# From Two Houses in Five Months to $45M a Year with Bunny Terry

> Episode 225 of The REI Agent podcast
>
> Hosted by Mattias Clymer, a Realtor with Funkhouser Real Estate Group who leads Valley Homes Team in Harrisonburg, Virginia (https://valleyhomesva.com/about/mattias-clymer/), and Erica Clymer, a licensed therapist and real estate investor.

- **Published:** 2026-09-29
- **Duration:** 00:45:10

## Summary

Bunny Terry is a Santa Fe real estate agent with more than 22 years in the business, focused on luxury second-home buyers relocating to the city. She explains how her volume grew from $12.5 million in 2023 to a pace of about $45 million in 2026, with a little over 85% of her business coming from digital marketing. The episode covers her consistent local content on Instagram and email, and her daily gratitude habit.

## Description

In 2012, three months after moving to Santa Fe, Bunny Terry was diagnosed with stage 4 colon cancer. She has a letter from that year, written so she could cash out her life insurance, saying she had twelve months.   This is what she built afterwards.   She sold two houses in her first five months at

## Questions This Episode Answers

**Who is Bunny Terry, the Santa Fe real estate agent?**

Bunny Terry is a Santa Fe-based real estate agent with over 22 years of experience. Her practice centers on luxury second-home buyers relocating to the city, who are usually 55 or older.

**How much volume did Bunny Terry do in Santa Fe real estate from 2023 to 2026?**

Bunny Terry reports her volume was $12.5 million in 2023, $18.5 million in 2024, and just over $30 million in 2025. She said the business was tracking to about $45 million in 2026, with a little over 85% of it coming from digital presence.

**What digital marketing does Bunny Terry use to attract Santa Fe buyers?**

Bunny Terry posts mainly on Instagram, which she also shares to Facebook, and a team member publishes YouTube videos four or five times a week about living in Santa Fe. Her daughter sends a Thursday email to the database listing weekend events and local tips.

**What is the red notebook habit that Bunny Terry uses for gratitude?**

Bunny Terry carries a red notebook and writes down good things that happen during the day. At the end of each day she lists her top three, which she says trains the brain to notice more positives. Each morning she also thanks the perfect clients she gets to serve.

**What book does Bunny Terry recommend, and where can listeners find her?**

Bunny Terry recommends U Squared by Price Pritchett, a short book about training the brain to make bigger leaps. She wrote Life-Saving Gratitude, sold on Amazon, and is on Instagram as The Real Bunny Terry Santa Fe.

## Show Notes

In 2012, three months after moving to Santa Fe, Bunny Terry was diagnosed with stage 4 colon cancer. She has a letter from that year, written so she could cash out her life insurance, saying she had twelve months.

This is what she built afterwards.

She sold two houses in her first five months at a new brokerage and borrowed money from her son to attend a conference. Today she is on a pace of roughly $45 million a year — $12.5M in 2023, $18.5M in 2024, just over $30M in 2025 — and more than 85% of it comes from her digital presence.

The mechanics are unglamorous and she says so. 5,700 Instagram followers. B-roll bought from a local kid with a drone. A Thursday email listing three things happening Friday, three Saturday, three Sunday, with the weather and a reminder to bring a jacket. Nobody has unsubscribed in three months.

The principle: "We're not talking about how we do real estate. We're talking about how you live in our city."

There is also a 67-year-old on her team who told her he did not want anyone to see his face. He now posts four or five videos a week and gets a call a day from them.

CHAPTERS
00:00 Cold open
00:22 Welcome
01:06 Meet Bunny Terry — Santa Fe, 22 years, $45M pace
01:23 A paralegal who became a realtor out of necessity
02:19 Ranches and lake property in a town of 1,100
05:05 Moving to Santa Fe — and a stage 4 diagnosis
07:05 The partners who kept splitting commissions
08:34 Showing up every day in a market where she knew nobody
09:46 Two houses in five months, and borrowing from her son
10:45 Building community before building a pipeline
12:10 Her father's answer: "I'd have to be two people"
14:03 A prognosis letter, and choosing your perspective
17:35 The red notebook and the daily top three
20:58 Your brain finds what you tell it to look for
24:02 Breaking into a closed market with a blog
26:09 "I'm not 22" — putting her face on video at 60
28:04 The numbers: $12.5M to $30M to a $45M pace
28:42 Hiring a full-time marketing director
29:39 Why Santa Fe is a second-home market
31:16 The 67-year-old who refused to be on camera
31:56 Sell the city, not the house
32:54 The Thursday email nobody unsubscribes from
34:07 Consistency wins — and no marketing is bad marketing
36:01 "I am an expert at starting over"
36:30 Golden nuggets
39:29 The question that changed after loss
41:31 Favorite book: U Squared by Price Pritchett
43:20 Being purposeful, and nearly quitting
44:08 Where to find Bunny

FIND BUNNY
Instagram: @therealbunnyterrysantafe
Book: Lifesaving Gratitude, on Amazon

THE REI AGENT
Newsletter and episode blogs: reiagent.com

A holistic approach to life through real estate.

