December 08, 2022

By Kimberly Shelby

Contributing Writer

 

“You must believe,” decorated financial advisor and serial multi-hyphenate Eszylfie Taylor stresses over the phone on a break from shooting his first film in Mexico. His statement is firm, emphatic, and decidedly empathetic. And he isn’t talking about Santa Claus. Although at this time of the year, when so many are gearing up to perform their own versions of the jolly old mythical character, purchasing gifts innumerable for their family, friends and colleagues, Taylor’s advice is particularly apt.

“Those that think they can do something and those who think they cannot do something are both usually right, so you have to manifest, say ‘this is what I want, this is who I will be, this is where I will go,’” he says. Taylor describes here the importance of self-belief, the first of two steps he says are necessary to position oneself on the path toward financial fitness—a coveted state of being all year round, but especially when the holiday season is upon us, and expenses so quickly ramp up.

Step two, he notes, of course, is actively doing the work. He knows something about that, having been recruited to New York Life Insurance Company out of college at age 22 and establishing himself, only three years later, as the number one broker in Los Angeles. Five years later, by age 30, he was in the top 50 in the entire country and number one in the African American market.

Some of Taylor’s signature advice? “Do the hard stuff first.” This maxim extends to any shoppers aiming to navigate the holidays with ease and sagacity. The difficulty seems to be rooted in the discipline required, the forward-thinking.

“If you had to put $10 in your piggy bank today, would that change your life? Would your life suffer?” Taylor poses the question. The answer for many is: likely not.

“If you did that every single day of the year, you’d have $8,000 at the holiday season to spend on gifts,” he continues. “It’s the little things that matter.”

This is a great tip for going forward to start 2023, but what of 2022, the season before us?

Taylor responds plainly: “You have to spend within your means. I’ve got three teenage girls. They’ll want me to [buy] things, and we’ll get into it, and I’ll tell my daughters you can’t be upset about the results you didn’t get from the work you didn’t do. In this life, you will never be given a chance; you have to take chances.”

Another of Taylor’s maxims echoes; it is magnified in context: Believe. Believing one can take those chances is critical.

Taylor believed, he worked. One could say he did “the hard stuff first.” Fruits have followed, chances have acquiesced. Today, while he services a wide range of often high-profile clients across the country, Taylor is also branching out into other industries. He currently stars in the new TV series "Mind. Body. Money.," in which he helps celebrities, sports legends, Fortune 500 companies and his own daughters navigate financial challenges. He has also developed an app of the same name that enables people throughout the world to benefit from the expertise he’s cultivated over 23 years in the world of finance. Additionally, as mentioned, he is acting in a film.

“I like helping people in any number of ways,” he explains. “My mantra at this point is mind-body-money, the total person, positivity mindset. So I’ve got motivational speaking, I’m a certified yoga instructor, and obviously, money—legacy, protection, planning, insurance, investments, the whole person.”

A key piece of Taylor’s offerings is teaching people how these things work. “When you understand and you know better, then you can do better,” he says matter-of-factly. The Pasadena native can relate to navigating unknowns, heady ups, and downs that aren’t part of yoga poses.

“It's not my success that I want to be known for; it's my resilience,” he notes. “I've made money, I've lost money. I've hired people, I’ve fired people. People quit. I’ve taken on clients, I’ve lost clients. All the things you can imagine, I've experienced. I just kept going, kept pushing.”

"Mind. Body. Money." premiered in October and airs Fridays at 7 pm EST (check local listings here).

For more money tips and motivation, download the Mind.Body.Money app or follow Taylor at @eszylfietaylor.

Category: News