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Welcome to Happy, Healthy, & Wealthy Therapists, where you’ll find conversations about marketing, scaling, and building a private practice that supports your clients, your nervous system, and your biggest dreams.

Happy, Healthy, & Wealthy Therapists | Ep 45: She Surpassed Last Year’s Revenue by July

July 17, 2026

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Released: 07/17/2026

Show Notes:

Amanda sits down with Danielle Sampson, a licensed clinical social worker who went from seeing 28-30 insurance clients a week to building a thriving SEO business for therapists, launching a course, and starting a group practice, all within about a year. Danielle gets real about what it actually looked like to scale: the membership idea that flopped, the shoulder surgery that forced her to think differently about income, the late nights setting up systems she had no idea how to use, and the month she made more than she had in all of last year. She and Amanda also dig into what makes a coaching relationship actually work, why staying in the room longer than most people do matters, and how to think about profit versus revenue when your income starts to grow faster than you expected.

About Danielle:

Danielle Sampson LCSW is a therapist, SEO expert, and marketing coach based in Buffalo, New York. Danielle specializes in working with therapists who are burnt out, overworked, and underpaid and helps them using SEO and AIO to transform their private practices into the practice of their dreams. Danielle has transformed over 40 therapist websites through her full service SEO program and has helped dozens more with her signature program, the Private Practice Visibility System. Danielle is also a trauma therapist and owner of a private pay group therapy practice, specializing in complex trauma with LGBTQIA individuals and couples throughout New York State and Pennsylvania.

3 Key Takeaways:

  1. Danielle’s first attempt at a scalable offer flopped not because the idea was bad but because she was building something nobody had asked her for, and the real turning point came when she started selling the thing people were already coming to her asking about.
  2. Scaling a done for you service sounds more passive than it is, and the systems, team management, client communication, and quality control all require real time and infrastructure that most people wildly underestimate before they start.
  3. Long term coaching relationships outperform program hopping because a coach who knows how your brain works, where you self-sabotage, and what your actual vision is can give you fundamentally different support than someone you just met.

Connect with Danielle:

Connect with Amanda:

Apply here: https://amandakbcoaching.com/mastermind – for the next round of the Happy, Healthy, & Wealthy Mastermind – a 6-month hybrid, high-level mastermind with high-touch 1:1 coaching for therapists who are ready to stop relying on trading hours for dollars (even premium ones) and scale beyond the therapy room.

Sponsors:

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

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Transcript:

Amanda Buduris (00:00)
Hey Danielle, I’m so excited to welcome you back to the podcast.

Danielle Sampson (00:03)
Yeah, thanks for having me again.

Amanda Buduris (00:07)
I have been so impressed with everything you’ve been doing this year. And you’ve been in the mastermind. You’ve gone through the mastermind that I do for you’re in your second round of it now. And there’s just so many people inside the mastermind who are so like, Daniela’s goals. Like I want to be where Daniela is. And one thing I’ve appreciated about what you share is how you share it. You share about like, like, yeah, here’s

the things that are going really well, but also here are some of the challenges. And it wasn’t always this easy, but it is getting easier. So I appreciate you being willing willing to come on and share a little bit more of that story. So before we dive into that, do you want to introduce yourself a little bit, tell the listeners, if they don’t remember you, just a little bit about yourself.

Danielle Sampson (00:53)
Yeah, absolutely. So I my name is Danielle Sampson. I am a licensed clinical social worker in New York, and I’m also licensed in Pennsylvania. I’m also an SEO expert, marketing coach, group practice owner, Mdria consultant and training, all of the things. I

Amanda Buduris (01:13)
Yeah.

Danielle Sampson (01:15)
run a done for you SEO program where therapists come to me and I redo their websites for them so that they can rank better. I’ve done about 40 websites at this point for therapists. And then I also have my SEO course, which is called the Private Practice Visibility System. And that’s for more people who are more interested in learning how to do it themselves. And I have about sixty therapists in that program.

Amanda Buduris (01:44)
So you’re like long story short, I do it all. I’m doing all the things. And that’s a large part of what your goal is, you know, to expand, to scale, to diversify. And part of what you’ve been navigating is, and how do I not, you know, work forever? How do I get smarter with some of the systems I’m doing? How do I market better, have a better team? So you and I have worked together for a long time. And I know this isn’t originally how you started. So can you share you were doing your solo private practice? Like at what

point did you decide I want to diversify, I want to add something on. And what did you start with?

Danielle Sampson (02:20)
Yeah, so I started my pr solo private practice in 2023. It was fully insurance based, and because I live in Buffalo, New York. I don’t live in New York City or Los Angeles. So the myth that I’ve always heard is that okay, people don’t pay privately in Buffalo or towns like this. So I was fully insurance for about a year, and then I was getting a lot of clawbacks. I was getting

I got deleted from one of the insurance’s credentialing role for six months, like things like that that just were really overwhelming. I was also having to see a ton more clients than I wanted to. I was still seeing like 28 to 30 a week to try to I was planning my wedding at that point. So I was trying to pay for my wedding and all of that. So I found you in 2024 and about three months before my wedding, redid my entire website because that’s just what I do. Apparently I

thrive on stress and chaos. So three months before my wedding, I was like, okay, I’m gonna build a whole new website and learn SEO and all of this stuff and drop insurance panels. And so I went through that process with you in 2024. And throughout that, basically every time I dropped an insurance panel, I would fill up with clients from my website. I would then raise my rate, drop another insurance panel, kind of going along like that. So

Amanda Buduris (03:19)
Mm-hmm.