## Transcript

**[0:00]** I had a prognosis letter from my doctor that said I was going to live 12 months. Wow. And it was a letter that was for an insurance company so that I could cash out my life insurance policy. So the question is not how am I going to survive, but what am I going to create? We're not talking about how we do real estate. We're talking about how you live in our city.

**[0:26]** Welcome back to the REI agent. My guest today is Bunny Terry, a Santa Fe-based real estate agent with over 22 years of experience in one of the most distinctive and culturally rich luxury markets in the American Southwest. Bunny has built her practice around relocation, becoming the go-to resource for buyers moving to Santa Fe from across the country who needs someone who truly knows the market, the neighborhoods, the culture, and the lifestyle. With over 5,700 Instagram followers in a relatively small market, she has proven that deep local expertise and authentic community presence can build a powerful brand even without a massive city behind it. Bunny, welcome to the REI agent podcast. Thank you so much.

**[1:08]** I'm really happy to be here. Yeah. So you have been at this obviously for a while and are no stranger to putting content out there. What got you started in real estate to begin with?

**[1:24]** I've heard people say many times, wow, nobody when they're 17 years old and headed to college says, wow. I mean, not many people say I hope I become a real estate agent, but I did it completely out of necessity. I was a single mom and I wanted to move back to my hometown in New Mexico, which is a small town, but on a lake. And where people sell a lot of ranches and I knew everybody in the market, but I needed to find, you know, I didn't want to. I mean, not that I have anything against people in the service industry, but I didn't want to be a waitress at the local truck stop. And I got my real estate license in 2004 and moved to my hometown and, and so, and for 10 years sold a lot of ranches and lake property.

**[2:22]** And, you know, I sold $30,000 lots and then I sold some multimillion dollar ranches. And it was a really good experience, except that I knew everyone. So it was sort of like I was, and I was, I was a partner with my cousin and we had our own brokerage. And what we knew was how to be in the community and be involved and have a lot of contacts. We didn't know how to, we, we didn't know how it was like shooting fish in a barrel. So we didn't have to work really hard at creating business. So that, that was the beginning. And then when my daughter went to college, I thought, I, you know, really want to live in my small town, in a small town of 1100 people for the rest of my life. I'm sort of ready to, to Santa Fe since I was six years old.

**[3:22]** I grew up, raised my kids in Albuquerque and then moved home to Logan, New Mexico, where I grew up. And then I decided I'm just, I'm going to move to Santa Fe. And that's what I did. There were some really significant detours in the middle of that, but that's how my real estate career started. Sort of accidentally, but, but, but in a way that made it not difficult to find business. We didn't make a lot of money, but, but it wasn't expensive to live there. So. Yeah. I mean, it's kind of actually the interesting thing about this business is that you, uh, obviously you have to have a steady amount of business, um, to, to, you know, earn a, you know, an income, et cetera. But it's kind of interesting how I was thinking about this when, you know, we had all this massive inflation happening and, you know, most people's wages were, were staying kind of stagnant, right?

**[4:19]** While everything else got expensive, housing prices went up. And so we ended up getting paid more. Right. So like it was, it kind of, we saw the immediate response to inflation, to, to prices increase. Um, and it's kind of interesting how our business does that pretty instantaneously. Like, you know, if you are in a cheaper area, uh, you may not get paid quite as much, but it doesn't matter as much if you don't need as much money to live there. Right. So it's, it's kind of a unique thing I would say. Um, so let me, I, I, I'm not sure if I fully tracked the story, but was it two markets that you, you kind of had to build your business in, um, your, your hometown and then Santa Fe? Or was there another one Albuquerque in there?

**[5:05]** No, no, I was, I was a paralegal in Albuquerque. I was a paralegal for 28 years, which is not a terrible profession to be in before you become a realtor. Because, you know, I know how to read a contract. I sort of know how to keep myself out of hot water, but as, as one would hope, um, as a realtor. Um, but I, I was in Logan, which was a small market where I knew everybody. And then I decided to move to Santa Fe. And when I moved to Santa Fe in August of 2012, I was sort of testing the water. I, I was in a partnership and we were building a development in Logan, New Mexico on the lake. And I had a lot of loyalty to my partners there. And so we were still getting that development off the ground.

