Booked Out with Bre
Welcome to Booked Out with Bre: the podcast for virtual assistants ready to level up and founders building with team who refuse to choose between audacious ambition and a life they actually love. I'm your host, Bre Cain, mama of three, unapologetic entrepreneur, and founder of a business built from my kitchen table and 4-year-old's bedroom with big energy and zero apologies. I'm the founder of ICON & Lightning, a remote team agency that hand matches elite virtual assistants to founder-led businesses ... because the right team isn't an operational decision, it's a leadership identity. I'm also the founder of the VA Leadership Academy, where I've trained nearly 500 virtual assistants in the technical skills, emotional intelligence, and leadership identity it takes to become a truly strategic partner; not just a task doer. Six years ago, I thought I had to choose. Mom or career. Present or ambitious. I went back to my 9-to-5 after my first baby and lasted three months before I realized my entire definition of success had shifted. So I bet on myself and built a business that now approaches $2M in just three years, scaled in part-time hours, alongside my kids, from home. Here's what I know for sure: you don't have to choose. You can have the booming business. The clients you're obsessed with. The school pickups, the slow mornings, the spontaneous yes moments. You can build a team that amplifies your vision instead of adding to your mental load. You can scale without sacrificing the life you built the business to protect. This podcast is for the virtual assistant who's ready to stop trading hours for dollars and start leading like the strategic asset she already is. It's for the founder who's done doing it all alone and is ready to build a team that actually runs. And it's for every ambitious mama who was told to shrink ... and decided not to. Expect candid conversations, zero corporate fluff, and the kind of real talk that makes you feel seen and activated. 💸Are you a VA ready to get booked out and level up? → Book a Free VA Mentor Call 🚀Are you a founder ready to build your dream team? → Book a Free Dream Team Design Session Connect with Bre: 📸 Instagram: @heyitsbrecain
Episodes
In this episode of Booked Out with Bre, I have the absolute honor and privilege of sitting down with a true legend, Lesley Pyle. Lesley is the founder of HireMyMom, and I truly consider her the "godmother" of the virtual assistant industry. She has been pioneering the work-from-home movement for 30 years—long before "hybrid work" was a buzzword or social media even existed!
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In this episode of Booked Out with Bre, I’m sitting down with the amazing Danelle Schult to share her incredible journey from "Corporate Queen" to fully booked-out virtual assistant. Danelle spent 12 years building a career she loved, but she knew deep down that she wanted a life where she owned her time and her choices. Today, she is officially sharing how she matched her high-level corporate inco...
In this episode of Booked Out with Bre, I am so honored to introduce you to one of our amazing full-ride VA Leadership Academy scholarship winners, Crystal Holmes! Crystal has one of the most powerful stories I have ever heard, and it is a true testament to the fact that sometimes the hardest situations in our lives are actually redirections toward our highest calling.
Crystal...
127. VA Spotlight: How Virtual Assistant Diana Luna Went From Welding to a 5K/Month Freedom Business
In this episode of Booked Out with Bre, I am so honored to introduce you to one of our incredible full-ride scholarship winners, Diana Luna! For my birthday this year, I wanted to pay it forward by offering two scholarships to the VA Leadership Academy, and out of 157 applications, Diana’s story was one that I simply couldn't ignore.
Diana spent 10 years in the trades as...
In this episode of Booked Out with Bre, I am diving into the juicy details of how you can stop competing for the bottom and start signing dream clients into $1,000+ monthly packages. I’m breaking down the math of why a high-value retainer is more doable than you think—hint: at $40 an hour, that’s only six hours of work a week!
I share my perspective on why ca...
In this episode of Booked Out with Bre, I am sitting down with the incredible Katlyn Wertz (known to many as Kate!). Kate is a powerhouse member of the VA Leadership Academy who has achieved a milestone many dream of: she hit 10K months just six months after launching her business.
I remember when Kate first came into my world—she had a decade of corporate experience and...
In this episode of Booked Out with Bre, I am chatting with the absolutely magical Leslie Benton! Leslie has such an incredible story—she’s a former teaching assistant who decided to take her classroom organization skills and combine them with her deep intuitive and psychic gifts to create a totally unique virtual assistant business.
We dive into how she naviga...
