Episode 159 | Corbie Mitleid Shares Her Gifts on Cleansing Emotions

Are you the black sheep in your family? Are you enjoying something in life and your family just can't accept it?

My guest today is Corbie Mitleid, a psychic and author. She has given thousands of readings per year, and yet, some of her family struggles to accept that. Corbie is also  A Certified Tarot Master, psychic medium, teacher, and ordained minister. Her belief in God and that she 100% accepts herself and this is so obvious in our conversation. She shares how her purpose is moving her life forward.

She is the author of the  self-help volume CLEAN OUT YOUR LIFECLOSET and shares why so many people have related to concepts in this book.

Corbie Mitleid

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Transcript

00:00 Corbie Mitleid All right, there are two kinds of stress. There's you stress, E-U-S-T-R-E-S-S. That's good stress. What's good stress? When you're in the starting blocks of a race, when you're about to go on stage, when you're about to take your MCATs in, you really want to get into med school. Then there is bad stress, chronic stress. And that's things like over scheduling yourself,

00:24 Bettina M Brown, In the Rising Host never saying no, overthinking things, always trying to figure out point A, point B, point C. Hello and welcome to In the Rising Podcast. My name is Bettina and this is the platform that I've chosen to talk about living a life that's in alignment with your hopes, your dreams and your goals today. And your hopes and dreams and goals, not someone else's. And I always start off by saying, I am not a counselor. I am not a therapist. Neither are most of the guests that I have, but we all have a story to share and those stories have a lot of value. So I'm excited for you to listen to today's episode with Corby and she just has this interesting way of looking at things and that includes yourself. And she has truly accepted herself. She has even family that has not truly accepted her, but she's going with that flow. And I'm excited for you to listen to Corby. You have a phenomenal story. I have notes here. Because there's just so much to you. I mean, if there was ever a person that had to describe their life in one sentence, I was like, how long would, how many commas would Corby have to have because you're just such a well-rounded and have so many experiences to your name.

01:56 Corbie Mitleid But first of all, thank you for being here today. Sure, it's my pleasure.

02:00 Bettina M Brown, In the Rising Host My pleasure. So you, what you have written here about yourself is a woman with three bouts of cancer, two divorces. You've been through dysfunction, poverty, abuse, and you go, yeah, all of that. But the key is what you do with it and how do you teach with it? Where did you describe your own story as in, where did you realize there's a point to this?

02:24 Corbie Mitleid And I'm gonna do something with these circumstances. Okay, I have always lived the examined life. Now what's the examined life? Here's a situation I don't wanna deal with, but I'm going to. So how do you find out what's the story? How do I teach with it then next? Because if it's gonna happen, there's no sense trying to run away from it. It'll catch you. If you run toward it, you have more control. Okay. I say it's the life of roller coaster, no brakes. Change has always been part of my life. It's, I've always been the rebel in the family. Everybody else is into medicine, doctors, nurse. I was a theater major. I'm a writer. It was just never what they expected or wanted from me. I was the family failure to some extent. So I still am. My father still will not tell anybody I'm a psychic. He says I'm a motivational speaker. He believes that psychics are fakes. Well, okay, fine. Live and be well. I've been doing this for 20 years. I read a thousand people a year. I've got a worldwide rep. I've written books. I've been on radio and television. His opinion, I'm sorry he feels that way, but I have to live my own life. And if I hadn't gone through everything that I went through, I wouldn't be as compassionate. I wouldn't be able to reach my clients in the same way. Somebody who has had a glirpy purple with angels, lovely life, doesn't know how to deal with a woman who's been abused, who's been raped, who's a single mom, who has these terrifying experiences without chirping at her instead of saying, I've been there. I am you. You can get out of it. So all I can say is I figured that that was my pre-birth plan, that I would have this kind of a life so that I could work with it and teach with it. I know that the third bad breast cancer, which was a second primary, took the danger clock back to zero. The reason that they did a double mastectomy anyway was because spirit said, look, we need you down there to work and to teach. And so we're gonna remove the problem. And that's fine. It took me from a Dolly Parton figure to a fat fireplug with permanent side effects. But instead of worrying about what I looked like, I began to go inside. What do I have to offer? Huge learning experience. And I'm better off for that. Like I said, maybe I'll get to keep the rack next time, but that's next time.

