The Labor Lens: Leading People in a Tech-Powered Workplace with Anthony Presley

In this episode of The Leadership Table Podcast, Jason E. Brooks sits down with Anthony Presley, CEO of TimeForge. 
Anthony shares how his journey from coding in Cairo to leading a workforce technology company shaped his perspective 
on leadership, labor, and the future of work. 

They dive into:
- The shift from “managing schedules” to truly leading people
- How technology can empower operators instead of overwhelming them
- The importance of retention, re-skilling, and rewarding employees
- Stories from TimeForge’s evolution and Anthony’s leadership journey

🎧 Subscribe so you never miss an episode: www.jasonebrooks.com/podcast
🌐 Learn more about TimeForge: https://timeforge.com/
🔗 Connect with Anthony: https://www.linkedin.com/in/apresley/

#TheLeadershipTable #HospitalityLeadership #Podcast #TimeForge #Leadership

Chapters

• 0:00 Jason Introduces TimeForge CEO
• 1:52 From Cairo to Coding: An Unconventional Journey
• 7:51 Post-COVID Leadership Challenges
• 13:36 Scaling Software While Listening to Customers
• 21:13 Tech That Helps, Not Hinders
• 30:28 Dream Leadership Table and Life-Changing Conversation
• 38:44 Final Thoughts and Where to Connect

Transcript

Speaker 1: 0:21

Jason E Brooks, ceo of TimeForge, a workforce management platform that helps operators tackle some of the toughest challenges in our industry from labor forecasting and compliance to team culture and leadership accountability at an early age, but his path eventually connected him with the hospitality world, giving him a unique perspective on what it takes to lead people in a tech-powered workplace. Under his leadership, timeforged has expanded its capabilities from gig worker shift coverage to AI-powered forecasting, all while staying laser-focused on helping leaders run smarter, more people-first operations. Before we dive in, remember to subscribe so you never miss an episode that can help you lead stronger, scale smarter and build the kind of team your guests will never forget. Let's dive into it, mr Anthony. Mr Presley, you didn't start in a tech company. You know you've been on the front lines of hospitality period. Can you walk our listeners through your journey from operations to leading Time Fororge and how that experience shapes the way you serve operators right now?

Speaker 2: 1:53

I can, I'm happy to do that. I don't have a traditional journey, as I'm sure most of your guests don't. Right, everybody's unique. I actually did start primarily on the tech side, and I started with tech when I was in middle school. My father was stationed in Cairo, egypt, and this was pre Osama bin Laden in any of the uprising there, and so if there's not a base in Cairo and so we were on the streets with all the locals, it's a very poor area of the world. And, um, I went to a, a, a private school, and at that private school were some amazing teachers and instructors and I had a Apple fellow that was on sabbatical from Apple, who taught me how to program on a language called HyperCard in seventh grade. And so in the summers I would come back and forth to the States, we'd steal computer games and we'd buy them with cash and then we'd hack them and break the security and encryption so that we could share them around. There was no internet, right. This was pre-anything, and so I had enjoyed that.

Speaker 2: 3:12

When I got back to the States as a teenager and went to school, I needed to find a job. My dad was like you've got to go find a job. You're not, you know, no 16 year old of mine sitting around here consuming gas and not having a real job. And so I went and applied, and I applied for all the places a 16 year old should apply for, and it turned out that in the midst of this, my um high school wanted to pay me money to write a software program to do a Valentine's Day dance and so a matching program between the guys and the gals. And so I wrote prematchcom, a little piece of software that tied all of the high school couples together. None of those couples are still couples, by the way, but yeah. So I started down that path and then I ended up in the software business and I had a small software company in high school.

