I have a few well regarded providers who I've seen before, who like me enough well enough and who have known me long enough, that I know they'll give me references if I ask them to (one actually gave me an unsolicited reference to a lady who'd asked about me backchannel that greased some skids, though sadly that wound up going south due solely to my own fault) no matter how long it's been since I've seen them, so I've never been really worried about that. I also have a lifetime P411 account with close to 40 provider OKs, so that's helped, too. Often ladies who otherwise require references haven't asked me for them when they take a look at my P411 profile (then again, they may be just contacting some of the providers who've given me OKs without telling me; I know that's happened on at least two occasions).
And, as hard as it may be to believe based on some of my behavior here, I've had several well regarded providers tell me (when I've inquired about seeing them) that they'd see me without additional screening based solely on my review history and participation in discussions here. So sometimes notoriety isn't a bad thing.
However, I've been here for a number of years, and I've blathered on the forums for pretty much all of those years (though I have taken a few relatively long hiatuses), which is why I'm somewhat notorious. That may not necessarily work for you.
Good luck!
Cheers,
bcg