SPI 952: Getting Out of Your Own Way to Unlock Real Growth with Allan Ngo

SPI 952: Getting Out of Your Own Way to Unlock Real Growth with Allan Ngo

Liz Wilcox: What happens when you just decide to do it? When you put all the drama away, and you start to take action instead of constantly listening to every little emotion in your body and your head. Today, we are talking to one of my favorite people. His name is Allan, and he runs a business helping other people get started with digital products and being a service provider, freelancing, all of that.

But what’s really impressive about Allan is he lives in the Philippines, and he has been able to break out into the North American market, and it wasn’t because he knew a guy or he started running ads. It was truly his heart that got him there. I first met Allan in my Facebook group for my community. It’s called the Email Sound Booth, and he was just a guy that really embodied that serve first mentality.

We’re gonna talk about that today. We’re gonna talk about how he was able to overcome all the head drama to grow his business and to charge what he was worth, and also, we’re gonna talk a, a little bit about community, how he sees community, how you can build a community, how you can create culture, and how to look inside yourself to craft it all.

I am so, so, so excited about this episode. Wow, Allan is an absolute treat, and I hope it inspires you to think bigger.

Allan, I could gush and brag about you all day long. I just love that we are connected on the internet, and that I get to highlight you finally on the Smart Passive Income show. Yeah. This is so, so epic.

But I want you to share, like, what it is that you do, who you are, and how the heck did you get there?

Allan Ngo: Hi, Liz. It’s amazing to speak with you as always. So yeah, I’m Allan. I’m the founder of Digital Solopreneur. Basically, I help, like, folks, especially doing one-person businesses, build their coaching business by turning their knowledge into high-profit digital products, simple services, so that they make a living teaching what they know without hating their business.

So that’s basically what I help folks do with the monetization of their business. Short story how I got here, it’s entirely by accident.

Um, I finished accountancy in college. I’m a CPA. Got into corporate, started a franchise business at the same time. Got burned out. Um, at age 25, I got into this quarter-life crisis state where I needed to find something that fits me.

That led me to China. Actually, a scholarship. I applied for a scholarship, got a refresher studying Mandarin in China, came back jobless, so I was part of the country’s unemployment rate, and typed in the magical words “how to make money online,” because I was jobless b-back then. And that was around early 2010, 2011, and that’s when I got my first freelance job, and that’s when the reality of earning online dawned on me because I was earning, like, three to four times more than my bank manager salary back then.

So okay, I, I feel this is something different. And from then, I ex-explored affiliate marketing, email marketing, eventually started doing my own course, doing that for about 10 years, and now I help people build their own coaching business teaching what they know.

Liz Wilcox: I love this so much. And I know that about half of our audience here on the podcast is actually not in North America, so I am really excited to bring you on because you’re not in North America either, are you?

Allan Ngo: I’m not. I’m based in the Philippines.

Liz Wilcox: I love this so much because a lot of us here in North America, we spend money on Facebook ads. We grow our… Our audience is very, I don’t know, homogenous, right? It’s, it’s easy to find people in our own country, and what I’ve really admired about you is you’ve been able to break out into the North American market.

You’ve been able to have a really diverse sort of audience, and I’d love to hear, was that, number one, was that intentional? And number two, how did that happen?

Allan Ngo: Right. Yeah, I, I knew who I wanted to help since I’ve been doing this for over 10 years, and I’ve had folks who, who has experience, like fellow Filipinos who have experience working with folks overseas tell me that, “Hey, what you teach is something that’s gonna be helpful, not just locally, but overseas as well.”

And it was I who was, like, holding myself back because is that really possible? Because I never really tested it. And when I started exploring, I noticed that locally there’s a limited number of coaches, people who once who have knowledge that they want to teach, and the people who I want to reach are mainly overseas.

So it was intentional on my end to explore, to reach out, to find, to get my name out there, and that’s a difficult part because I’ve already built my name locally in the email marketing scene as well. That’s how I actually got to, to know you, through, through that, through email marketing. And for me to start over, it was a decision that on my end, but I had to be…

It was exciting as well. It was starting all over again. And since the currency doesn’t really, the math doesn’t really add up, works out when it comes to running ads in the US, so it’s really more of how do I podcast, guest podcast, how do I list swap, how do I inject myself in other people’s communities, but in a way that I feel good about myself.

