S2 Episode 8

[deanna_nwosu]: hello experience junkies on in this episode i am joined by anca trifan who is the founder of tree fan events during this conversation anca shares about her immigrant journey to the us as a young adult over twenty years ago fast forward to present day and aka now runs her own boutique event agency specializing in av and event tech production this is usually a pretty male dominated side of the industry so in our chat we cover how her career journey has taught her a lot about life and how precious time is we also discuss what fuels her to go go go at an energizer bunny pace non stop so sit back and relax as i chat with anca trifan

[deanna_nwosu]: welcome back to another episode of the experience junkies podcast today i am excited to have with me the lovely anca tf she is located on the other side of america and lovely idaho think anca is the only person i know that lives in idaho but so happy to have you here for the conversation welcome anca

[anca_trifan]: so nice to be here deanna and i think i’m the only one that lives in idaho according to the event industry professionals

[deanna_nwosu]: yeah yeah the way you look at social media you would think there are no events in idaho right

[anca_trifan]: no events or no event planners in idaho

[deanna_nwosu]: exactly well with that said tell the audience a little bit about who you are and what you do

[anca_trifan]: well first off thank you so much for this opportunity to be having a conversation with you on your podcast i love your episodes and your guests and the energy that you bring to and the flavor they bring to the event industry so the more female podcasters out there in this field the better that’s my take on it my name is anca trifan as you mentioned i am the founder of a creator and ceo of tf event a woman owned boutique technical event planning and production agency that provides the strategy technology and gear to host successful virtual hybrid and in person events i have worked in event productions for almost twenty years and maybe i shouldn’t say that out loud because i am still twenty five i keep

[deanna_nwosu]: right

[anca_trifan]: saying that so that i can believe it and i have an extensive experience and knowledge in the areas of technical event productions event planning design management and i will happily walk every single one of my client to the entire event planning and production process because that’s where you know my passion is and i love to see events that are executed events that are thoughtful and that providen some type of an experience so this is a great podcast to talk about event experiences right i am also a

[deanna_nwosu]: absolutely

[anca_trifan]: certified event professional digital event strategist and just recently which has been literally the cherry on top yesterday as and probably it’s not yesterday now that when the episode will be released but for women’s day i received the i was the recipient of the two forty under forty be bash and connect they co produced this type of award list for the very first time and i’m one of those recipients amazing amazing people on dall list so i was humbled and honored to be included on that as well and also the recipient of women to watch and award that i love my friend courtney stanley she has put out as a um as a way to celebrate women in advance she um she’s she’s done this elevating women on her podcast there to interrupt and she just wanted to create this award and i’m like thank you this is fantastic

[deanna_nwosu]: congratulations you’re getting like all these kudos right on you know on

[anca_trifan]: all in one day so it was kind of hard yeah it was kind of hard to process all at

[deanna_nwosu]: international women’s day

[anca_trifan]: once and i’m like i need a moment to just take

[deanna_nwosu]: right

[anca_trifan]: all of this in but it

[deanna_nwosu]: mm

[anca_trifan]: was fantastic it was such a highlight and uh i’m also the host of events demystified it um this is a tactical podcast that dives more into the technology into the event strategy and event production site of the event and it is for everyone in the industry beginner of pro and i love to have this type of conversation as well with with event professionals that have made an impact in the industry india and i actually was one of my guests though a little while

[deanna_nwosu]: yeah

[anca_trifan]: ago last season you guys need to go and check it out that was really one of my top favorite episodes and uh i um i also have this community that i call the women in event tech and production just as a way to elevate and support women in technology and production which i feel like there is a high need for especially in uh male dominated fields such as av production and it is a passion that has been fueled by this deep con conviction that i have that there is a need for more women role models in the production event world i know for myself i didn’t have one and i would have been so much far advanced i truly believe in my career if i would have had that touch someone’s mentoring me in this journey unfortunately i

[deanna_nwosu]: right

[anca_trifan]: didn’t have that so it was a lot of the learning on my own and a lot of

