You can always jump to any section from the sidebar as well.

My name is Francesco (but Frank is preferred), I'm a 35 year old born and raised in sunny Sydney, Australia and now living in Stockholm with my wife, Josefin.

I moved to Stockholm in November 2019 and have built a life here over the last 6 years with new family and friends.

For 13 of the last 15 years (since 2010) I have been self employed with first-hand experience in web development and project management. Although, I have had other part-time roles in that time too, such as being a barista, which means I make great coffee (crucial in any modern workplace).

A full list of my previous experience and achievements is available below, but here's a quick overview of what my professional life has consisted of since 2010:

• 2010 - 2015: (Self-Employed) Human Behaviour and Personal Coaching
• 2014 - 2019: (Self-Employed) Digital Agency and Business Development consulting ("FLIC Sites")
  • Including 10 months (2016 - 2017) sub-contracting for a digital agency startup as their Lead developer.
• 2020 - 2022: (Full Time) Lead Developer at Digital Agency in Stockholm
• 2022 - 2025: (Self-Employed) Freelance Web Development
  • Including 2.5 years (Sep 2022 - Present) as product owner and part-time CTO for an vehicle asset management company.

Although web development and personal coaching may seem like a bit of a strange mix, it has proven to be a highly beneficial combination, which you'll see as you continue to scroll.

My "out-of-the-box" work history has shaped how I deal with everyday problems, meant that I have had to rely on my abilities, continuously learn and acknowledge my strengths and weaknesses.

It's given me a wide range of not only technical skills, but also other skills invaluable to any business like customer service, sales and business acumen, project management and the ability to be part of, manage and also lead a team. I have a proven track record in product ownership, driving product vision, and implementing Agile methodologies to achieve business objectives.

If any of these skills sound like something you'd like more of in your company, then we may be a match.

I promised you honesty, so here are a few things that may be a dealbreaker. You probably won’t see this in most CVs, but I have no interest in wasting your time or mine if we're not a match, so I want to lay it all out for you.

If any of these details are unacceptable, then I thank you for reading this far and for your consideration.

• Swedish is at a basic level

  My ability to speak Swedish has a LOT of room to be improved... I've always had a problem with the pronunciation, and whilst I can understand a LOT of Swedish, English is the most effective way to communicate with me. Luckily, Sweden is a country that is very forgiving... with everyone here speaking English far better than I speak Swedish.

• Travel to Australia

  I moved to Sweden to be with my girlfriend, now my wife, but the rest of my family and friends are still in Australia. This means that I travel back to Australia throughout the year and most often during the winter months for Christmas (and an Aussie summer).

  Being so far away, I travel for extended periods to make the trips worthwhile. I am very used to working remotely (and since 2020, we've all gotten used to it), so as long as there's flexibility in that, it shouldn’t be an issue.

• Limit corporate experience, but...

  As you'll see from my work history below, I've had only 1 period of full-time employment since 2010, from 2020 to 2022. Running my own business for the majority of my professional lifetime may seem like a disadvantage, but it has been a significant advantage in developing the skills needed to contribute effectively to a team.

  It has given me exposure and experience to become proficient in more areas than I would have if I just focused on single discipline. As a result, I have the ability to manage and lead teams, to self-motivate, the ability to work under pressure, hands on customer service skills, project management, sales and business acumen and it has cultivated an attitude to be responsible for my own results.

  What I don't have is structure and the particular way of doing things, that years of employment brings. Being non-traditional has meant that I have needed to adapt and do things differently to get results.

• No University Degree

  Is it even necessary these days? As you'll see below, this has definitely NOT held me back, but if it's an absolute requirement, then I'm probably not the candidate for you.

Freelancing and being self-employed has meant that sales aptitude has been critical to remaining in business. Sure... I could have outsourced it in order to drive business in, but such a core part of the business should never be outsourced.

From 2010 to 2014, whilst personal coaching, B2C sales was required, understanding how my service could help on the prospect in their personal life. This meant there was not always a clear quantitative ROI, and it was based on how much value they would receive. This meant needing to balance emotion and logic in order to reach a successful sale.

Since 2014, while freelancing as a developer, this shifted to B2B sales. Understanding what was needed within the prospects business, and connecting that to the solution that would deliver a specific ROI for them. Many times this was a simple website, an e-commerce store or creating a SaaS platform; and it was a pre-requistite to discover not only what was important to them (e.g., analytics for certain stages of their sales funnel), but also deliver a solution that was competitively priced but didn't compromise on the quality.

After delivering a quality product and giving great customer service, I found that more and more business came to me through word-of-mouth referrals from satisfied clients who came to know me as a trusted advisor and passed on my details to colleagues and friends. In fact, over 90% of the sales I have made, have been from word-of-mouth and repeat business from existing customers.

