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Beyond 9–5: How Passive Income Creates Space for Parenting Neurodivergent Kids
730 Plays1 month ago
In this episode, Sarah from the PDA Society is joined by Shirleyann Haig, bestselling author and Passive Income Coach, to explore how creating alternative income streams can offer greater flexibility when parenting neurodivergent children.
Shirleyann shares her personal journey as a mother of two boys, one with ADHD and one autistic with a PDA profile. After a 25-year career in the pharmaceutical industry, she found herself struggling to balance the demands of corporate life with the unpredictability of school exclusions, phone calls home and the reality of parenting children with complex needs. Despite being a top performer in her company, she was made redundant due to the time she needed to take off to support her children.
The conversation explores the emotional and financial impact of that experience, particularly as a single parent navigating divorce alongside school exclusions and ongoing uncertainty. Shirleyann reflects on how that moment of redundancy forced her to confront how financially fragile many families can be when relying solely on traditional employment structures.
Part 1 focuses on how Shirleyann transitioned away from corporate life and became a Passive Income Coach, helping others to build income streams that do not rely on fixed hours or physical presence. She explains how passive income is not about avoiding work, but about creating systems where work done once can generate income repeatedly. For families living with unpredictability, this flexibility can reduce stress, create stability and offer space to prioritise children’s needs without sacrificing long-term financial security.
*Redundancy due to being a carer is illegal. If you are struggling our support service can direct you to information about your legal rights.
Key Themes
- The challenge of balancing corporate work with neurodivergent parenting
- School exclusions, unpredictability and employment instability
- The emotional impact of redundancy linked to caregiving
- Understanding passive income and how it can create flexibility
Deep Diver Subscriber Episode
For those who would like to go further, Part 2, an exclusive “Deep Diver” subscriber episode, is available through our Training Hub.
You can access it here: https://training.pdasociety.org.uk/pda-podcasts/
Disclaimer
The views and opinions expressed by guest speakers in this podcast are their own and do not necessarily reflect those of the PDA Society. While we aim to provide balanced and inclusive discussions, individual experiences and perspectives may vary. The PDA Society is committed to using language and terminology that reflects the preferences of PDA and autistic people, but sometimes our guests may use language and terminology which differs. Appearance on our podcast is not an endorsement of an individual, and not all of our guests will align with our position on the issues discussed.
Further sources of support and information
- PDA Society Training Hub: https://training.pdasociety.org.uk/pda-podcasts/
- PDA Society Training: https://www.pdasociety.org.uk/support-and-training/training/
- PDA Society Support Service: https://www.pdasociety.org.uk/support-and-training/support/
Guest links:
- Shirleyann’s Website Shirleyann Haig | Ethical Passive Income Coach & Speaker
- Instagram: shirleyannhaig
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Transcript
Introduction to PDA Society Podcast
00:00:02
Speaker
Hello and welcome to the PDA Society's podcast. We're here to chat about all things PDA to help you understand what people with this profile of autism are experiencing and how you can help.
00:00:13
Speaker
We'll be sharing research, professional expertise and the insights of people with lived experience to help you understand PDA and have more tools to make life easier. So, whether you're a PDA yourself, family member, friend or professional trying to make a difference, welcome from everybody at the PDA Society. We hope you'll find this useful.
Guest Introduction: Shirley-Anne Haig
00:00:38
Speaker
Hi everybody and welcome to today's podcast. I'm Sarah, I'm your host and I'm delighted to be joined by Shirley-Anne Haig who is our guest today and we're going to be speaking about how creating a passive income um gives space for neurodivergent kids, well web parenting neurodivergent kids. So welcome Shirley-Anne, how are you doing?
00:01:00
Speaker
Thank you, yeah, good Sarah, thank you very much.
Career Shift and Family Challenges
00:01:03
Speaker
So by way of an introduction and my first question I guess, for our listeners who are meeting you for the first time, can you share a bit about your journey as a mum and how it's led you to the work that you do today? Yeah, absolutely. So I had a such 25-year career in the pharmaceutical industry, which is how you and I have have met each other in in the past.
00:01:28
Speaker
And working in that corporate am space, when I had my children and who were both, I've got one child who's ADHD and one child who's got PDA, um autistic with a PDA profile. um What I can say is, Trying to hold down a job, which was your typical nine to five, when you were getting phone calls from the school, and you know, I had to be flexible.
00:01:58
Speaker
um it It became quite a difficult challenge for me. And despite being the top sales achiever in the company, the company made a decision to and make me redundant because in their words, I took too much time off work with my children.
