Agency Nation Meets: Sarah Muniz

• May 1, 2023

By Agency Nation

Get to know the individuals that ignite the insurance industry as they answer our icebreaker questions.

Sarah Muniz started in the insurance industry in 2001 as a customer service representative. From there, her career expanded into sales and technology roles. Along the way, she heard complaints about the lack of talent available in the insurance industry. While listening to these complaints, she couldn’t help but wonder: If there’s a lack of talent, why are so many women having a hard time moving into leadership positions?

In 2019, Muniz founded Undiscovered Voices, a company designed to help insurance companies tap into the talent right under their nose. She is a researcher, advocate and speaker on a mission to help the industry thrive by promoting more women into leadership positions. In 2020, she published “Undiscovered Voices: Unlocking the Potential of Women in Insurance.”

Sarah, thanks for joining us! We’ll start with one of our favorite questions. What was the most embarrassing moment in your life?

When I used to wait tables, we had specials every day. This particular day, it was soup and salad. While leaning over to place a soup in front of one person at a table, I accidentally poured the soup that was in my other hand down another’s back. When she yelped, I panicked, pulled the soup away and spilled the other soup into the first person’s lap. Each time I recoiled, I spilled more soup on someone. This happened a few more times until everyone at the table told me to stop moving and back away from the table. When I went back into the kitchen, my manager was hysterically laughing at me.

Hopefully you can laugh about it now! Do you ever wish you had any souperpowers? Ahem … I mean superpowers?

Telepathy. That would make selling products to others so much easier.

It’d certainly put a different spin on remote work. Apart from carrying liquids around groups of people, do you have any fears or phobias?

I’ve been afraid of clowns since I was young. It’s a ton of fun to take me to the circus.

I can’t help but imagine you spinning plates in a circus now. Have you ever met a famous person?

Bryan Adams. In college, I worked as an intern for an advertising agency that represented DreamWorks. He was one of the celebrities we represented at the junket. He was super nice and much shorter than I thought he’d be.

So, who was your first celebrity crush?

Slater from “Saved by the Bell”—mullet and all. People know him as Mario Lopez now.

Those were the days. If you could stop aging at any age, what age would it be?

30 years old. I feel like you’re grown up enough to have a career and a family and become financially stable while still being young enough to have tons of energy to enjoy it.

And what was the moment you realized you were an adult?

It was probably the day I gave birth to my first daughter. What’s funny is that, now that she’s 18 years old, she seems more adult than I am.

Last question. Speaking of being grown-up, what’s the most used emoji on your phone?

A smiley face. Mainly because I want to sign off smiling every time I leave a message.

You certainly did that! Thanks, Sarah!

This is a new monthly column for Independent Agent magazine and iamagazine.com. To be featured, email hello@agencynation.com.