Hi Kat! 🤗

(Wish I didn’t have to post this giant pic every time, for the sake of my Podcasts!)

The other day (technically today as I write this, but I’m ahead of schedule! 😎), I wrote a newsletter for my Substack subscribers. The new plan was to write monthly newsletters - but seeing as I’m going all-in with content creation right now, I thought I’d make the effort to write more 😁

Above is the audio of me reading it. You can also watch this podcast episode here:

Here was today’s vlog:

I am happy to say that, on day two of vlogging, I created content to cover me for the next two days! (four days - now that I’m spacing out my content!)

I’m working late again, trying to upload my two short “podcast episodes” (The WiFi is extremely slow over the weekend - It’s taken me hours to upload my content! 🤦‍♀️ It’s the price you pay for free wifi, I guess! 😄🙏)

It’s almost midnight now, but I must stay up until all has been uploaded and scheduled for release (turns out it wasn’t a must!)

I will likely still create content tomorrow, but I will have an online detox day! (It didn’t happen!) It’s good to build healthy habits from the get-go and detach from the internet for a bit! (It will happen! 🙂)

Future Newsletters

For the rest of this month, I will only send Nobel Newsletters, so you won’t hear from me for a while, unless you subscribe to my Nobel News Podcast Section.

Here I will post a Nobel News podcast episode every other day.

Starting next month, I will return to sending weekly newsletters (two per month for Simply Nobel, and two for Nobel News).

I will also send one Nobel Soul and one What’s New? newsletter, near the end of every month.

See you on YouTube! 😀

PS. It is now after 12.30 am. I have edited this newsletter A LOT the night before sending it. Just as well I triple checked it! News does travel fast around here!

(It’s so important - for my audience of one! 😄)

You are important, though, Kat! And who knows who may stumble across this post in the future! 😊

Have a great rest of your month, if we don’t speak until then!

Ciao! 👋🌞

Heidi

Yesterday, I announced on my Simply Nobel channel that I was feeling frustrated with my lack of YouTube growth.

I spent half the day procrastinating and feeling gloomy, not just about my lack of YouTube success, but about my lack of productivity in general!

Impulsively, I decided it’s time to go big or go home!

Rather than quitting YouTube, which I sometimes feel like doing. I decided I would release daily content! I have tried a 30-day YouTube challenge before; the best I did was a few years ago, when I tried a 30-day singing challenge. I lasted 21 days before catching the flu!

I created hundreds of YouTube Shorts. Unfortunately, my efforts were in vain, I gained little reward for my efforts, where new subscribers were concerned (Guess I’m not much of a singer!)

Didn’t I Say I Was Going to Take it Easy?

Last week, I announced that I may only send monthly newsletters and record monthly Nobel News episodes. I also decided that releasing a weekly Simply Nobel Podcast episode and Vlog per week may be too much, certainly if I also want to create semi-regular Nobel Cats and Nobel Soul content.

Now, I am not only vlogging daily, but I am also attempting to release a short Simply Nobel podcast episode each night! What gives?

I am known to act impulsively at times. Last month was a big one, so one may say that I need to take a break. But I’m starting to feel that it’s now or never! I have taken it relatively easy with my channels over the past few years - For an unemployed person, anyway. I have the time to create now, so create I shall!

I Will Not Be a Workaholic

This next month, I am practising getting more productive with content creation, and also with my life in general! All while still making my health a priority.

I learnt last month that I pushed myself way too hard! Working as much as I did (albeit mostly all behind the scenes) is not sustainable. Neither is vlogging and podcasting daily, but it’s not forever, it’s just for now!

Despite my increased workload, I plan on starting my days the right way! No checking YouTube until 12 pm each day. I am only permitting myself to check messages and stats twice per day, and with time, I will check less!

I also plan on bulk filming so that I will be able to take days off! Last night was a late one; I slept at 2.30 am again, after editing out the background noise of my spontaneous, late-night podcast episode.

