Bryan Fikes is the founder of Bonsai Marketing, where he helps businesses grow through more intelligent marketing systems, automation, and AI video.
Over the past 25 years, Bryan has built multiple marketing agencies and helped companies adapt to every major shift in digital marketing.
As video emerged as one of the most effective ways to build trust online, he kept seeing the same challenge again and again: businesses knew they needed video, but they struggled to produce it on a consistent basis.
Today, Bryan uses HeyGen to help clients create everything from promotional videos and landing pages to sales content and training materials. Along the way, he has created more than 300 videos, saved over 700 hours of production time, and built a workflow that makes high-quality video accessible to businesses of every size.
Making professional video practical for every business
For Bryan, every effective marketing strategy begins with a story.
"Everything is a story," Bryan said. "I do not care what you are selling. I do not care what you do. Video is the most natural storyteller."
The challenge was not convincing clients that video worked. It was making production affordable enough to use on a consistent basis.
"It was costly. The equipment was costly. Time was costly. You needed several people to do it properly," Bryan said.
For many small businesses, investing thousands of dollars in every video was not practical.
"When you are managing fuel prices versus a $2,000 expense for a video, you already know what the answer is going to be," he said.
Bryan wanted clients to publish videos as frequently as they published blogs, emails, or social posts, rather than saving video for just a few campaigns each year.
That’s where HeyGen transformed his workflow.
"HeyGen has been a natural fit because of the speed, the messaging, and just enough animation to give it that cinematic feel, without going over the top. And on top of that, it is simply cost-effective. Full stop."
Making video an integral part of every marketing strategy
Instead of treating video as a one-off project, Bryan now includes it in almost every client engagement.
His team creates videos for websites, landing pages, social media, email campaigns, training, and sales enablement, making video a consistent part of how businesses communicate.
"HeyGen really is the piece that completes the creation," Bryan said. "Everyone can make a bowl of spaghetti, but it’s those meatballs and that extra sauce that make the difference. When you finish a good website, you have all the content structured properly, you have all the services they offer clearly laid out, and then you add the right video framework on top of that."
The impact goes beyond simply producing more content.
“We’re seeing conversions go up, and conversions mean more revenue for the business owner,” he said.
Because creating new videos is no longer a major production effort, Bryan can now recommend video in places where clients earlier relied only on text or static images.
Scaling video without slowing the business down
Before adopting HeyGen, creating a single marketing video often meant weeks of planning, several meetings, and coordinating production.
"Earlier, it would take five meetings. It would need at least two people. It would take at least two weeks, if not three, to reach the stage of, 'Here's what I'm going to shoot.' That's 25 or 30 hours."
Today, the process is significantly different.
"If I have an idea, I put it into my workflow. Fifteen minutes," Bryan said. "I think I've got it down to where I can produce some of the things in less than ten minutes."
That shift has changed how Bryan approaches content production. Instead of carefully choosing which videos are worth the effort, his team can now create videos whenever they need them for marketing campaigns.
"HeyGen has become the layer on top that helps me execute all the individual pieces," Bryan said. "It allows me to reclaim a bit of my own time and space while still delivering a very professional, high-quality product."
Since adopting HeyGen, Bryan has created over 300 videos, estimates he has saved more than 700 hours, and plans to publish 10 to 15 videos every day as his business continues to grow.
Helping small businesses market themselves like larger brands
Bryan works with contractors, lawyers, training organisations, home service businesses, and other local companies that do not have dedicated video teams.
Many people want to use video but assume it is out of reach.
Rather than depending on costly production crews, Bryan supports clients in using HeyGen to create professional videos on demand.
"HeyGen has become a tool where I can confidently say, 'Go check this out,' because the user interface and the user experience are now at a stage where, no matter what level someone is at," Bryan said. "There is a place for the HeyGen video platform to help them find solutions and share their stories."
For Bryan, the biggest benefit is not just creating more videos. It is helping businesses communicate more consistently and convert more customers.
"Every single client that I've implemented this correctly for is seeing higher conversion," Bryan said. "I would say, without any doubt, HeyGen has at least doubled, if not tripled, the success that my clients are having with conversion."
"HeyGen has enabled me to grow my own agency to seven figures within a year. It has helped me scale as if I had a full-time team of 12 to 15 people working for me," Bryan said.
