Wait What Really OK with Loren Weisman

Hosted by Loren Weisman

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Aug 2025

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About the show

Wait What Really OK is a methodical, comical and informational podcast on brand messaging and optics, hosted by Loren Weisman. Each episode takes apart a misconception, a misunderstanding or a mistake in how people and businesses present themselves. I share what I see, why I see it that way and where the information came from, differentiating opinions from fact and the subjective from the objective. Topics include vetting the people who want to advise you, fake reviews and fake authorship, messaging before marketing, podcast guest solicitation tactics, transparency with AI, and building a brand and communication foundation that can hold up under scrutiny. There is no ask attached to this show: no like, no share, no follow, no download, no comment and no review. Try it. If you do not like it, turn it off. About the host: Loren Weisman is a brand communications and optics strategist working from Orlando, Florida. His background includes participation on over 700 albums as a drummer and producer, TV production credits with ABC, NBC, FOX, CBS and TLC, and four books: Music Business For Dummies, The Artist’s Guide to Success in the Music Business, a self published title, and a 2026 book released under a pen name. Episode pages with written transcriptions: https://lorenweisman.com/wait-what-really-ok/ Speaking, services and contact: https://lorenweisman.com Email: speaking@lorenweisman.com

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27 recent

August 9, 2025Episode 427 min

Fake Authors Using AI: Exposing Fake Authorship in the Age of AI

Two minute prompts do not make anyone an author. In this episode I share where I stand on the ads promising a finished book in minutes, why I believe the term author is losing its meaning, and how I separate using AI as a tool from using it to fake authority. I have written three books under my own name. The second took the better part of twelve and a half months of writing, 1,200 pages cut down to 478 with an editor who read every one of them. That is the process I compare against when an ad says you can prompt a book and go to lunch. What I cover: where I believe AI can sit in a book without taking away from the author, such as developmental edits, grammar, proofreading and compliance checks; the fake course problem, where a ten minute form becomes a product sold as expertise; the anthology pitch, where you pay to be listed as a co author beside people you have not vetted; and the book that is really an ad pamphlet, with a call to action in every chapter. I also share the red flags I watch for: a person who had almost nothing online and suddenly has five books, daily blogs and a set of courses within a few months. And I share how I use AI myself, for captions, keyword phrases and descriptions after the content is made, because I would rather say how I use it than hide it. The decision stays yours. Would you tell your daughter, your son or someone you look up to how you made your book? If something about that answer nags at you, that is the whole episode. Written transcription, chapters and links: https://lorenweisman.com/2025/08/09/fake-authors-using-ai/ Wait What Really OK is hosted by brand communications and optics strategist Loren Weisman. Episode pages with written transcriptions: https://lorenweisman.com/wait-what-really-ok/ About Loren: https://lorenweisman.com/about-loren-weisman/ Speaking: https://lorenweisman.com/speaking/ Services: https://lorenweisman.com/services/ Be a guest: https://lorenweisman.com/podcast-guest-info/ Contact: speaking@lorenweisman.com Opening theme by RKVC. Closing theme by Doug Hinrichs. Both licensed. © 2011 to 2026 Loren Weisman. All rights reserved.

