Good Evening. Welcome to my Nobel News Podcast.
The past two months were the busiest two months I have ever had, where my YouTube content creation is concerned, and that’s saying something!
I have learnt that I never want to work so hard on my YouTube channel again. It’s easy for YouTube to feel like an obligation, especially when your subscriber numbers grow, but I always want to permit myself to take off for weeks, months or even years, if I ever feel like it.
I should never feel like I owe people an apology or an explanation if I don’t have a new video up every week. I want YouTube to feel like an outlet for my creative expression, nothing more, nothing less.
That said, I am proud of my “never give up!” attitude over the past two months. I have been patient, disciplined and resilient. But I will be kinder to myself and my body from here on in.
Once or twice, I cancelled appointments with friends, my choir group and the owner of a dog I walk due to mental and physical exhaustion.
There were times when I didn’t sleep at all, and I ran on empty! I treated food and sleep as an afterthought while I was completely absorbed in, and snowed under, my content creation work.
For weeks, it felt like there wasn’t an end in sight. Countless hours were put into planning my renewed content creation journey.
I updated my Substack account, YouTube channels and Podcasts more times than I can say, but finally, I have made it out of the woods. I can see clear blue skies and inhale fresh air once more!
Moving to My Original Channel
On May 16th, I decided to move all of my old videos, which I had released on different YouTube channels over the years, to my original channel. This was my last-ditch effort to help me monetise my channel. I also decided to make this big move to simplify my YouTube journey moving forward.
After experimenting with different channels over the past 4.5 years, I have finally concluded that having a one-niche channel isn’t for me. If that means I may never have a huge YouTube channel, so be it! It’s more important that I create with passion and purpose than make money (although money would be a welcome bonus!)
I have been a YouTuber since October 8th, 2018. I deserve to have my channel monetised. I believe that can and will happen within the next 6 - 12 months.
Moving back home to this channel was a no-brainer. I was struggling to get two of my spare channels up to 300 subscribers, whereas my original channel had over 5 times that amount! You need 1000 subscribers or more to qualify for YouTube monetisation. Now I just need the watch hours, and I think, with the amount of content I will be releasing over the next 6 months, I will get there.
My “Anything Goes” YouTube Channel
Going forward, I will see this as my "Anything Goes!" personal hobby and vlogging channel. I can always niche out on one of my spare channels in the future if I feel driven to do so. But for now, it's clear that I want and need one channel where I can do whatever I feel like, whenever I feel like it!
That said, there will still be structure to this channel. Starting next year, I plan on releasing one vlog and one podcast episode per week. A vlog will be replaced with a hobby-related video on the fourth weekend of every month (although there may be times when I feel like having hobby-only months, and that’s OK too!)
I may post more or less than two videos per week, but two per week will be what I will initially aim for.
Today, I was sketching ideas for my thumbnails. It was going to be simple - A profile pic for vlogs and a mandala pic for podcast episodes. But I think it could be fun to have a symbol for each video that is not a podcast episode. E.g. - A musical note to signify that it is a music video, or a heart to signify that the video is about love.
I think I will start with basic standard symbols sourced free from Pixabay, and pop that on top of my purple background. I can always experiment with images of me drawing, writing, or playing the guitar, etc. But we'll start simple and go from there!
It will be a good way for people to identify what my video is about, and it will look nice for my Substack home page, which is where I will share links to all my videos.
Content Released on My Channel
I hope you are enjoying the content that I have released on my channel so far! I plan on breaking it up after my roller-skating/hula hooping and acting videos by adding a little intro video of me briefly sharing what I have been up to with this channel (that’s the podcast episode you are listening to now 🙂) and what I have planned for this channel moving forward.
Starting next month, I will release all the podcast episodes that I created in May this year.
I want to share my podcast episodes sooner rather than later because, not only will it give people an idea of what I have been up to in recent times and what led to this big YouTube transition, but also because most of them are audio-only videos and truth be told, they are a little dull! (A couple I won't share for that reason!)
I don't want to share my earliest podcast episodes when I potentially have a big audience in a couple of months from now! It would be an anticlimax. It's much better to share them before the good stuff begins!
Dull or not, I do still want to share them. It will only take five days, and it's a way for me to honour the start of my journey, just like I have been doing this month with the start of my musical, acting, hula hooping and roller-skating journey 😊
These podcasts took me a long time to edit. I have since found a better way of recording them: I will film myself reading my scripts (as I am here). I will also be less pedantic about my audio editing.
We all have to start somewhere. We learn what works best as we go!
Before I decided to move back to my original YouTube channel, I wrote many Nobel News scripts for upcoming podcast episodes. Even though some of this news is no longer valid, I still want to honour these scripts and share the unaltered versions of them.
It was all part of the journey that led to my big YouTube transition. It’s good to share the earlier planning and work that got me here, not just the end result!
You will still get plenty of fresh Nobel News from me. A new Nobel News show will be released at the end of every month. There may also be a behind-the-scenes content creation Nobel News episode in the middle of each month starting next year (that’s if I have content creation news to share! 😊).
Coming Up on Simply Nobel
Once all of my Nobel News podcast episodes have been shared, I will re-publish videos released on this channel between 2023 and 2024. I felt it was worth giving these videos a second chance to shine, and now was as good a time as ever to re-release them. They have been added to my “Heidi’s Favourites” Playlist (Coming Soon!)
Next, I will share videos from a Playlist titled “Heidi’s Love Quest”. I won’t be sharing any more about these videos, you will just have to wait and see!
Lastly, I will release my “While I Was Away!” videos, which were videos I released on other channels between January 2024 and May this year.
All of this will take until the 11th of November! So I can finally have a well-earned YouTube break (once I have added End Cards to all my videos and uploaded/scheduled Shorts from different channels - But I’m taking my time with that!)
I am loving this journey of personal, creative and professional development! I am so thankful I have had this chunk of time to dive headfirst into this work without any external life distractions!
A new job may be on the horizon soon, so I’m glad I got all this foundation work in place between now and then!
I finally know which way I am swimming (Unlike the last two turbulent "figuring it out as I go!" months)
Getting lost in my YouTube journey was all part of it, but I'm so thankful to be out of the creative whirlpool that was sucking me under! I am swimming freely once more!
As my beautiful, late, supportive mother, Katie Nobel used to say: "Just keep swimming!" 🏊♀️🤍
That I shall 😊
Thank you for listening!
Stay Nobel!
Simply Nobel
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