The Imperfect Podcast
Welcome to the Imperfect Podcast! I'm your host, Wendy Lloyd Curley, and I am thrilled to have you join me on this journey. In this podcast, we delve into four major topics that are close to my heart: professional speaking, BNI networking, networking strategically, and of course, music. Whether I'm sharing insights through interviews or flying solo, you can expect a short, sharp conversation that will leave you inspired and informed. So sit back, relax, and enjoy the unique perspective and discussions that Imperfect Podcast has to offer.
The Imperfect Podcast
10. Tom Etherington & Strategic Networking on LinkedIn
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The Imperfect Podcast – Episode 10: Strategic Networking, Online and Offline with Tom Etherington
In this milestone episode... our very first interview! Wendy Lloyd Curley sits down with longtime friend and LinkedIn strategist Tom Etherington to explore the powerful intersection of in-person and online networking.
Tom, founder of Connect Content and a former journalist, shares his philosophy on using LinkedIn as a relationship-building tool rather than just a content megaphone. Together, Wendy and Tom compare approaches, swap stories, and offer practical advice on everything from crafting a compelling “About” section to making real connections that begin either at a networking event or in a comment thread.
Whether you're starting a conversation in a conference room or with a QR code scan, this episode is packed with insights to help you blend authenticity and strategy in every connection you make.
🧠 Topics covered:
Building trust before making the ask
Strategic outreach vs. spammy selling
LinkedIn content that starts conversations (not lectures)
How to use personality to connect with the right audience
Why your “About” section isn’t just about you
🔗 Plus, hear about Tom’s signature LinkedIn Roadmap process and how he helps professionals stand out online with integrity and voice.
🎯 Perfect for: Business owners, BNI members, professional networkers, and anyone wanting to get more out of LinkedIn.
https://www.linkedin.com/in/tom-etherington/
Well, hello, ladies and gentlemen. It's Wendy Lloyd Curly, and this is the Imperfect Podcast. Today I'm really excited to bring you an interview. It's the very first interview we've done here on the Imperfect Podcast. I have a very good friend named Tom Etherington, and he and I met about 10 years ago at BI Face. And he is a content writer. He used to be a journalist before that. About 10 years ago, he started his own company called Connect Content. And I have been part of a group that shares information with each other over the last five years or so, ever since COVID started. And I have learned so much from Tom about how to position myself on LinkedIn, how to work with LinkedIn, and how to be strategic in my networking on LinkedIn. And so he and I are often saying the same things but in different circumstances. And I thought, what a great thing to do. Let's combine online strategic networking with in-person strategic networking and bring you the best of both worlds. So, with no further ado, let's listen to my interview with the amazing Tom Etherington. All right. Well, here we are. We're live with Tom Edrington and Wendy Lloyd Curley on the very first Imperfect Podcast with a special guest.
SPEAKER_00Is it really? I did not know that. Oh well, I feel very, very special now.
SPEAKER_02Um so you know, Tom, the reason I reached out to you is because you and I have the same philosophy. Uh personal relationships matter. And whether we're talking about in-person strategic networking at a chamber of commerce, which is my expertise, or whether we're talking about person-to-person relationships starting on LinkedIn, which is your expertise.
SPEAKER_00Yeah, definitely.
SPEAKER_02Yeah. The post that actually inspired me to reach out to you, because I've been thinking about this for a while, was one where we talked about in our comments the fact that people can either start on LinkedIn and then meet in person, or they can start in person and then develop the relationship on LinkedIn.
SPEAKER_00Yeah, absolutely. I think um I think that's the best way to look at it. I think we come at things from different angles, but at the core of it, it's exactly the same thing. It's that it's about people, it's about relationships, building relationships uh and keeping them going. And I think uh whether you start that on LinkedIn or whether you start in the in the room, as it were, it's it's exactly the same thing, really. And it's and I really like the idea of that. Um, the one I always talk about when I'm doing, you know, when I'm speaking to a group, is the idea of that LinkedIn QR code. So I think that really links the two worlds where you can flash that QR code on your phone, someone can scan it and connect with you on LinkedIn, and it really links those two worlds perfectly. So I think it's a very good symbol of that. And it's also a um a really good way of you know if you're at a networking event and I say um someone says to me, so we should connect on LinkedIn. What's your name again? It's top, it's E is it E T H E R or is it H E T H? And you have all that kind of but you can just connect and it and it keeps the relationship going straight away.
