The Josh Innes Show - Imposter Syndrome

Episode Date: July 21, 2025

I'm officially going on air at the new job next Monday. Tonight, I'll be doing a trial run on the new station. Download the iHeart App and see if you can locate me. I'm aware it's dumb I have to keep hiding this info. But, if you go to my socials, you should be able to figure out where I am. I'm loving the new city and the new co workers. But, for whatever reason, I've developed what ChatGPT thinks is Imposter Syndrome. What the Hell is that? Learn more about your ad choices. Visit megaphone.fm/adchoices

All right, everybody what's going on glad you guys are there it is Monday again I know that July has been a real pain in the ass for podcasts. I know that a lot of the a Lot of the stuff hasn't been there Couple of weeks. I apologize the good news is things are Getting pretty close to being ready to go and that's good. That's positive I'm officially starting this new job Monday, but tonight I'm gonna do a trial run on one of the radio stations

in the city in which I'm living. I'm just trying, I know it sounds ridiculous to be kind of, you know, hiding all of this away, but I currently am. So, but I currently am. But if you decide to just search through wherever you get audio from, wherever you listen to radio stations, I would tell you that you might find me somewhere at night

on a radio station in a city somewhere tonight. And maybe for the rest of the week. Basically, I'm going into a radio station today. I'm going to, not to a radio station. I'm going to the radio station today because I'm learning a new system, a new computer system, a new board, new setup. So before I go out there and speak to the masses in morning radio, I need to go on at night and kind of learn things and just make sure I'm up to speed with everything. And that's where I am. So tonight and maybe multiple times this week, maybe the whole week, in fact, I might be on at night doing some stuff.

So just search around on whatever app you use to get radio stations. I'm fairly certain apps like the iHeartRadio app use or is a home now for every radio station. Essentially every radio station on the planet is on the iHeartRadio app. So let's put it that way. It's on the iHeartRadio app. You can find it, I mean, just a couple of weeks ago, Odyssey, who owns like WIP in Philadelphia, 610 in Houston, I mean, it owns a bunch of radio stations and owns multiple radio stations that I worked for

back when they were owned by CBS, their audio content is now on the iHeartRadio app as well. So I feel like you can find this on the iHeartRadio app. So here's what I would do without telling you all of the information. Pick up some context clues from my social media and then get the iHeartRadio app if you don't already have it and kind of piece together where you might find me tonight on the radio. And if you find me tonight on the radio, you can call the radio station I'm going to be on. I get that this sounds ridiculous. I'm just trying to be, I'm just trying to be fair. I'm trying

to follow the rules. I'm not trying to piss off my new employer because I like my new employer. Let me play a couple of commercials and we'll continue. No frills delivers, get groceries delivered to your door from no frills with PC express shop online and get $15 in PC optimum points on your first five orders shop now at no frills.ca. Like I don't want to off my current employer cause I like them. They're good people. They're seemingly my current employer because I like them. They're good people. They're seemingly really good people.

I like them. I like the rapport. So I don't want to, you know, do something that's going to upset them by, you know, dropping the information on where I'm working. Right. But I mean, look, people have messaged me and they've kind of figured it out. Right. Like it's like my social media has enough clues on it where I think you probably know where I live now, right?

I'm not just gonna come out and say it but like I think you can pick up where I live right cool Fine great That said again Go to the I heart radio app download the I heart radio app. This radio station is on the I heart radio app radio app, download the iHeart radio app. This radio station is on the iHeart radio app. Download it, go to my social media, search around a little bit to try to get kind of an idea of where I am which it should not be difficult. You will see social media posts and pictures of things and you go, why is Josh talking about this? And you'll go, ah, light bulb, right? So make sure you do that that and then just maybe get the iHeart

radio app tonight for nighttime radio not overnight radio but nighttime radio and I'm gonna be doing some some trial runs on this radio station just to try to get everything figured out and I'm doing that tonight I know that somebody was ripping me the other day I still don't know who that was that sent me that weird text message about how oh You love all of these places until you get there and then you end up fired you talk shit and that person's not wrong In some cases, but as I said last week This is how life goes you go into situations. You think they'll be great. You're optimistic about them

You want them to be great and then sometimes they turn out to be amazing and sometimes they turn out to suck, right? Like that's just kind of how this works. That's how marriages work. There's I'm sure a lot of instances where dudes have played for baseball, basketball, football teams. They love the situation they go into, then it turns out to be a shitty situation or a coach gets fired or ownership changes and things aren't the same. That's just like this. So, but as I sit here today on the 21st of July, knowing that on the 28th of July, I'm going to be launching this new morning show here in this town that I live in that I'm sure you can figure out what it is on a radio station, that if you really dug deep, I'm sure you can figure out what it is on a radio station that if you really dug deep, I'm sure you can find out what it is I'm excited about the prospect of this job. I'm excited about working for the people I'm gonna work for what there was a meeting I

