Renee Irving Lee -Qld Author of the Year Finalist

Renee Irving Lee has been named as a finalist for the 2020 AusMumpreneur Awards in the Author category.

The AusMumpreneur Awards presented by The Women’s Business School celebrate and recognize Australian Mums in business achieving outstanding success in areas such as business excellence, product development, customer service and digital innovation. The awards are designed to recognize the growing number of women who successfully balance motherhood and business in a way that suits their life and family.

Renee is a children’s author based on the Sunshine Coast in Queensland.  She is passionate about creating profound social change by providing children, teachers and parents with the positive language needed for healthy social and emotional development.  She is the author of picture books, The Strongest Boy and Rosie Leads the Way.  These books were written to redefine what it means for boys to be strong and what it means for girls to be beautiful.

Renee was first published in 2019, and her work was quickly recognised by well-known leading educators, psychologists and parenting experts such as Maggie Dent, Dr Justin Coulson and Kim McCabe.  The Strongest Boy made the top 100 best sellers list for picture books on boys and men and was also an international book award finalist.

Renee was inspired to start writing because of her combined love of words, positive psychology and child development.  She explains,

“As a teacher and mother, I realised that there were many negative experiences and emotions that children were going through, but parents were really struggling to find the right words to be supportive. I wanted to provide parents with these words so they could be the voice of positivity and reassurance in their child’s life.”

Renee is delighted to be named as a finalist and is proud of her achievements, particularly with the success of The Strongest Boy over the last year.

There are many benefits to balancing business and motherhood as Renee explains,

“Being a mumpreneur gives me the freedom and flexibility to work the hours that I want to.  I absolutely love being able to spend quality time with my children and be emotionally available to them when they need me to be.  I can do school pick-ups, attend special events and be at home with them if they are sick.”

It can be challenging to be a successful business woman whilst raising a family and Renee gives this advice for others thinking about starting their own enterprise.

”The best advice I could give would be to have the confidence to always back yourself.  Business owners need to have unwavering belief in themselves to make the right decision.  There will always be many experts offering you their opinion. You just have to trust your own instincts when it comes to taking advice from others over your own.

As an author my work has been assessed and scrutinised by many different people, all of whom have given me vastly differing opinions and feedback, often conflicting with my own.  I am really grateful that on these occasions I had enough faith in my own instincts to listen to those I needed to and to dismiss the ones that didn’t align with my core beliefs.”

If I didn’t have the courage to back my choices in the first place, then I wouldn’t be where I am today.”

Read more at www.ausmumpreneur.com. The winners of the 2020 AusMumpreneur Awards will be announced at an online event in September.

For more information on the AusMumpreneur Awards visit: www.ausmumpreneur.com or contact awards@ausmumpreneur.com

For an interview with Renee contact reneeirvinglee@gmail.com