SPEAKER_02Yeah. I I do have a top tip for people who are at those networking events too, right when you connect, right when you you click the QR code, you see Tom Etherington's name, and you're like, great, I'm gonna hit connect. I also write a quick message to you very quickly, and I say, Hi, Tom, it's nice to meet you at the at the B and I conference. Or hi Tom, it was nice to to have lunch with you at the fundraiser. And and that way I've got this permanent record. As long as LinkedIn's around, I will have this permanent record of how we began the conversation.
SPEAKER_00Absolutely. And six months down the line, when you contact that person and say, you know, maybe you're um inviting them to an event or maybe that you're offering one of your services or whatever it is, they will immediately see, oh, I've actually met this person. It's not a random thing out of the blue. You know, they've obviously considered that this might be of interest to me, all of those things. So it's definitely it's almost a little calling card as well as a LinkedIn connection. It works both ways, I think.
SPEAKER_02Yeah. So, Tom, I've taken your introductory course to getting success on LinkedIn. And there's a there's a few elements of LinkedIn that you you gave us some advice on. And I I'd really like to hear your just high-level thoughts. And I'm gonna tell a little anecdote. I I went to a uh training session, I guess, or more of an informative panel discussion on becoming a professional keynote speaker, which is you know, that's something near and dear to my heart. And the the gentleman who was talking said, you know, you can post away on LinkedIn, and you can post away on Facebook and Insta and all of your different socials. But when you make a connection, what they really are looking at your socials for is to make sure you don't have two heads.
SPEAKER_00That's very true.
SPEAKER_02It is very true because uh so so they see that you're posting, they see that you're putting on video or audio or or or that you're you're posting about other people, they can they can see things, but you actually gave us a lot of advice and you give a lot of advice about the about section. What about you as a person? And I think it's really important that people get this right. Do you have a couple of top tips that people should think of for the about section?
SPEAKER_00Yeah, probably the first one is it isn't about you, is the the main one that I'd I'd sort of think of. It is about you, of course, it's your story, but it should be. Um, I think anyway, there's a billion different ways you can do this. But my um kind of philosophy around it is it should really uh rubber stamp why someone should connect with you, work with you, be interested in you, whatever those things are, that the story, while yes, it is about you, it's a bit like, well, why what's in it for me? You know, that's the way most people think, why should I connect with this person? And it is usually still built around your credibility, your services, the way you work with people, all of those things. It's just geared in that way that it's like, how do you help people now? And I always say that when we were kids, when we were at school, we were very much taught to write to a conclusion. You know, we'd have this great essay, and at the end it would say, Tana, and this is how it all ties together. We have to do the tana at the start now, I think. It's like this is what it's what I'm all about now, and then the story beneath is the credibility and the story about um all your experience and anything that actually feeds into that. But we really need to hit them between the eyes now. And I don't think that needs to be in a dramatic way necessarily, and it doesn't have to be, you know, it should still be your tone of voice, your personality, the way you communicate, but it just needs to be um really relevant to the person who's reading that story about you.
SPEAKER_02How long do you think people will read? How how many words do you think people will read? Not very long. You know, what I don't like about LinkedIn, I I don't like that the about section requ it it's so short, the the the visible part of it.
SPEAKER_01Yeah.
SPEAKER_02I go to someone's profile, I I really have to open it up, and then I might get a lot, or I might get just just a little. What would your recommendation be?
SPEAKER_00Well, the first thing about you're right about that about section until you click into it. That should still be very uh again, it's a we call it a hook in terms of the post has a hook, you know. If you write a post, it's like what's going to stop people scrolling, get them interested. The about section should still be the same. The hook should still be like something of interest. Maybe you come at it from completely left field where people go, what does that mean? You know, that's surprising. Um, but as far as length, the first thing I say is lengthwise, it should be as short as it needs to be, I think, is the you know, to have that impact, to have what you want to say. One of the biggest things about is not necessarily the length of it, it's the amount of white space. So forget traditional paragraphs. It's much more about a sentence or two sentence white space. What people just can't, you know, if you click onto a wall of text, it people are instantly turned off. So, but I'd say, you know, that two, three hundred word mark, if you can get it into that sort of length, that impactful kind of space, and then break it up with potential. I don't like a whole load of emojis, but maybe there's you know some emoji um space for emojis. I like a few, but not a whole lot. You know, I think you see ones now and there's just all ticks and bullet points and stars and things. And I think less is more when it comes to that, but there's still a space for that.