[deanna_nwosu]: uhuh

[anca_trifan]: like you know making my own mistakes falling and getting back up and retracing my steps and getting back on on right

[deanna_nwosu]: right

[anca_trifan]: so there’s a lot of there’s a lot of resilience that’s built through that but i don’t know if necessarily the best way for so if there’s a way to

[deanna_nwosu]: yeah

[anca_trifan]: make it easier for the new generation moving into event productions event technology events in general i’m all for that so that’s sort of the things that i’m involved with and with and another way which i really love to give back to my community is by you know doing uh volunteer work which you’re like how do you still have time for that well i

[deanna_nwosu]: right

[anca_trifan]: love to see it on boards and a couple of the boards that are relevant to our conversation are the idaho women in technology idaho nonprofit center there’s another board called called women innovators sh tch boys entrepreneurs week and those are the places where i like to hang with again like minded women that um are uh passionate about the same things elevating girls women in in technology and production field so that’s really my story in so many words because i could be talking about this forever yet but i don’t think

[deanna_nwosu]: right

[anca_trifan]: we have time for it

[deanna_nwosu]: well you kind of gave me a great segue when you kind of talked about how you started in the career cause you really are like a unicorn in real life if youfollow aka on any social media channels you’ll see that she’s got a ton of pictures with her little unicorn hat on she really embraces that kind of um that uh what do you call it uh altar ego yeah persona of a unicorn um but you are because in the world

[anca_trifan]: persona persona yes

[deanna_nwosu]: for anyone who doesn’t work in events um the a v technical the production side any of the event tech platforms and software that is created to support either in person or virtual events it’s very male dominated um uh and you know especially twenty years ago as anca said when you know she was five years old and she started working um but my question is how did you get in right right a little bit of child labor but how did you get involved in

[anca_trifan]: don’t ask my parents why that was

[deanna_nwosu]: you know the technical side of events and and what still keeps you working in it all these years later

[anca_trifan]: i i like to go back to my radio days uh in high school and college i had the opportunity to start volunteering and then eventually getting on a payroll at one of the local radio stations where i come from and originally i’m from romania if anybody’s wondering if that’s not you know super evident that i have an accent and um back in those days for me that was sort of like the catalyst of making it hrough high school and and college without the drama i have not had any high school drama there’s a lot of things that people would you know alk about how hard high school was for them and i have empathy for that but for me i sort of like my i guess escape has been radio and i started doing you know helping with content and then helping them just set up and things and then eventually end up having three shows on the radio as a host but what really stayed with me and captured really a lot of my attention and that that

[deanna_nwosu]: do you know

[anca_trifan]: was super fun i mean i think i should have started podcasting way in the days because maybe who

[deanna_nwosu]: yeah

[anca_trifan]: knows where i be now like joe roger or something but again that was a really part of of my journey and the in in the radio station in the studio we had this little mixer and i think it was like a mackie twelve or two or fourteen or four i don’t remember exactly the mo model but it’s like you have between two and four channels uh analogue and my timber and just constantly queuing things and probably people thinking on the other side is like why does she sound different every single time i don’t understand um so when i moved to us after college i knew the radio was not gonna be one of my pathways just because at the time i was super insecure by my accent also it was like you know sort of impossible to actually get a gig in radio and i had no connections i know i ha i i knew no one so i just came to u s with like literally a hundred and fifty dollars in my pocket to make my own path like really leaving the american dream you know it’s the country that uh you know the place and the world of all possibilities come true i don’t know how true that still is but that was really how um the the the the belief that i had at the time and i think it is you know if you work hard and if you really follow your dreams and don’t get sidetracked and you stay focused on that goal it’s possible right so the next best uh place for me that i could come up with okay well i really liked the sound board how about i go and learn more about that so i started pursuing education excuse me education in sound engineering and then working from literally the  ground up um at a production house in l a and i was hired to literally help them with their computers because i had a comp computer science degree it was nothing connected to audio visual production cause i had not no knowledge about that just yet right but

