When you hit the lowest points of your life, taking tons of medication is never the best way to treat your depression. Instead, spend some time on delving into expressive communication and learning how to unleash your true voice. In this episode, Adrienne Hill sits down with Dr. Fred Moss who discusses the most holistic approaches on tapping your authentic self, especially during small yet meaningful moments in our lives. Dr. Fred explains how to get out of the fabricated version of yourself and be heard in the most genuine manner possible without consuming unnecessary – and probably unhealthy – meds.

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I am super excited about this masterclass-style interview because I am here with Dr. Fred Moss. Dr. Fred is a mental health advocate and psychiatrist, serving in many capacities. He's a keynote speaker, a Psychiatry Expert Witness, a podcaster, a mental health coach, and a teacher. You are getting an amazing combo of value here.

He has a desire to help people be real and heard. He's been the driving force leading him to multiple settings and roles as a psychiatrist over the years and compelling him to continually look for better, more effective ways to provide the highest quality care to align people with their most authentic selves, to deliver into an eagerly awaiting world. Your eagerly awaiting world is out there waiting to hear from you.

He is the amazing creator of Welcome to Humanity, True Voice Course, Healing the Healer, and Global Madness. He's the author of Creative 8: Healing Through Creativity and Self-Expression and Find Your True Voice. He is the perfect person to talk to us about discovering your true voice through podcasting and the value that can bring not only to your business but to the world around you and those who are starting to discover you and find you. Welcome, Dr. Fred. We're so excited to have you here.

It's great to be here. Thanks for having me. I'm looking forward to this conversation.

Looking Back

I find your background to be fascinating and amazing. Who better to talk about finding your voice? For those readers who maybe have not met you yet and this is their first time discovering you, do you want to tell us a little bit about your story? How is it that you found yourself niching out this space of stepping into your voice, specifically through podcasting?

We'll go back a long way. I was born into a family that was in a fair amount of chaos and disarray. I have two older brothers and they were already 14 and 10. They were waiting for Little Freddie to pop out and bring some joy and happiness and a new way of looking at the world. The idea was that when I arrived and hit the time clock, I realized there was some work to be done. I needed to help people express themselves and communicate effectively with each other.

I became an immediate fan of expressive communication. I remember from my playpen watching these four people speak or communicate with each other and see that after they communicated, things would get done or things wouldn't get done or there'd be emotions. I got immersed in the idea that communication is a pretty cool thing and I wanted to learn how to do it. I was pretty good in the playpen. I was funny, fun, cute, and all that. They taught me how to be pretty precocious. I said, “Okay, Mom.”

I got a job at a state mental health facility for adolescent boys. It was an afternoon shift and all of a sudden, I was communicating with these kids who were 6 or 7 years younger than me. We were both healing in the process. I didn't think any less of them. I didn't think of them as patients, sick, or anything like that. They're just dudes. We played and talked. It was fantastic.

The thing I hated about that was psychiatry. I was like, “What are you guys up to?” People would call the psychiatrist if Timmy and Tony got in a fight or if Jimmy was up too late. They come down and talk to the kid for three seconds and write something in the chart. We'd have to go get the child, hold them down in the quiet room, and jam them full of injectable, adult-grade medication cocktails. If they stayed stuporous for 24 hours, we would call that a success story and that's what we'd have to chart.

That stuff's still happening. That's not old school. During our conversation, that has happened in many hospitals across the country. We overlooked that. I can't put up with that. That's worse than anything else. I'm going to go back to school and bring communication to psychiatry. My older brother was already a psychiatrist. I was like, “I'm going to go back one more time, go to medical school, and be a psychiatrist. I'm going to be a communicating psychiatrist.”

Someone who talks to people rather than just jamming them full of meds.

That was what I was hoping to do. I got popped out in 1993 as a child and adolescent psychiatrist but in the meantime, the field had shifted so drastically that to be a child and adolescent psychiatrist, you had to be a pharmacological specialist. There I was writing prescriptions every single day and each prescription burned me. Each prescription was a soul sacrifice and a heartache. I've written over 100,000 in my life.

True Voice: Each prescription was a soul sacrifice and a heartache.

