Meet Kevin Devecioglu: From Audience to Community - Turn Your Following into a Community | 037

Welcome to the Grand Connection Podcast, your home for grand growth through collaboration. This is your space to connect, create, and collaborate in a community of heart-centered entrepreneurs and change makers. Hosted by our community, this podcast brings collaboration to life. You will meet members who share their wisdom, offer insights and practical tips, and even interview each other. If you're ready for more clarity, stronger connections, and better results in your business, you are in the right place. Listen in, connect with us, and be part of something grand. Welcome to the Grand Connection Podcast, where we explore how meaningful relationships, collaboration, and visibility help entrepreneurs build sustainable businesses. I'm Susan, and today's guest is Kevin Davigi, founder of the American Business Podcast and America's Virtual Chamber of Commerce and Industry. Kevin has spent more than three decades helping businesses grow, and today he's combining podcasting, AI, and community building to help entrepreneurs increase their visibility, build authority, and create meaningful business connections. Kevin and I were introduced through a mutual connection, and from our very first conversation, we hit it off. We quickly discovered we had a lot in common. We both came from marketing backgrounds. We both believe in leading with value, and we're both passionate about building communities that help entrepreneurs grow through meaningful relationships and, of course, collaboration. Since then, I've had the opportunity to attend one of Kevin's events, and he'll be joining an upcoming mixer, and he's going to be on my podcast, and I'm going to be on his show. So this is the start of a collaborative relationship. So Kevin, welcome to the Grand Connection Podcast.

Susan, thank you so much for having me. It's such an honor. Appreciate it.

Well, I want everyone to learn a little bit about you. Can you tell us what inspired you to launch the American Business Podcast, and did you always envision it growing into a community?

Appreciate it. Thank you. Well, and thank you so much for having me. It's such a pleasure, and it's a great question that I'll be happy to address. I actually have been a pretty active networker myself, so I'm based in New York City, and I've been actively working and building business relationships in this region. Also, originally my full-time job is job is business software, and with a national business software company. So I always have national connections and national vision in the US when I'm when I'm working, and also especially in last 10 years, I really focus on building business relationships, building relationships, and networking. So during this journey, I really appreciated the importance of meeting with people, professionals, and in a way sharing life and enjoying life together. And that was really precious for me. During this journey in my professional career, I also watch a lot of podcasts, a lot of podcasts. I see podcasts as a resource for for learning. And when I was also watching these podcast channels, I got an understanding of you know who is offering what and what is the value, the benefit, the the their positioning, and so on. Just like you mentioned, so we always have the marketing glasses, right? So we put it on, and then we always look at what is the positioning, what are they doing, what is the message, and and the and how they how they are actually communicating with the market. So, during this process, I noticed that there is no podcast with the content that we are offering, the American Business Podcast, educational, informative, variety of business subjects to share, educational content, and non-political. So, I was thinking about it and I decided to start it last year. So, when I started it, I focused on exactly what I noticed missing in the marketplace, based on my observation, in video podcasting. Not necessarily audio, but video podcasting and focusing on educational content and

informative, also keeping it non-political, focusing on the core business, business ideas, and the lessons. So, that's how it started last year in 2025. And

you have to share, how many followers do you have?

So, as of today, we have more than 200,000 YouTube subscribers.

Oh, yeah. So, this is just in one year. So, what's your secret sauce there? How do you

get so many followers? Yes. It's all marketing, Susan. It's all marketing. So, I'll share with your audience, and it's my pleasure. It all starts with the market research, right? So, when we are launching a business, launching a product, however we like to, you know, go to market, it all starts with the market research. Market research may be two ways, maybe primary research, you go out, you talk to people, you find out, you just simple observation, you just watch and learn by yourself. That's one way. Another one is the secondary research, right? So, we can get the surveys, we can get the statistics, and so and so on. So, in my case, I used the primary research. It was my research, basically just observation.