Speaker 2: 4:13

And then, when I went to college, I had a roommate that worked for his dad's I'm sorry, his uncle's restaurant, and it was on the other side of town and he didn't have a car, and so this would have been in 2000. And he needed to find a schedule. It was a silly. It was a silly problem. Right, I need to, I need, but they only had one phone line and you can't use that phone line for staff, so you really just need to use that phone line for for customers to call in. You really just need to use that phone line for you know customers to call in. And so the schedule got posted on Sunday night and you needed to drive in Sunday night to find out what the schedule was. So you need to know if you're going to be at work the next morning. So he paid me beer money and gas money and I drove him across town to his uncle's restaurant and he'd look at the schedule. And then we talk about how dumb that was as we drove back.

Speaker 2: 5:10

But I never thought that that was going to lead me to go build a product like that and instead I had several software companies and scaled some of them 60, 80 employees and did custom software and some other things. But anyway, so that is roughly how I got into the industry, was? You know? I did have a software background. I did have a tech background. I was going to go work in a restaurant and then I got an alternate offer.

Speaker 1: 5:38

Dude, who knew you were the founder of Grindr way back in like high school for Valentine's Day? I did not. I didn't know that, yeah.

Speaker 2: 5:48

Yeah, yeah, back in the day, man.

Speaker 1: 5:53

You know what? I actually remember getting restaurant schedules and me having to drive up there in order to see was the schedule ready? Yet I actually remember doing that and but back then hate to say it, but it seemed like managers were a bit more efficient with getting the schedule done on time because no one wanted to drive back and forth six, seven times over several days. These days we still have some managers that the schedule should be posted on Friday for next week. It doesn't go up until Tuesday afternoon and it's like, well, you usually work on Monday at 8 am, so I figured I'd just post it on Tuesday. No, it should be up on Friday the week before. But no, I did not know that. About Cairo and Apple and all of that, that is an amazing journey. You actually really do have that tech prowess etched into your bloodstream. That is amazing, yo man.

Speaker 2: 7:07

Yeah, thanks. It's the only story I got, so it's Whatever.

Speaker 1: 7:15

So now labor. You know because you focus on the labor aspect and labor within our industry. This is one of the biggest pressure points out there, whether it is compliance or scheduling or just keeping great people on the schedule. How do you see leaders shifting the conversation from managing schedules to actually leading their teams better, because this is the leadership table, so it's not just about managing those schedules but about leading better teams. How do you see them shifting that conversation?

Speaker 2: 7:57

Yeah, that's a great question and I would wrap in. There's something that happened since COVID which changes a little bit of the lens of how I think our industry needs to operate, and you and I have talked about this in the past. But you know, roughly 40% of our customer base are actually in grocery and general retail and the rest are in restaurants, and so we have this unique view, I think, to be able to see across several industries and see what's going on across the board, and there's a lot of turmoil amongst frontline workers right now in all different kinds of industries. But one of the things that happened during COVID was that tenured managers left the restaurant industry, and you can see that in the stats, right, you can see that the average restaurant manager right now has been there less than two years. And so what was going on? Back when you were driving in to get your schedule, you had a manager that had a gut, visceral knowledge and, beyond the gut, their brain was working behind the scenes and they knew, hey, on Thursday or Friday we're going to look at this kind of a trend and there's the sidewalk sale. And they knew because they had been running a thriving business for a decade or two decades, and they knew how to interact and they knew how to lead Right. And now you've got a situation where a lot of those folks left the industry either for other opportunities or they took the time to lead Right. And now you've got a situation where a lot of those folks left the industry either for other opportunities, or they took the time to retire. They turned in a single parent household. There's a lot of things that happened during COVID, and so now you have, by and large, the average tenure is less than two years, and it's not getting longer, it's getting shorter.

Speaker 2: 9:43

And so, now that you're going, well, how do these folks know what's going on? To your point, managing the schedule, but then how are they leading and bringing people to acknowledge? And it's really all about communication. It's always been about communication, right? How do we communicate the business needs to the people that we need to help execute on the goals for the business? And and you know, there's command and control, which almost never will work for a short time, right, but it's not going to work for very long.