00:02:17
Speaker
So it was it was a hard lesson to accept that it just, it didn't lend itself for me to have that corporate career because what happened with both my children is they both individually got excluded from school multiple times to the point where I was always home with one or the other and I went through a divorce as well so as a single mum two children with the unpredictability of I didn't know whether I was gonna have be able to go to work and
00:02:52
Speaker
I think, you know, with a lot of the listeners who've got PDA children, you you know, you guys will know that trying to keep that really calm morning routine where there's no stress and you, you know, you're trying to get them in without creating any stress.
00:03:10
Speaker
That was really difficult when I had meetings to get to and I was getting wound up and they were getting wound up and then the whole day would just fall apart. So it it just became apparent that something had to give. And obviously it wasn't a choice I personally made because I was made redundant.
00:03:31
Speaker
But instead of wallowing in that sort of self-pity, I decided to take a journey of creating multiple streams of passive income, which would then give me the flexibility to stay at home and just have that, like,
00:03:47
Speaker
convenience and that flexibility for the kids so that's how it came about really.
Redundancy and Passive Income Exploration
00:03:53
Speaker
Wow gosh it was almost like the perfect storm wasn't it you know it was everything just happened at the same time yeah wow gosh and they say everything happens for a reason doesn't it and I'm sure you know you're in a much a much better place now as a result of that but at the time my goodness I just can't imagine the stress levels So you've been very open about your experience raising two neurodivergent boys. What were, I mean, you've spoken about the school. What were some of the other biggest challenges you faced to try and balance that with the sort of traditional nine to five career?
00:04:25
Speaker
Yeah, think, like I said earlier, the trying to maintain a really calm, stress-free, demand-free environment in the household.
00:04:37
Speaker
became impossible when I had to be places, I had to be ready, I i had to get ready. And it was during COVID when the children were at home and we were all working from home, you know, it was it was explosive. um ah My son who who has PDA, you know, when he was overwhelmed, like a lot of parents will experience this, he lashed out and he was he was always fight um in terms of his presentation.
00:05:11
Speaker
So I couldn't even, like I couldn't be on video calls because they would literally be clashing and screaming and it was, you know, things getting flown like everywhere.
00:05:22
Speaker
and So even working a flexible environment at home didn't quite work when you've got two children and their needs were so different. One needed to bounce around the house and keep himself busy. and The other one wanted quiet and space and and and um they just clashed like anybody's business. So yeah, even working from home didn't work. So That was why I thought like I need to go down a different route where I make money work for me or I do projects where I'm not dependent on somebody needing me at a specific time. I can literally do everything in a space that suits me when my children are ah happy and settled and calm. um and And that was a very difficult thing to find because how many jobs give you that flexibility and it it is very few. So that's why I went down that route.
00:06:23
Speaker
Wow. And again, you know, I'm sure this is resonating with so many of our listeners. You know, when you have a PDA whose stressed behaviours present in a way that, you know, can be quite volatile, it's so, so difficult. And not just because, you know, you're at work, it's difficult for you personally as well, you know, to witness that and the siblings as well. So,
00:06:43
Speaker
and That's a great illustration that lots of people will certainly relate to. um you've You've said it was really the the redundancy that was the turning point. But was there any particular moment that you just thought, right, this is it. I've got to do something different. Or did you, when you were first made redundant, think, well, I'll just start looking for other jobs? or what was it that made you think, no, that is it. I'm going down this avenue now.
Property Investment Journey
00:07:07
Speaker
Yeah. So what happened was actually before I was made redundant, I read a book called Rich Dad, Poor Dad by Robert Kiyosaki.
00:07:19
Speaker
And it was it was a kind of life changing moment for me. And if you haven't read it, I would highly recommend you do. And it talks about creating passive income through property.
00:07:33
Speaker
So while I was working in the pharmaceutical industry, i actually started investing in property with my bonuses from from the pharmaceutical industry.
00:07:47
Speaker
So prior to me getting made redundant, while a lot of our friends and colleagues in the pharmaceutical industry were buying beautiful designer handbags and nice shoes, I was buying boarded up houses in the council estate that I grew up in, in Liverpool.
00:08:05
Speaker
um And I basically started creating a ah property um portfolio. So that was the start of my journey. I started that around about 20 years ago.
00:08:21
Speaker
and what I can say is when when I lost my job, and I got divorced and my two kids were made, and were both excluded from school, the income, passive income from the properties, from the rental income, were my lifeline. They saved my, they saved, you know, everything. Because it was at that moment I realized how financially fragile we all are in our position.
