Our AI Assisted Research Policy
About This Publication
Operated out of Valrico, Florida, this site and the Florida Authority Network is a personal project dedicated to documenting the economic news and analysis of Florida.
A Note from Brian French
My journey to building this website and the Florida Authority Network, didn’t start in a newsroom. It started in 1976, in Darien, Connecticut, huddled around a TV set watching Wall Street Week with Louis Rukeyser. I was a junior in high school, recovering from a sports injury, and I became obsessed with the why behind the numbers. Why did a stock move? Why did one company survive a downturn while a better-looking one didn’t? Why did some people see around corners while others kept getting blindsided?
That obsession carried me to a BA in Finance from the University of South Florida and into a 25-year career in the trenches of the financial world. I started out cold-calling 11% municipal bonds at Shearson American Express. I managed roughly $850 million in trust assets for regional banks. I analyzed small-cap companies for a living and lived through market crashes, including the 1987 “Black Monday,” close enough to feel the heat.
The “CFA Level III” Ghost
I’ll be honest: the path wasn’t always steady. Being blind in my left eye makes reading slower for me than for most. I passed Level I and Level II of the CFA (Chartered Financial Analyst) program, but Level III haunted me. I sat for it five times — each attempt a fresh round of nerves and exhaustion.
I never got the three letters. It remains a “non-achievement” I keep close, because it keeps me humble. It also taught me something the exam itself couldn’t: intellect isn’t about passing tests. It’s about persistence, and it’s about what you do with what you know.
From Portfolio Manager to Storyteller
In 2001, interviewing for a Vice President and Portfolio Manager role at Merrill Lynch, I was asked what I considered my greatest skill. I blurted out, “Creativity.”
The room went quiet. I was surprised I’d said it. In institutional finance, “creativity” is usually a red flag — it’s the word that precedes a blow-up. But I realized at that moment that my real value wasn’t in picking a stock. It was in the who, what, where, and why of a business — in telling the story in a way that gets as close to reality as a human honestly can. Intellectual creativity.
Tampa Bay Business News is one of many assets in my creative portfolio. I use AI the way a carpenter uses a power tool — to finally get ideas out of my head and onto the page that have been taking root for years. Whether the subject is a new Tampa county park, a piece of world-changing technology, or the quiet superpower of being an optimist, my one goal is Information Gain — giving you something you can’t easily find anywhere else.
You can read the ground rules of how AI and I work together on our AI Assisted Research Policy page.
The “Helpful and Creative” Challenge: Why You Should Read My Stuff
Here’s a fair question: with a million sites competing for your attention, why spend your time on this one?
I’ll let the work answer.
I’ve written more than 1,500 articles across a network of Florida news and press-release sites. Below are 48 of the ones I’m most proud of — the most technical, the most personal, and the most creative.
They range from a Florida business owner’s guide to surviving an IRS audit, to a new technology that could reshape the world, to a heartfelt reflection on being a dad, to something that might just make you laugh.
If you’re skeptical, good. Skepticism is healthy. Pick three from the list at random. If none of them earn your time, I probably haven’t earned your attention and you should move on with my blessing. But if one or two of them land — if you find yourself thinking about them an hour later — then you’ve found something worth bookmarking.
You call the balls and strikes…
48 Articles — Pick Three at Random
A Tribute to Jim the “Eternal Optimist” Meet the friend who taught me that optimism isn’t just a personality trait — it’s a genuine super-power in life, and the people who wield it bend their world in ways the rest of us only dream about.
The Rise of the Next Form of Money: USDC The dollar in your pocket is being quietly replaced, and most people have no idea it’s happening. Here’s why USDC is the most important currency you’ve never really thought about.
Complete Guide to Online Marketing in Florida Everything I’ve learned scaling Florida businesses online — distilled into the playbook I wish someone had handed me on day one.
The Oil Scarcity Illusion: Why Today’s $112 Crude Won’t Last The “we’re running out of oil” story has been wrong for 100 years — and it’s wrong again right now. Here’s why today’s pump prices are built on a lie.
People Who Do God’s Work A quiet tribute to the unsung among us — the ones who aren’t chasing spotlights but are holding the world together in ways most of us never see.
