[00:17] Tara Bansal: Welcome to her life, her practice, her way.

[00:21] A podcast for and about female financial advisors. Tara I’m Tara Conti Bansal and I’ve been a financial planner and life coach for over 20 years.

[00:32] I want this show to share other women financial advisors journeys, struggles and triumphs.

[00:39] I want to highlight the unique and similar ways to enjoying our life and our practice on our own terms.

[00:46] I hope to build a community of like minded, deeply caring and exceptional female advisors who want to help our clients and ourselves live a life that we love.

[00:59] One that is filled with love,

[01:01] learning, connection, meaning and joy.

[01:04] I hope you listen in.

[01:07] Tara Bansal: Hello, this is Tara Conti Bansal and I’m super excited. I have Elizabeth or I know her

[01:16] Tara Bansal: as Ella Taylor and she.

[01:21] Tara Bansal: You’re getting to know all of my mastermind group. She is part of my mastermind group from Steph Bogan’s Limitless that we all did together.

[01:30] I think it was 2021, maybe 2022. I can’t remember 2022. 2022.

[01:39] And I think the world of all the women that I am lucky enough to be in this group with. And Ella has her own practice. She is a CFP and her firm

[01:53] Tara Bansal: is called Ella Financial Advising.

[01:55] Tara Bansal: She’s out in Oakland. Are you in Oakland? Yep.

[01:59] Ella Taylor: Yeah.

[01:59] Tara Bansal: And I just can’t wait to have her share her wisdom and all of her gifts with us here today.

[02:11] Tara Bansal: So welcome Ella.

[02:14] Ella Taylor: Thank you. I’m so excited to be here.

[02:16] Tara Bansal: Thank you. I always start with my first question, Brene Brown fashion. Like, tell us your story. How did you get to where you are now?

[02:28] Ella Taylor: Oh, man.

[02:31] So I was a pastry chef in a prior lifetime and I went back to school and got my,

[02:42] um, associates in entrepreneurship. I was going to start my own bakery.

[02:47] And then I was, I don’t know, like 24 and living in New Mexico. And I didn’t feel ready to settle down starting a business and I wanted to kind of explore the world.

[02:57] And so I moved to San Francisco and I realized I didn’t love being a pastry chef. And so I went back to school for women’s studies.

[03:09] And yeah, partway through I was like, wait, I don’t actually have any skills to help women. I have all the passion but,

[03:17] you know, skills. And coincidentally at the same time, my grandpa died and I started helping my grandma with her finances.

[03:25] Oh, I loved it. I loved like the being able to help women.

[03:30] It turns out I love financial planning.

[03:35] And while I was in college, I was working for a family and one of their good friends was a financial planner. And so they were like, work with her. See what you think.

[03:43] And,

[03:44] oh, I loved it. I loved it so much. And so I switched majors and became a financial planner.

[03:52] And I started out focusing on primarily just working with women. And the more I got into doing kind of impact investing and sustainable investing,

[04:02] I have always been very passionate about the environment and environmental sustainability.

[04:08] And so when I started my firm, I really dug in, and we specialize in environmentally sustainable investing.

[04:17] I do still work with a lot of women. Like this morning, I talked to a prospect, and she was like, I want to work with the woman advisor. I think, you know, more relational.

[04:26] And so that’s kind of my background.

[04:30] Tara Bansal: Where did you grow up and did you have siblings?

[04:33] Ella Taylor: Yeah, so I grew up in a tiny, tiny town in New Mexico called Tomei, New Mexico.

[04:39] It’s a little farming community, and I have one younger brother, and we were best friends. We grew up, like, riding bikes on the ditches and crawdad fishing and. Oh, it’s so fun.

[04:50] Tara Bansal: Very nice. And did the school you went to had a financial planning, like, major or the.

[05:00] Ella Taylor: Yeah, so I went to San Francisco State, and I was a double major in business and international business,

[05:09] I think, and gender and women’s studies.

[05:14] And then I kind of went off and did the Kaplan CFA program right after that.

[05:20] Tara Bansal: How old were you when you did that?

[05:22] Ella Taylor: Oh, I was late 20s, early 30s, when I, like, shifted. So I was, you know, a career changer.

[05:30] Tara Bansal: How long did you work as a pastry chef?

[05:35] Ella Taylor: Oh, man. Good question. I worked. I did all parts of restaurants. I was a line cook, which I loved.

[05:43] Like, the speed and. Oh, line cook is so fun. I was a waitress,

[05:48] and then I was a pastry chef for maybe five or six years.

[05:53] It wasn’t super long. I started when.

[05:56] Tara Bansal: Five or six years, though, is not insignificant.

[05:58] Ella Taylor: Oh, yeah. Well. And I was so young when I did it. I didn’t want to stop partying. And so I’d stay up really late and then have to be at work at 4 in the morning.

[06:06] And so I just take clean pills like a crazy person. And so,

[06:11] yeah, it was.

[06:12] Tara Bansal: Yeah, pastry. You have to start early, right?

[06:14] Ella Taylor: You have to start so early. And you also just have to have an attention to detail that it turns out I didn’t have.

[06:22] I was not. I. Yeah, to be honest, I was not a great pastry chef. And also,

[06:26] it’s one of those careers where you go into where you’re very passionate and very, like, creative,

[06:31] and then you work for someone else, and they’re like, here’s what you need to make and you can just make whatever creme brulee you want. And you’re like, but that’s not actually a creative.

[06:39] It wasn’t quite what I thought it was going to be. And so now I’m doing it on my own. I can just be creative as I want.

[06:46] Was the.

[06:47] Tara Bansal: Working as the pastry chef, the way you describe it, it wasn’t as creative as you thought it would be?

[06:53] Ella Taylor: No, not at all. It was very much following other people’s recipes.

[07:00] Tara Bansal: Instructions.

[07:01] Ella Taylor: Instructions, yeah, it was very formulaic. Formulaic. And then also working in. Working in kitchens is hard.

[07:10] It’s hard work. It’s very male dominated. I was a young woman working in that environment, which was tricky.

[07:18] And so some places were great and other places were less great. And I realized that I really want to be creative, and that was why I got into it. And it wasn’t a creative.

[07:34] I think if I’d started my own bakery or, you know, if I kept going with it, I could have gotten there, but it just wasn’t what I was looking for.

[07:43] Tara Bansal: So after you got your degree and you did you start working with that family’s?

[07:50] Ella Taylor: I did, yeah. I worked with her for a while. And then, weirdly, I was at a party and I met my mentor.

[08:00] We were talking and I was telling him how I was going to school for financial planning. And he was like, oh, I work at a financial planning firm and we have an extra desk come internal.

[08:09] And it was perfect timing. So it was 2008,

[08:12] which I wouldn’t have been able to get a job.

[08:15] And so I got this perfect internship.

[08:18] The firm was amazing. I learned so much. He’s still. He’s the goddad of my child.

[08:25] Like, you know, so it all worked out. But, yeah, so I ended up working with that company for a while and then left that and started working in financial planning.

[08:37] Tara Bansal: When did you start your own firm?

[08:40] Ella Taylor: Oh, man. So I started my own firm right when the pandemic happened. I’d left my last company and I was gonna travel and hang out. And then Covid happened, the market went down, and luckily I had people who wanted to work with me.

[08:55] And so I called them up and was like,

[08:57] let’s get started. Let’s like, you know, tax law.

[09:00] Start with a bang.

[09:02] And they were scared. I mean, we were all scared, right?

[09:04] Tara Bansal: Yeah. Right.

[09:05] Ella Taylor: And so,

[09:06] yeah, so it was weirdly perfect timing. And then also during COVID people really started to think about, like, what are their values?

[09:15] How do they want to spend their money? And so being a sustainable firm,

[09:21] it was Kind of the perfect time for that, where a lot of people wanted to explore that.

[09:27] I got a lot of my clients who were just really thinking about the world they wanted to build. And Covid was kind of the time to do it.

[09:34] Tara Bansal: Yeah. A motivator for that. Yeah. How long were you at the firm you were at before starting your own?

[09:42] Ella Taylor: So I actually worked at three different firms. I started out working at Brighton Jones, I learned.

[09:51] Tara Bansal: Is that the one you interned at or.

[09:53] Ella Taylor: No, no,

[09:54] the one that I interned at was called Hilltop Advisors. It’s the tiny San Francisco firm. And it was just people and me.

[10:01] Um,

[10:02] and then I went to Brighton Jones, and I really liked them because they did a lot of, like, philanthropy, which I’ve always been interested in.

[10:10] And so I started there and then I left there because I wanted to work with, like, normal people, you know, because they had an investment minimum. Um,

[10:20] and so I worked with Julie Asti, who. To do hourly financial planning. And she’s.

[10:26] She’s still one of my good friends. She’s an amazing financial planner.

[10:30] And then I realized I’m not super into hourly financial planning. Cause I’m more relational. I want, like, you.

[10:35] Tara Bansal: Like the relationship ever long term. Yeah.

[10:38] Ella Taylor: Yeah. And then I worked at a firm that’s no longer here, called Robashote and Philipson. And we did.

[10:44] We worked primarily with gay and lesbian people doing financial planning. And that was such an interesting time because it was when gay marriage was allowed and then repealed and then allowed.

[10:59] And so doing financial planning with people who were married state level, but not federal level and had combined assets. And then it was.

[11:11] It was so much fun to do that financial planning. And we did.

[11:15] We started a social justice fund.

[11:19] Tara Bansal: Wow.

[11:20] Ella Taylor: I worked with them for a while, and then I decided I wanted to start my own firm and really focus on environmental sustainability.

[11:26] Tara Bansal: And what happened to that firm? They just.

[11:31] Ella Taylor: They were acquired by Abacus, another firm.

[11:35] Tara Bansal: Oh, yeah, I’ve heard of that. Because

[11:38] Ella Taylor: at a. CENA Capital. And they have a social justice ETF that they use. Okay. Have made.

[11:47] Tara Bansal: What do you love about being. Doing what you do?

[11:52] Ella Taylor: Oh,

[11:54] everything ends up.

[11:56] Can’t be possible. Ella.

[11:59] No, I. I love working with people. I love it so much. I love learning their lives and who they are, helping them reach their goals,

[12:10] thinking through their goals, getting to know their families.

[12:13] And then the.

[12:15] I worry so much about climate and environmental change. And I worry about it so much. And so being able to do something about it just kind of gives me purpose.

[12:27] Tara Bansal: Yeah.

[12:27] Ella Taylor: Being able to help people meet their goals and support the Environment, like, that’s kind of the dream for Win. Win.

[12:35] Tara Bansal: Yeah.

[12:35] Ella Taylor: Yeah.

[12:37] Tara Bansal: What do you not like about being a financial planner and doing. Having your own firm?

[12:44] Ella Taylor: I guess, like, three things. Maybe one. I had no idea how much I hate email.

[12:50] I just find it daunting. I don’t love email.

[12:54] Um, I didn’t realize how much tech support I would do for myself and other people. I’m not tech savvy, so that.

[13:01] And then compliance. I find compliance a little bit confusing and kind of daunting.

[13:08] So I recently hired a compliance firm to just.

[13:11] Tara Bansal: Yeah, that was my question is how much of that now have you outsourced?

[13:16] Ella Taylor: Um,

[13:17] I realize I have deep money scarcity issues,

[13:23] and so it’s so hard for me to spend money, and I’m just coming into limitless. Actually really helped with,

[13:32] like, you can actually make more money if you outsource compliance, bookkeeping, all these things. I’m like, well, I can do it. Why wouldn’t I do it? Right? But then I spend my time doing that and not building the firm, not doing, like, the things I’m best at.

[13:45] And so,

[13:46] yeah,

[13:48] I’ve outsourced a fair amount. And this year I feel like I’m,

[13:53] I don’t know, having like, a rebirth of, like, now my daughter’s a little older, and so I want to grow the firm. And so hence, like,

[14:01] getting compliance really in order. I hired a marketing person. I’m really looking forward.

[14:07] Tara Bansal: I’d love to hear more. Like, what. What are you doing with the marketing person? And what.

[14:13] Ella Taylor: Oh, I’m so excited. So my ultimate goal is to get as much assets in the world to be sustainably invested through, like, impact investing, systemic investing,

[14:27] shareholder engagement, kind of all those things. And so I’ve hired a marketing person. We’re doing, like, education,

[14:33] we’re doing events,

[14:35] like webinars.

[14:36] Tara Bansal: Is that what you mean by education?

[14:38] Ella Taylor: Or where I really want to do in person stuff. But some people don’t really live in the Bay Area anymore that we might be doing webinars.

[14:47] We’re still working it out because I had all these ideas. I was like, I’m going to do circles.

[14:53] And then I hired her and she was like, what’s the goal of the circle? And I was like,

[14:57] really? No idea. I just want to like being together.

[15:01] Tara Bansal: That, yes, I like talking to women.

[15:04] Ella Taylor: I like talking to people who are into the sustainability and environment.

[15:08] And I also.

[15:10] I’m sure I told you about this, Tara, but, like, last year I joined this group called the Explorers Club, and they’re like, A European investment group.

[15:21] And so we’re exploring systemic investing, how to help clients do systemic investing. Like, what does that look like? Right. And so some of it is explain

[15:35] Tara Bansal: what systemic investing even is for those of us.

[15:38] Ella Taylor: That’s what I was just gonna do. I was like, oh, wait, I’m getting too deep in the wrong area. So.

[15:42] Tara Bansal: But I. I wanna hear.

[15:44] Ella Taylor: Yeah, it’s so.

[15:46] It’s so fascinating. So I’d been doing impact investing, and I felt like,

[15:49] pretty strong in what I was doing. And then they were like, oh, systemic investing. And I was like, wait, what? I’ve never heard of this. I don’t know what it is.

[15:57] And really, it’s like kind of the next iteration of impact investing. And so it’s kind of two parts. I think so far.

[16:06] It’s looking at a system that’s already set up. Right. So an example is like,

[16:13] electric cars.

[16:16] So what areas can you invest in to transition from,

[16:23] like, fuel cars to electric cars? And is that like investing in battery technology,

[16:30] electric car companies, but then taking it a step further,

[16:33] investing in, like, the infrastructure, utility companies,

[16:39] the societal, like marketing. Right. And then also kind of the government side of it, just kind of all of that. Looking at a system and thinking as you’re investing, not just investing in the electric cars, but investing in kind of the system as a whole.

[16:55] And how do we transition to a new system?

[16:57] So that’s one way, but then the other way is thinking about a lot of our current systems just aren’t working for where we want to go.

[17:08] Right. I was talking to a friend yesterday, like, even if we transitioned everything to renewable energy, we all drove electric cars.