[deanna_nwosu]: yeah

[anca_trifan]: that was the best opportunity for me to actually get hands on on the gear and i work my way from like literally coiling cables and learning the difference between you know audio cables and video cables and data cables and lighting cables dmx and all those things and learning equipment as well because i started being in charge of the warehouse and i’m very organized as a person i’m also a go getter i don’t wait for people to tell me what to do i will find

[deanna_nwosu]: right

[anca_trifan]: things to do and just go and get and done so really helped you put me on the right path to advance in my career in ways that you know a passive person probably would have not had the opportunity because he fast forwarded me and yeah so in a few years time i end up getting a degree in sound engineering lighting design and then hands on starting to mix you know from an a two to an a one a lot of a bands we did a lot of sound lifetime reinforcement for concerts and fashion shows and a lot of fun stuff a lot of hard work as well i mean i am five two even though i look so tall on zoom i don’t um but you know to lift eighty pounds seventy po like anywhere between fifty to a hundred pound speakers like heavy speakers it’s a lot of weight for a small girl like me right so it was heavy not just in the sense of like mental and emotional but also physical work so even to this day you know for me to keep myself in top shape i work out like a maniac so i can have the brute force to be able to do some of the things in the world in the real world when i’m hands on so i don’t lose my energy

[deanna_nwosu]: yeah

[anca_trifan]: and i don’t you know like fall you know dead after you know ten hours on an event day even though most event days are literally like sixteen eighteen hours just my last hybrid event last friday i was on my feet for eighteen hours and that’s just very normal in event but add to that

[deanna_nwosu]: yeah give give the audience a little bit of a taste like what it is like behind the scenes especially from av tech setup because a lot of people don’t normally see behind the scenes for that it’s very you know back of house typically

[anca_trifan]: exactly i mean you show up at five am with the truck and the loading happens and you you’ve got to you know all the equipment has to be pushed into the ballroom especially if you’re bringing an outside suppliers and even if you’re not you know as ’cause i am so hands on i don’t have to be so much anymore because now i take the role of the technical event planner and i hire production houses to do a lot of the work and they would bring in a crew of people but i used to be one of those people for many years that i would unload the truck and then i push the cases up into the ballroom and then we start setting up the event and

[deanna_nwosu]: yeah

[anca_trifan]: and then you go through all the technical rehearsals and then you have the event but guess what that’s not over that once the event is done you’re going to

[deanna_nwosu]: yeah

[anca_trifan]: stay another six hours to actually strike that and make sure that everything gets back organized in an organized fashion at least back into the truck so when you get to the warehouse and you pull all that equipment is ready to go to the next show and there is a system and there is a logistics behind a lot of the ev production houses how they run events especially for you to be successful in that  business you have to have a procedure you have to have a system and a process in  which you follow it so that you don’t break your shed on this event so then when the next one is tomorrow you literally

[deanna_nwosu]: yeah

[anca_trifan]: don’t have your gear in top shape so like even having time to go back through your equipment and say okay so this is business fixing this replacing okay we need to reset this or whatever all those things have to happen so that’s why like during busy time seasons it’s very common for av professionals to work long long hours day in and day out so going back to my california la days in production i’ve done that for about seven years and i burn out really really well because i had no time off i was working seven days a week four months we had a little bit

of down time during i think uh in that season it was during spring time and it’s funny because there’s a lot of seasonality to our work based on the type of events that we do because we did a lot of outside events we worked very heavy during the summer we also had holidays during the winter i was always working december for holiday parties and new year has always been a work day for me it was never like just you know celebration and that was for seven years straight and it’s very common for uh for people in in in this field to not have a life like the only life you have

is when you go and take a nap and i

[deanna_nwosu]: yeah

[anca_trifan]: would sleep i could you not i mean i have stories where i would sleep uh take

naps anywhere i could i mean it was if it was pipe and drape i would sleep on a pipe and drape bad if it was like under the tech table i would sleep there if he  was like on a truss i slept on the trust too i mean i would