Danielle Sampson (03:46)
At the beginning of twenty twenty-five, I was I had a lot more free space in my calendar because I was charging a lot more. I think I was charging maybe two hundred or two twenty-five at that point for individual therapy. So I had a lot more free time. I wasn’t seeing the twenty eight thirty clients a week anymore. And so this was also around the time of the election, and I was, you know, obviously very

distressed by the election results and all that. So I was kind of like, I want I already know I want to add something that is not therapy, that’s not dependent on me being face to face with somebody. I want to try to build something that can help people and and things like that. So I got the idea for actually kind of like a like a self care membership kind of thing for LGBT folks.

and started really trying to dive into that. So I formed another LLC. I, you know, invested in a system that would hold a course. I was filming videos, I was working on social media, all that stuff, and ended up not getting a single client from it for that for that program or whatever. And

Amanda Buduris (05:03)
Mm-hmm.

Danielle Sampson (05:07)
So that t I was doing that for maybe about like four to six months and like all throughout that time I was still raising my therapy rate to, you know, I it’s at 250 at this point and filling up with these private pay clients. And then people around me kept being like, Well, how did you do that? Like, how did you fill up your caseload? How are you how are you charging $250 an hour in Buffalo? Like, how are you doing that? And how can I learn how to do that? And so

Around that time, you know, like maybe summer of 2025, I was like, okay, like this other product that I’m trying to do is not working. It’s also not really fulfilling a need that like a YouTube, a free YouTube channel couldn’t, you know, provide or whatever. So I kind of was like, I’m seeing this other need where therapists are coming to me and asking me how I did this this you know, pivot in my practice.

I’m gonna try that route. And so I kind of pivoted and did my first SEO training in July of 2025. And so I had about 25 therapists there. come can’t come. 25 therapists came to my live training. And I when I was doing the live training, people were like, my God, this is so overwhelming. Like, this is so much, I don’t know how I can do it.

can do all this like with also seeing all these clients and all of that. So that’s where I kind of got the idea of like, well, what if I just do it for you? And then you don’t have to worry about this. Like you can just pay me to do it. And then you won’t have to learn about all of this yourself and then try to implement it while also seeing 30 clients a week. So and that was also around the time that I had shoulder surgery. So I was kind of thinking about well

what are some things that I could do to make money when I’m not able to see therapy clients, like when I’m still recovering that it was a pretty long recovery. So kind of pivoting towards stuff I could do asynchronously, like at in the evenings or, you know, in between sessions or things like that where I didn’t have to be face to face with someone.

Amanda Buduris (07:26)
Yeah, I think it’s a it’s a large combination of again, you started, you started working on your website, your SEO, going more private pay and raising your fees because a lot of us don’t want to feel like our income is tied to, well, what happens if I need a surgery? What happens if my clients are sick or they’re traveling or it’s the holidays or whatever it is? And, you know, I remember you putting together that membership initially and like

It’s not that it wasn’t a great idea, like there was definitely need for it. But I think there is this difference between when we come to what is it that we’re marketing, like you said this piece of like, what is there an actual need for? Like, yes, there’s a need for, you know, LGBTQ support, obviously, like even still today. And like it wasn’t what you were necessarily like hearing people asking you for.

But what you were hearing people ask you for was, I want to have a practice that’s as successful as yours. And so you very much took, you know, something that had almost like a more like a louder need. Like people were actually asking you for this compared to asking you for the membership thing. And I think that is really important when people are doing like market research for what’s the thing I pick and how do I deliver it? And so.

Yeah, not only did you do a training on it, and the number of times I’ve trained people on SEO and their eyes just kind of glaze over, they’re like, I don’t know what this is. And they just do want someone to do it for them. I think so long as you are willing to do it for them, then you know, that’s a win-win for everyone. Like for you, was there ever a point where you were thinking about, do I want a done for you business? Like, is that actually what I want? Or did you feel more like,

Like it was just an easy yes for you of like I like this work and this is something I can build and scale.

Danielle Sampson (09:23)
So I think that at the beginning I was like, yes, like I can absolutely do this. I can do it all myself. I know how to do it for my own website. And so I can just apply that to other people’s websites. I think the thing that started to

kind of not I don’t want to say overwhelmed, but started to get in the way of that, I guess, is once the fo done for you service kind of took off, then it was like, wow, like this is a very time consuming process, especially when I have three, four, or five web websites at one time or therapists at one time all sending me questions, all sending me

You know, at that time I didn’t have processes set up for how am I going to get into their website, right? Because Google has a ton of two-factor authentications, and so does Squarespace and all those. You know, I didn’t have automation set up for questionnaires. So I was sending all of that manually. Like all of that stuff I was developing the questionnaires. You know, all of that stuff just took so much time while I was also, you know, I I

I’m a private pay therapist. I do have a reduced caseload, but I still see like 15 to I mean now I see less, but at that time I was seeing like 15 to 18 people a week. Like it wasn’t like I’m one of those therapists that sees six people a week and calls it a day, right? Like I was still, you know, running my all doing all my billing myself, doing all my marketing myself. Right. So adding this business on at first.

