Most people think they know what AI is.

They've used ChatGPT. They've typed a question, gotten an answer, maybe felt a little impressed, maybe a little underwhelmed. And they've filed it under "useful sometimes" and moved on with their life.

If that's you — good. You're in the right place. Because what you're about to learn has almost nothing to do with what you've experienced so far.

I'm going to share three distinctions with you. They're not complicated. But they will fundamentally change how you think about AI, about the tools we're going to use, and about what's actually possible when you stop chatting with AI and start building with it.

These three ideas are the reason this program exists. Get them, and everything that follows will make sense. Miss them, and you'll spend the next few weeks wondering why we're not just using ChatGPT like everyone else.

Here's What Most People Get Wrong About AI

Let me give you a number that should stop you in your tracks.

Now, ask yourself this: What is happening in the gap between the 88% and the 6%?

Because the 88% are not stupid. They've bought the tools. They've run the pilots. They've sent their people to prompt engineering workshops. And they're still stuck.

The answer is that the 88% are doing the wrong thing with AI. They're chatting with it when they should be building with it. They're optimizing the wrong layer. And they're using tools designed for conversation when they need tools designed for construction.

That's what the three distinctions below are about. Not which AI is "better." Not which tool has more features. But which mode you're operating in — because mode determines everything.

Mode one: the chat interface. ChatGPT, Claude.ai, Gemini — you open a browser, type a question, get a response. This is what 99% of people think AI is. It's useful. It's impressive. And it's the wrong mode for what we're doing.

Mode two: the coding CLI. Claude Code, OpenAI's Codex CLI, Google's Gemini CLI, and others — these tools run on your computer, inside your file system, with access to your actual projects and documents. They don't just answer questions. They read your files, edit your documents, create systems, and build things that persist after the session ends.

Every major AI company has built both. The chat interface is the one they market. The coding CLI is the one that changes how you work.

With a chat interface, you type a question, get a response, close the tab, and tomorrow you start from scratch. Every conversation is a fresh start. There's no memory of what you built yesterday. No ability to save the instructions that worked. No way to hand off what you learned to a system that keeps running without you.

A coding CLI is different. It lives on your machine. It reads your files. It edits your documents. It remembers your project context across sessions. When you build something today, it exists tomorrow. And the day after that. And the day after that.

Imagine you need to get across town every morning. A chat interface is like asking a stranger for directions each day. You get a fine answer. Maybe even a great answer. But tomorrow morning, you're asking again. A coding CLI is like building a road. The first day takes longer. But from then on, you just drive.

One approach is tool-mode: bring a task to the AI, get an answer, leave. The other is infrastructure-mode: build persistent systems that compound over time.

The entire AI industry has been selling you on something called "prompt engineering" — the art of crafting clever instructions to get better answers. And prompt engineering isn't useless. But research from some of the smartest people in AI has broken down where results actually come from:

• 15% comes from which AI model you're using
• 10% comes from the prompt — your clever instructions
• 75% comes from everything else: the context you provide, the architecture around the AI, the system design, the data, the configuration

Most AI training teaches you to optimize the 10%. The prompt. The clever question. And they ignore the 75% that actually determines whether you get real results or just impressive-sounding responses.

This program teaches the 75%.

Let me tell you how I learned this the hard way.

I was a master power user of Evernote. Loved it. Used it for everything. And then I started working seriously with AI and hit a wall almost immediately. I couldn't get my notes out of Evernote and into AI easily. I couldn't get AI's output back into Evernote easily. Every interaction required me to manually drag files in, copy results out, paste them somewhere. The tool I'd relied on for years was suddenly a bottleneck.

So I moved to Notion, hoping it would be better. And it was — a little. Notion had an integration that let AI pull files and work on them directly. But it didn't always work. Sometimes the connection failed. Sometimes files didn't sync correctly. And here's the part that really burned me: when it didn't work, I was dead in the water. There was no copy of my files on my computer. Everything lived in Notion's cloud. If the integration broke, I had nothing to work with.

I stumbled on Obsidian almost by accident. And if I'm being honest, I didn't even like it at first.

But the more I used Obsidian with AI, the more I fell in love with it.

