Business

Walk Into Your Next Client Meeting Armed With These 4 Principles, And Leave With a Paying Client

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I had been having four cups of coffee a week with potential clients and acquiring about one out of four. The back-of-the-napkin data I was keeping showed my conversion rate from “Buying Conversation” to signing a new client was 27.59%.

Then “it” happened. For almost two months, nobody bought anything – it was a business development desert out there. I learned later I had contracted a bad case of what I like to call “Commission Breath” (yeah, it should be capitalized – it’s an official selling disease). I had unconsciously moved to a place where I was more intent on separating potential clients from their money than actually trying to help them. I was focused on selling, not serving, and they could smell it. As a result, I developed the “Four Walking-In Commitments,” and not long after, “Commission Breath” was a thing of the past.

I was never trained to do sales. I didn’t like it and wanted to put all my energies into serving my existing customers. But in my first business, it didn’t take long to find out that I had to have buying conversations in order to have clients. So, cups of coffee became a staple weekly activity for me.

Early on, I was relieved to find a cure for the common cold call in these “Buying Conversations” with the simple principle: serve — don’t sell. I learned how to stop having “Selling Conversations” and to flip the script to “Buying Conversations,” where I was no longer selling, but the customer was actively pursuing me to buy.

For decades, I’ve embraced three business development principles, and these eventually gave birth to what I call “Walking-In Commitments.”

Meet people where they are — not where I want them to be. Many sales tactics are built around enticing the potential customer to join me “over here,” mentally or emotionally, to look at my product from my point of view. When we do the opposite and meet them where they are, we gain trust. Where are they right now? Personally?
Seek to understand — not to be understood. Listen and truly hear first, and listen more than talk. If you want them to understand you, they need to know you understand them first. When they feel understood, they are much more likely to want to hear what you have to say.
Serve — don’t sell. Their best interest must be served. Many times, what people want is not what they need, and selling them what they want could backfire on you and on them. When we put the longterm best interests of the customer first, we serve them by steering them to what they need, even if it’s not something we provide. Zig Ziglar was right: you’ll get what you want after you get your customers what they need.

The “Walking-in Commitments”

With these three simple buying principles in mind, over the years, I developed the habit of reviewing four intentions we eventually called “Walking-In Commitments” because we reviewed them as we walked into meetings with potential clients. I memorized them, and I review them every time I meet with a potential client:

I intend to serve this person, not to sell.
I will not talk about my business unless asked.
I intend to make money from this meeting.
I will make an offer.

At first reading, it could easily look like committing to one or two of the “Walking-In Commitments” would make it impossible to commit to the others. Let’s unpack them to find they are congruent:

I intend to serve— not sell. Nobody wants to be sold anything. I intend to find out what they need and offer them that, even if it’s somebody else’s product or service. I’m committed to doing what is best for them, not for our company. If both our interests line up, great. If not, I will steer them to a product or service that truly meets their needs. It has to work for both of us, not just for me.

I will not talk about my business unless asked. – This sounds like financial suicide, right? But I’ve been committed to it for a few decades, and I’m convinced if you stop talking about your business in One2One meetings unless you’re asked, you will gain more clients. And we have to ask the tricky question: if you’re in a 60-minute cup of coffee and they never ask about me or my business, do I really want to do business with them?

I intend to make money from this meeting. If I just want to serve and won’t talk about my business unless asked, it’s hard to see how I’m going to make money from this meeting. Please note, though, that I didn’t say I intended to make money in this meeting, but rather, I intended to make money from this meeting.

I met with a business owner, and I found out in the first few minutes that she and her spouse had lost their babysitter for their 20th-anniversary dinner that evening. Did she need my service right now? No, she needed a babysitter. So I got hold of my spouse, who gave us contacts, and we called around our neighborhood and found a babysitter. That took 20 minutes or so, and we didn’t have much time left to backtrack into having a “Buying Conversation.” But I still intended to make money from that meeting. And I did, by making her the right offer.

I intend to make an offer. My offer was what she needed, not what I needed – a babysitter. I also offered to meet again, but we never did. Eight months later, a business owner called who needed help with her fast-growing business. She and I had a great working relationship for a long time. The woman was the sister of the woman who had lost her babysitter. I had kept all four walking-in commitments. I served her by getting her a babysitter, and I didn’t talk about my business because it didn’t come up in the context of solving her problem. I gave her an offer (a babysitter), and many months later, I made money from that meeting, not in that meeting. This isn’t voodoo or mystical karma. You get what you intend, and you reap what you sow.

