Black Bridge Mindset

Mobile Dental Revolution: Dr. Kwan Watson's Journey & Vision | Black Bridge Mindset Podcast

• Black Bridge Mindset • Season 1 • Episode 7

Share episode

Send us a text

In this episode of the Black Bridge Mindset Podcast, hosts Mike, Ken, and CJ have a lively and inspiring discussion with Dr. Kwane Watson, founder and CEO of Kare Mobile, Inc. Dr. Watson shares his journey from a young entrepreneur to a pioneering dentist with a focus on mobile oral healthcare. They discuss the inception of Kare Mobile, the challenges faced, innovative solutions for underserved communities, and the importance of representation in the dental field. Tune in for gems on entrepreneurship, resilience, and breaking barriers in healthcare innovation.

Guest's Socials:

Website: https://karemobile.com/

Instagram:  https://www.instagram.com/kare.mobile/?hl=en

Facebook:  https://www.facebook.com/karemobiledental

Also, check out Dr. Watson's current venture and opportunities in his latest video found here:

https://youtu.be/RIHaUKdZPRk?si=IqNESAM4XQGshcmY

Thank you for listening!

Follow our socials!

Contact us:

Hosts:

CJ:

Hello and welcome to the Black Bridge Mindset Podcast where culture, entrepreneurship, and business intersect to fuel inspiration. This podcast celebrates the power of diverse voices shaping the future of business. So whether you're building a business, breaking barriers, or just looking for some serious inspiration, you're in the right place. The Black Bridge Mindset. Podcast is hosted by your three favorite best friends, Mike, Ken, and CJ. So now sit back, relax, and absorb the gems being dropped on you by today's special guest.

Mike:

I'm sorry, I'm, I'm like whirlwind getting my, my wits together. I jumped from one thing to the next, and then I start to sit down and relax for a minute. Then I looked at the calendar, I was like, man, we, we got a podcast to record tonight, so let me get, my ass off the couch and go shower. And then I read your bio. I'm like, man, he's a dentist. Let me brush my teeth. Let me not like, you could smell my breath, but I was like, let me wa use some mouthwash, but whatever. Did all the things. And then I was like, what am I gonna wear? I don't know what I'm gonna wear. I don't have a car, a bus, a tooth, a toothbrush or anything shirt. So this is, oh, my camera just went crazy. So this is all I have with this bicycle on it. And yeah, I think all of my. Crazy talk just caused my camera to act crazy. So we'll see how, what's going on with that?

CJ:

it has. I mean, if we're coming the worst, we can just get you some of those. the veneers, you could have just showed up in a mouthful of teeth, some Chiclets.

Ken:

The Da Vinci.

Mike:

You know, the first time I heard or saw something like that was at ou and there was this guy who came in and people were talking about it and I was like, I have no idea what you're talking about. They was like, look at his teeth. Look at his teeth. And they were like perfectly straight, bright white and like, you talk to him and you smile and everything was just perfect. And I was like, you know, me coming from Cleveland, not really dealing with dental, anything. I was like, what? He just has perfect teeth. He's just, you know, some white dude with perfect teeth. And they're like, dude, no one has teeth that perfect. So someone asked him and he was like, he was like, yeah, I went to California, met with this dentist, they shaved down my teeth and I.

CJ:

I

Mike:

was my,

CJ:

gonna say you walked into class and they were sitting on his desk one day.

Mike:

it wasn't that, it wasn't that crazy, but, that was my first experience of, of seeing them. But now I see them often, but, I don't know. I don't know. I, I went to the orthodontist and I had braces for, for six months. He was like, you really don't need braces. I was like, well, I, I want braces because I want my teeth perfect.

Ken:

Why, why did you get them and,

Mike:

Because, because they were a little, I had an overbite and they were a little crooked, and I was like, well, I don't want this major overbite anymore. I am, how old was I? I was like, 23. Had a good job. I can afford it. He's like, oh, it's gonna be$4,000. I was like, here you go. Let's, let's get this mouth together. And even so, I still, you know, have like, I want it all straight. He was like, that's not natural. We're just gonna let the front two be a little whatever. And I was like, sure. And went with it. And here I am. Here. Here's, here's my smile here. I'm okay. I'm gonna shut up.

CJ:

You good?

Mike:

I'm for today, like I said.

Ken:

Yeah.

CJ:

Well, I guess I, go ahead and, I should back up and everyone to, to the podcast tonight, the, the Black Bridge Mindset. Whether you are listening day, night, weekend, weekday, whatever, we wanna welcome you and thank you for joining us here at the corner of Culture and Entrepreneurship. my name is cj. I'm one of your co-hosts here with, my two best friends, Mike and Ken. And, yeah, like you said, I'm, I'm very excited for tonight's guest. We have a, what I would consider a powerhouse guest. someone that, that, you know. I'm not gonna say I never thought that, that we'd be at this point, but this cat is literally one of the most successful people that I know, I'm very gracious and thankful that he, agreed to come on the show, share his, his knowledge and, and drop a few tidbits of wisdom. I actually, I think I pretty much knew from meeting this person freshman year at uk, I don't, can't remember if we met in freshman orientation or maybe in class or in the dorm or something. All I remember the most is being a, don't know, shy kid from Kentucky, from western Kentucky in chemistry class with, you know, 300 plus people. And you know, with that many people in such a large lecture hall, there is one black kid that's actually raising his hand and asking questions the rest of us are nervous? And I'm like, okay. First of all, that takes balls to, to do that. two, this, he might might have asked maybe one or two questions, leave class and you know, we get together and do homework. He's busting stuff out, left, right, and sideways. And we all sitting there like, what the hell? Like, how'd you catch that so fast? Well, it, it all makes sense now, you know, fast forward to today, but yeah. But yeah, very happy, very proud to, to say that I know this person and, actually this cat and I used Kat with a capital C, you know, he went to UK and is representing very well. so yeah.

Ken:

You gonna do the introduction?

Mike:

You gonna introduce?

CJ:

that's, that's what if you gimme a minute, I'm about to get into

Mike:

Oh, okay. Okay. There's the pause. We were both confused. I don't know.

