Episode 85 – EMI Perspectives: Sergio Peña

Jason Risley: I’m Jason Risley, host of the TRSA Podcast. I’m here today with Sergio Peña from Roscoe Co. Sergio, can you talk about what you do at Roscoe Co.?

Sergio Peña: Absolutely, Jason. So I’ve been with Roscoe. I just made 20 years, January 3, 2026. I am currently a district manager. I have a district in the suburbs of Illinois. Close to home, which is really nice, so we redistrict our areas, so we were able to get my district close to home, and that’s the way the other two district managers are able to visit their accounts weekly and visit their routes, their route reps. I ran a route for six years, and then I’ve been managing for the last 14, and I manage five route reps.

Jason Risley: So you’ve been at Roscoe for a long time then.

Sergio Peña: I have. It’s been quite a journey.

Jason Risley: A couple of years ago, you were able to go through the EMI program and you completed the four years in the program. How has that EMI experience influenced your personal development?

Sergio Peña: So personally, EMI has been a really good experience for me. My time management. I have three kids, my wife and I are able to set some things aside and know that I’ll be gone for that time. I can focus on some personal time management and then some goals for work and for home. A lot of the time at EMI is, it’s about a 7 to 8 hour day in class. You know, you get breakfast, lunch and dinner. But I do have a little bit of down time. I would say early on at EMI, you have a little bit of a party life after your classroom time, but that was like year one and two. And then years three and four, I started to allocate that nightlife on getting some workouts in, some reading in, or we’re out in DC for that whole week and sightseeing. So really fun to just do some goals and time management personally out there.

Jason Risley: We talked about personal development. How has EMI also influenced your professional development at Roscoe?

Sergio Peña: Every year, being part of the industry, learning from other managers, that has been what I’ve been able to soak up and bring back to my route reps and my management team. Professionally, it’s what I take and bring back to the table has been instrumental. I like where Roscoe has equipped me. They’ve equipped me with how we do our things. Then I’m able to take that to EMI and help out other managers. Also, I may have heard some information or something new to the industry before and it wouldn’t pertain to me. What I take back, those nuggets, I take back those really good nuggets that another company or vendor has brought to the table. Then I can apply that to my route reps and my management team.

We always talk about best ideas and best practices and how we can better Roscoe and better our team. So yeah, those have been some really good applications to my professional life at being a manager and seeing how I can change how we do things for the better, or how I can eliminate something. So that’s been a really good part professionally for me at EMI.

Jason Risley: Have you been able to build a network of people throughout the industry that you’re able to bounce ideas or help you problem solve some issues that you deal with on a daily basis?

Sergio Peña: Yes, on a daily basis for how we do things. I think all of the managers that have gone through EMI, we continue to just grow on that. And then the relationships I’ve had with the guys I went through EMI with, and the teachers, some have retired, but most of the guys are still in the industry. We bounce information off of each other. We actually have a GroupMe chat. We interact on that and we keep in touch there. So that’s been pretty cool, knowing that we’re a phone call slash email away from asking a question or seeing how each other’s doing.

Jason Risley: That’s great. So it sounds like you added some lifelong personal friendships in addition to a professional network as well after going through the EMI program.

Sergio Peña: Yeah, absolutely. That’s super, super important, and that goes back to number one, just personally able to rely on those guys that way.

Jason Risley: You’ve touched on this a bit in some of your previous answers, but have you been able to take any practical knowledge from EMI and apply it to your organization?