Because I, I hate to be the one to self-promote. I never like that. I never like that in my own group when people do that. So I look back at how I started even locally, and it was really through relationships. I could track all my successes through people I met. And when I met them, it wasn’t through a commercial transaction.

It was through helping them out. And I thought, hey, this is a human thing, right? It’s not a local thing. So all I have to do is really be helpful wherever I am. And just not knowing really tactically how that would work out, just thinking that, hey, if I help people out, doors will open, not necessarily from the person that I help out, but some way, somehow, you know, it will come back.

That’s not nec- necessarily the best tactic, you know, but it feels like I, I just base it from my evidence from the past 10-plus years I’ve been doing it, just being… applying the golden rule, do unto others what you want others to do unto you. And eventually, like, opportunities will come, and that’s how I also got into your community, Liz, but also having that mindset, not really answering people to get noticed, but just answering for the sake of answering, and that’s kind of how I approach things when it comes to business.

It, it’s anchored in relationships.

Liz Wilcox: Okay, so Allan said it might not be the best tactic, but I think it is. I, I mean, I noticed Allan and, yeah, what I noticed about him is that truth he just spoke. I could tell he wasn’t doing it to kind of get in your DMs to lead you to a landing page. It was just a genuine human-to-human interaction, and I love that so, so much because that’s how I’ve built my business.

That’s… I, I talk about networking across, sort of linking arms with people that are similar to you, but the, the best way to do that is just to be so absolutely genuine, just to, like, really I don’t know, give a crap, just to really have that serve first attitude. And that’s, I mean, that’s how I met Pat Flynn and that’s how we’re taking over the show today , me and Allan, right?

Um, it’s just- … you know, very slowly helping one person at a time. And I think a lot of people, they want those immediate results. Like we said, maybe they’re running ads instead, but I think for longevity purposes, like Allan said, he’s been in the game over 10 years, so have I. You know, f- for longevity purposes, that serve first mentality is so, so… it’s, I don’t know, it’s like chef’s kiss. It’s, it’s really the way to go. But I wanna go back to, you just, the way you’re talking about this is so … I, to me it’s, it’s phenomenal the way you’ve been able to grow so much in North America and, and I, I haven’t seen many be able to do that. Many just kind of stay in their own bubble.

Even people in America, in Canada, in the UK, they kind of stay in that bubble. Another example of someone who’s been able to break out of their 10,000 mile radius is Lizzie Goddard, right? She’s in the UK, and I, I had lunch with her earlier this year and she said that a lot of her British and European friends and peers are absolutely amazed that she was able to break out into North America because, you know, Americans, we’re, we’re, we’re a special breed.

We’re a we’re a different type of folk. But what I got from you sharing this story is, well, number one, maybe you don’t know that it’s a story and they’re like, it’s like so amazing that you’ve been able to do this, but also just the way you’re talking about it. And I know f- for a lot of our listeners and a lot of even the people in our paid community, we oftentimes are the person in our own way.

We stall out, we overthink. Who am I to do this? I g- got an email just yesterday from one of our members, and he said, “You know, Liz, I’m constantly stalling out because I’ll try something for a few weeks. It doesn’t get proven in those 21 days, and I realize, oh, who am I to do this? This was kind of stupid. Let me try something else.” But I think what I admire about you, and one of the things that has worked, is you just do it over and over. You know, I… Y’all, I don’t know how many Facebook groups Allan is in, but he’s in mine, and he is in there. He is so, so helpful. You, you know- … if you’re in there, it makes sense why Allan is successful.

It makes sense why he’s getting leads from that Facebook group, and it makes sense why the leader of the group, me, doesn’t even care. I am super happy to- that people are moving over to him. But what kind of mindset, if you’ve ever even thought about it, does it take to just go out there and do? And just say like, “Yes, of course I belong in those rooms. Of course I am the person to help and to serve over here.”

Allan Ngo: Right. That’s a wonderful question, Liz, and I’d be the first to admit that it was not instant. Like, I’ve been wanting to test out myself in the global scene for years. Some of my closest friends know that. Sometimes my New Year’s resolution is finally, like, break out of the local scene and explore, and I would do that year after year.

