Upwork is terrible. All of my work comes through personal contacts and relationships. IMO you've got to find a way to grow your network, be that meetups, events

Upwork is terrible. All of my work comes through personal contacts and relationships. IMO you've got to find a way to grow your network, be that meetups, events, etc. Get creative. It sounds like you have a lot of skill in your domain, maybe you could do a lecture somewhere and meet people that way. Relationships have a tendency of naturally generating work.