As more customers and larger projects came my way, I was in need of help... I was running out of time to do everything. From here I hired freelancers to sub-contract some of the work to, needing me to manage and delegate work to them. This of course, came with its own challenges but doing so allowed me to take on more and bigger projects completing over 160 projects from 2014 - 2019 and many more since.

Customer service is the secret to good business. By focusing on others and serving their needs... the business will continue to grow because customers will keep coming back for more, knowing their needs will be met.

Great customer service has been crucial to my career path. Being technically proficient isn't enough, but understanding what the job requires and being able to clearly communicate with everyone involved is the difference that makes all the difference.

What's the best way to deliver great customer service? Simple: "Under Promise, Over Deliver" It is the surest possible way to delight those around you. Go above and beyond and solve problems that the customer has not even encountered yet and you will receive loyalty and admiration from them.

You can see more reviews from my happy customers in the "References" section.

Leadership is NOT management. Much like coaching, leadership means showing others opportunities they couldn't see before. Having a big-picture view allows you to guide others. Building relationships that foster clear communication, and acting as a single point of engagement has allowed me to work side-by-side with cross-functional teams, helping the team prioritise and translating user needs and business insights into technical solutions.

My favourite Leadership book is "Creating Magic" by Lee Cockerell, a fantastic book about Disney resort company culture, why the customer is at the heart of everything that is done and how that is reinforced throughout the culture by every single employee doing what they do best.

I took that to heart to motivating and building strong teams that are able to do the work by letting them do what they did best. Within my own business, during sub-contracting, and while employed.

The coaching skills I refined throughout my Personal Coaching business prepared me the most though, giving me the awareness to elicit how people are feeling and how to motivate them properly so the whole team can shine. It's incredibly useful to know how different people need to be communicated to and what they need to be motivated. Being a coach means that you not only speak up when someone isn't living up to their potential but also when they are in danger of hitting the wall, no matter they challenge, you are there to cheer them on so they grow in their personal lives and careers.

Take a look at my work history for a more specific details on when I have led others.

Collaboration is more powerful than Competition

Although I enjoy a healthy amount of competition, it's only useful if it pushes the team members to bring out their best and collaborate further. I have both managed and been a part of teams, and the one thing I've learnt is that the whole is greater than the sum of its parts.... together we can do more than we can apart.

Being adaptable and working through ambiguity is essential, trusting your team member to do their part and helping them to reach your shared goal is a must.

During my 5 years as a relationship coach, I consulted many individuals and business owners. Whether it was personal or professional, I assisted with their ability to interact with others through communication techniques and by educating them on concepts on how to view the situation to help them achieve more empowering and sustainable relationships.

Learning interpersonal communication and change management has been invaluable, as it means I understand how to move an individual toward their goal by influencing their mindset rather than surface actions, ultimately driving performance. During my time as a personal coach, I also conducted trainings and seminars to a room full of people, giving me the ability to consider many inputs at once and communicate with different people.

Being a coach taught me that we all have an "internal" map of how the world is, and when we reach the edge of that map, we stop ourselves to keep that "internal status-quo" intact. Acting as a coach for others and by continuously learning means being brave to go beyond the edges of the map, and if you do then the map gets a little bigger.

It'll be no surprise that after freelancing and guiding the development of countless projects for so long that I have hands-on experience on how to manage goal-based projects and deliver according to specifications and on time, delivering a great end user experience4. Organising the details while keeping sight of the big picture makes it easy to maintain transparency with customers.

Here's a glimpse at how I manage projects successfully to deliver quality work on time:

• Define a clear "Criteria for success": What's important to the customer from the start, what is is non-negotiable and where is there room to move. Making sure that all parties are clear on what success means from the start.
• Time and Cost Estimates: A crucial step to ensure the project is profitable and that the customer and decision-makers stay aware of what's included. Using "consequential" thinking in order to show all the steps that will be taken. This is also very valuable in showing the customer where the value of hiring me is, making the complex technical steps simple for them.
• Overestimate and Expect Delays: Things rarely go perfectly to plan, so adaptability is essential. This needs to be accounted for so you can deliver the product in a realistic timeframe and stay profitable when challenges arise. Under Promise and Over Deliver
• Prioritise by complexity and importance: A solid foundation makes future changes of a project simpler. Often times, this ground work isn't as "attractive" to the customer, because it's all behind the scenes, but it's vital to get it right. The ability to have technical discussions with the customer without overcomplicating things ensures that collaboration remains strong throughout the process.
• Implement in small increments: Scrum and Agile methodologies are key here. Creating "small but meaningful objectives" with everyone in the team working on a piece of the puzzle, so it can eventually work together. After each sprint, testing the validity of the implementation and then iterating over and over, learning each time to drive innovation

By this stage you already know most relevant parts of my story, but if you're interested in how I got here, here's a break down from most to least recent, and the responsibilities for each.

A quick list of notable achievements throughout my career from most to least recent.

