Learn how knowledge entrepreneurs use HeyGen, digital twins, and AI tools to scale course creation, boost production, and monetize expertise faster than ever.
Creating high-quality video courses is one of the hardest parts of running a knowledge business.
You’re supposed to:
- Show up on camera looking and sounding your best
- Write clear scripts
- Record in a hot studio with bright lights
- Redo takes when something breaks
- Then redo again when the content changes
And once your business starts to grow, that whole process doesn’t scale. There’s only one of you.
In this post, we’ll walk through:
- How HeyGen thinks about video for knowledge entrepreneurs
- How one course creator used AI avatars to go from 1 course a month to 10–12
- The tech stack and workflow he uses
- How he balances AI with authenticity and trust
The problem: Recording, updating, and scaling
As Justin Witcoff, Product Marketing Marketer at HeyGen, put it in the session:
- Recording is a chore
- Getting camera ready, writing scripts, setting up lights, dealing with performance anxiety. None of that is trivial.
- Updates are painful
- When your material changes, you often need to reshoot entire lessons, not just tweak a paragraph.
- Scaling is hard
- There’s one of you. But your audience, languages, and content formats keep multiplying.
The result: Content creation becomes a bottleneck, even for people who love teaching.
How HeyGen is built for knowledge entrepreneurs
HeyGen is designed around three layers that together solve those problems:
1. Visual identity layer
- Digital twin: Based on ~2.5–3 minutes of recorded video, you get a hyper-realistic avatar of yourself.
- Photo to video with Avatar IV: Upload photos of yourself or characters and turn them into realistic avatars quickly.
2. Creation layer
- AI Studio: A browser-based editor where you assemble and edit your videos as easily as editing a document.
- Video translation: Translate your videos into 175+ languages and dialects with realistic lip sync and natural-sounding speech.
3. Automation layer
- Video Agent: A text-to-video system where you drop in scripts, slides, and assets, and get a structured, multi-scene video back in minutes.
That’s the product side. But it’s easier to see the impact through a real story.
Anton’s story: From “recording is a nightmare” to scalable AI-first courses
Anton is the founder of Skills Booster Academy, a digital marketing and AI education company.
- Originally from Ukraine
- Co-built one of the largest digital marketing agencies and academies in the country
- More than 1 million students on Udemy and thousands more on Coursera
- 17+ years of experience teaching marketing and now AI
He loves live teaching webinars, workshops, and conference stages. But there was one thing he hated: recording days.
The old way: Studio days from 9–5
Before HeyGen, a typical recording workflow looked like this:
- Rent a studio
- Show up at 9:00 am
- Work with camera operators and lights
- Read from a teleprompter
- Redo takes
- Hope the audio and files don’t corrupt
If something went wrong, such as a bad mic, broken file, script mistake, that meant reshooting. And anytime the course needed an update, the same friction returned.
On top of that, Anton has a strong Eastern European accent. His reviews often looked like:
- “Amazing content, super useful, great structure”
- “Content is great…but the accent makes it harder to follow”
The expertise was there. The content was strong. But accent and recording issues were real barriers.
Discovering HeyGen: Record once, scale infinitely
When Anton found HeyGen, the first step was building his digital twin.
And here’s where his number-one AI principle kicked in: “Garbage in, garbage out.”
He experimented with multiple recordings until he got:
- High-quality lighting
- Clean audio
- A consistent outfit
Once his digital twin was ready, the impact was immediate:
- Many students couldn’t tell the difference between real Anton and avatar Anton
- No more days in the studio
- No more reshoots for minor script corrections
For one CRM lesson he showed, students watched a fully AI-generated Anton walk through step-by-step instructions. Most assumed it was live footage.
From one course a month to 10–12: The full workflow
The real transformation came when Anton combined HeyGen with a broader AI stack and a repeatable workflow.
Step 1: Research and scripting with AI assistants
Anton uses multiple LLMs:
- ChatGPT and custom GPTs
- Claude
- Gemini
He built his own “My GPTs” trained on:
- His course scripts
- Platform policies (Udemy, Coursera)
- His preferred structure and tone
For example, his HeyGen script helper:
- Takes a topic
- Generates a structured lesson script
- Matches his standard format
He still reviews, edits, and personalizes every script.
Step 2: Slide creation in Gamma
Next, he moves into Gamma, an AI-powered slide generator.
Workflow:
- Paste the structured script
- Apply his Skills Booster brand template
- Generate slides
- Edit manually for clarity and visuals
AI speeds up the draft, while human editing ensures correctness and teaching quality.
Step 3: Import deck into HeyGen
Once the deck is ready:
- Export as PDF
- Upload into HeyGen using “create from deck”
- Select his digital twin avatar
- Choose his ElevenLabs cloned voice
- Map slide text to scenes
Inside AI Studio, he:
- Places the avatar
- Adds B-roll or motion graphics
- Adjusts timing and captions
The result: a polished lesson video built from slides, script, and his avatar even faster than a camera setup.
Step 4: Practical screencasts with consistent audio
The heart of Anton’s courses is hands-on content. For those, he uses:
- True PEO
- Cluso
- ElevenLabs
He records screencasts, adds the same AI-generated voice as in his HeyGen videos, and keeps his tone consistent across formats.
Step 5: Translation and localization
With HeyGen translation, Anton can:
- Translate videos into English, Ukrainian, and many other languages
- Maintain natural lip sync
- Avoid recreating full courses in each language
This dramatically expands his global reach.
Human in the loop: Where AI stops and people matter
Anton is clear: AI is amazing, but AI is not perfect.
Humans still:
- Design curriculum
- Edit scripts
- Review slides
- Ensure pacing and accuracy
- Watch every video before publishing
AI handles the heavy lifting. Humans handle the judgment.
Disclosure, trust, and “is this really you?”
Trust is essential in education.
Anton handles disclosure by:
- Explaining that he uses AI to improve clarity for learners
- Sharing openly that he has an accent and AI helps remove listening friction
- Adding platform-required disclosures (as Udemy now mandates)
Many learners don’t mind or even notice because the teaching quality remains high.
Others blend formats, such as:
- Opening with a live clip
- Delivering lessons through a digital twin
- Being transparent about why
The rule of thumb: Honesty plus value builds trust.
Agentic workflows: What’s coming next
Anton also previewed future workflows using AI agents.
For example, he had an agent:
- Log into HeyGen
- Find a Santa Claus avatar
- Generate a personalized holiday message
Because he didn’t specify the voice in the prompt, the Santa avatar spoke in a female voice, a reminder that details matter, even in automation.
Still, the direction is clear: workflows where agents can orchestrate HeyGen, Gamma, ElevenLabs, and other tools, pulling brand kits and avatar IDs to generate entire course bundles.
Humans will still be in the loop, but with far more leverage.
Key takeaways for course creators and knowledge businesses
Anton’s story highlights a few big ideas:
- Recording doesn’t have to bottleneck your growth
- Your accent or camera anxiety doesn’t have to hold you back
- AI + clear workflow = scale
- Consistency matters more than whether it’s “real” or “AI”
- Transparency builds trust
Most importantly, you can start simple:
- Re-record one lesson using a digital twin
- Translate one course
- Build your first HeyGen-powered deck-to-video flow
