How to Build a Referral Engine That Produces Consistent Leads
The system Justin Vajko uses to generate 5 to 10 referrals per month, and how you can do the same.
Most solos and agency owners get referrals the same way. They get lucky: randomly, infrequently, and with no idea how to repeat it.
Justin Vajko runs a small video production agency. He went from one referral per quarter to five to ten per month. That shift didn’t come from a better pitch or a bigger network. It came from solving a specific problem most solos never name.
He walked our 10x Solo community through his system last week. Here’s how it works.
The Confidence Gap
If you’re doing good work and still not getting referrals, the most common reason is that people don’t have enough confidence to put their name behind you.
Think about how referrals actually happen. Someone in your network gets asked, “Do you know a good [whatever you do]?” For them to refer you, they have to feel confident you’ll do a good job for their contact. That confidence comes from direct experience with your work.
That’s why past clients and former colleagues refer you without being asked. They’ve seen the work. Everyone else is guessing. And most people won’t risk their own reputation on a guess, even if they like you.
Justin had a contact he’d known for three years. Good guy, clearly competent, they stayed in touch. When that contact asked Justin for a warm intro to someone who needed websites, Justin couldn’t do it. He said: I know you’re a good person, but I have no idea what your work is like. Send me a short video walking through a client project, and once I’ve seen it, I’ll be happy to refer you.
That’s the gap. The system exists to close it, at scale, before anyone asks.
Start with the Right Target: Your IRPP
The first mistake most solos make with referrals is targeting clients instead of partners. Justin’s system is built entirely around what he calls the Ideal Referral Partner Profile, or IRPP: people who serve the same buyers you do, but aren’t competing with you.
Think about who is one step upstream of your client’s decision. Who is already in the room when your ideal client realizes they have the problem you solve? That person is your referral partner.
I’ve found this to be true in my own business with fractional CFOs. They come into early-stage companies, look at the numbers, and tell the founder they’re underinvesting in sales and marketing. The founder doesn’t know where to start. The CFO sends them to me. That works because the CFO is already trusted, already in the conversation, and already pointing toward a need I fill.
Your IRPP should be specific: job title, company type, industry. The goal is to get precise enough that you could hand this list to someone and have them find these people for you on LinkedIn.
Step 1: Outreach
Once you have your IRPP, you need to find these people and start conversations with them. Justin does this on LinkedIn. The opening message is simple:
“[Customization]. Looks like we serve a similar audience. Worth a chat?”
That’s it. Cold, it gets a 20-40% response rate. Warm, it runs closer to 90%. Most people aren’t looking to ignore a reasonable networking request. Keep it short, make the connection obvious, and let them say yes.
Step 2: The Networking Call and What You Do at the End
The call itself is a standard networking conversation. You get to know each other, identify common ground, and determine if there’s something worth exploring.
What makes the system work is what happens before you hang up.
Most people end networking calls with “let’s stay in touch” and a vague intention to follow up. But that’s how you end up with a pile of forgotten contacts. Justin does it differently.
At the end of the networking call, Justin makes a specific offer. He offers a free 30-minute video session that produces one edited short-form video. The purpose isn’t to sell anything. It’s to give the partner a direct experience of his work so they can refer him with confidence when the time comes. He gets a yes 90-95% of the time. He books it before they disconnect.
The principle matters more than the specific offer. Whatever you give (more on that below), make the offer on the call and schedule it before you hang up.
Step 3: The Give
This is where most people get stuck: what do you actually offer?
Justin’s version works because his output is tangible and fast. A 30-minute session produces an edited video that the partner can use. That’s easy to say yes to. But not every service maps cleanly to a 30-minute deliverable.
The test is: can you extract a slice of your normal work and deliver it in 15 to 30 minutes? Something repeatable, not exhausting, that lets the partner experience how you think and work. After the workshop, Justin shared a list of options for people who don’t have a productized offer:
A pain point consultation, either for the partner or for one of their clients. A simple version of your standard discovery call. You’re not selling anything, you’re just diagnosing.
An audit of something narrow: a homepage, a campaign, a process. Something with a clear scope and a useful output.
A case study exchange. Each of you gets 15 minutes to walk through a client situation. You see how each other works. That builds confidence fast.
An invitation to a future webinar where they can see you in action without any commitment.
If you host a podcast, an invitation to be a guest. An hour of conversation on record will do more for your referral relationship than five networking calls.
A LinkedIn Live. Invite them to co-host or appear on one with you.
A roundtable series with other peers. Create a recurring one and invite them. Repeatable, low effort per person, and it builds community around you at the same time.
The format is less important than the principle: give them something that makes them feel what it’s like to work with you. That’s what closes the confidence gap.
Step 4: After the Give
Once you’ve delivered the session or the work, the system continues.
Send the output. If they post it or use it, publicly support them. If it makes sense, create behind-the-scenes content from the experience (with their permission). Justin posts Monday content from his video sessions that also serves as network-building material for his own audience.
One caveat Justin was clear about: the leads don’t come from the content itself. They come from the referrals those partners send after experiencing his work firsthand. The content is a side effect, not the engine.
Then stay in touch over time. Justin sends a Friday email to his network. It doesn’t have to be complicated. The point is that you don’t disappear after the give. Referrals happen at unpredictable moments. You want to be in the conversation when those moments arrive.
Justin noted this is one of the weaker parts of his own system. Staying visible beyond email is something he’s still working on. The point isn’t that this part is easy. It’s that it matters, and most people don’t do it at all.
The Time Math and the Timeline
The system takes about three to four hours per week. Two to five networking calls at 30 minutes each, and two to three free sessions at 30 minutes each.
That sounds like a lot until you compare it to the alternatives: tinkering with your website, experimenting with ads, building tools nobody asked for. Justin’s argument is that he’s been building a network while most people have been distracted. He now has over a hundred people who know him, have experienced his work, and are willing to refer him.
The timeline follows a pattern he calls two weeks, two months, two years. Some referrals come back quickly. Most take months. Some take years. He had a sales call last week, introduced by someone he had spoken with three years ago.
Not everyone you run through this system will send you referrals. That’s fine. A small number of partners will send you a disproportionate number of leads. The system builds the surface area so those relationships have a chance to develop.
Putting It Together
The system has four active components:
Outreach to ideal referral partners.
A networking call with an offer made before you hang up.
A free gift that creates a direct experience of your work.
Consistent follow-up over time.
Each component addresses a specific failure mode:
Outreach improves your network connections.
The offer and scheduling address the missed contact problem.
The gift builds confidence.
The follow-up ensures you stay visible until a referral opportunity arises.
None of it is complicated. Most of it is uncomfortable only because it requires consistency. That’s also why most people don’t do it, and why it works for the ones who do.
Best,
Garrett
P.S. If you want to see how other solos are solving problems like this one, apply to join 10x Solo. We do workshops like this every week, where members and experts like Justin share their systems that actually work.
Have questions? Ask me in a comment below.