And there came a point where I had this one friend that I had online. His name is Shawn. He’s based in New Zealand, but he immigrated from India, and I noticed his community are mainly Westerners. So I, I asked him, like, “Hey, as folks who were born in a third world country, right? Well, is there something that changed the way you thought, that allowed you to attract a global audience, that made you believe that you can play in the global playing field?”

And he, what he told me was really simple, but it’s beautiful in its simplicity. He just said, “I just decided to.”

And like, it, it didn’t really dawn on me how profound that was, right? I just decided to. And even if I heard that, it still took me a couple of years to really be ready for it. And I think for me, it– that lingered for me.

That, that advice was stuck with me, but it was still me having to be prepared for it. And for me personally, I think it was around the time when I was about to turn 40 back then. Then recent… Around that time, my grandmother passed, my father-in-law passed in the same year, and it, it was not sudden. Like, it– they had long battles with illness.

And I was about to turn 40 then. It kind of made me reflect on, hey, like, life is fleeting. I knew it already, but it’s one thing to go through loss. It coincided with my 40th birthday, kind of, hey, you’re midway. What are you waiting for? So it kind of, the stars aligned and kind of started to take small steps, you know?

Take small steps. Just participate here. Just for me, it, it was about, also about removing the emotion out of it. So these were kind of stoicism and kind of understanding, think why things work without putting drama into it, right? Because I, I used to have this, this drama inside of me where, okay, I can’t charge as much because I don’t live in the US.

I, I can’t dare to put a dollar sign on my checkout page because that’s only for people who are legit. But I’ve been doing this for 10 years. Like, that’s just drama talking. Humility aside, like if you, I put my resume up there, not knowing who that is, I would say that, hey, this person can, can, can teach.

Like, he, he has the experience. He has the track record. But if I put my name there, then all, all of those are blurred, right? So it helped that when I was determined, I had the turning point. I also attacked it in a way where, hey, here are what successful people are doing, just their action, not who they are.

And all I have to do is just follow that lead. So it was really just removing that, that emotion behind it and just focusing on the action. Just focusing on the task, uh, because at the end of the day, if, if I don’t believe in myself, then nobody else will. I know that’s a cliche, but also when, when you go through, hey, I only have, like, 40 years left, the last 20 probably is not as good.

So I really have just 20 left, and my kid is growing up. Like, she’s currently 11. And I also want to show her that, hey, your dad is playing in a bigger field while I’m at home. Like, I can be with you, I can be with everyone else, and that’s a possibility I want you to see because by, by the time she’s 18, by the time she graduates college, I’m not, I’m not sure what the world will become, what her oppor- opportunities are.

But I want to show her that, hey, if you put your work in, right, if you, you create value for others, regardless of where you live, regardless of what your age is, people will pay you, right? So that is something that, for me, the combination of those things help me start that momentum. And when one small win leads to another small win…

And that’s why I love what you do in your community, Liz. Like, you recognize people. You ask people to, “Hey, what do you need help with?” Maybe people in the community can help them out, help each other out. And I think that’s a very healthy culture that allows people to be seen, to feel seen, and it gives opportunities for other members of your community to be of help.

That way relationships are gonna be built. Again, I’m big on relationships. So I think all those factors for me helped me push through. And it wasn’t easy for me as well, and I consider you such a blessing as well for recognizing that because seeing you, one of my dreams was to be a guest on SPI. And in that same period, you bought SPI.

It kind of forced me to, to, like, dream bigger. And I, I believe I sent you this message privately that that’s such an inspiration. You kind of pushed me to dream bigger. Because me, the guest, that’s my dream. For you, you bought the entire thing, and that was just mind-blowing for me. And yeah, you’re, you’re continuously an inspiration for me.

Liz Wilcox: Yeah. Well, I wa- there’s so much to unpack. And honestly, I was tearing up when you just said the thing about your daughter and showing her “Hey, it doesn’t matter what you look like, where you come from. Dream bigger.” Like, you’re doing that for your daughter, and you’re showing that through action. And I, I’m thinking about our listener here, and something I’ve been saying lately to people that feel stalled out and feel like that drama is so hard to drown out, to say, “Nope, actually, that’s drama. Goodbye, I don’t need that, thank you.” One of the things I’ve been saying is, like, what is annoying you, right? Or what- when you think about it, what are you annoyed with? And I just love you put, like, the most beautiful spin on it of, you know, well, I want my child to see this in action. And yeah, in my mind, like, wouldn’t that be annoying if she didn’t have that example, right?

