Happy, Healthy, & Wealthy Therapists | Ep 3: Can Private Pay Work in a Small Town?

Released: 12/12/2025

In this conversation, Amanda Buduris interviews Danielle Sampson, a licensed clinical social worker specializing in complex trauma. Danielle shares her journey from working in a group practice to establishing her own private pay therapy practice. She discusses the challenges and misconceptions surrounding private pay therapy, the importance of marketing and SEO, and how she has successfully transitioned her practice to better serve her clients and community. Danielle also emphasizes the significance of transparency and trust in her work with clients and fellow therapists, as well as the emotional journey of increasing her rates and the positive responses from clients. She concludes with advice for therapists on networking and putting their authentic selves into their marketing efforts.

About Danielle Sampson

Daniel Stoner Sampson, LCSW, PMHC is a complex trauma therapist, private practice owner, speaker, and the founder of Small Town SEO, an SEO and website development company by therapists, for therapists. She helps clinicians in lower cost-of-living areas build sustainable private-pay practices through ethical SEO marketing, while also supporting LGBTQ+ clients, perinatal and postpartum individuals, and recovering people-pleasers in her therapy work using schema therapy and EMDR. Daniel lives in Buffalo, New York with her husband and two cats.

3 Key Takeaways:

1. Private pay can work—even in small towns—when you specialize, communicate your value clearly, and let clients decide what they’re willing to invest in.
2. Raising rates and reducing caseloads doesn’t just improve income; it creates the capacity to do better clinical work, expand creatively, and give back in meaningful ways.
3. A values-forward, transparent website and SEO strategy can quietly become your most sustainable, low-burnout marketing tool—without relying on social media or hustle.
   

Connect with Amanda:

• Follow on Instagram: @amandakbcoaching
• Check out the Amanda KB Coaching website

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Sponsors:

• This episode is sponsored by Jane – use code: AMANDA2MO for a 2-month grace period

Resources & Links:

SEO for Therapists Membership

Therapy Intensives Academy

Happy, Healthy, & Wealthy Mastermind

Free Training: 3 Steps to Booking Your First Therapy Intensive

Free Guide: 3 Steps to Double Your Income

SEO Freebie

Just a quick heads up, everything I share in this podcast is for informational and educational purposes only. It’s not legal advice, financial advice, or tax advice. Every practice and every state has its own rules. So if you’re wondering how something applies to your situation, make sure to check in with an attorney, accountant, or another qualified professional who can give you guidance based on your specific circumstances.

Transcript:

Amanda Buduris (00:03)
All right, welcome, Danielle. I’m so excited to have you today. Yeah, I would love if you can introduce yourself to the listeners, share a little bit about what you do, where you’re located, and just anything you want to share.

Danielle Sampson (00:05)
Yeah, thanks for having me.

Yeah. So, ⁓ my name is Danielle Sampson. I’m a licensed clinical social worker and I’m based in Buffalo, New York. I am licensed in New York and Pennsylvania. so I’m a therapist specializing in complex trauma with individuals and couples, particularly in the LGBT population and perinatal population, kind of like where those overlap. ⁓ I also

have kind of been expanding into guest speaking. spoke at a conference recently or two conferences this year. ⁓ and I am now also helping other, ⁓ therapists with their SEO, website development, SEO, kind of improving their websites, and helping them kind of transition from insurance to private pay. So I wear a lot of hats.

Amanda Buduris (01:09)
I’m really excited about.

Yeah, yeah, I’m so excited about all the hats that you’re wearing because probably like two years ago, you wouldn’t have even imagined that you were gonna be wearing all these hats. were just, tell the audience, I know a little bit about your story, but tell the audience kind of what, where were you even just like a year or two years ago? And why did you ultimately decide like, I need something different here.

Danielle Sampson (01:32)
Yeah. So, um, I had been working at a group practice, um, starting in 2021, um, until I got my full license, um, in 2023. And then I had, I had kind of decided I was going to go out on my own. Um, and that group practice as well as my, like private practice when I first started were fully insurance based. Um, I took like five insurances. Um, and I had really struggled with like.

