E859 | Why The Story Matters More Than The Service You Provide

The Story Behind the Bottle: Why Your Clinic’s Origin Story Matters

This weekend, I learned a lesson about storytelling that applies directly to your clinic.

A close friend turned 40, and I wanted to get him something special. After some digging (and a few dead ends), I tracked down a bottle of wine from his birth year — a 1985 Chateau Latour, one of France’s most legendary vineyards. But what made it memorable wasn’t the wine itself — it was the story behind it.

The wine had passed from an Emory professor who hand-carried it from France, to a collector, to me. When I shared the story, everyone at the party leaned in. His father-in-law, a wine connoisseur, called it “like drinking unicorn tears.” Suddenly, it wasn’t just a bottle — it was a memory.

That moment hit me: your clinic is your bottle of wine.

The Power of Story in Business

When you talk about your clinic, most people stop at, “I’m a physical therapist.”
But that’s not a story — that’s a label.

Your story is what makes people remember you, trust you, and refer you. It’s your reason for doing this work. It’s the bridge between what you do and why it matters.

For example, one of our PT Biz coaches, Ziad Dadul, had an ACL injury himself. Now he helps others recover from the same thing. That’s powerful. That’s a story that sticks.

Your Challenge This Week

Write your origin story in one paragraph. Answer three things:

1. What do you do?

2. Who do you help?

3. Why do you do it?

Once it’s written, tell it everywhere — in person, online, and at every event.
Because facts tell, but stories sell.

Final Thought

A bottle of wine with no story is just a bottle.
A clinic with no story is just another clinic.

But when people know the meaning behind what you do — the struggle, the turning point, the reason — they don’t just remember you; they share your story.

“Your clinic is your bottle of wine. Make sure people know the story behind it.”

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Podcast Transcript

Danny: 

[00:00:00] Hey, Danny Matta here with PT Biz and I learned something this [00:00:05] weekend that I think is gonna really help your clinical practice. It has to do with birthday, [00:00:10] wine, and stories. [00:00:15] So lemme tell you what happened this weekend and I will draw some conclusions [00:00:20] to where this is gonna fit into your clinical practice.

And this goes back to, [00:00:25] uh, this weekend I attended a friend of mine, a good friend of mine. Uh, his 40th [00:00:30] birthday party. So this is actually someone who that I, I have [00:00:35] known probably the longest in my life. Like we moved a ton as a kid and, [00:00:40] um, I met this guy whenever I was in eighth grade. His dad was my basketball coach.

We played sports [00:00:45] together throughout, um, you know, middle school and in high school, and have been great [00:00:50] friends ever since. And he turned 40, so I wanted to get him a, a really cool [00:00:55] gift for his birthday. And a friend of mine is in, [00:01:00] uh, wine sales, and he recommended, he said, Hey, man, a birth [00:01:05] year bottle of wine is a great gift, right?

And, and, um, I actually didn't know my, [00:01:10] my friend likes alcohol. I didn't know if he liked wine so much, but it's a, it, it is a very meaningful [00:01:15] gift and it was something that was, uh, was fun to try to track down and learn about and, and, um, so I was [00:01:20] able to get this bottle of wine from 1985, um, [00:01:25] and. The gift itself.

You know, when I, [00:01:30] when I brought it to the, to his party and I gave it to him, it was meaningful. I [00:01:35] put, I put a lot of thought into it. It was hard to track down, but when I [00:01:40] told his family, you know, we, we got there kind of early, I should say. So we got there [00:01:45] early before all his friends showed up. His family was there, so his mom and dad, um, and, uh, his [00:01:50] in-laws and, um, his, um, his uh, uh.

Uh, you know, [00:01:55] like loose, loose family from brother-in-laws and sister-in-laws and things. And so I give him this [00:02:00] bottle of wine and I explained to him, I said, Hey man, here's, [00:02:05] here's what this is. So this, the story with the gift is what made an, [00:02:10] you know, astronomical difference. I said, look, I, I've been working for like a month [00:02:15] to track this, a bottle of wine down from this year that was in good shape.

[00:02:20] And I had a couple things fell through. Almost bought a counterfeit bottle of wine, by the way. Um, [00:02:25] and then I found somebody who was a collector, who had bought this [00:02:30] bottle of wine from a Emory professor who had brought it back by hand from [00:02:35] France. Um, he would go to this one vineyard and he would get two bottles of wine every single year.