CJ:

y'all all excited. Gimme a minute, gimme a minute. And with that, the, the guest that I'm speaking of is Kwan Watson. Dr. Watson is the founder and CEO of Care Mobile, incorporated a dental service organization and healthcare technology company focused on comprehensive oral healthcare and a brick and mortar in addition to a single operatory mobile dental unit model. Founded in 2017, care Mobile has launched mobile vans with partners in several states around the country, has filed multiple patents on products and innovative innovations around mobile dental care. launching Koch Care Mobile, Dr. Watson owned and successfully executed multiple practices in Louisville, Kentucky. He served as Kentucky's Dental Director for Dental Quest for several years. I. Before devoting his time for oral health equity and reimagining Oral healthcare with Care Mobile, he has been featured in many publications and is a Crest and Oral B brand ambassador for the Closing America Smile Gap campaign. And with that, I need UK to stand up. And please welcome to the show Dr. Kwan Watson.

Mike:

He got through it, y'all. He got through it.

Kwane Watson:

He got through it.

CJ:

That was a mouthful,

Kwane Watson:

Hey, what's going on fellas? Thanks for

CJ:

no pun intended.

Kwane Watson:

Can y'all hear me okay?

Mike:

Yeah, we hear you. Great.

CJ:

can hear you.

Kwane Watson:

Perfect. Perfect, man. It's, it's a pleasure to be on Chris or cj, man. It's, it's

CJ:

Look, whatever you want to call me.

Kwane Watson:

Yeah, it is always good catching up with, with the UK family for sure. So for having me on. One thing I will start off by saying though, if I'm the most successful or one of the most successful people that you, you, you hang in the wrong circles my friend,

CJ:

Listen, you have doctor in front of your name. That's all that matters

Kwane Watson:

Well, appreciate it man. Appreciate it. But thanks for having me on, fellas.

CJ:

For

Mike:

Nice.

CJ:

So,

Mike:

Well, I'm, I'm excited to get in.

CJ:

right in.

Mike:

Yeah, I'm excited to get into your story because this is, you know, I. I've never heard of it. I've never heard of something like this. And I think it's, I, I think you found like a need and you were able to go in there and have the wherewithal to fill it. So my question is, if you could take us back to the beginning. I know you two went to the same university and obviously you, you graduated, went on, became Dr. Watson. what, what was that one thing that sparked this idea of having like a mobile dentist office?

Kwane Watson:

Yeah, man. So, you know, I've just been a serial entrepreneur since leaving uk, did a lot of different businesses and did a lot of different businesses in a lot of different economic times, right? We're about to go through another cycle of economic times where things are gonna get a little rougher, for a lot of people in the us. And so a lot of people say, you know, why are you. Doing things in a mobile capacity. And a lot of it, stems from the fact that I, I started my first practice, or I acquired my first practice in 2000. I think Clinton was in office, right? were booming. It was kind of easy. I was successful. and a lot of times when you're an entrepreneur though, you don't really know when to quit. So the second practice that I started was in oh seven literally the economy tanked maybe a month after I, I spent considerable money on a, on a new location. So it made, it makes you realize how much, you know, fortune, luck, and timing. Kind of falls into play when you're doing ventures. A lot of times we think as entrepreneurs, it's me that did it, when in essence it's a little bit of luck, right?'cause there's timing and there's other variables that you have to consider. so by 2016 though, the dental industry was changing. When I first graduated, it was more of a mom and pop type thing. by, I would say by about 2016, you saw a lot more of the, aspens and the

CJ:

Mm-hmm.

Kwane Watson:

chains coming apart and being a, a single provider or owning your own practice, it got to be a lot harder to run your business.'cause I'm competing with people with, with pockets a lot deeper than mine, bigger marketing budgets, so on and so forth. So. I was in my early to mid forties. I was like, man, this, the game is changing. I need to get in bed with somebody. So I did, I sold my practice to DentaQuest, which is a, as a insurance company that provides benefits for the Medicaid population. were looking for a doctor to come, they were trying to expand in Kentucky and they wanted to partner with a doctor that was capable of running a Medicaid office. So I became the dental director for the state. I ran the practices throughout the state. that was cool'cause now you know, I had got in bed with someone, a la larger than myself. I was a director for their organization. But once again, I'm an entrepreneur by nature, I guess. I've always been a hustler slash entrepreneur by nature. Before there was a word. Entrepreneur, you know, 14, 12, I was the guy that was going to people's houses cutting grass before people made that legitimate businesses, right. Shoveling snow, you know, all the things you did back in the day to get money legitimately. but fast forwarding through my, my journey to why I was mobile is, you know, I did the thing with DentaQuest for a while. I came up with an idea, actually, care Mobile started as a mobile app that I had created. So it was an app that I created to connect patients to dentists for same day treatment. It was like the Uber of dentistry. If you were a Medicaid patient, and you couldn't find a dentist because only one in three dentists accepts Medicaid, get on the app. If a doctor had a chair available, I would be the connector. Alright? The issue with the, the idea though, was that the way I was gonna make money from it was the insurance companies would pay me a connecting fee to connect the patient to the dentist, okay? Because they actually are compensated for increasing utilization. Okay? The problem with that business model is that only gave me about six or seven potential customers that basically monetize my app. So if I went to all the insurance companies and none of them wanted to give me money for making those connecting connections, then there was no way for me to get my return on the investment for building out the app. Does that make sense to you?

Mike:

Yep.

Kwane Watson:

so also being extremely stubborn, I was like, okay.'cause I went to many of them and none of them was willing to, help me progress the application or take it to market for me. my pivot was to build out a single charity dental unit. And when you downloaded my app in Louisville, Kentucky, I would come to your home and do dental services. Now it got people to download the application, but now I was able to monetize the application by being able to provide dental services'cause it made you, Download the application for a reason that you wanted it to, to get the service brought to you. Right. being a person that had never done anything in the software space before, you think, oh, I'm gonna create this app and it's gonna be a hit. But you don't know how hard it is to get people to download an application, even if it's free. Right. You gotta come up, especially if you don't have millions of dollars to market it. basically, the mobile side of the business came from a different business that I had created that I basically had to reinvent. For the purpose of getting my money back on that investment for the application, if that makes sense. So that's how it started and it kind of took off. It got a lot of attention. I would say, you know, I was still working my nine to five job for DentaQuest and I was just seeing patients on evenings and weekends back in 2018. And I would say in about a year and a half I had seen over 2000 people going directly to their homes providing concierge dental services. And when Covid occurred where everybody else was struggling, it actually was great for us.'cause we could come to your house and do your dental work as opposed to, you know, all the dental offices were close. So, it ended up, you know, once again, I kind of mentioned a little bit about timing. My timing was good for this idea because the technology was there for me to make it happen and the world was shifting to where people were doing more, staying at home and when the

Mike:

Mm-hmm.