[17:16] Is that the society we want? Is that what we want?

[17:19] And so part of it is thinking about, like, what is the world that we want and where should we be investing or doing policy change or philanthropy or like, they call it Poly Capital.

[17:30] And so it’s basically using like, financial capital,

[17:35] social capital, cultural capital, all the. All the capitals that we have available to us to think about, like, where do we want to go and how do we get there?

[17:43] And then doing that in community,

[17:44] because we can’t.

[17:45] I can’t just do it myself.

[17:48] And so working with others to create community and how to do that.

[17:53] Very cool.

[17:55] Tara Bansal: And this group, how did you find them and can anyone join?

[18:03] Ella Taylor: So I found them through.

[18:06] I did a class at the.

[18:09] In Zurich at the Zurich University for. They have one of the, like, largest sustainable finance programs. And,

[18:16] um, I’m starting a family office.

[18:19] And so we went and did this class called High Impact family offices. And it’s about how to do really high impact investing in a family office. Okay. I met this woman there named Astrid who’s like,

[18:32] she just is amazing. She’s so amazing. And so she had a family office in Belgium. She helps family offices get set up.

[18:41] She helps government do sustainable investing.

[18:44] She. And so she started this group called the Impact Collective. And the Explorers Club is a little part of the Impact Collective.

[18:53] And right now it’s only. I wouldn’t say it’s like, 13 people, and they’re talking about how to grow it, what that looks like.

[19:02] But right now it’s just us doing impact investing together, learning, creating this, like, handbook to provide to people. The first, like, three chapters are already out. We’re working on the fourth chapter.

[19:14] And so that’s cool, too,

[19:18] right?

[19:18] Yeah. So everyone should look up the handbook through the Impact Collective.

[19:22] Tara Bansal: All right. And you’re helping write that?

[19:26] Ella Taylor: They’re writing it and we’re giving feedback. Okay, that sounds great.

[19:32] Tara Bansal: What, going back to. What do you.

[19:38] Ella Taylor: You.

[19:39] Tara Bansal: What else are you outsourcing?

[19:41] Ella Taylor: Oh, man, I’m outsourcing. Marketing, compliance, bookkeeping. I have an operations manager in my firm named Aaron, who’s. You’ve heard me wax on about Aaron. I think she’s amazing.

[19:56] Tara Bansal: You adore her. Yes.

[19:57] Ella Taylor: Aaron does everything.

[20:00] When we started the firm,

[20:02] I hired her before I was making any money because I knew how amazing she was, and that was the direction I wanted to go. And so did she work at one

[20:10] Tara Bansal: of your other firms or how did you.

[20:12] Ella Taylor: She was my assistant at my last,

[20:14] and she was leaving. And so, yeah, so I called her up and I was like, I am starting this, and here’s my vision.

[20:24] Will you join me if I get other people to hire you to help, you know, sustain your Bridge the gap?

[20:31] Tara Bansal: Yeah.

[20:32] Ella Taylor: Yep. And so a few of my friends were also looking for an assistant. And so she works with a few of my friends and me and a bunch of other people.

[20:40] She’s a powerhouse. And so she does all the internal stuff. So she does all, like, the paperwork, onboarding,

[20:48] scheduling, all of that stuff. And I do all external client facing. I create the client portfolios. I do the trading, I do the networking, the planning, the meetings, all that stuff.

[21:03] Tara Bansal: How did you feel when you started your practice?

[21:08] Ella Taylor: Wildly.

[21:10] I thought I was going to be terrified. I thought I would have all these, like, anxieties. And weirdly, I felt very abundant.

[21:21] And I realized I love marketing. I love.

[21:25] Tara Bansal: There comes the creativity. Right. Like, when I think of you, I think of ideas. You just have so many ideas, which,

[21:33] Ella Taylor: for better or worse, you know.

[21:35] Tara Bansal: Well, most strengths are weakness at, you know, and situations too. Yeah.

[21:41] Ella Taylor: I realized that I can grow a practice in a way that I really want to grow and that I have a vision that other people want to be a part of.

[21:53] Tara Bansal: Right.

[21:53] Ella Taylor: And I love being in community. I love supporting people. I love working with people. And so it’s super fun to do marketing, talk to prospective clients, talk to client. Like, grow all of this together.

[22:06] It’s so.

[22:08] It’s so fun. And so I thought I would be scared. And weirdly, I am the exact opposite. I had this weird, not weird, but, like, unknown confidence inside of me that.

[22:19] That came out.

[22:20] Tara Bansal: Well, I was talking to someone that I was getting to interview you today, and. And I was.

[22:27] And you come across to me as very confident. And so even.

[22:35] Even hearing you,

[22:37] like, I would never have said you had a scarcity mindset at all, because I feel like you,

[22:45] I don’t know, exude this passion and confidence, and I feel like just your energy attracts people to want to work with you.

[22:55] Did your.

[22:56] Would you say your firm has grown the way you wanted it to?

[23:02] Quicker, slower,

[23:05] more work?

[23:07] Ella Taylor: It’s grown significantly quicker than I thought it would.

[23:11] I think,

[23:12] like, we were talking about kind of. The timing was really good with people thinking about wanting to support the environment,

[23:19] all the problems that precipitated Covid. Right. Like, that made it possible. People really wanted to do something with their money.

[23:33] Being able to feel so passionate about it and be really clear in what I’m doing. I was talking to another financial planner yesterday, and she was like, I went on your website, and you’re so clear in who you work with, what you do,

[23:49] that I think it makes it easy for a prospect to be like, oh, yeah, I should work with you, or some people are very repelled.

[23:55] Tara Bansal: Yeah, right.

[23:56] Ella Taylor: Like, I talked to.

[23:57] Tara Bansal: But that makes it easier.

[23:58] Ella Taylor: It makes it easier.

[23:59] Tara Bansal: Yeah. Yeah. So describe who you do want to work with and who’s your ideal clients.

[24:07] Ella Taylor: Oh, man. My ideal clients are people who are very passionate about supporting people on the planet who want a partner in doing that and then ideally, who have enough money that we can do stock market investing, like shareholder investing, and, you know, all of that, but then also do impact investing and do philanthropy and all kind of the really fun things that we do because we do a lot of impact investing.

[24:43] We do. I have a philanthropic consultant on staff, and so we come up with how much they can give away, and then it’s so much fun to think about where does that money go, what do you do with it before you give it away?

[24:59] What impact investments can we be invested in? And so someone who wants to do all of that and has the resources to do that are my.

[25:08] I’m realizing, are my people.

[25:10] Tara Bansal: Do you still focus on women?

[25:15] Ella Taylor: That’s a great question.

[25:22] I don’t know that I do do. I was getting ready to talk to you, actually. Like, the Epstein stuff.

[25:31] I’ve been so upset about it. Like, raising a daughter and thinking about all these men who for, like, 30 years have gotten away with harming all of these women. Like, every page in that document is hurting a woman.

[25:47] Like, it’s just. I can’t.

[25:49] I can’t get past it.

[25:53] And so thinking about the investing that I’m doing, like, when I start to feel that way and that, like, powerlessness and the, like,

[26:01] just the devastation I have to come back to, like, what can I do?

[26:07] How can I make a difference, make a change and not just be angry and retreat, which is what I want to do. Yeah.

[26:15] And so I’ve been actually thinking a lot about that and how to support women in being.

[26:28] Being financially stable, being financially secure,

[26:33] supporting women’s organizations through philanthropy and investing.

[26:39] I’m still,

[26:40] like. It’s still mulling in my brain because we really are like an environmental thing. First company.

[26:48] But supporting women,

[26:54] I. I realized a few years ago, supporting people supports the planet.

[26:59] Right. And if women are being harmed,

[27:03] they can’t be thinking about supporting environmental change. You know what I mean? Or, like, you know, not to just simplify it down to that, but supporting women is. Supporting the environment is.

[27:13] Supporting the planet is. It’s a whole ecosystem. And so trying to. About ways to not just be angry and upset, but how to.

[27:24] You vote with your dollar. And so how to help women feel empowered and hopefully stop things like this from perpetuating. I can’t imagine a world where my daughter grows up and this is okay.

[27:38] I just can’t do it.

[27:40] Tara Bansal: So what actions can you take? And you’re doing it.

[27:45] Ella Taylor: Yep. Yep. That’s what I’ve been thinking about. And how to support clients and other people and organizations and how to do that.

[27:54] Tara Bansal: What.

[27:55] Tara Bansal: What is the. What did you call it? A philanthropic.

[27:59] Ella Taylor: A philanthropic consultant. Yeah.

[28:01] Tara Bansal: What do they do?

[28:03] Ella Taylor: Oh, yeah. She’s so cool. So what she does is she helped her family foundation get clarity around kind of each person’s role, each person, how they give.

[28:16] Um, and so what she does with our clients is educates them on giving one time versus giving over time,

[28:25] you know, kind of how to make the most change.

[28:28] She helps them clarify which organizations will actually make change.

[28:36] Right. Because there’s a difference between, like, an example that they talked about a lot in that class that I went to in Zurich is everyone wants to build the school in Africa, right?

[28:46] Like, that’s such a sexy thing to do. It like a party. You’re like, I built a school for girls in Africa. Right? Like, that sounds amazing.

[28:53] But is that why people in Africa can’t go to school? Or is it because illness?

[28:59] Right. And so is it like giving vaccines for malaria allows them to go to school? And there are enough schools. Right. And so it’s really looking at what’s the root cause and not just, like, what sounds good and feels good to do.

[29:14] And so part of her role is to really clarify what is the change that you want to make and then researching how to do that and what organizations are actually doing that.

[29:27] Tara Bansal: That’s cool, because I think I know for myself, like, it’s easy to go into overwhelm of, like,

[29:34] how to choose. And then you feel like, you know,

[29:39] you said you vote with your dollar, but you want,

[29:42] like, whatever you give to. To do the right thing and make the difference you want it to. And so that’s. That’s interesting. That’s because I do feel like so many of us go into overwhelm of, like, I don’t know, what’s the best pick, you know?

[29:58] Ella Taylor: Well, also. And then how do you choose which value to support or. You know what I mean? Like, that is hard, too, about environment, women, you know what I mean? Like, how.

[30:11] And at some point you’re spread too thin.

[30:13] And so how. What’s the intersection of where those things meet, possibly.

[30:18] Yeah.

[30:18] Where to give, which organization’s actually doing what you want them to do.

[30:25] So,

[30:25] yeah, so that’s what we do. And so part of the planning is figuring out how much can you give? What does that look like?

[30:32] And then working with her to figure out which organizations to give to.

[30:36] Very cool. To make the most impact. Yeah, that’s fun. She’s really cool. Yeah. It’s so fun to be in those meetings.

[30:42] Tara Bansal: Can I. How do the clients pay her? Separate or she’s, like, paid by you? How does it work?

[30:51] Ella Taylor: It’s a part of the planning.

[30:53] Tara Bansal: It’s.

[30:54] Ella Taylor: So it’s interesting being on a lot of financial planning forums because everyone talks about, like, maximizing the money you can make and charging on dafts and charging on all these different things.

[31:05] And I’m like, my ultimate goal is to make change in the World. And so having the, like, the coaching and the philanthropic consulting and all of that wrapped up into the fees that we pay, I think is the way to get.

[31:19] Tara Bansal: It’s the model. You’re doing it.

[31:20] Ella Taylor: It’s the model, and it’s, I think, the way to make the most change, which is my goal. Great. So, yeah, it’s all included. That’s.

[31:30] Tara Bansal: That’s helpful.

[31:31] Ella Taylor: What.

[31:32] Tara Bansal: What surprised you about doing what you do?

[31:38] Ella Taylor: Oh, good.

[31:42] I think how much I love it.

[31:45] I didn’t.

[31:47] I grew up, like, you know, my mom was a hippie, and she.

[31:51] When I told her I wanted to go into financial planning, she was not a fan. Right. And I was a.

[31:59] I still am, like, a member of the lesbian community. Right. And it’s not traditionally mainstream financial planning. Right. It’s not necessarily what we’re doing. And I was like, but someone has to be on the inside doing the good work.

[32:15] Um, and so I’m surprised by how much I love the planning and talking about money. And then actually, the one that really surprised me. I love doing investments. When I got into the business, I thought it was so daunting.

[32:28] I love it. I love it.

[32:30] Tara Bansal: So you do the investments for your clients. You don’t outsource that.

[32:34] Ella Taylor: Mm. Mm. I do the research. I meet with the fund managers. I do the compliance.

[32:42] I create the models.

[32:44] I mean, I have a network that I reach out to because I get stuck in my own head. But,

[32:50] yeah, I do all of it, and I love it. I find it so fun talking about the economy and markets. Who knew that was so fun and fascinating?

[32:58] Tara Bansal: Well, so, like, that is not my jam at all. I love the people relationship and planning side. More so.

[33:07] And I’m happy to have someone else do the investments, but I do feel like,

[33:12] I don’t know, some people are all in on investments, and then they don’t usually do any planning. But then there’s people like you that love both and want to do both.

[33:22] Ella Taylor: Yeah. I think if it wasn’t, like, environmental focused. Right. Like, we weren’t focusing on sustainability and shareholder engagement and all of that stuff, I wouldn’t be super into the investments.

[33:33] But because.

[33:33] Tara Bansal: Because of that unique focus that makes it. Yeah. Okay.

[33:37] Ella Taylor: Yeah. I feel like we’re really making change, and it’s fun to look at which funds are more sustainable, which ones are doing what. I just love it.

[33:47] Mm.

[33:48] Yeah. That’s very cool.

[33:51] Tara Bansal: How are you designing your life and practice in a way that feels truly aligned for you?

[34:03] Ella Taylor: I think becoming a mom shifted all of that in ways I Didn’t expect at all. Yeah. I thought, like, starting the firm in Covid. I just worked all the time. I was like, well,

[34:16] I would either be walking and listening to, like, audiobooks or working.

[34:20] And we’re watching Married at First Sight with my wife and, like, hanging out. That was, like, what we did.

[34:26] Tara Bansal: Um, and so why did you sign up for Limitless?

[34:30] Ella Taylor: Well, so that was. The thing is, I had a good friend who.

[34:34] Another financial planner who did Limitless,

[34:37] and she was working herself to death. Like, things just. She wasn’t super happy. She did Limitless, and.

[34:44] Oh, my God, it shifted, right? And her firm was set up really well. She was thriving. She had time to do her own things. And so thinking about starting a family,

[34:55] I really wanted to have a company that could grow and wouldn’t, like, would be able to. Exactly. Like you said, would be able to kind of grow with my life.

[35:09] And so,

[35:10] um, I did Limitless. I started.

