Meet Ashley Ono!
Ashley is a physician who is passionate about wellness and spirituality. When she saw the medical landscape changing, she started looking for additional ways to increase her cashflow and she STRUCK GOLD!
Are you constantly worried about your money? Does it ever feel like there’s not enough time to truly dedicate yourself to finding financial independence?
That’s exactly how Ashley felt too, and she is going to share all about it and how she began to realize that her time is MONEY, and she has found so much meaning in doing things she is passionate about.
It was a BLAST talking to Ashley and hearing about her background, passions and journey to become part of the Money Ripples community and see more financial freedom in her life.
THANK YOU for watching!
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TRANSCRIPTS
Speaker 1 (00:00):
When we talk about money and financial freedom, that’s not the end game is it? None of you are here because you want to learn, and
Speaker 2 (00:07):
Everyone at the end doesn’t care about how much stuff they’ve amassed. They really care about the
Speaker 1 (00:31):
Hello, my fellow Ripples. This is Chris Miles, your cashflow expert and anti financianal advisor. This show is for those of you that work so hard for your money and you’re not ready for your money, start working harder for you today. You want that cashflow, that freedom now, not 30 or 40 years from now, but you want that freedom today to do what you love with those that you love. And most importantly, guys, and not just about getting rich, it’s about living a rich life. Because as you are blessed financially, you have a greater capacity to bless the lives of those around you and create that ripple effect. Thank you for allowing me to create that ripple effect today, guys. I appreciate you guys tuning in and binging and sharing. I know it was confusing which YouTube channel to go to. I’m glad that you’re here.
(01:07)
If you’re on YouTube, if you’re listening, well then you don’t know any differently. You’re just listening to the same podcast for you were before, so that’s great too. So thank you for joining us today. You’re brand new also. Welcome. All right. Today I’m bringing on a guests that I’m excited to have on one, not just because she’s a surfer and I just started to learn surfing and fell in love with it and Hawaii a few weeks back. But Ashley Onno, Ashley is actually one of our VIP clients that we’ve been working with. And not to mention, I mean, she’s a physician, she’s been doing amazing things there. She has a real passion for wellness and really got this deep spiritual thing to her as well that I think is so awesome, especially when we talk about abundance and prosperity and things like that. But also I can tell that she has a real giving and caring heart. And so she’s coming on today really to share with you guys about what she’s learning, what she wish she would’ve known. Has she been in your position listening to this episode or this show right now? So Ashley, welcome to our show.
Speaker 2 (02:02):
Yeah, thanks for having me, and thanks. That was a beautiful introduction. Mahalo.
Speaker 1 (02:07):
Well, you’re welcome. So well tell us more about your background. I know we were talking a little bit off the air, but tell us a little bit more about you and how you were raised and what kind of influenced you’d even go in the profession you’re in today.
Speaker 2 (02:19):
Yeah, yeah, yeah. So I was born and raised in Hawaii. I still live here. I think when I was younger, didn’t really know what I wanted to do. I graduated college and was over how hard I had to work. So just decided that I would go and volunteer over in Central America. And when I did that, I got placed in a medical clinic in an indigenous village. And so when I started to do that, I was able to see medicine as a vehicle for healing and not just change, but healing. Not on a physical level, but on all these other levels like emotional and spiritual. And so when I was there, I decided, okay, I think I want to do more of this. Came back to the states, had to go back to college and get some pre-reqs, and then ultimately got into med school and then went on to a career in medicine, which has been very fulfilling.
(03:09)
But I think the way that I found you was medicine in the last probably decade has changed. And so it’s been more difficult, I think, for me to find pockets to express the gifts that I have, not just the intellectual ability to care for the body, but the kind of spiritual and emotional connection that I need to be able to, I dunno if minister is the right word, but to care for someone’s whole self. And so I thought, well, how am I going to do this if I’m always worried about a paycheck? My time is money and how can I free up some of this time so I can really do the things that are meaningful for me? And when I looked investing alternative investments, think to align really well with some of the goals that I had. So I started dabbling here and there in real estate investing.