Kwane Watson:

to them. So it was, that's kinda like where it grew from.

Mike:

Nice. Yeah, you used the word luck earlier. Yeah. But, what's the saying? luck is when preparation meets opportunity. So you are prepared, opportunity presented itself and, and here you are. So if you wanna use the word luck, I, I think, luck is what it is, but I, I think you're, you're a lot smarter than that. And, you did all the right things and had all the right things set up. Put in place.

Kwane Watson:

what I would say, you know, to, to piggyback that, you know, the luck came from me having the perseverance not to stop when it didn't work the first time, and I was

Mike:

Mm-hmm.

Kwane Watson:

out or keep going until the timing was correct, if that makes sense.

CJ:

So when you made that decision to, to utilize the app, for personal care, what were some of the, I guess, the. Biggest challenges you had once you got the app running? You know, what, what were some of the challenges you had with, you know, your, your equipment to, you know, you're going to people's houses, you have to have certain things to do. Your job was what, what kind of challenges did you face with that?

Kwane Watson:

It's, it is hilarious. So literally, I, I built the van, my, me and a buddy who, with retrofit food trucks imagined the van ourself. So we built it, we researched what we could put in it. We had to learn about, well, he already knew from his experience of retrofitting, vans to make them food trucks, that I had to understand how much amperage I would need to run it so

CJ:

Mm-hmm.

Kwane Watson:

appropriate, amount of, on the back to run

CJ:

Right.

Kwane Watson:

had to research what equipment I could use to, make it work. I mean, we literally, if you follow us on ig, KARE dot M-O-B-I-L-E and scroll all the way to the beginning, you'll see us manufacturing or building the first iteration of this, this van. And the funny thing about the first iteration of the van had two gas generators on the back. So the funny part about that, I literally in between patients would take these 50 pound generators out of the back, fill'em up with gas, come in, smell like gas, and people would still wanted me to work on'em. So I knew I was on the song, so, so. So after I made the first version of the van and I knew that, you know, I was onto something because of the customers wanted the product, then I had to come up with another iteration of the van that was gonna be a lot more, you know, user friendly, something that anybody could use, something that didn't require using gasoline. So I did some research on some different power sources and determined that, you know, there was a mobile dental unit that was built like this, but there were inverter powered, pet grooming vans out there. And so

CJ:

Hmm.

Kwane Watson:

u utilizing that different power source, once again, I had to reimagine or redesign way the van would function internally, taking into consideration everything I needed to make it run appropriately. but literally I leveraged all of that. I. And found another frat brother of mine that is in manufacturing, and he and I basically constructed the, the versions that you see today, in a lot of different states. So it's been, even with that process, it's been about four different iterations of what the vans look like internally based on just improving processes and what I needed as I was a person that was using the vans on a daily basis. So, when I mentioned to you, to you Chris, or you just read about the patents and things of that nature, you know, all the IP around the design of the vans I've patented. there's other things around software. The, the initial app that I created, we don't even use that anymore. We created new applications that basically basically allows you to self schedule, your appointments on the vans based on where they are in any particular location. So we're as much a technology company as we are. Manufacturing and a service business. So I like to classify as as like an enterprise solution.

Ken:

have you noticed that, you get a lot more patience because you are mobile versus you being in a brick and mortar office? Because I know that there's some, you know, stigma around people going to the dentist, right? Like a lot of people don't like that. But have you noticed that you get more clients, because you are mobile and you're able to go to their homes?

Kwane Watson:

Yeah. So, you know, my, my why for the business is a certain niche that we were trying to solve, right? you know, I've always worked in a working class dental, practice. So like, I mean, Mike, you said you were from Cleveland. You know, a lot of people that are in urban areas or rural areas, there's not a lot of dentists that accepts Medicaid or for, or really works to serve the underinsured. you know, in Kentucky alone, there's like 1.6 million people that are on Medicaid. There's only 4 million people in the whole state, right? So 40% of the people that reside in the state are on Medicaid, but only one in three dentists accepts Medicaid. So when it comes to patients, you know, we literally put these vans in areas where there's no one else to out serve them.'cause if not, have to drive several hours to go to UK or U of L Dental school to get services done. And so our patients come from the insurance companies now we partner with them and they usually compensate me for going to areas where others won't. To do the work that others choose not to do. And so last year alone, we, we got over 31,000 calls just in Kentucky and,

Ken:

Wow.

Kwane Watson:

Georgia alone. So it is, it is a huge need out there, the reason why we're doing it in a mobile capacity is because the, the fixed cost of a brick and mortar it more difficult to afford to provide these services to the community because reimbursements are lower, right. no show rate are lower, so going to places where others won't, and with the insurance companies allows me to monetize a population that others aren't able to really figure out how to do it.

CJ:

Brilliant.

Mike:

Yeah, and I could see, you know, if someone has to drive two or three hours to go to the dentist, they're.

CJ:

Right.

Kwane Watson:

Only if it's an emergency. You know, they're only gonna go if it's an emergency and a lot of the people don't even have transportation to get there. So, you know, it's, it's, it's a number of different barriers. We're eliminating by bringing the product to the, to the people.

CJ:

So since your, your unit is and you said you no longer use the app, you have a, a, a different way of getting patients in.

Kwane Watson:

new web application that you utilize the book, your appointments, but it's integrated with the practice management software that we use. So basically previously when you hit me on the application, it would just come to my, it was actually a, a native application, meaning you would go to the Apple store or the Google Store, download the application, and I had to have a. The, you know, corresponding application on my phone to know that you wanna get in touch with me. Now our new application, if you go to our website and you click book, now you're literally making an appointment. But it puts you right on my schedule in the appropriate space with the appropriate provider in the appropriate location. So it's a lot more higher tech, a lot more, innovations and, algorithms on the back end of it that helps us determine where we wanna put you. but it has a great user interface, so it makes it really easy for you as a customer just to select where you're gonna go. But on the back end, it's doing all these different calculations, which is another one of the patents that we created around, productivity and time, and who the providers are, which are variables we use to determine or we want you to be on our schedule. one, like I mentioned, we, we've tried to create an enterprise solution that basically allows us to everything from, create a great customer experience to provide great services directly wherever you are.