**[6:01]** And at the same time, um, I was getting acquainted, but I didn't know anyone in Santa Fe. I wasn't, I mean, everybody in New Mexico is separated by about three degrees because at that time, the population of the state was just over a million people. I mean, it's not a lot. It's stuck. It's a small state. And, um, I was getting, getting myself immersed in the city and I was diagnosed in November of 2012 with stage four colon cancer. Wow. Shockingly. I thought it was the healthiest person in the world, but during that process, and that was the hiccup along the way for a year, I had to have treatment and surgery and more treatment. And my partners in Logan continued to keep me on the books. They continued to split their commissions with me.

**[6:55]** Um, I was able to do a little bit of work of marketing. So, so it took some time for me to move my license into the Santa Fe market because of that medical issue. So yeah, well, yeah. Yeah. So I moved my license here in 2014. Got it. And so you have to, to move your license. Like you, you, you hung your, in a different brokerage. Is that, is that what that means? Or is it, do you have to do it or something? I had my license in Logan with our brokerage, which is called you like premier properties. That's just the name of the state. I mean, the name of the, the lake that, um, where, where we worked and lived and moved my license to Keller Williams, transferred my license to Keller Williams in 2014, stayed at Keller Williams for 10 years and then moved nine years, I guess.

**[7:54]** And then moved to real broker three years ago. Okay. Okay. Um, yeah. So, so what was it like then? I mean, so obviously, uh, there would have been, you weren't, you didn't move to Santa Fe and you weren't hyper-focused on building your business, building your network, your sphere. You obviously had, uh, an incredible life circumstance to, to, uh, you know, work through slash you had your, you know, other, uh, business happening still in your other town. What, when did you kind of start trying to, to actually, you know, build that business up? And what was that like in a new, bigger area where you didn't, you know, automatically know every single person in the town? I did. Um, you know, I didn't know any better than to just show up every single day.

**[8:45]** I, I, I became acquainted with all of the, um, they wouldn't like this term, but sort of the old dogs at the brokerage who showed up every day at eight o'clock because I thought, you know, this is a job. I have to treat this like a job. I don't know anybody. Um, I'm going to be there. I'm going to sign up for floor duty every time I can. I'm going to be in the training room every time they open the doors. Um, it was, I was doggedly determined to support myself. And I was still, uh, still a single mom, except then my daughter was in grad school and, um, my son had just finished his doctorate. So we were, uh, I was, I'm going to tell you, I, the first year that I was at Keller Williams, I had to borrow money from my son to go to a national conference.

**[9:39]** I think the first year I sold, I, from August to December, I sold two houses. And, um, so, so that, so the, the first, the beginning was lean. I had, I showed up, I really did show up every time there was a meeting, every time there was a training, every time there was an opportunity for floor duty. Anytime somebody wanted me to do an open house, I, it, I mean, I'd always worked. It seemed like the right thing to do. So I kept showing up and working and over time I, and being involved in the community and because I had survived the cancer diagnosis, I got really involved in a local foundation, a local, the cancer foundation for New Mexico. So I started building a community in a hurry and, and making sure that I was doing things I really believed in, but still built community.

**[10:39]** I just think, I, I mean, I don't know how you do this business. If you're not willing to get involved in your community. You really do. Like finding those, um, those extra third spaces, I think Erica and I often call it that where you're, uh, you're really heavily involved. A lot of, for a lot of people that's church, you know, that can be, um, you can have multiple third spaces. It can be the gym, you know, you can have a really strong community and like a fitness class or, you know, pickleball, right. Or that's taking the whole nation by storm. Um, yeah, that that's, and, and if anybody's listening now to 2014, that's the year I started, um, it was a different market. Um, it was, it was, it was slow.

**[11:21]** I mean, I don't remember what the median days in the market was when I was, when I was starting, but it was, it just wasn't, you know, houses were staying on the market for months and, um, it wasn't the same at all. So, um, you know, you, you can hear the, you know, I started in 2020 or 2021 stories and like, you know, you taking off and, and that's cause there's a lot of activity happening and it just wasn't the case in 2014 as well. So that, that totally makes sense. Um, curious what, um, if you had any, uh, different approaches to the business, to life, um, after kind of getting through that, that diagnosis, um, was there anything that you kind of took from that experience to, to say, you know what, I'm, I'm, I'm doing this this way now, or, or, you know, I want to make sure that I'm living life to the fullest or something to that extent.

