How TCommerce Empowered Tongue-Tied Academy to raise money for charity
In Birmingham, Alabama, pediatric dentist Richard Baxter, DMD, MS assists professionals to identify and treat tongue and lip tie.
This journey, catalyzed due to the birth of twins in 2014, led to the birth of Tongue-Tied Academy A platform that aims to address an issue that is often ignored and not recognized.
Since the launch of the course in 2020 there have been more than 1500 students sign up and given all of the profits to local and international charities.
Here's how he created his online course business--and how TCommerce helped to bolster his success.
Skip ahead:
- He found his niche
- He joined to
- He streamlined the checkout process with TCommerce
- He drove impact through charitable donations
- He released different versions of his course
- He designed a straightforward customer journey
- He defined success for him
He found his niche
As his daughters were infants, he discovered that they had tongue ties that were affecting their ability to nurse. When he found a dentist do a laser treatment on the tongues of their children and they could nursing more effortlessly. "The dentist told me to watch for tongue ties in youngsters because it's more frequent than people realize; about one out of four children have one" Baxter tells .
In the meantime, people began to ask him about tongue and lip connection. Wanting to learn more and more, he delved into each course and publication about the subject, but realized that there weren't many sources to choose from. He then learned how to perform the laser tongue tie procedure. After assisting patients and answering the mother's queries and he decided to write blog posts about it. A growing number of clients contacted him seeking his knowledge, so he decided to write and publish a book, Tongue Tied, in 2018. "People have read the book but still wanted to learn more about it," Baxter says. Baxter.
He decided that the next move was to build his own online academy . In 2020, when the dental clinic shut down because of the pandemic, he had already written the over 200-page course script. He was able to hire a film crew to record the course's 25 hours of flagship even though the dental office was shut.
He signed up with
The key to the success of Tongue-Tied Academy is the partnership it has with offering a seamless platform for course delivery.
"What's nice about is the fact that I'm able to organize the lessons into modules," Baxter shares.
With , he could offer his material in bite-sized portions as well as add quizzes at the final part of every section. Additionally, he adds chapters of his book into the program. "I like that lets me add different types of content in the lesson rather than just videos," he reveals.
He's an avid user of 's feature that allows him to generate an automatic certificate for students. "I needn't do anything for the class on a daily basis aside from answering discussion questions because everything is automatized," he says.
He simplified the checkout process with TCommerce
Moving to TCommerce from Stripe proved instrumental in optimizing the checkout experience for the students of Tongue-Tied Academy. Baxter believes using TCommerce resulted in him losing less sales. Since switching from Stripe integration and the process of checkout has been made much simpler as per Baxter.
Supporting a variety of payment options, such as Apple Pay and Google Pay, Baxter says that TCommerce ensures a seamless transaction process that makes it easy and convenient for all users.
"You are able to click the button, enter your ID with your face, and buy a course" Says Baxter. "It's much simpler now instead of having to enter all your data in ."
"I do not even consider it because it's so easy," he says. " Payments will take care of everything for me, and money is deposited into the bank account ."
In the hopes of launching an upgraded version of his bestselling course this spring, Baxter plans on using an order bump feature which will enable purchasers to take another course for less, and without slowing down the checkout process.
He was able to make an impact with the charity
Once the money lands in his account in the bank He then donates 100% of the profits to charity.
In addition to supporting clean water initiatives throughout Africa as well as Asia in support of rehabilitation efforts and anti-human trafficking efforts, Baxter's commitment to community welfare exemplifies the Academy's broader mission of societal care. "I do not require anything else," he says. "We have a home We have an automobile, and we're good ."
"If I can aid a baby who couldn't nurse before or who is struggling with colic and is having a tough time, then it's the effort worthwhile," he continues.
He launched different versions of his course
To meet the varied needs of his audience, Baxter launched a condensed version of the course tailored for professionals such as lactation consultants and speech therapists. The LITE Version course, priced at $495, provides an easy, yet effective examination of the subject catering to a broader spectrum of students.
Each course has an evergreen format, which means that students can enroll at any time they'd like. "Teaching this class online has made it easy as is possible to access," he says.
Additionally, these courses provide American Dental Association-approved continuing education credits. "We utilize an approved CE provider. That means you can apply it toward the renewal of their licenses," Baxter explains.
Although the course's flagship cost $2600 and the course's content, along with CE approval enables people to see its return on investment.
He created a simple customer experience
Despite its success, Baxter says that he has no marketing plan.
The typical customer experience starts when the reader reads his book. In the event that they wish to find out more then the book will guide them to the Tongue-Tied Academy.
When he speaks at events and conferences, usually, attendees can sign up for his email list. When people join his email list, they're received an email from MailChimp that guides people to his blog posts.
He defined success for himself
Baxter defines success as being able to increase the knowledge he has. "It's not me alone doing this." Baxter says.
"We have over 1,500 patients who've taken our course. If they each see even one patient a day, that's more people than I can ever manage by myself ."
Additionally the definition of his success includes educating healthcare providers, helping parents and making sure that more people receive treatment--all while using the money to support charities across the globe.
If you are making an online course the creator should seek out their passion. "It could be anything," the author states. "And whatever the case it is, you could create the course you want to with it. ."
"Just do it!" Baxter encourages. "I'm not a course online person. I'm a dentist. But I just put it out there, and last year we were honored to be among the top ten courses in ."
Before he created Tongue-Tied Academy, he created two courses himself, each priced at $99, which approximately 10 students attended. "I gained knowledge from this experience," he says. I was able to get better quality video and designed a flagship course with Tongue-Tied Academy ."
"You may fail a handful instances," he adds, "but this is part of the learning process. You're only in danger of making a mistake if you don't take the lessons learned from it. ."
As Tongue-Tied Academy continues to evolve, fueled by a steadfast dedication to both education and service and its long-standing tradition of empowerment and altruism serves as an inspiration source to aspiring teachers and innovators alike.