Eszylfie Taylor
Creating a Balanced Life
Episode 012
Eszylfie Taylor is the founder and president of Taylor Insurance and Financial Services, located in the financial district of Pasadena, California, and serves as a financial advisor to individuals, business owners, and high-net-worth families.
He attended Concordia University on a basketball scholarship and graduated Magna Cum Laude with a Bachelor’s Degree in Business Management.
Prior to founding his own company, he was a standout financial advisor at New York Life, making Chairman’s Council and finishing his career there as the highest-producing advisor in the history of the African-American market.
Early on in his career, Mr. Taylor had a breakthrough that centered on how to improve his market and focus on solving problems, not selling products. Naturally, he built upon this and used his successes and failures as teaching tools that would contribute to the start of The Taylor Method, a sales process for financial advisors.
Mr. Taylor has been a Million Dollar Round Table, Top of the Table producer since 2011, which places him in the top 1% of advisors worldwide. In 2015, he received NAIFA’s Advisor Today Top 4 Under Forty award.
In 2018, he was featured as THE financial advisor in a national LinkedIn commercial campaign called “In it Together.” Through all the success, Eszylfie has continued to contribute to his community. Since 2003, his nonprofit, Future Stars, has been hosting a basketball camp for underserved youth in the community, instilling in them the tools he uses to achieve success: hard work, perseverance, integrity, and sacrifice.
Social Media (Facebook, LinkedIn, Twitter, Instagram): @eszylfietaylor
Office: 1199 E. Walnut, Pasadena CA, 91106
Eszylfie Taylor Takeaways
- Eszylfie grew up as one of the few children of color in an area that was mainly Caucasian.
- He worked hard and used his athletic ability to get him into college.
- Eszylfie went to Concordia University on a basketball scholarship and graduated Magna Cum Laude with a Bachelor’s Degree in Business Management.
- After college, Eszylfie got a job with New York Life and then moved back to San Gabriel Valley.
- In his 30s, Eszylfie had a revelation and realized that he should be living his life more for people and less for things.
- Eszylfie sits on the board and runs charities for March Of Dimes, Children’s Hospital, and the Ronald Macdonald House.
- Eszylfie also started a non-profit called Future Stars, a youth basketball program.
- Scott and Russell recognize a hard worker with a drive, as they share the same qualities. This guest walked the audience through how he made a well-balanced, busy, and rewarding life for himself. His goal is to help people, but it wasn’t always.
- Eszylfie Taylor changed his whole way of thinking in the years working after college, and now he has many responsibilities in the community and is determined to be a positive force in the world.
Eszylfie Taylor Quotes
- “I’m probably the biggest failure you’ve ever had on your show, to be honest. I mean, you name a way to mess up, lose a deal, fall on your face. I’ve done it. Know how I say once, and I learn from it, and I got a little bit better.”
- “ That’s when he asked me the trick question, ‘How much money do you want to make?’ In my mind, I was like, ah, man, I guess if you’re making 100 grand right out of college, you’re doing really well. But I say 100,000. Is he going to laugh at me? I go 50 thousand, and he says, “Okay.”
- “ I stopped in my driveway, and I went ‘uh oh’ because at that moment I realized like I wasn’t happy because I made happiness about stuff, I made happiness about achieving things, and it wasn’t about the engagement. It wasn’t about the depth of relationships for me at that point; it was about stuff and pressing on. I wasn’t enjoying the journey.”
- “Everyone should strive to be the best version of themselves.”
Show Notes
You have so many titles; what title would you give yourself overall?
Eszylfie would give himself the title of a serial entrepreneur. He has 21 years of experience as a financial advisor at New York Life. He’s done many things outside of that career: nightclubs, restaurants, film companies, the list continuum.
Eszylfie got a quote from Bill Walton that inspired him when he was younger. It’s about how many shots you take.
Eszylfie always tries to set ridiculously high goals because he’s not afraid to fail. He enjoys the challenge and wants to make himself stronger.
I suspect that even if you were failing, you felt you were a success.
Eszylfie says, of course, even if he fails, it’s still a successful experience because he put in maximum effort. In elementary school, Eszylfie and his brother were the only students of color in the school.
They were set apart from tier peers and felt a different kind of pressure that made them falter in school—that first semester in school, Eszylfie expected to be chewed out by his mother because of his poor grades.
Instead, his mother offered him this, which was Eszylfie’s best effort, and then she was not mad. That stuck with him because he realized he always needed to give his total effort.
Many people who crack in life get too much pressure from their parents, and Eszylfie feels like his parents gave him the right amount. A lot from his dad and not quite as much from his mom.
And that way of growing up led to this mentality that when one door closes, another opens, and what comes next will suit you better or be a better opportunity.
Bravo approached Eszylfie to be in a program they were making about African-American business owners. They said he would be perfect, except for one thing. They asked him to change a considerable element of himself.
They wanted him to scream and shout more. Eszylfie said no flat out. He didn’t want to put that kind of energy into the world. Eszylfie operates with positivity; if they did not want to show him in that light, he was out.
The following month, Eszylfie was chosen to be featured by LinkedIn for a national commercial about making worldwide positive connections.
However, this led Eszylfie to start to independently start his program, Mind, Body, Money, which focused more on positivity.
What did you do after high school?
Eszylfie was a very athletic kid in High School. Eszylfie went to college in Oklahoma on a basketball scholarship. He was persuaded to come by a former coach recruiting for the team.
Eszylfie went to Oklahoma City University for one year and was part of a national championship team. He then went to San Antonio College and played basketball for them.
After that, he then bounced up to Portland Oregon to Concordia University on a basketball scholarship. Eszylfie graduated Magna Cum Laude with a Bachelor’s Degree in Business Management.
After Eszylfie graduated from Concordia, he went right to finding a job. His professor set him up with an interview with MoneyMutual of New York. He got hired, and Eszylfie was young and naive and said yes.
But before Eszylfie started, his manager took him around to meet some of the other firms in the area to get to know the industry.
That’s when he brought other offers, and New York Life poached him because the manager that had taken him around was talking behind the other firm’s back.
After starting this job in Portland, Eszylfie decided he wanted to come back to the SGV area.
You do other things in the community; can you talk a little about that?
Eszylfie started a non-profit youth basketball camp called Future Starts. Roughly 15 years ago, a charity component for this non-profit.
Eszylfie hosts a golf tournament to pay for the scholarship for his camp. He also started the Eric Tracy scholarship fund and has now started a gala to raise money for his camp and other educational scholarships.
Eszylfie is a rotarian for Pasadena. He also sits on several boards, and some notable ones are the March Of Dimes, Children’s Hospital, and the Ronald McDonald House.
What did you bring in today?
Eszylfie brought in his book that he was a part of.
Ask The Experts is important to him because it talks about. The book is a collaboration between many brilliant and talented people.
It represents that he doesn’t know everything; he knows what he knows, but he admits that outside of that, he needs help.