Speaker 2: 10:17

And then there's this whole idea of setting goals and leading. And, to your point, how do we retain those employees? And it's amazing to me how much a restaurant will spend on dollars to go get new guests in the door or to get retained guests back, and then you go. Well, how much did you spend on keeping your employees around? And it's like, oh, none, zero.

Speaker 2: 10:39

Why would we do that?

Speaker 2: 10:41

Like you know, and it turns out that if we spent about that same amount of time and effort money I'll take a 10, a 20 to keep those staff there, train them, educate them, reskill them, then you would actually have a more holistic organization, because they'll then take care of the employees or the customers, because they'll then take care of the employees or the customers, and so, yeah, so that's what we're seeing at the leadership level is that smart leaders are coming in, they're communicating really well what the business priorities are and that those clear expectations are set.

Speaker 2: 11:19

Then you've got the backside of that, which is that there's rewards and you participate in those rewards, and it's an industry that is typically the average person and the frontline worker is living below the poverty level. But it doesn't have to be that way. How do we, how do you make sure we hit the goals? And then everybody gets a bonus, everybody gets a spiff, everybody gets to participate and then, and then, suddenly you're not having to go. Well, my employees all have three jobs. Well, it doesn't have to be that way.

Speaker 1: 11:46

Hey, quick pause. If you're a hospitality leader and this conversation with Anthony Presley is hitting home I want to personally invite you to take it a step further inside the AIM DRIVE SCALE leadership circle. It's my small group coaching experience, designed specifically for operators, owners and executives who want to scale smarter, lead stronger and build teams that truly care. We meet regularly to work through real challenges, sharpen leadership systems and create a culture that actually sticks. If this sounds like something you've been looking for, head to aimdrivescalecom or click the link in the show notes. Now back to the episode. You know everything that you're saying. Uh, you're not just saying. Your business actually reflects that.

Speaker 1: 12:34

Now, for those who are listening on their favorite streaming service for audio, you can't see this, but I've actually went through the Time Forge website and it is just amazing how what you're saying from it's not just about the schedule. It's about how to recruit better, how to reward your team members, the different refinements within, how to do scheduling and then how to retain your team. You do go a bit further beyond, not a bit? A lot further beyond the actual scheduling software and then who it's for, just like you said, from grocery to restaurant, to specialty retail, to, to, to convenience stores and then franchises. You do touch on a lot of those different things throughout your software, so it's actually good not to hear you just talk about it, but that is how your software is built, is built.

Speaker 1: 13:47

Now, one thing that I've noticed in talking to leaders is that growth can sometimes erode culture if it's not intentional Having those four things, those four R's, in place. If you don't intentionally do it, as restaurants grow, culture can fade. So how do you balance scaling the reach of your product while keeping trust and culture at the center of the process?

Speaker 2: 14:14

That's a great question. Are you talking about us with our software or how we help customers do that?

Speaker 1: 14:21

Both, but first you with your software.

Speaker 2: 14:25

Well, to do that, I will give you a very small, simple story. And when we founded when I founded Timeforged, so I went to college, you know 2000, we started to come up with these ideas and then the idea sat dormant till 2007. The idea of fat dormant till 2007. And in 2007 we built the first version and I wanted to bring automated scheduling and communication to the restaurant industry 2007,. Most of our competitors are in the market Now. It did not exist.

Speaker 2: 14:58

Uh, ray and David were building hot schedules, um and so they were kind of the only one, and um and anyway. So I went and took this and showed it to a group, a Mexican table service restaurant. I went and showed it to the CEO, who I knew that hey, look at this, it's automated scheduling. That's his 2007. This was before an iPad. And he looked me dead in the face and said Anthony, I already pay my managers to build schedules. Why would I pay you? And that hit me like a ton of bricks.

