Meet Moe Ari | Licensed Therapist, Writer, Public Speaker, Authenticity Expert

We had the good fortune of connecting with Moe Ari and we’ve shared our conversation below.

Hi Moe, we’d love to start by asking you about lessons learned. Is there a lesson you can share with us?

“Authenticity is the key that unlocks the door to your dreams.” That’s the lesson I learned from my career. I spent a long time trying to pursue all of the traditional pathways to success. There were many people in my life that I viewed as successful mentors and I tried to immolate the steps they took to get to where they are now. Every time I met a challenge, I would try harder to make the path work, believing that my persistence would get me there. I wore myself thin until I understood that persistence is nothing without the passion that come from mission and purpose. I lacked the passion for the goals I was pursuing and I was pressing hard in the opposite direction of “true north” because I wanted so badly to be “successful” in the ways that I thought would make my family and my community the most proud.

I needed to redefine success for my life and I needed to understand what would make me feel accomplished when I look back over my life. I realized that I not only needed to become better acquainted with my purpose, the answer to “why” I am here, I also needed to understand my mission, which speaks to what I do and for whom. Now, I check everything against my mission and my purpose. If something isn’t in alignment with both, I have to pass on it. The cost of not honoring my authenticity is the delay of my success. Since I began allowing my own authenticity to set the path for my journey, I have multiplied my material, spiritual, mental, physical and emotional abundance. This was one of the most valuable lessons of my career-to-date. In shifting from inauthentic ways of approaching my career to authentic ways of approaching my entire life, I’ve opened myself to a wide range of possibilities I would have never considered before.—possibilities like becoming an entrepreneur, public speaker, writer, or using all of my lived experiences to share messages with others about radical authenticity and unconditional love.

Alright, so let’s move onto what keeps you busy professionally?
My professional journey definitely was not an easy journey. My professional journey evolved with my personal development and transformation. I was able to build success in my life through consistent efforts in the same direction daily. I call my practice, “devotion to the small”. There is an old adage that goes “before enlightenment, chop wood, carry water. After enlightenment, chop wood, carry water.”—meaning that mastery comes from repeated actions, often small in nature.And in order to maintain success, we have to continue the same actions we took to get there. These mundane and repetitive steps are often missed when we only focus on the big successes. It’s those small motions in the direction of our dreams that allow us to get there and stay in the direction of success. My career taught me that we don’t climb a mountain in one big leap, we reach the top through upward steps daily. Professional success is not built in segregation from the other areas of our lives that require determination, consistency, and passion so I also learned to elevate all other areas of my life as my professional life evolves. If we wish to have abundance financially, we must create abundance in our lives, physically, mentally, and spiritually. If we wish to maintain success in any area, we must work on maintenance in all areas.

Things about my brand and story I wish to share with the world: I was assigned female at birth.
In our society, that meant that I was also assigned a life plan and a role before I decided who I would be in the world. Like many of us, I spent my childhood trying to be who I thought other people wanted me to be. I spent a lot of years trying to live up to other people’s expectations of me. I received so much validation for moving through the world like this that I forgot how to live up to my own expectations. This created a nagging inside of me that I could not escape. After experiencing major depression for a good chunk of my 20s, I realized that I wasn’t living authentically and it was leaving me depressed and blocked creatively. Despite, being at a peak in my life professionally and accomplishing all the things I was ever asked to do by my family and community, I was deeply unhappy and feeling like I was lacking meaning and purpose in life. I wanted to be happy with my success but I could not access joy. This pain sent me on a journey of uncovering more about who I am.

I came to understand that I am transgender, meaning that my biological sex does not align with the gender expression most often associated with someone assigned female at birth. I could not have joy until I allowed for the pain of releasing what no longer served me. I had to lose the facade and unlearn how to be anyone other than Moe Ari. I went on a journey to recover the lost parts of myself. I didn’t know who I was as Moe Ari but I jumped right into the uncertainty of figuring it out. I hope to always be in progress in this way and help others to find their own process of creating authenticity.

I’ve found that when we get to the place where we think we know everything about ourselves, that’s when our authenticity dies. In order to live, we have to be open to the unknown, the birthplace of creating. When the earth was just a glimmer of light in a vast dark universe, there was infinite potential waiting to be created. I figure, I want to be something like that void. A blank canvas of infinite creation. I learned to not ever think we have “found ourselves”. My gift to the world is the knowledge that we do not find, we create our own authenticity.

