Meet Mike Amoia

We recently connected with Mike Amoia and have shared our conversation below.

Mike, looking forward to learning from your journey. You’ve got an amazing story and before we dive into that, let’s start with an important building block. Where do you get your work ethic from?

My work ethic came when I was really young. As a kid I felt lost and confused on where my life was taking me. I never felt like I belonged, didn’t feel comfortable anywhere I went, and went through some traumatic family ,drugs and medical situations that almost put me in the ground. Things weren’t good and I realized if I worked harder than everyone around me then my path out of my situation will become clearer. I kept having to tell myself nothing bad can come out of working hard; even though I would always question if I was working smart. I just didn’t know any better though. I was a very inexperienced and super reserved kid. Anger is the one emotion that gave me the most fuel. I used that emotion in a productive way to get all my drive and motivation; and thankfully it worked out. It took years but eventually my career path started to become clearer.

Let’s take a small detour – maybe you can share a bit about yourself before we dive back into some of the other questions we had for you?

I recently started a fashion brand called “Indelible” which adapts a membership reward system for our limited high end apparel releases. The backstory of the brands identity has tattoo culture with digital collectibles. We’re a bootstrapped business that has dropped a collection of 1000 tattooed Azuki NFT’s, custom jewelry, clothes, and accessories. Our first clothing drop was in collaboration with the brand “Paris Laundry”

My other company who I share with my business partner Pete Zepina is called “MIBE Music”. MIBE is a music publishing company where we house over 40k songs and manage the music rights for over 400 artists. Our team handles music placements for film, TV, and digital streaming content. You can hear our music on networks such as A&E, History Channel, Discovery, CBS, NBC, Fox and more.

25 years ago I started my career as a TV editor and created a post production company called “Vidiots” We housed 32 edit rooms and an audio mix suite downtown NYC and had worked with most of the major networks and cable companies. After running Vidiots for 10 years we turned the studio into a full service production company called “Switchblade” where we developed, pitched, sold and produced our own content for the remaining 9 years. Some of our editorial and production credits includes; Chappelle Show, MTV Cribs, Monday Night Football, NBA FInals, and CBS NFL.

I have a passion for all things business so I decided to deeper my knowledge through investing. I became an angel investor where I currently hold equity in 21 companies. I entered at the seed, F&F or series A stage. Some of my holdings include; Rumble Boxing, Rhone, Van Leeuwen ice cream, Kosas to name a few. Being on the periphery as a non active partner teaches me a ton about the different approaches to scaling a company. Sometimes my knowledge is even learned by watching what not to do.

Looking back, what do you think were the three qualities, skills, or areas of knowledge that were most impactful in your journey? What advice do you have for folks who are early in their journey in terms of how they can best develop or improve on these?

Street knowledge is number 1: Being self aware is one of the most important traits. Know how to read the room and honor your word.

Structure is number 2: If you’re not structured in your rollout strategy then you can’t execute your creative plan properly. This is extremely important. If you’re not a structured person make sure you partner with someone that is.

Go all the way but know when to pivot is number 3: Always listen to people you trust around you but know when to cut out the noise. Set goals and go all in on what you plan to do. Don’t stop or let anyone get in your way. Timing and lack of money can be your worst enemy so you have to know if and when pivots are needed.

How would you spend the next decade if you somehow knew that it was your last?

When I grew up nothing mattered more in business than products the companies were selling. Quality control seemed to be the major focus. In modern business the actual product quality control has gone down and most of the major companies are more focused on marketing. It’s all about social media followers and how to market your product as extreme as possible. I like to be behind the scenes plus i’m not a big fan of social media so these days building a business (especially one that is direct to consumer) requires becoming more outspoken. I’ve learned to be a better salesman including doing interviews like this. As a kid I was an introvert, but had to learn how to be an extrovert in order to sell myself. I ended up becoming an ambivert….

Contact Info:

• Website: https://indelible.live
• Instagram: aiomaekim

Image Credits

Erick Sasso
Relocators / Nobody Move