(04:01)
We had sold our home and bought another one. And as part of that, the money that we made off of that sale purchase, I was able to see, gosh, the appreciation in real estate is huge, and I didn’t do anything. I mean, we fixed up the home the way that we would love to live in it. And really felt like when we were in that home, we were stewards of that space knowing that we weren’t there forever, but we’re going to try and make it as best we could for us and the next person that would have it. And then when it came time to sell it, we passed it on to someone else and got a surplus and we’re able to roll it into the next home that we have. But just that experience of investing in real estate put me on this course to look at how I could use more of real estate to fund my investments and hopefully give me a little more freedom with time and finances.
(04:51)
And so I started listening to a bunch of podcasts, and I think York came up after I listened to passive investing from this field you were on. And I was like, wow, this guy sounds really cool. And you were talking about things like the ripple effect and doing meaningful work and purposeful work and stewardship. And those were concepts that I was not familiar with hearing in the investment space, the alternative investment space. So I started looking to your podcast and then just kind of pulled the trigger and said, I’m going to just, I think I want to work with you folks. And so I met with Craig, and at the time, I had left the job, and so I had a 4 0 1 and didn’t really know what I was supposed to be doing with that. And the concept of using that money and being able to steward that myself was really cool to me.
(05:42)
And so I think of anything, being part of the Ripples community has helped me to know how to advocate for myself better. I think before I had a financial planner, I would just set aside money and let the financial planner just do whatever they wanted, but the more I dug into it, the more I could see, well, I’m paying all these fees and I don’t really know where this money is going. And it didn’t sit well with me. I felt pretty comfortable with you and Craig in my corner to take on that responsibility. We call it, in Hawaii, we call it a kuleana, which is not just the responsibility but a privilege to hold that and just say, well, I have these goals in mind. These are the folks that I like to work with. These are the investments that get me really excited, and can you help me find the right spaces to deploy those assets? So it’s been great.
Speaker 1 (06:36):
Yeah, I love it. So Ashley, there’s a question I was wondering, you said this earlier, you said that the last 10 years things have changed in kind of the medical community. What do you mean by that? What changed for you that kind of got you to question your path?
Speaker 2 (06:51):
Yeah. Oh boy. Medicine’s changed a whole lot. I mean, we had Covid, right? That was a huge change. So for me, before physicians, it was as if physicians had their own businesses. They had a lot of agency and choice in how they work, who they saw, how their practices evolved. But in the last 10 years, most physicians now are employed. So you’re a W2 and as a W2, you’re employed. You have an employer that will tell you when you have to work, how many patients you should see, and then you have insurance companies that frequently dictate how those patients should be cared for. To have the space and freedom to operate in a way that feels more authentic to myself, I think is what pushed me to look for another option. And I don’t think I’m alone in medicine. We have a huge problem with burnout for physicians, and many people are looking for ways to continue to do meaningful work. By no means is my pursuit of financial freedom and time freedom a way for me to get away from medicine altogether. I just want the opportunity and the choice for how and when I practice, and I can’t do that if I’m kind of tethered to the job as my only means of support and income.
Speaker 1 (08:17):
Yeah. I bet you a lot of people can relate to that, not even the ones that aren’t even medical field, still feeling that tetheredness, if that’s a word. Right? Really feeling tethered to that job or that career feeling like, well, this is just what I have to do, but I would really love to do more of this passion project versus just doing this. What for me feels more vanilla sometimes, right?
Speaker 2 (08:39):
Yep, that’s right.
Speaker 1 (08:40):
What do you feel like it really is that passion for you, or even what you feel like you put on this earth to do? What is that for you?