Yeah. Your own observation, which is it's through the filter of marketing, by the way. What would be a good podcast that would get lots of viewers, right? Or both viewers and Yes. Yes. I

mean, when I started, I wasn't thinking about the numbers of subscribers initially. I was thinking about creating a resource for professionals, business leaders, business professionals, executives, business owners, and entrepreneurs. I wanted to make sure the American Business Podcast, ABP, is going to be educational, it's going to be informative. I was imagining having guests, business guests from different parts of the market, and I wanted to have a friendly conversation. So, it wasn't going to be about me. I will I was to facilitate and create the environment. However, the important thing is to learn from the professionals. So, that's why I didn't call it Kevin's Podcast. I call it the American Business Podcast because it is for for the region, right, and also for businesses, and to learn from them. And I am to facilitate. That's that has been the positioning so far.

What do you mean by the word podcast-driven marketing?

So nowadays in the marketplace, especially consumers and businesses, they have seen a lot of different ways of reach out, right? They are They They got the old-day, you know, direct mail. They They're getting ton of emails, they get SMS text messages, and they're being bombarded by messages from all over the place. Everyone is offering something, they have some sort of an angle, so same with B2B businesses, right, the business-to-business marketing. And as businesses, we get a lot of emails, we get a lot of direct mail and, you know, SMS text messages. Now social media is pretty active. So, also as business owners, business professionals, and and business leaders, we are being bombarded. Podcast-driven marketing focus on thought leadership. Hey, I am the expert of business software, so I don't give you a call to offer, Hey, do you need a software? I mean, what do Instead of these, I position myself, which I really am truly, right, assuming for any professional, and talking about essentials of business software, why it is important, and talking about use cases, what was it before in any company and how they modernize it, and what is the outcome and what was the ROI, and then having other business professionals in, let's say, business software to talk about it in terms of what is the trend, what is coming up, how business owners can benefit from the latest technology. This is the concept. So, positioning business leaders and business owners as thought leaders, authorities in their own field, and using the podcast as the channel to put the word out, to communicate. Fundamentally, this is business This is podcast-driven marketing. You use the podcast, position yourself as authority, as a thought leader, and keep communicating, keep creating content, sharing the educational, informative content in your own field and then keep doing it. And that basically a channel of marketing that will that puts the word out by using the podcast. And

ideally, I always recommend video podcasting. So when we look at the podcasting in general, it all started with audio podcasting, right? That's why the audio podcast ecosystem, Spotifys, Apples, and other podcast channels, they are more mature. The video podcasting came a little later, and there is still space in video podcasting for business owners to position themselves as thought leaders and authorities and also communicate their messages. So that's what it is: podcast-driven marketing in essence.

And so YouTube has very good search, right? So people can Correct.

Correct. So YouTube is the the leader in video podcasting, and it has a lot of tools can be learned pretty quickly. In addition, there are other others as well in terms of video podcasting. However, for businesses, YouTube is still the the best one. I mean, when we look at the social media, especially for business-to-business, YouTube will always stay as a more credible video podcasting platform. There are others, too, can be used, and it's good to have a variety of social media channels to put the word out and position in the business business owner as the thought leadership. However, YouTube is the best one so far.

Now I presume you need to have some marketing knowledge of how to have your videos on YouTube get found. Yeah. This is the expertise you you offer, right?

Yes, that is true. Well, so it all starts with marketing. Now you have a podcast, you position yourself, you position your podcast, and you have the content ready in terms of how you're going to create it. You have a style. Well, let's keep in mind we'll keep getting feedback from the audience and we can always make changes in the content, in the style, and so on. However, the position and the core message is the same. I am an expert of this subject, and this is what I'm bringing you. This is how the industry is evolving. This is how the other businesses are benefiting from it. So, having said that, yes, YouTube has tools in it. So when uploading the videos, then this is important to you know define it how it is, as well as putting the SEOs in it in terms of you know making it easier to to be found, and also when we think about it, the definition of the video and where the video is actually can be found and how it can be also recommended other videos of yours right after watching that video. So these are also be these are also available in YouTube to be defined. And video, and also like

I'm not doing that. So I need to do that.

Yes, we should have another meeting, so I'll I'll share some secrets. My pleasure. My pleasure.

Grand connection. We learn from each other.

