A lead is someone whose email address you have who has not joined your community. Leads live under People → Leads, alongside Members.

Someone either signed up or vanished, previously. The lead is the step in between, and it is where most of your future members will sit for a while.

How are Leads grouped?

Every lead sits in one of four groups: Onboarding, Hot, Warm or Cold. The table opens on All, with a Status column showing each lead's group. Use the dropdown at the top left to see one group at a time. Each option shows how many leads are in it.

The group depends on how far someone has gone with you, and how recently, not simply how recently they turned up.

Onboarding: they are partway through joining. Each one shows one of three statuses:

• Awaiting first login: they started signing up in the last 30 days but have not logged in yet.
• Paid, onboarding incomplete: they paid for an Offer but have not joined yet. A one-time payment counts for 30 days. A subscription counts for as long as it is active or trialing.
• Waitlisted: they are on a waitlist that has not launched yet, or that launched in the last 30 days.

Hot: they did something high-intent in the last 6 months: bought something (including a paid Resource or event ticket), joined a waitlist, or started signing up.

Warm: they came to you and engaged at some point, but have done nothing high-intent in the last 6 months. Unlocking a Resource with their email, following a Sign Up Link, an event RSVP, an affiliate link, or landing on a Page all make someone warm.

Cold: you have their email but they never came to you. These are people added or imported by an admin: admin invites, subscription imports, course-progress imports. Nothing they did put them on the list.

How Leads move between groups

A lead's group updates on its own as they act and as time passes.

• Onboarding comes first. While someone matches an onboarding status, they show as Onboarding, whatever else they have done.
• Onboarding ends when they join or the window runs out. Once they become a member, they leave the Leads list. If they don't join, they move to Hot or Warm 30 days after they signed up or paid, or 30 days after their waitlist launched. A subscription keeps them in Onboarding until it stops being active.
• Hot cools to Warm after 6 months. Someone who bought seven months ago and has done nothing high-intent since moves to Warm on their own. They have not gone anywhere, and the list is telling you they need a reason to come back.
• A new high-intent action moves them back to Hot.
• Cold turns Warm the first time they engage themselves, for example by unlocking a Resource.
• A brand-new lead magnet capture is warm, not hot. Giving an email is engagement, not intent. To see who arrived most recently, sort by Last seen.

The Leads table

Each row is one person:

• Lead: their email address, with their name above it when you know it.
• Status: shown when you are viewing All or Onboarding. On All it names the lead's group. On Onboarding it names their onboarding status.
• Source: where they came from, linked so you can open it. A small icon shows the kind of source, and a number in brackets means they came in through more than one.
• Last seen: when they were last active. Sortable.
• First contact: the date they first came in. Sortable.

You can use the search box to find a specific address. If your search matches leads outside the group you are viewing, the table tells you how many are hidden, with a Clear filter link to show them.

Rows have checkboxes for selecting several at once, with a three-dot menu on each row. Tick one or more rows and a count appears next to Export CSV. The arrow beside that button then offers Archive selected, which takes those leads off the list.

Export CSV exports every lead in every group, whichever group you are viewing. The file has the same columns as the table, with a Status column naming each lead's group, or their onboarding status for Onboarding leads.

Where Leads come from

Anything that collects an email address:

• Resources: someone unlocked a public Resource with their email, bought one (or tried to purchase without completing).
• Sign Up Links: someone used a link but has not become a member.
• Waitlists: someone joined a waitlist but has not become a member.
• Events: external RSVPs from people who are not members.
• Purchases: someone paid without joining.

If you have been running a community for a while, expect this list to be populated the day you first open it, with first-contact dates going back years. These are people who were always there; there was simply nowhere to see them before.

Working your Leads

A lead list is only worth what you do with it. A few ways to use it:

• Start with Onboarding. These people already said yes by paying, signing up or joining a waitlist, and a reminder to finish is often all they need.
• Follow up with everyone who captured a specific Resource, offering the next thing in that sequence. They told you what they are interested in by which one they chose.
• Treat buyers as a different list. Someone who has paid once has already cleared the hard bar.
• Watch which Resource produces the most leads and put your promotion behind that one.

To reach out to your Leads, export the CSV, filter it by the Status column, and send from your preferred outreach tool.