I didn’t realize how much work it would be. So, and that’s not to say that it hasn’t been worth it, but it definitely was like a big culture shock of like, wow. You know, especially when I was getting therapists licensed in two, three, four, five states, you know, not realizing how much work that would be as well.

Amanda Buduris (11:29)
Yeah, yeah. Because it is. I think the the actual process. And I think this is the case for all of us who are like, I want to diversify my streams of income. Like we we mostly want to do the thing. We don’t want to do the tech and the admin of the thing. So like you said, the systems and the processes and all of that component as well as I think for a lot of people it depends on what’s your goal with

whatever other stream of income you’re adding on or multiple streams that you’re adding on is like, do you want it just to kind of be like fun money? Like for you, if you just like, like booking one project a month or a quarter, like that would just be nice to have like a little bit of an increase. Then maybe you don’t feel like you want to push it as hard. You don’t want to scale it so much. You just want some income to replace if a client is sick or something like that. But for those of us who are like, no, I really want to

build something big here. Like I remember you almost feeling like shocked of like people keep reaching out. Like I am actually overwhelmed with consults or wow, there is so much to do. And I think that is where a lot of people don’t see the hard work that does go into scaling something is yeah, if it’s just you doing it, you don’t have all the time in the world. That was not the only business you were running. You had other things going on and you know like a life that you’re trying to live too. And so

Danielle Sampson (12:54)
Right. And doing it all one armed with a a shoulder that wasn’t recovering. Yeah, I have this memory of like my husband played on a volleyball team, and because I had I was having shoulder issues, I I was not doing it. So he would go out and so I I would go home or I would go with him sometimes to watch the games because like all my friends play on the team too. But

Amanda Buduris (12:54)
with that. Yeah, exactly. Exactly. Yes.

Danielle Sampson (13:17)
The night it was like the week of the SEO training, and I was trying to build up Honeybook, which is the system I use for my done for you clients. And I remember I was like, no, you go ahead, like I’m gonna stay here and and w try to figure out this system. And I just remember being like, my god, like I did not understand how much went into okay, I wanna build a lead form. Okay, so how do I do that? now I have to build a

questionnaire that gets sent to the person for a lead form and I have to integrate Zoom into it so it automatically builds a Zoom link. But to do that I have to integrate my simple practice calendar with my Google calendar. And I have to make sure that every single thing I do is blocked out on my my all my calendars so that I don’t get double booked. And then I have to figure out what I’m gonna charge. And then I have to put the services in the in the system and at the right price. And like I just

Like he like came home after volleyball like two hours later and I was still in the same exact spot and he was like, What are you still doing? It was like 9 30 at night and I’m like, I’m still doing the same thing I was doing. Cause it just I had no idea like how much went into setting up a system like that. And now I’ve done it a second time because now I use Kajabi for my other my course. So now I’ve done it a second time, but that time was a little bit easier because I already knew kind of some of the things that went into it.

Amanda Buduris (14:22)
Yeah.

Uh-huh.

Yeah. And I think you, like so many of us who are starting to add something on, like it’s very easy to essentially want to maximize profit as much as possible to just like, I’ll do all these things myself. Like, I’ll just do it, like it’ll be quick. And then you’re, yeah, two, five hours down the rabbit hole of trying to figure out something that now you know, is maybe like a 10-minute task. But we didn’t know that when we were starting. And so for you, what was it like to start?

Hiring a team to help you scale this? Was that something that you really struggled with? Was it something that overall, like, yeah, just what was that process like?

Danielle Sampson (15:22)
Yeah, so I think I started pretty early on. I think after I after I booked I did the first website project fully myself. And then I think maybe the first two fully by myself. And then after that I was like, there’s way this is way too much. I also was just getting a lot more inquiries. I was charging like a criminally low price at that point because I was like, you know, it was probably way below minimum wage based on how many hours, but

Amanda Buduris (15:46)
Ha ha ha.

Danielle Sampson (15:53)
you know, I wanted to get people in the door and also get some positive reviews, hopefully, so that I could then like market those reviews and and so I did the first ones at a low rate. And so then I was trying to figure out okay, like can I afford to hire someone? But then it was kind of can I afford not to hire someone, right? Because I have these six projects now and I can only do one per month at this pace.

You know, and that pace was also doing it on the weekends, doing it at night after also seeing clients all day. So it was just not sustainable. So I ended up using the Start and Grow Co. Matchmaker for like a VA, which you had referred me to, and I got four or five different applicants and interviewed all of them. None of them really had SEO experience, but I was looking for someone who

was organized, who had a good system, who was had some knowledge of therapy and you know, like mental health, all of that. And I ended up finding someone who had taken your SEO course, you know, and so she had a little bit of knowledge about, this is what a keyword is, this is how to do keyword research. And then I was able to kind of like train her up on some of the things that I was doing.

for the full service clients that were different or that were like more extensive than like things that were handled in your course. So, and so I ended up working with her until just recently, you know, roles kind of have changed, as my business has kind of exploded. so we ended up I’m kind of in the search now for some new team members, but

you know, it was very valuable to have someone who was like, Nope, like if I give her this, she will do it and she will do it correctly and you know, I will feel confident in that product that I’m giving to the client.