During the night, I dreamt about editing! And I woke up bright and early at 7 am. Despite starting my daily content creation journey on a tired note, I am very happy with the way I started the day (more on that in my next vlog!) and that I’m not using tiredness as an excuse to not create.

Don’t get me wrong, resting is important! And rest I shall.

I do think it’s possible to achieve effortless effort! Over the next month, I’m permitting myself to let go of perfectionism and to go with the creative flow. See what happens when I stop trying so hard and just have fun with it!

I will overcome my habit of obsessing over stats. I will take my time responding to comments, and I will limit my time online. I will also remember to be productive and have a life outside of content creation! I will make my health a priority again. I will share my journey with you as I walk it!

Thank you for listening!

Stay Nobel,

Simply Nobel

Today I felt disheartened, and pissed off for the first time! About my lack of YouTube success.

I have been chiselling away for years now, and my renewed channel has less than 300 subscribers. Insane! It’s starting to get embarrassing at this point.

I have reached a point where I don’t know if being a YouTuber is what will give me fulfilment (although I can’t see myself doing anything else that I would enjoy more!) and where I don’t know if I’m cut out to be a YouTuber.

However, instead of feeling sorry for myself and wasting more time procrastinating, I decided to channel my anger and frustration into passion and productivity. It’s time for me to go big, or go home!

Over the next month or two, I am going to attempt to create daily vlogs. Maybe, just maybe, a handful of them will do well, and I will finally start gaining some momentum on my channel!

If I can monetise at least one channel within the next year (aiming big here!), that would be amazing! Maybe my 7 years on YouTube will then finally have all been worth it!

So buckle up, folks! It’s time for Heidi to toss her perfectionist and procrastinating ways out the window, and create like she has never created before!

We’re going for quantity over quality, baby! Me simply being me, mistakes and all!

Already, my first video about feeling frustrated about my lack of YouTube success is getting more views than my usual upload, which is promising. But it’s still early days!

It feels liberating to finally stop being so pedantic where editing is concerned and to just create!

I, Heidi Nobel, permit myself, to write freely, to podcast imperfectly, and to let the camera roll, even if I get a little tongue-tied. Time to show the real, perfectly imperfect side of me, and to just have fun creating!

Perfectionism can feel very crippling at times, and it can slow the creative flow way down. Done is better than perfect!

Let’s go!

In my first Simply Nobel podcast episode, I said that I was finally getting clear on my content creation journey 🤍

Little did I know that things would get more complicated before they got simpler!

Being a creator feels like riding the waves of the ocean

It’s a thrill! One minute you’re up, and all is well in the world again. The next minute, you dive straight into the tumultuous ocean. Unable to make out which way is up and which way is down! 🌀

Over the past 2 weeks, sleep, food and exercise were almost non-existent. I HAD to find my way out of that wild ocean. The problem was, the harder I swam, the deeper I sank!

Today, April 22nd, 2025, 6.5 years into my content creation journey, my path ahead is finally clearer. I have had several “Aha!” moments.

It’s such a relief! I can bathe on the sand banks once more! 🏖

(That is, until I choose to ride the waves again! But this time, I know I will be a more capable surfer!)

My Personalised Surfboard

I finally designed and made my very own surfboard! (ie my content creation plan and my YouTube and Substack makeover).

(Boy, did I change my mind about the design of my surfboard! 🤪 I tried my best to design a plain and simple, single coloured one, but the only choice, for me, was to create one with a beautiful multi-patterned design, with all, not just some, of the colours of my soul! 🌈)

Like an artist, I finely chiselled away at my board and made many alterations and enhancements along the way.

Finally, I have a beautiful, steady, personally designed surfboard. This time, I know which way I want to surf, and I will be a much more confident surfer!

