Power Up Your Practice

Welcome to Power Up Your Practice, the go-to law practice management podcast for law firm owners and managing attorneys working on the business, not in it.Hosted by Ruby Powers, your guide into the heart of law practice management. Each week, learn insights from leading legal minds, trailblazing attorneys, and expert guests who provide you with actionable advice, out-of-the-box solutions, and a fresh perspective on running your firm more effectively and efficiently.Prepare to open your mind, be inspired, and power up your practice to the next level.

Power Up Your Practice is a business podcast hosted by Ruby Powers, with 128 episodes on record and a Required Pod Score of 80. PitchCentric scores this show on Booking Probability, Listen Score, and live audience signals refreshed every 24 hours.

Ruby Powers hosts Power Up Your Practice, a business show with 128 episodes published.

Our AI reads these to draft pitches. Use them as grounding for a pitch that cites a real guest and a specific topic.

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  Power Up Your Practice

  Ep. 128: Olympian & Trial Lawyer: Discipline, Advocacy & Winning with Rich Ruohonen

  Aug 18, 202653 min

  In this episode, Ruby Powers sits down with Rich Ruohonen — partner at TSR Injury Law, six-time Minnesota Lawyer of the Year, and the oldest US Winter Olympian in history — for a conversation about what it actually takes to excel at two extraordinarily demanding careers at the same time. Rich has been curling competitively since the 1980s while building one of Minnesota's most successful personal injury trial practices. He's tried close to 1,000 cases and lost 12. He's won national championships, come agonizingly close to the Olympics multiple times, and finally made it this past February at 54 years old — called out of retirement when a teammate fell ill with a rare autoimmune condition. And while he was there, he did something that made headlines far beyond the ice. What we explore: ✅ How He Did Both: Writing opening statements on planes, working seven days a week in the off-season, leveraging remote work and Zoom appearances to curl in Saskatchewan and still show up for clients. What it actually looked like to build two careers in parallel for 30 years. ✅ What Elite Sports Taught Him About Trial Law: The Fight Club — how TSR's trial team practices opening statements in front of 50 staff members before ever walking into a courtroom. Why lawyers don't practice nearly enough. And why telling jurors it's their job is something most lawyers are too scared to do. ✅ The Crossover Between Curling and the Courtroom: Sports psychology, team dynamics, how you talk to people under pressure, and why the mental skills Rich developed on the ice made him a better lawyer — and vice versa. ✅ The Olympic Press Conference: Why Rich stepped up to speak about the rule of law and ICE enforcement in Minnesota during the Olympics, what he said, the backlash he received, and why he stands by every word. What using your platform as a lawyer and public figure actually looks like. ✅ Core Values That Drive Both: Discipline, determination, attitude, effort, and passion. Why none of his success feels like luck when you look at how he lives every day. Note: This episode includes discussion of immigration enforcement, politically charged events in Minnesota, and threats Rich received following his Olympic press conference. If you've ever wondered whether the skills that make a great lawyer and a great athlete are the same — this episode answers that question definitively. SPECIAL ANNOUNCEMENTS: Law Firm Retreat: Design Your Future – August 2026: Stop the daily grind and start architecting your next era. Join Ruby in Denver for an intimate, 15-firm-only strategic laboratory. Secure your spot: https://powersstrategygroup.com/law-firm-retreat-august-2026/ We Love Your Feedback! Help us design the next year of the podcast. Take this 2-minute audience survey: https://forms.gle/EgMgxd3tbXCsmqgp9 Join the conversation in our Power Up Your Practice community! Hosted by Ruby Powers, your guide into the heart of law practice management. Each week, learn insights from leading legal minds, trailblazing attorneys, and expert guests who provide you with actionable advice, out-of-the-box solutions, and a fresh perspective on running your firm more effectively and efficiently. Prepare to open your mind, be inspired, and power up your practice to the next level. Watch more episodes of Power Up Your Practice on: Website: powersstrategygroup.com YouTube: @powersstrategygroup Join our Skool Community - Power Hub: https://www.skool.com/powerupyourpractice Connect and learn more from your host, Ruby Powers: LinkedIn: /rubypowers Facebook: /poweruppractice Website: rubypowers.com Ruby's Book: Power Up Your Practice on Amazon Trusted Resources from Our Toolkit: • Stafi https://calendly.com/d/csbk-3y4-35w/staffing-strategy-session-stafi-ruby-powers?month=2025-07 • Filevine https://www.filevine.com/partner/powers-referral/ • CandleAI https://www.trycandle.ai/powers • Vonage https://share.vonage.com/zones/friend_landing_experience_microsite?extole_share_channel=%5C%22SHARE_LINK%5C%22&extole_shareable_code=wzq4f&referral_id=wzq4f&source=%5C%22direct%5C%22&utm_source=Power+Up+Your+Practice+by+Power+Strategy+Group&utm_campaign=a7c6feafe9-EMAIL_CAMPAIGN_2020_04_13_07_58_COPY_01&utm_medium=email&utm_term=0_3b4d3388ea-a7c6feafe9-746189731