I need to, I need to make a good living. You know, obviously I want to, you know, achieve some financial goals. ⁓ I paid for, ⁓ most of my wedding, you know, like using basically working, you know, 25 to 30 client sessions a week. Plus then obviously admin stuff on top of that, ⁓ to make sure that I could like pay for things like that and try to save for house and things like that, you know? So I was really.

just kind of exhausted and burnt out. I have some chronic health issues and so that was kind of also playing a factor of like, I can’t sustain this pace any longer. then I kind of obviously found your program last May. Yeah, so it’s been like a year and a half. And that was when I kind of made the decision, okay, I’m gonna start transitioning off of some insurance panels and kind of see what happens. ⁓

And so that was a year and a half ago. ⁓ I was charging like one 20 a session, I think, for an hour, including for couples. and now, you know, a year and a half later, I charged two 50 for couples and I’m almost fully private pay. I, I do take one insurance. ⁓ but that’s mostly my choice. It’s not because I financially need to. So, ⁓ yeah, so really just kind of.

transitioning my model and, you know, accepting private pay and raising my rates has also allowed me the space to kind of do some other things, including, ⁓ I offer completely free gender affirming care letters, for folks in New York and Pennsylvania. So, you know, a lot of people charge, you know, potentially hundreds of dollars for those. And I don’t, I, know, obviously everyone can make their own business decisions, but you know, this is something that’s important to me for equity and.

know, especially with our current political climate. So that’s something that I can do now fully, you know, fully free of charge because I charge premium rate in other areas.

Amanda Buduris (04:15)
which I think is just so, so cool. Number one of everything you’ve accomplished and everything that you’ve done with your business and what your business has helped you do in life and how your business and life give back to your community too. Because I think that’s such a misunderstood point when a lot of people hear about private pay fees and premium fees. They think like the therapists are just in it to like rack up as much money as possible, but you’re here like, yeah, money’s great. And…

here’s this thing that I’m able to do for free for people and I get to give back to the community, support the community, and especially, like you said, in a time when it is very, very needed. And so you actually get to be more of yourself and who you wanna be and how you wanna be because you made some scary jumps in the past year and a half.

Danielle Sampson (05:02)
Yeah, definitely.

Amanda Buduris (05:05)
And one thing that we talked about as we were getting to know each other, you’re in a small city in New York. You’re not here in New York City trying to charge $250 and above. And you had a lot of concerns around like, is anyone actually going to pay a premium fee for therapy? So what was that like for you as you kept bumping your fee up and up and seeing people were like, yeah, I’ll pay that. That’s fine.

Danielle Sampson (05:28)
Yeah, I mean, it is, it is really interesting, not only just the reaction from clients, but also from other therapists in the, in my community. Right. So like, you know, I feel like there are a lot of misconceptions about, no one in this area will pay privately. Right. Even if you’re charging 150 or 140 or whatever, which a lot of people in this area do charge, right. For individual therapy, you know, and, and

there was a lot of like negative kind of misconceptions from other therapists as I was kind of taking these jumps, you know, and, that obviously adds to that voice in your head. That’s like, I can’t do this, you know. but as I kind of started to invest more time and effort into like my website, my SEO, you know, really like specializing, ⁓ you know, making it clear that I specialize in.

certain areas, you know, I feel like people kind of understood that like, wow. Like I do really see results, you know, whether it’s from, ⁓ you know, this couple referred me to you and they said that you saved their marriage or whatever, you know, whether it’s like that kind of testimonial or just seeing on my website, like, wow. You know, she got to speak at the postpartum support international conference this year. Like that.

is a really big deal and I want to work with her because she’s specialized in this area. So I feel like that, all of those things, which again, when I wasn’t seeing 30 clients a week, I had more time to write up a proposal to speak at the PSI conference. So obviously I had no time or energy or space for those things when I was seeing 30 clients a week. And I just feel like I’m doing better work now.

Amanda Buduris (07:09)
Yeah.

Danielle Sampson (07:20)
You know, so I have been able to kind of, you know, even clients that I see on insurance or I was seeing on insurance previously have now come back for intensives or, you know, or like adding in intensives to the insurance work. Right. And that’s because they’re seeing the results that they’re getting, but they’re also like needing more. And they’re like, Hey, I really need more progress than what an hour can provide. You know, so out of I’ve done.