[deanna_nwosu]: yeah

[anca_trifan]: just find places to rest because i had not you had no time to just move move move from next thing to the next so that was that was life and then eventually when it was time to start a family i was like okay well i can maintain this this is way too much i’ve got to do something change something because i remember like we had a huge show in vegas at the las vegas convention center and we are setting up for a tray show and it was miles and miles of trough and miles and miles of dmx cables and leds and lighting that needed to be pre programmed before the show and we were at the time serving our client which was christiana deer rest in peace because he’s no longer with us

[deanna_nwosu]: yeah

[anca_trifan]: and he had a huge fashion show at the time in vegas and we needed to have all the boots each boot was a different brand and we need to have all of them ready to go and i remember that we worked day in and day for two days straight and the night prior to the opening the the start of the show we had a lot of issues and this is back in the days when dmx matter if you’re connecting it wasn’t wireless ms you had to do cables and any matter which direction you’re going in and apparently some of the labor that we used was freelance and they messed up the key said at one point that we’re going in this direction and then things got switched and then they come started coming in the wrong direction but we didn’t know where the problem was we don’t know where the nod was happening and why were we having such issues where our fixers were not responding to the addressing that we were giving it so it was just like a long long night and that night i remember like breaking like this was like the the time when i was like i can no longer do this i’m like i am so exhausted that i can’t even remember my name like i don’t even remember like if it’s like one two three four o five seven nine like i can’t even count anymore right

[deanna_nwosu]: yeah

[anca_trifan]: so this was where like you know you think you have you know labor unions and you think you have all those things where like well you can only work for two hours and then you take a break and then you work another two hours now in most cases there is no such thing like yes we all want to rest and we want to take care of our people but when the tire meets the road and you’ve got a a deadline and you’ve got a time when you know you have to be on you’re gonna work no matter how many hours that is to fi fi figure out the problem troubleshoot and solve it so that was like one of those experiences where i was like oh my gosh i’m like i am gonna kill myself like doing this right now because i am exhausted beyond belief  i don’t know when was the last time i ate i didn’t know when i drank water and i my body my body is like failing me like i can’t function and

[deanna_nwosu]: yeah

[anca_trifan]: that was like also the moment when i was like okay i need i need to figure out a different place i need a break i really need a break i can’t keep doing this so that was my transition into corporate events and corporate is so different corporate is

[deanna_nwosu]: yeah

[anca_trifan]: a little bit more in a sense elevated that you don’t have to do such hard hands on work there’s still a lot of hard work but it’s cleaner in a sense that

[deanna_nwosu]: yeah

[anca_trifan]: you’re not down in the you know mud pulling cables and pushing cases and shoving things you know through

[deanna_nwosu]: yeah

[anca_trifan]: drain and and and and winter and everything right lighting strikes who cares you

gotta get to to the venue from the truck to the video so a av in a venue is a little it’s a little different it’s it’s also a different level you know as far as you know not as intense and it took me a minute to transition because i had that rock star type of mentality and rock star attitude and i’m dressing whatever the heck i want but now i’m in a ballroom with ceos and c level executives and i better like learn how to present myself and i better learn how to talk to them and not be like you know this you know rugged tech that only speaks sta and i can’t speak english like

[deanna_nwosu]: rap

[anca_trifan]: actually carry a conversation so it was i remember it was like a year where i’m like oh my gosh like who is this person that i’m turning into because it does not look like anything that i’ve known you know but it was a really good transition long term because he set me on the path to be with the right people in the right places at the right tables so that i can start my own agency and then make connections event planners and organizers which otherwise i would have never had the opportunity to because as as a tech as a sound engineer as a lighting technician you don’t really have that interface with the clients you know

