Obsidian Tutorial for Beginners

About this video

Kevin gives a beginner step-by-step tutorial on Obsidian, a free note-taking app that stores notes locally on your computer as standard markdown files, using a Kevin Cookie Company double chocolate chip cookie launch as the example project. He installs Obsidian, creates a first vault — a folder for notes, attachments, and settings, which can be placed in OneDrive or Google Drive to sync — and tours the interface: left sidebar, center editor, and right graph view. He creates notes using markdown: ## for headings, - [ ] for checklists, asterisks for italics, dashes for bullets, and numbered lists, and shows right-click paragraph options as an alternative, plus Ctrl+N for a new note. He creates separate focused notes for the launch overview, product details, marketing campaign, and meeting, and embeds images, PDFs, audio, and video. The key feature is linking with [[ double brackets ]] to connect notes inline or in a Related Notes section, visualized in graph view. He demos search with the sidebar icon or Ctrl+Shift+F across the whole vault. Because notes are local markdown, he connects the Claude desktop app in Cowork view to the vault to answer questions and create a new customer feedback note inside Obsidian. Via sponsor Zapier, Claude can also search Gmail for cookie feedback, summarize it, and update the Obsidian note. He closes with core vs community plugins in Settings, and sync options: paid Obsidian Sync or third-party services like iCloud, OneDrive, Google Drive, or Dropbox.

Key takeaways

• A vault is a local folder of markdown notes; create one on install and optionally store it in a synced folder like OneDrive or Google Drive
• Basic markdown covers most work: ## headings, - [ ] checklists, dash bullets, numbered lists, and asterisks for italics, with Ctrl+N for a new note
• Link notes with [[ ]] to build a connected network instead of one long document, and use graph view to visualize those connections
• Search the entire vault with Ctrl+Shift+F; because files are local markdown, AI tools like Claude can read the vault, answer questions, and create notes in it
• Extend Obsidian with core and community plugins, and sync via paid Obsidian Sync or third-party services like iCloud, Dropbox, OneDrive, or Google Drive

Episode details: published July 29, 2026 · 13:57 long. Summary written by Self Growth Videos from the episode itself. Business results and any income figures mentioned are Kevin Stratvert’s own claims, shared for education — they are not typical or guaranteed.

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