ONE-DAY LIVE INTENSIVE · LAS VEGAS, NV · MAY 15, 2026

Executives · Founders · Sales Leaders · Professionals Who Negotiate When It Counts

The Black Swan Group Presents

The Gap Between Knowing It And Doing It When It Counts Is Costing You More Than You Think.

One day of live scenarios, real-time coaching, and the kind of intensive practice that actually rewires how you respond — built from the same method used across 150+ international hostage negotiations.

VENUE
JW MARRIOTT
LOCATION
LAS VEGAS, NV
DATE
MAY 15, 2026
CAPACITY
60 SEATS ONLY

The Black Swan Group Presents

The Gap Between Knowing It And Doing It When It Counts Is Costing You More Than You Think.

One day of live scenarios, real-time coaching, and the kind of intensive practice that actually rewires how you respond — built from the same method used across 150+ international hostage negotiations.

VENUE
JW MARRIOTT
LOCATION
LAS VEGAS, NV
DATE
MAY 15, 2026
CAPACITY
60 SEATS ONLY
THE BLACK SWAN METHOD® • TACTICAL EMPATHY® • NEVER SPLIT THE DIFFERENCE • LAS VEGAS • MAY 15, 2026 • 60 SEATS ONLY • THE BLACK SWAN GROUP •
Black Swan Core Skills Cards

Tactical Empathy

01

Make anyone feel truly understood without agreeing or giving ground. The transmission of understanding so precise the other person feels seen.

Accusation Audit

02

Surface the fear before it becomes a wall. Name the negative first and watch it lose all the power it had over the conversation.

Calibrated Questions

03

How and what questions that shift control of any room. Create deep thinking and defer decisions without ever raising your voice.

Dynamic Silence

04

Hold the moment instead of filling it. The most underused skill in negotiation, and the one that changes outcomes the fastest.

ONLY 60 SEATS AVAILABLE. RESERVE YOURS BEFORE MAY 15TH CLOSES.
00
DAYS
00
HOURS
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MINUTES
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SECONDS
60 Seats Only. Coaching is personal, not a conference.

Great negotiation is not exciting. It's astonishing. You don't raise your voice. You don't fight. You don't push. You listen. You label. You ask the right questions — and suddenly the person across from you is moving in a direction they didn't expect to move.

The problem is that knowing how to do this and being able to do it under pressure are two completely different things.

Reading about it won't close that gap. Watching a video won't close it. Only practice in realistic conditions — with a coach watching and correcting in real time — closes it.

That's what this day is for.

— Chris Voss

Former Lead FBI International Hostage Negotiator
Founder, The Black Swan Group
Author, Never Split the Difference (5M+ copies sold)

Is This Day For You?

Let me ask you a few questions. Not to be clever. To make sure you don't spend a day in a room that wasn't built for you.

This Day Is For You If…

You've read the book. Maybe more than once. And you still walk out of high-stakes conversations feeling like you left something on the table.

You know what a mirror is. You know what a label is supposed to do. And when the pressure hits, none of it shows up.

You've been to trainings before. You got charged up. It evaporated by the following Tuesday.

You negotiate for a living — and you know the difference between a deal that closes and a deal that almost closes.

You manage a team, lead a company, or run sales — and you can feel the difference between conversations that go your way and conversations that don't.

You understand that every conversation you have at home, at work, and in the boardroom is a negotiation. And you want to be better at all of them.

This Day Is Not For You If…

You've never negotiated professionally and you're looking for a beginner's introduction. (Start with our online courses first.)

You want to sit in a chair and take notes for eight hours.

You're not willing to be in live scenarios where a coach stops you mid-sentence.

You're looking for a motivational experience. This is a training day.

If you saw yourself in that first column — this was built for you.

What One Day At Dealmaker Days Actually Looks Like

We don't do slides. We don't do binders you'll never open again. We don't lecture at you for eight hours and call it training.

You arrive. You get coffee. Within minutes you're in a live scenario — a real negotiation challenge, real pressure, real coaching from a former law enforcement negotiator who has been in rooms where failure wasn't just a lost deal.

Here's how the day breaks down.

New York Times Bestseller

Never Split
the Difference

With over 5 million copies sold and translated into 30+ languages, Chris Voss's groundbreaking book has redefined how the world thinks about negotiation. Drawing from his experience in 150+ international hostage cases, Chris reveals the counter-intuitive tactics that work when the stakes are highest.

  • Why compromise is the worst possible outcome

  • How tactical empathy disarms even the toughest counterpart

  • The "late-night FM DJ voice" that defuses tension instantly

  • Calibrated questions that make others solve your problems

  • The Black Swan theory — finding hidden leverage in every deal

From Page to Stage

You've Read the Book.
Now Learn to Apply It.

Knowing what to do and being able to do it under fire are two completely different skills. At Dealmaker Days, Chris and his team of Black Swan coaches will train you to execute these tactics in real time — when the pressure is real and the room is watching.

One Day Intensive

What This Day
Actually Looks Like

We don't do slides. We don't do binders you'll never open again. You arrive, get coffee, and within minutes you're in a live scenario — real pressure, real coaching, real consequences if you revert to old habits.

