Ski in-Sell Out!

Being local isn't about how long you've been somewhere. It's about what you do once you're there.

Andy Beerman came to Park City in 1995 without much of a plan beyond finding a way to stay in the mountains. Before that there was Ohio, NOLS, Alaska, mountaineering, a climbing accident and a Salt Lake climbing gym. Then came White Pine Touring, couch surfing in Park City, buying a house he could barely afford, meeting Thea because she bought skis and decided he looked hungry, and eventually taking on Treasure Mountain Inn.

Somewhere along the way, business ownership turned into HOA politics. HOA politics turned into community involvement. And community involvement turned into ten years of public service, including four years as Mayor of Park City and the small complication of trying to run a ski town through COVID.

Max and Andy served together during those years, which Andy describes as the public-service equivalent of going to war together.

But this isn't really an episode about politics.

It's about choosing where you want to be, putting down roots, doing work that lasts, knowing when you've done enough, and remembering why people keep choosing Park City in the first place.

Andy makes a pretty good case that the person who arrived six months ago may love this place every bit as much as the person who's been here for 30 years.

Local, it turns out, might be a verb.

What does a county clerk do when she’s not being a county clerk? In Melina Stevens’ case, quite a bit.

This week, Max and Lauren sit down with Melina to talk about the road from California’s Central Valley to Summit County, with stops at BYU, a semester studying in China, and nine years working as a victim advocate with the Park City Police Department. A move to Florida that never happened somehow turned into a life in Park City. As these things tend to do.

We get into the work of showing up for people on their worst days, why she decided to run for office, what it’s like to raise a kid while working in government, and why travel has become such an important part of her life.

And then the conversation goes somewhere a little different: perfectionism, the expectations we inherit, and learning to build a life that feels like your own.

There’s some local government in here. There’s also China, Southern Italy, a sailing trip across the Mediterranean, and a pretty great answer to where she hopes to be in ten years.

Turns out the person behind the public role is usually the more interesting story.

Aldy Milliken’s path to Park City makes almost no sense until you hear the whole thing.

He started college studying economics, found photography, chased the art world to New York, drove a baby-blue Volvo into the Utah desert to see four giant concrete tubes, bought a one-way ticket to Southeast Asia, became an elementary school teacher, opened a gallery in Stockholm, reconnected with his future wife through a postcard, spent nearly two decades abroad, landed in Louisville and eventually found his way to the Kimball Art Center.

And somehow, the thread through all of it is pretty clear.

This episode is about art, education, taking opportunities when they show up, finding your voice, and what happens when a lifetime of seemingly unrelated experiences starts to make sense looking backward.

It’s also about Park City, leadership, experiential education and why slowing down long enough to understand the person sitting next to you might be more important than we give it credit for.

We also get corrected on our liberal use of the word “curated.”

Fair enough.

Bob Peek came to Park City in 1981 for what was supposed to be a semester off.

Then he got a job parking cars and shoveling sidewalks during Deer Valley's first season, started painting houses with his brother, made about $20,000 a year, skied roughly 50 days and figured he had things pretty well dialed.

His dad wasn't so sure.

Nearly 40 years later, that painting company is still here. Except Bob doesn't own it anymore. His son Jonas does.

The funny part is Jonas wasn't waiting around for it.

He grew up in Park City, left for college, became a software developer, worked at Amazon and startups and built the kind of career that looked pretty damn good on paper. Then he started wondering why it wasn't particularly fulfilling.

Eventually, he started looking differently at the business he'd grown up around.

This conversation is about a painting company, but not really.

It's about leaving home so you can understand it. Building a business for one reason and watching the next generation find an entirely different reason to keep it. The difference between impressive work and meaningful work. Family businesses, Park City, community, powder days, expensive toys and the strange satisfaction of making something tangible happen.

Bob built a business that let him live here.

Jonas discovered it might let him build a life here.

Turns out Dad may have been onto something.

Ski In Sell Out with Max Doilney and Lauren Angerosa. Real estate is what we do. People are why we keep turning on the microphones.

Chris Conabee’s résumé makes almost no sense until you hear him tell the story.

