Today we’d like to introduce you to Lisa Kang.
Hi Lisa, so excited to have you on the platform. So before we get into questions about your work-life, maybe you can bring our readers up to speed on your story and how you got to where you are today?
I was born in Connecticut and raised by a single mother whose tenacity became my earliest curriculum. I was a latchkey kid from a young age, looking after my younger sister while my mom worked, and I started working as soon as I was old enough. There was no version of my childhood where I sat around waiting for things to happen. I became the first person in my family to graduate from college — a milestone that, in my house, signaled not arrival but activation.
My career began in arts marketing as Director of Marketing and Public Relations at The New Haven Symphony Orchestra, where we brought the orchestra to Carnegie Hall, and I developed the first young professionals’ organization in the country. From there, I went to the Seattle Symphony as Associate Director of Marketing, helping launch Benaroya Hall, their new concert hall. Then on to Detroit as Vice President of Marketing and Communications for Detroit Science Center, during the institution’s full-scale reopening. I moved to Chapel Hill with my husband and our two-year-old daughter, Emma, when he accepted a position at UNC-Chapel Hill to create Carolina Performing Arts.
In Chapel Hill, I moved from supporting other people’s institutions to building one of my own. In 2006, I became the founding Executive Director of North Carolina Arts in Action (NCAIA), an affiliate of Jacques d’Amboise’s National Dance Institute (NDI). Jacques was the legendary former principal dancer of the New York City Ballet who had spent decades proving that dance could unlock confidence, discipline, and joy in children. He believed in what we were doing and would fly down from New York to help us get it off the ground. Kay Gayner, one of his most trusted teaching artists, came down from New York to serve as artistic director. We started with one school — Rashkis Elementary — one class, a hundred kids. Today, NCAIA reaches thousands of children across multiple counties. As a child, I was exposed to dance and music, and as a result, I have always believed that access to the arts is not ornamental but transformative, and that conviction is what drove the work.
Then, we lost Maizie, our Welsh Springer Spaniel, at 14 years old. She had been part of our family longer than Emma had. And shortly thereafter, our other dog, Spike, an American Cocker Spaniel, passed. Anyone who has loved a dog knows what their absence did to the house. In the quiet that followed, I started walking other people’s dogs around the neighborhood. Not as a business. Just because being around them helped — and because I had time, and I understood the need for dogs to have exercise and stimulation. One walk turned into two. A neighbor told a friend. The friend told a friend.
Later that same year, in 2010, I made it official and started Walk & Wag. The first version was me, a leash, and a notebook. I did every walk myself and met every client. Word got around — Chapel Hill and Carrboro turned out to have a need for the kind of professional pet care business I wanted to build. One walker became two, then five, then a dozen. Today, Walk & Wag has 40+ team members and serves over 600 active client families.
Building this business from the ground up is the work I am most proud of. I built it the only way I knew how — one relationship at a time. Every client started as a person I met at their front door with their furry friend. Every team member is someone I personally interview and bring on because I trust them to carry the same values I built the company around: care, compassion, commitment, and excellence. Sixteen years in, Walk & Wag is bigger than I ever planned, but the reason behind it has not changed. My love of dogs!
We all face challenges, but looking back would you describe it as a relatively smooth road?
Smooth would be the wrong word.
The hardest part came before the business even started. We lost our dogs and grief has a way of redirecting a life. Walking other people’s dogs was how I got through it. Turning that into a real company — I was walking away from a director title to pick up leashes. I heard plenty of polite skepticism.
The early years were the next hurdle. I was doing every walk myself, building the client base and handling the business side of running a service company, learning more about dogs and dog behavior, and educating people that professional pet care was worth what it cost. Pet sitting has a low barrier to entry — anyone with a leash can call themselves a dog walker — so there is always someone willing to do it cheaper. Teaching the market the difference between inexpensive and professional took time. I was also a busy mother to Emma and a supportive spouse to Emil as he was building Carolina Performing Arts at UNC.
Hiring at scale was a steep curve. Finding people who could meet our standards — care, compassion, commitment, excellence — and who were willing to work 365 days a year, including holidays and in unpleasant weather, is hard. I made a few hiring mistakes and learned the hard way that one bad walker can damage trust that it took years to build. Now we have an extensive multi-level interview process that requires an interview with my human resources team member, an interview with me, and a walk along with a senior team member, as well as background and reference checks. Growing from one woman to 40+ team members meant I also had to learn how to be a manager, not just a pet sitter. Leading people is a completely different skill set, and I learned through doing.
