I Love Happy Cats is an educational platform based in Belgium, founded by Anneleen Bru, a certified cat behaviourist with a clear mission: to make cats happier. Through online courses, books, and video content, Anneleen enables cat guardians and professionals to better understand feline behaviour with science-backed, practical guidance.
But scaling her knowledge across regions and platforms proved challenging. Creating professional, multilingual video content was time-consuming, expensive, and emotionally draining. “I’m an entrepreneur with big ideas,” Anneleen said. “But I kept getting stuck in the practical process and I couldn’t speed it up.”
Everything changed when she discovered HeyGen. The platform gave Anneleen the tools to transform how she created, translated, and delivered her content, unlocking an unprecedented level of scale for her business.
Managing the impossible balance between time and quality
As a solo entrepreneur, Anneleen was driven by her mission but limited by time, budget, and production demands. “We used to film everything in a studio,” Anneleen said. “I’d use a teleprompter, do my make-up, and read the script again and again. If I made even one mistake, it meant starting from the beginning.”
Even with help from her partner, who edited the videos, the process was gruelling. A single 10-minute video could take hours to shoot and days to edit. “People see a short video and think it’s easy, but behind the scenes it’s weeks of work and when you’re a tiny business, that means everything else stops,” Anneleen said.
The cost of production was not just financial, it was emotional as well. “I remember once I filmed for hours and then found out the camera was not recording,” Anneleen said. “Another time, I had make-up under my eyes all day. We had to discard everything and start again.”
Most importantly, traditional video production made it almost impossible to scale globally. Translating her content into other languages meant hiring translators, re-shooting footage, and editing everything from scratch for each market. “I wanted to go beyond Flemish or Dutch. I wanted to reach Japan, Brazil, and Germany. But I couldn’t manage it on my own.”
Opening up new possibilities with avatars and automation
Anneleen’s journey with HeyGen began with curiosity. “I started with basic video translation — just uploading my existing English videos and generating French and German versions,” Anneleen said. “I was worried they’d feel robotic, but they didn’t. The voice, the tone, and even the pronunciation felt like me.”
That early success encouraged her to explore further. She started experimenting with avatars. “I realised I could upload a transcript, create an avatar video, and translate it again and again without starting from scratch. That’s when it struck me: this wasn’t just a tool. This was a real game changer.”
One night, the realisation struck her. “I didn’t sleep. I realised I could turn my books into courses, my ideas into videos. I could reuse years of work and give them new life. That’s when I said: ‘I can conquer the world with Happy Cats.’”
Using HeyGen, Anneleen transformed her 56‑video course into a multilingual asset, translated into French, German, Italian, Russian, Hungarian, Japanese, and more. “I sent test videos to native speakers,” Anneleen said. “They came back and said, ‘This is perfect.’ They understood everything, including the scientific vocabulary.”
HeyGen’s intuitive interface made it even easier. “It’s so simple. I write a script, upload it, and it’s done. I can subtitle, translate, and revise everything in one place. Once it’s in the queue, I can move on to other work.”
Achieving faster production with smooth, efficient workflows
Since starting to use HeyGen, I Love Happy Cats has seen significant improvements in speed, reach, and engagement.
- Reduced production time: Creating videos from start to finish is 5x faster than it was before HeyGen.
- Global reach expanded: Courses are now available in French, German, Italian, Russian, Japanese, Hungarian, and Chinese.
- Cost efficiency: With no need for studios, translators, or editors, Anneleen now produces professional-quality content completely in-house.
“I always say there is an era before HeyGen and an era after,” she said. “Seeing my avatar say something I had written, it was like discovering my twin. It felt surreal. It made my mission scalable.”
Her advice to others? “Do not miss the opportunity. If you have something to share with the world, HeyGen will help you say it.”
