You need to network.

Unfortunately, networking means talking to a lot of people not like you, and giving a lot of yourself freely, which to a maker feels like both exploitation and a water of time.

Gotta kiss 99 frogs, and suddenly, frog number 18 called a friend and said friend turns into frog 100 that's actually a match.

This is fundamentally alien to makers, and wish I had been able to learn this in my 20s or 30s, but I honestly don't know how I could have been receptive at the time. (Now I'm receptive, just not very good at it.)