05:10 Bettina M Brown, In the Rising Host And the way you said it, instead of looking on the outside to go inside, because that's where the pain really is, right? And that's where the solutions are as well. And I've heard this saying that sometimes people don't, they don't hear you, but they feel with you. And they can feel if you're on board with their story, they can feel that and sense that, that you are not judging, that you have your own story, but you can relate with your feet on the ground because your feet have been on that ground.

05:42 Corbie Mitleid Yeah, I mean, one of my favorite sayings

05:44 Bettina M Brown, In the Rising Host is I keep my eye on the moon and my feet muddy. Yeah, I'm gonna write that down. I'm gonna write that down.

05:52 Corbie Mitleid Go right ahead. It's a bookmark I had 30 years ago

05:55 Bettina M Brown, In the Rising Host and I've never forgotten. Still wise, still wise. When you say you were like the black sheep of the family and you went with what you're doing, was it something like you were a theater major, is that something you knew kind of early on

06:10 Corbie Mitleid or something that you recognized in your 20s or 30s? Oh no, I wanted to be an actress since I was nine. I wanted to deal with magic since I was nine. Nine is a big year, yay for 1964. But I've always known that I had something inside me that could make a difference in the world. Not I knew I should be famous, but that I was here to make a difference somehow. I got my first tarot deck in 1973 when I was a senior in high school working at Spencer Gifts. They had the James Bond 007 tarot deck and I bought it because we were all hitties. I'm able to connect with that spiritual side of myself. And when all of a sudden I could do hands on healing and talk to dead people with no training in 94, that was the universe handing me my draft notice hello, you're working for us. And I did this work part-time while I had a very checkered career, actress, author, inspirational speaker, video producer, legal assistant, executive recruiter, writer for graphic novels. But on 9-11 when we watched the towers burn, I turned to my husband and I said, I need to do the psychic work full-time. People need to know there are other answers out there. And he looks at me and says, I believe in you could do it. So for a year after that, I still worked 70 hours a week as an executive recruiter and did the psychic work evenings and weekends as much as I could. Once I understood I could make a living at it, close the door on corporate and have never looked back. I get to get up every morning

07:46 Bettina M Brown, In the Rising Host or I have to get up every morning. And that's a perspective change that so many people have said to me that it's a difference of getting to wake up versus having to, how you look at what you do. And like you said, not everyone just shuts the door on their day job and moves on.

08:04 Corbie Mitleid You can start to get your feet in the mud like you said. Yeah, I call it grafting, grafting your new job on the way you would graft a branch on a tree. You make sure that it's good and solid

08:16 Bettina M Brown, In the Rising Host before you take fruit off that branch. Yeah, yeah. Now, when you said you did writing for graphic art, it sounds like you've been writing for a long time. Start with your story.

08:30 Corbie Mitleid How did you connect with words? That was my father. My father was my best friend. He was a doctor, but for both of us, words were our drug of choice. And he always said, write every day. It doesn't matter who it's for, write. After my mother died, he met, dated, and married my magnificent stepmother. And he wrote her poetry, sent her flowers. He burned up the phone lines. And his poetry has been published since. It sang to him. My birth mother, unfortunately, was very intimidated by my father's genius, literal genius, and his creativity. And when both of her children inherited that, she felt isolated in inadequacy, which is why my childhood was so dysfunctional growing up. She was an alcoholic, cross-addicted with barbiturates because she just couldn't deal with my father and his mother. What we used to say about my grandmother was she may be alone, but she's never in doubt. The ironic thing is my grandmother died in 1984 of heart failure at 86. And my mother at 59 died six weeks later of a heart attack. She never had a chance to be herself. So I learned from her also, do not allow anybody to crush you no matter what it takes, whether you have to leave home, whether you never speak to your relations, whether nobody in the family thinks of you as a success. I mean, you know, most people in my family have college degrees and real jobs and stuff like that. And then I'm the weirdo. It's all right. I'm a very happy weirdo. And one in love with her husband and one with a good career. And if I had been a lawyer the way my father really wanted, oh my dear, I would be so miserable at this point. Don't be afraid of who you are.

