Would you believe me if I told you the most powerful style of podcast right now is less like a podcast and more like something you're probably already putting out there–no fancy equipment necessary?

The most underrated and undercelebrated type of show right now is the "voice-note podcast": a collection of short, highly specific, deeply human audio episodes that prioritize intimacy, usefulness, POV, and connection over slick production and content-factory energy.

Inspired by Build With Becky host Becky Pierson Davidson (whose minimalist, voice-note-style podcast has quickly become her #1 sales conversion tool), this episode explains how entrepreneurs, consultants, creators, and service providers may be dramatically overcomplicating podcasting…and freezing themselves out in the process.

Inside this episode:

• Why "low-lift" does not have to mean "low-value"
• The hidden power of intimacy and imperfection in audio
• How short-form, voice-note-style episodes can build enormous trust
• The real nonnegotiables of a resonant podcast (spoiler: none involve a three-camera setup)
• Why podcasting may be especially powerful for service providers and thought leaders

→ If you're stuck at the podcasting starting line, consider applying for my Podcast Launch Accelerator, a 5-week program that's small, human, interactive, and focused on getting you out of your head and into the podcast players of your ideal audience.

ABOUT THIS PODCAST

Talking the Talk is a podcast about podcasting, hosted by Courtney Reimer, founder and principal strategist, Sounds Great Creative Podcast Strategy. Inside, you'll get the realest of real talk about what it takes to make a podcast that lasts, reaches + resonates with your ideal audience, and earns its keep without burning you out.

ABOUT THE PODCAST HOST

Courtney Reimer is a podcast strategy architect, creative development consultant, and founder of Sounds Great, where she helps entrepreneurs, founders, thought leaders, and brands build podcasts that are strategically sharp, creatively compelling, and sustainable enough to actually keep making.

Before founding Sounds Great, Courtney helped develop and launch award-winning podcasts for Spotify, Audible, and beyond—including Archetypes with Meghan Markle, which famously dethroned Joe Rogan from Spotify's top spot upon launch. She's also worked in radio since before many people even knew what a podcast was, interviewed celebrities in hotel junkets, and remains deeply convinced that audio is one of the most powerful relationship-building mediums on earth.

Courtney is also the creator and host of the Sounds Great Podcast Launch Accelerator, a hands-on small-group program that helps aspiring podcasters go from idea to live show without burning themselves out in the process.

Connect with Courtney:

Instagram: @soundsgreatpodcasts

Newsletter: Sounds Great on Paper

LinkedIn: Courtney Reimer on LinkedIn

⚡☕ This podcast runs on curiosity, crunch time, and caffeine. If you have enjoyed it, by all means Buy Me a Coffee! I'll return the favor by continuing to create engaging, enriching episodes for you to slurp down like I do my morning cup of ambition. ☕⚡

→ buymeacoffee.com/soundsgreatcourtney

There's a particular kind of fear that shows up around podcasting for a lot of people… especially entrepreneurs, founders, and experts who know a podcast could help grow their visibility, relationships, and business, but can't quite get themselves across the line from "thinking about it" to stepping up to the mic.

This episode is about what happens when someone like that finally goes for it.

Kathleen Wisemandle is a leadership coach, former corporate executive, and graduate of the Sounds Great Podcast Accelerator who, not long ago, genuinely did not think podcasting was in her future. Fast forward just a couple of months and she's now completed her first season and is into the S2 of The Rooted Leader Podcast, experimenting with formats, building community, and (perhaps most importantly) having a whole lot more fun with podcasting than she expected.

Inside this conversation, we talk about:

• The surprising thing that made podcasting feel within reach
• How perfectionism showed up once she began recording
• Why her interview episodes became more joyful than expected
• The unexpected ROI of podcasting
• Sustainable podcasting rhythms, seasonal thinking, and avoiding burnout

We also get into one of my favorite podcasting truths: you do not have to emerge from the womb with a slick video studio setup, perfect cadence, and an NPR voice to deserve a podcast.

Sometimes the thing that matters most is simply sitting down and doing the thing..

ABOUT THE GUEST

Kathleen Wisemandle is a leadership coach, organizational psychologist, former senior life sciences leader, and the founder of Aspire to Grow, where she helps leaders, founders, and professionals navigate growth, transition, and reinvention with greater clarity and intention.

After more than 30 years leading teams and driving innovation across the biotechnology and pharmaceutical industries—including leadership roles at AbbVie, Takeda, Astellas, and Seagen—Kathleen shifted her focus toward coaching, organizational learning, and helping high-performing professionals uncover what's possible in their next chapter.

