The Most FM Business Hour
Belinda Price on Leaving Legacies & Life's Final Chapter
In this episode of The Business Hour, Jordan is joined by co-host Anne Cullen to sit down with Belinda Price — founder of Leaving Legacies, end-of-life doula, dairy farmer, and rural real estate agent — for a warm, honest conversation about the one thing none of us escape, and why talking about it early helps us live more fully. Belinda shares a career threaded with service: from a Northland childhood on a dairy farm and in a fish and chip shop, to six years as a travel consultant, to farming her way up alongside her husband (and being named Fonterra Dairy Woman of the Year in 2021). When she stumbled across an end-of-life doula course, she found her calling — supporting people non-medically through the end of life, so families can simply be present with the person they love. The conversation moves gently through grief, planning, and the quiet power of being a "bridge" that helps people navigate what they don't know they don't know. Together, they explore: What an end-of-life doula actually does — advance care plans, living funerals, wishes big and small, and sometimes just listening Why death remains a topic so many of us avoid — and how planning early lets you live a more fulfilled life The "Knowing Me, Knowing You" cards, designed to take the fear out of asking the hard questions by letting the card ask them Real client stories, from a motor neuron disease diagnosis to sorting out power bills and retirement villages Why only around half of us have a will — and how it's a living, flexible document that changes with each stage of life The heartbreaking family splits that happen when wishes were never discussed Shaping Your Legacies week, the monthly Death Café at Puke Ariki, and the Rural Collective podcast series Finding the everyday moments — a pet's passing, a licence donor tick-box — to gently start the conversation A moving, surprisingly uplifting conversation about service, connection, and making end-of-life planning a normal part of family life. Key takeaway: "We're all busy being busy" — but not always with the important stuff. Don't wait until you're in the midst of grief; start the conversation now, while you can plan it together.
