Creating a Piece of Home with Swedish Candy: Interview with Frankie’s Candy Co. Founder, Isabel Nesteus Bannon
This week’s interview is with Isabel Nesteus Bannon, the founder of Frankie’s Candy Co., a Swedish candy company based out of Jacksonville, Florida. Isabel grew up in Sweden and moved to the U.S. to play collegiate golf at St. Leo University. After a few years working full-time in the golf industry, she missed the pressure of competition and found her lifelong entrepreneurial spirit pulling her to find a creative outlet and build something of her own. Ultimately, it was the recognition of how important her Swedish upbringing has been to her identity, and a desire to have a piece of home amidst her life in the US, that sparked the idea for Frankie’s and led to the company’s launch in November 2024. These days she’s balancing her full-time job with growing Frankie’s during nights and weekends, and working towards her dream of opening her own store.
Over the course of the conversation we spoke about:
What it’s like to take an idea from inception to reality
How she’s navigated building a company with working a full-time job
Tapping into self-belief before you receive external validation
What she’s learned about the importance of focusing on the positives amidst self doubt and setbacks
Lessons from her golf career on managing pressure and controlling emotions
Being intentional about her 5-9 and staying open to how Frankie’s will evolve
Note: The following interview has been lightly edited for clarity and length. While every effort has been made to preserve the integrity of the conversation, please be aware that the quotes may not be verbatim but reflect the essence of the dialogue.
How would you describe your background and the things you are currently pursuing professionally?
I am originally from Sweden and came to the US to play collegiate golf. For a long time, when people would introduce me in the US they would say, “This is Isabel, and she's from Sweden.” I remember going back home to my husband and saying, “There’s got to be more to me than just being from Sweden.” However, as I’ve gotten older, I’ve come to recognize that being Swedish is a big part of who I am, and it’s now something I wear with a badge of honor.
Even though I came over to the US for golf, I knew I was not going to try and turn professional, but I did want to stay in the industry. I got a job with the PGA tour where I’ve been for almost three years now. I started Frankie’s because I was missing Sweden and felt like I needed an outlet professionally to do something on my own. I've always been someone who works best with autonomy and independence, and I felt like I needed an outlet outside of my day job where I could have more creative freedom. The idea itself stems from my upbringing in Sweden going to the grocery store every weekend to pick out my own little candy bag. It felt like the thing that I was missing and the perfect thing for me to create.
I think there are a lot of people reading this blog who have had the thought, “I have an idea for a business. I wonder what it would be like to actually turn the idea into reality.” You have actually done it - what’s the most honest way you would describe the process of taking the idea for Frankie’s from inception to a launched product?
I grew up watching my dad as an entrepreneur and saw how hard it was both mentally and physically. I witnessed the reality that the obstacle really is the way to get to where you want to go. I think if I would have gone into this thinking that I would immediately make a lot of sales or that it would go great from the jump, it would have been difficult to operate. I did a ton of research before I launched Frankie's, but it’s also my first time starting a business, and I have no clue what I'm doing. I like learning from mistakes, and I also know mistakes are going to happen. So I haven't approached it from the perspective of, “Everyone will know about Frankie's within the first year!” I’ve focused on being patient and consistent with it. When I’m having a bad day where there aren’t a ton of sales or it doesn’t feel like things are going well, it’s been important for me to remember why I’m doing this, and I try to go back to my emotional connection with it. I have found that really keeps me going.
As a follow up to that, I think a lot of people are also curious about what it’s like to balance a full-time job with getting a new business off the ground. What’s it been like for you to balance both?
I definitely want to spend more time on Frankie’s, but I do have a full-time job so most of my time goes to that. I think when you have something you are passionate about, you will always find the time to work on it. As I mentioned earlier, it’s an outlet for me. At work, I don't always get to share my ideas, but then I have Frankie's to go back to at night or in the evenings, and I get to be creative there and work on what I want to work on. It is a fine balance, but I do believe that if you’re passionate about something, you’ll make the time for it.
One thing that can be challenging for new businesses is having the confidence and self belief to keep going before you start to receive a lot of external validation. Does that resonate with you? What mindsets have helped you tap into that self-belief during the early days of building the business?
I think if people were to describe me they would say that I am very direct and honest, and I like to do things my own way. That's a very Swedish way of being, and I think it has been a powerful thing to have with Frankie's because if someone doesn’t like it, then I can just say, “That's okay because I really like it and enjoy it, and that’s why I started it.” When I do get those positive reviews, even if it’s just one review, it gives me a spark to continue. Going back to those moments and reminding myself of them everyday, especially when it might not be going that great, has been all I need.
Throughout the conversation, it’s struck me that you have a really healthy mindset about setbacks and making mistakes. Are there any mindsets that help you reset on a day where you have those moments of “this really sucks” or a setback feels particularly overwhelming?
