ABOUT HERBERT SIDIK
Strategic by experience.
Hands-on by choice.
I’m Herbert. I plan the strategy, make the creative and build the systems, so nothing gets lost between three different people.
HWY Not is where more than a decade of marketing experience meets the businesses I work with directly. It’s the freelance side gig I run alongside a full-time marketing role (HWY Not?), which keeps the client list small and the standards high. From the first idea to what happens after the enquiry, you deal with me.
Taking 2 new projects this quarter
HERBERT SIDIK / SINGAPORETHE MARKETING HANDYMAN
Not the master of every trade.
Master of the intersection.
Start-ups threw me into every part of marketing at once. That is the reason I can fix the joins nobody else owns.
Thrown in the deep end. Never regretted it.
I started my career in start-ups, where nobody hands you one lane. From day one I was doing SEO, social media, paid ads, graphic design, video editing and the events, because there was nobody else to do it. It was exhausting and it was the best thing that ever happened to my career. I learnt how the whole marketing system flows, from the first impression to the sale, faster than any single role could have taught me.
Honest about the trade-off.
Agencies solve this with a team of specialists, and I will be upfront: I am not the master of every trade. But I have had my hands in all of them, and that gives me something a specialist does not have. I see where the pieces meet. When a problem shows up between your ad, your website and your follow-up, I do not diagnose it and pass it on. I have the hands-on skillset to fix it myself.
AI changed the math.
For years this work took my entire bandwidth. Now AI helps me brainstorm, build and troubleshoot around ten times faster, which freed up real hours. I could have spent them streaming. Instead I chose to keep gaming as the hobby and make marketing the business, so you get a decade of judgement with the productivity of a small team. HWY Not?
So who should build your marketing? Pick one and see what it really costs you.
A decade of reps. 10x the output.
This is what I do every working day, and have for more than ten years. Not the master of every trade, but hands-on in all of them, so I see where your ad, website and follow-up meet and I fix the join myself. AI now does my heavy lifting, which means you get the output of a small team from one accountable person. And the parts AI still cannot do, I do in person.
- Strategy, creative and systems from one head
- Knows the whole funnel from experience
- Scope and fee agreed before work starts
- On-site photo, video and events included
- Small client list. Not for every budget or timeline
WHAT AI STILL CAN’T DO (AND I DO IN PERSON)
I am a real person in Singapore. Some of the most valuable work still needs someone on the ground, and it comes with the same scope.
- On-site photography
- Videography & live coverage
- Running the event floor
- Reading the room in your meeting
- Knowing what to build, not just how
Want proof? You’re looking at it. This entire website — the strategy, the copy, the design, the 3D, the build, the deploy and even the AI assistant in the corner — was made single-handed. No agency. No team. If it can be done for my own brand, it can be done for yours.
Think of it as a handyman, but for marketing. You describe the problem. I bring the right tools, fix it and connect it to the rest of your system, so it stays fixed.
HOW I THINK ABOUT MARKETING
Both an art.
And a science.
Marketing is not about shouting louder. It is about telling a story people care about, building a relationship they trust, and measuring honestly so the next move is better than the last.
A good idea. A clear way forward.
The strongest work connects both. A campaign needs a story people care about, a useful destination and a follow-up that makes sense.
My approach: creativity and strategy shaping the same customer experience.
Creativity earns the attention. Strategy makes it pay.
THE THINKING BEHIND HWY NOT
The question that
gets things moving.
Pronounced “why not”, HWY Not comes from my creator identity, HerbertwY. It is a challenge to the way things have always been done, and an invitation to take a practical next step instead of another meeting.
FOUR CHAPTERS. ONE WAY OF WORKING.
Same curiosity.
Different arenas.
The chapters that shaped how I plan, build and follow through.
Own the whole journey.
More than 10 years in digital marketing across financial services, financial education, B2B corporate training, agency work for service trades and e-commerce, and esports. Social media, events and marketing management, with my hands on the work the entire way, often on-site running operations and shooting the coverage. I know what breaks between the plan and the execution because I have done both. The full role-by-role history is on my LinkedIn.
BEYOND THE BRIEF
Four chapters.
A little more Herbert.
Competitive gaming, creator collaborations, coaching and the home studio where the work gets made.
Headset on. Same focus, different arena.
1 / 3Trained to read the game.
Before marketing, I played Counter-Strike professionally and created gaming content as HerbertwY. Teamwork, quick decisions and adapting under pressure. I still bring those habits to every campaign, and I still play.
Four chapters. Fourteen photographs.
A little more Herbert.
“Be like water, my friend.”Bruce Lee
Adapt, improvise and overcome. Stay open to a better way forward.