Like, if she looked back and didn’t have that experience. And I also have an 11-year-old daughter, and I’m thinking about buying, speaking of buying SPI, she wrote me a little note a couple weeks ago, and it said, “Thank you for buying SPI.” And it meant so much to me because, y’all, like, the, my family dynamic right now since buying SPI, I cannot even lie.

I am seeing my children less. Before we hit record, I told Allan, I have an 11-year-old biological daughter. I have… I call her my bonus daughter. I brought in a teenager, and she’s been with us for about a year. And over the summer, I actually did not see them for 10 weeks because I had to-

Allan Ngo: Wow …

Liz Wilcox: Prep for this announcement, and that was an incredible sacrifice for all three of us, and Patricia, my sister, who I work with, and who introduced me to Pat in the first place.

She w- she watched my children for me. I call her my life manager. She just, anything I need, she’s there. And that was an incredible sacrifice, but it is the reason, similar to Allan, and maybe you listening, and maybe it’s not your child, but maybe it’s somebody else, or maybe it’s the little version of you.

Like, what are you trying to show them? And when I think about how my children will look back on this period of time, I hope that they see that, you know, I was willing to sacrifice for their future. Part of the reason why I purchased SPI was to show them, similar to Allan, you know, you can have what you want.

Dream bigger. Um, you know, because like Allan, my biggest goal five years ago was to get on the Smart Passive Income podcast. I worked relentlessly. I went on hundreds of podcasts so that one day I could be on this one. And yeah, now I own it. It’s actually insane. But it goes- … to exactly what Allan said, like, less drama, more action.

Just if you can, even for three seconds, put that emotion away and just get moving, oh my gosh, you’ll never know where you’ll end up. It’s actually insane.

And I, I, I wanna remind people what you said about that person. I just decided to. That’s the same for me, that’s the same for Allan, and that can be the same for you.

Now, you kn- you did mention community, and one of the things that I love about you and admire so much is your ability to really shape a culture and a community. I really, like, attribute a lot of the success of my community to you and to, like, a few very select members of the community that drive the culture of my community.

It’s, it’s actually one of the biggest blessings of my life. I’m not even joking. I, I feel like I owe you a lot, and not, not in a bad way. I, I love being indebted to Allan. He’s the best.

So I’d love for you to kinda, I don’t know, like, what is your take on community, especially in this world of AI, the ebbs and flows that have been going on in the industry? Like, what is your take on community in 2026 and beyond, and how do you, I guess, how do you wish people would be doing things differently for their communities?

Allan Ngo: Yeah. I think, I guess prior to AI, I feel like community is, like, something that you add to your features, something that would retain people eventually. But now I think it’s a big differentiator. Here’s why I say that. You know how we now live in a very…

There, there’s a lot of loneliness in the world. That’s why we tend to connect with creators, right? Like, we, we tend to have– We, we follow them, we admire them, we listen to their advice. But at the same time, that relationship is one way. They never know us. We never get the chance to be seen, right? And even some creators are starting to use AI, so you’re not even connecting with a real person, right?

And I, I feel that’s what the beauty about community is. So I, I had to search the dictionary, like, what does community really mean? I, I really like to get to the point of it. And I guess for our business, it’s really about not just the relationship between, like, the community owner and the member, but it’s, it’s among themselves, right?

Having that, that connection. And I believe with, for me, like, for my own, I love your community because personally, as a human, I like one-on-one communications. I’m not, I don’t really thrive in groups. That’s why in your community, when I answer somebody, I, I really do it in-depth because I’m really just focusing on that one person.

And for me, in my community, it’s, it’s a more intimate group. It’s not as big as yours. But what I love- About that, my advantage there is really the depth, how deeply I know them. So funny story is like during one of our group coaching calls, I would tend to like give time for everyone on the call. Even if they don’t have a question, I would just like to say hi.

And there was this one time I was talking to one member, and her camera was off. So I was, I was joking around, so I was calling her. She was, wasn’t responding. I was saying, “I think she might be doing some squats in the gym right now, so let’s just wait for her.” Then lo and behold, a few min- a, a few seconds later, she turned on her camera laughing because true enough, she was in the gym doing some squats.