Every time I diagnose someone, that is heartache too. “You're not what I'm about to tell you. You have generalized anxiety disorder, major depression, or post-traumatic stress disorder,” which I developed while I was in school too. I don't like diagnosing or medicating but I'm hanging in there because maybe I can communicate underneath it all. I may use code words or something and talk to my patients like they're human but the field shifted. Over time, the field became more constrictive and restricted.

True Voice was no longer what psychiatry as a field was about. Maybe some of the other disciplines in mental health. I am a psychopharmacological expert and it was the last thing I wanted to do as a professional. I hung in there and life was corrupt in some ways. I still met beautiful people. I had 40,000 patients over my career. I was all over the country and world. My resume is killer because I've had so many jobs in so many different places. Now you know that the reason that I have so many jobs is I was looking for one that could work.

Podcasting

One that would allow you to put communication at the heart of what you're doing. I love your honesty on this topic. This is so groundbreaking. You’re a psychiatrist who hates psychiatry and wants to get to true communication and voice. “Let's be real humans, talk to each other, and figure it out.” This is fascinating. How does podcasting come into the fold? That's an interesting offshoot. It's a great platform for communication but how did you find it? How did you decide that?

Things shifted drastically and I became street-based. The people in the streets love me and I love working with people from the streets. All my referrals were coming in from the streets. I became an advocate for addicts, the homeless, alcoholics, and all that. I like that shift. I put together a program in 2008 called AddictSupport.com. It was way ahead of its time. If it was around in 2024, it would be the coolest program around.

It was such a great program, a 10-tier website. The person I worked with was named Bo Bennett. He was on the front edge of what the future of computers was going to be like. He had started podcasting. I did a podcast as a guest on his show. I didn't even know what a podcast or a blog was and I loved it. I knew that I was tailormade to be a podcaster or a podcast guest.

You felt something inside you where you thought, “This is my jam.”

It's been my jam since that first day out. I said, “My jam as a kindergarten is when I'm talking shit while the rest of my kids are picking their noses and throwing blocks.” It's been my jam the whole time. As podcasting has grown, it has become natural. In 2015 and 2016, I was developing the Welcome to Humanity brand. My partner there was Ryan and also my partner eight years before. I had a support job. We started podcasting. I was a guest on periodic shows.

We created our podcast, which is the Welcome to Humanity Podcast. We had about 100 episodes and I was a guest on over 50 different programs. I got better and better at it. I saw, especially I can't with other restricting times, cancel culture, and all those things, that podcast was still winning. It is a platform that calls on and circulates the possibility of speaking a true voice, like being aligned with who you are.

I'm so glad you're being so bluntly honest about these things because I know tons of our audience worry about how to build a brand and be authentic. “How do I be my real self when I'm worried about people judging me? How do I show up when I'm freaking terrified?” Those are very real things that people experience. Sharing the rawness and realness of what you are sharing, for those of you reading this, I hope this gives you bravery.

I hope that your ears are perking up and you're realizing, “This might be one of the most unique interviews I ever read.” I already feel that way and I can't wait to dig in. I would love to dig in. Your jam is communication and helping people find their true voice and their authentic selves, no fear, no judgment, and step into that, “But that is hard and scary.”

People think it's hard and scary but the alternative is harder and scarier. Let's keep this in mind. Let's be real here.

Speaking Your Voice

How many of you are already finding it so refreshing how real Dr. Fred is? You can tell he's not feeding you a line of BS. He means every single word he's saying. Being on the receiving end of that feels amazing and you can do it too. People started trying to find their voice, their voice on social media, online business, marketing, and messaging. What's stopping people from speaking their honest truth or real voice?

You already touched on it. There's this notion that we learned over time. In the conventional educational system, we learned to sit down, be quiet, and regurgitate what we see the teacher or the professor put on the board. The more accurately we can say what he or she said, the better our grade. We get to move ahead to higher levels of conventional education.

As long as we can repeat what someone else says, even if it's not aligned with who we are, we get good grades and we get to move to the next level, like a video game of life. Trying to be someone that you're not to protect the person that you are is preposterous, absurd, and ludicrous. Ultimately, what people want more than anything in the whole world or what anyone wants is to be heard for who they are. That's what you want. I don't have to ask you, “Is that what you want?” It is what you want.

