Fortune Teller, but not a Gypsy?

I’m not a Fortune Teller. At least not the classic image of one.

You know, the classic movie image — the Romani woman (though Hollywood always called them ‘Gypsies’) born outside of town, in a tent, camper or shack, down by the river. I wasn’t born one, a Fortune Teller, nor a woman! I didn’t come from that colorful traveling culture that Hollywood loved to stereotype. And I am not a Gypsy Fortune Teller! Or am I?

As I reflect on my childhood, perhaps I was a Gypsy? I had lived in 3 different countries, separated by 17,000 miles of oceans, by the age of 8. If you define Gypsy as a wanderer, roaming about from town to town, a little different, and hard to define and pin down, I just realized that I might fit that description!

That’s because I also have “international looks”. That slightly “exotic” appearance that makes it hard to clearly identify ones roots by the sheltered observer or unseasoned traveller. I could pass for a lot of ethnicities… and I have! Many people want to guess, but they are rarely right. Everybody uses their own filter anyway. We are the sum of our life experiences, so we recognize/relate to what we have experienced/learned.

I have been asked so many times, in so many ways, I started to ask the strangers that I bumped into, after they asked where was I from, where were they from in reply? After they told me, I would say “So Am I!” It’s an easy way to relate (and get accepted) by a stranger, and learn a bit of their culture, too. If they ask more questions, I would just throw it back at them, and they would tell me, and I would mirror again, “So am I!”. Eventually it would get down to “Do you know so and so….?”, and I would just say no, but nice talking to you! And wander off.

Like a Gypsy?

I have, over the years, been to 30+ countries, 30+ States in the US, and 500+ cities and towns around the world. I guess I am more of a wandering Gypsy than I ever realized? However, before you throw beads around my neck and a scarf around my head, I will tell you that I’ve only lived in 3 different countries and 2 different US states. That means staying longer than a month or more, and not in a hotel/motel. I visited or traveled through all the other places for under a month or so. So maybe I really am a wandering Gypsy? Or maybe a Carnie? Carnies travel a lot, from town to town, and I do love games!

I am Eurasian.

Biracial. Today, Gen Z or Gen Alpha might call that Wasian, or Blasian, or Lasian or is Latasian? (depending on your blends). I embody some sort of mix of cultures, languages, looks, food, sensibilities and experiences. More people today have come out of that blender, thankfully. So that makes more people, including me, harder to define…

Like a Gypsy?

But I don’t wear a bandana on my head, or multiple bead necklaces. But I do have a crystal ball! However, it is just for table decorations when I do Fortune Readings at parties. It’s to fill party guests’ expectations of the classic Fortune Teller in those stereotyped Hollywood movies we have all subconsciously swallowed. I don’t actually use it for predictions. Or do I?

I have done thousands of Fortune Readings.

In-person, in a cafe or coffee shop near my clients, in a person’s home or office, over the internet (for 15 years, not just when Zoom became ubiquitous), via email (where I ask for a headshot, but never hear their voice, and never meet them), and at parties, private and corporate. I have over 1,000 repeat clients… Seekers who came back again for another reading after the first. For some, they have come back 50, up to 100+ times! And they all received a photo of their Fortune reading layout, and an audio summary recap of their entire Fortune, emailed to them. They can remember everything I told them this way, and use it as a guide along their journey and path into the future.

So within a year, they will know whether I helped them with insight, or I was full of (shh!) it.

So, on this site, (and in a future book), I am going to share some stories. Fortune Teller’s Tales. These will be stories, inspired and based on my actual Seekers or Clients, who received a Fortune Reading from me. I am not a Medium, I don’t talk to departed spirits. So I won’t be a “Medium on Medium”. But I have been asked about the energy surrounding a departed love one, however. So it is all about energy, Qi (Chi) energy. Sort of like Acupuncture, or Feng Shui. You can’t taste, touch or see it, but it flows around you, within you, around the universe. So the stories are real. But the identities of the characters in these stories will be heavily altered, to protect the confidentiality of my clients.

Real People, Real Stories, Real Fortunes, Hidden Identities.

Without confidentiality, I wouldn’t have any clients. In my business, to have any return client, any repeat business, any word of mouth referrals, it is all about trust. They tell me their deepest secrets, some are secrets they have never told anyone else. Secrets maybe only I know. So I can’t divulge any recognizable personal identifiers, to who actually said or did what. The story may sound vaguely familiar, but it probably isn’t yours. Details have been masked and altered. To protect the trust, between my clients and I.

I met a lot of people before I was a Fortune Teller, too, for decades, in school and in my working life for many corporate jobs in retail, wholesale, automation and technology. Small companies, startups, midsize and large international companies. In sales, marketing, operations, channel, product and corporate management functions. I helped a small company go from $1 million in sales and 10 people, to $25 million and 75 people. I still keep in touch with that company, and recently went to one of the founders’ milestone birthday party.

And we (Golden Dragon Fortunes) do a lot of private parties and corporate events. Over 350 so far. We are based in Northern California, close to the tech capital of the world, Silicon Valley. We do a lot of Tech company events, small and very large! Some household names any stock investor would recognize. (Largest had 11,000 attendees in a football stadium!).

I used a lot of communications tools in my business life, like Yahoo, Skype and FaceTime going back decades. Now, I use Internet Video Chat apps, like Meet, Zoom, WhatsAp, and many more! During the Pandemic, that is all we used. And since then, 50% of my readings are over the Internet. We have done readings with clients all over the world…North America, South America, Europe, Middle East, Africa and Asia.

So this wide range of real life experiences, in business, travel, and Fortune Telling, allows me to relate to a large range of clients, literally thousands. From student or housewife, to tech or medical professional, to lawyer or CEO. From all walks of life, all ethnicities, and from all over the world. I have lived a lot, experienced a lot, travelled a lot, seen a lot, so perhaps I know a lot?

Like a Fortune Teller?

I might share some of my own stories, too, perhaps about some of those places I have wandered through, and some of the life experiences I’ve lived through. Or perhaps I will intertwine my stories with my seekers’ stories, because their stories triggered a memory of my own, a parallel of story lines, fused together into one.

Like a Biracial person? A Wasian?

But no stories about a tent, camper or shack, down by the river, like the Hollywood movie stereotypes.

Because I am not a Gypsy! (I think?)

But I am a Fortune Teller!