Kelly Edmondson, MSN, MBA, RN, NEA-BC, GC-C, is a nurse executive, former trauma ICU nurse, certified grief counselor, and founder of Timely Presence. She is also a bereaved mother. Her son Darius died on January 3, 2023, nine days after his 28th birthday.
After years of supporting families through death in clinical settings, Kelly experienced the silence that can follow the funeral. She built Timely Presence to bridge that gap, helping people offer sustained support through bespoke, personalized remembrance gifts delivered around meaningful dates throughout the first year of grief.
Kelly brings clinical knowledge, executive leadership, and lived experience to conversations about grief, workplace bereavement, and building a business while carrying loss. Her mission is to make sustained grief support the standard, not the exception.
What is your typical day, and how do you make it productive?
My days are full of several responsibilities: nurse executive, founder, and family. In healthcare, my work involves people, decisions, and making sure our teams have what they need to deliver exceptional care. With Timely Presence, I’m working on how to make sustained grief support both meaningful and operationally reliable.
For me, productivity starts with prioritization. I ask what needs my judgment, what I can delegate, and what will make a meaningful difference today. There will always be more work than time. The goal is to be intentional about where I put my attention. When I’m with my team, I’m with my team. When I’m at home, my laptop is closed. Losing my son Darius taught me that the hours we give the people closest to us are the ones that matter most.
How do you bring ideas to life?
The people closest to the problem are generally the ones closest to the solution. I’ve found that the best ideas come to light when you make room for those people to speak and listen without rushing to offer your own answer.
In nursing leadership, that means asking the people doing the work what gets in their way and what would help. In building Timely Presence, it means listening to people who are grieving and the people trying to support them. Where does support fall short? What feels meaningful? What makes it difficult to follow through?
My experience as Darius’s mother helped me recognize a gap, but I cannot assume that every grieving person needs what I needed. I recommend staying close to the people you serve, even after you think you understand the problem. Their answers should help shape what you build and how you improve it.
What’s one trend that excites you?
I’m excited by conversations that make room for grief in the workplace. I want us to be more comfortable acknowledging that someone can return to their job and still carry profound loss.
As a nurse executive and a bereaved mother, I care about what happens after bereavement leave ends. How does a manager respond? What happens on the first birthday or death anniversary? There is an opportunity to translate compassion into everyday leadership practices, and I want to help build that.
What is one habit that helps you be productive?
I routinely take scheduled time off, and I put it on the calendar well in advance so I can protect it from interruptions. I use that time to connect with my husband and spend time in nature. Those are the two things that help me replenish.
With a demanding career and a business to build, there will always be something that needs my attention. Scheduling time away means I don’t have to wait until everything is finished to rest. That time matters to me in its own right, and it helps me return with more energy and attention for the people and work I care about.
What advice would you give your younger self?
I would tell her to give the people she loves the same attention she gives her responsibilities. As a nurse and a leader, I understood how quickly life could change. Losing my son Darius made that knowledge painfully personal.
I would tell her to linger in the conversation, ask another question, and sometimes let the work wait. I would give anything to have ordinary moments with Darius again. I still have ambitions and work that matter to me. But I want to be present for the life happening while I build.
Tell us something you believe almost nobody agrees with you.
Most people believe you must heal before you can build. I don’t. You can build something meaningful while you’re still grieving. You do not have to reach some imagined point of being completely healed before you contribute, lead, or create.
I built Timely Presence while grieving Darius. Building the company didn’t end my grief, and my grief didn’t disqualify me from building it. Both are part of my life. I think we need to make more room for people whose lives do not fit a tidy before-and-after story.
What is the one thing you repeatedly do and recommend everyone else do?
Say their name. When someone tells me about a person they have lost, I ask that person’s name and use it. I write down the dates that matter and reach out on them.
As Darius’s mother, I know how much it means to hear his name in someone else’s voice. People sometimes hesitate because they’re afraid of causing pain. But I am already thinking about him. Saying his name gives me room to talk about someone I will always love.
I recommend this to anyone, including entrepreneurs and leaders. When someone on your team is grieving, remembering beyond their bereavement leave is a simple way to put care into practice. The pain is already there. The name is a gift.
When you feel overwhelmed or unfocused, what do you do?
Two things help me when I feel overwhelmed or unfocused. First, I return to my why. I’m building Timely Presence in my son Darius’s honor. The work is hard and the days are long, but that purpose is my true north. Creating a legacy in his name inspires me in a way that is difficult to describe. Remembering why I started helps me feel grounded again.
Other times, I know I simply need a break. I love a good facial, an extended massage, a glass of good champagne, and dinner with my husband. That time helps me reconnect with myself beyond all the responsibilities I carry. I come back with more clarity about what matters and where to put my energy.
What is one strategy that has helped you grow your business or advance in your career?
