James Brett is the founder of Truly Finance, an Australian mortgage brokerage nearing its fifth year in business. With over 40 lenders on its panel, Truly Finance helps first-time homebuyers, those looking to refinance, investors, and other borrowers find financing suited to their individual circumstances.

James wants the company to be more than just a place Australians turn to 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 purchase a home, or simply wish to understand their finances better.

​Social media was already central to that strategy. Truly Finance published content four to five times a week across Facebook, Instagram, and LinkedIn.

​However, James was not using one format: video.

​“I never wanted to be in front of the camera,” James said.

​This meant that video, and the wider reach it could offer, was largely out of the question. HeyGen changed that.

Connecting with people beyond Truly Finance's follower base

Before HeyGen, Truly Finance's social media strategy relied primarily on static images and written posts.

​“Before we started using video, all our content was seen only by followers,” James said.

​James wanted to reach beyond its existing audience. Video offered Truly Finance another way to share its financial education with Australians who might not already be familiar with the company.

​The challenge was to find a way to create videos consistently.

​James was not interested in becoming an on-camera personality, and traditional filming was not a practical foundation for an ongoing video strategy. With HeyGen, he could create videos without having to record himself for every post.

​This helped Truly Finance incorporate video into its existing active social media strategy, rather than completely overhauling the company’s content creation process.

Going from no regular videos to 2–3 a week

Today, James publishes two to three HeyGen videos each week, in addition to Truly Finance's existing content.

The company continues to publish four to five static posts across Facebook, Instagram and LinkedIn, but video has increased both the volume and variety of content it can share.

Truly Finance has also joined TikTok, expanding its social media presence to four platforms.

For James, the biggest change is straightforward. Video has gone from being something he avoided to content that Truly Finance can publish every week.

He is using the format to share accessible financial education rather than turning every post into a mortgage sales pitch. The aim is to build familiarity with consumers well before they need to speak with a broker.

If someone eventually needs a home loan, James wants Truly Finance to be a company they already recognise and trust.

Expanding reach and encouraging conversations with video

James is still in the early stages of developing Truly Finance's video strategy. He is experimenting with topics, posting frequency, video length, and the types of educational content that resonate most with audiences.

But he is already seeing a difference.

Since adding video, James says Truly Finance has been getting “far greater reach and many more comments”.

That is particularly important because reaching new audiences was one of the main reasons he wanted to add video in the first place.

James is not attributing any specific new loan or sale to HeyGen yet. Instead, he is assessing whether video is helping Truly Finance showcase its expertise to a wider audience and generate more conversations around the brand.

The initial results are encouraging him to continue.

Enabling a camera-shy founder to create videos

For James, the greatest impact of HeyGen is not necessarily the number of hours it saves compared with traditional video production.

​Without HeyGen, he wasn't regularly creating videos at all.

James already had the mortgage expertise and ideas he wanted to share. He simply needed a way to turn them into videos without having to get comfortable filming himself every week.

​Video is now a regular part of Truly Finance's communication strategy.

Some viewers recognise 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 who are curious about how he creates them.

His advice to other mortgage professionals facing the same barrier is straightforward.

"Go for it if, like me, you feel shy in front of the camera!"​

Truly Finance has spent years developing its lending expertise and helping Australians understand their financing options. With HeyGen, James can now share more of that expertise on social media in a format he had previously avoided.

Rather than trying to become an on-camera creator, he now publishes two to three videos a week, reaches audiences across four social media platforms, and is seeing greater reach and engagement with Truly Finance's content.

For a founder who never wanted to appear on camera, video is finally something he can create consistently.