Learn how to podcast and blog to establish thought leadership, extend your brand and engage your target market

Jason Van Orden is a consultant, author and speaker on podcasting and social media. Jason, a webpreneur and would-be rock star, dove into podcasting with the same passion he has for music and internet business. The end result was Jason’s site, HowtoCreateaPodcast.com, which draws tens of thousands of visitors each month with its combination of technical tips and marketing strategies. He is also the author of Promoting Your Podcast. Jason’s speaking engagements include The Podcast and Portable Media Expo, the National Association of Brodcasters, The Learning Annex and the New York City Podcasters Association. His experience in technology, audio production and Internet business, combined with his creative streak, makes Jason an ideal source of podcasting information.

But Jason also practices what he preaches as a podcast and social media expert, producing three podcasts of his own: The Podcasting Underground, Internet Business Mastery and GothamCast—a show on living in New York City. GothamCast was featured as “New and Notable” on the front page of the Yahoo Podcast Directory, next to NPR and the Lonely Planet Podcast.

Jason found a love for consulting and speaking during his stint teaching audio production and recording at the university level. His courses involved explaining technical concepts to musicians and creative concepts to engineers in the same classroom (not the easiest thing to do, but something that has come in handy as a consultant and in working closely as a reliable source to members of the media). He also draws from his B.S. in electrical engineering, especially the emphasis in audio engineering from Utah State University.

For five years Jason worked as an audio and software engineer for Harman Music Group. This company is part of Harman International—a manufacturer of major audio brands such as Harmon/Kardon, AKG, Lexicon, dbx, DigiTech, Infinity and more. Equipment that he helped design can be seen on stage with some of today’s biggest rock stars, including Grammy-nominated acts such as Incubus, Maroon5, Nickelback and Hoobastank. But working for someone else (a.k.a. The Man) was never a part of Jason’s long-term vision. He quit the corporate 9-to-5 cold turkey to pursue his entrepreneurial dreams.

Aside from podcasting and taking care of business, Jason has spent more than a decade living a double life. At night and on weekends he’s played guitar, written music and produced his own albums, oftentimes alongside his wife, Melanie, a singer and graduate student at Fordham University.

As transplanted Utahans who now call New York City home, Jason and Melanie love discovering the history, culture and arts of the Big Apple (the basis for his GothamCast podcast). In his “free” time, Jason is also an organizer and active member of the New York City Podcasting Association.

Jason grew up in Alaska (where they have more caribou than people). He enjoys telling the story of how his family drove the Alaska-Canada Highway in a yellow school bus that they gutted and filled with their worldly possessions. Along the way he has lived in more than 20 different places reachable by bus, such as Utah (where they have more multi-level marketing companies than anywhere else), and others reachable only by Airbus, such as Paris (where they have more kinds of cheese than days in the year).