From HR Burnout to Death Doula: Nicole Hoover's Unexpected Career Reinvention

This week on Future Proof, I sit down with Nicole Hoover, a death doula from deathdoulanicole.com based in Northeast Ohio, for a conversation that surprised me more than I expected going in. Nicole breaks down what a death doula actually does, comfort care, family dynamics, sitting vigil, and then we land on the part that really got me: legacy work. Nicole shares the story of losing her mother to ovarian cancer and never capturing her mom's meatball recipe or her stories before she was gone, and how that guilt became her mission. We talk about caregiver burnout, the "11th-and-a-half-hour" phone calls families make in crisis, and why she believes every family should be having these conversations long before they think they need to. It's a heavier episode than usual, but I think you'll walk away from it the way I did.