April Barnard

So nice to meet you! First off, what’s your name? Tell our readers a bit about yourself—where you’re from originally and where you live now.

My name is April Barnard. I was born in Michigan and raised in East Texas, and East Texas is home in every way that counts. I'm based in the Longview area today, where I live and run my business.

I'm the founder and owner of Marketing with April, where I help small business owners get found, get clear, and grow with systems that actually work. Marketing has been in my blood since my first Commodore 64, and I spent over 20 years in corporate America before building the agency I'd always dreamed of. Along the way I served as Internet Services Manager for the nation's leading trailer manufacturer, Internet Services Manager for the top ranch equipment company, and I worked in internet marketing for a finance company and in radio. One of the roles that shaped me most was serving as Marketing Manager for BOSS Crane and Rigging and Bennett International, where I was over five divisions throughout Texas. All of it taught me processes, structure, and how to lead marketing across a lot of moving parts, and I carry every bit of it into the work I do for small businesses now.

At the heart of it, I'm a faith-driven entrepreneur, a proud mom of three, and a grandmother of seven. My mission is simple to say and serious to me: I bring clarity where there's overwhelm, so business owners can stop guessing and start growing with confidence.

Tell us one thing you love about where you live now.

One thing I love about living in East Texas is the people. This is still a place where folks know your name, show up when somebody's hurting, and take care of their own. I see it every year in the way this community rallies, whether it's raising money for local kids, standing behind a family going through a hard season, or a whole town turning out for a cause that matters. I get to live near my family, serve on the CASA board, and do business with people who treat you like a neighbor, because you are one. Big cities have a lot of things, but they don't have this, and I wouldn't trade it.

Tell us a little more about what your company does and how it started. How does it help your customers?

Marketing with April builds what I call Virtual Marketing Machines. That means we take everything a small business needs to get found and get customers, the website, Google presence, social media, advertising, and the customer management system behind it all, and we build it into one connected system that works together instead of a pile of separate pieces that don't talk to each other. Most small businesses don't have a marketing problem so much as a follow-through problem: leads come in and nobody answers fast enough, old customers never hear from them again, and good work stays invisible online. I call it Septic Business Syndrome, where things look fine on the surface but underneath, the business is quietly rotting. We fix the underneath.

The company started after more than 20 years of me doing marketing inside other people's companies. I loved the work, but I kept watching small business owners, the ones doing the actual work in their communities, get left behind because nobody would build them the same kind of systems the big companies had. A CEO I worked for used to tell me almost daily, "Trust the process," and it took me years to understand what he meant. One day I decided it was time to take the plunge and chase my own dream of helping small businesses succeed, and Marketing with April was born.

How does it help our customers? It gives them clarity and a foundation. The phone rings more because people can find them. Leads stop slipping through the cracks because the system follows up even when they're on a job site. And instead of wondering whether their marketing is doing anything, they can see it working. I build businesses a foundation that lasts, so growth stops feeling like luck and starts feeling predictable.

If someone wants to start a business, what advice would you give them?

First, get clear before you get busy. Most new business owners jump straight into working hard, and hard work matters, but hard work without clarity just makes you tired. Know who you serve, know what problem you solve for them, and be able to say it in one sentence a stranger understands.

Second, build your foundation from the very beginning, not after you're overwhelmed. Get your Google presence set up, get a simple system for capturing leads and following up, and keep your name in front of people. It doesn't have to be fancy. It has to be consistent. More businesses die from leads slipping through the cracks than from anything their competitors did.

Third, trust the process. It took me years to understand what that really means. Growth is rarely a straight line, and there will be seasons where you're doing everything right and the results haven't caught up yet. Don't quit in that gap. Stay consistent, keep showing up, and let the systems you built do their work.

And last, lead with serving people. Zig Ziglar said you can have everything in life you want if you'll just help other people get what they want, and that has been the cornerstone of my whole career. If you build your business around genuinely helping people, and you build it on a foundation that lasts, you'll be amazed at what God can do with it.

What is one piece of feedback from a happy customer or client that you won't forget?

One I won't forget came from a client whose entire product catalog we rebuilt from scratch, hundreds of listings, after his previous provider shut his website down. When he saw the finished work live, he wrote back: "Omg!! They look great! We did it!!" Three exclamation points and all. That "we" is what stayed with me. He didn't feel like a vendor had handed him something; he felt like we'd built it together. That's exactly how I want every client to feel when the work is done: not sold to, but partnered with.

Where do you see your company in the future?

I see Marketing with April as a scalable, seven-figure company with clear offers, strong systems, and a trusted team, serving small businesses all over, not just here in East Texas. The machines we build for clients today become the model: the same foundation, the same clarity, delivered with the same heart, at a much bigger scale. I also see my Get Found Queen brand growing alongside it, teaching business owners to be seen and understood in a marketplace that's only getting noisier.

