We recently connected with Nissa Smith and have shared our conversation below.

Nissa, thanks for joining us, excited to have you contributing your stories and insights. So let’s jump to your mission – what’s the backstory behind how you developed the mission that drives your brand?

15 years ago I lost my mom by Suicide to Depression. She had struggled for quite sometime and her loss was life changing for me.

After her loss it was sometime before I realized that the way she lost her life did not need to be “brushed under the rug” so to speak. I found the Out of Darkness walk through a friend and it was a complete eye opener for me. I realized I was not alone. Many others had gone through a similar loss. Suicide and Mental Health have such a stigma surrounding them that no one talks about it and to find this community was huge for me.

After years of fundraising for the American Foundation for Suicide Prevention I started my own Non-profit in 2020, 4 One 2 Cares, and in 2021 held my first event, the Wayland Hot Air Balloonfest. My non profit works to bring awareness through events and activities. Our goal is to have a safe space to encourage conversations. We want a place for those struggling to be able to smile and have fun and to know they are not alone.

Nissa, before we move on to more of these sorts of questions, can you take some time to bring our readers up to speed on you and what you do?

Every day I stop and think to myself these exact questions, how did I get here!? I can’t believe it’s real life sometimes and hard to believe it’s been three years since I opened my first business.

2019 I opened my first business. Four short months before COVID shut the world down I opened my restaurant, 4 One 2 Distillery. We took ownership of the building October 25, 2019 and opened our doors 3 weeks later. A lot of sleepless nights went into planning a menu that the town needed and turning the building around for our needs. We were doing great until we were told we could no longer be open for dine in and had to switch to only to go. We put our creative minds together and actually built our menu by adding 54 more tacos, wings and rolled ice cream. We prided ourselves on being different, with even putting french fries on our tacos among other things! We also were able to make hand sanitizer, something that was in high demand at that time. We donated as much sanitizer as we could back to our community, along with meals for those struggling through the pandemic the most. Being able to give back then and continue to do now is something that is very important to me.

In 2020 I started my non-profit, 4 One 2 Cares, which raises awareness for Suicide Prevention and Mental Health. The non-profit was a goal of mine for a long time. I lost my mom by suicide to depression 15 years ago. She struggled for a long time with her disease and losing her was life changing for me. I started fundraising for the American Foundation for Suicide Prevention a couple years after losing my mom. I never realized then that so many had gone through what I had and wanted to be able to do more to lift the stigma that surrounds suicide and mental health.

2021 I held my first Wayland Hot Air Balloonfest to raise awareness for Suicide Prevention. The event is held in Wayland MI at Calkins Field. Our first year was a one day event full of music, vendors, car show, and of course hot air balloons. Our 2022 event was a 2 day festival and a huge success. To see the smiles on the faces of our community watching these huge balloons in the sky was so rewarding. All I wanted to accomplish was to create an event to bring people together again after being cooped up and give them a reason to smile. I wanted those who may be struggling to have a safe space to talk and to be themselves and, most importantly, to be happy. I am so grateful for all of the support we received.

I think if I had to choose something I am most proud of it is my non-profit and my work for the balloonfest. I am still blown away by how everything came together after working so hard with every minute I had. I am so thankful for my boyfriend, my committee, the pilots, volunteers, bands, and vendors that helped to make the event such a success as well. I could not have asked for a better team.

Can you tell us about a time you’ve had to pivot?

2019 I had been working in what I thought would be a career I would retire in. I had a comfortable position with a great company and loved my job.

I started dating a very special guy that year who showed me how to think outside of the box and encouraged me to take a chance! His encouragement is what led me to opening 4 One 2 (named after our birthdays, April 12).

As we planned for the restaurant my goal was to keep my career because I have 3 boys who I needed to make sure were taken care of. After a month of getting the restaurant ready and opening our doors I realized I could not put 100% into both my career at the time and 4 One 2. I needed to make a big decision and looking back I made the right one. I walked away from my comfortable position and put 100% into the restaurant. Even through all the ups and downs and struggles I have never regretted my decision.

We’d love to hear the story of how you built up your social media audience?

Social media is a huge platform for our business and it took some learning for me to realize what an impact it has.

When we opened the restaurant it was all about suspense and building interest. We talked about what was coming on our personal pages, along with our business page constantly. We would post pictures and ask our followers to guess what they thought it could be. The engaging posts spikes interest and involves the audience.

We worked diligently to remain active on social media. We post regularly and mix it up. Pictures of our product go a long way. Our sales change drastically when we post pictures of those items. We work to engage our audience by encouraging them to tag a friend or share the post and to reward our fans for doing this we will give a gift card.

We have started to give out free ice cream for a letter of the day. This has been a huge success for us. Our audience looks forward to their special day and will let their friends know by tagging them.

If I had any advise when it comes to social media is to post and post often and boost those posts, Find out what time of day seems to get the most engagement. Post pictures of product, post silly things (we use taco memes a lot!). Get feedback from your audience about decisions you might be making, like a new product name or a color for the bathroom. Anything that encourages shares and comments.

Contact Info:

• Website: 4one2distillery.com
• Facebook: 4 One 2 Cares, 4 One 2 Distillery

Image Credits
Bryce Tufts (the balloon pics and logos