10:38 Bettina M Brown, In the Rising Host Jeez, Louise. And you are a writer. You are a creative. I think creative is just that in order to create is to breathe, right? That's just part of it. And you have also written some books and you talked about, again, like bumper sticker. That's all bumper sticker. Put it on your bathroom mirror.

11:01 Corbie Mitleid Clean out your life closet. Yes. How'd you come up with this title? It's actually, we had about 12 titles and I put it out on a survey. Seriously, I did. But I always, I love playing with words. So we have Clean Out Your Life Closet. That's the self-help book. The one about how to learn how to navigate the world of intuitive consultants so you never get rooked is called The Psychic Alibric Road, how to find the real wizards and avoid the flying monkeys. I've got a postcard that I give to my client. Everybody is told you've got to be better with your boundary, you have to say no, blah, blah, blah. Goes in one ear, out the other. So I tell my clients, I am giving you a magnificent five word mantra and I hand them a postcard that says, no is a fabulous idea. And on the back, I've written the tale of Sid, Moses' second cousin, which is the story of why you need to say no. Now they're gonna remember what I told them because A, they laughed. When you get someone to laugh, they lower their shields, the information gets in. And I give them this little thing that they can stick on the fridge and they always remember. So storytellers for eons are how traditions were passed on, history was passed on. You know, I am a storyteller. And so people listen. And because of my theater training, I know cadence and nuance and characterizations and how it follows. So I was given all these tools to make it work. You see, my idea is spirit rifles through your file cabinet to see what you got and then says, great, you have this, this, this, this is what we're gonna have you put out in the world. It's why I'm a past life specialist, theater major at Brown, a writer and a history buff. So when I see a past life, I can tell you all the details and identify when, you know, not just old fashioned, this is Berlin in 1911. So again, everything that I get to do in my work is storytelling, is bringing things to life, is presenting ideas to my clients in ways that they can take them in.

13:13 Bettina M Brown, In the Rising Host I don't pontificate, I enchant. Yeah. And I like that when you lower your shield, when you're working with clients or just in your day-to-day life,

13:24 Corbie Mitleid do you feel that the shield is pretty high for a lot of us? In this world? Look, the next book is gonna be called Elderly Apprentice because I have a wonderful 14 year old apprentice who at 14 is a better reader than a lot of people I know. And the reason we're doing it that way is because boomers and Gen Xs are one world, millennials and Gen Zs are another. A boomer cannot say, I did it this way when I was a kid, you're lazy. No, when I was growing up, I was born in 1955. We never worried about an attack on American soil. We never worried about the world might be uninhabitable in our lifetime. We never worried that because we chose to have a vaccine shot or we were a Democrat, our neighbor would come after us with guns and knives. It is a, and we could get a job. It is a different world. And so we as elders, instead of just boomers, we need to realize it's time for us to get off the stage, seed the spotlight to the millennials and the Gen Zs. We do have some timeless wisdom to offer them. If they ask, we don't just throw it at them. And when you find someone as incandescent as Ulla is, then it's a lifelong bond. And you give them everything that you've got that they want. You answer their questions. You let them strike out on their own. So Ulla and I are writing this book together because we read Teen Witch and Teen Psychic, and those are books written by adults. They don't understand how a kid's brain works. So Ulla does. Ulla's gonna help me with this book.

15:16 Bettina M Brown, In the Rising Host It'll be Ulla's voice mostly, and some of mine. And what a very, I heard this today that, you know, that you should always have someone who's at least 20 or 30 years older than you that can be almost like a, like not confident, but just like a mentor because there's some wisdom there from life. But it doesn't mean that the wisdom doesn't turn the other way around. That there's a wisdom now because they're having to learn the now. There's things that I don't understand for my own son who is 10. I don't understand growing up with having everything in your hand. I, you know, I didn't, I had to learn different. So that's part of my life closet that I am addressing through. And when you talk about your life closet, you talked, you talk about four parts, clarity, adaptability, simplicity, and stress. I'd like to talk about stress because I feel like everybody's talking about it that they haven't, they can't get rid of it, but they don't know what to do if they don't have it.

