Day 2 – Breakout Session 7 – 1:30-2:00 PM
Room: Affectiv
Session Title: Going first: AI fluency as leadership credibility
Ryan Kohler · RizeCon 2026 Pocatello
In shaky waters your team follows whoever they believe will solve the problem and not die — so the leadership job is to be the most fluent AI user in your own building. Ryan Kohler, who took ApplicantPro from $400K to $40M with 280 mostly working moms, broke down how to “go first” with AI before asking your team to — and walked the room through 20 ready-to-use prompts to make it happen.
The economic and operational ground is moving under most businesses, and the status-based authority of the Navy model — stars on your shoulder, tenure on the job — stops working in moments like this. People follow competence, not seniority. Whoever in your company is most fluent with AI is the de facto captain of the transition, whether they have the title or not.
What he covered
The pirate ship vs. the Navy. Two models of authority on a ship. In the Navy, status equals respect — the stars on your shoulder dictate who follows whom whether you’re smart or not. On a pirate ship people follow Captain Jack because they believe he knows the stuff, he’s crazy, he doesn’t die, and he’ll solve the problem. They could get off the boat. They don’t. When the waters are shaky, that’s the leadership model that wins.
Going first. Ryan’s stated secret at ApplicantPro was that he went first into every problem. Didn’t die — literally, physically, emotionally. Stood in the heat of every downturn before asking his team to. The operational counterpart to the pirate-ship model: spend 90 days as your company’s heaviest AI user before mandating anything for your team.
Before / After / Reframe. The three-part template behind every prompt in his library. Before: the old mental model the user is stuck in. After: the new mental model the prompt unlocks. Reframe: the identity shift that makes the new model feel true. The identity shift is the part most prompts skip — and the part that actually changes behavior.
The AI platform maturity ladder. ChatGPT = first grade. Claude = middle school. Manus = high school. OpenClaw (self-hosted, local) = creating a human from scratch. Pick the rung your team can actually operate. Jumping too high creates a giant mess. Jumping too low caps your leverage.
The “Comment WORD” CTA principle. Your social CTA should be “Comment WORD to get my free guide.” Period. Not “what do you think?” Not “what are your thoughts?” Your target customer has the problem you solve and they won’t admit it publicly on your post. They want the resource.
What attendees got
Twenty ready-to-use prompts live at rizecon.manus.space, each pre-loaded with Perplexity research on the attendee’s own company — so context is built in rather than re-explained on every run. The library includes “Five posts from one call” (sales-call transcript → five LinkedIn posts in five distinct formats), “Full e-book extraction” (sales calls → lead-magnet outline, generated live on stage as “Fix Your AI Chaos”), and the “vibe code my AI dashboard” prompt — QuickBooks export + CRM pipeline export → custom dashboard covering revenue intelligence, customer-journey funnel, and persona segmentation. Ryan’s framing of that last one: “This is like, I don’t know, probably a $50,000 vibe coding prompt. You’re welcome.”
One story that landed
Around 2007, young Ryan pitched the CEO of a much larger reseller-network company at ApplicantPro’s $400K revenue mark. On the CEO’s desk: a tall stack of paper — his secretary had printed all his emails so he could mark them up by hand for her to type the replies. This was a man running what was becoming a tech company. It took them 23 years to reach $23M in revenue. It took Ryan 18 years to reach $40M. The lesson, sharpened by hindsight: the leader who refuses the tool loses the curve.
“On a pirate ship, you follow the guy that you believe knows the stuff. He’s crazy, he doesn’t die, and he’s going to solve the problem.” — Ryan Kohler
“If they solve the problem you’re solving, then they’re not going to admit it because they’re not a good lead. They want the resource.” — Ryan Kohler
About the speaker
Ryan Kohler is an AI systems architect, entrepreneur, and Founder & CEO of Refer.io, where he has built one of the most powerful recruitment marketing engines in the industry—sending over 100 million emails monthly and helping thousands of organizations scale their hiring efforts. A 12-time Inc. 5000 entrepreneur, Ryan has a proven track record of building and scaling high-performance companies, including bootstrapping ApplicantPro to over $30 million in revenue.
Today, Ryan is focused on helping businesses close the gap between AI hype and real-world impact. Through his work with AI4Teams and GPT4Work, he guides organizations in implementing practical, results-driven AI systems that increase efficiency, enhance team performance, and unlock scalable growth.
Known for his no-nonsense, execution-first approach, Ryan helps leaders move beyond theory and into action—embedding AI directly into business operations to drive measurable results. At RizeCon 2026, he brings a powerful perspective on how companies can leverage AI to reclaim time, increase output, and build a true competitive advantage.