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By Redic Grant, Founder & CEO, MRJ Consulting From Redic's Desk On Tuesday, Detroit's Neighborhood Advisory Council voted 8–1 to recommend a $133.3 million community benefits package for Bedrock and General Motors' $2.2 billion Renaissance Center redevelopment — the largest in the city's history, according to BridgeDetroit. The surface reading is the size of the check. The deeper reading is in the line items: $6 million for year-round small business pavilions with room for ab

By Redic Grant, Founder & CEO, MRJ Consulting From Redic's Desk The American Pharmacies Group says independent drugstores are closing "at an alarming rate" across Michigan. The surface reading is a reimbursement story: pharmacy benefit managers pay stores less than many drugs cost them. Detroit pharmacist Mike Nabolsi told WDET about a drug that costs his store $1,000 to buy: "we're getting reimbursed $900. We can't survive." The deeper reading is about who decides where cust

By Redic Grant, Founder & CEO, MRJ Consulting Detroit at sunset. MoveDetroit is betting thousands more people will call it home. Photo: Jessica Christian / Unsplash From Redic's Desk MoveDetroit announced the first 13 winners of its Make Detroit Home grant this week — $15,000 each, part of a citywide push to grow and stabilize Detroit's population, with 300 more $1,000 grants to come. The surface reading is a population story. The deeper reading is in who got the money: one o

Are you a proven B2B closer who's tired of selling someone else's half-built offer? Do you already know the managing partners, executive directors, and business owners across Metro Detroit — and want a firm that can actually deliver for them? Are you ready to own new-business revenue, not just chase a quota? Then this is your seat. MRJ Consulting is opening its doors to our first dedicated Senior Sales Executive. The Market Is Ready. The Offer Is Built. Demand for AI integrat

By Redic Grant, Founder & CEO, MRJ Consulting From Redic's Desk Detroit Homecoming was back this week, and the tone out of it was familiar: real momentum, with a warning not to coast on it. Commercial real estate leaders told the Homecoming crowd the city needs to keep building on its progress rather than treat it as finished business, and a separate session — with Big Sean among the voices — made the case that Detroit's entertainment economy needs real investment to match it

By Redic Grant, Founder & CEO, MRJ Consulting A new University of Michigan report on Detroit's economy came out this week, and the headline number looks rough at first glance: unemployment ticked up to 11%. But look closer and the story flips — that's driven by more people entering the job market, not people losing jobs. Detroit's labor force grew 2.9% over the past year while Michigan's shrank 2.2% statewide. Economists are calling the overall picture "encouraging." It's a g

By Redic Grant, Founder & CEO, MRJ Consulting This week wasn't about showing up in a room — it was about making sure everyone was safe. Severe storms tore through Metro Detroit, downing trees, damaging homes, and knocking out power to more than 200,000 DTE customers at the peak; the National Weather Service is surveying possible tornado damage on the city's east side, which would be Detroit's first since 1997. TechTown Detroit made the right call and postponed this month's Fi

By Redic Grant, Founder & CEO, MRJ Consulting This week reminded me why we do this work. On Saturday, MRJ was proud to be one of the sponsors of the Thomas Seabron Jr. Memorial Golf Charity Outing, benefiting the PUCC Sunday School Program — a cause that invests directly in Detroit's kids. Being part of the committee that brought it together, from sponsors to signage, was a reminder that the same discipline that builds a marketing system builds a community event: a clear plan

By Redic Grant, Founder & CEO, MRJ Consulting If you've been on the fence about AI in your business, this year's numbers should settle it. A majority of small businesses now report using AI somewhere in their operations — and the ones seeing the biggest returns aren't the ones with the fanciest tools. They're the ones with a system. That's the whole premise behind MRJ Consulting: AI adoption was never really about buying more software. It's about building a repeatable process

I spent the first few days of August in Chicago. No client meetings, no pitch decks — just time away from Detroit for the first time in a while.

The window is closing. Not slammed shut. But closing. What took five years in the digital era is happening in eighteen months with AI.

The door doesn't open the first time you knock. Or the second. Sometimes it doesn't open at all — and that's okay too, because every knock teaches you something about what's behind it.

Some weeks remind you that business and life aren't two separate things. This was one of those weeks.

Business isn't always about cold outreach and lead funnels. Sometimes it's about being present enough in your community that the right people find their way back to you.

I've watched a client's sales team close a deal in three days that would have taken them three weeks a year ago. The difference wasn't a bigger team or a bigger budget. It was AI — and it's already here in Detroit.

A year ago, AI-generated website traffic was the worst-performing marketing channel in the digital economy. Today it's outperforming all of them by 48%. Here's what that means for Detroit businesses.

Last week, I watched a client's sales team close a deal in three days that would have taken them three weeks a year ago. The difference wasn't a bigger team or a bigger budget. It was AI — specifically, an AI system that researched the prospect, scored the lead, drafted the outreach emails, and prepped the meeting materials before the sales rep even picked up the phone. This isn't a Silicon Valley story. This is happening right here in Detroit. And if you're a decision-maker

17 Years. One Mission. A New Chapter. There is a photograph somewhere in a box in my office. It was taken in 2008 — me at a desk, a yellow notepad full of grant proposals beside me, a dial-up modem humming in the background. I was trying to help a Detroit nonprofit tell their story to funders who were writing checks based on polished presentations and professional photos. The story never made it through the paperwork. The human part — the late nights, the volunteers, the real

In the world of small business, we often talk about "the grind." It’s the late nights at a professional firm balancing books, or the 4:00 AM wake-up calls for a grocery store owner checking inventory. For decades, the solution was always "work harder" or "hire more." But the conversation has changed. We’ve moved past the era of AI as a "scary robot" concept and into one where AI is more like a silent, hyper-efficient business partner. And the best part? It doesn’t matter if y

In 2026, the era of the "AI Hype Cycle" is officially dead. Most professionals have moved beyond the novelty phase. We no longer ask AI to "write a sonnet in the style of Shakespeare." We are asking it to write crucial client emails, summarize strategic board reports, and draft marketing copies that must connect with our distinct audience. And yet, 90% of the output is still... well, generic "AI Slop." It’s wordy. It’s too polished. It says "delve" and "testament to" five tim