Intensives with like five people this year, I think, and four of them were previously insurance clients. So, you know, even just kind of seeing how like you can add in intensives to make more income and also to make more impact with clients. You know, I feel like that’s kind of helped people to see, okay, maybe insurance doesn’t have to be the end all be all.

Amanda Buduris (08:15)
Yeah, yeah, it makes sense when you know, the economy is also on fire and it’s gonna always go through cycles of not being fantastic. It makes sense where people want to be smart and strategic with their money. And people find flexibility in different ways. People who might prefer like, okay, yeah, it would be great if it was only a $20 copay or whatever. They will if they see value in something and they see value and like

Well, Danielle has been so helpful in this. Like, wow, if I had multiple hours, like imagine what could happen. Like it just gives them so much more confidence in they’re not just throwing their money away. They are literally investing it in themselves and their health and in their wellness.

Danielle Sampson (08:57)
Mm-hmm. Yeah, absolutely.

Amanda Buduris (09:00)
Yeah. Did you ever have, knowing that you charge quite differently than from people in your small town with your clients, how did they react as you were getting off of insurance panels, raising your rates, talking about these intensives? Like, was there any backlash? Cause I know a lot of therapists worry about that.

Danielle Sampson (09:18)
Yeah, they’re like, I definitely lost a few clients for sure. And I also think it was a really good opportunity for some of the clients that I’d had for a really long time to pursue other options. So for example, like, you know, maybe I had said clinically, I thought it was best for someone to see like an OCD specialist or an eating disorder therapist, ⁓ both of which I don’t specialize in and

People had kind of been like, no, I don’t want to move. I’m comfortable here. Right. But then those folks then made that decision. Okay. Well, it’s either pay, you know, at the time I, when I transitioned off insurance, I was charging 175. So, you know, like I could pick 175 for someone who doesn’t specialize in this, but who feels comfortable, or I could go somewhere else and find that specialist. Maybe this is the kick in the pants that I needed.

to go find a specialist. So I do feel like that was positive. And then the clients that stayed, a lot of them were like, yeah, I’m happy for you. know, like I’m happy you’re going to be paid better for what you do because you make such an impact on my life, you know, that like, I want you to be paid fairly, you know, and especially I would like kind of.

Amanda Buduris (10:23)
Hmm.

Danielle Sampson (10:36)
Mentioned to a few clients, especially I have a few therapists on my caseload. So I would mention like, yeah, I’ve had like some pretty significant clawbacks and that was one of the main reasons why I stopped taking a specific company’s insurance. Right. And so, you know, they of course understand that because ultimately it is a business decision. So, you know, I feel like overall people, even the people who left were understanding, you know, and, and I do think that it was for some people, ultimately a better.

Amanda Buduris (10:54)
you

Yeah.

Danielle Sampson (11:05)
clinical decision for them to move on. They just kind of needed that push to get there.

Amanda Buduris (11:11)
I’ve seen that myself too with offering someone a significant sliding scale saying, okay, it has to come up, not maybe to full fee, but even just come up a little bit. That is also, they’re like, I’ve been running out of things to talk about in therapy anyway, and that’s fine. We can’t make our decisions for our clients. Clients are gonna make decisions for themselves. And if that’s around finances, that’s fine. ⁓ But I think that it does.

If we’re like too protective of them, like it robs them of some opportunity to like be autonomous in their, you know, in their healthcare plan, essentially. So to hear that so many of your clients were, you know, understanding and actually so many of them were like, good for you. Like that’s awesome.

Danielle Sampson (11:47)
Mm-hmm.

Yeah, yeah, no, I was definitely really anxious about it, you know, especially clients that I had had for two, three, four years, you know, like definitely worried about it. And I will say too, that some people stayed that I didn’t expect to stay. So, you know, we can’t, we also can’t like, like you always say, like we can’t spend people’s money for them and we can’t decide what they’re going to spend money on, you know, like.

Maybe some people were like, maybe I’ll, won’t see Taylor Swift for the second time. Maybe I’ll stay in spay for therapy instead, you know, like, you know, which was a thing that happened. And so like those types of decisions, like we can’t make those for them.

Amanda Buduris (12:31)
There you go.

