Michael D. Savino - Resilience, Innovation, and Triumph in Web Development and Personal Struggles

Can resilience and innovation coexist in the face of unthinkable adversity? Michael D. Savino, founder of Nexus Box, a leading web development and marketing agency, shares his extraordinary journey from a solopreneur to leading a successful company with over 20 employees. Learn how a virtual assistant from Venezuela named Emilio became the cornerstone of his business’s growth, especially during the pandemic. Michael opens up about Nexus Box’s specialization in e-commerce solutions tailored for the manufacturing and pharmaceutical sectors, offering unique insights into custom inventory management and ERP integration.

However, Michael’s story is not just about business success. He takes us through a deeply personal narrative marked by immense challenges, including losing his home to Hurricane Irene, his mother’s untimely death, and his wife’s severe health struggles. Michael himself faced a harrowing battle with a rare desmoid tumor. Despite these trials, he finds strength in his work and family, living by his mantra, "Be here now." This episode is an intimate look at how mindfulness and staying present can provide solace and purpose amid life’s chaos. Join us for an inspiring conversation about overcoming the odds and the importance of taking life one moment at a time.

Transcript

Growth and Success in Web Development

Speaker 1 0:31

Yeah, so my name is Michael Dominic Sfino, the name of my company is Nexus Box and we are a full-service web development and marketing agency out of Winchester Virginia. Our tagline if you want to call it that and stuff and kind of how we come across for our clients is we're an innovative first solutions company that helps our clients reach the next level. Our kind of claim to fame is that we think outside of the box and have these unique solutions to problems of everyday businesses that they can't get solved anywhere else and we haven't been able to find the problem that we haven't been able to solve yet.

Speaker 2 1:12

That's good, yeah, and this is your company, correct?

Speaker 1 1:15

It is yeah, and tell me your company, correct?

Speaker 2 1:16

Yeah, and tell me a little bit about how you got into this and how you started the company.

Speaker 1 1:20

Yeah, so I started Nexus Box seven years ago. It was kind of a brainchild that I started. After, oh God, numerous other companies in the past, this was like the first company that I guess you could say. I kind of found the secret sauce of how to get things out of being a solopreneur to running a company and having employees and, you know, really turning it into a company that you know you can have people working for you and trust and you know everything else. And in the past I never got over that hump where it was like, do I bring in an employee or do I not Like, because you know you start getting scared and you're like, oh my God, I'm going to take on somebody that I'm going to be responsible for, you know, and then you're going to have payroll, all of that stuff, you know, and I actually so funny like in a weird funny story like, and great story in all honesty too.

Speaker 1 2:24

So the way that this all kind of happened and really helped us propel was when I was getting to the point of where I needed somebody because I was getting so busy with development work and everything. I reached out because a friend of mine told me about virtual assistants and I found this great company and stuff that reputable you know VAs and things like that and found this great guy he was at Venezuela, name's Emilio, still with me. If it wasn't for him, the company wouldn't be where it is. Honestly, I hired him as a VA originally and he quickly learned that he was going to school for computer science. He had the best personality I had ever met from, you know, anybody in the industry. He was so eager at learning everything and the two of us we worked together and we really kind of revitalized how we were, you know, operating the business and quickly he became like our senior project manager. He interfaces with all of our clients.

Speaker 2 3:38

He's all remotely, all remotely.

Speaker 1 3:40

And, um, he's in the process right now of uh, and we've been working with him. He's actually moving to Spain right now, in the next couple of months and stuff and getting out of Venezuela, which is awesome. It's been a dream of his so um, yeah, he's, he's, yeah, he's.

Speaker 2 3:54

We have a virtual assistant too, and she's amazing. Yeah, like we were so lucky to have her. It's a game changer.

Speaker 1 4:01

Yeah, you know, and when you have them it kind of opens your eyes and then, like I mean, from now we have uh, I think we're up to about 20, uh, employees and stuff um plus virtual assistants, and I mean it's just, it's been a game changer for us.

Speaker 2 4:15

Wow, that's awesome. And what exactly? Tell me a little bit more about what your company does for your clients.

Speaker 1 4:21

Yeah, so web development is kind of a big topic at the end of the day, but our focus is in the e-commerce spectrum. So generally our clients are doing revenue between like one and 50 million in revenue through their website. You know, they're you know just outside the small mom and pop and stuff like that, but they're, you know, also not big enough where they can hire internal staff to do development and stuff. But usually the clients have issues where primarily inventory management control, have issues where primarily inventory management control trying to figure out how they're going to be connecting with whatever ERP platform that they have or loading up products into multiple channels like Amazon as well as their website, or eBay and across the board and everything. And there's so many unique situations that all of these businesses have, specifically in the manufacturing industries, where they have so many variations of their products and they just they get so overwhelmed that they don't know how to handle these things.

