Transcription of Dana Bullen for the show Beautiful Bethel #268
Spencer: You are Listening to Love Maine Radio, hosted by Dr. Lisa Belisle, and recorded at the studios of Maine Magazine in Portland. Dr. Lisa Belisle is a writer and physician who practices family medicine and acupuncture in Brunswick, Maine. Show summaries are available at LoveMaineRadio.com. Here are some highlights from this week’s program.
Dana: We’re part of an organization called Ski Maine which Greg Sweetser leads. The biggest goal is to make sure that the small areas have the resources they need to stay in business, both Sunday River and Sugarloaf, try to do what we can to support them not only from a resource standpoint but from a knowledge standpoint where we’re able to …
Robin: I learned from so many other people who are in the work, other community leaders around the state of what they were doing in their organizations and that really help to inform what we could do.
Dr. Lisa: This is Dr. Lisa Belisle and you are listening to Love Maine Radio Show Number 268: Beautiful Bethel, airing for the first time on Sunday, November 6, 2016. Nestled in Maine’s Oxford Hills, the town of Bethel has long welcomed home owners and recreational enthusiast alike. Today, we speak with people who know and love this beautiful town. Dana Bullen, Resort President and General Manager of Sunday River Ski Resort and Executive Director of the Bethel Area Chamber of Commerce, Robin Zinchuk. Thank you for joining us.
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Dr. Lisa: Today, it is my great pleasure to have Dana Bullen in the studio with me. Dana has served as the Resort President and General Manager of Sunday River since September 2, 2004 and brings to the position more than 25 years of ski industry and management experience. Prior to his promotion to Resort President and General Manager, Dana served as Vice President of Partnership Marketing for American Skiing Company where he oversaw corporate partnership programs for the company’s entire resort network. A native of Farmington, actually New Sharon, Dana tells me. Dana worked his way up to the ski business ladder surely after college holding various positions at Sugarloaf and their award-winning Sugarloaf Golf Club as a golf pro. Thanks for coming in.
Dana: Good morning.
Dr. Lisa: I have actually been through New Sharon. We were talking about this and it’s interesting because I haven’t met a lot of people who are from there. It’s a pretty small town.
Dana: It is, pretty special place. I guess the reason I’m in the ski industry is because very close to New Sharon is a small resort or small ski mountain called Titcomb. When I was two years old, my parents started taking me in ice skiing pretty much every weekend from that point until 50 years later today it’s been a great journey that started very close to New Sharon.
Dr. Lisa: Believe it or not, I’ve actually been to Titcomb. I think I skied there myself quite a while ago but I would agree with you. I love the fact that we still have in Maine the smaller ski resorts that are almost feeders for the bigger mountains sometimes.
Dana: Yeah, not only feeders for the mountain but they are feeders for the industry as a whole. We’re part of an organization called Ski Maine which Greg Sweetser leads. The biggest goal is to make sure that the small areas have the resources they need to stay in business both Sunday River and Sugarloaf and try to do what we can to support them not only from a resource standpoint but from a knowledge standpoint where we’re able to.
Dr. Lisa: I mean, I don’t want to just say that they are feeders for bigger mountains because they are very active and vibrant communities in their own way.
Dana: They sure are. Both my kids was ski racers. We went back if you’d have, I came from Titcomb. Went to Saddleback, started work at Sugarloaf. Went to Sunday River but then when the kids got on the race circuit we had the opportunity to go back to every ski resort in the state of Maine. There’s something really, really special about each one of them.
Dr. Lisa: I would absolutely agree with that. I remember from my own cross country ski racing days and being on the Yarmouth Ski Team, I mean, that was something that was so interesting was to go into the communities to be at these smaller places, to see really the support of the community members for skiing in general. People who are not skiers would come out and they would help organize the races which I found really fascinating.
Dana: The heritage you mentioned the Yarmouth team still today, right, the folks that create the passion pass that on from place to place whether you’re talking about Black Mountain or Titcomb, there’s these folks that pass on that passion for being outdoors for cross country skiing, for Alpine skiing and the heritage that goes along with that. It’s really special.
Dr. Lisa: When you were growing up in New Sharon, did you think that you would have this lifelong affiliation with ski industry?
