Barely a week after announcing she’d officially become a certified fertility coach, Samantha Busch was already hinting at something new.  “Now that I’m certified, I’m excited to have another outlet to support women through their journeys… so stay tuned for what’s to come,” she wrote to her nearly 300,000 Instagram followers. But what came wasn’t another podcast or a new wellness project around the cause she’d long championed. Instead, it was a members-only launch with a price tag that didn’t land well with NASCAR fans and longtime followers who had been following her journey closely.

The new offering, branded “Ask Sam Anything,” is priced at $20.99 per month and is hosted on the creator platform Passes, which promises subscribers a level of access that goes beyond Samantha’s regular Instagram posts. The highlight of this model is “Unlimited DMs,” while subscribers can message her freely to ask anything, from motherhood and infertility to fitness, fashion, and life on the track. The glossy cover image of Samantha sets the tone for an experience that she describes as “the closest way to connect” with her. 

There are still more models to choose from.  For $5.99 a month, “Life in the Fast Lane” gives fans behind-the-scenes glimpses from the NASCAR circuit and special podcast moments, but only five free DMs. The $15.99 “Stronger with Sam” tier adds her favorite workouts, recipes, and deeper lifestyle content, along with 15 free DMs. Yet, it’s the $20.99 “Ask Sam Anything” subscription that sits at the top of her tiered offerings that has drawn the most attention, and it’s easy to explain why. 

Having had her own struggles with miscarriage, Busch’s advocacy for accessible fertility support became a cornerstone of her public persona. Through the Bundle of Joy Fund, she has provided over $2 million in IVF grants, helping more than 100 families achieve their dreams of parenthood. She even wrote a book called “Fighting Infertility,” and started a podcast called “Certified Oversharer” to further drive those conversations home. But now, the $20.99 model places those sensitive conversations behind a paywall, potentially alienating those who cannot afford it.

Moreover, as Samantha herself has pointed out, infertility treatments are costly, with IVF cycles averaging $19,200 in the U.S. In this context, charging for access to fertility-related advice seems contradictory to the mission of making such support accessible. By comparison, most Instagram subscriptions hover around $9.99 to $19.99 per month, with $19.99 considered one of the commonly used tiers. Samantha’s choice of $20.99 pushes slightly above the standard ceiling, threatening to commercialise the struggles of those seeking assistance. At least, that’s how fans see it, and they are not holding back from sharing their take on her new business model. 

Fans are not happy

One user tied it to Kyle Busch’s slump, saying, “Kyle goes winless for too long, and this is what happens.” Kyle Busch’s 2024 season marked the first time in his 20-year NASCAR Cup Series career that he went winless, and fans have connected his on-track struggles to off-track headlines like Samantha’s new venture. The couple often appears together on social media, creating content that ranges from playful videos to candid family moments, which has only amplified scrutiny as followers watch their personal and professional lives unfold in tandem.

The annoyance sharpened when fans discovered that Samantha had already started posting paywalled clips on Passes. One of them, a six-second video titled “Kyle with Lennix before the race 💕,” was priced at $4, leading one fan to object, “$4 for a six-second video is insane.” Other uploads include videos titled like “If you’re wondering what my podcast room looks like… here it is! ✨” for $8 (just over a minute long) and “Fun Q&A with Braxton ❤️” for $10 (a little over two minutes). With so little content behind the curtain so far, users questioned the value of what they were paying for. One user tried to downplay it with sarcasm:

“If anyone ever asks me what the most trivial and obscure NASCAR fact I know is, tell them it costs (or used to cost) $20.99 a month to have ‘conversations about infertility’ with Kyle Busch’s wife on Instagram.” While Samantha’s advocacy and philanthropic efforts are commendable, the introduction of a paywall raises concerns around the ethics of monetizing such personal topics.

The skepticism ran deep, “If you think she is responding and not some intern, ya a big dingus.” Samantha has 281k followers on Instagram, creates a variety of content, does paid collaborations and much more. It’s only natural for fans to think that she’s got a social media team working alongside her behind the scenes. By extension, this could mean she will hire someone (if not already done) to manage the “unlimited” DMs she would receive.  And then came the most obvious dig:

“Samantha needs to read the room. Paying her for that content? In this economy?” one user wrote, summing up what everyone else might be feeling, too. Samantha’s philanthropy is real, but monetizing infertility talks hits hard amid IVF’s affordability struggles.