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  Power Up Your Practice

  Ep. 127: Becoming Phoenix: Transformation & Thriving After It All Burns Down with Melissa Rogozinski

  Aug 11, 202640 min

  In this episode, Ruby Powers sits down with Melissa Rogozinski — paralegal turned ediscovery pioneer, entrepreneur, legal tech strategist, and now author — for one of the most raw and courageous conversations in the Resilience Series. Melissa has spent 32 years in law and legal technology, witnessing three full technology evolutions in the profession — from the early Internet to ediscovery to AI. But between 2012 and 2017, while her career was still intact, everything else burned down. Her mother's Parkinson's diagnosis. Her own breast cancer. The loss of her mother. Exile from her family. Homelessness. And more that she saves for the book. What she built on the other side of all of it — professionally, personally, and spiritually — is what Becoming Phoenix is about. What we explore: ✅ Three Decades of Legal Tech Evolution: What the shift from banker's boxes to ediscovery to AI has taught Melissa about how the profession adapts — and why she believes the current AI moment looks more like infrastructure stress than innovation gold rush. ✅ Resilience vs. Transformation: Why Melissa draws a sharp line between the two. Resilience is a necessity — you don't choose what forces it. Transformation is a choice. One gets you back to who you were. The other gets you to who you were always supposed to be. ✅ The Crises Between 2012 and 2017: Health, loss, financial collapse, professional threat, and the hardest chapter she didn't mention until Ruby asked. Melissa talks honestly about what she went through, why she held firm, and what it cost her — and what it didn't. ✅ Moving Your Own Goalpost: Why Melissa spent years refusing to let herself win, how she defined success only in financial terms and used that definition to erase everything else she had built, and what her closest friends had to tell her when they read the manuscript. ✅ What She Wants Readers to Take Away: You don't know what you're made of until you're tested. You are made of more than you will ever give yourself credit for. Survival is possible. Transformation is a choice. And the life on the other side can be more beautiful than anything you had before the fire. Note: This episode contains a discussion of sexual assault. Melissa shares her experience as part of her story and her book. If you're in the middle of something hard right now — or you know someone who is — this episode is for you. Connect with Melissa Rogozinski: LinkedIn: Melissa Rogozinski Website: rpcgrowthstrategies.com Book: Becoming Phoenix Memoir Join the conversation in our Power Up Your Practice community! Hosted by Ruby Powers, your guide into the heart of law practice management. Each week, learn insights from leading legal minds, trailblazing attorneys, and expert guests who provide you with actionable advice, out-of-the-box solutions, and a fresh perspective on running your firm more effectively and efficiently. Prepare to open your mind, be inspired, and power up your practice to the next level. Watch more episodes of Power Up Your Practice on: Website: powersstrategygroup.com YouTube: @powersstrategygroup Join our Skool Community - Power Hub: https://www.skool.com/powerupyourpractice Connect and learn more from your host, Ruby Powers: LinkedIn: /rubypowers Facebook: /poweruppractice Website: rubypowers.com Ruby's Book: Power Up Your Practice on Amazon Trusted Resources from Our Toolkit: • Stafi https://calendly.com/d/csbk-3y4-35w/staffing-strategy-session-stafi-ruby-powers?month=2025-07 • Filevine https://www.filevine.com/partner/powers-referral/ • CandleAI https://www.trycandle.ai/powers • Vonage https://share.vonage.com/zones/friend_landing_experience_microsite?extole_share_channel=%5C%22SHARE_LINK%5C%22&extole_shareable_code=wzq4f&referral_id=wzq4f&source=%5C%22direct%5C%22&utm_source=Power+Up+Your+Practice+by+Power+Strategy+Group&utm_campaign=a7c6feafe9-EMAIL_CAMPAIGN_2020_04_13_07_58_COPY_01&utm_medium=email&utm_term=0_3b4d3388ea-a7c6feafe9-746189731

