Aaron Bunnell was in the final semester of his master's degree in voice at UMKC, gearing up for a main stage opera, a recital, and symphony performances, when COVID shut all of it down. He was working as a pharmacy technician for $18 an hour to pay for it. A coworker had just cleared a $10,000 commission on one house and put in his two weeks. Aaron had been half-heartedly clicking through real estate licensing videos at night with a three dollar bottle of wine from Trader Joe's, thinking the test seemed easy. Little did he know.

Five years later he is a Kansas City agent on the Homes By Brandy team at Keller Williams Overland Park, closing roughly $10.5 million across 34 units in 2025. He still sings every week at St. John's off Ward Parkway, in a church choir where everyone holds at least a master's in voice.

It did not come fast. He grew up in a small East Texas town with ex-military parents who told him plainly that anything past high school was on him. His first year in real estate he sold eight homes while still working the pharmacy, waking up at 4:30am to grab the only 15-minute showing slots COVID allowed. Year two nearly ended it. Four straight months with no closings, credit card debt, student loans, no savings, and a partner covering the bills. Then he saw a post on the office Facebook page from Brandy Hensley looking for someone to join Homes By Brandy. Three interviews later he closed $4 million in six months and paid off $15,000 in credit card debt. He has grown 25 to 30 percent every year since.

In this conversation, Aaron Bunnell and host Genevra Collins get into:

• Choosing music over med school, and telling parents who had no money for college
• Why COVID forced him to put a decade of vocal training on the back burner, and why he refused to let it go completely
• Finding a mentor the old-fashioned way: 50 people applied, 3 picked up the phone, and he was one
• The four-month drought, and what it felt like to let his partner cover the bills
• Why the teams he interviewed with gave him the ick, and what was different about Brandy's
• Answering emails in the shower, and the boundary conversation that saved his business and his relationship
• Setting goals by what balance actually feels like, not by where you land on the leaderboard
• Appearances versus real financial independence in the gay community
• What he would tell a new agent, and what he wants to be remembered for

This episode is for anyone in a creative career wondering how to make it pay, new agents wondering if the drought ever ends, and anyone still trying to fix everything themselves instead of asking for help.

Connect with Aaron Bunnell on Facebook and Instagram, or find him at a Mid-America LGBT Chamber event.

The Red Chair is hosted by Genevra Collins, CEO and Team Leader of Keller Williams Overland Park. New episodes drop every other Wednesday. Follow the show so you don't miss the next one.