Speaker 2 (08:49):
Yeah, I think part of what I feel my gifts are to be able to participate in community and community can look like the geographical community that I’m in, in my hometown and my state of Hawaii. It can be also the communities that I function in as a profession, so the medical community or even communities like ripples. I feel like part of what I have as a gift is to bring people together and to have discussions that are sometimes difficult to engage in, but to do so in a way that’s kind and safe and brave for people to express anything that they’re thinking about. It can be a complex topic, controversial topic, and that we’ll have these moments to connect in very authentic ways that will strengthen assess communities, because I think that’s missing today. In today’s world, just with the way that we communicate on social media does not always acknowledge that there are complicated topics that we should talk about, but social media allows it so that we can hide behind a screen, and so we don’t always know how to engage with each other. So that’s what I think part of my gift is. I do that in medicine when I see patients, and I try and do that in community work, no matter what that community looks like, but to be able to hold that space so that we can have these conversations and ultimately grow and get stronger as people, not just as individuals.
Speaker 1 (10:19):
I love it. If there’s one thing you could change about your field, what would it be?
Speaker 2 (10:24):
Identifying one thing is so difficult. I think the one thing that I would hope is that we could honor each other and who we are, and that we don’t have to be fearful about how we treat each other. Fear in a lot of medicine, fear, I think drives many decisions that you have. And just as a physician, the fear of being sued, the fear of making a bad decision, sometimes that colors the rest of the decisions that you make throughout your interaction with a patient or a colleague or nursing staff. And so if there was one thing that I wish I could improve was to dampen that fear and have it be kind of overcome by this kindness and compassion and to let that guide every decision that we have. I think if we did that one, we would have a much healthier society and community, and we would probably have a society that thrives rather than a medical community and a healthcare sector that is just really suffering right now.
Speaker 1 (11:28):
Instead of do no harm, it’s like, do well, right?
Speaker 2 (11:32):
Yeah. Great. Yeah. Focus on the opportunity rather than the deficit, I would say.
Speaker 1 (11:38):
Yeah. And that transition, this back towards money and investing, you gave some really good advice to one of our members on our online forum for our VIP clients. And you mentioned something just like this. You mentioned about really you don’t want to have that fear. For example, in the medical field, the fear of always being sued. Often when we have that fear, we tend to attract the very thing that we fear the most, kind of like playing to win versus playing to not lose. Tell us more about that. How has that helped you? Maybe not just professionally, but also investing in money career as well?
Speaker 2 (12:13):
Yeah. No, I think it translates to so many different parts of my life, professionally, personally, financially, I think in medicine, we’re conditioned to look at the risk and to look at the downside, all the bad things that can happen. And so for me, it was difficult to not let that color my personal life or even my finances. I think it’s a daily practice for me to focus not on the fear, but on the opportunity to focus on rather than what I don’t, not focusing on what I don’t have, but focusing on what I have and looking at them as gifts. And when I do that in the investment side, and I look at what I’m already positioned as, I’m already in a very strong position. I have so much to offer. And so to look at it that way rather than, well, I don’t have this much, but I hope I’m going to get this much that I can retire and I can get out of this rat race that doesn’t serve me well, and I can only speak for myself, but when I get into those mindsets, I feel like I’m always chasing and hustling, and I can never just be present.
(13:22)
And so if I focus on what I have right now, it brings me back to the present, helps me feel gratitude, and then from that mindset of being calm and grateful, I can make I think much better decisions on how to invest into my future. So that’s a daily practice that I try to do, not just just for finances, but for everything.
Speaker 1 (13:45):
I love that. Anybody who watched that, the previous podcast episode, that was part three of the stewardship series that I did there just a few months back. Yeah, tie those together, what she just said, tying that together because it really is about having that abundance mindset and focusing on really what you have and what’s going on in the present versus always worrying about the future. Or even worse. I see a lot of people regretting the past mistakes, and sometimes they’ll hold themselves hostage to those past mistakes and never really move forward, and they’ll never trust themselves, and they never really get themselves out of their own rat race because they’re stuck in the past.
