Jordan Peterson: Speak precisely, listen first, and share ideas freely to earn trust.

Peterson divides opinion, and Rod does not need anyone to agree with him about politics to see what makes him worth studying. Whether people like him or not, he is a sharp, disciplined debater, and talking with him was a chance to watch a very good mind work.

Rod also watched how Peterson ran the business side of his ideas. The mix of sales and marketing that built his audience gave Rod several talking points to bring home to Coulee Tech.

What Peterson built

Peterson was a clinical psychologist and professor at the University of Toronto, where he arrived as a full professor in 1998 and retired as professor emeritus in 2021. He began putting his lectures on YouTube in 2013, and he started his podcast in December 2016. By the time 12 Rules for Life came out in January 2018, he already had a large audience that had learned from him for free.

The book followed that audience. His publisher reports more than ten million copies sold. A world tour came next, then a larger media operation, and in 2024 the launch of Peterson Academy, an online platform of recorded lectures.

The order matters. He gave the ideas away first, in full, and the paid products came after the trust.

What stuck with Rod

Peterson is known for a few plain rules that work in any room. Be precise in your speech. Assume the person you are listening to might know something you don't. Compare yourself to who you were yesterday, not to someone else today. Set your house in order before you criticize the world.

None of that is flashy. All of it can be practiced.

How Rod applies it

Say exactly what you mean. Technology firms hide behind vague words. Rod tries to give clients precise language: what the risk is, what the tool does, what it costs, what it will not do.
Discovery is listening. In a first meeting with a healthcare or manufacturing client, Rod works from the assumption that the client knows something about their operation that he does not. The questions come before the proposal.
Publish freely. Peterson earned trust by putting his lectures online. Rod does the same with talks, books and free guidance on AI and cybersecurity, so a prospect has already seen how he thinks before they call.
Fix your own house first. Before recommending AI to a client, Rod makes sure Coulee Tech's own data, access and processes are in order.
Measure against yesterday. In AIBMM coaching, the useful comparison is not the competitor down the street. It is where the business stood on the maturity levels last quarter.

Rod met each of these people at business growth events where they were the featured speaker. The lessons are his own takeaways and do not imply an endorsement by anyone pictured.