It's so funny you say that because I say it all the time. We, as humans, and I don't care who you are, we all have a fundamental need to feel seen, heard, and understood.

At the heart of all healing is human connection. To be connected with somebody, you have to deliver your authentic self. Otherwise, you're connecting them to something you're not even.

You view podcasting as a powerful way for people to get their true voice and opinions out there to connect with other people who are like, “I agree with that.”

There's nobody who doesn't agree with it. If you don't agree with it and you think you should keep lying to get to the world, then maybe this stuff isn't for you but if you think that it's time to get out there, it's like 11:59 out here. It's not clear that even tomorrow is coming.

It's time to start being your real self. It is the time.

The number one ingredient for a true voice is listening. You listen for what is being called for here. What's going on in the context? What does she want from me? What are you asking for? What's the universe asking for? What are the circumstances asking for? What's going to move the needle forward in communication so that a unified intention can be created so that plans and then implementation of actions can occur? That's the magic of our words and true voice.

True voice includes silence. Being properly silent is a loud statement or it doesn't even have to come from our utterances of our vocal cords. This is where Creative 8 comes in, one of the books I wrote. It speaks to other ways to self-express that are sometimes even way more effective than our voice. Our voice is limited. There are so many moving pieces in every sentence that we utter. There are a lot of ways to express ourselves.

The idea of true voice is to make a difference in a direction that matters. Telling someone that you hate them, I suppose some points can be helpful but that's not what I'm speaking to, even if you disagree with them. There are some points. Have you ever noticed in some of these more divisive conversations that have arisen in the last several years that if someone's on the other side of a particular issue than you but they're speaking authentically from their heart, you can not only tolerate them but appreciate them even if they're saying something different than what you think?

If someone is on the other side of a particular issue than you, but they are speaking authentically from the heart, you can tolerate and appreciate them.

You're more likely to listen and entertain their viewpoint. You're like, “I disagree but they're so heartfelt that I want to hear them out.” They're speaking to be understood, not just speaking to be right. If I'm internalizing this correctly, you're saying a big part of stepping into true voice is having the emotional intelligence to read a room and see what it is that other people need to see, experience, or take in for true understanding to happen in two ways. Not just, “I'm right, you're wrong.” “No, I'm right, you're wrong,” combative but truly speaking to be understood and listening to understand if you don't agree.

Authenticity trumps agreement all day long. What you said at the start of this conversation is if indeed I am being perceived as being authentic in my presentation, what it does for you and then what it does even for third-party readers is open up the doors without you even asking for it for you to show up entirely authentically and then experience, dare I say, other magic of what it's like to be aligned with what's going on in your core self.

When you can do that, honestly, it's ecstatic, especially since we've been living a life. All of us have been living lives that are invariably and variably misaligned. Meaning, we've been living these duplicitous or fabricated lives. It's okay that we've gotten that way. We learned that a long time ago. If I scream loud, I'm going to get a bigger lollipop. If I blame my sister, which I certainly did various times in my life, for doing something I did, then she'll get in trouble.

We learned how to do this over time. It became a survival tactic. We never went back to review whether or not that's the most effective way to be a contributing member of society. If you want to contribute and relieve yourself, because 24/7 is exhausting to lie and stay quiet all day, then try incrementally coming in touch with your truest self and speaking it to people in your circle who are super eager to meet you.

If you want to be contributing and relieve yourself of the burden of lying all day, try incrementally coming in touch with your truest self and speaking it to people in your circle who are eager to meet you.

It's a collection of teeny tiny moments where you get to be 100% truthful. As you can imagine, I interviewed lots of people. I want to validate what you're saying. When I'm interviewing someone and I feel like everything is scripted and there's this protective wall up, it feels cold and I feel like I have to be scripted and have a protective wall up. Neither one of us is being real. The minute you were being real and you were like, “I'm going to be myself here and talk to you,” and I could feel that, it made me feel like I could be more real. It’s reciprocal.

Even the word reciprocative, which is a very creative word, allows us to dance around. You can't say the word reciprocative in some settings because there's no room for it.