Amanda Buduris (17:58)
I think that it is it’s huge to get some kind of support early on. Like whether you have a done for you business, whether you have like a digital product business, which that’s another thing that you do, like just the having someone to help take the load off for you. And then yeah, I think as your business grows and your business scales, there are also different like types of

Workers again, they’re all contractors. Typically, we’re not hiring them as W-2s unless someone does choose to do that. But yeah, different contractors want a different type of job and different virtual assistants like different type of work. Like one of mine’s like, I don’t want to touch social media at all. And someone’s like, I love social media. So finding what actually works for you, definitely super helpful. So you got

more on top of okay, now I can pick up more projects in a month. I can keep scaling. So primarily it was a done for you service that you had. And then you did decide, I want to launch a course in addition to that. So why did you choose to add that on and how has that been going?

Danielle Sampson (19:07)
Yeah, I think the biggest thing was I think if I was in the done for you s business where I am now slash where I hope to be in like three or four months, I don’t know if I would have done the course. the reason being I felt like the done for you s business, although it was a lot of my VA doing a lot of the work.

I was still having so much. Like I had I have and had my fingers in everything, right? So I’m doing the 30-minute consults. I’m sending someone the contract. Once they sign the contract, I have an automation that sends them out the the onboarding questionnaire. But then that also prompts them to schedule a meeting to allow me and my team access to their accounts. So I’m doing those meetings where I tell them either

Like how to make me an admin on Squarespace or how to make me an admin on Google Search Console, right? And then throughout the whole process, I’m also auditing their websites. So I’m filming a 15 to 30 minute recording of myself talking about what I want to change about their website. And then I’m transcribing that. I’m manually sending that to them. Right. So even though my VA was doing the keyword research and making the website changes.

I also have final approval of it. So I have my hands in so much right now. And, you know, I do less now than I did. But it was just too much. And I was kind of thinking about, okay, like what happens again if I can’t work? What happens if I’m, you know, I’m trying to build a family? What happens like if I’m not working for an extended period? I want to have some kind of income that works in the background where I literally don’t have to touch it at all.

like once it’s set up, you know, and I think I learned that that’s not really a thing. But I the course definitely is less less hands-on than the done for you. So that was kind of where and I also realized I had a lot of materials already. I had a lot of videos, I had a lot of tutorials from trainings I had done. Cause I have done like three live trainings at this point. So I took clips from all of those. I re-recorded some things.

Amanda Buduris (21:03)
Yeah. Yeah.

Yeah.

Danielle Sampson (21:31)
I had recorded tutorials to send to clients, so I took those and put those in. Like I already had a lot of like material that I just needed to put all into one spot.

Amanda Buduris (21:44)
So right, you did like a as much of a working smarter, not harder approach there too. But you bring up this really good point of initially like the the course in general was another way to solve this problem of there’s only so much Danielle to go around. And so yeah, now with your done for you service continue to like it’s booming your

continuing to book new clients, you get on podcasts, and you know, probably people are gonna reach out to you after this one as well. Like you get a lot of people coming in. And I think part of what is helpful with that is it’s something that you’re focusing on. It’s something that you keep promoting. And there is something to be said for the more we promote something, the more awareness we build, the more demand we build. And it’s the same thing for me when I’m talking with my coach, because my my ADHD brain will love like

I’ve got a million new ideas for this. And what if I do this? And what if I do this? And she always has to slow me down and think about like, are we just like filling time to fill time? Like I thought you wanted more white space, but now, you know, we’re we’re filling it. So what’s that about? But also she always asks me this question of like, are we solving for the right problem? And so for you, like a problem was I don’t have there’s not enough me to go around. And so if I build this other

you know, scalable course, that could be a solution, but it’s also something else you’re focusing on in a different way too. And so, yeah, maybe if you had known the done for you stuff was going to scale the way that it was, you’re saying, actually maybe I I wouldn’t have put maybe as much time, as much energy, or would you not have done it at all if you would have known where you were right now and possibly in three to four months?

Danielle Sampson (23:29)
I don’t think I would have not done it at all. I think maybe I would have maybe it would have been delayed a little bit. Like if I had if I had hired a bigger team like earlier and kind of taken myself out of the process more back then, which is something I’m trying to do now, I think I would have had more free time and more ability to a take on more done for you clients, which then would have

a f like freed up the the income and also freed up the time to build something else that was a little bit more passive. But it you know it worked out the way that it did because it ended up I’m sure you’re gonna ask me about this, but I ended up hiring my online business manager because of the course. and she has been like invaluable to my my business. So

Amanda Buduris (24:26)
Yeah. Yeah. Cause again, it’s you’re managing a lot of moving pieces. You have your group therapy practice. You have your done for you business. You have this online digital product. Like there’s a lot that needs done. And for anyone listening who doesn’t know what an online business manager is, it is essentially someone to help you hold your brain and all of your ideas. Like there’s a difference between what I ask of my business coaches a lot more.

strategy and should I do this compared to my online business manager helps to organize and be strategic. And she also what would be a word? I guess manages. I have two virtual assistants. So she is in more communication with them. So that that’s also not something I have to do. So yeah, you’re building up a team with intention to ultimately support you the best that they can.