Speaker 2: 15:30

It was very first customer, very first feedback was basically there's, we don't have this problem. And as a young entrepreneur, I'm not that much smarter now than I was then, but I was really not very smart at the time and said well, what is the problem you do have? And he went oh, compliance. We have a problem with compliance and tracking time. We have a problem with employees showing up before they've actually been onboarded. We have all these HR situations and I didn't know what to do other than to listen to the feedback of my customers and go build those things. And so our team, having heard from customers what they wanted, our team having heard from customers what they wanted, we went and built those things.

Speaker 2: 16:11

And so, as we've scaled and grown, we've continued to build into our feedback loops that you know. Hey, how do we go talk to customers? How do we make sure that what we're building isn't what we want to build? It's what the customers are needing, what is a real world problem? And over the years, I've actually found out this is a very well documented process. It's what the customers are needing, what is a real world problem?

Speaker 2: 16:35

And over the years, I've actually found out this is a very well documented process. It's called the business model canvas and you can actually go look this up and it's a nice process that entrepreneurs use and they get taught at startup schools. I teach this when I'm volunteering at universities universities, um, and. But it's actually a process to go talk to people, identify their needs, find out who the decision makers are and then build the things that they actually care about, cause it turns out they may really have a problem with turnover, but turnover is not the problem. The problem is is that manager in the back is a horrible manager, right, and so so it turns out you've got to ask a lot of questions and figure out what the issue is, and so our team does that. We have a small but mighty team, and it's a lot of communication with customers to find out what they need.

Speaker 1: 17:19

Wow. So you started this in 2000. You really started to get into it in 2007. And since then you've been reiterating, re-listening to your customer to find out what they need, helping to make sure, scaling while the culture of fixing things, that and you're still doing things now to help make things better for the customer I think gig worker functions now. That came out in mid July of this year. Square POS is now integrated with it. That came out this year as well. Triple seat that you've partnered with them that was also this year. Ai powered forecasting that came out last year. So you have been staying on top since then. You really haven't let it slip or slept since then. Is that true? You have had zero sleep or just a really strong team.

Speaker 2: 18:35

Which one is it? Well, you and I have the same barber, and so you know this is the stress that comes from being an entrepreneur. Maybe or maybe it's from having adult kids, I'm not sure which, but it's called gravity.

Speaker 1: 18:49

It just drops down with the weight of the world down to the chin. That's all that happens.

Speaker 2: 18:55

It builds up the whole beard. I love that. I love that, oh man.

Speaker 2: 19:01

To answer your question. It's a little of both. We have a strong team. We have a strong team. The AI thing is kind of funny to me because we've had machine learning and AI since version one was released in 2007. But we continue to build and enhance and grow it.

Speaker 2: 19:18

There's been a lot of renewed interest. Actually, we got a. We got a lead on the Time Forge website a couple of days ago from a manager at a let's's call it 7,000 location chain and he said the request on the subject line was I'm looking for an agentic AI agent that will build a schedule for me and tell me when my labor rules are broken. That was what the request was, which I thought was very forward for an industry that's not always known for being tech forward. That's true, yeah. But yeah, we've had a good team. We integrate to 40 or 50 POSs.

Speaker 2: 20:07

I'm a software guy at heart, so we like to build things, things and we build things for our customers. Gig work is a great example you brought up. It's hard to retain staff, it's hard to find staff. We've got we've got customers that can't open stores because they can't find enough people. So how do you augment that? Well, you bring in some gig workers and you build up your stable of gig workers that help you. It's a new model and healthcare has been doing that for decades, but restaurants and retail haven't until recently.

Speaker 1: 20:40

Well, we are known to be last adopters. Even when it came down to credit cards, we were famous for saying no, we only take cash. How do we know there's real money on that thing? We are last to adopt many things. I think that's starting to change these days, but I think that there is that fear, that old school fear of that technology sometimes hinders. Now, tech should help, not hinder. So what makes the difference in your mind between tools that overwhelm managers and tools that actually make their lives easier?