June 5, 2025Episode 336 min

Planning a Brand Strategy Blueprint for Your Book: Steps for Real Authority

I do not believe everybody has a book in them. If you do, and it is your story, this episode is what I would put in place before the writing is done, from my own three books: one self published, one hybrid and one with a major publisher. I open with the Amazon bestseller trick as I understand it: pick a tiny category, pay for a burst of downloads, screenshot the number one for the minutes it lasts, and call yourself a bestseller. I share why I see that as a lie, and why I would rather build a foundation than buy a badge. Then the blueprint itself. Flashcards to find the chapters and sections before writing a line. A file per chapter so you can write whatever section you are ready for that day, in any order, without burning out. Chapter titles that can stand on their own, each with a tagline, an opening thought and a closing thought. My second book went to reviewers as a PDF of only those opening and closing thoughts, and it brought a lot more interest and a lot more people asking for the entire book. I also share the release order I used: ebook first, then paperback and hardcover, then one audio chapter a month for twelve months at 99 cents to a few dollars a chapter, so a reader could test drive a chapter instead of being told to buy the book. Plus your own quotes in the book rather than other people's, posted to Goodreads and the quote sites before release, and the domains and social handles taken while the book is still an outline. That is what I sent with a proposal on a Friday that came back accepted on the Monday. I close on the contract I did not read closely enough, what it cost me, and why I now say get a lawyer on the paragraph you are unsure of. Working with me on a book blueprint is one option. Doing this yourself is another. Either way, the foundation comes first. Written transcription, chapters and links: https://lorenweisman.com/brand-strategy-blueprint/ Wait What Really OK is hosted by brand communications and optics strategist Loren Weisman. Episode pages with written transcriptions: https://lorenweisman.com/wait-what-really-ok/ About Loren: https://lorenweisman.com/about-loren-weisman/ Speaking: https://lorenweisman.com/speaking/ Services: https://lorenweisman.com/services/ Be a guest: https://lorenweisman.com/podcast-guest-info/ Contact: speaking@lorenweisman.com Opening theme by RKVC. Closing theme by Doug Hinrichs. Both licensed. © 2011 to 2026 Loren Weisman. All rights reserved.

May 20, 2025Episode 245 min

Honest AI will not replace humans.

I am not anti AI and I am not selling it either. Recorded outside on a windy May afternoon, this one is my middle ground: where I believe AI can be something strong, where I see it already being abused, and what I think has to be in place for the first to win out. I start with 2003 and the music industry. I put out a press release then about what digital downloads would do to artists, and I share why I think the lack of regulation, accountability and organization in that industry is the same wild west AI is in now, on a much bigger scale. From there, five areas I see growing through 2030: advanced multimodal systems, agentic and autonomous agents, quantum AI for specialized problem solving, reasoning and frontier models, and industry specific applications such as fraud detection. For each I share the side I find exciting and the side I find dangerous, like the headshot that is no longer you or the stage photo of a crowd that was never there. The core of it: I believe honest AI will not replace humans because the people asking the questions still have to know what to ask, what to vet and what red flags to raise. A prompt returns popular answers. It does not return the discovery, the local context, the money, the reputation and the law that a real plan needs. I share the paralegal example, the album count AI gets wrong about me, and why I check every link a model hands back. I also share why I would welcome standards, committees and, yes, fines. Why I like the blockchain idea for proving when something was written and whether it was altered. And why I believe every business should publish a statement of how it uses AI and how it does not. A long one and a bit of a rant. That is where I stand. Written transcription, chapters and links: https://lorenweisman.com/2025/05/20/honest-ai-podcast-transcription/ Wait What Really OK is hosted by brand communications and optics strategist Loren Weisman. Episode pages with written transcriptions: https://lorenweisman.com/wait-what-really-ok/ About Loren: https://lorenweisman.com/about-loren-weisman/ Speaking: https://lorenweisman.com/speaking/ Services: https://lorenweisman.com/services/ Be a guest: https://lorenweisman.com/podcast-guest-info/ Contact: speaking@lorenweisman.com Opening theme by RKVC. Closing theme by Doug Hinrichs. Both licensed. © 2011 to 2026 Loren Weisman. All rights reserved.

