13/08/2026
PART 2 OF MY OPEN LETTER TO MS. CECE TAN: FROM AN EVEN BIGGER FANGIRL 😭
By Day 2, I genuinely thought I had already reached the highest level of admiration I could have for Ms. CeCe.
I had already seen what she built, experienced how brilliant she is at what she does, and finally met the person I had been looking up to from afar.
I honestly didn’t think there was anything more I could learn about her that would make me admire her even more.
Then I heard her speak for the first time.
And somehow, she exceeded everything I already thought about her.
She shared her story, how she got started, the challenges she had to go through, the decisions she had to make early in life, and parts of her journey that I had never heard before, or at least had never seen her share on social media.
Suddenly, I wasn’t just listening to someone I admired professionally.
There were parts of her story where I found myself thinking, “Wait, I know this feeling.”
Not because our lives are exactly the same, because they’re not.
But there were parts of the struggle that felt so familiar.
Ms. CeCe had to leave school.
I had to leave college too because I needed to help support my family.
We both grew up with family circumstances we didn’t choose, and in different ways, the realities surrounding our families and our fathers became part of that motivation to work harder and build something different.
I think that’s what really got me.
Because I know what it feels like to grow up in poverty and quietly wonder if this is just the life you’re going to have forever.
Throughout my junior high years, we were literally sleeping right next to a sewer.
Isang katre, tapos lima kaming nagsisiksikan para matulog.
We didn’t have running water, and we didn’t have electricity for almost three years.
One of the clearest things I remember from high school is literally living without electricity.
Ang bigat niya pakinggan kapag kinukwento mo years later, pero when you’re the one actually living it, buhay mo lang siya.
You wake up, adjust, survive, and figure things out because you have to.
And maybe that’s what people don’t always understand when you come from that kind of life.
Sometimes working hard doesn’t initially come from ambition.
It comes from survival.
You work because you need to help your family.
You work because you don’t want the people you love to stay in the same situation forever.
And somewhere along the way, survival turns into this bigger dream.
You start thinking, I need to become bigger than the circumstances I was born into.
Not because you’re ashamed of where you came from, but because you know how hard that life is and you don’t want that struggle to become your ceiling.
So habang nagsasalita si Ms. CeCe, I slowly realized why her story was affecting me this much.
I know that feeling of looking at the life you were handed and thinking,
“There has to be another way.”
And ayun na.
I was crying through almost her entire speech. 😭
You know me, I’m a very emotional person.
Emotional to a fault, actually.
I’m also very transparent.
Most of the time, when I feel something, I say it.
Kapag masaya ako, halata.
Kapag nasaktan ako, sasabihin ko.
Kapag hanga ako sa isang tao, good luck na lang kasi malalaman talaga nila. 😂
And yes, sometimes that makes me wonder if I’m oversharing or if I’m being too emotional or if what I’m saying sounds cringe.
But I’d rather be that person.
I’d rather be transparent and emotional to a fault than pretend I don’t feel something just because I’m scared of how it might look.
So if this entire open letter sounds cringe to someone, okay lang.
Everything I’m saying here is genuine.
I was genuinely crying through Ms. CeCe’s speech because something in her story hit a part of me I wasn’t expecting.
At this point, Ms. CeCe, two-day streak na po tayo. 😂
Remember the photo I talked about in Part 1, the younger Ms. CeCe in the hospital with the baby and the laptop?
On Day 1, that photo kept playing in my head while I was looking at the woman she is today.
I kept wondering how that young woman became THIS woman.
Then on Day 2, I finally got to hear some of the story in between.
And that’s when I realized that what I admire about Ms. CeCe goes so much deeper than GoHighLevel, SaaS, automation, her courses, or even how ridiculously good she is at what she does.
I admire the fight.
There’s something about an underdog story that hits differently when you know what it feels like to be the underdog too.
To look at the life you were given and decide, “Hindi dito matatapos ’to.”
To keep fighting for opportunities that were never handed to you and build a life your younger self probably couldn’t even imagine yet.
And somewhere in Ms. CeCe’s story, I unexpectedly saw pieces of mine too.
By the end of her speech, I realized something even bigger.
Ms. CeCe Tan is more than a pillar in the GoHighLevel, SaaS, and automation community.
She’s not legendary only because she’s exceptional at what she does.
She’s legendary because her story reflects so many Filipinos who are also fighting to build a life beyond the circumstances they were born into.
And I think that’s why she’s so pangmasa.
I remember having a conversation with Ante Tracy about some of the biggest personal brands in the freelancing and virtual assistant space.
One thing I kept noticing was that the strongest communities aren’t built on information alone.
They’re built on connection.
The people we connect with deeply are usually the people we can somehow see ourselves in.
There’s something about their story that makes you think, “Parang ako,” “Gets niya ako,” or “Galing din siya dito.”
Before this event, I admired Ms. CeCe’s brain, her systems, her knowledge, and the way she teaches.
After hearing her story, I understood the connection.
Information is powerful, but connection changes how we receive that information.
When you understand where someone is coming from and you can see pieces of your own story in theirs, you listen differently.
There’s empathy, trust, desire, passion, and this little voice that says, “If she figured this out, maybe I can figure it out too.”
And I think that’s why, by the end of her speech, I wasn’t just impressed anymore.
I felt connected.
I also realized that I don’t want Ms. CeCe’s success.
I want that level of mastery in my own thing.
Social media marketing is mine.
That’s the craft I genuinely love, and I want to spend years becoming exceptionally good at it.
I don’t want to become Ms. CeCe.
I want to become that good at being Joanna.
I want the kind of authority that doesn’t need to be performed because people can feel the years of work behind it.
And maybe one day, someone who also feels like an underdog will look at what I’ve built and think, “Maybe pwede rin pala ako.”
Because that’s what I felt listening to her.
Maybe pwede.
Maybe the life you were born into doesn’t have to be the life you stay in forever.
Maybe all these ordinary days of working, learning, failing, rebuilding, sacrificing, and trying again are taking us somewhere we just can’t see yet.
Ms. CeCe, thank you so much for opening doors for all of us and for sharing your knowledge so generously.
Parang bitbit mo kaming lahat sa likod mo, helping Filipinos see what’s possible and giving us access to knowledge that can genuinely move us forward.
Nakakaproud kasi we have a CeCe Tan in the Philippines representing us.
I genuinely hope and pray that more people recognize you, not only here, but everywhere.
I also hope you’re surrounded by people who understand your vision, support what you’re building, and help carry the weight with you.
And yes, happy na happy ako na napansin mo na rin po ako.
Hehehe. 😂
Pero regardless kung mapansin mo man ako or hindi, Ms. CeCe, I would still be cheering for you.
Day 1, iniyakan ko po kayo because I was thinking about everything that must have happened between that younger woman in the hospital and the woman standing in front of me.
Day 2, buong speech niyo naman po. 😭😂
But now I understand why.
Ms. CeCe, ang galing-galing niyo po talaga.
Not only because of what you know or what you’ve built, but because after everything life gave you to fight through, look at you now.
And somehow, habang pinapanood ka namin, people like me get to think, “Maybe pwede rin pala ako.” ❤️
P.S. I was honestly hesitant to post Part 2 because after posting the first one, napaisip ako, “Baka ang cringe ko na.” 😭😂
But you know what, ipopost ko na rin.
I would rather be emotional to a fault and mean every word than pretend I don’t feel this deeply.
So ayan.
Cringe man o hindi, genuine naman. 😂❤️
