This Is Woman's Work with Nicole Kalil - How To Partner With Other Women with Laura Landergott & Darcy Ripple | 295

Episode Date: March 31, 2025

Business success doesn’t have to be a solo journey. When women partner with intention, they don’t just create thriving businesses—they set a powerful example of what’s possible when collaboration, strategy, and shared vision come together. In this episode, we’re diving into the real story of female partnerships—what it takes to build, maintain, and thrive in a business partnership that isn’t just about success, but about impact. Laura Landergott and Darcy Ripple, co-founders of Whole Growth Partners, have built a powerhouse marketing agency serving financial services firms, and they know firsthand what makes a partnership work. Laura is the heart-driven marketer who crafts emotional connections, while Darcy brings strategic insights and operational expertise to the table. Their complementary skill sets make them the perfect duo—and today, they’re sharing how to find the right partner, navigate challenges, and build something bigger together. In This Episode, We Cover:  ✅ The pros and cons of business partnerships—and how to know if it’s right for you ✅ What to look for in a business partner (and red flags to avoid) ✅ How to align strengths and create a balanced, successful collaboration ✅ Why female partnerships are game-changers in business and beyond Collaboration is a power move! Going solo might seem like the boldest choice, but choosing to build alongside another powerhouse woman? That’s not just bold—it’s game-changing. Female partnerships aren’t just about growing businesses; they’re about rewriting the rules of success. Connect with Laura & Darcy:  Website: www.wholegrowthpartners.com  LI: www.linkedin.com/company/whole-growth-partners  IG: www.instagram.com/wholegrowthpartners  FB: www.facebook.com/wholegrowthpartners YouTube: www.youtube.com/@wholegrowthpartners Book referenced in the episode: Profit First Related Podcast Episodes: 203 / Treating Your Business Like A Business To Protect It (And You) Financially 106 / What Men And Women Need To Know About Working Together with Joanne Lipman 104 / The Power Of The Feminine with Lynne Sheridan and Lisa Kalmin Share the Love: If you found this episode insightful, please share it with a friend, tag us on social media, and leave a review on your favorite podcast platform! 🔗 Subscribe & Review: Apple Podcasts | Spotify | Amazon Music

I am Nicole Kalil and you're listening to the This is Woman's Work podcast, where together redefining what it means, what it looks and feels like to be doing woman's work in the world today. From boardrooms to studios, kitchens to coding dens, partnerships at home and in business, we're talking about all of it. And today, we hone in on business partnership. Because when it comes to starting a business, most of us are taught to value independence. We think about being a solo trailblazer who charts her own course and makes her own rules. And sure, there is something exciting about that, about answering only to yourself and reaping the rewards of all of your own rules. And sure, there is something exciting about that, about answering only to yourself

and reaping the rewards of all of your own efforts. But going it alone can also be isolating, overwhelming, and let's be honest, sometimes fucking lonely. So we're going to explore another way, and that is choosing to partner up. Not just as a strategic move, but as a game-changing approach that's rewriting the

entrepreneurial playbook. Business partnerships bring together more than just two minds. They merge strengths, perspectives, and the kind of support that only comes from shared experiences and mutual understanding. But let's not pretend that it's all sunshine and inspirational quotes. Partnerships come with their share of challenges. From division of labor to navigating disagreements, partnering requires a unique blend of trust, communication, and a whole lot of collaboration. It has a lot in common with romantic relationships,

and those can be really hard, right? And let's add in the element of women choosing to go into business partnership with another woman. There is often a stigma that female partnerships can be fraught with emotion, competition, or even a ticking time bomb of draw. The truth? Those stigmas are rooted more in outdated stereotypes than in reality. Sure, there are cons to consider. Different work styles, managing expectations and time,

and the likelihood of occasional conflict. But the pros can create a powerful collaboration that far outweighs the cons. When done right, partnership doesn't just benefit those involved, they set an example for the entire business community. They show what can be gained when women support and align with each other, not just in passing,

but in practice. And that's what we're diving into today. The real story behind what it takes to build, maintain, and thrive in a business partnership, the kind where two women come together not just to succeed, but to make a big impact. To bring today's topic to life, I'm joined by two inspiring women who know firsthand the power, potential, and the nuances of female partnership. Laura Landergaard and Darcy Ripple are the duo behind Whole Growth Partners, a boutique marketing agency exclusively serving financial services firms.