I was always told that "doing it is the best education", and so while my formal education is limited, my REAL education has come from learning "on-the-job". This has served me incredibly well, as I’ve gained real-world experience. The risk, however, is being able to deliver results if I don't know how to do something but whenever I was presented with a certain challenge in a project that I didn't know how to do, I spent the time to learn it.

I'm a continuous learner and I love to understand and solve problems, so every spare moment I have is usually filled by learning a new skill or sharpening my existing skills. I could list all the courses, tutorials, and books I’ve consumed but it would be a very long and tedious list. The technical skills and transferable skills that I've learnt throughout the years are summed up on this CV.

Technical skills can be learnt, but attitude is more important. So here's a quick self reflection on how I describe myself on a personal level. Take a look further below for my strengths and weaknesses in the workplace.

How I would describe myself:

• I'm an outspoken and genuine Aussie bloke. I love a good chat with friends and I'm always up for good times with good people.
• I’d rather succeed together than alone, but I’ll walk alone if I must.
• I set ambitious goals for myself, sometimes biting of more than I chew, but once I commit, I become obssesively focused on achieving the goal.
• I place high expectations of performance from myself and others, and have a tendency to get frustrated and impatient for results, looking for a better way to do it.
• I speak plainly and directly as I don't want to waste time dancing around a problem, but it can often be seen as being too blunt or "prickly" when not properly delivered.
• It takes me a little bit of time to become comfortable in a situation. Once comfortable, I take command and drive it home.
• I can often be perceived as insensitive or overly competitive in the pursuit of achievement. I work with a sense of urgency, but this can cause unnecessary stress for others.
• It can take me a bit of time for me to recognise weaknesses that are may be harming me, losing touch with or avoiding my own feelings because I too focused completing the task.

For even deeper insight on who I am, how I think and what I'm like to deal with, take a look at my personality tests.

I've always had this insatiable curiosity about how things work... I wanted to understand how people thought, behaved and how to influence positive change, so I became a coach. I found myself running a business for the first time, so I learn all I could about sales, customer service and leadership. When I was curious on how websites work, that's when I first learning programming and development.

I chose not to attend university after I left school, because I didn't want to just do one thing at that point, I wanted to do as much as I could. But don't take that as a disinterest in education, because I highly value it! When I find something that interests me, something I can strive to "master", then I drive myself forward with a compulsion to learn as much as I can. This triggers a commitment and allows me to navigate a steep learning curve.

But... this can be a little draining at times, I'm always on the go to push to the next level, to find a new project to apply myself to. It makes me highly effective, but it means it can get a bit chaotic as well. Getting bored quickly and impatient for results is one of my biggest weaknesses, but that internal drive is also one of my biggest strengths.

If I don't know how to do something, then I can learn how. That simple philosophy, has allowed me be proficient in many different areas that a traditional path like university may not have provided.

Solving problems and adding value is the core and undeniable purpose of ANY business, to know their customers' problem/s and to add value around those problem, ultimately making their life even easier.

I have always loved solving problems. Whether it's solving an issue as a coaching, creating a digital solution to a problem for a customer, fixing a car or creating a woodworking project. I enjoy the process because their is always a logical reason to why you are facing a certain challenge. One I understand how it works, the obstacle disappears and the solution becomes clear.

But while defining the problem is the most important part, actually doing the work to solve it is different. This often requires innovation and a creative perspective to reach the goal. As long as the end goal remains clear and is properly defined, you can get there in multiple ways.

Here's my 4 steps to solving a problem:

1. Clearly define the problem: What is "Point A", the starting point.
2. Define a clear "Criteria for success": What is "Point B", how should it be? What precisly are you trying to achieve?
3. Understand the Problem: Dig deep and understand what's causing the "gap". Step by step to find "the difference that makes the difference".
4. Implement a solution to fix it: Get creative and give your best go at fixing it, and if it doesn't fit the success criteria, return to step 1 and repeat.

You might've guess that based on my love for human behavior, that I’m a fan of personality tests. So to give a deeper insight about me, I've included the result of a few tests (from external sources) to give you a more quantitative idea.

If you are familiar with the Myers-Briggs Type Indicator (MBTI), DISC or Enneagram, this will mean more to you, but regardless it'll give you an external point of view to my qualities, strengths and weaknesses and how they can help your company.

So what does all the information on those tests mean?

Part of any good marketing strategy is Word-of-mouth and outstanding customer reviews. So I've added some Facebook reviews and testimonials from happy customers that I received during my time freelancing under the name "FLIC Sites".

Please Note: As this CV is online and publicly accessible, I won't be adding the phone numbers of my references here. However, I'm always happy to provide them after meeting with you.

Interested in meeting? I look forward to hearing from you!

Please feel free to email me, call me or get in touch with me on LinkedIn.

For the quickest response, contacting me during the afternoon Monday - Friday via email or LinkedIn is best.