Dr. Lynette Charity grew up in the 1950s in the segregated South, and was one of the first black students to attend her high school. She faced plenty of doubt when she announced she was planning to become a doctor, but ultimately she succeeded.
Dr. Charity graduated with honors from Chatham College for Women in Pittsburgh, PA on a full academic scholarship, and earned her medical degree from Tufts University School of Medicine. She became an expert in anesthesiology, working in hospitals and for the U.S. army. But after a 35-year career, she was ready for a change.
When she knew she was looking for something else, Lynette turned to SEAK for help. But none of the alternate career paths they had set out really appealed to her. Luckily, through SEAK she met career coach Heather Fork, who was able to roll with Lynette’s unconventional dreams for her career change.
When Lynette said, "Heather, I want to be a stand-up comic, lounge singer, voiceover actor," Heather didn’t back down. Instead, she convinced Lynette to sign up for Toastmasters, so she could take the first steps toward becoming a professional speaker. Lynette was resistant at first. After all, she’d given lectures and presentations for years. But she learned quickly that lecturing to a room full of medical students and residents was a far cry from the kind of public speaking she needed to learn.
So she dove in, and started making Toastmasters speeches, using their programs to learn confidence, communication and the elements of storytelling. And, as it turned out, she was actually pretty good at it.
Learning to Shine Lynette’s mentors at Toastmasters were seriously impressed with her talent, and they encouraged her to compete in speaking competitions. Her very first year, she won the competition in her district. She competed again the following year and made it all the way to the World Championships of Public Speaking finals held in Kuala Lumpur, Malaysia.
She was able to share her story about growing up in the South with a completely new, international audience, and she placed third worldwide. It wasn’t first prize, but it was a huge success—and it felt good.
“I was a rockstar! I felt really good walking around with my big old trophy. And this was a foreign country, and I was telling a story about the fact that I had grown up in the segregated South in the 1950s… And I did it using the Wizard of Oz, because a lot of foreign people don't know anything about segregation in America, so I tried to relate it to that, and I sang, I danced. I did it all in that speech! And people came up to me later on, wanting to know more about that part of history that they didn't know anything about.”
Lynette knew she’d found what she wanted to do: speak, connect, and make people laugh. Now she just needed to find out how to make it into a career.
Listen to the entire episode to hear the rest of Lynette's story. And go to the show notes at vitalpe.net/episode062 for links to all of the resources mentioned duing our conversation.
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