Speaker 2 (14:22):
Yeah. It’s really easy for me to do that too. I think when I get into that space of questioning what’s happened in the past, I always have to remind myself, you did the best you could with the resources that you had at that time. That was the best. You’re not going to be perfect. And so if you gave it your best, hey, that’s all that I can ask for personally when I do anything is if you gave it your best, that’s it. Keep moving.
Speaker 1 (14:50):
And if you from it, obviously you’re not the same person today that you were then when that happened anyways, right?
Speaker 2 (14:55):
Yep, yep. One thing in medicine that I realized was that I’m scared to fail. I don’t want to be like that anymore. It doesn’t mean I’m going to go out and make rash decisions, but if I fail, that is a learning opportunity I’ve had to reframe that in my head is that whatever failure it is, I’ll always be learning from it and modifying and honing my craft or my skill.
Speaker 1 (15:23):
I love that. Well, actually, let me ask you this question. Like you said, I mean, it was actually about a year ago. You were listening to our podcast, and obviously I assume you still are, hopefully you’re like, ah, I got enough of Chris. He sucks. But as you’ve been learning over this last year as you worked with Craig and things like that, what is something that you known now that you wish you knew beforehand?
Speaker 2 (15:48):
I wish I would’ve known that I don’t have to do it all alone. Sometimes finances, it can be difficult because you start talking about money with certain people and they will give you all this advice, and then you don’t know what is good advice and with bad advice. And so I wish that I knew that there was a community that would be open to conversation and open to giving me options, but not necessarily pushing me like, well, you got to invest in Bitcoin and this is the latest, greatest thing you got to do. But to have a community that could listen to what my goals were and then help me find things that would align and then ultimately leave it up to me to pursue a relationship with the operator or this particular investment to do some due diligence on it, and then one, support me, and then two, hold me accountable to like, Hey, did you make a decision? Hey, how are you doing with all these things that you said were important to you? And I think that’s been key is just learning and then ultimately taking action.
Speaker 1 (16:50):
And it really sounds like having that not doing it alone really is a big thing for you, huh?
Speaker 2 (16:56):
Yeah. Yeah. Because this is a space where it’s not mainstream yet. I tell people what I’ve done and they are so surprised when I say, well, I rolled my 401k into self-directed, and I have all these other investments, and they look at me, how do you even know what to invest in? I’m like, well, I got a great team of people behind me that are giving me good counsel. And then I look at it and I decide aside. But having folks that, like you and Craig have already had established relationships with operators, and that’s been key. I mean, there’s so many operators that are out there and sometimes they just don’t know. You can’t tell off of a Facebook ad how good and reliable they are. So it’s great to have you and Craig to say these are relationships that we’ve cultivated over years that we trust.
Speaker 1 (17:47):
That’s true. The ones that have usually the bigger Facebook ads are usually the ones that are the biggest charlatans too. They might be the ones you watch out for the most.
Speaker 2 (17:55):
Right, right.
Speaker 1 (17:56):
What was that transition like? You mentioned some of your colleagues that were like, how do you even know how to do that? I mean, for you, was it a mindset shift? Was it just more education? What was it that helped you really get that courage and the ability to even do something where some of those people might think, how would you even know? How were you able to bridge that gap or overcome that space of fear?
Speaker 2 (18:22):
So part of it was education and enrolling in some courses, reading books. And then I think before it was part of Money Ripple. I just said, don’t let perfection be the obstacle of progress. You’re going to have to do it. You’re going to have to take some action. And so I just started with Baby Steps and started investing small amounts of money and saying, okay, well, I’m going to just take this leap and I’ll do this. And it helped me get comfortable with doing more of that. So it just kind of gave me more confidence like, ah, just keep going, keep going. And then once I met you and Craig, it was like, well, yeah, now I’m ready.