And she was like flabbergasted because we’ve been… I know that she’s into the gym. She would tell it in the calls. I would follow her on socials as well, and I know she’s a gym rat. And it’s, it’s funny for her to experience that and also for the others to see it. It, it, that also builds that depth, that kind of, hey, that’s when I realized that it matters where, of course, they would follow me, but also it also shows them that I also follow them.

Like they are worth caring for. They are worth following. They are worth, you know, being remembered. Hey, you did, you said this last week, right? How is it now? Like when, when I have new members or s- when somebody observes our community, and they would be the same way Pat was surprised as your, how you know everybody in your community.

When I have visitors come in, “Hey, how did you know to refer, to reference that thing from two weeks ago?” And I’ll be surprised as well. Like, I mean, it’s just I remember. And I think that’s the depth that I think people also cherish. Like Hey, um, this is a two-way relationship. And sometimes as adults, that’s hard to find. People actually remembering stuff about you. I think that’s one power of community. And the second is witnessing. Like, I have a member who had a fairly new member who had an ambitious goal, and her goal is local, right? So it’s like $20,000, which is like seven figures locally. And some of my longtime members were saying, “Whoa, my goal is like two grand per month, and you inspire me to do more.”

Another one is doing 4X return on her ads, and it inspires another one to start running their own ads. And I think that’s the power of having community, where them witnessing others in real time and you being able to build deeper relationships that where they feel, they feel at home. They feel that, “Oh, hey, I, I matter him. I, I matter here.” So I think, like, that’s how community can, can enrich, like, an offer, a product. Sometimes naming it an offer or product kind of diminishes the value of it. But it, it’s, it’s a container where people can meet. And community in that sense can create memories for them that no module can really replicate.

Liz Wilcox: I love that so much.

It can create memories that no module can replicate. That’s, that is a mic drop. I’m sorry. That’s so, that’s so, so true, and I’ve, I’ve seen that in communities I’ve been in, and I think… I haven’t ever really heard anyone talk about the, the witnessing, that communal, “Hey, we’re in this together. Look at what I’m doing. That inspires me to do something else.” Like, that’s so, so lovely. The very first community I had was… Actually, my business was called The Virtual Campground because I wanted to build this community of travelers across North America that, Allen said it best, like this loneliness thing. You know, I know there’s, there’s a real loneliness epidemic right now, but it’s been going on in the traveling space for a long time because you travel alone or, you know, it’s just you and your wife or whatever.

And so I created this community, and yeah, the witnessing was so key because people would come into my group just wanting, right? They didn’t own the RV yet. They weren’t sure their spouse would be on board. And just witnessing other couples going through it, witnessing people buying their, buying their rig is what we call it, that was just…

It- That level of excitement, like, “Oh, I’m gonna, I’m gonna go shopping this weekend,” or, “I’m gonna look online,” or, “You know what? I am gonna have that conversation with my family because th- this is important to me.” And especially in the entrepreneur space, I just, I hate that term, like solopreneur, when people say, “Oh, I’m a solopreneur,” because we are all in this together.

You, you cannot make it alone. That’s why I love collaborations, community, working together, this idea of serve first that Allen really embodies, and it’s just, it’s so necessary to know that there are other people out there doing it. ‘Cause oftentimes when we turn off the computer, nobody knows what we’re talking about.

Like, you know, especially like you said locally, this person’s trying to make $20,000. I imagine telling her family that, they’re like, “Oh, you are actually insane but good, you know, good luck with that, girlfriend.” But being able to testify that to your group and have people not only encourage them, but say, “Maybe me too one day,” that’s such a momentum builder, don’t you think?

Allan Ngo: 100%. It’s something when you see, especially when you see somebody like you have, have that kind of dream Because if, if it’s somebody, for example, more established or maybe somebody who is not local, if they say that dream, that, that goal, okay, it’s because he’s, he or she’s from there. But to see somebody like in your own locality having the same situation, the same disadvantages as you have that big of a dream, kind of, “Hey, what, what’s, what’s your excuse?”

What’s funny is the one who got impressed was based in, in Europe, and the one who had the big 20K dream was based locally. So she’s also Filipino, but she’s based in Europe, and she was the one who got impressed by somebody local. So i- it’s funny, like, how we don’t know what will trigger folks, and we’re just witnessing what others are doing, and that’s a funny component of community as well.

