By Women, For Women: How One Entrepreneur Built a Business Where Women Can Thrive

Tracy Marlowe (EO Sacramento)

In celebration of Women’s Entrepreneurship Day, EO is sharing the story of EO Sacramento member Tracy Marlowe, who built a marketing, branding, and advertising agency not only to serve her clients but to empower the women who work for her.

When Tracy Marlowe’s daughter was six months old, she realized her life had become a blur of deadlines and diaper changes — and she was not meeting her own standards in either.

“I was working long hours, 60 hours a week, and I just got to the point where I realized that I was sacrificing motherhood for this job,” she recalls. “I did not feel like I was fully present for either. I was not being a great mom. I was killing it at my job, but at the same time my heart was not in it anymore.”

So, she quit.

After regrouping, Tracy began building client relationships. “I reached out to somebody I knew and said, ‘Hey, I am working on my own now if you ever need anybody,’” she says. “That was my first client.”

Today, the resultant company, Creative Noggin, is a thriving, fully remote, all-women agency. Tracy, meanwhile, has become a vocal advocate for building women-centric workplaces. Creative Noggin has been recognized by Adweek as one of the fastest growing agencies in the world and Tracy won a Sacramento Business Journal Most Admired CEO award in 2025 only two years after relocating to the city. “Leading an all-women team allows me to serve as a positive catalyst far beyond anything I could have imagined,” she says.

Tracy and other recipients of the Sacramento Business Journal's Most Admired CEO award.

Built with Intention

In 2008, long before “remote-first” became a corporate buzzword, Tracy made it her company’s identity. “We are going to be 100 percent remote, and we are actually going to make it part of our brand,” she says. “You are investing in talent, not in cool offices. It was a gamble that paid off.”

During the Great Recession, while traditional firms faltered, Creative Noggin grew 300 percent year over year. And when the pandemic later forced other companies to adjust to remote work, Tracy’s team was already adept in navigating a virtual environment.

“When women come together as a collective, we can achieve so much more than we ever could independently. If you trust women and give them the right space, they can do it all.”

- Tracy Marlowe (EO Sacramento)

In time, she noticed a pattern: The women she hired shared her hunger for independence and balance. Above all, they wanted to be trusted and empowered. She had not initially set out to create a women-only agency but seemed to attract the sort of employees who thrived in that environment. “It was a happy accident,” she says. “I had built something basically to empower myself as a mom.”

What began as a personal means of finding balance grew into a company that enabled other women to do the same. One employee gets out a bit early every Tuesday to work as a local radio DJ. Another raises show dogs and has the freedom to take them on trips to compete. Rather than admonishing them for time away, Tracy gives them space to pursue those outside passions and trusts that they will still execute day-to-day. “That is what my mission is,” she says. “It is to empower smart, passionate women to enjoy their work and life. That is what we stand for.”

Her team of more than 20 communicates more closely now than she ever experienced in brick-and-mortar offices. “There were doors and walls — silos,” she says. “Whereas we are all collaborating all day long and communicating. We have an open flow of communication, but it is by design.”

That sort of trust and connection has bred loyalty, and employee turnover is almost nonexistent. “Once you get somewhere and it just fits like a glove, you say, ‘OK, I do not need to keep looking because, at the end of the day, I am not looking to climb the ladder anymore. I am looking just to do good work,’” she says.  

Tracy and her daughter, Maya. 

Elevated by EO

In 2018, as Creative Noggin continued to grow, Tracy sought a community of peers who understood both the joys and pressures of entrepreneurship. Joining Entrepreneurs’ Organization, she says, “changed my life.”

“I joined thinking it was all about business and it ended up being so much more,” she says. “It helped me peel my own personal onion very quickly and helped me to level up as a leader.”

Through her all-women Bridge Forum — EO’s first in the United States — Tracy soon found meaningful connections with fellow women leaders throughout the global organization. “Being around them helped me elevate my own leadership,” she says. “The folks in my business actually said to me, ‘We can see a difference since you joined EO. You are a different leader.’” In fact, when she briefly mulled leaving EO after several years, they begged her to stay and continue her growth trajectory.

Today, Creative Noggin thrives by doing purpose-driven work: More than 70 percent of its clients are nonprofits or mission-based organizations. Her agency’s successes are proof that empathy and flexibility are not liabilities — they are advantages. “When women come together as a collective, we can achieve so much more than we ever could independently,” she says. “If you trust women and give them the right space, they can do it all.”

Interested in becoming an EO member like Tracy? Learn more here.