In this episode of Booked Out with Bre, we are diving into the most exciting part of the journey: getting paid! This is day three of our series, and I’m showing you exactly how to earn your first $5,000 as a virtual assistant in the next 90 days. I truly believe that the VA industry is the ultimate vehicle for freedom, and I want to help you design a life where you never have to choose between bein...
In this episode of Booked Out with Bre, I am joined by one of my favorite humans and a true branding visionary, Cathryn FisFis! Our journey goes back over a decade to our network marketing days, and it has been such a joy to watch her career come full circle. Cathryn transitioned from a high-level fashion career designing for DKNY in New York City to launching and exploding her business inside the V...
In this episode of Booked Out with Bre, I’m diving into the tactical, practical nuts and bolts of what you actually need to build your virtual assistant business from the ground up. This is Day 2 of our three-day series, and we are laying a rock-solid foundation so you can stop overthinking and start signing clients. I’m proof that you can build a seven-figure empire starting from your kitche...
In this episode of Booked Out with Bre, I’m kicking off day one of a powerful 3-day series designed to pull back the curtain on the virtual assistant industry. If you’ve been feeling that itch to build something of your own—to walk through Target without doing mental math or to be home for every one of your children's "firsts"—this is the conversation that changes everything.
In this episode of Booked Out with Bre, I am sitting down with the incredible Brittany Heyboer, the heartbeat behind Unlock Her Co and the founder of the Unlock Institute of Embodied Coaching. This conversation was so powerful that we actually crashed our live stream while recording it! Brittany is one of our featured speakers at VA Fest Live, and she specializes in something that I believe is ...
In this episode of Booked Out with Bre, I’m so excited to bring you a conversation with the wonderful Emma Forrest! Emma is a powerhouse member of the VA Leadership Academy who recently celebrated her one-year anniversary in business. Before she was an expert virtual assistant, she spent 17 years as an elementary school teacher. We dive deep into her transition from the rigid, draining schedule of ...
In this episode of Booked Out with Bre, I’m sitting down with the absolute marketing queen, Holli Fourniquet! Holli has spent 20 years in the marketing world—from wearing all the hats in the non-profit sector to managing million-dollar budgets for major destination agencies. She eventually hit a point where she was done building someone else’s dream and decided to launch Fifteen58 Produ...
In this episode of Booked Out with Bre, I am sitting down with the amazing Meghan Braun, founder of The Marigold Collective and a true leader in the virtual assistant industry. Meghan’s story is a beautiful example of how identity work can take you from a "coordinator of chaos" to a calm, empowered Influence Architect.
Meghan shares her journey from climbing the corporat...
In this episode of Booked Out with Bre, I am sitting down with the incredible Naomi Birmingham! Naomi is the Creative Director and CEO of Desert Lux Creative Agency, and her story is one of the most powerful examples of what happens when you decide to stop playing small and start following your intuition.
Naomi shares how she transitioned from a background in food service&mdas...
In this episode of Booked Out with Bre, I am so excited to introduce you to the amazing Melissa Ezaki, a powerhouse member of our VA Leadership Academy! Melissa’s journey is a beautiful example of what happens when a high-level corporate professional decides that "soul-sucking" environments are no longer an option. After years of working as an executive assistant, account manager, and office manager, Melissa found hersel...
In this episode of Booked Out with Bre, I am so excited to bring on the amazing Alexis Pixler, a powerhouse from our VA Leadership Academy family! Alexis's story is a beautiful example of what can happen when you give your dreams a second chance, this time with the right support, mindset, and strategy.
Alexis actually started a VA business back in 2020 out of necess...
In this episode of Booked Out with Bre, I am SO excited to sit down with the incredible Brianna Galm! Brianna is a fashion expert, a style queen, and our official Style Sponsor for VA Fest Live. As you know, I believe that fashion is a powerful tool for identity work, and Brianna is a true master at helping women use their style to uplevel every area of their lives.
This...
In this episode of Booked Out with Bre, I'm SO excited to launch a brand new format: the Team Talk Show! This is the live call-in show where founders, VAs, and our emotionally attached Slack threads all come together. As a founder who has built a multi-million dollar business with an incredible team and as a mentor to thousands of elite VAs, I've seen both sides of the table, and today, we're g...
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