In the West Michigan Is Going Places series, we are talking with local business owners and community leaders about their business successes and challenges and highlighting the resources available in the West Michigan business community.
In this interview, we spoke with Jeff Large of Come Alive, a strategic audio agency that helps B2B leaders turn their expertise into podcasts, audiobooks, and other audio content that builds authority and strengthens relationships over time.
RM: Tell us a little about what your business does and how it got started.
Jeff Large: My name is Jeff Large and I run Come Alive. We are a strategic audio agency for B2B leaders. We believe that business is built on relationships and audio is a way that you can earn them at scale.
We turn expertise and experience into podcasts, audiobooks, live event coverage, and more. Those assets build authority and reputation that compound while you run your business. At the core, we use audio to create real, intimate connections, whether that’s with your audience or your team.
Audio is the medium. It’s how we get there.
As for our backstory, I originally was a teacher. I left teaching and started the company in 2014. We originally started as web development and some general digital marketing. I did web dev for about two years and got sick of it pretty quick.
It was around 2016 that I pitched the idea of a podcast to one of our clients. They initially said no. And then about six months later, they came back to us and said, “Hey, we can’t shake your idea. We want to go for this.” As soon as they said yes, we went all in and I off-boarded all of our web dev clients one way or another to other agencies or wound them down. We went all in on the audio side.
We did full-service podcast production for close to a decade. It was just this last year that with the nature of the work we’ve been doing and the types of requests we get from our clients, we’ve rounded out back and repositioned to strategic audio.
How has your business changed since you first started out?
Jeff Large: Like I mentioned, I had a background in web development. I started doing it just for myself for different hobbies and things that I had.
When we started, originally it was me and two graphic designers. We were doing some rather successful e-commerce projects, and we rebuilt the site for a school and a variety of other things.
It just got to a point where it just wasn’t that fun. It felt like more of a liability and a lot of things to keep up with that I just didn’t want to pay attention to.
The other thing is my background. I’ve worked in audio for a long time. I’ve been a musician since high school.I DJ’ed weddings and have done a lot of live sound work and do a lot of recording for fun, those kinds of things.
We started a separate company called Happy Mitten Games back in 2012. It was a board game publishing company with my wife and my cousin and I, and we started a podcast then to get word out and to spend time hanging out with other business people in the board game space so we could learn and then give back to the community. And it was through that experience that I realized podcasting is a very good marketing medium and a very good business development medium.
When I got sick of web development, I decided to offer podcasting as a service. Then someone said yes.
At that point, it was clear. We were all in. We doubled down and went for it.
In the beginning, podcasting was a really strong niche for us. It helped us stand out. Back in the mid to late 2010s, not many people were doing it at the level we were, especially on the full-service side.
So that positioning worked. It gave us a lane.
But now the market’s changed. There are a lot more people in the space. The equipment is easier. The software is easier. The barrier to entry is just lower.
And at the same time, we’re sitting on all this experience.
So being “just a podcast producer” doesn’t really make sense anymore.
What we’re doing now is using audio more broadly as the medium. It’s not just podcasts. It’s the full spectrum of audio, applied in a way that actually helps businesses get results.
We’ve been doing a lot more with event coverage, testimonials and case studies, and building repeatable systems. We even had a limited-run podcast series that turned directly into a book, which is now being used for speaking.
There’s just a lot of really interesting stuff happening when you start thinking about audio this way.
To me, it’s still a very underutilized medium.
And it’s been exciting to keep moving in that direction in a way that actually fits where things are going.
What makes you passionate about what you do?
Jeff Large: I think audio is underutilized.
It gives you a ridiculous amount of creative freedom in how you can craft something. Writing is one thing, video is another—but audio sits somewhere in between those two worlds. There’s just so much you can do with it.
My background is actually in literature. I was a language arts teacher, focused on reading, writing, and storytelling. And if you think about it, we were using verbal and audio storytelling long before we could write. It’s ingrained in us.
The ability to tell a good story, to take hours of interviews and shape them into something meaningful using sound design and music, that’s incredibly powerful.
What fascinates me is that audio is even more flexible than video. You don’t have to worry about the visual component at all. Instead, you get to tell the story in a completely different way. And that combination of creative freedom and constraints is what makes it so interesting. It’s also what makes it fun.
I love solving those kinds of problems and figuring things out. I’ve always told people, give me the hardest problems you have. The projects other agencies say aren’t possible, those are the ones I want. That’s what makes the work exciting.
And then there’s the intimacy.
There’s actual science behind proximity. When you’re literally in someone’s ears, you can’t get any closer. And they’re choosing to let you in.
