Keynote Speaker • Author • Culture Architect

The Safe Choice

A Fable About Culture, Trust, and the Question Every Customer Is Afraid to Ask

Customers don't buy the best option. They buy the safest option.

"What if I get this wrong?"

Every customer, every client, every buyer is quietly asking the same question. Not "What's the best option?" but "Which choice won't hurt me?"

The opposite of great service isn't terrible service — it's forgettable service. And forgettable is where trust goes to die.

Functional Fear

"Will this product actually work?"

Financial Fear

"Is this worth the price I'm paying?"

Emotional Fear

"Will I look smart — or foolish — for choosing this?"


The Culture Honeycomb™

Six interlocking behaviors that create unshakable culture. Like nature's honeycomb — strength through shape, connection, and consistency.

Empowered
Secure
Aware
RTS
Buoyant
Helpful
Kind

"Culture isn't built by adding behaviors. It's built by connecting them."

Helpful

The instinctive question: "How can I add the most value right now?" Acting before being asked.

Kind

Truth delivered with care. Not nice — kind. Nice is passive. Kind is active. Kind is harder.

Aware

Seeing what others miss. Reading the room. Self-aware and situationally tuned.

Buoyant

Carrying your own weather. Not drowning — and not pulling others under with you.

Secure

No fear of honesty. Security doesn't mean no consequences — it means trust is the default.

Empowered

The permission to be unreasonably thoughtful. The four spokes need a hub to turn.

"You cannot market your way to trust.
You have to earn it from the inside out."

Ridiculously Thoughtful Service

The discipline of noticing, anticipating, and acting on customer needs long before they ever ask.

RTS = Ridiculously Thoughtful Service

It's not about grand gestures. It's about consistent, unreasonable thoughtfulness — the kind of attention that makes people feel seen.

RTS = Ready To Serve

A posture, not a task. Every person, every interaction, every moment — ready before the need arrives.

The RTS Ladder

1

Reactive Service

Waiting to be asked.

2

Expected Service

Meeting the industry norm. Nothing more.

3

Proactive Service

Anticipating needs. Preventing problems before they surface.

4

Ridiculously Thoughtful Service

Creating meaningful, personal, unexpected moments that linger.

5

Signature Moments

Repeatable, ritualized experiences that become your brand's fingerprint.

"The small things ARE the big things."

The Book

The Safe Choice — A Fable About Culture, Trust, and the Question Every Customer Is Afraid to Ask by Darryl Bosshardt

A story about culture, trust, and the question every customer is afraid to ask.

When Claire Weston trades her corporate corner office for a struggling Alaska fishing lodge, she discovers that the same principles that save a business can save a life — and that being promoted away from your purpose is its own kind of crisis.

In the tradition of Patrick Lencioni and The Goal, this leadership fable embeds every framework — the Culture Honeycomb, the Culture Wheel, Ridiculously Thoughtful Service — inside a story you won't want to put down.

Leadership Fable Culture Trust Service

The Safe Choice Scorecard

A 50-point assessment across 10 categories. Where does your organization stand?

01Trust Signals & Credibility
02Process Clarity & Transparency
03Responsiveness & Communication
04Ease of Doing Business
05Operational Excellence & Reliability
06Emotional Assurance
07Service Recovery & Problem Handling
08Education & Expert Guidance
09Social Proof & Community Alignment
10Brand Promise & Consistent Delivery

Speaking & Workshops

Every business is the hospitality business — or it will be out of business. These sessions give your team the language, frameworks, and urgency to act on that truth.

Keynote

A high-energy, story-driven talk that reframes how your audience thinks about trust, culture, and the customer experience.

  • 45–60 minutes
  • Vistage, EO, & industry conferences
  • Modular: Safe Choice, Culture Wheel, or RTS

Full-Day Workshop

An immersive, hands-on session where your leadership team builds their culture blueprint using every framework in the system.

  • The Safe Choice Promise
  • The Culture Wheel & Hub
  • The Honeycomb Philosophy
  • Ridiculously Thoughtful Service

Diagnostic & Coaching

Walk away with a clear score, a gap analysis, and a 30-day action plan to move from where you are to where you want to be.

  • Safe Choice Scorecard (50-point assessment)
  • RTS Scorecard (35-point assessment)
  • Hub Health Quadrant diagnostic
  • 30-Day Action Plan

Darryl Bosshardt

Darryl Bosshardt

The frameworks in this book weren't built in a boardroom.

Darryl Bosshardt's career has taken an unusual path — from directing programs at Boy Scout summer camps, where he first learned that a seasonal staff of young people could deliver extraordinary experiences if the right conditions were in place, to selling Baldwin pianos, to managing Pybus Point Lodge, a remote wilderness lodge in Southeast Alaska where every element of the Culture Honeycomb was pressure-tested with real guests who had traveled thousands of miles to be there.

Along the way, he advised small businesses and government contractors through the U.S. Small Business Development Center and PTAC programs, and spent years in leadership at Redmond Inc., a Utah-based manufacturer widely recognized for its distinctive organizational culture.

He holds an MBA from Western Governors University and a B.S. from Southern Utah University. He's a former volunteer EMT and a hobby beekeeper — the honeycomb was personal before it was a framework.

Darryl has shared these ideas from a lot of stages — trade show keynotes, university lectures, executive peer groups like Vistage and EO, and as a guest on numerous podcasts exploring culture, leadership, and what it actually takes to earn trust.

He believes the best leadership lessons happen in wild places — and that the small things are always the big things.

Author Trade Show Keynote University Speaker Podcast Guest Vistage & EO Workshop Facilitator MBA Culture Honeycomb™ Creator
"When you win trust, you reduce marketing spend.
When you eliminate risk, you increase referrals.
When you become the safe choice, you become the obvious choice."

Ready to Become the Safe Choice?

Whether it's a keynote, a workshop, or a conversation about your culture — it starts here.

Get in Touch