They've taken their vision and turned it into a thriving business with a powerhouse team of women. Laura is known for her heart marketing, where she crafts emotionally resonant strategies that deeply connect with clients. And Darcy's strategic insights, combined with her operational expertise, bring analytical depth and structure.

Their complimentary skill sets allow them to provide clients with a balanced approach to growth, where data-driven strategy meets authentic brand connection. So Laura and Darcy, thank you for being our guests. And I figured the best place to start, the best place to kick us off is by asking how and why the two of you decided to go into business partnership together. Wow. Well, thanks, Nicole, for having us.

This is I'm Laura. That's my voice. And I think that's a great place to start. First of all, it all began with a couple of cold beers over a happy hour. As all good business relationships start, just prior to that, I had been, actually we both had been with a Fortune 100 financial services company. We were there in a marketing role, working with financial advisors, helping them advance their businesses through marketing. I'd been there for about 11 years

and there was a change in direction at the very top. A new CMO came in. It was pretty clear that the work that my team and I were doing was not on the strategy roadmap moving forward. And so I had some heads up. I left the company and then about a month later had an opportunity for Darcy and I to sit down together, just to catch up.

And what I had shared with her was kind of my journey thus far. I was not out of the company for more than a week and my phone was blowing up with people from all across the country that the contacts that I had made saying, Laura, would you consider coming to do marketing for my firm? Or is that, could we partner together? And so I quickly realized that that was a business opportunity. I'm a serial entrepreneur. This is my third business that I've started. And so I was very excited about that. But I thought, you know, this is a time for us to do something even bigger. When I first thought of the name Whole Growth Partners, I specifically put partners in there

because I knew that this was an adventure that I didn't wanna do by myself. I wanted to have a partner in crime and I found myself talking with Darcy, again, bringing her up to speed. And I said, the thing that matters most to me is I wanna create a business that is lucrative enough to support us, of course,

but also be able to enable us to give back to the community. People have helped me in my career. Darcy said this very same thing. And so we wanted to be able to start a foundation or some means to be able to help others reach down and help other women succeed with profits from our firm, with profits from our firm. So I looked over at her when I was telling the story

of like this impact that I envisioned for this company and she had tears in her eyes. And I realized right then and there, even though it wasn't my intention that I was going to woo her or wow her, ask her to become my partner, I knew right then and there that that was the right partner for me.

And from that point on, it rolled very quickly and we became partners officially within the next handful of months. Okay, so Darcy, you're sitting there having your beer, hearing about this vision. Obviously you had an emotional response. I guess my next question is, did you have any questions, concerns, or fears

about going into partnership specifically with another woman? Did that even pop up for you? Specifically with another woman? Did that even pop up for you? Specifically with another woman, maybe. I was in my early 30s at that time, and coming up in the corporate world, there's this like, in a sense, sometimes you're clawing your way up and women aren't always uplifting each other. Add to that when Laura and I were working together at that company, she was actually my manager. So there was that component where I'm thinking like, gosh, how do we go from this like, boss, employee role to this

business partner role? And my husband was bringing up the same questions to me. And so I'm thinking about this and analyzing it and thinking, well, you know, gosh, I love the idea of becoming an entrepreneur. Like that's always been in my vision, but I didn't think it was going to come up so quickly. But also to become somebody's partner and to become Laura's partner, weighing the pros and cons there. And it became clear pretty quickly when my husband came to me and he said, you know, I posed this question, but I hear you and Laura on the phone talking about the what ifs and the way you guys communicate,

it's just so clear that there's so much mutual respect, there's trust, that you guys share the same vision. And he's like, I say, go for it. I mean, what do you have to lose? And if you're gonna partner with anyone that we found our kindred spirits and we're heading in the same direction and we're gonna go places.

Okay, so that kind of brings me to, I think the big question, I alluded to it in my intro, that there are pros and cons. Forget even that you're both women, like they're just pros and cons of partnership, romantic and business-wise. So let's hone in on some of the pros.

You've mentioned a few already, the division of labor, different skill sets, but what do you see from your experience as the pros and what is gained by being in business partnership? Well, I think there are three things that come to mind for me. One is that there's balance. Yes, the distribution of work,

but also the mental capacity, being able to bounce an idea off of someone, building an idea and kind of making it even better by working together on it. So that balance, which leads to freedom, being free to be able to focus on the things that I do best and same for Darcy, recognizing that we don't have to be the experts. And then being able to be authentic, it is the most freeing thing to be able to say, ah, not my strong suit.