CJ:

So I'm curious. how do you market your services now since you know, you, you had, you said you had issues driving people to the app, previously, but now with, you know, partnering with insurance companies, it's, they're actually coming to you. Do you actually actively market your app? Are we gonna market the company certain areas or. Do they just, they, you know, are they recommended, you know, they, they, I guess, refer you, refer these people to you, and that's how they hear about you. Is there some type of marketing plan you have in place to reach out to them?

Kwane Watson:

many states, they have what's called dental homes. So if you're on Medicaid, they like to try to, assign you to a provider to be your, dentist more or less, right? But in these rural areas, as I mentioned, there's inadequate number dentists. So the insurance companies pay me to go into those markets and they will assign me thousands of customers. All we have to do is send out the link to those customers, letting them know that we'll be their dentist and they literally can self schedule. So I don't, I have, so there's a thing called customer acquisition costs or cac. have zero customer acquisition costs. They pay me to go to the markets to do the

CJ:

Hmm.

Kwane Watson:

they assign me the people. I don't have to the patients. The patients are being made aware we're their provider from the insurance customers who need us to be in the communities because, they get penalized if they don't have adequate access in certain areas.

Mike:

Well, the, the business and everything Care Mobile is, I, I mean, I, I don't even have the words to tell you like how amazing this is and how you're serving the community. What I want to sort of transition to a little bit is, you know, talking to our audience of future entrepreneurs, when you had this idea of being a mobile dental service from day one, in your mind, did it look the same on day one as it does now and. I already know the answer. And, and if it doesn't, how did it, how did you progressively get from that initial thought and idea to where you are now?

Kwane Watson:

Yeah, man. The world is changing more rapidly than ever before. Right? AI and all these different things are coming into market. There's so many things that are changing that you have, you cannot get stuck in your own mind doing things the same way. And so every year there's a different iteration on how we're going about tackling the market. you know, when I first started doing it and I was going directly to consumers, a lot of people laughed at me. It's like, this guy's crazy. Going around to people's houses doing dental work. It didn't really get any traction until some of the major insurance companies and some of the major, fortune 500 companies started seeing the business. It's like, hmm, there's something there. So when we started getting partnerships with Ford Motor Company and Delta Dental, Michigan, Ohio, and Indiana, and Creston or ob, then the powers that be starts getting nervous. Oh wait. You might need to pay more attention to this guy. Right? So one of the different iterations that I had to do and pivot was because then regulations started coming in. When I first started doing it, there wasn't any reg regulations. Matter of fact, my first van I went to the, you know, if you started a food truck, a food truck had to get inspected by the public health department, right? When I started my first mobile dental van, we did the same configuration as the food truck thinking the health department's gonna have to inspect it first. It's like, nah, there's not a inspecting agency for what you do. So there was no regulation.

Mike:

Right.

Kwane Watson:

or two ago, the state of Kentucky enact mobile dental laws, which required me to have some sort of connection to a brick and mortar practice. Why would they do that? one of the reasons they would do that is everybody that's on the board of dentistry owns a brick and mortar practice. If I scaled this business too big and too great, can literally set up, which I have before, right across the street from your brick and mortar practice, see the patients and bounce. So, so then, you know, no different than Uber or all these other technologies out there. They wanna start putting regulations in place so that they control it so they can monetize it so they know how many people are working for you. So they did that, and that made me have to continue to change the way I went about approaching the business. and so, you know, year there's usually something that happens that makes me have to rethink how I wanna approach the market, right? I'm, me and the group of doctors that I started working with initially we're a little bit different. We're a little unique, if we wanna scale and grow to a national platform, how are we gonna attract dentists that never thought when they graduated from school that they would be doing work in a van?

Mike:

Mm-hmm.

Kwane Watson:

our future plans has more, involvement of brick and mortar practices and the vans is, Chris mentioned is a conduit. Of the brick and mortar practice. What this does now, it provides me a workforce and allows me to scale and grow quicker through acquisitions and partnerships as opposed to organically, which what we've done thus far.

Mike:

I'm trying to think of like, if I am, if I am an entrepreneur and I'm listening to this, is this something that anyone could go off and say like, I love what he's saying. I think this is great. I wanna go off and do something like this. Or is this something where you're like, Hmm, you may wanna come talk to me first?'cause there's a lot of things that are gonna pop up and I can help shorten that.

Kwane Watson:

If I knew what I was getting into seven years ago now, I would now would say no. Right. I mean, it's, it was a, it was a lot that we had to create and all the workflows, the systems, getting insurance companies that will even insure my, my idea. You know, there's a lot of different nuances that, you know, if you're smart, why reinvent the wheel? trying to be a mobile dentist though as well, or just mobile in general is always now there's, it's a lot more popular. A lot of people are spinning off different mobile businesses all the time. I would look for expert in that particular area to help you navigate the system. Why try to recreate something? I've already spent, you know, hundreds of thousands of dollars figuring it out. So it would be a lot easier for whomever that wanted to get into something in a mobile capacity to go to somebody that's already figured out some of those different nuances. It would just save you time and money You.

Mike:

Yep. Smart move.

CJ:

So I'm, I'm gonna go back for a minute. and I wonder if you can, can put yourself in the shoes of, you know, 18-year-old about to go to college. I'm curious what, what or who, inspired you to get into dentistry to start with and, and what, what kind of advice would you give someone, you know, that's about to go off to college that is considering dentistry?

