From Coca-Cola to Dayo: Yolanda White on Building a Brand From Scratch

On this episode of From Here to There, Daphne Bryson Jackson talks with Yolanda White, who spent 17 years building some of the world’s biggest brands at Coca-Cola — working on Sprite, Cherry Coke, Powerade, and leading the launch of Vanilla Coke — before walking away to build something of her own.

Yolanda traces how a single conversation with a friend about what women actually wear when they get home turned into Dayo, a loungewear brand now eight years old. She talks candidly about reinvention in her 40s, the lessons (and failures) of building a brand from scratch, and the decision to bring her mother on as CEO so she could step back and diversify. The conversation closes on a bigger theme: why the old promise of “corporate for life” no longer holds for any generation — and what it means to build a “there” that isn’t just one destination, but many.

It’s an episode about purpose, timing, and what it looks like to build something meant to outlast you.

Daphne is host of the digital empowerment podcast and platform From Here to There and DETOUR’s Chief Visionary Officer.

This story was originally published July 16, 2026 at 9:00 AM with the headline "From Coca-Cola to Dayo: Yolanda White on Building a Brand From Scratch."