Hey, I’m Hidde!
The guy behind Growth by Visuals. 37, Dutch, PhD, father of twins. Endlessly drawn to complexity. Not to live in it, but to untangle it.
Where this started
During my PhD I had to explain complex research to friends, family, and fellow scientists. The only way it ever landed was visually. A good diagram in a congress presentation beats three slides of text every time.
Now I lead a multimillion dollar brand at Novartis. Same thing. If people don’t click with your message, you’re lost. Clarity isn’t optional.
My visuals started as a personal tool. A way to process the non-fiction books I was reading and make the ideas actually stick. Then I started sharing them online.
What happened when I shared them
I went from zero social media presence to 300K+ followers across Instagram, LinkedIn, and Threads. In about a year and a half.
Wild. I still get goosebumps writing that.
I’m doing this while working full-time at Novartis and raising twins in Voorschoten. Not from a studio. From a kitchen table, mostly.
There’s a version of building online that I really didn’t want to become. The constant performing, the personal brand energy, the hustle content. I’ve stayed pretty far from all that.
What worked instead was showing up consistently with something genuinely useful. No drama, just visuals that make ideas click. Slowly and intentionally, it turned into a real second income alongside the day job. That part still surprises me.
I’m still figuring out what this is
Honestly, I’m still exploring. That’s part of what makes this interesting.
Right now I’m doing a lot of book projects. Authors who want visuals inside their book and something shareable for when it launches. That’s become a real thing.
I’ve helped business owners build ads around a single visual and watched their CTR triple. With it, their revenue. I’ve made retirement gifts: one visual capturing someone’s entire career, handed to them by colleagues. I’ve made visuals for coaches and therapists that are now being used in sessions across 23+ countries.
My visuals are hanging in schools. Actual classrooms. Across the world.
I don’t have a tidy way to summarize what that feels like. I just know I didn’t expect it.
And there’s so much more in store.
That’s honestly what excites me most. If you want to follow along, I’d love to have you on my email list. That’s where I share the behind-the-scenes stories, the real numbers, what’s working and what isn’t.
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