Hello and welcome to The Think Big Network!
I’m Mia DeBolt, Founder of The Think Big Network™ where we help entrepreneurs and business owners to think bigger and build successful businesses online by generating more leads and sales through social media and online marketing strategies.
The beauty about an online business is that it brings people from all different backgrounds and locations around the world together.
Allow me to share a bit about my background…
I grew up as a Korean adoptee in California. Being one of the few asians in a community of caucasians didn’t bode well for my self-esteem as I didn’t fit into either category, the asian population or caucasians.
Being Korean, I was expected by the asian population (all 2 or 3 of them in my hometown) to know my language and culture. Of which I did not.
And on the flip side growing up with Caucasian parents, I did not look Caucasian so fitting in with Caucasian kids wasn’t as easy either… it also didn’t help that I was plagued with extreme shyness all through my childhood.
Despite my deep shyness, I excelled at school, took multiple opportunities to shine as a leader so that I could go to a good school since I was always told,
- get good grades
- go to college
- get a good job.
With hard work and focus, I was did just that and got accepted to Engineering school at UCLA.
2 out of 3… off to a good start.
Two weeks into my Freshman year at UCLA, I decided I wanted to get an Navy ROTC (Reserve Officer Training Corps) Scholarship to help my parents out with the college finances.
When I told them, instead of being thrilled… I heard silence at the other end of the phone… and finally, “What were you thinking?”
Needless to say, my parents quickly found the value in my decision.
So after I graduated from UCLA, was sent to Pensacola, FL where I was determined to be a Naval Pilot.
The Navy was paying me a decent salary the second I graduated.
3 of 3 pieces of advice… check, check, check
Shortly after graduating I receive my order to Pensacola, so I drove myself across the U.S. from LA to Florida in my red Mazda Protege packed full of my belongings where I was told that I couldn’t be a pilot because I was too petite.
As devastating as this was, I decided that I’d take the next best option and become a navigator which afforded me the lifestyle of aviation.
The Executive Officer basically told me I had my pick of orders and that I had written my Golden Ticket to the fast track to being on the path of a prestigous Officer (think stars in my future).
I chose family and lifestyle over my career in the Navy. I excelled in the Navy working my way up from new Navigator to the lead Tactical Coordinator and head Navigator in my squadron.
It was at my squadron that I met my soon-to-be husband JT, who at the time was a pilot in the squadron (yes we flew together… and it was oh-so romantic being in a crew of 12 sweaty people flying 12 hour missions…not quite the Maverick and Goose image).
I had excelled in our squadron and JT and my relationship blossomed. We’d started a family and another life-changing event happened.
I had taken the red pill.
Let me explain. You know the movie The Matrix with Keanu Reeves? Keanu’s character had a choice, to live the way he’d been living (the blue pill), or to “wake up” and see the world for what it is (red pill).
While at my squadron, I had met a Petty Officer on watch who was reading an interesting book. I inquired about it and he started talking about a network marketing opportunity and then asking about me and my investment portfolio.
What struck me wasn’t his buy in for what I was saying (because it wasn’t earth shattering having invested for a couple of years as an employee of the Navy), but his look after what I said what I said.
He litterally said, “huh” and went back to reading his book.
I went home and ordered the book off of Amazon.
The book was Rich Dad Poor Dad by Robert Kiyosaki.
If you’ve read it, and I do recommend it to anyone who hasn’t, it shares two schools of thought… the one that I was raised with, the “get good grades, go to college and get a good job” and the investment/business owner world.
I no longer wanted what my parents had achieved for themselves and wanted for me.
I wanted to be an investor and I knew the best way to do that was to first be a business owner.
Once I got JT onboard, even if it was through an ultamatum of “I won’t marry you until you read this book”, we set out to find a way to transistion out of the Navy.
So we did what any self-respecting young person with a good paying job, double income, and some pennies to scratch together…
We “invested” in real estate.
We were all in… bought a house in San Diego, CA at the top of our spending limit in 2005 (NOT great market timing) and then proceeded to refinance that house (with a stiff $11K prepayment penalty) in order to buy our first “investment” home in Idaho.
Needless to say, things went south quickly when I got out of the Navy in 2007 and we were down to one full-time income.
By then, I had found my first pyramid scheme (literally shut down by the SEC weeks after joining), several direct sales business, and our first network marketing business.
Moving from company to company, we found great people, some success in building a team, lots of lessons learned and relearned, and some not-so great people.
And it was because of the not-so great people that I had become jaded about the industry. We literally had people spy on us, slander us, among other things.
It was the ultimate slap in the face… all while fighting the economy to keep our houses, our cars, and our dignity.
We eventually lost it all.
Tired and jaded, I turned my back on the industry that had once given me the hope of my family and all my dreams coming true.
In the meantime, JT and I struggled to build businesses outside of the industry.
I tried working to build someone else’s business, but fell to the wayside behind the entrepreneur’s kids and family stepping in.
I had a decent SEO business that was destined to stay small because of my mindset at the time and lack of business skills.
We struggled for a good six years in a place we hated living, smiling fake smiles at family and friends telling them everything was going “great” for us… and really trying to rebuild ourselves.
I personally thought becoming a Real Estate Agent would be a good idea. Tried it for a year, worked with a family member closely and figured out that it wasn’t the profession I wanted to hang my hat on.
THAT was a fun exit… getting told I was a “liar” and pointed fingers at JT because he was “taking me away” from his business. It was more than I would’ve ever expected from this individual.
But yet, through it all, I perservered.
And now, if you’ve stuck with me, you’ll know that the story gets better. It actually gets really good.
My faith in the industry of network marketing and affiliate marketing has been renewed. I’ve met people who not only have integrity, they act on it every single day.
The journey to get here, to this moment in time has brought me many gifts. One of which is the ability to trust my gut. Another is the ability to know who is a good person with good intentions and who is not.
Ferny Caballos is one of those good people. I’ve had the pleasure of talking with him extensively over the phone and JT has worked with him on several occassions.
It’s through Attraction Marketing that I’ve renewed my passion for the industry and more importantly, helping other people create successful businesses online so that they can have their dreams come true.
If you’re interested in finding out more about the community of like minded individuals, I invite you to sign up for my free online recruiting bootcamp by my mentor Ferny Ceballos.
You’ll learn the online business building skillsets he used to passively generate 300-500 leads per day, 30-50 customers per day, and recruit 70-100 new serious business builders into his business each month.
These are the exact strategies he used to create a world-wide brand and over 15 million dollars in revenue.
Don’t let the business you’ve toiled over and worked so hard to build be vulnerable.
Instead, learn how to brand yourself, build your own following online, and develop multiple streams of income that you can control.
So if you’re ready to get started…
Simply click here and I’ll gladly give you access to my 10-day bootcamp
I’d love to hear more about what has you coming to this site. Leave me a comment below and introduce yourself, or find me on social media and introduce yourself.
To your success,
Mia