A Hobart mortgage broker who began posting on TikTok during the 2020 pandemic has been invited to attend the platform’s national awards in Sydney.
Rhianna Farnan, chief communication officer of Derwent Finance, will join four other Tasmanian content creators at the invite-only event on Wednesday.
Last year, only two Tasmanians received invitations.
Farnan, who launched her mortgage-broking business at 19, said she turned to TikTok after struggling to build trust in Hobart’s tight-knit community.
“We tried on Instagram [and got] not much growth over a two-year period,” she said.
“So then I posted on TikTok and the first video went absolutely viral, I was the first mortgage broker to post on there.”
The viral hit sparked so many calls from first-home buyers that Farnan and her partner had to abandon breakfast and rush back to the office to deal with the flood of enquiries.
Since then, the business has expanded from two people to a team of 20 across Tasmania, Melbourne and Sydney, serving clients nationwide.
Farnan’s videos focus on breaking down home-buying basics not taught in schools, including how to save a deposit, income requirements and available grants and schemes.
Her audience skews older than she expected, with the largest group aged 24 to 35, followed by viewers aged 34 to 55.
The other Tasmanians invited to the awards are the Fitzy Twins – who create comedic news content while studying medicine, Hannah Fitzpatrick and Kosta Genaris, whose videos attract millions of views each week combined.
“For a lot of Tasmanians, we always feel like things are out of reach because we are seen as a little island or sometimes even forgotten about on the map,” Farnan said.
She also acknowledged the darker side of content creation, including online abuse and the mental-health toll of constant scrutiny.
“It is definitely a hard industry to be in, but it can be really rewarding,” she said.
“And the flexibility that you can have for it is really cool as well.”
Farnan will fly to Sydney early Wednesday morning and return Thursday, juggling the trip with her responsibilities as a business owner and mum.
While none of the Tasmanian creators are nominated for awards this year, Farnan said the invitation alone is meaningful recognition for the state’s growing digital-creator community.