Speaker 1 (19:04):
Yeah, I love that. I am sure there’s a lot of people that probably relate to that saying, I haven’t done that first thing yet. I’m kind of scared. I know there’s other people that have been listening that have done it, but they may or may not have gotten good results doing it too. So that’s a big obstacle for a lot of people is really how do they keep moving forward even though there’s fear. What kind of advice would you give to somebody right now who’s listening? Maybe this is the first time they have been listening, maybe there are like you, just you where you were searching and looking for something more. Right. What advice would you give them?
Speaker 2 (19:38):
I would say don’t get stuck in analysis paralysis. When you feel like you’re just searching for more and more information, even though you already know it, that might be the time to just take action and to find a group or community that can support you and find coaches and other folks that will point you into the right direction. People that have done it already themselves, that can give you their insight and their wisdom, so you don’t have to make a lot of the mistakes on your own.
Speaker 1 (20:09):
Yeah, so true. Okay, last question for you, Ashley. I promise the last one. I keep thinking it’s the last one, but then I just love picking your brain, so it’s kind of fun. But kind of going back to overall wellness. I know you’re big on that. What’s some life advice you would give some people here about that to help them, I don’t know, be happier? I know you’ve worked with patients that are dealt with very serious issues. What is it that maybe insight you’ve gained as you’ve worked with people? What’s something you think could really help people be more well in their lives?
Speaker 2 (20:42):
Yeah. Oh gosh. There’s so much. I think the thing, so from patient care, what I’ve learned is that I’m an adult medicine doctor, and I work predominantly in the hospital, so that means that I take care of people that are really sick. I’ve cared for hundreds of people that have been so sick that their diagnosis, they were in the late stages and their lives were soon going to come to a close, and they were going to enter a next chapter. And everyone at the end doesn’t care about how much stuff they’ve amassed. They really care about the quality of their relationships. They care about whether they were loved, whether they lived well. And so that’s always the thing that I try to remember as the most important thing was what’s the quality of my relationships, not just with people, but the quality of relationship with myself.
(21:37)
How much am I aware of what’s going on up here and does it match up with what’s going on over here? And then how is my relationship to this whole environment? The world in Hawaii, we have this concept of aina, which is land, and that the land is just as animate as a human being, that you have a relationship with land. And in that way, nature will inform who you are and that has the ability to heal. So I would say just as life advice, just look at the quality of your relationships, the quality of your relationship with yourself, with others, and with your environment, with the land or nature, and let that inform, I guess, more learning about where you are in your journey in life and what it is that’s going to make you feel like you’re leaving a meaningful legacy.
Speaker 1 (22:32):
I love it. Ashley, I really appreciate your time today. This has been really enlightening. I’ve really enjoyed our conversation. Thank you so much.
Speaker 2 (22:40):
Yeah, you’re welcome. Thanks for having me.
Speaker 1 (22:42):
Absolutely everybody. I mean, Ashley gave some great advice there, right? I mean, one is don’t live in fear. Take action. Focus on the opportunity, not just the fear of loss, but even better. I think the thing that she’s really mentioned here is that when we talk about money and financial freedom, that’s not the end game, is it? None of you are here because you want to learn how to just have more money, right? Because you’re going to realize it’s never enough. If you’re always focused on just the money, it’s about what you feel it’s going to give you. And what she said was perfect. What’s that quality of life? Who are those relationships? Did you feel loved? Did you feel like you had that purpose here? Right? And are you leaving a legacy where this planet is better than how you came onto it? That my friends, that is exactly what we call a ripple effect. That’s what we’re here to create. So again, guys, that’s my challenge to you, is be willing to take action, faith over fear, action over inaction, and ultimately quality of life over quantity of stuff. Go and make it a wonderful process week. We’ll
Speaker 3 (23:44):
See you later.
Speaker 4 (23:49):
Thank you. Yes. Hey,
Speaker 3 (23:58):
Visit us online@moneyripples.com for more resources to help you fix money leaks and get your money working harder for you. Now.