Being named Benefits Selling's 2012 Broker of the Yearwill always stand out as one of the highlights of my career. Withthis award came a ton of recognition, a great amount of newbusiness and a lot of pressure. Here are five things I've learnedsince receiving this honor.

The importance of employee education

During my first few years in the business, I felt like I wasalways trying to convince employers to have employees meet with abenefit counselor one-on-one. There always seemed to be some typeof pushback or reason why they couldn't. But since 2012 and PPACA,I've seen a complete change in mindsets. Through various methods,but mostly face-to-face, virtually all of my clients have us meetwith every single employee. This is a great time to educateemployees on exactly what is going on with their benefits packageand also allows employees to ask questions specific to theirindividual situations. I see this becoming more and more popular asthe landscape continues to change.