SPEAKER_02Oh, I've got an idea to talk about for that too. It might be another podcast, but but before before we go to that, I just want to pull out a sentence you just used or a fragment as short as it needs to be.
SPEAKER_01Yeah.
SPEAKER_02What a brilliant phrase. That that's that's just that's a book title.
SPEAKER_00I did just come up with that. So yeah, trademark. You did or you didn't. I did. I did just come up with that. I I may have used it in different forms, but I think it's a good way of just saying, look, um, don't make it short for the sake of being short is one thing, you know, just because you think, oh, people won't read that. It does need to still contain the story and you know the what what's what's of value, what's of importance. But um no waffle, I think is the the other way of saying it. Yeah. Yeah.
SPEAKER_02And I I just I'm curious um about your uh ideas for the ta-da. You talked about ta-da. Bring that to the beginning. Um, and it needs to be your own personality, but what what do you think what's your ta-dah? Let's look, let's look up.
SPEAKER_00No, my one's um, I don't think my one is my one's more about what I it's kind of how you help people. So I think Wendy's ta'dah could be about how you love to connect people, you love to network, you love to bring people together. If you're talking about in a B and I sense, like what you um what you bring to the table, I guess. Yeah, I changed mine quite a bit. I think at the moment mine talks more about um how my experience leads to what I do now is help people with a LinkedIn roadmap, help people get, you know, the best version of themselves out there, that kind of thing. And that comes from a kind of journalism background, telling stories, but also a strategic background in terms of copywriting, content marketing, that kind of thing. So I think I think the tadar is like if someone reads it, they're thinking, you know, do I want to connect with Wendy around networking or B and I? Well, your statement is around that, I would say.
SPEAKER_02All right. I want to ask uh a question. I want to I want to dive straight into uh the the main issue, which is strategically networking through LinkedIn.
SPEAKER_01Yeah.
SPEAKER_02And I'd I'd love your insights on that. And let's so if we were to be two different perspectives for me, let's pretend that my perspective is start online, uh start in person and move online. And yours is you can actually also start online and move in person. Yeah, I know that we both believe in both, but let's just make that the the scenario.
SPEAKER_01Okay, yeah.
SPEAKER_02Tell me a little bit about how you strategically network on LinkedIn. How do you meet new people? What do you do?
SPEAKER_00What do I do is um I think the old school way of using LinkedIn is to really collect connections. So just connect with as many people as you can. And it was especially when people first started, there was that magic 500 number, and everyone, I've got to get to 500 because then it it had just 500 and have 398. It had 500 plus. Um, so that was the original one was to connect with um just a random bunch of people. So I tend to look for people, A, that their content is interesting. You know, I've been shown their content, or I'm looking at content in that space that is interesting. Uh that people, I kind of look for a bit of personality in their profile and their content. I think there's a very different way of presenting yourself on LinkedIn as to the rest of social media, which I had a lot of conversations about. And one of the posts I wrote a while ago actually was um that you know, Facebook is like you when you're out with your mates down the pub, whereas LinkedIn is the same you, but it's like maybe when you're out with clients or when you're out with uh referral partners or things like that. But I still I still look for people who have a spark of personality in their in their content that you know that I resonate with or I connect with. So yes, building those sort of and also people that can help me in what I do as well, sort of potential referral partners and things like that. So it's not just you know, it's a combination of those things, I'd say.
SPEAKER_02So let's say that you have two or three thousand connections. How much networking do you do with them? Do you reach out to them occasionally? Do you use the the opportunities of birthdays and things to get in touch with people? Or or you know, what do you do to nurture the relationships that have already started in your LinkedIn?
