Join Jackson’s Journey is a new series of children’s books designed to strengthen the leaders of today and build the leaders of tomorrow. When it comes to great leaders, you won’t find better than the author, Renata Roberts.

You might know Renata from when she was awarded the NSW Minerals Council Exceptional Woman Award and Minerals Council of Australia Exceptional Woman in Australian Resources Award in 2020. Or perhaps you’ve come across her website, ‘They Who Share Their Stories’, a platform she developed with a call to action on diversity and inclusion in workplaces, a cause she also passionately advocates through her work with the Women In Mining Network (WIMnet). Or more recently, you might recognise her as one of the 100 Global Inspirational Women in Mining (WIM100) in 2022. Now she’s added author to her long list of achievements.

Renata is The Bloomfield Group’s Chief Corporate Services Officer and she’s been working in the corporate world within human resources for over 20 years and understands that good leadership is a key component of any successful organisation.

“Some people are natural leaders, however, most need to continually develop to genuinely succeed in demonstrating leadership capabilities. Sometimes the information we review as adults make being a great leader seem challenging when actually, it is simple enough for even our children to learn,” shared Renata.

“I remember talking to my husband Neil about how important leadership development is. He helped me realise that I was teaching the exact same skills to our son, Jackson, but I was breaking it down into bite sized pieces. That’s when the idea for the books began.”

While many of us spent lockdown in the pandemic working on our jigsaw puzzles or learning some new recipes, Renata instead combined everything she had learned about teaching and leadership development, her journey of being a mother to a small boy, and her passion for being an advocate for diversity & inclusion within the workplace to create a collection of children’s books.

The books are aimed at preparing children for success by promoting the leadership capabilities that great leaders possess that can help them reach for the stars, wherever their journey takes them.

“I hope the key messages in the books around the knowledge, skills, abilities and behaviors that are needed to be a successful leader will resonate with both the readers and the children they are reading to. Now more than ever, we need leaders to lead from the head and from the heart.” said Renata.

With the first 4 books out of series of 20 just released, Renata said she was thrilled by the response so far. “The response has been overwhelming and I feel humbled by the support. What started as a vision has become something real and I must thank my husband Neil, the amazing talent of illustrators Vanessa Fernandes, Josefina Luna, and Gemma Elaine, and all the friends and family members who have encouraged this adventure along the way. And of course my son Jackson, who is proud to be the star of the books, even if I did take a little creative licence with the characters and their stories!

“It is with every story we share that we fuel inspiration to someone else taking their own journey. I hope that Jackson’s journey may fuel some inspiration in all those who read it.”