00:08:56
Speaker
and Basically, it was, I i decided to become a passive income coach because I thought, imagine how many other the people there are in this position right now who, you know, are have that financial instability and I can teach them how to do things where they can create this passive income so that the it's basically about making your money work for you know,
00:09:26
Speaker
doing other little streams where you can basically, you work once and then you get paid again and again, but you don't physically have to be there doing the work.
00:09:37
Speaker
And then, you know, but since the property side of things, I've gone into lots of other different avenues with online training courses, writing books, writing books, I've done lots of network marketing and things like that.
Diverse Passive Income Streams
00:09:53
Speaker
So there's all these different streams that I'm now helping other people develop and like learn the skills so that they can go down those routes themselves. Wow, that's fantastic. So really sort of sharing your wisdom and and helping other people along the way. um So it sounds like, you know, you've got a bit of an entrepreneurial mindset anyway, which I do remember. So it's really great to see how it's all come together. And, you know, we will have families who, you know, are in in paid work.
00:10:22
Speaker
um But, you you know, you sort of had the foresight to. have that safety net already, which I think is is really important. You know, and if people do have the luxury of being able to plan for the future, if you think, you know, things aren't going work out, um then, you know, it's really important to sort of have that plan in place. Okay. and um So were there any fears or doubts that you had to overcome when you took that leap? Or was it just, I've made my mind up and I'm going for it?
00:10:50
Speaker
I was in a really difficult situation where I didn't really have a choice. I had to make it work. Now, my motivation was,
00:11:03
Speaker
I built a really nice, comfortable life and we had a beautiful family home and a lovely area surrounded by lots of nice people. And I wanted to keep that stability, especially for my PDA son because he needed that stability.
00:11:22
Speaker
So the the fear and the doubt that it was all around losing my home, you know, I was i was essentially on a six figure salary by the time I left the pharmaceutical industry. And that that just got whipped away overnight.
00:11:36
Speaker
The passive income, basically, that I was getting from the property is that was it wasn't very big. So I had to kind of had to speak to the mortgage companies and they gave me a mortgage break and I had to really like buckle down. There became a point where I'd gone from shopping in M&S to actually shopping in, you know, like community supermarkets where my my son was sent to um an additional needs school for difficult children and three days a week. And next to that was this community supermarkets. For a few months, I was shopping there to kind of get me through this, this really acute, like financial stage of, I don't know how I'm going to do this. So the fears, it was, it was, I was driven to, I want to keep the home that we've, we've created. i want to keep stability. So it wasn't really fear that drove me. It was more like a need to maintain the life that I'd created for my kids because they wouldn't adapt to change very well. So I, you know, I started working 80 hour weeks, but now I don't have to work that much because I've front loaded all my efforts. And while the kids were, you know, either with their father or in school, I basically worked into the evenings and things like that. So I'm not saying it's easy to create passive income, but you've got to, If you've got a reason and you've got a drive to do something, then you will find the motivation to do it.
Ethical Investment Business
00:13:21
Speaker
But it certainly pays off.
00:13:23
Speaker
Yeah, I mean, you just had that absolute clarity on what was your non-negotiable and that was giving up the family home. So anything else really just followed from that. So I think that's, ah yeah again, and another really great lesson. Have that focus, have that goal.
00:13:37
Speaker
Really, you know, what is it that's driving this? And that that sort of gives you that focus. That's brilliant. um You talk about ethical property investment. What does ethical mean in this context and why is that important for you?
00:13:52
Speaker
So what I did was when I was made redundant, I set up a company called Home Property Solutions. Now, I had created a portfolio of affordable housing, high quality, accredited, affordable housing within the Merseyside area.
00:14:16
Speaker
So what I did was I invited investors from all over the world to come on board and actually I would show them my model. Ethical to me means that there's no winners or losers, everybody wins.
00:14:34
Speaker
So ethical is about creating high quality homes for vulnerable families in affordable areas. And then it's sustainable and people can stay there long term. So over the last few years, what I've been doing is helping investors buy these properties. But a lot of the tenants, we what we do in the company that I've got is we we match people who are buying with people who are selling.
00:15:07
Speaker
we keep the tenants in their homes so they don't get evicted. And then we just sort of change landlord to landlord. So over the last couple of years, we've basically helped landlords buy about a hundred properties within Merseyside, maintaining people in their communities and in their homes.
00:15:28
Speaker
It's all about affordability as well. So, you know, I won't work with landlords who are always, you know, they just want more for less. It's, it's, I want people that are interested in building ethical portfolios where everybody wins. And we work really closely with the council as well. So what I did in that small little area of Liverpool, I've now rolled out across the whole of like Merseyside, working with the councils and working with the homeless teams to basically, yeah, just help preserve people in their homes and
00:16:04
Speaker
but while the landlords also make a ah passive income. So everybody wins. That's what that means, really. Wow, that's really nice. So your ethics and your values really, really come through there, which is is really, really lovely to hear.
