246: The Missing Stage That Turns Customers Into Superfans
When Word of Mouth Isn’t Enough: Activating the Advocacy Stage
If you’ve ever wondered why your offers aren’t spreading—even when people love them—it might be because you haven’t fully activated the advocacy stage in your business. This is the final, often-missing piece that shifts growth from effortful to exponential.
In this episode, I walk you through what the advocacy stage actually is (hint: it’s not just testimonials and luck), and why it’s a critical part of the Creator’s Growth Flywheel. I’ll share the two essential elements most businesses miss, how to turn happy customers into repeat buyers and brand champions, and exactly what to implement to make sharing effortless. We also look ahead to why this matters even more in 2026 and how you can get started today with just one small change.
What You’ll Learn:
What advocacy really means in a scalable business
The difference between passive and active advocacy
Why most businesses struggle to generate organic referrals
How to build advocacy into your customer experience
Simple ways to make sharing your offer easy and natural
Why trust and social proof matter more than ever in 2026
A practical first step you can take this week to activate advocacy
This episode might just be the missing link in your growth strategy. If you’ve built great offers but aren’t seeing the momentum you’d expect, this could be the fix. Tune in and see how advocacy could change everything for your business.
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TRANSCRIPT:
[00:00:00] Welcome to the Creator's MBA podcast, your go-to resource for mastering the art and science of digital product entrepreneurship. My name is Dr. Destini Copp and I help business owners generate consistent revenue from their digital product business without the need to be glued to their desk. I hope you enjoy our episode today.
[00:00:20] Hi there, Dr. Destini Copp here and welcome back to the Creator's MBA podcast. Today, we are right in the middle of our Creator's Growth Flywheel series. Over the last few episodes, we’ve covered what has changed in 2025, why funnels feel slower, why consistency alone is not enough anymore, and why the Retain stage is one of the biggest reasons your audience may be engaged with what you have, but they're not buying.
[00:01:00] Today, we're stepping into the final stage of the Growth Flywheel. Truthfully, it’s a stage that a lot of business owners never build. We're talking about the Advocacy stage. Advocacy is where your business shifts from something that you are pushing to something that starts moving by itself. It’s the stage that turns happy customers into repeat buyers and into people who naturally tell others about your work.
[00:02:00] If you’ve ever wondered how some business owners grow faster without doing more, this episode explains exactly how that happens. So let’s talk about what advocacy really is. Most people misunderstand advocacy. They think it’s all about word of mouth or testimonials or people mentioning you by chance. That is not advocacy—that is luck.
[00:03:00] Advocacy is the intentional process of helping your customers talk about you. It’s what happens when people not only get a transformation from your offer, but they also enjoy the experience of working with you so much that they want to bring others into it. Advocacy is not a marketing tactic. It’s the outcome of a well-structured business. It’s the final stage of the Creator’s Growth Flywheel for a reason. Once your customers reach this stage, the flywheel begins its next cycle, and your best buyers become your best marketers. That is how your business compounds.
[00:04:00] So why don’t most business owners activate this stage? It’s not because people don’t like their products or because they’re not helpful. It’s not even because their audience is cold. It’s because advocacy requires two things:
[00:04:20] First, you must give people a clear next step after they buy. If someone finishes your offer, goes through your course, or is in your membership and they have no idea what to do next, that momentum disappears. Advocacy never gets activated.
[00:04:40] Second, you need to make sharing super easy. If someone wants to talk about your work but has nothing to share—no referral link, no simple script, no swipe files, no screenshot, no link asking for a two-sentence testimonial—they likely won’t take the extra step, even if they want to. People are busy and overwhelmed. Most of your customers will only talk about you when it’s effortless.
[00:05:40] So what happens when advocacy is built into your Growth Flywheel? People will finish your offer and say, "This changed everything for me." They tell their friends, they share on social media, they forward your emails, they link to your podcast episodes. They talk about you in communities. They message you saying, "I told three people about you today."
[00:06:20] Advocacy also activates repeat customers. When people feel proud of their experience with you, they want more from you—the next product, the next level, a deeper transformation. That is how advocacy drives both acquisition and retention at the same time. It’s why advocacy is the final stage in the Flywheel before the next cycle begins.
[00:07:00] There are two types of advocacy: passive and active. Passive advocacy happens naturally when people enjoy your work—they mention you in conversations, share your posts, quote your podcast, tag you. This is great, but it’s unpredictable and unscalable.
[00:07:40] Active advocacy, however, is intentional. It’s structured. It’s something you build into your offers, your customer experience, and your process. That looks like: "Here’s your referral link if you want to share it." "Here’s a simple email you can copy and paste." "Here’s a bonus if you refer a friend." "Here’s a link where you can share a two-sentence testimonial." Make it super simple. Active advocacy turns customers into amplifiers.
[00:08:40] When you build this into your business, it’s predictable, repeatable, and scalable. So why does this matter more as we move into 2026? The creator economy has changed. People are more cautious with money and want to spend with business owners they trust. Recommendations from friends matter more than ever.
[00:09:20] We live in an AI-saturated world. AI can write content, mimic what we do, and answer questions. But it cannot recreate the deeply human experience your customers have when they work with you. People trust people. Advocacy is where that trust becomes visible.
[00:10:00] Your audience needs proof. They need to hear from others who’ve had real results. Advocacy provides that social proof in a very authentic way.
[00:10:20] Here are signs that your advocacy stage needs work:
Your customers get results but you hear very little from them afterward.
People say they love your offer but never talk about it publicly.
You feel like you’re the only one promoting your work.
You have low repeat purchase rates despite having a solid offer.
You get referrals, but only sporadically.
[00:11:00] If you nodded along to any of these, you’re not doing anything wrong—you just haven’t built the advocacy stage into your system yet.
[00:11:20] Here’s what you can do this week to activate it:
Create a referral link for your signature offer.
Write a simple, copy-and-paste message people can use to share.
Add screenshots or visuals for easy social sharing.
Include a “share this” line at the bottom of your next newsletter.
Ask for a one-question testimonial: “Give me 1–2 sentences about what changed for you after using this.”
[00:12:20] Even one of these small actions can activate your Growth Flywheel’s advocacy stage. You don’t need a complex system—just a simple, thoughtful nudge to make sharing easier.
[00:12:40] Before we move on to the final emails in this series, I want you to see where advocacy sits in your own flywheel. Don’t guess. Don’t assume. Go take the 5-minute diagnostic with Sloane. She’ll tell you whether advocacy is your biggest opportunity—or whether something earlier in your flywheel needs attention first.
[00:13:20] After you run it, reply to any of my emails from this series and I’ll send you an excerpt from the Creator’s MBA Playbook. You’ll get actionable steps to improve where you are in your flywheel.
[00:13:40] I hope this episode helped you see the power of the Advocacy stage and why this stage changes everything. You’re closer than you think. You’ve already done the hardest part—building all the pieces of your business. Your audience trusts you. Your message matters. Now it’s time to help them carry that message forward.
[00:14:20] Thanks for joining me and I’ll see you in the next episode. Bye for now.
[00:14:30] Thanks for listening all the way to the end. If you loved the show, I’d appreciate a review on Apple Podcasts or your favorite podcast platform. Have a great rest of your day and bye for now.