Vetting Course Instructors

Photo by Element5 Digital on Unsplash

Every few months, a familiar conversation pops up in author spaces:

“Before you take a course, check their Amazon rank.”

And sure, I suppose that’s a way to vet someone. But it’s not the way I do it.

Because what if they’re traditionally published?
What if they sell direct or at reader conferences?
What if most of their revenue comes from Kickstarter, live selling, TikTok, Instagram, or email?

You can’t see any of that in an Amazon rank.

I’ve never checked someone’s rank to decide whether they were “worthy” of teaching. What I do instead is listen. I run what they’re saying through my own experience and common sense. I ask myself: Does this make sense? Does this match what I know to be true? Do I want to know more?

And if I’m still unsure, I don’t go digging through dashboards—I ask people.

If I’m considering a course, I’ll often ask someone who’s already taken it: Did it help you? Did you get clarity? Did you change anything because of it?

That tells me far more than a screenshot ever could.

There’s an old saying: Those who can, do. Those who can’t, teach.

Some people are excellent explainers who never quite broke through themselves. Some people did succeed—but it was a long time ago, under very different conditions. And some people are doing the work right now and also know how to teach it clearly.

I’ll toot my own horn here: I didn’t just want to teach—I wanted to teach well. I studied education. I earned teaching degrees. I wanted to understand how people learn, not just what worked for me personally.

So I do the thing.
And I teach the thing.

But I don’t even check my own Amazon rank.

I check my direct sales.
My ads.
My UTMs.
Where traffic is coming from and what converts.

I’ve never been a Zon darling. And yet, I’m still a multi-six-figure author.

Right now, my Amazon sales are down.
But my direct sales, live sales, TikTok sales, and Instagram sales are growing—and making up the difference. None of that shows up in a rank.

So when people say, “Just check their Amazon rank,” I smile and nod… and then I keep doing what I’ve always done.

I sign up for courses all the time. Often from people who aren’t even authors. I don’t deeply vet them beyond one question: Do I want to hear more from this person?

Sometimes I’m wrong.
I’ve lost money.
I’ve abandoned half-finished courses.

But I’ve also found absolute gems from people no one was talking about yet—ideas that paid for themselves many times over.

So here’s my real advice:

Trust your gut.
Gird your wallet.
But stay curious.

Because the people who help you grow won’t always look impressive on paper—and the loudest metrics don’t always tell the whole story.

If you’re waiting for perfect certainty before you invest in learning? You’ll be waiting a very long time.

If you’re here on this Substack where I give advice away for free, I hope I’ve made it through your vetting process and you take a look at my upcoming Kickstarter!