How TCommerce helped Tongue-Tied School to raise money for charity
In Birmingham, Alabama, pediatric dentist Richard Baxter, DMD, MS can help dental professionals to detect and treat tongue and lip relationships.
The journey, triggered due to the birth of his twins in 2014, resulted into the creation of Tongue-Tied Academy which is a platform devoted to solving a widespread yet underrecognized issue.
Since launching the program in 2020, there have been more than 1,500 learners enroll and has given all of the profits to local and international charities.
This is how he came up with his online business for courses, as well as how TCommerce helped to bolster his growth.
Skip ahead:
- He found his niche
- He signed up using
- He streamlined the checkout process using TCommerce.
- He was the one who drove change through charity
- He introduced different variations of his course
- He created a simple customer journey
- The definition of success for himself
He found his niche
As his daughters were infants and he realized they were tied to their tongues that were affecting their ability to nurse. Upon finding a dentist to perform a laser treatment to the tongue tie which allowed them to nurse much more easily. "The dentist suggested that I watch for tongue ties in youngsters because it's more frequent than most people think; around one out of four children have one" Baxter tells .
Soon, people began asking his opinion on tongue and lip connection. In search of more information, he dove into each course and publication on the topic but realized that there was not a lot of information accessible. After that, he was able to perform the laser tongue tie process. After assisting patients and answering the mother's queries and he decided to write blog posts about it. More and more people reached out to Baxter to ask for his expertise which led him to publish and write his book, Tongue Tied, in 2018. "People had read the book, but they wanted to know more about it," says Baxter.
The next task was to develop his own online academy . In 2020, when his dental office shut down due to the outbreak, He had already completed the over 200-page course script. He later hired a film crew to film the flagship course of 25 hours 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 to deliver courses.
"What's good about it is that I can organize the lessons into modules," Baxter shares.
With , he could offer his information in bite-sized chunks and added quizzes to the final part of every module. He also adds chapters from his book to the program. "I like that lets me incorporate different types of material in the lesson instead of only videos," he reveals.
He's a big fan of 's feature that allows him to automatically generate a certificate for his students. "I don't have to do much for the course on a daily basis apart from responding to the questions in discussions since everything is completely automated," he says.
He simplified the checkout process with TCommerce
The transition to TCommerce after switching instead of Stripe proved instrumental in optimizing the checkout experience for Tongue-Tied Academy's participants. Baxter believes using TCommerce has made him lose more sales. However, since moving away from the Stripe integration, the checkout process has improved as per Baxter.
With support for various payment methods, including Apple Pay and Google Pay, Baxter says that TCommerce makes transactions seamless, facilitating accessibility and convenience for all users.
"You are able to click a button, use your facial ID to buy a course" Says Baxter. "It's an a lot simpler rather than putting all your data into a ."
"I do not even consider the process because it's so simple," he says. " Payments handles everything, and the money just shows up in the bank account ."
Baxter plans to release an upgraded version of his flagship course this spring, Baxter plans on using the order bump feature, that will allow customers to purchase additional courses for a reduced price, without slowing down the checkout process.
He drove impact through charitable causes.
Once the money lands in his bank account the banker donates 100 percent of the earnings to charities.
from assisting clean water projects across Africa as well as Asia in support of rehabilitation efforts and preventing human trafficking, Baxter's commitment to community welfare is a perfect example of the Academy's larger purpose of providing social assistance. "I do not require anything else," he says. "We have a house, we have a car, we're fine ."
"If I can help the baby that couldn't feed prior to or who's struggling with colic and is having a tough time, it makes it worthwhile," he continues.
He has launched various variations of his class
Recognizing diverse needs within the audience, Baxter launched a condensed version of his course that is designed for professionals such as lactation consultants and speech therapists. This LITE Version course, priced at $495, offers a concise yet powerful study of the topic, accommodating a larger range of learners.
Each of his courses has an evergreen format, which means that students can enroll whenever they want. "Teaching this class online has made it easy as is possible to access," he says.
Plus, the courses offer American Dental Association-approved continuing education credits. "We employ an accredited CE provider, meaning you can apply it toward their dental license," Baxter explains.
While the flagship course costs $2,600, the content--combined with CE certification--helps users see the value for money.
He designed a straightforward customer journey
Despite his success, Baxter says that he has no marketing plan.
Typically, the customer journey begins when people read his book. Then, if they want to learn more and more, the book directs readers to Tongue-Tied Academy.
When he speaks at events or conferences, typically people in the audience are likely to sign up. When people join his email list, they're sent an email sequence from MailChimp that directs them on his website.
He defined success as a person.
Baxter describes success as being able to increase his expertise. "It's not just me who is doing the same thing," Baxter says.
"We have 1500 students who've taken our course. If each of them sees at least one patient per each day that's more people than I can ever manage alone. ."
Furthermore 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.
In the process of creating an online course, he recommends that creators seek for their interests. "It can be anything," he says. "And regardless of what it is that you want to make, you can create a course with it ."
"Just go for it," Baxter encourages. "I'm not an online course man. I'm a dentist. It's just something I put on the market, and last year we had the honor to be among the top ten courses in ."
Prior to establishing Tongue-Tied Academy, he created two courses himself, each costing $99 and around 10 people attended. "I gained knowledge from this experience," he says. I was able to get better quality video and developed a flagship program through Tongue-Tied Academy ."
"You may fail a handful of occasions," he adds, "but that's just part of the learning process. It's only a mistake if you don't take the lessons learned from it. ."
The HTML0 Tongue-Tied Academy continues to evolve, fueled by a steadfast dedication to both education and service and its history of altruism and empowerment serves as an inspiration source to aspiring teachers and innovators alike.