The Catskill Mountains are typically for hiking, sightseeing, and foliage in the fall months. For local business owners Sean Degnan (The Sailhouse, Tarrytown) and Dave Reggina (No Snooze Podcast), it’s a place of reform and resolutions.
Degnan and Reggina are the founders of ACE—an acronym for “Action Cultivates Excellence”—which is a membership-based leadership training community for men aiming to better themselves physically, mentally, emotionally, socially, spiritually, and within their careers. Last fall, the pair hosted the third annual ACE Summit in Windham, where 30 men looking to make changes in their lives joined them for a weekend of cold plunging, intention setting, rigorous exercise, and leadership speaking events from an impressive roster of accomplished professionals.
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Degnan and Reggina first connected in 2023 at a networking event in Westchester and immediately felt like there was alignment in their values. Reggina, a published author, executive leadership coach, and deputy commissioner of the Town of Greenberg, decided to have Degnan, also a leadership coach, on his podcast not long afterward, which is where the two believe the synergy started to shine.
“Episode 156 was [Dave’s] first episode without his former co-host, and I was the first guest. That episode went viral in his world,” Degnan recalls.
“Typically, a regular episode would do 500 to 1,000 downloads,” Reggina adds, “but this one did 10,000 for whatever reason.”
Degnan attributes the hit episode to the vulnerability in their conversation that day, including many of their previous life struggles. As a result, an openness to emotions and embracing discomfort has become one of the central themes for the ACE Summit. The pair of entrepreneurs decided to schedule workouts together and began discussing how they could blend their leadership skills into one comprehensive experience. Both had built an extensive network of business magnates, former professional athletes, and speakers, so it seemed like a natural next step.
After some cold plunging and conversation, they decided the best course of action to tie ACE’s values together was a weekend-long men’s leadership retreat. With nothing but the venue booked, the two brought their camera crew to New Paltz to film a promotional video to “put the pressure on themselves” to have it materialize. Just five days after they’d committed to the property for the inaugural summit, the pair’s optimism and momentum were rocked by a devastating blow: Degnan’s father unexpectedly passed away.
“A couple of days after that, I reached out to Dave and said, ‘Look, I know this is the craziest moment of my life right now, but I’m still committed—I need this now more than ever.’ I was fully ready to hold off on the summit and ACE in general,” Reggina recalls after Degnan’s father passed. “We didn’t really have anything yet. But he told me on the phone, ‘This is what my father would have wanted.’ And from that moment, I told him, ‘I’m all in, and I’ll never give up on ACE.’”
Now with three summits under their belts, they’ve had keynote appearances from the likes of New York Yankees legend Joe Girardi at their first to Gary Gaines, the VP of sales at EV automaker Rivian, this past October.
“My introduction to ACE was accidental; we happened to pick The Sailhouse for my daughter’s first birthday party,” says Andrew Serrao, 37, a White Plains-based lawyer and army captain. “I ended up talking to Sean, who invited me to an ACE networking dinner three days later. It was an exceptional experience. These are such strong men who inspire each other to be better. It’s hard to quantify [what it’s done for me].”
The dinners, which also occur monthly at The Sailhouse, serve as a way for “members” of ACE—anyone who has attended a summit or ACE event—to hold each other accountable and build a sense of community. “The dinners get the band back together. It’s a little check-in,” says Joseph Kay, the founder of Ice and Iron, a cold-plunge tub distributor, and a three-time summit attendee. “It’s a different check-in than calling or texting somebody because you see them face to face, and when you see someone’s face, you’ll be able to tell when someone’s doing what they said they’d be doing.”
The Third Annual ACE Summit
On a crisp weekend in mid-October, men from around Westchester County and beyond gathered at the Union + Post hotel in Windham for 48 hours of decompression, development, and emotional regulation. It began with a minute-long cold plunge followed by dinner and introductions on Friday, a speech from former NFL and WWE star Sabatino Piscitelli, and a moment of reflection to decide what attendees would “let go of” in their life moving forward.
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Keeping true to their theme of openness, attendees wrote down words on paper and threw them into a fire as a symbol of relinquishing. Deeply personal stories about addiction, failure, and self-doubt were shared, which allowed many of the attendees to step into their true selves. “The work,” Reggina said after every paper was burned on night one, “really starts not just here at the summit, but after getting back into the real world.”
The success of the weekend was a testament to the type of men the ACE team brings to the retreats. There’s no small talk; the conversations with attendees feel more like mini-goal-setting exercises and the types of deep, unveiling discoveries that you have with someone who ends up later becoming a close friend.
Challenges and Transformation
Day two brought more challenges and more transformation. A 5 a.m. run was chased by a 7 a.m. cold plunge. Once everyone was under the ice for a minute, the day was further jump-started by a grueling kettlebell workout and breakfast. Meals served as a chance to meet others and share experiences.
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Not long after lunch, breakout sessions designed for attendees to discuss their current life struggles – personally, professionally, or emotionally – began. The sessions lasted so long that a scheduled second workout was canceled to allow the groups to better focus on their vulnerabilities.
“I like that it’s structured in a way that you set intentions on day one, are challenged on day two, and can reflect on day three,” says Evan Velez, 39, a regular ACE dinner attendee and first-timer at the recent summit. “I feel like I’ve done exactly that. This weekend, I’ve had some real breakthroughs in my identity and purpose in life.”
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Velez, a new father and former professional MMA fighter, has stepped into a new career in financial planning, but feels he has gotten away from the self-care he gave himself physically in his fighting days. He used ACE’s third summit to focus on how he can reincorporate it moving forward.
Reflection and Future Progress
Day three brought one more morning kettlebell workout, followed by chopping logs at the top of the hill above Union + Post. Even for those who were physically fit, the wood presented a challenge that allowed for aggression to be released and metaphors about struggle to be exemplified in the denseness of a log.
Following a meditation and awards ceremony on Sunday, Reggina and Degnan announced, in partnership with Allen Collins, CEO of Underground Nutrition and Hollow Labs supplements, an expansion of the ACE community into New Jersey in the coming years.
Collins, who attended the second summit, praised the ACE founders for their community and for helping him open up as a public speaker and step away from the day-to-day responsibilities at his company to focus more on his personal growth.
“What I’m most excited about is helping a community of men in my area turn into leaders,” Collins says of bringing ACE to Warwick, New Jersey. “We need something like this everywhere. I’m excited to help more men turn into better leaders, better fathers, and better husbands.”
The award ceremony was a chance for every man in attendance to be recognized for his individual contributions to the weekend. The attendees were gifted an advance copy of Reggina’s new book, 30 Lessons to Lead, as well as a tributary hatchet to commemorate their transformative log-chopping experience in the woods.
Degnan and Reggina have already worked with Collins to host multiple dinners and workouts in Warwick to complement their existing monthly regimen of meeting up, holding each other accountable, and sharing a meal. As the ACE community seeks to reach more individuals in the northeastern region, plans are already underway for the 2026 Summit.
Related: Inside the 914 Room: A New Kind of Networking in Westchester