Danielle Sampson (25:21)
Mm-hmm. And listeners may say,

when did you become a group practice? And that’s another thing that happened in the last six months as well. because apparently I love chaos, as I said earlier. So

Amanda Buduris (25:26)
huh. Uh-huh.

Yeah. And that’s the thing, right? I think a lot of us do kind of like chaos. Maybe it’s the CPTSD, maybe it’s ADHD, like whatever it is. I think some of us do just thrive when we’re busier and actually do struggle a little bit with white space. And I don’t think there’s a wrong answer. I think the, you know, the consensus out there, all the marketing I see is all about how do you work as little as possible? I’m like, but I actually like working. Like, yeah, I don’t want to.

Overwork, but I do like to work. So I just have to figure out the right balance of work for me. So yeah, so you are you are doing a lot. You have even in the past, it’s July. So what seven, eight months, you’ve done scaling of this done for you service. You’ve done your first official launch for the course in and of itself. You’re now working on how do I revamp that model and improve the done for you service and do lots of other things.

Danielle Sampson (26:07)
Mm-hmm.

Amanda Buduris (26:31)
when it comes to your biggest wins, like where are you at right now in adding this business? Cause I know that you’ve we like all of us struggle with the early mindset stuff of is it gonna work and is it gonna be profitable? Is it ultimately gonna be worth it? So for you, like, has it been worth it financially?

Danielle Sampson (26:53)
Yeah, absolutely. I was just kind of looking at my numbers to prep for this podcast and taking so last year I I did not make a ton from SEO. I did make some money from SEO, but the majority of my revenue last year was therapy only. So, you know, like therapy intensives and I do a little bit of supervision you know, for like or

Amanda Buduris (26:54)
Yeah.

Danielle Sampson (27:21)
Consultation, I guess you would call it. and so that was I took my revenue from last year, 2025, and then on July 1st, I had already surpassed that revenue by $10,000. So in six months, I made more than what I made all of last year. So yeah. I knew that I knew I knew that the SEO business was doing well. I did not realize

that until I looked at it. Because the other thing too is that my expenses have gone up a lot, right? Like obviously I pay a lot, you know, I pay a lot of money for my online business manager. I pay now I have a copywriter on my team, so I pay her. I’ve been paying other, you know, employees. I also hired a VA for my group practice. You know, I bringing on employees to the group practice costs money. So, you know, I pay five hundred dollars a month for simple practice now where I

I didn’t, you know, I paid $75 a month before when I was by myself, right? Like, so I think I didn’t realize just like, wow, like that is a significant increase in just like the rate of of income as well.

Amanda Buduris (28:40)
Yeah, yeah. I think that’s the the biggest thing, even like I was shocked with initially too, is like, okay, right, like you you invest a little bit more in some team support in order to scale the income. And that does happen. And like even that has to be worth it. Cause there are definitely times very early in my first, like, I’d say, year of adding my coaching business where I was just basically spending money where past coaches told me to spend money. They’re like,

Well, you need to hire an ads team and you need to hire a copyright and you need to hire all these things. And then I’m like, I think I took home like $2,000, even though I had like a 30K month. That can’t happen consistently. I think there’s something to be said for like spending money because you think you’re supposed to to do all these things versus being very intentional and strategic about where are you spending your money, why are you doing it. And the whole point of scaling is making sure that.

As you are scaling your income, that your work and what you’re putting into things isn’t like proportionally matching that. Like ideally, you are continuing to work less while scaling that income and making more profit overall. And I think that is scary for a lot of people to have more expenses. because yeah, that’s a it’s a big number to see. Sometimes there are months I have like $25,000 going out to team and other things like that. And it’s like,

Danielle Sampson (29:54)
Mm-hmm.

Amanda Buduris (30:07)
Well, yes, and it was a fifty K month. So like that that evens out. But I think there’s a lot of things that prevent people from scaling when a lot of the stuff is unknown and am I doing it right? Or is it gonna have be like one exciting month but then all the rest of the months are shitty and you know, I’m not making the money that I need.

Danielle Sampson (30:29)
Right. Yeah. I mean, that was part of what I was thinking about with like May and June, because I was on DJ Burr’s podcast from the private pay practitioners, and that is one of the things that just exploded the done for you service. And so, you know, I I booked maybe like fifteen projects or something. Like I don’t even know how many, but like at least ten, possibly more. and so I was fully booked for the whole summer, pretty much.

Amanda Buduris (30:54)
Amazing.

Danielle Sampson (30:58)
Or I am fully booked for the whole summer, but a lot of people paid up front because I offer a ten percent discount if you pay in full. So a lot of people did that. And so then all of a sudden I had this massive amount of money in my bank account and I literally messaged my OBM and I was like, Can I pay you up front for July and as well as it’s like June first and I was like, Can I pay you for July and June? Because I don’t trust myself with this amount of money.

Amanda Buduris (31:19)
Ha ha ha.

Ha ha.

Danielle Sampson (31:27)
Because

like the reality is I bought a house last year. I was not able to pay quarterly taxes last year because my mortgage is eight hundred dollars more a month than my rent was. So, you know, and while my like last year my income didn’t really go up, it just was replaced. I I made $14,000 from SEO that I did not make from therapy. So like I reduced my caseload a little bit therapy wise and then made it up with SEO. But it wasn’t more.

