How TCommerce Empowered Tongue-Tied Academy to Raise Money for Charity
In Birmingham, Alabama, pediatric dentist Richard Baxter, DMD, MS assists dentists to recognize and treat lip and tongue ties.
This quest, spurred through the birth of his twins in 2014, led to the establishment of Tongue-Tied Academy A platform that aims to address the issue of tongue-tied, which is a common but unacknowledged one.
Since the launch of the program in 2020, there have been more than 1500 students sign up and donated all the proceeds to international and local charities.
This is how he came up with the online course company, and how TCommerce helped to bolster his success.
Skip ahead:
- He found his niche
- The sign-up was made to
- He simplified the process of checkout with TCommerce.
- He drove the impact of charitable donations
- He launched different versions of his course
- He created a simple customer journey
- It was a definition of the term "success" as him
He found his niche
As his daughters were infants and he realized that they were wearing tongue ties that were affecting their nursing ability. When he found a dentist treat them with lasers on their tongue ties and they could take a much easier nap. "The dentist suggested that I keep an eye out for tongue tie issues in youngsters because it's more frequent than people realize; 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 each course and publication about the subject, but realized that there weren't many sources available. He then learned how to do the laser tongue tie technique. After treating patients, and addressing the mom's questions and concerns, he began writing blog posts about it. As time went on, more and more people reached out to Baxter to ask for his expertise and he finally decided to publish and write the book Tongue Tied, in 2018. "People had read the book, but were still interested in learning more about it," says Baxter.
He determined that his next task was to develop his online academy on . In 2020, when his dental office shut down because of the pandemic, the dentist had written the script, which was over 200 pages long. He then hired an film crew to film the 25-hour flagship course even though the dental office was shut.
He signed up for
The key to the success of Tongue-Tied Academy is the partnership it has with providing a seamless platform for course delivery.
"What's good about it is the ability to arrange the course into lessons and modules." Baxter shares.
He was able to offer his content in bite-sized pieces as well as add quizzes at the end of each course. In addition, he has added chapters from his book to the software. "I find it beneficial to incorporate different types of material in the lesson instead of only videos," he reveals.
He's an avid user of's function that lets the automatic generation of a certificate for students. "I needn't do much for the course on a daily basis apart from responding to discussion questions because everything is completely automated," he says.
He simplified the checkout process by using TCommerce
Transitioning to TCommerce instead of Stripe has been a huge help in improving the process of checking out for Tongue-Tied Academy's participants. In fact, he thinks that the use of TCommerce is causing him to lose fewer sales; since switching from Stripe integration that process, checkouts have become much easier, according to Baxter.
Supporting a variety of payment options such as Apple Pay and Google Pay, Baxter says that TCommerce ensures a seamless transaction process making it easier to access and more convenient to users around the world.
"You are able to click a button, use your facial ID to purchase a course," says Baxter. "It's an a lot simpler than having to put everything you know in a ."
"I don't even think about this because it's easy," he says. " Payments handles everything for me, and the money just appears in my account of the bank. ."
Baxter plans to release an updated version of his most popular course in the spring of this year, Baxter plans on using the order bump feature, that will allow customers to take another course for a reduced price, without slowing down the checkout process.
He drove impact through charity
Once the money lands in his bank account He then donates 100% of the proceeds to charity.
From supporting clean water initiatives in Africa and Asia to aiding rehabilitation as well as efforts to stop human trafficking Baxter's commitment to community welfare is a perfect example of the Academy's larger mission of societal care. "I do not need any more stuff," he says. "We have a home and an automobile, and we're good ."
"If I can aid a baby who couldn't nurse before or who is colicky and having a hard time, it makes it the effort worthwhile," he continues.
He launched different versions of his class
In recognition of the diverse requirements within his audience, Baxter launched a condensed version of the course tailored to professionals like speech therapists and lactation consultants. The LITE Version course, priced at $495, is a concise yet powerful exploration of the subject, catering to a broader spectrum of students.
Each course has an evergreen format, which means that students can enroll anytime they'd like. "Teaching this course on the internet has made it as feasible as it can be," he says.
Plus, the courses offer American Dental Association-approved continuing education credits. "We employ an accredited CE provider. This means that they can use it towards their license," Baxter explains.
While the flagship course 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 the success of HTML0, Baxter says that he doesn't have much of a marketing plan.
Typically, the customer journey begins when people read his book. Then, if they want to learn more then the book will guide readers to Tongue-Tied Academy.
If he is speaking at events and conferences, usually, attendees can sign up for his email list. If people sign up for his list of email addresses, they're received an email from MailChimp which directs people on his website.
He defined success for himself
Baxter says success is having the capacity to expand the knowledge he has. "It's not just me doing the same thing," Baxter states.
"We have over 1,500 patients who have completed the program. If they each see even one patient a day, that's more people than I can ever manage on my own. ."
Additionally what defines success for him includes educating healthcare providers, helping parents and making sure that more patients receive care, all while utilizing the funds to help charities around the world.
When making an online course he recommends that creators seek out their passion. "It can be anything," he states. "And whatever it is, you can make the course you want to with it. ."
"Just take it on," Baxter encourages. "I'm not a course online guy. I'm a dentist. It's just something I put on the market, and last year, we were honored to be among the top ten courses on ."
Before he created Tongue-Tied Academy, he created two courses himself, each costing $99 and about 10 people attended. "I learned from that experience," he says. I got higher-quality video and designed a flagship course through Tongue-Tied Academy ."
"You might fail a couple of times," he adds, "but this is one of the stages in learning. You're only in danger of making a mistake if you don't learn from it ."
as Tongue-Tied Academy continues to evolve driven by a unwavering dedication to both education and service and its history of charity and empowerment acts as an inspiration source for aspiring educators and changemakers alike.