How exactly do you find clients as a consultant? I'm facing a similar issue now, and the networks I used to rely on for clients have all gone downhill recently.
Because of that my pay varies pretty dramatically. Something always seems to come in at the right time, but I still haven't figured out how to reliably find clients, despite how many companies are looking for people out there (I'm an AI expert and lots of companies are interested in my work but they are very hard to find).