Choosing Creativity Over the Algorithm
On writing, authenticity, and doing meaningful work without competing for attention
🌀 When Everything Comes Back Around
It’s so interesting how things always come back around - from clothing that’s in style to how we show up on the internet - apparently.
I started blogging for the first time in 2011… a time before information was readily available everywhere.
It was a time when people still had to search for what they wanted to learn rather than an algorithm placing it directly in front of them in a newsfeed.
Just 15 short years ago, people sought blogs to read & learn more than just entertainment online (at least I did and that’s my perception).
📉 The Attention Economy
This might sound negative, and maybe it is, but the attention economy is something I’ve already been exhausted by for a long time. But as someone who’s worked solely online for over 10 years, it’s not something I can escape.
So I suppose I’m at a moment where I’m trying to find my place in it all as someone who has no desire to compete for attention online. 🤪
✍️ Returning to My First Love: Writing
When I was 15 I understood for the first time that I loved writing and that I was good at it. Since then, it’s been my favorite method of communication, self-expression, and also business growth.
In fact, I even sold my writing in my last company for other coaches to use as their own!
Like many people who build online businesses, I found myself needing to focus the majority of my time on client delivery, marketing and sales, and strategy. Fortunately, I had the chance to write a LOT. Email marketing and social media content were my biggest drivers of success in my coaching company (and back in the day in my fitness studio too!).
But before the past 12 months, it’s been a really long time since I wrote for me.
Whenever I write, it’s to share, connect, and hopefully help someone else.
However, writing for the sake of marketing or in support of a business is just, by nature, completely different from what I’m doing here on Substack and what I did with my first blog back in 2011.
🤫 A Season of Quiet
Most of the past 12 months, I have been quiet. It’s only been in the quick runway leading up to the launch of Spirituality for Skeptics that I’ve been sharing consistently on social media again.
One thing that happened for me as a result of carrying a lot during the time I ran my company all the way through the time that I transitioned out is that I was so focused on its success that my creative flame dwindled.
I think this is completely normal, but in all of the rest and quiet season I’ve had in 2025, I feel the creativity roaring back.
I have ups and downs with it for sure. But I’m writing again. I’m creating on social media (and it feels GOOD and not like a task I have to complete). I’m also reading and learning more than I have since the much earlier days of my entrepreneurial journey.
🔥 Staying True to Myself
One of the things I’m committed to is staying true and authentic to myself over playing games of algorithms and reach.
And this is a tough one because I deeply desire for Spirituality for Skeptics to reach many thousands of people. I’m all for strategy and leaning into what works, but I know above all else, I’ve got to do it in a way that’s most aligned to me. I’ve got to do it in ways that keep my creative spark alive and create consistent moments of excitement and joy.
I’m a high-achiever by nature, and I’ve already wrestled with this, but now I’m committed to doing this in a way that acknowledges the fact that there really needs to be no pressure for me around this show.
My desire for its reach comes from the impact I want it to have. But I have to let the show do its thing. I have to trust I’ve done and am doing the work and that it’s going to land exactly where it’s supposed to. I think this lesson of trust and surrender around the show is one of the most important lessons I’m in the process of learning.
🌱 Moving Into a New Phase
I do know for sure I’m meant to approach this show and this phase in my life much differently than I have in the past. Change is hard, but I’m here for it. 🙂
🎧 Listen & Connect
You can find Spirituality for Skeptics everywhere and join the community here:
📺 YouTube: https://youtube.com/@spirituality.for.skeptics?si=kYL0AiUI-e9uBkgI
📸 Instagram: https://www.instagram.com/spirituality.for.skeptics
🎥 TikTok: https://www.tiktok.com/@spirituality.forskeptics
✨ Stay Connected
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Together, we’ll keep exploring what it means to live, express, create, and grow…with curiosity and without pressure.
With gratitude,
Nicole
I love writing, although it’s hard to tell from how little I actually do it. As someone who has always struggled to get words out of my mouth the way I imagine them in my head, writing has always been my safe space. I can take as long as I need to formulate my thoughts and to say exactly what I want to say.
I never planned to get into video & YouTube, but even with that I’m learning that it’s all about writing. I tried winging it, but that doesn’t work. If I write a script in my voice the way I would say it, it flows. And to think that I actually got into video because of a writing coach who wanted to push me to do more & expand my audience.
Exploring my faith has opened the door for me to write again, and I am so happy about it. I know I have a message to share with this world, even if some days I don’t know what that message is exactly. All I know is it’ll come through the words that flow from my hands and eventually end up on a page, screen, or video.
All that to say, I love seeing you getting back into something you’re passionate about and doing it for you.