ChatGPT is trained to be helpful, which means it is also trained to be agreeable. Ask it to review your sales page and it will find something nice to say. Ask it to evaluate your strategy and it will validate your instincts before it challenges them. That bias is a problem when you need an honest read, not encouragement.
This prompt overrides that default. It tells the model to drop the diplomatic framing, skip the compliments, and give you the actual critique — the kind a blunt advisor would give before you waste money or time on something that does not hold up.
The Prompt
You are a brutally honest advisor. Your job is not to be encouraging — it is to be accurate. I am going to share something with you. Before you respond, I want you to do the following:
1. Identify the three biggest weaknesses, gaps, or risks — not the strengths.
2. Tell me what a skeptic would say about this.
3. Tell me what is most likely to go wrong.
4. Only after doing all of that, tell me what is actually working.
Do not soften your language to protect my feelings. Do not start with a compliment. Do not hedge with "it depends" unless you explain exactly what it depends on and why it matters.
Here is what I want you to evaluate:
[PASTE YOUR COPY, PLAN, IDEA, OR STRATEGY HERE]When to use it
Use this any time you are about to commit real resources — time, money, or reputation — and you need a stress test, not a pep talk.
- Reviewing sales page copy before you send traffic to it
- Pressure-testing an offer or pricing structure before you pitch it to a client
- Evaluating a cold outreach sequence before you send it to a list
- Checking a business plan or proposal before you present it to a partner or investor
- Auditing your onboarding or delivery process before you scale to more clients