[35:12] Who knew I was gonna get pregnant so quick? But, like, I started Limitless, and then I got pregnant, and, yeah, was pregnant through Limitless, and so it was kind of perfect timing.

[35:22] But then I thought I’d just come right back to work and work my little heart out and then have a kid. And it turns out that’s not how it works at all.

[35:32] I had a giant shift where I really just wanna hang out with my daughter. She’s so fun. She’s so cool.

[35:40] I don’t want to miss a minute of it. And so I quit taking clients for three,

[35:46] two and a half years.

[35:48] Something like that.

[35:48] Tara Bansal: I want you to share that, like, after you had Mabel,

[35:54] what you did,

[35:55] like, one. I’d love you if you’re willing, like, share what your plan was like when you were pregnant, what you thought you

[36:02] Ella Taylor: were going to do, what I thought it was going to be. Yeah.

[36:05] Tara Bansal: And then what you ended up doing. And then now what you’re trying to do or how it is.

[36:10] Ella Taylor: Okay.

[36:11] Yeah. So when I was pregnant, I thought that I would just get it set up. I’d do surge meetings, and I’d still work, and I’d still just grow this firm, and I’d work.

[36:24] I only work four days a week. I take Wednesdays off.

[36:27] And so I would just continue working four days a week. My wife would watch our daughter, and I would come home and it would be lovely. And.

[36:37] And then I got pregnant. And to be fair, I had the roughest. I was. I’ve never been more sick in my life. I had morning sickness for, like, six months.

[36:45] I would.

[36:45] Tara Bansal: So sorry.

[36:46] Ella Taylor: Throw up before A meeting. Do a meeting and throw up after I was so dying.

[36:52] And so that kind of helped, honestly, to slow down. And then I was on maternity leave for three months.

[37:03] And Aaron,

[37:06] most amazing person ever, kind of took over the reins of everything. And we’d meet on Tuesdays. We told clients she’d talk to me on Tuesdays if something was like,

[37:17] urgent, urgent, I was available, but otherwise it was Tuesdays. And then she’d get back to them with a response. And I thought clients were gonna leave. I thought they’d be livid.

[37:28] They sent presents.

[37:29] They were so supportive. They wanted updates on Mabel. They were. I have the most loving,

[37:36] amazing clients in the whole wide world. It was so beautiful. And so.

[37:40] Tara Bansal: And so you told them ahead of time you were doing the three month maternity leave, correct?

[37:46] Ella Taylor: Right. Yep, I did. And so then,

[37:49] of course, they have like, urgent needs, right? And they’re like, well, we want to sell our house, but I guess we’ll wait till you’re back.

[37:55] And some people did.

[37:57] And then California,

[38:00] State of California, audited me. The day I got back, three months to the day, they emailed me and said they were auditing me.

[38:08] Tara Bansal: Oh, my God.

[38:09] Ella Taylor: And so I have a three month old. She didn’t sleep. She woke up every. She wanted to eat every half hour. She would not take a bottle.

[38:17] Tara Bansal: She

[38:19] Ella Taylor: didn’t sleep through the night. She woke up every, like two hours.

[38:23] And I’m going through this audit with California. I’m back at work. It was kind of the worst time of my life. Even though I love Mabel, I love being a mom, I love being a firm owner.

[38:33] But that was just.

[38:35] It was so,

[38:37] so,

[38:37] so hard at that point. And then I realized,

[38:41] it turns out three month old baby is still a little bitty baby.

[38:45] And I didn’t want to be back at. I kind of couldn’t be. And I didn’t want to be back at work. And so I kind of extended my maternity leave for a year.

[38:54] And I worked very, very part time.

[38:58] Um,

[38:59] I did surge meetings. And so I met with clients, like just very as needed. We kept the Tuesdays going.

[39:08] Um,

[39:09] and so I stayed on maternity leave. And then I realized it’s one. I didn’t.

[39:16] My drive shifted. It was. It’s so weird to go from being so ambitious. I was gonna grow this giant firm and I had all these dreams to being like,

[39:28] this seems like enough.

[39:30] Like, I wanna hang out with my kid. I don’t want to be working my life away and miss all of this. I didn’t realize that I wanted to Just hang out with her.

[39:43] And so it made me way more efficient.

[39:46] Yeah,

[39:47] I love. I love it. I don’t regret Amanda got, like, mind of it and. But now that she’s getting older, she’s turning three soon, and so she’s in daycare a few days a week.

[39:58] And so now I’m back to wanting to grow the firm, but not like I did.

[40:03] Yeah. If I want, like, the ideal client that I feel very excited to work

[40:09] Tara Bansal: with and you know who it is.

[40:12] Ella Taylor: Mm. Yeah, I feel pretty clear.

[40:14] And building a. The high impact family office right now. We’re in the process of building that and doing high impact investing for this family and then really focusing on, like, systemic investing, doing the investing with my firm.

[40:34] So I’m. I think I’m really trying to figure out what I’m doing right now and what that growth does look like. I want to grow, and I really want to make as much change as possible,

[40:46] but I also want to work four days a week and hang out with my kids.

[40:51] Tara Bansal: Have a life.

[40:52] Ella Taylor: Yeah, have a life. I have so many passions outside of work. As passionate as I am about work, I also have a million other things I want to do.

[41:00] Tara Bansal: What else are you passionate about?

[41:02] Ella Taylor: Oh, man. I love reading.

[41:05] I do bead weaving.

[41:07] I cook. I have friends that I love so much and want to just hang out with all the time. I like walking. I love dancing.

[41:19] I’m sure I’m forgetting a million other. I knit.

[41:22] You know, there’s so many I want. And also my wife. I want to go on date nights with my wife and hang out with her. She’s so fun and getting to know her again after having Mabel, like, things shift and I want to,

[41:36] you know, develop that.

[41:37] We look like.

[41:38] So.

[41:42] Tara Bansal: So how big do you want your firm to get? Are you trying to figure that out or.

[41:48] Ella Taylor: I think so. I always said 60 clients was, like, my perfect amount because I really like.

[41:57] I like knowing everything about them. Right. Like, I. I want to be available.

[42:01] I want to be able to have the time to really dig into the impact of the investments, do impact investing, systemic investing, networking.

[42:11] Um,

[42:12] and so.

[42:14] And I also do in depth financial planning.

[42:17] Like, we start with cash flow. We do all the financial planning if they like. I have a client right now who just got diagnosed with Alzheimer’s, and so being able to support her and her partner going through, like, what does this look like?

[42:34] How do we set this up? I feel so lucky to be able to know how to do that and support them and be able to have the time to really dig in and just be present.

[42:47] And so not growing too big, but big enough that we are making change and that it’s still fun. And I love new clients. I find it so exciting.

[43:00] And so not taking new clients has been hard.

[43:04] Tara Bansal: Yeah.

[43:04] Tara Bansal: So after maternity leave for a year, you decided not to take new clients for a certain time period, right?

[43:14] Ella Taylor: Yeah. Yeah. Well, it’s a lot of work to take on a new client.

[43:18] Tara Bansal: Yeah, that’s. The heavy lift is always the start. Yeah.

[43:21] Ella Taylor: And such a heavy lift. And so.

[43:23] And then also a lot of my clients were going through huge transitions during that time, like family members dying, inheriting things, selling property to land trusts, like doing all these, like, big,

[43:39] really fun things that took a lot of my time and energy.

[43:43] And I just didn’t feel like I’d be able to actually support my clients,

[43:47] be present for my family and take on new clients.

[43:51] I don’t.

[43:54] I. I just wouldn’t be able to do it. And not sleeping. She still doesn’t sleep through the night, you know.

[43:58] Tara Bansal: Is that a hard decision to, like, say I’m not.

[44:02] Ella Taylor: Oh, no, no. That was. I thought it would be back to the, like, ambition and the mind shift. I thought it would be so hard, and it actually felt like the right thing to do.

[44:14] So.

[44:14] Tara Bansal: Yeah, you knew. And that made it easy.

[44:17] Ella Taylor: Yeah, it was easy.

[44:19] Tara Bansal: What. How many households do you have now? So where are you?

[44:25] Ella Taylor: Question. I have about 44.

[44:28] Oh, okay.

[44:29] So close to max.

[44:34] But yeah. And I think,

[44:37] like, if I.

[44:38] If the family office ends up looking like what we want it to look like, I think I’ll hire an advisor. Honestly, I don’t be able to just.

[44:45] Tara Bansal: Well, that was my other question is, can you do 60 and the family

[44:49] Ella Taylor: office not well and not four days a week,

[44:53] you know, so I think I would need to.

[44:57] Also, I.

[44:59] I think it would be fun to work with someone else. Like my wife, when I started my own firm, she’s like, you’re so social. You love other people, you love collaborating.

[45:09] And so it’s so fun to collaborate with Aaron.

[45:11] And I think if we brought the right person in who’s very sustainability focused, team focus, you know, all the things I think we could have a beautiful, amazing firm with a lot of growth opportunity for them,

[45:26] a lot of learning, and then I’d really be able to focus on kind of the investment work, like high level planning, philanthropy, like all the stuff that I really want to do.

[45:41] It’s just trying to figure out, what does that look like? And getting over the fear of hiring.

[45:47] Tara Bansal: Yeah, I was Gonna say how. How will you know when it’s time to hire? Or do you feel like it’s.

[45:54] Ella Taylor: I don’t know. I don’t want to wait too long and be overwhelmed and not be able to do everything.

[46:00] But I also don’t wanna hire too early.

[46:03] Yeah.

[46:04] And not be able to sustain it. I don’t know. That’s a good question.

[46:09] And also who. I don’t.

[46:11] Tara Bansal: Yeah, that’s also hard, I think. And that’s where, like, the fact that you knew Aaron.

[46:18] Tara Bansal: Right.

[46:18] Tara Bansal: Like. Like, that’s the beauty of. Because you already knew her.

[46:25] Ella Taylor: I knew her. I knew she worked.

[46:27] Tara Bansal: You knew how she worked.

[46:28] Ella Taylor: You knew.

[46:28] Tara Bansal: Yeah.

[46:29] Ella Taylor: Really well. Yeah. The unknown. It’s. Yeah.

[46:34] Tara Bansal: People do it. So.

[46:36] Ella Taylor: Yeah. Varying degrees of success and, you know. Yeah. What.

[46:46] Tara Bansal: Oh, we’re almost out of time and I have so many questions. How?

[46:51] Ella Taylor: What?

[46:53] Tara Bansal: How do you think we can get more women in this profession? Do you have any ideas?

[46:59] Ella Taylor: I love that question. I was listening. I was thinking about that after listening to some of your podcasts. I think.

[47:05] I agree.

[47:06] Some people said, like, early education. Right. Like going into the schools and talking to people about just how fun it is and how,

[47:16] like, our mastermind group, the community of female advisors.

[47:23] So supportive. Because I think you hear finance and you think, like, alpha and, you know, like, all these things that just aren’t what we’re doing.

[47:34] Yeah.

[47:35] And then I do also think that the wealth transfer that’s happening right now, a lot of. I talk to a lot of prospective clients who want to work with a woman.

[47:44] And so I think hopefully it’ll kind of naturally happen.

[47:50] And then also someone else was talking about women haven’t been able to make money or manage their own money for.

[47:58] Tara Bansal: Yeah, not that long.

[48:00] Ella Taylor: Like the 80s. I was alive when this happened.

[48:03] And so I think we are seeing more women in the industry. But, yeah, I think really talking about kind of the relationship and the planning aspect of it, as opposed to.

[48:15] I think that’s what women want to do. And then we get into the investment part and that’s fun, but, like, starting with that for most women, I think is not where we’re going.

[48:24] And then also talking about, like, you can work four days a week and have a successful firm and have a family and.

[48:31] Tara Bansal: Well, that’s why I wanted you to talk about doing your maternity leave and how you are a solo, you know.

[48:39] Ella Taylor: Yeah.

[48:41] Tara Bansal: Entrepreneur. And you made it work.

[48:44] Ella Taylor: And to be clear, it was hard, but getting everything set up, having good help. I like working.

[48:52] Tara Bansal: Yeah. Yeah, I would. I mean, I don’t know if you said this, but, like, at Limitless, you were like, my firm’s my baby.

[49:02] Ella Taylor: And then.

[49:03] Tara Bansal: Then you had a baby. And that, you know, shifted in a big way.

[49:08] Ella Taylor: It was. It was a big mourning process to let go of, like, my firm baby being my solo child that I was growing and nurturing and loving to having a human baby that I really want to do all that for and be, like, a really active parent.

[49:28] It was a big mourning process, but now I feel like there’s a rebirth of the firm and I can really, you know,

[49:37] do both.

[49:39] Tara Bansal: How would you define success for you?

[49:43] Ella Taylor: I think it’s what we were just talking about of being able to have time with Morgan and Mabel and be able. And be able to be present when I’m with them, which I struggle with so much.

[49:57] But coming back to. I’m actually, like, trying to reinstate some of the limitless stuff of only checking email twice a day and having meetings on certain days and work. You know what I mean?

[50:06] Like, all the.

[50:07] Tara Bansal: Like, have the boundaries and structure to try to. Yeah.

[50:11] Ella Taylor: Yes. And then being able to make positive. I keep coming back to that, but make positive change in the world. And, like, when something like the Epstein files drops and I sink into despair,

[50:25] being able to come back and be like, there’s something that I can help you do.

[50:30] I don’t just have to feel powerless and upset. Yeah, that’s great.

[50:34] Tara Bansal: Yeah.

[50:36] Ella Taylor: What do you have a favorite book

[50:39] Tara Bansal: podcaster resource that you’re loving right now? And it doesn’t have to be work

[50:46] Ella Taylor: if I know you’re a huge reader, so I’ll take. Well, like, I think a lot of your other people have said I read not work books. I.

[50:59] Tara Bansal: You.

[51:00] Ella Taylor: I mean, honestly, I read murder mysteries and romance, and so I’ll take any recommendation paranormal. I do.

[51:06] Tara Bansal: Me too. I love, like, so much of that.

[51:12] Ella Taylor: It’s so fun.

[51:14] Oh, man. I’m trying to think of my favorite. I’ll have to send you a list. I read right now. It’s listening to podcasts or not podcasts, but audiobooks.

[51:26] Tara Bansal: Audiobooks?

[51:27] Tara Bansal: Yeah.

[51:28] Ella Taylor: Oh, man. I go through them like water. I just love them.

[51:33] Tara Bansal: And how do you find the time to listen? I know you’re a big walker, so I’m sure while you walk.

[51:39] Ella Taylor: Yeah, like this last week, I’ve gone for, like, two hour walks each day, and I listen to an audiobook. I do a lot of spreadsheet work, like, for the investment stuff, so I listen.