And because those files are plain text on your computer, your coding CLI reads them directly. Your notes, your documents, your project files, your business context — the AI sees all of it, instantly, without any export, conversion, or API. Your vault IS the context.

I think one of the major reasons I'm so far ahead of most people with AI is simply that I stumbled on Obsidian early. It gave my AI long-term permanent memory before anyone else had figured that out.

A researcher named Eva Keiffenheim said we've gotten really good at capturing and organizing information. We've built beautiful digital warehouses. But we're treating these systems like warehouses when we should be treating them like forges.

Google Docs, Notion, Evernote — they're warehouses. You store information there. It sits.

Obsidian — connected to a coding CLI — is a forge. Your knowledge goes in, and the AI transforms it.

The shift is not from one note-taking app to another. It's from storing knowledge to using knowledge.

And it starts with a question most people never ask: Who is the assistant?

Think about how most people use AI right now. They open a chat interface. They need AI to work on a document, so they go find the document, drag it into the chat, wait for the response, copy the output, go put it where it belongs, come back, drag in the next file, repeat.

The AI sits in one place. The human runs all over.

The AI does the thinking. The human does the fetching, the carrying, the filing, the organizing. The human is the assistant to the AI.

Now think about how it works with a coding CLI. You sit at your computer. You tell the AI what you need. The AI goes and grabs the files. It reads them. It works on them. It creates new files, organizes them, puts them where they belong, and tells you when it's done. You bark the orders. The AI does the running.

That's not a small difference. That's a complete inversion of the relationship. In one mode, you serve the AI. In the other, the AI serves you.

Picture two people. Both are using AI. Both are smart. Both work hard.

Person A asks AI for answers. Each interaction is independent. Nothing carries forward. Every day starts from zero.

Person B builds a system that answers. Each session builds on the last. The system gets smarter every time they use it.

Person A's output is linear. Double the time, double the output. Stop working, output stops.

Person B's output compounds. The hundredth session is ten times faster than the first, because the system already knows everything.

Here's a real example. A guy named Alex McFarland spent about an hour building context profiles for his AI system. Then he rebranded his entire business in two days. Fifteen-plus pieces of professional content. Not because he wrote better prompts. Because he built a system that already knew him.

One hour of building replaced weeks of asking for answers.

The 88% are asking for answers. The 6% have built systems that answer.

This program teaches you to build the system.

What This Means for You

I built this system myself. I use it every day. The AI tools you're about to set up are the same ones running in my business right now. This is not theory I read in a book and decided to teach. It's infrastructure I built, tested, broke, rebuilt, and now rely on.

I'm not going to pretend the setup is effortless. There's a learning curve. You'll hit moments where you're frustrated. Here's what I've learned about those moments: you cannot learn unless you push through them. The frustration IS the learning.

A study of 667 people found that working effectively with AI is a separate skill from being good at your job. Years of experience, advanced degrees, deep expertise — none of it predicted who would get the best results from AI.

The difference was not intelligence. It was not domain expertise. It was the skill of building systems that let AI work with what you know.

That's the skill this program teaches.

What Happens Next

Part 2 is where you set up Claude Code on your computer. It's a step-by-step walkthrough — no guesswork, no assumptions about what you already know.

You don't need to be technical. You don't need to have used a terminal before. You don't need any programming experience. If you can follow instructions on a screen, you can do this.

Part 2 is the setup. But Part 1 — what you just read — is why the setup matters. The road, not the directions. The forge, not the warehouse. The system, not the answer.

Obsidian is where everything you build with Claude will live.

Remember the mental model from Part 1 — plain files on YOUR computer, not someone else's cloud. Every document, every plan, every piece of research Claude creates for you will be a file sitting in a folder on your machine. Obsidian is the app that makes those files easy to read, navigate, and organize.

We're not doing anything complicated today. We're just getting Obsidian installed, creating your workspace, and proving that it connects to Claude Code.

What is a Vault?

A vault is just a folder on your computer. That's it. Obsidian looks at that folder and shows you the files inside as notes. If Obsidian disappeared tomorrow, your files would still be right there in that folder. They're yours.

Step 1: Download Obsidian

Open your web browser and go to: obsidian.md/download

Obsidian download page

Step 2: Install Obsidian

Obsidian welcome screen

Step 3: Create Your Program Vault

Click "Create new vault." You'll see fields for a vault name and location. Read everything below before you click Create.