And for me, I, I treat my… For me, like in general in life, I, I don’t, I treat people as adults. I don’t baby them. So that’s also how I treat folks in my community, in the sense that sometimes if nobody comes during one of the calls, I would just be there for an hour, just work on my thing, and not be offended.

It’s because, hey, adults have things to do. So i- here’s that free-willing… That, that’s the culture that I, I propagate with them. Sometimes somebody would come in two minutes before the call’s supposed to end. I’ll stay for another 30 to entertain them. I just know, like, life happens, and that’s kind of the culture.

And if you need to bounce, you don’t necessarily have to, to say, because here it’s really if you need to leave, like, kind of leave a message that I’m gonna bounce. I’ll tell them, “Hey, go ahead. You don’t have to tell me. You don’t have to ask permission.” That’s kind of part of the culture that I bring. And for them, I think that’s also where they’re, it allows them to, like, share their own thoughts.

And when we have group calls, I don’t… I, I make sure that the screen on Zoom, it’s everybody’s on cam. So it’s not just me and the person who’s asking a question, because I want them to share their thoughts as well if they have something to share. I’m not the only one who can, who can share my thoughts. So I want to empower them, like, because you’re an adult.

Like, you’ve learned stuff in life. You have something to share, voice. You can voice up. So, so yeah. So I mean, the community is also an extension of the culture, and I feel we attract who we are, and I feel like that’s why I’m attracted to you, I’m attracted to Pat. Because in the same way that you guys have that spirit, that kindness, that comfort in who you are, w- you, Liz, with the flair for the ’90s, Pat with his sometimes awkwardness and dorkiness, that for me attracts me because, like, I myself have my own quirks, right?

And I love that you own your own quirks, and that’s why I feel that we attract the community that have the quirks that we have. So, so yeah. I mean, culture is super important with community.

Liz Wilcox: Well, I, I really, really like this perspective of, well, number one, treat people like adults. I have been in communities Where, yes, it was very much a, it was kind of like micromanaging.

You know, you, you join- Mm … the community, you have to take a quiz to make sure you know the rules. It’s like w- you know, what in the third grade elementary school is going on here? You know, like, I’m an adult. People rise to the level of expectations, so you know, if you just expect things from people, they, they will do it.

But I, I really l- like kind of where you were going with looking inward to create the culture. You know, if I… Allan said, oh, he’s attracted to Pat because XYZ, right? So if, if that’s true, then I as the leader of a community or I’d like to use the word facilitator, right? Because I’m not the only person with experiences, you know, I want us all…

That’s community, unity, commune, right?

Allan Ngo: Yeah. Right.

Liz Wilcox: Looking inward of like, well, what, who do I need to be in order for this culture to exist? You know, if I want a culture of fun, playfulness, we’re not afraid to make mistakes, we’re not afraid to ask stupid questions. If I want a culture of people inspiring each other, that starts with me, right?

And who, who do I need to be as the facilitator? And where am I going wrong? What personal development do I need to have, do I need to go after? There’s even… I’ll share a little story of when I… So I suffered a concussion about four and a half years ago, and after I, I couldn’t work very much. I couldn’t work for long periods of time.

I would get really cranky. But who I am is to serve first. Who I am is to go, go, go. Similar to Allan, if you get on a call with me, we do Q&As. I will go until there are no more questions. Well, that used to go two, two and a half hours long sometimes, which was fine before I hit my head. And my sister, I, we got off a call one day, and she said, “Liz, I think you really need to cut the timing of the Q&A, and maybe we tell people that they can submit questions at any time, and you answer them a- async, whatever.”

And I said, “No, I, I love these calls. What are you talking about?” And she said, “Well, by the one hour and 45 minute mark You start to get a little short with people. You, you’re not, you’re not as pleasant and helpful as- Uh-huh … you are at the 15-minute mark.

Allan Ngo: Yeah.

Liz Wilcox: And I said, I said, “What? That’s not true.” But then I went back and I re-watched, which as anyone who is trying to create content or a business online knows, that is the hardest thing to do, is to watch yourself back, right, in a video, in a Q&A, on a podcast.

And I was like, oh yeah, I look completely stressed out, maybe slightly annoyed.

