Own Your Culture: Kyle Maxam on Building a Practice With a Mission
E114 · Republish. The full original E089 conversation with Dr. Kyle Maxam, owner of EyeDocs Family Eye Care. First aired April 16, 2026. 30:57.
The short version
Dr. Kyle Maxam started college as a business major. A talk about eye exams on mission trips to Haiti moved him into optometry.
Today he owns two locations in the Dayton, Ohio area with three associates. This is the full conversation, back in the feed: mentors, a slow two-year handoff, when to add a doctor, opening a second office, and hiring for culture.
If you own a practice and the culture feels like something that happens to you, start here.
The named problem
Most owners can see the culture problem. One teammate drags the room down. Hiring feels like a gamble. The team does not follow the change you know is right.
Kyle names the difference early: leading a team is not the same as dragging it along with you.
The hidden mechanism
Culture starts before day one. Kyle picked his first practice for the doctor who wanted to teach, not for the best numbers on paper. He learned the P&L, payroll, and the team from the inside before he took over.
He planned his second office the same way. Staff and leadership were in place and cross-trained before the doors opened. Same systems. Same equipment. Day one felt seamless.
And he hires slow. He waits for people who work hard, work well with a team, and are there to help patients.
When a hire does not fit, he does not wait it out forever. His words: "It's our job to fix that."
The convincer
Kyle treats a full book as a signal, not a badge of honor. When the schedule runs about two weeks out, he adds doctor time. Patients who wait too long go somewhere else.
Ownership is the control
He watched practices and surgeons he referred to get bought by private equity. Now he sees owners coming back to private practice. His line on it:
"We don't want someone telling us how to take care of our patients."
And the line he closes on:
"We being practice owners, we're creating the culture in the workplace. So if we don't like it, it's our own fault."
What to do this week
- Write one sentence on why you became an optometrist. Read it at your next team huddle.
- Check how far out your schedule runs today. If it is two weeks or more, plan the next doctor day.
- Name one thing in your office that makes it hard for your team to take care of patients. Decide who owns fixing it this month.
If you want help thinking through hiring or culture, book time with Ankit below.
Chapters (ASR stamps, approximate)
- 00:00 Cold open
- 00:22 Show intro
- 01:28 Mentors and picking a first practice
- 04:06 The two-year handoff, and leading vs dragging the team
- 05:24 Taking over in 2018 and finding a coach
- 08:14 When to add an associate
- 10:25 Stepping back to work on the business
- 12:02 Going from one location to two
- 15:39 Staffing across two offices
- 16:40 Hiring slow for culture fit
- 18:16 When a hire does not fit
- 20:04 Private equity and "enough is enough"
- 22:18 From business major to Haiti
- 26:25 Advice to his younger self
- 27:36 Shout-outs
- 28:57 Where to find Kyle
Connect
Ankit Patel (host) - Optometrists Building Empires: https://buildingempires.live - iCare Grow: https://icaregrow.com - MyBCAT: https://mybcat.com - LinkedIn: https://www.linkedin.com/in/ankitpatelcvc/ - Book time: https://mybcat.com/book/discovery
Dr. Kyle Maxam (guest; copied from the live E089 page) - LinkedIn: https://www.linkedin.com/in/kyle-maxam-24b10290/ - Facebook: https://www.facebook.com/kyle.maxam.1 - Company website: https://www.eyedocsbrookville.com/index.html - Email: kylemaxam.od@gmail.com
Original E089 page, "Creating the Culture": https://buildingempires.live/episodes/creating-the-culture-kyle-maxam-optometrists-building-empires-episode-089