Vault name: Something simple — AI-Training, your program name, or whatever makes sense.

Before you choose a location: Do NOT put your vault in any folder that syncs to iCloud, OneDrive, or Dropbox. Cloud sync can corrupt files that Claude creates. That's why we recommend your home folder (Mac) or C:\ (Windows) — these don't sync by default.

Location — THIS PART MATTERS:

Already use Obsidian? Create a SEPARATE vault for this program. Don't mix program files with personal notes.

After you've found the right location, click Create.

Create vault dialog

Step 4: What You're Looking At

Obsidian main interface

Left sidebar: Your file list. Every note shows up here.

Main area: Where you read and write notes. That's all you need to know right now.

Step 5: Create Your First Note

1. Click the New note icon (document with a plus sign), or press Cmd + N (Mac) / Ctrl + N (Windows)
2. Type a title: Hello
3. Type below it: This is my first note in my AI training vault.
4. It saves automatically.

Your first note

Step 6: Find Your Vault Folder

Let's prove that file is real — find it outside Obsidian.

Your vault is just a folder with text files

No database, no proprietary format, no cloud service. Just a folder with text files.

Step 7: The Claude Code Connection

This is where Parts 2 and 3 come together. Navigate to your vault in the terminal:

cd ~/AI-Training

cd ~\AI-Training

Start Claude Code:

claude

Ask Claude to create a note:

Create a note called "Claude Was Here.md" with the message "Your AI assistant is connected and ready to work."

Switch back to Obsidian. You should see "Claude Was Here" in your sidebar.

Claude creates files. You see them in Obsidian. This is how the system works.

Step 8: What is Markdown?

Markdown is a simple way to format text. Use # for headings, ** for bold, - for bullets. You don't need to learn it now. Claude writes in Markdown, and Obsidian displays it beautifully.

Step 9: What NOT to Worry About

• Plugins — We'll add those in Part 4.
• Themes — Cosmetic. Not important now.
• Graph view — Cool but not relevant yet.
• Tags, links, backlinks — Program content.
• Obsidian Sync — Not needed for this.
• Settings — Leave at defaults.

Right now you have two separate tools: Claude Code in your terminal and Obsidian as its own app. That works, but it means switching back and forth between windows constantly.

Before: two separate windows

In this guide, you're going to put Claude Code inside Obsidian. Notes on the left, Claude Code terminals on the right — all in one window.

In this guide, you're going to put Claude Code inside Obsidian — so you can run Claude Code terminals right from your vault.

After: everything in one window

How This Works (30-Second Version)

1

Enable Community Plugins in Obsidian

▶

Obsidian ships in "safe mode" that blocks third-party plugins. Turn it off:

1. Open Obsidian with your vault from Part 3
2. Click the gear icon (bottom-left) to open Settings

Gear icon in the bottom-left

3. Click Community plugins in the left sidebar

Settings sidebar

4. Click Turn on community plugins

Enable community plugins

You should now see a Browse button.

Browse button visible

Install the Obsidian plugin "Terminal" by Quorafind (also called O-Terminal) in my vault. Download the latest release files from https://github.com/Quorafind/O-Terminal/releases — I need main.js, styles.css, and manifest.json placed in my vault's .obsidian/plugins/o-terminal/ folder. Create the folder if it doesn't exist. Then enable it.

4

Start Claude Code in the Terminal PanelVerify Claude Code Is Working in Obsidian

▶

In the terminal panel, type:

claude

Copy

Claude Code inside Obsidian

Now test it:

Create a file called integration-test.md with the text "Claude Code is running inside Obsidian. The integration works."

Copy

Claude asks permission to create the file

File appears in sidebar instantly

File open with Claude's text

Click the orange Claude logo on the left sidebar to open a Claude panel inside Obsidian. Then type:

hello

Copy

If Claude says hi back, you're good to go. That's it — Claude Code is running inside Obsidian.

5

Add More Terminal Panels

▶

Open another terminal via Command Palette or the Claude logo icon.

Second terminal tab

Option A: Stacked vertically — Drag the tab toward the bottom edge of the existing panel.

