Derek Lundsten on Why the EAP Is Broken, How LifeGuides Sends Peer Support to Scale,

What happens when a serial entrepreneur who wore a suit to elementary school at age eight, built a successful software company, invested his time and network into an early stage idea before anyone else believed in it, and then walked away from his own exit to go all in on a platform built around one simple but radical premise — that the most powerful thing you can do for someone who is struggling is connect them with another human being who has already been through exactly the same thing and come out the other side? In this episode of the Trustcast Show, Zane Myers speaks with Derek Lundsten, President and CEO of LifeGuides, about why Employee Assistance Programs were well-intentioned 25 years ago and are now compliance tools with a 3% utilization rate that leave 97% of the workforce without any meaningful support, why the pandemic didn't just reveal the gap in mental health services but blew it wide open in a way that has driven healthcare premiums up 20% annually and created a provider shortage that clinical care alone cannot solve, and what peer support actually looks like when it is built on lived experience, HIPAA compliance, and a marketplace that lets you filter by age, demographics, religion, career path, and language — including Haitian Creole for a distribution center workforce that no EAP had ever been able to reach. They also discuss how LifeGuides recruits guides — targeting Facebook groups of people who have been through a specific experience and finding that the desire to help others is always far greater than expected — what a first session actually looks like from login to video call, why employers never see individual conversations but do receive blinded utilization data, how one large publicly traded education company quantified a 3% improvement in employee retention from LifeGuides and used that to anchor an ROI calculation, and why the math on $100 per year for unlimited family access versus $150 per therapy session changes the conversation with every CFO who asks why they need it. Derek Lundsten is the President and CEO of LifeGuides, a peer-to-peer support platform serving employers, health plans, and associations across the country. Connect with Derek Lundsten: lifeguides.com Social: @LifeGuides across all platforms Chapters 00:00 Introduction to Derek Lundsten 00:40 Meeting LifeGuides founder Mark at an entrepreneur's group and deciding to invest time and network before money 01:20 Exiting his last software company to go all in on commercializing LifeGuides 01:49 What LifeGuides actually is — a peer-to-peer matching marketplace for lived experience in any life challenge 03:43 Most clients are companies — why LifeGuides went B2B instead of direct to consumer 04:30 The stigma and access problem that existed before COVID and the demand explosion that followed 05:59 When an employer says we already have an EAP — the real answer 07:21 What EAP stands for, why it was created, and how it became a compliance tool instead of a support tool 08:42 COVID demand skyrocketed, EAPs couldn't keep up, medical coverage absorbed the overflow — and premiums followed 09:42 Crisis versus proactive support — and why the system has swung too far toward clinical care 10:24 Stigma as the reason EAP utilization sits at 3% nationwide 11:53 How LifeGuides recruited its first guides — Facebook groups, Alzheimer's Association ads, and the discovery that people want to help 13:10 How Dr. David Hester's team vets guides — credentials, HIPAA training, active listening curriculum, and financial incentives 14:44 What happens when an HR leader reads that only 21% of employees feel their company actually cares about them 16:13 Why doing well while doing good is not a contradiction — stakeholders versus shareholders 17:00 ROI for the CFO — $100 per year per family versus $150 per therapy session times ten sessions 18:30 Retention data — one client quantified a 3% improvement in employee retention directly attributable to LifeGuides 19:40 How capping healthcare premium increases translates to millions in financial value 20:14 What changes first when a company adds LifeGuides to its benefit stack — and what takes longer 21:38 Walk me through what actually happens from login to the end of a first session 23:01 Can employees return to the same guide — unlimited access and ongoing accountability 24:04 Can a guide on one topic refer to a guide on a different topic — the multi-guide model for complex lives 25:05 Employer confidentiality — individual conversations are never seen, only blinded utilization rates 25:54 How attribution works — quarterly client success reviews and business outcome alignment 26:25 Someone dealing with a sick parent, struggling kid, and demanding job all at once — three guides simultaneously #DerekLundsten #LifeGuides #TrustcastShow #EmployeeWellbeing #PeerSupport #MentalHealthAtWork #EAP #EmployeeBenefits #WorkplaceWellness #HRLeadership