My name is Marybeth, and I hail from Austin, Texas. Since childhood, I’ve always loved meeting new people, building connections, and helping others. I’m an assertive, friendly, fun-loving person, and my happiest moments are still the simple ones—spending time with my caring husband and our two children. In 2006, I obtained my Property & Casualty producer license and took the leap of starting my own independent insurance agency.
Being an independent agency owner in today’s market comes with its own set of challenges. I was doing a decent amount of business, mostly by getting out there, meeting people, and helping them with their insurance needs. But as the agency grew, I began to realize what “running an agency” really meant. Renewals, endorsements, reshop quotes, COIs, claims follow-up, phone calls—the admin work never seemed to end.
Every minute spent buried in paperwork was a minute I wasn’t selling, serving clients, or growing my book of business.
When My Agency Started To Cost Me My Life?
Before long, my agency demanded 15+ hours of my day, almost every single day. The workload began to spill into every corner of my life. I couldn’t focus on my kids, my husband, my home, or even my own inner peace. I was answering phone calls during off hours, early in the morning, and late into the evening. I loved helping people—but I didn’t love doing it at the cost of sacrificing my family and myself.
My mentor, who also owned an insurance agency, suggested I hire an account manager to handle office chores so I could reclaim some time for my family. I took that advice seriously. I interviewed many candidates and eventually hired Abby, who had experience working for a large independent agency. She was capable and familiar with the work, but we lacked proper processes and workflows. I spent weeks training her and getting her up to speed. She did well—until she received another offer and decided to relocate. Overnight, all those weeks of training were gone, and I was back to square one.
Ironically, hiring that account manager had helped me double my business, but I was once again left to manage everything alone. The result? I canceled our Christmas vacation. I missed my kids’ school events. Emotional distance grew between my husband and me, and dissatisfaction turned into arguments and frequent fights.
Scaling the Team… and the Stress
Determined to fix things for my family, I decided to hire another account manager and a customer service representative to support the account manager, even though I knew it would cut into my profit margins. It was a good business decision, but it increased my expenses, and I was fully aware that, like Abby, any of them could leave for another agency. Still, I went ahead, hoping to make it right this time.
That year, we closed around $4 million in premium, and the business continued to grow. My team expanded to 10 people: producers, account managers, an office manager, CSRs, and a receptionist. I paid my team well and genuinely loved them like family. I was willing to sacrifice profits to buy more time for my real family. But constant staff turnover and the cost of onboarding and training new people were quietly killing my efforts.
Onboarding fresh staff is always time-consuming and expensive, especially in an insurance agency. My loyal team members started complaining about the heavy workload and the never-ending paperwork. During one of our daily meetings, my teammate Shelly mentioned the idea of hiring remote staff to cut costs and support our account managers with back-office tasks.
I decided to explore the idea of a virtual assistant. We booked a discovery call and were shocked by the hefty setup fees and high monthly costs. A US insurance professional served as our consultant, and her fee was bundled into the package. I still signed a year-long agreement, hoping it would be worth it. In the beginning, things looked promising. My team spent hours on calls with the consultant and even worked overtime to keep up with daily work while doing all the training.
My First VA Experience: More Work, Not Less
Eventually, we were assigned virtual assistants who had been “trained” by the consultant. But soon it became obvious they needed weeks of handholding and checked back with us on almost every activity. We were under contract, so walking away wasn’t simple. I didn’t want my team wasting their time training the VAs, so I took over the training myself.
I’m quick to learn, and it didn’t take me long to realize what was really happening: the VA had memorized the processes and terminology but didn’t understand the logic behind the work. That became the biggest challenge. The VA checked back with me on almost everything he processed—it felt like double work. My team started bringing me complaints about inaccuracies and inconsistencies in the VA’s work. Eventually, I had no choice but to terminate the contract early, and I even had to pay extra for ending it before the agreed period.
Then, life hit even harder. One day, I was shaken to my core when I received a petition for divorce from my husband, citing the growing distance between us and my constant absence from family life. Now I was struggling on both fronts—personally and professionally. All my efforts to make peace with him failed. He wanted me to be present for the family and sell the agency.