So, but my expenses were a little bit more because then I was starting to, you know, pay a VA and and add on honeybook and all this other stuff, right? So so I had not paid my my taxes for 2025. And so, you know, April was running around or coming around this year, and that was right around the time that I was launching the course. And I was like, my God, like these taxes are due.

You know, like what am I gonna do? Like, what if this doesn’t work out? You know, I spent four hundred dollars on ads for the course launch. Like, what if I don’t get that money back? Like all of that kind of stuff. And so then fast forward to June, which is just like insane. And I have this, you know, f multiple five figure sum in my in my bank account. And I’m like, I wanna pay off this debt and this debt and this tax and you know, all this stuff, and I have to be like, wait, like this could be

you know, most of what I’m making for the summer. So I need to like take a step back and like, you know, the tax debt will still be there tomorrow, you know, like and and just kind of assess that from there. But yeah, it’s just a really weird shift, I guess, that I haven’t fully processed yet. I think the other thing too is that I have a lot of people on payment plans. So like the way the system like I use Honeybook for the done for you

Amanda Buduris (33:11)
Yeah, yeah, yeah.

Danielle Sampson (33:19)
So the way that system works is that it shows me what I’ve signed on to make, but it doesn’t show like I don’t see the money that’s in my account on my homepage, right? Like, so there’s about $10,000 that I have not received yet because it’s on payment plans. But on my homepage, it’s like, wow, you made this much, like it this month. Wow, that’s amazing. You know, but again, like having to look more deeply into the numbers and be like, okay, no, that’s not what I’ve taken home yet.

Also, that’s not my profit. That’s my revenue. Like, that’s not what it costs to run this business. So kind of just trying to be very cautious. And so my so I had like a my gosh, I should have looked it up. I think I had like a 25k month in June or something like that. and normally, like in the past, I would have

I would have like booked a vacation and like, I’m going to Europe again because I’ve only been to Europe once in my life. Like, whatever. And instead, like, I’m like looking at it, I’m like, okay, I’m gonna pay my three thousand dollar New York State tax bill. I’m going to prepay my employees for July. And then what am I gonna do for myself? And so then I bought a two hundred and fifty dollar ninja creamy and that was my splurge. So I’ve and I’ve been using it like basically every day ’cause it’s so hot. So

Amanda Buduris (34:14)
Mm-hmm.

Yes.

I love it. I love it.

Uh-huh.

Danielle Sampson (34:40)
But like that just

feels like such a big shift to like the past. Like when I first went into private practice and I bought like a fancy sh sewing machine because I like, wow, I’m making all this money. You know, like ’cause I didn’t really know how to manage my finances that well. So

Amanda Buduris (34:51)
Mm.

There’s there’s so much even I’m learning this year about like the more your income scales, the less it’s about like, how do I just pay a little bit more in ads and give my VAs a little bit more hours and time? Like you actually have to start thinking about more complex and advanced tax strategy. Like you and I were just talking before we hit record about how we’re trying to use my cats now as a tax write-off. Like there are other things you need to do so that you don’t have these.

200,000, 500,000, whatever years and end up owing. I know I I don’t know about you, I would assume this is also the case, but I don’t want to give all my money to the government to use in ways that are, you know, probably for evil. So I would rather

Danielle Sampson (35:42)
Yeah, this is not a political podcast. I would let

them take all my money if it was going to things I cared about, like mental health or schools or libraries. So, you know, if this was Norway, we’d be having a different conversation, but please take my money. Here? No. Yeah. Yeah, and yeah, that’s another thing. Like we were talking about. so like one of the things that I’ve

Amanda Buduris (35:46)
Yeah.

Hundred percent. Yes, yes. Yeah.

a hundred percent. Please take my money and invest back into me and like, you know, here no. Yes. So yeah, there’s just a lot.

Danielle Sampson (36:11)
kind of shifted to recently is that my so my husband is a data analyst and so for a big bank in the northeast and so I was looking at it because one of the things I provide with the full service program is six a six month tracking report. So every month for six months you get like an update on how your website’s doing. And every single month I was getting emails back being like, I don’t understand this data. What does this mean? Is my website not working?

all that stuff because I was trying to do the easy route of just downloading the report from Uber Suggest and calling it a day. But a lot of times the data wasn’t populating correctly or it was showing the wrong data points. And so people weren’t understanding that their website was actually doing well. And so I sat down with my husband and I was like, okay, like how can we like not only revamp this data, but show it to people who know nothing about SEO?

And show it to them in a way that will not result in all of these questions and confusion and also like almost like underrating like the work that I did, you know, because a lot of people would be like, I haven’t gotten any inquiries. Like, what’s why is my website not doing well? You know, but I would look into it and be Well, you showed up twenty five thousand times in Google search in the last six months. Like your website is actually doing well, you know, like and obviously that doesn’t take away the fear of not having clients, but so you know, we were

Amanda Buduris (37:17)
Yeah.

