Letters and Gifts Open Doors

Author

Joel Hansen
January 13, 2026

Happy 2nd Tuesday of 2026,

Landed back in Vancouver at midnight after 5 days in NYC. And boy oh boy, was it a great time. Welcome back to Stay Curious — a newsletter I write once per week on 3 things keeping me curious or I send one of you $100 as a penalty.

Here’s what’s on my mind this week:

Gifts Open Doors:

When I was 18, I noticed something most people never clue into:

Everyone loves getting a physical gift or letter.

Doesn’t matter if you’re the President of Shopify or a podcaster with millions of listens per week. A gift is a gift. And a human is a human.

So when I was in New York last week, I emailed Sam Parr (from my first million) I was in town to drop off a gift. And sure enough, he replied and let me and my wife come by for a hello.

We were able to drop by, hand off the gift and catch up for an incredible life chat.

We ended up meeting his team and having such a fun time.

But it all started with the idea of dropping off a letter.

The takeaway?

Learning Sam’s one of the kindest guys you’ll meet and in a world of endless AI, be the person who does something human.

Eleven Madison Park:

Hate reading?

Well, you're gonna need to make an exception and pick up a copy of Unreasonable Hospitality.

It was my top read of 2025.

The book dives into the tale of a restaurant that becomes the best in the world by breaking and re-inventing the idea of being “unreasonably exceptional”. They did crazy things to get their like:

  • Invent a subtle hand-signalling vocab for all the servers

  • Create a team of “dreamweavers” to surprise guests

  • Hand-pick staff from around the world to work at their restaurant

  • And so much more

On my 2026 bucket list was to visit it so last week my wife and I went to the restaurant and it blew our expectations out of the water in every way possible

I got chatting with the server (who funny enough, I knew from university) and he told me Bezos and Beckham book out the restaurant sometimes it’s so good.

Stop by if you’re ever in NYC.

And send me a selfie if you do.

Comedy as a Skill:

I went to the Comedy Cellar a couple days ago. Was 11/10 experience.

The best comedian did something I’m gonna steal.

He started with a line that gave him an unfair advantage. He said:

“Just so you know, tonight’s gonna be all new material. So if it sucks, know that I know it sucks”.

It came across as a weird line, but what it did, was set the bar extremely low and everything he ended up trying hit all all-time high of laughs in the crowd

Next thing you know, he was oozing with confidence.

But I think it was because he started by putting his reputation as low as possible, and that layer of vulnerability let him crush it.

Could be something for you to try the next time you have a big talk, zoom call or event you’re MC’ing for.

—

P.S. if you’re in Vancouver Feb 3rd, join this event we’re hosting at North House

Thought of the week:

Liked today’s deep dive? Forward it to a friend.

Joel

You can hit me up on Twitter or LinkedIn. But the true besties hit me up on Strava and IG.

Forwarded this email? Sign up here