Celine Ivari is a scientist and the founder of Wholyme, a self-care brand built around intention, prevention, and long-term well-being. Inspired by watching her mother navigate a chronic autoimmune condition, Celine developed the formula that would eventually become Wholyme’s Relief Balm, and began a journey that took her from human biology and genetics to entrepreneurship.

Celine joins Julia to get honest about what it actually takes to build a consumer brand from the ground up. She shares the persistence that helped her break into major retailers, the behind-the-scenes realities of manufacturing and compliance, why she refused to compromise on her formulations, and how listening closely to customers shaped Wholyme’s growth.

They also dig into the more personal side of entrepreneurship: separating your identity from the role you’ve always played, becoming comfortable as the face of your company, taking leaps before you feel ready, and dealing with the constant temptation to compare your progress to everyone else’s.

Celine also shares the perspective that helps her when the finish line feels impossibly far away: sometimes you have to stop looking at how far you still have to go and recognize just how far you’ve already come.

Buckle up for an honest conversation about persistence, self-care, fear, ambition, and building something you truly believe in.

You can find Wholyme at https://wholyme.com, on Instagram @wholyme_official, on TikTok @wholyme, and on LinkedIn linkedin.com/company/wholyme. Follow Celine on Instagram @celine_ivari and connect on LinkedIn linkedin.com/in/celine-ivari-077278b2

See omnystudio.com/listener for privacy information.

What does it actually take to build a brand that shapes culture? And how do you know when it’s time to leave something successful to build what’s next?

Kyle Bryan is the founder of Function Global, a strategic partnership agency connecting the corporate and creative worlds across fashion, luxury, entertainment, and culture. Before launching Function Global, Kyle spent a decade as Brand Director at LaQuan Smith, helping transform the label into a globally recognized luxury brand through strategic partnerships, celebrity relationships, runway productions, and collaborations.

In this episode of If I’m Honest, Kyle joins Julia Landauer for a candid conversation about breaking into the notoriously exclusive fashion industry, becoming an encyclopedia of your craft, and why genuine relationships can be one of the most powerful tools in building a career. Kyle shares the strategy behind creating a luxury ecosystem around LaQuan Smith, the importance of identifying the “white space” everyone else is missing, and what years of high-pressure wins, setbacks, and pivots taught them about resilience.

Kyle also opens up about stepping away after a decade to launch Function Global, building a company in stealth mode, and why their focus now is simple: do good business, create meaningful partnerships, and build work that can actually shift culture.

Buckle up for an honest conversation about ambition, intentionality, relationships, reinvention, and doing the work so that when your next chapter arrives, you’re ready for it.

You can find Function Global at https://function-global.com and on Instagram at @function.global. You can follow Kyle on Instagram at @kyleabryan.

See omnystudio.com/listener for privacy information.

What does it take to build a new American luxury automotive brand in an industry defined by more than a century of heritage?

Kristie D’Ambrosio-Correll is the co-founder and CEO of Dacora, an American luxury automotive house combining coach-built craftsmanship, deeply personalized design, and AI-native technology. Before Dacora, Kristie served as CTO of Mirror, helping scale the company through its $500 million acquisition by Lululemon. Now, she’s applying those lessons to an entirely different kind of challenge: building a car company from the ground up.

In this episode of If I’m Honest, Julia and Kristie talk about the childhood experiences that sparked her love of building, learning to trust her own creative instincts, and why putting your vision into the world can feel more like risking rejection than risking failure.

Kristie also shares what Mirror taught her about growth and profitability, why Dacora is taking a more patient approach to building a company, what it means to “hustle softer,” and how she thinks about creating a luxury brand without 100 years of heritage behind it. They dig into designing cars for a wider range of people (not just the 95th-percentile male) the role of AI in creating a more human driving experience, and what it’s really like to build a company alongside your spouse.

Most importantly, Kristie offers a different way to think about success: celebrate the milestones along the way, accept that the story will be messier than it looks from the outside, and don’t stop writing it just because things get hard.

Buckle up for an honest conversation about creativity, conviction, partnership, resilience, and building the thing you’d regret never trying.

Learn more about Dacora at https://www.dacora.com and @dacoramotors on Instagram.

See omnystudio.com/listener for privacy information.