Drag toward bottom edge

Two panels stacked vertically

Three panels stacked

Option B: Side by side — Drag toward the right edge instead.

Side by side layout

Tip: Resize panels by hovering over the border between them.

Resize handle between panels

6

Arrange Your Workspace

▶

Goal: notes on the left, terminal panels on the right. Obsidian remembers your layout automatically.

Workspace taking shape

Final workspace layout

7

The "It's All Connected" Moment

▶

Open a note on the left, then type in a terminal on the right:

Read the file integration-test.md and add a second paragraph that says what today's date is

Copy

Note open on the left

Claude processing the instruction

Note updates in real time

8

Set Up Your System Folders

▶

In a Claude Code terminal panel, type:

Create a folder called "00 System" in my vault root with a subfolder called "logs" inside it.

Copy

Creating the 00 System folder

9

What NOT to Worry About

▶

• MCP server settings — Advanced. Not now.
• HTTP/WebSocket configuration — Technical plumbing. Not now.
• Port numbers — Only for multiple vaults simultaneously.
• Claude Desktop integration — Different tool. Not now.

All that matters: Can you type claude in a terminal panel inside Obsidian and get a response?

Troubleshooting

!

"No terminal option in Command Palette"

▶

Go to Settings > Community plugins. Make sure Terminal is toggled on. If it's not in the list, re-run the install step from the Claude desktop app.

!

"Can't drag panels to rearrange"

▶

Click and hold on the tab name, not the content area. Drag slowly and watch for the blue highlight.

Click the tab name to drag

cd ~/AI-Training
claude

cd ~\AI-Training
claude

Your program materials — skills, resources, and everything you'll need for the rest of this package — live in a shared content server. You'll connect Claude Code to it using a personal key we sent you by email.

Step A: Find Your API Key

Check the email you received from Strategic Profits when you enrolled. It contains a personal key that starts with sk_sp_.

Copy it. You'll need it in a moment.

Don't have a key? Go to sp.strategicprofits.com/mcp/access and enter the email address you enrolled with. Your key will be sent to your inbox.

Step B: Open a Terminal

Important: This command runs in a regular terminal window — NOT inside the Claude Code conversation.

Step C: Run This Command

Replace YOUR_API_KEY_HERE with the key from your email:

claude mcp add --transport http --header "Authorization: Bearer YOUR_API_KEY_HERE" --scope user sp-shared https://mcp.strategicprofits.com/mcp

Paste it into your terminal and press Enter. You should see a confirmation message.

Step D: Restart Claude Code

The connection only loads when Claude Code starts up. Type /exit to close it, then type claude to start fresh.

Step E: Verify It's Working

In your Claude Code session, type:

Tell me my sp-shared status

You should see your name, email, and a list of available content. That means you're connected.

If you see an error: double-check that you copied your API key correctly in Step C and that you restarted Claude Code in Step D. If it still doesn't work, email mail@strategicprofits.com.

Step F: Download Your Materials

Type this into Claude Code:

Sync my shared content

This downloads your program skills and resources directly into Claude Code. Everything you need for Parts 5–7 comes through here.

You can run this command again any time to check for updates.

This is where Claude gets to know you. Not the surface-level stuff — the real picture of your business, how you work, what you're responsible for, and where AI can make the biggest difference.

Claude will have a conversation with you. Not a form. Not a questionnaire. An actual back-and-forth conversation where it asks smart follow-up questions based on your answers.

What Happens During the Interview

Claude will cover nine areas, roughly in this order:

1. Identity — Your name, business name, what you do
2. Responsibilities — What you're actually responsible for day-to-day (this one matters most)
3. Tools — What software and systems you currently use
4. Team — Who you work with, who reports to you
5. Documents — What types of documents you work with regularly
6. Pain Points — Where you waste time, what frustrates you
7. Communication — How you prefer to work with AI (tone, detail level, etc.)
8. Goals — What you want to get out of this program
9. Future Vision — Where you see your business going with AI

The more specific and honest you are, the better your system will be. Claude uses your answers to design your vault structure, write your CLAUDE.md configuration, and prepare your client dossier for the Strategic Profits team.