**[12:10]** I grew up in a household where my dad's response to every, every time. And I actually, I wrote a book about this. It's called life-saving gratitude. Um, because he really sort of insisted every, for that year that I was sick and getting treatment, he would insist that, you know, he would every day, he would say, you got to tell me what you're grateful for. And I would say, you know, dad, my hair's falling out and my stuff, my guts a wreck. And I don't, I'm, I'm, I'm worried about paying my lease payment. I didn't own a home at the time. And he would say, but what are the things you still have to name the things that you're grateful for. And because my dad was a guy when you would say to him, and he was, I grew up on a farm with no money when his crops would get washed out.

**[13:00]** You could ask him, how are things going? And my dad's name was Kenneth Terry would say, if life was any better, I would have to be two people. And it was his response to every it's, and it sounds like a fairy tale when I tell it, but that's who I grew up with. And, and, and you can hear that all of your life and you can always hear people say, oh, just look on the bright side, et cetera. But it's when you get in the trenches and it feels like your life depends on it. And you, and you sort of have to make a hard choice to, to see life that way, as opposed to, um, I'm, I could pay attention. I mean, I had a, I had a prognosis letter from my doctor that said I was going to live 12 months. Wow. And it was a letter that I was going to, that I was, that was for an insurance company so that I could cash out my life insurance policy.

**[14:02]** And so, um, I had to make a really conscious choice instead of just something I had heard by road over and over and over. I had to make a conscious choice to figure out how to see where I was. And I, and, and so when I got through that and I, we would have team meetings at Keller Williams and, and somebody would meet me in the hallway and they would say, oh my gosh, did you just hear that thing where they said we have to call 10 people every day? And I was, and I would hear, I would hear a little bit of this whole jaded realtor talk and I would say, yeah, so what's hard about that? I mean, really it's, this is not difficult. Just, it was sort of, it was do the thing and be glad you're walking upright.

**[14:53]** And I want to be really careful because I don't think that there were a lot of, um, there were a lot of pieces to the medical picture that worked well for me. I'm not saying that people who don't survive are not grateful enough. I'm just saying we get to pick what our perspective is. Yeah. And that's true when you're in a crisis and that's true when you're in a business, you get to, you get to pick every day how you view things. So, um, so that, that is really what changed the way I viewed the business. I would stand up in team meetings and, you know, people would say, well, you have to express your intentions. And I would say, well, you know, this year, even though I haven't sold a house yet, I'm going to give $10,000 to this cancer organization that I care about.

**[15:42]** And I know that, and people have said to me since then, they're like, man, we were all like, she's crazy. She's, I mean, it's not going to work. I'm going to tell you it worked. And, but that's, that's how that experience changed how I do business. You know, so, um, I just came across this quote, uh, today actually, and, and I think it kind of applies. Uh, it's Dolly Parton said, you know, the way I see it, if you want, if you want the rainbow, you got to put up with the rain. Um, and if you take that a little bit further, I think like, um, I've, you know, I've heard it described, I think my father would talk about it this way too. If there was like, you know, if you had to go down, uh, you know, if you had a hard time in your life, um, which I can't, you know, I can't say anything near to what you went through.

**[16:30]** Uh, but it, the, the peaks or the, the, the, you have to go through the valleys. You have to really go through the, the, the darkest steps of the valleys to truly appreciate the views from the peaks. Right. So like, I think, um, that perspective can really be huge and, and also helpful when it is hard to find, uh, the, the, the positive side in life and the, and when you're really in the, in the thick of it, knowing that, um, when you get through it, which you will, you know, um, I mean, I'm, you know, I'm talking about the, the normal, like kind of like everything's falling apart in contracts or whatever, that kind of stuff. Like, you know, once you get through it and all that stress is gone, like you're, you're not going to be phased by much at all.

**[17:14]** And that kind of perspective can help. Um, I'm curious what other things that you felt to, or like you, uh, kind of relied on to, to, you know, take that little step or whatever, to, to, to see something positive, to have, find something to be grateful for, like, you know, in the hardest moments when you were feeling really sick and, and, and all that. So I carried a, um, little red notebook. In fact, I still have a red notebook that I carry with me all the time because I'm also, I'm also a writer, but I would carry this red notebook. And, um, at any point in the day when something positive happened and I, and here's what I believe in, and Dolly probably said something about this too. You get what you're looking for.

**[18:03]** Yeah. A hundred percent. And, and if, and if, and if, and if, and I was really purposeful about keeping a notebook with me so that if something, first of all, I think, I think in the old days, it's not, we, I mean, we use our smartphones, phones a lot more now than we did, but, you know, 12 years ago, it was, it was nice to have a notebook where you could write down, you know, I met, I met somebody, I was sitting on the plaza eating a Frito pie from the five and dime. And I met somebody from Dallas who's interested in the house. I can write, I can, I can say, you know, I've got this notebook. Can you write your name down? I did the same thing for anything that happened that I wanted to remember at the end of the day when I did my top three.