[deanna_nwosu]: yeah

[anca_trifan]: but becoming the technical event planner that  i transition into in the corporate world i started interacting with clients i started actually having strategy conversations and meetings about the events that we were working on it wasn’t just technical it was more than that right there is a plan there is a why there is um a system to the madness so in so many words that’s sort of like my journey really into doing it all both on the vendor side supplier side but also on the planner side turning it around becoming a certified event professional meeting professional because i wanted to actually know more than just a tech i wanted to know the strategy i wanted to know what does it take to actually put on a sound event that involves every aspect of the event not just the production and technology i’m still very passionate about just production technology if you ask me in the events that i do now if i have to bring an event planner that does just the event planning part of the event i will gladly do it because that’s

[deanna_nwosu]: hmm

[anca_trifan]: just not something that i’m passionate about i want to do

[deanna_nwosu]: right

[anca_trifan]: the gear part i want to do the production i want to do the logistics and that’s really where my heart is at but it’s good to know each side of the event so that that way you know where you know problems could arise before they even arise and i think that is a level of knowledge and expertise that not a lot of people without experience have and that’s where you know the response to that potential problem then it’s much quicker so that it doesn’t turn into a catastrophic uh issue right so it’s important to have that type of hands on knowledge and that’s where you see the difference between more of a you know a beginner event professional versus someone that it’s been it’s a veteran that it’s been through a few things has had a few you know things uh go wrong under their watch and they know how to avoid that from ever happening again

[deanna_nwosu]: so kind of when you were talking about you like to kind of do it all right you don’t like to just focus on the planning you know you’ll do it but you want to be involved in all the nitty gritty details and logistics and i have to say that anca  has definitely an energizer bunny persona um anca has a million projects as she mentioned at the beginning of this episode in terms of you know running her own you know boutique event agency volunteering she i believe you are preparing for like a fitness competition too like you do it all and so my question is where do you get the drive

where does that come from to just kind of go go go and have all these projects going like where does is it like a fear of failure a passion for the work you maybe your background as an immigrant where do you think that stems from

[anca_trifan]: i love that question because it goes into you know the the why behind the things that we do and i i’m a huge like personality type kind of person that i will go and do all the personality types because i want to learn more about myself and then also learn more about the other people that i interact with and i’m on all on all of those i’m like talk to me about maya brigs disc anagram i mean all of it all the things i think for me to answer that question honestly i failed so much in my life and i’m not even like afraid to admit it because i failed on small things and large things that fear of failure no longer drives me or scares me and yeah sure it’s not fun to feel for sure uh

[deanna_nwosu]: right

[anca_trifan]: but i feel that i allowed myself to right through the lows and the highs enough to know what that is like so i’m no longer afraid of it right so what really really drives me is a passion for doing something that’s meaningful something that i can say i put my heart and my soul into something i can look back on and be proud of what i have contributed to to

[deanna_nwosu]: yeah

[anca_trifan]: with my life i could not be the kind of person that watches netflix for hours i tried

[deanna_nwosu]: yeah

[anca_trifan]: it doesn’t work for me or

[deanna_nwosu]: mhm

[anca_trifan]: gets lost in like instagram reels and tiktoks that’s again not me i have such

an ingrained sense of like wasting time that i don’t have that is just something that does it’s not it’s not the fantasy of mine to just be a couch potato it’s never been like for me being and doing it’s it’s what it’s what it’s what i’m all about right it’s what gives me energy hings that actually make me be still and and bras and rest depletes me of energy and that’s like when i’m like oh my gosh i gotta do something like being sick is like the worst thing could happen to me because i’m like i can’t even rest cause i want to do a million other things and i’m like this thing is in the way right now and i

[deanna_nwosu]: yeah

[anca_trifan]: can’t even you know it’s like allowing myself to rest has been a journey for myself just to learn how to do it well in a way because i need to also have the moment of like stillness and time that i allow myself to you know to breathe through all those things but um knowing honestly how short life is and how i care to leave something behind either for my children or for the world it doesn’t matter i want i just have that drive that comes from like whatever how many projects i have and i have so many that i they’re on the list but i haven’t yet it yet

