Working with Michelle Obama: A chat with Chynna Clayton

143: Empathetic, strategic, and meticulous about the details,
Chynna Clayton has built a career enabling some of the world’s
most influential leaders to excel in high stress environments.


Chynna is the founder and CEO of Matriarch Made Development, a
consulting firm that centers around helping companies and
organizations develop high performing administrative teams,
identify and address overall operating structure and event
logistics inefficiencies and further cultivate assistant’s
talents.


Named in honor of the four generations of maternal women who have
paved the way for her to mature into the woman she has become
today, Matriarch Made was founded on the principles that enabled
Chynna to build a distinguished career in personal, government,
and corporate environments.


Raised by a single mother in Miami, Florida, on the outskirts of
Liberty City. Chynna studied Event Management and Political
Science with a minor in Business at the University of Florida. A
proud Florida gator, Chynna’s time at UF helped her to gain
exposure to event management as a White House intern during the
Obama administration. Upon graduation, Chynna spent years
supporting the Obama’s advance logistical teams until leaving her
administrative role at The Walt Disney Company to ultimately
become the “body-woman” of former First Lady Michelle Obama. In
this capacity, Chynna helped Mrs. Obama connect with communities
around the world. She ensured every detail of Mrs. Obama’s
personal and public facing events were executed flawlessly,
directing teams who coordinated Mrs. Obama’s domestic and
international engagements.


At the conclusion of the Obama administration, Chynna was
retained by the personal office of Barack and Michelle Obama as
their Director of Travel and Event Operations, where she
continued to help manage the personal obligations of their family
while continuing to oversee the coordination of Mrs. Obama’s
engagements.


Now at Matriarch Made Development, Chynna helps leaders build
core competencies such as but not limited to organization,
teamwork, communication, problem solving, accountability and
composure in administrative and executive teams. From executive
training and coaching to equipping organizations with tools such
as scheduling systems, templates, tactics, processes/procedures,
events logistics guidance; Matriarch Made helps leading
organizations build a systems approach to tackling the
inefficiencies that stifle overall potential.


Chynna was most recently highlighted in Michelle Obama’s newly
released book, “The Light We Carry.” She has written for O
Magazine; been featured in Essence, the Miami Herald, the
University of Florida Health and Human Performance Magazine, the
Netflix Documentary “Becoming,” and the Michelle Obama Spotify
Podcast. Chynna strives every day to be an inspiration for young
girls, especially those who have experienced similar life
challenges. Chynna resides in Washington, DC with her wife Katina
Hoyles.


Links:

Episode on YouTube: https://youtu.be/2FWphgr6AbA 

Chynna's Website: https://www.chynnaclayton.com/
Chynna on
LinkedIn: https://www.linkedin.com/in/chynna-clayton-248b145b/


Diana on
LinkedIn: https://www.linkedin.com/in/diana-brandl/
The Future Assistant
Newsletter: https://the-socialista-projects.com/#newsletter


Podcast on
Spotify: https://open.spotify.com/show/3qBSDjTfYOG2x6qos7dKkS

Podcast on Apple
Podcast: https://podcasts.apple.com/de/podcast/the-future-assistant/id1493106661