write please, sir?”

It’s shocking that some of our most serious services are only available online or over the phone.

But what’s even more shocking? We’re still not taking embarrassment into account as face-to-face humans. : (

💥 Boom — Top 5 on Google

So I marched out of that bank, tether high and speedy, determined to write a story all about trying to get a face-to-face appointment with the business bank manager.

I published the story on Google just days after that first meeting. So then if you typed in the search term:

“how to find a business bank manager”

…then Google would show billions of pages. Banks have massive teams to stay in the top 10 of those results, because that’s where most of us click.

Well — I hit top 5.

😂 oavo Beats the Banks

I couldn’t believe my eyes.

For about an hour I stared at the screen — seeing big names like Lloyds, HSBC, TSB, Metro… and then the cheeky window cleaner’s site right there among them.

And all it said to the world was: It’s not fair that the only way to meet a business bank manager is online or over the phone.

That’s been my biggest HA! so far.

🧍 Face to Face… Still Denied

The next day, I went to every bank in Birkenhead and said:

“Can I see the business bank manager now, please? I’ve got proof of my capabilities — I just beat billions of banking pages on Google.”

But nope. I was still met with a bollard that said:

“You can only cross if you use the phone or internet.”

They couldn’t see the irony: I just beat them online — and now I’m asking for help without the internet.

Why? Because honesty and eye contact matters when we’re dealing with banks.

🧾 The Aftermath

A few days later, my article started dropping from the top 10. So I made part 2 and part 3 of my troubles trying to find the manager without a phone or internet.

They did pretty well too — making it into the top 10 again.

And finally, one bank manager said something I’ll never forget:

“oavo, I can see you have so much passion and that you’ve achieved something good here with Google. But for the bank to take you seriously — you need to show us some capital.”

I cheekily replied: “You mean to say… ‘show me the money’?” She smiled. “Yep.”

So when the cheque is big enough — I know which bank manager I’m going to: 👉 The one with straight-up honesty I can see in the eye.

🚪 The Moral of the Story

My tether made me beat billions and billions of bank pages on Google — as a cheeky window cleaner called oavo, just looking for face-to-face interaction.

Who would’ve thought, hey? 😉