A Wall Street influencer breaks down how he gained 72,000 TikTok followers

Taylor Sohns wants to bring professional-grade insights on personal finance to everyday investors through social media.

Taylor Sohns wants to teach everyone how to be smarter with your money — so much so that he films videos about it on a daily basis to his 72,000 TikTok followers and 13,000 Instagram followers. 

He's been filming content for about a year, but before that he told me he didn't even have any social media accounts.

After graduating college in 2010, Sohns worked on Wall Street for a decade as an advisory consultant, analyzing portfolios for institutional clients and determining how to maximize returns with various strategies. 

Then, in 2021, he branched off with his brother, Brett, to start LifeGoal Investments in an effort to make Wall-Street-level wealth management available for everyday investors. The company offers actively-managed ETFs that include holdings in stocks, bonds, commodities, and real estate, and costs less than $10 per share.

He soon realized that he could share professional-grade insights via social media to meet a dual goal of promoting his company and also teaching younger audiences about finance and how to invest. 

"We want LifeGoal Investments to be seen as a lighthouse to help people see what's going on in this confusing market," 34-year-old Sohns said.

Retail investors typically buy and sell at the wrong time, he explained, not because they're bad at trading but because most people don't have the resources or know-how to develop a portfolio that can withstand turmoil.

"I go to social media because the average person doesn't do that well on their own, but we have the background to explain what's going on," he said, adding that he gets questions from followers about economic data, how to diversify a portfolio, and how to invest in the bond market. 

As far as what Sohns likes as an investment strategy for 2023, he said the confusing market and economy makes him shy away from specific stocks or sectors. Instead, he recommends buying into diversified funds, similar to the ones LifeGoal Investments offers. 

"There could be a recession, we think tech is overvalued, rates continue to go higher, inflation is sticky," he said. "I don't feel comfortable saying any of these things individually, but I do feel comfortable to recommend a broad-based ETF."

Skyrocketing social media growth

For much of 2022, Sohn said his TikTok account hovered around 20,000 followers. He would write scripts and present financial information like a broadcast journalist in his videos, but his profile's growth was stagnating.

"Nothing was working at that point, so I just started saying what was in my head while I walked around," he said. "The most effective content explains what's going on the market on the more dicey days, and on quieter days, I cover other topics like personal finance or investing jargon."

Now, because his videos aren't scripted, they are longer and more varied, but that has brought in more viewers. 

"The change in style has really helped," he said. "People relate to it better."