Kai Walsh

Meet Kai Walsh, a digital marketing strategist and social entrepreneur. In this interview, they share what it’s like to help organizations with their digital marketing and search engine optimization (SEO), what a day in the life is like when you work for yourself, and how they creatively work with businesses to make a difference for the LGBTQ+ community.

Click here to watch Kai’s interview.

Kai identifies as transmasculine, nonbinary, queer, pansexual, and neurodivergent. Two years ago they founded Kai Consulting, a digital marketing consulting agency specializing in search engine optimization (SEO). They also launched The Queer Umbrella, a trans-founded, queer-led platform for accessing the LGBTQ+ community.

In college, Kai majored in French and Communication Studies, with a minor in Marketing. When asked about how their education connects to their career, they shared that their communication major was “a really important part of my own journey…I always kind of tended toward queer topics while I was studying. And that really helped me understand my identity and who I was, because I had to do that work before I could really get to a place where I could do regular career work. So I think that was really special.”

Kai Walsh Kai shared that they came out as nonbinary and began using they/them pronouns when working at a marketing agency. “I think especially in the workplace that something so important is to feel safe and comfortable enough to correct people,” they said.

“Something that I would tell myself at the beginning of all of this, while I was just first navigating transness in my career is, don’t be afraid to take up space. And you’re allowed to be yourself and to take up your space and tell people your identity and have them respect that. Like that is a bare minimum.” They advise LGBTQ+ job seekers to look for “companies that are genuinely supportive of queer and trans people and make sure that they are walking the walk and not just talking the talk.”

Their advice to people interested in pursuing digital marketing is to network and to learn about trends related to the industry in blogs, articles, and podcasts. “It’s so important to be talking to as many people as you can,” they said. “Ask specific questions…about what their work looks like, and see if that aligns with you, see if that’s something that you are passionate about.”

Check out the interview below, where Kai shares more about their day-to-day work and how they work toward LGBTQ+ inclusion in business.

If you’d like to get in touch with Kai, you can contact them via their website or connect with them on LinkedIn.