Kwane Watson:

So, man, I was the first doctor on either side of my family, and so for me, I, I just knew I wanted to do something that was kind of healthcare related, but I didn't want to be a surgeon. I didn't want to like be involved or have to worry about someone dying per se on me. Right. also. Dentistry just kind of fit for me. Meaning, you know, my mom sent me, took me when I was like a junior in high school to a dentist office and let me, and he, the guy was nice enough to let me observe and see what he did, and let me play with the material that we take impressions on, just kind of be in the space and see what he does on a daily basis. So what, the first thing I would say to anybody that's thinking or considering any career is go, go shadow. You know, spend some time with somebody that's already doing it. Ask a lot of questions, figure out the pros and cons to it. You know, think about why you want to do it. And it can't just be about the money, right. The money is not gonna make you happy. Right. for me, I was artistic. I don't know if you knew that, Chris. I, you know, I can draw. So, you know, there's an artistic component to dentistry. I, I always, you know, as I said, being a kid, different businesses and doing little things growing up, that was entrepreneurial before I knew. was entrepreneurial. I, I had a desire to own my own business, even when I was in high school. my dad worked for GE and we moved or four times growing up, right? moving around a lot made me be like, man, I don't want to go work for somebody. I wanna be able to do what I want do, right? so dentistry just checked a lot of boxes for me, and as I spent more time in dental offices, it made me say, you know, this is something that I think I wanted to consider. Now, I will say, going to UK and partying and, not always paying as much attention. There was a period in my life where I said, eh, maybe I should go work at Toyota like everybody else. That was, that didn't make it through college. But, you know, I was blessed and fortunate that I came through in a time where they were trying to make it more feasible for minorities to get into dental school because they, They realized that there was inadequate number of minority people getting the opportunity to even go. you know, my class at UK Dental School was only three of us. Me, Cherise, and James. Right. But there was only six black people in the entire dental school. Right. And

CJ:

I think I knew like three or.

Kwane Watson:

yeah, before I went to dental school, there was only one per class at the university, of Kentucky. Matter of fact, I went back to the U uk my reunion, they have a black reunion of all the black dentists that graduated. And I think I was in 1999, the 45th black person never graduated from UK dental school. And that was, and that school had been in existence since 1960 something. Right. So,

CJ:

Wow.

Kwane Watson:

getting the opportunity to do something that is not, usually readily available for us. Was a blessing of, you know, timing, dedication to what I thought I wanted to do and just seeing it through. But, you know, even today, 200,000 dentists in the us, only 3.8% of all the dentists in the US are black. it, right? So you barely have 8,000 black dentists in the entire country. it just shows if you're a young black person and now we all know what's going on administratively, they're not gonna be coming to look for you and say, Hey, mentor you and help you get that, that start. You gotta be 3.7, 3.8, you know, knocking it out the park, on the DA and, you know, checking all the boxes. but you can do it. You know, this podcast and others will open up opportunities for you to find mentors in your community to help you get through. And so that's what I would tell, you know, my son, he's a freshman right now at Morehouse, you know, and, you know, I tell him all the time, why did I send him to Morehouse? Because it's about relationships, know, the world is about relationships. could have went to U of L where we wouldn't have to pay this money out of pocket. what I was most apre impressed by when I dropped him off there is that the network and the brotherhood and the relationships that those young men are able to build by attending that school, it's gonna, what's gonna help him propel his career to the next level.

CJ:

Nice. Absolutely. I never, I guess I never really thought about it, but I would never have thought that, you know, the stats you gave about the number of black dentists, that's, that blows my mind. I.

Kwane Watson:

Man, it's, it is crazy. there's a lady that I met probably a few months ago, she runs like a black farmer's guild and she's, she was like, she's, shout out some stat that was like, there's only two to 3% of all the farmers that are black. Like, you know, when it comes to these careers that are critically important to all of our survival, right? Healthcare, food, manufacturings, like where are we? know, where are we? Where's our, our people that are doing these type of jobs to sustain our communities?

CJ:

I, I mean, it's, it's, my question is pretty much along these same lines, and you've kind of touched on it, but, how important is representation? In the dental field for, you know, from our standpoint and our community, and changes would you like to see?

Kwane Watson:

Representation's everything. if you only see us rapping and playing basketball, then you start thinking that's all you can do. When I go speak to high schools or elementary schools and I ask the kids where they want to be, it's always something that revolves around a sport, right? A

CJ:

Mm-hmm.

Kwane Watson:

you very rarely hear a kid in elementary schools that says, I wanna be a dentist. Right? so I think the representation is important. I also think it's important to be your authentic self at the same time, because you can be both. And so, you know, opportunities like this just allowing people to say, Hey, if I can do it, you can do it. You know, I didn't come from a family that, you know. Extremely wealthy. You know, my mom was a teacher. My dad worked in the warehouse at ge. Right. but we, as you know, Chris, we, we all came in, lot of us on scholarship and we had to earn it to stay there, right.

CJ:

Yep.

Kwane Watson:

just had to put in the work to get to where we are today. And so I would just say to, anybody out here listening, say anything worth getting, a lot of work, period.

CJ:

Now, going forward and just looking back to when you, you know, you first graduated and you were, Considering whether to, I guess, start a practice or work for someone, what, what influenced you the most to, to go into business for yourself?

Kwane Watson:

first job I worked, I saw how that guy was getting over on me. Honestly, you know, I. Then they would pay you a percentage of what you produce. so it was a 70 30 split. He kept 70% of every dollar. I got 30% right, which is customary in the industry. 30, 35%. Right. But if I'm paying you, 70% of what we do, we know that your labor percentage on average should be about 20%. And you give me assistant that you're only paying$5 an hour that didn't have any experience, and you're taking a percentage of the money that I'm paying you to have, give me the appropriate staff, but you're not giving me the staff that I'm paying you to get from me. Or if the supplies that you're giving me are inadequate because you're trying to. your margins as high as possible. So, you know, another thing I would tell everybody out here, if you're gonna get into business for yourself, understand the percentages, right? I've owned a lot of different businesses and they all function off of percentages. And if you don't understand the percentages and the margins that the business you run upon, you don't know how to, you just, you don't know how to run the business appropriately. that's what made me do it after one year working for somebody else. And I first year, because I knew it wasn't gonna be my long term play. I was working a number of different offices, and honestly, I saw them doing them. Like, if they can own the practice, I know I can do better than this, right? And I took a little bit of each one of their every office. It was something that was done well that I took, and then I created my own philosophy when I bought my first practice, a year after graduation. So, that's, that's what made me, that's what made me do it.

CJ:

And can you give the listeners an idea of, you know, you're ready to start your own practice. what are some of the first things you had to do in order to, to get established? You know, did you have to, you know, apply for licensing with the state? Clearly you already had your dental license. Like what, what, what things did you have to do to get the business off the ground?

