Tray Bates can make a pretty good dip cone.

For seven years, the 2019 Texas REALTORS® Chairman and his wife, 杰西卡, ran a Dairy Queen in Sinton, about a half-hour north of Corpus Christi.

杰西卡成功竞选辛顿市议会以及特雷的中期竞选提案, the newlyweds were grousing about their local Dairy Queen when they had the idea to take it over.

“We did everything,贝茨说. “We were janitors. We were fixing things. I was learning refrigeration, 维护, and how to handle the accounting while my wife dealt with employees and helped us stay on top of what we were supposed to be doing.

“作为一个团队, it was a good experience, but with the mandates associated with being a franchise and cost to open additional locations, 我意识到我做不到，我的激情, which was real estate.”
感谢协会和他的同事们, 贝茨一直追随自己的热情进入领导团队.

“Texas REALTORS® is one of the few organizations that has a network already established across the state. 我们要做的就是有效地激活那个网络.”

Exercising his talents

Bates is a third-generation real estate broker, 而是在沃斯堡的德克萨斯基督教大学毕业后, he decided to start his career in Dallas rather than returning to the family business in Corpus Christi.

He worked for the real estate arm of a hospital group and as a broker for a large commercial real estate firm before joining real estate group CMD Realty Investors. The environment there and his boss, Bob Gibbons, gave Bates the opportunity to prove himself.

“He recognized the talents I brought to the table and allowed me to exercise them to be effective,贝茨说 of Gibbons.

“He set a vision for where we needed to be and a rationale for why certain things needed to be done,他说. “Sometimes in corporate environments, you don’t get that rationale, 如果你不明白为什么你被告知要做某事，这可能会令人沮丧.

If you have a vision you’re able to buy into, you can be unleashed to do what you do best,贝茨说.

In that role at CMD Realty Investors, 贝茨成为了达拉斯市场上的顶级制作人，并获得了 Dallas Business Journal’s 2002年商业地产大奖.

“That acknowledgement gave me confidence that I’d achieved what I wanted and that it was time to go home and take what I’d learned with me back to the family business,贝茨说.

A grassroots rise

贝茨说:“我们不只是陷入我们正在做的事情. “We plan for what we’re doing.

“年前, I had conversations with some of my mentors where they suggested I get involved with association leadership.”

Mentors like Lawrence Young and Roy Del Bosque pulled him into the organization and made him believe he had something to offer.

A self-described political animal—he was canvassing for local campaigns at age 7—Bates gravitated toward governmental affairs and TREPAC.

“从第一天起，我就是一个基层的人, and that grew into the state level,贝茨说. His first state-level appointment was on what’s now known as the Political Involvement Committee.

“从我在第一个委员会任职的那一刻起，我就爱上了这个组织,贝茨说 of Texas REALTORS®. “I walked into the room and was overwhelmed by the passion our members bring to this organization.”

他在该协会担任过几个职位，一直遵循着这种政治参与的脉络, 在这个过程中结交新的朋友和导师——他称之为“领导之路”.”

“As you grow in your roles, you start finding new people with unique traits who might understand certain aspects of the industry, 问题, 或者不同于你所知道的做事方式,他说.

贝茨进入协会领导层后，专注于商业问题, the roles he’s had since have expanded his knowledge about the rest of the real estate industry.

“It’s a hugely rewarding process to have that knowledge become part of who you are,他说. “我的职业生涯和我所拥有的机会都因此得到了提升.”

One of the most important lessons he’s learned over the years is that your success as a leader depends on the group you’re working with.

“There are so many talented people you develop friendships and relationships with at all levels of the association,他说. “I feel blessed by the number of friends I’ve developed over the course of my time in leadership.”

A shared vision

今年是贝茨领导协会的一年，但他目光长远. What Bates is most passionate about are changes that have been evolving over the course of the years he’s spent climbing the leadership ranks.

他表示:“你不能等到担任董事长的那一年才开始实施变革。. “在这个过程中，你必须更早地开始分享你的观点，并发挥影响力.

他说:“我想要完成的很多事情都是传递前几年开始的想法,他说. “They may be ideas and conversations that started with earlier leaders, but it’s a shared vision.”

改善该协会的政治博弈就是其中之一.

“通过我在政治参与委员会任职的这些年, I saw how much money there was in politics,贝茨说.

“你永远不会有足够的钱，所以你必须在实地发挥作用.

“We’re one of the few organizations that has a network already established across the state. 我们要做的就是有效地激活那个网络.”

Matching the association’s history of successful fundraising and influence at the Texas Capitol with an unmatched grassroots network has been in the works for years, but Bates is excited to be chairman heading into the first session of the Texas Legislature where all the association’s initiatives are in place.

对贝茨来说，师徒关系是另一项重要的事业, and he is looking forward to the rollout of a program for directors and committee members at the national and state level of the REALTOR® organization.

When first appointed to new positions, 贝茨说, members tend to observe rather than participate—potentially missing out on a valuable opportunity to contribute.

他说:“我们想要的不是那种典型的反应，而是思维模式的转变。.

Through the program, new leaders will be paired with a more experienced mentor and have the access and support to be ready to contribute on Day One, 贝茨说.

贝茨第一次参加委员会会议的感觉从未离开过他.

他说:“与这些敬业的成员一起服务是一种令人谦卑的经历。. “I cherish that.

“And with where I am now, I feel like I have a duty to continue to encourage members to get involved and help them understand what a wonderful experience it is.”

Did you know that Tray Bates …

Fills his free moments with Boy Scouts

“我有三个儿子，我妻子说我把所有空闲时间都用来参加童子军. 她说，‘我整整一个星期都在想你，现在你却要去露营?’ I never got my Eagle Scout. 我现在意识到这对我来说有多重要, 所以我热衷于为年轻人提供这样的机会. Not only for my boys, but for all the boys we work with, 因为我知道这对他们的生活是有好处的, help jumpstart where they want to go in life, and give them more choices.”

Wanted to get married in Italy

“当杰西卡和我计划婚礼的时候，我们想在意大利举行. 然后我们意识到不是所有的家庭成员都能去旅行, so we decided to do something closer to home. 我们还没能去意大利旅行, but we’d like to take our boys with us and have them see the things that 杰西卡 did while she studied abroad there. 我还没去过意大利，但我想有一天和她一起去旅行.”

Likes loud, extended goodbyes

“At family gatherings, 我爸爸总是把车停在房子前按喇叭，然后以同样的方式离开, honking down the road. 我们喜欢热闹的入场和长时间的告别. And this is just another way to do that. 我妹妹在她家人度假的时候会这样做, 我哥哥每次见面都这么做. 我相信我的邻居都喜欢，但我们就是这么做的.”

Got in trouble on his first local campaign

“当我还是个小男孩的时候，我在当地市议会的竞选活动中帮忙, 我被告知要挨家挨户敲门, tell whoever answered about my candidate, and give them a flyer. I did that for a while. 然后, I thought there had to be an easier way and started dropping the flyers in each house’s mailbox. I did the whole neighborhood that way. 我不知道把没有邮资的材料放进邮箱里还有规定! 有人十大网络彩票平台大全了，我就有麻烦了. It was a good lesson to learn.”