Voicemail trains your customers to give up, and it trains you to live on your phone. We sit down with Laurent Cohen, CTO of GetOblick, to unpack a sharper idea: not every call deserves an interruption, but no opportunity should be missed. From missed leads to unhappy customers, we talk about why small and local businesses feel the pain of inbound calls more than anyone, and why voice AI is finally good enough to change the default.

We dig into what modern voice AI for small businesses actually does beyond “answering the phone”: filtering spam, handling service and pricing questions, supporting multiple languages, and even delivering thoughtful upsells when it makes sense. Laurent explains why the real differentiator is not a flashy voice, but the instruments behind it: the data, the guardrails, and the fallback logic that knows when to hand off to a human. Trust is the unlock, so we discuss a practical rollout path that starts small and scales up as confidence grows.

Then we zoom out to the platform bet: GetOblick as a voice-first directory that becomes a voice-only directory. With a growing graph of anonymised interactions, each conversation can improve the system over time, and that same infrastructure opens the door to better local discovery and appointment scheduling by phone. We also explore an unexpected growth lever: on-site voice widgets that increase time on page, improving retention signals that can help with indexing and local SEO visibility.

If you care about customer experience, call handling, local business growth, voice AI agents, and SEO retention, this one is built for you.

We talk with leadership strategist Kat Perkins about how people end up living identities shaped by trauma, culture, and even well-meaning family pressure. We explore her framework for identity revelation and why leaders must get clear on who they are before they can build healthy teams. 
• what an identity strategist does and why identity gets layered over time 
• identity interference and how life scripts form before age 25 
• how trauma and love can both distort self-belief 
• Kat’s story of steering her son toward medicine before recognising his real calling in the arts 
• recognition, permission, and submission as practical steps toward identity revelation 
• why inner conflict becomes toxic leadership and damages workplace culture 
• Kat’s memoir Girls With Pearls Have Power and the message of resilience 
• courses including Empowered By Design and Seven Days To Resilience 

https://www.linkedin.com/in/kat-perkins-21543432/

In this episode of Product Led Growth Leaders, your host Thomas Watkins talks to West Stringfellow, Founder and CEO of HowDo. West discusses how AI, especially large language models, can transform business innovation and growth.

Drawing on his experience at major companies, West explores the democratization of technology, the critical role of human judgment, and the need for better data and processes. He emphasizes that successful AI adoption requires cultural shifts, continuous learning, and reinvesting gains into talent and technology, offering practical insights for organizations seeking sustainable, AI-driven transformation.

Learn more about West's work HERE.

Connect with West on LinkedIn HERE.

In this episode of Product Led Growth Leaders, Lindsay Friedman, Founder of LTCareNav, joins host Thomas Watkins to discuss the challenges of long-term care in the U.S. and how her company uses technology to support seniors and their families.

She explains the difference between health care and long-term care, introduces innovative monitoring and planning tools, and shares insights on balancing technology with human connection. Lindsay also highlights rapid growth, B2B partnerships, and offers resources for families navigating care decisions, emphasizing the importance of dignity, privacy, and mission-driven solutions.

Learn more about Lindsay's work HERE.

Connect with Lindsay on LinkedIn HERE.

 Think you'd be a great guest on the show? Apply HERE. 

In this episode of Product Led Growth Leaders, your host Thomas Watkins interviews Seva Ustinov, founder and CEO of Plurio, an AI platform for performance marketing teams.

Seva discusses his journey from digital nomad to tech entrepreneur, the challenges marketers face with fragmented ad data, and how Plurio’s AI agent centralizes and analyzes campaign metrics to optimize for revenue and lifetime value. The conversation also touches on the importance of deep business context for effective AI, high-touch onboarding, and Plurio’s vision for proactive, insight-driven marketing automation. The episode concludes with insights on product design and knowledge management tools.

Learn more about Seva's work HERE.

Connect with Seva on LinkedIn HERE.

Think you'd be a great guest on the show? Apply HERE.

In this episode of Product Led Growth Leaders, your host Thomas Watkins interviews Mark Roesler, President and Chief Revenue Officer of HubSpark.

They discuss how HubSpark empowers small businesses, especially tradespeople like plumbers and electricians, by simplifying digital marketing and SEO. Mark explains HubSpark’s shift from a freemium to a paid model to support a lucrative affiliate program, making the platform affordable and integrated. The conversation highlights HubSpark’s focus on usability, automation, and continuous product updates, helping small business owners grow and compete online without needing technical expertise.

Learn more about Mark's work HERE.

Connect with Mark on LinkedIn HERE.

Think you'd be a great guest on the show? Apply HERE.

In this episode of Product Led Growth Leaders, your host Thomas Watkins talks to West Stringfellow, Founder and CEO of HowDo. West discusses how AI, especially large language models, can transform business innovation and growth.

Drawing on his experience at major companies, West explores the democratization of technology, the critical role of human judgment, and the need for better data and processes. He emphasizes that successful AI adoption requires cultural shifts, continuous learning, and reinvesting gains into talent and technology, offering practical insights for organizations seeking sustainable, AI-driven transformation.

Learn more about West's work HERE.

Connect with West on LinkedIn HERE.

Think you'd be a great guest on the show? Apply HERE.

In this episode of Product Led Growth Leaders, Lindsay Friedman, Founder of LTCareNav, joins host Thomas Watkins to discuss the challenges of long-term care in the U.S. and how her company uses technology to support seniors and their families.

She explains the difference between health care and long-term care, introduces innovative monitoring and planning tools, and shares insights on balancing technology with human connection. Lindsay also highlights rapid growth, B2B partnerships, and offers resources for families navigating care decisions, emphasizing the importance of dignity, privacy, and mission-driven solutions.

Learn more about Lindsay's work HERE.

Connect with Lindsay on LinkedIn HERE.

Think you'd be a great guest on the show? Apply HERE.

In this episode of Product Led Growth Leaders, your host Thomas Watkins interviews Seva Ustinov, founder and CEO of Plurio, an AI platform for performance marketing teams.

Seva discusses his journey from digital nomad to tech entrepreneur, the challenges marketers face with fragmented ad data, and how Plurio’s AI agent centralizes and analyzes campaign metrics to optimize for revenue and lifetime value. The conversation also touches on the importance of deep business context for effective AI, high-touch onboarding, and Plurio’s vision for proactive, insight-driven marketing automation. The episode concludes with insights on product design and knowledge management tools.

Learn more about Seva's work HERE.

Connect with Seva on LinkedIn HERE.

Think you'd be a great guest on the show? Apply HERE.

In this episode of Product Led Growth Leaders, your host Thomas Watkins interviews Mark Roesler, President and Chief Revenue Officer of HubSpark.

They discuss how HubSpark empowers small businesses, especially tradespeople like plumbers and electricians, by simplifying digital marketing and SEO. Mark explains HubSpark’s shift from a freemium to a paid model to support a lucrative affiliate program, making the platform affordable and integrated. The conversation highlights HubSpark’s focus on usability, automation, and continuous product updates, helping small business owners grow and compete online without needing technical expertise.

Learn more about Mark's work HERE.

Connect with Mark on LinkedIn HERE.

Think you'd be a great guest on the show? Apply HERE.