I love it. I love it. That that this is great. And also, when we talk about video, of course, there is the long form and the short form, right? So right now in by design, the consumption is very quick and very high in video podcasts in podcasting world. So we should keep creating it. When we create, we have the long form, and then we should also create the short form and keep pushing the short form, right? So we all watch that Shorts, right? We keep, you know, swiping. We all do that. And also, there is also the long form. So they complement each other. So in general, when we look at, people watch the short forms very quickly, consume it very quickly. So the the short form videos can also open the door for your long form videos. I see the short piece. What is the rest of it? Where is the rest of it? So I can go see your, you know, podcast and watch the whole episode of your

Yeah, we started doing reels for our podcast, so we're using, like, the person who's who who works on it, she she picks them out, and I guess she just she just edits them. But I think we've tried some other tools to try to find them, too, like AI tools that will pull pull some out, too. So we're experimenting with that. They're not perfect, because they don't always get the right content. That is true. But, you know, sub one out of one out of 10 are good from that tool, and then, the ones that she picks, or if I notice one I just love, I think, Oh, that was a great thing. I just say, Make sure that you make that into a reel. The reels get 100 times more views than the regular posts on the podcast. So it really does work, and a lot of members in the community, I know one of their goals, we'll have our Grand Plan Accelerator Lab, and they say, I need to make more reels. Like that sets often a goal. Goal besides getting a VA and starting a podcast or writing a book, you know, we have all our broader goals. But reels is really important to be able to do that, and it brings a lot more eyeballs. And I guess you've got this marketing thing where you're creating the reels, you've got a really good podcast topic and theme, so it's very niche and people know what they're going to learn from you, and you have great titles that will come up on search, you filled in the good SEO stuff properly, you get on related videos so it gets found, and then you create a bunch of great reels.

Yes, and you keep it going. Keep doing it. So when we look at the podcasting, podcasting is hard. I mean, that is an operation by itself, right? So we have to do it in addition to our daily job, daily work, our full-time job. So the best thing to manage it is is to accept it as part of your operations, that is now part of your business. So don't look at it as something additional. Look at it as part of it. This is one. So the reason I'm saying this, on average, the podcaster in general, not necessarily a business owner or or a business podcaster, but in general, the podcasters quit after 10th episode. So the quitting rate is very high in general. This because they find it to be difficult, or they run out of subjects, or they run out of guests. So it is important to position the podcast as as broad as possible in its own context. So the more the niche that we go, the more difficult it may be to find subjects or guests to fill the pipeline later on. So that's an important starting point. And also it is important to facilitate in terms of content. So rather than talking about us necessarily, you know, like I can talk about myself all day long, right? But if someone else talk about me, or someone else actually really reflects my ideas or my positioning, it's more credible, right? That's part of the podcast-driven marketing. And also, you know, having other professionals as often as possible in a in a podcast is also great, and it is because, see, when we look at the podcast in general, like in general when we look at it, and there are a lot of, you know, great podcast channels with very large viewership. So some of them they really listen, like they just don't interrupt the guests, like let the guests finish it. Some of them they really jump on it and then just interrupt, sometimes they counter. That's a style, right? They do it on purpose, because that's their style. So also we should also decide what is going to be our style. Are we

going to be are we going to be friendly, is it going to be like countering, you know, constantly challenging the guests. These are all styles, not a good or bad, it's a style. So we should decide which one is going to be the ideal one that one will feel comfortable, guests will feel comfortable, and the audience will like. So these are all details of it.

Oh, my my partner, he likes listening to the controversial ones. likes the debates out there.

Yes, yes, and and

They give They They are very popular.

They really are, and so in the in the American Business Podcast, for example, we I'm when I have a guest, I listen. I I I don't interrupt. I don't counter. I keep it as friendly as possible, as as positive and inspiring as possible. That's our style. So, I have another podcast called Two Guys All Things Tech, and I have a partner there, Anthony. Anthony Lucitti, there we debate. And there is a different Kevin there. We just go head-to-head. We He He takes a side. I take a side, and we try to at each other in terms of debating and talking about facts and So, that's another style that I experience, so that is just different. It's just different. And we

Accidentally start debating with one of your friendly, friendly clients on your friendly podcast?

Well, that's an option. I'm going to be on yours,

So I just need to know if I got to be ready for a debate by mistake.