But the future I'm building toward isn't just about the company's size. It's about what the company makes possible. I want a business that funds freedom, generosity, and legacy instead of consuming my life: time with my family, the ability to give where there's a need, and something my children and grandchildren can look at and say, that's what faith, hard work, and courage built. If we keep helping small businesses get clear, get found, and grow on foundations that last, the rest of that future takes care of itself.

What is the biggest misconception about your industry?

The biggest misconception in my industry is that small businesses believe they either can't afford to market, or they don't need to because they run on word of mouth.

Let me take the second one first. Word of mouth is wonderful, and I'm glad you have it, but word of mouth is not a marketing plan. You don't control it, you can't turn it up when you need more work, and it goes quiet exactly when times get slow. And here's what most owners miss: even when somebody hears your name from a friend, the very next thing they do is Google you. If they can't find you, or what they find looks neglected, that referral dies right there. Word of mouth and marketing don't compete with each other. Marketing is what makes your word of mouth worth something.

As for not being able to afford it: I understand the feeling, but I'd turn it around. Marketing done right isn't an expense, it's the foundation everything else sits on. You don't need a big budget to start. You need your Google presence claimed and kept up, a simple way to capture and follow up with every lead, and to stay in front of people consistently. The businesses that truly can't afford to market are the ones spending nothing to be found while their competitors show up first. What you can't afford is to be invisible.

What has been one of your biggest struggles building your business, and how did you deal with it?

One of my biggest struggles was growing too fast. I built Marketing with April into a six-figure business in three years, and honestly, the growth itself nearly became the problem. When you scale that quickly, every crack in your foundation shows up at once. More clients, more moving parts, more decisions, and if you don't have systems and a plan, the business you dreamed about starts running you instead of the other way around.

I dealt with it two ways. First, I went back to what I teach my own clients: get a plan and build the foundation. I mapped out where the business was going, built the systems to support the growth instead of just surviving it, and stopped trying to hold everything in my head. Second, and I believe this with my whole heart, I got help. I could not have done it if I didn't know where to go to get guidance.

Every business owner needs a mentor or a coach. Mine is Chad Patterson, and he has been an amazing resource for me. But here's the key: get a coach who mirrors your beliefs and who you respect enough to hold you accountable. A coach you don't respect won't tell you the hard truth, and even if they do, you won't act on it. The right coach sees what you can't see in your own business, calls you up to the standard you set for yourself, and helps you grow on purpose instead of by accident.

Who was your favorite music artist and athlete growing up?

Music, hands down, The Eagles. Their songs were the soundtrack of my growing-up years, and I still love them just as much today. There's a storytelling and a craftsmanship in their music that never gets old to me.

As for athletes, I have to be honest with you: I never really followed them. The people who inspired me weren't on a field; they were on stages and in books, teaching. Zig Ziglar was a huge influence on me, and so was Corey Rudl, one of the early pioneers of internet marketing. I took Corey's courses when online marketing was brand new, and I still have them. Those two men shaped how I think about business, serving people, and success more than any athlete ever could.

Any shoutouts you want to make?

Oh, absolutely. First and most important, my husband, my best friend. Without him standing beside me and pushing me, I would not be where I am today. He has been with me to the bottom and to the top and everywhere in between, and he never stopped believing in me or in what we were building. A huge thank you, from the bottom of my heart.

To my awesome team at Marketing with April: nothing we build happens by one person, and I'm grateful every day for the people who help me serve our clients well. To my amazing kids: you are my why, and I'm so proud of the people you are. And to my grandbabies: y'all keep me going. It's important to me to leave you a legacy you can be proud to be a part of, and that's exactly what I'm building. Three of them already fight consistently over who's going to take over Marketing with April one day, and they've made it clear that when that happens, the name is changing. So, watch out.

To my coach, Chad Patterson: thank you for the guidance, the accountability, and for believing in where this business is going, sometimes before I could see it myself. And to all my wonderful and inspiring clients: thank you for trusting me with your businesses and your dreams. Watching you grow is the best part of what I do, and I don't take a single one of you for granted.

Where can our readers learn more about you and your company?

You can learn more about me and my company at marketingwithapril.com, and you can follow along with us on Facebook at Marketing with April. That's where I share what we're building, what we're learning, and how we're helping small businesses grow.

If I could leave your readers with one thing, it's this: with hustle and grit, and standing firm in your faith, anything is possible. I've lived it, from the bottom to the top and everywhere in between, and I'm still living it every day.

"I can do all things through Christ who strengthens me." — Philippians 4:13