We caught up with the brilliant and insightful Shawn Yohe a few weeks ago and have shared our conversation below.

Alright, Shawn thanks for taking the time to share your stories and insights with us today. What was it like going from idea to execution? Can you share some of the backstory and some of the major steps or milestones?

The first business in what has become the Keystone family was Keystone Artisan Werks, an idea my wife, Katie Yohe, and I developed during the COVID-19 shutdown in 2020. At the time, so many people were at home creating—crafts, artwork, handmade goods—and Katie suggested we create a space where those individuals could showcase their talents and generate much-needed income during a difficult period.

We moved quickly and transformed our large warehouse into a curated space featuring over 100 vendors—something truly unique for our area. One of the advantages of the building is its size, which allowed us to design individual “studio-style” spaces for each vendor. This gave everyone the ability to express their own brand and personality while still contributing to a cohesive, shared atmosphere. We leaned into the building’s history, incorporating corrugated metal and industrial elements that pay tribute to its origins as a train repair shop, and later as a manufacturing site for commercial and residential laundry machinery.

As the vendor marketplace grew, we began to recognize a gap in local entertainment options. That led to the creation of The Axeperience Lounge, located in the building’s former machine shop. The space was designed to be a high-energy, social environment, featuring axe throwing lanes, a golf simulator, shuffleboard, darts, oversized games, and a large projector screen for major sporting events—along with a flexible hosting area for private parties and gatherings.

About a year later, my business partner Brent Shaw and I expanded further into entertainment with the launch of Escape Keystone. With Katie leading puzzle design, we developed a series of immersive, story-driven escape rooms that have since become award-winning experiences.

Now, as of April 25, we’re continuing that growth with the launch of The Bat Cave. In partnership with Adam Aloisi, we’ve built a state-of-the-art training and entertainment space focused on baseball and softball. The facility features top-tier HitTrax technology, full batting cages, and dedicated areas for instruction, clinics, and player development. We’re also expanding into fitness, offering classes like yoga, Pilates, and pump classes.

In addition, the space includes a fully equipped podcast studio available for rent, giving content creators, businesses, and individuals a professional setting to produce podcasts, interviews, and social media content.

Over the past six years, we’ve worked to build something truly special—a multi-purpose destination where people can shop, create, connect, celebrate, train, and be entertained, all under one roof here in Columbia, Pennsylvania.

Shawn, before we move on to more of these sorts of questions, can you take some time to bring our readers up to speed on you and what you do?

At the core of everything we do is a simple goal: we want our guests to have an incredible experience. When someone chooses to spend their time and hard-earned money with us—whether it’s hosting an event or participating in one of our escape rooms—that trust means everything. We take that responsibility seriously.

What sets us apart is how hands-on and engaged we are with our guests. We don’t just provide the experience—we actively host it. In our escape rooms at Escape Keystone, for example, we interact with participants throughout their time with us, helping guide the energy, maintain excitement, and ensure they’re getting the most out of every moment. It’s not just about solving puzzles—it’s about creating a memorable, shared experience.

Our guests’ feedback has been incredibly rewarding. Across our businesses, we’ve earned more than 500 five-star reviews, and to me, that’s the true measure of success. It reflects the consistency of the experience we strive to deliver every single day.

With The Bat Cave, our approach is similar—we’re not looking to compete directly with other facilities, but rather to offer something different. We’ve created a space that supports both highly driven athletes and those who are just beginning their journey, especially individuals who may not have access to more expensive training environments.

A major focus for us is softball, which is often underserved in training facilities. Many spaces in our region don’t offer softball-specific HitTrax leagues, and we saw an opportunity to fill that gap. As a varsity softball coach for over eight years, along with three years of college-level coaching in both baseball and softball, this is something my wife and I are deeply passionate about. We want to create an environment where young athletes—especially girls—can develop their skills, build confidence, and ultimately fall in love with the game.

Learning and unlearning are both critical parts of growth – can you share a story of a time when you had to unlearn a lesson?

One of the biggest things that changes in life is the path that you take. Sometimes the path has curves or has a pothole that cannot be crossed so you have to pivot and make adjustments. Those adjustments, those pivots are where I think we succeed very well in. We see a need, a desire, or an urge for something and we try to attack that not out of fear but to take it head on and pave the way of the community.

How’d you meet your business partner?

When I think about the “family” we’ve built at Keystone, it’s honestly the part I’m most proud of. None of this happens without the people behind it, and for me, it starts with my wife, Katie Yohe. She’s been the backbone of everything from day one. She’s stood beside me through every risk, every late night, every idea—and truthfully, I don’t take any of these leaps without her. She’s the lifeblood of what Keystone has become, and there aren’t enough words to fully express what she means to me or to everything we’ve built. I’ll forever love her not for just who she is, but for what a role model she has been on my life. I’m truly blessed to have her be my wife!

My business partner, Brent Shaw, came into this in a way that feels pretty fitting for how Keystone has grown—organically. We were actually teammates on a bowling team, and over time that friendship turned into a strong partnership. When opportunities started to present themselves, I asked him to take the leap with me, and together we’ve built some truly special things. We just click creatively, and that’s allowed us to bring some really unique ideas to life through Escape Keystone and The Axeperience Lounge.

Then there’s Tom McCade, who has been one of my closest friends since elementary school. From the very beginning of Keystone Artisan Werks, Tom was right there with me—wiring, building, problem-solving, and doing whatever it took to bring the vision to life. Without him, I truly don’t think we would have made it off the ground. Even now, he continues to support us with insight, guidance, and investment, and that kind of loyalty is something I’ll never take for granted.

Jason Brill was instrumental in helping us get the technical side of our escape rooms up and running in the early days—developing our website and assisting with some of the electronic puzzle elements that have become such a key part of the experience.

And Shane Best has been an absolute workhorse behind the scenes. He’s played a huge role in building, designing, and bringing each of our spaces to life. So much of what people see and experience when they walk through our doors is because of his dedication and craftsmanship.

At the end of the day, Keystone isn’t just a collection of businesses—it’s a reflection of the people who believed in the vision, rolled up their sleeves, and built it together. That’s what makes it so special to me.

Contact Info:

• Website: www.escapekeystone.com, www.keystoneartisanwerks.com, www.thebatcavepa.com
• Instagram: Escape Keystone
• Facebook: https://www.facebook.com/KeystoneArtisanWerks/,https://www.facebook.com/escapekeystone/, https://www.facebook.com/profile.php?id=61585841526126