Well, so these are all thoughts. So, the reason that we are seeing the growth in podcasting is because TV is dying. That is why. So, nowadays the average viewer of average viewer of TV is over 70 years old. It's not getting younger. So, there is no future for TV channels. That's a fact. That is why now TV channels, they are trying to start their own podcasts. So, you know, the old time, you know, they had a certain schedule, Hey, 8 o'clock you watch this. 9 o'clock you watch this. 10 o'clock you watch this movie. Like we used to follow their programming, right? And there was no other option. Those days are gone. Now with the podcasting, everything is recorded. You can watch whenever you want, however you you want, in audio or video. Up to you, right? So, this freedom and choice really open the door for podcasting in general, and it's just going to grow. It's just going to grow, and that's that's inevitable. It's because there are many different ideas, different ways of looking at different subjects, whether that's business or entertainment. You know, there is always room for new podcasts. That's how I That's how I see it.

So, what's interesting about what your model is, is you you started the podcast first, and now you've started a community. So, how has that journey evolved?

Yes, yeah, that's fascinating, and I'm I'm glad you brought it up. So, when I started the the American Business Podcast, my goal was to promote, uplift, support businesses, non-profits, manufacturers, and the business community. And during this journey, and with the growth of the American Business Podcast, I it became a business itself in its own right, and we start to get sponsors, supporters. and when I was communicating, engaging with our supporters and and sponsors, they start to ask me to start a platform for communications. As as the viewership is growing, subscription subscribers are getting more and more. They like to communicate with each other, so they asked me to start a platform. That brought the idea of America's Virtual Chamber of Commerce and Industry. I made some research before I started, which which is the ideal way to bring the business communities together. It's because our viewers are businesses, business owners, professionals, heavily in North America, followed by other parts of the world, and that's how it started. The feedback, the requests that I've been getting from our sponsors and and supporters and followers. Also, this how it started in terms of as an idea. The the style of it, you know, how it became the America's Virtual Chamber of Commerce, is also important point. It is because I've been networking in US in different parts. In always in New York City, New York Metro is our home, so there are a lot of networking here. I've been also networking with different parts of the country, too, via different regional chambers of commerce, business associations, and so on. So what I saw was US is very big, North America is large, right? So if you have connections in New York metro area and if you like to get contacts in in, let's say, Texas or or Midwest, how your New York contacts will help you get those contacts? I see these connectors. The regional chambers and associations, they are great for

local connections, there's no doubt about it. I'm still a part of many of them. However, when you like to go national, there is really no other organization that can really connect them with to each other. Yes, there are some groups here and there, but not like a chapter chamber style, not that structured. So I wanted to make sure we address that gap between national regional connections. In addition, none of the chambers and business associations that we are part of regionally, they don't come with publicity or visibility opportunity. You go to the meeting for networking, you are there, and you can be introduced or you can meet with other business professionals. There is no podcasting, no, you know, publicity comes with it. It's pretty very rare. So that also makes the America's Virtual Chamber of Commerce and Industry unique. So, that is the America's first virtual chamber of commerce, no boundaries, it's national, powered by the American Business Podcast, powered by a media channel. So the publicity, visibility comes with any activity that ABCCI, America's Virtual Chamber of Commerce and Industry actually perform. This is the origin story.

Yeah. No, and it's interesting because I started with a community and then started my podcast and shows and magazine later, right? So, so you went the other direction, and I thought, well, that's that's that's a great way because I I meet a lot of people that say, Oh, I've got this Instagram channel. There's a million followers. What do I do with it? So, this is an idea, like if you have that, you're now giving your members the opportunity to have visibility on your media channel.

That is correct. So, this visibility is ongoing, it's not one time.

Yeah.

This visibility may be our members they have the member spotlight videos. These member spotlight videos go to the abcci.us avccia.us website. This is number one. Number two, it stays on the American Business Podcast YouTube channel, so we have thousands of viewers, so the views compound there. So you have that constant visibility. Number three is in every single The American Business Podcast episode, these member spotlight videos also come in. In the beginning, in the middle, at the end of the podcast episode. So, three ways of visibility based on the American Business Podcast, which is very important for businesses, it's because there is competition, right?