[51:48] Tara Bansal: You can listen while you do that.

[51:50] Tara Bansal: Okay.

[51:51] Ella Taylor: Yeah. It turns out I can’t listen while doing other work because it’s just.

[51:54] Tara Bansal: Yeah. You have to.

[51:57] Ella Taylor: Yeah. And I actually, I’ve been really and honestly loving your podcast with like the women advisors.

[52:04] Tara Bansal: Thank you.

[52:05] Ella Taylor: Yeah. I find a lot of other financial planning podcasts, I really like them and I get wisdom out of them, but I male advisors. As much as I like them, I can’t relate as much.

[52:18] Right. Especially now being a mom and really focusing on all these other things.

[52:23] Tara Bansal: Yeah.

[52:24] Ella Taylor: It’s just different worlds and I like hearing what women are doing, how they’re doing it. I find them so inspiring.

[52:33] Tara Bansal: You’re inspiring.

[52:38] Ella Taylor: I feel the same way about you.

[52:40] Tara Bansal: I don’t do anything compared to you. Do you have a self care ritual

[52:48] Ella Taylor: or what is your go to self care ritual?

[52:51] That’s a good question. I think I have two, like two main ones. One is like walking and exercise. I realize I for like mental health physical.

[53:02] I used to pre Mabel. I exercised every day for like a lot. And then having her,

[53:13] my body just wasn’t there. I didn’t have the time, the energy. And so now getting back into exercise, even just walking, walking up hills. I walk up into the Berkeley hills and they’re so hard and it’s all stairs, which is so fun.

[53:26] That and then spending time with friends and family and Mabel and Morgan and you know, just leaning into my relationships and especially when things are so heavy right now, I get stuck in my own head and then just talking it through with people I love and being able to like laugh and be silly and talk about real things and not real things.

[53:53] You know, it’s just that I think that’s my self care.

[53:56] Tara Bansal: That’s.

[53:57] Ella Taylor: Yeah.

[53:58] Tara Bansal: What is one thing giving you joy right now?

[54:03] Ella Taylor: You could have guessed it. But Mabel, yeah,

[54:07] he’s so silly and fun and naughty, which I love.

[54:13] And she’s loving and quirky. I just, I love it. I love it.

[54:18] Tara Bansal: So is motherhood all you thought it would be?

[54:23] Ella Taylor: Motherhood’s way more than I thought it would be. I thought I was gonna be this easygoing, fun parent.

[54:30] No,

[54:31] I am a crazy person. Every time she coughs, I’m like, we need to email the doctor. You know, like it’s so it turns out I’m not a cool parent.

[54:42] It.

[54:43] You are a cool parent. Oh, thanks. Yeah. Yeah, I think so. No, but I think it shifted everything in my life. I didn’t expect. I thought my life would keep going and I’d have this fun little kid that I’d take care of and instead,

[54:58] no. My body changed, my hormones,

[55:02] my priorities. My time, my sleep, what I eat. My immunity. I have no immunity, so I’m sick. Nonsense.

[55:11] You know, it’s.

[55:13] And it’s more wonderful. I would see my friends do it, and they’d be like, you should have a kid. And I was like, ruin my life like you did. No, thank you.

[55:20] And then I had a kid.

[55:23] It turns out it’s. Even when I’m sick and miserable, I’m still happy, which I always thought people were crazy when they said it. And I’m sure I sound crazy, but.

[55:33] Tara Bansal: No, I mean,

[55:35] I.

[55:36] I do get it. And. But I feel like it’s a billion times harder than I expected.

[55:44] Like, I don’t know how to even communicate that. Like.

[55:49] And so I feel like I had no idea how hard it was going

[55:53] Ella Taylor: to be at all. How to handle situations. Things come up that I thought I would know how to do.

[56:03] Tara Bansal: And. Yeah.

[56:06] Ella Taylor: It turns out some of the things I do are wrong.

[56:10] You know, Like, I think I’m teaching her one thing, and then she tells me what I taught her, and I’m

[56:16] Tara Bansal: like, whoops, that’s not exactly what I was going for.

[56:19] Ella Taylor: Going for putting in the therapy fund.

[56:25] Tara Bansal: But that’s.

[56:27] Yeah. And. And I think you can never know that because of how these little people take things in. In ways that you would never have guessed or expected to. So I always love.

[56:43] There’s no perfect parent or mother,

[56:46] but. And so you can’t even expect that at all.

[56:51] Ella Taylor: No. And then also trying to focus on who they are.

[56:56] Right. Like, you think that they’re unique,

[56:59] someone different than who. It’s. It’s humbling, I gotta say. It’s the most humbling thing in the hoyed world. Like, I’ll be holding her, and she’ll look at me and she’ll say,

[57:12] mommy, you’re not my best friend.

[57:15] Mom’s my best friend.

[57:16] I don’t. You know, I don’t want to play with you. And. And I’m holding her and snuggling her, and I’m like,

[57:22] I love you so much. Anyway.

[57:26] Okay.

[57:29] Tara Bansal: Oh, yeah.

[57:31] Ella Taylor: The joys of motherhood and the challenges.

[57:33] Tara Bansal: I mean. But I do feel like. Because I got to see you before and kind of witness the shift of your priorities and.

[57:45] Ella Taylor: Yeah. Well, you guys were such a big part of that. Like, the professional shift. Yeah. Wow. I think.

[57:52] Tara Bansal: Because I think everyone else in the group already had kids, so we were all just, like, waiting to see what happens.

[58:00] Ella Taylor: You knew where I was going, and I did not.

[58:02] Tara Bansal: Well, yeah. I don’t know that we knew, but.

[58:06] Ella Taylor: Because you never know. But.

[58:08] Tara Bansal: And that’s true.

[58:10] Ella Taylor: Any.

[58:11] Tara Bansal: Anything else we didn’t talk about that you would love to share?

[58:17] Ella Taylor: Oh, man. I think just what a cool career this is and how like you can.

[58:27] This is what your whole podcast is about. But how you can do it, how you want to do it. It’s different for everyone.

[58:33] And leaning into community and the support network that we have is just invaluable. Like as a solo person, I can’t do it all on my own. And so if a client comes to me for something, I reach out to my network and my group and everyone wants to help.

[58:52] That’s the thing. You think that you’re a burden.

[58:56] People love helping. They want to share, they want to support you. And the women advisor community is so strong and so beautiful,

[59:06] so supportive. Yeah, I agree with that.

[59:08] Tara Bansal: You’re part of so many different groups.

[59:11] Tara Bansal: What are some of the groups that you.

[59:16] Ella Taylor: The advisors for Good Language was talking about. We just had a call there.

[59:20] I’ve kind of fallen off, but doing it again. I was like, oh yeah, this group is so cool. Yeah,

[59:28] Tara Bansal: the Method XY planning or no,

[59:34] Ella Taylor: you used to be. Or no, I’m still a member.

[59:36] Tara Bansal: Okay.

[59:37] Ella Taylor: I feel like they,

[59:39] I know they’re trying to grow for like established firms. I think they’re really good for starting out. Starting out. And then also.

[59:51] I,

[59:53] I think we’ve talked about this. Like I’ll go onto the forum and ask a question and inevitably some,

[01:00:00] I imagine well intentioned male advisor will DM me separately giving me really good advice.

[01:00:07] That’s not good advice that I didn’t ask for and is really patronizing and it makes me angry. And so I find it really tricky to ask questions through that forum because it’s a lot of just rude, unsolicited advice that assumes I don’t know what I’m doing.

[01:00:24] It’s like, yeah, lowly woman.

[01:00:30] So I want to really do more with those groups. But I, I struggle.

[01:00:36] Yeah.

[01:00:37] Tara Bansal: Are there other groups that you like and enjoy?

[01:00:41] Ella Taylor: I’m sure there are.

[01:00:44] Like the Explorers Club. I really like them. Like the Impact Collective.

[01:00:49] I’ve honestly been kind of out of the loop doing my own thing. I’m just trying to get back into.

[01:00:59] Back into it. I don’t actually. I do my masterminds.

[01:01:05] I like Napa a lot. I feel like they’re really good. But similarly the forum, I’ve had similar interactions on there.

[01:01:12] Tara Bansal: Are you part of more than one? More than one mastermind?

[01:01:16] Ella Taylor: Yeah, yeah. I’m in a local women’s bay Area mastermind. And they’re. And that one’s interesting. So it’s not only women who own their own firms or, you know.

[01:01:27] Tara Bansal: And so is it still financial focused? Okay.

[01:01:30] Ella Taylor: Yeah, it’s all financial planners. Okay.

[01:01:33] And so that one’s really fun. And then our mastermind,

[01:01:38] the Explorers Club, I’ve been really into just learning about, like, European investing and kind of what they’re doing is how different. Yeah,

[01:01:45] it’s different. So progressive. They’re.

[01:01:49] I find it so inspiring.

[01:01:52] And then I’ve been doing a lot with the, like, the family.

[01:01:55] I work with a really wealthy family, and so I travel with them quarterly, and I advise one of the, like, the sisters on that about understanding the investments that are recommended, the impact around them,

[01:02:13] and really supporting her with making decisions within her family trust. And so I travel with them a lot and do a lot with them.

[01:02:24] Yeah, that one’s really fun. And I’ve worked with other trustees about how to do that and how to, like, do impact investing within, like, a family structure.

[01:02:34] And so that’s super fun.

[01:02:36] Very cool. So that’s kind of.

[01:02:38] Tara Bansal: Yeah. I just feel like you’re so much more social than I am, and I feel like you talk about many groups, but,

[01:02:46] oh, Ella, you’re always so fun, and I just love your enthusiasm and passion and energy and.

[01:02:54] Yeah, you are inspiring.

[01:02:56] So I just want the whole world to get to know you.

[01:03:01] And I’ll put all your information in the show notes, but thank you for being here.

[01:03:06] Yeah.

[01:03:06] Ella Taylor: Thank you so much for having me. I looked forward to this.

[01:03:10] Tara Bansal: Yeah, it was fun. It flew by. I feel like we’ve already gone over, but I could talk to you again,

[01:03:15] Ella Taylor: so I know one day we will.

[01:03:18] Tara Bansal: So thank you. Thank you. Thank you.

[01:03:20] Ella Taylor: Bye. Bye.

[01:03:21] Tara Bansal: Ella Taylor is so inspiring.

[01:03:24] Her passion and her clarity, just her passionate clarity.

[01:03:28] She’s ambitious.

[01:03:30] She’s values driven.

[01:03:31] She’s deeply committed to making a positive impact in this world.

[01:03:36] And yet she’s equally clear about the kind of life she wants to live.

[01:03:41] I was honestly surprised to hear her talk about her having a scarcity mindset. From the outside,

[01:03:47] she exudes confidence and abundance.

[01:03:50] But outsourcing didn’t come naturally to her.

[01:03:53] Letting go of control didn’t come easily.

[01:03:57] Spending money on things she could technically do herself felt uncomfortable.

[01:04:02] And yet when she leaned into outsourcing, everything expanded.

[01:04:07] By releasing what she disliked,

[01:04:09] she created more space for what she.

[01:04:13] Sustainable investing,

[01:04:15] philanthropy,

[01:04:16] deep client relationships,

[01:04:18] systemic change.

[01:04:20] That expansion wasn’t about growth for growth’s sake. It was about alignment.

[01:04:25] She’s crystal clear about who she wants to serve and why.

[01:04:30] She wants to move capital toward impact investing.

[01:04:34] She wants money supporting the planet and the people on it.

[01:04:37] She even brought in a philanthropic consultant so her clients can give more intentionally and more effectively.

[01:04:45] And she is just as clear about her version of enough 60 households working four days a week,

[01:04:53] time with her daughter, time with her wife,

[01:04:56] and time for herself.

[01:04:58] Motherhood changed the shape of her ambition.

[01:05:01] It refined it.

[01:05:04] As I was thinking about this episode, I kept thinking about watching Elisa liu at the 2026 Winter Olympics.

[01:05:15] As a teenager, skating was Elisa’s entire life and identity.

[01:05:21] She stepped away when it stopped being fun.

[01:05:24] She then started living as a more normal teenager.

[01:05:28] She hung out with friends,

[01:05:29] danced and went to concerts.

[01:05:32] She reconnected with what made her feel alive.

[01:05:36] And when she returned to skating,

[01:05:38] skating was no longer her whole life. It was just one part of a full and joyful life.

[01:05:45] And you could see it when she skated.

[01:05:47] She was so relaxed. She was having fun.

[01:05:51] She looked joyful and free.

[01:05:53] That’s what I see in Ella.

[01:05:56] I think what I’m taking from her is this,

[01:05:58] that success doesn’t have to take over your whole life to be meaningful.

[01:06:03] Impact doesn’t require you to run yourself into the ground.

[01:06:07] An ambition is allowed to evolve.

[01:06:10] We are allowed to evolve.

[01:06:14] Maybe we get to build something that fits the life we actually want.

[01:06:19] And if this conversation stirred something in you, even just a small nudge toward more alignment or more joy,

[01:06:26] I want you to pay attention to that.

[01:06:29] May your work and life reflect what and who you love.

[01:06:34] May your days feel joyful and may you always remember you are already enough.

[01:06:42] Thank you for listening to her life, her practice, her way.

[01:06:47] A podcast for and about female financial advisors.

[01:06:51] I truly hope you have enjoyed this podcast and got some value from it. If so, I would love to ask a favor of you.

[01:06:58] Please go to Apple Podcasts or Spotify and rate and review my podcast. This will help me get the word out to other amazing like minded female financial advisors.

[01:07:10] You can also send it to a friend or two who you think would gain something from listening to it.

[01:07:15] Until next time, I’m wishing you the very best.

Ella Financial Advising – https://www.ellafinancialadvising.com/

Stephanie Bogan’s Limitless program – https://limitlessfa.life/

Impact Collective – https://weareimpactcollective.org/&

Explorers Club – https://www.explorers.org/

Advisors for Good – https://www.advisorsforgood.org/

XY Planning Network – https://www.xyplanningnetwork.com/

[00:17] Tara Bansal: Welcome to her life, her practice, her way.

[00:21] A podcast for and about female financial advisors. Tara I’m Tara Conti Bansal and I’ve been a financial planner and life coach for over 20 years.

[00:32] I want this show to share other women financial advisors journeys, struggles and triumphs.

[00:39] I want to highlight the unique and similar ways to enjoying our life and our practice on our own terms.

[00:46] I hope to build a community of like minded, deeply caring and exceptional female advisors who want to help our clients and ourselves live a life that we love.

[00:59] One that is filled with love,

[01:01] learning, connection, meaning and joy.

[01:04] I hope you listen in.