Starting Passive Income Strategies
00:16:19
Speaker
um What are some of the common misconceptions that people have about building passive income, do you think?
00:16:27
Speaker
So I think the the most sort of the biggest objections are I haven't got enough money to start. and You know, you need to be rich to to get rich or it's too much effort in the first place.
00:16:44
Speaker
I think that's where the why comes in is when you have a why, you you are motivated. And when I first started investing in properties, it was never, i you know, I hadn't had my children at that point. I didn't know that, that Act would be my lifeline.
00:17:04
Speaker
For me, it was an additional source of income, which freed me or gave me financial freedom to do what I wanted. So if I wanted to retire early, I could and things like that.
00:17:16
Speaker
But with regards to sort of the objections, most people just think it's too difficult. And one of the things that I do on the training courses I run is I just break it down.
00:17:28
Speaker
into really simple things because there's lots of different pillars to passive income. You can, and you know, you could sell things online and create little online shops. You could create training courses.
00:17:44
Speaker
Everybody has areas that they are knowledgeable in and they can create very simple training courses that they can make money from. I've basically worked with the publishing company and I mean, I've got some of the books here. yet In the last six months, I've had three books published.
00:18:05
Speaker
Now I get royalties from these books every single day coming from Amazon KDP. So while it seems a lot to write them, once you've done it, it's like it's a passive income. So I run writing workshops and I teach people how to write books. and I also invest, and I work with a network marketing company. So there's a company called Zenzino, which are test-based nutritional company. And I basically am one of their partners. I started taking the supplements. And I felt so good on those supplements that I now now become a partner. Now, there's so many network marketing companies out there, you know, Zeno being one of them.
00:18:54
Speaker
If you're looking for an income that gives you complete flexibility, a network marketing company where you can promote the products in your own time is an amazing way to do something that hasn't got a huge outlay in investments up front. So property, you need to kind of be able to release equity from your own house to start and you need to do things like that.
00:19:19
Speaker
But the network marketing and writing books and all the different other models, you can start with a lot less. And what I always say to people is don't try and do everything at once.
00:19:32
Speaker
Choose a model which works for you based on you know your what you've got to invest in it. and what time, you know, what time you've got to invest in it. And when you assess your time, your finances, and then you work out what you can give, the the solution becomes pretty obvious. And lots of people go down different routes, but then they build on it and they add in another stream and another stream. Before you know it, you've got these multiple streams of passive income.
00:20:02
Speaker
And you don't need the day job because you've got all these different channels coming in. And that's what i teach people in all the different areas of life. Yeah. And I'm just trying to count in my head now how many streams you've you've mentioned that you've got already. And I think I'm up to six or seven already just listed. Yeah.
00:20:23
Speaker
And that's the thing is, I think, you know, one of the, When you're neurodivergent, so I got my ADHD diagnosis last year, I realized that actually we we can be quite creative. we If we give ourselves the you know the time to be creative and when we start asking ourselves, how can I, what can I do, what do I know, what can I share? when you ask yourself those questions and you've got a creative mind, you know, the it's it's limitless. I mean, that's what I call like one of my books was limitless. and
00:21:00
Speaker
And this is basically about inspiring women and how they redefine success. um And it is about you. The ceiling is what you put on it. You can be, you can do as many things as you want within, you know, reason.
00:21:17
Speaker
Wow. And I saw one of your other books, The Embracing Extraordinary. You're actually going to be featuring in our book club podcast at some point in the future. So if you're a subscriber to to our hub, then you'll see Shirley-Anne with a different hat on talking about her book in the future. OK, so.
00:21:37
Speaker
How has it been then, having these multiple streams of income?
Stress Reduction and Balance through Passive Income
00:21:41
Speaker
It's obviously changed the way that you show up for your kids. So how would you describe the old Shirley-Anne versus the new Shirley-Anne?
00:21:50
Speaker
So the old Shirley-Anne was always stressed, always worried about... I always felt like I was never there as a parent for my kids because I was having to be the perfect employee. But I also felt that I was never really the pet.