[deanna_nwosu]: yeah

[anca_trifan]: i cannot leave this life before i’ve done them all and that’s what really drives me the urgency of how time is such a precious resource and we only have so little of it

[deanna_nwosu]: yeah what you said that struck me there was doing brings you energy and i think it just kind of underlines that you need a purpose you know you need like a north star behind you know when you’re setting about your day what is the goal that i want to attempt and when i’m working on this what’s the overarching purpose of this project and how is it impacting you know others i love that you also run av during church services so that you can kind of use your expertise in that service capacity how do you separate the technical side of what you’re doing from like the spiritual side you know of praise and worship in the moment you know i grew up in the church and i know sometimes when you’re in that moment and you’re feeling very connected with you know the service that’s going on you kind of get lost in your emotions so how do you run a sound board and kind of be a tech lead in those moments

[anca_trifan]: you know that’s a great question and if you ask any house of worship technician um or sound engineer or any tech role that they might feel doing a service that is also a believer that’s also a great struggle because um when you’re on the in those positions you are there to do a task and a job and focus on it and you don’t receive much you really give a lot of your talent skills expertise for the good of the service the community the whatever it is that your heart is into and you’re involved with i have in the past been burned out by mixing and working behind the scenes every sunday for years

[deanna_nwosu]: yeah

[anca_trifan]: in a row as well again when i pour myself into something um i feel like it’s sometimes to my disadvantage that i do it so whole heartily and with so much passion that um  i i give it all and there is

[deanna_nwosu]: mm hm

[anca_trifan]: no holding back but because

[deanna_nwosu]: yeah

[anca_trifan]: i do that if it’s you know if it’s pour out at the same level um week after week  in time if i’m not careful if i do not put boundaries around this

[deanna_nwosu]: yeah

[anca_trifan]: i get burned out and it has happened to me and that’s where actually my biggest

growth has happened learning how to allow myself to have boundaries around even like the passion that i have and the places that i involve myself with and the things that i pour myself into so with that being said the way i’ve learned to you know contain some of it while i still volunteer on sundays is figure out the schedule in which you know um because after i got burned after like several years of working

[deanna_nwosu]: mhm

[anca_trifan]: day in and day out every sunday like the first person to come and the first person to leave and we’re talking about three services in a row in the morning

[deanna_nwosu]: wow

[anca_trifan]: and another service in the evening i mean this is like a full time job

[deanna_nwosu]: on top

[anca_trifan]: on

[deanna_nwosu]: of your job your actual job

[anca_trifan]: on top of your job but then you also have rehearsals and you have meetings during the week so it’s not just like one day right there’s a lot of time like for everyone that is working behind the scenes in the house of worship i mean i salute you and i have a good friend that she is involved with some engineering for houses of worship and she and she gets it because that’s exactly what that uh that that takes you know a lot of pouring out of your of yourself like selfless you know so

[deanna_nwosu]: yeah

[anca_trifan]: i guess ah for me what has been the strategy of late is i volunteer maximum twice

a month so i can keep two three times a month free so that when i go to church i go to church so i can actually receive something and not just be there as they you know constantly doing something but also i don’t want to be a spectator either right and i want to contribute but i have to do it in a way that i don’t burn myself out because i can put

[deanna_nwosu]: yeah

[anca_trifan]: myself in every single role every single sunday and i have done that in in the past but it has not served me well in the long term because if i take myself out after several months then i can’t help anymore so it’s not helpful to anyone

[deanna_nwosu]: yeah exactly well

[anca_trifan]: you know so i had to learn how to create that boundary around it

[deanna_nwosu]: yeah and even outside of church i know that you work with you know some charitable organizations some volunteer i saw that you even did uh like a uh memorial service a virtual memorial service for some for someone and and when you’re in those moments where you again from the same aspect of being you know a church member and and being the sound board person but on the flip side when you’re actually in your event role but it’s something that’s a good cause and it may have a little bit of you know tear jerker have you ever become overwhelmed or emotional actually uh managing a live virtual event