8:30 AM · Morning Block

Tactical Empathy & The Laws of Negotiation Gravity

Most people think empathy means agreeing with someone. Feeling what they feel. Maybe even liking them.

That's not what Tactical Empathy is.

Tactical Empathy is about the transmission of information — demonstrating, out loud, in words, that you understand where someone is coming from so precisely that they feel seen. You don't have to agree. You don't have to feel it. You just have to be accurate.

The neuroscience behind this is remarkable. When you label someone's negative emotion — when you name it out loud — the electrical activity in the amygdala starts to diminish. Every time, not sometimes. The emotion literally loses power when it's spoken.

In the morning session, you don't just hear about this. You do it. In live triads. With real scenarios from your own professional life. With a coach watching, stopping you when you revert, and showing you exactly what happened and why.

By lunch, you will have used a label in a real scenario. You will have felt the silence work. You will have heard someone say "that's right" — and you'll understand, in your gut, why that's different from "you're right."

What You'll Drill

  • Tactical Empathy — what it is, how it works, and how to use it without faking it

  • The Laws of Negotiation Gravity — the rules that apply in every negotiation on the planet, regardless of culture or circumstance

  • Labels and Mirrors in real scenarios

  • What "that's right" sounds like — and how to produce it

  • Dynamic Silence — holding the moment instead of filling it

1:00 PM · Afternoon Block

The Core 4: Drilling Until It's Automatic

Knowledge without practice is just a library.

In the afternoon, we isolate the four tools that change the most outcomes in the least time: Labels, Mirrors, Dynamic Silence, and Summaries. We break each one apart. We drill it. We escalate the pressure. Then we drill it again.

The goal is not for you to understand these tools. You already understand them if you've read the book. The goal is for them to show up without thinking when you're in a high-stakes conversation and your adrenaline is up and the other person isn't cooperating.

That only happens through repetition under pressure. And that's exactly what this block delivers.

What You'll Drill

  • Labels — naming emotions so accurately they can't be denied

  • Mirrors — repeating the critical words and letting silence do the rest

  • Dynamic Silence — the most underused skill in negotiation

  • Summaries — paraphrasing and labeling until you get "that's right"

  • Calibrated Questions — how and what questions that create deep thinking and defer control

  • Escalating role-plays — increasing pressure until the skill becomes automatic

This Is Not a Motivational

Seminar.

You don't need another fire-walk or a framed affirmation. You need reps. You need tactics that hold up when the counterpart pushes back and the money is on the table. Here's

the line in the sand:

What You Won't Get

  • Stage lights, smoke machines, and hype music

  • Vague "mindset shifts" you forget by Tuesday

  • A 400-person crowd you can hide inside of

  • Upsells every 45 minutes from the back of the room

  • Generic closes you've already heard on YouTube

  • Someone yelling about your limiting beliefs

What You Will Get

  • Live negotiation drills with instant feedback

  • Tactical scripts pressure-tested on 7-figure deals

  • 60 peers in the room zero spectators

  • An hour-by-hour curriculum built for operators

  • Recordings of your own drills to study after

  • A plan you execute Monday, not "someday"

"The team was world class and the instructors were awesome."

— Scott Sylvan Bell

Why Chris Won't Be In The Room, And Why That's Not A Compromise.

You're probably thinking Chris won't be there so it's not worth it.

You're probably thinking the coaches are second tier.

You're probably thinking you're paying for the name and getting the bench.

You might even be thinking "this isn't for me" or "I don't need this."

How bad of a position would it put you in to spend one day learning how to win every high-stakes conversation you'll ever have?

Anytime you are in a conversation where there is a want or a need, from you or from them, you are in a negotiation.

Every sales call. Every contract. Every difficult conversation with a partner, a team member, a client who isn't cooperating. All of it.

Troy Smith was lead negotiator in 270+ hostage situations. He never lost one. Annette Mullin led the Crisis Negotiation Team at LVMPD. Don Fieselman is currently using The Black Swan Method as an active cold-case homicide investigator, getting people to reveal information they've held for decades.

Chris trained them. He trusts them with the work.

What you're getting on May 15th isn't a keynote. It's coaching. And coaching only works when someone can watch you, stop you mid-sentence, and show you exactly what just happened.

MEET YOUR COACHES

These aren't consultants who studied negotiation. They're people who used these skills in situations where the word "failure" had a meaning that doesn't apply in most boardrooms.

Troy Smith

TROY SMITH

270 NEGOTIATIONS. ZERO LOSSES.

Negotiation Instructor, Coach & Keynote Speaker | The Black Swan Group

Troy spent 23 years with the San Antonio Police Department, 22 of them in specialized units including SWAT and the Crisis Negotiation Team.

Over the course of his career, he was involved in more than 300 hostage negotiations. In 270 of them, he was the lead negotiator.

He never lost a single one.

Not 90 percent. Not almost always. Every single person who went in came out.

