THE OCCASIONAL TUESDAYBY RESCH STRATEGIES | OCTOBER 2026
‘Tis the spooky season.
NOTABLE NOW
Things that spook me?
1) When City of Lansing officials have a second double espresso one morning and get creative.
These Balloween decorations are the best thing the city has pulled off in a while. Although, I’m not sure what it says about our expectations as city residents/workers that holiday-themed anatomical puns so brighten everyone’s spirits.
Still, hat tip to whoever is responsible. Promote them to Code Enforcement… or Economic Development… or Public Safety… or the Parking Office… anywhere… before some municipal headhunter lures them off to Waukegan, IL.
BY MATT RESCH
Lansing understood the assignment.
2) When candidates for office (and there are a lot of them this time of year) demonstrate zero creativity, little substance and no respect for the intelligence of voters.
Ha! "Intelligence of voters." I knew you'd catch that. Even so, spooky doesn't begin to describe the candidate caliber this cycle, and I think it's accurate to say it hasn't always been this way. I also think it’s accurate to say that it doesn’t have to be this way.
As a voter in my household recently reported upon filling out her absentee ballot, "Well, that was a miserable experience!"
3) A lot of people are spooked out these days by AI. Our own Nick read a book recently and came to work pretty convinced we would all soon be little human pieces in a game of cybernetic Risk played between warring chatbots. It’s quite possible.
I'm slightly less spooked about AI, especially after reading this from the Wall Street Journal last week.
Inside Berkeley’s tallest office building, a small community of artificial intelligence researchers at a co-working space called Constellation has been mobilizing to save the world from apocalypse.
They enjoy catered vegan meals and bring their laptops to couches with sweeping views of the San Francisco Bay. At dinners and happy hours every month, they discuss the latest and scariest AI risks.
See? I feel better.
I will share this observation about AI: A good number of people are probably rightly spooked that AI will take their jobs. One group of people I don't think needs to worry, at least not now, is graphic designers.
I am not a graphic designer, but I have been laughed at by a number of them.
AI has allowed just about anyone to "become" a graphic designer. I know this because just about everyone is posting AI-generated posters, graphics, flyers and images to social media. And they all look like crap. Same amateurish fonts. Same harsh colors. Same communicated message: "I've put exactly zero effort, thought or creativity into what you're looking at, and I did it all in 7 seconds!"
I recently marched into one of our graphic designers' offices with my laptop in hand. "This is AI, isn't it?!" I asked, showing her an image posted to Facebook.
"Yeah, I'm pretty sure," she said.
It wasn’t a yard sale advertisement, or a proud parent sharing their kid’s sports exploits.
Nope.
A death announcement. Of a pretty important person. By a government organization. Breaking news. ChatGPT'd.
Not spooky. Just lame. Do better. Hire a graphic designer.
4) Lastly, back on the topic of things spooky this season.
How about a public experiment rolling out a new Resch Strategies newsletter format for the team? That's downright terrifying, but here we go.
The Occasional Tuesday. I asked ChatGPT for newsletter names that communicate zero long-term commitment.
So, on the occasional Tuesday going forward, look for some thematic quick hits from us on things in the news, projects we're working on and recommendations for things we're all doing with the rest of our time.
Until then, may all your holiday balls be spooky.
— MATT
WORTH A CLICK
We saw it and clicked.
THE U OF MUMPS
CARLY
Speaking of spooky, I saw this headline about vaccine rates in Michigan, and it reminded me of my year at Michigan State when U of M had a mumps outbreak leading up to the big rivalry game. The U of Mumps jokes were 10/10.
NIKKI
As AI tools have become widely integrated into our everyday lives, the ways in which many consumers navigate the web have changed completely. YouTube is becoming particularly important because video content is increasingly being used as source material in AI discovery.
FYI, AI SEO, IRL
HAUNTED HAYRIDE
ANNA
Within Michigan, the regional issues that divide can be greater than even the political ones. Outstate vs. Southeast, rural vs. urban, agricultural vs. auto, etc. This Freep read covers farmers weighing in on the political, cultural and occupational nuances of tariffs and immigration policies in one of Michigan’s most rural, but also most productive, agricultural counties.
SCARED OF HEIGHTS
LAURA
Michigan is going to be hosting the Women’s World Hot Air Balloon Championship in 2027. This is the first time in history this event is being held in the United States, and it’s coming to Jackson, Michigan! Pilots from around the world will come to Michigan to compete for the international title in July 2027.
BOO!…DOGGLE
JOE
Not sure if it scares me so much as annoys me, but I hate everything about this story about a proposed copper mine in the U.P. Things I hate about it with greater specificity:
I can’t even read/follow this. That’s how convoluted this whole fight for/against funding/opening/not opening a mine is. Whatever happened to “Hey, I have some apples, would you like to buy them?’ ‘Yes. Thank you.’ That’s as complicated as it should be to open a business in this country.” - Ron Swanson
Can we quit with corporate welfare? “This should be a $500M project, you say? How lucrative—what a boon for you!... So why on earth do you need MY money?”
SCARY HIT!
NICK
Jayden Reed was an awesome Michigan State Spartan in an era without a whole lot of awesome Michigan State Spartans. When he took a blow to the head during the Packers’ Week 2 matchup with the New York Jets, he went limp and hit the turf. Reed was carted off the field while everyone said their prayers and held their breath.
I’m not just a Spartan fan; I’m also a football dad. My son Carter plays 7th grade ball in Fowlerville, and each year he takes more and more punishment. For the first time in five seasons, he’s lost teammates this year to serious injuries - a blown out knee and a really ugly broken arm - so hits like the one Reed took land with me a little more heavily than they have in the past.