**[18:51]** I mean, you, you guys talk about a top three. Well, I would do the top three great things that happened. And I'm telling you, if you're looking for it, they show up and they should, you don't just get three, you get 12. And that was a real, you know, I hear a lot of people talk on programs like this and they give you sort of nebulous ideas of what to do with your time. But for me, it was really important to, you can, you know, we can create, create new neural pathways and people who have been sick, especially have to be, who have had some sort of an illness have to be careful about the neural or have had, who experienced deep loss, have to be careful about what sort of pathways they're creating, neural pathways they're creating and, and writing something down and then looking at it at the end of the day was, is really powerful because otherwise we tend to criticize and commiserate.

**[19:59]** And now I can't, I can't remember what the third C is, but complain. We, we're, we are built at the end of the day to come home and say to maybe, you know, if you're, I mean, I did end up married to the best guy in the world, but it would have been really easy to come home every day and say, you can't, you can't believe what these buyers are doing. We're in a market right now where all we, we could spend our whole day complaining about buyers. Right. I mean, cause people feel a little crazy right now. So you have to be, I work really hard with my team to say, let's, let's turn that, or let's figure out the thing that, that we want to celebrate because you get more of what you celebrate. And that's, I mean, I could sort of go on and on and riff on that just because I think it's important for your brain.

**[20:56]** Your brain finds what you tell it to look for. Well, you know, I think this is so true. I think the most common way to explain that and to talk about it is the whole, if you're thinking about buying a car and you've decided that you're going to drive by a Toyota Tacoma, for example, and that's become like, okay, I'm going to, I'm going to do that. I'm going to save up for that. You just start seeing them everywhere. And you just notice them like you didn't before. And that's the same, same kind of thing. Like they were always there. There's not that all of a sudden there's more of them. It's just that now your brain is, is cued in to see it. And it's the same thing with what, if you're tend to be a pessimistic person you're going to see all the negative stuff in that's happening around you.

**[21:37]** And it's not that it's not there, but this same, a different person with a positive mindset could see, just, just notice different things and why choose to be, see all the things and be depressed by them and then all that kind of stuff. If you can take some time to practice, like you're talking about gratitude, et cetera, to, to really see things in a, in a more positive light, I think it is definitely great for your, your psyche. There's another book called 4,000 weeks. I don't know if you've read that one, but it's really, it kind of, or have you seen the calendars? I had like the 4,000 week calendars that you kind of like, you can kind of start checking it down. Yeah. Checking off all the weeks that you've lived and you can see how many are left, which for most people sounds terrible and like, you know, like, like it's really anxiety provoking for some people, but the whole point, and this is also like kind of a, a stoic philosophy idea where you really have to not take anything for granted.

**[22:39]** Like you're not guaranteed time. And, and with that perspective that you should enjoy, you should appreciate the time you have. You know, there's things like, I don't know what the next, the, the, I'm not going to know when the last time I, my son's going to let me hold him, for example, right? He's four. And, and so like, I should, if I have that mindset, I can really appreciate the times that he's lets me hold him. Even though there's a lot of times where I'm like, oh my gosh, it's great. Right. You're so much right now. You're, you're a crazy kid. Um, and so I think it's just putting, I say this a lot, but like having a perspective of, you know, living intentionally, living a way that you, uh, you find, uh, how you defining the way you want to live your life.

**[23:27]** Because I think if you don't, then you'll just have life happen to you in this business. If you do, do have great success in it, it can, it can consume you. Um, and I think it's important to, uh, not lose sight of the forest for the trees. And I think these are some of the ways of practicing that. And I'm not saying I'm perfect at this. It's just, you know, things that we all can kind of strive towards. I do want to pivot a little bit, Bunny. I want to, um, ask you about how you have, um, built up some of the, the marketing things for your, for your area, for the relocation and, and kind of how you got into that space and what that looks like. Well, I be, uh, as I, I told you before we began this, I started blogging years ago and it really was more of an outlet.

**[24:13]** I had a great friend who said we should write blogs so that our kids will know us better when we're not here. I mean, it's a way of, of, um, saving our words. And then I, I, and then I wrote a book. Um, at the same time, I early on figured out that, um, we were going to live. And I, I mean, I, I, it just seemed that we were going to start living in much more of a digital space over time. And I was in a market when you, Santa Fe, New Mexico is a very, it was a closed market. It felt like a closed market when I came to town and I had already, I had already been blogging and I'd, you know, I had a Facebook page. Nobody knew what Instagram was when I first came here, but, um, I had a Facebook page where I had promoted my, I love New Mexico blog.