Our community, too. I offer ways for people to get visibility through partnerships, like possibly with you guys, and also we have our grand giveaway, we have some channels, we've got the podcast, we have the magazine. I had a following, not as big as yours, but around 100,000 prior to starting the Grand Connection, so I, and it was business following, so that was a way that I could help my community get their listings, marketplace listings out into more channels and their events that are coming up. So we give them exposure through that. It's a really great way because people getting started need that little little bump. It's very hard to build up yourself the visibility you need to become a thought leader, and you need to be part of places like yours, the American Virtual Chamber of Commerce and Industry, Grand Connection, and others to get that acceleration and momentum going for you.

Yeah, this is actually, I'm glad you mentioned that. So, I'm going to refer this to actually Marketing 101. So, when we are running our marketing operations, in general, in any operation in a business, there is the marketing channel idea, right? So, so the Grand Connection is a marketing channel to communicate with the with the group and business professionals there. America's Virtual Chamber of Commerce is another channel, another marketing channel for communications, building relationships, and there is going to be others as well, just to support your point. So, this concept actually becomes a part of your marketing mix, your message, your ideal customer profile, and then how you communicate, your marketing channels, your communication channels. So, these are all part of this whole big package of marketing mix that we put in that mix, and we try to get important relationships out of it, yes.

And stepping back, you got to get your brand, you got to have your product offering, you got to have some value, and you got to get it really clear and a great message, and it'll come out in your introductions, it's going to come out in your media, it's going to come out in your podcast guesting that you do, and it all just clicks at some point, and that's what people go through in a in a community. You actually, you get feedback from other people in the community so you can start refining what your mix is. And yeah, when they get the right mix, it works, right?

Absolutely, absolutely. You can see that feedback in terms of sales figures, in terms of feedback getting from referral partners, channel partners, clients, customers, for example. So all these will give us an idea how we are doing. And then, you know, how you can speed things up if there is a possibility. But that feedback actually will direct us how we are doing and then we can update accordingly.

So I attended your book club and I, you know, used up more of my Audible credits.

All right. More more coming. More coming.

And and I love the energy. You know, everybody talked about the book. It had a little more of a debate of approach. People were, you know, giving different perspectives. And you take this content. This was recorded, right? So this will be on this channel as well.

Correct. Yes, this is available on the American Business Podcast, and every single activity in AVCCI is recorded and pushed to the American Business Podcast. Nothing stays between four walls. Yeah, and that's part of the visibility and and and the and the beat of it. And the business book idea is also interesting. So when I started the America's Virtual Chamber of Commerce and Industry, I started with I started with founding members, early adopters, and they're all seniors, professionals, they've been in the market for a long time, and I got a lot of feedback from them as well, and that was an idea from one of our founding members, right? So great book reader, follows clubs. You know, book club as an idea is not new, but business book club is rare. I mean, when I was searching, I didn't hear any business book club, so there may be some we just didn't see. Always not many, even if there is. That's how we started. It was an idea coming from our members, and then all of our, you know, clubs and and committees are member-led, and then we found great book readers, Jim and and Steve, so they are leading our our business book club, and going well so far. And I mean, books are, you know, in general, these are great resources for professional development, also for us to learn, keep learning, right, as professionals. I mean, so with the great connection you see it, I see it in American Business Podcast as well as America's Virtual Chamber of Commerce and Industry, there is a certain profile of a successful professional, regardless of what he's or she's doing. And the first thing is continuous learning, keeping an open mind, and keep adapting, keep updating, upgrading, in a way, professionally. And books are a great way to do it. And based on that, we started a business book club to publish authors, interview them, what made them write the book, what is the gist of the book, and a little bit of debate in terms of what they're offering and any

observation or experience that some of our viewers or members may have. In that sense, a great learning opportunity and very exciting, and I'm I'm I'm delighted that we have great co-chairs, and they have a great programming. You know, there are great books, great authors to talk about, to read and learn from, so it's a great group within America's Virtual Chamber of Commerce, and great learning opportunity.