[anca_trifan]: i honestly i try to to stay focused on the task and i’ve done actually several

celebration of lives which are funerals memorials i personally i know though it sounds like bad or it sounds i enjoy those not that i enjoyed that somebody passed away but i enjoy being in the moment with the person that is like one of my biggest client right now is someone that i have done a memorial for her mother and the fact that i was there as a not just a as a task mask master to do something for her but as a

[deanna_nwosu]: yeah

[anca_trifan]: supporter in those moments and that’s where like emotionally i can connect with people on a deeper level because honestly i want to be there for the moments of joy but i also want to be there for the moments of sadness because if i walk with you with you through highs and lows then we really have established a report’ i’m the kind of person that i can i can um really embrace the sadness as much as i can embrace the joy of life because they’re

[deanna_nwosu]: yeah

[anca_trifan]: just two sides of the like of the same coin right

[deanna_nwosu]: mm

[anca_trifan]: so someone that will be with you through those moments of you know of greatest need because i feel like funerals and celebration of lives those are the places where most people are like oh i don’t want to go cause it’s you know it’s it’s sad it’s depressing

[deanna_nwosu]: yeah

[anca_trifan]: it’s oppressive sometimes but

[deanna_nwosu]: mhm

[anca_trifan]: those are the moments when you show up you really show up for someone and that really really matters so to your question yeah i’ve had events you know uh especially um any event that is related to children suffering that touches my heart on a level that i am not a cryer in general like it takes me a whole month to collect enough tears so that at a certain time of the month i can just unleash it all for

[deanna_nwosu]: right right

[anca_trifan]: one day so when it comes to crying just like i like sometimes i’m a mad at myself that i can use crying as you know as a manipulation strategy with my husband because it just doesn’t work

[deanna_nwosu]: mm hm yeah

[anca_trifan]: and i’m like i wish i could be like god you know like you know you really want to like show that you really really you know are so upset about one thing

[deanna_nwosu]: yeah

[anca_trifan]: and i’m like i can’t even cry like this is this is frustrating so on events whenit’s something that has to do with a cause that supports children in poverty children suffering with a disease cancer or you know children they all are mistreated or um are are abused or are trafficked in any way shape or form that’s when i honestly i would be the tech that really cries like it’s like there’s tears coming down and i’m like trying to hold it because i just can’t like that

[deanna_nwosu]: yeah

[anca_trifan]: that i just can’t even express and i feel in so many ways it goes back to you know my own childhood uh feeling like i wanted to be someone that was protected and instead i had to grow up beyond my age and i

[deanna_nwosu]: yeah

[anca_trifan]: needed to become this tough you know cookie um just to make it through some uh seasons of my life and childhood was stolen from me in that sense you know so like going going back into those moments when i allow myself to be so vulnerable that i it’s almost like i i can identify with that child was me like many years ago and i never allowed that child to actually really suffer because that child had to toughen up that child actually

[deanna_nwosu]: yeah

[anca_trifan]: had to make it happen and grow beyond their means to just survive you know so

that those are definitely the place the things the places that i’ll be like just you know letting you all out

[deanna_nwosu]: yeah well and to that point you kind of mentioned you know your immigration story and some of the hardships that you dealt with as a young child or young adult and you know if you could go back and talk to you know young aca you know either before you left romania or you know after you came to the us like looking on your journey of where you sit today what would you tell young uncle what what advice would you give her

[anca_trifan]: that’s that’s that’s a hard question but it’s a great great question you know um i allow myself about a lot once a year those moments of introspection to go back and look at my journey

[deanna_nwosu]: those moments in between all of your different projects right when

[anca_trifan]: exactly

[deanna_nwosu]: you’ve got like twenty seconds to yourself

[anca_trifan]: basically yeah um so i guess yang aka has always been driven to accomplish something in her life and with that patience has never been my strongest suit so um because of it a young ank made plenty of mistakes because she jumped into things before she was ready ready for them or bef before the timing was right uh because

