Build Your Keynote vs Speaking Courses vs ChatGPT

Build Your Keynote vs a Speaking Course vs ChatGPT

An honest comparison from the guy who built one of them. Including when you shouldn't buy mine.

October 03, 2026

I'm going to do the thing everybody hates. I'm going to compare my product to the alternatives.

I know. The guy who built it writing the comparison. You should be suspicious. So I'll tell you up front where mine loses, and when you should just use ChatGPT and save your money. I mean that.

The short answer: Use ChatGPT if you already know your core message, your stories and your frameworks and just need them organized. Take a public speaking course if your problem is delivery and nerves. Hire a 1:1 keynote coach if you have the budget and want someone to pull it out of you. Use Build Your Keynote if you have real expertise but don't know what your talk is actually about yet, and you want the coaching process without the coaching price.

The comparison

Coaching costs come from Talks.co's 2026 breakdown, which puts 1:1 programs at $2K to $10K+ and signature keynote coaching at $5K to $20K+.

When ChatGPT alone is enough

If you already know what you believe that most people in your field get wrong, and you've got three or four stories with actual turning points, ChatGPT can help you organize an outline fast. Honestly, go do that. My keynote speech outline template shows you the skeleton.

Where it falls apart is when you don't know those things yet. Ask ChatGPT to write you a keynote on leadership and you'll get a perfectly organized leaf talk. Same five points as everybody else. Formatted beautifully. Nobody pays for it.

AI is great at organizing what you give it. It's terrible at noticing what you left out.

And what you left out is usually the good stuff. Mike DiGiovanni, a construction executive I worked with, had been saying one sentence on job sites for 20 years: "Act with intention now, or face forced adaptation later." He'd never heard himself say it. No AI would have asked him the question that pulled it out, because he'd never have typed it in.

When a public speaking course is the right call

If your problem is that your hands shake, you talk too fast, you freeze, you say "um" 40 times, take a speaking course or join Toastmasters. That's a delivery problem and there are great programs for it. Build Your Keynote won't fix that.

But most people I talk to aren't scared of the stage. They're stuck before the stage. They don't know what their talk is. A delivery course makes you better at saying the thing. It won't tell you what the thing is.

When 1:1 coaching is worth it

If you have the budget and you want somebody to sit across from you, ask the uncomfortable questions and hear what you're not saying, hire a coach. It's the best version of this. I still do it myself for a handful of people a year.

The catch is price and time. A good coach isn't cheap, and the good ones are booked.

What Build Your Keynote actually is

It's an app built on the process I use in those 1:1 sessions, and on years of my coaching conversations. Eight sections, asked one at a time. You answer in your own words, and when an answer is thin, it asks about the specific thing you said instead of moving you along, the way I would sitting across from you. Every word starts as something you said. At the end you walk out with three things:

Core Insights and Themes: 12 to 15 titled ideas, in your language, that define your point of view
A Program Description: the 500 to 750 word version and the 150 word version. The thing you send when someone asks what you speak about.
A Keynote Outline: three acts, 45 to 60 minutes, your stories mapped into a talk

Plus a bonus, the Road Map to Getting Paid.

Yes, AI is part of how it works. But it's not a prompt pack, and it's not ChatGPT with a nicer font. It's built on my process, and it does the part ChatGPT can't: it notices what you left out and goes back for it.

Who should not buy Build Your Keynote

You already have a clear, tested talk and just need stage reps. Take a delivery course.
You want someone to get you booked. This builds the talk. It doesn't book it. Nobody can promise you bookings, and you should be suspicious of anyone who does.
You don't want to do the work. You answer the questions. If you skim them, you'll get a skimmed result.

That's also why the refund works the way it does. Do the work, show me what you made inside 14 days, and if it wasn't worth it I'll refund you. I'm not interested in your money if it doesn't work.

So which one?

If you know what you'd say for 45 minutes and just need it organized, use ChatGPT. If you know what you'd say but freeze saying it, take a course. If you've got deep expertise, people keep picking your brain, and you still can't answer "what do you speak about" in one sentence, that's the exact person I built this for.

You've been doing what you do for so long that it doesn't feel special anymore. It's just a regular Tuesday. But everybody does not know this stuff the way you know this stuff.

Try it before you decide

You don't have to take my word for any of this. The first section of Build Your Keynote is free. No card. Answer the questions honestly and don't clean up your answers. If nothing surprising comes out of section one, don't buy the rest.

Ready for all eight sections? Get the full process.

FAQ

Can ChatGPT write a good keynote speech?

It can organize and polish one once you know your core message, stories and frameworks. It can't find the insight for you. Without that, you get a generic talk that sounds like everyone else's.

What's the best prompt for writing a keynote?

The prompt matters a lot less than what you feed it. If you don't know your core message yet, no prompt fixes that. You'll get a well organized talk that sounds like everybody else's. Get the thinking right first.

Is a public speaking course worth it for paid speakers?

Yes, if your problem is delivery. It usually won't help you figure out what your talk is about or how to package it for planners.

How much does keynote coaching cost?

Single sessions often run $100 to $500. 1:1 programs $2,000 to $10,000 and up. Signature keynote coaching can run $5,000 to $20,000 or more.

What do I get with Build Your Keynote?

Eight guided sections based on my 1:1 process. You walk out with 12 to 15 core insights, a program description in two lengths, a three act keynote outline, and the Road Map to Getting Paid bonus.

Who is Build Your Keynote not for?

People who already have a tested talk and just need delivery practice, people who want to be booked for them, and people who don't want to do the work.

Antonio Neves has delivered 400+ keynotes for organizations including Google, Amazon, Visa and McDonald's. He's a former journalist with NBC, PBS and Nickelodeon, a Columbia Journalism School graduate, and the creator of Build Your Keynote.