[01:07] Tara Bansal: Hello, this is Tara Conti Bansal and I’m super excited. I have Elizabeth or I know her

[01:16] Tara Bansal: as Ella Taylor and she.

[01:21] Tara Bansal: You’re getting to know all of my mastermind group. She is part of my mastermind group from Steph Bogan’s Limitless that we all did together.

[01:30] I think it was 2021, maybe 2022. I can’t remember 2022. 2022.

[01:39] And I think the world of all the women that I am lucky enough to be in this group with. And Ella has her own practice. She is a CFP and her firm

[01:53] Tara Bansal: is called Ella Financial Advising.

[01:55] Tara Bansal: She’s out in Oakland. Are you in Oakland? Yep.

[01:59] Ella Taylor: Yeah.

[01:59] Tara Bansal: And I just can’t wait to have her share her wisdom and all of her gifts with us here today.

[02:11] Tara Bansal: So welcome Ella.

[02:14] Ella Taylor: Thank you. I’m so excited to be here.

[02:16] Tara Bansal: Thank you. I always start with my first question, Brene Brown fashion. Like, tell us your story. How did you get to where you are now?

[02:28] Ella Taylor: Oh, man.

[02:31] So I was a pastry chef in a prior lifetime and I went back to school and got my,

[02:42] um, associates in entrepreneurship. I was going to start my own bakery.

[02:47] And then I was, I don’t know, like 24 and living in New Mexico. And I didn’t feel ready to settle down starting a business and I wanted to kind of explore the world.

[02:57] And so I moved to San Francisco and I realized I didn’t love being a pastry chef. And so I went back to school for women’s studies.

[03:09] And yeah, partway through I was like, wait, I don’t actually have any skills to help women. I have all the passion but,

[03:17] you know, skills. And coincidentally at the same time, my grandpa died and I started helping my grandma with her finances.

[03:25] Oh, I loved it. I loved like the being able to help women.

[03:30] It turns out I love financial planning.

[03:35] And while I was in college, I was working for a family and one of their good friends was a financial planner. And so they were like, work with her. See what you think.

[03:43] And,

[03:44] oh, I loved it. I loved it so much. And so I switched majors and became a financial planner.

[03:52] And I started out focusing on primarily just working with women. And the more I got into doing kind of impact investing and sustainable investing,

[04:02] I have always been very passionate about the environment and environmental sustainability.

[04:08] And so when I started my firm, I really dug in, and we specialize in environmentally sustainable investing.

[04:17] I do still work with a lot of women. Like this morning, I talked to a prospect, and she was like, I want to work with the woman advisor. I think, you know, more relational.

[04:26] And so that’s kind of my background.

[04:30] Tara Bansal: Where did you grow up and did you have siblings?

[04:33] Ella Taylor: Yeah, so I grew up in a tiny, tiny town in New Mexico called Tomei, New Mexico.

[04:39] It’s a little farming community, and I have one younger brother, and we were best friends. We grew up, like, riding bikes on the ditches and crawdad fishing and. Oh, it’s so fun.

[04:50] Tara Bansal: Very nice. And did the school you went to had a financial planning, like, major or the.

[05:00] Ella Taylor: Yeah, so I went to San Francisco State, and I was a double major in business and international business,

[05:09] I think, and gender and women’s studies.

[05:14] And then I kind of went off and did the Kaplan CFA program right after that.

[05:20] Tara Bansal: How old were you when you did that?

[05:22] Ella Taylor: Oh, I was late 20s, early 30s, when I, like, shifted. So I was, you know, a career changer.

[05:30] Tara Bansal: How long did you work as a pastry chef?

[05:35] Ella Taylor: Oh, man. Good question. I worked. I did all parts of restaurants. I was a line cook, which I loved.

[05:43] Like, the speed and. Oh, line cook is so fun. I was a waitress,

[05:48] and then I was a pastry chef for maybe five or six years.

[05:53] It wasn’t super long. I started when.

[05:56] Tara Bansal: Five or six years, though, is not insignificant.

[05:58] Ella Taylor: Oh, yeah. Well. And I was so young when I did it. I didn’t want to stop partying. And so I’d stay up really late and then have to be at work at 4 in the morning.

[06:06] And so I just take clean pills like a crazy person. And so,

[06:11] yeah, it was.

[06:12] Tara Bansal: Yeah, pastry. You have to start early, right?

[06:14] Ella Taylor: You have to start so early. And you also just have to have an attention to detail that it turns out I didn’t have.

[06:22] I was not. I. Yeah, to be honest, I was not a great pastry chef. And also,

[06:26] it’s one of those careers where you go into where you’re very passionate and very, like, creative,

[06:31] and then you work for someone else, and they’re like, here’s what you need to make and you can just make whatever creme brulee you want. And you’re like, but that’s not actually a creative.

[06:39] It wasn’t quite what I thought it was going to be. And so now I’m doing it on my own. I can just be creative as I want.

[06:46] Was the.

[06:47] Tara Bansal: Working as the pastry chef, the way you describe it, it wasn’t as creative as you thought it would be?

[06:53] Ella Taylor: No, not at all. It was very much following other people’s recipes.

[07:00] Tara Bansal: Instructions.

[07:01] Ella Taylor: Instructions, yeah, it was very formulaic. Formulaic. And then also working in. Working in kitchens is hard.

[07:10] It’s hard work. It’s very male dominated. I was a young woman working in that environment, which was tricky.

[07:18] And so some places were great and other places were less great. And I realized that I really want to be creative, and that was why I got into it. And it wasn’t a creative.

[07:34] I think if I’d started my own bakery or, you know, if I kept going with it, I could have gotten there, but it just wasn’t what I was looking for.

[07:43] Tara Bansal: So after you got your degree and you did you start working with that family’s?

[07:50] Ella Taylor: I did, yeah. I worked with her for a while. And then, weirdly, I was at a party and I met my mentor.

[08:00] We were talking and I was telling him how I was going to school for financial planning. And he was like, oh, I work at a financial planning firm and we have an extra desk come internal.

[08:09] And it was perfect timing. So it was 2008,

[08:12] which I wouldn’t have been able to get a job.

[08:15] And so I got this perfect internship.

[08:18] The firm was amazing. I learned so much. He’s still. He’s the goddad of my child.

[08:25] Like, you know, so it all worked out. But, yeah, so I ended up working with that company for a while and then left that and started working in financial planning.

[08:37] Tara Bansal: When did you start your own firm?

[08:40] Ella Taylor: Oh, man. So I started my own firm right when the pandemic happened. I’d left my last company and I was gonna travel and hang out. And then Covid happened, the market went down, and luckily I had people who wanted to work with me.

[08:55] And so I called them up and was like,

[08:57] let’s get started. Let’s like, you know, tax law.

[09:00] Start with a bang.

[09:02] And they were scared. I mean, we were all scared, right?

[09:04] Tara Bansal: Yeah. Right.

[09:05] Ella Taylor: And so,

[09:06] yeah, so it was weirdly perfect timing. And then also during COVID people really started to think about, like, what are their values?

[09:15] How do they want to spend their money? And so being a sustainable firm,

[09:21] it was Kind of the perfect time for that, where a lot of people wanted to explore that.

[09:27] I got a lot of my clients who were just really thinking about the world they wanted to build. And Covid was kind of the time to do it.

[09:34] Tara Bansal: Yeah. A motivator for that. Yeah. How long were you at the firm you were at before starting your own?

[09:42] Ella Taylor: So I actually worked at three different firms. I started out working at Brighton Jones, I learned.

[09:51] Tara Bansal: Is that the one you interned at or.

[09:53] Ella Taylor: No, no,

[09:54] the one that I interned at was called Hilltop Advisors. It’s the tiny San Francisco firm. And it was just people and me.

[10:01] Um,

[10:02] and then I went to Brighton Jones, and I really liked them because they did a lot of, like, philanthropy, which I’ve always been interested in.

[10:10] And so I started there and then I left there because I wanted to work with, like, normal people, you know, because they had an investment minimum. Um,

[10:20] and so I worked with Julie Asti, who. To do hourly financial planning. And she’s.

[10:26] She’s still one of my good friends. She’s an amazing financial planner.

[10:30] And then I realized I’m not super into hourly financial planning. Cause I’m more relational. I want, like, you.

[10:35] Tara Bansal: Like the relationship ever long term. Yeah.

[10:38] Ella Taylor: Yeah. And then I worked at a firm that’s no longer here, called Robashote and Philipson. And we did.

[10:44] We worked primarily with gay and lesbian people doing financial planning. And that was such an interesting time because it was when gay marriage was allowed and then repealed and then allowed.

[10:59] And so doing financial planning with people who were married state level, but not federal level and had combined assets. And then it was.

[11:11] It was so much fun to do that financial planning. And we did.

[11:15] We started a social justice fund.

[11:19] Tara Bansal: Wow.

[11:20] Ella Taylor: I worked with them for a while, and then I decided I wanted to start my own firm and really focus on environmental sustainability.

[11:26] Tara Bansal: And what happened to that firm? They just.

[11:31] Ella Taylor: They were acquired by Abacus, another firm.

[11:35] Tara Bansal: Oh, yeah, I’ve heard of that. Because

[11:38] Ella Taylor: at a. CENA Capital. And they have a social justice ETF that they use. Okay. Have made.

[11:47] Tara Bansal: What do you love about being. Doing what you do?

[11:52] Ella Taylor: Oh,

[11:54] everything ends up.

[11:56] Can’t be possible. Ella.

[11:59] No, I. I love working with people. I love it so much. I love learning their lives and who they are, helping them reach their goals,

[12:10] thinking through their goals, getting to know their families.

[12:13] And then the.

[12:15] I worry so much about climate and environmental change. And I worry about it so much. And so being able to do something about it just kind of gives me purpose.

[12:27] Tara Bansal: Yeah.

[12:27] Ella Taylor: Being able to help people meet their goals and support the Environment, like, that’s kind of the dream for Win. Win.

[12:35] Tara Bansal: Yeah.

[12:35] Ella Taylor: Yeah.

[12:37] Tara Bansal: What do you not like about being a financial planner and doing. Having your own firm?

[12:44] Ella Taylor: I guess, like, three things. Maybe one. I had no idea how much I hate email.

[12:50] I just find it daunting. I don’t love email.

[12:54] Um, I didn’t realize how much tech support I would do for myself and other people. I’m not tech savvy, so that.

[13:01] And then compliance. I find compliance a little bit confusing and kind of daunting.

[13:08] So I recently hired a compliance firm to just.

[13:11] Tara Bansal: Yeah, that was my question is how much of that now have you outsourced?

[13:16] Ella Taylor: Um,

[13:17] I realize I have deep money scarcity issues,

[13:23] and so it’s so hard for me to spend money, and I’m just coming into limitless. Actually really helped with,

[13:32] like, you can actually make more money if you outsource compliance, bookkeeping, all these things. I’m like, well, I can do it. Why wouldn’t I do it? Right? But then I spend my time doing that and not building the firm, not doing, like, the things I’m best at.

[13:45] And so,

[13:46] yeah,

[13:48] I’ve outsourced a fair amount. And this year I feel like I’m,

[13:53] I don’t know, having like, a rebirth of, like, now my daughter’s a little older, and so I want to grow the firm. And so hence, like,

[14:01] getting compliance really in order. I hired a marketing person. I’m really looking forward.

[14:07] Tara Bansal: I’d love to hear more. Like, what. What are you doing with the marketing person? And what.

[14:13] Ella Taylor: Oh, I’m so excited. So my ultimate goal is to get as much assets in the world to be sustainably invested through, like, impact investing, systemic investing,

[14:27] shareholder engagement, kind of all those things. And so I’ve hired a marketing person. We’re doing, like, education,

[14:33] we’re doing events,

[14:35] like webinars.

[14:36] Tara Bansal: Is that what you mean by education?

[14:38] Ella Taylor: Or where I really want to do in person stuff. But some people don’t really live in the Bay Area anymore that we might be doing webinars.

[14:47] We’re still working it out because I had all these ideas. I was like, I’m going to do circles.

[14:53] And then I hired her and she was like, what’s the goal of the circle? And I was like,

[14:57] really? No idea. I just want to like being together.

[15:01] Tara Bansal: That, yes, I like talking to women.

[15:04] Ella Taylor: I like talking to people who are into the sustainability and environment.

[15:08] And I also.

[15:10] I’m sure I told you about this, Tara, but, like, last year I joined this group called the Explorers Club, and they’re like, A European investment group.

[15:21] And so we’re exploring systemic investing, how to help clients do systemic investing. Like, what does that look like? Right. And so some of it is explain

[15:35] Tara Bansal: what systemic investing even is for those of us.

[15:38] Ella Taylor: That’s what I was just gonna do. I was like, oh, wait, I’m getting too deep in the wrong area. So.

[15:42] Tara Bansal: But I. I wanna hear.

[15:44] Ella Taylor: Yeah, it’s so.

[15:46] It’s so fascinating. So I’d been doing impact investing, and I felt like,

[15:49] pretty strong in what I was doing. And then they were like, oh, systemic investing. And I was like, wait, what? I’ve never heard of this. I don’t know what it is.

[15:57] And really, it’s like kind of the next iteration of impact investing. And so it’s kind of two parts. I think so far.

[16:06] It’s looking at a system that’s already set up. Right. So an example is like,

[16:13] electric cars.

[16:16] So what areas can you invest in to transition from,

[16:23] like, fuel cars to electric cars? And is that like investing in battery technology,

[16:30] electric car companies, but then taking it a step further,

[16:33] investing in, like, the infrastructure, utility companies,

[16:39] the societal, like marketing. Right. And then also kind of the government side of it, just kind of all of that. Looking at a system and thinking as you’re investing, not just investing in the electric cars, but investing in kind of the system as a whole.

[16:55] And how do we transition to a new system?

[16:57] So that’s one way, but then the other way is thinking about a lot of our current systems just aren’t working for where we want to go.

[17:08] Right. I was talking to a friend yesterday, like, even if we transitioned everything to renewable energy, we all drove electric cars.

[17:16] Is that the society we want? Is that what we want?

[17:19] And so part of it is thinking about, like, what is the world that we want and where should we be investing or doing policy change or philanthropy or like, they call it Poly Capital.

[17:30] And so it’s basically using like, financial capital,

[17:35] social capital, cultural capital, all the. All the capitals that we have available to us to think about, like, where do we want to go and how do we get there?

[17:43] And then doing that in community,

[17:44] because we can’t.

[17:45] I can’t just do it myself.

[17:48] And so working with others to create community and how to do that.

[17:53] Very cool.

[17:55] Tara Bansal: And this group, how did you find them and can anyone join?

[18:03] Ella Taylor: So I found them through.