Speaker 2: 21:26

Yeah, that's a good one. I'm curious about your input here as well, but I like to use the Gartner maturity scale, right. So there's this as you think about. You know, the typical two by two. Every consultant on the planet has seen this two by two grid.

Speaker 2: 21:45

But we find that tech and plenty of people have said the last couple of years that there have been a lot of tech vendors that have overpromised their products and their portfolios, and I get that, like I get that You've always been careful about vaporware and what you're buying. But yeah, that's that's. That's a whole, nother discussion but the um. You know the core, the core thing here. Um, just lost my train of thought. Gosh, dang it. Um, help not hinder, help not hinder. Yes, sorry, yeah. Well, lots of cutting there.

Speaker 2: 22:22

So the um, as as folks adopt new software and it's, it's easier, I think, I think in these days to pick a particular module and do one module at a time, like what's the thing that's going to make your team the most efficient? And you start looking at products. I mean, now managers are using 40, 50 software products in any given week or month to try and get through everything, and so there's a lot of tech clutter and the cycles in the market. Right they'll be consolidation, everybody will buy. You'll end up with one product. You're seeing that with some of the back office providers and then everybody gets annoyed that the back office provider doesn't have the best widget, whatever that is, and so then they stop using that widget and they go buy another widget and then you end up with 50 products again. So it's an expansion cycle and helping, not hurting, is really about picking the right modules.

Speaker 2: 23:22

I mean we have features and products all over the place. You know the big guys that are out. There are 365 and CrunchTime and PAR. I mean they have modules for everything. You probably don't need them all, like, you probably need the one or two. And then I would say there's a lot of change management that goes into any product Um, making sure it sticks and making sure you adapt the operational flows around that product Um, and if you don't do that, then you're always going to be rubbing the product against your operations team and you will never get adoption and it's always going to hurt. Does that make sense? Is that what you're saying?

Speaker 1: 24:02

I would agree with all of those and I would also layer in that there's a lot of times that we will choose products as a brand because we want the functionality at a much higher level in order to pull in data faster, and we rarely ever ask the people or the processes that are really inputting that data, that information or doing those steps what would actually help them more good versus the people that are actually there doing the leading, the managing, the coaching, the processes at the storefront. And that's where the gap is. Or, if we choose to get feedback, we get feedback from the top 5% of locations versus the 95% that do it, maybe even a whole different way. So really finding out what's actually happening in the retail store, what's actually happening in the restaurant, in the grocery store, what's going on there, and then saying what needs to be better, versus we rolling something out and it then there's the overwhelm because that's actually not what's happening within the storefront. So I think that is that is one way that we can help close the gap of feeling like that, the that some tech, not all tech, some tech isn't actually helping, that it is hindering. I think that the other piece is just making sure that we are being tech forward from the beginning.

Speaker 1: 26:04

Yes, we bootstrap within our industry, within hotels, within restaurants and within retail. We move quickly. We are one of the very rare places that our product is consumed within the four walls, within minutes after a person leaves. It doesn't happen with a sweater, it doesn't happen with a car, it doesn't happen with pencils. We have one of the very rare products that the actual thing that a customer buys is consumed right then and then they leave unless it's takeout. So we have to really think that through of. Yes, it's more than just smiling, greeting, cooking, feeding. There are more things that helps us to understand how well that we are doing or where we can improve. And when we come up with that idea in the beginning, we have to be tech forward at that point and not think too much oh it's simple, it's not simple. There's things that are common these days that we need to be more common at doing, not just keeping it simple. Anyways, I digress so.

Speaker 2: 27:23

I think I think all of that's valid. I think it's 100 percent valid. I think the other thing that you see, that that you you skirted around but didn't say was that you end up in these situations where people have tech, they already have system A and they're looking for system B because the grass is always greener and so they're you know, and they've either forgotten that tech A has that functionality. They just turned it off three years ago when they implemented it. And when they call vendor B and they're like, oh well, I need this thing, that vendor is not going to go back and tell you that vendor A has that. So you're going to do this huge lift.

