From Software Engineer to Personal Brand Guru: Lessons from Rhona Barnett-Pierce

A shocking truth about your career is that everything you've been taught about building a professional reputation is wrong. The old rules of resumes, networking, and gatekeepers are dead. You may think your career is safe by staying quiet, but you're actually leaving your future to chance—or worse, to what others say about you when you're not in the room. You're in a passive state, allowing others to control your narrative. But a shift is happening, and it's time to take control of your story.

The secret isn't about getting a new job but about building a personal brand. You may be thinking to yourself: "How do I do that without being cringy?"

In this week’s episode, I am with Rhona Pierce, a personal branding expert! She’s going to reveal a new way to approach your career and personal brand that will change how you think about professional growth forever.

📺 Watch the full episode here: https://youtu.be/1A65sXU8fXk

The Power of Video: A Career-Changing Discovery

Rhona's story begins with a challenge many professionals face: starting over in a new market. Originally from Panama, where she had a successful career as a regional operations manager for a software development company, Rhona moved to Tulsa, Oklahoma, for love. What she thought would be a simple transition turned into a years-long struggle to break into the U.S. job market.

"I thought I would come here, take some time and be like, okay, I'm gonna be a new wife, take a few months off and then I'll just find a job. I was absolutely wrong and totally underestimated how hard it would be," Rhona shared. Despite her extensive experience, including work with American companies like Dell, she could only secure entry-level positions as a Spanish interpreter.

The breakthrough came from frustration and creativity. "One day I was so frustrated because it's like when you know you can do more than what you're doing," she explained. Her solution was unconventional for 2011: she created a 90-second video introducing herself and her background, then included the YouTube link in her job applications.

The results were immediate and dramatic. "I kid you not, I started getting interviews," she said. Most remarkably, she landed her first U.S. job at a company that had previously rejected her application—the only difference was the addition of the video.

Understanding Personal Branding vs. Personal Brand

One of the most valuable insights from the conversation was Rhona's distinction between having a personal brand and actively engaging in personal branding. "Everyone has a personal brand," she explained, referencing Jeff Bezos' definition: "what people say about you when you're not in the room."

However, personal branding is different. "Personal branding is the very intentional set of steps you take to teach people what to say about you when you're not in the room." This distinction is crucial because it shifts the focus from passive reputation to active reputation management.

The Strategic Framework for Personal Branding According to Rhona

Rhona outlined a clear framework for building an effective personal brand:

1. Define What You Want to Be Known For

"First of all, you have to be clear on what you want to be known for," she emphasized. This doesn't mean committing to one thing forever—it means being intentional about your current focus. As she noted about her own evolution: "I was a software engineer, recruiter, now personal branding, video strategist, like what do you wanna be known for today?"

2. Choose One Platform to Start

"Choose one to start. Don't try to go everywhere because you know how it goes when you start trying to do every with everything and you end up doing nothing." This advice counters the common mistake of spreading efforts too thin across multiple platforms.

3. Make It About Your Audience, Not You

Perhaps the most counterintuitive insight: "Your personal brand with the word personal in it, it's not about you. It's about what people believe you can do for them." This shift from self-promotion to value creation is what separates effective personal branding from the "cringy people that we see out there that are just me, me, me, me, me, me."

The Power of Controlling Your Narrative

Rhona shared an example of how personal branding can protect your reputation. She shared a story about being approached for a job where, during the reference check process, someone provided negative feedback about her. However, her strong online brand presence convinced the hiring team that the negative reference was an outlier rather than representative of who she was.

"My brand was so strong that they're like, that has to be something like with that person. Yeah, that doesn't check out," she recalled.

This is the real power of proactively managing your professional narrative rather than leaving it to chance or potentially biased sources.

Quality Over Quantity: Why Follower Count Doesn't Matter

If you are new and feel like this hill is too high to climb, don’t fret. Real impact doesn't require massive followings. Rhona became a LinkedIn Top Voice with just 1,400 followers and secured her first brand deal with fewer than 1,000 followers.

"It doesn't matter. If you're doing good, if you're putting out great content, if you're putting stuff like that, people will notice," she emphasized. This message counters the common misconception that you need viral content or massive audiences to build an effective personal brand.

Practical Takeaways for Getting Started

Here are a couple of actionable insights for professionals looking to build their personal brands:

1. Start Small and Local: Rhona suggested that aspiring speakers can "call up any nonprofit right now and start speaking" to gain experience and build credibility.

2. Focus on Value Creation: Before creating any content, ask "Why am I talking?" and ensure your message serves your audience's needs.

3. Be Patient with the Process: Both speakers emphasized that personal branding is a long-term investment. Rhona started 13 years ago, and Trent began in 2011—success doesn't happen overnight.

4. Embrace Authenticity Over Perfection: The conversation highlighted the importance of being genuine rather than polished, drawing parallels to why people prefer reality TV over highly produced content.

The Future of Personal Branding

The future is bright for personal branding, even if you are just starting out today. As Rhona noted, "the days of all you do is show up to a job are gone." Professionals are increasingly expected to have a voice and perspective beyond their immediate job responsibilities.

This shift benefits everyone: employees gain more career security and opportunities, while companies benefit from authentic advocates who understand their customers' real challenges and questions.

Final Thoughts

Rhona's journey from frustrated job seeker to personal branding expert is the best example of taking control of your professional narrative. Her success didn't come from following traditional rules but from identifying a gap—the inability of resumes to convey personality and capability—and creatively addressing it with video content.

The key message throughout the conversation was clear: personal branding isn't about self-promotion or building a massive following. It's about strategically and authentically sharing your expertise in ways that serve others while building the professional reputation you want to have.

We're living in an unprecedented time where anyone can control their professional narrative without needing PR teams or traditional gatekeepers. The question isn't whether you should build a personal brand—it's whether you'll be intentional about shaping the story people tell about you when you're not in the room.