The only thing scarier for the kid, though, would probably be missing a snap.
A FEW THINGS WE’RE THINKING ABOUT
Didn’t James Cameron teach us anything?
A whistleblower in the tech industry this September resigned from his AI firm, warning that the big shots behind the world’s fastest-growing technology privately acknowledge there’s a better-than-10-percent chance that AI literally wipes out humanity. And they’re still developing it. Didn’t James Cameron teach us anything?
— Nick
Professionalism can survive a personality.
I take my work seriously, but I also think being myself is perfectly compatible with being competent. An email can sound like a person wrote it. A meeting can include laughter and still accomplish something. I want to work with people who know their stuff and seem comfortable being themselves. Of course, read the room. But I think we can have high standards and a sense of humor in the same meeting.
—Nikki
The new Grammarly commercials are ridiculous.
The commercials are promoting their AI tool where people are encouraged to begin projects by talking to their AI model to come up with an idea. Then the tool gives you examples of what you can add to make your project sound better. So basically, they are just encouraging people to not think for themselves and ask their AI tool to write their papers for them. To me, it seems like they are trying so hard not to say “Just have us write your paper!” Maybe that is just my interpretation. Maybe not. Watch one of their new commercials here.
—Sean
CLIENT CORNER
Updates from our clients.
New homes in Evart, MI
This summer, the City of Evart and the Evart Housing Commission celebrated the groundbreaking of a $30 million affordable housing project that will make a lasting impact on the community.
The project includes the renovation of 109 units and the addition of 36 new apartments at the Centennial Arms Apartment Complex, expanding access to affordable housing and helping meet a critical need in the region.
Voter Approved!
The RS team was proud to support Tri-Hospital EMS with their millage renewal campaign, “Say Yes to Local EMS.” Our team created campaign messaging, led digital advertising, distributed community mailers and other campaign materials. On Election Day, 76 percent of St. Clair County voters approved!
Congrats Eastern HS soccer and Real Lansing FC!
Congratulations to the Lansing Eastern boys varsity soccer team on winning the CAAC title this fall.
Many of the players on this championship roster came up through Real Lansing FC, a local soccer club that we are proud to support. It is great to see their alumni succeeding at the high school level.
Off the clock. On our radar.
WHAT WE’RE INTO
Matt
The team is well aware of my like for (“love” seems extreme for any podcast, Cold Oatmeal excluded) the Acquired podcast. Many-a-staff meeting-comment from me starts with “On Acquired….”
Acquired episodes are multi-hour histories and analysis of the world’s largest and most successful companies told by two guys who do tons of research-independent of each other-and then come together in the studio to share with each other what they’ve learned. It’s fascinating. Packed full of “that’s how that happened?!” moments.
The guys’ latest subject is Home Depot. Crazy interesting and totally worth your next two weeks of after-dinner walks.
And (because I own the place) a second thing.
I submit this confidently on behalf of Joe and Nick as well. We've been listening to the new album from Killers frontman Brandon Flowers. Or, in Nick's case, he's listened to it "100 times this last weekend." Thrasher is its name, and it's great. It's not typically my style, and I think Nick would agree. It does have more of a Joe vibe, but even so, all three of us came away hooked and surprised. Per Joe, "Just finished. I thought that was f#%&ing great." True songwriting. Give it a listen.
Nikki
Diavola by Jennifer Thorne: I’m currently reading/listening to Diavola, and it is properly scary. I had trouble falling asleep because of it. It follows a woman vacationing with her dysfunctional family at an Italian villa, where a sinister presence makes an already tense trip much worse. The writing is excellent, and the story has that wonderfully unsettling quality that makes you want to keep going even when you’re starting to question that decision.
Carly
I’ve read 70 books so far this year. Here are the ones I’ve given five stars.
Heart the Lover by Lily King
The Correspondent by Virginia Evans
Broken Country by Clare Leslie Hall
Project Hail Mary by Andy Weir
The Perks of Being a Wallflower by Stephen Chbosky
Nick
Did Carly seriously just say she’s read 70 books so far this year? Mountains of books! Madness! I mean… I’ve read 70 comic books in 2026. This Halloween, though, I’m wrapping up the Complete Works of H.P. Lovecraft. I will not be traveling to Antarctica anytime soon.
Joe
I just finished The Gales of November: The Untold Story of the Edmund Fitzgerald. I absolutely loved it and could easily devote several hundred words to it. Things that amazed me:
The sheer scale of freighters and the importance of Great Lakes shipping. America would not be America without the Great Lakes.
Just the fact that a ship that size sank in the Great Lakes in 1975. I need to see a once-in-a -generation storm (from the shore)
How different the world was 50 years ago.
The Gordon Lightfoot song (huge G’Light fan)... the version they released (that everyone has heard) was the band’s FIRST TIME ever playing the song.
Laura
I just finished Mad Mabel by Sally Hepworth. It’s described as a twisty, darkly funny mystery novel, and the description is definitely accurate. It follows Mabel’s life both as a child and as a cranky and humorous senior citizen. She is constantly misunderstood, blamed for things she did not do and caught in precarious situations. It kept me on my toes and entertained. A solid four-star read that I highly recommend.
Sean
Before I went on paternity leave, Nick gave me a book to read called The Unseen Realm by Michael Heiser. It is about uncovering the supernatural world of the Bible. As a Catholic, I find it interesting to read an evangelical writer's examination of some of the supernatural aspects of the Bible. Why has it been interesting? Well, you’ll have to wait for a longer review to come next month! (I haven’t finished the book yet.)