I’m never the one to tell myself no. If there is an opportunity I want, I go for it. I don’t talk myself out of applying, making the introduction, or asking for the meeting because I assume someone will decide I’m not ready.
That doesn’t mean I’m always ready or that every opportunity is the right fit. When the answer is no, I ask why. If there is a gap in my knowledge, experience, or preparation, I put in the work to close it. Then I try again.
That approach has helped me advance in nursing leadership and build Timely Presence. I’m willing to put myself in the room, listen to the feedback, and do what the next step requires. I want the decision to be based on what I bring, rather than an opportunity I never gave myself permission to pursue.
What is one failure in your career, how did you overcome it, and what lessons did you take away from it?
One of my biggest leadership failures happened when I was a nurse manager. I was leading a quality initiative that produced phenomenal outcomes. We had published on it, and I was proud of the work. I rounded on the team every day, checked compliance, and kept the initiative front and center. It was my baby.
About two weeks after I was promoted and left the department, a quality follow-up revealed that the work was not holding up. That forced me to recognize something uncomfortable: I had made the initiative my goal without building shared ownership. The team had followed my direction, but I had remained the person driving it. When I left, the attention and accountability I provided left with me, and quality suffered.
That experience changed how I think about leadership. I learned to put more emphasis on helping people understand the purpose, contribute to the solution, and take ownership of the outcome. The best leaders inspire people to care about the work and see their part in it. A goal has to belong to the team if you want the progress to last beyond you.
What is one business idea you’re willing to give away to our readers?
An AI tool that helps entrepreneurs get ready to pitch investors. I’d want to upload my business plan and deck and say, “Here’s who I’m meeting with. Help me prepare.”
It would research the investor, look at what they’ve funded, and help me understand whether my business is a fit. It would also look at my competitors and push me to answer: What makes us different, and can I back that up?
Then it could help me improve the deck and rehearse the questions I might struggle to answer. I’d want it to point out what I’ve missed and tell me when an argument isn’t strong enough. As a founder, I would much rather discover those gaps before I’m sitting in front of someone asking them to invest.
What is one piece of software that helps you be productive? How do you use it?
Claude. I use it as a strategic thinking partner: drafting pitches, scoring speaking opportunities, building our business plan, and pressure-testing ideas before I bring them to my team. My judgment and my voice still guide the final result, but it’s like having a thought partner beside you all the time.
What is the best $100 you recently spent?
I recently bought some equipment for creating content: a tripod, a selfie stick, and lights. My marketing team and business coaches had encouraged me to share more of myself as the founder behind Timely Presence. Initially, creating social media content felt like another responsibility on an already full calendar.
But oh my, I’m having so much fun. I’m capturing moments I might never have documented before: time with my kids and husband, work and events, a beautiful sunrise, clouds through an airplane window.
What started as a business purchase has become a joyful way to notice and preserve the beauty of my life. I bought the equipment to help people get to know the founder. It has also helped me appreciate the life I’m living while I build.
Do you have a favorite book or podcast from which you’ve received much value?
How I Built This with Guy Raz has become my new favorite podcast. As I build Timely Presence, I appreciate hearing what happened before a business became the success people recognize: the uncertainty, the decisions that did not work, and the adjustments along the way. Entrepreneurship is a grind, and it can be lonely at times. I listen for how founders think through problems. It reminds me to stay curious, tenacious, and willing to pivot.
What’s a movie or series you recently enjoyed and why?
My husband and I recently watched Self Made on Netflix, about Madam C.J. Walker. I loved it. Here was a Black woman building a business in the early 1900s around the hair care needs of other Black women. She understood those needs because she had experienced them herself, and she became a millionaire doing something about them.
I admired her boldness. People doubted her, resources were limited, and she faced barriers I can hardly imagine. She kept finding ways to build. Watching it, I thought about how much courage it takes to put your idea out into the world and ask people to believe in it.
That felt personal to me. I started Timely Presence because, after Darius died, I experienced a gap in support and wanted to do something about it. There is something powerful about watching another woman trust what she knows, learn what she needs to learn, and go for it.
Key learnings:
- Be bold and go for it. Courage can take you further than you imagine. Each time you make a bold decision, you build the courage to make another.
- Talk to the people closest to the problem. They often have the best answers. Include them in the decisions and let what they know shape your product or service.
- Make caring for yourself part of how you run your business. Schedule time to rest and connect with the people and places that replenish you. You need care, too.
- Pay attention to what your own experiences have taught you. Your frustrations, hurt, and pain may help you recognize something that needs to change. The worst thing that happened to you does not have to define everything that follows. You may choose to build something that makes the path easier for someone else.
- Grief is a universal human experience, but knowing how to support someone through it is not. We need to make learning those skills a priority in our workplaces and communities, so people can count on meaningful support beyond the first few days.