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  Power Up Your Practice

  Ep. 125: The Gap Between Law School & Practice: What Graduates Need to Know with Joan Bullock

  Jul 28, 202652 min

  In this episode, Ruby Powers sits down with Joan Bullock — professor of law at Texas Southern University Thurgood Marshall School of Law, former dean, CPA, practicing attorney, and the Reformed Law Prof — for one of the most honest conversations about legal education the show has had. Joan graduated from law school in 1983, went straight into teaching at 23, and quickly realized she had no business doing it — not because she didn't know the law, but because she didn't know practice. She left, got her MBA, became a CPA, worked at one of the Big Eight accounting firms, ran her own legal and accounting practice for 12 years, and came back to teaching in 1991 with the war stories and the wisdom she had been missing. That journey is exactly why she's worth listening to. What we explore: ✅ The Debt Crisis Shaping Every Decision: Why graduating with six figures of debt isn't just a financial problem — it's a constraint that determines which jobs graduates can take, which practices they can build, and which dreams they have to delay. Why financial literacy needs to start in law school, not after graduation. ✅ The Practice Environment Has Changed: Clients who expect technology fluency, faster turnaround, fixed fees, and transparency. A world where they've already Googled their situation before they call. What law school is still teaching versus what practice actually demands. ✅ The Mentorship Collapse: Senior lawyers don't have time, training budgets are being cut, remote work has eliminated casual hallway learning, and AI is taking over the entry-level tasks that used to build judgment. What graduates are losing — and why it can't be replaced by Googling. ✅ What Graduates Should Do Right Now: Find three to five deliberate mentors, not one. Come with specific questions, not vague ones. Develop depth in a skill rather than shallow breadth across many. And understand that financial fluency is not optional — it's foundational. ✅ Practice Ready vs. Practice Ability: The distinction a California attorney shared with Joan that reframed everything — why checking off a to-do list is not the same as knowing what to do next, and why that gap is the real problem law schools aren't solving. ✅ What Law Firms Need to Understand: Why hiring a recent graduate is a joint responsibility — and why firms that don't invest in developing their people are creating a pipeline problem they'll feel in five years. If you're a recent graduate trying to figure out your next move, a firm owner thinking about how you develop talent, or a law professor wondering what reform actually looks like — this conversation is worth your time. SPECIAL ANNOUNCEMENTS: Law Firm Retreat: Design Your Future – August 2026: Stop the daily grind and start architecting your next era. Join Ruby in Denver for an intimate, 15-firm-only strategic laboratory. Secure your spot: https://powersstrategygroup.com/law-firm-retreat-august-2026/ We Love Your Feedback! Help us design the next year of the podcast. Take this 2-minute audience survey: https://forms.gle/EgMgxd3tbXCsmqgp9 Join the conversation in our Power Up Your Practice community! Hosted by Ruby Powers, your guide into the heart of law practice management. Each week, learn insights from leading legal minds, trailblazing attorneys, and expert guests who provide you with actionable advice, out-of-the-box solutions, and a fresh perspective on running your firm more effectively and efficiently. Prepare to open your mind, be inspired, and power up your practice to the next level. Watch more episodes of Power Up Your Practice on: Website: powersstrategygroup.com YouTube: @powersstrategygroup Join our Skool Community - Power Hub: https://www.skool.com/powerupyourpractice Connect and learn more from your host, Ruby Powers: LinkedIn: /rubypowers Facebook: /poweruppractice Website: rubypowers.com Ruby's Book: Power Up Your Practice on Amazon Trusted Resources from Our Toolkit: Stafi https://calendly.com/d/csbk-3y4-35w/staffing-strategy-session-stafi-ruby-powers?month=2025-07 Filevine https://www.filevine.com/partner/powers-referral/ CandleAI https://www.trycandle.ai/powers Vonage https://share.vonage.com/zones/friend_landing_experience_microsite?extole_share_channel=%5C%22SHARE_LINK%5C%22&extole_shareable_code=wzq4f&referral_id=wzq4f&source=%5C%22direct%5C%22&utm_source=Power+Up+Your+Practice+by+Power+Strategy+Group&utm_campaign=a7c6feafe9-EMAIL_CAMPAIGN_2020_04_13_07_58_COPY_01&utm_medium=email&utm_term=0_3b4d3388ea-a7c6feafe9-746189731

