I have been reading a book by John Maxwell called Developing the Leader Within You. John spoke about influence and how it makes an impression on our everyday lives. He quotes, “No one can understand that mysterious thing we call influence… yet… everyone of us continually exerts influence, either to heal, to bless, to leave marks of beauty; or to wound, to hurt, to poison, to stain other lives.” Maxwell’s concept of influence extends beyond our awareness, shaping our choices and interactions every day. Recently, a simple trip to the grocery store underscored this truth for me The other day my husband and I went to a specialty grocery store to get a particular bread for an event. We bought 10 packages of this bread. The gentleman that was having his stuff checked stepped away for the register to add six packages of the same bread to his purchase. He told us that when he saw how many packages we were buying, he knew that bread must be really good! So, even though he didn’t know us at all, he was influenced by us enough to blindly buy the bread. At that moment, we were influencers and he imitated us