Sergio Peña: Yes. We really strive on just the interactions between our route reps and our customers. Some of the practical knowledge throughout year three was psychologically and emotionally how you deal with each other. One of the things I think EMI is familiar with is DISC profiles and how you manage people and how you interact. I have, throughout Roscoe, we have 14 total route reps, but I manage five of them, and we all have different personalities. I have a different personality and I’m pretty easygoing. That’s been super fun that they equipped us with how to manage, literally, and that’s part of that EMI acronym and taking that information and knowing, okay, I have to deal with this route rep a little bit different than I deal with this route rep. Knowing them for 14-plus years, we jive really well, but if there’s something that I need to maybe nip in the bud or help my route rep grow here, I can revert back to that training and say, all right, yeah, I have to go back to square one and talk to him this way or manage him this way because he’s this type of route rep, and he handles controversy differently or sales differently and how to approach a customer. So that’s been huge. Some of that practical knowledge out of year three. And it was super fun. You get to know each other and you get to know yourself and dig deep. Bringing that back to the plant and to management was super fun.

Jason Risley: It helps both in dealing internally with communicating with route reps as well as customer service, talking to your customers on a day-to-day basis.

Sergio Peña: Yes, our customers, the relationships we’ve grown with them. You’re able to handle them a little bit easier. Our customer service reps, Zanida and Sonia, they’ve not been through the training, but we all know we have to treat this customer a little bit differently, or just getting on the phone with them or an email could help out tremendously when we’re trying to figure things out. So yeah, it helps with the customers as well.

Jason Risley: In your opinion, what do you think the return on investment is when leadership chooses to send their teams through the EMI program?

Sergio Peña: The ROI on this I don’t think it has a value. It’s super, it’s so worth it. Like I said, from the relationships that you grow, and then the stick rate on managers that go through all four years is probably, I’m probably throwing a number out there and Salita could probably have a better percentage. But I think the stick rate throughout all four years has got to be 85% plus, you know, that we see everyone go through all four years. Things happen, but the relationships that we grow on. And then, personally, what I can grow from there, and then professionally, it’s super awesome that Roscoe has sent and will continue to send managers through EMI. Like I said, I don’t think there’s a, I don’t think we can put a value on it. Yeah, there is a monetary value on it, and Jim’s going to continue to just make sure that we’re equipped. Each year, the industry is changing. I’m kind of excited to hear what my next manager is going to be learning. His name’s Dan Oliver. He’s been with us for 14 or 15 years, but we’re finally sending him through. I just wonder what the industry is, you know, chalking up and making sure he’s equipped with, you know, new and upcoming things. But like I said, it’s super awesome and it’s so worth it.

Jason Risley: You talked about Jim Buik, the owner of Roscoe Co. He is a former EMI student and graduate and big supporter of the program. How did it feel when he chose to send you through the program?

Sergio Peña: I finally told him it’s about time. No, Jim and I have a great relationship. Like I said, I just celebrated 20 years and we just celebrated 20 years. He’s one hell of a guy and to know when he comes out there to visit, kind of unannounced on those graduation nights, it’s super awesome to see him there. He does his guest speaking on different occasions. But it felt really cool to know he was sending me. I was able to finish the last two years with Julia Buik, his daughter. She’s fourth generation. Each year we typically are solo for a while and then he tries to send a couple people at a time at the tail end. It was super exciting, and then I would send my wife out there on the back end just to, we’re out in DC, and we wanted to vacation at the tail end. So that’s super fun. He’s a family man, and knowing that he celebrated the opportunity for my wife and I to get away from the kids, that was super fun. But love the fact that he was able to get me out there originally. I think one of my years was a COVID year. So EMI decided to poll our whole industry. Did we want to do the third year via Zoom? And really, there’s no way we can do four- to eight-hour days on Zoom, and we didn’t know how they were going to break it up. So I basically knew these guys for five years because COVID put a halt on one of the years, but it was well worth it.

Jason Risley: So you got an extra year with your cohort then because of that COVID time.

Sergio Peña: Yeah.

Jason Risley: There’s a lot of professional development opportunities and programs available out there in the marketplace. What do you think that EMI offers that no other program does?