Now it’s just a matter of learning to ride bigger waves! 😀🌊💙

(Excuse the giant selfie - Has to be done for podcast purposes! 🙄)

This was originally a post-turned podcast episode-turned YouTube video 😊 If you are tuning in on Spotify, you can watch the YouTube video here:

(Please also watch it on YouTube if you are tuning in on Substack! To help increase its popularity and also its watchtime 😉🙏)

I already shared the audio-only version on Nobel News, but I wanted to bring the story to life by sharing images of my 6.5-year YouTube journey to date.

I hope that you will enjoy this video, which I spent a long time creating! 😊

It has been a long, six-and-a-half-year journey to finally reach today’s new milestone: the official launch of my first podcast and a more straightforward path forward for my YouTube, Substack and Podcast content creation journey.

I feel very relieved to finally reach this point of clarity after a lot of blood, sweat and tears over the past six and a half years. I started and changed my niches and YouTube channels many times. I also joined Substack two years ago, and, during this time, I updated my website many times.

Yesterday alone, I spent all day and night making the finest tweaks and getting mentally clear on every last detail! I’m excited to share exactly how I plan to run YouTube, Substack, and this Podcast in the next episode.

How It All Began

In 2018, I finally managed to gain a $5000 small business start-up grant. Thanks to that, I have the keyboard I am typing on today. It took me a long time to get clear on my path forward (surprise, surprise) and get this grant approved.

My initial plan was to focus on makeup artistry. That is the first niche I chose for my first YouTube channel: Fidessa Features. Fidessa is my middle name. Features had three meanings:

* The channel featured me.

* It was about enhancing our features with makeup

* It reminded me of the word “Feature Films” (not that my videos were!)

I felt chuffed and clever with the name I chose! Since then, I have been stuck with the Gmail address [email protected]. I don’t use the email address, but it is what houses all of my YouTube channels. More on them later!

Nobel Soul

Five months later, I decided (thanks to my mother) that I wanted to become a mandala artist. Yoga would also be a focus of my YouTube channel.

I was sharing different name ideas on Facebook, and my old makeup manager, Donna Malneek suggested the name: Nobel Soul. This name felt perfect for me! The meaning I put behind it was that I want everything I do to come from a soulful place.

There was a small part of me, however, that thought that people may be put off by hearing the name “Soul” if they were not spiritually inclined or that they may think I am calling myself a Nobel Soul - Which sounds a bit full of myself.

Nonetheless, the name stuck. It came and went over the years, just yesterday, I almost threw it away again, for now at least, but I have found a way to keep this name.

I will use it for my new podcast, Nobel Soul, which I hope to launch soon. I will share what this podcast and newsletter will offer in an upcoming episode.

Simply Nobel

Over the years, my 4 channels (most of which have been abandoned) have gone by many names: Heidi’s Home, Know Thy Neighbour, Nobel Art, Nobel Stitch, Nobel Walk and Nobel Cats, to name but a few.

At the end of February last year, I was feeling mentally overwhelmed and struggling with insomnia, just like I have been this past week! But like today, clarity came once the storm had passed. The storm was needed to discover what I needed to embrace and what message I had to share with the world.

The new channel name I came up with was Simply Nobel.

Something happened that morning that felt like a sign that I was on the right path and had chosen the right channel name and niche for this channel.

The message of Simply Nobel is to keep things simple and appreciate the simple things in life. I love living a simple life, it’s when I feel like my happiest and most authentic self. I still sweat the small stuff and overcomplicate things, but I strive to live and think more simply.

The last week has been anything but simple. However, I was determined to design a simple, clear path to help me move forward in a healthier, more purposeful direction. It was worth the maze my mind had to work through. Piece by piece, I was figuring it out. I was starting to see the picture!

I have finally created a Simply Nobel path. My renewed journey starts today!

Thank you for reading or listening to my very first podcast story! In the next episode, I will share exactly what I have planned for my Substack, Podcast and YouTube journey. I haven’t figured everything out yet, I am still learning as I go. But I have a clearer idea of how I want to manage my time and what I want to share with my viewers and listeners.

Thank you so much for being here and supporting me on this Simply Nobel and Nobel Soul journey.

Yours sincerely,

Heidi Nobel