He would go [00:02:40] there. Over the summer, he passed away, and in a estate sale, this guy buys this bottle of wine for [00:02:45] his wife. Well, a couple years ago, his wife starts to have some health issues. She can't [00:02:50] drink anymore. So I get connected with this guy and he sells me the [00:02:55] bottle of wine he bought for his wife's 40th birthday party.

Uh, she had the same, you know, [00:03:00] 1985 birth year. And he, she couldn't drink it. So it is in [00:03:05] pristine condition. Pristine condition, never been imported, literally brought in by hand by [00:03:10] somebody who has been stored in a cellar ever since. So as I bring this, you [00:03:15] know, story to light, people started to get a lot more interested.

And here's the interesting thing about. [00:03:20] Any product or service, the story is just as important as the product or the service [00:03:25] because when I took it even a step further, you know, I said, look, here's what's so cool about this wine. [00:03:30] This is called a Chateau Chateau LA tour, which by the way, I'm not a wine guy.

I put this stuff [00:03:35] into, uh, an an LLM into an a AI model to teach me about this [00:03:40] wine and to do so in a way where I could relate this to, uh, people about what was [00:03:45] significant about this bottle of wine. But this vineyard was the same vineyard that [00:03:50] Thomas Jefferson would bring wine back from his favorite vineyard to the US when he was the ambassador to [00:03:55] France.

Uh, this is, uh, one of five vineyards that's ranked [00:04:00] in the, the top ranking in France for, for vineyards, and the ranking hasn't changed in 160 [00:04:05] years. This type of wine is good for up to a hundred years, and for a lot of people, they say it [00:04:10] doesn't hit its stride until 40 to 50 years in which go figure. It was a [00:04:15] great parallel to my friend turning 40 and being able to say, you're hitting your stride.

You [00:04:20] know, and as I brought this up, one other thing happened that was very interesting, [00:04:25] so I didn't know this, but his father-in-law is a huge wine [00:04:30] connoisseur, loves it, was actually going on a wine trip, uh, to the west coast [00:04:35] this coming week. And when he walked in and he [00:04:40] saw the bottle of wine I had. He was, he like was blown away, you know?

[00:04:45] And this, this is like social proof, okay, so this is like reviews for your clinic. He was like [00:04:50] my hype man. 'cause he goes, holy shit, Keith. He goes, this is like drinking [00:04:55] unicorn tears. This is like, how did you find this? This is insane. He's like sniffing it, you [00:05:00] know? Like so much. He's looking at it in a. You know, in the, in the light [00:05:05] to see how dark it is.

I don't even know what to look at. I'm not a wine guy, but this guy made it even that much [00:05:10] more interesting. So then everybody had to, to try something. We toasted him and it was, it was awesome. It was like, it was, [00:05:15] it was fun to be able to have a gift that was meaningful, that hit home, [00:05:20] uh, for him. And it, the wine is the wine, right?

The bottle of the wine is the [00:05:25] wine. And if I would've said, Hey man, here's a bottle of wine from your birth year. Oh, that's awesome. Let's [00:05:30] drink this old wine. You know, let's hope we don't get sick off it. Uh, and. [00:05:35] Instead of that, you know, we had this, this whole sort of epic story of [00:05:40] how I got this wine, where it came from, the type of vineyard that it is, and then we have, you know, this guy that comes in that's [00:05:45] just like blown away by what it is.

And he has deep knowledge in this, in this, uh, in this area. And which [00:05:50] made it even that much more significant. So, you know, I was sitting there and I was like, man, I talk to people about [00:05:55] sales all the time. And there's these elements of it that just sort of. Just kind [00:06:00] of happened and came together. And for me, um, you know, when I look at this, it just [00:06:05] reinforces how much it is important to understand your story, to understand [00:06:10] why you're doing something, the, the reason behind what it is that you're doing whatever it is.

[00:06:15] Right? In our example, it's running physical therapy clinics. It's, it's, uh, working with a certain population. [00:06:20] A certain niche and you [00:06:25] need to be able to tell your origin, origin story. You need to be able [00:06:30] to, uh, put that into text to put that into a [00:06:35] video that lives on your site, to put that into an, and weave that into your social media, [00:06:40] to weave that into the workshops that you're doing, the people that you're meeting at networking events, the people you're meeting [00:06:45] in the community, you know, because if you just say, yeah, I have a physical therapy clinic.[00:06:50]

That's one thing, you know, for us, I didn't know that this was a thing. I just, this is how I [00:06:55] would describe what I would do. And people are like, oh, what do you do? I have a um, I have a [00:07:00] physical therapy clinic. And they're like, oh, that's cool. Uh, and then I would say, yeah, I. I [00:07:05] got out of the army in 2014 and we decided we wanted to move here and [00:07:10] really work with people to help them understand how to take care of themself and, and really live a high performance, [00:07:15] pain-free life.