Kwane Watson:

Biggest challenge if you're going to acquire any kind of asset or business in general is once again, understanding the, financials of the business. obtaining multiple years of the tax returns of the business. having some sort of consultant to help you, decipher those tax returns, right? doing what's called a proforma to figure out, okay, if this person leaves, then I have to put in, these individuals how much money will be left over, right? so that proforma helps you project the profitability of your potential business, long term. know, for me. It wasn't planned, but it ended up being a blessing. The business that I bought, I was working out of one day a week. So my suggestion if you're gonna go out and buy an asset is kind of get involved with the asset before you buy it.'cause that's gonna allow you to see stuff that the, that the p and l is not gonna show you and the balance sheet's not gonna show you. Right. already knew what was going well with the business. I already knew what wasn't going well. So day one, once I acquired the assets, I already knew what changes. I already knew who I was gonna fire. I already knew what I was gonna do different, I already knew what I was gonna keep the same. Right. And although I was only 26 years old, a lot of people that was working for me, some of them were a lot older than me, ended up being, you know, for a while, the biggest practice in West Louisville and probably one of the most successful for a number of years. So, you know, it's something that we, me and my business partner, who I acquired it from, extremely proud of. And you know, we're still like family today and that was, you know, going on 25 years ago.

CJ:

Big on that.

Mike:

yeah. That's awesome.

Ken:

So, you had, you had mentioned a couple times about, you know, your partner, your business partners. Can you tell people kind of what you look for in a business partner? Like, like what did you, how did you choose your business partners? Right. I think that's a good, aspect for people to know and understand as they look to build their own business.

Kwane Watson:

so have a very different philosophy, to business. Everybody that works for me is my business partner. And you might be like, what? Everybody that works for me for, for my business partner.'cause everybody that's there, I don't like employees. I like business partners. That means everybody's responsible for. Looking out for the wellbeing of the business. Everybody's responsible for making sure we're within, in line with the budgets. I teach everybody how the percentages of, of that thing should be and how to make sure we're, know, staying within those, percentages and how we should be conducting ourselves as a part of this business. And if you don't have that attitude and you're an employee, you don't make it long being a partner in my business make sense. Matter of fact, you know, even with care to try to get the best talent, I give everybody stock options in the business, is also unique, right? Those, those options best over several years. But that's teaching people, you know, that the, what's the saying, you wanna teach'em how to fish instead of just giving them a fish. So if you don't have the philosophy that you're really down for the business like that, and it's not your passion, I don't really want you around. I don't like that energy. I don't, I don't associate with those type of people, if that makes sense.

CJ:

Hmm.

Mike:

Yeah. And that, that also helps with the, the drive and the mentality of the people who are working with you, right? Because if I'm an employee, oh, I have to get up in the morning, I have to watch the clock, have to go to work. But if I'm a partner and I'm partially responsible for how the business is going to be successful, then I need to get up. I need to do X, Y, and z. I need to make sure I'm doing X, Y, and Z. That just changes your whole mindset when coming to to work. so I think that's.

Kwane Watson:

as a leader, as you, you as the leader of the organization is responsible for like setting the vision and the direction of the, of the, of the business. Right? I don't mind getting up and running through that wall if I know what I'm running to, but a lot of times you get up and you go to work every day and you just to get through the seven, eight hours, right? There's no real mission. What are we running for? Right? I'm not gonna run if unnecessarily,

Mike:

Mm-hmm.

Kwane Watson:

for? So every year we set goals on what we're running for, right? If everybody is running in the same direction, we're all aligned in the mission. That's how you continue to grow and scale.

Mike:

I love it. I was just looking at your, your website. I think. I think going back to third grade here, I think I know all my states. So you're in Michigan, Ohio, Kentucky, Tennessee, Georgia, and then out west Oklahoma. How did you pick these states to start operating your business?

Kwane Watson:

Yeah. So my, my involvement in Michigan is more of a, a licensing opportunity. one of the first, so my investor, we do have a, I want to give a acknowledgement to a black investment group that. Took a chance on care early on. Lightship Capital of, Cincinnati, Ohio, Brian Kin, Candace Kin, they invested in care early on, saw the vision, and believed in me and actually helped me. So, you know, they, I would say, are my mentors in this taught me a lot about the business side beyond running a, it is a different between running a, there's a difference between running a small business and running a mid, you know, sized business. but they introduced me to Delta Dental, Michigan and Ohio. Ohio and Indiana in the forefront. did a program with them, to launch a few fans in Michigan. That's how we started in Michigan. my investors also obtained investment from, the people that own, the Bank of Oklahoma. And so there's a lot of initiatives in Tulsa for black business. If you're a black entrepreneur, you're looking at, getting into business for yourself. If you, I don't know if y'all saw that, you know, killer Mike and all those guys, or setting up Greenwood now in

CJ:

Mm-hmm. Yep.

Kwane Watson:

We, we, we have a presence in Oklahoma for two reasons. My dental director and business partner, Dr. Whitney James. She's originally from Oklahoma City, my investors also were like, Hey, Oklahoma's really about black businesses and, you know, we should consider setting up, some sort of presence there as well. that presence is small right now, but we do look at, to buy probably a brick and mortar practice by the end of the year in that market. that's how we started there. And then being in Louisville, Kentucky, UPS is here for a reason, right? I mean, literally can drive from Atlanta, Georgia to 10 Nashville to Cincinnati, within six hours. And, it just kind of grew and then opportunities just kind of grew in those different markets. another revenue stream we do is. jail contracts. You get locked up in a rural jail, which Chris that's always doing today, who's gonna come see you?

CJ:

Right.

Kwane Watson:

Imagine you, you haven't, you're not even guilty, right? You haven't been found guilty of anything yet, but you're sitting there for a year with a toothache. And if you're in a rural community, there's no one that's coming into those, those, jails to serve you. So our team goes into some of those rural jails and, provides, episodic care or extraction services for inmates in Ohio, Tennessee, Kentucky, Georgia, Florida,

CJ:

something you don't even think about.

Kwane Watson:

Yeah. So, but the first job I had when I graduated from school back, first graduated was at night. I would go to the jail and pull teeth on the inmates.'cause back then, that was the only thing that would pay you an hourly rate. Being a

CJ:

Hmm.