Can you take this on? And recognizing that in each other. So being balanced, having freedom, and then dialing in on that expertise. Yeah. It's funny, as you're talking, you're speaking to what I often feel is missing as a solopreneur. It's the ability to collaborate, to bounce an idea off of,

to say, that's not something I'm gonna be great at, so you do it. Like, and I even think, I know this is sort of silly, but there's that expression of, you know, you shouldn't vet down. And I think that's a good rule of thumb. And when you have a partner, you have a lateral person that you can vent to.

You can like speak the frustrations of, you know, business or somebody who isn't doing what they're supposed to be doing or whatever it might be and not feel so lonely. You know, just having that opportunity to speak out loud to somebody else who gets it, I think is so lonely. Just having that opportunity to speak out loud to somebody else who gets it, I think is so important. Darcy, anything to add on the pros? Because we're gonna hit the cons.

Right before I had decided to embark upon this journey with Laura, I had actually gone to Denver's entrepreneurship week. So it's this huge event downtown. And of course, I'm thinking about joining Laura. And so I decided to go to this session about the pros and cons of business partnerships. And the one thing that just truly resonated that, thinking about being a solopreneur or going into business, it's lonely at the top. And exactly what you're saying with you shouldn't vent down. Like Laura and I have so much

trust in each other and respect for each other, but to be able for me to be able to go to her and say, Laura, I need your help on this, you know, or even thinking about, you know, we all have personal lives. Work is a component, but it is not the reason that we live. For us to have each other's backs and taking things off of our plates and there's moments where Laura's just underwater with client work. I'm like, okay, what can I take on for you? And vice versa that even though we have this division of roles, we are so willing to step in and flex a muscle for each other when it means that, when it means mental health and sanity

and a willingness to just stay in it and keep moving forward. So let's talk about the cons. There have to be, right? As there are with anything, what do you see as the potential downsides or challenges in being in business with another human? Well, I think there's the obvious one in the revenue. Being a business owner is a really lucrative endeavor. And when we think that, it's true, we have to split all of the profits within this business, but I think we'd much rather have each other than to be at the top alone just reaping all the financial benefits. The other side of that might be the need to compromise.

I'd say if we weren't well-paired, if Laura and I didn't know each other and respect each other and like each other and love each other, that having to compromise might be a much different topic. But I love being able to learn from her and you know push things along that she has passion around. And I know that Laura appreciates when I'm bringing things to the table. And you know of course there are going to be times where I'm all in on something and she might be dragging her feet a little bit, but we're going to talk about it. At the end of the day, we're going to learn from each other and be better for it. How do you handle if you don't see eye to eye on something?

You think strategically you should go into opposite directions or, you know, I have to imagine conflict comes up. What do you do in those moments? You know, I'd say Laura and I have so much respect for each other and trust in each other and truly so much alignment that disagreements are few and far between. But of course there are going to be moments where we're both just so busy in other aspects of life or we're feeling stressed that we might not always respond

the way we would want to respond to each other. When we think about it, most of our disagreements or less than positive interactions have come from a breakdown in communication. It's when life is busy, work is busy, maybe we've been traveling, client work has ramped up and prioritizing each other has fallen to the wayside. We're really intentional with communication.

She and I, we have weekly partner meetings, we are open to each other that we know that we prioritize each other. If somebody needs something, we're going to drop everything to be there for them. When that breaks down because of life, that's when, you know, that's when things just don't always go as they might in some of those more positive weeks. But being able to prioritize each other has really has really resulted in much better partnership and communication outcomes. And honestly, that's like in any relationship. I was just going to say the same thing. Yeah, I mean, in our personal relationships, it's prioritizing having the time to communicate. I also you didn't say this, but I think you alluded to it as like addressing small problems when they're small,

as opposed to waiting until they become huge and having that mutual respect and that forced communication opportunity to address those things before they become so big. Laura, anything to add? And I also wanna throw in, how do you handle being at different stages, phases, or places in life? Like if one of you is dealing with a challenge that the other isn't, or one of you has a situation that requires you to have more time out of the business

and the other person doesn't. So kind of the obvious is like, if you have kids or maternity leave or a death of a family member or things like that, like how do you navigate the challenge of that? Well, first let me step back and just add something else on this idea of disagreements and how you make that work or if you're not really on the same page.