Yeah. And so I know for you, like your plan was again, letting go of some insurance companies, like the worst one, like go of the one after that, because it also felt better for your nervous system. And I think so many therapists feel like I have to get off all at once. I have to go all private pay at once. And like, that’s the way to succeed, but it doesn’t work for your nervous system if it’s too scary, like in some ways.

It may not succeed if fear is driving your business. And so for you, it felt much more in alignment to go up a little bit at a time, raise rates with these clients, move into the intensive world. And overall, obviously, like you said, there’s still leaps. There’s still maybe some imposter syndrome or like, who the hell am I to do this? But what was the emotional process like for you in letting things go piece by piece?

Danielle Sampson (13:31)
Yeah. I mean, I think it’s just a lot of like looking for support in the right places, you know, like kind of deciding who are people that I can trust to talk about this and like who are not, you know, and like, I feel like having support from a business coach, you know, obviously was really helpful in just kind of like encouraging me and like kind of helping with that imposter syndrome and like, I do deserve.

premium rate, right? Because like, again, I had all these other voices being like, well, you know, who are you to charge this much? We’re in Buffalo. No one pays that much in Buffalo. And it’s like, well, people do. I mean, I’ve, I’ve seen a private pay therapist for seven years in Buffalo, you know, and like, I go to her because she’s a specialist in what I need to work on. Right. So like, you know, and that’s why I chose her and she is always full. So like, you know, and so it, it

Amanda Buduris (14:25)
Yes.

Danielle Sampson (14:29)
It is possible. I think like just kind of trying to tune out some of those voices and kind of tune into the voices that do kind of like provide support and, empathy for the process ⁓ is really important to kind of help with that.

Amanda Buduris (14:49)
surrounding yourself in the toxic Facebook groups who’s cally-greedy and a monster. I think especially the amount of the scarcity mindset I see in those groups of like, I don’t know that I’ve ever seen Buffalo specifically, but I’ve seen people say like, but I’m in this state, I’m in this city. This would never work in my area. And there’s absolutely something to be said for average cost of living and would a $700 an hour fee work in Buffalo? Who knows?

Probably not. ⁓ But it doesn’t mean private pay won’t work. It doesn’t mean apparently up to $250 and maybe beyond doesn’t work. Again, if you feel confident in what you’re doing and you feel confident in how you’re marketing yourself and you show up and you do the work and you’re present and you’re awake and not burnt out for your clients, they see that it’s worth it and they keep working with you.

Danielle Sampson (15:42)
⁓ Yeah, absolutely. And with, with telehealth now it’s so, you know, I’m not just marketing to Buffalo, right? I’m licensed in two states that both have very high income, like metro areas, right? You know, I’m marketing to New York city. I’m marketing to Long Island. I’m marketing to Philly area, you know, in Pittsburgh, even like Pittsburgh is more similar to Buffalo, but you know, like there’s a huge medical community in Buffalo and Pittsburgh, you know, like

Amanda Buduris (15:52)
Yeah.

Danielle Sampson (16:11)
I’m marketing to those specific areas as well as just Buffalo. And so I think telehealth has really opened a lot of doors in that way as well.

Amanda Buduris (16:21)
Yes, yes, because contrary to what a lot of people think, like telehealth is here to stay. Like it’s still more convenient for a lot of people, even if more might want in person these days, like people also still want telehealth. And so you’ve talked a little bit about like the marketing aspect before and how you learned website marketing, SEO marketing. Tell me a little bit about that process for you, like prior to.

Danielle Sampson (16:33)
Mm-hmm.

Amanda Buduris (16:46)
working together and learning about the website and SEO, what were you trying to do to market your practice before that?

Danielle Sampson (16:52)
Yeah. ⁓ so I had really relied on psychology today, mostly, ⁓ prior. ⁓ and I also, I’m on two local like email listservs, one for EMDR. So like one that’s like the trauma specific one, and then one that is, ⁓ postpartum. So those email lists and psychology today were really, plus like word of mouth, like, you know, kind of, ⁓

developing relationships, especially with like individual therapists so that they would then send people to me for couples. ⁓ And so that I still do get people that way, know, ⁓ specifically from word of mouth, not really from, I am thinking about canceling psychology today because I’m like, why am I paying for this? But, you know, so once I, and I did also have a website, I had a Wix website. It was basically like a one pager. ⁓ And I was like, I never use this.