My mission is to share messages of radical authenticity & unconditional love as a therapist, public speaker, writer, and soul activator! I want to help other people release limiting beliefs as they create the “impossible” in their lives. I’ve shifted from being a traditional talk therapist to sharing a specific message about unconditional self love, self compassion, self-healing, manifestation, and alignment through my public speaking, online courses, and other platforms. You can find me reading books, listening to podcasts, learning about psychedelics, doing meditations with others, and offering my expertise as a consultant and public speaker. As a therapist, I offer a CE course for mental health providers who wish to become celebratory and affirming of Transgender people in their practice as well as a course on how to write gender affirming medical referral letters for transgender clients who wish to pursue medical procedures. I am also working to develop online courses that specifically support people who are exploring gender transition as well as a course for anyone who wishes to cultivate their own authentic expression. As a writer, I contribute scholarly and non-scholarly content for publications in the subject areas of Transgender Identity and Gender diversity. As a public speaker and consultant, I travel, sharing messages about radical authenticity, self-love and healing. Private universities, publicly traded companies, and small businesses have hired me to give presentations, deliver trainings, and facilitate necessary conversations with staff on the topics of gender diversity, equity, and inclusion. I also consult with executives on how to make their communities more inclusive spaces for LGBTQIA+ people and People of Color.

Right now, I have a lot to be excited and grateful for. I am a regular expert on the Mine’d App, an emotional wellness app that allows its community to listen to lectures, live, from Experts, while being able to ask questions and get real time non-clinical advice. It’s been a real honor to share a platform with well-known experts and world-class mental and emotional health professionals. I am also excited some other things I have in the works, like a podcast and other writing opportunities.

If you had a friend visiting you, what are some of the local spots you’d want to take them around to?
The Atlanta area is so rich in natural beauty that creating an itinerary is hard because it’s quite difficult to only pick a few things.

I’m big on enjoying the serenity of the earth. First stop would be a hike at a local mountain like Stone Mountain Park. We don’t have mountains in Chicago, where I am from, so I go every chance I can get. While there is a difficult political history that becomes the first thing that comes to mind when we think of this beautiful rock, there are even older histories of this sacred site as a place of prayer, spirituality, and connection to all living things. Being on top of the mountains here will shift your perspective on a lot of things if you allow.

Favorite coffee shop and place for creative thinking: Gilly Brew Bar in Stone Mountain. Not only is the coffee artisan and delicious, the entire location has the kind of aesthetic that is perfect for creative thinking and any kind of writing process.

Favorite restaurant right now: Spice House ATL has multiple locations across the metro Atlanta area. The food and the ambience are everything. Every Wednesday they have live music and every day of the week they have a great playlist going to accompany great food.

Favorite night life spot: Whiskey Blue Rooftop Lounge in Buckhead is hands down my go to spot for nightlife. It has elegant upscale energy and amazing food and drinks.

There are so many places around ATL for water sports so my idea of fun would include a trip to Morgan Falls Overlook Park for some water sports or planning for a captain to take us on a boat ride at a nearby lake.

Who else deserves some credit and recognition?
I could thank an infinite number of people for supporting me in my journey of becoming. I have to first thank my wife, Tiffany Grant Brown. She has seen many evolutions of my authentic self and loved every single one. Thank you to my daughter Nova because she is one of my greatest teachers on love and what it means to be authentic. I wish to thank my twin sister, Melissa Brown, for always encouraging me to move beyond any limiting beliefs and whenever fear arises, nudging me while saying “do it even if you are scared”. I am grateful for my parents and siblings who love me unconditionally and always support my work!

I would be remiss if I didn’t say thank you to every LGBTQIA+ person that is shining their light every day, even when that light is being threatened. I see you and I thank you for shining. Your authenticity makes it easier for others to find their way in this world and create belonging everywhere they go, not just in traditional safe spaces. As a Black Transgender Masculine person who is also a licensed therapist, I’ve had the honor to sit with so many LGBTQIA+ people and just talk about life. Through their stories, I’ve reconnected with many parts of my authentic self, making their way home to me. Through their perseverance and determination I’ve experienced a deepening of my understanding of unconditional love and what it means to be self-compassionate. I am honored to share so many intersectional identities that have helped me cultivate and continue to refine the motivational messages that I wish to continue sharing with others.

Website: https://theemoeari.com/

Instagram: https://www.instagram.com/loveoutproud/

Facebook: https://www.facebook.com/MoeAriBrown

Other: D

Image Credits
Mike Whitehead