Well, I I love books, and we have an authors group at the Grand Connection. We also have a podcasters group where people get together around the topics to learn from each other and collaborate around those topics as well. And books are a great way, similar to having a podcast, of being able to become a thought leader in your space and build authority. I think authority marketing is kind of what I'm moving into. From you know, I used to do a lot of home services back in the day, SEO home services, as I fill out those lines, but I'm really moving into the world of thought leadership because a different way of marketing than a local business that's a service business where before before really it was before the pandemic, I worked a lot more locally, right? I networked at my local chamber and I got a lot of clients based on my networking there, which were ones that were needing to be found locally. But now that this global world, thought leadership, you want to reach a global audience, and podcast, Absolutely. book, and, of course, as you've added in there, staying up to date on what's going on by reading a lot of good books and going to the book club. I think we're going to have a good book club too, Kevin. I just have to do it.

Love it. I love it. This is this is great. And also, just to be clear, the way that we position America's Virtual Chamber of Commerce and Industry is not to compete local chambers and associations. We design it in a way that it is actually complementary to regional and local chambers of commerce and business associations. It's because we'll always need the local connections that we can always go in and and meet and build business relationships, And if we like to have a broader networking in terms of connection, in terms of regional or or national, America's Virtual Chamber of Commerce and Industry is very, very complementary. So, I always see these two concepts: the traditional regional, local chamber of commerce and business association, and America's Virtual Chamber of Commerce and Industry is actually a great combination for any business professional.

Yeah. No, and you need to have more than one home. That's the grand question. Is I I encourage our members to belong to a couple of other organizations. Might be one local one, it might be ours, and maybe it's an industry one, you know, that you kind of fill in a few of the gaps and you get you get you get all the things you need from a few different homes. Yes,

absolutely. Absolutely. And there is a lot of different subjects to cover. I mean, when we think about it, so we can have different groups. However, yeah, different groups may have different focus areas that that may be complementary to the other group. So in in AVCCI, America's Virtual Chamber of Commerce and Industry, because Chamber of Commerce idea is pretty broad by itself, we design committees and clubs to dive deeper into business practices and industries, manufacturing, non-profits as an industry, or women in business, for example, that we support wholeheartedly. And you know, we have more than 10 different committees and Public Speakers Club and Business Book Club. However, just to support your point, there are a lot of different subjects that needs to be covered and focused on. So, absolutely, the more than one group is very beneficial for professionals. No doubt about it.

So, I want to jump back to our audience, their audiences that they currently have. Okay, or me and my audience. Okay. or my content. Some of them have podcasts, some have YouTube channels, a lot of them have LinkedIn followings, Facebook groups, newsletters that they built up, or a community already. The challenge isn't always attracting people, it's turning that audience into a business. This is what I saw you do really well. What advice would you give entrepreneurs who are trying to make that transition? Like, so we've got, we know we've got some audience, we've done some work, we've built built up this following, people, we are a bit of a thought leader in our space. Now, what do we do?

Well, that's actually, because they have audience right now, this is the half of it, right? So this is great, it's a great start. So they have a starting point. So how we can really activate the audience in a way that we can really commercialize it. So we need to find that that need. What is the need of that group? What can they can, what can bring them together? What can actually create value? So for business to happen, there needs to be an exchange, right? So I'm getting a value and I'm paying for it. So this exchange is the business. So how do we create these? What is really needed? That's what we need to find. So in my case, I found that we have the American Business Podcast community, now more than 200,000 subscribers and growing, they like, they wanted to communicate. They like to talk to each other, they like to engage, they like to meet, build relationships. That was the need, and they communicated that need to me. And then I started America's Virtual Chamber of Commerce and Industry. So, communicating with their own audience, hey, how can I help? What is missing? What do you see? Ask them and try to find out what is really needed, and they'll tell you. So, this is also market research, right? And And the primary, the best one, the primary research, I love these. So, you communicate with the audience, you ask questions, you get feedback, not from one of them, a group of them. And And believe it or not, they're not being asked a lot of questions. I mean, really, like when you ask these questions, that you know, What do you think? What else can I do? in ideas, you know, especially businesses, business owners, they really appreciate it, and they like to be heard, too. So, that's a great opportunity for them to put their thoughts out and share, you know, needs that their creator or the business owner--

You've a similar setup to me because I can If somebody comes to me with an idea, like if someone came and said, I want to start a book club. I've got the platform. It's not hard for me to start a book club within the existing platform. You're You're similar. You can start a new club.

