Secret Admirers.

Today's Marketing Cookie is about secret admirers.

You will never truly know how many people you have impacted. This weekend I represented the International board of directors for the American Marketing Association (AMA) in Chicago at their annual AMA Leadership Summit, akin to the Super Bowl for the world's best marketers. Late on Sunday morning, everyone regrouped in the ballroom for the final session, which featured a fantastic keynote by the very talented Sima Dahl. If you haven't heard her speak before, you are really missing something wonderful.

Sima electrified the audience with her spunk, filled the room with laughter, and created a glow of happiness that is probably still floating somewhere over Lake Michigan. She spoke about personal branding and how each of us has the capacity and capability to reinvent ourselves into whatever we wish. I have heard Sima speak before, and she always delivers an excellent message. Only this time, she told a touching story I had never known or heard before.

The story she told was about me. Five, six, or maybe seven years ago, I had a brief speaking part at the Leadership Summit, and Sima was seated in the audience. After 20 years as a senior corporate marketer, Sima was ready for a change. She said my name from the stage as the catalyst for her reinvention, and I was completely blown away! She explained to the audience that something I said from the podium caused her to consider my personal brand as part of a model for who she wanted to become.

I was profoundly honored.

Here I was watching Sima from the audience, adoring her sense of humor, and like the rest of the room, eagerly hanging on her every word. Truth be told, I had been admiring Sima from a distance for many years, religiously reading her columns in Marketing News Magazine, keeping up with her blog, and looking forward to hearing her speak whenever I had an opportunity. Meanwhile, all this time, I never knew that I had somehow inspired her to follow her heart and reinvent herself into perhaps one of the best public speakers on the circuit.

Profoundly honored, indeed.

The truth is, you may never know or fully understand whose life you have impacted. Your words, whether spoken or written, your attitude, your jokes, your bio, your work, are all part of how you might move, touch, and inspire others. The biggest impact your personal brand may have on other people is not so much about how they perceive you but also how they may choose to reinvent themselves. Either way, the world is watching. You should always strive to be at your best and stay on top of your game. You may not realize it, but it really could be as today's fortune says, "You have a secret admirer," and you may never, in a million years, ever guess who it is.