Sergio Peña: That’s a tough one, Jason. What they offer is streamlined toward our industry. I think what they offer every year. It just compounds every year. You learn this year one, and you learn the next thing year two. So it’s set up in a way where we’re growing every year. So I think that was important and worked well to our advantage. Everything in the industry, I think from past managers have brought back something to Roscoe and then we implement it. I may have heard or seen something from that industry or management style. And I said, okay, yeah, I’ve learned about this. I know about this, but there could have been a new nugget. And that year, I wrote that down. I brought it back to the team. And I said, this is how we have to manage this customer or this is how we should go about business this way. We have a debrief every year on what we learned and bringing back that information to the team was instrumental. That’s my answer there. It’s hard to say, but every year I went through was something super important that I brought back to the team with my managers and my route reps.

Jason Risley: So each year of the program builds off the previous year and you’re able to share that with the rest of your team as well when you get back from the program.

Sergio Peña: Yeah, absolutely, Jim wants to know what I learned.

Jason Risley: What is the importance of EMI to this industry?

Sergio Peña: Executive Management Institute. So important. I get the emails and I get the request on what’s going on in the industry and super excited knowing not only my four years being there has helped grow me and other managers, but just knowing that the industry is continually trying to equip managers for the future. I mean, Jim’s involved in so many things with everyone in the TRSA magazine, helping more students graduate. I think it’s been the best part of where I am now as a manager because of what EMI does for each and every student. Again, able to reach out to past managers or I guess teachers in the industry. Like I said, we’re an email away, a phone call away. The development, the bond. That’s the importance of EMI, sending new managers yearly is super cool. We always thought like, man, this would be something our route reps could go through. I don’t think we’ve pulled the trigger yet at Roscoe. It’s always been a thought in our process. How do we send a route rep out there? Now that it’s close by in Illinois, in Chicago, maybe we might be able to do something like that, but just knowing what each manager has brought back year after year, that’s super important and has great value. You know, like I said, it’s so worth it.

Jason Risley: So it’s really shaped your leadership skills and development as a manager at Roscoe.

Sergio Peña: Yeah, and again, I’m a young guy. I know 20 years in the industry is super, super long. But I always joke with my wife, I would retire at 20 years and she laughed because I have plenty of work life left and got to bring home the bills as well as she does. It has shaped and will continue to shape me from what other managers go through. Like I said, I’m excited for what Dan is going to be bringing back this year when he goes to Chicago to spend a few days out there. It definitely has shaped me.

Jason Risley: Now let’s close things out with a few rapid-fire questions. If you could answer each of these in five words or less. I’ll ask you some questions about your experience going through the EMI program for your four years, actually five if you count the COVID year that you had.

Sergio Peña: Right, right.

Jason Risley: What was one thing you least expected about the program?

Sergio Peña: Least expected. I’d say the friendships that I still have today.

Jason Risley: What’s one thing everyone should be sure to pack for the week?

Sergio Peña: Cigars.

Jason Risley: That’s important for after classes.

Sergio Peña: Absolutely.

Jason Risley: What is the most fun part of the program?

Sergio Peña: The after-class activities. They really set out and make sure we have a ton of things for us to do, which is a baseball game or some type of tour. Super fun.

Jason Risley: What’s one thing you learn that you’ll never forget?

Sergio Peña: Year Three. The emotional state we were all put in to dig deep and find out about ourselves.

Jason Risley: As a graduate of the program, are there any words of advice that you have for those currently going through the program?

Sergio Peña: Have fun, take notes, and just go day by day.

Jason Risley: Sergio, it’s been great talking to you about your experience at EMI. We covered a lot of ground here today. Is there anything that you think that I missed that you want to add about the EMI experience that you had?

Sergio Peña: Jason, thank you, this has been awesome. I appreciate the opportunity to talk about EMI. I’d love to thank Roscoe for sending me, giving me the opportunity. Jim Buik. Again, it’s been one heck of a ride. I can’t thank Jim and his family and Roscoe and the family for covering for me throughout those years. But like I said, I’ve always thanked everyone and EMI, all the managers, teachers, the staff. It’s been one heck of a ride.