16:18 Corbie Mitleid Like, what are your thoughts on it? All right, there are two kinds of stress. There's you stress, E-U-S-T-R-E-S-S. That's good stress. What's good stress? When you're in the starting blocks of a race, when you're about to go on stage, when you're about to take your MCATs and you really want to get into med school. Then there is bad stress, chronic stress. And that's things like over scheduling yourself, never saying no, over thinking things, always trying to figure out point A, point B, point C, worrying about things so constantly you don't sleep. And yeah, in the book, there are some ideas about how to work with stress, but you can find them all over the internet. I don't need to go over them here. The two specific kinds of stress that I work with in the book are stress as mission creep and stress as shot across the bow. Because mission creep is when you say yes, and then this next person asks you and you say yes, and then someone else says, well, you said yes to them, will you say yes to me? And because you don't have boundaries, maybe the fact that you used to knit, which relaxed you, now you'll have so many commitments that when you're done all the commitments, you throw the knitting away and you never knit again. And then there's the shot across the bow, which happened to me when I was doing a reading afternoon at my favorite bakery and I hadn't eaten all day and I grabbed a double helping of their raspberry bars, which are heaven, but way heavy on sugar and fat. And all of a sudden my heart started to pound and I started to sweat and I didn't know what was wrong was I having a heart attack. And then I went online and it said, too much sugar makes this happen. So that immediately was my wake up call

17:57 Bettina M Brown, In the Rising Host to sugar gets limited. Mm-hmm. Yeah, I like that. I like the wake up call with that as well. Now this is a self-help book.

18:07 Corbie Mitleid And I know sometimes we ask, why do people buy them? Why did you feel you would want it to write one? Because I will give 50 bucks cold cash to anybody who can literally raise their hand and swear they'd never bought a self-help book. And they're like. My first self-help book was when I was 14, it was 1969. And I remember specifically in that book, it said, Judy has wonderful makeup and a great haircut and beautiful clothes, but nobody likes Judy because Judy's fat. And it told you, you had to be thin and this and that. Self-help books perpetuate the victim idea that we have in the world today. And I mean, it is. Extreme Makeover Home Edition. You could work hard and be decent people and you needed a new house and you'd get passed over. You need a sob story. So we're taught victims get things, normal people don't. That's the wrong way to go about it. So I wrote a book that specifically said, I'm not your guru. You have your own answers and you can write your own story of change based on your history, your life experiences and your personal goals. I mean, look, there's a book out there that does say you can't eat food with leptin in it and you should get up at four in the morning every day to do yoga and then your life will be wonderful. And that's read by some woman in Milwaukee who says, are you nuts? I had two preschoolers and a job. Yeah. You know, they're not gonna eat food that doesn't have leptin, then with pizza and peanut butter and I have to eat what they eat because I'm rushed. Yes. So this book, Every Chapter, here's some of the stupid things I did. Here's a client story, here's some suggestions. But the best part is at the end of each chapter, I have the adventure pages and you answer these questions, but you cannot answer them by just going into the book. For instance, stress is mission creep. Three questions. What was the last thing you enjoyed that became a burden because you didn't say no or mark out boundaries? Who in your life constantly ups your stress? Do they do it out of manipulation, victimhood, self-interest or something else? Ask yourself, are they worth keeping? If so, how can you change the balance? Of our three mission creep avoidance strategies,

20:31 Bettina M Brown, In the Rising Host which one do you most need to apply in your life and why? That has to come from your life experience, not my book. I like how you point that out, that everyone's life experience, like you have your answers. That this is to help guide you, pull that out. The same way as anything, it's that you inherently. And I read this somewhere else, but it makes sense because I feel that way. That if I come up with an idea, I am much more attached to the idea

21:00 Corbie Mitleid than if someone else gives it to me. That's right. We hate shoulds, we hate musts. They just give us guilt. Yes. But if I decide I really, really do want to walk 15 minutes a day because I'm finding it makes my back better, then I do it. And I do it happily. Yeah. Instead of, the guru said I had to walk 15 minutes a day.