**[25:12]** And so I was accustomed to doing that. And I just thought, you know, the only way that I'm going to like break into this market where people have been in real estate since they were in high school, basically, I have a guy in my office who's been a realtor for 50 years this year. And he's one of the guys that I used to see when I would go into Keller Williams at eight 30 in the morning, he, his name is Paul Duran and he says, I invented real estate in Santa Fe, but I wasn't going to get Paul's clients. And I, and you know, he had been doing this forever. And so I thought, I've got to do this in a way that nobody else is doing it. So I created a digital presence that was blogs about the city still.

**[25:57]** And I still think that works. Um, I started doing, um, I started reaching, I didn't have, I didn't have a lot of listings, but I would say to realtors, can I promote your listing on my Facebook page? And just started building a following. And, and I say all that with, with some, um, caution. I don't want you to think that because I started doing this in 2014, it can't be done now. But I realized about, um, about the time that I moved to real broker, which was in June of 2023, I thought I need, um, I was working at the time, right? So I'm going to back up a little bit right before COVID. I was working with a young man who was brilliant. And we were going to do online courses for realtor marketing.

**[26:50]** And because I was, I had become sort of my market expert here on how to do videos and digital marketing. Well, you know, COVID happened. I couldn't let the videographer in my house. It got really weird. And, but, but I started doing it on my own. And, and there's this, you know, I'm not 22. I'm not, I don't, I, it was, it was hard for me to put my, you know, 60 year old face at the time. That's how old it was then is to put my face on a video and act like I was an expert. And, and yet what I did know, because I studied it all the time was that every, but people only want to know that they can trust you and that you're competent. It's the only thing they wanted. And so fast forward to 2003 and my, so, so here, I'm just going to be really frank about my numbers.

**[27:49]** And I don't even remember what I made in 2020 and 2021. I have to go back. But in 2023, when I decided to leave Keller Williams and go to real broker, my volume was 12.5 million. Um, not a lot in a market where there are a lot of million dollar homes, but that, that was my volume. And I was on my own, didn't have a team in 2024. It increased to 18.5. And in 2025, last year we bumped, we just got right over 30 million. Wow. And this year we're online, we're on, we're tracking to be at about 45 million. And I'm going to tell you 80, a little over 85% of my business comes from our digital presence. And in 2023, I hired a full-time marketing person because I thought I can't run this. It's a small team, have a small team of two other brokers and a transaction coordinator.

**[28:55]** But I thought I can't, I can't do the things I'm good at and also do the digital piece. So I hired a full-time marketing director and I'm getting a call every single day. Right before we started, I'm getting a call every single day from somebody who says, you know, I've been following you on Instagram or I saw your YouTube videos. Do you have time to talk to me? Which is a pretty exciting way to create business. I'm just being myself talking about a city I love. Yeah. Yeah. Tell us a little bit about what you're doing. So, uh, these people relocating to the area, I know we talked about that a little bit in the intro. I'm sure that it has a lot of different, you serve a lot of different people.

**[29:35]** Um, is that a big chunk of it? Is there a lot of relocation happening to your market? It's almost all, um, we're a second home market. Okay. Um, nobody really has to move to Santa Fe unless they're going to go to work at Los Alamos. We're really close to Los Alamos national labs, but this is a second home luxury market. Primarily. Um, I still love a first time home buyer because I like feeling like I helped a young family, um, get the dream. I mean, that's, it was so cool when I did it for myself, but, um, this is a second home luxury market. So nobody has to come here. These are people who tend to be long-term nurtures. You know, they come to visit three times, they fall in love with the city.

**[30:23]** Um, they, they're, they're following people online, you know, now that we're searchable on Instagram, they find me because I talk about the things that they care about. But this is in term, when you say relocation, it's really, um, the demographic is usually people 55 and older, but I also have some clients who are like 30 year old influencers who have made a pile of money and they want a second home in Santa Fe. So, so the relocation part is all luxury buyers who want a second home or they want a second home. That's going to eventually become their retirement home. Okay. And so you're, are, uh, doing, uh, you know, Instagram, Facebook, um, you mentioned to me before you have a podcast, uh, are you doing videos?

**[31:15]** Like what's the content you're putting out there? Weird. You know, I think that it's important to figure out what your lane is and stay in it. But we, so I do primarily Instagram that we also populate on Facebook, but some YouTube, I've got a guy on my team who's getting a call every day from YouTube videos. And he's a guy who said to me two years ago, I mean, he's, you know, like five, four, he's not a perfect weight. He's 67 years old. He said, I do not want to do a video. I don't want anybody to see my face. And I was like, Craig, just give it a shot. You've got the most trustable face in the world. And when people meet you, they're going to want to know what you look like. They're going to want to know that they're meeting a real person.