[18:06] I did a class at the.

[18:09] In Zurich at the Zurich University for. They have one of the, like, largest sustainable finance programs. And,

[18:16] um, I’m starting a family office.

[18:19] And so we went and did this class called High Impact family offices. And it’s about how to do really high impact investing in a family office. Okay. I met this woman there named Astrid who’s like,

[18:32] she just is amazing. She’s so amazing. And so she had a family office in Belgium. She helps family offices get set up.

[18:41] She helps government do sustainable investing.

[18:44] She. And so she started this group called the Impact Collective. And the Explorers Club is a little part of the Impact Collective.

[18:53] And right now it’s only. I wouldn’t say it’s like, 13 people, and they’re talking about how to grow it, what that looks like.

[19:02] But right now it’s just us doing impact investing together, learning, creating this, like, handbook to provide to people. The first, like, three chapters are already out. We’re working on the fourth chapter.

[19:14] And so that’s cool, too,

[19:18] right?

[19:18] Yeah. So everyone should look up the handbook through the Impact Collective.

[19:22] Tara Bansal: All right. And you’re helping write that?

[19:26] Ella Taylor: They’re writing it and we’re giving feedback. Okay, that sounds great.

[19:32] Tara Bansal: What, going back to. What do you.

[19:38] Ella Taylor: You.

[19:39] Tara Bansal: What else are you outsourcing?

[19:41] Ella Taylor: Oh, man, I’m outsourcing. Marketing, compliance, bookkeeping. I have an operations manager in my firm named Aaron, who’s. You’ve heard me wax on about Aaron. I think she’s amazing.

[19:56] Tara Bansal: You adore her. Yes.

[19:57] Ella Taylor: Aaron does everything.

[20:00] When we started the firm,

[20:02] I hired her before I was making any money because I knew how amazing she was, and that was the direction I wanted to go. And so did she work at one

[20:10] Tara Bansal: of your other firms or how did you.

[20:12] Ella Taylor: She was my assistant at my last,

[20:14] and she was leaving. And so, yeah, so I called her up and I was like, I am starting this, and here’s my vision.

[20:24] Will you join me if I get other people to hire you to help, you know, sustain your Bridge the gap?

[20:31] Tara Bansal: Yeah.

[20:32] Ella Taylor: Yep. And so a few of my friends were also looking for an assistant. And so she works with a few of my friends and me and a bunch of other people.

[20:40] She’s a powerhouse. And so she does all the internal stuff. So she does all, like, the paperwork, onboarding,

[20:48] scheduling, all of that stuff. And I do all external client facing. I create the client portfolios. I do the trading, I do the networking, the planning, the meetings, all that stuff.

[21:03] Tara Bansal: How did you feel when you started your practice?

[21:08] Ella Taylor: Wildly.

[21:10] I thought I was going to be terrified. I thought I would have all these, like, anxieties. And weirdly, I felt very abundant.

[21:21] And I realized I love marketing. I love.

[21:25] Tara Bansal: There comes the creativity. Right. Like, when I think of you, I think of ideas. You just have so many ideas, which,

[21:33] Ella Taylor: for better or worse, you know.

[21:35] Tara Bansal: Well, most strengths are weakness at, you know, and situations too. Yeah.

[21:41] Ella Taylor: I realized that I can grow a practice in a way that I really want to grow and that I have a vision that other people want to be a part of.

[21:53] Tara Bansal: Right.

[21:53] Ella Taylor: And I love being in community. I love supporting people. I love working with people. And so it’s super fun to do marketing, talk to prospective clients, talk to client. Like, grow all of this together.

[22:06] It’s so.

[22:08] It’s so fun. And so I thought I would be scared. And weirdly, I am the exact opposite. I had this weird, not weird, but, like, unknown confidence inside of me that.

[22:19] That came out.

[22:20] Tara Bansal: Well, I was talking to someone that I was getting to interview you today, and. And I was.

[22:27] And you come across to me as very confident. And so even.

[22:35] Even hearing you,

[22:37] like, I would never have said you had a scarcity mindset at all, because I feel like you,

[22:45] I don’t know, exude this passion and confidence, and I feel like just your energy attracts people to want to work with you.

[22:55] Did your.

[22:56] Would you say your firm has grown the way you wanted it to?

[23:02] Quicker, slower,

[23:05] more work?

[23:07] Ella Taylor: It’s grown significantly quicker than I thought it would.

[23:11] I think,

[23:12] like, we were talking about kind of. The timing was really good with people thinking about wanting to support the environment,

[23:19] all the problems that precipitated Covid. Right. Like, that made it possible. People really wanted to do something with their money.

[23:33] Being able to feel so passionate about it and be really clear in what I’m doing. I was talking to another financial planner yesterday, and she was like, I went on your website, and you’re so clear in who you work with, what you do,

[23:49] that I think it makes it easy for a prospect to be like, oh, yeah, I should work with you, or some people are very repelled.

[23:55] Tara Bansal: Yeah, right.

[23:56] Ella Taylor: Like, I talked to.

[23:57] Tara Bansal: But that makes it easier.

[23:58] Ella Taylor: It makes it easier.

[23:59] Tara Bansal: Yeah. Yeah. So describe who you do want to work with and who’s your ideal clients.

[24:07] Ella Taylor: Oh, man. My ideal clients are people who are very passionate about supporting people on the planet who want a partner in doing that and then ideally, who have enough money that we can do stock market investing, like shareholder investing, and, you know, all of that, but then also do impact investing and do philanthropy and all kind of the really fun things that we do because we do a lot of impact investing.

[24:43] We do. I have a philanthropic consultant on staff, and so we come up with how much they can give away, and then it’s so much fun to think about where does that money go, what do you do with it before you give it away?

[24:59] What impact investments can we be invested in? And so someone who wants to do all of that and has the resources to do that are my.

[25:08] I’m realizing, are my people.

[25:10] Tara Bansal: Do you still focus on women?

[25:15] Ella Taylor: That’s a great question.

[25:22] I don’t know that I do do. I was getting ready to talk to you, actually. Like, the Epstein stuff.

[25:31] I’ve been so upset about it. Like, raising a daughter and thinking about all these men who for, like, 30 years have gotten away with harming all of these women. Like, every page in that document is hurting a woman.

[25:47] Like, it’s just. I can’t.

[25:49] I can’t get past it.

[25:53] And so thinking about the investing that I’m doing, like, when I start to feel that way and that, like, powerlessness and the, like,

[26:01] just the devastation I have to come back to, like, what can I do?

[26:07] How can I make a difference, make a change and not just be angry and retreat, which is what I want to do. Yeah.

[26:15] And so I’ve been actually thinking a lot about that and how to support women in being.

[26:28] Being financially stable, being financially secure,

[26:33] supporting women’s organizations through philanthropy and investing.

[26:39] I’m still,

[26:40] like. It’s still mulling in my brain because we really are like an environmental thing. First company.

[26:48] But supporting women,

[26:54] I. I realized a few years ago, supporting people supports the planet.

[26:59] Right. And if women are being harmed,

[27:03] they can’t be thinking about supporting environmental change. You know what I mean? Or, like, you know, not to just simplify it down to that, but supporting women is. Supporting the environment is.

[27:13] Supporting the planet is. It’s a whole ecosystem. And so trying to. About ways to not just be angry and upset, but how to.

[27:24] You vote with your dollar. And so how to help women feel empowered and hopefully stop things like this from perpetuating. I can’t imagine a world where my daughter grows up and this is okay.

[27:38] I just can’t do it.

[27:40] Tara Bansal: So what actions can you take? And you’re doing it.

[27:45] Ella Taylor: Yep. Yep. That’s what I’ve been thinking about. And how to support clients and other people and organizations and how to do that.

[27:54] Tara Bansal: What.

[27:55] Tara Bansal: What is the. What did you call it? A philanthropic.

[27:59] Ella Taylor: A philanthropic consultant. Yeah.

[28:01] Tara Bansal: What do they do?

[28:03] Ella Taylor: Oh, yeah. She’s so cool. So what she does is she helped her family foundation get clarity around kind of each person’s role, each person, how they give.

[28:16] Um, and so what she does with our clients is educates them on giving one time versus giving over time,

[28:25] you know, kind of how to make the most change.

[28:28] She helps them clarify which organizations will actually make change.

[28:36] Right. Because there’s a difference between, like, an example that they talked about a lot in that class that I went to in Zurich is everyone wants to build the school in Africa, right?

[28:46] Like, that’s such a sexy thing to do. It like a party. You’re like, I built a school for girls in Africa. Right? Like, that sounds amazing.

[28:53] But is that why people in Africa can’t go to school? Or is it because illness?

[28:59] Right. And so is it like giving vaccines for malaria allows them to go to school? And there are enough schools. Right. And so it’s really looking at what’s the root cause and not just, like, what sounds good and feels good to do.

[29:14] And so part of her role is to really clarify what is the change that you want to make and then researching how to do that and what organizations are actually doing that.

[29:27] Tara Bansal: That’s cool, because I think I know for myself, like, it’s easy to go into overwhelm of, like,

[29:34] how to choose. And then you feel like, you know,

[29:39] you said you vote with your dollar, but you want,

[29:42] like, whatever you give to. To do the right thing and make the difference you want it to. And so that’s. That’s interesting. That’s because I do feel like so many of us go into overwhelm of, like, I don’t know, what’s the best pick, you know?

[29:58] Ella Taylor: Well, also. And then how do you choose which value to support or. You know what I mean? Like, that is hard, too, about environment, women, you know what I mean? Like, how.

[30:11] And at some point you’re spread too thin.

[30:13] And so how. What’s the intersection of where those things meet, possibly.

[30:18] Yeah.

[30:18] Where to give, which organization’s actually doing what you want them to do.

[30:25] So,

[30:25] yeah, so that’s what we do. And so part of the planning is figuring out how much can you give? What does that look like?

[30:32] And then working with her to figure out which organizations to give to.

[30:36] Very cool. To make the most impact. Yeah, that’s fun. She’s really cool. Yeah. It’s so fun to be in those meetings.

[30:42] Tara Bansal: Can I. How do the clients pay her? Separate or she’s, like, paid by you? How does it work?

[30:51] Ella Taylor: It’s a part of the planning.

[30:53] Tara Bansal: It’s.

[30:54] Ella Taylor: So it’s interesting being on a lot of financial planning forums because everyone talks about, like, maximizing the money you can make and charging on dafts and charging on all these different things.

[31:05] And I’m like, my ultimate goal is to make change in the World. And so having the, like, the coaching and the philanthropic consulting and all of that wrapped up into the fees that we pay, I think is the way to get.

[31:19] Tara Bansal: It’s the model. You’re doing it.

[31:20] Ella Taylor: It’s the model, and it’s, I think, the way to make the most change, which is my goal. Great. So, yeah, it’s all included. That’s.

[31:30] Tara Bansal: That’s helpful.

[31:31] Ella Taylor: What.

[31:32] Tara Bansal: What surprised you about doing what you do?

[31:38] Ella Taylor: Oh, good.

[31:42] I think how much I love it.

[31:45] I didn’t.

[31:47] I grew up, like, you know, my mom was a hippie, and she.

[31:51] When I told her I wanted to go into financial planning, she was not a fan. Right. And I was a.

[31:59] I still am, like, a member of the lesbian community. Right. And it’s not traditionally mainstream financial planning. Right. It’s not necessarily what we’re doing. And I was like, but someone has to be on the inside doing the good work.

[32:15] Um, and so I’m surprised by how much I love the planning and talking about money. And then actually, the one that really surprised me. I love doing investments. When I got into the business, I thought it was so daunting.

[32:28] I love it. I love it.

[32:30] Tara Bansal: So you do the investments for your clients. You don’t outsource that.

[32:34] Ella Taylor: Mm. Mm. I do the research. I meet with the fund managers. I do the compliance.

[32:42] I create the models.

[32:44] I mean, I have a network that I reach out to because I get stuck in my own head. But,

[32:50] yeah, I do all of it, and I love it. I find it so fun talking about the economy and markets. Who knew that was so fun and fascinating?

[32:58] Tara Bansal: Well, so, like, that is not my jam at all. I love the people relationship and planning side. More so.

[33:07] And I’m happy to have someone else do the investments, but I do feel like,

[33:12] I don’t know, some people are all in on investments, and then they don’t usually do any planning. But then there’s people like you that love both and want to do both.

[33:22] Ella Taylor: Yeah. I think if it wasn’t, like, environmental focused. Right. Like, we weren’t focusing on sustainability and shareholder engagement and all of that stuff, I wouldn’t be super into the investments.

[33:33] But because.

[33:33] Tara Bansal: Because of that unique focus that makes it. Yeah. Okay.

[33:37] Ella Taylor: Yeah. I feel like we’re really making change, and it’s fun to look at which funds are more sustainable, which ones are doing what. I just love it.

[33:47] Mm.

[33:48] Yeah. That’s very cool.

[33:51] Tara Bansal: How are you designing your life and practice in a way that feels truly aligned for you?

[34:03] Ella Taylor: I think becoming a mom shifted all of that in ways I Didn’t expect at all. Yeah. I thought, like, starting the firm in Covid. I just worked all the time. I was like, well,

[34:16] I would either be walking and listening to, like, audiobooks or working.

[34:20] And we’re watching Married at First Sight with my wife and, like, hanging out. That was, like, what we did.

[34:26] Tara Bansal: Um, and so why did you sign up for Limitless?

[34:30] Ella Taylor: Well, so that was. The thing is, I had a good friend who.

[34:34] Another financial planner who did Limitless,

[34:37] and she was working herself to death. Like, things just. She wasn’t super happy. She did Limitless, and.

[34:44] Oh, my God, it shifted, right? And her firm was set up really well. She was thriving. She had time to do her own things. And so thinking about starting a family,

[34:55] I really wanted to have a company that could grow and wouldn’t, like, would be able to. Exactly. Like you said, would be able to kind of grow with my life.

[35:09] And so,

[35:10] um, I did Limitless. I started.

[35:12] Who knew I was gonna get pregnant so quick? But, like, I started Limitless, and then I got pregnant, and, yeah, was pregnant through Limitless, and so it was kind of perfect timing.

[35:22] But then I thought I’d just come right back to work and work my little heart out and then have a kid. And it turns out that’s not how it works at all.

[35:32] I had a giant shift where I really just wanna hang out with my daughter. She’s so fun. She’s so cool.

[35:40] I don’t want to miss a minute of it. And so I quit taking clients for three,

[35:46] two and a half years.

[35:48] Something like that.

[35:48] Tara Bansal: I want you to share that, like, after you had Mabel,

[35:54] what you did,

[35:55] like, one. I’d love you if you’re willing, like, share what your plan was like when you were pregnant, what you thought you

[36:02] Ella Taylor: were going to do, what I thought it was going to be. Yeah.

