Kalamazoo business owner Erica Smith built Fortunate Fourth Creations, an art and marketing company, out of years of personal setbacks.
Smith shared her story on “All Stories Matter,” a community creator video podcast program on Public Media Network hosted by Marvinetta Woodley Penn. Smith said she founded the business in 2023 after leaving a roughly 15-to-20-year career in call centers. The company combines visual art and poetry with marketing services, drawing on her college degree in logistics management and marketing.
The company’s name traces back to Smith’s college years, when she joined Zeta Phi Beta Sorority, Incorporated. Smith said she considered “Fortunate Fourth” as her sorority name during the membership process — a reference to being the fourth person in her pledge line — though her chapter chose a different name. She said the phrase stuck with her.
Smith said her path to joining the sorority was delayed for several years after her brother died the summer after her freshman year of college. She said her grades dropped the following semester, and she didn’t complete the sorority’s membership process until her senior year.
After college, Smith worked in call centers before moving into a marketing director role at a Kalamazoo nonprofit, which she said became her new business’s first paying client. She said that job gave her the time to grow Fortunate Fourth Creations on the side, incorporating painting and poetry alongside marketing work.
Smith described her approach to art as a tool for healing rather than a pursuit of a “perfect” result, telling Woodley Penn there are “no mistakes in art.” She said she has created a series of affirmation-themed paintings focused on women’s strength, and has shown work through Kalamazoo’s Art Hop event and at the Ladies Library.
Smith said her longer-term goal is to open brick-and-mortar locations for Fortunate Fourth Creations in multiple states, with a focus on art as a wellness and mental health tool.
More information on Fortunate Fourth Creations is available at fortunatefourthcreations.com.
