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Ep. 68: Grammy Nominated Producer And Archivist Jocelyn Arem On Why Collaboration Leads To Success

"You get knocked down and you think, 'Oh man, this is too hard.' I have days like that all the time. All the time! And I still think of myself as a kick-ass lady. You've gotta roll with it. The waves are always out there. The waves of confusion, the waves of confidence...one after the other after the other. You just kind of find what works for you to keep yourself afloat on that crazy ocean of emotion."

Jocelyn Arem is a NYC-based GRAMMY Award-nominated producer and founder of the multimedia production company Arbo Radiko She is also a singer/songwriter under the name Rabasi Joss. Her work - at the intersection of the arts, archives, digital storytelling, social justice, and community action - has been featured in media outlets ranging from the New York Times to Rolling Stone. Listen to Jocelyn's story of crafting her own career based on her lifelong interest of uncovering untold stories. Jocelyn shares how collaboration has been key to her success and how surrounding yourself with people with good energy makes all the difference.

"I'm in it for the long game. I want to see the connection between where we came from and what we're doing now. It's important to think about whose telling the stories. Who has the right to tell whose stories and what stories do we get access to."

We discuss Jocelyn's interest in storytelling, her exploration in formalized curiosity, finding community by following her passions, the importance of self-care, materializing the three tiers of the path she has chosen, the social justice component to her work, creating new value out of older things, what she wishes she would have known when she was starting out, highlights from her exciting career, how she unwinds to protect from burnout, the project that got her a Grammy nomination, and more.

"It's hard to do things by yourself. You can have the impulse to forge a new path but you really do need help and I've become even more collaborative as I've expanded my career and have sought out partnerships and mentors in a much deeper way because I've realized that you can burn out if you're taking on too much."

Learn more:

  • https://www.arboradiko.com/

"[People] either remind you of your self-confidence or they remind you of your self-doubt."