Three Ways to Own Your Story (Without Chasing the Feed)

Elize Fisher · Founder, Publisher & Editor-in-Chief, WorkingMama®

WorkingMama® in reader's hands at Exclusive Books, where the stories we publish become part of something lasting. Photography: MarkedLense: Tara-May Saunders

The first time WorkingMama® appeared in print, in 2023, I was proud of what I had created. But that was not the moment when I understood that this work could become a legacy.

That feeling came on a Friday evening in August, at the launch of our print copies at Exclusive Books. Seeing the magazine physically on the shelves changed something for me. A publication I had worked to build now had a place where someone could discover it, pick it up and take it home.

I knew then that this was a legacy being built.

For a founder, it is easy to become absorbed in whatever needs attention next. You finish one task and immediately see another. There is always something to write, organise, check or share. You can spend so much time keeping the work moving that you rarely pause to recognise what it is becoming.

That evening gave me a reason to pause. It also helped me think differently about what it means to own your story.

We often talk about visibility as though the aim is simply to be seen more often. But I want the work behind WorkingMama® to mean something beyond the moment in which somebody encounters it. I want women’s stories to have a place, and I want the care that goes into telling them to be evident.

These are three ways I am learning to approach that.

1. Own your story by giving it a lasting home

There is value in sharing your work on social media. It can introduce people to what you do and help a conversation begin. But the pace of a feed can make everything feel temporary. You share something important, then the next post is already waiting.

A lasting home for your story gives people somewhere to return when they want to understand it more fully. That might be a magazine, a website, an article archive or a portfolio. The format will depend on your work. What matters is that the story has room to be understood.

For me, print made that idea tangible. Seeing WorkingMama® on the shelves helped me recognise that the magazine could travel beyond my own explanations of it. Someone could encounter the publication without having followed every step of its development.

You do not have to create a magazine to do this. You can start by giving your most meaningful work a clear home. Bring together the projects, experiences and ideas that show what you stand for. Make them easy to find and give them enough context to be useful.

A social post can lead someone there. The story itself deserves enough space for them to stay.

Giving women’s stories space, on the page and on the shelf. Photography: MarkedLense: Tara-May Saunders

2. Own your story by sharing what the achievement meant

A finished product is only part of a founder’s story. There is also the work of becoming someone who can bring it into the world.

When I speak about WorkingMama®, I can point to the magazine and the milestones. But the meaning of those milestones becomes clearer when I explain what they meant to me. The first print launch in 2023 and the later moment at Exclusive Books are both important. They did not carry the same feeling.

I would lose something true if I simply described every launch as the moment I knew I was building a legacy. That realisation came later. Allowing the story to unfold honestly makes room for growth.

You can do the same when you share your own work. Explain why a particular moment mattered, what you understood differently afterwards, or what you are still learning. You do not need to reveal every private detail to give someone an honest account.

There is often pressure to present a neat success story. Real work rarely develops so neatly. Sometimes the meaning of an achievement only becomes clear once you have lived with it for a while

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Your perspective is part of the story. Give it space alongside the announcement.

3. Decide what you want your work to leave behind

The word legacy can sound too large for everyday work. Yet the question behind it is practical: what do you want people to carry with them after encountering what you have built?

For WorkingMama®, I want women’s experiences to be treated as stories worth telling and keeping. I want the publication to reflect the fact that a woman’s work, motherhood and ambitions belong within the same life.

That intention helps me think about the choices in front of me. It gives me something to return to when the pressure to keep producing becomes louder than the reason I began.

Your own answer may be different. You might want your work to make someone feel understood, teach something useful or open a door for another person. Naming that intention can help you decide which opportunities deserve your time.

It also gives you a way to recognise progress that does not depend entirely on the response to your latest post.

I still have work to do, and WorkingMama® is still being built. But I now have that Friday evening to return to: the magazine on the shelves, and the understanding that what I was creating could last.

To own your story, begin by recognising its value yourself. Then choose how to tell it, where to give it a home and what you hope it will leave behind.