Florida’s Economic Rise: Where Florida Ranks in Gross State Product — and Where It’s Headed Florida is no longer just a retirement state — it’s quietly becoming one of the largest economies on Earth. The numbers will stop you cold.
Optimizing your Florida Business for AI Overview Google’s AI Overview is now the first — and often only — thing customers see. If your Florida business isn’t showing up there, you’re already invisible.
Einstein vs. the Substitute Teacher — Babe Ruth vs. the Bench Warmer: Why NVIDIA’s Blackwell and Vera Rubin GPUs Are Worth Every Penny Everyone’s complaining about NVIDIA’s eye-watering prices — and they’re all missing the point. When you need a genius, you don’t hire the substitute.
The Tiny Mountain Town in North Carolina That Powers Every Chip on Earth The entire global semiconductor industry depends on one sleepy Appalachian town you’ve never heard of — and if it ever shut down, your phone, your car, and your future stop working.
Legal Traps: Why Every Florida Business Owner Is an Accidental Felon by Lunch There are so many overlapping laws in Florida that you’ve probably already broken one this morning without knowing it. Here’s how ordinary owners get blindsided — and how to protect yourself.
Harness the Sun’s Power in Florida: Ultimate Solar Incentive Guide Florida has more sunshine than almost any state — and more unclaimed solar incentives than almost anyone realizes. Here’s the full map of the money being left on the table.
Inflation Crushing FL Small Business The official inflation numbers don’t come close to what Florida small business owners are actually paying — and the gap between Washington’s math and Main Street’s reality is breaking people.
Content King: How Brian French Scaled Florida Business News Using the “Pizza Principle” The simple, counterintuitive rule I borrowed from the pizza business that let me scale a news platform from zero to dominant. Works in almost any industry.
How Answer Engine Optimization (AEO) is Redefining Digital Visibility SEO is dying. AEO is taking its place — and the businesses that figure this out first are going to dominate their markets for the next decade.
Central Florida: The Last American Land Rush There is one stretch of land left in America where fortunes are still being made the old-fashioned way — and it’s right here in our backyard. The window is closing faster than most people realize.
The AI Horse Race: Why Every Florida Business Owner Needs to Be Watching Closely The AI leaderboard changes every 90 days, and picking the wrong horse could sink your business. Here’s how to handicap the field without being a tech expert.
The Complete Guide: Using AI in Florida Business Management The practical, no-nonsense guide to putting AI to work in your Florida business today — written for owners who don’t have time to become computer scientists.
The Complete Guide to Surviving a Florida Sales Tax Audit A sales tax audit can end a Florida business overnight — and most owners have no idea what’s coming. Here’s the playbook to survive one with your company intact.
Guide to Managing Human Resources for Your Florida Business HR mistakes are the single most expensive unforced error small Florida businesses make. This is the guide I wish every owner read before hiring their first employee.
The Complete Guide to Buying a Florida Business Buying a business is the fastest legal way to get wealthy in Florida — but one missed step in due diligence can cost you everything. Here’s the full roadmap.
Top 10 Ways Florida Businesses Waste Money on Google AdWords If you’re spending money on Google Ads, you’re almost certainly setting fire to at least half of it. These are the 10 silent leaks draining your budget right now.
The Wealth Engine: How Systematic Investing Secures Florida’s Financial Future The world’s richest families all use the same boring, unsexy investing system — and anyone in Florida can copy it. The secret is that there isn’t one.
Everything Is a Story Business, religion, politics, love — strip any of them down and what’s left is story. Once you see it, you can’t unsee it, and you’ll never communicate the same way again.
Beyond Boilerplate: How AI Unlocks Your Real Voice The popular fear is that AI will turn everyone into the same gray corporate robot. The truth is exactly the opposite — if you know how to use it.
My Favorite Sound in the World It’s not ocean waves. It’s something I want to recall when I take my last breath on earth. Click to find out.
Why Financial Doomsayers Are Always Predicting the Next Bubble The economist predicting the next crash gets the headlines — but the one telling you to stay invested has quietly made readers rich for 100 years. Here’s why pessimism sells and optimism pays.
Making Meaningful Connections: The Art of Business Introductions in Florida In Florida, who you know really is worth more than what you know — and the art of the proper introduction has become a nearly lost skill. Here’s how to master it.