SPEAKER_00Yeah, a bit of that, a kind of the birthdays thing. I see, I see less of that now. They used to tell you, didn't they? I don't think you see so much of that anymore. Or maybe I turned off the notifications about birthdays, but but that kind of thing. Um, the other one is to literally just occasionally have a scroll through your first connections. Again, if you've got thousands, it might take a while, but you can do a little bit of a cull, search that down. You know, say, for example, you're looking to take LinkedIn networking to real life. You only read for me and you are only going to really look at Greater Sydney area. So you can cut that down, and then it's like and you can look for certain categories of people that you might want to invite to an event if it's particularly focused on I don't know, it's uh maybe it's about finance or something like that. You can find people in that space and invite them along, people who might want to see someone speak at an event you're going to, so you can you know find those people in that space. So yeah, I think it's um and often those people are interacting with your content or with their content. I think that's a huge thing now. It's uh LinkedIn recently has reduced the reach of your own post. But what it's done in a positive sense is that people uh tend to see commenting as a thing that's more valuable, that you can comment on someone's post, other people will interact with your comment, and it's just conversations, really. It's the same as being in a room and you're having a conversation, someone joins you. What are you talking about? This subject. It's the same thing, really. So I think that's become bigger and bigger that people are um comments, are the new sort of content, really, the new sort of number one leader in content terms. And it's conversations, that's all it is.
SPEAKER_02Yeah, absolutely. Yeah, uh the follow-up question to that then is about new connections.
SPEAKER_01Yeah.
SPEAKER_02Do you proactively try to grow your connections, or is it more reactive once you meet people or or when LinkedIn suggests them? What I'm just curious, and there's probably no right or wrong, but what do you personally do?
SPEAKER_00Yeah, there's um I proactively do it through networking as well. So in both ways, networking and real life kind of meetings, if you like. So, say if I'm going to an event, say one of your BI groups, Wendy, I would definitely check who was there. Some people I might connect with in advance and say, Hey, I'm looking forward to coming to visit on Wednesday, it'd be great to meet you. And some people that I might have met and you um message them afterwards and say, Hey, it was great to meet you. For that reason, you said at the start of this was that that real life connection. Because often people will get messages on LinkedIn and I go, that's another message, but you know, they can see that connection, they can see that you've met in real life and all those kind of things. Um, and new ones, I definitely um reach out to people. And again, that's often through the comments, people I've seen commenting, making interesting or intelligent comments on other things. Sometimes I'll search for people in a particular space, especially if um, like I mentioned before, if we're uh looking to invite people to um to my B I group and it's maybe people that we don't have represented there, and I thought that it might be interesting to them. Very specifically, not just blanket inviting everybody, but finding someone who might be interested in coming. It's an open invitation. I think any outreach has to give something of value to the person you're reaching out to. And it it could just be an invite to an event, it could just be I'd love to be connected with you, it could be as simple as that. But just to start that relationship, I think that instant what's bringing uh LinkedIn's reputation down is the instant sales sort of spamming kind of side of things. You know, there's people are on LinkedIn for a legitimate reason, and I I don't have a massive problem with it myself, but it it does tend to you know get people a bit wary when people are contacting them out of the blue. So I also try to do it in a uh sense where I've clearly read their profile, read their post, or something like that. I think that's really important rather than just those generic messages.
SPEAKER_02So absolutely, I really think it making your reach out personal and also Ivan Meisner from BI talks about premature solicitation, and yeah, uh that happens uh uh frequently on email and on LinkedIn. And um, I don't see it happen as often in other places, like other social media sectors, but on LinkedIn, people will very aggressively tell you what they do and that they could do it for you.
SPEAKER_00And yeah, yeah. And the missing element is the trust piece or the credibility piece. So and I think that's why um content plays such a huge part. Very often when I reach out and connect with someone, I'll see that they've gone back through. I I'll get a like from a post I might have done three weeks ago, a month ago, and they'll have just been because it's just checking you out, you know, and that's why the profile is so important. Anything you create is important to give that. And and these days it's so much we're in a really good position, I think, in these days that um before it was a very professional network, everyone's scared to do anything outside the sort of square, but now it's like your personality is encouraged, you know. It's like you're gonna you're not gonna be for everyone, but that's life generally. So, you know, you may as well just lean into your niche or your your particular focus, way of saying things, whatever you want to call it, um, and attract the right audience. That's the key.