[36:05] Tara Bansal: And then what you ended up doing. And then now what you’re trying to do or how it is.

[36:10] Ella Taylor: Okay.

[36:11] Yeah. So when I was pregnant, I thought that I would just get it set up. I’d do surge meetings, and I’d still work, and I’d still just grow this firm, and I’d work.

[36:24] I only work four days a week. I take Wednesdays off.

[36:27] And so I would just continue working four days a week. My wife would watch our daughter, and I would come home and it would be lovely. And.

[36:37] And then I got pregnant. And to be fair, I had the roughest. I was. I’ve never been more sick in my life. I had morning sickness for, like, six months.

[36:45] I would.

[36:45] Tara Bansal: So sorry.

[36:46] Ella Taylor: Throw up before A meeting. Do a meeting and throw up after I was so dying.

[36:52] And so that kind of helped, honestly, to slow down. And then I was on maternity leave for three months.

[37:03] And Aaron,

[37:06] most amazing person ever, kind of took over the reins of everything. And we’d meet on Tuesdays. We told clients she’d talk to me on Tuesdays if something was like,

[37:17] urgent, urgent, I was available, but otherwise it was Tuesdays. And then she’d get back to them with a response. And I thought clients were gonna leave. I thought they’d be livid.

[37:28] They sent presents.

[37:29] They were so supportive. They wanted updates on Mabel. They were. I have the most loving,

[37:36] amazing clients in the whole wide world. It was so beautiful. And so.

[37:40] Tara Bansal: And so you told them ahead of time you were doing the three month maternity leave, correct?

[37:46] Ella Taylor: Right. Yep, I did. And so then,

[37:49] of course, they have like, urgent needs, right? And they’re like, well, we want to sell our house, but I guess we’ll wait till you’re back.

[37:55] And some people did.

[37:57] And then California,

[38:00] State of California, audited me. The day I got back, three months to the day, they emailed me and said they were auditing me.

[38:08] Tara Bansal: Oh, my God.

[38:09] Ella Taylor: And so I have a three month old. She didn’t sleep. She woke up every. She wanted to eat every half hour. She would not take a bottle.

[38:17] Tara Bansal: She

[38:19] Ella Taylor: didn’t sleep through the night. She woke up every, like two hours.

[38:23] And I’m going through this audit with California. I’m back at work. It was kind of the worst time of my life. Even though I love Mabel, I love being a mom, I love being a firm owner.

[38:33] But that was just.

[38:35] It was so,

[38:37] so,

[38:37] so hard at that point. And then I realized,

[38:41] it turns out three month old baby is still a little bitty baby.

[38:45] And I didn’t want to be back at. I kind of couldn’t be. And I didn’t want to be back at work. And so I kind of extended my maternity leave for a year.

[38:54] And I worked very, very part time.

[38:58] Um,

[38:59] I did surge meetings. And so I met with clients, like just very as needed. We kept the Tuesdays going.

[39:08] Um,

[39:09] and so I stayed on maternity leave. And then I realized it’s one. I didn’t.

[39:16] My drive shifted. It was. It’s so weird to go from being so ambitious. I was gonna grow this giant firm and I had all these dreams to being like,

[39:28] this seems like enough.

[39:30] Like, I wanna hang out with my kid. I don’t want to be working my life away and miss all of this. I didn’t realize that I wanted to Just hang out with her.

[39:43] And so it made me way more efficient.

[39:46] Yeah,

[39:47] I love. I love it. I don’t regret Amanda got, like, mind of it and. But now that she’s getting older, she’s turning three soon, and so she’s in daycare a few days a week.

[39:58] And so now I’m back to wanting to grow the firm, but not like I did.

[40:03] Yeah. If I want, like, the ideal client that I feel very excited to work

[40:09] Tara Bansal: with and you know who it is.

[40:12] Ella Taylor: Mm. Yeah, I feel pretty clear.

[40:14] And building a. The high impact family office right now. We’re in the process of building that and doing high impact investing for this family and then really focusing on, like, systemic investing, doing the investing with my firm.

[40:34] So I’m. I think I’m really trying to figure out what I’m doing right now and what that growth does look like. I want to grow, and I really want to make as much change as possible,

[40:46] but I also want to work four days a week and hang out with my kids.

[40:51] Tara Bansal: Have a life.

[40:52] Ella Taylor: Yeah, have a life. I have so many passions outside of work. As passionate as I am about work, I also have a million other things I want to do.

[41:00] Tara Bansal: What else are you passionate about?

[41:02] Ella Taylor: Oh, man. I love reading.

[41:05] I do bead weaving.

[41:07] I cook. I have friends that I love so much and want to just hang out with all the time. I like walking. I love dancing.

[41:19] I’m sure I’m forgetting a million other. I knit.

[41:22] You know, there’s so many I want. And also my wife. I want to go on date nights with my wife and hang out with her. She’s so fun and getting to know her again after having Mabel, like, things shift and I want to,

[41:36] you know, develop that.

[41:37] We look like.

[41:38] So.

[41:42] Tara Bansal: So how big do you want your firm to get? Are you trying to figure that out or.

[41:48] Ella Taylor: I think so. I always said 60 clients was, like, my perfect amount because I really like.

[41:57] I like knowing everything about them. Right. Like, I. I want to be available.

[42:01] I want to be able to have the time to really dig into the impact of the investments, do impact investing, systemic investing, networking.

[42:11] Um,

[42:12] and so.

[42:14] And I also do in depth financial planning.

[42:17] Like, we start with cash flow. We do all the financial planning if they like. I have a client right now who just got diagnosed with Alzheimer’s, and so being able to support her and her partner going through, like, what does this look like?

[42:34] How do we set this up? I feel so lucky to be able to know how to do that and support them and be able to have the time to really dig in and just be present.

[42:47] And so not growing too big, but big enough that we are making change and that it’s still fun. And I love new clients. I find it so exciting.

[43:00] And so not taking new clients has been hard.

[43:04] Tara Bansal: Yeah.

[43:04] Tara Bansal: So after maternity leave for a year, you decided not to take new clients for a certain time period, right?

[43:14] Ella Taylor: Yeah. Yeah. Well, it’s a lot of work to take on a new client.

[43:18] Tara Bansal: Yeah, that’s. The heavy lift is always the start. Yeah.

[43:21] Ella Taylor: And such a heavy lift. And so.

[43:23] And then also a lot of my clients were going through huge transitions during that time, like family members dying, inheriting things, selling property to land trusts, like doing all these, like, big,

[43:39] really fun things that took a lot of my time and energy.

[43:43] And I just didn’t feel like I’d be able to actually support my clients,

[43:47] be present for my family and take on new clients.

[43:51] I don’t.

[43:54] I. I just wouldn’t be able to do it. And not sleeping. She still doesn’t sleep through the night, you know.

[43:58] Tara Bansal: Is that a hard decision to, like, say I’m not.

[44:02] Ella Taylor: Oh, no, no. That was. I thought it would be back to the, like, ambition and the mind shift. I thought it would be so hard, and it actually felt like the right thing to do.

[44:14] So.

[44:14] Tara Bansal: Yeah, you knew. And that made it easy.

[44:17] Ella Taylor: Yeah, it was easy.

[44:19] Tara Bansal: What. How many households do you have now? So where are you?

[44:25] Ella Taylor: Question. I have about 44.

[44:28] Oh, okay.

[44:29] So close to max.

[44:34] But yeah. And I think,

[44:37] like, if I.

[44:38] If the family office ends up looking like what we want it to look like, I think I’ll hire an advisor. Honestly, I don’t be able to just.

[44:45] Tara Bansal: Well, that was my other question is, can you do 60 and the family

[44:49] Ella Taylor: office not well and not four days a week,

[44:53] you know, so I think I would need to.

[44:57] Also, I.

[44:59] I think it would be fun to work with someone else. Like my wife, when I started my own firm, she’s like, you’re so social. You love other people, you love collaborating.

[45:09] And so it’s so fun to collaborate with Aaron.

[45:11] And I think if we brought the right person in who’s very sustainability focused, team focus, you know, all the things I think we could have a beautiful, amazing firm with a lot of growth opportunity for them,

[45:26] a lot of learning, and then I’d really be able to focus on kind of the investment work, like high level planning, philanthropy, like all the stuff that I really want to do.

[45:41] It’s just trying to figure out, what does that look like? And getting over the fear of hiring.

[45:47] Tara Bansal: Yeah, I was Gonna say how. How will you know when it’s time to hire? Or do you feel like it’s.

[45:54] Ella Taylor: I don’t know. I don’t want to wait too long and be overwhelmed and not be able to do everything.

[46:00] But I also don’t wanna hire too early.

[46:03] Yeah.

[46:04] And not be able to sustain it. I don’t know. That’s a good question.

[46:09] And also who. I don’t.

[46:11] Tara Bansal: Yeah, that’s also hard, I think. And that’s where, like, the fact that you knew Aaron.

[46:18] Tara Bansal: Right.

[46:18] Tara Bansal: Like. Like, that’s the beauty of. Because you already knew her.

[46:25] Ella Taylor: I knew her. I knew she worked.

[46:27] Tara Bansal: You knew how she worked.

[46:28] Ella Taylor: You knew.

[46:28] Tara Bansal: Yeah.

[46:29] Ella Taylor: Really well. Yeah. The unknown. It’s. Yeah.

[46:34] Tara Bansal: People do it. So.

[46:36] Ella Taylor: Yeah. Varying degrees of success and, you know. Yeah. What.

[46:46] Tara Bansal: Oh, we’re almost out of time and I have so many questions. How?

[46:51] Ella Taylor: What?

[46:53] Tara Bansal: How do you think we can get more women in this profession? Do you have any ideas?

[46:59] Ella Taylor: I love that question. I was listening. I was thinking about that after listening to some of your podcasts. I think.

[47:05] I agree.

[47:06] Some people said, like, early education. Right. Like going into the schools and talking to people about just how fun it is and how,

[47:16] like, our mastermind group, the community of female advisors.

[47:23] So supportive. Because I think you hear finance and you think, like, alpha and, you know, like, all these things that just aren’t what we’re doing.

[47:34] Yeah.

[47:35] And then I do also think that the wealth transfer that’s happening right now, a lot of. I talk to a lot of prospective clients who want to work with a woman.

[47:44] And so I think hopefully it’ll kind of naturally happen.

[47:50] And then also someone else was talking about women haven’t been able to make money or manage their own money for.

[47:58] Tara Bansal: Yeah, not that long.

[48:00] Ella Taylor: Like the 80s. I was alive when this happened.

[48:03] And so I think we are seeing more women in the industry. But, yeah, I think really talking about kind of the relationship and the planning aspect of it, as opposed to.

[48:15] I think that’s what women want to do. And then we get into the investment part and that’s fun, but, like, starting with that for most women, I think is not where we’re going.

[48:24] And then also talking about, like, you can work four days a week and have a successful firm and have a family and.

[48:31] Tara Bansal: Well, that’s why I wanted you to talk about doing your maternity leave and how you are a solo, you know.

[48:39] Ella Taylor: Yeah.

[48:41] Tara Bansal: Entrepreneur. And you made it work.

[48:44] Ella Taylor: And to be clear, it was hard, but getting everything set up, having good help. I like working.

[48:52] Tara Bansal: Yeah. Yeah, I would. I mean, I don’t know if you said this, but, like, at Limitless, you were like, my firm’s my baby.

[49:02] Ella Taylor: And then.

[49:03] Tara Bansal: Then you had a baby. And that, you know, shifted in a big way.

[49:08] Ella Taylor: It was. It was a big mourning process to let go of, like, my firm baby being my solo child that I was growing and nurturing and loving to having a human baby that I really want to do all that for and be, like, a really active parent.

[49:28] It was a big mourning process, but now I feel like there’s a rebirth of the firm and I can really, you know,

[49:37] do both.

[49:39] Tara Bansal: How would you define success for you?

[49:43] Ella Taylor: I think it’s what we were just talking about of being able to have time with Morgan and Mabel and be able. And be able to be present when I’m with them, which I struggle with so much.

[49:57] But coming back to. I’m actually, like, trying to reinstate some of the limitless stuff of only checking email twice a day and having meetings on certain days and work. You know what I mean?

[50:06] Like, all the.

[50:07] Tara Bansal: Like, have the boundaries and structure to try to. Yeah.

[50:11] Ella Taylor: Yes. And then being able to make positive. I keep coming back to that, but make positive change in the world. And, like, when something like the Epstein files drops and I sink into despair,

[50:25] being able to come back and be like, there’s something that I can help you do.

[50:30] I don’t just have to feel powerless and upset. Yeah, that’s great.

[50:34] Tara Bansal: Yeah.

[50:36] Ella Taylor: What do you have a favorite book

[50:39] Tara Bansal: podcaster resource that you’re loving right now? And it doesn’t have to be work

[50:46] Ella Taylor: if I know you’re a huge reader, so I’ll take. Well, like, I think a lot of your other people have said I read not work books. I.

[50:59] Tara Bansal: You.

[51:00] Ella Taylor: I mean, honestly, I read murder mysteries and romance, and so I’ll take any recommendation paranormal. I do.

[51:06] Tara Bansal: Me too. I love, like, so much of that.

[51:12] Ella Taylor: It’s so fun.

[51:14] Oh, man. I’m trying to think of my favorite. I’ll have to send you a list. I read right now. It’s listening to podcasts or not podcasts, but audiobooks.

[51:26] Tara Bansal: Audiobooks?

[51:27] Tara Bansal: Yeah.

[51:28] Ella Taylor: Oh, man. I go through them like water. I just love them.

[51:33] Tara Bansal: And how do you find the time to listen? I know you’re a big walker, so I’m sure while you walk.

[51:39] Ella Taylor: Yeah, like this last week, I’ve gone for, like, two hour walks each day, and I listen to an audiobook. I do a lot of spreadsheet work, like, for the investment stuff, so I listen.

[51:48] Tara Bansal: You can listen while you do that.

[51:50] Tara Bansal: Okay.

[51:51] Ella Taylor: Yeah. It turns out I can’t listen while doing other work because it’s just.

[51:54] Tara Bansal: Yeah. You have to.

[51:57] Ella Taylor: Yeah. And I actually, I’ve been really and honestly loving your podcast with like the women advisors.

[52:04] Tara Bansal: Thank you.

[52:05] Ella Taylor: Yeah. I find a lot of other financial planning podcasts, I really like them and I get wisdom out of them, but I male advisors. As much as I like them, I can’t relate as much.

[52:18] Right. Especially now being a mom and really focusing on all these other things.

