He Got 100k Followers With an AI Clone

“Create once. Distribute everywhere.”

Rowan Cheung (founder of the The Rundown, which is this issue’s sponsor) does something smart with AI:

He writes his daily newsletter.

Then he turns that content into a script read by his AI avatar, and posts to TikTok, Instagram, and YouTube Shorts.

Result?

100,000+ followers (as of two months ago, surely more now).

Thousands of newsletter subscribers.

All from repurposing content, not reinventing it.

How he does it

First, important to note: he has a team. They use:

• Claude → Drafts the script

• ChatGPT → Creates thumbnails & B-roll ideas

• Kling → Generates video B-roll

• HeyGen → AI face/avatar

• ElevenLabs → AI voice clone

Then edit it all together in a tool like Descript.

My take

If you hate being on camera but still want to grow on short-form social, this is way forward.

That said—doing this solo is still work.

• That’s a lot of tools to learn (and pay for).

• It’s faster and cheaper to just film yourself on your phone.

But if you want to try this path?

Start simple.

You can start with just Claude or ChatGPT for the script, and Hey Gen for creating your avatar and cloning your voice.

Keep the edits light. Ship quickly. Get traction.

Then add on the b-roll and fancy editing.

Here’s an example I made from the last issue of this newsletter.

Dig Deeper

• Rowan explains his AI video workflow here. 

• Here’s a another way to turn your newsletter into social content. 

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