It’s also one of the few long-form formats people still truly engage with. One of our clients, for example, had over 6,000 hours of listening time in a single month. He only released two new episodes, each about an hour to an hour fifteen, and still sees around a 90% completion rate.
When you add it all up, that’s essentially over a year’s worth of engagement in one month.
That kind of depth is rare.
Audio is also unique because it doesn’t demand your eyes. And that changes everything.
When you’re writing an article, it’s easy to think your competition is just other blogs in your space. But really, anything that demands visual attention is your competition. Videos, social media, books, even just being outside.
Audio doesn’t compete in the same way.
You can listen while doing the dishes, while driving, while gardening, whatever it is. It fits into people’s lives instead of interrupting them. And we’re even seeing more of that with the rise of in-home listening.
To me, that’s what makes audio such a fascinating medium. It’s full of unique advantages, real challenges, and just enough complexity to keep it interesting.
How has being here in West Michigan helped your business?
Jeff Large: West Michigan is just a really fantastic area. It’s a place where I feel comfortable raising a family. The city doesn’t feel overwhelming compared to some of the larger cities nearby.
If you’ve been to places like Chicago, New York, or LA, there’s a lot that’s exciting about them. But what I like about West Michigan is that you can still find versions of that here if you want it.
At the same time, if you want more of a neighborhood or suburban feel, you can have that too. And if you want something more rural or outdoorsy, that’s here as well. Honestly, the access to nature and trails has helped my sanity.
I do a fair amount of field recording for fun and for another project I have called Outdoor Sounds. It’s fully focused on field recordings. It has some overlap with ASMR, though that’s not really the intent. It’s more about capturing rain, hiking sounds, birds, and everything you hear in nature.
Michigan is a fantastic state for that. There are plenty of opportunities to get out and record.
The community here is also amazing. I’ve been part of Entrepreneurs’ Organization Accelerator, and there are a lot of other business groups and strong entrepreneurs in the area who have been incredibly helpful to me.
Overall, it’s a kind and generous community. It’s very accepting. It brings you in, and it doesn’t have the same level of animosity or competition you might find in other places.
West Michigan has been great.
What’s your approach to customer service and connecting with the community?
Jeff Large: We are very much human and relationship-first, as we mention on the website. We think about it in terms of conversations that will compound over time for our company. Some of the core ideas we operate from are relationships over transactions, and the belief that we are building relationships, not just projects.
Because of that, I’m usually open to connecting. Every quarter, I try to connect with at least a hundred people. And that’s not from a sales perspective. It’s just talking to new people, following up with people I already know, and staying present in those relationships. You never know where a conversation might lead or what opportunity might come from it.
So a big part of it is being present with the people you’re with, trying to show up well in those situations, giving when you can, and asking when you need to. All of those things matter.
At the end of the day, so much business happens because of individuals and relationships. That’s something we try to live out in how we work every day.
How do you plan to grow or adapt your business for the future?
Jeff Large: Like I said, one of the bigger things we’re doing is leaning into what might feel like counterintuitive advice and slightly dialing back how niche we are.
With the massive push toward AI, we’re going to see different pockets emerge. By no means are we anti-AI, but we’ve been very intentional and selective in how we use it. At the end of the day, we still value actual human input and relationships more than AI. That’s how we want to operate, and hopefully that approach attracts like-minded people.
I know there are people who take more of an “AI or die” approach, focused on maximum efficiency and speed. And it is a powerful tool. We use it as a tool that helps us, but we don’t see it as the end-all, be-all. It’s just one tool among many.
What won’t change is the need for humans to work together and do business together. That part still matters.
Beyond that, it’s about staying aware of what’s happening, leaning into who we are, and continuing to refine our values.
Over the past year, we’ve spent a lot of time working on our positioning, our value set, and making decisions that align with that. Building a strong team, putting solid frameworks and systems in place, all of that matters if you want to run a successful business.
Are there any local organizations or networks that have been particularly helpful for you in building your business?
Jeff Large: Being a member of Entrepreneurs’ Organization Accelerator has been really helpful. I’m technically part of both the Detroit and Grand Rapids groups, so that community has been a great resource. I’ve also spent some time at the Chamber of Commerce. They’re very active and seem to genuinely support local businesses.
There isn’t one single place, but I do want to give a shoutout to Roots Brew Coffeehouse. Mallory Root is an amazing person, and she’s doing some really cool work, not just with the coffeehouse, but now with The Cottage on Turner, which is a coworking space. I’ve been really impressed with the kind of community she’s built over time.
I’m sure there’s more. There are so many great entrepreneurs and genuinely good people in this area. But those are a few from the local side that have stood out to me and that I try to stay connected with.