COVID was brutal in a different way. Roughly half our work was midday dog walks for clients at the office, and overnight, the schools closed, the stay-at-home order came down, and nobody needed a midday walk. Even clients who could have used the help were not letting anyone into their homes. We pivoted hard — pet taxis to the vet, supply drop-offs, being a lifeline for clients who could not leave the house or worked in the medical field. We got the team the Pet Sitters International COVID certification and kept everyone safe. The business survived because clients stayed loyal, the team stayed together, and we adapted faster than we knew we could. Since my husband had a paying position, I did not take a salary and ensured my team members were paid.
And then there is the part nobody talks about. We lose pets we have cared for for many years. We sit with families through the grief and pain. That does not get easier; you learn to carry it.
Great, so let’s talk business. Can you tell our readers more about what you do and what you think sets you apart from others?
Walk & Wag is a pet sitting and dog walking company serving Chapel Hill and Carrboro since 2010. We offer one-on-one care — dog walks and runs, cat visits, overnight in-home stays, vacation visits with multiple drop-ins per day, pet taxi service to the vet or groomer, and a pet concierge service for food and supplies. We look after dogs, cats, hamsters, guinea pigs, rabbits, chickens, fish — whoever lives at the house.
The team is what makes the difference. We have 40+ professional pet sitters and dog walkers serving more than 600 active clients, and I have personally hired every one of them. Every walker is interviewed by me, face to face, because the four things I refuse to compromise on — care, compassion, commitment, and excellence — cannot be screened for through an app. Our walkers come from extraordinary backgrounds. PhDs, pilots, teachers, lawyers, grad students, personal trainers, even a professional soccer goalie. They share two things: a real history with animals and the reliability you only get from people who treat this as a profession. Most own pets, several volunteer with shelters, a few are dog trainers, vet techs and former clients, and all of them know that showing up at 6 a.m. in the rain for a senior dog with arthritis is the actual job.
Our clients do not stay because of an algorithm or a gig-economy platform. They stay because we know every animal by name and temperament, and because trust is built through showing up. Clients get daily reports through our software Time To Pet — walk length, route, feeding, photos, video, the whole picture. When something seems off with a pet, we catch it early and tell the family. We work alongside trainers when a dog needs extra help. And we keep the same walker assigned to your pet whenever possible, because that bond matters to the animal and to the household.
We’ve been featured locally in Chapel Hill Magazine, WRAL, and Indy Week, and nationally in PetPlace, Woman’s Day, AARP, and ThriveGlobal. Chapel Hill Magazine included me in their Women’s Issue feature on remarkable women in the community and in their At First Light photo series on hard-working early risers — that one ran with a picture of Emma and me at sunrise. The recognition that actually means something to me is the client who has been with us for over a decade and still texts me photos of her dog or cat.
What matters most to you?
People. I built this company through relationships — with clients, with team members, with the pets we care for — and every decision I make comes back to that. Growing up with a single mom who worked all the time, I learned that the people who show up for you are the ones who matter, and the way you treat people is the only thing you can really control. That shaped how I run Walk & Wag.
Maizie & Spike. They are dogs that inspired me when they passed on, and that is why Walk & Wag exists. Every walker we hire, every client we take on, every visit — it all traces back to my dogs, who taught me what it feels like to love an animal that much, and what it feels like when they are gone.
Values: care, compassion, commitment, honesty, and excellence. They are not just words on a wall; they guide every hiring decision and shape how we hold ourselves accountable. Care gets you out the door at sunrise. Compassion tells you when a senior dog needs a gentler pace. Commitment means showing up every day, including holidays and thunderstorms. Excellence is our standard in the smallest details, because those are what pets and their families notice most.
Family. My husband and Emma are the reason I was able to work in a town I love. The clients and pets we’ve cared for over the years feel like extended family, too. We’ve been there through new babies, new puppies, divorces, deaths, moves, illnesses. People let us into the most ordinary and most tender parts of their lives, and that is not something I take lightly.
And the daily walk. We have a three-year-old Corgi named Zelda, and walking her every morning is my most treasured part of the day. There is a small community of dog people I see at the park each morning — same faces, same dogs, same easy conversation. After fifteen years of building a company around dog walks, I still find that the walk itself is where I find my happiness. The dogs know it. The people know it. That hour is why all the rest of it matters.
Pricing:
- Dog Walk [30 mins] $30
- Dog Walk [45 mins] $40
- Dog Walk [60 mins] $50
- Cat Care [30 mins] $30
- Overnight Pet Care [12 hrs] $128
Contact Info:
- Website: https://www.walkandwagchapelhill.com
- Instagram: https://www.instagram.com/walkandwagchapelhill?igsh=NjBvb3Jyc2Fyemxz
- Facebook: https://facebook.com/walkandwagchapelhill
