You’ve probably seen him on Instagram. A bald monk with a calm voice shares life advice on your feed. Millions of views. Thousands of comments from people who feel genuinely moved.
Yang Mun isn’t a real person. He’s an AI character built entirely with HeyGen by creator Shalev Hani. And accounts like his are growing rapidly across Instagram, TikTok, and YouTube right now.
Shalev grew Yang Mun to over 2.5 million Instagram followers with a simple formula: one clear concept, about 20 minutes of production time, and HeyGen. No camera. No studio. No traditional talent or production team.
Who watches
Yang Mun speaks to adults aged 25-50 who scroll Instagram looking for something most feeds can’t provide. Shalev Hani, the creator behind Yang Mun, describes his audience as ‘adults who seek calm, emotional clarity, and spiritual grounding.’ They don’t want noise. They want a moment of stillness. And they’re not alone. We’re living through a wellness shift where slowing down and prioritising mental health have moved from niche interests to mainstream priorities.
Video carries the entire strategy. ‘Video is the core medium for delivering presence, tone, and trust,’ Shalev explains. ‘A text post can share wisdom. A video makes you feel it.’ That’s why he builds everything around video and nothing else.
The problem
Before HeyGen, every video took significant manual effort to script, record, edit, and publish. Shalev describes his old process as ‘slower and more resource-intensive, limiting consistency.’ He could manage a few videos per week, which sounds reasonable until you understand how Instagram actually works. The algorithm rewards daily consistency. A few posts a week means less reach, slower growth, and a ceiling Shalev could feel but could not break through.
The deeper challenge was sustainability. ‘Maintaining regular posting without burnout’ was the specific pain point. The meditative quality of the content demanded precision in tone and pacing. Keeping that standard whilst publishing frequently enough to grow was a grind that could not last.
‘Use technology to serve the message, not distract from it.’— Shalev Hani, creator of Yang Mun
Why HeyGen
Shalev started searching for an AI video solution when he realised he needed to ‘scale content while preserving authenticity.’ He wasn’t looking for a shortcut. He needed a tool that could handle the production load without introducing the uncanny valley into the final product.
He evaluated several platforms and chose HeyGen for one reason. In his words, ‘It felt the most human and non-intrusive, keeping the focus on the message.’ Other tools introduced visual or tonal elements that drew attention to the technology. HeyGen did the opposite. It disappeared into the content.
Onboarding was fast. Shalev and his team got comfortable with the suite of tools ‘in less than a few days.’ No steep learning curve. No extended experimentation. They moved from first use to production-quality output almost straightaway.
How it works
For the Yang Mun account, ideas come from two places: recurring audience struggles and timeless spiritual themes. Shalev says he doesn’t chase trends. He finds where what people need right now overlaps with what has been true for centuries. That combination gives each video both immediacy and depth.
He writes short, simple scripts. That’s the single most important lesson Shalev learnt early. When asked what he wishes he’d known from the start, his answer was direct: ‘Simple scripts perform best.’ The temptation with AI video tools is to write longer and more complex content because the technology can handle it. But the audience don’t want complexity. They want one idea, delivered clearly. When he doesn't have a script ready, he uses HeyGen's script writer to create one.
The other features he relies on most are ‘avatar delivery and voice.’ No elaborate graphics. No layered edits. The format stays minimal and message-first because, as Shalev puts it, ‘minimal, message-first videos are what connect with people.’ Because it’s so easy to create videos on HeyGen, he produces content in batches, scripting and creating multiple videos in a single session, then scheduling them across the week.
Do audiences care that he’s AI?
This was Shalev’s biggest concern before launching. He admits that ‘authenticity was the concern’ from the beginning. If the audience felt tricked, the entire project would collapse.
What happened was the opposite. ‘Audience response resolved it,’ Shalev says. People focus on the message, not the technology. Comments and engagement patterns indicate that viewers connect on an emotional and spiritual level. No one assesses whether the monk is real. They absorb the teaching, reflect on it, and share it.
When asked about the most surprising benefit of using HeyGen, Shalev did not point to speed or cost savings. He pointed to connection: ‘how naturally audiences connect with the content.’ When the message is genuine and the delivery is consistent, the technology becomes invisible.
The results
‘We moved from a few videos per week to daily content,’ Shalev confirms. That single shift changed the entire trajectory for Yang Mun.
Posting frequency, reach and engagement all increased. But the more meaningful outcome is what publishing every day actually represents for a mindfulness brand. Spiritual guidance is not something people look for just once a week. They come back to it every morning, every evening, every time they need a mental break and a sense of calm. Daily publishing made Yang Mun available to his audience in the way they genuinely needed him.
Overall, HeyGen videos performed as well as or better than traditionally produced content. Shalev largely attributes this to consistency: “Equal or stronger due to consistency.” The algorithm rewards daily publishing. The audience rewards reliability. HeyGen made both possible without any loss of quality.
‘How naturally audiences connect with the content has been the most surprising benefit.’— Shalev Hani, creator of Yang Mun
The playbook
Yang Mun isn’t an anomaly. He’s a blueprint. The same system that built this account works for any creator or brand seeking a consistent, recognisable AI-powered video presence.
The principles transfer directly. Start with a clear audience and a clear message. Use HeyGen’s avatar and voice tools to create a character people recognise and trust. Write simple scripts. Batch your production. Publish daily. Let the technology carry the production load so you can focus on the creative decisions that actually matter: what to say, how to say it, and why your audience need to hear it.
Shalev now teaches this exact system. ‘The same system used to build and scale Yang Mun is taught in a dedicated course for creators and brands building AI-powered characters.’ It covers everything from character creation and scripting to production workflows and publishing strategy.
What comes next
Shalev plans to push Yang Mun ‘towards deeper teachings and broader reach.’ The HeyGen feature he’s most excited about is ‘even more emotional nuance in delivery with Yang Mun in different environments and settings’. It’s the ability to convey subtle shifts in tone that make content feel even more present and alive.
But the core philosophy stays the same. Technology serves the message. The message serves the audience. Everything else is noise.