Amanda Buduris (17:36)
Yeah

Danielle Sampson (17:48)
I don’t know what to do with it. know, Wix is really annoying to work with, so I don’t know how to fix it, whatever. So then when I joined your program, like that was one of the things that I really liked about it was that ⁓ I could, I didn’t have to rely on social media for marketing. Cause like, I don’t like playing to the algorithm. don’t like, I don’t love being on camera. You know, I definitely still will post reels from time to time on Instagram, like for work, but.

Amanda Buduris (17:53)
Yeah.

Danielle Sampson (18:16)
It’s not my preferred method and I’ve never gotten like a therapy client from Instagram. So, ⁓ you know, I was like, okay, I’m just going to rehaul my whole website. Cause basically nothing is salvageable because there was basically nothing on it. So, ⁓ you know, then I, I switched over to Squarespace, which I found a lot more user friendly. ⁓ and then really just kind of dove into like, what do I want to say? Like, who do I want to attract? Like, how do I want to.

⁓ show up on my website and how do I also want to automate things so that like the specific things that I struggle with cannot be a bottleneck anymore. So like one of the biggest things I struggle with is like if people call me looking for a new session or like looking to become a new client, I am so bad with calling them back. And like I know that, you know, I know that people have feelings about that and you know, I do apologize for that.

So one of the things that I did at your suggestion was recording a voicemail that says, if you are trying to be a new client, please hang up and go to my website and schedule a free consultation. This is the quickest way that you will receive a response. You know, and like that has saved me so much time and effort. And additionally, with people emailing me, you know, it’s the same thing, like instead of like going back and forth 50 times about.

Okay, like when are you available? When are you available? no, I want you to use insurance. no, I don’t take insurance. Like instead of that, like having a booking link and then having a form that I send them that has some disclaimers on it really has just like saved me so much time. like kind of putting those systems into place was really important just for my own like sanity as I was kind of trying to figure out all of this different stuff. ⁓

Amanda Buduris (20:05)
Yeah.

Yes.

Danielle Sampson (20:10)
So now, you know, now I would say I get the majority of people from a website, my website, and then also I still get word of mouth people just because, you know, Buffalo is a small town and we all know each other.

Amanda Buduris (20:23)
Yeah, but I think that makes a lot of sense for you when it is, you know, a small town, you all know each other. Like you also didn’t just rely on, okay, well, well, they know me, so they’ll, you know, send referrals my way. You made sure to develop those relationships. You also made sure even though you were in network, you didn’t just rely on psychology today. You said, I need to develop some marketing relationships. Like you were very intentional and thoughtful about that. And then as you were thinking about this, what’s next step for you, it was like,

The website’s gotta get better. And so you put a ton of work into your website. And I know that’s something that so many people don’t even start because they think they can’t figure it out on their own. They think that it’s going to be this long, arduous process and they kinda wanna just hire out, but it might cost like six or $10,000. And they’re like, I don’t have that money. I don’t even have clients. That’s why I need the website. So did you find working on a website doing this complete overhaul?

Was it hard? Was it just boring? Like, how was that experience for you to start from scratch?

Danielle Sampson (21:27)
I feel like it was exciting because it felt like it was a means to an end of like a goal that I wanted to achieve. ⁓ You know, and also just kind of like learning more about like the data and the analytics behind it and the strategy behind it, like all of those things. I’m, you know, I like data. I like seeing that kind of stuff. So I feel like that.

Amanda Buduris (21:36)
Yeah.

Danielle Sampson (21:52)
part of it was exciting. Obviously I was like, my gosh, I have to write another page. Like, you why are there so many pages on my website? you know, but also just kind of like giving myself permission that it doesn’t have to be all perfect. Like the first day, you know, I feel like that was helpful too, to just kind of like, okay, I want to, you know,

Amanda Buduris (21:58)
You

Danielle Sampson (22:16)
Squarespace has the option where you can like hide pages until you’re ready to like publish them. So, you know, like, okay, I’ll work on this page, but I’ll keep it hidden until I’m ready to publish it, you know? And like that felt good. And now, now I’m like always tweaking stuff of like, ⁓ you know, maybe I’ll add this link here or I’ll add this podcast link that I did, or, you know, guest spot that I did. I’ll add that to my website or whatever, you know, now it just kind of feels like a little bit of tweaking because I did all the

big changes like, you know, back then.

