When it comes to legacy, there’s a question worth asking: Are your clients living a legacy, or leaving one?
It’s more than clever phrasing. It’s a mindset that can transform how you guide people through memory-keeping, storytelling, and legacy projects.
Living a Legacy vs. Leaving a Legacy
In a recent episode of Sixty & Sassy, LIFEazine co-founder Gonny Gutierrez and her friend Karen reflected on two powerful ways of thinking about legacy:
- Leaving a legacy often means the tangible treasures families hold onto after someone is gone – letters, photos, recordings, memoirs, or a professionally designed life story magazine.
- Living a legacy is about the choices people make now: starting meaningful traditions, writing annual letters, recording memories as they happen, or capturing milestones before they fade.
Both matter. Many people don’t realize they can—and should—do both.
Why This Matters for Legacy Professionals
Whether you’re a photo manager, writer, memoir coach, genealogist, or life story facilitator, you’re not just handling “content.” You’re helping people capture the essence of a life.
Framing your work around living vs. leaving a legacy allows you to:
- Deepen conversations. Ask bigger questions that spark reflection, not just project checklists.
- Expand services. Move beyond organizing or writing into creating experiences, keepsakes, and traditions.
- Offer meaningful outcomes. Give clients something they can enjoy now as well as something they can pass down later.
Reflection Prompts for Clients
Here are a few simple questions to spark dialogue with your clients, no matter your role:
- “What do you want your loved ones to feel when they revisit your photos, stories, or keepsakes?”
- “If we captured your life story today, what one tradition, value, or moment must be included?”
- “Are you focused more on creating something to live with now, or to leave behind—or maybe both?”
How LIFEazine Can Help
As you support clients in capturing their legacies, you don’t have to do it all yourself. That’s where LIFEazine comes in:
- Done-For-You Storytelling & Design
We interview, write, design, and deliver polished, print-ready life story magazines—plus shareable digital flipbooks. Perfect if you want to focus on your core expertise while offering clients a professional storytelling product. - Canva Template Shop (For DIY + Pros)
Ready-made magazine templates (Anniversary, Milestone, Celebration of Life, Decades of Me, and more). Flexible enough for professionals, simple enough for families. Great for quick projects or as an add-on to your existing services.
Your Next Steps
- Listen to the episode: Living vs. Leaving a Legacy — a meaningful conversation starter you can even share with clients.
- Done-For-You Services – White-label storytelling, writing, design, print + flipbook, delivered for your clients.
- Canva Template Shop – Beautiful, flexible templates to turn stories and photos into finished keepsakes.
Tip: Share the podcast link with your network and ask: “Do you see yourself living a legacy, leaving one, or both?” Their answer is the perfect opening to introduce your services.
Final Thoughts
Legacy isn’t just about what we leave behind. It’s about how we live right now.
As professionals in the legacy space, we can help clients do both. By weaving the idea of living and leaving a legacy into our conversations, we elevate our role from service providers to memory keepers, guides, and legacy builders.
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