[52:23] Tara Bansal: Yeah.

[52:24] Ella Taylor: It’s just different worlds and I like hearing what women are doing, how they’re doing it. I find them so inspiring.

[52:33] Tara Bansal: You’re inspiring.

[52:38] Ella Taylor: I feel the same way about you.

[52:40] Tara Bansal: I don’t do anything compared to you. Do you have a self care ritual

[52:48] Ella Taylor: or what is your go to self care ritual?

[52:51] That’s a good question. I think I have two, like two main ones. One is like walking and exercise. I realize I for like mental health physical.

[53:02] I used to pre Mabel. I exercised every day for like a lot. And then having her,

[53:13] my body just wasn’t there. I didn’t have the time, the energy. And so now getting back into exercise, even just walking, walking up hills. I walk up into the Berkeley hills and they’re so hard and it’s all stairs, which is so fun.

[53:26] That and then spending time with friends and family and Mabel and Morgan and you know, just leaning into my relationships and especially when things are so heavy right now, I get stuck in my own head and then just talking it through with people I love and being able to like laugh and be silly and talk about real things and not real things.

[53:53] You know, it’s just that I think that’s my self care.

[53:56] Tara Bansal: That’s.

[53:57] Ella Taylor: Yeah.

[53:58] Tara Bansal: What is one thing giving you joy right now?

[54:03] Ella Taylor: You could have guessed it. But Mabel, yeah,

[54:07] he’s so silly and fun and naughty, which I love.

[54:13] And she’s loving and quirky. I just, I love it. I love it.

[54:18] Tara Bansal: So is motherhood all you thought it would be?

[54:23] Ella Taylor: Motherhood’s way more than I thought it would be. I thought I was gonna be this easygoing, fun parent.

[54:30] No,

[54:31] I am a crazy person. Every time she coughs, I’m like, we need to email the doctor. You know, like it’s so it turns out I’m not a cool parent.

[54:42] It.

[54:43] You are a cool parent. Oh, thanks. Yeah. Yeah, I think so. No, but I think it shifted everything in my life. I didn’t expect. I thought my life would keep going and I’d have this fun little kid that I’d take care of and instead,

[54:58] no. My body changed, my hormones,

[55:02] my priorities. My time, my sleep, what I eat. My immunity. I have no immunity, so I’m sick. Nonsense.

[55:11] You know, it’s.

[55:13] And it’s more wonderful. I would see my friends do it, and they’d be like, you should have a kid. And I was like, ruin my life like you did. No, thank you.

[55:20] And then I had a kid.

[55:23] It turns out it’s. Even when I’m sick and miserable, I’m still happy, which I always thought people were crazy when they said it. And I’m sure I sound crazy, but.

[55:33] Tara Bansal: No, I mean,

[55:35] I.

[55:36] I do get it. And. But I feel like it’s a billion times harder than I expected.

[55:44] Like, I don’t know how to even communicate that. Like.

[55:49] And so I feel like I had no idea how hard it was going

[55:53] Ella Taylor: to be at all. How to handle situations. Things come up that I thought I would know how to do.

[56:03] Tara Bansal: And. Yeah.

[56:06] Ella Taylor: It turns out some of the things I do are wrong.

[56:10] You know, Like, I think I’m teaching her one thing, and then she tells me what I taught her, and I’m

[56:16] Tara Bansal: like, whoops, that’s not exactly what I was going for.

[56:19] Ella Taylor: Going for putting in the therapy fund.

[56:25] Tara Bansal: But that’s.

[56:27] Yeah. And. And I think you can never know that because of how these little people take things in. In ways that you would never have guessed or expected to. So I always love.

[56:43] There’s no perfect parent or mother,

[56:46] but. And so you can’t even expect that at all.

[56:51] Ella Taylor: No. And then also trying to focus on who they are.

[56:56] Right. Like, you think that they’re unique,

[56:59] someone different than who. It’s. It’s humbling, I gotta say. It’s the most humbling thing in the hoyed world. Like, I’ll be holding her, and she’ll look at me and she’ll say,

[57:12] mommy, you’re not my best friend.

[57:15] Mom’s my best friend.

[57:16] I don’t. You know, I don’t want to play with you. And. And I’m holding her and snuggling her, and I’m like,

[57:22] I love you so much. Anyway.

[57:26] Okay.

[57:29] Tara Bansal: Oh, yeah.

[57:31] Ella Taylor: The joys of motherhood and the challenges.

[57:33] Tara Bansal: I mean. But I do feel like. Because I got to see you before and kind of witness the shift of your priorities and.

[57:45] Ella Taylor: Yeah. Well, you guys were such a big part of that. Like, the professional shift. Yeah. Wow. I think.

[57:52] Tara Bansal: Because I think everyone else in the group already had kids, so we were all just, like, waiting to see what happens.

[58:00] Ella Taylor: You knew where I was going, and I did not.

[58:02] Tara Bansal: Well, yeah. I don’t know that we knew, but.

[58:06] Ella Taylor: Because you never know. But.

[58:08] Tara Bansal: And that’s true.

[58:10] Ella Taylor: Any.

[58:11] Tara Bansal: Anything else we didn’t talk about that you would love to share?

[58:17] Ella Taylor: Oh, man. I think just what a cool career this is and how like you can.

[58:27] This is what your whole podcast is about. But how you can do it, how you want to do it. It’s different for everyone.

[58:33] And leaning into community and the support network that we have is just invaluable. Like as a solo person, I can’t do it all on my own. And so if a client comes to me for something, I reach out to my network and my group and everyone wants to help.

[58:52] That’s the thing. You think that you’re a burden.

[58:56] People love helping. They want to share, they want to support you. And the women advisor community is so strong and so beautiful,

[59:06] so supportive. Yeah, I agree with that.

[59:08] Tara Bansal: You’re part of so many different groups.

[59:11] Tara Bansal: What are some of the groups that you.

[59:16] Ella Taylor: The advisors for Good Language was talking about. We just had a call there.

[59:20] I’ve kind of fallen off, but doing it again. I was like, oh yeah, this group is so cool. Yeah,

[59:28] Tara Bansal: the Method XY planning or no,

[59:34] Ella Taylor: you used to be. Or no, I’m still a member.

[59:36] Tara Bansal: Okay.

[59:37] Ella Taylor: I feel like they,

[59:39] I know they’re trying to grow for like established firms. I think they’re really good for starting out. Starting out. And then also.

[59:51] I,

[59:53] I think we’ve talked about this. Like I’ll go onto the forum and ask a question and inevitably some,

[01:00:00] I imagine well intentioned male advisor will DM me separately giving me really good advice.

[01:00:07] That’s not good advice that I didn’t ask for and is really patronizing and it makes me angry. And so I find it really tricky to ask questions through that forum because it’s a lot of just rude, unsolicited advice that assumes I don’t know what I’m doing.

[01:00:24] It’s like, yeah, lowly woman.

[01:00:30] So I want to really do more with those groups. But I, I struggle.

[01:00:36] Yeah.

[01:00:37] Tara Bansal: Are there other groups that you like and enjoy?

[01:00:41] Ella Taylor: I’m sure there are.

[01:00:44] Like the Explorers Club. I really like them. Like the Impact Collective.

[01:00:49] I’ve honestly been kind of out of the loop doing my own thing. I’m just trying to get back into.

[01:00:59] Back into it. I don’t actually. I do my masterminds.

[01:01:05] I like Napa a lot. I feel like they’re really good. But similarly the forum, I’ve had similar interactions on there.

[01:01:12] Tara Bansal: Are you part of more than one? More than one mastermind?

[01:01:16] Ella Taylor: Yeah, yeah. I’m in a local women’s bay Area mastermind. And they’re. And that one’s interesting. So it’s not only women who own their own firms or, you know.

[01:01:27] Tara Bansal: And so is it still financial focused? Okay.

[01:01:30] Ella Taylor: Yeah, it’s all financial planners. Okay.

[01:01:33] And so that one’s really fun. And then our mastermind,

[01:01:38] the Explorers Club, I’ve been really into just learning about, like, European investing and kind of what they’re doing is how different. Yeah,

[01:01:45] it’s different. So progressive. They’re.

[01:01:49] I find it so inspiring.

[01:01:52] And then I’ve been doing a lot with the, like, the family.

[01:01:55] I work with a really wealthy family, and so I travel with them quarterly, and I advise one of the, like, the sisters on that about understanding the investments that are recommended, the impact around them,

[01:02:13] and really supporting her with making decisions within her family trust. And so I travel with them a lot and do a lot with them.

[01:02:24] Yeah, that one’s really fun. And I’ve worked with other trustees about how to do that and how to, like, do impact investing within, like, a family structure.

[01:02:34] And so that’s super fun.

[01:02:36] Very cool. So that’s kind of.

[01:02:38] Tara Bansal: Yeah. I just feel like you’re so much more social than I am, and I feel like you talk about many groups, but,

[01:02:46] oh, Ella, you’re always so fun, and I just love your enthusiasm and passion and energy and.

[01:02:54] Yeah, you are inspiring.

[01:02:56] So I just want the whole world to get to know you.

[01:03:01] And I’ll put all your information in the show notes, but thank you for being here.

[01:03:06] Yeah.

[01:03:06] Ella Taylor: Thank you so much for having me. I looked forward to this.

[01:03:10] Tara Bansal: Yeah, it was fun. It flew by. I feel like we’ve already gone over, but I could talk to you again,

[01:03:15] Ella Taylor: so I know one day we will.

[01:03:18] Tara Bansal: So thank you. Thank you. Thank you.

[01:03:20] Ella Taylor: Bye. Bye.

[01:03:21] Tara Bansal: Ella Taylor is so inspiring.

[01:03:24] Her passion and her clarity, just her passionate clarity.

[01:03:28] She’s ambitious.

[01:03:30] She’s values driven.

[01:03:31] She’s deeply committed to making a positive impact in this world.

[01:03:36] And yet she’s equally clear about the kind of life she wants to live.

[01:03:41] I was honestly surprised to hear her talk about her having a scarcity mindset. From the outside,

[01:03:47] she exudes confidence and abundance.

[01:03:50] But outsourcing didn’t come naturally to her.

[01:03:53] Letting go of control didn’t come easily.

[01:03:57] Spending money on things she could technically do herself felt uncomfortable.

[01:04:02] And yet when she leaned into outsourcing, everything expanded.

[01:04:07] By releasing what she disliked,

[01:04:09] she created more space for what she.

[01:04:13] Sustainable investing,

[01:04:15] philanthropy,

[01:04:16] deep client relationships,

[01:04:18] systemic change.

[01:04:20] That expansion wasn’t about growth for growth’s sake. It was about alignment.

[01:04:25] She’s crystal clear about who she wants to serve and why.

[01:04:30] She wants to move capital toward impact investing.

[01:04:34] She wants money supporting the planet and the people on it.

[01:04:37] She even brought in a philanthropic consultant so her clients can give more intentionally and more effectively.

[01:04:45] And she is just as clear about her version of enough 60 households working four days a week,

[01:04:53] time with her daughter, time with her wife,

[01:04:56] and time for herself.

[01:04:58] Motherhood changed the shape of her ambition.

[01:05:01] It refined it.

[01:05:04] As I was thinking about this episode, I kept thinking about watching Elisa liu at the 2026 Winter Olympics.

[01:05:15] As a teenager, skating was Elisa’s entire life and identity.

[01:05:21] She stepped away when it stopped being fun.

[01:05:24] She then started living as a more normal teenager.

[01:05:28] She hung out with friends,

[01:05:29] danced and went to concerts.

[01:05:32] She reconnected with what made her feel alive.

[01:05:36] And when she returned to skating,

[01:05:38] skating was no longer her whole life. It was just one part of a full and joyful life.

[01:05:45] And you could see it when she skated.

[01:05:47] She was so relaxed. She was having fun.

[01:05:51] She looked joyful and free.

[01:05:53] That’s what I see in Ella.

[01:05:56] I think what I’m taking from her is this,

[01:05:58] that success doesn’t have to take over your whole life to be meaningful.

[01:06:03] Impact doesn’t require you to run yourself into the ground.

[01:06:07] An ambition is allowed to evolve.

[01:06:10] We are allowed to evolve.

[01:06:14] Maybe we get to build something that fits the life we actually want.

[01:06:19] And if this conversation stirred something in you, even just a small nudge toward more alignment or more joy,

[01:06:26] I want you to pay attention to that.

[01:06:29] May your work and life reflect what and who you love.

[01:06:34] May your days feel joyful and may you always remember you are already enough.

[01:06:42] Thank you for listening to her life, her practice, her way.

[01:06:47] A podcast for and about female financial advisors.

[01:06:51] I truly hope you have enjoyed this podcast and got some value from it. If so, I would love to ask a favor of you.

[01:06:58] Please go to Apple Podcasts or Spotify and rate and review my podcast. This will help me get the word out to other amazing like minded female financial advisors.

[01:07:10] You can also send it to a friend or two who you think would gain something from listening to it.

[01:07:15] Until next time, I’m wishing you the very best.

Ella Financial Advising – https://www.ellafinancialadvising.com/

Stephanie Bogan’s Limitless program – https://limitlessfa.life/

Impact Collective – https://weareimpactcollective.org/&

 Explorers Club – https://www.explorers.org/

Advisors for Good – https://www.advisorsforgood.org/

XY Planning Network – https://www.xyplanningnetwork.com/

 

Ella Taylor

My passion is making financial planning an approachable and enjoyable experience.

I became a CERTIFIED FINANCIAL PLANNER™ to help people find solutions for their financial needs but soon realized that traditional financial planning was designed for a male head of household with a certain amount of wealth. Since I am most passionate about equality for women and the LGBTQ community, I realized that I needed additional skills to make financial planning meet our specific needs. So, I became a Certified Professional Co-Active Coach (CPCC) which allows me and my clients to go deeper to explore and clarify their individual values and goals. Once we’ve figured out what their ideal life looks like and what is really important to them, we can create a financial plan designed for them.

Anyone who knows me knows of my deep love of pastries. I started my career as a pastry chef, fully embracing my creativity, a love of science and math, and delight in creating delicious concoctions. I loved this career, until one day I had an epiphany: My love of numbers and baking science acumen could be used in better ways to help the world. Turns out I like baking more as a hobby than as a career. No more petit fours!

I returned to college as a women studies major determined to help women realize their potential and gain equality. Upon self-reflection I realized that I had a lot of passion but lacked any real skills to make the change in the world that I sought to make. Around this time my grandfather died, and I started helping my grandmother with her finances. We sought out information and together we came up with a financial plan for her new life alone. Helping my grandmother become financially independent was exactly the type of impact I wanted to have on other women’s lives. My career path was born.