Referrals, Relationships, and Rocking the Ninja Nine On this episode of The Ninja Selling Podcast, Garrett and Matt are back with a great topic—the common trap of getting distracted by shiny new ideas and neglecting the Ninja basics. It’s really easy to get excited by the prospect of adding in extras like videos or newsletters (or podcasts!), but we need to take care of our fundamentals first, those basic things like engaging with people, doing real estate reviews, and taking lunches. Social media is particularly distracting, but it doesn’t add value the way personal engagement does because it doesn’t generate referrals. Most people find their realtors via word of mouth, so it’s essential to stay in flow with your sphere of influence and maximize that referral pipeline. As Garrett and Matt point out, people can fear engaging one-to-one, which can lead to them getting distracted and pursuing things that seem more fun. But if you want to get results, our hosts recommend focusing on Ninja first because the statistics show that the top ninjas across the country are running those systems close to 100%. Plus, a willingness to pick up the phone and talk to someone, as the system recommends, will set you apart from others, allowing you to build relationships and get referrals and repeat business. It’s also worth noting that this is a really low-cost business approach—the phone is free, handwritten notes cost almost nothing to send, and hey, you’re eating lunch anyway, so you might as well use it as an opportunity to engage! And by engaging, you open up the potential for exponential growth as your good relationships result in new relationships. So remember, rock the Ninja Nine, and then you can rock everything else you want to on top of that. Are you running the Ninja system 100%? Matt and Garrett want to hear how it’s working for you. Post the details on the Ninja Selling Podcast group on Facebook at Ninja Selling Podcast Facebook. You can also leave a voicemail with your direct feedback at 208 MY-NINJA. And visit Ninja Selling Events for more information about upcoming open installations. Or, if you’re interested in taking your goals a step further, visit Ninja Coaching to check out all of our top-notch coaches.     Episode Highlights: Fulfilling the Ninja basics first Staying in flow with your sphere of influence Why the Ninja system works Unlocking the power of referrals Running a strong relationship business with low costs     Quotes: “I always find it fascinating when they’re like, I think I want to start doing videos and writing a newsletter. And I’m like, great, I really want to support you in that. But first, can we just figure out how to talk to fifty people per week? And then we can take a look? And how are your notes doing? How are your lunches doing? Are you doing real estate reviews? Like, what if you just did all of this stuff really well before we added in something else?” “Like, okay, I’m gonna go devote my time to [social media] when I’m not yet capitalizing on how I can capture people who already know me and can refer me when it’s overwhelmingly the way people find their realtor? So don’t we want to be present in the areas and spaces where people actually find their realtor? That’s the Ninja Nine.” “When we get to this time of year, we get to review people’s performance over the past year, we get a look at how people are building their business plans. The top ninjas everywhere across the country are running these systems close to 100%.” “When you really unlock the power of Ninja, what we’ll watch is the referral business will double. The actual people coming in, using you directly, who never used you before, added in with your people that are coming back and using you again, add those two together, and that will literally double that. And that’s what the potential of the referral side can be if you unlock it.” “Every single person that enters your world around real estate, if you set the bar at a very high point w