**[31:58]** And he's doing YouTube every day. He's, I say every day, I think he's doing four or five videos a week. And he's talking about things like, we're not talking about how we do real estate. We're talking about how you live in our city. Here are the best, here's the, here's the best golf course to try out. If this is your first visit, here's our favorite restaurant. Here's, we also have a really robust email marketing campaign and everybody should steal this right now. My daughter runs a, who is my marketing director, by the way, I hired my daughter who has an MBA and she's also a social worker, which is important in this business. But she does a Thursday email and e-blast to everybody in our database that says, here's, here are three cool things happening on Friday, three things on Saturday, three things on Sunday.

**[33:01]** Here are all the links. Here's what the weather's going to be. Be sure to bring your jacket because it's going to be cool this evening. And they're not things that you, I mean, they're unexpected events. Claude creates that for us. And, um, I haven't had anybody unsubscribe in the last three months. Okay. It's stuff they want to see. So, so, um, Instagram is, is where we're getting the most traction. Even though I only have 5,700 followers. Um, I mean, she posted, we created a video. She did. Let me give her credit. She created a video, um, two days ago that right now is we've got like 38,000 views. Wow. It's just about why Santa Fe is such a unique place to live. And it's, there's nothing magical about it.

**[33:54]** We buy some B-roll from a kid we know who walks around and does video downtown and does some drone work. It's, uh, it's just consistency. Yeah. You know, consistency wins. It really does. I think, uh, you really just putting yourself out there, um, consistently doing something consistently, you're going to start seeing results. Cause I, I, I've mentioned this a couple of times that I, I used to blog, didn't really get a huge amount of traction with it. But, uh, you know, I did post it on my Facebook every single time I wrote something. So it was three times a week, two times a week after I kind of slowed down a little bit. Um, and you know, I know that on my sphere all new and everybody in my Facebook, everybody in my Instagram, et cetera, knew that I was in real estate.

**[34:44]** And I think that, um, you know, whether or not they actually digested the content, I was consistently in their face, like, you know, I'm doing this, I'm serious about this. I'm, I'm expert in this, et cetera. So like, you know, uh, you do that for a few years and it really can help your business. It really doesn't hurt. No marketing is bad marketing. I think you'll know you've won when you go downtown to do something and somebody in a store will say, have I met you before? You're like, uh, uh, maybe, but probably not. Um, and I will say I, I, it's important for people who are, I mean, I'm 65 years old. I'm going to be 66 in December. And there are a lot of people in my demographic who have been in real estate forever that say, I, I, there's no place for me in that digital space.

**[35:37]** You know, I'm not, I don't know how to do what you do. And, um, I am an expert at starting over. I am again, I don't want to say starting over because it's not starting over suggests that you erase what you knew before starting again means you had a hit. You had not a hiccup. Maybe you had something huge and terrible happen, or you had a bad market. It's not failure. If you don't quit. I didn't say that. I don't know who said that, but I, but, um, Seth Gooden, I think said that. And, and so keep, keep moving and, um, know that you can start again every single day. If you're just consistent with what you're doing. I love it. It's really good advice. Um, bunny, what golden nuggets do you have for us, for our listeners?

**[36:31]** There's so many. I want, I want to be really transparent here. I, uh, I, my husband just passed away three months ago. Oh, I'm sorry. And, and I, and I, and I don't say, I, I appreciate you saying that, but there are things in your life that are going to knock you down and there, and, and, and, and you should deal with them. The, in the, in the best way that you know how, um, my best, one of my nuggets is find who your tribe, find your people and, and, and take good care of them and let them take good care of you. My team over the last year, while we were in this difficult medical space, and then Toby was sick. I still had the best year financially I'm ever going to have. And that's because I, I found my community and know who, know who your community isn't.

**[37:33]** Isn't, I mean, don't just, just focus on who your community is, but I did. Uh, and also have, have, you know, I talked about have a daily habit. This is number two, have a habit that is going to make things different for you. If you, if you need to make a change and, and what I, and when I talk about the red notebook, which I've got sitting on my desk right now, um, that's one piece of it. Have a place where you can record what's important to you and what you want to remember and what you want to say, thank you for what another, and this is a daily habit too. Every morning I say, thank you for the perfect clients that I get to meet and help every single day. And I'm going to tell you 98% of my clients are perfect.