The four “Walking-In Commitments” separate us from salespeople who have been taught the only successful conclusion to a meeting is to sell something. It is my conviction that when we focus on relationships instead of transactions, we will always do better in the long run. I would love it if everybody who came in needed my services. And when they don’t, I steer them to what they need because I know I will get what I need down the road.

If you memorize these “Walking-in Commitments,” as thousands of business owners have, they could make all the difference walking into your next meeting, and they are a great way to ensure you never have “Commission Breath” again.

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Business

How to Deal With Negative Articles on Google

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Building a strong brand means recognizing potential reputation crises and knowing how to handle online articles that misrepresent you or your business. Negative press on Google can erode customer trustand disrupt your operations.

Burying negative search results can be complex, time-consuming and cost a fortune that in the long run will negatively affect the financials of your company or your career. Fortunately, there are branding experts who specialize in removing or burying unfavorable articles from the Google search engine. Whether you’re an individual or a business, it’s important to have a good reputation by removing any negative content as soon as possible.

Table of Contents

Benefits of deleting negative online articles

The public perception of your brand greatly depends on your ability to know how to remove bad search results. False reviews and misleading articles damage your credibility in many ways. Harmful content can even lower your search rankings when it increases your bounce rates and decreases click-through rates.

This means you’ll have fewer people visiting your site, which can significantly affect purchases and revenue. A lot of customers who may have wanted to do business with you may no longer want to after they read a bad article about your company. And the longer the bad information stays up on the internet, the worse the reputation damage will be.

Reach out to the website to report a breach of its content policies

Many websites enforce strict rules for the content they publish. If you discover an article about your brand that contains false or incorrect information, first review the site’s content policy. If the article appears to violate its rules, you may request its removal by providing proof that the article breaches a specific policy that they have.

Contact the site by providing clear facts why this article breaches the policy, and ask that they update it or remove it completely from the site.

Ask Google to take down the content from the search results

If you reach out to the website administrator and have no luck getting the content taken down, you can always ask Google to remove it for you. Google does a great job of helping users delete negative links that contain false information, fake content, or serious defamation, if the content qualifies for removal. You’ll have to explain your case and provide proof to support it.

Get in touch with the writer directly to discuss the issue

In many cases, contacting the author who wrote a specific piece directly is the most effective approach. Look up the email on the website, craft a nice email and explain what part of the article you believe is unfair or untrue. Make sure to include lots of facts and screenshots to back up your request. The writer might agree to edit or remove the article to maintain accuracy and credibility.

What does it mean to remove negative online articles?

Suppressing negative online content is much different than having it deleted, but it can still help your brand’s credibility in lots of ways. The search engine suppression process involves a mixture of unique approaches, like adding more positive content to the internet about your company, publishing press releases and optimizing SEO across multiple platforms.

When done strategically, the good content about your brand will take the place of the bad articles in search results.

Search engines often display social media profiles on Facebook, LinkedIn, Instagram and Twitter on the first page of results. You should definitely sign up for these services now if you haven’t already. Be sure to utilize your company name consistently across all of your profiles and to fill them out to the fullest.

Build new websites focused on branded search terms

Building a new website is another way to suppress negative articles about your brand. The new site should be full of information that praises your company and all of its offerings. Highlighting the strengths in the webpages you publish will boost your credibility and search visibility.

It’s also a good idea to include a page that clearly outlines positive reviews provided by current and former customers. Over time, these pages will rise in their search rankings, suppressing the harmful articles that damage your brand image.

Publish articles on trusted external platforms

Next, you’ll want to create high-quality material on popular websites that have high search rankings. You can do this through contributions, insightful analyses and thought leadership articles. Pick subjects that are relevant to your field, and be sure to mention your company name subtly throughout. Upon publication, these pieces will bolster your brand’s credibility and redirect focus from previous negative mentions.

Build a presence with links

Having a strong brand presence on authoritative websites that have relevant articles to your industry is essential for suppressing negative information about your individual brand or your company. We live in a world where people use Google on a daily basis, and they always research the company before they want to work with it. That’s why links not only help build trust with potential customers but also push down unwanted or harmful search results on Google.

Research keywords that trigger a negative result

Find out what keywords bring up the bad article by Googling your name or company. Once you know which terms lead to the bad content, you can make new pages that employ the same keywords positively. Doing this will result in the new, positive content coming up first in search results by causing the unfavorable information to fall in the rankings.

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Business

Squeeze a Whole Business Book into Your Lunch Break

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If you’re running a business, leading a team, or scaling a side hustle, chances are your “books to read” list is growing faster than the actual reading time you have available. But, there are ways around the time it takes to read an entire book.