[deanna_nwosu]: yeah

[anca_trifan]: again for impatience with life and life seasons so i guess what i would tell myself if you know i had the opportunity to to just slow down and enjoy the

[deanna_nwosu]: yeah

[anca_trifan]: ride and be and trust that everything will fall into place just right at the right time for the right reasons and there’s no need to try so hard to force things to happen when it’s not their turn yet and that applies to relationships and projects and pretty much all across the board and um and i’ve had to learn that the hard way you know many times and even recently in just through covid i mean covid was definitely a hard blow to everyone’s alive but especially people that i have little patience for waiting around for things to happen that has been definitely a life lesson that um i you know i can look back and and and um and have some takeaways but apply those so that so that i’m stronger because of the lessons learned you know

[deanna_nwosu]: yeah absolutely well this has been a great conversation i’ve enjoyed having you on today anca before we wrap up there’s one question that i do ask every guest on the show so hopefully this doesn’t catch you by surprise but if you had to pick a song to kind of convey this conversation you know your journey as an event tech your journey from romania to the us your journey at becoming a woman what would that song be and why

[anca_trifan]: this is a great great question actually you may think a little bit i have a huge collection of songs that speak to me at different seasons through my life i actually i build topical playlist in in my spotify playlist based on a particular week like if i’m struggling with something that playlist you better believe it that it’s gonna elevate me and it’s gonna like boost me and it’s going to get me going for

[deanna_nwosu]: yeah

[anca_trifan]: you to accomplish whatever it is that i need to accomplish that that week so uh with that being said i also listen a whole lot to music and if anybody’s not familiar with muse but they have been around forever and they’re uk band i love love love them so in you know you probably i don’t know if you’re familiar with the songs but if you have listened to you know the things that i’ve said patience is not necessarily my greatest suit so with that one of

their songs that speaks to me is time is running out and

[deanna_nwosu]: very appropriate un very appropriate

[anca_trifan]: very appropriate yes so it has a really good uh beat a really good groove and it just gets me going and i’m telling you when i’m at the gym and i put my mu playlist on i can do forty pull offs you know

[deanna_nwosu]: yeah yeah

[anca_trifan]: and not get you know sidetrack because uh that energy like literally takes me to  the next level so yeah that’s that’s my go to playlist

[deanna_nwosu]: awesome well

[anca_trifan]: time is running out i wish i had it ready to actually to play it

[deanna_nwosu]: i know well well we’ll add it to our spotify playlist we do have a spotify playlist for all of our guest song selection so

[anca_trifan]: awesome

[deanna_nwosu]: definitely check that out but before we leave off of here today anca please tell everyone where they can find you on the inter webs

[anca_trifan]: the best way to connect with me i would say there’s um linkedin where i professionally connect with like minded professional event professionals and : any event planners and people that are on the same bandwidth with you know the things that i do and i love following inspirational people and Deanna i love your reels and i love you know your video tbs that are just so hilarious and that’s really that brings me you know a laughter on my face and joy so those are the people that you know i would follow linkedin so that’s where the the connection is where i would say you could connect with me now on a more prof professional but also personal behind the scenes level i would go to  instagram tf_event is where i do the post are all about the event the uh stories and the reals are all behind the scenes so

ah when you want to see you know anca professional aka that’s on the post on the page but if you want to see a little bit of a pks going to be in the story so those are

[deanna_nwosu]: wonderful

[anca_trifan]: probably the best places obviously i have a website i have a website for the company i have a website for my podcast even it’s demystified and those are all places that will lead you to those websites as well if you’re there

[deanna_nwosu]: perfect well we’ll have all of those links in the show notes so listeners can find you wherever you are online and with that i want to say thank you so much for being with us on this has been great have a great rest of your day

[anca_trifan]: thank you you too