Um, and that’s, that’s not who I wanna be, right? And so it was great to have my sister kind of as a bumper to say, “Hey, I know this isn’t who you are. You hit your head, girlfriend. Like, you, you can’t do the things you used to do.”

And so since then we’ve done 90 minutes, but I’ve enlisted the help of the community. Like, hey, when you come in, ask your question directly and I will ask for context. That way it goes a lot faster, and it’s, it’s been great ever since. And, and I look forward to those calls because I know they’re gonna be 90 minutes, and at the end of the 90 minutes, I usually take like a 15-minute nap or I just have some quiet time on my couch.

I put a couch in my office. It’s been great. But the point is, you know, being able to look inside yourself, not getting defensive when you get feedback, right? Whether it’s from, you know, my sister just happens to work for me, but I also have people in my community now that it’s, like, super established and we’ve created that culture Allan talked about, where people will email me, “Hey, Liz, you seemed a little off today. Are you okay?” Or- … “Hey, I, I loved the way that session was. Let’s keep doing those.” And then I can reflect and I can say, okay, well, because my physical health is really important so that I can show up the way I want to. Okay, well, what was it about this week that made me on fire? You know, did I get enough sleep?

Am I eating right? Am I taking my pills? All of that, and that’s been this, this great, great thing. So if you’re looking to start a community, being able to self-reflect I think is really important. Allan, are there any other… well, we’ve talked a lot about what creates culture, what makes a great community. Is there anything else that you think really builds a community?

Allan Ngo: Hmm. Th- this might come off from left field but upselling or upgrading folks to your offer is actually a good way to build community. And, and here’s why. There has been– So th-this comes from my self-belie- self-limiting beliefs before. Like, I wouldn’t offer more access to me, like one-on-one, because that would entail me charging higher, and I wasn’t sure if I was worth that.

Then later on, I realized that there are some folks in my community, in fact, two of them, hired like coaches who are much more expensive. Because of that, a couple of them, then eventually they came back and kind of wanted to reach out, see if I was offering one-on-one now. It’s because perhaps they, they got value from it, but it wasn’t enough.

And I realized that these folks, then when I offered it, like some of them were around 2,000, 2,500 deals that I didn’t think I could charge. And this was just in Facebook Messenger. Like, it wasn’t like a big launch. I didn’t even have an offer. I just typed out the offer on Messenger. It wasn’t a Google Doc.

Like, “Hey,” I was just coming up something… I was inventing something from my butt. Like, “Hey, here’s the thing I, I think I can do for you. Bullet point one, two, three, four, five. This is the price. If you pay one time, this would be the price.” Then I said it. She said, okay. Later, like she would send the deposits there.

And it made me think these folks were with me all along, and it was me who was not able to serve their needs. They needed some w- some help one-on-one. And because that wasn’t available, they, they left the community. They look, they will look for it somewhere else. So while they’re still perhaps part of my membership, their attention is now split.

And also business-wise, numbers-wise, that’s revenue I could have gotten for myself, saved them the time, saved them the trouble, and if I could have kept them within the community, offered a higher tier offer, then they would spend more time in the community. Their wins would be w- seen inside the community.

And the way I would look at upsells or upgrades is really just, it’s just a different way of offering help. Because one of the person there was, was just not as comfortable sharing her financial standing in a group setting. She just prefers it to be private. It’s as simple as that. And she was willing to pay more for it, and she understands that she has to pay more for it because she’s also experienced.

So for me, like, huh, it’s not that sometimes having a upsells, upgrade offers feels like you’re Scrooge McDuck, like you’re trying to squeeze everything. But that also comes from perception, right? The way I look at it now, my only job is to put an offer, an offer for help in front of them. It is up to them to get it or not.

So it’s not like if I put them out there, they’re forced to do it. So because there are folks who are, “Hey, I need more help I need this to be more private. And I realize that lots of the folks who are, say, bigger players or who have more serious business wants to be more private, wants to be more quiet.

And it’s just a matter of making that option available, not ramming it down their throats, but if somebody asks, it’s there. And that could help build the community because people can see what they’re doing, how you help them. They might want to get more of your personalized help. So for me, that’s… I came looking at it from a selfish point of view, that, hey, I don’t want to come off as, like, loving money, but everyone loves money.