Yes. Yes. Then the next question is who's going to Who's going to lead it?

Yeah.

And what's going to be the programming? And how it's going to So, these are the next steps that we need to design it. So, especially like in my case, for example, I founded America's Virtual Chamber of Commerce and Industry. I have a supporting team behind me. However, all the committees and clubs that we have, and more will be coming in our roadmap, they are all member-led. So, I don't really get involved in day-to-day operations. I just support them, and they are already leaders in their own field, and they are interested in being the leader in the committee or the business book club, for example. They love it. They just love it. I just got to support them. So, that's also very very exciting. So, creating professionals where they like to be, and also supporting them. They can also create content and an educational environment for other business professionals, so that with collaboration, we can all grow. That's the mindset that always pushes us forward as as professionals.

Are there any mistakes you see people making in this space?

I would say what I see sometimes, I mean, in general, I must say, keep an open mind. Don't don't think that you know everything. There is always something that we still don't know, and this is out there. Our job is to go find it. As little ego as possible, which is hard, right? Keep a check on the Put a check on the ego. Always trust yourself. Be confident. There is no doubt about it, but at the same time, you know, surround yourself with other professionals and learn from them, and always ask questions. I mean, based on my experience, listening always wins. The less we talk, the more we listen, and try to learn from other professionals is always in our favor. And it's all about it. I mean, if you think about this, 10 years ago, did we have did we have AI? Did we have really like this much of podcast channels before 10 years ago? Yes, they existed. Yes, there was AI. There was podcasts, but not like not like right now, right? So the evolution that we have been seeing over the years in business is is amazing. And for us to be really a part of this, and really benefit from it, and also help our our community, business community, as well as our our clients to really benefit from those technologies and evolutions. Our job as business leaders to watch what is going on, learn, adapt, and also offer that technology or update coming in that business to our clients or to our community,

Or educate them on those on those Yes, that's what we try to do. We have an AI group, and we try to keep everybody up to date on what's going on, and I look for different speakers. Maybe you'll speak/talk on that one. No, I'm going to jump to AI, because you use AI a lot. How are you using it today?

So, my full-time job is business software, so all of our software systems are AI-powered. And for me, getting into technology is in my early age. No, I'm not an engineer by no means, I'm a business person, marketing person by design, by education, by practice. However, I always had that interest on computers, coding in my early years. So, I was always familiar and interested in technology in general. So when the AI comes in, and me being in the business software business software technology industry nowadays, of course, there was a natural connection right there for me because of my job, because of my business, as well as my interest in technology historically. So, a couple of things. First of all, AI is the biggest opportunity that small and mid-sized businesses have right now in, I must say, in a couple of decades. Why do I say this? It is because this modern technology that we can all utilize in business, whether that's for sales, marketing, or manufacturing, now it's accessible, affordable, and practical. So right now for small businesses and mid-sized businesses, they don't have to invest like a bank. They don't have to be a bank. They don't have to be a Fortune 500 company to utilize this technology. So there is an opportunity right there to be competitive and to create that differentiation that they need in the marketplace. This is an important point. Followed by, then the next question is, how do they use it? And how do they really adapt to it? So that requests require them to make a research in terms of what is out there available, what they really need. I mean, I talk to businesses, business professionals all the time because of my business software business I have. Sometimes they don't need AI. Sometimes they just need a business software to digitize, automate their business processes. Sometimes they do need AI to further their operations. So depends a little what they need. In terms of utilizing AI, though,

the software tools, just like you mentioned in the beginning of the conversation regarding podcast, and that's same for all the AI-based software systems, they are getting better and better and better. They're not getting worse, they're getting better. So learning and improving. So we'll use more and more AI-based software systems in businesses, whether that's the retail industry or finance industry or manufacturing, for example, distribution. Right now, most of us, we are using it in a way that we can analyze data, we can make sense of data very quickly. However, this is going to even go further with robots. So we see a part of it, for example, with autonomous cars. Consider those cars as a robot, and now they are combined with the AI-powered technology, it just drives itself. Just picking you up, taking you places, and you don't see the driver anymore. It's a it's a small example of where it's actually going in the long run. Not anytime soon, but that is the future. So for businesses, it's the same. However, one thing that AI can never replace is the human relations, the communication, the interaction that we have. Even nowadays, we are seeing different AI-based, you know, avatars, software systems. Nowadays hard to say which one is real, which one is really AI, right? So starting next week forward in the American Business Podcast, we are putting that note: This content is generated by humans, no AI involved in the in the original content. So we do the same thing in the American Business Podcast. We use AI-based tools, however, the content itself is all real humans talking to each other, the programming, the script, and so on. So there is no bot, there is no AI-powered content that generates the original content. We only use it. We have international editions, we translate it with lip synchronization to different languages: Spanish, Portuguese, German, French, Turkish, Hindi, other languages coming, and that is fully AI. The content is the same,

