Back in Season 1 of South Bend Beat, we had Mayor Pete Buttigieg on the podcast. We talked about his upbringing in South Bend, his path to becoming Mayor and a pretty cool story about an interaction he had with Barack Obama. After Season 1, we sent the same five questions to all of our guests and published their answers in a series on the Alpha Dog Agency blog. I thought it would be timely to re-publish all of the questions we asked Mayor Pete and his answers. The only new ad

Our team at Alpha Dog Agency was thrilled to get the opportunity to build a new website for Downtown South Bend. It officially launched last week, we'll cover a few of the highlights below. 1. Added Navigation It's easier than ever to find exactly what you're looking for. You can use the Explore Downtown tab to narrow your search to certain verticals, all present in handy maps that allow you to zoom in, zoom out, get directions or visit their website. You're also only a click

We made it to the final installment! And this is my favorite question. I hope all of you enjoyed this series. You can listen to all of these guests on Season 1. Be sure to listen to Season 2, releasing this fall. I asked each guest the same five questions and will be posting their answers to each question, one blog at a time. Their answers will be listed in order of appearance. I'll also be adding my answers at the bottom. The point of this series is to dive into the habits a

We all spend a ton of time on our phones. With this installment, I asked Season 1 South Bend Beat guests which apps are their favorite. I asked each guest the same five questions and will be posting their answers to each question, one blog at a time. Their answers will be listed in order of appearance. I'll also be adding my answers at the bottom. The point of this series is to dive into the habits and rituals of local, successful personalities. Each and every guest on South

You know how they spend the first hour of their day, now let's see how they spend the last hour of their day. I asked each guest the same five questions and will be posting their answers to each question, one blog at a time. Their answers will be listed in order of appearance. I'll also be adding my answers at the bottom. The point of this series is to dive into the habits and rituals of local, successful personalities. Each and every guest on South Bend Beat is just that and

Now that you know which books our Season 1 guests are currently reading, it's time to move on to another question. What does the first hour of their days look like? Some people are fanatic about starting their day off in a certain way while others are pretty relaxed about it. I asked each guest the same five questions and will be posting their answers to each question, one blog at a time. Their answers will be listed in order of appearance. I'll also be adding my answers at t

Over the next couple weeks, I'll be posting five blogs related to South Bend Beat. I asked each guest the same five questions and will be posting their answers to each question, one blog at a time. Their answers will be listed in order of appearance. I'll also be adding my answers at the bottom. The first question I asked each of them was - What books are you currently reading? I received answers from readers and non-readers alike. Hopefully there are a few suggestions for yo

Previously, you could only shop the Luxe Wagon offerings from their mobile truck. Then, they made the move into brick and mortar. You can find their shop in DTSB in the Emporium Building right off of the river. And now, you can shop at the Luxe Wagon online. The new Luxe Wagon website launched today along with their e-commerce platform that allows customers from all over the country to shop tops, bottoms, dresses, accessories and jewelry. The online store will initially launc

Mayor Pete joined the Alpha Dog team on the South Bend Beat podcast to discuss all things South Bend, weird foods he's eaten and getting stuck on elevators. He also told us a hilarious story involving Obama and what it was like to ride around South Bend with Mark Zuckerberg. On Tuesday, we released our latest episode of the South Bend Beat podcast, featuring Mayor Pete Buttigieg. It's a quick 30 minute listen and it's not the usual interview questions you hear Mayor Pete answ

You'll probably notice an abnormal amount of bright green bikes around the city of South Bend this week, all thanks to LimeBike. LimeBike is a dockless bike sharing system with GPS tracking devices that give users the flexibility to use and leave the bikes wherever they would like. South Bend is just the third U.S. city to roll out the system and was chosen because of its dedication to innovation. LimeBike's vice president of strategic development, Andrew Savage said, "We loo

First off, I want to thank all of you, really thank you, for the continued support and years of loyalty. I'm looking forward to serving all of you again downtown. I know it's been a long road getting the downtown location back up and running. I'm just as frustrated, if not more frustrated, than you are. Moving a restaurant is a huge process and even I underestimated what it would take to get it done. We didn't initially plan on it taking this long. As a matter of fact, we tho

There are more than you know about. It's a tale as old as time, well, at least as old as social media. Businesses (or people) want to look legit. They want to look like a big deal when you land on their page. Instead of doing the work and being active in the arenas they want to attract followers in, they take a shortcut and buy them. They are no shortage of options. See what I mean? But there are ways to figure it out, both on your own and through other services. The easiest

We're off and running on South Bend Ave. The Nail Cottage Website is now active. You'll be able to check out their main services along with their entire menu and easily access contact information, social media profiles and customer testimonials. You'll be able to book appointments online starting later this summer. You'll also soon be able to find The Nail Cottage in the Services Division on Moving To South Bend. They'll help welcome new residents and students by providing be

If you haven't checked it out yet, pop over to Moving To South Bend. While there are a few more spots to fill, the site is running at near full capacity and there are a ton of local businesses and services ready for you to check out. Some of them include special offers that can be redeemed directly through the MTSB site. Here, you can see Re/Max 100 realtor Diane Bennett welcome new families to the area. If you'd like to be featured or Moving To South Bend, or have a recommen

Google loves keeping us on our toes, don't they? It's frustrating but hey, it's the nature of the beast. The biggest change will be the overhaul that AdWords received. It'll not only change how local businesses are recommended but how the actual layout of the search result page looks. Gone are the days of the smaller ads running along the right hand side. Now, in an effort to look more consistent with mobile, there will be ads running across the top, maxing out at four total.

It's gotten to the point that I have to say something. There is no shame with these people. If you haven't heard, Google finally pushed through a big change this morning. Google Plus and Loca Google+ is now officially out the window, with Google My Business now the official tag for local businesses. They are now letting you put more detailed information right in your listings, which is cool. It may be tricky for awhile for those businesses that share spaces but overall, good

As you've probably heard by now, The Nail Cottage won our April Promo giving them a year of free advertising. We know that 'a year of free advertising' is a bit vague, so allow us to expand on that. We designed a new logo for them, which you can see here. We've also started the social media transition, giving their accounts a new feel and look. We'll also be adding some customer service features to their social media profiles. Additionally, we'll make sure they are cool with