That’s not the question. It’s really about, hey, I just want to help. I just want to make this available. And that would have made the community so much more solid.

Liz Wilcox: I love this. I always say customers create community because the customers, they invest, right? So they’re showing up to the calls, they’re coming to the one-on-ones, they’re making time for it.

They see results, especially if they’re spending a little more money, they’re definitely putting in the work. They’re definitely gonna take advantage of all the insight that Allan can give them, and when, when they see results, they share with their friends. Especially if I’m working with Allan one-on-one, I’m spending a little more money, I’m gonna tell people, “Hey, I actually started in his membership, but I, I wanted more and I upgraded, and now I’m really exploding.”

So people often say, “Oh well, you know, I’m, I’m gonna build the audience and then the customers will come.” But I think you’ve got to be a little more intentional, and sometimes can truly create the customer to create the community. So I, I love, love, love that you brought that up. So I wanna wrap up, but I wanna ask you, ’cause I think this episode, I know we kind of went in two different directions, but I’m just really excited because I know we have such an international audience, and I think they’re gonna be so, like, jazzed and inspired and ready to rock.

But I’d love to hear, what do you think your secret to success has been?

Allan Ngo: Hmm. It’s a great question. Two things. I would say, first, i- in terms of how I approach business with, with my clients, you know how in, in medicine they have cardiologists for the heart, urolog- urologists for the brain. There’s this branch, it’s called, like, family medicine, and with family medicine, they don’t just focus on the complaints, but they also look at the whole life.

Like, they check in how, who cooks at home, who takes care of the kids. It’s basing, it’s looking at the life holistically. Like the real life, not the ideal one. And I would akin what I do to family medicine. Like if I would ask them, “Hey, this is your goal. How does life look like with you? Like, are you willing to work with clients one-on-one? Do you just want to sell digital products? Do you have capacity to do this and that?” That way I look at it more holistically because what I do, one of our mantras is build the business around your life, not the other way around. And I know like over the years, I noticed like a lot of people are using that, and I feel like for…

I look at it holistically and my committee’s called like Effortless Earners, and the idea there is like when I work with people, I ask them, they have this complicated plan, and I would ask them, “Hey, if you reach your goal doing this one plan, can you just scrap plan funnel two and three, and this funnel one is your entire business?”

And their eyes would light up. It’s because that frees up their time, their life, and the business applies there. That’s one thing I feel has helped me with my clients because I’m not just prescribing medicine It’s just, hey, let’s look what’s really possible with your actual situation.

And second, perhaps this is more personal, it’s knowing how to forgive myself.

Like, even going international, like, I procrastinated year on year on year on year,

And now that I’m getting traction, I could have easily blamed my past self, “Hey, you could have done, done this earlier when it was easier, when before it was AI.” But at the same time, I’m also the person who would understand my… i’m 42 now. I would understand what I was going through in 37 or 36 or 38. I know that my self then was doing its best, and I feel by forgiving myself, okay, there’s a reason I’m just doing this now, allows me to propel forward rather than spending dirty energy on the past. Like, there’s a reason. I accept I didn’t do it then.

I couldn’t do anything now, but I forgive myself for that and just move on, moving forward. And I think that helps me, that helps me let go of the drama and just move forward and focus on the present.

Liz Wilcox: Oh, my goodness. Okay, so for the second time, I have teared up on this show in one episode. Allan, you are just such, you’re just such an inspiration and such a grounded and well-rounded soul.

I feel so blessed to bring you to our community here at SPI. And if we want to continue to follow you, to learn more from your amazing energy and wisdom, how can we get signed up with you today?

Allan Ngo: All right. Thank you, Liz. We talked about upsells. I have a gift for everyone. So it’s called, like, Revenue Relay.

So it’s, like, seven messages that you can send to turn one-time buyers into repeat customers. I’ve always wanted to sa- share this. Like, you can get it at DigitalSolopreneur.com/spi. I’ve always had that domain ready whenever I get a chance to guest here, and we’re both here, Liz, so that’s ready for you.

The gift is right there. If you want it, I’d be happy to give it to you.

Liz Wilcox: All right. So you can get that link in the show notes or go directly to  DigitalSolopreneur.com/spi. I am so glad to have you. Thank you so much, Allan.

Allan Ngo: Thank you, Liz. It’s been a pleasure.