SPEAKER_02I love it, I love it. So could you do me a favor and share with me a little bit about the the services that you offer to your clients? What do you do for your clients? Because you when I originally met you, um I think I just would have pigeonholed you into copyright.
SPEAKER_01Yeah.
SPEAKER_02Um, but you've you've gotten much more niche than that now. I'd love to find out a little bit more.
SPEAKER_00Yeah, so originally it was um, well, going way back, I was a journalist. So I worked for various newspapers, magazines, websites, and we used to interview a lot of people. So, and the the uh the world fell out of the newspaper world, so I turned into more copywriting. But I I kind of led it with the same philosophy that it was really about storytelling, interviewing people, getting their story, which sort of naturally led into LinkedIn because it's all about people, it's about stories. And that was probably 10 years ago, maybe eight, 10 years ago, that I started doing that. And then COVID hit, that was a big thing, and then LinkedIn was even more important because you were just about to pop up on Zoom. Everyone have a quick look at your LinkedIn profile just to make sure that, like you say, uh you're not too much of a nutcase, the two things. Um, so yeah, and it just became more and more of a thing. So now, although we do other kind of content, I really like LinkedIn to be the core of it for two reasons. One, that it's led by people. So I like to work with businesses that are led by people. Yep. So we might end up doing their website and other things, but people is the core of it. Uh, and people connect with people so much better, I think. The other thing I think is if you get LinkedIn right, both the you know, your personal profile and the company profile, in terms of messaging, I think you get it right everywhere because it's so important and everyone knows where it is. And I think that's why people go to LinkedIn because if they go to your website, it's very much like I don't know where the information is, it could be anywhere. The about section is just a paragraph about the business, it doesn't tell me anything. But if I go to LinkedIn, you can see who the people are, what they're all about, you know. And we work with teams as well to make the team look consistently on, and that's very different because it's an interesting one because with teams, you don't the business doesn't own their profile if they just work for the company. So it's it's up to them how far they want to lean into it. So that's really cool as well to get their story right. But the main thing we do is this thing called a LinkedIn roadmap, and that's really starting with the strategy. What do you want to use LinkedIn for? And then we identify uh a campaign around that, like how you're going to use LinkedIn to and it's more of a niche thing. You know, if you're a mortgage broker, you're a mortgage broker. But is there a way you can really niche into that for a even for a short time to connect with a certain audience to talk about a certain niche part of your business? Um, and then we can help we can write the profile as well. We can literally write a story for them, interview them, get that story exactly where it needs to be, and all the other areas of the profile, maybe the business profile too. The last part of it is literally, I call it giving you the keys, right? We go, right, here's all your strategy, your campaign, your shiny new profile. And it's like, what do we do now? What do you actually want to do? Who do you want to connect with? What sort of content do you want to create? And then sometimes people are quite happy to go off on their merry way with that, or we can help them on an ongoing basis to keep that momentum going, to keep it, you know, from maybe not just LinkedIn from a general content marketing point of view. But LinkedIn for me is always gonna be the core as it stands.
SPEAKER_02Um, I I could ask you questions for hours that I think would be really helpful to people. Uh I'm gonna I'm gonna limit it and and just close with with with this. Because we could maybe do this again uh and and and talk again when when we come up with a topic that that we think people will really benefit from.
SPEAKER_00Yeah.
SPEAKER_02What I was gonna ask was do you think that there is a strict and I I think the answer is just yes, but what do you think the difference is between someone who hires someone to assist them with their content? Still their content, you're still interviewing them and getting their perspectives and their feedback before going out. Yeah, and someone who tries to do it all on their own. Um yeah, what what's the difference between kind of grassroots and professional? Uh, do you notice a difference? Does it impact the way that you perceive those people?