Amanda Buduris (22:51)
And how much do you continue to work on it now? Like you’re making like little tweaks and changes there, but like about how much time a week, let’s say, are you tweaking your website?

Danielle Sampson (23:01)
My therapy website, not that much. ⁓ you know, maybe like, 30 minutes a month or something. ⁓ I, definitely, ⁓ you know, I was between, VAs for a while, so I need to get my VA back on blogging, but like, I feel like blogging was the only kind of thing that took up a, like not a ton of time, but you know, it definitely took up time like each week. ⁓ but really it’s only when I need to make a change, but

Amanda Buduris (23:04)
Yep.

Yeah

Danielle Sampson (23:31)
I mean, I even yesterday, I changed it to say I’m not accepting new clients and I still got a new client today. So, you know, like even when I updated to say I’m not accepting new clients, I’m still getting requests, you know, so, ⁓ you know, there’s just a lot of, of like, I’ve already done most of the work, so it’s not much maintenance.

Amanda Buduris (23:38)
You

huh, yep.

Yeah. Yeah. Which I think is the beautiful thing that’s super underrated when it comes to having your, you you do like the networking relationships, but like your website is ultimately, if not number one, number two of how you fill and keep your practice full and like, yes, you have to put some work on it on the front end, but it’s less than 30 minutes a month now. Like that’s way less time than people are spending trying to build these cold networking relationships or trying to post reels on Instagram or.

updating psychology today once a week. Like there’s so many things you can do, but you don’t have to do all those things if you just like hone in on the website stuff and search engine optimization. You know a little bit too around like AI and how that’s like, I feel like people are trying to make it too big of like, it’s changing the game and SEO is dead. Like it’s not, it all relies on the same SEO concept. So there’s not really much you have to change. so

Danielle Sampson (24:45)
Mmm.

Amanda Buduris (24:50)
website and SEO marketing truly can be like passive forms of marketing if you didn’t have this networking relationship, if you didn’t grab coffee with that person, maybe you do as friends, but you didn’t talk shop, so to speak, like your business wouldn’t suffer because of it because the website’s been just gaining so much traction in the background.

Danielle Sampson (25:04)
Mm-hmm.

Right. Yeah, absolutely. Yeah. And I think one of the things too, that, you know, I think that people should think about with websites is like, I want, I want people to come to my website and know exactly who I am and who, who they’re getting when they work with me. Right. So like my website specifically says, you know, I am, I, I’m a member of the LGBT community. I’m affirming of LGBT people. I’m anti-racist. I’m

You know, like all of these different things, anti-capitalist, right? Like all of these, like beliefs that I have. And I’ve had multiple people say in the consultation, like I picked you because this was on your website. Right. And like, I think a lot of times, you know, therapists, especially when we were, you know, if you were trained like earlier, ⁓ you know, it’s like, we have to be a blank slate. And it’s like, no, like therapy is political and like people want to see a therapist that they know is going to be safe.

for their beliefs, right? So, you know, I feel like if I had one, you know, kind of thing to say, it would be like, put yourself into your website and like, be who you are and people will want to work with you for that reason.

Amanda Buduris (26:07)
Yes. Yes.

Yeah, absolutely. Because if we’re all saying the same fluffy crap around like, have a safe and compassionate space, then help you with your journey. Like, we’re all sounding the same and no one is standing out. And so of course, like, if people aren’t reaching out to you, it’s well, it’s because they’re not reaching out to like, just any therapist. But if they see like, wow, with what Danielle shared about herself, and I can see how she’d be safe, she doesn’t just tell me she’s safe. She shows me how she’s safe, like.

That’s everything. And I’ve even seen some people like actively curse or swear on their website. And I’m like, yeah, if you do that in session, if you say fuck in session, like say fuck on your website, like the more just like real you are, that’s like the more that’s gonna attract your ideal clients too. And then fee is a consideration, but it’s not gonna be like the make or break, cause someone wants a therapist that they connect with, not just one that could be good enough.

Danielle Sampson (27:18)
Mm-hmm.