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Business

Millionaire Migrations: Where Millionaires Are Moving Globally

If you became a newly minted millionaire, where would you migrate to? Due to inertia, I bet most of you would stay right where you are. A lot of us are afraid of change, which is why we stay at jobs we hate and suffer through broken marriages for too long.

But how about being more adventurous instead and relocating to another country. After all, you’ve got more money than 94% of the American population and 99% of the world. Live a little!

Depending on where you would move to once you become a millionaire depends on where you currently live, how happy you currently are, and what stage of life you’re in. Let me share where I would have moved to in my younger days. Then we’ll get to the big data.

Table of Contents

Millionaire Migration In My 30s

If I could rewind time to 2012, when I left my job and didn’t have children yet, I would have spent a year living in Malaysia for a year and then China for a year. I had a blast living in Kuala Lumpur during middle school, and always fantasized what life would be like if I actually had some spending money. The people are great and the food is hands down, top 3 in the world in my book.

Meanwhile, I first visited China in 1997 as a college junior studying abroad for six months. It was extremely evident back then that the country was going through an economic boom. But when I got a job offer to work and help manage an eyeglass parts manufacturing company in Shenzhen in 1999, I chickened out for the safer route of a Wall Street job.

By returning to China, I would fulfill my uncertainty of not going as a 22 year old and improve my Mandarin. Then I would attempt to do something entrepreneurial so I won’t look back on life with regret for not trying. With millions of dollars in investments, I would feel free to experiment with new ideas. I’m sure I could easily make friends, partly by being a gregarious newcomer.

Millionaire Migration In My Late 40s

Today, if you were to tempt me to move away from vibrant San Francisco with $10 million, I would obviously move to Oahu. I’ve been to most states in America and over 60 countries so far, and Hawaii provides one of the greatest qualities of life.

As a bonus, you might even get to live longer, with Hawaii as the highest life expectancy state at 79.9 years according to the CDC. Once you’ve won the financial lottery, your health can no longer take a back seat. Your goal should be to live as long and healthy of a life as possible to enjoy your wealth for longer.

Sadly, my hunger for adventure and exploration has waned. For all you younger folks out there, take advantage of your motivation while you’ve still got it. Eventually, you’ll no longer want to live in youth hostels and backpack around the world.

Today, I mostly want to live in an area with year-round sunshine and comfortable weather. I love being outdoors and moving my body in some capacity every day. Further, I want to be there for my parents, who are in their late 70s.

Where Millionaires Are Moving Around The World

Based on The 2025 Henley Private Migration Report, more millionaires migrating than ever. The UAE is attracting the most millionaires, followed by USA, Italy, Switzerland, and Saudi Arabia.

Conversely, the UK is losing the most millionaires, followed by China, India, South Korea, and Russia.

What’s going on here? The answer is a country’s tax policy. Given millionaires earn the most and have the most assets, they also tend to face the highest tax rates. Therefore, one of the easiest ways to minimize taxes is to relocate to a country with lower taxes, and preferably, a higher quality of life.

Millionaire Migrations: Where Millionaires Are Moving Around The World

UAE Is Drawing Millionaires In, While the U.K. Pushes Them Out

If you’re a high-net-worth individual looking to optimize for taxes and lifestyle, it’s easy to see why the UAE is one of the top destinations. With zero income tax, long-term golden visas, and a luxury lifestyle in a strategic global location, the UAE has become a magnet for migrating millionaires.

So far, most millionaire migrants to the UAE have come from India, Russia, Africa, and the broader Middle East. But more Brits and Europeans are expected to follow as tax policies in places like the U.K. become increasingly unfavorable.

The U.K., in particular, is losing appeal fast. The government is phasing out the long-standing “non-dom” status, which used to shield foreign residents from paying taxes on overseas income. That change alone will likely drive many wealthy residents to consider relocating.

Add in Labour Party plans to slap a 20% VAT on private school tuition, and you’ve got another reason for affluent families to look elsewhere. When the government keeps raising the cost of staying, it’s only natural to explore what life might look like somewhere more welcoming.

Hard To Save On Taxes By Migrating As An American

If you’re a wealthy American thinking about moving abroad to lower your tax bill, here’s the reality: the IRS doesn’t care where you live. So long as you hold a U.S. passport, you owe taxes on your worldwide income, regardless of your physical location.

This makes America one of only a few countries in the world with citizenship-based taxation. In other words, even if you move to a tax haven, the U.S. still wants a piece of your financial pie.

That said, there are ways to reduce your tax liability—but not eliminate it.

Foreign Earned Income Exclusion (FEIE)

For 2025, the Foreign Earned Income Exclusion allows you to exclude up to $130,000 in earned income if you qualify via the physical presence test (330 full days abroad in a 12-month window) or the bona fide residence test. If you’re married and both of you qualify, that’s potentially $260,000 of income shielded from federal income tax.