Speaker 2: 28:03

And I always tell people, before they go, look at new tech, regardless of what the tech is, make sure you evaluate whether or not the old one can do it or if you're using the old one properly. They've probably added new features since the last time you were there and then really need to think through what the change management is to get to that new thing. And, to your point, the 95% and it's amazing how many people will go fire up an MVP with one store and one manager and they try it for one week and then they're like system-wide rollout. Let me issue a press release and it's like what are you doing? Stop.

Speaker 1: 28:41

You know. Oh, that is so true. And then one more layer is that tech is just like a vehicle. It's just like any vehicle, any dashboard. How many people actually look at the pressure of the oil on the dashboard Like rarely anyone does? How many people look at the actual RPMs in an automatic even in a stick shift you're feeling when to shift gears.

Speaker 1: 29:14

But all of these things are on that dashboard. We have so many things that are on there that we don't typically look at. So first think through what are the things that you know your team actually needs to look at on a weekly, daily, monthly, hourly basis. Then everything else is nice to have. And then second thing is it all depends on the environment, meaning that a race car driver on a racetrack is looking at different things on that dashboard than someone driving through a suburban neighborhood or that is off-roading. So you need to think that through of. I may have one brand, but I may have that food truck, I may have that street side, I may have the airport, I may have the freestanding, different environments calling for different things to be viewed at at different times within that dashboard. Making sure that we're thinking through those pieces too.

Speaker 1: 30:20

Anyway, so Love it. Let's get down to our signature. Closing questions for the leadership table. Now I ask these questions to every guest on this podcast. So if you could sit at a leadership table, at a leadership table with three other leaders, whether alive or from history, who would you choose, and why?

Speaker 2: 30:48

Yeah, great, great question. And since I've been listening to your podcast, I knew this question was coming, so I had I had my answer pre prepared. So I I did have to think about this quite a bit and bounced around a couple of folks that came back to the three, the three that I would choose. Seth Godin would be somebody I would bring to the table. He's not a traditional leadership guy, but when you start reading his books, which he's out there as the lead marketer and he created essentially, but he's he's a great marketer, but he understands that in business you need to be able to market to your people, you need to be able to do some of those kinds of things.

Speaker 2: 31:38

Um, and so I I'd bring Seth um, I was thinking of, like a modern day, like you know, massive Titan. That would just be kind of fun to buy, you know, ask questions, and I think I'd probably put Mark Cuban into that group. He's a technologist, he's on sports companies, he's on satellite companies, he's a shark on Shark Tank, but most of his money has come through financial engineering, which is kind of fun, and so I think I'd bring him out there. And he loves to be a contrarian, which is kind of fun. So, and then Ken Blanchard, and so I think I'd bring him out there and he loves to be a contrarian, which is kind of fun.

Speaker 2: 32:15

And then Ken Blanchard I don't know if you're familiar with Ken. He's the author of the One-Minute Manager. You know One-Minute Manager Meets the Monkey, which is a fantastic little book about you know, task management and how to lead your team, but he also invented situational leadership that I think a lot of people forget about, and so those would be the three folks I would throw, and then I think between those three there'd be a lot of fireworks, which would be a lot of fun too.

Speaker 1: 32:43

So Well, you have a very impressive dream board of directors there. That would. They would definitely get things done at the table. There would be some fireworks there too. Second question and final question what's one conversation in your career that profoundly shaped you as a leader? I know there's been lots of conversations that you've had with other leaders, especially in your role and what you do, but what's one conversation in your career that shaped who you are as a leader?

Speaker 2: 33:23

Yeah, this we've talked about a few already that have been that have been shaped me a little bit. The the one, though, um, that probably has had the most profound impact on me was in in February of 2015, was running a growing business. We'd actually raised some venture capital into Time Forge and I was busy. Um and um, we get a call and a receptionist transferred it over to me, a very upset lady and she starts off the conversation by telling me her name. I didn't know who this lady was and she then tells me that her separated husband has passed away and I'm running a tech company and I'm like I don't know you. I don't really understand why you're calling me about this. She then goes on to tell me hey, he committed suicide. We left her and her children without anything, Um, and all they had was his last paycheck and his life insurance.

