High Powered Blender: Add liquids/soft ingredients first, then ice, and blend.
Ninja: Add ice first, then rest of ingredients on top. Do crush function first to crush ice. Scrape sides with spatula, then blend.
Both: You will likely need to scrape the sides with a spatula a couple times.
Notes
*So I’ve discovered ice cube size can vary! These are made with ice-cube trays purchased online. If you make your smoothie and it seems too watery/liquidy and not thick like the photo or the video tutorials don’t worry, you aren’t crazy! Your ice-cubes are just smaller. Either add more ice-cubes or buy some trays online to use. The point is your smoothie should be kind of hard to blend- that’s how thick it should be.