“Your energy is a luxury item—and not everyone can afford it.”
When Taylor Swift said this, it hit me right in the gut. Because it’s true: your energy, presence, and emotional labor aren’t disposable. They’re rare, valuable, and worth protecting.
In this episode, I share how I’ve learned to guard my energy in my photography business and life. From saying no to summer sessions that drained me, to slowing down during newborn shoots, to setting boundaries that honor my time and creativity, you’ll see how important it is to reframe the value of your energy for yourself and your clients.
What’s in this episode:
- [00:35] Why your energy is not cheap or disposable
- [02:12] How energy leaks show up in photography work and life
- [06:45] A personal story about saying “no” to client sessions for rest
- [12:20] How calming energy transformed a stressful newborn shoot
- [16:40] Practical ways to protect your energy as a photographer
Tune in to learn how protecting your energy helps you show up more fully as a photographer, create sustainably in your business, and live with intention.
SUBSCRIBE: Apple Podcasts | Spotify
Did this episode give you the encouragement you need to reframe the way you think about burnout? Check out this episode Balance, Burnout, and Boundaries: Creating a Fulfilling Photography Business with Dawn Charles that shares how another photographer started their career!
Transcript
[00:00:00] Hello my friend. Welcome back. So I’m really happy to be back recording again and I’m gonna be sharing with you a few more solo episodes. They’re gonna be little shorties, but they’re just messages that I have been either noodling on or just feeling that I need to share. So welcome back to the show. the other day I was listening to a podcast and Taylor Swift said something that made me stop in my tracks.
She said, your energy is a luxury item and not everyone can afford it. [00:01:00] And it honestly, it hit me right in the gut because that’s something I’ve been learning the hard way over the past few years. We can spend our energy on things that don’t necessarily deserve it, that hater, that posted something nasty on your recent post or that photographer that you might feel copies everything you do, or the client with the endless editing requests.
That you just can’t seem to make happy. So what Taylor meant with your energy as a luxury item, not everyone can afford it, is that your time, your attention and your emotional presence aren’t cheap, disposable things. They’re precious. They’re rare, and they’re deeply valuable. when we think of a luxury item, it’s something that’s not accessible to everyone.
It has to be cherished, invested in. And treated with respect. Taylor was essentially saying that our energy works the same way, and here’s how I’d break it down. Your [00:02:00] energy is valuable. It’s not just nice to have. This is the way you show up. Calm, creative, supportive, inspiring. It’s worth something. People feel your energy in a room.
It changes how they experience you, whether you’re on stage or in a meeting or in a photo session. Now if you give your energy freely to everyone, clients who drain you, people who don’t value your work, friends who just take advantage, you end up feeling just depleted. Treating your energy like a luxury means you get to choose where it goes and who it goes to instead of handing it out to anyone who asks.
Luxury items are rare and very carefully chosen, and your energy should be too. That means making more boundaries around your work and your relationships and your time. It means being intentional about who gets the best of you [00:03:00] and who doesn’t.
So in plain terms, she was reminding us that your energy is your currency. Don’t spend it where it’s not appreciated because the people who truly value you will be willing to pay for it. whether that’s with money, respect, or reciprocity, but even the mental energy, the time we spend thinking about our sessions, planning them, booking clients, shopping for props, thinking about editing like 50 times before we actually do it.
As photographers, our work isn’t just about the camera, the lens, or the lighting. We show up to our sessions with our whole selves, our calm, our humor, our patience, our creativity, our energy is what sets the tone for every single session. Now, a fussy baby feels your calm and settles. Kids can sense your playfulness, and suddenly they’ll let their guard down.
A mom who’s really [00:04:00] nervous about how she looks, starts to relax When you reassure her that she’s gorgeous you’re gonna take great care of her, that’s not luck and that’s not Photoshop. That is your energy at work. But here’s the thing, that energy costs something and it’s not infinite.
It’s not free. And if we’re not careful, we start spending it in places that drain us before we even get in the studio. Now, this for me came up this past summer. I had made the decision to not take clients in July or August, and on paper it didn’t really make sense. The sessions themselves wouldn’t have taken me that long, and the money was there, the inquiries were coming in.
But what I realized was the mental energy I was leaking was not worth the price I was charging. I’d spend days waiting for babies to arrive so I could schedule their sessions and I’d find myself checking and rechecking clients’, Facebook or their Instagram, just checking for updates.
I’d just be pulled [00:05:00] out of present moments with my own family because in the back of my head I was constantly running through the logistics of when the baby was coming and what I was gonna have to put off or reschedule to make it work. Even though the actual session might have only been a few hours, I was spending so much more time and energy worrying, waiting and anticipating, and even though I was charging decent prices for my time.
That unpaid mental load just wasn’t worth it anymore, and I wasn’t being present in my life, so I stopped. I gave myself permission to actually be off, and the relief my friends was so huge. It was like I could finally exhale after holding my breath for way too long. It gave me so much space this summer just to rest and reset.
And it really made me realize that if I’m going to give away my energy, it needs to be worth it. That leak that I’m having should be very, very expensive.
Now, I [00:06:00] saw this play out again in a newborn session not very long ago. The baby was just not having, it was just crying. she was just unhappy and totally And the parents were starting to get stressed, which I, we know, know. Can often make the baby more unsettled too. Now, in the past when I was first starting, I might have panicked a little internally thinking I needed to rush it or fix it or push through.
But instead, I actually just slowed myself down. I softened my breathing, sort of went to my zen place and I kind of just let the baby lead. And then within a few minutes the whole energy in the room shifted. The baby calmed down and I could see the parents relaxing and we got all the images we wanted, and that wasn’t a trick.
It wasn’t a magic swaddle. That was purely my energy, and I think that’s why Taylor’s words resonated so deeply with me. If your energy really is a luxury item, then not everyone should have unlimited access to it. Not every client gets [00:07:00] to drain you. Not every request deserves a yes.
Luxury means rare, valuable, and intentional. So for me, protecting my energy looks like shooting more with intention instead of overshooting, because sometimes for me, overshooting just isn’t extra files. It’s actually hours of my life that are gone in culling and editing. It looks like leaving more buffer time between sessions, so I’m not racing from one to the next, or appointments it’s about being clear about who my ideal client is, so the people walking in my studio are the ones who actually value what I do. And yes, it looks like charging in a way that reflects not just my time, but the emotional labor of holding space for families, newborns, and all the dynamics that come with that.
And I know it can feel hard. Saying no isn’t easy. Protecting your energy can be a little uncomfortable, especially if you’re used to putting everyone else first or worried [00:08:00] about missing out. But my friend, here’s the truth. Every time you give away your energy without thought. You’re teaching people how little it’s worth, and every time you protect it, you’re creating more space for yourself, your family, and your creativity.
That’s not selfish. It’s sustainable. So if this episode resonated with you, just take a moment to think about what it means in your own life. Where are you leaking energy? Where do you need to pull back? Where do you need to give yourself more permission to rest? Because your energy really is part of your art.
It’s part of what makes you the photographer you are. So protect it, nurture it, and only give it where it really matters. And thank you truly for spending some of your energy here with me today. I really don’t take it lightly. Until next time, I’m sending you so much of my light [00:09:00] and love. We’ll see you next time.