SPEAKER_00Um personally, no. I think for that reason that uh you don't have to do everything in life for a bit. Someone said that to me a while ago. It was they're a they're a cleaner, and I wouldn't expect them to personally clean everything, but they are responsibility for that um quality of service. And I think it's the same thing with that content that you that's why we interview people because we very much get their tone of voice, the the way they, you know, the what they want to get across and the particular topics they want to cover as well. They don't necessarily have to sit there and write it all. But I don't think there's much difference between the two. I've got absolutely if people can do it themselves, if people want to use AI as a you know, bit of a leg up to stop, it's nothing worse than sitting there staring at a blank page, and obviously if things can be progressed, like it's it's always advisable to add your own take to that, and just you know, I often start with a you can start with a or have clients who start with a kind of an AI version, but by the end of it, it's completely changed, but it's just sparked that idea, you know, it's sparked that that method, that way of doing it. So I think what I've noticed, there's there was a lot of big backlash about people, you're clearly using AI content and all the rest of it. I don't think that's the case anymore. I think there's good content and there's bad content, and that's it. How it actually starts and how it you know begins life. The one thing I will find, I will say with um using a strategy around it is that if you don't do that, people run out of steam very quickly in terms of ideas and a plan for that. So having some sort of um strat and it I don't think people don't have to have a six-month content plan and everything filled in. That's not what I mean. It's it's just having making sure you don't do a post that has seven ideas in it when you can actually break that down in it. That's that's the old way of doing things, and people don't have the sort of mental capacity to take all that in anyway.
SPEAKER_02So that's seven posts instead of one.
SPEAKER_00Uh absolutely, yeah. And it's just planning that out, and I think and it's just thinking of posts as a um another real good piece of advice, I think, is you don't have to have the beginning, the end, and the final answer in every post. In fact, you're better off not doing that. It's better off just to start a conversation or start people thinking so they'll interact with it. So you don't have to go, here's my thought on it, thought on X subject, here's um everything I know about it, and here's my conclusion. And there's no question, there's no way of you getting into that conversation. It's like you're standing on a soapbox telling people something, and then and then you and that's it, you walk away. But it's much better off just saying, Hey, I just had a thought about XYZ. What does everyone else think? Boom. And it's like people have an opinion on that kind of thing and we'll jump in. So that's that's what I'd say with that content side of things. Yeah.
SPEAKER_02It's amazing. That's amazing. Well, for our listener, um, thank you for listening. I hope that uh you you've gotten a lot of value out of the conversation that Tom and I have had. We know that LinkedIn and strategic networking uh work hand in hand. And uh and and I think it's really important that you you you present the same face in both of them so that you're we're benefiting. Hey Tom, uh one of my core values is fun. So, what fun thing do you have planned between now, which is May 2025, and the end of this year? What what what what are you looking forward to in the next?
SPEAKER_00What am I looking forward to the most in that time? Um, that's a good question. I was gonna I'm I'm hoping to go to England again. So we went at Christmas, and which isn't that long ago, but I feel like I want to go back and I want to go back for the start of the football season because my team, Tottenham, just won the Europa League. We were terrible in the entire season, but we won a major trophy almost by accident, but that's another story. So I'd love to go back at the start of the season. So I'm I'm planning for that, uh, which is which is gonna be a lot of fun, I think. And when is the start of the season? That'll be towards the end of August.
SPEAKER_02I will be in London towards the end of August. So get yourself a ticket. You take me to my very first soccer match.
SPEAKER_00Absolutely. As long as you call it football, yes. I know football's very different in your part of the world, so I'll I'll let you off that one.
SPEAKER_02I have been watching the the Wrexham show and also, of course, Ted Lasso. So I'm fully committed to football.
SPEAKER_00Love it, perfect, yeah. No, um, I think that's the the main thing um I'll be looking forward to is that holiday kind of thing. Like, we haven't particularly planned anything yet because it's such a we had a six-week trip over Christmas, but um, I'd like to do something more like that.
SPEAKER_02Well, my top tip for everybody who's listening is that find something fun to talk about with the people you're networking with because you'll always create some connection. And um, Tom and I have known each other for a long time. So um thank you, Tom. Thanks for being here with us.
SPEAKER_00Um thanks for having me.
SPEAKER_02It's called the Imperfect Podcast because I just make it up as I go. And uh and I think I think we've got a lot of people who are loving it. So uh thank you for being with us. I appreciate it.
SPEAKER_00Oh, I'll see you on LinkedIn. Okay. And in the room.