Getting started is a lot of hard work. The 25% work, 75% marketing actually does sound about right. Also within marketing is your presentation - and you are always presenting - all the time. Here is an analogy.
My son works for a small computer based company as a system administrator. One of the owners wanted a script to automate a function. After getting it working the gentleman was talking with him about it. My son told him that it saved 8 minutes of sys admin time per server. The owner replied - well for 8 minutes why did we even bother. Actually it was 8 minutes per server across 3,500 servers, and it was a launch and forget, not having to have a sys admin babysit the operation. Essentially a 100% savings of sys admin time, saving 466 hours operator time - every time the script needed to be run. A cost reduction of $10K. That made an impact - from worth nothing - to better than sliced bread.
You have to put your presentation - with in a context that the customer will both understand and appreciate.
You want to find things that have occurred in your favor, and present them in a favorable context and light - that can be verified, without fabrication. What was the reception of your work at the local art shows. Did they give any awards for the booths or anything? That could be interpreted as "award winning" - but you need to be careful. Don't overstate - but understating hurts you also. You need to find both a good and reasonable way to present your work to date to potential clients.
The other person may have interpreted his working in Canada and getting excellent customer reviews to be "internationally renown". I don't know.
You can also join the NPPA. Any photographer is capable to taking newsworthy images. Perhaps the local newspaper is in need of images from time to time.
Marketing is a tough business....
I went to your website - the ladybug image. Really very nice!!! There has to be a university near by. Go over to their Biology department and see if someone is writing a scientific paper for publication, that may need some images. It might be worth giving a few images away (perhaps custom shooting), for partial credit - "photography by----", in the published paper. That way you can say that you contributed to an academic scientific paper published in ---- (even better if its peer reviewed). Perhaps one of the professors/instructors is in the process of publishing a text book or their custom set of notes for a class. All of those are worthy. You have to start somewhere. Just one step, then take the other foot and put that one out and keep going. Sit down and determine what you can do, that will set you and your work up for cited accomplishments. You have to think out of the box here. You need to create some opportunities for yourself. The key is then to present them in a context that is positive to you and your work.