The other day, I ran into Mike Smith, president of The Brokerage, Inc., a general agency based in Lewisville, Texas. Mike was a speaker at the 2010 Benefits Selling Expo, and made the tough decision to skip this year’s conference after getting an invitation to attend the Masters (I don’t think anyone would fault him for that).

The first thing Mike asked me was, “How was the mood?” The 2010 Expo, you might recall, was held just weeks after the passage of the health reform legislation, and everyone at the event looked like their dog just died. The overall feel was very negative – most attendees weren’t yet ready to move on; instead, they just wanted to complain.

One year later, in answer to Mike’s question, the mood at the expo was completely different. Brokers had survived the first year of health reform, stopped complaining, and began to focus on all of the opportunities created by the legislation. Their overall attitude was surprisingly optimistic. I witnessed a new theme emerging — a new game plan for brokers, if you will.