Way back when Daymond John was 12 years old—decades before starring in the mega-hit reality TV show “Shark Tank” and long before co-founding the wildly successful hip-hop sportswear maker FUBU—he swept the floors after school at a small convenience store in Queens, New York.

John closely watched how the store’s owner treated each customer like family. The owner, Tim, knew each customer by name. He extended credit to many of them. “He treated each customer like they were a superstar,” recalled John, who will headline the closing General Session at the 2019 NACS Show, October 2–4 at the Georgia World Congress Center.

It was while working this job, for about $2.50 per hour, that John first learned how to run a business. True success is all about treating customers and employees with great respect and love. More than anything else, he said, success in the workplace and at home comes from listening—really listening—to those around you.

Asked to name the key to being a great employer, John doesn’t hesitate in saying, “Let your employees know that you care.” Perhaps that’s why John, who turned 50 this year, is affectionately known among his employees as “The People’s Shark.”

Letting your employees know that you care isn’t just accomplished by words but by actions. Perhaps nowhere are these actions more relevant than in the $654 billion industry c-store industry as it seeks to find new direction in the age of social media, amid a demand for fresh and healthier food and employees’ desire for the kind of personal gratification at work that extends beyond a paycheck.

NACS members “can relate a lot better to that person who experiences failures than to the guy who finds that everything he touches is gold.”

But wait. What in the world do NACS members share in common with the self-made multimillionaire who never finished high school, whose parents divorced when John was 10, whose childhood home often went without heat, and who grew up to make a fortune, lose a fortune and make it all over again?

“I have more in common with NACS members than they realize,” said John. “They can probably relate a lot better to that person who experiences failures than to the guy who finds that everything he touches is gold.”

Strategy for Success

“Success in the workplace is all about how to keep changing with the times,” said John. At the NACS Show, John will tell his rags-to-riches success story that required sacrifice, hard work and perseverance—three characteristics that should sound very familiar to c-store leaders. John will offer pragmatic advice about running a business, including tips for negotiating, boosting sales, improving employee morale, increasing productivity and optimizing staff talents.

As a motivational speaker with more than two decades of hands-on business experience, John loves to discuss his strategies that continue to bring him financial success. And he has a lot to talk about. John is widely credited with pioneering the art of integrating fashion, culture and music nearly 20 years ago. He remains a cutting edge business strategist, credited with creating pioneering guerrilla marketing and branding techniques, and he continues to innovate unique ways to use social media. Most importantly, he never stops reaching out to his employees.

But the heart and soul of his message, he said, will be this: “I’ll talk about setting goals and sticking with those goals.”

Success in the workplace is all about how to keep changing with the times.

He has certainly surpassed most of his own business goals. They began to take shape way back in 1992 at age 16, when he was living with his mom, Margot, in Queens. His mother taught him to sew, and he weaved these skills into new dreams. At the time, wool ski hats with their tops tied off were the rage. John thought $20 was an outrageous price for a hat, so he fashioned his own and sold them for $10 each. In one day, he sold all 80 of his hats for $800. He knew he was on to something.

John was bitten by the entrepreneurial bug. Never mind that some 27 banks turned down his business loan requests. John’s mom was so convinced of her son’s skills and enthusiasm, that she took out a second mortgage so John could use their home to set up his first FUBU factory.

His mom was always next to him, helping and encouraging. John took on partners and steered his hip-hop sportswear company, FUBU, from a mere concept to a global fashion powerhouse. (FUBU stands for “For Us, By Us.”) But the pathway wasn’t simple. Just like the c-store business, it required lots of creative thinking. For example, FUBU loaned about 10 of its hockey jerseys to rappers for music videos and received product placements in about 30 videos. At the time, that helped FUBU create the perception that it was a large clothing brand, even though it was very small. Another creative win was when John convinced rapper LL Cool J, an old neighborhood friend, to wear a FUBU T-shirt for a promotional campaign. Later, while filming a 30-second advertising spot for The Gap, LL Cool J wore a FUBU hat in the commercial.

In the end, John credits the encouragement from his mother for FUBU’s success. And she, in video interviews, said the reason that she encouraged him to invest his money into making more hats was because he was so deeply excited about becoming an entrepreneur.

In fact, John said, every c-store owner—whether they own one or 100 stores—is an entrepreneur. And the No. 1 mistake that most entrepreneurs make is to fail to take proper care of themselves—and their families. In other words, it’s not just about loving your job and your customers but also loving your family and yourself. “The big question is: How do you achieve work/life balance?” he posed.

He knows this very personally. He has battled thyroid cancer. He’s now cancer-free thanks to early detection, but getting to this point required lots of time and attention. In other words, he said, c-store owners need to take the time to get their regular health exams, including colonoscopies, mammograms and pap smears, because early detection is so critical to well-being—as it was for him.

Perseverance

The very best entrepreneurs find ways to deal with and overcome personal challenges and even disabilities. His mom discovered that John was dyslexic as a young man when she’d ask him to read the New York Times “Week in Review” section out loud to her. She noticed that it was easier for John to read aloud than to himself. This awareness ultimately helped him to move beyond his dyslexia to eventually give motivational speeches to groups like NACS.

Successful entrepreneurs are often much like parents without a guidebook, he said. There’s no blueprint on how to be a great parent. But great parents—like great entrepreneurs—try lots of different things and learn to repeat the things that work best. Some of those actions can be rather risky, but that’s okay. “You’ve got to take chances to succeed,” he said.

You’ve also got to place employees in situations where they can problem solve and creatively come up with answers—something John learned from his mom when he was a kid. His mom would sit down with him at the dining room table and take out the jigsaw puzzle. Once the puzzle was out, each of them was only allowed to do their own side of the puzzle—to learn how to accomplish a complex task.

But spending one-on-one time with someone, whether a family member or an employee, accomplishes something even more important. It gives c-store owners a chance to learn who this employee really is and how they think, just as John’s mother would sit with her son and ask how his day went. She was working on learning more about what was really on her son’s mind and improving their relationship. C-store owners and managers need this same kind of one-on-one time with their workers, John said.

Studies show that people would rather have acknowledgment over money.

Many business owners—including c-store owners—fail to properly prioritize their time. They prioritize things like conference calls and business meetings but fail to schedule individual time with employees—or their own family members. Once they get that special time, they need to let great employees know just how great they are. “Studies show that people would rather have acknowledgment over money,” he said.

Also, every workplace must make clear that there’s always room for every employee to grow, he said. “The most unhappy employees are those who feel like they’ve hit a glass ceiling—or that their ideas aren’t considered or appreciated,” he said.

Every successful employer also has to have an open door. And every successful employer has to be generous about sharing the profits with employees. Do these two things, John said, and employees will be much more eager to be team players.

Real business success is shared with others. In 2009, John received a call from Mark Burnett asking him to join the cast of ABC’s new reality business show “Shark Tank.” The show gives entrepreneurs the opportunity to pitch their businesses to investors, or “sharks,” in the hopes of receiving financial backing. John has invested more than $8 million of his own money in Shark Tank companies. He certainly knows how to pick winners—and share his own winnings with them. C-store owners can, too.

“People who flourish have some level of secret sauce,” said John.

The real secret for savvy c-store owners: spreading that sauce around for everyone to share.