Speaker 1 5:23

And we're usually creating custom modules and extensions to give them the functionalities that they need on their websites so they can help their customers better. Right now we're working with some pharmaceutical clients and everything about it is custom and it's been a really fun project to work on, got a couple of mobile apps in development that hopefully will get released here in the next few months, and everything as well. But yeah, we have awesome clients with always very unique requirements and projects released here in the next few months, and everything as well. But yeah, we have awesome clients with always like very unique like requirements and projects, and just it's a lot of fun.

Speaker 2 6:01

They come to you with different problems. Yeah, different problems all the time.

Speaker 1 6:05

Like like it's funny, like when somebody comes to us too and they're like oh, have you solved this before? It's like not specifically, because everything is different all the time. Like, and that's what I love about it, I have ADHD, and if everything was the same every day, I'd get bored very quickly.

Speaker 2 6:20

Sure.

Speaker 1 6:21

So, being that everything is different every day, it's fantastic.

Speaker 2 6:24

You go to work, you have different challenges, different challenges different problems.

Speaker 1 6:29

It's amazing.

Speaker 2 6:30

Yeah, and you said you have 20 on staff now. When did you start your business?

Speaker 1 6:40

It sounds like you've had a lot of growth in a short amount of time. 2016 is when Nexus Box kind of came to fruition, and it was really, though, during the pandemic when things kind of took off for us. So, you know, pre-pandemic I was still kind of working, you know, other jobs and things like that while trying to grow this, and then, when the pandemic hit, businesses in general were going out. Like you know brick and mortars were shutting down.

Speaker 2 7:05

They didn't know how to operate Office space was shutting down.

Speaker 1 7:08

You know going to heck and you know. But the companies that wanted to succeed, they started to leverage more and more e-com. You know, like small mom and pops were getting smart Like, hey, if I want to still have this business when I get through the pandemic you know my VA and stuff at the time to like four or five people and stuff within a year and we grew this amazing reputation through a platform called Upwork and through growing that reputation on Upwork we had companies like GoDataFeed. We eventually had companies like Ducati reach out to us, cloverly we just finished up a three-year contract with a fraud detection platform called NoFraud. They all reached out to us because of this reputation that we built up in being a US development firm and it just kind of went from there.

Speaker 2 8:14

And were you guys all able to work remotely during that time?

Speaker 1 8:16

Yeah, we all worked remotely and stuff during that time and just continued that reputation and right now I think we're in the top like 2% or 3% of developers in the Upwork space, like we've done like, I think, 1.4 million like through Upwork.

Speaker 1 8:32

Yeah, that's amazing, like through Upwork and now I mean, yeah, we still get jobs through it, but we've grown so much now that we don't really need Upwork. Like people are coming to us outside of the platforms and they know about us as, like these, magento and Adobe commerce specialists and I don't like to toot my own horn, but I feel like we're in the top. You know four or five, you know Magento, you know e-commerce developers in the country.

Speaker 2 8:57

At this point, yeah, congratulations, that's awesome.

Speaker 1 9:00

Thank you.

Speaker 2 9:00

Yeah, it's a huge accomplishment, yeah.

Speaker 1 9:04

It's kind of one of those things like you're like trying to wrap your head around it and stuff, and you know, yeah, it's just, it's been a great, great ride.

Speaker 2 9:19

Big question.

Speaker 1 9:20

Big question, but also not a big question because it's already going where.

Speaker 2 9:24

I foresaw it when you envisioned it, yeah.

Speaker 1 9:27

So we partnered with a couple agencies one for white label work and stuff. So we're taking over a company's entire web hosting division of their company, like a multi-billion dollar company. We're taking over their web hosting division, Going to be handling all of their support, which is like an injection of like 100 clients for us. Then, on top of that, we are acquiring another web development agency. We just signed contracts yesterday. So it was actually a company that I did part-time work for 15 years ago when I lived in New Jersey, and the owner back then and stuff was like you know, he's like when I'm ready to retire, I'm going to reach out to you. He got off of a call a couple of weeks ago and he's like I can't do this anymore.

Speaker 2 10:08

He's like he's like today's the day. Today's the day.

Speaker 1 10:11

He thought of it. You know he thought of me after 15 years Like it was like amazing that you know to have that kind of trust and you know that you know he's.

Speaker 2 10:21

They thought of us, you know, and me and stuff. It sounds like he knew. Yeah, he had a plan too. He's like I'm just going to put this in my back pocket until I'm ready, yeah.

