James Brett is the founder of Truly Finance, an Australian mortgage brokerage approaching its fifth year in business. With more than 40 lenders on its panel, Truly Finance helps first home buyers, refinancers, investors, and other borrowers find financing that fits their individual circumstances.
James wants the company to be more than somewhere Australians go when they need a home loan. He wants Truly Finance to become what he calls a "soft finance educator," sharing useful information with people who have a mortgage, are preparing to buy a home, or simply want to understand their finances better.
Social media was already central to that strategy. Truly Finance published four to five times a week across Facebook, Instagram, and LinkedIn.
But James wasn’t using one format: video.
"I never wanted to get in front of the camera," James said.
That meant video, and the additional reach it could bring, was largely off the table. HeyGen changed that.
Reaching people beyond Truly Finance's followers
Before HeyGen, Truly Finance's social strategy relied primarily on static images and written posts.
"All the content before video was only seen by followers," James said.
James wanted to reach beyond that existing audience. Video gave Truly Finance another way to get its financial education in front of Australians who might not already know the company.
The challenge was finding a way to consistently create video.
James wasn't interested in becoming an on-camera personality, and traditional filming wasn't a realistic foundation for a recurring video strategy. With HeyGen, he could create videos without recording himself for every post.
That helped Truly Finance add video to an already active social strategy rather than completely rebuilding how the company created content.
Going from no regular video to 2 to 3 a week
Today, James publishes two to three HeyGen videos each week on top of Truly Finance's existing content.
The company continues to publish four to five static posts across Facebook, Instagram, and LinkedIn, but video has expanded both the amount and types of content it can share.
Truly Finance has also added TikTok, bringing its social presence to four platforms.
For James, the biggest change is simple. Video has gone from something he avoided to something Truly Finance can publish every week.
He's using the format to share approachable financial education rather than turning every post into a pitch for a mortgage. The idea is to build familiarity with consumers before they ever need to speak with a broker.
If someone eventually needs a home loan, James wants Truly Finance to be a company they already recognize and trust.
Getting more reach and conversation with video
James is still early in building Truly Finance's video strategy. He's experimenting with topics, posting frequency, video length, and the types of educational content that resonate most.
But he's already seeing a difference.
Since adding video, James says Truly Finance is getting "much more reach and much more commenting."
That's particularly important because reaching new people was one of the main reasons he wanted to add video in the first place.
James isn't attributing a specific new loan or sale to HeyGen yet. Instead, he's looking at whether video is helping Truly Finance get its expertise in front of more people and create more conversation around the brand.
The early results are giving him a reason to keep going.
Making video possible for a camera-shy founder
For James, the biggest impact of HeyGen isn't necessarily the number of hours it saves compared with traditional video production.
Without HeyGen, he wasn't regularly creating video at all.
James already had the mortgage expertise and ideas he wanted to share. He just needed a way to turn them into video without becoming comfortable filming himself every week.
Now, video is a regular part of how Truly Finance communicates.
Some viewers recognize that the videos use AI, but James hasn't seen that stop people from engaging with the content. Instead, the videos have also sparked interest among friends and colleagues curious about how he's creating them.
His advice to other mortgage professionals facing the same barrier is straightforward.
"Go for it if you are shy like me in front of the camera!"
Truly Finance spent years building its lending expertise and helping Australians navigate their financing options. With HeyGen, James can bring more of that expertise to social media in a format he previously avoided.
Instead of trying to turn himself into an on-camera creator, he's publishing two to three videos a week, reaching people across four social platforms, and seeing more reach and conversation around Truly Finance's content.
For a founder who never wanted to be on camera, video is finally something he can do consistently.
