How TCommerce Empowered Tongue-Tied Academy to help raise funds for charities
In Birmingham, Alabama, pediatric dentist Richard Baxter, DMD, MS can help professionals to identify and treat lip and tongue ties.
The journey, triggered due to the birth of twins in 2014, resulted into the birth of Tongue-Tied Academy which is a platform dedicated to addressing the issue of tongue-tied, which is a common but unacknowledged one.
Since the launch of the course in 2020 there have been more than 1500 students sign up and given all of the profits to charities both local and international.
This is how he came up with his online course business--and how TCommerce was instrumental in boosting his growth.
Skip ahead:
- He found his niche
- He joined using
- He made it easier to complete the process of checkout with TCommerce.
- He drove impact through the charity
- He released different versions of the course
- He created a simple customer experience
- It was a definition of the term "success" as him
He found his niche
When the girls were young and he realized that they had tongue ties that were affecting their ability to nurse. Upon finding a dentist to treat them with lasers on the tongues of their children, they were able to nurse much more easily. "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 in four kids have one" Baxter tells .
In the meantime, people began to ask him about tongue and lip ties. Looking to know more and more, he delved into each course and publication related to the topic, only to discover that there weren't many sources to choose from. After that, he was able to do the laser tongue tie technique. After treating patients, and addressing the mother's queries and concerns, he began writing a blog post about it. As time went on, more and more people reached out to him to seek his advice, so he decided to create and release the book Tongue Tied, in 2018. "People had read the book, but still wanted to learn more," Baxter says. Baxter.
He determined that his next step was to create an online academy . When his dental office shut down because of the pandemic, He had already completed the script, which was over 200 pages long. He later hired the film crew that would film the 25-hour flagship course even though the dental office was shut.
He signed up with
Central to Tongue-Tied Academy's success is the relationship it has formed with providing a seamless platform for the delivery of courses.
"What's good about it is the ability to arrange the class into lessons and modules." Baxter shares.
He could offer his material in bite-sized portions and also add interactive quizzes to the end of each module. He also adds chapters from his book to the software. "I appreciate that it allows me to add different types of content to my lessons, instead of just video," he reveals.
He's an avid user of the feature that allows him to generate an automatic certification for his students. "I needn't do much for the course in a day, apart from responding to the discussion questions since everything's completely automated," he says.
The checkout process was made easier by using TCommerce
Transitioning to TCommerce instead of Stripe has been a huge help in improving the experience of checkout for participants of the Tongue-Tied Academy. He believes using TCommerce resulted in him losing more sales. However, since moving away to the Stripe integration that process, checkouts have improved according to Baxter.
With support for various payment methods, including Apple Pay and Google Pay, Baxter says that TCommerce makes transactions seamless that makes it easy and convenient for users worldwide.
"You have the ability to simply click an icon, swipe your ID with your face, and purchase a course," Says Baxter. "It's much simpler now rather than putting all your data into a ."
"I never even think about the process because it's so simple," he says. " Payments handles everything for me, and then the cash shows up in the accounts of banks. ."
Baxter plans to release an updated version of his most popular course later this spring, Baxter plans on using an order bump feature which allows customers to add on another course for a reduced price, without slowing down the checkout process.
He drove impact through charity
When the funds are deposited in the bank account of his the banker donates 100 percent of the proceeds to charity.
In addition to supporting clean water initiatives across Africa and Asia in support of rehabilitation efforts as well as efforts to stop human trafficking Baxter's commitment to community welfare exemplifies the Academy's broader purpose of providing social assistance. "I do not need any anything else," he says. "We own a house and cars, we're in good ."
"If I am able to help the baby that couldn't feed before or who is difficult to feed and has a difficult time, it's the effort worthwhile," he continues.
He introduced various versions of his class
To meet the varied needs of his audience, Baxter launched a condensed version of the course tailored to professional professionals, such as lactation consultants and speech therapists. This LITE Version course, priced at $495, provides a succinct yet impactful exploration of the subject, catering to a broader spectrum of students.
Every course he offers includes an evergreen structure, meaning that people are able to sign up 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 utilize an approved CE provider. This means that they can use it towards their license," Baxter explains.
Although the course's flagship cost $2600 The content, when paired with CE approval--helps people see its value for money.
He created a simple customer experience
Despite its success, Baxter says that he does not have a marketing strategy.
The typical customer experience is initiated when a person reads the book. In the event that they wish to know more about the subject then the book will guide readers to Tongue-Tied Academy.
If he is speaking at events and at conferences, generally people in the audience can sign up for his email list. When people join his list of email addresses, they're received an email from MailChimp that directs them to his content.
He defined success for himself
Baxter defines success as having the capacity to expand his expertise. "It's not me alone doing this," he says.
"We have 1500 students who've taken our course. If each of them sees even one patient a day, that's more that I've ever been able to treat by myself ."
Further what defines success for him is based on educating the providers, helping parents and making sure that more people get treatment, while also using the money to support charities all over the world.
If you are making an online course the creator should seek to discover their own passions. "It can be anything," the author declares. "And regardless of what it is that you want to make, you can create the course you want to with it. ."
"Just take it on," Baxter encourages. "I'm not a course online man. I'm a dentist. It's just something I put out there, and last year we were honored to be in the top ten courses in ."
Prior to the creation of Tongue-Tied Academy, he created two of the courses himself. Each was priced at $99that approximately 10 students were able to take. "I took my lessons from this," he says. I received better-quality videos and designed a flagship program through Tongue-Tied Academy ."
"You might fail a couple times," he adds, "but this is an element of learning. You're only in danger of making a mistake if you don't learn from it ."
The HTML0 Tongue-Tied Academy continues to evolve driven by a unwavering dedication to both education and service, its legacy of charity and empowerment acts as an inspiration source to aspiring teachers and innovators alike.