About McHenry Life

McHenry Life?

Our mission is to help you make the most of your McHenry Life by discovering, experiencing, and exploring the best local businesses, events, and attractions right here in your backyard.

Meet Your Neighbors

Hi, we’re Brian and Jill Brown—your neighbors in Crystal Lake. With decades of combined experience in digital marketing and SEO, we built McHenry Life to use our expertise to connect our community and amplify local businesses.

Just like you…more or less.

We hope you’ll join us on this exploration by sharing some of your own experiences, and we’ll do our best to help you find new ones too.

Get to Know…

Brian R. Brown

As the visionary and technical lead, Brian brings a career’s worth of digital marketing and SEO expertise to the table. After years of working for global brands & digital agencies, he created McHenry Life to apply that knowledge locally—to promote and grow McHenry County businesses while helping residents (and himself!) feel more connected.

When it comes to the day to day operations, managing the website, writing content, and taking photographs, that falls on Brian.

Jill Kocher Brown

Jill, the editorial and guiding voice, ensures our content is trustworthy and reaches the right audience. While she directs an SEO team at a separate digital agency full-time, her role here focuses on providing strategic oversight, grounding, and high-level navigation for McHenry Life.

Identity Developments, LLC

McHenry Life, in and of itself, isn’t actually a company.

McHenry Life is powered by Identity Developments, LLC, our small, local company founded in 2003. We are committed to delivering the best service in helping McHenry County businesses market themselves online and providing a stable, reliable platform for the community.