May 13, 2025Episode 131 min

How My Daughter Changed My Approach to Business Integrity

Nothing has had the impact on me that my daughter has, and this episode is where my foundation comes from, for anyone thinking about working with me. I share the parts of my early career I am not proud of: ghost drumming on albums I already knew were write offs, autotune standing in for a singer hitting the note, television work where the deception was the product and the public bought it anyway. I was not an immoral person. I did things that sat wrong, and I let them go. Then my daughter was born, and the question changed. Not how do I make money on this, but could I tell her who I am working with, what they sell and how I am helping them. If I could not, I stopped. It cost me some money. I became more picky. I am proud of that. That is now my vetting stance for every client: if I cannot get on the phone with my daughter and share the basics of what I am building and who I am building it for, I should not be doing it. I will not profit at the expense of anyone, and I will not work with anyone who is trying to get something over someone else. I also share where I stand on the guarantee culture, the "sell me a pen" optic, and the advice I give clients: if someone guarantees results online, get that guarantee written into the contract and watch how fast it changes. A different kind of episode. Partly a ramble, partly a letter she may find one day. Written transcription, chapters and links: https://lorenweisman.com/2025/05/13/how-my-daughter-changed-my-approach/ Wait What Really OK is hosted by brand communications and optics strategist Loren Weisman. Episode pages with written transcriptions: https://lorenweisman.com/wait-what-really-ok/ About Loren: https://lorenweisman.com/about-loren-weisman/ Speaking: https://lorenweisman.com/speaking/ Services: https://lorenweisman.com/services/ Be a guest: https://lorenweisman.com/podcast-guest-info/ Contact: speaking@lorenweisman.com Opening theme by RKVC. Closing theme by Doug Hinrichs. Both licensed. © 2011 to 2026 Loren Weisman. All rights reserved.

February 3, 2025Episode 512 min

Fake Amazon reviews and ways to see through them

Click the reviewer. That is where I start when a product has a wall of five stars, and this episode is the rest of what I look at before I believe a review, whether it is glowing or vicious. I share the patterns I see in bought and botted reviews: profiles with one or two reviews, the same wording repeated across accounts, the "leave us five stars for a coupon" card in the box, the negative campaigns run against products that are doing well, and the LinkedIn posting parties where forty reviews land in two hours after two weeks of silence. I also share what I would rather read: the four star review, the person who took three weeks to write it, the one written subjectively rather than "this is the best." And a feature I wish Amazon would add, the time between delivery and review, because a beard oil reviewed on day one tells me nothing and reviewed on day twenty one tells me something. For businesses putting reviews on their own site: "John S. says this is the greatest thing" with no link is worth very little. Back link to Google Business, Yelp, Trustpilot or Amazon so a reader can see the person exists. I would rather have a thin profile that is real than a full one that was bought. The reviewers are not held liable. So if you buy on the strength of reviews you never checked, that ends up on you. Dig a little deeper. Written transcription, chapters and links: https://lorenweisman.com/2025/01/01/fake-amazon-reviews-transcription/ Wait What Really OK is hosted by brand communications and optics strategist Loren Weisman. Episode pages with written transcriptions: https://lorenweisman.com/wait-what-really-ok/ About Loren: https://lorenweisman.com/about-loren-weisman/ Speaking: https://lorenweisman.com/speaking/ Services: https://lorenweisman.com/services/ Be a guest: https://lorenweisman.com/podcast-guest-info/ Contact: speaking@lorenweisman.com Opening theme by RKVC. Closing theme by Doug Hinrichs. Both licensed. © 2011 to 2026 Loren Weisman. All rights reserved.