My husband would laugh at me if he knew I was saying this, but I'm a big believer in manifesting. As humans, I think we often tend to presume the worst or presume the negative things. If we’re going to do that, then I feel like we owe it to ourselves to also presume the positives. My mom got sick in 2023, and we thought we were gonna lose her. When that happened, my mind immediately started jumping to the worst case scenario. I realized how exhausting it was to live that way and always be worrying. I’m still working on that mental shift, but the experience really made me want to start believing in positive outcomes. When you’re on social media, what you watch is what you see. Our brains are the same way. If I’m constantly thinking about the negatives, then that is what I'm going to see, and that's probably what's going to happen. Everyday, even if it is a hard day, and I’m feeling like “This is not going anywhere,” I remind myself that I do have the power to change my mindset, focus on the positives, and think about what I can do to make those things happen.
We, of course, have to talk about golf. Are there any mindsets from golf that have been impactful as you’ve navigated building a business?
Growing up I really didn’t enjoy golf. It is one of the hardest sports for a kid to enjoy because it's just failure after failure. My dad used to drag me to the driving range and I remember asking, “Can I just sit in the car and wait?” But then one day something clicked, and I started to play better and have more fun with it, which got me on the path to playing college golf. Golf has taught me so many life lessons about emotional control, patience, and perseverance. Playing competitive golf, especially when I’d have a bad round, taught me a lot about choosing how I react. Getting to a place where I could say afterward, “What can I change to either be better for tomorrow's round or for the next tournament? What do I have to work on?” has helped me a ton professionally. I might not know everything from the start, but if I stay consistent, focused, and patient (which is probably the hardest part for me because I’m incredibly impatient), then I know things will improve. It really comes down to knowing that it’s all on me to choose how I react, and that I can allow myself to have a bad round. That’s an opportunity to get better and see what I have to change.
As a relatively new golfer, I’ve learned how hard it is to control your emotions on the course when you’re playing badly (and I’m not even playing competitively!). What strategies have helped you with that emotional control?
It’s been 20 years of working on that! I always used to get upset and mad on the golf course. I realized that if I could turn that anger into focus and not overcomplicate things, then I would generally play better. For example, when I was playing competitive golf, I’d very much try to focus on what I know. If I’m hitting fades better that day, keep hitting them and don’t overcomplicate it.
Athletes that compete at a high level often learn how to build a positive relationship with pressure. Over the course of playing competitive golf and building Frankie’s, how has your relationship to pressure evolved?
I think I probably started Frankie's because I wasn't getting enough pressure. Before I started working full time, my whole life had been planned out. I went to high school and then college. During college, I was playing golf and had tournaments every weekend. There were certainly deadlines at work once I stopped playing golf, but I didn’t feel that same kind of pressure. I felt like I was losing a sense of fulfillment without it. When I started Frankie’s, it was so refreshing to realize that how it went was entirely up to me. There’s a power in realizing that you get to choose how you handle pressure - Frankie’s gave me the opportunity to tap back into that power.
What has been the most fun aspect for you of building Frankie’s?
I started Frankie’s last November so it’s still very early on. Knowing that there’s so much more for me to do to make it successful and so many things I can tap into is super fun for me. I will ask my husband and other people for their opinions on things, but it’s nice to know that I can do something just because I like it. I’ll also say that creating the community around it has been incredibly fun and really what Frankie’s is all about. I want to create a place where people get to experience Swedish culture, how I grew up, and understand why that’s so important to me. When I first moved to the US and decided to stay here after college, I think I tried to fit into American culture a bit too much and that made me feel a little lost. Experiencing that little bit of Swedish culture everyday with Frankie’s and sharing it with other people has reminded me of where I come from. That’s probably been the best part of it.
Many people I interview for the No Directions blog have created lives that are uniquely theirs in terms of how they live, work, and build their lives. What does the life that is uniquely yours look like today?
I think I’m still figuring that out. When I asked myself that question, I thought, “Wow, I'm probably not living the life that I want to be.” But then I thought, “If you’d asked me that question 10 years ago and given me a peek into the life I have right now, it’s probably a pretty accurate representation of what my dream would have been back then.” I try to remind myself of that - the life I have today is the life I wanted to have yesterday. If I want something else, I can change that for tomorrow. My husband and I both work really hard, and it’s definitely challenging when you’re tired after work to go do something different rather than sitting on the couch and watching TV, whether that’s getting outside for some fresh air, playing 9 holes, taking our dogs to the beach, or going for a week night dinner. I don’t want to just get stuck in a pattern where I have a 9 to 5 and then a 5 to 9 that looks exactly the same every day, so I’m trying to be intentional about changing it up.
What’s next for you?
My dream is to have my own store where people can go and pick their own candy mix in real life, just like I did when I was growing up in Sweden. I also want to allow Frankie’s to evolve into something more. When somebody asks me what I’m passionate about besides golf, I always say that I love to go into cute little shops and boutiques, and I love Scandinavian design and decor. I’ve always wanted to have my own shop. My biggest dream for Frankie’s is to do some pop-ups and evolve into a physical store for the Jacksonville community where I can share my love for Swedish candy and culture.