How to Run It

Open a Claude Code terminal panel inside Obsidian (from Part 4) and type:

Claude will start the conversation. Just answer naturally. Take your time. If you need to step away, Claude saves progress after each section — you can pick up where you left off.

What Gets Created

• 00 System/CLIENT-PROFILE.md — Your complete profile, organized by category
• 00 System/logs/_interview-progress.md — Auto-saved progress (in case you need to resume)

Tips

• Be specific about your responsibilities — not "marketing" but "I write all email sequences, manage our Facebook ads, and review landing page copy before it goes live"
• Don't worry about being polished. Claude works better with real, messy, honest answers than with carefully crafted ones.
• If Claude asks something you don't have a good answer for, say so. "I don't know yet" is a perfectly valid answer.

Now that Claude knows who you are and what you do, it's time to bring your existing documents into the system. Claude will help you find important files on your computer, convert them to Markdown, and organize them into a vault structure designed around your role and responsibilities.

What Happens During File Discovery

1. Vault Structure — Claude proposes numbered folders (02+) based on your profile, asks you to approve or adjust
2. Guided Search — Claude scans your common document locations (Desktop, Documents, Downloads) for relevant files
3. Conversion — Found files get converted to Markdown and placed in the right folders
4. Review — Claude shows you each converted file so you can check it looks right before moving on
5. Cloud Files — Claude gives you instructions for downloading files from Google Drive, OneDrive, etc.
6. Completion Report — Summary of everything that was brought in

How to Run It

Claude will walk you through each step. It scans your file system (with your permission), shows you what it found, and asks before moving or converting anything.

What Gets Created

• Custom folders (02, 03, 04...) — Based on your ranked responsibilities
• Converted documents — Your existing files, now in Markdown format inside your vault
• 00 System/VAULT-SUMMARY.md — Complete report of what was converted and where it went
• 00 System/CLAUDE.md — Your personal AI configuration file. This is the file Claude reads at the start of every session so it already knows who you are, what you do, and how you like to work. That's all you need to know for now — we'll go deep on this in the program.
• Pointer file at vault root — A small CLAUDE.md at the top level that points to the full one in 00 System. This way Claude can find your configuration no matter which folder you start in.

Tips

• You don't need to find every file today. Focus on the ones you use regularly.
• Claude can resume where it left off — progress is saved after each responsibility area.
• If you have files in cloud services, Claude will give you download instructions rather than accessing them directly.

Claude has now built a client dossier — a summary of your entire setup, your business context, your vault structure, and what was accomplished during the grounding process. This dossier gets sent to the Strategic Profits team so they know exactly who you are and where you stand before the program starts.

What the Dossier Contains

• Your business profile summary (from the interview)
• Your responsibilities and pain points
• Your vault structure and what documents were organized
• Your CLAUDE.md configuration
• Your goals for the program
• Technical setup status (what tools are installed, what's working)

How to Review It

If the dossier wasn't already generated at the end of Part 6, run this:

Claude will create the dossier and show you its contents. Read through it. If anything is wrong or missing, tell Claude and it will update the dossier.

When you're satisfied, tell Claude to send it:

How you'll know it worked: Claude will confirm the dossier was sent and show you a summary of what was delivered. If you want extra confirmation, email [email protected] and ask them to confirm receipt.

What Happens Next

The Strategic Profits team will review your dossier before the program starts. They'll know your business, your setup, your goals, and your current state. When you walk in (or log in) on Day 1, the team already knows who you are.

ZenithMind Elite members only. If you have ZenithMind OS or ZenithMind Plus, skip this page — your program needs no additional connection. Go straight to Part 6: Start ZenithMind →

Your additional skills and resources live in a shared content server. Connect Claude Code to it using the personal key we sent you by email.

Step A: Find Your API Key

Check the email you received from Strategic Profits when you enrolled. It contains a personal key that starts with sk_sp_.

Copy it. You'll need it in a moment.

Don't have a key? Go to sp.strategicprofits.com/mcp/access and enter the email you enrolled with. Your key will be sent to your inbox.

Step B: Open a Terminal

Important: This command runs in a regular terminal window — NOT inside the Claude Code conversation.

