We’re excited to introduce you to the always interesting and insightful Matthew Martinez. We hope you’ll enjoy our conversation with Matthew below.

Matthew, thanks for taking the time to share your stories with us today Looking back on your career, have you ever worked with a great leader or boss? We’d love to hear about the experience and what you think made them such a great leader.

Yes, I’ve been inspired to succeed in my job by my store manager, Craig Seiter. I always get to be the most creative in my work at Dillard’s because of him. Whether it’s producing content for our store’s Instagram page or creating an inviting display. I was not encouraged to be creative at one point, but he rekindled that spark when he promoted me to my current role. For my job at Dillard’s, I am eternally grateful to him.

Matthew, 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?

Hi, my name is Matthew Ryan Martinez. I live in Amarillo, TX. I currently work for Dillard’s as a Visual Manager. My role is overall presentation of the store. My day-to-day is working with our management team and store associates to make our store elevated for our guests. Another part of my job is creating content for our store’s Instagram page. Something you should know about me is that I love being creative. I’m from a small town in Texas called Clarendon; this is where I found my love for photography and graphic design. I now can bring that into my job at Dillard’s. I have two things in my career that I’m most proud of; the first is creating an influencer program at my store. This program is very dear to my heart. My store manager Craig and I picked five local influencers, and these individuals post everything about Dillard’s Amarillo. I wanted a platform for local influencers to be creative and showcase everything my store has to offer. The second thing would be to be a part of my store’s grand opening; I got to be part of something that is so special. I started to post regularly on my personal Instagram because three of my Dillard’s influencers pushed me to; they kept telling me I created beautiful content for my store page and I should start posting on my personal one. I started that about 6 months ago, and I’m loving it. I’ve always had a love for fashion, and now I can show people my personal style.

What’s the most rewarding aspect of being a creative in your experience?

The best part of being a creative, in my opinion, has to be seeing other people enjoy and leave comments on both my personal and work social media. It brightens my day so much more. When a guest purchases an item from a beautiful merchandised shop or an entire outfit from one of the mannequins I dressed.

Is there mission driving your creative journey?

Working in our corporate office in Little Rock, Arkansas, is my dream job. Content creation for Dillard’s official social media accounts is something I would want to do. I would like working for Annemarie Dillard-Jazic, the granddaughter of Dillard’s founder, William T. Dillard. She is the e-commerce vice president.

Contact Info:

• Instagram: @mr.matthewryan | @dillardswestgatemall
• Linkedin: https://www.linkedin.com/in/matthew-martinez-42204111a?utm_source=share&utm_campaign=share_via&utm_content=profile&utm_medium=ios_app

Image Credits

Group pictures: Chriselda Martina

Purple Sweater: Chriselda Martina

Headshot picture in blazer: Jered Lopez