00:22:12
Speaker
It's like i was I was failing at both because I felt like I was being dragged from you know pillar to post. Whereas now I freed up so much of my time, even my businesses. So one of the things I teach and about being a business owner is become insignificant in your business. So you are not the business. So I have an amazing team of people who are finding the properties for the investors. I have a lettings team that you know manage the properties, but I've stepped away. so the new Shirley-Ann is my motivation is to give myself time freedom because when I've got time freedom, i can do all my passion projects. So being able to sit and do this with you now, I've got loads of different podcasts coming up. I'm doing book launches. I've i've given myself permission to be who I want to be, but everything I'm doing, I'm giving back. So all of the work with Embracing the Extraordinary, wea've I've got together 10 amazing parents and we've written our journeys as parents, but we're sharing that so that we can help people So all the projects that I'm doing, it's all about helping like different people. Limitless again, it's all about women in business, how to be an entrepreneur and not being confined with what people think it should be. Loads of the people who wrote in that book were, you know, dyslexic, one lady had a heart attack, you know, one was her mum had died and and she couldn't like, she know what she was going to do with herself.
00:23:58
Speaker
So it was very much, there's loads of different people out there who face adversity. And when you face that adversity, something clicks inside of you and and you go, right, I've got
Financial Safety Nets and Case Study Preview
00:24:11
Speaker
to make a change. And some people, you know, if you're, if if you're insightful enough to know, don't wait for the chaos.
00:24:19
Speaker
start creating the safety net before the chaos hits. Because when the chaos hits, you haven't got the mental capacity to do it. And I was, one of the things for me was because I, when I got divorced, my ex-husband is very supportive with the kids. I had them 50% of the time. So I was able to work really hard in that 50% of the time.
00:24:45
Speaker
So i was I was in a different position in that respect, but If there are, you know, two of you and you can you can share the load, and you know, you can definitely do, you can definitely put the work in, in the background, but it does pay off.
00:25:02
Speaker
Absolutely. And I think one of the the things you mentioned earlier was that there was a time when both of your children were excluded from school. And I know you're going to write a case study on the amazing success of one of your children, which will be on our website again at some point in the future. um so listening to your story, listening to, you know, the difference that's made. I mean, I don't want to sort of steal the topic for when on the case study, but, you know, you look at your son permanently excluded from school and where he is now. do you want to give us just a top line um overview of of what he's doing now?
00:25:38
Speaker
Yeah, absolutely. So when he went into secondary school, we did a really, really slow transition. we He went in for an hour a day for a week.
00:25:50
Speaker
two hours a day for a week, three hours a day. Now, that would never, ever have been possible if I didn't have that flexibility. So the mere fact that I had that flexibility to support him into high school, we basically, we worked with the teachers and the head teacher and social services, and they basically allowed him not to do PA, not to do music, anything that created sensory overload or changing clothes and things like that. So they they allowed that.
00:26:25
Speaker
He's now got a 97% attendance record. He is a grade A student. He's driving. He's about to do his GCSEs this year.
00:26:38
Speaker
We were told when he was 10 that he probably wouldn't make it into secondary school. The changes that I made, which allowed me to just be calm and take my time and put my focus into him has therefore resulted in him thriving. So it just goes to show, you know, it's like you have to look at the bigger picture. It's not, you know, it's not just putting the changes
Impact of Personal Change on Family
00:27:05
Speaker
in. Sometimes we have to change ourselves. And when I reduced my stress levels, I wasn't passing any of that to him. He then could go to school calm and and relax. because I wasn't trying to rush out the door.
00:27:19
Speaker
um Yeah, and that is just such... an I can't wait for the case study because it's just... It's it's so heartwarming. Obviously, I've had a sneak peek already. And, you know, doesn't he speak Norwegian now as well?
00:27:30
Speaker
Oh, yeah. he's So he's teaching himself law and he taught himself Norwegian just for fun. So he does all these different things, which, yeah...
00:27:40
Speaker
His hobbies are just teaching himself. but Like, he can reel off the American Constitution. And he loves American law. is That's what he he studies in his spare time. And he's 15.
00:27:54
Speaker
God. Yeah, that is such... Yeah, I love that story. And, you know, testament to you, it's just, you know, you just couldn't have done that had you still been trying to slog away at nine to five in in the big corporate world so shirley and it's been absolutely fascinating speaking with you and hearing the background to your um to your journey your story and the difference it's made for you as as your new family um so i'd just like to say a huge thank you again um for subscribers to our training hub there will be part two where I'm asking Shirley-Anne some specific questions about how to build that passive income so if you want to join us there we would love to see you and thanks again Shirley-Anne thank you have so if you want to hear more from today's special guest then there is a longer version of this podcast available over on our training hub sponsors of our training hub make it possible for us to create and put out this podcast for everyone for free
00:28:49
Speaker
As a thank you, they get free access to all recordings and self-guided training on our training hub. Thank you, subscribers, for your generosity.
Subscription and Support Information
00:28:57
Speaker
If you'd like to become a subscriber, there's a link in our show notes.