Influence. Persuade. Close.
The 2-Day Intensive That Turns
High-Stakes Rooms Into Wins
A 2-Day Live Intensive in Speaking, Influence, Persuasion, and Closing for Executives, Business Owners, Founders, and Professionals Who Are Done Walking Away Without the Yes
April 25–26, 2026 · San Jose, California
Video coming soon
Limited seats · Price increases April 19 · April 25 does not move
You Prepared. You Showed Up.
So Why Did Someone Else Close the Deal?
You know the meeting. You had the substance, the numbers, the track record. The other person in the room had half your depth — and a completely different ability to speak, to influence, and to close.
They got the yes. You got a polite follow-up that led nowhere.
This is not a knowledge problem. It is not a work ethic problem. It is not even a credentials problem.
It is a speaking, influence, and closing problem. And it is costing you more than you realize — in sales not made, in investors not converted, in rooms not won because someone less qualified simply knew how to close.
"Persuasion and closing are learnable skills. The people beating you in the rooms that matter are not smarter. They have simply been taught what you have not been taught — yet."
Days of live,
working intensive training.
Years of combined
faculty experience.
Proven closing moves
taught and practiced live.
Cost of letting
this gap stay open.
"This audience does not have a knowledge gap. They have a presence, persuasion, and closing gap in high-stakes rooms. They already belong in the room. They are just not yet owning it."The HighStakesCon Premise
Not a Conference. Not a Seminar.
A 2-Day Working Intensive in Speaking, Influence, and Closing.
Two days of structured, working, live training in speaking with authority, building influence, and closing — the exact skills that determine whether you walk out of a high-stakes room with the deal, the investment, or the yes.
Live Hot Seats
Your highest-stakes scenario deconstructed and rebuilt in real time, with direct feedback from faculty in front of the room.
Working Sessions
You build your personal speaking, influence, and closing framework during the event — not at home afterward. You leave with it tested and ready to deploy.
Limited Attendance
The room stays deliberately small. Quality of attendees is part of the experience. Everyone in the room has real stakes on the table.
Immediate Application
What you learn on Day 1, you test on Day 2. What you build on Day 2, you use in your next high-stakes conversation.
The Closing System
A proprietary persuasion and closing system applied directly to your investor pitches, enterprise sales, board presentations, and every high-stakes ask.
Pre-Matched Networking
Attendees connected by sector and seniority before the event. No random mingling. Every conversation intentional.
This Room Was Built
for You If —
- You are already in high-stakes rooms — investor conversations, enterprise sales, board presentations, recruiting, or strategic partnerships
- You know that your next obstacle is not effort or intelligence — it is how you command the conversation when it matters most
- You are a business owner, executive, founder, or professional with real decisions and real money on the line
- You have the substance but not always the speaking presence, the influence, or the close to match it
- You want a system, not a seminar — something you deploy immediately in your next high-stakes room
"If you read this and thought — this is exactly the problem I have — this event was built for you."
Not Notes.
Not Inspiration.
A System.
- A personal persuasion and closing system — built during the event, tested in live hot seats, ready to deploy immediately
- The mechanics of speaking with authority: how to command attention and own the room before you make a single argument
- An influence architecture that activates emotion and gets any audience to see exactly what you want them to see
- Proof mechanisms that eliminate doubt and move skeptics toward the close
- The exact closing sequence — practiced under real pressure, with real feedback, before you leave the room
The Test of This Event Is Not
How You Feel When You Leave.
It Is What You Do Differently Next Week.
-
01
Speak First — Command Before You Argue
How to set expectations, activate curiosity, and own the room before you make a single argument. The people who close consistently are the ones who speak with the most authority — not the most information.
-
02
Build Influence Before You Ask
Build the credibility and influence architecture that activates emotion and gets any audience to see exactly what you want them to see — before you make a single ask.
-
03
Proof Mechanisms That Eliminate Doubt
How to create absolute positive proof that sustains emotional engagement and takes your conversion from possible to inevitable — across every high-stakes scenario.
-
04
Turn Skeptics Into Buyers
The workflow that removes every doubt in your audience's mind and converts the hardest no — deployed in investor, enterprise, and high-ticket conversations.
-
05
The Close — Practiced Under Real Pressure
The exact sequence that gets people ready to commit. You practice it in live hot seats before you leave. Not theory — a sequence you have run, received feedback on, and refined in the room.
The People in the Room
Teaching You to Own It
HighStakesCon brings together world-class practitioners in persuasion, sales, closing, and high-stakes communication. More speakers will be announced.
Joel Bauer
Creator of the Money MatrixPersuasion, Presence & Closing
Joel Bauer has trained over 4,900 top income-producing speakers, authors, marketers, and entrepreneurs in his proprietary system for persuasion, presence, and closing. His students include Russell Brunson, Jordan Belfort, Peng Joon, T. Harv Eker, and Mark Victor Hansen.
At HighStakesCon, Joel will teach his closed-room curriculum — including PreFrame, Wall of Power, the Billion Dollar Principle, Case Study Conversion, and Permission2Reveal — applied specifically to investor conversations, enterprise sales, and executive-level communication.
"As a direct result of learning from Joel, it has generated a minimum of eight figures — well over ten million dollars — speaking on the world's largest stages."
— Peng Joon, Speaker/TrainerMore Speakers
To Be AnnouncedAdditional world-class practitioners in persuasion, sales, and high-stakes communication will be announced. Check back for updates.
- Content delivered at you from a stage
- Generic frameworks that ignore who you are and who you are selling to
- A mixed room with mixed motivations
- Business cards you will not follow up on
- Inspiration that fades by Thursday
- No working output — just notes you may never open again
- A speaking, influence, and closing system — built during the event, tested live, deployed Monday
- Frameworks applied directly to your highest-stakes scenario
- A curated room of serious professionals with real stakes on the table
- Pre-matched peer relationships with a specific reason to continue
- A working output you walk out with on Day 2
- The test: what you do differently in your very next high-stakes conversation
Speak with Authority. Build Influence. Close the Room.
Early bird price $997 until April 18 — then $1,497. April 25 does not move. The room fills from the people who decide first. Register now and lock your seat before the price increases.
Proud Sponsors of HighStakesCon
Sponsor announcements coming soon · Inquire at highstakescon.com
Interested in sponsoring HighStakesCon? Reach a curated audience of executives, business owners, founders, and professionals across Silicon Valley and beyond.
Enquire About Sponsorship