You're Sitting on a Gold Mine: How to Turn Your LinkedIn Data Into a Warm Lead List in 3 Steps
I have over 4,000 LinkedIn connections and more than 6,000 followers.
And for years, I treated that number like a vanity metric — something to mention in passing, not something to actually use. I was too busy speaking, training, writing, and running my business to stop and ask the obvious question:
Who are these people, and why am I not talking to them?
Then I downloaded my LinkedIn data. All of it. And what I found stopped me cold.
People who had attended my sessions at SHRM and ATD, connected with me, written warm messages — and never heard back from me. HR directors and L&D managers who matched my exact buyer profile, sitting in my network untouched. Conference planners who had reached out to ME and been met with silence. Not because I didn't care. Because I was overwhelmed and had no system.
If you are a speaker, trainer, consultant, coach, or author building a platform — your LinkedIn network is probably your most underleveraged business asset. Not your follower count. Not your post impressions. Your actual connections. The people who already said yes to being in your world.
Here is the three-step process I used to turn thirteen years of LinkedIn activity into a prioritized, actionable warm lead list. I am handing it to you.
Step 1: Download Your LinkedIn Data
LinkedIn lets you export everything — your connections, messages, invitations sent and received, endorsements, recommendations, and more. Most people have never done this. Do it now.
Here is how:
Go to LinkedIn and click your profile photo in the top right corner
Select Settings and Privacy
Click Data Privacy in the left menu
Select Download your data
Choose Download larger data archive, including connections, verifications, contacts, account history, and information we infer about you based on your profile and activity. It will give you a zip file with 30+ files but you’ll mainly use the following files:
Connections
Messages
Invitations
Endorsements Given
Endorsements Received
Recommendations Given
Recommendations Received
Company follows
Click Request archive
LinkedIn will email you a download link within 10 minutes to 24 hours
When it arrives, unzip the file. You will see a folder full of CSV files. The ones that matter most are listed above especially Connections.csv and messages.csv — but hold onto all of them.
What is in there:
Your Connections file has every person you are connected with, their current job title, their current company, their LinkedIn URL, and the date you connected. Their titles reflect where they work TODAY, not when you first connected which means this is a live snapshot of your network.
Your Messages file has every conversation you have ever had on LinkedIn. Every thread. Every exchange. This is where the warmth lives.
Step 2: Use This Claude Prompt to Analyze Your Data
This is where the magic happens!!! Once you have your LinkedIn data downloaded, you are going to upload it to Claude and use the prompt below to build your lead intelligence system.
Claude is an AI assistant made by Anthropic. You can access it at claude.ai — there is a free tier available.
Upload these files to Claude:
Connections.csv
messages.csv
Invitations.csv
Endorsement_Received_Info.csv
Endorsement_Given_Info.csv
Recommendations_Received.csv
Recommendations_Given.csv
Then paste this prompt:
I have uploaded my LinkedIn data export. Before you build anything, here is the context you need to score and classify my network correctly:
My name is [YOUR FULL NAME].
My business is [DESCRIBE WHAT YOU DO IN ONE SENTENCE].
My ideal clients are [DESCRIBE YOUR BUYERS — for example: HR directors, L&D managers, conference planners, corporate executives, nonprofit leaders].
I am a [speaker / trainer / consultant / coach / author — choose all that apply] and I generate revenue through [keynote speaking / corporate workshops / 1:1 coaching / online courses / books — list your main offers].
Use this context to determine who counts as a HOT lead, a buyer, and a VIP throughout the entire analysis. In every tab, include a Relevant Offer column that identifies which of my offers is the best fit for that person based on their title, company, and any message history. If more than one offer applies, list both. This column is how I will know what to say when I reach out.
Now please build me the following tabs in one Excel file:
1. They Came To You — inbound connection requests where the person has a buyer or VIP profile. Flag each with FOLLOW UP NOW or THIS WEEK based on urgency. Include a column for why they matter and what to do.
2. HOT Leads — people I have exchanged messages with who used business keywords in our conversations (words like: workshop, training, keynote, speak, session, your book, conference, team, organization, interested in). Separate these from social/friendship messages. Show me their name, title, company, message count, last contact date, and a suggested outreach action.
3. Inner Circle — people who have shown up for me across multiple signals simultaneously: messages AND endorsements AND/or recommendations. These are my most loyal relationships.
4. WARM Leads — connections who match my ideal buyer titles but have never been properly pitched. Use these title keywords to identify them: [paste your buyer title keywords here — for example: director, VP, chief, HR, talent, learning, training, development, event, conference, program].
5. Pending Invites — outgoing invitations I sent that were never accepted. I should not re-invite these people accidentally.
For every tab, include: full name, current title, company, LinkedIn URL, email address if available, connection date, message count, last message date, and a recommended outreach action.
Sort each tab so the most urgent and warmest people appear first.
Claude will work through your files, score your connections, classify your conversations, and build the full system. Depending on the size of your network, this may take a few minutes.
What you will have when it is done:
A prioritized Excel file organized by urgency and signal strength that tells you exactly who to contact, in what order, and what to say — all from data you already had.
Step 3: Do This Every 90 Days
Your LinkedIn network is not static. People change jobs. New connections go cold. Conference season brings a fresh wave of people who attended your session and connected but never heard from you again.
Run this process every quarter:
Download a fresh copy of your LinkedIn data
Re-upload to Claude with the same prompt
Look specifically at new connections since your last download (the Connected On column makes this easy)
Cross-reference against your existing lead lists to see who is new
The 90-day rule exists because:
Most post-event connection requests go cold within 60 days if there is no follow-up. Running this quarterly means you catch those people before the warmth disappears completely. It also means your buyer list stays current as people get promoted, change companies, or move into roles that are suddenly relevant to your work.
Set a recurring calendar reminder. Quarterly LinkedIn audit. 90 minutes of your time. Done.
One More Thing: What to Do After You Have the List
The list is not the finish line — it is the starting line. Once you have it, you need a warm outreach strategy to work through it.
That means:
A DM template that references your shared context (the conference you both attended, the session they commented on, the book they bought, etc)
A sequenced approach that starts with your warmest contacts and works outward
A CRM to track who you have contacted, what they said, and what the next step is
I am building a CRM template system specifically for speakers, trainers, consultants, and authors that integrates with this LinkedIn process. If you want to be the first to know when it is available, join the waitlist here.
In the meantime: download your data. Run the prompt. See what is already waiting for you.
Bose Akadiri is The Joy Amplifier — a keynote speaker, corporate trainer, and author of the Amazon bestseller The Stay Joyful Method. She helps corporate leaders build joyful, high-performing teams without burnout.
Stay joyful!
Bose