Small Moments

It feels out of place. If someone was super scripted and had a wall up, I would feel out of place being my raw authentic self. You're saying start discovering your true voice through tiny moments and conversations. You'll slowly grow into it almost. Is that the case?

It's so much easier than anything else you're doing, number one. You don't have to remember things or work very hard. Say what's on your mind. Be respectful of another person. All people deserve your respect, even if they disagree with you about fundamental issues that you think are critical in the world. When you don't do that, give yourself room like, “I didn't do that.” Be accepting, forgiving, and compassionate with yourself. Get right back on the horse and begin to communicate effectively again. There's a deep magic that comes there.

There are so many side events that occur because I get to meet you, too. The more authentic I am, the more I get to be in your pleasure. I get to meet you or who you're with because the entire environment shifts to one that allows for authenticity. I can only imagine that if fear would be reduced or removed from the picture altogether, we would always be authentic. It's the natural state of affairs. Is there anything more ludicrous than pretending to be somebody else to protect the person that you are, seriously?

It's the definition of insanity. It's so counterproductive.

We all know and do it. We all can laugh at it but it might be the actual fuel that's threatening the base of humanity right from the very core.

I learned a long time ago that I would rather be one person’s shot of vodka than everyone's cup of tea. I'm sure there will be some people who read this interview, and for some reason, it triggers them. They don't like it but there's going to be far more people who say, “These people are my people.” You trust that you'll repel the people you're meant to repel and attract the people you're meant to attract and let it happen.

You're right. You're going to have opposition. You might even have haters and the whole idea of bots and trolls. Even if you don't have haters, you'll have haters. You get one opportunity here. Inside human communication and conversation comes the possibility of connection. Inside of connection in my evaluation, 40,000 patients later or 65 years later, we do whatever we want to say, at the source of all healing is human connection, not just mental health healing.

Getting Heard

I want to validate that. I'm going to share something a little personal because it's validating. I have a brother who struggles with mental health. He was diagnosed as bipolar. He shared with me that the times that he feels himself spiraling into dark places are the times when he lacks connection with other people. As soon as he feels reconnected, loved, and heard, his mental health turns around. How long does it take to start speaking your truth when you start falling on the trail of breadcrumbs?

I got through with a supervision session and that was the exact question that led to that session. The first question that I opened up the group supervision with was, “How long does it take?” It's super interesting how the world conspires like that. The question was, “Does it take three months? Does it take nine years? Does it take a lifetime? Does it take practice?”

Is it the minute you figure it out, you die and that's the end of your story?

“Does it take one second?”

Is it the way you're thinking about things that shift?

“Wait, I'm not going to lie anymore. I'm not going to do it.” Lying doesn't work anyway. It's not like you have fewer haters if you lie. Not only is it preposterous, ludicrous, and absurd but it's ineffective. “Let me try something else. I'll try the opposite of lying. How long does that take?” The thing about Find Your True Voice, the book, and the course as well, is that over time, I've developed all sorts of fun exercises, thought processes, and easy ways to step into your authentic self that's already been there. You don't have to rewrite your authentic self. It's what's sitting underneath all of the muck and cobwebs. Tap into it. That's it.

The real you have been there the whole time.

That's a pretty good title if you decide. That's pretty well said. The real you have been there the whole time. It's true. It's undeniable, irrefutable truth that the real you has been there the whole time. The fun is in cracking the egg or moving the stuff out that's not there any way that has prevented you from being in touch with the real you. There's nothing there that prevents you. You put all that stuff there over time to protect yourself from the cold harsh world out there. I'm learning and becoming all the lies.

Being kind to yourself the whole time is an important piece because you'd be like, “If I admit that I have been lying for 40 years, that's going to suck so I better keep lying.” No, it's good. It's all right. We all have been lying. We're all doing it at some level. Even the people who act like they're not doing it, they’re doing it. If you haven't done the work, you're doing it because that's how you got to be who you were.

Five Steps

I'm sure the readers are transfixed. Probably their mind is going down the rabbit hole. I even feel we could probably talk all day but I know at this point, the readers are probably realizing, “I got some work to do. I'm ready to step into this. I love the energy of this. I want to embrace this idea.” I know you have a gift that can help them do exactly that. Do you want to tell us a little bit about it?