Dana: It’s funny I guess I thought I was going to be a school teacher, that’s what I got a degree in and I felt like that’s where I was going to spend the rest of my life. I showed up at Sugarloaf to work for just half a winter and I never left. I fell in love with working in the industry almost immediately and quite honestly set the goal of I wanted to be the guy that was responsible for that resort. Very early on in my career I was able to get pass around from job to job within the ski resort which helped me have the background to do what I do today.
Dr. Lisa: I remember when we did a wellness story on the Sugarloaf Ski Patrol and there were people who had similar stories that they understood that they’re going to be part of this bigger industry. They’ve got their education. They came into the industry and they learned a variety of different … I mean, the Ski Patrol obviously are very highly qualified but they had a really broad experience. Is that common within the industry?
Dana: We have such an array of folks that come in for different reasons. We have retired folks at Sunday River that show up and want to make the rest of their life part of the ski industry which is great. We have kids coming right out of college. At Sunday River, we work with the UMF Industries Program. We bring kids there who one of whom now was out of Big Sky, very successful. There’s such a wide array of people when you have 1,200 team members, the background of them is very diverse.
Dr. Lisa: What has it been like for you to go from spending quite a lot of time at Sugarloaf to now being at Sunday River and being like the guy?
Dana: It’s been an incredible life. The ability to work at two great ski resorts is amazing but the number of people I’ve come in contact with throughout the whole thing is special. It’s really fun for me to watch people grow and if you look at Sunday River, there are nine active general managers and resort presidents that are out there and that have come through Sunday River in the last 15 years. That’s a pretty specific feeling to work some where that’s a feeder to the rest of the industry. It’s fun to get up every day and work with people who are motivated and excited to be outdoors. Outdoors is a big piece of my life whether it’s skiing, hunting or fishing. I truly enjoy every minute of it.
Dr. Lisa: You also have the opportunity to work with people not just here in Maine. You’ve been able to network with people really all over the country, maybe even all over the world.
Dana: It’s funny, one of the things that I got thinking about before I showed up down here was people that have influenced me. They have been from all over different resorts all over the world. Different people mentoring me on different subjects, working with people from Steamboat, working with people from Big Sky, working for family like the Kirchers, the Boyne family that’s been with us the last seven years has been amazing to come back into a ski resort family. It’s been quite a ride.
Dr. Lisa: The ski industry has interesting challenges that maybe not every industry has. For example, last winter there was a little bit of scarcity of snow which I know that U.S. is snowmaking so that’s not something insurmountable but as I said, it’s almost like being a farmer where you’re watching the skies all the time and wondering how this is going to impact you economically.
Dana: Speaking of being a farmer, the Farmers’ Almanac came out yesterday and said we’re going to have a cold and snowy winter which makes me really excited. We have the luxury in the ski industry. It has changed a lot, right? I’ve been in it for the last 30 years. It’s changed. Snowmaking capabilities today, you’ve seen it. You’ve witnessed it at Sunday River and the power we have to make snow. The grooming techniques, the technology we have as it relates to understanding weather and how it impacts us. It has a great effect on making sure that even in a tough winter people can still have a good time at the ski resort.
Dr. Lisa: How do you work with the fact that if it’s not snowing in Massachusetts maybe people are thinking, “It’s not snowing in Maine. Maybe I don’t need to go skiing”?
Dana: We attack it from a number of different angles. One of which, you’ve experienced the Red Bull Frozen Rush at Sunday River. When you immediately say to somebody we’re going to hold a truck race with 800 horsepower trucks on the side of ski resort, they look at you strange. Nick Lambert who does an incredible job as Vice President of Marketing decided that this was something he was going to attack because it was going to put our name out there with folks. It was going to show people how much snow we had even on a challenged year which I did last year. These events, the Santa Sunday events, those help as well but there’s no question, there’s no substitute for when it snow six inches right where we’re setting in Portland.
Dr. Lisa: I like the fact that Bethel has become a destination in its own right so you’re not just talking about Sunday River and skiing at Sunday River, you’re also talking about the ability to get really world class food at some of your restaurants. You’re talking about being able to go to the outdoor discovery center for some of your summer stuff. I mean, you’re doing so much in that region to make it a year round experience for people.
Dana: I think we are. I think the expectations have changed drastically. Twenty years ago you could say it’s all about the snow. Today it’s about the snow and people’s expectations of what they are going to do with their families, what they are going to do on a time that surrounds their outdoor time whether that’s skiing or hiking or golf. The food, the other amenities, the logic components, the expectations of increased and I think we’re doing a pretty good job of meeting it. I also understand that Sunday River is a resort, it’s part of a big community and Bethel and Newry and we rely on a whole bunch of other folks to bring that experience to our guests as well.