One specific example happened recently where I was, as Darcy said, slammed with client work and it's a slippery slope. Failing communication is a slippery slope. Saying, I'm too busy, can we push back our partner meeting? I've got some pressing deadlines. That's one red flag. In our Teams channel that Darcy and I have specifically,

so the mom and dad don't air the laundry in front of the kids, and we're chatting online, if messages go unanswered, that's a red flag. If we're pushing back opportunities for us to communicate, that's a red flag. So that happened recently and Darcy had to come to me and say, we need to come to Jesus. And she shook me a little bit and said, where are you? You gotta get your head into this game. I said, yes, but I'm working on client work.

That's how we, that's the purpose of our business. And she said, no, we are the purpose of our business. We are the ones that are most important. And that was hard to hear, no, but it was exactly what we needed. And then also one other thing on the idea of how to align on a topic. If we have this kind of a game that we play that if someone comes to, she or I come to the table with an idea, we both weigh in. If I'm more

idea, we both weigh in. If I'm more interested in this topic than she is, or I'm more for a topic than she is against a topic, then it usually is, then I get to run with it or vice versa. We trust and support each other enough that, whoever's got the most passion around it, and it's well thought out, and it makes sense for a business, aligns with our strategies, then we get to play point on it, and then the other partner supports it. I love that. I have an eight-month-old and a two-and-a-half-year-old. Both were born during the life of our business. When I became pregnant with my two-and-a-half-year year old, I said, Laura, I'm pregnant.

And she said, oh no, okay, what are we gonna do? And I told her, you know, it's really important to me to be able to take a maternity leave. I came into this business, we created this business, we have this beautiful partnership, we have an incredible team, and we preach a culture of work-life balance, work-life integration, of uplifting women.

I don't want to forgo that because I'm one of the owners of this business. We had a smaller team at that point in time and Laura said, you know what, Darcy? I want this for you just as much as you want this for you. Your baby needs you and we need to figure out a way to make this happen. So fast forward then two years later, I become pregnant again and surprise, so is one of our leading team members and we were due at the exact same time and we said, oh shoot, you know, of course you can't plan life like this and we don't want for either of you to forego this. You know, oh shoot, you know, of course you can't plan life like this. And we don't want for either of you to forego this.

You know, Darcy, you deserve a maternity leave. Team member, you deserve a maternity leave. We're going to figure this out. And of course it wasn't easy because for anybody to be out of the office, it really does put a strain on the rest of the team. But, you know, at the end of the day, we can do anything for a short period of time. And when we think about how important team culture is, how important it is for,

we want our team to want to work here, to love to work here, to wanna stay, that we need to gift everyone this. So of course, not easy. And Laura and I have had a lot of conversations about this. How do we balance time out of office? And we do have unlimited PTO, and we're a team of all women. And half of our women have kids, and there's a lot of demands.

But at the end of the day, what would we want for ourselves? And making sure that we're pushing that down. Culture starts at the top of the day, what would we want for ourselves and making sure that we're pushing that down? Culture starts at the top and we're leading by example. It matters that the owner's model, the very culture that we're trying to instill in our team. What message would that have sent if we said, Darcy's not, she's going to take an abbreviated leave? What does that say to the rest of our team? And I think both of

us have had life experiences where we know what good looks like and where it doesn't, where a leader has provided great guidance, opportunity, flexibility, and where they haven't. So we know what kind of leaders we wanna be. Yeah, I think that's so powerful. Okay, my next question is a two-parter, and it's around this idea of identifying the right partner for your business. But the first part of the question is,

how do you know whether or not you want to structure your business as a partnership or go it alone? What do you think we should be considering to determine whether or not to create a partnership in the first place? You know, I think if you know that you have a person that you trust, that you know is an expert in an industry, or at least in a business function that you would need for this business idea, it makes it a lot easier. I've never been a solopreneur, so I can't imagine life in that way. I wouldn't want to be a solopreneur knowing what I know now about this partnership with Laura. But I could see that if this wasn't a healthy relationship, and if we weren't, you know, creating the culture that we have or leading the team that we have or had a

successful business, that, that might challenge me to think differently. If you have the right person that you know will complement you, it feels like a no-brainer to embark upon a partnership. Well, and I think that that's part of it is thinking about what is the business need. As you said earlier, if there are holes in what the business needs and your skill set or gaps, like if the business needs great skill in this area, but also great skill in what might feel like an opposite area and you know you can't deliver it, that's probably a good sign that your business needs completion, right? That you do need somebody to complete

it for what the business needs. Am I making any sense? Yes. Yes. And I'll add to that though, thinking about we've got this gap, I need somebody that can fill this gap. We do see a lot of failed partnerships in the work that we do. And it seems like when businesses or when these partnerships fail, it's likely because there was a goal of driving revenue and not of building a strong business. Great distinction. So true. Yeah.