Kwane Watson:

like every, when you. come out, you're a contractor, so you only eat what you kill. Like if I sit there all day and only one person comes in, all the money I made. So I was like, okay, can I do to make extra money? So I did that at night and it was good because it helped me learn how to pull teeth and be more efficient. You only get so much practice when you're in school and it was cash and I'm not, you know, some people are like, oh, are you scared? I'm like, man, those are the best patients. love them more than I like working than anybody else. They're appreciative and they need your help. You know, they in pain and they're more scared of you than you are them. So it's all good.

Mike:

right, exactly. Well, we are, coming close to time and, you know, one of the things that I, I said all the time, the advice that I give people is if you're looking to do something, just take in perfect action and just go out there and do it. If you had to give one piece of advice to someone who's listening right now who's interested in starting a business, and it could also be taking perfect action, that's fine too, but what would be that one thing that you would give as a piece of advice to someone?

Kwane Watson:

Yeah, I, I think I already gave it whatever business you want to get into, go take an entry level position in that business and work for somebody else first.

Mike:

Perfect.

Kwane Watson:

learn more from that than a book about it. You're gonna learn more from that than hiring a consultant that's gonna charge you all this money to tell you how to do it right. you gotta literally do exactly what you said, Mike. You just gotta get up and do it. Right. the, the way I learned how, to run businesses is by learning how to do every single aspect of the job. In my business I own, I can do my own bookkeeping, I can do my own marketing, I can clean the toilets, I can do every single job in my business. And if you wanna be a entrepreneur and a business owner that's successful, you should be able to do all those things.'cause how are you gonna teach somebody else to do it? If you don't know how to do it for one, for two, are you gonna lead if you're not willing to show them that you're willing to do it? I get on my knees and I, and I'm willing to clean the floor in my van, this assistant that I'm paying 18,$20 an hour, how can they say I'm not gonna do it when they see the owner of the company willing to do it.

Mike:

Mm-hmm.

Kwane Watson:

sense? the, that's, that's the advice I would give to anybody that really wants to do it and realize that it's not easy. It's hard work. A lot of people see, you know me on this. Podcast or see, oh, I mean, I get, people ask me all the time, how do you get a, a partnership with Crescent or B? Which I think we were probably one of the black, first black brands that they even partner with. Like number one took years, took several years of them vetting to even decide that they will be willing to even co-brand with our brand. It's a process. nothing

Mike:

be a proof of concept.

Kwane Watson:

beyond proof of concept. We were already doing work, the work four years and they basically piggyback off the work we did and came up with an initiative that that aligned with the work that I was doing. The Closing America Smile Gap campaign that they were running was exactly the work I was already doing, closing the oral healthcare smile gap in rural and urban areas. So it was just a perfect fit and they just needed somebody to like help market it and be the fa one of the faces of the initiative. So.

CJ:

Are there any other companies? And if someone just happens to be listening, any other companies that you'd like to to collaborate with?

Kwane Watson:

We'd like to collaborate with anybody that wants to cut that check. So, you know, yes. Bring it this way, you know, if there's a lot of expense, I know we're getting short on time, but I did want to end it with the, I don't know, Chris, if you were able to, even I text you that video, Luke, to really talk about what the future looks like. and maybe if you haven't, I can briefly kind of, describe it to you guys. But, you know, the future is, is bright for our organization as we continue, as you mentioned, Mike, to change and reiterate

CJ:

Yeah, lemme see.

Kwane Watson:

Yeah.

CJ:

Mike, you're the tech one, but I can see if I can can bring it up and share.

Mike:

Yeah, it, it's, I think it's like over a little, over a minute long, so I will, I'll attach it to

Kwane Watson:

Okay,

Mike:

video.

Kwane Watson:

judge. Just attach

CJ:

Okay.

Kwane Watson:

end. But basically what we're doing now is, as I mentioned, there's only 3.8, 3.8% of all the dentists are black. And, the biggest dental companies in the country are usually, ran by the majority, but they do a lot of consolidations, consolidations and systems processes. they have benefits with marketing and buying power and all these different things. And a lot of times our practices are not always included in that merger and acquisition space. So, we're doing a spinoff entity that will involve collaboration with people that have similar cultural and, that you don't have to be black, but you have to have a similar cultural philosophy, a, a similar drive and mission and passion. Whether you're a brick and mortar practice or a mobile van, we're, we're meshing it too, that we can use these vans to expand the radius that the practices can serve. so we're calling it Vanguard Dental Partners. And, we will go out and start making acquisitions of other practices. But the foundation of the group is probably about 20 or 30 practices throughout a number of other states that aren't in the current. website Care will actually be a subsidiary underneath this new Holden or parent company to continue to grow and scale and start getting into the financial side of things more, making acquisitions and building a brand, not through organic growth, through acquisitions, through, non-dilutive or dilutive, So that's the next play.

Mike:

Congratulations.

CJ:

the guys that we are, we're more than likely we'll end up any, you know, putting it in at the end of the video. But then also, week that we're going to air you, we'll put it on our social media, social media pages as well, so that it airs prior to them actually seeing the show.

Kwane Watson:

Perfect.

CJ:

and you know, I know I speak for the, the, other two guys. wish you nothing but the best with, with those, endeavors. And, you know, you've already exceeded, you know, probably your own expectations, but you're gonna cont, you know, continue to rise and, and keep pushing and doing what you always do. So we wish you nothing but luck.

Kwane Watson:

Respect man. Same for each one of you guys. Hope the podcast really blows up. Hope I don't, down your ratings too much.'cause I might be a little boring a do, but I appreciate the

Mike:

Oh, no, no,

CJ:

Don't know

Mike:

no. It's, it's in it's information first and then, you know, and then, the entertainment second. So, you definitely, brought a lot of things for us to think about and, some knowledge to the. To the podcast, so I really appreciate that.

CJ:

Listen, I can tell you this, Quan, and I don't know if I ever mentioned it to you, but I. When we, you know, came into to UK together, you had a vision, you know, you already knew what you wanted to do. You were one of the few people that didn't change their, major. You stuck the course, you knocked it out. And the fact that you even had exposure to dentistry blew my mind because I think I didn't know that you, you actually, shadowed with somebody that your mom set up. I thought maybe it was because you were in junior achievers, because that, that program opened my eyes to things because we didn't have that, you know, in Western Kentucky. So it, it, it, it, impressed me and I was kind of jealous and envious at the fact that you all had that program, whereas we didn't have those opportunities.