January 10, 2025Episode 410 min

First Discovery steps I take with clients and onboarding approaches

Your voice, not a voice. This short one is how I start with a client, and a list of what I would ask of anyone doing your messaging, optics, strategy or marketing if it is not me. Too many people rebuilding a brand get dropped into a template that already existed, with the same "appear as an expert" phrasing everyone else is using. I share the person I ran across with real authority whose call to actions and masterclass hype made him sound like someone with none, and why I believe that took his authority down. The cornerstone for me is discovery before anything is written: where you come from, what you have done, how you work, what you will and will not do, who you will and will not work with, what compliance allows in your field, and what the competition is doing, not to copy it but to find where you stand. From that comes an individualized messaging packet that can feed content, web, bio, a book outline, a podcast plan or none of those. I also share the chiropractor and the fart joke, and why jumping on the trending copycat bit brings nothing of you to it. Stop casting the net for everyone. Decide who you most want to work with and say who you are not for. My own boundary is in here too. If you are not prepared to be transparent, I am not judging you, but I will not work with you. Written transcription, chapters and links: https://lorenweisman.com/2025/01/10/first-discovery-steps/ Wait What Really OK is hosted by brand communications and optics strategist Loren Weisman. Episode pages with written transcriptions: https://lorenweisman.com/wait-what-really-ok/ About Loren: https://lorenweisman.com/about-loren-weisman/ Speaking: https://lorenweisman.com/speaking/ Services: https://lorenweisman.com/services/ Be a guest: https://lorenweisman.com/podcast-guest-info/ Contact: speaking@lorenweisman.com Opening theme by RKVC. Closing theme by Doug Hinrichs. Both licensed. © 2011 to 2026 Loren Weisman. All rights reserved.

November 5, 2024Episode 313 min

Where has all the vetting gone?

Did you get screwed over, or did you allow it? Recorded on election day 2024 in one take, this is where I stand on the lack of vetting I see everywhere, and what I do instead. I share the CBD companies whose "third party" labs turned out to be owned by the product company under another name, found by following the state filings. The Amazon box insert offering a gift card for five stars. The courses on how to appear as a professional that never mention becoming one. And the businesses built to be shut down and restarted the moment something goes wrong, with no full name, no face and nothing that ties the person to the company. What I do: I ask for the claim in writing on the invoice, with the refund attached, and watch what happens. I use the Wayback Machine to see how far back a person's story goes and whether the authority grew or appeared overnight. And I ask whether they would take this exact path with their own son, daughter, mother or father. I also share my own line. If I cannot see the authority in you, I cannot work with you, because I will not create a false authority for you. If that means it is not the time for the book or the podcast yet, then it is not the time. If you are hearing everything you want to hear, that may be the bad sign. Written transcription, chapters and links: https://lorenweisman.com/2025/01/01/vetting-transcription/ Wait What Really OK is hosted by brand communications and optics strategist Loren Weisman. Episode pages with written transcriptions: https://lorenweisman.com/wait-what-really-ok/ About Loren: https://lorenweisman.com/about-loren-weisman/ Speaking: https://lorenweisman.com/speaking/ Services: https://lorenweisman.com/services/ Be a guest: https://lorenweisman.com/podcast-guest-info/ Contact: speaking@lorenweisman.com Opening theme by RKVC. Closing theme by Doug Hinrichs. Both licensed. © 2011 to 2026 Loren Weisman. All rights reserved.

February 8, 2024Episode 117 min

Google it or googling it does not provide authority answers

"Google it" is not proof. When someone tells you to Google something, they may own the first page, and the number one result is a popularity ranking, not an objective fact. This episode is what I do instead. I share the CBD years, when "Google it, here are the lab results" led to labs owned by the company selling the product, and what I believe that lying cost the whole category. I share the one page "educational" sites that trace back to the person making the claim, and the life coach who says Google it and gets a page of hype with nothing under it. My first question when someone says "I Googled it and found this" is always the same: how many results did you get, how many were in harmony, and what contradicted it? If it shows up in a number of places, biased and unbiased, run with it. Otherwise state it as an opinion. I also share what I would like to see, liability for posting opinion as fact, and what I do when I am not 100 percent sure of something I want to share: say so. "I am seeing this. Is anyone else? Can someone point me to the source?" And when I am sure, put the sources in the comments so nobody has to take my word for it. Not a conspiracy rant and not anti Google. A rant about digging one page deeper than the first one. Written transcription, chapters and links: https://lorenweisman.com/2025/01/01/popularity-and-hype-transcription/ Wait What Really OK is hosted by brand communications and optics strategist Loren Weisman. Episode pages with written transcriptions: https://lorenweisman.com/wait-what-really-ok/ About Loren: https://lorenweisman.com/about-loren-weisman/ Speaking: https://lorenweisman.com/speaking/ Services: https://lorenweisman.com/services/ Be a guest: https://lorenweisman.com/podcast-guest-info/ Contact: speaking@lorenweisman.com Opening theme by RKVC. Closing theme by Doug Hinrichs. Both licensed. © 2011 to 2026 Loren Weisman. All rights reserved.