He grew up in Newark, landed at Brighton High School with a Jersey accent, went back east to work on Wall Street, earned his MBA at Columbia, left it all to care for his mom, came back west, worked Sundance, guided the Grand Canyon and eventually found his way into development and building in Utah.

Chris describes life as a tree: you eventually end up on a leaf you never could have picked from the ground, but when you trace every branch back, somehow the path makes sense.

But what really stood out in this conversation was how often people showed up at exactly the right time. Friends, coworkers and mentors kept grabbing Chris by the elbow and pointing him toward whatever came next.

We talk about old friends who knew you before the résumé, losing his mom, fear of failure, building things, Utah culture, the legislature, housing, raising kids and why—despite the traffic, growth and changes—Chris still thinks this is a pretty remarkable place to call home.

We didn't get through half of what we wanted to ask him. Which is probably the sign of a good conversation.

What happens when your life never really follows the plan?

Charlie Johnson moved to Park City for his senior year of high school after growing up around Pittsburgh, and almost immediately found something here that would shape the rest of his life: community.

From Park City to Montana, New York City, rural courtrooms, San Francisco and the renewable energy industry, Charlie’s path has been anything but linear. Along the way he studied history, worked on hip-hop music videos, went to law school, clerked for a judge in rural Montana, found his way into large-scale renewable energy real estate, and kept returning to the relationships and places that helped make him who he is.

Now, at 50, Charlie is in another completely new chapter: fatherhood.

Charlie joins Max and Lauren for a conversation about moving, reinventing yourself, the strange freedom of starting somewhere new, career paths that make sense only in hindsight, becoming a parent later in life, aging parents, family, friendship and why community becomes increasingly important as we get older.

It’s a conversation about transition—but maybe even more about what stays with us through all of it.

Jennifer Wesselhoff has spent much of her career thinking about what makes a place worth visiting. But this conversation became much more about what makes a place worth calling home.

Jennifer is the President and CEO of the Park City Chamber & Visitors Bureau, after spending two decades with the Chamber in Sedona, Arizona. Her path to Park City, though, is anything but a straight line.

She grew up the youngest of five in Cleveland, became the first in her family to attend college, lived and worked overseas, traveled the world, fell in love in Switzerland, landed almost accidentally in Sedona, and eventually took a chance on Park City in the middle of COVID.

Along the way, Jennifer also experienced profound loss. She talks openly about how those experiences shaped her perspective, her drive to serve, and her desire to leave something meaningful behind.

We get into tourism, the Olympics, the future of Park City, and the challenge of protecting a place people increasingly want to experience. But the heart of this conversation is something simpler: people make places.

Jennifer helped give Park City a word for something many of us have felt for years: Mountainkind.

And after hearing her story, it makes a lot more sense where that idea came from.

Some people stumble into the life they have.

Others choose it—again and again.

Steve Angerosa first came to Park City for the 2002 Winter Olympics, thinking it would be a temporary stop. More than two decades later, after moving away four different times, he keeps finding his way back.

We talk about growing up in New York, his Italian immigrant grandparents, why a simple shoeshine kit means so much to him, working the Salt Lake Olympics, building a career inside the ski industry, and why certain places become part of who we are.

It's a conversation about family, memory, intentional choices, and the surprising ways our past quietly shapes our future.

Most people think success is about climbing.

Todd Coleman chose to dig.

He grew up in Park City, left to explore the world, discovered outdoor education, spent years helping teenagers change their lives, learned farming in New England, and eventually came home to grow food on the same property where he grew up.

That isn't just a career.

It's a life built with intention.

One of my favorite parts of this conversation wasn't the history of Park City—it was the reminder that communities don't stay special by accident.

They stay special because people choose to invest their lives in them.

This episode is about purpose, community, legacy, and finding work that feels meaningful.

I think you'll enjoy this one.

#SkiInSellOut #ParkCity #Community #Leadership #Purpose #RealEstate #MountainTown #ParkCityUtah

Katie Wilking grew up in Park City, left for college and Washington D.C., then found herself coming home.

In this episode we talk about old Main Street, Park City's early days, Mileti's, skiing as kids, commercial real estate, entrepreneurship, community, and why the people—not just the mountains—keep drawing us back.

It's a conversation about growing up, leaving, returning, and appreciating a place differently with each chapter of life.