Kwane Watson:

Yeah, I never was a junior chief. Matter of fact, I lived in. grew up in Connecticut, so I didn't even live in

CJ:

That's right.

Kwane Watson:

to

CJ:

That's right.

Kwane Watson:

my senior year in high school. yeah, a lot of those programs weren't ended by, my mom spent a lot of time just making sure that, you know, if we had something we were interested in, she was gonna figure out a way to, to open that door for me. So there was a African American dentist that I remember in, it was Bloomfield, Connecticut, that went and asked, and he was nice enough to let me spend a couple days in there and just see what he did. So it was, it was cool.

CJ:

Nice. So before we let you go, actually one last thing that we want to ask you is can you give our, audience, you know, let them know where they can find you online and your, your social media outlets.

Kwane Watson:

Yeah. So, on Instagram, I'm, Mitch, M-I-T-C-H-O 2 19 11. I'm not very active on Instagram. I would rather you follow my care mobile page, KARE dot M-O-B-I-L-E. It's just my name, Quan Watson. probably not the biggest social media fan, so if you look at, look, if you're looking at following me for a whole bunch, I actually like to move in silence and behind the scenes, so I don't post a whole, whole lot. I might give you something quarterly if you're lucky, but, if you'd like to follow me, feel free to follow. know, but I am very open. I can give maybe my email address. I only give my cell phone number'cause I don't know how many

CJ:

Well, no, I'm, I'm speaking more of your, your, your company.

Kwane Watson:

Yeah, yeah, yeah, yeah. Tho those are the few things that I'm on. And then Facebook, of course, I'm on it as well. But,

Mike:

Does care Mobile have a social

Kwane Watson:

Yes. KARE dot M-O-B-I-L-E. That's my Instagram for care Mobile.

Mike:

Oh.

Kwane Watson:

and then it's Care, it's Care Mobile on, Facebook as well. Yeah.

CJ:

All right. Well, I think we're closing shop now, but before we let you go, actually, I'll, I'll let Mike give you the rundown, but he has developed a, a grand moment to close out each show.

Mike:

Well, before we get everybody all excited about that, we have a little section called the, lightning round where I think Ken is gonna ask you five questions today. And Ken, if you want to go ahead and explain what, what, what's gonna be happening, and then we'll, we'll get into the exciting part.

Ken:

Okay. so yeah, I got five questions that I'm going to ask you. quick hit, answer. It shouldn't be anything. Well too crazy. I'll say that. So you ready?

CJ:

don't, don't, don't, don't overly think it just first thing that comes to mind.

Mike:

Yep.

Ken:

hundred

Mike:

And I, and I put up a timer because we've had people in the past where we're like, we're just, this is supposed to be quick lightning, and 20 minutes later they're, they're finishing up, they're finishing up the first question. So we're like, yeah, we can't, we, we gotta give them some pressure. So I'm putting up this timer to give you a little bit of pressure.

Kwane Watson:

so I got a minute per question. Basically

Mike:

Nope. You got a minute to answer all five?

Kwane Watson:

five. Okay. I got 20 seconds. Okay, got it.

Ken:

Yep.

Kwane Watson:

Let's hit it.

Mike:

I'll start it after he finishes the first one.

Ken:

Okay, ready. university of Kentucky or University of Louisville Basketball.

Kwane Watson:

Kentucky

Ken:

Okay. favorite vacation spot?

Kwane Watson:

Miami

Ken:

Okay. favorite food,

Kwane Watson:

Pizza.

Ken:

pizza. best piece of advice you have ever received.

Kwane Watson:

Never quit.

Ken:

Okay. Alright. tell us one embarrassing story about cj.

Kwane Watson:

Oh man. No, I

CJ:

Be careful. Good answer. Good answer.

Kwane Watson:

I, I would just say this, what happened? It's like Vegas, what happened to UK stays in uk you know what I'm saying? Thank God, thank God there was no social media back there. And none of us will be who

CJ:

Amen. Man, you should have vetted that question.

Kwane Watson:

Yeah, we have fun at Hagen Hall for sure.

CJ:

I, I, I'm gonna put one in that place'cause that never should have been there. Funniest thing you've witnessed on the job.

Kwane Watson:

Oh man. know, I work in jails, bro. I mean, I work in jails and, you know, you know, I do mobile dentistry. Okay. So in, in the early days, so. Imagine you pulling up to a, a lady's house in the morning and she doesn't decide to put on you know, regular clothes. She comes out in her nightgown of pajamas and it's me and a usually an assistant in the car. And I'm like, can you put a, we gotta put something over all of this, or, getting invited in, you know? you know, sometimes stuff like that can happen from time to time when you going directly to consumer, like, nah, I can't come in your house. You know? You know. So those, I wouldn't know, wouldn't say it's funny, but it's one of those we laugh, me and my assistant laugh about it. sometimes some of

CJ:

buddy.

Mike:

All right. Well, yeah, so as CJ was mentioning, or as you know, Chris was mentioning, at the end of the show, we ask everybody to do a little tradition that I came up with. Just go along with it. I call it the Wakanda peace, pause. And we're gonna do, I'm gonna count to three, gonna do something like this. Look in the camera, smile, hold it for a few seconds. I'm gonna make us feel all uncomfortable. And then, and then that's it. That's the end.

Kwane Watson:

All right, man. Let's do it.

Mike:

All right.

Kwane Watson:

forever.

Mike:

All right. On the count of three. 1, 2, 3, and done. Thank you, Dr. Watson.

Kwane Watson:

All right, my man. Thank you guys. I'm just

Ken:

Thank you.

Kwane Watson:

through

CJ:

your time.

Kwane Watson:

You know what I'm

CJ:

Hey, that's gonna happen. But yeah, appreciate your time. I know you're a busy man.

Kwane Watson:

Yeah, man. I got a staff right now that's got a tooth issue

CJ:

Thanks for tuning in to the Black Bridge Mindset Podcast. If today's conversation resonated with you, don't forget to subscribe, share, drop a comment, and leave a review. We're building bridges, one story, one mindset, one move at a time. Show our guest some love by checking out their socials too. Until next time, keep pushing, keep growing and keep walking in your purpose.

People on this episode

Head Shot

Mike Lovett

Host
Head Shot

Chris Johnson

Co-host
Head Shot

Ken Peak

Co-host