Danielle Sampson (37:37)
kind of chatting about, okay, maybe I could hire him as a W 2 because now he’s doing all the the monthly reports because it’s just much quicker for him to do it than for us to teach someone else to do it because he he just know that that’s how his brain works. Like he just literally can rattle off Excel formulas like off the top of his head. It’s like kind of crazy. But so you know we were like, maybe we’ll hire him as a W 2 and that would be a write off and then we could like s save retirement. Like

I don’t have a retirement savings right now because I’ve been kind of survival mode. And not not necessarily I mean, not survival mode. Like I don’t want to downplay it, but I paid for my whole wedding by myself with my therapy practice. Like I bought a house last year, which was way overpriced for what I should have paid for it, right? Like all these things that money has gone to. So now I’m at a point where I’m talking about.

hiring my husband to so that we can save for retirement and use it as a tax write off is just like very bizarre to like go from one end to the other in a very quick amount of time. So

Amanda Buduris (38:39)
Ha ha.

Yes. Yeah, exactly. But it’s the the smart thing, the strategic thing, and overall long term gonna be like something that’s very safe too, because if he’s already working. Yeah.

Danielle Sampson (38:52)
Yeah, and my clients, I mean, it’s benefiting my clients too, because they’re

getting a better data report, they’re getting like way better feedback, and I’m getting more like testimonials of like, look, your website traffic was twenty seven when I first started working with you. Now you showed up five hundred times in two months, like after the last two months of your SEO growing. So it’s like mutually beneficial for everybody.

Amanda Buduris (39:19)
Absolutely. Yeah. And so thinking about again, like going from idea to execution and organization. And now, you know, we’re talking about tax strategy. Can you talk a little bit about how like coaching has helped you? Again, like you’ve been in my mastermind for how many months? Can it is it like nine, 10 months, something like that? Okay. That sounds right.

Danielle Sampson (39:38)
I think it’s nine months now. I think we have three months left of this one. ‘Cause it was April, May

no, maybe this is the fourth month of the second one. Yeah, so about nine months.

Amanda Buduris (39:47)
Yeah, yeah, yeah. So

yeah. we’ve like had a baby together. How beautiful. Your business is our baby. yeah. How how do you best utilize coaching? Because there are a lot of people who sign up for a coaching program or something like that and they don’t get the results that you do. So what do you think is different about the questions you ask, what you bring to our coaching calls, and like what helps you have the success that you have had so far?

Danielle Sampson (39:53)
Yes, it is. Yeah.

Yeah, I mean I think part of it is I wa so I I don’t wanna discount the fact that I was also working with you. So I I did your Therapy Intensives Academy in twenty twenty four, and then I was kind of doing like your alumni thing where I was still meeting with you once a month for an hour, like for that whole period between like October of twenty twenty four and October of twenty twenty five. So like

Even throughout the whole like starting the membership and the membership not working out and all of that stuff, I was also still meeting with you once a month. So like I think that really put me ahead of the curve when I started the mastermind in October of 2025 because I already knew like what my offer was. I knew I had already set up all the systems. I had a couple of clients at that point.

Whereas a lot of people were coming into the mastermind, like I want to scale, but I don’t know what to scale with or how to scale. You know, so I feel like I had already done all the work of like trying a different idea and failing at it and then like and then starting a new idea and like pivoting. Whereas a lot of people started that when they started the mastermind. So I think that’s one of the things that was not really something I did other than like

maintaining contact with you and being like, I’m going to do whatever you do next. So like just keep me on your mailing list. Like ’cause you know, cause I did so well with the therapy intensives academy. So I think that was part of it. I think also really making sure to prepare for the calls that we do have one on one. like I really try to

Amanda Buduris (41:39)
Ha ha ha.

Danielle Sampson (42:00)
You know, I remember the one call where we f we figured out Facebook ads or meta ads, whatever. Like I was like, okay, this is what we’re gonna do, and we’re gonna spend this whole time like setting up meta ads. And I already spent like an hour or two hours watching all your videos and trying to figure it out myself. And then was like, okay, this is where this isn’t working. This is where this isn’t working. Like, so I think doing some of the work ahead of time before the coaching call versus like

Amanda Buduris (42:10)
Mm-hmm.

Danielle Sampson (42:28)
coming to the call and being like, hey, can you teach me how to do meta ads? Like that didn’t feel like the best use of the time. So I think that’s been another thing is, you know, that preparation. I also like, to be frank, I don’t have the best work life boundaries right now. So like, you know, I I consume a lot of content on Facebook and Instagram about

business and scaling up and funnels and things like that. So I had our s I had, you know, I had a lot of interest in like building a a freebie and building an email list. And I had done some of that stuff already before coming to your mastermind too. So I think that was another part of it. But I think just having the weekly support of the group like with the mastermind is so helpful. Like I’ve literally cried in those sessions before because like

you know, where I thought I was I was gonna go bankrupt basically and you know, and that was like three months ago. you know, like having the support of the other people in the mastermind plus having access to you, you know, not only with the calls, but the then the one on one calls and being able to message you and like, hey, like, you know, like I was asking you about or I was asking about a new laptop and like everyone was like chiming in about new laptop when my laptop died. Like

Amanda Buduris (43:29)
huh.

Mm-hmm.

Danielle Sampson (43:49)
Just stuff like that, I just think I literally would not have done any of this without like all of your support. You know, like when we were prepping for the launch and I showed you my whole PowerPoint and you’re like, okay, let’s move this here, let’s split this into three slides, like this is where you need to sell yourself more. Like, you know, all of that. Like I didn’t I still struggle with that. Like trying to like talk about myself and market myself because I feel like it’s weird. Like, especially in the therapy space, like we don’t

Amanda Buduris (44:04)
Mm-hmm.

