How TCommerce Empowered Tongue-Tied Academy to help raise funds for charities
The Birmingham, Alabama, pediatric dentist Richard Baxter, DMD, MS can help professionals to identify and treat lip and tongue tie.
This quest, spurred by the birth of his twin daughters in 2014, resulted in the creation of Tongue-Tied Academy A platform dedicated to addressing a widespread yet underrecognized issue.
Since launching the program in 2020, he's had over 1,500 learners enroll and has made sure to donate all profits to local and international charities.
The author explains how he developed his online business for courses, as well as how TCommerce was instrumental in boosting his success.
Skip ahead:
- He found his niche
- The sign-up was made with
- He made it easier to complete the process of checkout with TCommerce.
- He was the one who drove change through charity
- He launched different versions of his class
- He designed a straightforward customer experience
- It was a definition of the term "success" himself
He found his niche
When his girls were babies when they were babies, he noticed that they were wearing tongue ties that were affecting the ability of nursing. When he found a dentist perform a laser treatment to the tongue tie and they could nurse much more easily. "The dentist advised me to keep an eye out for tongue tie issues in youngsters because it's more frequent than we think. About one out of four children have one," Baxter tells .
Soon, people began asking him about tongue and lip connection. Looking to know more and more, he delved into all the books and courses related to the topic, only to discover that there was not a lot of information to choose from. Then he learned to perform the laser tongue tie procedure. After treating patients, and addressing the mom's questions, he started writing a blog post about it. A growing number of people reached out to Baxter to ask for his expertise, so he decided to create and release a book, Tongue Tied, in 2018. "People have read the book but they wanted to know more about the subject," Baxter says. Baxter.
The next step was to create his own online academy . When his dental office shut down due to the outbreak, He had already completed an over 200-page script and 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
Central to Tongue-Tied Academy's success 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.
Through this , he could offer his content in bite-sized pieces as well as add quizzes at the conclusion of each course. In addition, he has added chapters from his book to the software. "I like that lets me add different types of content to the lessons instead of just video," he reveals.
He's a big fan of's function that lets the automatic generation of a certificate for his students. "I can do not have to worry about doing any of the work for my course on a daily basis aside from answering the discussion questions since everything's completely automated," he says.
He simplified the checkout process with TCommerce
Transitioning to TCommerce over Stripe was instrumental in optimizing the checkout experience for Tongue-Tied Academy's participants. In fact, he believes using TCommerce resulted in him losing fewer sales; since switching to the Stripe integration and the process of checkout has improved according to Baxter.
Supporting a variety of payment options, such as Apple Pay and Google Pay, Baxter says that TCommerce makes transactions seamless making it easier to access and more convenient for all users.
"You are able to click the button, enter your ID with your face, and purchase a course," says Baxter. "It's much simpler now instead of having to enter all your data in ."
"I never even think about the process because it's so simple," he says. " Payments will take care of everything for me, and then the cash shows up in the bank account ."
With plans to launch an upgraded version of his flagship course later this spring, Baxter plans on using the option of ordering bumps, that will allow customers to purchase additional courses for a reduced price, without ever slowing the process of purchasing.
He was able to make an impact with the charity
When the funds are deposited in his account in the bank the banker donates 100 percent of the earnings to charities.
from assisting clean water projects throughout Africa as well as Asia in support of rehabilitation efforts as well as efforts to stop human trafficking Baxter's dedication to the welfare of communities is a perfect example of the Academy's larger mission of societal care. "I do not require more stuff," he says. "We own a house, we have cars, we're in good ."
"If I am able to help the baby that couldn't feed before or who is struggling with colic and is having a tough time, it makes it worthwhile," he continues.
He introduced various versions of his course
Recognizing diverse needs within the audience, Baxter launched a condensed version of the course designed for professionals such as lactation consultants and speech therapists. The LITE Version course, priced at $495, provides a succinct yet impactful exploration of the subject, offering a wider range of students.
Every course he offers is a perpetually updated format which means that students can enroll whenever they want. "Teaching this class online has made it accessible as possible," he says.
Plus, the courses offer American Dental Association-approved continuing education credits. "We utilize an approved CE provider, meaning the students can count it towards their license," Baxter explains.
Although the course's flagship costs $2,600, the content--combined with CE certification--helps users see the return on investment.
He developed a very simple customer journey
Despite the success of HTML0, 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 learn more, the book guides them to the Tongue-Tied Academy.
At events where he gives talks or conferences, typically people in the audience will sign up. If people sign up for his list of email addresses, they're sent an email sequence from MailChimp that directs them to his blog posts.
He was the one who defined success
Baxter defines success as the ability to multiply his expertise. "It's not just me who is doing this." he says.
"We have 1500 students who have completed the program. If each of them sees even one patient a time, it's far more than I can ever manage by myself ."
Additionally the definition of his success is based on educating the providers, helping parents, and ensuring more people receive treatment--all while using the funds to help charities around the world.
When making an online course the creator should seek out their passion. "It can be anything," He says. "And regardless of what it is it is, you could create an entire course using it. ."
"Just take it on," Baxter encourages. "I'm not a online-course guy. I'm a dentist. But I just put it out there. Last year we were honored to be among the top ten courses in ."
Prior to establishing Tongue-Tied Academy, he created two of his own courses, each priced at $99that about 10 people attended. "I took my lessons from this," he says. I got higher-quality video and created a top-quality course with Tongue-Tied Academy ."
"You might fail a couple instances," he adds, "but this is one of the stages in learning. It's only 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 education and service and its long-standing tradition of empowerment and altruism serves as a source of inspiration for aspiring educators and changemakers alike.