ABOUT THE SHOW

Talking the Talk is a podcast about podcasting, hosted by Courtney Reimer, founder and principal strategist, Sounds Great Creative Podcast Strategy. Inside, you'll get the realest of real talk about what it takes to make a podcast that lasts, reaches + resonates with your ideal audience, and earns its keep without burning you out.

ABOUT COURTNEY

Courtney Reimer is a podcast strategy architect and the founder of Sounds Great, where she helps founders, entrepreneurs, brands, and thought leaders build podcasts that actually work—for their businesses, their audiences, and their lives. A former executive producer at Spotify, Audible, and MTV, Courtney has developed podcasts for everyone from Meghan Markle and Prince Harry to emerging founders launching their very first shows.

She's also the creator of the Sounds Great Podcast Accelerator, a community-centered program helping aspiring podcasters move from idea to launch without spiraling into perfectionism, overwhelm, or podfade.

→ Applications are open now for the spring cohort of the Sounds Great Podcast Accelerator. Head over to SoundsGreatStrategy.com to learn more and submit your interest in joining. Limited space available, so make it snappy! ←

Connect with Courtney…

on LinkedIn: Courtney Reimer

on Instagram: @soundsgreatpodcasts

⚡☕ This podcast runs on curiosity, crunch time, and caffeine. If you have enjoyed it, by all means Buy Me a Coffee! I'll return the favor by continuing to create engaging, enriching episodes for you to slurp down like I do my morning cup of ambition… ☕ ⚡

buymeacoffee.com/soundsgreatcourtney

Podcasting can be an incredible tool for business, and many of the most successful founders say their podcast has become their strongest source of leads, visibility, and client connection.

But it's rare that we get a real peek behind the curtain of an entrepreneurial podcast that is hundreds of episodes deep.

In this episode, I'm talking the talk with Deb Boulanger, host of Life After Corporate, about the role her podcast plays in her business, her community, her thinking, and her creative process.

The honesty and realness here will open your eyes to paths beyond the dogmatic conventional wisdom of what sustains a podcast over the long run.

And the conversation became something more than a standard interview. It turned into a brainstorm, a bit of a coaching session in both directions, and a reminder that some of the best podcast material is already sitting in your voice notes, shower thoughts, half-formed ideas, and everyday conversations.

We're talking the talk about:

• How Deb's podcast began and how she has kept it going for 250+ episodes
• Why a podcast can support a business beyond downloads or direct sales
• How guest interviews can double as research and prospecting
• What happens when you loosen your grip on weekly publishing rules
• How rough ideas and voice notes can become real podcast material

Deb Boulanger is the founder of Life After Corporate, a business coaching platform, podcast, and community for women leaders transitioning from corporate careers into entrepreneurship. Through her community, podcast, Business Coaching Academy and Reliable Revenue masterminds, Deb helps women build profitable businesses with stronger strategy, clearer offers, resilient mindsets, and sustainable cash flow.

Learn more and connect with Deb: LifeAfterCorporate.com

Talking the Talk is a podcast about podcasting, hosted by Courtney Reimer, founder and principal strategist, Sounds Great Creative Podcast Strategy. Inside, you'll get the realest of real talk about what it takes to make a podcast that lasts, reaches + resonates with your ideal audience, and earns its keep without burning you out.

ABOUT COURTNEY

Courtney Reimer is a decades-long veteran of the digital media business, a podcast strategy and development expert, host of Talking the Talk, and founder of Sounds Great, where she helps entrepreneurs and creators turn ideas into shows that drive business, visibility, revenue, and authority.

She has worked at Spotify, where she executive produced Meghan Markle's Archetypes, as well as Audible and MTV Radio, and now brings that experience to founder-led brands and mission-driven businesses through bespoke engagements, the Sounds Great Podcast Accelerator, her cohort-based program that helps entrepreneurs and creators launch with intention and a solid, sustainable foundation.

→ Applications are open now for the spring cohort of the Sounds Great Podcast Accelerator. Head over to SoundsGreatStrategy.com to learn more and submit your interest in joining. Limited space available, so make it snappy! ←

Connect with Courtney on LinkedIn: LinkedIn.com/CourtneyReimer
Follow on Instagram: @soundsgreatpodcasts

⚡☕ This podcast runs on curiosity, crunch time, and caffeine. If you have enjoyed it, by all means Buy Me a Coffee! I'll return the favor by continuing to create engaging, enriching episodes for you to slurp down like I do my morning cup of ambition. ☕⚡

buymeacoffee.com/soundsgreatcourtney

This one's on repeat. The idea at the center of this episode keeps coming up: in client conversations, in DMs, in the general low-grade resentment many of us feel toward our inboxes. So if you missed it the first time– or even if you didn't–it's definitely one you don't want to miss.

When you think about building visibility for your business, there's one piece of advice that comes up again and again:
you need an email newsletter.

