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Break Into E-Com. Then Keep Your Head In It.
I'm Adam Smith. Former telemarketer, online since 2000, freelance graphic designer and video editor who closed his own deals on Upwork. I write Break Into Ecom — e-com education for the ones getting in, e-com Zen for the ones already in it. One newsletter, both sides of the coin. This page is the map I'd hand you if we sat down together, and every step on it is something I've actually done.
Whether you're trying to land your first e-com role or you're already running the thing and losing sleep over it, there's a clear next step for you below.
- Weekly mindset work built for people running a business
- Courses, community and a USA e-com job board inside Skool
- Books that start free — pay what you want, including nothing
- A free 15-minute call when you genuinely don't know your next move
Join 61 readers getting Break Into Ecom every week
E-com education•
Break into e-com•
E-com Zen•
Fix your mind•
Both sides of the coin•
Start here•
The Roadmap
Pick the stage that sounds like you
Four stages. One honest next step in each. Don't skip ahead — the work compounds.
Stage 1
Just Started
"I keep starting over every Monday and nothing ever sticks."
Maybe you've got a store. Maybe you're trying to get hired into e-com and nothing has landed yet. Either way, what you don't have is proof that you can show up when it's boring. That's the whole game right now — not the niche, not the platform, not the perfect résumé. Consistency first. Everything else is downstream.
Also useful right now
Free eBook
Fix Your Mind. Attract More E-Commerce Success.
The book this page is built on. Read it first — it's pay-what-you-want, and zero is a valid answer.
Download freeeBook
The E-Commerce Mindset
Unleash your inner entrepreneur — the deeper version of the free book, for when you're ready to do the work. Worth buying.
Get the bookFree · Community
Ecom Jobs Community on Skool
Free while it lasts — intro roadmap, AI resume builders and weekly live Q&A calls. The price goes up once it fills.
Join freeRecommended Pathway
- Subscribe to the newsletter. One input a week beats ten courses you never finish.
- Read Fix Your Mind. Attract More E-Commerce Success. It's free, it's short, and it names the thing that's actually stopping you.
- Join the Skool community while it's still free. Weekly live calls and a room of people at your exact stage — the price goes up once it fills.
- Then buy The E-Commerce Mindset. If the free book landed, this is where the real work is.
Power combo: the free book + the free community. Costs nothing, and it's the only pairing that reliably gets people off zero.
Stage 2
Growing
"I’m putting in the hours — I just can’t tell if any of it is working."
Something is working — orders, interviews, replies, a first client. So is the pressure. You're deciding on instinct at 11pm, rebuilding things that already worked, and treating every flat week like a verdict on your character. What you need now is a system you trust more than your mood, and one skill you take further than everyone else who's dabbling in four.
Start with this
E-Com Mindset Membership
A monthly membership for operators with traction: live coaching calls, a decision framework library, and a room full of people who understand why a good week still feels terrifying.
Join the MembershipAlso useful right now
eBook
Launch & Manage a Print-on-Demand Store
The full operational build — products, setup, fulfilment, and running it without burning out. Buy this before you hire anyone.
Get the bookSystems Over Sprints Workshop
Replace heroic 14-hour days with a weekly operating rhythm you can hold for a year.
Watch the workshopDecision Filter Template
Five questions that kill 80% of the "should I pivot?" spirals before they start.
Get the templateSkool Courses
Skill Tracks: VA, Fullstack, Video Editing
Introduction courses in the roles e-com companies actually hire for. Pick one lane and go deep instead of dabbling in four.
Browse the classroomRecommended Pathway
- Join the membership and bring one real bottleneck to your first live call.
- Install the Decision Filter — no significant change to the store without running it first.
- Do the Systems Over Sprints Workshop and lock in one non-negotiable weekly review.
- Buy Launch & Manage a Print-on-Demand Store and document your operation against it, chapter by chapter.
Power combo: Membership + the Print-on-Demand book. A system on paper beats a system in your head every single week.
Stage 3
Monetizing
"The money finally came in and I’m more anxious than when it didn’t."
