Tony K Silver Podcast Transcript
Tony K Silver joins host Brian Thomas on The Digital Executive Podcast.
Welcome to Coruzant Technologies, home of the Digital Executive Podcast.
[00:00:12] Brian Thomas: Welcome to the digital executive. Today’s guest is Tony K. Silver. Tony K. Silver is a multi-award-winning LinkedIn expert who has been helping people on the platform since 2009. In 2018, he set up his own company and became creator of the LinkedIn Profile Audit that generates qualified, targeted leads, builds new relationships, and generates more sales.
As his nearly 300 LinkedIn recommendations can attest, he has had a high level of demonstrable success since he started the business and drives the company to help more businesses get what they need from the platform. He is often ranked by LinkedIn search in the top 10.
Well, good afternoon, Tony. Welcome to the show!
[00:00:51] Tony K. Silver: It’s glad to be here.
[00:00:53] Brian Thomas: Awesome, Tony. I appreciate it making the time. Obviously, you’re hailing out of the great country of the U.K.
[00:00:58] Brian Thomas: We traverse the globe, 50 countries thus far and having you on today from across the pond as we like to call it such a pleasure.
Tony, we’re going to jump right into the questions. You’ve got quite the career as a general manager, entrepreneur, executive, you’re an author, speaker, and now the LinkedIn profiler at Tony K. Silver. Could you share with our audience The secret to your career growth and what inspires you?
[00:01:24] Tony K. Silver: Absolutely. My career growth has had two phases to it. The tipping point was 2008, when we had a rather large recession in the UK, and I believe you also have one in America, and I lost a very nice job, and I had to find a way of finding a new job, and all the traditional methods were no longer working. In fact, at the age of 48, I was deemed to be… Old. Mm.
I didn’t think I was old. I thought I was experienced, but it made me reach out and the two main things I had to do were networking and LinkedIn. So, at that point I got trained on LinkedIn. What pushes me is I work when I decided that I was going to come out of the corporate world, go and work for myself. I work with a mentor and that’s one of my top business tips for anyone.
If you are thinking of doing it, work with someone who’s been there and done it and perhaps failed as well, because they got the real life experience that will really, really help you.
[00:02:17] Brian Thomas: Thank you. And at the end of the day, it’s a story that is resonating with someone in our audience and I appreciate the share on that.
Obviously, 2008 was hard for a lot of folks. and we’ve seen that in recent days, as you know, the inflation recession, they say everything’s great. It’s funny how they do that. but you can’t just put lipstick on a pig and expect people to believe it, Love the story. And like I said, it will resonate.
Tony, you’re listed as a top community voice or top motivational speaking voice on LinkedIn. What’s the number one advice you give people looking to grow their LinkedIn profile when they are starting out with a novice profile?
[00:02:53] Tony K. Silver: It’s a very good question. Actually, what you probably don’t know is that I actually go and Talking schools in the UK.
So, I am beginning right with novices. I’m talking to 16-year-old students, who may or may not even have a LinkedIn profile. So, I very highly experienced in setting them up with people. But even when I meet people that have been on LinkedIn, it came into being in 2003. So, it is 21 next year will reach the 1 billion marks as well, early part of next year.
But for me, when I’m asked about what’s the real thing that will really help me, it doesn’t matter who it is and where they are on that journey. It’s what we call the top card is what people see when they land on your profile. Brian, it’s that banner is that headshot is that headline. It’s underneath your name.
You’ve got a very, very big problem in the world at the world, which we know, but this one is attention spans. And generously, I say that you’ve got between five and 10 seconds to engage someone when they look to your LinkedIn profile. So probably the key area of even the top con is your banner.
What does the banner tell the viewer, because ultimately, they’ve probably found you in a search and they’re looking for you to potentially help them in five to 10 seconds. You haven’t got an awful lot of time. So, a lot of people fail miserably at that particular stage. And my big tip is making sure your banner tells the viewer exactly what it is you can do for them.
[00:04:12] Brian Thomas: That’s awesome. And spoken like a true marketer that goes for everything nowadays. If you want to get someone’s attention or you want to sell your product, you’ve got to be able to grab their attention. And LinkedIn is so important for everybody that is post 16 or post high school that needs to get into the workforce.
So love that. Thank you. Tony at the 300 Mark of LinkedIn recommendations. Wow. As I would say, what’s next on your list to accomplish and what other potential opportunities might that open for you?
[00:04:40] Tony K. Silver: Yeah, it’s something that I’ve been doing a long time. And I got into the culture of asking for recommendations because it’s social proof at the end of the day.
And actually, is a section that is very poorly done on LinkedIn for most people. Yeah, I’m just touching 300. That was a goal for me for this year that I’m going to achieve it. I steadily add them on a regular basis, but actually I have a goal now on my recent projects. Which your part of Brian is which is my lead into America from the UK and starting to work alongside people on a one to one basis and in workshops, but I’m also a professional speaker, and I’ve put it into writing so it is now officially a goal.
And I want to talk on stage and I’ve chosen New York because that’s where I came to America from, although it was virtual. I want to be on stage at a conference in New York speaking before May the 12th, 2025. It’s just my birthday. It’s a nice little idea. That is a big goal, and it is achievable, but it’s going to take some work.
[00:05:38] Brian Thomas: Absolutely. It takes a little work, but we’ve seen just based on your profile and a number of LinkedIn recommendations you have and being a top community voice on LinkedIn, you’re going to do great. Obviously, you’ve learned the ropes, and we appreciate that, that you’re able to share some of these gems with us today.
Tony last question of the day. I’m a technologist. We talk about tech here on the podcast. We ask every guest if you’re leveraging any of that new and emerging technology in your business and if not, maybe you found a cool tool or app you might share with us today.
[00:06:09] Tony K. Silver: Yeah, this comes up in networking meetings from time to time.
And although, using a scheduling tool for your appointments has been a massive, massive help to me rather than playing email ping pong with people. But the bit of tech is the piece that I’m actually using at this moment in time. And it’s a piece of tech called KRISP, K R I S P dot AI, I believe is the site.
And what it does is it works in conjunction with any microphone that you attribute it to. I’m using a professional Rode microphone as we speak now. It sits in line, and I have a dog. He’s a little bit of a barky boy, to put it mildly. But he could be sitting behind me now, barking at me, and you will not hear him at all.
Because it cuts out all background noise, which means that when I’m doing presentations and I’m doing talks online, etc. None of that background noise, the wife shouting out, the door crashing, whatever, none of that is heard. So it is fantastic, it’s not free, but it’s a very low cost item. And I’ve told so many people about it, who’ve then gone out and invested in it, because it just steps it up a level for you.
[00:07:12] Brian Thomas: I love that. And you did share an example. You demo’d it for me before we hit record on the podcast. And I totally love it. I might actually check it out myself because I’ve invested in quite a bit of soundproofing in my studio here. And I think it’s time to take it up the next notch. Appreciate that obviously a free plug to the product.
We do that a lot here on the podcast and Tony, it was such a pleasure having you on today. And I look forward to speaking with you real soon.
[00:07:38] Tony K. Silver: Not a problem. It’s been a pleasure for me too.
[00:07:39] Brian Thomas: Bye for now.
Tony K Silver Podcast Transcript. Listen to the audio on the guest’s podcast page.