Danielle Sampson (44:19)
talk about ourselves, you know, especially depending how we’re trained. We’re not supposed to be in the room, quote unquote, which like I don’t really ascribe to, but you know, so I think just having like your support in terms of technical stuff, like when do I hire an OBM and all that, but also just like the cheerleading and also the you know the just like the I don’t know. Overall like

Amanda Buduris (44:24)
Right, yes.

Danielle Sampson (44:48)
Everything expertise like all the expertise that you bring to to the table, I think is just invaluable.

Amanda Buduris (44:56)
Yeah, and I think it is. Like that’s the whole thing that I value about coaching relationships is that it is two-sided. It’s not like you just come to me and expect me to solve your problems. Like you’ve done some work, you’ve done some research, you’ve tried something, and then you come get coaching support when you need help troubleshooting or managing the mindset component, or just like, hey, I need to be seen and celebrated in this. And that’s two why I think people who work with a coach long term.

do overall see more benefits than someone who’s like, I’m working with five coaches at once. So I worked with this coach for three months and then I switched to another person for six months. Like it’s harder to get to know like where does this person, like my coach now knows like how Amanda’s brain works and where Amanda’s brain gets stuck and where Amanda’s brain self-sabotages. Like she knows that because she knows me for a long time compared to if I just started with someone new, they wouldn’t know how to help me.

figure out exactly what the right problem is and should I do this thing that seems like a pivot or should I do something else? So yeah, it’s definitely the work you’ve put into this as well has has gotten you to where you are. You just take advantage of the supports that are around you. And it’s been so fun to see you from, you know, you’re not at finish, but from start to this, you know, very fun and exciting midpoint line, maybe.

Danielle Sampson (46:16)
Yeah, absolutely. Yeah, and I think I mean I don’t I don’t ever want to say anything bad about other coaches, but I do feel like even from when I was first following you on social media and like you know, when I was trying to choose a coach in the first place, I just felt and I still feel to this day that you’re just so genuinely invested in our success in a way that like I don’t feel like just a number. You know, I feel like some of these coaches that

You know, they’re sending me texts and they’re, you know, like all the time with these like automated text things and whatever. Like, I don’t feel like that person is genuinely invested in my success. I feel like just a number. So like that’s one of the things I really love about the intimacy of the mastermind is that like there is that, you know, that relationship that we value so much in therapy that also comes in from the coaching space and like.

Amanda Buduris (46:52)
Yeah.

Danielle Sampson (47:13)
I know that you care about me as a person, not just as someone who gives you money for your advice, you know, like

Amanda Buduris (47:20)
Exactly. Yes. Yeah. ‘Cause we talk about your dog and we talk about my cats and we just talk about fun life stuff too. It’s not just business, which I think makes a business relationship more holistic, more well rounded and feels more supportive.

Danielle Sampson (47:29)
Mm-hmm.

Yeah, for sure.

Amanda Buduris (47:37)
I want be mindful of your time because again, you are a very busy person, and I’m sure we could chat for like two more hours, but appreciate so much you just sharing the the full picture behind everything of like it takes a lot of hard work to scale something. There are times where it’s totally okay to pivot. There’s times where it’s okay to fire team members because they’re no longer fit for you. Like what matters is that you’re doing what works for you, you’re taking care of you, and you’ve got ultimately like you have your vision of.

where you want to go. And you know you will probably be the person who does 17 different things at the same time. But overall it sounds like life is much better than where it was when you, you know, initially decided to even move into private practice. And I think that’s the whole point and goal is creating something that you love and that you’re excited about and that supports your life.

Danielle Sampson (48:21)
Mm-hmm.

Yeah, absolutely.

Amanda Buduris (48:30)
Neat. Thanks so much for your time today, Danielle. Is there anything you want to leave the listeners with? I know we’re gonna share some stuff in the show notes of ways that they can check out how they can learn from you.

Danielle Sampson (48:42)
yeah, I think just if you wanna follow me on Instagram or TikTok at small town SEO. and you know, I have a lot of offerings. If you hate technology, I will do your technology for you. So

Amanda Buduris (48:54)
Ha ha.

That’s a great marketing tagline. It’s like small town SEO, I will do your tech things for you. Do the tech things you hate for you.

Danielle Sampson (49:04)
Yes. Yes.

Well yeah, one of my one of my clients laughed because I made a Instagram reel or something about how even the non tech savvy therapist got her she she got her website mentioned in Chat GPT fifty one times in one month. And she was like, wow, at me much like about, you know, the non tech savvy therapist. But like it’s true, you know, like

Amanda Buduris (49:23)
That’s amazing.

Danielle Sampson (49:30)
Those are the people I work well with, both in the course where it’s broken down super small bite size, and then also the people who are like, I don’t want to do this. So so if you’re a non tech savvy therapist, come over to small town SEO.

Amanda Buduris (49:40)
Yeah, yeah, exactly.

Yeah, go check her out. She’s amazing at what she does, obviously. She’s got great testimonials. So if that’s not what you want to do, just go learn from Danielle or go yeah, tell Danielle to just help you out. Thanks again so much for your time today. Really appreciate you being on.

Danielle Sampson (50:03)
Thank you.

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