AI Tools for Agencies: The Smart-Idea Culture That Scales Teams Fast

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October 4, 2025

On October 28, 2025

How one leader used AI tools for agencies to scale her team, strengthen culture, and create sustainable growth

When your agency grows fast, your systems either scale with you or against you. In this episode of The Catalytic Leadership Podcast, we explore how AI tools for agencies can create freedom instead of friction. My guest, Kelsi Navalta, Director of Affiliate Programs at HighLevel, shares how she built a self-managing team that scaled to 22 people serving 8,000 affiliates, not through control, but through clarity, trust, and the right use of AI.

🎧 Listen to the Full Episode on AI Tools for Agencies

Listen to the Full Episode

Scaling Sustainably with AI Tools for Agencies: Lessons from HighLevel’s Smart-Idea Culture

In AI Tools for Agencies: The Smart-Idea Culture That Scales Teams Fast, I sit down with Kelsi Navalta, Director of Affiliate Programs at HighLevel, to discuss how she transformed one of the fastest-growing teams in SaaS. HighLevel — the all-in-one marketing platform built for agencies — continues to redefine how automation and human leadership can coexist.

Kelsi shares how she used AI tools for agencies not as a replacement for people but as a realignment tool, freeing her team to focus on the creative and relational work that drives real growth. By empowering her team to make smart decisions (“a smart idea is a smart idea”), she created a culture of trust and autonomy that scaled faster, performed stronger, and stayed aligned through change.

This episode explores how digital agency founders can integrate AI without sacrificing culture, use automation without losing humanity, and lead teams that think for themselves while multiplying results.

For the Agency Founder Scaling Beyond Systems

If you’re leading a high-performing agency, you’ll relate to the pressures Kelsi describes. This episode is for you if you:

Are scaling past 7 figures and finding your team stretched thin.
Want to delegate confidently without losing control of quality.
Feel tension between innovation and stability.
Need practical ways to integrate AI tools that strengthen, not replace, your team.
Crave clarity, consistency, and sustainability in your leadership systems.

This conversation offers grounded strategies to help you scale smarter — without burning out yourself or your people.

The Freedom Hidden Inside Structure

As leaders, we often mistake control for clarity. When the stakes rise, we tend to grip tighter, but growth requires trust. The goal isn’t to know every answer; it’s to build systems that let your people make smart decisions when you’re not in the room.

AI won’t solve your leadership challenges. What it can do is remove the noise that keeps you from leading with vision. The more you automate the repetitive, the more you can focus on developing people. Technology amplifies what already exists. If your culture is healthy, AI strengthens it; if it’s fragile, it exposes it.

When Kelsi shared her philosophy that “a smart idea is a smart idea,” it reminded me how powerful shared ownership can be. Great leaders don’t just delegate tasks; they delegate thinking. When you empower your team to create, to decide, and to fail forward, you build capacity far greater than your own.

The real leverage isn’t found in a tool. It’s found in a culture that values wisdom over ego and growth over perfection. That’s where catalytic leadership begins.

Episode Highlights: Smart Ideas, AI Leverage, and Scalable Systems

00:01 – Introducing Kelsi Navalta from HighLevel
01:59 – Kelsi’s unexpected path from influencer to director
02:31 – What HighLevel’s all-in-one platform means for agencies
04:03 – Growth vs. stability: maturing systems at scale
06:10 – How AI tools for agencies realign humans, not replace them
09:13 – Leading a 22-person team through AI adaptation
14:18 – “A smart idea is a smart idea”: Kelsi’s leadership framework
17:36 – Building a fail-forward culture that accelerates growth
21:22 – $6M in affiliate commissions: what sustainable scale looks like
23:08 – Staying teachable while leading a large team
25:24 – The One Minute Manager — a foundational read for leadership growth
26:26 – Overcoming imposter syndrome through gratitude

Books Mentioned

The One Minute Manager by Ken Blanchard

Connect with Kelsi Navalta

Follow Kelsi Navalta on Instagram@KelsiNavalta to connect directly with her and learn more about her work with HighLevel’s affiliate team — where agencies grow smarter, faster, and stronger through collaboration and intentional systems.

Ready to Get Your Time Back Without Breaking Your Team?

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About Dr. William Attaway:

Dr. William Attaway is a seasoned Executive Mindset and Leadership Coach who helps 6-, 7-, and 8-figure digital agency owners scale their businesses with clarity, systems, and confidence. With over 30 years of experience, he equips growth-driven entrepreneurs to build high-performing teams, implement scalable systems, and transition from freelancer to CEO.

He hosts the Catalytic Leadership™ Podcast—ranked in the Top 1.5% of podcasts globally (source: Listen Notes)—with a weekly reach of over 50,000. Each episode features elite agency owners and top digital entrepreneurs sharing what actually works when scaling a service-based business.

From leadership development and visionary thinking to mindset transformation and team optimization, Dr. Attaway empowers agency leaders to build a business that thrives without their constant oversight—and a team that flourishes under intentional, scalable leadership.