Amanda Buduris (27:21)
Cool. So now you’ve got your business is your therapy business is good. So you’ve closed doors to new clients, but they’re still knocking on those doors. You’re now moving into you’ve done a couple of these guest presentations at conferences and now you’re helping therapists learn SEO too. So tell me what that’s been like to add on this whole other stream of income.

Danielle Sampson (27:42)
Yeah, it’s been really good. I, I started out just by doing a training just because a lot of people were asking me like, you know, especially in Buffalo, like, how did you do this? Right. Cause there’s all these notions that we can’t do this in Buffalo. Right. So, ⁓ you know, I did a training and marketed it mostly locally. I definitely, you know, would put it in Facebook groups and stuff, but the vast majority of people were local to me. ⁓

We had like 25 people come, think, so it was pretty good turnout. And so that was really, it just felt really good to kind of get out there. ⁓ You know, I’ve been interested in running trainings for a few years. And so ⁓ that felt like kind of a natural, ⁓ just like a quick overview training of like how, you know, what is it, what is SEO? What’s a keyword? How do we do keyword research? Like all of those things.

and then I was able to kind of save that and put it as, like an on demand option so that people can just kind of buy it and download it. And I don’t have to do anything. And so, ⁓ you know, so far I’ve, and I’ve sold one per month since I did it, but you know, that’s pretty good, right? Cause it’s like, you know, it’s literally, I don’t have to do any work. You know, it just, I get an email saying that, you know, 40 bucks is coming to my account. I’m like, cool. ⁓

Amanda Buduris (28:58)
Mm hmm. Yeah. Yeah.

Danielle Sampson (29:10)
So, you know, I started doing that and then I was kind of like, okay, but not everyone is tech savvy. got a lot of questions in the training of like, you know, just kind of like stuff that like, what if I don’t want to do all of this? You know, so that’s when I kind of started to develop more of like a done for you slate of packages. So, ⁓ you know, even from something as small as like, I’ll just do the keyword research for you. Right. So like something small like that.

Amanda Buduris (29:25)
Yeah.

Mm-hmm.

Danielle Sampson (29:40)
Or setting up Google search console, which can be intimidating to people. Cause you have to like do a little bit, you know, you have to copy a code and put it in another spot and you know, ⁓ doing that. And then also auditing people’s websites. So just kind of showing them like, you know, maybe they know how to fix it, but they don’t know what to fix. So just kind of like, ⁓ showing them. And one of the things that I really value with doing this work is transparency. Cause like throughout.

Amanda Buduris (29:48)
I’m

Yeah.

Danielle Sampson (30:09)
talking with all these therapists about SEO and, and, you know, services, a lot of them have paid hundreds or thousands of dollars to other companies and not seen any results. And they have no idea what those companies did for them. And like, that just bothers me because I’m just like, like, what are you, what are these companies doing besides taking advantage of people who don’t know what they’re looking for? You know,

Amanda Buduris (30:21)
Yeah.

Mm-mm. Yes.

Danielle Sampson (30:37)
So part of my SEO audit is I will literally take a screen recording of everything I’m looking at and show you exactly like, this is what I’m going to change. This is what I’m going to change. This is what this analytics means. This is what this value means or whatever. We want to get this one up. We want to get this one down. All of those types of things. So that people don’t have a doubt of like, ⁓ okay. This is what, this is what I’m getting for my money. You know, ⁓

Amanda Buduris (30:38)
Yes.

Hmm.

Danielle Sampson (31:07)
And so then, you know, I have the audit and then if people are just like, okay, that’s great, but I don’t want to do any of that work. I will, you know, do all the work for them basically. ⁓ creating new pages, fixing the URL slugs, adding geotags for different locations that they want to target, ⁓ things like that. And then I’ve also started, ⁓ just kind of creating new websites from scratch for people. ⁓

Amanda Buduris (31:19)
You

Danielle Sampson (31:36)
So that is also an option too. So it’s really kind of just like customizable from like, I’m going to buy this two hour training all the way up to like build me a new website. So, you know, it’s kind of trying to attract like, you know, different kind of different tech level or different levels of technology and then different, price points as well.