**[38:23]** So, so that is the other one. That's, that's number two is have a daily habit that, um, that just teaches your heart and your head to keep showing up. Even when things feel like they're awful, whether it's an awful loss or an awful market or an awful buyer or seller, have something that root that, that, that, that gives you roots that can't be disturbed by a little bit or a lot of, um, I don't know. It's just hard times. Sometimes people get derailed and, and, and treat is, I, I, here's something really important. I learned recently, be careful of the questions you're asking subconsciously. Um, after my husband passed away, I've asked over and over, how am I going to survive this? Well, that I learned that's the wrong question because my brain kept trying to figure out how am I going to survive?

**[39:30]** How am I going to survive? And I realized that for me, the question needed to be, I needed to rephrase it. I, I know I'm going to survive it. People survive loss. People survive cancer. People survive a terrible market. But, but the other question I started asking myself was what am I going to build now that honors who I was in the past and, and who I'm going to be in the future and that honors my community and that honors this guy that I loved that I lost. It's so the question is not, how am I going to survive, but what am I going to create? And you're, and my brain is helping me figure that out. And so those are my nuggets is that you got to find, you got to find your community. You've got to be consistent with something every single day.

**[40:24]** And you've got to start asking the right questions so that your brain knows what to go looking for. You've, you've, you've definitely mastered, I think the art of priming your, your brain to really, uh, you know, see what, what you want it to, and, and to, um, you know, see the best, um, have the best outlook of, of life that you can and you've gone through a lot. So, you know, that's a really inspiring thing for a lot of people to hear. I'm sure, because a lot of people are going to be talking about, I got to make 10 phone calls today or whatever, you know, and hear, hear that, you know, okay, maybe I have it really good actually. And let's, let's try to train myself to, to, to be inspired by you and, and to, to, you know, you know, go out and be thankful for everything that they do have and, and the opportunity to make 10 phone calls and, and, and get some perfect clients.

**[41:21]** Right. Um, thank you. Uh, what about a, a book, a favorite book, uh, that you think everybody should read, um, or maybe just one that you're currently really enjoying. I have a book that I feel was life-changing and, um, I, it was so life-changing that I went and found the guy who wrote it and, um, did some work with him. Um, and, um, it's a little tiny book that I believe is 34 pages long called U Squared by Price Pritchett. Um, and it's you like Y-O-U and then a two, like, you know, instead of four squared, it's U squared. And it is, it, you know, this it's, it is the simplest, um, explanation of how we, it's, it's about how we, um, train ourselves and our, and our brains to make huge leaps that we, we tend to limit ourselves.

**[42:20]** We tend to think, um, how, I mean, I'm a farm girl from Northeastern New Mexico. What, what do I think I'm doing? Selling up upwards of $50 million in a market like this, where I didn't know anybody 12 years ago, but you, you can also find U Squared on, um, online. Price Pritchett is a guy from West Texas who was, who just figured out because he was a clinical psychologist, how our brain works and how we best train it and, and also have quality of life. That's important to us. Um, I'm, I can remember that when I studied with him, I remember writing down an aiming point of making $30,000 a month. And at the time I wrote it, I thought, who do I think I am? Who, I mean, what, who do I think I am that I could maybe make that kind of money?

**[43:16]** And we've gone way beyond that. And it, but it's not accidental. We have to be purposeful. We have to be purposeful about who we spend our time with and what we spend our time on and, and, um, how we run our business. And, and when you're purposeful, it's fun. I, I was going to quit. I was going to quit being a realtor three years ago. And instead I made a change to a, to a culture where it was more about collaboration and competition and, um, where I felt like being kind was the most purposeful thing that I could do. I love it. That's a new one. I have not heard of that one yet. So thank you for bringing that. Um, if people are, are curious about, you know, reading your book, um, and, uh, following you, uh, looking you up, if they want to move to Santa Fe, where can they find you?

**[44:09]** On Instagram. I'm just the real bunny, Terry Santa Fe. And I put the word real in there because that's the brokerage I'm with, but also because somebody hacked my, somebody took my name and started using it elsewhere. So the real, the real bunny, Terry Santa Fe on Instagram. My book is on Amazon. It's called life-saving gratitude by bunny, Terry, and I'm working on a second one and, um, having fun. So come and find me. Awesome. Well, bunny, thank you so much for being on the show. I do think it's really going to be inspirational for a lot of people listening. Well, I'm so, I'm so privileged to be here. Thank you so much. Thanks for listening to the REI agent. If you enjoyed this episode, hit subscribe to catch new shows every week.

**[44:58]** Visit REIAgent.com for more content until next time. Keep building the life you want. All content in the show is not investment advice or mental health therapy. It is intended for entertainment purposes only.

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