Santa: Biography of The Man Who Breaks Into Your House Once a Year A tongue-in-cheek look at the world’s most beloved home invader. Equal parts history, humor, and holiday mischief.
Amazon’s Competitive Moat Gets Deeper and Wider Everyone keeps predicting Amazon’s fall — and every year the moat around it gets a little wider. Here’s what competitors keep missing about Bezos’s machine.
Why There Isn’t Another Bitcoin Thousands of coins have tried. None will ever replicate it. The reason Bitcoin is a one-time-only phenomenon in human history is more interesting than you’d think.
The Flat Part of the Success Curve: Where Greatness Is Forged in Obscurity Everyone sees the hockey stick. Almost nobody sees the long, flat, lonely years that made it possible — which is exactly why so few people ever get there.
Finding Purpose in an Empty Nest Christmas The first Christmas without the kids at home hits harder than anyone warns you about. Here’s how to turn the silence into something beautiful instead of sad.
Parents are the Bow, Children are the Arrow Every parent eventually faces the same truth: our job was never to hold them — it was to aim them, pull back, and let go. One of the hardest lessons of fatherhood, honestly told.
American Football: The Greatest Show on Earth No other sport on the planet compresses strategy, violence, heartbreak, and beauty into three hours the way football does. Here’s the case for why it stands alone.
How the EU Turned American Tech Success Into a European Cash Machine Europe can’t build a trillion-dollar tech company — so it found a way to tax ours instead. The hidden transfer of wealth is staggering once you see the numbers.
Using AI Large Language Models to Help Your Florida Business LLMs are the cheapest, smartest employee any Florida business will ever hire — if you actually know how to put them to work. This is how.
The Three Deaths of a Person vs. Immortality There’s an ancient idea that we each die three separate times — and only the third one is final. Understanding the other two changes how you spend the days you have left.
The Blame Game: Why Modern Moral Condemnation of History Is Intellectual Laziness Judging the past by the standards of today isn’t moral clarity — it’s cheap, and it’s lazy. Here’s a better way to think about history without letting anyone off the hook.
Ukraine: The Death of a Nation — Anatomy of a Wasteland The unvarnished look at what this war has actually done to Ukraine — beyond the headlines and flags. A sobering read most outlets won’t print.
Why Thrift Store Treasure Hunting Is a Fool’s Errand You’ve seen the viral “I found a Picasso at Goodwill” stories — and they’re doing real damage to real people. Here’s the math nobody’s putting in front of you.
The Crushing Weight of the Crowd: Why American Teens Are Drowning in Social Stress This generation of teenagers is under a kind of pressure no humans have ever faced before. Any parent, grandparent, or teacher needs to understand what’s actually happening.
Why Florida Businesses Should Abandon Hourly Pricing If you’re still billing by the hour, you’re capping your own income and punishing your best work. Here’s why the smartest Florida businesses have already walked away from the clock.
How Words Distort Reality The labels we use don’t describe the world — they reshape it. Once you see how words are doing the thinking for you, you can’t go back.
The Power of Hyperbole: Trump’s Misunderstood Communication Method Love him or loathe him, Trump speaks a specific rhetorical language — one most of the media still stubbornly refuses to translate. A look at the method behind the style.
American Football and the Christian Faith Sacrifice, redemption, a shared ritual on Sunday — the overlap between football and faith runs deeper than most fans (or pastors) realize.
Tampa Florida Sheriff’s Hop After Kangaroo Only in Florida does the sheriff’s department end up in a foot chase with a kangaroo. A slice of the weird, wonderful side of Florida at its finest.
How Businesses Can Navigate The Ever-Evolving Landscape of AI Technology AI is moving faster than any technology in history, and standing still is now a strategic choice — a bad one. Here’s how to stay oriented without getting whiplash.
The Greatest Antique in the World That You Never Heard of… the Vasa It sank 20 minutes into its maiden voyage in 1628 — and became the most perfectly preserved artifact of its era on Earth. The Vasa is the greatest antique almost no American has heard of.
For inquiries or feedback regarding this website and the Florida Authority Network, you can reach me directly at Brian [at] FlAuthorityNetwork.com
Warmest Regards,
Brian French