But keep in mind, this exclusion only applies to earned income—your W-2 wages or freelance/contractor income. It does not apply to investment income, rental income, dividends, or capital gains. So if your wealth is largely passive, the FEIE won’t help much.

Foreign Tax Credit (FTC)

If you’re living in a higher-tax country, the Foreign Tax Credit lets you offset U.S. tax liability dollar-for-dollar based on the income taxes you pay abroad. This can be especially useful for those earning significant passive income.

However, you can’t double-dip. If you exclude income using FEIE, you can’t also claim the FTC on that same income. And while the FTC can reduce your tax bill significantly, it rarely brings it to zero—especially if you’re living in a low-tax jurisdiction.

State Taxes Still Lurking

Some states, like California, don’t give up easily. They will hunt you down like the Predator does in one of my favorite movies. Unless you completely sever ties—no property, no driver’s license, no voter registration—they may still argue you owe state income taxes too. It’s a good reminder that just because you move doesn’t mean the state lets go.

Want True Tax Freedom? Renounce Citizenship

If you want to completely cut ties with the IRS, there’s only one way: renounce your U.S. citizenship.

But before you go booking a one-way ticket to St. Kitts, know that this move comes with consequences. If your net worth exceeds $2 million or your average income over the past five years is above a certain threshold (~$200,000+), you may owe an exit tax. This tax treats all your assets as if they were sold the day before you renounce—triggering potential capital gains taxes on unrealized gains.

You’ll also be giving up the right to live and work freely in the U.S., face limitations on banking and travel, and lose access to certain legal protections. And once you renounce, there’s no going back.

For most people, especially those with deep roots or business interests in the U.S., renunciation is a nuclear option—not a clever tax optimization move. It’s much easier to relocate to one of the no state income tax states instead.

Live in the Best Place Money Can Buy

Each time we moved, I was sad to leave friends behind, but it was also exciting to see new parts of the world. That kind of exposure gives you perspective. You start to appreciate where you live—and more importantly, you start to understand what’s possible elsewhere.

Here’s the funny thing: even if you work remotely and have millions in investments, chances are you won’t actually move to a new country for a better life. It’s hard to leave behind the comfort of the familiar—your routines, your friends, your community. If you have young kids, it becomes even harder because you don’t want to disrupt their sense of stability.

Think about it. No rational multi-millionaire would voluntarily spend winter in frigid Winnipeg, Canada or Duluth, Minnesota when they could be enjoying life in Honolulu, Hawaii. And yet, plenty of millionaires stay put. Why? Because they’ve built deep roots in their communities. That connection outweighs climate and even tax savings.

When you’re younger and still building wealth, go wherever the best opportunities are. But once you achieve financial freedom, don’t forget to upgrade your environment. Live in the best place money can buy—not just for comfort, but for quality of life.

Readers, if you were to inherit $1 million or $10 million, where would you move—and why? If you’re currently living in the UAE or the U.K., I’d love to hear what your lifestyle and tax experience has been like. Would you recommend it to others seeking financial freedom or a better quality of life?

Reevaluate Your Portfolio Before You Relocate

If you’re thinking about moving for a better life—or just sitting on a large cash windfall—it’s worth getting a second opinion on your finances. One smart move is to take advantage of a free financial check-up from Empower.

If you have $100,000 or more across taxable accounts, IRAs, savings, or a 401(k), an Empower advisor can help you uncover hidden fees, spot unbalanced allocations, and identify ways to improve your risk-adjusted returns. It’s a no-obligation way to stress-test your strategy—especially if you’re considering a dumbbell portfolio or shifting more assets internationally.

Before you migrate your life or your money, make sure your portfolio is working as hard as you are.

This statement is provided to you by Financial Samurai (“Promoter”), who has entered into a written referral agreement with Empower Advisory Group, LLC (“EAG”). Click here to learn more.

Your Roadmap to Wealth—No Matter Where You Live

Thinking about migrating for a better lifestyle, lower taxes, or more freedom? Before you move, make sure your finances are on solid ground.

In my USA TODAY national bestseller, Millionaire Milestones: Simple Steps to Seven Figures, I break down the practical, step-by-step strategies I used to build wealth from scratch. Whether you’re still grinding toward your first $100K or you’re strategizing around multi-million-dollar decisions like geographic arbitrage and tax efficiency, the book offers a clear path forward.

Money gives you options. And once you have options, you can live where—and how—you truly want.

Grab your copy today and start making moves with confidence.

Millionaire Milestones book at the beach — Reading MM in Honolulu, Hawaii

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