And, you know, instead of being able to do that with soldiers like I was in the military, I [00:07:20] wanted to help the average person, uh, learn how to take care of themself for the long haul, get [00:07:25] rid of pain, and get back to activities they love to do, you know. F you layer that in versus just [00:07:30] a physical therapy clinic and, and this is my story.

That's not your story. Maybe it is, but it's probably not. [00:07:35] But you gotta know your story. Oh, I used to do this and because of [00:07:40] this, then I left that and I came here and this is what I do now. And this is my mission. And this is who I help. [00:07:45] And this is why I do what I do. This is what I gave up to do this.

Now this is why I do all this hard [00:07:50] work because of this. This is your origin story. This is the why behind what you do. This is the, um, [00:07:55] this, this is the story behind the bottle of wine. 'cause you may have a. Fucking awesome bottle of wine. [00:08:00] But if people don't know much about it, it, it doesn't hit the same way they don't remember it the [00:08:05] same way.

You may have awesome physical therapy services. You may be fantastic at helping people, you [00:08:10] know, develop their performance and whatever the niches that you do, but [00:08:15] the reason behind is just as important. And you got to remember that. And you gotta be [00:08:20] able to share that everywhere you go, whether it be digitally or in person.

[00:08:25] And I think this is, this is the benefit of things like. Networking [00:08:30] groups, um, you know, business, local business groups, things like that, like A BNI group. [00:08:35] You get a lot of reps sharing your story. You get a lot of reps sharing, you know, what it is [00:08:40] that you do and you have to do it kind of quick, right? Just like talk, talk about like your, sort of, your elevator pitch.

[00:08:45] Um, and, and you gotta be able to explain to people what you do in a short period of time. I think you take it even a [00:08:50] step further. If they understand your why, you know, what really drives you, then you're even [00:08:55] more likely to be memorable. To be somebody they remember and potentially [00:09:00] they pass that along and tell a friend that maybe could use your service or whatever it might be, [00:09:05] or to for, for you to like stay in their mind to think like, how would this, how could this benefit somebody [00:09:10] that I know?

Maybe you can come in and you can teach, you know, self-care to a dental practice [00:09:15] who's bent over all the time or something. Like, there's a lot of things that come from stickiness. [00:09:20] In, in the way in which you communicate with people and across the board [00:09:25] stories are probably the most meaningful, memorable thing that we can do.

It's deep rooted in us, [00:09:30] so get really, really good at being able to relay your own story. And I'm gonna leave you with an action item [00:09:35] this week. Actually. This action item is for you to actually write out your origin [00:09:40] story in a brief manner and just say, look, here's, here's [00:09:45] what I do, here's why I do it, and here's who I help.

And that's pretty much all you need [00:09:50] to say. If there's some cool things you can weave in, like if you're, you know, uh, one, [00:09:55] one of our, one of our coaches is Zi Dul, who has an awesome clinic out in the Anaheim [00:10:00] area, and he presented at our mastermind event and he works at ACL patients. [00:10:05] He had an ACL injury himself.

He had the same knee injury that he's been helping people work with that sees [00:10:10] a lot with the, that type of specialist. You say, you know, I love working with ACL patients. I had an [00:10:15] ACL tear myself and I know firsthand how hard it's to come back from that and to get back to the activities that you know, [00:10:20] that I love and to get over the mental hurdle of getting back to sport and, and not being concerned about [00:10:25] reinjuring.

And I love working that population because of that. Like that is far more [00:10:30] memorable than, yeah, I have a physical therapy clinic. We work with a lot of people that have like knee surgeries [00:10:35] that is not as memorable. Okay. That's general. That's watered down. Be specific. Tell them [00:10:40] your story. Tell them specifically about why it is you do what you do in a brief manner, right?

It can't be [00:10:45] incredibly long, but that's your action item. All right. Write your origin story down. [00:10:50] And start telling everybody, not just what you do, but why you do what you do. 'cause if [00:10:55] you don't, what ends up happening is, you know, it would be like me giving this incredible gift to a [00:11:00] friend with no context.

And that's cool that I'm sure they appreciate it. But when you [00:11:05] add context, people remember that people will share, that, people will [00:11:10] gather around that, and that will be far, far better for your [00:11:15] business.