Okay, so then that leads to the second part of the question, which is identifying the right partner. So if you decide that you want to be in business partnership, how do you go about identifying the right partner? Because you two had the opportunity to work together prior to starting this business, you knew each other. I would imagine it's a little bit more than just, I like this person, right?

So how do we do that? Many of your listeners, I'm sure, don't have that advantage of spending time together in a working capacity to really understand the essence of that individual. So I'd boil it down to something that I think is transferable outside of work together. And that is understanding someone's reputation.

How are they seen? How are they, are they respected in whatever environment that might be social, community, work, what have you. Like what's their reputation like? How do they act? How do they hold themselves? How do they speak? How do they treat others? That's probably the most important. How do they handle stress? And those factors, you can gather insight from any number of interactions. I'm assuming that a smart business partnership doesn't start with someone you don't know. You have to have met them in some capacity. So those are some indicators that I would look for. We just had the opportunity to see each other

in action enough to know that we were a good fit. But it's kind of like dating, you know? You need to... Again, yeah, I was thinking the same thing. In marriage, right? It's like, you have to, if you're going to start a business with this person, you're really thinking, do I want to collaborate and spend the rest of my business life with them?

You know, most people don't go into business with the idea of being out of business in life with them. Most people don't go into business with the idea of being out of business in a few years. So it is a long-term commitment. And it really is about mutual respect and care and aligned vision and values. There's so much that seems similar to romantic relationships. So I have to ask one more question before we wrap up. Like personal relationships,

in professional relationships, money is part of the conversation. It has to be, right? This is a business. So you don't need to share your structure because I know each business partnership structures, their compensation or their revenue splits differently. What I want to know is how do you talk about money and when do you talk

about money? Like how did you come up with this, your revenue splits or splitting things down the middle? What are those conversations like? So I can share that Laura and I are a 50-50 partnership, and that was intentional. When we were coming into this, we said, I don't want there to be a moment where Laura is 51% and I'm 49, and that means that she actually has the final say in anything. That was actually her decision. We want to be equal, and with that, because we're taxed as an S-corp, actually requires that equal distribution. So it makes things really easy.

Early on, we were thinking, well, how do we even know what to pay ourselves? What's our salary? How do we do distributions? What's a distribution? So we had to do a lot of education. And I actually lead the financial side of our business. So this required me to do a lot of self-education, actually helped along by our financial advisor. So I read, I researched, figured out, well, what's an actual reasonable salary?

How should we structure these distributions? Well, making sure that we're actually keeping the business healthy because we don't want to build something that we're cash poor and we don't have opportunities to reinvest in our team, reinvest in our business, to do really cool things that help us market and acquire new clients. There was a book that we read really early on in our business that helped essentially educate entrepreneurs on how you could structure your revenue in a way that allowed you to continue to build up essentially this bank, which in turn allows you to be more successful.

Laura, anything to add? Darcy does a really nice job of educating me and bringing me along in full transparency. I never feel like I don't know what's going on. I have access to all the QuickBooks information. We have regular financial conversations on a quarterly basis, our profit statements, our distributions, et cetera, every quarter. And we also take that to the team. We have full transparency with the team so they know exactly where we are, goals that need to be met, their role in helping to meet those goals. So a financial acumen is essential for every person on our team.

So as is true for so many things during our conversation, great advice for business, also great advice for our marriages and partnerships in life. So thank you both for being here today and for your incredible work. I know our listeners are gonna wanna learn more. So the website is wholegrowthpartners.com

and you can also follow Whole Growth Partners on social media. We'll put all the links in show notes. Darcy, Laura, thank you both. Thank you, Nicole. Thank you. My pleasure. All right, in business as in life, going solo might seem like the boldest move,

but choosing to stand shoulder to shoulder with another powerhouse woman, that's not just bold, it's ambitious. It's showing the world that success doesn't have to be a solo sport. It's rewriting the rules and proving that when women choose each other, they're not just playing the game, they're changing it. This isn't just business as usual.

It's daring, disruptive, and exactly the kind of game-changing move we need more of. Yes, there will be obstacles and late nights navigating hard conversations, but the power of two women choosing to back each other up, fight for their vision, and share their wins is unstoppable. So here's to the women who choose partnership. Not because it's easy, but because it's powerful. I don't know about you, but that sounds like woman's work to me.