We were lucky to catch up with Monique Gatterson recently and have shared our conversation below.

Alright, Monique thanks for taking the time to share your stories and insights with us today. Risking taking is a huge part of most people’s story but too often society overlooks those risks and only focuses on where you are today. Can you talk to us about a risk you’ve taken – it could be a big risk or a small one – but walk us through the backstory.

My husband Cliff and I worked in corporate America for many years, Cliff at the airport and I was in a leadership role at a medical hospital. We had purchased a food truck while still working our jobs and did sporadic events on our days off. Cliff had been talking about leaving the airport and focusing full time with the food truck, but I wasn’t fully comfortable taking that risk as I had been with the hospital at this time for 19 years and in my mind that was were I was going to retire. Cliff is the risk taker of our marriage and after many conversations we decided he was going to focus 100% on the food truck while I continued at the hospital. Now we fast forward 1 year and it’s COVID everything was turned upside down and Cliff had left his job by this time. We were in a sort of panic because we spent our last bit of savings to get the food truck up and running and now we can’t work, I was laid off and it’s like what are we going to do.

We didn’t have any control over what was happening and that was scary. All we could do was pray asking God to please guide our steps and help us to focus on our blessings and not let fear overwhelm us. Many nights of praying the idea overwhelmed me to resign my leadership role and go full time with my husband on our food truck. That idea sounded crazy because everything was shut down we had bills and a 12 year old at this time. After 2 weeks of going back and forth with myself and my husband we decided I was going to leave my career of 20 years and my husband and I were going to run our business together,

This was the greatest decision we could have ever made. We have together built a successful business that is continuing to grow as we are in the process of opening a brick and mortar.

In our eyes this was bigger than taking a risk it was stepping out on Faith.

As always, we appreciate you sharing your insights and we’ve got a few more questions for you, but before we get to all of that can you take a minute to introduce yourself and give our readers some of your back background and context?

Cliff comes from a family of southern cookers, he was born in Houston, Texas and moved to Washington at the age of 11. Growing up he worked primarily in the food industry. He started as a dishwasher and worked his way to a sous-chef. He loves to cook and is the go-to chef for family functions. One word that you will never use when tasting his cooking is bland. Cliff has been gifted with knowing how to use a variety of seasonings that work together, and it’s only evident in the food we serve.

I on the other hand wasn’t gifted with the cooking gene, but I’m the numbers and customer service gal. I’ve worked for collections agencies and my longest career was with Virginia Mason Medical center starting off as a collection rep working my way up to a leadership role for the companies Revenue Cycle team. I love talking with people and hearing their stories. We are all in this world together trying to make a living and so if I can make someone’s day with a smile, listening ear i’m all for it!

Any stories or insights that might help us understand how you’ve built such a strong reputation?

Consistency! So many times you can go to a food establishment and the food is great or vs versa not so great, but you go back and the experience is different. We have worked very hard to ensure that our recipe is consistent so no matter if you come back 1 day, 6 months or even a year that quality and taste is as you expected.

Can you tell us the story behind how you met your business partner?

Cliff and I met at a past employer we worked for. I actually was at work one day and not feeling well and I felt a tap on my shoulder and to my surprise this handsome man gave me a cup of soup and from that point on we were pretty much inseparable. How ironic that the very first meal he cooked for me was fried chicken, mac-n-cheese, cornbread and a tasty cup of koilade (mixed flavors of course)

Contact Info:

• Instagram: swaggnwagon
• Facebook: Swagg-n-Wagon Wings & Things LLC
• Twitter: swaggnwagon.wings
• Yelp: Swagg-n-Wagon

Image Credits

Laura Clise