And sure… for a lot of people, that's true.

But what if I told you it's not the only way, and might not even be the best way–for you? Deep, full-body exhale, right?

In this solo episode, I'm pushing back (gently… but firmly) on one of the most widely accepted "truths" in business and making the case for podcasting as a perfectly acceptable–even superior–method of getting visibility with the people who matter most.

It meets people where they actually want to be (i.e., outside of their overflowing inboxes), builds real connection, and doesn't require you to compete with the 350 billion emails sent every single day.

I get into:

• Why the "you need a newsletter" narrative feels so pervasive—and why it doesn't work for everyone
• The actual math of attention (and what 350 billion emails vs. ~500,000 podcasts really means)
• How podcasting creates a different kind of relationship with your audience (hello, intimacy effect)
• Why voice, flaws, and real-time expression build trust in ways written content often can't
• What it looks like to choose a content strategy that fits your energy… instead of draining it

If you've been forcing yourself into a content channel that feels more like obligation than expression—or wondering if there's another way to get your message out there—this episode is your permission slip to explore it.

Talking the Talk is a podcast about podcasting, hosted by Courtney Reimer, founder and principal strategist, Sounds Great Creative Podcast Strategy. To learn more, visit SoundsGreatStrategy.com.

Courtney Reimer is a podcast strategy architect and the founder of Sounds Great, where she helps founders, entrepreneurs, and brands build podcasts that actually work—for their businesses, their audiences, and their lives.

Before launching Sounds Great, Courtney led high-profile audio projects at companies like Spotify (where she worked on Archetypes with Meghan Markle), Audible, and MTV. She now brings that experience to clients who want to build thought leadership, deepen audience connection, and create meaningful, sustainable visibility through podcasting.

Connect with Courtney:
LinkedIn (Linkedin.com/in/courtneyreimer)
Instagram: (@soundsgreatpodcasts)

⚡☕ This podcast runs on curiosity, crunch time, and caffeine. If you have enjoyed it, by all means Buy Me a Coffee! I'll return the favor by continuing to create engaging, enriching episodes for you to slurp down like I do my morning cup of ambition...☕ ⚡ buymeacoffee.com/soundsgreatcourtney

When you think about podcasting success, your mind probably goes straight to downloads, sponsors, and revenue.

And yes… those things matter.

But they're only a fraction of the return a podcast can actually generate.

In this solo episode, I'm making the case for something that sounds deeply unsexy on paper… but might be the very thing that keeps you in the game long enough to see real results:

ROI.

Not just in dollars, but in relationships, opportunities, audience connection, and the kind of momentum that compounds over time.

I get into:

• How most podcasters are measuring the wrong things

• How to define ROI in a way that actually sustains your show

• The role of KPIs (yes, I said it) in keeping you consistent

• Why a single, clear CTA can change everything

• And how to design your podcast to give something back… not just take from you

If you've ever wondered whether your podcast is "worth it"… this is the episode where we actually answer that question.

Talking the Talk is a podcast about podcasting in which podcasting veteran Courtney Reimer cuts through all of the noise confronting new and seasoned podcasters who want to leverage this powerful medium in service to their mission and business. If you'd like to work with Courtney and Sounds Great on your podcast hopes and dreams, visit SoundsGreatStrategy.com

Courtney Reimer is a seasoned (read: old AF) media strategy and creative development expert and founder of Sounds Great Creative Podcast Strategy, where she empowers entrepreneurs & mission-driven creators in converting ideas into shows that drive business, visibility, revenue, and authority.

She earned her editorial chops at Spotify (EP'ing Meghan Markle's Archetypes), Audible (launched and EP'd flagship editorial show, Audicted), and MTV Radio (ask her about her Ryan Gosling encounter), as well at the Columbia University Graduate School of Journalism and the University of Washington School of Communications.

She's also the mom of two adolescent girls + one adolescent ugly-cute dog and wife to a fellow audio + digital media industry veteran who has authored two novels and can fix anything that's broken (except Courtney's time blindness).

Connect with Courtney...

on LinkedIn: LinkedIn.com/CourtneyReimer

on Instagram: @soundsgreatpodcasts

⚡☕ This podcast runs on curiosity, crunch time, and caffeine. If you have enjoyed it, by all means Buy Me a Coffee! I'll return the favor by continuing to create engaging, enriching episodes for you to slurp down like I do my morning java... ☕ ⚡

Most podcasters are exclusively focused on the impersonal numbers-based metrics they find on their show dashboard.

But what if they're chasing the wrong performance indicator? (Spoiler, they are.)

The real value isn't in the number of people in your audience, but what happens to, with, and because of your podcast audience.

