The Fortune Teller, My Dad, and the Name You See on Google Real Talks | By Ichi Halvorson

If you’ve ever Googled me, you may have noticed something unexpected.

Not Ichi. Not the name I answer to every day, the name on my Instagram, the name my clients call when they’re ready to make a move in San Francisco.

You saw Sangmi.

And maybe you wondered — who is that?

Let me tell you.

A Name Chosen by the Stars

In Korean culture, naming a child is not taken lightly. It’s not just about what sounds pretty or what flows well in conversation. A name carries energy. It carries destiny. And for many families — including mine — it’s not left to chance.

My parents knew a fortune teller as a distant relative. Not just any fortune teller. This was someone well-known, almost legendary in Korea. The kind of person people traveled to see. He looked at the date of my birth, the time, the alignment of things I couldn’t see or understand — and he gave me my name.

상미. Sangmi. (Song Me)

It means detailed beauty.

Not loud beauty. Not obvious beauty. The kind of beauty that lives in the fine print. The kind you only find when you slow down and really look.

I carried that name my whole life — quietly, officially, on every legal document. And now, because Google requires your legal name on a business profile, you see it there too.

Sangmi. That’s me.

What My Mom and Dad Thought About All of That

Here’s where it gets good. My mom always wanted me to be flight attendant? Guess what I ended up?

My dad — God love him — had a completely different read on who I was.

He always said I should have been a boy.

Not as an insult. As a compliment, in his own way. Because from the time I was young, I was bold. Outspoken. Not afraid of confrontation. Not afraid of being challenged or called out. I didn’t shrink. I didn’t soften myself to make a room more comfortable.

A fortune teller said: detailed beauty.

My dad said: she should’ve been a boy.

Both of them were watching the same person.

The Thing Is — They Were Both Right

I’ve thought about this a lot over the years. Especially now, as a REALTOR in one of the most competitive real estate markets in the country.

San Francisco doesn’t reward people who stay quiet. It doesn’t reward people who gloss over the details or avoid the hard conversation. This city — this market — will eat you alive if you’re not paying attention.

So you need both.

You need the boldness. The willingness to push back on a bad deal, to advocate loudly for your client, to walk away from a table that isn’t serving you. That’s the part my dad saw in me.

And you need the detail. The eye that catches the clause buried on page 11. The instinct to slow down when everyone else is rushing. The care that makes a client feel truly seen. That’s what 상미 was always about.

I didn’t plan for a fortune teller and my dad to basically write my professional mission statement. But here we are.

Why I’m Telling You This

Because real estate is personal. And the agents who pretend otherwise — who keep everything polished and surface-level and safe — they’re not the ones you call when things get complicated.

You call the person who shows you the full picture. Who knows your story matters. Who brings both detail and backbone to the table.

That person is me.

Ichi in daily life. Sangmi on Google. The same woman my dad called too bold and a fortune teller called beautiful. My mom? She got her wish.

I’ll take both.

I’m Ichi Halvorson, a licensed San Francisco REALTOR® with Golden Gate Realty & Finance, serving local, out-of-state, and international buyers and sellers — in English and 한국어 🇺🇸🇰🇷.

📩 DM me or visit goldengate365.com

📸 @ichi.sf.realtor

DRE #01973163 | Golden Gate Realty & Finance