Dr. Lisa: I think about my own ski experience very early on. I would get my college ski pass and then in order to make sure I got the value out of it, I would be there as the lifts open and then I would ski till as the lifts close and I can do it through any weather and any temperature drops. Now, I’m a little bit older. I don’t necessarily want to be on the slopes all the time. My kids are a little bit older. Sometimes they want to be on the slopes, sometimes they don’t. I love that flexibility. I love that you don’t have to feel like all you can do when you go out there is ski. Is this something that you’re noticing that these changes over someone’s lifespan?
Dana: Yeah, it sure is. Now the good news is backing you up as the next college kid who will be out there during the rainstorm and then be out there being out there early season and late season but as people grow, we’ve seen a lot of changes. We do night skiing at the resort. The biggest users of night skiing first of all is teens that are stuck in the middle of what do they do and how do they do it. Right on their heels are grandparents and grandkids. Mom and dad are out having a nice dinner and either grandma or grandpa has got the young child out with them skiing at night and watching those demographics change you see it in our hotels with our lodging. You see it with the condos. The demographics changed but I think we’re doing a pretty decent job of meeting the needs of everybody.
Dr. Lisa: Tell me about some of the things that you’ve been putting in place over the last three or four years at Sunday River. I’ve eaten at your restaurant which was really quite wonderful several years ago when it first opened. I know that Harding Lee Smith is bringing another restaurant up there. What’s the vision behind that?
Dana: The vision behind Camp was to take a restaurant that really wasn’t branded, really didn’t have a personality and turn it into a place that was comfortable. Turn it into a place that when folks walked in they could drop out and feel like they are part of the community. When you say the word camp in the state of Maine, you could be referring to a lake house, you could be referring to an outdoors hunting camp, you could be referring to a place on the coast. People have this camp is not so much a place, it is a state of mind.
When we created Camp and David Pooley helped us brand that, we did that restaurant trying to create that sense along with making sure that the food was the type of food you could get throughout the state of Maine. We partnered several years ago with a woman named Poc Sun Lan and she brought Cho Sun into our base lodge. It has been an incredible experience for our guest to be able, in ski boots eat some of the best sushi in the state of Maine. Harding Lee Smith who is undoubtedly one of the best restaurant operators in the Northeast. He’s coming up to do something in the North Peak Lodge and we’re really excited to work with them on that.
Dr. Lisa: I actually really love the idea of doing things out of places like the North Peak Lodge. I love the places that you can almost feels like you have to work a little to get there but then the reward is so great. I think this is one of the things that really appeals to people who like to ski, the sense of adventure.
Dana: It is and part of skiing is that sense of independence. You make a choice every time you get on the lift, which lift you’re going to get on, where you’re going to ski, where you’re going to sneak off to for lunch and people love having those special places that they can call their own out there.
Dr. Lisa: I also love about skiing that it’s such a family oriented activity. I brought my children up there when they were quite small I think my child who’s born in February I probably had her on skis the following winter. It’s something that really can age with you as a family and bring you together.
Dana: It sure can. As I said early, mom and dad started taking me skiing when I was two. That translated several years later to my wife and I taking our children skiing when they were two. It’s become a lifestyle for us. It’s become a family activity and every weekend I see families and next generations of families and new kids coming up and that’s a really fun part of the job.
Dr. Lisa: I’ve also seen that it creates a bond between parents and teenagers during a time that can be a little challenging but when I’ve skied with kids who are teenagers, sometimes I’ll go out and they’ll have their Go Pro on or they’ll be over at the Snow Park and they’ll be doing completely different activities, by the end of the day we all come together. We all have dinner. We all talk about what’s been going on. That’s something that you don’t always get during that age range.
Dana: It is and the great news is it’s really hard to use a cellphone when you’re on a chair lift so some of the best family conversations can happen when there’s not a thing else to do other than to be in nature and be together. I think that’s special.
Dr. Lisa: It’s also special talking about chair lifts just off the cuff. When you are, I don’t want to use the word force but you are given the chance to ride chair lift with somebody that maybe you’ve never ever met before and you can really come up with some interesting conversations. You can really meet some interesting people and that’s not an experience that a lot of us have.