Speaker 1 10:29

And we just signed contracts yesterday. So that's going to be another injection of a clientele. And on top of that we are working on getting our GSA certification so we can start working on government contracting work. Oh nice and we're expanding, getting more cubicles in the office and all that kind of stuff to continue.

Overcoming Health Challenges and Achieving Dreams

Speaker 2 10:49

So growth is on the horizon. Growth, yeah, more growth is on the horizon 100%. Now, while you've been building this business, you've had some pretty personal earth-shattering situations. Tell me a little bit about that journey.

Speaker 1 11:03

Yeah. So that's a whole crazy thing, like I feel like I could. I joke about it sometimes, like with me and my wife, like we could make it into a movie.

Speaker 2 11:12

Yeah, write a book.

Speaker 1 11:14

Yeah, and honestly I started outlining one like a couple of years ago, but I'm just like this is too much. I need a ghostwriter to take the words out of my mouth.

Speaker 1 11:23

But I guess it all, really it all started like in 2011. We lost our house in New Jersey from Hurricane Irene. Then, shortly after that, my mother passed away from lung cancer. Never a smoker During that time we had moved to Maryland. Shortly thereafter my wife got ill. She was working in Bethesda for the NIH and we know how everybody is with vaccines being a touchy subject and stuff. But she got a bunch of vaccines from the government and it sent her immune system haywire and she's now disabled. She sent her immune system into like crazy motion Ehlers-Danlos syndrome. She ended up having CSF leaks, so like the fluid in her brain was like leaking out through like her nose, and she ended up having three brain surgeries um, and now she's left with the seizures epileptic seizures from the surgeries and everything.

Speaker 2 12:32

So, wow, she's doing okay now she's was on set pretty quickly yeah yeah, it was kind of like something.

Speaker 1 12:39

uh, she was on a business trip and, um, after the vaccines, like something popped because of the air pressure, I guess on one of the flights or something, and then, in combination between that and the immune issues, that happened and everything else, like it was just kind of all downhill and I mean she's been amazing through all of it. I mean she's doing really, really well now at this point and she can't.

Speaker 2 13:05

But after three surgeries, three brain surgeries, yeah.

Speaker 1 13:09

You know, and then that's a lot. Yeah, and then on top of that, we have two kids. How?

Speaker 2 13:16

old are the kids.

Speaker 1 13:16

Yeah, so my daughter just turned 15, and my son just turned 10. My son turned 10, like I was. What did I say?

Speaker 2 13:23

20th, 30th, like two days ago.

Speaker 1 13:26

And then, on the 11th, my daughter turned 15. So yeah, high school fun times, but yeah, and then, on top of all of that, I ended up getting cancer.

Speaker 2 13:44

So it was just like one thing after the other, after the other, after the other. So during your wife's diagnosis, while she's trying to kind of figure out what's going on with her and her, health bam.

Speaker 1 13:51

You got diagnosed with cancer. Yep, out of nowhere, I was working outside in the garden, I was putting in some like posts, like using the gas-powered post hole digger, and came inside. I'm like, oh, I feel like there's a marble underneath my scapula. And I'm like, oh, this just doesn't feel right and all of a sudden, I just kept getting tired and falling asleep on the couch every day.

Speaker 2 14:12

You're like something's off.

Speaker 1 14:13

Yeah, something was just off and had some scans done and they're like oh yeah, there's a mass in there In your back. Yeah, there's a mass in there.

Speaker 1 14:21

In your back. Yeah, it was right under my scapula. It started off. It was literally like the size of a marble. It started off that size. Wow, by the time they got to the biopsies and actually figured out what it was they're like. Yeah, it's a tumor. It's a very rare tumor. It's called desmoid tumor with aggressive fibromatosis and the only way to really kind of describe it in terms of like cancer terminology is like it's like a sarcoma.

Speaker 2 14:56

Okay, I'm familiar with that.

Speaker 1 14:58

Yeah, like they grow rapidly, they invade all over the place. Yeah, like they grow rapidly, they invade all over the place. Luckily it doesn't spread to other organs, but it just expands like a goo inside and then starts getting into the bones and muscles and everything else, and often patients have to have limbs amputated when they have that right.

Speaker 1 15:16

Yes, yeah, a lot of the times I'm probably very close to it, probably very close to it. Um the uh, my tumor went from being like marble size to um up in like the neck area here, um all the way down to like my lower rib, and I've had numerous surgeries. Um I had cryo ablations. Um I went through uh chemo radiation. Um, I went through chemo radiation. It wore me out for five years. I can say that.