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  Power Up Your Practice

  Ep. 124: AI Literacy, Prompt Engineering & the Future of Legal Education with Sean Harrington

  Jul 21, 202649 min

  In this episode, Ruby Powers sits down with Sean Harrington, Director of the AI and Legal Tech Studio at Arizona State University's Sandra Day O'Connor College of Law, for a conversation about what it actually takes to build AI fluency — in law schools, in law firms, and in yourself. Sean has been teaching hands-on AI courses for three semesters, running an AI ops operation across the ASU campus, and presenting at ABA TechShow on prompt engineering. He's spent thousands of hours with this technology and has a grounded, balanced take on where the profession is and where it needs to go. What we explore: ✅ The Uneven State of AI in Law Schools: Less than half of law schools had any AI class as of 2024 — and of those, only 12% offered practical hands-on training. What ASU is doing differently, why some schools are still banning AI entirely, and what incoming students actually need to ask before choosing a school. ✅ Why Training Lawyers in AI Is Different: Unlike Microsoft Word or Westlaw, AI outputs are stochastic — they're never exactly the same twice. Add the high-profile hallucination cases and the career risk of getting it wrong, and you have a technology that requires a different kind of training altogether. ✅ How to Build AI Intuition: Sean's approach is brute-force repetition across as many applications as possible until every attorney has their own light bulb moment. What that looks like in practice — and why the attorneys who tried it once two years ago and gave up are the ones falling furthest behind. ✅ The Four-Part Prompting Framework: Why prompting still matters for complex tasks, what framework Sean uses and why he chose it, and what the difference looks like between a prompt that works and one that doesn't. ✅ The AI Ops Role Inside Your Firm: Why every firm with the capacity should identify an AI champion, give them a token budget, free up some of their time from the billable hour, and let them run. What that person does and why it's becoming a competitive necessity. ✅ AI Hygiene for Busy Attorneys: How to stay current when you can't spend three hours reading documentation. The newsletter diet, the Notebook LM trick, and why an hour a week of focused AI training is a realistic and meaningful commitment. If you're trying to figure out how to actually get better at this — not just keep hearing that you should — this episode is the most practical starting point we've had. SPECIAL ANNOUNCEMENTS: Law Firm Retreat: Design Your Future – August 2026: Stop the daily grind and start architecting your next era. Join Ruby in Denver for an intimate, 15-firm-only strategic laboratory. Secure your spot: https://powersstrategygroup.com/law-firm-retreat-august-2026/ We Love Your Feedback! Help us design the next year of the podcast. Take this 2-minute audience survey: https://forms.gle/EgMgxd3tbXCsmqgp9 Join the conversation in our Power Up Your Practice community! Hosted by Ruby Powers, your guide into the heart of law practice management. Each week, learn insights from leading legal minds, trailblazing attorneys, and expert guests who provide you with actionable advice, out-of-the-box solutions, and a fresh perspective on running your firm more effectively and efficiently. Prepare to open your mind, be inspired, and power up your practice to the next level. Watch more episodes of Power Up Your Practice on: Website: powersstrategygroup.com YouTube: @powersstrategygroup Join our Skool Community - Power Hub: https://www.skool.com/powerupyourpractice Connect and learn more from your host, Ruby Powers: LinkedIn: /rubypowers Facebook: /poweruppractice Website: rubypowers.com Ruby's Book: Power Up Your Practice on Amazon Trusted Resources from Our Toolkit: Stafi https://calendly.com/d/csbk-3y4-35w/staffing-strategy-session-stafi-ruby-powers?month=2025-07 Filevine https://www.filevine.com/partner/powers-referral/ CandleAI https://www.trycandle.ai/powers Vonage https://share.vonage.com/zones/friend_landing_experience_microsite?extole_share_channel=%5C%22SHARE_LINK%5C%22&extole_shareable_code=wzq4f&referral_id=wzq4f&source=%5C%22direct%5C%22&utm_source=Power+Up+Your+Practice+by+Power+Strategy+Group&utm_campaign=a7c6feafe9-EMAIL_CAMPAIGN_2020_04_13_07_58_COPY_01&utm_medium=email&utm_term=0_3b4d3388ea-a7c6feafe9-746189731