Amanda Buduris (31:47)
Mm-hmm

Yeah, which I think is like very, very different from a lot of what’s out there because a lot of what is out there, you and I were just looking at someone’s SEO services the other day and it was like, what does that even mean? Like what, what jargon are they using? What does that service actually entail? Like they’re, when we take something that looks and sounds scary and we make it sound vague, of course it’s going to be scary. And it’s like, well, I clearly don’t know what it is and I clearly can’t learn it. So I have to hire them out. Not knowing.

what they’re doing because it is masked in this like, well, like you don’t even have to lift a finger. Like, don’t even worry about it. Like they pull the drapes closed as opposed to like you’re saying you’re actually very transparent and you open up those drapes of like, I’m telling you exactly what I’m looking at and what you can do or what I’m doing for you. if you need to do something in the future, like you can do it yourself. And I think that’s just so much more of like a, not just valuable, but like a trauma informed approach than just like,

give me your money and like we can do things but no results guaranteed. Meanwhile, I’ve seen some quick little screenshots that you’ve shared of therapists you’ve helped who are like, you know, even just like in like a couple weeks or like a month getting more clients from tiny little changes that you helped them make.

Danielle Sampson (33:14)
⁓ Yeah, and it really is like, you know, to me it’s similar to therapy and that we’re building relationships, right? Like, you know, it’s building relationships with therapists and building that trust, right? Because obviously like trusting someone with your website, you have to give them your email, you have to give them your password, like, you know, and you got to trust that I’m giving someone, you know, hundreds or thousands of dollars.

Amanda Buduris (33:23)
Yes.

Danielle Sampson (33:41)
And I want to see some return on my investment, you know? And so like building those relationships is really important to me. ⁓ and so that’s why I try to kind of include all that transparency, you know? And then I do then have people being like, okay, I want to tell my friend about this. I want to tell this person, I want to post this on this Facebook group that, know, I use this person and you know, she really helped me. Like, you know, that kind of stuff, it’s mutually beneficial. It’s.

you obviously building trust benefits them the most, you know, because they’re giving their money to someone that they can actually feel good about, you know, having that information about them.

Amanda Buduris (34:24)
Yeah. Yeah. Trust in business is literally everything. Like you can guarantee and promise the world, but like, what do you actually deliver and what relationship do you build? Like people will want to continue to work with and refer people they have good relationships with, whether it’s, you know, these done for you services, whether it’s coaching, whether it’s therapy, like it all needs to come from you actually showing up.

Danielle Sampson (34:50)
Mm-hmm.

Amanda Buduris (34:50)
and kind

of like how we started, you’re saying like, it was hard to actually show up in the way I wanted to when I was seeing 30 plus clients a week. And now you’ve got your caseload cut in like more than half. You’ve got all this time now where you can explore other things that just excite you or again, give back for free or find other ways to make money that give you more balance as opposed to, you know, it feeling draining and not feeling like there’s

I don’t want to say like not the return on investment when it comes to therapy, but there’s not that like energy exchange you were giving a lot, but because of insurance, you literally weren’t getting a lot back. And so now it’s very, very different.

Danielle Sampson (35:29)
Yeah, absolutely.

Amanda Buduris (35:32)
Well, this is all really, really exciting. And I so appreciate everything that you shared. We definitely want to link all of the things you just mentioned in the show notes. So we will do that. Before we wrap up today, is there any last things that you want therapists to hear when it comes to being in a small town going private pay, working on SEO website, any takeaways, things you wish you would have heard?

Danielle Sampson (35:54)
Yeah, I mean, I think, you know, like I said before, like trying to put yourself into everything that you do, whether it’s like your website or your social media or whatever, you know, like even just like making, making your marketing sound like you, know, versus like, the same psychology today profile I’ve read a hundred times, you know? ⁓ so I would say that. And also like,

trying to network with other people who are on the similar journey as you, know, or have been in the same, on the same journey as you, right? Of like, okay, I need to talk to people who are going to lift me up and like support my goals and my aspirations. Even if, you know, even if we think it feels impossible, you know, we still want to, like, we don’t want to give into those voices that are saying it’s impossible, you know.

Amanda Buduris (36:51)
with the right support, with the right community. I don’t know about anything is possible. That might be a little too cheesy, but a lot more is possible than we think.

Danielle Sampson (37:01)
Yeah, absolutely.

Amanda Buduris (37:03)
I also appreciate your time today and thanks so much for sharing everything that you did.

Danielle Sampson (37:08)
Yeah, thanks for having me.