Meet Sormeh Attarzadeh | Co-Founder

We had the good fortune of connecting with Sormeh Attarzadeh and we’ve shared our conversation below.

Hi Sormeh, what role has risk played in your life or career?
I can look back and see how much time I wasted by not taking risks. I am thankful I learned while I am still young, however, I regret not having the courage sooner. I was always so afraid of taking risks. I didn’t want to deal with rejection and I cared about what others would think about me. Once I ripped the bandaid off and started taking risks, my life changed. It may sound cliché but it’s the truth! Risk-taking is still somewhat scary at times but it is now more exciting for me. I left law school, which was my safe route, and entered a field I had no knowledge about at the time. I was nervous, but my gut told me it had to be done. It was one of the best decisions I’ve ever made. Once I was able to get over that hurdle, the risks didn’t stop, not all were successful but with time I learned to use failure as a growth curve. This has led to the success of Zentap. And in my opinion, the lessons learned from failure are still a win. It’s all a part of the journey to success. It has helped me become much more confident as well! I am no longer fearful of rejection and put myself out there a lot more. If you’re not willing to risk it for something you believe in, it’s going to be much harder to have others believe in your business.

Can you give our readers an introduction to your business? Maybe you can share a bit about what you do and what sets you apart from others?
Zentap has helped hundreds of clients understand social media marketing and has helped them create a business plan to accelerate their business digitally. We have successfully provided solutions for an industry that has gone from door-knocking to generating leads through social media. What sets us apart from others is our automated software that makes it so easy for our clients to continuously market themselves while doing what they do best, real estate! We certainly were one of the first to bring data-driven video content solutions to the residential real estate space.

We started getting feedback and making cold calls to realtors in a garage and by our 2nd month, already signed up more than 60 real estate professionals to service. At the time we hadn’t even fully mapped out our game plan yet. However, with 60 customers actively paying us, we were forced to execute quickly and finally felt comfortable enough to invest whatever money we had into building the team we needed to start scaling and servicing our customers. We made a lot of mistakes along the way but in the long run, it helped us perfect our product. Our team stayed positive through all challenges which really helped us grow.

I want to encourage more people to take a chance. Leave the job that isn’t making you happy, and stop studying the subject that you don’t have a passion for anymore. Don’t follow a career path that doesn’t make you happy. Take the risk and bet on yourself. The only thing holding you back from success is yourself!

Any places to eat or things to do that you can share with our readers? If they have a friend visiting town, what are some spots they could take them to?
One thing I love about LA is the diversity! For a week-long trip, I would definitely recommend visiting some of our most popular hiking trails like Runyon Canyon, Franklin Canyon, Temescal Canyon Trail, and Solstice Canyon Loop. We have so much nature in LA. The views are breathtaking and who doesn’t love a good workout!

Dining in Beverly Hills is a fun luxurious experience, personally, I love a good mom-and-pop restaurant like La Provence for brunch or restaurants with a good outdoor experience like Urth Caffe, which has two amazing locations (Beverly Hills and West Hollywood). My top three recommendations for lunch/dinner would be Il Pastaio, La Scala, or Cafe Roma. The food is great and it’s really nice to walk around after dining. Speaking of walking around, another great location to visit is the 3rd Street promenade, a mix of the beach with shopping and live entertainment.

During a week’s stay, a visit to Malibu is a must whether it’s for brunch, lunch, or dinner in Malibu. Honestly, I recommend visiting Malibu at least a few times for dining and to enjoy the beach!

I am a big fan of theme parks, I recommend checking out one of our theme parks for the day! We have so many options in LA like Disneyland Park, Disney California Adventure Park, Universal Studios, Six Flags Magic Mountain, and Knott’s Berry Farm.

Lastly, I recommend activities around the strip on Sunset Blvd and West Hollywood. These areas are filled with entertainment like karaoke, rooftop bars, clubs, comedy shows, arcades, bowling, basically whatever you’re in the mood for! My go-to is a nice dinner like Koi, Katana, or Catch LA before heading to the Comedy Store on Sunset.

The diversity and options in LA are so unique you can do a little bit of everything with a week-long trip!

Shoutout is all about shouting out others who you feel deserve additional recognition and exposure. Who would you like to shoutout?
My parents have been my biggest supporters and I am so thankful I have had them as my backbone throughout my entire life.

My father always encouraged me to go to law school with the best intentions and I was very interested in the field at the time. However, after realizing I didn’t want to pursue law anymore. I was fearful to tell him because I felt like I might be letting him down. I practiced with my mother how I would tell him. We practiced and practiced but she told me at the end of the day, just follow my gut and tell him when I’m comfortable. I listened to her, and in the end, his reaction was not what I expected. He sat with me and asked me what my plan was and wanted to make sure that I’m happy with my decision. It made me realize that both my parents have been so supportive of all my ideas from a child until the present, and for that, I am so grateful. They are also my mentors. My parents are immigrants from Iran and came to America with almost nothing. Having to basically start over, they showed me what hard work and dedication meant. I learned a lot from their hardships. The biggest lesson being if I want something, I need to get it done myself. I need to put in the work, I cannot expect opportunities to be handed to me. The opportunities arise from hard work and dedication, it could be filled with failure and mistakes but if you keep going, you will succeed. When I took my biggest risk, I thought back to the risk my parents took. Coming to a new country leaving the life they knew in the past and starting from scratch. I respect them for never giving up and teaching me to learn from their mistakes. They worked hard to provide for me, and they did it while being so involved with me as well. I dedicate my shoutout to them. I want to take care of them the way they took care of me. Their support, love, and mentorship play a big part in my success.

Website: www.zentap.com

Linkedin: www.linkedin.com/in/sormeh-attarzadeh-1a5720105