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  Power Up Your Practice

  Ep. 123: Ditch the To-Do List: The Calendar System That Changed Everything with Bryn Poland

  Jul 14, 202647 min

  In this episode, Ruby Powers sits down with Bryn Poland, partner at Mayo & Poland and elder law attorney based in Houston, for a conversation about one of the most universal struggles in legal practice: managing time without losing your mind. Bryn didn't come to calendar-based productivity through a course or a productivity guru. She came to it through burnout — a growing personal admin load, a to-do list that kept rolling over, and the realization that her wish list for the day had nothing to do with the actual hours she had available. What she built instead is a fully calendar-driven system with no to-do list at all. And she's been running it for a decade. What we explore: ✅ Why the To-Do List Is a Wish List: The fundamental problem with task lists is that they grow without limit while the hours in your day don't. Why that mismatch is the root cause of most lawyer burnout. ✅ The Rollover Effect: How the scary, hard tasks keep getting pushed to tomorrow — and how that quiet procrastination compounds into deadline panic, stress, and lost productivity. ✅ Extreme Calendaring in Practice: What it actually looks like to put everything on your calendar — including the shower, the school run, the oil change, and the scary brief — and why that specificity is the whole point. ✅ The 15th of the Month Rule: How Bryn blocks one day every month for protected personal time, doctor's appointments, and margin — and why that one habit has given her back weeks of breathing room every year. ✅ Backward Planning for Big Projects: How to take a terrifying two-month deadline and break it into calendar blocks that make the whole thing feel manageable before you even start. ✅ The Micro Feminism of a Visible Calendar: Why Bryn doesn't mark her kids' activities as private on her work calendar — and what that choice signals to her team about what a full, sustainable legal career actually looks like. If your to-do list is longer than your day and you're tired of carrying it around — this episode is your starting point. 📣 SPECIAL ANNOUNCEMENTS: 🚀 Law Firm Retreat: Design Your Future – August 2026: Stop the daily grind and start architecting your next era. Join Ruby in Denver for an intimate, 15-firm-only strategic laboratory. 👉 Secure your spot: https://powersstrategygroup.com/law-firm-retreat-august-2026/ 📊 We Love Your Feedback! Help us design the next year of the podcast. Take this 2-minute audience survey: https://forms.gle/EgMgxd3tbXCsmqgp9 📌 Join the conversation in our Power Up Your Practice community! Hosted by Ruby Powers, your guide into the heart of law practice management. Each week, learn insights from leading legal minds, trailblazing attorneys, and expert guests who provide you with actionable advice, out-of-the-box solutions, and a fresh perspective on running your firm more effectively and efficiently. Prepare to open your mind, be inspired, and power up your practice to the next level. Watch more episodes of Power Up Your Practice on: 🌐 Website: powersstrategygroup.com 📺 YouTube: @powersstrategygroup 💬 Join our Skool Community - Power Hub: https://www.skool.com/powerupyourpractice Connect and learn more from your host, Ruby Powers: 🔹 LinkedIn: /rubypowers 🔹 Facebook: /poweruppractice 🔹 Website: rubypowers.com 🔹 Ruby's Book: Power Up Your Practice on Amazon Trusted Resources from Our Toolkit: Stafi https://calendly.com/d/csbk-3y4-35w/staffing-strategy-session-stafi-ruby-powers?month=2025-07 Filevine https://www.filevine.com/partner/powers-referral/ CandleAI https://www.trycandle.ai/powers Vonage https://share.vonage.com/zones/friend_landing_experience_microsite?extole_share_channel=%5C%22SHARE_LINK%5C%22&extole_shareable_code=wzq4f&referral_id=wzq4f&source=%5C%22direct%5C%22&utm_source=Power+Up+Your+Practice+by+Power+Strategy+Group&utm_campaign=a7c6feafe9-EMAIL_CAMPAIGN_2020_04_13_07_58_COPY_01&utm_medium=email&utm_term=0_3b4d3388ea-a7c6feafe9-746189731

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