“Josh is not your average business owner… He is a driven, determined person who is very detail oriented. One could say he is a perfectionist. Ok.. let’s be real here… there’s no doubt that he is, in fact, a perfectionist.”

At the age of 19 Josh joined the U.S. Army and became a combat medic and Army Nurse. When he finished his medical schooling in the Army he returned to the Midwest and attended Illinois State University. During his time at ISU he became a member of the University Programing Board, which was the organization responsible for producing and promoting university concerts. This is where he got his first taste of the event industry. After graduating from ISU he worked as a nurse, saved money and decided he wanted to continue in the event industry. He then started researching, networking and making contacts in the live music world. While networking, he contacted a well established promoter and offered to work for free to learn the business. After a year of working for the promoter he independently produced his very first live concert. Soon after he was producing and promoting concerts full-time.

The next chapter started while Josh was a promoter. He was producing concerts on a regular basis and costs were high. While reviewing budgets for some of his events Josh noticed a line item that he thought could potentially be reduced: Event Credentials. He decided to spend some time researching the manufacturing process of some the most used credentials for his events. After lots of research Josh took the leap and bought a few pieces of equipment, set them up in his garage and continued the research process. Little did he know the print world has a steep learning curve. However, Josh has never been one to back down from a challenge. Through lots of trial and error, countless hours, days and months of research and learning Josh started getting a grasp on some aspects of the print world and began manufacturing event credentials for his own use. Soon after he was manufacturing and sourcing all of the credentials needed for all of his events. Not long after this transition to producing his own credentials other promoters and industry contacts learned of Josh’s ability to produce credentials and started asking him to supply credentials for their events. Josh saw this as another opportunity to grow his business and continue to be a part of the event industry, which lead to the decision to open up his credential products and services to the public. He has been managing and operating his event credentials division (Credentials 4 Events, LLC) ever since.

Similarly, looking towards long term sustainability and ways to mitigate future costs Josh saw another line item that he thought could potentially be reduced: equipment rental. It didn’t take long for him to decide to start buying production equipment in an effort to reduce external expenses. His first purchase was a single small stage that was used for an annual music festival he produced. From there he started buying other equipment including audio, lighting, video and more staging to use for his events. As he acquired equipment other promoters and industry contacts began asking for him to provide production services at their events. Not long after Josh was managing a full-service production company in addition to his event credentials division and his live music promotion company. However, over time Josh transitioned away from event promotion so that he could focus on providing the best service possible to his live production and event credential clients.

After several years of doing business as J Shay Productions, LLC, a spin off of his concert promotion company, Josh decided to re-brand his live production company to StageLive Productions, LLC as a result of expansion outside of the Midwest to other parts of the nation.

Josh currently owns and operates both StageLive Productions, LLC and Credentials 4 Events, LLC.