It works. The store sells, or the clients pay, or the role came through. And every new zero on the dashboard arrives with a fear attached — that it's luck, that it'll vanish, that you're one bad month from the start. Growing the income and growing the person earning it are the same project, and this is where they have to happen together.
Start with this
1:1 Clarity Call
Ninety minutes, just us. We map where the revenue is actually leaking, where you're the bottleneck, and what the next 90 days look like. You leave with a written plan, not a vibe.
Book a Clarity CallAlso useful right now
eBook
Find & Land Ecommerce Jobs on Upwork
A second revenue line from skills you already have. Updated for 2026–2027 — worth the price for the profile templates alone.
Get the bookOffer Clarity Teardown
A structured review of what you sell and why people hesitate right before checkout.
Request a teardownSkool Courses
Pro Tracks & 90-Day Job Search
The paid unlocks: Pro-level role courses, a 1:1 coaching session, and hand-picked roles sent to you daily for 90 days.
See what unlocksFounder Energy Audit
Find the four tasks draining you and the two that actually generate the revenue.
Run the auditRecommended Pathway
- Book the Clarity Call and come with your last 90 days of numbers, not a pitch.
- Run the Founder Energy Audit the week before, so we're working from real data about your time.
- Execute the 90-day plan from the call with a monthly check-in to keep it honest.
- Pick up Find & Land Ecommerce Jobs on Upwork if you want income that isn't tied to your own store's good months.
Power combo: Clarity Call + Energy Audit. Know exactly where the money is and exactly what's eating you.
Stage 4
Scaling
"The business grew faster than I did."
You're running an operation now — clients, team, suppliers, real overhead, real consequences. The constraint isn't effort anymore, it's identity: you're still working like the person who started this, and the thing you built needs the person who runs it. That's a different job, and nobody hands you the transition.
Start with this
VIP Coaching Circle
A small, closed group of operators past six figures. Monthly private coaching, direct access between sessions, and peers who'll tell you the truth about your blind spots. Application only.
Apply to the CircleAlso useful right now
eBook
The Bootstrapped Freelancer
Land clients by walking in and closing the deal — no ads, no funnel. Buy it if you're building a book of business, not just a store.
Get the bookScaling Systems Intensive
A two-day deep build of the SOPs, dashboards and rhythms your operation runs on.
See the intensiveOperator-to-Owner Delegation Map
Decide what leaves your desk, who catches it, and how you stop taking it back.
Get the mapSkool Courses
Ecom Pro From Scratch & Ecom Insider
The top-tier unlocks — full industry mastery plus the productivity and mindset material sitting behind it.
See the top tierRecommended Pathway
- Apply to the VIP Coaching Circle — this stage goes badly alone, and you know it.
- Book the Scaling Systems Intensive to get the operation out of your head and into documentation.
- Work the Delegation Map until at least three recurring tasks are permanently off your desk.
- Work through Ecom Pro From Scratch and Ecom Insider in the Skool classroom — the top-tier material assumes you already run something real.
- Read The Bootstrapped Freelancer if the next phase involves selling to clients rather than to a catalogue.
Power combo: VIP Circle + Systems Intensive. Build the machine, then become the person who owns it instead of the one who is it.
Not Sure Where You Are?
Book a free 15-minute call and I'll tell you straight which stage you're actually in — most people guess one too high. Subscribers also get the e-com career-path quiz, which does the same job in five minutes.
Book a Clarity CallJoin the Community
Three ways in
Start free. Move up when the free layer stops being enough — not before.
Free
$0 / forever
The free layer of Break Into Ecom. Stay here as long as it's working.
- Free Notes that push you out of the comfort zone
- Full archive of past issues, no paywall
- The e-com career-path quiz when you subscribe
- Reply to any issue — I read them all
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Skoolio
$16 / month · $150 / year
The newsletter plus the whole Skool classroom and the room that comes with it.
- Premium weekly Zen — mindset work for people running a business
- Full Skool classroom: courses that build real expertise
- Community access and a direct line to me
- USA job board for e-commers
Coachable
$99.99 / year
For the ones who want a person, not just a platform, in their corner.
- Everything in Skoolio
- Monthly 1:1 coaching call with me
- Help navigating the mass of information you get online
- Accountability on the career path you actually chose