21:23 Bettina M Brown, In the Rising Host Oh, all right. Yeah. Yeah. And with all of this and your adventure pages, do you feel that you have ever answered those questions yourself as you were writing it or afterwards?

21:39 Corbie Mitleid Did you ever look at that again, where you were at that time? I would answer those questions as I wrote each chapter. Just as I will never send you to a medical intuitive or an intuitive counselor that I have not used and found trustworthy myself. I'm not gonna write something in that book

21:59 Bettina M Brown, In the Rising Host that I don't know will work or I don't know makes a difference. Yeah. Otherwise I'm writing fiction. True. That's a very good way of putting that. That's a very good way of putting that. When you say, when you're talking about this and you're pulling that out, your story, did you feel that when you were done with this, that done with this book, clean out your life closet that you had more to talk about

22:28 Corbie Mitleid on that topic or was that like done for you? Well, actually there are three books in this series and I will get to the other two, but right now, Elder and Apprentice is more important. The next one would be called the big reboot, which is now that you've cleaned out your closet, what are you gonna put in? And the third one is be your own masterpiece. Now you have a fresh closet full of yummy things. What are you gonna do with it? They'll get written eventually.

22:55 Bettina M Brown, In the Rising Host The deal I have with God is I don't die until they're done. I like that because at the end of the day, you always have a deal with God. If you're listening to what he is having to say, then he's gonna put you that time and that ability for you. Now with this too, when you said you're writing this book with Ula and I can just feel through the microphone like how passionate you are about this. I know this is gonna be a question because I'm thinking it.

23:22 Corbie Mitleid How did you guys even connect in the first place? Oh, that's very simple. Her family owns a farm. I live in upstate New York. They own a farm 10 miles away. In fact, her mother is a splendid author, Shannon Hayes, who just put out a book called Redefining Rich True Wealth Side Gigs. It's a book that is for the next generation so they don't get caught in the rat race wheel that we did. So they have a cafe and Ula and her older sister, Saoirse, are kind of my nieces by affection. I'm the local psychic. So I always bring my deck with me when I go for Saturday morning breakfast. Sometimes I'll throw cards for people and Ula started looking and she'd ask questions. She was smart about what she asked. I gave her a deck and she started reading and she was right. And so I said to her mother, can I teach her? Ula's homeschooled. So now I'm actually part of her curriculum. Oh, wow. And so her parents are wildly supportive of both of their girls. Both have been homeschooled, but homeschooled right. These kids are creative. They are involved in the world. They want to make things better. That's why they're my nieces by affection. I admire them tremendously. And Ula and I just found that we were simpatico on how we viewed the world, how we wanted to make a difference in the world. And Ula and I are empaths. If you hurt, we feel it.

25:05 Bettina M Brown, In the Rising Host So it was a natural pairing. And as you're co-writing this, how do you feel that with your experience in writing, you are able to help Ula or any other person in that next generation?

25:22 Corbie Mitleid What comes out to you to be supportive? To tell them that I'm not here to correct them. I'm here to support them. I'll answer questions if they ask me. I will understand that sometimes things that I see are old fashioned and I need correcting. It has to be a 60-60 relationship. Each one of us goes a little bit more than halfway and it's the extra 10% that locks it. Yes, I'm the elder. I'm old enough to be our grandmother for Pete's sake, but she's also my working partner. Our souls are ageless.

26:01 Bettina M Brown, In the Rising Host In that sense, she and I are equal. That's a very good way of putting that. I like that. I like that. And from just your story itself, you have risen through some stuff, right? Mm-hmm, yeah. Yeah. Where do you see yourself still rising up to besides these two books? What do you feel like your contract with God still has written on it?

