Welcome to NST’s new blog: News and Smart Talk.  This blog has been part of our plans for quite some time, but it has not come to life until now.  I guess you could say we are a little like the proverbial cobblers’ children who have no shoes.  We are so busy doing client work, that we sometimes forget to take care of ourselves.  As I was contemplating this first blog post (at 4 a.m. when I have my most creative thoughts), I was thinking we should re-name the blog “No Shoes Talk” because it builds off of our initials and provides a great creative theme.  Think of it, we could develop a graphic identity that features a variety of shoes, tie all of our blog posts to some obscure reference to shoes and cobblers and create really esoteric connections between topics to carry the theme out and show off our creativity.

The good news in this whole process is that I could not find the pad of paper and pen I keep on the nightstand so I can write these types of thoughts down and review them in the morning when I am really awake.  Had I done so, I may have fallen into what we call the creative trap.  Simply defined, the “creative trap” is the art of implementing a “creative” tactic that is not tied to strategy.  The best creative execution in the world will not do you a bit of good if it is not tied to a solid strategy.

I will not mention the No Shoes Talk idea to the team, because their first question will be: Bill, how does that tie to our strategy?  They would be right to do so, because that is one of the values we instill in our team.  So, after I drank my second cup of coffee of the morning and started writing, I reviewed our brand strategy.  News and Smart Talk will remain the name of our blog because, quite simply, that is what we are about and what we aim to provide here.

This year we are celebrating our 35th year in business, and we are proud of our track record both as thought leaders in the public relations profession as well as active members of the San Diego business and civic communities.  We will use this blog to tell those stories as well as to provide our thoughts and opinions about important communications and public relations issues.  We will cover topics that are important to the industries our clients are in, as well as issues that are important to balancing life in the San Diego region.  We will also brag about our clients and the great work they allow us to do in partnership with them.

You will see all of our staff posting here and sharing their thoughts and ideas.  We also invite your feedback on those thoughts, either by commenting here, or going the old-fashioned route and picking up the phone and calling, because nothing sparks better thinking than open and honest conversation.  So, here we go.  We hope you like our new shoes.