How do I specify collation when creating a table from select in mysql?

When creating a table with dynamically created and defined columns from a select result, how can I specify collation as you do when creating a table with column definitions?

i.e.

CREATE TABLE IF NOT EXISTS my_table (
  SELECT * FROM (
    SELECT ....
  ) )

The above creates the table with the dynamic columns just fine but it is not using the collation I want. It is using utf8_general_ci and I want it to be utf8_unicode_ci.

This below doesn't work

CREATE TABLE IF NOT EXISTS my_table (
  SELECT * FROM (
    SELECT ....
  ) ) DEFAULT CHARSET=utf8 DEFAULT COLLATE utf8_unicode_ci;

it gives error message indicating the commands are not valid at this position.

I realize the above suggestion is not valid, so what method for achieving this is? I've tried setting the database collation thinking this was setting a default for the database for all tables created but it doesn't appear to behave like that - or maybe I am not actually setting the default for the database when I ALTER the database collation. Is there a way to set a default for tables so they the first code block above creates the table using the desired collation?

The SELECT... results in the above code blocks refers to a variety of conditional/logical value setting using case/when statements, string parsing, and function results - it is not just selecting columns one-to-one from another table that has defined columns so it is not as simple as defining the other table's columns.

I have already tried setting the database collation ahead of time using ALTER DATABASE my_db DEFAULT CHARACTER SET utf8 DEFAULT COLLATE utf8_unicode_ci but this doesn't change the results. The tables are still created (and the columns in the tables) using utf8_general_ci when creating a table from a select (dynamically defined columns from select results)