February 8, 2023Episode 79 min

An artificial intelligence statement. What I use AI for and what I do not.

This is what I use AI for and what I do not, said out loud in February 2023, before most people were asking. It was recorded as a statement for the company I was part of at the time, and the position is still mine. The short version: I have not, do not and will not use AI to create my content, my message, my marketing or my story. I may use AI to research, to find articles and who wrote them and when. The writing, the speaking and the ideas come from me. The one place it touches this podcast is Auphonic, which evens out the audio levels and changes nothing I said, sniffles included. I share where I am pro AI: tools that take a person's real knowledge and experience and make the work easier. And where I am not: the paragraph that becomes a book, the chatbot that scrapes other people's work into "content," and the book program I saw that turns out a front to back title in under an hour for someone to claim as their own. The ask: if you work the same way, publish your own statement. Say what you use AI for and what you do not. I believe the people you want to work with will notice. One take, no script, no AI, recorded during allergy season. My current statement of use is at https://lorenweisman.com/ai-statement-of-use/ Written transcription, chapters and links: https://lorenweisman.com/2025/01/01/artificial-intelligence-statement-transcription/ Wait What Really OK is hosted by brand communications and optics strategist Loren Weisman. Episode pages with written transcriptions: https://lorenweisman.com/wait-what-really-ok/ About Loren: https://lorenweisman.com/about-loren-weisman/ Speaking: https://lorenweisman.com/speaking/ Services: https://lorenweisman.com/services/ Be a guest: https://lorenweisman.com/podcast-guest-info/ Contact: speaking@lorenweisman.com Opening theme by RKVC. Closing theme by Doug Hinrichs. Both licensed. © 2011 to 2026 Loren Weisman. All rights reserved.

January 2, 2023Episode 619 min

What is a brand communications and optics strategist?

Messaging before marketing. This episode is how I define what I do, as a brand communications and optics strategist, and it is not the only definition, but it is mine. I share why I believe the messaging foundation has to come first: the wording of your company, your product and your services, something that could stand in a court of law, because in some ways that is what the algorithms and the audience are doing with it. From that foundation the marketing, the content and the consistency grow. Without it, I see marketing companies throwing darts, rewriting the bio every month, and chasing popularity that does not convert. I share the difference between a claim and an opinion, "we have the answer" against "we believe this could be an answer for some," and why that matters in medical, legal and business messaging. I share the man with a true, tested product that went nowhere because his ego would not let him adjust a sentence, and why I told him I could not help him. Optics, as I use the word, is how what you say lands with people who have already heard a thousand others say it. So: look at the comparative and the competitive, the negative connotations, the tone and temperature of what is out there, and plant small seeds of your own authority instead of one long stream of ad. Not a sales pitch. In a way, the ask is to become your own brand communications and optics strategist, and if you hire one, make sure they are the real deal. Written transcription, chapters and links: https://lorenweisman.com/2025/01/01/messaging-and-optics-strategist/ Wait What Really OK is hosted by brand communications and optics strategist Loren Weisman. Episode pages with written transcriptions: https://lorenweisman.com/wait-what-really-ok/ About Loren: https://lorenweisman.com/about-loren-weisman/ Speaking: https://lorenweisman.com/speaking/ Services: https://lorenweisman.com/services/ Be a guest: https://lorenweisman.com/podcast-guest-info/ Contact: speaking@lorenweisman.com Opening theme by RKVC. Closing theme by Doug Hinrichs. Both licensed. © 2011 to 2026 Loren Weisman. All rights reserved.