Hi Reader,

I told you in May I’d be back in September with what I learned. Here I am. This email is different from what I ever thought it would be, and while it's a little bit sad, I'm very excited for the next chapter.

This is a long email. I’m going to tell you the truth about what these 90 days did, what changed, and a decision I’ve made that I want you to hear from me directly. If you only have time for one section, scroll to the end.

The 90 Day Challenge

On June 1st, I began a 90-day challenge to improve my mental clarity and take a step back from the burnout I had been experiencing. I am working a full-time job with two contract-based side hustles. I'm a mom of two. I've been running this content creation business for over a decade. I have hobbies, friends, and family I regularly see.

I took a step back from a lot of this over the last 90 days, so let's look at what has changed. Let me start with what’s easiest to measure.

One last sponsorship, and then something I want to tell you about it →

DEBT & 90 DAY NO-SPEND

We started the 90 days with $130,076 left in debt.
As of September 1, we’re at $120,500. That’s $9,576 paid off in three months. The accelerated payoff date moved from August 2029 to February 2029.

The biggest single contributor was the BJJ membership I canceled at the start of June. $600 over the 90 days went directly to debt instead of a gym I wasn’t making it to. The second biggest was just not buying things.

The first three weeks were the hardest. Not because I was constantly tempted by big purchases, but because of how often I’d default to small ones.

I learned that I had been using small purchases as emotional regulation. To handle stress. To celebrate. To self-soothe. To kill ten minutes. Take those purchases away, and you’re left with the actual feelings underneath them, which is uncomfortable for a moment, then it's gone.

GROWING MY RELATIONSHIP WITH GOD

I hand-copied all 28 chapters of Matthew. It changed my entire relationship with God.

When you read Scripture, your eyes move faster than your understanding. You skim familiar passages. You think you know what they say. But when you copy by hand, when your pen has to form every word, you cannot skim. You see what’s actually there. You notice the conjunctions, the repetitions, the strange specific details that you’d glossed over a hundred times before.

I noticed Jesus asking questions instead of giving answers. I noticed how often he withdrew to pray alone. I noticed the people he stopped for.

This practice taught me to slow down. Not just with Scripture, with everything. With my kids. With my husband. With my own thoughts.

If you do nothing else with what I’m sharing in this email, consider picking up a Bible and a notebook and starting with Matthew. You don’t need a plan or a study guide. Just write.

BETTER SELF CARE

I started at 135 pounds. I’m at 129. But the number isn’t really the story. The story is that I lifted three times a week for 13 straight weeks, walked with my neighbor at 4:45 a.m. on Thursdays and Fridays, and didn’t miss a day of skincare. I am stronger than I was. I sleep through the night now.

My lab work in August showed that my LDL dropped from 162 to 138, and my Vitamin D increased from 22 to 40. The boring habits worked. I feel better than ever.

SOCIAL MEDIA

I went 90 days without posting anything new on TikTok, Instagram, or YouTube.

I expected to miss it. I expected to be itchy for it by week four. I expected the algorithm anxiety, the urge to check stats, the pull to capture moments for content rather than just live them.

I did not miss it. Not once.

I didn’t miss the platforms, the posting, the performing, the constant low-grade self-surveillance of being someone whose life is partially content. I felt a kind of calm I hadn’t felt since I was a teenager, before I’d ever made a dollar on the internet.

I cleaned my house. I cooked dinner for my family. I read books. I went paddleboarding with my kids. I had real conversations with my husband that weren’t interrupted by me checking my phone. I noticed how much of my brain had been outsourced to platforms I didn’t even like.

What does this all mean?

I thought I was going to tell you I was closing Nora Conrad. That's the email I sat down to write.

I'm not.

What I actually figured out over 90 days is that I've outgrown a version of this business, not the business itself. Nora Conrad started in 2012 as a debt-payoff and side-hustle blog written by a broke 18 year old. I'm in a different chapter now. I run operations for three companies. I've built a career I'm genuinely proud of, one I've built while managing bipolar disorder, which is its own essay I'll write eventually.

The person writing this newsletter is not the person who started it. And that's okay. That's what a decade is supposed to do to you.

So here's what's actually happening:

• This newsletter is moving to Substack. Same me, new home, you don't need to do anything.
• The focus is shifting. Less side-hustle-and-debt, more operations, logistics, data analytics, career-building, and the honest reality of doing all of that while managing mental health.
• I'm retiring ConvertKit. It's a great platform, but the monthly cost stopped making sense for where I'm taking this. Substack is free to run, which changes the math on everything.
• The website is becoming a hub for my operations consulting work, that's the professional work and I'm tired of keeping it separate.
• TikTok, Instagram, and YouTube stay up, no new content, but a decade of work isn't getting deleted.
• The Medium blog stays as an archive. Old posts that help people will keep helping them.

One last thing about that Morning Brew ad

Sponsorships have paid for this newsletter for years. They covered the platform, the tools, and the time it takes to write to you. That model is changing when I move to Substack.

Going forward, there will be no sponsor placements interrupting your reading. If you've been getting value out of what I write and want to support the work directly, you'll have the option to become a paid subscriber. If you'd rather keep reading for free, that also stays an option. Both are real ways to support my work, and I'm grateful for either one.

Thank you

If you've been reading these emails for years, thank you. If you found me in the past year, thank you. If you bought something from me, downloaded something from me, or just sent a kind reply to one of these, thank you.

The internet is full of creators who never get to choose how their next chapter starts. They burn out, disappear, get canceled, or fade away. I'm grateful I got to choose. I'm grateful I got to tell you on purpose.

Thank you for being a part of this,

Nora (Stephanie)