Step C: Run This Command

Replace YOUR_API_KEY_HERE with the key from your email:

claude mcp add --transport http --header "Authorization: Bearer YOUR_API_KEY_HERE" --scope user sp-shared https://mcp.strategicprofits.com/mcp

Paste it into your terminal and press Enter. You should see a confirmation message.

Step D: Restart Claude Code

The connection only loads when Claude Code starts up. Type /exit to close it, then type claude to start fresh.

Step E: Verify It's Working

In your Claude Code session, type:

Tell me my sp-shared status

You should see your name, email, and a list of available content. That means you're connected.

If you see an error: double-check that you copied your API key correctly in Step C and that you restarted Claude Code in Step D. If it still doesn't work, email mail@strategicprofits.com.

Step F: Download Your Materials

Type this into Claude Code:

Sync my shared content

This downloads your ZenithMind skills and resources directly into Claude Code. You can run this command again any time to check for updates.

You've got Claude Code and Obsidian installed and connected. Now it's time to download your ZenithMind folder and let Claude set everything up for you.

Pick Up Your ZenithMind Folder

Your First Session

How the System Works

The Portal + Claude Flow

ZenithMind OS is 62 exercises across 4 modules. Here's the rhythm:

1. Watch Rich's video on the ZenithMind portal
2. Do the exercises with Claude — Claude asks the questions, saves your answers, and generates reports that reveal patterns you can't see on your own
3. Watch the next video and repeat

Your folder is Claude's memory. Everything saves automatically. You don't need to manage files, organize notes, or keep track of where you left off.

Mirror Score

After each exercise, Claude generates a Mirror Score — a measure of how deeply the AI understands you based on your answers. It starts low and climbs as you complete more exercises. Think of it as a calibration metric: the higher the score, the more accurately Claude can think and write like you.

Sessions Pick Up Automatically

When you come back tomorrow or next week, open Claude Code — either from the Obsidian terminal panel or the Code tab in the Claude app — and type Let's continue. Claude reads your progress file and picks up exactly where you left off.

Troubleshooting

To access these skills, you must first complete Part 5: Program Materials. That step connects Claude Code to the SP shared content server and downloads your upgrade skills.

ZenithMind Plus includes everything in OS, plus 8 professional positioning skills that turn your Scorecard data into the assets every expert needs — your unique genius statement, your complete story kit, documents that sound like you at your best, situation-specific game plans, authority that lands in any room, a strategic relationship map, narrative control over how your field sees you, and an online presence that actually works as hard as you do.

How to Get Your Plus Skills

Go to zenithpro.io and click the “ZenithMind Plus” card:

Click this card on zenithpro.io to access your Plus download

Download the Plus skills zip and drop it into your ZenithMind folder. When you’re ready to use a skill, just tell Claude which one to run — it reads your Scorecard and Signature Profile automatically.

Note: The upgrade skills analyze data from your ZenithMind OS exercises, so they’ll be most powerful after you’ve completed the base program. But you can download everything now so it’s ready to go.

To access these skills, you must first complete Part 5: Program Materials. That step connects Claude Code to the SP shared content server and downloads your upgrade skills.

Everything in OS and Plus, plus the complete business operating system. Not a course — deployed tools that let one person research, position, create, and sell at a level that used to require a team. Each tool below is a full description of what it does and why it matters.

Profile-Powered Skills

These read directly from your ZenithMind Scorecard and Lesson 4 outputs. They turn your profile data into business assets.

IP & Expertise Tools

Extract, name, and package the expertise you’ve been building for years into assets that appreciate every time you deploy them.

Research & Strategy

Make better decisions faster. These tools replace hours of manual research and guesswork with systematic analysis.

Copy & Conversion Engines

The same competitive systems Rich uses before every major launch — now running in minutes instead of weeks.

How to Get Your Elite Tools

Go to zenithpro.io and click the “ZenithMind Elite” card:

Click this card on zenithpro.io to access your Elite download

Download the Elite package and drop it into your ZenithMind folder. All upgrade skills and business tools are included — just tell Claude what you need.

Note: The profile-powered skills analyze data from your ZenithMind OS exercises, so they’ll be most powerful after you’ve gone through the base program. The business tools (Arena, Deep Research, Framework Forge, etc.) work anytime. Download everything now so it’s ready when you are.