159: The Student Debt Crisis Will Change The Workforce Forever (How To Prepare) | Laurel Taylor

70% of college seniors with student debt say looming repayments will impact their career plans.

The average graduate and oftentimes, their parents will endure 17 to 20 years of loan payments in efforts to become free from student debt. 

Our emerging workforce will comprise 75% of the workforce by 2025 making student debt a majority issue. Student debt isn’t just a financial burden, but it’s one of the biggest barriers to wealth creation in the modern workforce.

In this episode, we’re joined by Laurel Taylor, founder and CEO of Candidly, to explore how addressing student debt is no longer optional. Laurel shares how her personal journey with debt led to a mission that’s already wiped out nearly $2 billion in liability and opened new pathways to first-time wealth.

In This Episode You’ll Learn:

• Why student debt is now a business issue, not just a personal one
• How shame around debt stops employees from engaging in benefits
• The ROI companies are seeing when they address financial stress
• How Candidly helps employers reduce turnover by up to 76%
• Laurel’s philosophy on risk, resilience, and the real cost of pride
• What it means to lead during wartime—and how her team stays agile
• How AI is powering the next phase of financial wellness

Timestamps:

00:00 – Laurel’s personal student debt story

01:28 – Why she founded Candidly

03:24 – The shame around student debt—and how it affects families

05:33 – Why debt is a workplace issue and not just a personal one

06:54 – What employers are missing in their benefits stack

07:46 – The staggering ROI of Candidly’s solution for employers

09:44 – Tax-free employer contributions and new retirement match rules

11:57 – How the sales cycle for Candidly evolved from 2016 to today

13:32 – Distribution through major financial services firms

15:01 – Laurel’s story of quitting Dell after one day

17:53 – “I have nothing to lose but my pride”: Laurel’s mindset shift

19:52 – How loss shaped Laurel’s perspective and mission

23:07 – Her framework for overcoming fear and taking risks

27:16 – Leading through chaos: student loan reform and AI adoption

29:40 – The real-time complexity of student loan programs

31:10 – Wartime CEO: how her team thrives through rapid change

32:36 – A three-week offsite to prototype AI-powered personalization

34:41 – Candidly’s next wave: AI + wealth creation at scale

36:47 – How to run a purposeful, high-impact team retreat

39:04 – Why ignoring student debt is no longer an option for CEOs

41:51 – Student debt and the retirement gap

42:56 – Candidly’s mission for the next decade: from debt to wealth

About Laurel:

Laurel Taylor is the CEO and Founder of Candidly. Laurel previously led a global business unit at Google and holds her MBA from the Massachusetts Institute of Technology with an undergraduate degree from Texas State University.  

Laurel has experienced, first hand, the impact of missing out on two decades of compounding interest on wealth while paying down debt, between she and her highly educated mother. Thus, her path and purpose to solve the student debt, savings, and retirement savings crisis was born. 

As the market-leader, Candidly has generated over $1.2B of student debt impact as a workplace benefit, serving thousands of employers with an average population of 22,500 employees, distributed by the largest financial services companies in the world.

Resources & Mentions:

• Learn more about Candidly: https://getcandidly.com
• Connect with Laurel on LinkedIn: https://www.linkedin.com/in/ltmit/
• Secure 2.0 Act info: https://www.usbank.com/retirement-planning/financial-perspectives/saving-for-retirement-secure-act.html#:~:text=The%20SECURE%202.0%20Act%20mandates,basis%20to%20a%20Roth%20account

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