About Me

ABOUT MARIE

The short version: I'm a strategic marketing leader who obsesses over the details, trusts the data, and actually enjoys both the big-picture thinking and the execution that brings it to life.

The longer version:

I'm Marie Barclay — founder of MB Creative Company, and a marketing strategist with 15+ years of experience helping brands grow, connect with their audiences, and make smarter decisions.

My career has taken me from account management and data analysis in consumer goods, to leading marketing for a specialty retailer as a solo consultant for four years, to directing marketing communications across multiple brands simultaneously. Along the way I picked up a genuine obsession with data — enough to earn a Data Analytics certificate and build dashboards that actually get used by leadership.

I've called McHenry home for 16+ years. I've raised my kids here, rooted for local businesses here, and even spent years helping tell the story of this community as part of the McHenry County Living team. I know this area — the people, the businesses, the character of it — and there's nothing I enjoy more than helping a hometown business grow. If you're building something here, I get it in a way that someone parachuting in from the outside simply can't.

When I'm not working, you'll find me reading (always), making scrapbooks, or cheering way too loudly at something one of my kids is involved in.