Speaker 2 15:48

Five years.

Speaker 1 15:49

Five years Wow. It was the last.

Speaker 2 15:52

What year was this?

Speaker 1 15:54

Started in 2018.

Speaker 2 15:55

Okay, so in the midst of you trying to grow your business, yeah, and your wife isn't feeling good.

Speaker 1 16:01

Yeah.

Speaker 2 16:04

You're not feeling good now. Yeah, yeah, how did you guys get?

Speaker 1 16:06

through that. Uh, just one step at a time.

Speaker 2 16:08

Yeah.

Speaker 1 16:08

That's, that's literally when anybody ever asked me that. It's literally one, one step ahead, you know just keep moving forward Like that's literally it, that's all you can do. Um, yeah, I mean, what else are you going to do, right? Right, you know like can't give up. You know got kids. You know everybody else that you know relies on you. Yeah, what are you going to do, right? You know, just pick it up and just keep going.

Speaker 2 16:35

So through all these treatments, you had a pretty big goal in mind, right?

Speaker 1 16:39

So, oddly enough, the business is, what kind of kept me going at night, like when, like when I'd be passed out on the couch during the day, like from the treatments and everything else, like I'd wake up and just like I couldn't go outside and run around, or, you know, exercise, like I tried, I tried staying in, like you know, crossfit and having, like my uh, my old, my old coach try to keep me in shape, and stuff like that.

Speaker 2 17:05

And try to modify when you can.

Speaker 1 17:07

Yeah, we tried for a long time and I was just like I'm putting too much pressure on myself, my body can't handle it. So I'm like, all right, I got to find something to do and everything with the business just kind of kept me going. And you know that in some ways that was kind of my outlet to. You know, help myself.

Speaker 2 17:30

Sure, yeah, just get your mind off of some things, right? Yeah, exactly, take your mind off of it, occupy your mind with other thoughts.

Speaker 1 17:38

You know the last kind of way that I worked with my doctors out here in Fairfax and everything to. You know almost like two years in remission and stuff.

Speaker 2 17:51

That's great.

Speaker 1 17:52

Congratulations on that, thank you and like it all kind of happened where they were like all right, well, let's do radiation and then we'll do the surgery. And I'm like, let's, let's do radiation and then we'll do the surgery. And I'm like, I'm like, what if we do it in reverse? I'm like, I'm like, I'm like and I'm trying to make a joke about it I'm like I'm like for Thanksgiving. I'm like would you want to microwave the full turkey, or would you want to microwave the leftovers? And that's the way I kind of proposed it to them, I'm just like.

Speaker 1 18:22

I'm like, if you're going to give me radiation, I'm like it's like putting my body through a microwave. I'm like yeah. I'm like, why not cut the thing out and then radiate Like? Right, I'm like they're like we don't normally do it that way, I'm like. I'm like could we, because it makes more sense Interesting that you're bringing this information like you only get to do radiation once. I'm like, yeah, I'm like, let's cut it out and maybe more damage and kill more surface.

Speaker 2 18:52

Apparently, it worked so yeah, um, so aren't you glad you were an advocate for your own health and spoke up about it? Oh yeah.

Speaker 1 19:00

And when my wife was going through all her stuff. That's when I learned to be an advocate, because you have to be like. There was so many times that she was told no, or you're crazy or all that kind of stuff. Yeah, you're fine, it's all in your head. It literally was in her head.

Speaker 2 19:15

Yeah, but not in a good way. Yeah, not in a good way.

Speaker 1 19:19

But yeah, we learned you have to advocate and stuff and you know we're both doing pretty good and stuff with everything these days and I got to Tell me about your big goal.

Speaker 2 19:31

You had a big mission. I did. I had a big mission.

Speaker 1 19:33

So back when I was really young, I was always enthralled and just mystified by Mount Everest. It was kind of like one day I'm going to get there. It was on my bucket list. I'm like I got to get there, got to get there, got to get there. So, um, I, back in March, I hopped on a plane and got to Nepal and, um, I hiked through the Himalayas. Um, I did a solo trip with just me and my guide and I got to camp out at base camp. Um, it was awesome. I uh, I I don't really have words to explain it, because any pictures that anybody sees and the like videos are pretty cool and stuff. But like pictures of Everest and base camp and like the Nepalese people and everything else like that, like you, just you have to experience it because it's so unlike anything here.

Speaker 2 20:25

Nothing can do justice unless you're there.

Speaker 1 20:26

Yeah, I mean, you know hiking for eight to 10 hours a day, you know, at like incredibly high elevations, like we got up to like 18,000 feet and I'm like wow, I'm like this is like kind of where airplanes usually are flying, you know, and the mountains were just absolutely beautiful.