Speaker 2: 34:23

And I was walking across the floor and I just stopped and I was like I could hang up. This sounds like a crazy lady, Like I don't really know what to say. Um, but I had a little. There was a little voice in my head. It was like a little empathy, Like this lady is having a very hard time. Let's talk to her.

Speaker 2: 34:39

So I started asking questions and it turns out that I had previously met her, almost 10 years prior. Um, and I knew her deceased husband and hadn't talked to the guy in almost a decade. Um, and she said something. The guy in almost a decade and she said something completely stopped me on my tracks and she said well, did you get our Christmas presents? We went shopping for you. And so I started asking even more questions and save you a 20 minute story here.

Speaker 2: 35:08

It turns out that her ex-husband had been laid off and had for a decade almost been parking his car in our shared parking lot and had been telling her that she worked, and she thought that he worked for me because he was trying to get ahead in life and he wanted to show her that he was not a construction worker anymore, that he was in the tech cycle and he was in finance, and so he had imagined this entire story for a decade and told his ex or separated wife that he was doing all of these things, and then he ultimately would park his car in our parking lot it was a very large parking lot, I'd never noticed it and then he'd get on the bus and take the bus to work, and so we unraveled this over a few days and obviously it was a very sad situation that he passed away and she thought there was life insurance and was getting a paycheck and none of that was true.

Speaker 2: 36:16

But from an empathy perspective, it really hit me that like you don't really know what's going on with other people, Like you have no idea. I mean that's a very extreme example, but most of us get up every day, put our pants on one leg at a time, walk out the door, and I just assume that all of my neighbors do the same freaking things I do every day, and it's probably not true. There's billions of people on the planet. Everybody has got their own story. They're doing it their own way. Um, and working with, with this lady and her ex-husband Trey, and, you know, trying to help her collect some pieces which I'd spent most of my day doing, was a bit profound for me and kind of shook me to my core, going you never know what's on the other side. I mean you just you don't know, and so it's best to lead with questions and empathy and understanding, because everybody's different.

Speaker 1: 37:15

Wow, that is definitely something that I don't think any leader, any manager could imagine that conversation happening on the end of their phone call when they pick up the phone. And I'm glad that you listened to that voice and had the empathy, not being rushed, because at times, yeah, we feel like we are having a very busy day. I need to do this Stop calling me, you crazy lady and to be there for her in that moment and understand that this wasn't just a situation on the end of that phone call. That can happen day to day in every interaction with the people that we have working with us, working for us, and to pause, take a moment and say what does this situation need from me right now versus what I need from it can quickly change everything in a good way. So that is amazing, man. Now I don't want to end it on a somber note, but that's still an amazing story. But before we wrap up, where can listeners connect with you and learn more about how Time Forge is helping leaders run better teams?

Speaker 2: 38:44

Yeah, I'm. I'm the least difficult person to find on the Internet. I think If you'll just type my name into Google Anthony Presley, you'll find me. You'll find my LinkedIn. I'm very active on LinkedIn. Most of this industry is not, but certainly connect with me on LinkedIn and then you can certainly go to our website, timeforgecom. It's pretty straightforward.

Speaker 1: 39:09

Nice Well, anthony, thank you for your insights and for sharing how leadership and technology work hand in hand and it creates workspaces that not only help lift people, but can also lift profits too it. If you found this episode valuable, please subscribe, leave a review and share it with a leader who's navigating the challenges of leading in today's workplace. You can always visit us at jasonebrookscom forward slash podcast for more tools and resources to help grow your leadership. Until next time, manage, lead, coach and repeat. Anthony, thank you so much.