26:24 Corbie Mitleid Well, when I was 11, a gypsy on the ventner board told me I'd live until I'm 89. So I got fined. And now since I'm much closer to 89, I changed that too. I will renegotiate my contract should I care to at age 89. Look, there are 8 billion people in the world. I'll never be able to read them all. So if I can encourage other people to become intuitive consultants, psychic mediums, readers, I wanna do that. I will teach as much as I can. I have a gift for making people laugh. I've done standup comedy on what it's like to be a psychic. So as long as I can do some good in the world to help people make it through

27:09 Bettina M Brown, In the Rising Host what's gonna be a very, very tough next bunch of decades. That's good. And as long as I'm useful, I wanna be here. Yeah, yeah. I like that as long as I'm useful. Everyone has useful in a different way. How do you feel that after you've risen to that, what do you wanna look back or what would you say to a Corby at nine years old, first getting that book about the witch family? What would you say to her, which is you,

27:41 Corbie Mitleid that was different than what you already knew at that age? Honey, it's gonna be really tough, but it is worth all the pain and all the confusion. And don't let anyone ever tell you that you're a failure

27:57 Bettina M Brown, In the Rising Host or you're crazy or you're stupid or you're worthless. You are worth so much more than what you look like. I love that. How can people learn more about you? How can they reach out to you? We always have to say, where are you on the internet? Oh, they can't avoid me.

28:14 Corbie Mitleid They can't avoid me. My website is corbymittleye.com. That's where you can sign up for readings or consultations or whatever. On Facebook, it's fire through spirit. And I do a free reading hour there once a month. And there's always interesting little spiritual stuff there too. Social media, Pinterest, Instagram, Twitter, YouTube, all of that stuff is CorbyMittleye. And if you want to work with me on a continuing basis, then I recommend finding me on Patreon. Patreon is a great way to support my work. You can throw me a buck a month. If you want to spend 25 a month, you are going to be in with a tribe. I do one hour private with y'all. Private with y'all every month, readings, meditations, experiments, talk about the world.

29:08 Bettina M Brown, In the Rising Host And it's stuff I only do for my Patreon people. Wonderful. Well, I have really, I've laughed quite a bit in this time. And it's definitely been uplifting for me to hear your story, to hear what you've been through. And also that no matter what, who thinks you're just a motivational speaker, that you are still in your true light, right? That you are following what your path, what you were destined to be. Absolutely. Yeah, I totally admire that about you. And that your father supported the writing

29:46 Corbie Mitleid that turned into this beautiful career later on. He's still my best friend. He may be dead for 20 years, but you know, with what I can do, we can talk.

29:56 Bettina M Brown, In the Rising Host We can talk. Wonderful.

29:59 Corbie Mitleid So bless you and thank you so much for your time. It was wonderful to be asked.

30:04 Bettina M Brown, In the Rising Host Thank you so much. So every one of us has a different set of gifts. And some of our gifts were maybe more comfortable letting everyone know about. And some of our gifts we tend to hide. I enjoyed this conversation with Corby because she is not afraid to hide her gifts. What she also believes are her God given gifts to be psychic. And I like that topic. I like talking about things as mediums and feeling clairvoyant and who is clairaudient because we all are to some extent given that gift. Some of us have a stronger gift. Some of us have a less strong gift. But anytime you're walking somewhere and you feel that you should turn around and go back in the building, or instead of making that right turn, something tells you to make that left turn. That is part of the same experience. And some of us have more than that. And we can really push in that area and train ourselves. And others we still go with our gut feeling, but that is a huge sense. We have a lot more nerves and talking to us in our gut than we actually do in our brain. So we are connected through that. And Corbie has really just gone with that all the way and really emphasizes that she is not done until she's done with God's work. And I appreciated that comment because I do take that to heart. And I feel that our life is here because there is some work to do. And for some of us, that work is sharing our story. And for some of us, that work is living through some hard times so we can share it with others. I think that there is honor with all of that. And I am so grateful for your time today. Thank you so much for listening to In the Rising podcast. You are welcome to reach out and check me out on intherising.com. I'm also on Facebook and Instagram, but no matter what, if you would like to have a topic or you'd like to reach out, I'm at patina at intherising.com, that's my email. And if you feel that someone would benefit from this podcast, go ahead and share it. It does so much to reach out, to give it to someone you believe it will make a difference for. And thank you again for your time because time is something we don't get back. And until next time, let's build one another up. Thank you so much. Thank you. Thank you.