I couldn’t imagine selling something I had built with my own blood and sweat. I couldn’t see myself walking away from my agency, my team, or the insureds who trusted me. These were some of the hardest moments of my life. All I could do was pray that somehow things would settle down and return to normal.
Hitting Rock Bottom and Discovering a New Option
That moment felt like something out of a Marvel movie—like Thanos had snapped his fingers and my whole world was starting to disappear. I was watching everything slip away at once: my money, my clients’ trust, and the people I loved most. That’s when I started seeing a relationship counselor. I opened up about my situation—my workload, my family struggles, and my fear of losing my business.
During one of our sessions, she mentioned that she used a company called Agency Boost to handle her own daily schedule, appointments, travel, patient follow-ups, and more. She said the arrangement made her life easier and added real value to her business. She also casually mentioned that Agency Boost provided experienced staff for P&C insurance agencies. But at that moment, I was overwhelmed and still burned from my previous VA experience, so it didn’t fully register with me.
Later, when I felt like I was truly taking my last shot, I decided to look them up online. I called the number on their website and spoke with someone who was incredibly professional, listened carefully, and scheduled a call with their team of experts.
During the discovery call, I was pleasantly surprised by their level of knowledge and experience with US-based insurance agencies. They followed the same best practices we did, had standard workflows, and clearly understood how agencies operate. I was given the option to interview the staff in advance and even test working with my selected person for a month completely free before committing. There were no hefty onboarding fees and no long-term contracts. That felt fair—and, honestly, like my last real chance.
I interviewed my dedicated VA in-depth on processes and tested his understanding of insurance, not just his ability to repeat terms. I was impressed, and I decided to move forward with Agency Boost.
Onboarding With Agency Boost: This Time, It Was Different
The onboarding process was smooth and fast. I chose my client partner, and within a week, he was already delivering results. There were no errors, the attention to detail was impressive, and—most importantly—he came back with logic and possible solutions, not just questions.
Today, I use Agency Boost client partners to oversee my entire back office and manage my agency management system. I have dedicated client partners for both personal lines and commercial lines. Every client partner on my team has worked in high-paced agency environments and has strong operational skills with AMS platforms and other tools.
Agency Boost provides reliable, trained virtual assistants who specialize specifically in insurance agency back-office work, including:
- Policy Administration: Setting up a prospect in the system, quoting, binding, and policy issuance
- Policy Changes, Loss Runs, Audit Assistance and Cancellations
- Claims follow-up and status tracking
- Certificates of Insurance (COIs)
- Inbound and outbound phone support (Pre-Sales)
- Insurance Accounting, Commissions, and Bookkeeping.
- Data entry, CRM updates, and more
Agencies choose to partner with Agency Boost because:
- They offer insurance-trained VAs, not generic assistants who need months of handholding
- Support is reliable and consistent, with dedicated staff rather than gig-economy turnover
- The service is scalable—agencies can ramp up during renewal season and scale back afterward
- It is cost-effective, reducing overhead without sacrificing quality
Getting My Time, My Family, and Myself Back
I started my agency to write business and serve clients—not to drown in admin work. With Agency Boost handling my operations, I finally regained control of my time. I work according to a schedule that fits my life, not the other way around. I no longer work overtime and often enjoy a four-day workweek. My husband withdrew the divorce petition, and our relationship began to heal.
I also rediscovered my love for travel. My family has traveled to Europe, the Middle East, and Singapore in the past year. I’ve also attended the Applied Net Conference in Las Vegas in both 2025 and 2026 with my team. As I write this story on my Apple MacBook Pro, I’m mid-air on my way to the Galápagos Islands with my husband and two kids for a two-week vacation.
Agency Boost has become a true growth catalyst for my agency. They run the operational side of the business so well that my team and I can focus almost entirely on selling policies and writing new business.
If they are managing my operations, what am I doing?
Surprisingly, I am finally doing what I set out to do in the first place: taking care of my clients, growing my book, and living a life I’m proud of—both as an agency owner and as a wife and mother.
From your perspective as a reader and fellow agency owner, which part of this journey resonates the most with you—the staffing struggles, the work–life imbalance, or the relief of finally finding the right support?