Guess it was about a week ago. I was a Tuesday I think because last Monday was the first day I went into the building. I met a lot of cool people Everybody's been super nice, but usually when you first meet people everybody's super nice So actually let me tell you something about this and this is why I have a good level of optimism here Everywhere I've gone has had kind of a different vibe when you get into the building, right? When I took the job now Houston was a different world the first time I went there because I'm 22 23 years old I've only worked in Baton Rouge. You know, I don't know a ton about how things operate and it wasn't a bad environment. I think Gavin had a really good plan but people

did talk a lot of shit. There was a lot of behind-the-back shit talking even before I became the on-air shit talking guy. There was a lot of behind-the-scenes like I would go into one guy's office and he would bitch about Rich and then as Rich and I started working together more I would go into one guy's office and he would bitch about Rich and then as Rich and I started working together more I would go bitch about Rich Rich would bitch to Ben about me I'd go to Gavin and bitch about other people the morning guys would bitch about whatever and like in typical It wasn't like an extremely toxic situation. I think Rich and I got kind of toxic eventually pretty toxic eventually But big picture as far as radio stations go, especially

ones that are driven by personalities and the talk format. I don't think that was a horrible situation and I loved, loved, loved working at CBS in Houston the first time. We had a boss named Brian Purdy, who's now in Dallas, who was the coolest dude on the planet. We had epic Christmas parties. A lot of people in the building were young, so we all hung out together. That's how me and Jilly met. Ben was my best friend when I was there. Jim Mudd was still a young pup, sort of, at that point too.

You know, that's where I met Bootsy. That's where I met Meltzer. And we're still, I was texting with Bootsy and Meltzer earlier today. You know, that's where we met PK and his wife Denise and that's where I met Kayden and like everybody was kind of in this young clique of people and and Kelly Kelly and all these people and we became such great friends and we hung out together. Let me tell you that's kind of the part I miss

especially about moving from place to place and as you get older people who are your contemporaries who are 38 39 have kids and other responsibilities They're not just going out and want to drink a couple of beers with you on a Tuesday night Back then when I'm 22 23 and Ben is 22 23 and Meltzer is 22 23 and Bootsy's 2223 and Jesus Joel is 22 23 and PK and all these we would go out and just have fucking awesome times together and Like I miss that. Like there's something about comradery, there's something about a bond you have with people,

and it's something I truly never experienced again. And I think part of that is getting older. And people just find new priorities and responsibilities, and people have family stuff, and people have kids, and it's just not the same, and it never will be the same but like that was a good vibe that was a wonderful vibe when I got to Philadelphia my boss Andy said it is a snakes den here don't trust anybody everyone's a snake everyone's out to get you everyone's looking out for themselves and while I did make some really good friends people I still

talked with regularly like I was talking with Sludge, I text with him at least once a week. I text with Taz, you know, pretty frequently as well, and Franiac who I text with pretty frequently. Those are probably like the three most frequent people I talked to from Philadelphia, and we had some good times. Like Taz wasn't tied down, wasn't married or anything, so me, him, and Jilly would go to concerts together all the time, go to bars, we'd go to the moose together all the time. I'd say that was probably the last place I lived, and that was 10 years ago, where like regularly

you'd go out to bars, restaurants, drink with your buddies, you're in your 20s, whatever. When I went back to Houston, I was friends with basically nobody at the radio station. Not that I disliked all of them. You know, like I think Chris Gordy's a really good dude. I think Matt Thomas is a really good dude. Sean Salisbury, who I guess,

Sean and I and his girlfriend and me and Jilly, we'd all go out and do stuff together too. And I thought that was great. He was a good friend too. But it wasn't that same kind of deal. Then, you know, by the time I got to Nashville, there's like four people in the building. So we never did anything together anyway. Now a lot of them are tight together

like there's a lot of girls that worked in that building that are friends and my old buddy Battle is tight with the afternoon guy on the country station but it was never like a hey let's all meet up and go out thing and that was not the case in St. Louis. You would just go downstairs after a shift and the bosses would be hammered down there just you know sitting around at five o'clock at night four o'clock in the afternoon getting bombed but there was nothing great about it like it just it wasn't that camaraderie and that was a toxic environment as well. Like I have never been in an environment before where I knew all of the contractual details all of the money financial details everything

about everyone who worked in the building. These people would just tell me this and I'm like, why are you telling me this? And if they were telling me this, that means I'm not the only person they told this shit to. Like in your mind you think that, in your mind you're like, yep I'm so tight with these guys and I'm set forever. I'm a made man. I know everything that happens at this station. They're telling me all the details. I knew what this person was making, what this person was making, how long their contract was, if they were considering moving them to a different show,

if they were considering firing them, I knew it all. And I thought that I was on the inside. Like I thought like, I'm a made man. I'm set. I'm good. Of course I got whacked as well, but I always felt uncomfortable knowing all that information. I felt uncomfortable knowing what everybody made. Like, why are you telling me this? Why are you telling me that you don't think this person's very good? Like your management, I'm supposed to come to you and bitch,