but then that's, you know, the mouth moves, the language, everything is AI-powered.

Oh, you're using it a lot. We're going to have to have you come in on the AI group and share a little bit of how you're using it for your channels and other things in your businesses. Absolutely. I could go on. I know we have a time restriction here. I could go on for hours asking you all Yeah, I like this. about this. We can do part two. Part two. Well, Yes. my closing question because I just jumped ahead, I had a whole bunch of AI questions, but where I want to give everybody a chance to meet you another time. If you could leave leave entrepreneurs with one piece of advice about building authority, growing a community, and preparing for the future of AI—okay, I made a hard question. What would it be? I'm just putting them all in together.

Let's see. Well, I will say, so it's a combination of different things like this question. So

So, yeah, like So, one of the one of the above. All right.

All right, yeah, that sounds good. piece of advice would you give entrepreneurs for for preparing for the future? Yes, absolutely. So, I will say, get used to AI tools as quick as possible. That that will be number one. You don't have to use them just to use them. Just make sure you find the need and use them and get familiar and keep an open mind in terms of what is really coming into markets. Some technologies may make sense for your business, some may not. You decide. However, seeing what is out there is going to give us the idea. And let's remember any technology that we use, AI powered or without AI powered, we need technology partners. Speak to your partners, who's going to work with you. Don't try to be a software company. Software is a whole different industry. I see some companies, you know, they're like, I'm going to write my own software. Well, good luck with that. You know, it's not a one-time thing. It's just a whole different thing that you've got to invest in. You are not a software company. You know, just like we are not a construction company, it's like we are not a manufacturing company. So, we have our own aisle. So, focus on your own business, find your technology partners, and learn as much as as much as possible. And in terms of podcast-driven marketing, I will say start your podcast as quick as possible. You can always make pivots, changes, updates during that journey. But start it, try to build it, and you know, any of your audience they need some advice and you know, some insights, I'll be happy to help as well.

And where can people get a hold of you?

Well, the best thing is I have web I have email kevin@americanpodcast.tv, that's my direct email address, kevin@americanpodcast.tv. And ABCCI website, America's Virtual Chamber of Commerce is abcci.us, and I'm also available on on LinkedIn, Kevin Devecioğlu, and they can also reach out to me as well. I'm looking forward to hearing from your audience.

This information will be in the show notes for those listening.

Appreciate it. Thank you.

And you also had a gift.

Yes, I do. Yes, abs- absolutely. Absol- Yes, thank you. And appreciate it. Thank you very much. Of course, also, you know, we love to offer as a gift, we have a gift membership at ABCCI, America's Virtual Chamber of Commerce and Industry. So, we are also offering three months membership as a gift as well to to your audience.

Kevin, thank you so much for joining us today. One of my biggest takeaways from this conversation is that while AI is transforming the way we work and communicate, it also reminds us what makes us uniquely human. Technology can help us create content faster and work more efficiently, but it can't replace trust, meaningful conversations, or the sense of belonging that comes from being part of a community. Kevin, you've shown that a podcast can become much more than a marketing tool. It can become a platform for building relationships, creating opportunities, and bringing people together around a shared purpose. Thank you for sharing your insights and your journey with us. And thank you, everyone, for listening. If today's conversation inspired you, we'd love to invite you to experience the Grand Connection community. Join us for one of our events and discover how meaningful relationships, collaboration, and visibility can help you grow your business. Go to grandconnection.ca/gifts to grab your Grand Growth Bundle and free guest pass. And until next time, let's connect, create, and collaborate, and be part of something grand.