Speaker 2 20:46

How did it feel to be able to do that physically after what you had been through?

Speaker 1 20:52

It was a relief. It reassured me that my body wasn't destroyed from everything.

Speaker 2 21:03

It felt like part of me came back in a way Like you found a piece of yourself again. Yeah, felt like part of me came back, like, in a way Like you found a piece of yourself again.

Speaker 1 21:09

Yeah, like I had been dealing with so much stress and anxiety and everything else from like all the years of everything kind of building up. Like I looked at it as like yes, it's a bucket list trip, but it's also like a mental reset for me, sure, and just a chance to breathe, yeah, right. Yeah, which is kind of funny because you can't really breathe that good.

Speaker 2 21:28

Yeah, that's actually very true. Yes, okay, mentally breathe, mentally breathe. Yes, mentally breathe. Exactly, exactly.

Speaker 1 21:35

But yeah, it's, you know, with everything moving so slowly over there, you know just being outside and you know just literally just walking, like for know miles and miles and miles through, like you know just untapped, you know areas where it's just like it's just you and the mountains and like you know there's yeah, there was people out there and stuff you'd you know come across and stuff you know they were hiking as well, but uh, you know there's like monasteries and stuff with monks it was beautiful.

Speaker 2 22:12

How did it feel to have that bucket list come true?

Speaker 1 22:16

There's literally no words that it was able to be accomplished. I can't wait to go back. I accomplished getting there, getting to base camp, and I, you know, like my wife, my kids and everybody back home, they knew it was on my bucket list too and they were all so supportive, like you know, with that, with everything that I had been through, um, you know with you know how stressful the business is. You know with growing it, the cancer treatments, all that kind of stuff. Everybody's like do it.

Speaker 2 22:55

You got to go yeah.

Speaker 1 22:56

Like for both of my young kids, my wife, you know to say go do it.

Speaker 2 22:59

They were probably so proud of you.

Speaker 1 23:01

Like they were so like, so like, so proud you know, so excited you know, to see me go. Like you know you could see it in their like faces and stuff like that. Like you know to be able to say like, hey, my dad went to, you know, mount Everest Base Camp.

Speaker 2 23:17

You know like it's kind of like a cool, like you know, like check in the box, like kind of like you know, and that probably feels good to hear them say that to their friends. Yeah, likely. It's like yeah, my dad went to base camp, yeah, which your dad did today, and he beat cancer yeah exactly Just saying yeah, yeah, I'm like you know, similar thing one step forward.

Speaker 1 23:40

Like that was you know. The only thing I can say, like was there days I wanted to quit on that hike. A hundred percent, yeah, a hundred percent, and it was tough. I mean like my knees are still killing me from it.

Speaker 2 23:53

So when this was not too long ago, no this wasn't.

Speaker 1 23:55

I left March 26th. I left two days after my 41st birthday. So just this past March oh yeah, I can see why your knees would still hurt. Oh yeah, oh yeah. And yeah, I got back like I think it was April 20th, so I was over there for almost a month.

Speaker 2 24:11

Oh, wow.

Speaker 1 24:12

Got to celebrate. Well, my birthday was on March 24th, but when I got over there they celebrated my birthday and stuff, nepalese style. And yeah, they had like guys coming out with like violins and things like that.

Speaker 2 24:26

Oh, that's fun and had a really cool dinner with everybody and stuff from the guiding company.

Speaker 1 24:31

It was a lot of fun.

Speaker 2 24:32

Huge celebration of life, right yeah?

Speaker 1 24:35

exactly, and that's kind of their thing. Over there is celebrating life every day and stuff Celebrate big yeah.

Speaker 2 24:43

As we wrap up here, are there any last parting words you'd like to leave us with a mantra that you live your life by business advice.

Speaker 1 24:51

You know, I uh so I have this I have this tattoo here um it's.

Speaker 1 24:56

It says be here now, I love that um little did I know how much that was gonna kind of uh, play into my life. I got this right after my mother passed away and every time something you know would go downhill and you know whether it was the cancer or my wife's situation or you know anything I like look down at, I'm like just live in the moment, like be here, yeah, be here now. Like it just uh, what are you gonna do? What are you gonna do? But just yeah, just one going to do, but just yeah, just one foot, one foot forward and be here now and be here now.

Speaker 2 25:32

I love that. Thank you for sharing your story with us, michael, and thank you for coming in today. It was a pleasure to have you.

Speaker 1 25:37

Yeah, thank you.