but you're not supposed to tell me who sucks, who doesn't suck and what you, like I'm not one of like, I don't want to be one of you. I like you. And I have no problem drinking beer with you and shit, but you telling me all the details of everybody's contracts and everything, it made me sort of uncomfortable and it just didn't have a good vibe, right? So when I met with this radio station that I'm going to start working for on Monday,

when I met with them initially a couple months ago, it was a cool little deal and I met with the program director, I met with his boss and then I met with his boss, and then I met with his boss. And it's a hierarchy. I met with the three biggest people in the building for that particular station. And we hung out, went to a game and everything. And one of the things that the big boss told me is in our building, we don't want bad people. We don't want shit talkers, we don't want catty people. And if we find that you're someone that's just a malcontent

and is never happy, which look, I have a history of that, so knock on wood, but if you're not one of those type of people, if you are that, if you are a negative person, if you're talking shit about other people, if you're not on board with what we're doing, we have no qualms with dumping you, and it doesn't matter how big of a star you are, how big of a person you are. And I like that.

Now, let's be fair, I'm sure some people still kind of talk a little shit behind people's back. It's a radio station, that kind of shit happens, cool. But I like that. I like that when they sit you down, it's, we're not here to talk shit. We're not here to run other people down. We're here to have a, we're here to be successful and be a family. So fast forward to me getting the job and I'm sitting in a meeting. I guess it was on Tuesday.

Tuesday is kind of like a quarterly meeting they do where every station comes up gives an update or whatever and I get uncomfortable in these settings because I'm supposed to be introduced new guy on this radio station and it's kind of uncomfortable because I'm just uncomfortable in those positions where people are saying good things about me. I've been, I've been chat GPTing a lot about what my issue is and I think I have some level of imposter syndrome where I'm just uncomfortable. Like I almost at times feel like I don't deserve certain things and I don't know why that's the case because I've worked my ass off my entire life. I've worked at all these big radio stations, but there's a part of me that has kind of an imposter

syndrome about these things. I don't know why, but I've been Googling and chat GPT trying to figure out why I can't let myself be happy and feel successful about certain things. And then like, whenever they bring me up to talk to all these people, like there's almost like a part of me that like when I get up there I'm like, what do I say? What do I do?

Like, do I think I'm big shit? What if they Googled me? Like if I get up there and I say something good about myself, what if all these people just Googled me and they're like, oh, you're the guy that got fired for this or you're the guy who did this. And then they have a preconceived notion about me being a piece of shit.

And maybe I'm never able to overcome that and it's one thing if the audience feels that way people you'll never meet feel that way people on Twitter feel that way you go into a radio station to a company with a bunch of people and you want them to like you you don't want to go into a place and be disliked right you don't want to go into a place and that people hate you so that's what made it kind of like that's what's in the back of my mind though like all of of these people, they're clapping for you, they're welcoming you, they're glad to have you. And then you're like, but what if they read about me and they

take, make an opinion of me from that and then I never get them back. Like, I don't know why I think these things. First off, I don't think the shit that's out there about me is any worse than any other dude that's been doing radio for 20 years. People say dumb shit. Sometimes they get in trouble for it people do shit like I I don't care if someone I'm never gonna meet likes me I don't obsess over that like I'd like them all to like me but people that I'm gonna work with and people that I'm gonna know disliking me or having a preconceived notion about me does bother me and it makes me kind of uncomfortable so and then you don't want to be the guy

that's kind of annoying like there was a sales meeting that I was in the other day and I got to meet all the salespeople and they were wonderful. And salespeople don't wanna sit in a meeting forever. They wanna go out and sell. But I kept them in there for X amount of time, just doing, saying dumb shit and jokes. And afterwards I'm like, I wonder if I like trumped that.

That's what I call it is trumping it. And what do you mean by trumping it? I mean that you give them a good 20 minutes and you're on and you're following the script and you're kicking ass. But then there's that moment when Trump goes from delivering a tight message to doing that kind of lean into the microphone and you can tell he's going off script. And then before you know it, a good tight 30 minutes where you could go, damn, he nailed that becomes an hour of people like not wanting to be there anymore. And I was worried about that. Like this is the shit that just sticks in my brain and maybe I'll get over it at

some point. Maybe I won't. And part of it is I don't want this to screw up. I want this to be a huge success. And I don't know. All that said kind of going back to that initial thing we were talking about was, you know, oh, you go into these situations, you say they're all great, and then, you know, what happens? Well, no, I believe that this is going to be great, and I'm happy, and I'm glad to be here, and I want this to be a long-term thing. The city I've been in now for two weeks is fucking, like, I love this city.

I love the little suburbs around the city. I love the food in the city. I love the vibe. I can tell this feels like the kind of town that's gonna be like when I was in Philly and people still cared about radio and it's got really big potential and I want it to be successful and it will be successful. But anyway, let me end this one and we'll do some more in a little bit.