Community Highlights: Meet Kristen Lux of For the Love of Systems

Today we’d like to introduce you to Kristen Lux.

Hi Kristen, can you start by introducing yourself? We’d love to learn more about how you got to where you are today.
My path to where I am today was anything but linear or planned. I was an employee for the first 15 years of my career, and no matter what industry the small business I worked for was in, I kept finding myself in the same role–analyzing, creating, and documenting the processes for the team and client experience. I’ve also always been able to jump into software programs and figure out how they work very quickly, so when I learned the term “workflow” in 2019 and dug into what it looked like to build workflows digitally, I quickly realized the goldmine of experience I was sitting on. For the Love of Systems came shortly after that, and the rest is history.

Would you say it’s been a smooth road, and if not, what are some of the biggest challenges you’ve faced along the way?
Not at all. I always say that if you want to dive deep into personal development–start a business. Everything comes back to you as the business owner, and it forces you to introspect a lot unless you want to get in your way continually! I’ve had some other notable struggles along my journey that continue to shape me and the business I’m building:

• Launching For the Love of Systems in January 2020–two months before the pandemic shut down. Thankfully, I built the business to be remote-first, so I had an advantage there, but I had to quickly pivot from offering project-based services to local businesses to offering ongoing retainer services to online businesses to stay afloat.
• Pivoting all of our service offerings back to project-based services in 2023. My husband Greg joined forces with me to do this (he’s also now the co-owner of the business!), and we thought this process would take a few months. A year later, we’re still finalizing everything–but we’re almost there!
• In 2021, I was diagnosed with a crazy health condition called Mast Cell Activation Syndrome. I had been suffering from migraines, sensitivity to chemicals and foods, and some other bizarre symptoms for about two years prior. I’ve had to overhaul my entire life to find healing, and that has been extremely challenging–not to mention that doing it while still having vomit-inducing migraines and other symptoms can set me back sometimes. But I’m on the path to healing, and even though I do still have some bad days, they’re finally becoming less frequent.

Great, so let’s talk business. Can you tell our readers more about what you do and what you think sets you apart from others?
While we’re called For the Love of Systems, these days, we’re known more for our work helping small business owners develop the processes and habits needed to run effective systems. It’s our holistic, root-cause, “teach-someone-to-fish” approach to small business systems work that sets us apart. We focus on the team and client experience, and we meet our clients where they are and build an actionable plan that gets them to where they want to go. We work together in coaching sessions to implement the plan–usually designed to help them scale one or more of the following:

• How they deliver services to clients
• How they build and manage their teams
• How their internal teams collaborate
• How they or their team show up in the business (their habits)

I’m a certified Director of Operations and Greg and I are both Habit Story certified coaches. We just started using the Habit Story assessment (https://habitstory.twostory.com/) in our work this year, and we’re floored by the insights it provides and the positive impact it has been creating for our clients–in both their businesses and their personal lives. I’m also the systems expert in Small Business Cultivator–a collective of women-owned businesses that supports other women in launching their dream business.

Is there a quality that you most attribute to your success?
With an unwavering commitment to creating value for our clients, the small business technology environment is in constant flux, so we have to continuously evaluate, adapt, and evolve our services to keep our offerings relevant to our client’s needs. This requires us to be highly adaptable and willing + able to pivot at any moment, but we practice what we preach, and that makes it a lot easier.

Contact Info:

• Website: www.fortheloveofsystems.com
• Instagram: www.instagram.com/fortheloveofsystems
• Facebook: www.facebook.com/fortheloveofsystems
• Linkedin: www.linkedin.com/company/fortheloveofsystems
• Other: www.smallbusinesscultivator.com

Image Credits
“SBC Collaboration:” Alicia Burke-Agüero “FTLOS business card,” “Kristen standing,” and “Kristen sitting:” Emma Dorge Photography