In this episode, Ali Prato, host of the Infertile AF podcast, is talking the talk with Courtney Reimer about what happens when you stop thinking of your podcast as a content engine and start treating it as a mechanism for connection.

Ali launched her show after going through her own fertility struggles and realizing there was no place where people were having honest, nuanced conversations about what she and so many others were experiencing.

Nearly 400 episodes later, that show has grown into something much bigger–and more profitable–than a personal podcast. All because the podcast catalyzed one thing: people with common interests and experiences finding their way to each other.

We're talking the talk about:

• Why niche podcasts are uniquely positioned to build real community
• How connection—not content—is the true value of podcasting
• The realities and work involved with turning a podcast into a business
• How relationships formed via a podcast lead to real-world opportunities
• Why "just begin" might be the most important strategy of all

The throughline: real people looking for real connection in real time.

Ali Prato is the creator and host of the Infertile AF podcast, a long-running show exploring fertility, family building, and the many paths to parenthood. Through her work, she has built a deeply engaged community and expanded her platform into live events, partnerships, and a children's book series under the Work of ART brand.

Learn more and connect with Ali: infertileafgroup.com

Talking the Talk is a podcast about podcasting, hosted by Courtney Reimer, founder and principal strategist, Sounds Great Creative Podcast Strategy. If you'd like to work with Sounds Great on your podcast hopes and dreams, visit SoundsGreatStrategy.com

About Courtney

Courtney Reimer is a podcast strategy & development expert, host of Talking the Talk (a podcast about podcasting), and founder of Sounds Great, where she helps entrepreneurs and creators turn ideas into shows that drive business, visibility, revenue, and authority. She's worked at Spotify (EP'ing Meghan Markle's Archetypes), Audible, and MTV Radio, and now brings that expertise to founder-led brands and mission-driven businesses through bespoke engagements, a Podcast Launch Accelerator for new creators, and a Momentum community for established podcasters.

Connect with Courtney on LinkedIn: LinkedIn.com/CourtneyReimer

Follow on Instagram: @soundsgreatpodcasts

⚡☕ This podcast runs on curiosity, crunch time, and caffeine. If you have enjoyed it, by all means Buy Me a Coffee! I'll return the favor by continuing to create it... ☕⚡ buymeacoffee.com/soundsgreatcourtney

Most podcasts don't make it past episode three. The ideas are good, the host is talented, and there's maybe even a well-defined audience right there waiting for it (like Richard Marx in that song, #IYKYK). But they weren't built to last, because they weren't built on solid, strategic, repeatable architecture.

In this episode, you'll learn why podfade happens so often (and so early), and the simple shift that can keep your show alive long enough to actually earn its keep.

We're talking about:

• Why relying on one format (usually interviews) sets you up to fail
• The "Rule of Threes" that makes your podcast sustainable
• How to create episodes even when you're tired, busy, or can't book a guest
• And how to build a show that returns on your investment instead of becoming another abandoned feed

If you've ever thought about starting a podcast, or you've already started one and feel that creeping drop in momentum…

This one's for you.

***

Want support building a podcast that actually lasts? My Podcast Accelerator community might be the right fit.

Head to SoundsGreatStrategy.com and add your name to the waitlist.

"Press record and publish."

That's how simple podcasting can look from the outside.

But sustaining a show over years, through hundreds of episodes, is a very different story.

In this episode of Talking the Talk, Courtney sits down with veteran podcaster Katie Fogarty, host of the long-running midlife podcast, A Certain Age.

Over the past five years, Katie has produced more than 270 episodes, interviewed bestselling authors and leading experts, and built a show that has evolved into both a thriving community and an unexpected business.

But behind that success is a surprising amount of work.

Katie pulls back the curtain on what podcasting really requires, from guest outreach and research to the promotion and systems that keep a weekly show running. She also shares the reality of sustaining creative work over the long term, including the fact that even experienced podcasters sometimes struggle to keep up with the cadence they once imagined.

For anyone wondering what it actually takes to keep a podcast going, this conversation offers a candid and encouraging look behind the curtain.

• Why podcasting takes far more time than most people expect
• The hidden workload behind every episode
• How podcasting can create unexpected business opportunities
• Why sustainability matters more than perfect release schedules
• The systems and rhythms that help long-running shows survive
• How Katie built a loyal audience around midlife storytelling

Podcast: A Certain Age

Instagram: A Certain Age Pod

Talking the Talk is a podcast about podcasting, hosted by Courtney Reimer, founder of Sounds Great Creative Podcast Strategy.

Each episode pulls back the curtain on how podcasts are actually made, and how entrepreneurs, creators, and leaders can build shows that are strategic, sustainable, and worth the effort.

Learn more at www.soundsgreatstrategy.com