Reclaim Your LinkedIn Network

Hello Predictable Revenue community,

Book update: we crossed 180 pre-orders this week! I am extremely grateful to every one of you for supporting my journey to launching this book. I was on a podcast this week and the host asked if I’m going to do a book tour. I replied “no, I don’t want to be an author, I’m an entrepreneur who happened to write a book”. I’m going to everything I can to get the word out but I don’t want to lose focus on the thing I love, building companies.

If you haven’t had a chance to pre-order, you can join the club today by clicking this link.

Remember when LinkedIn first launched? It felt novel but not particularly useful—only a small subset of people were on it. Fast forward 20 years, and practically everyone you'd want to prospect has at least a LinkedIn account.

But here's the problem: as LinkedIn grew, so did the number of dirty salespeople (like myself) who abused the platform. LinkedIn had to crack down, and now they guard your network like a jealous ex. 

Fun fact, when I was prospecting for customer development meetings for voltageCRM, LinkedIn suspended my account because they thought I was a bot. I had to call in and explain to them that I’m just really good at my hotkeys. All was good and they unlocked my account. Then, when it happened again a few months later, they made me write AND MAIL them a letter apologizing and asking them to reinstate my account. They claimed it was ‘the process’ but I think it was just the CS rep messing with me. 

The Good Old Days Are Gone

Back in the day, you could download all your LinkedIn contacts complete with their email addresses. Your network was a compilation of people you'd actually worked with, customers you'd served, and real relationships you'd built. Want to email everyone? Simple—download the list and hit send.

Those days are over.

LinkedIn won't give you email addresses anymore. But here's what they will give you: LinkedIn URLs. And that's where things get interesting.

I discovered the problem when trying to promote my upcoming book to my network. I wanted to email my LinkedIn connections and let them know I wrote something that might be relevant. It seems like the most fair use case for connecting in the first place. Was it possible with LinkedIn? Not for less than thousands of dollars of InMail credits or ads. 

Your Network Should Be Yours

Think about it this way: back in the day, our network was literally a rolodex—a collection of business cards we owned, sitting on our desk. When we changed jobs, we'd try to take it with us (if we could grab it before the boss confiscated it).

LinkedIn has become our modern rolodex, but they're acting like that old sales manager who wants to take it away from you. Instead of outright confiscation, they want to charge you rent:

• Pay to verify your identity with a driver's license

• Pay for InMails to reach people

• Pay for premium features to access "your" network

I don't like paying for things I believe are mine.

The Simple Solution

With LinkedIn's data export capabilities and Clay's email-finding power, you can reclaim your network. Export your LinkedIn connections, run them through Clay to find email addresses, and suddenly your network is yours again.

All it takes is a few simple steps, and you can email your entire LinkedIn network through whatever email platform you choose.

What I'm Building

As I write this, I'm preparing to walk through this exact process with members of my book presale club. I've even created a Clay template to make it easier.

I'm considering turning this into a more comprehensive mini-course where I record my screen and document the entire process step-by-step. But I'm a "dirty coin-operated salesperson"—I only build what people actually want/will pay me for.

Here's the deal: If you want me to create this LinkedIn-to-email course, reply with the word "LinkedIn." It will only be for folks that pre-order the book (or have already done so) so let me know if this would be helpful. 

If only three people respond, I won't build it. But if we get healthy interest, I'll absolutely create something valuable for you.

An Interesting Shift

This whole experience of trying to sell the book has been fascinating for me. It's the first time in my sales career that I'm selling business-to-consumer rather than business-to-business. Having an audience to serve, rather than just a few prospects at an organization, feels completely different.

But the fundamentals remain the same: understand what people want, build something valuable, and make it easy for them to get it.

Your LinkedIn network represents years of relationship-building. Don't let a platform hold it hostage.

Collin 

PS - Want the LinkedIn email extraction process? Reply with "LinkedIn" and let me know if there's interest. Already preordered the book? Even better—you'll get access to the full process documentation.

PPS - next review is in, my mom this time! 

PPPS - if you like all handcrafted natural soap, you can check out my brother’s company Soda Creek Soap. Okanagan Cherry and Activated Charcoal are my personal favourites.