There are five steps to rediscover your true voice through podcasting. We have the five steps to authenticity. That's a very cool gift. The next thing we have is that I'm going to give you a copy of the Creative 8 and Find Your True Voice books. In Creative 8, we have a PDF that you can access and show you the other ways to communicate. I'm very proud of the Find Your True Voice book. I wrote it myself. Months after I wrote it, I'm like, “Who wrote this thing? This is great. I love this thing. It was me.” I did say that. I like the book. It's fun.

I have a 30-minute discovery call. That's something that I'd like to offer to the VIPs anyway. When you find your true voice, that relationship of yours is going to go through the roof. That relationship that's getting stale because neither of you is even saying the truth to you anymore is going to go through the roof. How about your job situation or this job that you can't stand? All of those things can at least be improved if not entirely transformed, upended, or rediscovered. That's what we're finding with the people who come through the program.

If you want to talk a little bit more about this idea of a discovery call, we can talk about about that. Come on the board. I'll be glad to speak with you about what's there for you. The course itself or if there are some kind of different directions, we have an event that's in September 2024. We're going to help people learn how to podcast. This is me and a couple of my partners. I’m looking forward to having people. It is the time. It is the day of finding your true voice.

o clarify, many gifts are on the table here. First of all, the gift. Grab it. It’s the 5 Steps to Rediscovering Your True Voice. If this is the interview that hit you and you realize, “This is where I need to lean in. This is the thing I've been looking for,” you grab the 5 Steps to Rediscovering Your True Voice. That's free for everyone. For the VIP ticket holders, the Find Your True Voice book, the full story, you can get for free. He's throwing in the discovery call. If after reading this, you realize, “I'm transfixed by this. I need more of Dr. Fred,” you get to book a call with him. That's the VIP gift. Grab that. If this is hitting you in the right place and you're realizing this is your jam and this needs to be your focus, take action.

Thank you for organizing that.

Closing Words

Thank you so much for being with us, Dr. Fred, and for letting us absorb your amazing energy. I found it to be energizing. I'm leaving this feeling amazing. I hope you feel amazing, too. I hope the readers do as well. There will be an opportunity inside the Facebook group for Q&A to talk a little bit more and meet Dr. Fred virtually in person, maybe. We'll see. Follow up with us in the Facebook group. I hope you got amazing value out of this. We'll see you next time.

Important Links

• Dr. Fred Moss

• Welcome to Humanity

• True Voice Course

• Healing the Healer

• Global Madness

• Creative 8: Healing Through Creativity and Self-Expression

• Find Your True Voice

• Facebook Group - Entrepreneurs Strategies to Scale

• Freebie Audience Explosion

About Dr. Fred Moss

Dr. Fred Moss is a mental health advocate/psychiatrist serving in many capacities: keynote speaker, psychiatry expert witness, podcaster, mental health coach, and teacher. A desire to help people be real and heard has been the driving force leading him to multiple settings and roles as a psychiatrist over the years and compelling him to continually look for better, more effective ways to provide the highest quality care to align people with their most authentic self to deliver into an eagerly awaiting world. He is the amazing creator of Welcome To Humanity, The True Voice Course, Healing the Healer, and Global Madness.

As the founder of the Welcome to Humanity movement, and the True Voice Mastermind and methodology, Dr. Fred now finds himself making the difference he came here to make. His years in the community, where he has been a physician to over 40,000 patients, and his storied and adventurous life traveling around the world has left him uniquely qualified to remind us of what we already know. Communication is where love arises from, and speaking the truth and listening authentically is the source of that love. Dr. Fred is married to his dream partner, Alexandra, and lives in the foothills of the Sierra Nevadas in Northern California. He is the proud father of two beautiful children in Texas and is owned collectively by his three cats, Valentino, Despacito, and Winston.

He is the author of "Creative 8 - Healing Through Creativity and Self-Expression" and "Find Your True Voice!". He has written many articles for Psychology Today. Also, he has won an award for the best essay at the 2019 Conference for Global Transformation, titled "Global Madness, What Must Happen to Unite.”