He didn't accomplish that by being the loudest or most aggressive person in the room. He accomplished it by getting so precise about what the person on the other side was actually thinking and feeling that they felt understood, sometimes for the first time in the entire crisis.

He now teaches exactly that skill in this room.

Annette Mullin

ANNETTE MULLIN

24 YRS LVMPD. 9 YRS CRISIS NEGOTIATION TEAM.

Negotiation Instructor & Coach | The Black Swan Group

Annette retired from the Las Vegas Metropolitan Police Department in 2021 after a 24-year career that took her through homicide, sexual assault investigations, internal affairs, and crisis negotiation.

For nine of those years she served on the LVMPD Crisis Negotiation Team. She eventually became Assistant Team Leader, responsible for developing and running the department's 40-hour Crisis Negotiation school.

Her work has taken her internationally. In 2019 she traveled to Vietnam as a team lead and instructor, teaching Sexual Abuse Investigation and Human Trafficking prevention.

She understands, at a very specific level, what it costs people to carry high-stakes responsibility in silence, and what it looks like when someone finally feels heard.

That understanding is at the core of everything she brings into this room.

Don Fieselman

DON FIESELMAN

STILL USING BLACK SWAN SKILLS IN THE FIELD TODAY.

Negotiation Instructor, Coach & Cold Case Investigator | The Black Swan Group

Don spent more than 25 years with the Las Vegas Metropolitan Police Department, working juvenile prostitution investigations, organized crime, outlaw motorcycle gangs, and sex crimes.

He wasn't done.

In 2024, the Las Vegas Police Department brought him back as a part-time investigator with the Cold Case Homicide Squad. He is currently using The Black Swan Method in active cold cases, getting people to share information they've held onto for years. Sometimes decades.

During his time at LVMPD he also served as Assistant Team Leader of the Crisis Negotiation Team, running negotiations, training officers, and building the systems the department still uses.

If you want to see what it actually looks like when someone gets a person to open up about something they never intended to say, watch Don work.

★ ★ ★ ★ ★

I went to see Chris and his team last year in March. The three days were hands down some of the best training I have been to. The team was world class and the instructors were awesome. Chris consistently puts out fantastic content.

Scott Sylvan Bell
Black Swan Group Event Attendee
★ ★ ★ ★ ★

The automation capabilities are incredible. We've saved countless hours and improved our customer engagement significantly.

Ashwin Santiago
CEO & Founder
★ ★ ★ ★ ★

The analytics and reporting features give us insights we never had before. Our conversion rates have improved by 40%.

Kaden Scott
Sales Manager

Las Vegas, NV May 15, 2026

JW Marriott Las Vegas

221 N Rampart Blvd · Las Vegas, NV 89145

Check-In

8:00 AM — Breakfast served

Training Starts

9:00 AM sharp

Lunch

9:00 AM sharp

Day Ends

5:30 PM

Capacity

60 attendees max

Airport

Harry Reid International (LAS)

What's Included

  • Full day of live training and coached scenarios

  • Breakfast during check-in and lunch provided

  • Beverages and snacks between sessions

  • All training materials

  • Access to Black Swan Group resources post-event

  • Personalized coaching from certified instructors

From The People
Who Were In The Room.

"Over eight years, how could you possibly come to the same event and get anything out of it? But we're floored every time we go and it's something completely different."

Josh B.
Black Swan Group Corporate Training

"I learned a lot, and I thought I had already honed several of the skills, but there were so many new concepts that were brought forward."

Rachel M.
Black Swan Group Live Events & Corporate Training

"It's the best investment. It's the first time I've ever spent money to go to a workshop like this in my life."

Marshall D.J.
Black Swan Group Live Events

Frequently Asked
Questions

Will Chris be there?

No, we are sorry — Chris will not be in attendance at these events. Our Dealmaker Days are delivered by our top-performing negotiation instructors and coaches. They are equipped to support you in achieving your desired negotiation successes!

How many people will attend this event?

Each Dealmaker Day is open to 60 attendees only. You can expect to interact with each of our speakers, ask your negotiation questions, and network with other like-minded individuals who are hungry to make good deals.

Are meals included with my ticket?

Yes, meals for the day are included. Breakfast will be served during check-in at 8am and Lunch at 12pm. In between sessions, beverages and snacks will be available. If you have dietary restrictions, please email [email protected].

What is the refund policy?

Things come up, and we understand. If you cancel up to 4 weeks in advance, we will fully refund your ticket cost. If you cancel within 4 weeks, a 15% cancellation fee will be deducted from the cost of your ticket.

What should I bring to the event?

Bring your preferred note-taking devices (paper & pen).

What discounts are available?

We do offer group discounts of 3+ people. Contact our team for group tickets at [email protected].

Are You Against Making May 15th The Day This Changes?

Every conversation where something matters is a negotiation. That's not a metaphor. That's how human beings work. You already know this. What you didn't have was a room where you could practice it under pressure with people who have used it in situations you and I never have to face.

That room is in Las Vegas on May 15th. Only 60 seats available. When this date fills, it fills.

© 2026 The Black Swan Group, Ltd. All Rights Reserved.