Dana: Saturday mornings, I ski everyday. That’s part of what I view as my job is to go out and see what our guests are going to ski. Really unique in the fact that I get to go out early, watch the sun rise, be able to have the Ski Patrol, spend some time with them but it’s also fun when the chair lifts open to the public. I stay out for about an hour and a half and just skiing around. Some of the chair lift conversations are just very, very interesting. We have a Canadian gentleman who lives right next to Mont Tremblant that actually skies and rents a place at Sunday River because of the snow and the difference. Bumping into people like that just makes your day.
Dr. Lisa: Sunday River has also become known for adaptive skiing which I think is great because the more people we can get out on the slopes the better. You’ve been doing it quite a number of years.
Dana: We have. It’s truly a part of who we are at Sunday River now. It’s part of the DNA. It’s something that as long as Sunday River there, Maine Adaptive will be there with this as well. Pretty unique folks in that group of people as well. Very motivational to watch what some of these people go through and still just have an incredible time. There’s a young man graduated from Boston College that skis there every weekend now. It’s a struggle for him to get to the slopes but once he’s there it’s an art form to watch this kid up on the hill. It’s amazing.
Dr. Lisa: It seems to me that what you’re trying to do is really just create greater access, greater access for different people at different stages in their lives or with different levels of ability or really different I don’t know, passions for the sport. Is that a fair assessment?
Dana: It is. One of my favorite pictures as it relates to Maine Adaptive, they sent me, they had a Wounded Warrior project up there and they sent me a picture of one of our trails with 12 empty wheelchairs sitting beside it. Knowing that there were 12 people out on sitskis was really impactful.
Dr. Lisa: Doesn’t that also speak to the sense of adventure that probably is within all of us? If not, many of us anyway. Maybe you are a wounded veteran or maybe you are born with some different ability and you need Adaptive services but something within you that doesn’t get blunted.
Dana: It doesn’t. It’s interesting, you bring that up. We work with the HOPE Association as well at Sunday River and they bring folks to us that have challenges. They have disabilities of varying forms. What I’ve come to learn from them is every person has something to contribute. We have this one gentleman named Richard who I’m not sure what his disability is but he talks very slowly. I see him every morning and you need to be prepared when you say hello to Richard because it’s going to take a minute.
Last winter when things are going pretty rough, Richard stop saying have a good day to me to have a good destination. I thought that was part of Richard’s handicap that he maybe was confusing his words until I realized one day that he could tell that I was becoming more sullen as it didn’t snow and I finally got what he was communicating. It was funny because once I dusted myself off and got going again a couple days later Richard went right back to have a good day. Every person has a chance to contribute and that’s something I’ve learned from that whole consociation.
Dr. Lisa: How do you let’s say, weather-the-storms or weather-the-lack of storms, how do you keep a positive perspective and look at the longer term goals when things are not going well?
Dana: That’s the job, right? That’s the key to it all. If you’re going to lead it needs to be serving everybody else. Part of serving everybody else is making sure the other guy that tries to maintain that attitude isn’t always easy. Things always don’t go right. We don’t always meet all the needs of our guest but if we can get our entire leadership team focused on positive energy and taking care of the team members, the team members will take care of the guests. It rolls right through. We’ve gone through this incredible process of servant leadership that Boyne introduced to us seven years ago. It has had a pretty big impact on our resort all around.
Dr. Lisa: What would be the single biggest lesson that you’ve learned in all of your years of working in the ski industry and now at Sunday River?
Dana: Boy, if I could go back and teach myself to talk less and listen more. I spend a lot of time leading and charging the hill and what I realized is that asking more questions, getting more people involved and putting their thoughts into the future has far more impact sometimes than doing that. Listening more than talking.
Dr. Lisa: You’re still a young guy so it seems likely that you’re going to be able to put that into practice moving forward I would think.
Dana: I hope to be there 20 more years as I’ve said earlier it’s so much a part of your lifestyle. I can’t imagine not getting up and going there every day. I’d also be remissed if I didn’t tell you that I love going to work, I love the skiing, I love the outdoors. It’s really a great lifestyle.
Dr. Lisa: I’ve been speaking with Dana Bullen who has served as the Resort President and General Manager of Sunday River since September 2004 and who brings to the position more than 25 years of ski industry and management experience. I really appreciate you coming in and talking with me today. We will put the link to your website in our show notes and I don’t think it’s hard for people to find Sunday River so I encourage them to do so. Thanks for coming in.
Dana: Thank you very much. That was fun.